The warehouse was a rundown building on the edge of a district that just beginning to undergo gentrification in earnest. A shame. It would likely be a Starbuck’s or a shopping mall by this time next year, but for the moment the biggest improvement it had seen was the fresh boards covering the broken windows. Although, some of the graffiti was very creative, too. Vasquez pulled up behind the building and covered the car with an old tarp. The inside wasn’t much different from the outside, it was old and musty and needed a good airing out. We pushed through a plastic divider, and I saw that someone had set up a few card tables, some folding chairs, a couple of cots and a couch in the center of the big, empty space. One of the card tables was occupied, James and another agent, Pete Wallace, turned towards the door as they entered. James smiled, relieved, and stood to greet us,

“Ray,” he clapped me on the shoulder, “it is good to see you.”

“Nice place, Jim. I kind of pictured your apartment… smaller.”

“You know me, I like my space.”

“Must be a bitch to clean.”

“Well, the maid comes by every Thursday.”

“Must be her week off,” I ran my finger along a dusty stack of boxes.

“Hope your tetanus shots are up to date,” Wallace observed.

“With how often I get injured?” I laughed, maneuvering Simon over to the couch, I sat him down and collapsed on the opposite side. James looked to the incubus and then shot me a questioning glance. I shrugged,

“It’s been a long night.”

“I can imagine. You look like shit.”

“Thanks, boss,” I leaned my head back and covered my eyes. “You don’t look much better, if we are keeping score.”

It was true, his eyes were bloodshot, his grey hair was mussed, and his normally clean-shaven face was working on an uneven layer of stubble. He ran his hand over his jawline, self-consciously.

“Long night for everyone.”

“What did you find?”

“Nothing. And more than enough. The agency has gone dark. Completely locked down. No one enters, no one leaves. No one answers the phones. I can’t get in touch with anyone. Our agents that were in the field are… also proving difficult to contact.”

“Did you find Cooper?”

“No. There is no sign of him, or his body. No sign of a lot of our people. Wallace, you want to tell her?”

“Why not?” he shrugged. “I have been given the job of keeping track of the Partials. So far, I can do it on my fingers, so I am not sure why I am bothering.”

“Because we are hoping we’ll find more,” James chided.

Wallace was almost James’ age, but much more cynical. He had a dark sense of humor that he sometimes took too far, and it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. In my experience, he was exactly the man to make a tense situation worse.

“Towards that end, Gail is out tracking down the last known locations of some of our missing agents. I sent Vasili to join her when he got back. I have managed to contact a few who have gone into hiding and we are arranging to get them here. Vasquez will also be going out on another pick-up in a few minutes. Our fearless leader,” he nodded to Jim, “is still trying to get in touch with the other enclaves. To no effect, I might add.”

“Pete,” Jim corrected. “It really isn’t as bad as that. As he said, we have contacted several other Partials. Some have been injured in… incidents. But others got into hiding before the traps were sprung. We just need to find a way to get them here, in secret. And there is every possibility that the other enclaves got my warning and have gone to ground. Hopefully we will hear from them when they can make contact.”

“How many?” I wasn’t in the mood to listen to them play good cop/bad cop with each other.

“Less than a dozen,” Wallace muttered. “If all of the injured survive to get to us. Including us, that is 18.”

“Jesus,” so few remaining. In one night. “If we hadn’t been warned, there wouldn’t have been anyone left.”

I looked over at the incubus, sitting in a chair, starring at the wall. We all owed him our lives. Of course, we might not be keeping those for long, if this continued.

“It might not be as bad as that,” Jim observed. “There could be more we haven’t found yet.”

“Right, probably in garbage bags all over the city,” Wallace laughed, Vasquez scowled at him.

“What about the Domini? Any sign they know people have slipped the net?” Vasquez asked.

“No chance they don’t. Enough of us didn’t show up to our ambushes that word must be getting around. If it really is what he said,” James nodded at Simon. “I am sure they have already figured out what happened.”

“Yeah. Two of the guys we ran into at the airport were the same ones that were in my apartment. They know Simon here is still alive, and with me.”

“So, they will be looking for us.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“No doubt.”

“Alright. For now,” James frowned. “We fortify here. Try to stay hidden while we figure out what is happening next and how we can stop it.”

He didn’t say ‘if we can stop it’ but I took it as implied.

“Do you have anything that could help us with that?” James’ eyes took in me and my charge both.

I glanced back at Simon, he was still looking a little dazed and pale and there was a dark red stain, barely visible on the sweatpants. With a start, I remembered the wound on his thigh needed dressing.

“I have a few thoughts to add. But first things first, do we have a first aid kit here? Maybe a needle and a candle?”

James nodded to a crate in the corner and Vasquez retrieved the kit and brought it over.

“You get hit during the firefight?” Vasquez offered it to her.

“Not me. And not that firefight,” I guided Simon over to a cot and removed the sweatpants and bandages.

I normally would have asked him to do it, but since the shootout in the garage he had been in some sort of shock that seemed more emotional than physical. Simon seemed to have no agency of his own, but he was very compliant. I retrieved a needle and thread from the kit, and a candle to sterilize it, but as I did I couldn’t help but notice my hands, shaking enough to make the flame on the candle dance. Too little sleep and too much adrenaline. Vasquez met my eyes and held out a hand,

“Mind if I do that? I could use the practice. And you should be telling James what you know anyway.”

I smiled appreciatively; I was liking him already. I handed Vasquez the needle and thread and moved back to where James and Wallace were arguing in hushed tones. They stopped as I approached.

“Everything all right?” James asked.

“Fine. Vasquez is putting some stitches in our new friend. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“You have more details on these Domini bastards?” Wallace asked.

“Maybe, but Simon is probably going to do a better job explaining, once he is patched up,” I hoped. “Might as well wait a few minutes. I have something else to run past you,” I held eye contact with James, trying to indicate that I would prefer to talk alone, without saying as much.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Wallace, but I wanted to keep this as quiet as possible for now, it was a delicate subject that I couldn’t risk spreading around. James nodded,

“Why don’t we talk while I show you around?”

Wallace moved to follow, but the door buzzer brought him up short.

“Sounds like our survey team is back,” Wallace turned to let them in, leaving us alone. James took the opportunity to lead me to the other side of the warehouse.

“What’s on your mind?”

I took a breath,

“I heard from Tom.”

James raised his eyebrows,

“Heard from him how?”

“Back-channel email. Looked like he went to some trouble to keep it secret.”

“What did he say?”

“Place is locked down. Partials are gone. Tell me what’s going on. That was basically it.”

“You know him best. What is your gut telling you? Is he on the up and up or are they using him to bring you in?”

I had been thinking about that a lot since I had opened that email.

“I can’t be sure. I want to think it is legit. That he wouldn’t believe them if they told him I was a traitor. And all the trouble he went through to ensure that I was the only one who would get that message seems to support that. But then again, maybe I just want that to be true. It is hard to trust myself, considering my biases.”

James nodded,

“I understand that. It could be a trap, or he could be genuinely concerned about you. It’s hard to say. It might be safer to ignore it. But I don’t think we can afford to be safe.”

“My thoughts, too. If he could tell us what is happening in there…”

“Then we need his help,” James finished. “Think you can get a message back to him?”

“Probably. What should I say?”

“Hold off on that for now. Once the others arrive, we can talk it out, see if we can find a way for you to meet him and feel out his allegiances, with minimal risk. In the meantime, we need to talk to this Simon and see what he can tell us.”

We had walked a rough circle around the warehouse and were now approaching the front again, where Gail and Vasili were helping a couple of injured Partials in through the door. I didn’t recognize the man, but the woman was Sally Hanson, the last Partial that had been drafted into the Organization before the drought. She was covered in blood from a gunshot wound in her shoulder. She had so little experience, it was a miracle she had survived this at all. In his new role as impromptu medic, Vasquez got up and took Sally to a cot, began tending to the wound, with Vasili’s help. Gail set the other arrival down on a cot and walked over to us.

“Extraction went well?” James asked.

“As can be expected,” Gail Tremblay reached out a hand and clasped my wrist. “Nice to see you in one piece, Ray. You shouldn’t be picking up strange men after happy hour, you know.”

I smiled, clapped Gail on the shoulder. I had expected some ribbing about my wild night. I didn’t mind, it showed we were still holding up, mentally.

“Well, you know me. Never could take a day off. “

Vasili Volkov joined us,

“Still, this seems like a lot of trouble to go to, just to convince James to let you come back to work a day early,” he had been recruited in Moscow 15 years ago and, though his English was perfect, he still had a thick Russian accent.

“You have no idea how bored I was, Vas.”

“It doesn’t look like that will be a problem for the foreseeable future, my friend.”

I laughed. It was a dark sentiment, but black humor was an occupational hazard, we all indulged in it from time to time. There were times when, if you didn’t laugh at the dark stuff, you didn’t laugh at all.

“How many more are we expecting, Gail?”

“Karen and Ajay are out back. They got the warning in time to get away clean, didn’t get a scratch on them. Wallace has them working establishing a perimeter. He says a few more of our guys are on their way in, but they might take some time, trying to shake tails. Probably an hour until everyone is here, at least everyone we are going to get, for now.”

“When the rest get here, we will have a meeting and decide on a plan.”

“What do you want us to do in the meantime?”

“That depends. How are you and Vasili holding up?”

“Fantastic,” the younger Partial didn’t even hesitate.

“We haven’t had any real trouble yet,” Gail confirmed in her calm, measured way. “So, we are good to go. What do you need us to do?”

“How do you feel about a little recon?” James asked. “We need to get eyes on the Organization, see who is coming in and out. Maybe figure out what they are up to.”

“I can handle that,” Vasili volunteered.

“I want you both to go. I know that isn’t how we usually do things, but these are unusual circumstances. Watch each other’s backs. Don’t get seen, don’t get caught and don’t get followed back here.”

“Understood. Come on, Vasili, I’ll drive,” Gail turned and headed towards the entrance.

The man trailed after her.

As they left, I turned to James,

“What do you want me to do, Boss?”

James appraised me with critical eye long enough that I started to feel his gaze boring through my skull.

“You should try and get some sleep, Rayna.”

“Oh, come on. What, are you coddling me now? We don’t have time for this.”

James sighed,

“Fine. For now. But once we are set up…”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I’ll take care of myself,” I rolled my eyes. “Now, what can I do?”

“Looks to me like Vasquez could use some help. How’s your first aid?”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“And while you’re at it, see what you can learn about what happened to them. We didn’t have time for details on the phone.”

“Got it.”

I turned and headed back to the scattered collection of cots and tables that now seemed to be serving as a makeshift trauma bay.