Two days had passed since I'd initially come into contact with the lion and tiger cubs, and I'd asked both of them to be brought to me for evaluation. So far, I'd managed to avoid the suspicions of the handlers or the breeders, the guards or the people in control of the whole facility, and had stuck strictly to my role as erstwhile mentor and evaluator to these two. Conversation was non-existent, because I kept my instructions to a minimum needed to keep the training and evaluation tasks to a minimum, while both of the cubs chose to say nothing. I had little idea whether they even understood what was going on.

On the evening of the first night, I received a ping from my nanocloud. Someone had managed to sneak a long-range two-way communicator near the roof of the fire station building. It had a range of over three hundred metres from the roof to the surrounding rural landscape, and it was able to reach the radio-communications baton I had in my backpack, but given I needed to be circumspect, it meant I was only able to communicate through it when I was in my quarters on the site. It also meant I needed to be careful when using it to communicate out, because I had no way to know if any of the radio-frequency bands it used were being monitored; while it was encrypted using the nanocloud keys we had set up and agreed before setting off on this mission, just the existence of the transmission itself would surely be enough to tip off our enemy that they had been infiltrated.

We received a simple message.

Breach in thirty-six hours.

It meant that they had enough people in place to storm this facility, and they were planning to do so in a day and a half.

So, now, on the third day of our arrival, we were rapidly approaching the time we would get reinforcements from outside, and we could wrap this up and rescue these cubs from this place. I had already passed this information to the two cubs I had called forward for testing, so they had an idea what was happening, and when. It was as well I had done so, because I had been refused access to them both.

"You've seen them enough to know if you want to take either one of them or not," the handler had told me. "Now's the time to decide if you want to buy or not. Don't waste any more of my time."

Following that brief exchange, I now found myself with Caitlynne and Scott in the same ante-room we had been escorted to the first time. The handler for both of the cubs was also present, and he was being unusually thorough in observing us, leaving us with no opportunity for discussion, and very little opportunity to even so much as touch each other to exchange information.

"What happens next if we decide we want to buy?" Caitlynne asked the handler.

"You will need to go through imprinting with the subject to ensure they will do as you instruct them," the handler said, as if he were discussing a pet. My blood started to boil, and I instructed my nanocloud to moderate my emotions. "You can technically choose not to imprint, but then you'll likely have to deal with a hostile animal if you're not careful."

"I imagine you're suggesting we do that on site?" Caitlynne asked.

"I'm not suggesting," the handler told her. "I'm telling you that you have to do it on site. It has to be monitored closely, and you'll need someone to walk you through the process."

"When do we start?" Scott interjected, apparently impatient.

"Whoa, there!" The handler exclaimed. "We haven't even discussed payment, yet!"

"Then let's figure that bit out now," Caitlynne said in far too sweet a voice. "Shall we?"

"Right, well the first thing is we need a down-payment on whichever you choose to buy," the handler began. "Only once we have that money in our hands will we even begin the process of imprinting, and we expect the balance before you leave the site."

"Give us a number, man!" Scott sighed.

"Depends on the age of the subject," the handler told us. "The younger the subject, the more likely the imprint will not hold. Simple imprints are only possible between five and ten years. The kind of imprint you'll find useful doesn't really become possible until they reach ten years old, and the younger, the less likely it will be ready. Putting time into imprinting those subjects is practically impossible, so we would have to reserve the subject until they were old enough."

"What about the lion cub?" I asked.

"She's approaching ten years old now," the handler told me. "Two hundred thousand data credits downpayment."

It was everything I could do not to let my expression either darken, or exclaim in surprise. Caitlynne smirked at the handler. "What's the total cost?"

"For a lion cub? They're exceedingly rare, and one that's domesticated enough to be useful is even rarer still. This one's worth one point three million credits."

A million and a quarter data credits to buy the life of a young girl, and I was willing to bet that the total costs of raising these cubs was nowhere near that amount, especially if they were treated and abused in the same manner Eveline was.

"What about the tiger boy?" I asked.

"Fifty thousand," the handler told me. "Tigers are easier to imprint, and they are more obedient," he added with a smirk. "You should have come by last month. We had a young tiger cub. Female. She was bred as a pleasure model. Apparently, they are very good at-"

"Yeah, alright," Scott cut the handler off, saving me from smashing my fist in his face. "So how does this imprinting process work?"

"It's straightforward," the handler started to say. "What we do next is-"

The door slammed open, and two guards stepped into the room, quickly followed by the nondescript man we had seen earlier, followed by two more guards. All of them were clearly agitated.

"You, get out," the nondescript man turned to the handler and nodded his head to the exit. He then turned to us, once the handler was gone. "One of you has a radio-transmitter."

I said nothing. Neither did Caitlynne, nor Scott. One of the guards pulled a device out of his pocket and started waving it over Caitlynne's body. Quietly, I instructed my wrist unit to power off, the nanocloud connecting with the contacts in the device, ensuring it was completely powerless and unable to transmit anything at all.

"Clean," the guard told the man, before moving on to scan Scott. "He's clean, too."

"So, it has to be you, doesn't it?" The man turned to me.

"Yeah, right," I scoffed. "You haven't even scanned me."

"What's the point?" the man asked.

"Fucking scan me, dickhead," I hissed. "Prove I have one on me."

"I don't need to," the man told us. "Grab him. Take him to the holding cell."

If they found it too easy to contain me, they might be suspicious about my lack of effort, so I fought against them, ensuring that I got in a few hits to the ribs that caused a few of them to crack. Once I was struck on the back of the head, I went limp, feigning consciousness, but I remained fully aware of what was happening around me.

"Where the fuck did you find this guy?" Scott demanded, probably of Caitlynne. "You brought a fucking spy with us?"

"How do I know you didn't bring him?" Caitlynne hissed, as I was dragged out of the room. As I was dragged down the corridor, they continued their charade. My body continued to be dragged down several corridors, until I reached a door near to the genetics labs in this place. The door opened, and I was unceremoniously tossed into the cell, the door locked behind me. I continued to feign unconsciousness for several moments, until I was certain the guards had both gone from the door.

The communication baton I'd brought with me was out of range of the short-range anklet I was wearing, so using it to send out messages was no longer an option. It also meant I had no way to know when the reinforcements were actually on their way. The timer on my HUD told me that I still had thirty-seven minutes until they arrived, although that time might be extended or shortened, depending on when the reinforcements were actually ready to move.

Within a few minutes, two guards returned, along with a tall, skinny guy wearing a sharp suit, and it immediately reminded me of the goons and the tall lanky dickhead I'd met back in Milton Keynes. He no doubt would be here to question me.

"Who are you?" the interrogator demanded. "Why are you here?"

"David Sewell, dickhead," I hissed. "I came here with my travelling companions to buy-"

I noticed the glance that the interrogator gave one of his goons, so I knew what was coming, even as he kicked me hard in the torso. My nanocloud quickly reinforced the region, immediately setting to repairing the damage as fractures radiated out from my sternum from the impact. The pain lanced through my body, and for a moment, I was winded, but the sensation passed quickly as my nanocloud got to work.

"If I wanted you to continue lying, I'd not have bothered having you picked up in the first place," the interrogator said softly, his gaze cold, lifeless. "I doubt that's even your real name. Now... The truth?"

I decided to say nothing, choosing instead to let them play their hand, to see if they knew anything in particular.

"Silence, is it?" the interrogator asked, his voice almost whisper-like. "No matter. What were you doing with those two cubs who were brought in to be examined by your group?"

"I was teaching them how to play cards," I sneered. "Thought it would be a useful skill."

The interrogator glanced at the other thug, who stepped forward, lifting me up off of the floor and pinning me to the wall. "Let's try this again, shall we?"

"Why waste your time?" I gasped as the thug started to squeeze my throat. Like the guard who had met me out on the surface, this one was strong, but not so strong he could actually harm me, so I was forced once again to put on an act. "You should know I'm not one to blabbermouth."

These jokers were really embarrassing to have to deal with, I thought in amusement. The panther that had been sent after me was a deadly threat before he'd gotten his head blown off by a fifty-cal round, and only his strength was severe enough to really cause me harm. These guys must have whacked me with most, if not all of their strength, and all they managed to do was cause some tiny hairline fractures that my nanocloud quickly repaired. Their power clearly came from the exercise of fear and intimidation, not from actual power.

The interrogator stepped up, as I continued to feign choking noises, his eyes narrowing.

"Release him," he told the guard, who let go, only for the interrogator himself to lift me up into the air. "Let's see how you fare against me!"

This time, I was up against someone far more formidable. The interrogation tactics employed by these people were for show, more than anything else, because as I discovered in this moment, the thugs were weak show-ponies in comparison to the martial abilities of the ones doing the questioning. Whereas before, I had to feign being strangled by the thugs, with the interrogator himself, I was actually finding it difficult to breathe, his grip was so powerful.

My nanocloud began siphoning information from the interrogator, in precisely the same manner it had done on the surface. Quickly, I received a more extensive map of the facility, as well as data on the breeding facilities, as well as their links to the Harvesters.

Wait...

They were linked to the Harvester operations going on all over the planet.

"Oh," the interrogator sneered. "Is that fear, I detect?"

Not a fucking chance, I thought to myself. I was stunned that the breeding facilities were connected to the Harvesters, but it only strengthened my resolve against these fuckers. With every ounce of strength I could muster, I gripped the hand at my throat, and dug my fingers into his tendons. He thrust his free hand at my throat to take over, but I grabbed it, mercilessly squeezing his fingers in a powerful grip, trying my damnedest to squeeze the fingers and crush them. As I continued to squeeze his fingers with one hand, I dug my fingers into the tendons on his other wrist, and he loosened his grip on my throat. My nanocloud concentrated units in my fingers, and I desperately sent instructions to it to start to remove heat from my hands.

Thankfully, my nanocloud understood my intentions, and my fingers started to rapidly cool, while the rest of my body began to warm up. While I had no formalised function for this kind of thermal transfer, my nanocloud had already seen the specs for it, and thus it was able to adapt it for the circumstances.

My hand became frighteningly cold, and I soon found my own fingers weakening, but the cold was enough to weaken the interrogator's grip further, surprising him, a look of astonishment on his face, right before I head-butted him and shattered his nose.

The thugs, caught by surprise at this action, stepped toward me to try and intervene. My left hand had been badly weakened by the cold, and my nanocloud would need time to repair the damage and get it working properly again. My right hand?

I smashed it into the temple of the nearest thug, while I aimed a kick at the second one, sending him crashing against the wall. The first now ran to the door, likely an attempt to call for help, but I planted my knee in his face, bringing my fist down on his neck and knocking him out cold.

That left me with just the first thug and the interrogator himself, who was now getting up off of the floor. I kicked him in the face, brought my elbow down on the back of his neck before he had a chance to get up, and then stomped on his head for good measure.

He was dead that instant, leaving me with the interrogator.

"You'll pay for that-" the interrogator started, but I thrust my knee into his face, exacerbating the break in his nose and causing him to collapse to the floor.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I wasted no time in wrapping my arm around his neck and lifting him up in a strangulation hold, cutting off his air supply. "Let's talk, shall we?" I hissed. He thrust his elbow into my lower torso in an attempt to wind me, no doubt. It winded me slightly, but I held on with everything I had, tightening my hold on his throat with every single thrust of his elbow. "Careful. Pretty soon, you won't have any way to breathe."

"You won't make it out of here alive," he gasped out.

"Ah, now that's where you're mistaken," I whispered. "It's not me who's going to end up dead by the end of today, nor any of my people."

He tried to elbow me again, and I decided I'd had enough. With everything I could muster, I kicked against his left shin, breaking his leg, before doing the same thing with the other shin. Despite my hold on his throat, he let out enough of a scream, that I knew there would be company in this room soon, so I stopped wasting time with this guy, dropping him to the floor like a stone. He started to crawl to the door, which was thrust open by a pair of thugs about to launch an attack, but in their haste to get into the room, they crushed the interrogator's skull between the door and the wall.

"FUCK!" one of them exclaimed.

"That wasn't very smart, was it?" I sneered, before lifting my leg to thrust another kick to the nearest thug, propelling him back out of the room. The other one entered, murder in his eyes, as he drew a lengthy combat blade.

He swiped it at me, and in the close quarters of the interrogation room, I had little room to move. Nonetheless, for a few moments, I managed to avoid getting slashed, looking for an opening to make a counter-attack. Within seconds, the hallways was crowded with thugs, all looking to get in on the action.

A loud explosion echoed throughout the building, and the ground shook. I could hear shouts from down the hall, as angry yells and animal sounds let loose, and furnishings ands fixtures were heard shattering. Immediately, half of the thugs looking to try and get to me, turned their heads, their faces registering shock. They ran immediately out of my view, leaving me with two thugs looking to fight me.

The whole time, I kept as much of my mind on my own fight as I could, and suddenly, the opportunity I needed arrived. The thug flipped his knife upside down in his hand, then slashed at me in a very similar back-handed swipe I'd once tried to use on Eveline.

I didn't have claws, nor did I have a blade, but I'd learned a hell of a lot from my bond mate in the time we had travelled together, and as the thug tried to plunge the knife toward my shoulder blade, I executed a twist-grab-bend manoeuvre that forced him to let go of the blade as his wrist splintered into tiny fragments, and he let out a pained scream. As the blade fell to the floor, I gripped it by the hilt, flipped it upright, and quickly plunged it into his heart, then across his neck.

Wasting no time at all, I gripped the second thug before he could run off, draging him back into the room with me, holding the blade against his kidneys. "Tell me where the cubs are being taken now," I hissed. I doubted very much that with all the commotion going on around us now, we were going to find them in their usual places.

"Holding cells, like normal," the thug growled. "Not that you know-"

"Shut up," I hissed, headbutting him in that instant. "With all this going on? They're valuable property to your people, aren't they? So where are they being evacuated to now?" I growled, pushing the blade against his skin. When he said nothing, I roared "TELL ME!"

"They're being evac'd to the surface. We got a transport to take away any merchandise-"

The description of the cubs in this place as merchandise sent me over the edge, and in a fit of rage, I plunged the knife into his kidney, causing him to let out an awful scream. I knew he had a fairly dense nanocloud though, so I knew the wound wouldn't be mortal.

That was unacceptable to me.

Pulling the knife out of his kidney, I then plunged it into his heart, twisting the blade roughly, tearing tissues and organs apart, then yanking the knife out. Letting the thug fall to the ground, I stepped over him as he bled out onto the floor, leaving the room, and looking around.

There was fighting going on everywhere. What few thugs remained on their feet were busy trying to fight off a variety of angry hybrids and human rescuers. Caitlynne had her hands full with one of the handlers, though she was clearly gaining the advantage. Scott had just impaled one of the thugs guarding this place with a knife, yanking it out roughly, and I saw Amélie and Philippe, fury on their faces as they tore through a group of thugs with their claws. Even filed-down claws could apparently do a lot of damage, I noted.

Then I noticed Eveline. Like an avenging angel, she had torn through the back of one thug, her expression smouldering, as she dropped the thug to his knees, before back-flipping over another one that had apparently tried to sneak up behind her. She tore open his throat from behind, pushing him to the ground, choking on his own blood. In that same instant, she kicked out behind her at one of the handlers who had joined the fight, while two others approached her.

She might have trouble if two pounced on her at the same time, so I flipped my knife and gripped it by the blade, and assisted by my nanocloud, I launched the blade as fast as I safely could, burying it to the hilt into the temple of one of the thugs that was about to thrust his own blade at Eveline.

She spared a quick glance in my direction, eyes widening slightly in recognition, before she thrust a foot into the back of another thug, breaking his back.

We managed to quickly wrap up the fight outside, and the only people left standing were our own. Amélie and Philippe approached me first, but Eveline was right behind them, her expression like stone, as I'd expected given the circumstances.

"Do we know where the cubs are?" I asked them.

"No," Amélie told us, her voice strained, her expression anxious. Philippe was right next to her, Caitlynne stepping by their side. "And we can't interrogate any survivors."

"Did anyone manage to escape?"

"Doubtful," Philippe told us. "There was a transport outside that was just about ready to drive off. We split off our forces to handle them and breach this place at the same time, so we should hear back soon."

"Let's do a sweep of this place," Caitlynne told everyone. "I've no idea how long they've been operating here, but I suspect there're a lot more cubs than they paraded in front of us when we posed as buyers."

We all agreed, and set off to get a good look at everything.

It took about an hour to sweep the place for stray cubs before we could call the place secure, and we managed to uncover a lot while we did. Some of it was good, some of it was bad.

What I came across as I swept through the genetics labs and the medical wings was something that would, I knew without doubt, stay with me for the rest of my life. I couldn't even bring myself to fully describe the evidence that told the story of the needless, cruel and sadistic death and suffering that must have happened throughout this facility, the bodies of the deceased left in this freezing cold room like a meat storage. Cubs across a wide variety of species from felines to rodentia, lagomorphs to canines, as young as newborn and as old as ten years old, and all of them in varying states. Some had clearly been the subject of autopsies and other examinations that in our nanocloud age, seemed utterly superfluous. Seeing so many tigers, and even more lions, had been soul-destroying.

Were the two cubs I had met in here somewhere?

I'd collapsed to the floor, and found I couldn't bring myself to move from that spot, as I was utterly broken by the futility of these innocents' lives.

"Rick," Eveline's voice called softly from an adjacent corridor. "Are you here?"

I didn't want her destroyed by this sight, and found myself leaping to my feet. Quickly, I left the room, closing the door behind me, as she appeared.

Just seeing her again was like a healing draught to my psyche. Her golden mane, her vibrant orange fur, those deep tiger stripes, the muscle definition, and while she had not yet recovered the full bulk of her musculature from before she had pushed herself across Canada to keep up with me, she had regained much, looking far healthier and more vibrant than when she had been in the coma that had laid her low just a few short weeks ago. I took comfort in the fact that she had been fortunate to escape her own hell, meet such loving folk as the Cuissets, learn from some of the best how to defend herself and others, find firm friends in people like Amélie and Philippe, and finally, grow to love a man like me, a man who until recently, had been adrift and without a sense of purpose.

There was no way I could risk anything breaking her spirit, so I stood in front of the door as she rushed to meet me, her expression awash with concern, her eyes watering, her body shaking.

"Rick," she called out again, her voice rough. "What is it? I can feel you through our bond. What happened?"

"Don't go in there," I called out desperately. "It's really bad in there, and-"

"It's alright," she told me gently, her eyes welling and spilling over as her expression exuded compassion and empathy. "I know."

I let out a shaky exhale, desperate to hold it together for her sake. "How could anyone do that to them?! They're just young cubs-"

"Don't think about that," Eveline whispered softly as she wrapped an arm about my waist, taking my head with her other hand and pulling me to her shoulder. "If you think about all the ones we've lost, you'll drive yourself insane."

Her voice broke on the last word, and she held on tight. Her own sobs sounded tortured, but I could feel nothing other than compassion and understanding through our bond, and a desire to do everything she could to help me get through this trauma. I found the courage to let myself give vent to my anguish, the pain at those lives lost to the evil of these kinds of places, and I exhausted myself in the psychological cleansing that Eveline and I shared.

Eventually, we both managed to regain our composure, and while we stepped apart slightly, neither of us was willing to let the other go. Eveline looked into my eyes, her own filled with gratitude and love, as she spoke.

"Every life we save is a victory, even a small one," she told me softly. "Just think about that, and you'll get through."

I took a deep breath, and the image of a young tiger cub came to mind, a solemn-faced youngster whose life should have been ahead of him. "I spoke to a tiger cub down here, you know," I told Eveline.

"And a lioness, as well," she told me, a weepy smile on her face. "That's why I came to find you."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

She let out a sad laugh, her eyes watery. "We rescued forty-two assorted cubs. They're up at ground level, and our rescue teams are sorting through them now to see how best to get them to safety. Two of them have asked to find the human who told them to be brave while help is on its' way," she sniffed, her smile never wavering. "The lion reminds me of Amber!"

I let out a giddy laugh, relief making me silly. "They're alive?!"

Eveline's slow nod made me feel weak with relief. Slowly, she tugged at me, walking back the way she came. "Let's go and see them, my love."

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

It took hours to resolve everything to the satisfaction of the rescue teams. The cubs all needed to be looked over, injuries healed if needed, cubs fed if hungry, and any who were too panicked or angry had to be put into temporary unconsciousness until suitable therapeutic environments could be prepared for them.

Amélie, Philippe, Eveline and I all stayed to oversee the whole process, while Caitlynne took up the task of rounding up the surviving facility staff for questioning. By the time the last cub had been sent on their way to Boston for onward journey instructions, hundreds of Laurent Cuisset's men had scoured the place for any information they could find. The knowledge that the people responsible for the breeding facilities were the same group responsible for pursuing me and eliminating Synergy volunteers was a disturbing revelation, and one that would likely result in my mission goals changing in the very near future.

Not that I minded. As traumatic as it was to find those young cubs and the casualties that had resulted, shutting the place down had allowed us to rescue nearly fifty youngsters, at the same time preventing any more from being bred into captivity and exploited.

Despite being almost ten years old, the lioness cub that we had rescued had yet to select a name for herself. While she hated being referred to by a number, she had never had a conversation in the same way that Amber and Eveline had, back when Eveline was a cub. Like Amber, she wanted to be named for her fur coat colouring, so she eventually chose the name Cinnamon.

We eventually found out that the tiger cub had chosen a name for himself several weeks ago, and had told no-one about it. Talon named himself based on the fact that he had deadly claws, which was true. He had learned the name and its' meaning from a prior visitor talking over the other cubs with a handler. The odd thing was that this visitor, supposedly a customer, had spoken in terms of seeking companionship, seemed to abhor the concept of a slave or a play-thing, and had been one of the few people visiting the facility that the cubs were universally unafraid of.

This mystery person would remain a mystery for now.

Once everything was wrapped up, we quickly returned to the Orange Municipal Airport site, preparing to say our farewells to Amélie, Caitlynne and Philippe.

"Your father will be in touch as soon as you find a place to stay and can leave a message with Bernhard," Philippe told Eveline. "He's planning to send someone to set up a task force over here to directly handle the increasing numbers of breeding facilities, and the news that these 'Harvesters' of yours," he gestured in my direction with a quick nod. "Are intertwined with these breeding programmes, is likely to be a shock to him, while also being useful intelligence for our people on the ground."

"He has also spoken with your sister," Amélie told me. "Rosalie Lavoie is a fixer for his North American operations, and after a very... Emotional conversation," Amélie took a deep breath. "She has agreed to help with military planning and tactical organisation of our people here. She insists on doing so from Quebec, so she doesn't have to move either herself or your sister from their home."

"Is that likely to be a problem from a logistics point of view?" I asked, although I was glad Rosalie was willing to help out with this problem in the Americas.

"No," Philippe spoke for Amélie in that moment. "If she needs to be anywhere quickly, Laurent has given her access to a fast passenger helicopter to get her anywhere along the continent she needs. It's not as fast as a jet, and she'll need to have the pilot refuel regularly, but it's there any time she needs to fly out, and we have plenty of fuel caches across North America. There won't be a problem for her getting from one part of America to another within the same day."

"Well, that's a good thing should she need to conduct local planning or get directly involved in a mission," I replied.

"That reminds me," Caitlynne told us. "Your parents have asked if they can meet you and Rick some time in the next few months."

Eveline looked at Caitlynne, frowning. "I'd love to meet with them, with Rick, too," she said slowly. "But that could have waited until I called them later this week, couldn't it?"

Caitlynne shrugged. "Yeah," she sighed. "Can we speak alone?"

Eveline and Caitlynne walked away to have a private conversation, while I turned to Philippe and Amélie. "Is Caitlynne alright?"

Amélie answered for them both. "She feels a bit... Chastened by the realisation that she's been having some uncharitable thoughts about Eveline since witnessing her transformation following your bond," she spoke softly. "I know she's been feeling frustrated and angry that, after so many years of Eveline being... Who she was... Now, she has to re-define their friendship. I think Caitlynne struggled with the idea that Eveline's personality change was genuine and profound since bonding with you."

"So, she's trying to find her way through a friendship with this new version of Eveline?" I asked, curious.

Amélie nodded. "What are your plans now?" She asked me, changing the subject.

I let out a tired sigh. "I still have this visit to New York State to find the IBM Watson facility," I told them. "But I'm not sure what I'll find there... And I'm not so sure it's all that important any more, with what I learned about the Harvesters. Plus, helping free the cubs from the breeding facilities is a far more important thing to work on."

"Perhaps," Philippe replied, his tone contemplative. "But you can always go visit this research facility, see what you can find, then return to our base of operations. By then, we'll have a better idea what we need to do next, and where the next breeding facilities are that we need to find."

He had a point, I had to admit.

Eveline walked back into the room, Caitlynne trailing behind, her expression subdued.

"When do you fly out?" Eveline asked the others. "And are you going back to Eindhoven?"

"In the morning," Amélie replied. "And no. We're going straight to our new base of operations in Quebec."

I felt a pang in my chest. The desire to fly up to see Dani and Rosalie was strong, with this knowledge, but this would further delay my mission to New York State, and I wanted to get that over with. There was still the possibility of useful information existing there, and at least I'd be able to close that chapter of my life otherwise, able then to devote myself to the task of helping the Cuisset foundation with the eradication of breeding programmes all over the world.

"We can go visit them once we've finished up in New York," Eveline told me, her tone soft, reassuring. "We won't be apart from each other long," she added, gesturing to everyone in the room, and I knew she included both her parents and my sister in that statement.

I kissed her atop her head. "Since when were you so strong and reassuring?" I quipped softly.

Eveline looked up at me, her eyes narrowing. "I could always scratch your face off," she hissed, and I felt amusement through our bond.

"No thanks," I winked. "Have you ever had a thousand paper cuts? That's not a fun feeling to have all over your face!"

Her expression portrayed annoyance and irritation, but as her tail wrapped itself around my waist, I felt a contentment through our bond that was fast becoming a steadying foundation for our relationship and our individual sense of well-being.

"I don't know about you guys," Eveline spoke now to the others. "But I could use a cat nap. Mind if we go sleep on the jet for the evening?"

"As long as we don't have to pussy-foot around you all night," Amélie snickered with a twinkle in her eye.

Eveline and I stepped out of the control tower, Eveline's laughter echoing down the steps to the ground.

Tomorrow, we would be off on the next leg of our journey, to check out the IBM Watson Research Center in New York State, and then...

Then, we would see what happened next.

THE END, FOR NOW.