5:28 in the morning. That phone is pinging. A text message has arrived.

» Your path is remarkable. Your team is a serendipitous addition to your utility to us.

» We wish to make them an offer. Retrieve a package at the attached coordinates.

There is no escaping them. Have I drawn people into the paws of supervillains?

I look at the coordinates. Six hundred meters to the east. There is no point in avoiding this. They are close. If they want to get at us, they can.

But this may be a trap to isolate me. I need to inform everybody. Is this a reason to wake everybody right now? No, it is not. Do you think we are reckless to post no watches?

May I introduce you to Argus#1? He is a collapsable mast. Notionally he rests on a small tripod with ball-shaped rollers to satisfy the requirement for mobility. The cool thing about him is the set of claws also mounted on the tripod, which can anchor him, while he extends his multiocular head on a mast five meters in height. He has been guarding our sleep. I activated him last evening.

Our alarms are set to 7:30. I see no need to act before that. But I can prepare to save us time then. Such as preparing breakfast. So I am making scrambled eggs.

How can I spin this? Do I want to? Yes, I want to. I dread being on the run alone again.

Do they deserve that? No, they do not. Can I get away with it? No, not really. Zora has aura senses now and my patrons are seeking an independent channel of communication to them.

Can an iron ranker develop psychosomatic issues?

--

I am not among morning people. The children presumably would be, we had decided to let them sleep a bit longer. Nevertheless, while the other adults are at a foul mood, which fresh coffee, well, coffee that has been kept in stasis, and scrambled eggs can ameliorate only to a small degree, their mind does not degrade likewise.

Z: Something is wrong. Spit it out!

Stolen story; please report.

P: I’ve been contacted by a questionable organisation I was forced to make deals with in the past. The messages shows that they are observing us.

Z: You could have mentioned them earlier.

P: If I had done so, I would have been forced to reveal information of a sensitive nature.

L: Wow, I would have taken you for the straightlaced type. Capable of violence but too honest for your own good.

P: I did not steal stuff. That’s not what they are blackmailing me with.

M: Have you caused all this?

Z: Nobody who can do that would need him.

P: Thanks for the confidence.

Z: Not so fast. So what are they blackmailing you with?

P: I ….. …. ….. murder.

L: I’ll be fucked both ways at once!

Total bedlam.

It lasts more than a minute and is interrupted only by my slicing a tomato with a knife. They are watching the knife.

P: In no case did I use a knife.

Z: In no case … How many?

That I need to count really silences them.

P: Four

L: Damn.

Silence

p: OK, listen. I am not claim that I have all wisdom or all solutions, but I am going to say it like it is and then you can make of it what you will.

Further silence.

P: We started out powerless. And taking the power will mean doing questionable things. Yes, we can stay powerless. Then probably nothing will happen to us. But somebody may decide to do questionable things to us and there will be nothing we can do about it. Even so, for all of us there is a long way to true power ahead of us. And on that way we will have to do more questionable things and sometimes we will have be humble and do as we are told.

I need to gather my thoughts. I am starting to ramble.

P: Look, I am saying that I won’t speak for you. I will not tell you lies. But we all will eventually have secrets we cannot just come out with in an e-mail. And there will never be a path without risk. And most importantly, there will never be a path we are in full control of. That is all I have to say.

I have eradicated all clarity. I think this group will not stay together

L: Let’s stay practical. What was in the message?

P: They want us to get a package and send you messages. That means it is some form of communication.

I hand them the phone for them to read the message themselves.

Z: I’ll go.

L: No. Let me go. You have children and I have no powers. But after breakfast.

Z: You … Very well. I need to get used to this. We have been in denial for too long. There are many people who could kill us, if they would.

P: It’s 600m that way. If you won’t be back or call us in an hour, I’ll follow you and the rest of us departs.

--

Lidija sets out into the scrubland after breakfast.