Endgame - Chapter 96

   Once they were discharged, they all went out and occupied two benches while Mike decided what to do.

   "I know this sounds bad, but. I question what we can even do if we go up to the scene. We just draw more attention to it. We don't have any equipment in place."

   Speedy spoke up.

   "You looking for ideas, Mike?"

   "I'm always looking for good ideas. What."

   "We go up. Not all the way to the scene. We know the location. We can walk it and find the crime scene later if we feel like it. Attracts no attention."

   "Eh. Sounds like I'm moving, just to be moving. Spinning my wheels. Without a clear reason to chase them right now? I'd rather not."

   Speedy shrugged.

   "Then you don't want told where to go and what to do… you want a reason why."

   "What do we gain by going up and chasing them for nothing right now? Case is on permanent hold. Assistant director cold called the homicide team and told them to make it thorough, but quiet. Then put it on permanent ice, he promised to pick it up later off them. Possibly suspicious drowning, any information, call this number. No leads. Quiet."

   "Quiet? But open… sneaky."

   "Thank you. Does anyone have any compelling reason to go up and chase them?"

   No one did.

   "The other option, is to wait. Pittsburgh seems to be the… end of the main road north. They're hopscotching around. They'll come back through. We'll know about it hours or even days before they get here, because dots move around on a map."

   Panic giggled.

   "Are we waiting in Pittsburgh? We could technically wait anywhere in the surrounding area, right?"

   "We could be waiting here one day, we could be waiting here two months. I don't know. Now, my powers of observation seem to recall, that this is our own Panic's old stomping grounds, right Panic?"

   "Not the city so much. I grew up an hour south of here. I lived an hour south of here, before this case happened. Speedy? You stayed at my house. It's big, isn't it?"

   "12 rooms, Mike. No living in a motel room. If we're cooling our heels anyways, why not go out to shop and eat like normal people. He even has an indoor grilling room."

   "Hmm. I could turn per diem, into a budget. Buy stuff to grill. What about the tech team. Where do I put them up at. Here in Pittsburgh? I got access to a yard to stick them in."

   "I know a guy with a scrap yard, coal yard kinda deal going. I bet I could get him to agree to park trailers in the back end of the field, cheaper than a place in the city."

   "How far away from where you're at?"

   "20 minutes, if that."

   "You close to the University?"

   "Half hour away. Not even, if traffic's normal."

   "And the yard, from the university?"

   Panic laughed.

   "That's the funny thing. The yard? Is really close to just across the river from the University. It's a bit of driving to get from point A to point B though. Half hour, 40 minutes."

   "JG. You can hear this. I'm thinking… half the team, at the yard in Pittsburgh. Other half, near the university. Senior in Pittsburgh, watching over the tech herd. With instructions from me personally, to be nice. You take the other half by the University."

   "Yeah."

   Mike wanted Speedy's assessment.

   "Speedy?"

   "Guessing game. Pittsburgh overall is good for more than one a year, most years. The University? Its due. I like the University for the way back through. Remember, they came through the University and moved up. It's not hard to imagine they hit it on the way back down."

   "Senior runs the Pittsburgh yard. JG. You and Panic there? Get a hold of his buddy that has that yard. See if he can use his contacts to find us somewhere closer to the University, to park vans, out of the way. Give him a finders fee, for getting us a good spot. He knows the area, and we don't."

   Merry piped up.

   "Can I go with Panic?"

   "Sure. You two? Stay out of trouble."

   Speedy said he knew where the house was. He had lived there for a while, he could take Uncle Mike there. He even still had his key from before. JG went with Panic and Merry. Panic took over driving the cruiser after they were out of the city and stopped on the highway south for a pit stop. He quickly buzzed down the highway some more, before getting off onto a side road. The locals drove as if still on the highway for a while, then the next road he turned off on became a little less hectic.

   "51 in and out of the city is okay, but… you either get all green lights and get there in record time? Or… you get every red light known to man. It's a real crap shoot."

   JG quizzed him.

   "The tunnels dump right out on it, isn't it the road built to go in and out on?"

   "Yeah. It is. It's supposed to be, anyways. Before the internet, they used to make a book and sell it at all the gas stations around here. How to drive around Pittsburgh. 51, like I said, it's a crap shoot. 837 is more predictable. So is 885, the infamous orange belt."

   JG made a face.

   "What's infamous about it?"

   "Well… orange belt. Makes you kinda think… beltway, right?"

   "Yeah…"

   "Well it's not, naturally. It's just a series of orange signs that use bits of existing roads and intersections to create an imaginary beltway."

   "So… what would you use, to get south."

   "We can use any of about 4 different ways. I'd have picked the predictability of 837 south. You chose 51 south to start out on, watching the GPS. I pulled us off onto 88 south. That's the old main drag in and out from the south, originally. It's a better crap shoot on the odds, than 51."

   "51, 88… 837, 885… all these roads go in different directions…"

   "Not for us. All 4 if we head south on any of em? We end up within a couple miles of the same area, no matter which one we use. And that area? Is where we're going. Near it, anyways."

   After a slight pause, which had the whole car wrinkling their eyebrows and simply staring at him out of the corners of their eyes, when they thought he wasn't looking. He finally looked, and was confused why everyone else had the "I'm confused" look. He asked. JG was smiling, questioning the logic of that statement.

   "This place is confusing, Panic… we're into a one hour trip, to get somewhere south of the city. We can go an hour, on any one of 4 different roads out, yet still somehow end up within a couple of miles of right where we want to go."

   Panic sighed, and chuckled.

   "Originally, 88 was the main drag south of the city. We're talking fucking Indians and trails, for fucks sake. Now, what's the nickname of Pittsburgh, JG."

   "What the hell does that have to do, with taking any one of 4 different roads, which are… 1 west, 1 east… 2 south."

   "JG? Are we normies or some shit, for fucks sake? I'm trying to explain it. Quit thinking in terms of exactly which road is best to get where we're going. Now once again? What… is… Pittsburgh's… nickname."

   "Uh. Pit--- Three Rivers Stadium… Three rivers."

   "Correct. Three rivers meet in one location. We? Are going just under an hour away, not far off of due south. If we could draw a straight line on a map, then beam our goddamn ass there. Now then… stop using GPS. Open one of your maps on you're little netbook. Get our location, then zoom out a good bit, and just look. Two things are happening. The Allegheny Mountain range is starting to end. You're in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. Now… out of those three rivers? We're primarily concerned with the Monongahela River."

   "Go on."

   "Starting at the Point? Both the Allegheny Mountain foothills, and the Monongahela River? Are going out of Pittsburgh, so to speak… in a roughly southeast direction. Now… did you zoom out, like I suggested?"

   Junior had a little netbook that looked for all the world, to be a gigantic cellphone that unfolded with a small "real keyboard". He started touch screening around, because working the tip of his finger on the tiny mouse pad was frustrating.

   "Yeah…"

   "The Monongahela River, is going to go southeast, but… later on it makes a big, bubble out then goes back to southeast again. The nipple of that tit coming off on the map? That, is the area we're headed to. Now JG?"

   "Yeah."

   "The roads aren't in straight lines. They meander around like drunken mice. That road west? It isn't west… it's more like southwest. And if you look where it meanders to? Fairly close if you take the right exit, to get close to the general area where we're going. Which has a short back road to get there. The roads follow the river, the roads follow the mountain range, the roads follow whatever goddamned hill they're navigating at the moment, the roads follow whatever hair off of the creek nearby happens to be going whatever direction at the moment."

   "It's confusing."

   "It is. I'm from here? I'll admit it. Pittsburgh, is actually a lot bigger than it appears on paper, as compared to other mega cities. By that I mean, New York for instance, or Chicago, or any other big city… it constantly takes over all the little towns around it, and grows into the mega city. Pittsburgh can't do that. So, what you end up with? Is a mega city to be, that couldn't grow anymore."

   "Why not?"

   "The towns the city runs into? Some of them are too expensive to annex them and make them part of Pittsburgh proper. They fight back, by incorporating. Plus, you can't build a proper beltway here, like it needs. These damned hills make it impossible. And the rich, incorporated towns you run into, make it more impossible. Everything's just rigged up to work? And that includes the roads in and out of the city."

   "Now… if you look over to the right… see that big grocery store?"

   "Yeah…"

   "The second and third floors are all professional plaza. I used to be a software engineer up there, when I first got out of college. Interesting bit of trivia."

   JG and Merry both wanted to know what the area was called.

   "Castle Shannon. If either of you knew me from the gun web site? What I call the little kitty hospital, the best animal hospital around the city? We just passed it."

   20 or 30 minutes of driving conversation had them in a much more rural setting. Panic announced.

   "88 just joined 837. There's a series of towns up and down this river. Collectively in this area known as? The Valley."

   "What's this area's story?"

   "Back in the day? This was the place to be, in America. The steel industry, made it the backbone of two world wars. The steel made it the manufacturing high tech hub of America at the time, too. It went into slow decay with the decline of the steel mills and now the mines. You're in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, and this area is country and small town, butting heads with strip malls."

   A phone call put him on to the exact location of the guy he was looking for, to see about getting a place to park the vans, out of the way. He was likely either at work, or at home. In this case though, work. Panic drove on back-roads and got to what appeared to be a scrapyard.

   20 minutes of idle chit chat, introductions, and small talk got them somewhere. A finders fee for just the right location sounded fine to the large but pleasant guy that made several calls on his cell. While he was waiting on calls and texts, he brought them into the ramshackle 40 foot office trailer that served as his self proclaimed office cum weigh station.

   "So you don't have anything near the University, where someone could park vehicles, and not have them messed with."

   "I don't, but I know someone that does. They aren't renting it out? But I'm pretty sure if I called him up and asked him if he wanted a couple hundred bucks to let someone park some vans there? Hell. The last time we met for a bite to eat? He was bitching about paying taxes on it, and not doing anything with it."

   "What? Well… can you do it."

   "Let me ask…"

   He held a phone conversation.

   "Old warehouse. Used to be a small auto dealership. You can drive in and park several vans. Has a bathroom and a sink. Most of the electric works. His words, not mine."

   "How much?"

   "100 a week, or 300 a month."

   "Well. We were told you get a finders fee, for knowing the area and helping us. How about you take the 100 a week, you pay him the 300 a month, and put the rest in your pocket. I'd rather deal with you, than a complete stranger."

   "I get a 25% broker's fee? Christ. I get a couple more of these, I'll start a new line of work."

   "Get us an address?"

   "I have to drive over and get the keys, give him money. Can I do it after I close up here, or, is it urgent."

   Panic looked at Merry and JG.

   "No. We're on a break. Wanna square up over coffee tonight?"

   "That'll work."

   "Okay. We're gonna get settled in, we'll be out tonight."

   They ended up at a small town, which they drove through. They went through some little borough of some kind, then another small town appeared.

   "We're coming in on the ass end of town, so to speak. This is the first road, after 15th."

   They went up a steep, twisting road that much like a spiral staircase, twisted as it wound upwards. He paused at a street sign and pointed at it.

   "That's actually the right street I live on? But you can't get there from here. My road's broken up. I have to go up and around, and plop down in on the next section of it to get there."

   They turned off on the last street up the spiral staircase and went down a short distance, before pausing at another street sign.

   "That road ain't there anymore, either."

   He crept around and went down into a short diving turn that dumped out on… about nothing. A couple of driveways at the end, all joined to form a sort of… area of some kind. Not big enough to really turn around in comfortably. The pavement ended in a guardrail barricading you from driving off of a hill.

   "We're here."

   Merry and JG joined him getting out, into the crisp night. They stood and looked around. Merry spoke first.

   "You said if everything else hadn't happened, that this was where you wanted to bring me. Which house is yours?"

   Merry was swiveling her index finger on the houses visible. Panic smiled and pointed directly the opposite way, down through the tall underbrush on the seemingly unoccupied side of the road. The giant DIY stone steps started just below street ground level. They came down and around from street level, to a sloped property you wouldn't even know existed. The house was completely hidden from view from the street, which was a dead end. The trees and underbrush hid a fairly large, old house.

   He walked them to the back yard, and it looked like all woods around them.

   "Last house on this whole block, occupied. When they finally knock one more down? I'll be the only house on the block. That's why it's so overgrown around me. My cat thinks we own the whole block, I'm pretty sure."

   He walked them back to the front. Someone had either added a duplex onto a single house, or vice versa. It was big, old, and ugly… just as he had promised. Of three front doors, the middle one was the one that he used. It opened up into a mostly empty room, and definitely not a living room of any kind. The back half of it had a tiny washroom going, with a washer and dryer crammed in, and the door to the basement steps and the steps to upstairs closed out the rest.

   Everyone dropped their duffels and backpacks from the trunk in the front room. Tools and other things lined the walls on the industrial shelving going around the room. Panic and Merry let JG have the first bath. They waited for a full tank of hot water, then the two of them shared a quick bath and got changed as well. Merry was surprised to see that the living room, off of the kitchen? Was some weird sort of office, bed, living room conglomeration.

   Where you would expect a TV, there wasn't. There was a somewhat small widescreen flat TV there, but it was a monitor to another computer system. Two long couches claimed a far corner, and one went across the front door, barring it's use. They were old and overstuffed, and likely covered in blankets so they were functional for either sitting or sleeping.

   A big homemade multi-layered computer work desk took up as much space as it wanted, right next to another door to the basement. While sitting at the desk, the occupant's back would be to the gigantic potbelly stove. It was chilly outside, and only slightly better inside. Panic went out then back in, and had a pair of 5 gallon buckets with him.

   He set his two buckets down next to an existing third already there, at the foot of the big potbelly stove up on it's own cement and brick pedestal. Scraps of wood and empty plastic things out of bucket number three, had no impact on heat in the room. 20 minutes later, Panic began to surround the little wood fire inside with large black rocks that were coal. When they caught, he arranged smaller but still substantially sized ones around the existing little fire. A short time later, the bucket with gritty black rocky junk was scooped out and around the entire left over space inside, leaving a little "blow hole" above the initial, small fire.

   "It's actually a little too warm out to make a fire just yet. I tried to keep it small."

   "It's starting to warm up…"

   "No. It's not that. If this thing gets going, and it's not cold enough outside? It'll chase us upstairs. We'd have to open the front door or a window."

   Panic apologized a couple times for "ignoring Merry" but kept ending up at the big homemade computer desk. Two laptops, a couple desktops around as well. The laptop screens, a smaller big screen, then two really big computer screens that were obviously TVs. JG and Panic were giddy talking in Martian, as Mike would have said. Merry got the go ahead to walk around.

   There were two bedrooms directly above them, but each bedroom had a theme to it, and it wasn't traditional. One bedroom had the required small bed with mattress, but the room around it sported metal shelving, and wrap around counter-tops with large wooden shelving above and below it. All manner of electronic bric a brac themed everything. It looked to Merry like a mad scientist's laboratory.

   The other bedroom once again had the tiny bed tucked into that corner, but this room was themed… guns. The wrap around counter-tops sported big mechanical vises. Powders, primers, and empty brass fought for space along the counter-tops and shelves, along with other things. Odd little tools and instruments. Patches of books ranging from soft cover to hardcover and into pamphlets and old magazines as well.

   The cheap plastic curtain opened up to reveal two more themed bedrooms. One was all storage for books and magazines. There were quite literally, thousands of books. Paperbacks, mostly fiction but not all of them. Hard covers both fiction and non as well. He seemed proud to show off his "collection" of a subset of magazines. An electronics magazine, that had its beginnings back long before he was born, went through different titles, and turned eventually into a quarterly. That was still in print.

   "Its just a collection? Every issue, every year. I actually look stuff up now, on a DVD I bought on the internet."

   He seemed inordinately proud of his collection, and a little wistful or even sad… that it was eminently quicker and easier to click click click, on a data DVD.

   The other bedroom was themed "ramdom storage", and was filled with plastic tubs and boxes of bric a brac. Steps to go down to the washer and dryer, and a third door.

   She had to be careful ducking her head, and stepping awkwardly down to another two bedrooms, bigger by far than the other four. The front bedroom had a small grill, a big grill, and a third grill that looked like a big gas fired griddle. A little fireplace with old furniture made the rest of the room. The back bedroom was all work area for… something.

   Shit absolutely everywhere. Tubes of all kinds, everywhere. Metal tubes, plastic tubes, cardboard tubes. Lenses. Big glass lenses, small glass lenses. Wire, soldering equipment, and an assortment of tiny hand tools. A particularly big cardboard tube was mounted on a posable tripod. Wires ran to and from it and were either taped together, or the little wire bundles taped to the tube. The thick sheets of 4x8 foot OSB flipped onto sawhorses to make big tables completed the theme. Santa's secret workshop. Merry's industrious little elf was making something in there. Why the many windows were wide open in here in winter, she couldn't fathom. She ended up back with Panic and JG, and the ever warmer living room and kitchen.

   The initial Martian computer tour seemed over. JG was trying to locate the address of the proper type of ATM machine to use his card in, as per Mike's budget requirements. Merry asked during this novel lull in conversation, where the TV was.

   "What TV, honey?"

   "You like to watch movies. You have stacks of DVDs. Where's the TV?"

   "Uh… I really don't watch TV. If I watch a movie, I watch it on one of the computers. I can use any screen I want. Or I just toss a laptop or a tablet on the bed, and I can watch it there."

   "You don't sit and watch TV, ever?"

   "Not regular TV. I'm either on the internet for my… TV time? Or… I watch documentaries and stuff on the tube website."

   Panic showed both JG and Merry around the house, the back yard, the basements, everything. JG was noticeably giddy with what Merry thought of as the mad scientist's electronics laboratory. Apparently he either personally owned or used at work, some of the same pieces of equipment. Merry had a little half of a grin as she stood back, and watched the two of them. This was some sort of a geek play room for them. Junior briefly described how he used the couple pieces he owned or used in common. Then, Panic came back with what he used those same pieces for. Some were for the same thing and others were for different purposes.

   Eventually, enough time had been spent that they were able to leisurely go early to the truck stop coffee, dinner, late night invitation. JG got his working cash at a found online location on the way. Panic pleasantly explained that this was the same truck stop that himself, Speedy, and a "guy named Bluedot" had come up with the whole Elvis case with in the first place.

   Merry got to see Panic doing leisure time. He tried to stay out of the bars, so coffee and food nights here had replaced bars as a night out for him. He met a cleaned up version of the same man that had got the line on the rental for them. The friend was joined by a third coffee food guy in this crowd.

   The main friend worked with machinery most days, but his friend was a martian. Which suited Panic and JG just fine. Merry sat and tried to carry a conversation about nothing while she watched the three of them talk martian for a while.

   "If you're wondering… those two do this all the time. But you, you brought a third one out here. Now look at them. Jesus."

   "Yeah. I've seen this with him before. I'm used to it."

   "So… you two met in the city. In DC."

   Merry nodded.

   "How did…"

   "He was working on something nearby, and I worked at a steakhouse there. Him and the boys were always in and out of the place. That's how we met."

   Eventually, the little tech circle reluctantly broke up for the time being. Long enough they finally remembered their purpose and they put 400 dollars worth of 20s in Panic's friend's hand, and he gave them a key chain and an address.

   JG jingled the keys at Panic.

   "We can do these late tonight, or we can do them tomorrow. Either way? I say we sit down and eat."

   Merry got introduced to the coffee crowd Panic seemed to know people from, as simply his girlfriend. Panic explained the nature of him being back to the machine parking broker.

   "We might be back 2 days, it might be two months. At some point though? I'll disappear."

   "You're coming back eventually, though."

   "Actually? Not really. I'm keeping the house, but, I'm going to stay somewhere else. It's a couple hours away, in the middle of the state. Same phone, just call or text me. After everything's over, and I get settled in? You can take a little vacation, and see what I have set up."

   "But you're home for now, you just don't know how long."

   "That's about it. I'll send you a text after I leave."

   JG and Panic debated getting the vans moved at night. They decided it would attract a whole lot less attention, to bring the vans one by one into the storage building in the night. JG explained how he wanted half of the "tech force" and they were free to decide themselves. Who wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, with more places to go but under Senior's thumb. Who wanted to go with JG. Less fun of an area, but without a boss who really wasn't fun.

   JG gave them instructions to wait up just outside the University town, and they would get taken in one at a time. Merry tagged along while they found the place, and scouted its suitability to make sure. After waiting a while, a text beeped in it was time. JG started letting the vans slowly follow him in, one at a time. They got them parked inside the large cement landing at the top of the cement ramp and closed the thick metal roll up door.

   There was a beat up table and chairs and counter-top drywall-ed into one corner of one floor. The back room proved to be what looked like the world's cheapest washing machine and dryer, complete with the world's cheapest plastic shower and matching cheap sink and handles. JG told them Mike had promised one and possibly two motel rooms, to let them have a decent bath on a schedule, and as soon as possible.

   With it growing late, they arrived home to find Uncle Mike and Speedy already there, bags dropped in the front room and relaxing in the warm room with the small coal fire. From the moment the key hit the lock, however… an explosion of meowing ensued. His legs got ran into and bumped and rubbed on without stop no matter where he went, plus a constant barrage of cries to go with it.

   "He came in earlier. Meowing."

   Panic sat down and pulled the cat up on his lap, which had the immediate effect that it meowed a whole lot less, and also the side benefit that the cat could stand up on his shoulders and rub faces with him. He spent some time hugging and kissing and talking privately in the cat's ear.

   Panic pronounced himself tired, and first Merry and then the cat followed him upstairs.

   "Whoever wants the couches? Has the couches. There's 4 more beds up here. Everyone? Pick anything you want."

   They took the last bedroom, next to the last door to the Secret Santa workshop.

   "I promised I'd show you what the lenses in the last room are for, right?"

   Merry nodded, then followed him. He turned on a light she hadn't noticed before, and showed her the large, thick cardboard tube.

   "It comes from amateur telescope building. Easiest way to get focusing. It's called push pull focusing? And it's what it sounds like. You carefully push and pull that handle, to focus your picture. You watch on that screen. Here…"

   He flipped up the wide little screen, not more than 10 or 11 inches in diagonal measurement. He fixed a red and a black wire to others, and the screen sprang to life. He pointed out where you couldn't see the hills across the river, out the workbench table next to the open window. He carefully focused, and she could see the entire screen was a night vision of the far hill.

   "How far away is that?"

   "Almost a thousand yards, in places. Think it looks okay, for night vision?"

   "Sure. Pitch black, turned into a twilight picture. It works."

   He pressed a little button on a wire on the side of the cardboard tube, and a dull red glow that was barely noticeable fired up. It was less bright than the end of a cigar when you weren't puffing on it. He moved two dials on the base of the smaller metal tube strapped to the bigger one. The dials dragged a white hot searchlight into view and he centered it. The big square hit with the invisible flashlight? Was like a stage spotlight in real life, close to a thousand yards away.

   He readjusted the invisible metal flashlight, and the bright square widened and opened up into a bright, even circle that slightly dimmed as it grew to fill up the display circle on the screen. With the light now set and aimed, he let her swing it around to see anything she wanted. No dark back yard was anything but daylight, for hundreds of yards, anywhere they pointed. The screen was like daylight.

   The broad illumination ran out of legs by the time you watched the screen go dimmer when going from your own side of the river to the far shore. He drew the circle down to be smaller and brighter. He turned the light off, and had her look first at the sky herself, then in the same area with the camera and no light on.

   She ogled the zillions of stars that were bright to infrared, in 4 power on the screen. Eventually, he reminded her they had been tired right before this. That it was far too easy to spend half the night playing with night vision, Panic claimed. They went back in and fell asleep fairly quickly. Before falling completely off, they heard movement that had to be JG finding his bed at the top of the stairs on the other side of the wall than they were on.

   The cat, however… was firmly attached to Panic's chest and stomach in bed. They got the cat under the covers between them, and treated it to a four hands touching session it seemed to enjoy. They woke up in the late morning to find the cat curled up in a ball at the junction of the pillow and the blankets. They left him in his little nest and went to get coffee. Mike and Speedy were done with breakfast.

   "Did we miss breakfast?"

   "No, just didn't want to wake you up early. Speedy told me when you guys left, you cleaned out the fridge to keep anything from going bad. So? I bought breakfast stuff, at some small corner mart open late, coming in. Eggs, bacon, milk, sausage."

   Merry didn't really mind what a house looked like, because as a city dweller the past decade or so, a house became a million dollar plus item. This house completely reeked of single male functionality. The walls were stout wooden panels, but the rough texture didn't reflect much light. Some rooms were being sanded and stained, while others waited their turn. One wooden floor was sanded and stained, and all the rest weren't. All the furniture was either handmade or hand me down. He liked counter-tops and lots of big shelves.

   Upstairs, all four "bedrooms" had the thick wood panels down the walls on either side. The end walls each had a window.

   Merry didn't particularly like the decor, but… she liked having 12 rooms and three basements. To go from her little motel room, to a place with a dozen more rooms and attics and basements? Was a little bit shocking. He hadn't been kidding at all when he had joked she could have any three rooms she wanted. For a couple hundred dollars a year in taxes instead of high monthly rent, Merry briefly wondered why in the hell anyone wanted to live in the city. They were setting money on fire just by being there.

   He likely hadn't been kidding when he said she could work one or two days a week as a waitress, and pay more than her share of the bills, as cheap as everything was here.

   Breakfast and everything else for the next several weeks was interspersed with largely waiting and being bored. Mike financed a string of BBQs with meat he purchased. When it went down to the wire on the van's 30 day lease building? Mike okay-ed another month. Naturally only several days into the new month's lease, the call or more precisely the text went out.

   Dot movement. Dots meeting up. Dots on the move. This could be it.

   When different dots paused and coalesced with first one, then another, everyone was waiting on the return trip to start. Lower temperatures were closing in soon, and the weather that far north of them was getting too icy and snowy. They had all drilled on this moment coming, the instant they were expected to drop everything and grab go bags and run out the door. While waiting, enough boredom had settled in that go bags were gone over and prepared. They simply used them and left when the moment struck. They tossed bags into the trunks of both cruisers, then got in and were gone.

   Panic texted his neighbor several times to let him know about the new cat situation. He was told it was fine, they had talked about it, they could square up later. Mike and Speedy peeled off in their own cruiser, and headed to the South Side area. JG and Panic had the University. Merry tagged along with Panic and now JG. Mike decided getting another female agent to babysit Merry had to be done, and this time he tried putting her under JG's direct instructions. For the time being at least, this had limited squabbles between Merry, and a female agent who couldn't be told she was guarding another agent.

   A sort of lottery developed whether the University or the South Side would get hit. The dots showing a highly suspect drowning on the complete other end of Pittsburgh, threw them. The dots passed slowly out of Pittsburgh, and moved through the South Side harmlessly but not on camera. The dots were taking 837 south. Next stop, was predicted to be the University. Foul winter weather wasn't long behind their tracks back down from the northeast, it was simply a matter of time.

   When the dots looked to be closing in on the University, things got moving.

   One early university railroad tracks video still frame allowed JG to give it a decent match to the artist renderings of the girls.

   Techs started closing in at either end of the long set of tracks between the University and the next tiny town up the tracks. Before they closed in on the girls, another set of male images were closing in from the furthest end away from the University, tracks wise.

   They were instructed to back off, let them pass, and see what happened.

   The victim was long gone.

   The one remaining tech didn't have the time to scan each and every feed with so many to hunt through. Right now he had to concentrate on the 3 girls, and now the 2 guys coming in quite unexpectedly, from the other end. The 2 men met the 3 girls, and exchanged pleasantries. They started walking back to the far end the 2 men had come out from, when JG gave the order to move in. The three girls had two cell phones among them lighting up dots on the screen, and the two new men added another.

   What was originally conceived to be a fairly routine picking up of the three girls now turned into a stampede. The quarry got spooked right before they closed in, and they crashed into each other and off and went in all separate directions. The techs grabbed for the three girls, and landed all of them. The two guys went up the hill into the underbrush and disappeared. They peeled as many off from controlling the three girls as they dared to ensure success on at least that count, and turned up one of the other men. One got away, and no amount of beating the nearby bushes was helping at all.

   JG radioed Uncle Mike immediately, telling him that he had all three girls in custody, and one of two males that approached the pickup site.

   "You have one male suspect loose?"

   "Yes."

   "You have the rain and sleet there yet?"

   "It's hitting us now."

   "I know you're calling me, because only I can authorize…"

   "Your call, Mike."

   Mike didn't delay long.

   "I'm not taking any chances. I got the locals all around on stand by, I'm calling them. I was given a hot-line to the local state police, I'm yanking that chain too."

   "Where you putting them at?"

   "Christ, they can set up their own close roadblocks, but… I'm more interested in that long side road, up at the top of the hillside. They make it all the way up and over that, and no one's there to see it? We got a hole in our net. You should start getting calls in, give it a couple minutes. The locals will start arriving first. I'm sending them all up to that road, with orders to spread out, and try to saturate that road."

   "Okay. We got the tracks, and both ends of the tracks plugged up."

   JG explained quick to Panic what was going on.

   "JG. The 3 girls had 2 cell phones, you said the two guys had one more. Please tell me, we have all 3 phones."

   "Uh. Good question. And the dots say… Yeah. We do."

   "Okay. That straggler? Can't call and warn anyone yet. We have to get him before he does. I want you to come with me."

   "All right…"

   "Please tell me, JG… that everyone wasn't wearing this same government issue poncho when they went to try to pick everyone up."

   "Why?"

   "Take that thing off, for Christ's sake. Can't you hear the ice balls hitting it? You can hear it a mile away. That's what spooked everyone. You jog some, right?"

   "Yeah…"

   "Good. Try to stay quiet. Try to keep up. Do whatever I do."

   "All right…"

   They went back and forth up and back the middle portion of the tracks, before and after they had lost the one suspect. Nothing was happening, and thermal concentrating up on the hill wasn't turning up anything yet either. After twice up and backtracking, Panic explained quietly to JG that he had an idea. They went back on their tracks and found a slight upgrade off of the main gravel beside the tracks. Panic pointed, and said quietly in his ear.

   "Road…"

   "What road? I don't see---"

   "Look at the trees, up this long ramp. They're all a lot younger than what's on either side of them. This used to be a road, a long time ago. It's what I'm figuring on."

   "Okay… now I see the road. Or, what was a road at one time. Where do you think he went, if he went up here?"

   "Cops are lining up on the road up above. This road peters out. There's only one thing on this old road, and most people don't know about it. Come on."

   He followed Panic up and back down the bottom of the grown in road. He finally found what he was looking for, and what would have appeared to be a groundhog hole at the base of the hillside, was actually an entrance to something. Panic slithered down the oversize groundhog hole, and disappeared from view. He stuck his head in and looked at the mud at the entrance. For several feet in, there was a green fuzz on the big mud puddle that had went mushy. No human being had crossed that, unless he sprouted wings and flew.

   Panic crawled back up and out to report to JG that he didn't go in there, but that there was another option. He crawled down and to the right this time, and though it didn't look like another groundhog hole down under the rock, he none the less disappeared from view for a short time.

   "That's it. I'm calling it. That one? I got what looks like virgin mud, several feet in. No one's been through that entrance, in over a year or more. There's another one down there, though. There's fresh kicked dirt and rocks down around the hole to get in."

   "Okay. He's in a hole. We got him, if he doesn't get out past us, he---"

   "No, JG. These are both mines. Old mines. That first one? It's ancient. But that second one? It's way older. It's got water running through it, it's caving in, the old hand cut posts are giving out. It's a mess. As a kid? Yeah, I been in the other one, the newer one. This one? Is considered a deathtrap."

   "Do we have him trapped?"

   "I honestly don't know. What if he finds an air shaft? Maybe. Who knows."

   "I don't know what to do right now…"

   "I'm going to check out the entrance some more. I got an idea…"

   Panic was up and back a little while later, and said he was going in after him. JG started to put up a quiet protest, and Panic stopped him, and slithered off and down and went in. JG started to go after him, and he got stopped by Panic's hand on his shoulder.

   Panic seemed to JG at least, to be… odd? Surprisingly calm and reserved. Sporting a very friendly and warm little smile, as he gently and almost reverently touched JG's shoulder. It didn't go with either man's mood, nor with the situation at hand, which was all excitement and energy.

   "Get out of here, JG."

   "I gotta post up at the entrance! What if he gets past you, going in to get him?"

   "He won't be able to get out here."

   "What do you mean, of course he c---"

   Then he saw it. Panic had picked up a wooden pole and was taking practice swings at the ancient pole. Junior just stared at him, surely he was kidding, but… he didn't seem to be.

   "Get out of here. I don't have time to explain. I think I know something."

   JG saw only that he was intent on clubbing the first post, and he got the hell out of there, as soon as he started hearing the dull thuds of the work. He heard what sounded like rocks and dirt falling into the water, then the thudding started further up and around the bend. He was taking out the next post he could find going in. He was deliberately bringing down the mostly submerged mine entrance. It didn't take too long, before JG felt through his feet and legs as much as heard in his ears, the rumble.

   He didn't know exactly what to do now. He updated Mike on Panic having gone underground in pursuit of the suspect. When Mike asked why he wasn't in there too, JG patiently explained about Panic knocking the posts out to seal the two of them in together. They both decided to put off telling Merry as long as they could. JG just asked for an update on Panic's dot position, on a minute by minute basis. If he popped up? They could close in.

   JG was very quiet. He was alone right now, but for ice balls landing around him in the woods. The back road that ran along the top of this steep hill overlooking the tracks? Was quickly filling up with local cops responding. But not quick enough. It would happen in minutes? And seconds had counted.

   No one knew about these old mines, and you could walk past them and never know. Panic only knew, because he grew up not far from here, and went to the University years back. The suspect had found it on accident. He was just going down out of sight, into the cleft of rock adjacent the steep ramp.

   If not for Panic and these being his one time stomping grounds? The guy could have waited and went on and up, almost certainly finding a path over the top road before enough cops plugged the road up to seal it off.

   JG thought about it. The man was definitely brave, there was no questioning that count. Yet… jumping into the icy water from a hundred feet up? Had been dangerously close to… suicide. Merry in her own way was as crazy as he was. She had jumped after him.

   JG slid down and looked again now that the collapse and cave in was completed. Nothing. Just… rock and dirt. He had basically all but committed suicide, to prevent the last suspect from getting away. Unless there was a way out. That had been in Panic's last words… yeah, he's trapped… unless there's a way out.

   Panic was always very careful about words. If he knew there was a way out? Another entrance, an air shaft… he would have said so. No, he said what if.

   JG realized it now. He didn't know if there was another way out. He wasn't taking any chances one of them got away. He called Mike back, and very quietly explained what was going on. Uncle Mike now picked up JG's extremely quiet and somber mood. Mike gave him extremely quiet instructions, which were patented "Mike". he basically agreed with him.

   "Wait. Just… wait. See… if he pops back up on the dots."

   JG paused, then asked even quieter.

   "How long."

   "How the hell would I know. I'm not in any kind of rush to tell Merry. Just… stay focused. We have a job to do, and right now? Its to get that last guy on the loose. Stay on that."

   JG gave another respectful little pause.

   "And…"

   Mike all but whispered back. His voice was almost losing the volume battle to the sound of the little ice balls falling.

   "If everything else fails? We know where to look. So just… wait."

   JG felt like he was standing at his friend's gravestone. He did have a job to do, though. He clapped the cellphone shut, and couldn't ignore the radio chatter any longer. Too many voices were clamoring for orders. The three ring circus was getting into its full swing.

   Merry was once again sitting in an unmarked federal cruiser, with yet another female agent babysitting her. Because she was considered a witness to the public at large, the young female agent couldn't know who she was in any capacity. They were parked at an old marina. It wasn't technically abandoned. People could and still did, put jet ski's and small boats in here. The mostly grown in old parking lot still existed. Almost everyone used the brand new marina constructed just a little ways up the river towards the University.

   Kids tried to park and drink beer and fool around here. The steeper, shorter road down into the water was fine for little stuff, but a pain in the ass for the larger boats. Hence the new marina, and hence this one's fall into disrepair.

   Merry and her driving babysitter were at the extreme far end of this parking lot. They were thought to be well out of any action that probably wasn't coming anyways. Merry became inordinately fascinated with the big SUV parked on the exact opposite corner of the old lot. Binoculars the female agent wasn't using at the moment, let her see what she believed to be a chunk missing on an ear. Maybe.

   Now Merry was in a dilemma. This female agent, she already knew beforehand… was most likely not going to report immediately what she had just thought she saw. She tried her best anyways, although to no avail. Merry had been in this same position before. She took the binoculars, and got out of the cruiser to smoke.

   Steadying her hands on the far side of the hood of their own cruiser, she was becoming increasingly convinced that she was seeing a flat spot at the bottom of one ear. That was the impression she was getting, through the rain spattered windows. Shit. What would Mike do? Look for more information. There was no more. Tell someone. This woman didn't listen, she already tried once. So, Merry tried again.

   Merry was hitting her cigarette lightly with the hood of her black field jacket keeping it somewhat dry. Merry already knew what was going to be the only way she got to play her hunch which her stomach just told her was going to be gold. Not much later on down the line, she was near the end of her cigarette. She turned and stepped into a haymaker to the side of the female agent's head. Her leather belt once again wrapped around her already meaty sized fist. It hit the poor young agent like a war-hammer to the skull and she crumpled.

   Merry slowly replaced her belt, and took a peek over her shoulder. No reaction from the big SUV. The last time Merry had done this? The unconscious woman was just starting to begin to come to, when she was found by the observer sent to retrieve the cruiser from the bridge. Helped into the passenger seat, she was none the wiser the car hadn't been there all along. The female agent's report had been that she didn't know exactly what happened. One second, she's there in the car. The next? She's waking up with rain on her face, on the ground next to the car. Asked to guess, she theorized perhaps she had slipped in the rain and hit her head getting out of the car. Mike had nodded sagely, adding that unconscious people rarely are able to tell what hit them.

   Merry was pretty sure she had just turned the trick again. She wouldn't know what hit her. Her guts told her she had seen a missing portion of flat ear, and she was slowly inching along in the messy weather. She kept to the tall weeds as best she could, then started lurching and weaving and yelling hello.

   Waving like a friendly drunk, a big dopey drunken smile on. The man smiled and nodded his head. She produced another unlit cigarette, and pointed at it. She walked almost right up to the window he had cracked more and more.

   "Hey man… can you please give me a light? My friend can't drive over there, I'm gonna die if I don't get a smoke all night, you know? Please tell me you can give me a light, huh?"

   "Hey… hey. Lady. This? Is okay. Here. I give you my lighter, I have an extra one, so y---"

   Merry had taken an extreme risk up until now. She was able to act and her version was the only version that mattered. However. She now also bore the responsibility that she had to get this guy good, because if he was who her gut told her he was… if he got Merry? He likely got the female FBI agent babysitting unconscious as well. When his easy smile, to provide a female with an extra lighter, had both his smile and his eyes on the lighter he was reaching for, Merry acted. She whipped out the Glock and dug it into the scalp line of the man, just behind his good ear. She almost simultaneously flicked the safety off, which made him jump noticeably. She kept her momentum.

   "If you move… I'm going to blow your wisdom teeth out through your goddamn ear…"

   The man had already frozen in shock and fear when the drunk lady that had seemed so nice asking for a light, had suddenly whipped a gun to his head. Some quality in her voice further kept him frozen.

   She tapped one of his hands with the business end of the automatic and he jumped again, nervously.

   "Slowly. This hand. Up on top of the steering wheel. Slowly… You move fast? You die. Now keep it there…"

   Merry had the female agent's handcuffs on his wrist and locked the other around the steering wheel. She dug the gun in viciously to keep him further intimidated, as she reached in and grabbed the keys. On an afterthought, she grabbed the cell phone off of the dash as well. She grabbed his head with her free hand, and ordered him to look out, and at the ground. He was sure he was about to die. He didn't. Merry hauled off, holding the female agent's Glock, and brought the solid bottom of the handle frame down onto the head as hard as she thought she could. She did it twice more, almost as hard, just for good measure. With one hand cuffed to the steering wheel, the rest of his upper body hung out the window on gravity? Merry shoved him back in. He came to a doll's rest crumpled with his bleeding head pitched into the steering wheel.

   When she was sure he was completely out, she went back over to the female agent sleeping unconscious in the cruiser. Merry bodily dragged the unconscious woman, to a spot a short distance away from the man handcuffed securely to the steering wheel. Merry put the now bloody Glock into the woman's hand. If she came to first, she was laying there, holding down on some kind of perp. If he came to first? He could in no way possibly reach her, to even try to get the gun out of her hand she would wake up with. On an afterthought, Merry put the woman's ID near her left hand not holding the bloody Glock. Textbook academy style. If someone from their own team found the scene? They would wait and see what Merry had to say, in private beforehand, like before. Any initial reaction would be that her ID had been flashed, and she had subdued the suspect and cuffed him to a solid object before losing consciousness.

   Merry used the woman's own radio, to page Junior.

   "JG."

   "Jane."

   "Yeah. My babysitter? Just bagged and tagged a guy sitting in a big, dark SUV. Has part of an ear, missing."

   "What happened?"

   "I was talking to her about him, and she walked over to investigate. By the time I saw anything was happening and got over? I found him cuffed to the steering wheel, and her laid out like a sack of potatoes."

   "All right. I'll send someone up to oversee the arrest, when I get a chance. Is time a factor?"

   "He's handcuffed to the steering wheel… unconscious. She's laying there? Unconscious. By the time I got over here, that's what I see."

   "All right.   Hang tight. Try to manage things there, the best you can. Till I can get someone up there to take over. Panic's off screen at the moment, we're waiting for him to pop back up on the map."

   "What does that mean?"

   JG lied as quickly and as convincingly as he could.

   "I'm honestly not sure exactly what it means. It could mean he got into a situation where we're cut off from the signal, like under a bridge. He could be experiencing trouble with his electronics. Maybe the cold rain. Could be any number of things. We're watching for when he pops back up, so we can converge."

   "All right. I can wait."

   Inside the now closed off ancient mine, Panic waited a while. Then, he was certain he heard it. A light splash in the distance. He slowly crawled towards it. He was almost always in water of varying depths from his ankles to his neck but then it was dry for a spell again. The tunnel was very narrow, and he could feel an offshoot from either side easily. He felt certain he was gaining on the occasional water noise he heard up ahead. That was his quarry moving from pool to pool, just like he had to do. The icy water was torture, and the steady cold breeze did little to help the situation.

   When he was sure he had gotten close to the water noise, he waited. After long enough the person up ahead might doubt what they had heard, he made a deep growling sound out of his throat by more or less gargling saliva. He pulled it off, from a deep scary purr to a phlegm rattling predator's growl. Low and slow. Indicating size. Big. The human up ahead would instinctively think there was now a possibility they were trapped inside a cave with a bear. Judging by the rapid water noises now, the man was more scared of the bear than of whoever was chasing him.

   This allowed Panic to move much more quickly. From pool to pool and onward in the pitch black. A man running in blind fear makes too much noise to hear anything else around him. Panic made up time now, sure in his guess he was way more comfortable inside a cave with no light than this person could possibly be. He actually had a small, waterproof light he could easily grab for. Problem was, the other guy didn't have one. Which meant that his own light would give him away quick and pinpoint his location.

   He was uncharacteristically up and out of the water now. He shivered but fought it off. He had to keep moving, and being out of water helps a heap. Which meant that his prey up ahead was also getting a recharge from being out of the icy water as well. Out of the water, he moved slowly and quietly. Feeling around gently for walls. Feeling with his foot before stepping into any depressions.

   Then he heard a clunking sound. Which he found very odd. He walked fast directly down the dry portion of raised passage, and ran his arms right into a big, rusty metal ladder. The breeze he had noted at the start of this little adventure, was still present. His hands told him it was dirty, rusty… inch thick tubes making up the sides of the ladder, with again inch thick rusty, round steel for rungs. He charged up, the prey couldn't be far ahead of him now. All he had to do was get topside, and the signal would pinpoint his location. Bring the whole Roman army in on this guy's ass.

   He made it up, and knew first from the much stronger breeze coming to him. The precipitation hitting him was another dead giveaway. His own personal night vision was about as acute as it could get, having been underground with no light for an extended period of time. The instant he was above ground, he slowed at the entrance and heard receding noises. He got up and was off in the direction he heard the noise coming from.

   JG was excited to see Panic pop back up as a colored dot on the screen once more, and started issuing commands to all hands on deck, to converge to that location. He described the distance and bearing as best he could going between a topographical map, and the much easier to read digital topographical image with dots to watch. He sent a responding cop to check on the female agent and the guy handcuffed to the steering wheel. They were to take the man into custody and wait. See if any of the 2 females they would encounter, needed any assistance.

   Finally, Panic heard the sounds of what was surely the whole Roman army closing in. They were on the sides, they were up ahead. They were everywhere. Good. Almost there. Then he saw them all gang tackling and swarming over the guy he had been chasing. They swung and hit him with flashlight beams, and someone yelled "he's clear!". Then the lights and manpower went to bodily dragging the guy off, like angry villagers having formed a mob. It was a mob, just an official one.

   Some guy he didn't know, was congratulating him. It barely registered because he was tuckered out, and still freezing to death for the most part. He let the guy take his arm and help him walk back to a warm vehicle to take him back where he came from. Once the guy was snatched up and secured, however, a bit of a mild good cheer went around. Some of the closer guys did little "big game" poses to the catcalls of everyone else present for the win. Panic himself even panted and did a little touch down dance, while doing a comedic pat-down dance on the captured "big game". He got a round of subdued chuckles, then finally a few laughs for his antics and efforts.

   Then the warm car once again beckoned to him, and the warm car felt really good. Eventually, he was back with JG, and it didn't take too long before they put the heat on high and stuck him in the cruiser. Someone opened the door and shoved a blanket around him and re-closed the door to keep the heat in and building up for him. He was shivering bad now.

   When he finally warmed up enough that he felt a little more like himself, he buzzed down the passenger's front seat window to flag the nearest person down and ask for JG, who didn't take long to arrive. JG stood by the window with a grin, and lifted his chin up to ask.

   "You warming up?"

   "Yeah."

   "You need anything?"

   "I'd like to get some dry clothes on, and…"

   "And what?"

   "We don't have Elvis. What if they got a text out to him? If he's aware, he might get rid of his phone and we'll play hell trying t---"

   "Shhhh… pretty sure we got him. Settle down."

   "What do y---"

   "We had a stroke of luck, senpai. I've already looked at a couple cell phone pics of the guy? We got him. He's missing the chunk off his ear, he looks like one of the drawings… we got him. I bet we put the girl's fingerprints and DNA all over his vehicle, he ain't slipping away."

   "The hell did all this come from?"

   JG beamed from ear to ear, to recount his good luck.

   "So… Merry. Jane I mean… her female agent is posted up with her, a little into town, right? Jane is looking at some guy in a SUV across the way. She tells her female agent a couple times, and starts bugging her about it. She said it was the missing chunk of ear she heard a million times off of all us. So anyways… she bugs the female agent babysitting her, until she agrees to just walk over and look at the guy. See if he acts strange."

   "I guess he acted strange, he's in custody…"

   "Female agent walks over. Apparently there was a scuffle, and by the time Jane gets over there to see what's going on, she finds both of them. Unconscious."

   "What?"

   "Yeah. Local cop I got there for backup as soon as I could spare a man, says they found Elvis slumped over the steering wheel, handcuffed to the steering wheel. Unconscious and bleeding from his head. They also found… the female babysitting agent. Laying a little bit away from the vehicle. Unconscious. Gun in her hand, ID laying near her. Blood and hair, caked on the bottom of her Glock, for Christ's sake."

   "Why is she unconscious…"

   "Guy freaked out and attacked her. She pistol whipped him a couple times to get him off her, and handcuffed him to the steering wheel, before she staggered a few steps and went down herself. She's got a lump on her head too. She got lucky and got him."

   "Christ. So we can relax."

   "Yeah. We're on mop up, now."

   "Mop up?"

   "Yeah. Couple dots on the map. Moving slowly. I honestly don't think they know yet. We're gonna move in and pick up the couple of dots still out there. That's Senior's game now. He got his manhunt. He has dots on a screen to do it, really shouldn't be a big deal."

   "At least it's all over."

   "Why the long face…"

   "We lost another victim."

   JG shook his head, and patted his forearm where he rested it on the open window.

   "Water rescue got to him. He was still wiggling around. He's out of it, he's almost unconscious with hypothermia? He looks like he'll be fine though. Looks like we get another witness, who'll tell the same story as the other one."

   "Man. I don't remember water rescue even getting here…"

   JG shrugged.

   "Once the dots started moving, and we split up into two teams? I had county water rescue waiting in their side by side, up at the garage we rented for the van. I was short on manpower, until we got everybody… I ended up sending Jane with them, to look for the victim. Her idea, not mine."

   "Well. They found the poor guy, at least."

   JG laughed.

   "Yeah. This is a different county than the last time we had water rescue. So, different water rescue guys. Story I got, was that one of them had to go in, or else Jane was going in…"

   JG and Panic shared a smile.

   "How's your career going right now? Junior…"

   JG positively beamed and shrugged.

   "Panic? There's 2 trains at the bureau you can get on, for career. There's a slow train? And there's a fast one. I used to be on the slow train, trust me."

   "I know. You were Senior's gopher."

   "Ever since Mike took over this case? My career's on the fast train, near as I can figure. Look at me…"

   He spun in a slow circle with his palms up and his hands out, at all the manpower milling around. People occasionally coming up to him, waiting to be acknowledged, and asked him for further instructions, or informed him of some tidbit they thought he needed.

   "So. Since I just happen to know the big Kahuna in charge of this whole circus…"

   "Oh. What do you need?"

   "I'm soaking wet, and it's winter. I'd like to get some dry clothes…"

   "Oh, right. I'll get you some sweatpants and a sweatshirt, no problem there…"

   "JG… just get me a lift to the cruiser my duffel bag's in. Put my own clothes on…"

   "Oh. Sure thing. Watch this, I love it…"

   JG winked at him, and put his patented agent in charge on the radio voice on. When someone got back to him, he requested someone to take his man to get his gear and let him change. The locals were all milling around and following all polite suggestions of anyone with an FBI ID. All of them were taking their instructions from JG until something changed the situation. The local off duty cop that responded was one of the guys that had closed in as part of the whole Roman army at the end of the chase. JG asked him if he could help him out, and get this guy transported to his gear so he could change and get comfortable. The local seemed to be happy about helping him out.

   He got into what ended up being the borrowed water rescue side by side, and the local cop drove him up to where his gear was stowed. It ended up being in the trunk of the cruiser that Merry was being watched in at the nearly abandoned ancient marina. Merry met him and hugged him, and the two of them went over to the cruiser. They got his duffel out of the trunk, and went around to the far side of the cruiser. They were on the far corner of a nearly overgrown parking lot. Nearly all the action and vehicles and population, and therefore interest… were on the other side.

   Hidden by the cruiser and not being noticed anyhow, Merry took her jacket off and held it like a bullfighter's cape to hide his "naked little white ass" that she whistled and made jokes about. Teasing him good with nature while he got dry underwear and socks on, followed by a pair of his heavy canvas work pants and a pair of Merry's hikers that fit him perfectly. He grabbed the heavier of the two insulated hoodies. He was into both big duffels, with both meaning his own and Merry's as well. It wasn't immediately apparent to him pulling garments out and rifling through the pile, if it was his own or Merry's. They both could wear a 2XL jacket.

   When Panic was done dressing, the last thing he did was switch over his belt and whatever pocket contents made the trip intact. This involved switching things clipped to his leather belt off then back on again. The last pocket he dived into of his wet things, he paused and locked eyes with Merry. He looked around dramatically and furtively before he whispered to her.

   "No one's around, no one's noticing. Stick your hand in and feel that, but don't take it out of the pocket…"

   Merry reached in, and felt a somewhat thin rectangle of some small weight. A cellphone.

   "Okay. Your cellphone."

   He gently took her hand, and guided it to another pocket of the wet and discarded clothes.

   "No. That there, is my cellphone. This other one…"

   He abruptly hugged her, and put his lips directly to her ear, and gave her a quick but rich description of how he had done "his funny dance" while feeling up the suspect for laughs, when it was his turn to pose with the captured big game. And how he had posed his body between everyone laughing and pointing, and his own hand lifting the cell out of a big, open cargo pocket and slipping it into his own.

   Merry looked at him dead in the eyes, which made him wonder by bluetooth what was wrong.

   "I almost forgot, until just now you said that."

   "What?"

   Merry launched into her own brief yet rich description of what she had done, start to finish. She added at the end however, and triumphantly… that one of the last things she had done was grab his cell phone off the console… and put it in her pocket… and her hand went to her pocket and pulled it out, and she held it out to him.

   "I don't know what you're up to right now? But here… do whatever it is with two phones instead of one?"

   "Me… and you… and these cell phones? Need a couple minutes of privacy. I'm just checking on something."

   They both were looking around, trying to act inconspicuous while keeping eyes out for anyone to approach. The local cop that had borrowed water rescue's response vehicle to hitch him a ride up here, was coming over in no particular hurry. He was smiling, waving, and calling out.

   Panic winked at Merry. He now had his neck ID on. To the locals and as far as they were concerned… they simply knew that "the FBI was in town". Panic appeared as he walked over, waving and smiling to mimic the man's body language. The off duty local glanced down at the ID on his neck loop that he must have put on with his clothes, out of his gear. This man had appeared along with all the other FBI, so the rectangle displaying a prominent "FBI" logo, along with a picture? Simply led them to assume he was FBI.

   "There's an agent JG or agent Junior down there… you know the guy I mean?"

   "Yes."

   "Just tell him what I told you. That me and my girlfriend are going to take a moment and talk. I'm sure he'll be fine with that, but, make sure you tell him. In case he needs me."

   "All right. No problem."

   "Thanks for the ride…"

   He walked off.

   "So. What's the deal with the phones… you're up to something."

   "Okay. We pretend we're talking over here. I just wanna see something…"

   He pushed the side button on either phone, and they both sprang to life. Panic started chuckling, and Merry asked him what it was.

   "Neither phone? Has a pass-code set. You just grab it and wiggle it, and it's on."

   "A lot of people carry their phone like that. It's handy."

   "Oh. Yeah. Sure is handy…"

   He found what he was looking for, and opened an app he found. There was the slightest pause as the app fired up, and said something too quick to see, before the app automatically logged in. He did it to the other phone. Same app.

   "My phone? Has a number of coins in the crypto app."

   "And Elvis's app…"

   "Its the mother lode."

   "Oh. How much is…"

   "Not important right now. I'm making a game plan up in my head. Give me a few seconds…"

   Merry gave him a little time while he silently turned his cogs. He grabbed his guy's phone, and started looking. Same with the Elvis phone. Eventually, he started narrating.

   "You… keep watch. My guy has a little stash. I'm sending it to Elvis. All of it… Reasoning? Normal for him to turn his stolen coins in. Now, Elvis is another thing, altogether."

   "I'm not taking it all. There's a lot there. I'm skimming my little tax off it, and leaving a mother lode there."

   "How long will this take?"

   "Minutes. We're at… 10 and… looks like 12, right now."

   "How are you getting your tax payment?"

   "Payfriend. Personal. Why?"

   "Aren't you worried someone will find out?"

   "Not at all. This is crypto, babe. The deposit into my payfriend is there, but, it's from an anonymous donor."

   "And the phone that it's coming from?"

   "Best part. As soon as the transaction is sent, then verified that it was actually sent and received and everything's okay? I press this button, and it erases the transaction from the software. It's crypto, hun. It's supposed to be untraceable. All even JG can get, is an encrypted, garbled mess. They know this phone did something, but, they can't see what it was. Are we still alone?"

   "Yep. Everyone's ignoring us. How are you doing down there…"

   "Getting near 50 percent now… takes a few minutes, but, looks like we got a great signal here."

   Merry continued her lookout role with no incidents of anyone approaching or even looking in their direction. It was over quick.

   "All right. I'm going to plant the phone in or around that Elvis vehicle."

   Merry and Panic slowly crossed the weed infested old parking lot. They inched closer to the gaggle of people and talk and action there. The nearest one to them glanced over at them, saw Panic's ID hanging, and quickly disregarded him. Panic used his invisibility to squat down and come up with a cell phone.

   "Hey. Someone drop their cell phone? Guys?"

   "Why…"

   "I had to get changed into dry clothes. My clothes were in the trunk over there. It's just that when I come walking over here, from that direction? I can see this laying here. From that angle coming in, you couldn't miss it. It was half behind the tire right there."

   "Ooh. Hey! Guys! Anyone missing their cell… anyone?"

   No one was. A short and rather nondescript conversation ensued naturally, and it led to wondering exactly whose phone it was laying there. At a big crime scene like this one, its fairly hard for the average non LEO citizen to fully appreciate exactly how many people can get to milling around before its all said and done.

   The University town had its entire small force out. Small town forces were coming in and helping, on or off duty. The FBI itself is no small affair, and particularly so in a high pressure case like this one. The state police were waiting on alert and were prepared for getting called in case roadblocks and search teams were needed. So all told, there were uncountable legions of uniforms around, mixed in with all the plain clothes off duty cops from the various responding agencies.

   Ambulances, flatbeds, tow trucks, crime scene workers… all these things have logistics to parking, moving around and operating… as well as more uniforms and plain clothes milling around. This being the northeastern foothills of the Allegheny mountain range, meant that the woods, the hills, the cliffs and gullies, the back-roads location… all combined to ensure more manpower was needed when the time came to attempt to lock things down.

   The group was beginning to quickly realize how difficult getting the phone back to its rightful owner was going to be, and the head count seemed to be growing by the minute. The crime scene tech teams hadn't even arrived yet, it was a daunting prospect to send the phone home. Enough of them had handled the phone innocently already, that turning it on to see if that would help wasn't going to hurt.

   Panic had to wait until one of the group foisted the idea out for everyone, to entertain the notion of exactly where the phone had been found. This changed the atmosphere of the chatting group decidedly. It was dawning on those that knew a little something about what had gone on, that this might well be the perp's cell phone.

   "Hey… mister…"

   The guy was starting to investigate his name off of his ID, and instead Panic waved and spoke back.

   "Call me Panic. Everyone does."

   "Thanks. For finding the phone…"

   "Oh. No problem. You'd have found it anyways, and even if you didn't? The state police will be in here working grids. They'll collect dog hairs and cigarette butts."

   "Well, thanks. And…"

   "What?"

   "Do you mind, if we just throw it in the bag with the contents of the vehicle? So… you know… we don't look like locals fucking the scene up…"

   "Oh! Gotcha. Yeah… do it how you want. I don't care. As long as we found it, right? That's all that matters."

   Merry walked away with him. As they were ambling around, Merry asked why they didn't just call and get a ride now if they could.

   "Well. You know me and my card tricks, right?"

   "Sleight of hand, is your specialty."

   "It is. I got dry clothes on, I'm fine for now. The damn sleet let up, even. All I wanna do now, is get this other phone… back to being with the 2 other phones. As inconspicuously as possible. Then we're done, I'm good."

   "It's not that far a walk."

   "No. Maybe a mile, I think."

   They walked back to the other site. Where JG and the hive of activity was setting up. Someone had packed in portable tables, and they had bags and boxes with stuff getting labeled and squared away. JG wasn't far, but he was busy coordinating with Mike over the radio, and everything else everyone kept reporting in to him with.

   "Hey… Junior!"

   He whirled around, holding an index finger up for him to wait a second, then he was free from the quiz session and he looked over to see what he wanted.

   "You mind if I look at the phones we got off of the girls and the guy?"

   "Uh… the local mob that nabbed him? Already fingered the shit up out of everything they got off him when they put hands on him. I can't get prints off of anything they brought in. Sure. What are you thinking?"

   "Oh. Just curious. See if they texted anyone about getting busted."

   "Go ahead. I don't need prints for their effects anyways. The local cops that grabbed the items? I have a chain of custody, and it's proven to be their property. Just tell me if you find anything, that sounds like they got a warning out. Senior might need to know who to grab first."

   "Will do…"

   Panic glanced around and reached his hand into the big zip baggie with the cell phones, and slid the new phone out of the sleeve of his thick, double insulated construction worker hoodie. He scanned the texts of all three phones, not a one of them demanded a code or a thumbprint, for ease of use. Nothing jumped out at him, to indicate they got a warning off.

   He completed covering his tracks, by walking over to JG with Merry arm in arm beside him.

   "Find anything juicy?"

   "Nah."

   "Still a good idea."

   Merry poked JG in the arm lightly during a momentary lull in conversation.

   "How long do I have to stick around? Not like I have a badge or anything, right?"

   "Did you see anything? When the female agent went over to see if the guy acted funny."

   "I can tell you what I told them. She went over. They're on the far side of the big SUV. I couldn't tell if I was seeing a scuffle, or what. I thought I saw something. By the time I got over there? They're both unconscious. I got on the radio."

   "I don't need anything from you, except a generic statement. Which seems to be that you thought you maybe saw something, over behind a big SUV. You can add to the statement? What you found when you went over to investigate. And the statement itself? I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to call you Jane Doe right now, if I'm not mistaken. I honestly don't see the point in tracking down that little gem. I got the same statements already, what the scene looked like and all, from all the local cops that responded to that location to nab what turned out to be Elvis. If you can't add anything new, I'm guessing that Jane Doe-ing you requires me to keep you out of it."

   "So… what about me? Do I get off without a statement?"

   JG laughed.

   "What am I writing down. You chased him, and stayed on him, and eventually we got you again, and we could all close in. Do I need a statement? Hell yes. Does it have to be right now? No, it doesn't."

   "Sounds good."

   "Right. You're going to get called to testify anyways, because you and Speedy go back to the beginning of this whole mess. If anyone wants your version of it, you'll get notices what day to appear. Plus, I'm sure someone will prep you before the trial anyways. You're witness for the prosecution. They'll take care of you, I'm sure you'll be fine."

   "So… I'm free to go?"

   "Honestly? I'd have to send someone to give you a ride. We all came in the same cruiser."

   "Fuck it. We're close to town, back up at the Elvis car site. Me and hers gonna grab something, walking into town. You'll be a while, right?"

   "I got a phone. You got a phone. I don't need anything from you, it's all good. Now, the cruiser? It's not a crime scene, just the SUV. You can take that cruiser. The female agent that was on babysitting duty? She went to the emergency room anyways. It'll be a while before Speedy and Mike get here. If at all. They're debating being needed here, or… concentrating on Senior and manhunting the dots on the goddamned screen that are left."

   Panic asked JG what his job was right now.

   "Honestly? I can't do any one thing, for myself. I'm constantly talking to someone. I already talked to Mike about it. I'm supposed to just coordinate it, and hand it over to the State Police team inbound to take over doing the crime scene. After that? I wait a little while, and I should be able to go. Mike doesn't wanna get here, and get stuck in case something happens with chasing the dots."

   "So we close this out then meet up with them."

   JG upended his palms.

   "That's the plan. You wanna wait?"

   "Might as well. We're going for a walk."

   "Shit, senpai. Take the cruiser, this might take a while."

   "Ah. You're forgetting this is my college. It'd be fun to walk around some."

   "Enjoy."

   After about ten steps, Merry put her hand out to see if he wanted to hold hands. He smiled and took her hand.

   "So. Panic, right?"

   He just looked at her, like she was a bug.

   "I'm teasing, honey. This is your college, right?"

   He nodded.

   "So. Show me around."

   "It's late."

   "I went to college, you went to college… you can walk me wherever you walk to, after hours. Um… show me the pier you talked about."

   "The pier? That's not a *short* walk."

   Merry looked back at JG fading away in the distance. Site A. They would walk the almost a mile to Site B. The Elvis car. From there, the short walk a couple blocks to campus.

   Merry looked back at him from having just observed Junior in the distance, still holding court. The breeze constantly blew her bangs and more around her face, and she fought a losing battle with the periodic swishes of her hair.

   "We have time. I overheard him say something about he has to observe the grids getting up."

   "What? You sure that's the exact words you heard?"

   "Yes."

   "Christ. That's the State Police grids."

   "That's why I figured we have extra time."

   "Well, you figured right. Yeah. We'll go to the pier. Then? We can hit the graveyard. I should keep moving around, warming up."

   "Oh. I forgot about the cold water again. Do you wanna go sit in a warm car some more?"

   "No… I feel warmer when I'm walking. Instead of starting to sweat? I just feel warmer. Honestly? I wish I had long johns, winter underwear on. Then, I'd be perfect."

   "Hmm."

   "What?"

   "You'll laugh… it's funny."

   "Then make me laugh. I could use a good joke right now."

   "I was thinking about putting nylons on, because it's cold. I was laughing, because I was going to ask you if you wanted a pair."

   Panic chuckled at the mental image.

   "Okay, yeah. That's funny."

   "It is."

   "You know what's funnier, though?"

   "What…"

   "I've had… cold weather training."

   "You were in the jungle. You said winter was like summer up here."

   "It was. But all the special forces guys? Have had both desert and winter survival. So… after I switched jobs, so to speak… I took a few classes. Hey. Class time counted towards my theater time. I had a real winter survival school class."

   "So?"

   "Well, I told you that story? Just so you'll understand this story…"

   "Okay…"

   "Women's nylon stockings? In a survival situation, are one of the most sought after things you want to locate. They're so cheap, and in so many different countries, you have a good chance of finding or scrounging them somewhere. The military, for instance? Everyone going through basic training, in all four branches, mind you… is taught to buy several packs of women's nylon stockings. For shining their boots. The fact that a clean pair is considered ideal winter survival gear? Is just icing on the cake."

   "Are you saying that… A… you wish you had winter underwear on… and B… that you would wear nylon stockings for winter underwear if you had them right now?"

   "Actually? I probably would. The temperature's dropping, and we got a couple hours to kill."

   "Let's go to the car."

   On the walk to site B and the car, Panic went on to explain winter survival, simply because Merry asked out of curiosity.

   "You need to find cloth, of any kind. Empty bags of grain, old bed-sheets, anything. You sew legs, arms, torso, whatever… out of cloth."

   "How are you expected to sew, in survival c---"

   "Not sewing like you think. We poke holes, after we cut a rough rectangle out? And cut a thin strip of cloth, and run it in and out, in and out, down the holes. You can make a big bolt of cloth slowly like that. Then lay on it, and cut it out. To make a big… snow suit. You cut it out twice? And poke holes and strip it together. Then you line it, with other pieces of cloth. Slowly. Over time. You can stuff dry, smoked grass for insulation, or more cloth if you have it. You can tear an old mattress apart for stuffing. You have to heat it and smoke it, to kill any parasites, but… lots of stuff works for insulation, if you look hard enough. Things you wouldn't expect. Styrofoam, for instance. You can grind it up, to make some of the best winter insulation imaginable."

   "That's very… creative."

   "Garbage bags make perfect water proof ponchos. The big 55 gallon ones work best."

   "I can understand preparing for winter coming. You have time to make a box out of sticks, and insulate it, I understand. But what if we had to survive the night out here. In this. You don't get to prepare for a long time, you're just dropped off in it."

   "How long do you think it would take me, to wander around quietly in the night, and locate an old tarp somewhere. Thrown over a woodpile, covering something like a lawnmower, or a picnic table… they're everywhere. I'd steal a tarp, or cut a big piece off of one, anyways. Roll it up and take it with me. I need to find 3 big sticks, and tie the ends together loose with a good string. I could use my hoodie string, here. Spread the three big sticks out. Tied together at the top, you spread the bases of the sticks out… bang. There's your tee-pee. You wrap the tarp around the stick tee-pee frame, and you're done. If you can find an old 6-pack plastic? Which blows around in the wind, honestly, if you look. A 6-pack plastic makes a good tee-pee holder, if you can't find any string or cord."

   They walked to the car, and once they saw Panic's ID swinging they recognized the "nice FBI man" and the woman that always accompanied him. She was FBI supplied as well, as far as the locals were concerned. Merry grabbed "something" out of her duffel and closed the trunk. Her and Panic walked down the rail road tracks the opposite way, towards town and the campus and even beyond if they wanted.

   When they were far enough down the tracks they were alone in the quickly winterizing weather, Merry asked where you scrounged rope in the middle of nowhere.

   "Honestly? And this is top secret military training here, so… off the record."

   Merry giggled.

   "I promise…"

   "Yeah? Good thing. Because promising, is official government clearance, for very high level training like this, you know. Tires."

   "What does… tires mean…"

   "Tires? Old tires are everywhere. You just find any old tire? And burn it. After you clean off the steel cords in it? They all separate, after the fire, and more importantly… they go from rock hard special treated steel? They get heat treated back, and they're soft again."

   "Really?"

   "One tire. Burn it. Pick the steel cords up with a stick, so you don't get any of the hard to clean soot on you. Dunk it in water. There's a shitload of them in there, all the same length, couple feet long. You can twist soft steel wire now, around sticks and small logs. I can now make… fences. Ladders. Our tee-pee bigger and sturdier. You bury the tee-pee sides with whatever you can find. Sticks, leaves, grass, rolled up plastic bags, old rags. Insulation. You leave a fist sized hole at the top when you wrap it? You can make a small fire, in a big tee-pee. It knocks the chill off, in even arctic conditions."

   "We're past town, right about… now. That? Is all town. From there, that stone building on? That's campus. From the tracks, anyways."

   "You really shove crumpled up newspapers into nylon stockings, to make an improvised snow suit?"

   "Yeah. It works. Readily available products, almost world wide. Tires? Another everywhere item."

   They continued to walk alongside the whole campus, down towards where the tracks arced around and behind the last of the buildings.

   "You walked the tracks a lot? Normal mode of transportation."

   "Yeah. Without a car? Somehow the flat tracks are the super sidewalk now. You go up or down the tracks, no cars to watch out for running you over. You go up, whatever street you need. Last street, I think it's something like 14th street, it's before the sewage place."

   "There's more streets after that, after the creek…"

   "No. That's another whole town, across the creek. The town that has the University? Only on this side of that creek."

   "Wow. That's not a small town, that's a tiny town."

   "It is. One bar, along with unless it's changed? A little home beauty salon. That constitutes the extent of the business district."

   "Why are we walking the tracks again? Why not walk through campus."

   "Oh. No. Not after dark. You avoid campus pigs after dark. The tracks are your best bet. Cops don't drive on the tracks, and campus pigs don't walk em either. You stick where the lazy pigs can't drive, and especially so in winter? Good things come to you, on this college campus."

   Merry suddenly blurted out quiet and stern at the same time.

   "I'm holding. Stick to the tracks."

   "We're almost past the last parking lot. That's the last you see any campus pigs, and you almost never see a town pig down here. It's unheard of."

   They had come around the horn of the back end of the furthest parking lots, when he stopped Merry from continuing.

   "Hey. Wrong way. Over here…"

   "Where's this go?"

   "Well. Eventually? You end up in another town, couple miles up. Over there, is actually an old town. It got removed for the college, then they never used it. Foundations of the one street are still there. Kinda neat, if you wanna see it."

   "I trust you. Pier's down that way?"

   "Yeah."

   The ramp of earth moved down until they were beside tracks. Then, they're progress could only be made on the other side of the tracks, nearer to the river. Eventually, a trail shot down off from the access road alongside the railroad tracks. This put them at river bank level, and a short walk up the "beach" had them at the pier.

   "It's bigger than I remember. It gets worked on over the years. This side? That's the original side I remember. Looks like it's falling through. The new side, someone built on."

   "The holy pier."

   "Yeah."

   "It's lonely out here."

   Panic corrected her.

   "Lonely? Or peaceful."

   "Both."

   They moved the snow and slush that hadn't frozen yet off of the simple bench seat. Merry produced her "stockings" and showed him two small commercial packages.

   "Oh. I thought it was pantyhose."

   "It is pantyhose, it's just the whole body. Why do you think they call it a body stocking. They're so cheap, they're practically disposable."

   "Well. There's no one around. I still get cold, from being dunked in cave water in the middle of winter…"

   He kicked then scooped all the slush away in a pile at his feet, then put his double insulated construction hoodie down. After stepping out of his hikers, he had a nice place to stand while changing. Merry had to help him get the thing on, they both laughed at his antics. When it was over, and he was finally in the damn thing? The crotch-less part had Merry pointing and laughing, and when he looked down… he busted out in giggles as well. He proceeded to take it back off, another first for him. It was overly complicated getting out of it, yet in a different way than getting in had been.

   "So… you're not going to wear it."

   "No no. My legs and arms were warm as soon as I got them into the thing. When I'm dressed? I'll be warm as toast. I just have no way to put my boxer briefs on…"

   He put his boxer briefs on. With the longer, tighter stretched legs of them, it more than covered up the crotch-less feature. Panic asked her how it looked.

   "Honestly? Without the happy hole, it looks way less obscene…"

   "That's what psychologists call it nowadays? The happy hole."

   "This one does. Some girl in college? She renamed crotch-less as happy hole. The nickname stuck. Are you warm?"

   "Yeah. I am…"

   He got dressed again, and walked back and forth on the short wooden pier. Undoing his thick hoodie zipper. His face was trying to convey some comical sense of contentment. Warmth, she decided.

   "Your turn…"

   "Yeah."

   Merry mirrored the procedure with her own coat. The only glaring exception was that she was much better at putting the giant stocking on. When she was dressed again, she put her hands out, for a little silent "ta da".

   "Now we're twins."

   Panic looked at her.

   "Now we're perverts."

   "Well, technically I'm not a pervert. Just you."

   "Ha ha. Because it got done to be warm, in a pinch, in winter? It doesn't count. I don't wanna freeze my ass off for a couple hours if it gets any colder, and it feels like it is."

   The wind would pick up now and again, then subside for lengthy periods. He got several T shirts out of his pockets he had grabbed. He put one over his head and left it gathered around his neck. He handed her one too.

   "Scarf."

   She modeled what he had done. Then he draped another T shirt over his head, and poked his upper face out of the head hole, his mouth and nose were covered if he wanted. It fell over and sort of locked in freely by laying on the bunched up scarf shirt. With their hoods back up, they were looking fully winterized.

   "Did you bring gloves?"

   Merry shook her head no. He produced two pairs of the cheap, soft gloves you could get anywhere for a dollar if they weren't ripping you off. She remembered him buying them in a bulk pack.

   "So. This… is the infamous pier. This is where you bring girls, if you like them, right?"

   He grinned and nodded his head.

   "You want a pointer?"

   "Sure."

   "Next time you and the girl are both going to be crotch-less and everything at the same time? Don't rush getting dressed."

   "Honestly, the thought went through my head, I mean it's me, come on. But… I honestly still have a thumping headache. It's getting better, I swear."

   "Not tonight dear. I have… a headache."

   He chuckled.

   "I swear. I wanna enjoy the first time my head doesn't hurt, okay?"

   "It's fine… I'm just teasing you."

   "What do you wanna do, while we wait?"

   "Well. What would you have done, after stopping here at the infamous pier… and burning one with that girl from your psychology class, hm?"

   Merry wiggled the pin joint at him and lit it for them to share.

   "We're going to be up to our ass in pigs all night, and you pick now to do this shit."

   "Action's over. I'm a witness tagging along, I got nothing to technically do with all this mess. You? Even you heard JG, you're just one more guy that chased him. We're just being polite, waiting for Junior to wrap up and be able to go. Mike and Speedy probably ain't coming. We're just… hanging out."

   "Hanging out with each other."

   Merry smiled.

   "Yes. Now… after smoking a pin joint with the girl from psychology class… where would you go. This time of night?"

   They kept passing it while he thought.

   "There's a… well, there was anyways… 24 hour store. They were open all night, every night. I used to get this big… pizza bread. Pay the extra 25 cents for the pepperoni one. It was this big…"

   He showed with his hands, while describing how cheap it was, and how readily available, night and day.

   "So. Back up the tracks. You know where to cut off the tracks, to go see about, bread pizza."

   "Pizza bread, not bread pizza."

   "Sorry. You can see about the pizza bread."

   "They had other stuff too. Chicken wings used to be cheap back then… you warm now?"

   "Oh yeah… The head T shirt, is a little much."

   "Then pull it down for a second scarf. You still have it, if you wanna pull it up to get warm again. I want mine up. I have trouble staying warm. You do what makes you comfortable."

   "All right. You lead. Let's see if we can still get… pizza breads."

   Merry liked to have silly little conversations with him. He always smiled and had them back. Some guys get mad, and tell their girlfriend she's being "silly" or acting like a "girl". It was yet another thing she liked about him. Many guys will smile and play along with the girl's silly conversation game, but the girl feels as if "dad" is tolerating a child.

   Some rare dad's though? Merry knew they were out there, everyone did. There were guys that would suddenly get on all fours, and bark or meow back at a four year old playing doggy and tugging on their pants leg with their little human teeth. The rare dad you saw dancing the silly little dances all the young girls did on the internet with their young daughter.

   Now to be fair about it, a lot of guys will freely enjoy being silly with their girl, but only alone. The guy you met out with his friends, wasn't the same guy in private. Which personality was the real one, or was it something in between or even something else entirely. That was what always made Merry smile. Barring anything potentially dangerous in the social setting, Panic was the same. Seemingly no amount of social pressure could convince him otherwise, it seemed.

   There was an innocent, childlike quality to it. It was pure, open and honest. First graders were like this. Quiet and polite, but prone to run around and act out a feeling. Really happy? Run around and do a silly little dance, with made up words. Perplexed though, they would get all quiet and still, pondering.

   Garden variety, run of the mill alphas were fooled, completely. She had seen what she called the "shirt video". Right there in high def, with crystal clear static free audio. The look on Senior's face, had been truly priceless. Shock, fear, surprise. When it became quickly clear that this was no mere show for the benefit of the workplace pecking order… terror. The harmless sheep Senior had been nudging with his stick, suddenly stood up on its hind legs and bared its fangs as the sheep's fur disguise fell away.

   The whole situation reminded Merry, watching the shirt video, of a common trope in action and spy movies. There's always the dramatic reveal, when the actor suddenly rips their latex face off, revealing who they truly were, shocking everyone. Perhaps situations just like this was where the common scene had come from in Hollyweird.

   Senior had to back off and recalculate and re-calibrate his social radar. Senior's wolf-sheep "meter" was inoperative. What worked on simply everything and everyone else around him, did not work on… this. Then, as quick as it happened? It vanished. Panic was content to leave it a secret or keep it quiet. Senior himself? Free to tell others to watch out, or more likely… simply never do it again and go back to enjoying being alpha.

   With no knowledge, Merry knew sure as thunder follows lightning what came after. Senior smiled and got polite and left him alone for a little while, while he sat back to see what would happen next. She knew Panic all too well. He had gone right back to being quiet and deferential to Senior.

   Words truly meant something to Panic. Just be yourself. How many times do we all hear it as toddlers. Just be yourself. Panic talking about it alone with her, would smile and chuckle at the humor of it. Just be yourself, be your own person… oh, don't do this though. And don't do that. Turn the volume up on this behavior. And hey, turn down the volume on this other thing. Wear this, don't wear that.

   He made a joke about it, but he was right and it did make it humorous. Be yourself? But… don't actually. Don't worry about what other people think? But… don't wear that! What will people think. Words. They were important to him. And really when you came down to it, what would young alphas, alpha wanna-be's, and their entourage of young betas say while they did what they did to him as a child. Come on, fight back. I want you to hit me.

   What was he surrounded with all day, most days. People poking him with sticks, repeating a mantra. Hit me, hit me hit me. Fight me, fight me, fight me. Then? He described all the hassle he got in when he did it. It was yet another of society's little traps to him.

   So yeah, he had gone off and slowly came up with his own rule book. A playbook steeped in a morality that few would understand. Finally exposed to other cultures and religions, he was intrigued to find out many made much more logical sense than his own. In his world he grew up in? Fighting was always "wrong". Yet… if you didn't? You were a loser.

   Then the god of karma looked down and saw it all. He sent him a mentor. His oracle. Pleased with how it had gone, the god of karma had sent him to his final mentor. Little Robbie. The shotgun messiah. All his experiences had come together in a maelstrom. Thou shalt not kill? Bullshit. Your own bible's full of stone cold killers, and many of them were the holiest men in the bible. Angels are beautiful and benevolent messengers? More bullshit. There were angels of wrath and destruction. Here. Read it for yourself. Cover to cover, like a regular book. You'll see it plain as day.

   Little Robbie, all six and a half feet of him? Team captain, in sports terms. He loved and marveled at what he had found down around the equator. A walk on, insisted on practicing with the team. When it went past being cute, Rob himself had went along with trying to get rid of him and discourage this. But just like any coach, Rob was in no way immune to the law of sports. The team's success comes first above all else. The guy has talent and can play. He's in.

   Then, the time came. The walk on that earned a spot on the roster? Well, that was one thing to get the jersey and a number and get some game time, but… there's the matter of the ritual. On Merry's college soccer team? When the team accepted a new freshman finally, personally? When they were won over… you had to pass your ritual. Merry had "chugged her spikes" to the party's cheers. Their own juvenile ritual, was the new player when accepted, to finalize it? Had to chug a beer out of both used soccer spikes after the game you were judged to have played well in.

   His sports team? A little different. You have to ask them to kill you. You have to let them, willingly. Then? You're expected to agree to a second death as a final test. To see if you can uphold the team's motto. Do or die. Death before dishonor. Prove it.

   Merry suddenly realized another insight. His childhood love for words. He had finally died and gone to heaven, in his view of things. Do or die, was no mere motto. Neither was death before dishonor. He had mentioned once, that if you were shot or stabbed? You had your own couple plungers of morphine. Before the shock wore off, you were expected to morphine yourself. Why? So you didn't give the team's position away, and get them all killed. You were expected to use the shock time, to put yourself unconscious before the inevitable screaming came.

   Because their motto's, were not mere motto's. They were holy writ. The team comes first, you come second. Why should more than one man die. Merry quickly had realized in a short time when he related this, that doing this could be a death sentence. You would bleed out unconscious. He had matter of fact stated it though. Duh. Whole idea. If you're dead anyways, why be a little bitch and get the rest of the team hiding nearby with you get smoked. Be logical. He had explained it wasn't suicide. You have a short time frame to report your position, before you go under. They'll come get you and see what can be done, first chance.

   To Merry, this was a very deep trust and bond. She asked eventually, if he had ever seen this, and he had grinned. He just pointed to a scar. She grimaced. Then, he shrugged and gently took her finger tracing the scar over, and moved it onto another one. He finally pointed to his upper leg, and said that was the best place to "pop" yourself. Meat of the thigh.

   He'd done it to himself. Twice.

   Not knowing what to say, Merry had waited. Softly stated that there was no more a man could give for everyone else. He had cocked his head and shrugged. Actually… if it was obvious there was going to be no way to get the body out anyhow, given the reality of the situation… you could ask to be allowed to take some more enemy out, after your death. When Merry was bewildered, he explained. Old combat trick. You take the pin out of a grenade, but keep the handle in tight. You set it under the body, and leave it. If the enemy touches it? Boom.

   He then chuckled, relating the ends they would go to. Little Robbie was always thinking, trying to come up with a little bit more. Rob came up with a trick. Why stop at just one grenade. You put something flat and hard just below the surface of the dirt. You pressed the hand grenades plural so the dead man's body held the handles in, then ever so carefully pulled the pins out. Then you got the hell out of there quick. Why stop at getting one or two after your death, when you could get more of them standing around your carcass.

   Further side benefit? As you were escaping forwards, being pursued? The explosions were unmistakable behind you. You could reliably judge how far back the enemy on your ass was. You were not only continuing to take out enemy after your death, you were now providing valuable and crucial intelligence as well.

   Merry realized fully. You simply can't beat men like this. There is no possible "win". You can kill some, but… its not going to get you anywhere. Nowhere you'll relish being, at any rate. The "zombies" found this out.

   Elvis Incorporated just discovered it too.

   Merry understood now, Uncle Mike's fascination with recruiting him to be her personal guard dog. He would kill to protect her. He would all but kill himself to give her the best chance at getting away. These men were real life human rattlesnakes. Deadly alive, for sure. Then after death? Still capable of striking and delivering the goods. Unlike many old wives tales, that a rattlesnake doesn't "die until sundown" was no stretch. Merry had seen a video on the tube site, where a guy that raised rattlesnakes for meat and selling the venom medically? Killed several, and left them to bake in the obscenely hot southern sun, and all day at that. Late in the day, he held a balloon filled with warm water, on a string dangling off a stick in front of the dead snake's mouth, and it actually struck.

   Not just one… every one of them in a row.

   Mike had overseen "assets" like this running military intelligence offices. He already knew. And if you did manage to kill Panic, now you're just in for more. Here comes men like Little Robbie and Skykid. His blood brothers. They would move heaven and earth taking revenge and wreaking vengeance. And each of them? Had two or more that would come in on it. There would be a scorched earth policy put into effect. And judging by Skykid's actions, scorched earth was not just a phrase. Men would cook alive, while he stood and watched. Then? He would wake up the next morning and be concerned with the quality of his quiche, his homemade Merlot, and little else.

   Merry was continually amazed at the things that came out of Panic. This weatherization, for example. Silly looking, but… amazingly successful at just being warm. Even if fashion had been kicked down the street and rain had washed it out to sea. Their expensive jacket and hoodie contrasted sharply with the T shirt garments. When the counter worker eyed them half suspiciously for the face coverings, Panic then Merry pulled their hoods back, and tugged the shirts down off their heads, and shook their now free heads.

   "So. Not that it really matters or anything, but… I'm alumni of the University. Twice, actually. I was wondering… if even though this place looks redecorated… if you still have… pizza breads?"

   The counter person smiled.

   "Ain't the first time I heard that. How many years, you been out in the real world, my man."

   "Uh… I went a little at a time. Twice. I was in my 20s. I'm almost 40 now. Over 10 years, easy. More like 15? I don't know."

   More smiling.

   "Pizza bread and potato wedges and nachos and chili dogs. I bet it's everything you remember."

   "Did JG eat yet?"

   "Not that I saw."

   "Okay. 3 pepperoni pizza breads. 3 potato wedges. 2 nachos. 4 chili dogs. I'll grab a 2 liter to go with that."

   "Okay. To go?"

   "Yeah. To go."

   "The food? The recipe's are the same. The price might give you sticker shock though, from what you remember."

   "Oh… I'm prepared for that. Don't worry."

   A cop walked in. He eyed up Panic's hip holster, but didn't do anything for now except wear a half scowl. He gestured at his rig with his own chin.

   "Everything all right here?"

   Panic gave him a half a small grin. One of his variations on his main face he liked to wear. It could come across as a shit eating grin, or a shy smile. He aimed for shy smile. He comically worked his fingers and wiggled them palms out as he raised his hands slowly to his neck. The cop watched him with interest as he slowly popped the zipper on his winter hoodie a couple inches, and with only his fingers, searched.

   The cop had his attention drawn into the slowly extracting cord he was producing from around his neck, when the plastic rectangle with his picture and FBI logo came out.

   "Oh. Sorry. Excuse me…"

   "No problem. And she's with me."

   "Hey. You hear anything about what's going on? All we know is they were looking for someone, and they found them. We just came on in town, we're not going down."

   "I'm not exactly management material or anything. About all I know right about now. If I knew more? I'd tell you. I know they picked a couple people up. Honest to god's truth? I'll know more tomorrow reading the papers, than I do tonight, right now."

   "Well, thanks for trying."

   "See you…"

   The local cop car's gas was on some arrangement and they motored off. With the cop gone, the young man working the counter himself that night talked friendly with his mouth, while his hands automatically wrapped and prepared the order. A blur of hand work, done easily.

   "So you two are FBI?"

   Merry smiled.

   "I'm not. I'm just with them."

   "I'm not an FBI agent… I just work for them. It's called being a consultant…"

   "And you're an alumni?"

   "Yes."

   "What's your degree in."

   "Ah. I have an Associates of Science in Mathematics and Computer science, and a Bachelors of Science in Math and Comp Sci again."

   "Computer programmer."

   "I was."

   "Now you're FBI. How the hell, do you go from…"

   "Yeah. Trust me here, it was an accident. This is temporary. I hope it's temporary, anyways. Not my chosen field of work. If I can go back to working on the computer again? Oh yeah, giving that idea, serious thought."

   He paid for his bags of food he bought, and they stalked out and off.

   "You think the food will still be warm by the time we get it back to Junior?"

   "It might be. We could maybe double time it, on the flat tracks. That would get it there positively edible."

   "You're head…"

   "My head, my head. Tell you what. It's gonna hurt anyways, no matter what I do. Now, if this was to be my last… exertion of the night, my job is done now? Yeah. I vote for double timing it. It has no choice but to keep me warm, right?"

   "I suppose."

   They half jogged down the access road by the tracks to cut the time down to a short minimum. JG actually experienced being snuck up on, and they surprised him with a pizza bread, potato wedges with chicken breading. Salt packets, pepper packets, napkins, plastic shit to call utensils and more. He gave away one of the nachos, to a local cop he explained was the "property manager of record" for both sites. Apparently the deal was, that when Junior left, he could leave too. Panic donated the two liter to every one, then sort of oozed away with Merry.

   They were standing somewhere, now with a vehicle between them and everyone else, and they meandered more to the left to get out of sight. Panic flashed his wiggling fingers at Merry, and said he'd be back shortly. He was back a couple minutes later with someone's hand radio, she didn't ask and he didn't think enough of it to volunteer it. His other hand was a different story. He had a small but sturdy looking folding camouflage chair. He dropped it and meandered back off, and returned a couple minutes later with a matching one for himself.

   They stalked off with the radio and their new seats. It didn't take them too long, going along the railroad tracks before they found an out of the way spot from underbrush. They sat down on a fallen tree and ate their food. Out of sight out of mind. They both had cans of energy drinks in their pockets as well. Panic even made sure Junior got an energy drink as well. But that was all before the sitting.

   "The radio…"

   "I borrowed it. I'll only use it to monitor this. I'll know about any developments. As long as I don't transmit, it's perfectly safe to monitor."

   "And… if it just accidentally gets to go from borrowed to left behind…"

   "Sad though it may be, were that to actually happen? As a licensed HAM radio dude, I am licensed to operate radios that would be illegal for the average citizen. I'm trusted to operate old radio equipment that I buy somewhere second hand. In a safe and responsible manner."

   "Okay. What is the safe and responsible way… to operate stolen police hand radios, science boy."

   "Actually. I don't understand the stolen reference, ma'am. Someone sold it at a garage sale. What I'm saying is, the safe thing is for me to set that radio to not transmit, over the whole police band here. I leave the rest open? I can monitor everything just fine, like a scanner. And… I can operate on the HAM towers around here, with the same 2 meter equipment that we call a cop hand radio. It's all 2 meter in all the towns but one. And yes, they have 2 meter too, to talk to everyone else, it's stupid. The same equipment is great for me to transmit on the public 2 meter frequencies. As long as I successfully lock out transmission on the edges of their normal band, and monitor only? It's perfect."

   "So, when we're done. Do you wanna get another one, for me?"

   "I guess if I can find one, sure. We have to turn them both off before we pack up to go."

   "Go try. While the circus is still in town."

   "Give me a cigarette. No more hunting assholes in the woods. I don't need my sense of smell anymore."

   "Here."

   "Lighter?"

   "Here. I got another one. Keep it."

   He lit his cigarette ceremoniously. He wandered off for several minutes, then was back with a similar but not identical radio. This likely represented that he got it from a different local force than the first one. He liked it though, and pronounced it the same basic radio, with another brand name on it. Both cheap imports. He shut them both off temporarily.

   Just when Merry thought he was finally going to sit still? He turned and did the index finger motion yet again… and disappeared. He came back with two surprisingly hot coffees, in Styrofoam cups with plastic lids.

   Merry wondered aloud if they even wanted or needed coffee.

   "Hey. It was there. Something else to steal. You happy?"

   "Yes. It was very sweet of you to steal me coffee."

   "Thank you."

   Panic did end up giving her a big hug. Not a normal squeeze, but one of the firm, lingering kind.

   "What was that for."

   "Thanks."

   "For…"

   "You got Elvis for me. Thanks. Now? There's an end to it. If we had gotten all the others, and he slipped away? Fuck, this could have gone on a lot longer. I can rest now. Its over. And… thanks."

   Merry grinned.

   "Actually, I wasn't the hero. My… agent babysitting me? She bagged and tagged him. You heard JG bringing you up to speed."

   She had already filled Panic in quickly, on exactly what had really gone on at the Elvis vehicle. He was just teasing her.

   "Hmm. I heard JG filling me in, on what happened? As far as he knew and believed. I know that much."

   Merry feigned innocence and mirth.

   "What…"

   "This is the second time, that your female babysitter agent? Has been found unconscious. Miraculously, both times when you were being prevented from saving my ass. And as an investigator? Well, a good one doesn't believe in coincidences."

   "You know, then."

   Hell, she had already told him. He was just being sweet.

   He nodded, then squeezed her again.

   "You risked your life the first time, and I figure your career both times. I'm touched."

   Merry shrugged.

   "What career. I'm just a witness. No real risk. Think about it."

   "I guess. But, jumping off the bridge…"

   "Well. You made it look like fun, so…"

   He squeezed her one last time. There was a short break, while she observed him playing with the radio.

   "Aren't you going to monitor with one of those?"

   "If I have to, but… we're actually close enough to see when the State Police team gets here. We'll hear it. They have to march right past us, what, are they supposed to fly down the tracks? We'll see them. We're positioned, in a position of surveillance, between point A and point B. We know when to close in and get near Junior now."

   "With stolen seats. And stolen radios, turned off."

   "You catch on quick. It's very sexy."

   "What's the plan, on getting our loot to the car trunk, and into our duffels."

   "Well. I figure when everyone else is following the state police in on the other site? We hit our trunk. It's not a crime site. It's a federal vehicle. Both radios turned off and stashed in my bag, I'll reprogram them later. Fuck it, I'm taking these little stools that fold up, too. I kinda like mine… you?"

   "Sure."

   "Seats and radios in the trunk and duffels then. Then we head back towards the herd, down by Junior. By then it'll be closer to his quitting time. I left nachos in place of where I got both radios. There's a table I can approach from behind. No one gives it a second glance. It's where they recharge radios, in a pile."

   "You deliberately left nachos?"

   "Not out of guilt. I needed two hands, and I realized I was being greedy eating while doing acquisitions work."

   "Oh, I see. Acquisitions work. Is that what they're calling it these days, huh?"

   "Yes. As a matter of fact, it is. And Miss Merry Jane?"

   "Yes, Mister Smartass."

   "I want to present you with this award, for not bothering me about… you know what. I'm actually impressed."

   "Well, I figured you'd tell me when you wanted me to know."

   "I don't see anyone, and we keep our voices down. Now's as good a time as any. No screaming. You promise, you'll stay quiet."

   "I promise."

   "All right. Here's the skinny. When everyone was goddamn posing for big game pictures, with what was sure to become a famous arrest? I had my big chance when everyone had a party atmosphere, to easily grab the phone. Now, that was the… other guy… coming in, to meet the girls. He had several crypto coins on his phone app. Those are the ones I sent to the big Elvis phone stash. Originally? My plan was obviously to try to steal several bitcoins he had just robbed, and snag them. What would it hurt. But… something happened that changed up my plan."

   Merry looked at him.

   "What was that."

   "You just happened to snag your Elvis phone, just for an entirely different reason, and said you forgot about it."

   "I did."

   "Well? If the suspense is killing you, it's bothering me, too. Every coin, is presently trading for a hair over 30 thousand dollars."

   "30 thousand, per coin?"

   "Yes."

   "So… the little phone had…"

   "almost 6 coins on it. That would have been 180 thousand dollars anonymous, give or take."

   "So, you sent back 180 thousand worth. And didn't erase it."

   "Nope. One of their phones, sent in a big order. To another bigger phone."

   "Now. The bigger phone…"

   "Thought you'd never ask."

   "You gave me an award, you know…"

   "I remember giving you the award. 6 or 7 million worth. And before you ask? I took roughly 10 percent, then deleted the transaction."

   "So you got…"

   "Not quite 700 thousand."

   "You left enough, you don't think it's suspicious."

   "Okay. Suspicious… to who, exactly? To all these FBI and cops, whatever is in the big phone? Is what's in the big phone. Nothing is suspicious to them."

   "It's suspicious as hell, to the perps. I bet Elvis knows exactly how much he had, and how much he lost."

   "I'm sure he does too. But, what can he say about it. Hey, excuse me. I actually stole all those crypto coins, and… someone stole some. He can't claim to know what amount is on there, without admitting guilt to having his hand all the way in the cookie jar. He has to know, and grit his teeth about it. His lawyer will strangle him if he admits he owns the contraband."

   "You think you're slick. Don't you."

   "I try to be."

   There was a slight pause, as he looked down at his clothing, while smoothing his hand down over it.

   "Hun, can I ask you a question?"

   Merry looked at him funny.

   "Sure…"

   "This… thing I'm wearing."

   "What about it?"

   "How much does it cost?"

   "Couple bucks. Cheap."

   "Because I'm warm as hell. A slight redesign of this cheap thing, and I swear it's the 90 dollar NASA designed arctic underwear."

   "Hmm. Does that mean, you don't mind if I tell the boys about you wearing it…"

   He gave her a look. She smiled and held her hands up.

   "Just teasing. I promise."

   Later on, he started fiddling with the purloined hand radios again. Going from internet searches on his smartphone, he slowly found the menu navigation. He finally played with it, listening and checking.

   "Okay. That voice sounds familiar. It's receiving on the right frequency. I locked the unit, so other than on/off and squelch? It's foolproof."

   "You said to be careful not to transmit…"

   "Not a problem. Got transmit locked out."

   While they passed the time, eventually the mood changed visibly of the people passing by, down below them. They didn't amble now, they walked briskly. They weren't chatting anymore, their tones were clipped and businesslike for the time being. Something palpable was obviously in the air.

   Merry turned on the radio to see, and it didn't take long. There was a lot of cross-talk, and it quickly became obvious the state police team was inbound. She ended up turning it down so low it wasn't audible from several feet away, and began holding it up to her ear. He did the same. When the state police team hit the sites, they were now audible here and there on the channel.

   They showed themselves late in the game. Junior was in a lengthy conversation with someone from the state police team. One investigator and one crime scene tech were in a pow wow with him and referring to the grid system they used. He was happy after he got his first few main grid photographs. He liked the filenames on the images, he could follow along from grid map to images, going by name.

   Panic had chased the perp, and later on was the sole pursuer for a lengthy period of time. Naturally there were talks, statements, and everything else for him to tend to. Eventually both JG and Panic managed to divorce themselves from the scenes, while Merry held back and waited. The state police investigator was practically giddy and enthralled with the little "dots" movie file JG provided him with. JG patiently showed him how he could zoom in, and zoom out. Select different maps or overlay systems. Speed up or slow down the "movie". The investigator was in love with the whole idea and execution and gushed conveying that to JG.

   "You got a room of… computer techs somewhere?"

   "They gotta come out of somewhere when we get one on an appointment. Sure."

   "Here's my card. I'll stop by the tech lab if you can arrange it. I can show them how to install it and run it, and feed it data. If you think that might get it going for you."

   "I'll try."

   JG, Panic and Merry were all three wiped out when they finally stole away late and got back home. Speedy and Uncle Mike were staying up waiting on them. JG and Uncle Mike huddled up for the half hour talk before the late bedtime, touching base on everything. Merry gravitated to Panic, and Speedy joined as well. Eventually everyone split up to sleep. Panic elected to sleep downstairs and tend the fire, because he was used to performing that duty anyways.

   The upstairs 4 bedrooms were noticeably colder than downstairs. By making it too hot downstairs, the upstairs bedrooms warmed to become almost cozy. Merry was tired, but also like a cat on a hot tin roof. Separate couches weren't what she was used to sleeping together. Laying together proved almost possible but no cigar. They ended up with a couple blankets on the floor, after pushing anything back that made more room for them.

   "Wow. The floor's a little colder."

   "We have blankets."

   "No. I just don't wanna give the boys a peep show when I try to sleep in, tomorrow morning."

   She went and hunted herself out a pair of workout shorts and a little sports bra, which made her confident enough to sleep on top of the covers in the warmth. She still talked to Panic before falling asleep. It was their habit. She went through a slow trial period of inching in on him experimentally. When she was finally satisfied, she gave a dramatic little sigh.

   "So. Panic…"

   "Yeah."

   "Can I ask you a serious question?"

   "Sure."

   "I heard about your stunt at the mine. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

   "It's not as bad as it sounds. You have to trust me on this."

   "I need my head examined then, but… go on…"

   "Question. Where did Daddy go to college at? And was it even a college, or was it a University."

   "Well. You went to this university. So… you mean you knew about the mine all along, right?"

   "Yes and no."

   "Explain."

   "I grew up… several miles away from the University. When I was young, another kid recruited me into a club. I was already in a computer explorer club. I had read a pamphlet and knew that there were other explorer clubs. One was High Adventure. They went white water rafting, climbing, caving, survival camping, hiking. That kinda thing."

   "Blah, blah, blah… caving… blah blah blah."

   Panic sighed and chuckled.

   "Yeah. I like going into caves, crawling through tiny tunnels. No claustrophobia. Tunnels, tubes… I go through any shit like that I find. So. Anytime I'm home from the equator. Time off for an injury? I always take 15 weeks, and squeeze a semester of college in. Walking around for exercise is expected of me having any chance of a full recovery like I need."

   "You hear there's a mine nearby."

   "From the locals. After dark, I'd hang out with some of the local young uns in town. Very few locals knew anything concrete about the mine. There was a lot of hearsay and bullshit, anytime the subject of the mine came up."

   "You finally found the mine, right?"

   "Not like it happened, the first time I walked down the tracks. I was looking for it, and I ran into the marina bar at the end, the next little town up around the bend in the river the tracks go up on. I failed. I walked back… nothing. I would go and talk to another local… this went on… well, more times than I would like to admit. It took forever."

   "You finally found it."

   "Which one? There's two mines."

   "Oh. Which one were you chasing Elvis's henchman through…"

   "Well, I finally followed instructions one time, and I found one of them."

   "Was it… the mine that…"

   "No. I was already in, but not all the way on the other mine, when the guy that even directed me to finally find it, told me to crawl down on the right side of the mine entrance, that groundhog hole, isn't a groundhog hole, like it looks like from up on top. You can wiggle down the dirt pile and it opens up into the other mine. It's flooded. You can hear big rocks falling into deep water. It's flooded, sections are caving in. They call it The Deathtrap."

   "Lovely name, by the way. So, you've been through The Deathtrap before, right? You knew there was a way out."

   "I suspected strongly. I read in a caving book, that if you can feel a breeze or hear a scary sound… there's almost certain to be another entrance, maybe more than one. I eventually made it all the way to the end, of the other mine. The Deathtrap? Yeah, I went in it. Several times. Further in each time. I was fairly close, looking back on it. Once I'd have found the dry ground at the other end, I mean, you're there, you just walk and climb up and go out."

   "Okay. I guess that's only half crazy then."

   "For the steady breeze to exist? There has to be uninterrupted air, between A and B. I'm standing at A, I just need to find B. I was close to dry land. A couple pools before it. The rooms down the main line, they flood out. They get near the ceiling, but… they never touch it. That would kill the breeze."

   "Well. Let's just agree that half crazy, is an improvement on completely crazy… and leave it at that, okay?"

   "It's over. I can relax a little bit now. But not too relaxed."

   "Why?"

   "Trials happen. We both have trials coming up. We're the goddamned Trial Twins."

   "Yes. But then… eventually… we get peace and quiet, right?"

   "Yes. No jumping off of bridges. No getting used to hypothermia. No chasing weird guys through ancient mines."

   "I noticed that after the cave water, you volunteered to sleep down here with the fire, and make it too hot down here, to keep the bedrooms warm for everyone else, you know. You finally get warm now?"

   "Starting to, yeah. The floor's perfect now."

   "This is where you wanted to bring me, when you wanted me to get out of the city when we first met."

   "Yeah. I experienced the city, when I was younger. Several of them, actually. I know about the single rooms and what they cost. I'd rather have 12 rooms and three full basements, and the whole damned block to myself, for 300 bucks a year. Call me crazy."

   "I remember you said I could be a waitress one day a week, and get by."

   "At 300 bucks a year in taxes? Yeah. A one day a week job would probably pay it. Two days a week, to buy food."

   Merry planted her lips on his ear, to ask him something privately. Not only was everyone else probably asleep, ear talking made eavesdropping even on accident impossible. The husky voice whispering was now obviously permanent.

   "Would I have been able to… work… like I do, here?"

   He nodded yes and put his own lips on her ear to answer her back.

   "You're little hobby? Is available in every small private club and bar… the next town up the river from where you're at right now. Yeah, it's all over the place. I actually grew up around it. It's normal to me."

   "So. Winter's been here a while. How do you like me all pale like this…"

   "I told you. You have dark skin. It's like you have a light tan to me, year round."

   "To me? This is pale."

   "I think it's fine. I get color changes, with the seasons."

   "Hmm. I think the scars on my legs, from playing soccer? Are more hidden when I have a tan…"

   "I think they're fine. Don't worry about it."