Marty taxied the jet to a rented hangar off the main runways at Tel Aviv airport. He put the headphones on their hook before shutting everything down. He leaned back in his seat.

He had learned to fly a little when he was ten. Then he had taken refresher courses after he had taken Watson down, and got Barry back. He hadn’t expected to fly around the world without most of his partners to look at some anomaly out in the desert for his adopted father.

“That was enjoyable,” said Ren. “Flying in a plane is better when you can see

everything.”

“It’s more comfortable than a griffin,” said Marty. “Let’s get our bags and go through Customs. We can look at Barry’s problem area tomorrow. The satellite pictures were out in the desert somewhere.”

“Have you been to Israel before?,” asked Ren.

“I don’t think I have had the chance,” said Marty. “I don’t know if Barry had someone on the ground to help us either.”

“We’ll figure things out,” said Ren. “I have to call Corona to let her know we’re

down.”

“Finch said to call if there was an emergency,” said Marty. “She’s taking the kids on a walkabout.”

“Walkabout?,” asked Ren.

“That’s what she said, but I think she is making the kids run laps in the woods around the compound,” said Marty. “So I can’t talk to her for a few hours, and Barry is experimenting on something and won’t pick up the phone until he’s done in the lab.”

“So my check in will have to cover both of us,” said Ren. “If there is a problem, Corona can fly up to the place and let Barry and Finch know.”

“Looks like,” said Marty. He unstrapped his safety harness and stood. “Let’s see what we can do before we head out to the desert. Barry probably wants us to go out there and sleep in a tent now that we are on the ground.”

“I would like a hotel,” said Ren. “I would like to go over the pictures again before we endanger ourselves.”

“No problem,” said Marty. “I wish Finch and Corona were here. They are our

powerhouses.”

“But they aren’t very good at mysteries unless we want to make someone talk,” said Ren. “I don’t see that with some occurrence.”

Marty nodded. His wife was many things, but she wasn’t a detective unless beating people senseless for information was what was needed. She did that very well indeed.

Corona was even worse unless you wanted the beaten person set on fire. She was excellent at that.

Marty grabbed his go bag and jacket and led the way to the exit door in the middle of the jet. Cog might have been big help, but he didn’t want to leave Chicago for another country.

Being a ball of metal and a hundred mechanical tentacles made him suspicious of anybody who might come into contact with him. He didn’t want to fend off any attention he might gather from the Israelis while they were on the job.

Marty pulled on his jacket as he opened the door to the let the steps down. He pulled on sunglasses as he stepped down to the tarmac.

Ren had his carrier bag slung on a strap at his hip, and a briefcase for his suits. He straightened his jacket, and the vest underneath as he stepped out in the afternoon sun.

“You’re going to overheat in that,” said Marty.

“The black suit is the tradition of the detective on the job,” said Ren. “Besides

it is air-conditioned.”

“How did you do that?,” asked Marty.

“I hypnotized it into being cooler than the surrounding air,” said Ren.

Marty smiled as he shook his head. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Hypnotizing clothing was in his friend’s capacity, and need for comfort.

He wasn’t a hardbitten private shamus like Mike Hammer. He was a genteel layabout like Nick Charles.

He had the wife and kid, all he needed was the dog that was smarter than he was.

Marty ran his hand through his hair as they walked toward the terminal. They had to get through customs, then find a hotel and rent a car. The jet hadn’t had room for a car on it like the big one parked under the national forest.

It had been parked for almost twenty years. Barry was still getting replacement parts for it to bring back up to state of the art so they could start using it as a mobile base again.

The small jet was a replacement for the one the Scouts had lost when the original team had been decimated at Idaville.

Ren maintained his silence. He didn’t like to speculate about what a problem could be before they actually started looking at it. He had apprenticed under a master detective and earned his independence in the eight years he had been with the new Scouts.

He was teaching his son his methods as well as he could.

Corona was teaching him how to control the flames he had inherited from her.

Burning down someone’s property was not something she wanted Bond to do by accident. She wanted him to be sure first.

“Have your children inherited your powers, Marty?,” asked Ren.

“Nope,” said Morgan. “It might have skipped a generation, or no one else might ever get them.”

“You don’t seem bothered by it,” said Ren.

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“Finch wants them to be trained like her,” Marty said. “Adding in what I can do

would just cause a lot of problems for all of them. I think it’s better if I sit back and watch for strange animals around the Hub instead of trying to push for them to make an animal that will help them get into trouble.”

“What if they are making animals without you?,” asked Ren.

“My wife doesn’t need me to bring out the whupping stick,” said Marty.

Ren silently agreed with that. Finch was one of the most dangerous people around with her hands. Disciplining children should be child’s play for her.

“And if they get bit, it will teach them a lesson about bringing things to life that don’t like them,” said Marty. “It’s the circle of life in action.”

“I think you are way too relaxed about the thought your family could be eaten by made up lions,” said Ren.

“Naw,” said Marty. “Finch can handle that.”

Ren nodded. He had seen Finch in action himself. She could handle a mountain lion.

He didn’t want to see the animal she couldn’t handle.

They pushed into the terminal and made their way through Customs. Marty presented his passport and opened his bag which was full of folded t-shirts, cargo pants, underwear and socks.

Ren presented a folder that said it was a passport, opened his briefcase which scared the inspector, and was let through with a lot of talk.

“What do you have in your bag?,” asked Marty.

“My library,” said Ren.

Marty shrugged as they walked across the terminal. He was used to his friend saying things that couldn’t be true but probably were.

He turned toward signs that promised rentals for the tourist on the go. He led the way to the counter. There were a few minutes of talk as he and Ren compared Barry’s pictures to a real map and decided they needed a jeep of some kind to get to where they had to go. The counter lady advised them to get extra water and gas cans if they were going out in the desert.

Tel Aviv was a long way from the target, but Marty didn’t know of any airports that far south that would take the Scout jet. Driving seemed their best option at the moment.

If they had to fly back, he had a couple of things that would do that for him when he summoned them.

“Do we get hotel here?,” asked Ren. “Or start south?”

“Let’s get rooms here before we start looking around,” said Marty. “I have been in the air for hours. I want to rest my butt.”

“I’ll call Corona as soon as we check in,” said Ren. “Then I can do my review.”

“I’m taking a nap,” said Marty. “Then I am going to get some food in me, then maybe I’m going to hit the night tourist spots before I get some sleep. We can take the jeep out early in the morning and look around.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Ren.

“We might have come to town over nothing,” said Marty. “If we did, we just get

back on the plane and head home.”

“We’re here for something,” said Ren. “Barry wouldn’t have sent us to look around if nothing was going on.”

“We might not be the experts needed for this,” said Marty. “We might need to call up the Lamplighters and let them do their thing.”

“How did that go in New York?,” asked Ren.

“We almost lost the city,” said Marty. He checked the key ring against the car in front of him. A driver from the rental car company got out and left the door open for him. “But we worked things out.”

Ren paused at the matter of fact way Marty put things. He walked around to the other side and got in the passenger seat.

“You almost lost the city?,” said Ren.

“Yep, but the Mark showed up with his adoptees and a few other guys pitched in and we closed things and saved the city from being turned into more of a hell than it is right now,” said Marty. He got behind the wheel.

“What did you tell Finch about this?,” asked Ren.

“Another day at the office,” said Marty. He smiled. “What she doesn’t know keeps my bones from being broken.”

“You’re way too confident,” said Ren. “Barry will tell her at some point. You will be in so much trouble.”

“Trouble deferred is trouble avoided,” said Marty. “Where’s the closest hotel?”

“We should turn left,” said Ren. “There are a few along the water we can check in.”

“All right,” said Marty. “If things get bad overnight, I expect Barry will try to call us through the plane. I’ll have to leave him a message about the hotel phone to call.”

“Message through the plane?,” asked Ren.

“Sometimes he forgets that not everybody likes to sleep in their vehicle and move out when the rooster crows,” said Marty.

“Because of his prosthesis?,” asked Ren.

“Naw,” said Marty. “He was always like that, even when I was a kid. Do you know how many times I have heard the sun’s up, time to go?”

“You counted how many times he said it?,” asked Ren.

“Yep,” said Marty.

“You can keep that to yourself because you are confirming it was a good idea that Corona and I live in San Francisco,” said Ren.

“How do you afford that?,” said Marty.

“Afford what?,” asked Ren.

“The rent and stuff,” said Marty.

“I don’t have to pay rent and utilities where I live,” said Ren.

“You hypnotized something to be your house, didn’t you?,” asked Marty.

“I do not know what you are talking about,” said Ren.

“I’m talking about you seizing something that isn’t a house and making it into a house, and fooling everyone around you,” said Marty. “And I know you are capable of doing that. I have seen you do it.”

“Corona would never accept anything that wasn’t a real house,” said Ren. “I am hurt that you would think such a thing.”

“I want to see this house when we get done with this,” said Marty. “I know you’re hiding something.”

“Again you stab me in the heart,” said Ren. “I think I will never talk to you again.”

Marty glanced at his friend as he pulled to a stop in front of the hotel. He knew he was right. He wondered what Ren had turned into a fake house for his family to avoid San Fran’s climbing prices.

“I will find out,” said Marty. “You might have to come up with something for me

to get away from the kids.”

“I think making Finch angry is not worth it,” said Ren.

Marty smiled at that. They had thought they were rescuing her from Watson Security when they first met. Instead they were rescuing Watson’s personnel from her, and they didn’t rescue all of them at that.

They went in and checked into separate rooms. Marty took time to leave a message that he was down. Then he lay on the bed and went instantly asleep.

He woke up with sun going down. He took out a note pad and wrote a note for Ren. He put that in the crack at the bottom of his friend’s door before he headed out of the hotel.

He couldn’t remember being in Tel Aviv. He had spent time traveling with the

Scouts, and then roaming the United States on his own, and then traveling with the new Scouts. He couldn’t remember any mysteries, or problems, bringing him to the Middle East.

He considered that lucky.

He didn’t think the other Scouts had traveled much from their homes except Ren. Cog was a special case. He had settled in Chicago and preferred to stay there unless he was helping out with support.

Crashing on Earth had put him in the position of not wanting to do anything other than what he preferred. He helped out but complained about everything.

But for a non-combatant, he could be just as dangerous as the rest of them in his own way.

Marty didn’t push unless he thought the world was going to end and he needed all hands with no exceptions. He personally picked Cog up when that happened and dropped him off when the emergency was over.

He thought Cog’s people were territorial and didn’t like to venture too far away from their homes. It made it weird that Cog would even go into space to wind up on Earth.

Marty looked for a place to eat and watch the street. He wanted to stay out of trouble, but had never given up the habit of people watching. Once he was done, he would walk around for a bit before heading back to his hotel.

He hoped the local criminals left him alone. He didn’t want to be hauled in for

feeding some clown to a wood chipper.

He especially didn’t want to ask Barry to bail him out for feeding some clown to a wood chipper.

He would never hear the end of the jokes that would be spoken at the wrong times.

Marty watched the street and enjoyed his food. He paid with his card before heading along the street. He created a hound dog to walk beside him as he went.

They talked about things as they roamed the capitol. A few times the dog went on alert and then relaxed.

Marty made it back to his hotel and settled in for the night.