Grit tried not to stare at Detective Tek K’Nani as she approached, but it was difficult. Her purple skin was odd, sure, but he found it alluring somehow. Besides, the way the cracks in her skin changed color with her emotions was helpful. What had she called those again? Distracted now, he wondered whether Tek could actually control the color changes of her skin.

“Grit!” Cassia’s voice made him jump, and he realized he’d ended up staring at Tek as she approached after all. She was staring back at him with an odd smile on her face.

“Um, hello Detective K’Nani,” he managed. For some reason, that only made her smile grow. Eventually she turned to Cassia.

“I see you wandered into some sort of arms deal,” she said, gesturing to the bodies on the ground. Cassia started to speak, but then settled for a small nod.

“Look, Tek,” Grit began, but Tek turned and raised an eyebrow. He sighed and started over.

“Detective, we weren’t a part of this,” he said. “We just ended up here at the wrong time.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Come on now, Grit,” she said, her tone serious. “You can only expect a detective to believe that line so many times before she starts catching on.” Grit frowned and looked at Cassia, who gave him a small shrug. He looked back at Tek.

“So it’s Grit now?” he asked. “What happened to Mr. Patterson?” Tek frowned at him for another moment, then grinned unexpectedly and slapped him on the shoulder.

“Oh cheer up, big guy,” she said. “I’m just messing with you. I was up there talking with Buckshot and he filled me in.” She gestured back up towards the window she’d exited earlier. Then she frowned again.

“He’s probably run off now,” she mused. She took a moment, then abruptly looked over at Cassia.

“So, where’s my fugitive thief?” she asked, and Grit had to hide a smile at Cassia’s jump. He’d been around Tek’s seeming randomness when she was on the job before, but it was still surprising. And in the end, not as random as it seemed. He absently rubbed his shoulder where Tek had smacked him.

“I, um, well, we haven’t really…found her yet,” Cassia managed to get out a full sentence as Tek stared at her with another raised brow. Grit chuckled at Cassia’s pained face, which unfortunately caused Tek to turn her stare on him. His laughter shut off quickly.

“Mr. Patterson, you think it’s funny that you aren’t holding up your end of a deal?” she asked. So it was back to formal now, Grit thought. That interrogation stare of hers was really unnerving. He hadn’t seen it on full display in some time, and now he found himself wishing that time had been longer.

“No, ma’am, not funny at all,” he replied. Tek’s face didn’t change, though the cracks in her skin pulsed a pale violet. Glintscars, that was the word!

“You sure you don’t know where Miss Alfaro is, Mr. Patterson?” Tek asked, stepping closer. “You seem somewhat excited.” Grit shook his head firmly.

“I don’t know where she is,” he replied, forcing his tone to be even. He wasn’t nervous, but damn that woman for standing so close to him.

“Ok then,” Tek said, then she winked at him and turned back to Cassia. Grit could feel his frustration mounting, along with another type of feeling that he shoved back down. Tek on the prowl in a case could be excruciating for her suspects.

“You know, I’ve got another question for you,” Tek was saying to Cassia. Grit watched Cassia set her face in determination.

“Do you know The Eldest?” Tek asked softly. Cassia obviously hadn’t been prepared for that question. Her eyes widened and she even let out a small gasp. Tek stepped back looking pleased.

“Oh, so are you part of the Varynnic line then, or just associated with the Varynn people somehow?” Tek continued to question. Cassia set her lips in a flat line and glared back at the detective. Tek seemed almost proud of that response.

“Maybe I should shoot you in the arm and see what happens,” she said to Cassia. Then she immediately held up her hands.

“I’m joking, I’m joking!” Tek looked towards Grit. “You two are so on edge.”

“The Eldest is dead,” Cassia said suddenly. Tek seemed just as surprised as Grit that she had spoken. She turned back towards Cassia, who seemed pale, which was unusual.

“Are you sure about that?” Tek asked softly. Cassia nodded, and Grit was surprised to see that she seemed close to tears.

“I watched him die,” she said in a whisper. Tek paused, and Grit could tell that she was reconsidering her approach. For once, she relented.

“I think you may want to check your source on that,” Tek said in the same soft voice. Cassia blinked back tears as Tek stepped back to look at both Cassia and Grit. She seemed to make a decision.

“I’ve seen your movements from the tracker,” she said, glancing at Grit’s arm. “And you haven’t exactly been doing your job. Do you even still have the Pathfinder?” She directed the question at Grit. He started to respond in the affirmative before he remembered that they’d sent the ship with Mel to Wraith Harbor. Tek narrowed her eyes at him again as he hesitated. He hated that look.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“We don’t…right now,” he said. He could feel Cassia’s disappointment, even though she wasn’t saying anything. For the first time, he could see anger appear in Tek’s expression, and her glintscars faded into a deep purple.

“Do you know where it is, Mr. Patterson?” she asked, very slowly. Grit started to answer but Cassia jumped in.

“Of course we do, Detective,” she said, almost with a snarl. Grit was surprised at her intensity. Whatever Tek had said about the Eldest, whoever that was, must’ve gotten to Cassia. Tek seemed surprised as well, but she recovered easily.

“Take me to it now,” she said, undaunted by Cassia’s glare.

“We can’t,” Cassia answered, crossing her arms. “Not for another hour at least.”

“I don’t know what that can possibly mean,” Tek said, the anger becoming more apparent in her face.

“Tek, it will be here,” Grit broke in, ignoring her side-eye at him for using her first name. Tek just shook her head.

“This is a step too far, even for you, Grit,” she said. “Perhaps it will be back, as you say, but I just don’t have time to wait around to find out.” She unclipped a strange device from her vest at her back. It looked somewhat like a small version of a nightstick, with a pointed end on the ground. Tek stepped back and jammed the device into the ground, causing it to immediately expand to almost six feet in height. Tek pushed a button on her communicator and the device suddenly emitted a light blue light, spreading out in a circle around them. Grit realized that Tek had backed out of the circle while they had been distracted by the device activating.

“You will be picked up by the IPF within the hour,” she said. “Please do not try to exit the force field, as you will be seriously injured.” She quickly turned and walked back towards the gun show.

“Force field!” Cassia shouted. Grit stepped to the edge of the circle and could hear the hum of energy around him.

“Tek, if the IPF doesn’t show up, are we just stuck here?” he called. She stopped in the distance.

“The force field will fail in three hours,” she answered. “Grit…this is something I have to do. I’ll talk to you again at headquarters.” She disappeared inside the building, and Cassia yelled in frustration. Grit decided being angry was no use, so he simply sat down.

----------------------------------------

Grit rubbed his wrists as the IPF agent shoved him into a cell. Cassia stumbled in behind him, and then the door slid shut. There was an electronic buzzing sound and the IPF agents disappeared back down the hallway. Grit took a seat on the bench, but Cassia was already pacing. That was impressive, considering she’d done the same thing for the entire two hours they’d been stuck in the force field.

“This is bad, really bad,” she said. “The Pathfinder is going to show up in Dallas with Mel and Kevin and Elaine, but we’ll be here on Earth-1 and they won’t be able to use the ship.” Grit sighed and rubbed his temples.

“Calm down, Cassia,” he said quietly. “Mel is extremely capable. I’m sure they’ll be fine.” Cassia nodded absently, and kept stalking back and forth across the tiny cell.

“The Eldest is who we need to find,” she said, muttering now. “If he’s still alive then…no, that doesn’t make sense.” She stopped suddenly and looked at Grit.

“If Detective K’Nani knows about the Eldest, then that means there’s probably information on him somewhere around here, right?” Grit shrugged.

“Probably,” he replied. “But they probably won’t let you use a computer.” Cassia took some time to frown at him, then resumed pacing.

“If we can access that info, then we can at least determine where to jump to in order to fix the Weft and Warp. “Wait, you haven’t known where we were jumping to next?” Grit asked. Cassia shook her head.

“I almost think we just need to jump from universe to universe until maybe Kevin figures out…whatever thing it is that he needs to figure out. But finding the Eldest would help us a lot. Even if Kevin does figure it out, we don’t know if that will actually lead us to the Weft and Warp or not. It may tell us nothing, but it’s a direction.”

Grit sat back down. He wasn’t sure Cassia had ever said so many words at once to him. She usually kept things to herself, kind of like he did. Suddenly, she stopped in the middle of the cell.

“That means we have to get out of here,” she said, in a matter of fact way. Grit chuckled, and leaned back against the wall. There was silence for a moment. He vaguely wondered if Cassia was glaring at him, though she wasn’t as much of the glaring type as Mel was. Hopefully she was doing ok -

“HEY, I HAVE TO PEE!” Cassia’s shout jolted all thought out of Grit’s brain, and his eyes flew open as he leapt to his feet. Cassia was standing calmly at the door. She winked at Grit.

“HEY YOU MORONS, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!” She bellowed again, smiling at Grit the entire time.

“What are you doing?” Grit said, half tempted to plug his ears. Who knew the woman had that kind of pipes?

“I’m getting us out of here,” Cassia replied.

“With pee?” Grit asked. “They’re not going to believe you.”

“Hey, it’s only a trope because it works,” Cassia answered. She opened her mouth to yell again, but an angry looking IPF agent arrived and slid open a small section of the door near Cassia’s head.

“You can use the toilet provided,” he said sternly, looking pointedly at the toilet attached to the wall in the back corner. Cassia laughed.

“Are you serious?” she asked incredulously. “You stuck me in here with this big guy, you think I’m going to pee while he watches? Look at that toilet, it’s disgusting. I mean, look at that?” She stepped back and theatrically swung her arm towards the toilet. The guard stepped up and peered through the small window.

“It looks normal to me,” he said, and then Cassia shoved her arm through the window, grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head and slammed his face into the cell door. The guard slid slowly to the floor on the outside of the cell as Cassia quickly grabbed the man’s hand. He landed on the floor turned sideways with Cassia holding his arm up. She turned triumphantly to Grit. He peeked out at the unconscious guard, then looked at Cassia.

“We’re still stuck in here,” he said. “I’m not sure what you’ve accomplished.” Cassia smiled at him.

“Boost me up to that window,” she said. “I think if I can get his hand to the lock…” she ended in a grunt from holding the man’s weight through the small window. Grit didn’t really think it would work, but he figured they were committed now so he hoisted Cassia up. She squirmed and stretched in his arms, making it hard to hold on, and at one point she gave a sharp yelp of pain. Shortly after, though, the electronic buzzing noise sounded, and there was an audible click as the cell door unlocked. Grit set Cassia back on the ground, and when she turned to face him her right arm was hanging limp.

“Dislocated my shoulder,” she said. Oddly enough she was smiling, and as he watched, Grit could see the shoulder begin to reset itself. After a moment, Cassia moved her arm up and down, then smiled in satisfaction.

“Told you we were getting out of here,” she said. Grit found himself grinning at her in spite of the situation.

“Smug doesn’t look good on you,” he said. Cassia winked at him again, and then slid open the cell door.