Harry decided to drop the hive next to the loading dock. He didn’t know what was inside and he didn’t know if the hive would survive long enough to produce the first bee.

It was better to go in with support fanning out around him to destroy anything that had hidden itself. Once the place was clear, he could move on and try to find the next hot spot.

How many of the xenos had stayed together? That seemed like the most important question on his mind. The next vying for attention asked where they had gone if they weren’t all inside this one place.

He took a deep breath. This wasn’t the first time he had charged into a black area. He had just never charged in after some kind of thing with too many teeth and claws before.

When he had three bees in the air, he was ready to go. He had to get through the door, and then look around the interior of the place. His sunglasses and the display inside them would help his aim.

He summoned a knife. He slid it between the door and the frame. He yanked the blade through the tongue of the lock. He pushed the door open with his foot. Part of the lock he sliced through fell to the floor.

Harry stepped inside as the bees surged forward. He blinked as their particle guns fired. He kept an eye on the catwalks above him as he crossed the open space between him and whatever his drones had engaged.

“The enemy has combined into one, Harry,” said Nick.

“I don’t want to think about that,” said Harry. He kept an eye out for smaller xenos trying to rush him as his bees sliced into their enemy with their ribbons of light.

The conglomeration was no match for the bees, especially when another one joined the fray every forty seconds. The concentrated firepower finally cut the creature into pieces that swiftly rotted away.

“I don’t see any human carcasses,” said Harry. He slowly looked around. There was blood, both human and xeno. Someone else might have been taken at one point but the body had been devoured.

“What’s that on the floor?,” asked Nick.

Harry bent down and inspected the thing carved in the floor. It resembled a circle with symbols rolled around the outside line. Why had the xenos done such a thing? It was outside their profile.

“I don’t think we should leave this here,” said Nick. “My perception of it is some kind of gate anchor.”

“Gate anchor?,” said Harry. “Like this drawing is something they can latch on and open the door to get here?”

“That is what my senses are telling me,” said Nick. “We need to do something about this before it becomes a bigger problem than what we know.”

“Do you mind, guys?,” asked Harry. He waved at the drawing.

Particle beams ripped up the floor. In a matter of seconds, the drawing was covered in black lines. Some of it broke into pieces of rock.

“Thank you, Harry,” said Nick. “I was afraid they would use that to punch a bigger gate inside here and give something of a larger magnitude that we have been trying to keep out of this part of the galaxy a way here.”

“Are you sure?,” asked Harry. “I thought you didn’t know how the gates worked.”

“We don’t but I have seen that symbol before,” said Nick. “I need you to come back to the car.”

Harry dropped a fast acting acid to finish blotting the symbol out of existence. He waved his bees to follow him. The hive would shut down until another splotch of heavy mana crossed its path so that part was good to go.

He walked back to the car and opened the door. His bees swept in and dropped in the back seat where they could ride in style. He got behind the wheel and shut the door.

“I’m going to put this up on the window,” said Nick. “The agents know about this, but no one has been able to confirm until now. It will be up to them to spread the word to their contractors. I am already calling mine.”

Insets of the symbol began appearing on the window. They were knuckle wide, but Harry recognized the pattern. Some of them had different words written on the circle line.

“Are all these on Earth?,” asked Harry.

“No,” said Nick. “I’m going to pull the picture back to show you where each of these were found.”

The insets began to pull back one at a time. Before the first two were through, Harry realized that the symbols had been found in the middle of a battlefield between armies of contractors and xenos. The damage looked like Europe after World War Two. He frowned at the carnage.

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“These are the ones we won,” said Nick. “The others with this level of conflict, we lost. I don’t like the symbol being present here on Earth.”

“It’s obvious this is some kind of marker for their gate,” said Harry. “It might be a marker for a super gate.”

“A super gate?,” said Nick. “We’re talking something we have only seen in pitched battles. And the fact the enemy might be able to merge together is not great in my opinion.”

“Nothing we can do about that,” said Harry. “We have to think of a way to stop them from trying to get here in the first place.”

“We don’t know how to disrupt their supply lines much less stop them from forming gates,” said Nick. “We have to sweep around and make sure we got all of the invaders, and make sure all the contractors on the planet destroy that mark when they see it. This could potentially be bad.”

“All right,” said Harry. “Go around in a ten block circle with mana scanner out.”

The car looped around and rolled back on the street. It obeyed the law as it circled around. The scanner did not light again.

“If they are in the city, they aren’t around here,” said Harry. “So we have to worry about our next deal which is checking over McGill High.”

“If they had that symbol in the school, that could explain the gate expansion,” said Nick. “If they had brought a star whale through, that would have been a disaster for the city.”

“Which is good that we did the deed with John helping us,” said Harry. “If we had waited, the damage could have been horrible.”

“I know,” said Nick. “I already passed your tactic along to the other agents. No one knew a plasma lance would do that from the inside. The outside is almost

impenetrable.”

“So I lucked out like crazy,” said Harry.

“I would say so,” said Nick. “I think you are going to pass your performance review.”

“That’s a load off my chest,” said Harry.

“Unless you do something stupid to negate all of this luck,” said Nick.

“I still might have to deal with the rest of Delmar’s gang,” said Harry. “Unless I hire them.”

“What are you thinking?,” asked Nick.

“I think we need some manpower,” said Harry. “I think we should get anyone we can to check every open area in the city. I don’t care how it’s done.”

“Call Wozniak,” said Nick. “He’ll think you are setting up to kill the boys if you

don’t clear it with him.”

“You’re right,” said Harry. “But like Captain Price, I can do both.”

“And don’t say anything like that either,” said Nick. “Savvy?”

The phone rang in the car. Harry frowned when he saw it was from John.

“Answer call,” said Harry.

“These bees are driving me nuts, Harry,” said John. “You have to call them off.”

“I have a lot to do today,” said Harry. “I’ll come by and look at your security

arrangements after I talk to Wozniak and what’s left of Delmar’s gang.”

The phone rang again. Harry looked over and saw it was Cat. He frowned at that.

“Hold on, John,” said Harry. “Cat’s on the other line.”

The car cut John off, and put Cat on.

“Harry?,” said Cat.

“Go ahead,” said Harry.

“You have to come to the hospital,” said Cat. “Your bees just shot the floor

supervisor.”

“Did he deserve it?,” asked Harry.

“That’s beside the point,” said Cat. “He wants to fire me for what happened.”

“Tell them that I am on the way,” said Harry. “Also tell them that the bees will shoot anyone who touches you in a harmful way.”

“I think they figured that out,” said Cat.

“John is on the other line,” said Harry. “Do you want me to tell him?”

“If I wanted the guy dead, I would have done it myself,” said Cat.

“All right,” said Harry. “Tell the admin I am on my way.”

“Thanks, Harry,” said Cat. “Do not tell John. I don’t need him ripping this guy’s

spleen out and going to jail.”

She hung up on her end.

“Switch destinations to Shane Hospital,” said Harry. “Open other line.”

“What’s going on, Harry?,” asked John.

“I had a call on the other line,” said Harry. “The bees are your friends. No one can stop a guy who wants to hurt you, but they are great at trying. Just let them do their job. They’ll start blending in until you won’t even think about them any more. I have to get some things done, and I don’t have time to talk. Just suck it up until we know for sure Delmar’s gang isn’t going to come after you again.”

“I want a meet,” said John.

“I have to comb through McGill after I take care of this other stuff,” said Harry. “I’ll meet you there.”

“When?,” asked John.

“I don’t know off the bat,” said Harry. “I mean I have a couple of meetings and I have to try to arrange things with the police. I have a lot going on. I’ll call on my way to McGill unless another incursion happens.”

“Are you looking for something?,” asked John.

“A marker,” said Harry. “I’ll send your phone a picture so you can see what I’m

looking for.”

“I sent it over,” said Nick.

“Looks like one of those anime magic diagrams,” said John. “Like that show Guy likes with the secret agent turned school teacher.”

“It has to be destroyed,” said Harry. “We don’t know what it does, but it might be a gate marker for something bigger than what we’ve seen so far.”

“I’ll look around for it,” said John. “The two rooms where the gates were might be the place to start.”

“Make sure you arm up,” said Harry. “We don’t know if they can strike the building again.”

“Got it, Harry,” said John. “Plus I have your bees to protect me.”

“Don’t take this lightly, John,” said Harry. “As soon as I get the word out, contractors will be all over the place. We might have lucked out last night. They might be ready for us now.”

“Nobody is that ready,” said John. He cut the connection.

“I have been reviewing the footage from Cat’s bees,” said Nick. “The doctor was inappropriate to her and another nurse. How do you want to handle this?”

“I think we’re going to have to depend on your legalese,” said Harry. “The hospital is up ahead. Let’s see what we can do.”

He found a parking spot for his car and got out. The car locked up behind him

as he walked up to the main doors. He asked for the admin offices at the front

desk and headed for them. A bee appeared and guided him along.

“Harry,” said Cat. She looked composed and sure. Whatever happened she was ready to deal with it. “Thank you for coming.”

“Let me see what I can do about this,” said Harry. “Nick says you can sue and get the hospital.”

“How?,” said Cat.

“He can check the feeds and load them on digital files to send back to us,” said Harry. He knocked on the office door.

“Come in,” said someone on the other side.

Harry opened the door for Cat and himself to step inside.