"Tina, glad you're still awake," Michael said, eyeing the array of snacks scattered around the keyboard and over the desk, "they are constantly hungry, I'm guessing."

"All the time," Tina nodded, "I don't remember ever eating this much. What's up? You have your "I'm-going-to-split-a-gut" look."

"I have that kind of a look," Michael shook his head incredulously, "Jaxon just contacted me. It looks like Nigel is an infiltration. He gave bogus information to the team. Jaxon has corrected it, but he's worried about them."

"I've been concerned about Nigel as well," Tina said, looking at the stacked array of screens, each doing a different task.

"Don't you have a connection with him in the Madhouse?" Michael asked.

"Sure, he helped me," Tina said, "but that's not why I'm concerned. There have been a lot of ..." Tina sighed, "he hasn't been himself. When he spoke for himself, he mentioned there was a lot of hate the others were exposed to when created," Tina hesitated. "Nigel said to me ...always have love and purity around them. He was saying there was neither for his duplicates. This morning I woke with an understanding ... we know that the original Nigel is not aware of what the others do, so what if an evil Nigel was in control at the time of accomplishing a task? One of his duplicates could have been, or they could have split to achieve the goal independently. Keeping that in mind, I've been searching for vectors of anyone he may have travelled with and came up with a few consistent faces, plus I've been running them against flight plans."

"Good thinking," Micheal smiled, "local or country specific?"

"Global," Tina said, "hear me out."

Michael frowned, "I'm listening."

"We thought it was only a local or national issue," Tina said, "then we found all these families with babies and young children ... some enhanced and some born. Since some children were found in other global locations, these facilities could be anywhere, and anyone could have been involved."

"We can assume that," Michael said, "have you found anything that could help our team?"

"I've been tracking them, and Bre was right to be worried," Tina said. "This is where they were. If you look to the left, it's about a half-hour drive from their previous location. Yes, that strange set of buildings," Tina pulled a piece of paper from the printer, "I ran the coordinates ..." Tina handed the paper to Michael, leaving the sentence unfinished.

"The buildings belong to Madden," Michael muttered, "what do they contain?"

"An army of fanatics along with enough ordinance to start and maintain a small war from many years," Tina said. "Our team would have been sitting ducks and totally outgunned, outmanned and if not slaughtered ... captured.

"Where is Nigel now?" Michael asked.

"The last I know was the safe house," Tina said, "with Devon, the newcomers and the children."

"Okay, let me see if I can locate and detain him," Michael said, "you said you were running flight plans. Did you come up with anything?"

Tina moved to another console, "Yes, but only the flights where the vectors showed; otherwise, I'd never sleep. I have the flight manifests for all the flights."

"Good work. Do I need to run facial recognition," Michael asked.

"Done," Tina grinned at Michael's surprise, "we have a hit …several hits, in fact."

"Where are they going to?" Michael asked, looking up from the lists when Tina remained silent. "Tina?"

"We have a flight ..." she whispered, "several flights over various carriers."

"And?" Michael prodded.

"They are flying to Germany via Amsterdam," Tina said. "The secondary search for any kind of rentals or accommodations indicates most of them are heading toward the area our team is ..." Tina met Michael's gaze. "They will need more help than they currently have to survive this extraction."

Sinking into a nearby chair, Tina concentrated on breathing and remaining as calm as possible. The churning in her gut and thudding panic encasing her heart made it difficult to achieve a clear mind. The sudden activity in her belly drew her attention to her babies' need for assurance. Even though her thoughts told them all was well, her body's reaction was contradictory. How could they survive the possible loss of their father and everyone they held dear? Micheal finished his phone call squatting in front of her, taking hold of her cold hand.

"Can you fly in your condition?" he whispered.

"I've been phasing with Jasmine for a while," Tina said, "I don't think flying will be an issue."

"There is a flight leaving in half an hour," Michael said, "it will get you to Amsterdam before those you've been tracking."

"What are you saying?" Tina asked.

"You need to be closer to Craig," Micheal said, "I have a team heading there, and I want you to go with them. You don't have to pack; I've had a go-bag prepared for you in the cupboard behind you. Your ride will be at the mansion's front door in five minutes."

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Tina looked from the screen to Michael, "Is this what this kind of life is like?"

"Welcome to our World," Michael saluted casually, "you're not going alone. The escort attached to your transport will be travelling with you."

"From which world are they?" Tina asked, pushing out of the chair, finding the cupboard, and pulling out a duffel bag, "mine or yours?"

"They are from my world but mostly yours," Michael said, grinning as his cryptic message drew a frown from Tina.

"They are enhanced but have integrated into a topside "normal" unit," Tina said, shaking her head, "are they the good guys?"

"Yes, and will protect you and the team if needed," Michael said, looking at an incoming message, "now go. They are waiting."

The sensation was sudden, complete, and heart-stopping doom slammed into Iris, making her stumble to a stop.

Craig grasped her elbow, helping her maintain her footing, "Iris? You okay?"

No answer came. Looking down into a set of unblinking, glazed eyes and noting her motionlessness. Craig waited. He had seen Tina like this sometimes and had grown to understand the sister were conversing. In this state, they were vulnerable. They heard nothing, saw nothing, leaving it up to everyone else to protect them.

Scanning the area, Craig tried to determine any threats. The darkness was almost complete, thanks to the clouds rolling in to darken what had been a beautiful moon-filled night. Never before had he been so thankful for the darkness helping to keep them in the unknown realm. If they were being tracked or watched by others with the standard ability package, they might as well move in broad daylight.

"What's going on?" Simon asked.

"They're having a conversation," Craig said, nodding toward Iris.

"Do you think it'll be long?" Simon chuckled.

"No idea," Craig shook his head, "Tina was like this for an hour last week. When she did respond, she said it was a good chat."

"For an hour?" Simon hissed, shaking his head, "what could they be saying?"

"I don't know," Craig said again, "but by the look of Iris's expression, this conversation is serious."

"If she doesn't end it soon," Simon indicated with his head the approaching end of the line, "we'll have to carry her."

"We may need to anyway," Craig said, scanning the area once more, "firelight."

Simon turned in the direction Craig was looking, "Seems to be a few people camping there."

"Perhaps," Craig whispered, narrowing his eyes, "except they are all wearing camouflage and have a variety of weapons. I don't think they're friendlies."

"You need to keep it down," Iris said, startling the two men, "those men were supposed to ambush up as we moved in tomorrow. Craig: " Tina said she'll see you tomorrow."

"See me?" Craig asked, frowning and moving with Iris as she started walking again, "when we get home."

"I don't know," Iris shook her head, "she was very cryptic and mysterious."

"She's at home," Craig said, concern etching his voice, "isn't she?"

Iris shrugged, "I guess. We didn't really discuss it."

Craig watched Iris speed up to match Simon's pace. What were the sisters up to?

What exactly were they doing?

Pulling out his phone, he dialled Tina's number, but it went straight to voice mail.

"Everything okay?" Breanna asked, threading her arm through his and making him keep pace with the back of the line.

"Iris had a long conversation with the others," Craig sighed, "then she says Tina will see me tomorrow, but she's not sure if Tina is at home. I've tried to phone her, and it goes straight to voicemail. Bre, I'm worried."

"Perhaps she's busy," Breanna said, "look, if anything is going on, Michael can assist. That's why he stayed back with his team."

"He has a team?" Craig asked, "when did that happen? I know he said that Tina would be assisting him, but I thought the team thing was a figure of speech."

"Michael has been busy behind the scenes, and gathering a team is recent," Breanna said.

"When did he get time to do all this?" Craig asked.

"While we were running around cleaning up the mess made by others," Breanna said.

Craig nodded, "Guess we were busy."

Breanna nodded, "If anything happens, Michael and his team will be there."

Craig sighed, "Why do I feel like I'm going to regret agreeing with you?"

"I see we are evading our ambush team very well," Breanna murmured. "I wonder what they will be thinking tomorrow when we don't arrive along the path we were supposed to. Another thing Michael will be looking into for us."

"We have another fifteen minutes, and we'll be at the coordinates for the night," Jarred said, stopping next to Breanna before walking backwards. Jarred's strange actions caused mild concern before Breanna spotted a tree stump suddenly appearing out of the darkness.

"Careful," Breanna said, pulling Jarred in front of her and turning him to face forward, "it appears Simon is enjoying himself."

Jarred muttered something before nodding thanks to Breanna. Craig moved forward, taking up his position again, scanning the area as the group kept a silent, quick pace. A little further up the line, Reilly walked with his hands held at shoulder height, glancing up occasionally. For those that knew him well, he could be looking at imaginary stars or adjusting the view for those looking their way.

Noting Reilly's constant use of his ability, Craig could only imagine what people looking at them could see. Whatever it was, he was glad it was being done. A low, long owl hoot up ahead announced the long walk had ended. Everyone seemed to pick up the pace, only too happy to set up camp one more time and finally get some sleep. Finding Tania setting up security measures around their area, Craig halted, turning toward the incoming line of tired and hungry people.

"Reilly," the whisper was heard as Reilly paused next to him, "keep the illusion up until we're settled for the night."

"Copy that," Reilly murmured, "do you you think we're being watched?"

"I'm not sure," Craig said, "something is out there, but I'm uncertain of its intentions. Tell our team we're doing shifts tonight."

"Yes, sir," Reilly said, moving past the area perimeter, humming quietly.

"Perimeter security all set," Tania said, looking in the direction Craig stared, "you're not the only one aware of something out there. It's as if it's waiting, but for what ... I'm not sure."

"Thanks, Tania," Craig whispered, stepping back as the lasers activated on the boundary sensors, "haven't felt this unsettled for a long time."

"I heard you say your team is doing shifts tonight," Tania murmured as they turned toward the group, "mind having another set of eyes and ears?"

"Not at all," Craig said, "something tells me we'll need everyone we have."