I pulled into a lay-by somewhere off the highway. It was deserted, aside from a couple of transport trucks on the other side of the lot, which was perfect for our purposes. I killed the engine and climbed out of the car. Before we went any further, we needed to talk, decide what happened next. Though we didn’t have much time, I expected more Domini to show up shortly, so I had better be quick about this. The three ubarae joined me, leaving Vicki on the floor in the back of the car. There was a long moment of tense silence as we stood in the vacant lot, facing each other. Liz spoke first,

“If you want the gun back…” she offered it, grip first, a gesture of surrender, of peace.

“You can keep it,” I sighed. “You seem to know how to use it, which we can discuss later, and if you wanted to shoot me, you’ve already had plenty of opportunities.”

“So, does that mean you trust us?” Oliver asked, hopefully.

“Not entirely, but enough, for now,” I tossed a plastic disk to Simon. “You were right, it was under the sun visor.”

He turned the key tracker over in his hands,

“What do we do with it?”

“We will leave it on one of those trucks, hopefully it will take them some time to figure out that we found it. Your cell phones we are going to toss in the pond over there. Then, I will take you to meet the others. Word of warning, once we get there, you absolutely cannot leave, and whether you can communicate with the outside at all will be up to James. Agreed?”

“This is your party, I suppose,” Liz tucked the gun back in her waistband and pulled out her phone, offering it to me.

Oliver pulled out his as well, but hesitated,

“Before I give you this, I have a proposal.”

“Talk fast, I don’t think we have a lot of time.”

“Well, we need to do something with Vicki, correct?” he didn’t wait for an answer. “Bringing her back to your people seems both risky and pointless. She probably won’t survive without medical treatment that I doubt you are equipped to give. Let me call my people and have them pick her up. They can treat her, contain her, and… question her about the Domini. We would, of course, share the information.”

I considered that for a moment. It did solve a few problems. I hadn’t really wanted to bring her back with us. And even if she was a murderer, I still had no desire to watch her suffocate, choking on her own lungs until she died. It would be a bad death.

“Alright, but we can’t wait for them.”

“We won’t need to. There is a club not far from here, I have a couple of guys there, keeping an eye on a friend of mine who was going to come visit me tonight.”

“You are supposed to be in hiding, Olly,” Liz interjected. “Not entertaining guests.”

“Now doesn’t really feel like the time to be debating that, Liz.”

She snorted through her nose, but didn’t say anything more.

“Alright, call them, tell them we are coming,” I decided. “We’ll drop her off, then I will take you to the others.”

We arrived back at the warehouse late in the evening. Not wanting to bring the Lexus back to the warehouse, in case there were any further trackers I had missed, I had dumped it in the parking lot of a mall some distance away and we took a bus as close to the docks as it would take us, then walked the rest of the way. I felt the worst for Liz, who really wasn’t wearing the shoes for this kind of activity. She didn’t complain, but she had developed a slight limp by the time we reached the warehouse. As we approached the doors, Vasquez emerged from the darkness, eyeing my new guests warily.

“About time you got back, Ray. James has been climbing the walls. He expected you back hours ago. You were not supposed to take any side trips.”

“Well, not all of that was up to me,” I shrugged. “Mark, meet Councillor Oliver Croft and this is Elizabeth Ward.”

Mark looked them up and down,

“A councillor, eh? Whose side are they on?”

Oliver puffed out his chest,

“I’ll have you know…”

“We are here to help, if we can,” Liz interrupted him before he could begin a long-winded spiel.

“They have info we need, and resources. We need to talk to James.”

Mark considered for a moment, but finally nodded,

“Right, follow me.”

He raised a hand and signaled towards one of the upper windows. I couldn’t see it, but I suspected Vasili was lowering his rifle. We strode into the warehouse.

“Word to the wise,” Mark moved in closer, keeping his voice low. “I’d keep them away from Wallace and his group. Things were tense enough with one ubarae here.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Shouldn’t be a problem. I try to avoid Wallace when I can, anyway.”

Mark chuckled at that,

“Probably a sound strategy. I should try that. James is in the back, by the map,” he pointed across the warehouse. “I’m on guard duty, so I should get back to my post.”

“Thanks, Mark.”

“Stay close, and keep your heads down,” I advised my charges. “Let’s not give anyone a reason to start anything. Not everyone here is as trusting as me, and I know that is already a low bar.”

They nodded quietly and trailed me across the room to where James stood, bent over a map spread out on the table. I cleared my throat, and he looked up,

“Rayna!” he stepped forward and clasped my hand. “Where have you been?”

“It’s kind of a long story boss. Short version, they were watching the good doctor here, and they have been releasing our prisoners. It took some doing to shake our tail and get here with everyone alive.”

“What!? Impossible, the prison system is still secure, I checked. They have locked down, isolated. No one could be releasing prisoners.”

“Well, all I know is I ran into Vicki out there.”

“Vicki,” James breathed a sigh of relief. “That makes sense, then, she would have still been in the hospital. She hadn’t been transferred to a prison yet. Where is she now?”

“She is with the councillor’s people, for now,” I nodded in Oliver’s direction. “If she survives, they will question her, see if she knows anything that can help us.”

For the first time, James noticed Oliver Croft, standing behind me.

“Councillor,” James offered a hand. “I wasn’t expecting you, sir.”

Oliver took his hand, and they shook,

“I wasn’t really expecting to be here either, to be honest. But truthfully, I was just glad to hear any of you were alive. I had thought…” he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is, we still have a chance here, and I want to help. To share information and resources. With my help, I think we can turn this tide.”

“Well, that is a very welcome offer…” James began, but he was cut off by another voice.

“Wouldn’t it have been convenient for you, if we had all been killed off?”

I cringed. Wallace stepped up next to James, eyeing the newcomers with open hostility. I had been hoping to avoid any unpleasantness, at least for awhile. It had already been a long day and I was too tired for this.

“Back off, Wallace. This doesn’t involve you,” I stepped between him and the others.

“Like hell it doesn’t,” he stepped up to me, finger to my chest. “You go and bring more of them back to our only sanctuary? And we are supposed to trust them? To work with them? After everything they have done?” he turned to James, “You can’t seriously be considering this.”

“We talked about this, Pete,” James pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not every ubarae is responsible for what the Domini have done, and we need the allies.”

“Don’t be naïve, Jim. They are all predators; none are innocent. This is finally our chance to…”

“Enough!” James cut him off forcefully. “I am not arguing this again in front of our guests. I have made my decision, Pete. Your plan is… unacceptable and we will not speak of it again. Now, go find something useful to do. I will let you know once we have a usable plan.”

James and Wallace stared each other down for a long moment, but Wallace broke first. With a snarl, he pushed past me.

“This is a mistake. Mark my words, we will all end up regretting,” he muttered as he stormed off towards a trio of agents that seemed to be waiting for him.

I watched until the four of them disappeared into another section of the warehouse.

“Is that going to be a problem?” I asked James, quietly.

“This has been… a difficult time for everyone,” he replied diplomatically. “Wallace is just on edge. He’ll come around.”

I nodded, but made a mental note to keep an eye on him and anyone associating with him, at least for the time being. Wallace had always been a little, intense, and the current situation clearly hadn’t improved his mood. I didn’t know what ‘plan’ he had been discussing with James, but I knew it couldn’t be anything good. I would follow up on that later.

“I understand that Omega and his Domini have done terrible things,” Oliver acknowledged. “I can see why your people would be suspicious of us. But as bad as things are, they will be worse if we let him solidify his power any further. We still have a chance to stop this, before it goes too far. I have information you need, about the Domini’s resources, movements, allies. We should help each other. Together, we can strike where they are weak. And if we can discover their larger plans, we can hobble them.”

“I agree,” James nodded. “Allow me to gather the agents I have had doing reconnaissance on the Domini and we can compare notes. Hopefully we can fill in some information for each other, and then plan out a strategy to start striking back.”

“Exactly my thoughts,” Oliver smiled.

It would take them some time to get everything organized and mapped out. I probably wasn’t needed for this, James had people dealing with logistics already. Besides, there were other matters I needed to take care of, now that I was finally back.

“Any word on Suzette’s phone?” I asked.

“Mark and Vasili succeeded in recruiting Jason Cain. He is here and working on it now, but he expects it to be a few more hours,” James glanced at his watch.

“Alright, then I am going to check on Jessica first, then I will see how Jason is progressing. Unless you need me for this?”

“I think we will be alright. Once we have more figured out, I will let you know. Be careful with Jessica, the people watching the door say she is… delicate.”

I nodded my understanding and headed out into the warehouse. After several steps, I noticed that I was being followed. I turned to see Simon trailing behind me.

“You aren’t going to stay with the others?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I thought I might be able to help further, with Jessica. I think we established beginning of a connection, the other day.”

“You have a point, I suppose. Alright, you can come, if you want to. But make sure to check back with them when we are done, in case you can add anything about the Domini.”

He nodded and we walked together, back towards the office, where Jessica was contained. As we passed through a deserted section, Simon spoke quietly,

“How worried should I be about whatever Wallace has planned?”

“You picked up on that, did you?”

“Hard not to. He has a great deal of animosity towards ubarae. It radiates off of him.”

“Well, he had a bad experience, when he was younger,” I wasn’t sure I should tell him this, but perhaps it was best if he knew to be very careful around Wallace. I’d keep it vague. “Before he was an agent, his sister was killed by a rogue incubus. He… witnessed it. Unlike most of us, that was how he learned ubarae exist, how he learned he was a Partial. After that, he joined the Organization, to protect people from…”

“Us?”

“Rogues. But yes, admittedly he isn’t always kind to ubarae, and doesn’t really trust them, even before the Domini situation, which certainly hasn’t helped. Don’t worry, James wouldn’t let him do anything crazy. Just, steer clear of him, whenever possible.”

“I will.”

“Good. Then there is nothing to worry about, Wallace is all bark,” I wished I believed that. “Our real concern is what the Domini are planning next. So, with that in mind, let’s focus on getting what we can out of Jessica, shall we? They believed they had complete control of her, so they might have told her things or discussed matters in front of her that they otherwise would have kept private. She might be our best chance to get out ahead of this, if we can get her to talk.”

The guard opened the door and nodded us through; we both headed into the office, to see how my old friend was doing today.