For a long time, Clarity hunted for John. She had the crazy hope that he was gone for one last relief in nature instead of going back into the house, men just being men and sometimes preferring doing it in the woods than in more "civilized" places where they have to think of lowering the seat again.

But that hope soon faded because it would have taken him only few seconds, and he would be back already. She knew he wouldn't have gone anywhere just before leaving without telling her. So she knew her search would be vain, but she did it even so. Desperately.

It seemed hours and her panic grew with each failure to find him ... around a corner, in another room, just down the road around the bend, in the field nearby. She called his cell phone repeatedly ... he never answered.

Eventually, she stood next to the car, making a slow circle, wondering what she was going to do ... she could not find John. Where could he be? What could have happened?

When her eyes fell on the closed door of the little place John had bought for her so lovingly, she felt it inside her heart, someplace she did not question ... what she had been afraid of was real. Something very bad was happening.

It had started.

What can I do now, she thought, feeling overwhelmed with icy fear.

"I will not panic," she said aloud, as if to reassure herself.

Call the police? To tell them what, she thought. My husband is a movie character and has been kidnapped by people coming out of a dream? No, she obviously couldn't do that.

She looked at her cell phone, which she was gripping in cold fingers.

That's when it hit her ... there really was only one thing she could do now. The idea leapt into her and she quickly punched in the speed dial to reach someone she knew instinctively was going to help her ... someone she now knew would want to believe her fears, no matter what she could or could not prove.

She listened to the phone ringing across the distance and then heard his deep voice answer.

"Maximus! It is Clarity ... Maximus, I need your help ... John has been taken from me ... he is in danger, I am sure of it."

"Are you very angry with me?" Uma asked as she finished the long and rambling story that began with a feeling and ended with her having found  a way back into the surreal world where they had first met, taking in Heather's corroboration, Maximus' strange tale of time travel and Clarity's honeymoon nightmare. Andy had held her hand, recognizing her consternation. He didn't say anything, just fingered her smaller palm in his.

Raising her fingers to his lips, he kissed them in an unusually flamboyant gesture. Shaking his head, he answered softly. "No. I'm ashamed of myself. I've let you down. I've let them all down. You can't go back, can you, Uma? We were in it from the start. I always thought you were a special woman. Maybe you're more than special. Maybe you're extraordinary and I've been holding you back..."

"Stop it! I wanted this as much as you..." Uma argued back. "I just...I just need to be there now...I need you to be there with me...I think we should call Jeff too..."

"You're right...I'll give him a ring...so this bar's in Fitzroy...? Should we go tonight and say hello?" he smiled. She shook her head as she slipped into his arms.

"Not yet. But we need to be ready. I think we might be leaving the restaurant for a while...you better prime the boys..."

Hando stood outside the pub entrance, smoking. He hung inside a shadow, waiting. Looking up to follow the trail of smoke he blew softly from his mouth, he studied the faded gilt of the sign that read "The Come On Inn."

What had made him notice that sign the first time, he wondered. He tried to remember back to that moment. It had never made an impression on him or he'd remember it, he figured. Just that somehow he'd once wandered inside the door.

He didn't remember feeling particularly welcomed. Noticed, yeah. But welcomed? 

Not until Colin made an effort. Not that Colin's efforts were very flashy or anything. But he'd extended a hand of friendship ... maybe not exactly friendship so much as understanding.

Hando thought back to when he'd first met Maximus. He'd noticed him in the pub ... noticed the woman who turned out to be Ann and the way they were together. Noticed how others gave deference to the man they called either General or Maximus ... but she called him Max.

There was just this belief in Hando then, he realized, that to make his mark and claim that pub, he had to be willing to take on the big dog. There were others ... now that he knew the people there better, Hando knew there were several of the men he could have taken on, challenged, held up to the others as not quite as worthy of their allegiance as Hando was. But it was Maximus he decided on without knowing he'd decided.

Hando could remember the way he'd instantly taken advantage of Ann ... how she'd been the avenue he chose to pick at Maximus. Take his woman? Even Hando had not thought he'd succeed there ... but make her notice him and make sure others saw she wanted him? That he could do.

What he hadn't expected was that Maximus knew what he was doing, read him, figured him out. And then saw something in him ... and Hando had not known what it was for a long time.

It was Ralph who told him. Ralph who, when they were working together to follow Max's instructions on saving his wife and unborn child, said in an off-handed sort of way that Max had been right about Hando.

Ralph said Max 'knew' Hando ... could almost predict how he'd react ... because Max saw himself in Hando. He would have been Hando if not for the fact his life included discipline and an instilled duty to family, Rome and honor.

He'd be damned if some Internet gaming geeks were going to interfere with the man who'd become a friend, his leader truth be told. Hando was looking forward to this. Inside, Maximus was getting ready to confer with the men who were the core of this group of friends who had become the only family Hando had. All they were waiting on was the arrival of the last group ... Thorne, Murphy and O'Leary.

Just then, he saw car lights, low and snug to the ground, sweep in a slow arc as it turned into the pub's lot. Had to be Thorne's car, Hando thought, tossing out his cigarette. He strode back into the pub, making his way past clusters of patrons and into the kitchen where the other men were already gathered. He gave Max the high sign.

And now they were all here. Some were connected via conference call but most were here in the flesh. 

Only two men had not been invited.

Sid was one. They still didn't trust that he wasn't involved in anything having to do with Internet and games.

John Biebe was the other. And he was the reason they had all gathered within two hours of Max's first series of phone calls.

Maximus spoke in measured tones, getting to the point swiftly. He had gathered them there because John Biebe had disappeared in a sudden and mysterious manner - and one he suspected meant Biebe had been kidnapped by whatever force seemed to be gathering against them.

"Clarity is alone to face this. A group of us must go to France to stand with her ... and to track John, rescue him and deal with this force that threatens our entire group now. What we must do, we do without regard to the law," Maximus said.

"Without regard to what law?" Zack Grant spoke up from toward the back, where he was leaning a hip against a counter, standing next to Bud White who nodded at the question.

"He means, ladies, that we act in direct and immediate response to what we find when we get there to destroy the threat to our families ... and that may mean we do things that may be against the legal codes of the country in which we will be operating," Terry said, now crossing his arms and pressing his lips together. "Whatever's going on, it may become a matter of us or them. We won't necessarily have time or the desire to call in the gendarmes."

"You cannot possibly mean that you're going to go over there and be vigilantes? Why would you not work with the local law enforcement? If Biebe's been kidnapped, that's against the law ... you cannot just ..." Jack Corbett began.

He was interrupted by Maximus who spoke in measured but iron tones. "The threat is more far-reaching than you may have taken into account. Whoever is behind this knows a very important secret ... that we are not of this existence. Armed with that knowledge and the proof they seek with this action against Biebe, they will come after each of us, one by one. What they expect to do with us ... I will not stand by to see. I will stop this now."

"But what is it they are hoping to do by kidnapping John?" Cort asked.

Various explanations were bandied about: ransom, coercion, brainwashing, extraction of information ...

Then John Nash spoke up in a silence that descended in the aftermath of this laundry list of ominous possibilities.

"You're overlooking something," Nash said. Heads turned to look at him. He sat on a stool, near the grill, his eyes watching the rays through water glasses intersecting with the dark lines of the griddle.

"And that would be?" Dino prodded.

"Maximus speaks of a 'force,' as if we did not already know the force is the Mephisto Corporation working in concert with one of our own," Nash said.

The other men looked at each other. "Go on," Bud barked out. "Tell us what's so obvious we've been too stupid to see."

Nash looked him in the eye then glanced at Cort before saying, "After our last meeting, I put it down on paper. I noticed a few patterns and started looking into Mephisto a bit more. It's all quite clear but ... maybe you'd have to know what you were seeing."

So began Nash's sometimes difficult to follow explanations of the patterns he'd seen and those he'd followed to find out more. Mephisto Corporation was more than an Internet games development company ... they had amassed scientists and medical technologists engaged in research that could not have anything to do with the game development that was the more public face of the company, Nash said. He'd looked up their credentials and had seen one clear convergence that could explain this assortment of talent.

"And that is?"

"Time travel," Nash said. "They believe we are a distinct race of time travelers ... not ordinary humans at all."

"Are you nuts?" Egan said. Colin smirked. Hando cleared his throat as he caught Max's steady gaze on Nash.

"They believe we are have navigated time itself to arrive on these shores?" Jack Aubrey asked. "Truly? Amazing."

"It would explain something Lucius told me as we flew to Rome," Max spoke up. "He said his employers had known who he was, had sheltered him. But that he never could duplicate the ritual he'd used to come to this world ... and they had run tests on them all. One of his men said Mephisto would have given their very souls to even know of my existence, so interested were they to solve the mystery of how to travel to my world. Even Lucius did not know of you others, as you remember me telling you. Imagine their reaction to an entire group of us who look so similar?"

"Nash, you said one of our own was helping them," Bud White said, his voice dark and menacing. "Care to name names or are we supposed to play charades to get the name outta you?"

"No games. Just the facts ... Sid is in regular email communication with the Mephisto owners," Nash said.

"How do you know that?" someone asked.

"You don't want to know, even if you could understand it," Nash replied.

"Imagine the knowledge of us that Sid brings them," Jeffrey said, his voice coming over the conference phone. "He may even be the one who first started Mephisto down this road, if you think about it. It would be just the sort of game he'd love to play on us all."

"Imagine what they may be doing to John right now," Stephen Maturin said darkly, bringing their attention back to the critical matter that had brought them together. "Nash is right ... but if science and medicine are involved in this, then they are almost certainly using it in an effort to learn all the secrets they would believe are hidden in John's body."

"Medical experiments?" Cullen asked, biting off the words. "They're cutting into him?"

"Or worse," Dino offered. His chin raised. His face was flushed. He looked around the room, his eyes settling on Cort. "Let me tell you something else, gentlemen. When we think about what this can mean to us ... let's not forget, it's not just us they would want to get their hands on and run their nasty little medical tests on if they're thinking we're a race of time travelers."

"Our children," Lachlan whispered hoarsely. "You're saying they'd experiment on our kids?" 

The men in the room with children suddenly felt the news inside their chests. It was one thing for a man to face danger directed at himself ... it was another to know it was directed at his defenseless children.

Maximus, who had already considered this aspect days ago, nonetheless felt a deep pit inside himself to have the words spoken in this setting. To think that one of Mephisto's people had been stalking his wife ... knew she was pregnant ... was this the real reason she had been targeted for this treatment, he wondered.

"Then there is not a moment to be lost, gentlemen," Jack Aubrey said. "I suggest we have had our war council; we should take immediate action to go to France, find John Biebe and take him back. Then we shall need to take all appropriate measures to assure that this Mephisto group will never threaten us or our families again. What measures be taken be damned ... Maximus, I am at your service, sir."

There were considerations as to who could go to France and who, simply put, they would not take. Terry proposed that no law enforcement officers go ... the team that went, he reasoned, needed to not be bound by any sense of legal wrongs or rights. He did not wish to put officers of the law in a position that could mean the destruction of their careers. They would be of more use back here, ready to act swiftly should anyone else in the group be threatened.

Dino insisted that only those absolutely able to conduct covert operations or who had special talents needed on site should go ... anyone else would simply be a liability for those who putting their lives on the line in the mission.

Arguments met both dictates. Voices were raised. Maximus called for calm. Jack Aubrey's booming voice brought them all to a softer murmur so that discussion could take place.

Into this quieter moment, a female voice piped up shortly after the door to the kitchen opened without anyone really noticing. 

"It's a good thing I came when I did," Uma said. Every man in there turned to look at her, standing next to Andy, dressed in casual clothes and the only thing flamboyant she sported was a sparkly handbag. "It's quite obvious to me that you men need a woman to take this matter in hand. Now, I say the only men who can go are those strong enough to carry my luggage."

"That leaves me out," Terry said, sourly. "Uma, what the bloody hell are you doing here now? This isn't Scooby gang time."

"Good to see you too, sunshine. For your information, Maximus invited me."

Maximus had come forward by then, edging around other men. He greeted Uma with a brief hug; shook hands with Andy. "I am glad you took my counsel," he told Uma.

"You asked her here to watch over the pub while the rest of us go to France?" Paul asked. "Bloody brilliant move, Maximus."

"Whatever force attempts to change our existence, it must deal with Uma before it can truly take us out of this plane," Maximus said, ignoring Paul's comment. "What started here, started with her. She was the key to what happened then ... she may be the key to stopping whatever is threatening us now. I do not know that I can give you modern men an explanation that will surmount your need for definitive proof ... I can only say, Uma knew something was wrong as it began happening. She may be the one person who can guide us in finding the way to defeat the aims of Mephisto."

"You want her to come with us to France?" Dino asked. "Because you got a feeling she's gonna help us stop them from taking us all down?"

"Yes. Something very much like that," Maximus said, softly. His chin was set, his eyes studied Dino calmly, challenging Dino to challenge him on this.

"Works for me. Welcome to the party, beautiful," Dino said, blowing her a kiss from across the room. "Now, back to who goes and who stays ..."

In the end, it was not decided by a vote but by acclimation, not that most of them were thrilled. But the group was swayed by those practical souls among them who believed that those who went did not fall into an easily defined category but who each could be expected to have abilities and knowledge that would best insure the enemy would be defeated ... and, without a doubt, that John Biebe would be rescued. And that they would not feel any remorse if they must break a few laws, including using false passports to travel, one of the milder legalities they might breach on this mission for they could not afford to be tracked by Mephisto.

Maximus, Uma and Jack Aubrey were universally approved. As were Terry, Cullen, Dino and Cort. Hando would be going as well, Maximus said and, though no one really argued the point, it was not an obvious choice to most. Stephen Maturin would go, an asset both as a deadly shot well versed in facing an armed enemy in combat but also as a physician whose skills may be needed for John Biebe. It was Dino who insisted that John Nash come along as well ... since they were facing an enemy that was using the Internet and science, they needed someone along who could help them with that aspect.

What Maximus did not tell the group was that one other person would be coming with them: Ralph. He would explain to the mission team later, when they convened at the farm in order to check and prepare their supplies for the trip. Ralph had skills gained in military service of the same stratosphere as Terry, Dino and Cullen. He would be an asset but he also had a deep stake in the outcome.

Those who stayed behind would stay in contact with each other, filtering information through a central point ... the pub, where Paul would serve the important role of collecting and disseminating information. They would first see to their own families and watch over the families of those men who would go to France. They would also alert other pub regulars if it appeared that the situation grew more imminently threatening.

It was Cullen who suggested they would need to trick the Mephisto surveillance agent when they left the farm to meet the TOL company jet that would be standing by at a small nearby airport. They had no doubt that Mephisto knew Clarity had called Max once John had been taken. But thanks to Max's secure lines he'd had put in at the farm as a precaution related to his job, they would not have been able to hear the conversation. However, when they saw a group of men come with Max to the farm and then leave shortly after, they would presume Max was about to take action.

The longer Mephisto did not know exactly what they were up to, the better, Cullen said. What if we actually make them think Max is going at this through official channels rather than going to France, Dino suggested.

The plan they developed would require four decoys. The decoys would leave the farm in Max's car. Surely the Mephisto agent, having to choose which car to follow, would follow Max's car. The car would head for the port, where Max's office was, as if he was going there to work with his own people or with government officials, to aid Biebe. Four volunteers quickly stepped forward, including Andy.

He might not have been thrilled that Uma was going with them to France while he would stay behind, but even he had to admit the truth ... he didn't belong on the team. But maybe if he stayed close to her as long as he could ... you just never knew.

Just before they began to file out of the pub's kitchen, Maximus called Chili over to him.

"I have a special favor to ask of you, Chili," Max said, his hand on Chili's shoulder. "There is no one else in whom I can place my trust for this."

"Name it and it's yours," Chili said, leaning in to listen as Max told him what he needed him to do.

Sid thought the plans hatched in the pub's kitchen were excellent. He was pleased they were going to France. This should make things interesting, he thought as he logged off the digital bug he had hidden in the kitchen.

He never once considered alerting Mephisto, mind you. It would never have been quite as interesting if he had, he smiled to himself.

Keeping the Mephisto scientists engaged in fruitless activities had proved boring to Sid. When they bored him, he stopped giving them the attention such single minded cretins needed in order to be compliant. They began peppering the Mephisto Geeks with complaints about all they could be doing if only they could get their hands on John.

Sid had forbid them to touch Biebe. He was not ready. If there was to be experimenting with John Biebe, it would be the furthering of Sid's experiments with Biebe ... not new ones by some Johnny-come-lately's who were so insanely stupid they thought John was a time traveler.

But then Sid picked up that transmission from the Mephisto secretary. So one of the Geeks had gone to France, had he? And apparently was doing it covertly as he had not traveled under his own name?

Sid had delved in to do a little checking but detected nothing in the Mephisto transmissions. However, he did pick up the phone call that Clarity made to Maximus. He heard Clarity's side of the conversation since it was her transmission he had tracked. Max's lines, Sid already knew, were cloaked in a rather impressive security shield. But hearing Clarity's side was enough for Sid to understand what had happened.

When he learned they had taken Biebe already ... and against his orders ... Sid had let his fury rule. He had shut down not only the Mephisto power grid and shorted out their generators ... but he had wreaked havoc with the medical equipment in France by sending power surges barreling up the lines.

They would dare to cross him? They would pay and this was only the beginning.

But now that he was a bit calmer ... now that mayhem of the sort to which he was more attracted was beginning ... perhaps he could look upon this betrayal more benignly. Perhaps they were simply showing initiative.

Perhaps they should not do that again.

Those scientists in the lab in France thought they could get away with defying him? Well, they would sing a different tune when they realized Maximus and his men were there and about to come crashing in on their little party.

Ah, yes. A few would need to be sacrificed to assure the others understood further the price of being aligned with anyone but Sid. He could afford benevolence then and only then.

It is a good thing when a plan comes back together, Sid thought. He would step in to save the day in France by appearing in person at the lab only scant minutes before the Come On Inn To My Boy Scout Troop descended in all their self-righteous daring-do and passé camouflage war paint. He could picture it all happening as he went in to find Myra and let her know he'd be taking a little trip to escargot country ... he'd wear his deep purple suit and mustard yellow silk tie, he mused ... he would step through the doors and introduce himself to the lab rats.

They'd scurry before him, fearing his anger over their betrayal. He'd study them closely and know which were the ones to be sacrificed to the avenging Boy Scouts. And only then would he inform them that in his brilliance and mastery of the very air they breathed that he had detected an imminent security breach of the lab ... that an enemy force of great might and ruthless soldiers of fortune was minutes behind him. They were coming to make take back Biebe and kill everyone who'd touched him.

He would time it perfectly ... they would make it to the waiting vans as the lab was breached by the Boy Scouts. It would be a pity but a few of the lab rats would need to be left behind as they would not all fit in the vans ... when those whom he allowed into the vans saw that the rats he would choose to leave behind were the ones most guilty of crossing him, they would be inordinately compliant once the rescue was complete. He would transport them away to an alternate lab where his true genius experiment with John could be conducted instead. And since one of the Mephisto Geeks would be a witness ... the other Geeks would be easy to control ... for they would see the power he possessed.

And they would fear him as they should.

The weather was still so mild. Levon had watched children walking home from school that afternoon, still dressed in shirt sleeves in November. Did they ever wish for the glorious fun of autumn? True autumn, with crisp afternoons and the promise of winter in the winds that chilled the nights?

When he was a child, autumn was a season that began when school started again. By now, it would have snowed at least once, though the first snow would not have stuck to the ground. He smiled at a memory ... teaching his son how to catch a football during this season, a few years ago. They had been watching sports together that Sunday ... and his son said he wanted to try out for junior league football.

Simple memories.

With a painful tug, he remembered tucking that football in his son's casket. It was all gone ... all of it. And what had he to show for his life now?

Levon blinked away the past. He started the car's engine and began another meandering survey of the town of Folsom. This was the day of the week that Ann so often visited the tavern that sold her odd baked items. He was driving past Rosie's Tavern when his cell phone chirped out.

"What is the status of the subjects?" Dunnell asked him, no small talk, just asking the question.

"Their routine is broken. He didn't go into work this morning. She hasn't run any errands today ... yet. Why? Something up?"

"There was a need to secure the situation in France. We had a chance to intercept the man. The woman called Max Cooper when she realized the man was missing."

"What? She called Cooper?" Levon sat up straighter. He stared intently around him, alert but not really knowing why. "When was this?"

"About ten minutes ago. If he is at home ... then he took the call there ... whatever actions he takes, he is bound to make an overt move this time. You need to harden your monitoring, Levon. Do you understand?"

"Shit. I can't believe we can't tap into his line."

"Accept it. I have. It is not an insurmountable obstacle. Think logically."

Levon scowled but Theo could not see him, of course. "I always think logically. I'm not your dorky bosses. I'm a professional ... just like you, Dunnell."

"Then be a professional. Do not let Max Cooper make a move from that farm without you knowing exactly what color of underwear he has on today, do you understand? Can your logical thought processes see your way clear to making that a reality?"

"What about your end, Dunnell? Eh? You screwed this up ... shoulda got the woman at the same time ... what'd you expect her to do? You thought she'd just call the cops over there and you'd be able to contain that, didn't you?"

"We wanted the man ... the woman holds no interest."

"You miscalculated. Cooper has already shown how ruthless he will be if his secret is threatened ... count on a few of the other men being of similar mind ... and ability to try to stop this."

"You think I don't know this, Levon? They may be formidable but they lack our forces and our resources. We must presume the woman told Cooper her husband was missing. He will make a move ... we must be ahead of him and any others he contacts for help. I am taking steps in France to assure the trail there is wiped clean. We are already monitoring all their passports ... they cannot make a move to France without us being well ahead of them ... if you do your part."

"Cooper could fuck you over royally and just call Interpol, report a kidnapping ... he has the contacts to get them to take it seriously, after all."

"I have thought of that ... they will never risk their secret getting out ... no, what they do, they will do on their own."

"You shouldn't count on that."

"We have insurance ... in case he cannot be contained. But they will find nothing, even if they go to France. And before they can regroup, the man and his wife will turn up with no memory of ever having any problems or of having been taken by our people."

"You think you have it all thought out."

"I am doing my best."

"What's the insurance? No way you have something on him that I don't know already."

"His wife. If he must choose, he will choose the option that keeps her alive."

"Black."

"Excuse me?"

"His underwear today. Black silk. The wife's favorite. Must be planning on trying for a little later," Levon said, his voice dismissive and dripping in sarcasm. "Listen, Dunnell, I know what I'm doing. You do your job, I do mine. It's not my fault your boys in France didn't foresee the woman would reach out for help. They should have silenced her when they took the man."

"Call me the minute he makes an overt move. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

When Maximus returned home that night, he was not alone. Ann and Ralph sat waiting for him in the kitchen, unsure what would be the upshot of the hasty meeting at the pub. She sipped tea; he was working on coffee. Every so often she had started pacing ... each time, Ralph let her until it got on his nerves and then he'd stand up, take her elbow and lead her back to the table.

They had talked about polo, Astrid, Mercury, his dislike of the new vet, how Astrid's view of them may change now that Max would have to tell the others what they'd done, and new recipes Ann was inventing for Rosie's. Her mother had called from Mamou, arriving there following Max's instructions to Pete to take her to her nephew's place, where they were surrounded by family and friends. It was hard for Ann to think of her mother now in danger.

They heard Max's car drive up not long after that phone call. By the time they made it to the front door, they heard a few other cars coming in, too. Hando, Andy and Uma climbed out of Max's car along with him.

Uma barely recognized her friend. Ann was not expecting to see hers. It was a moment of pure delight and accompanied by several shrieks. After the events of the day, it was a welcome break in the oppressive atmosphere around them.

Even Max smiled, briefly, to observe their reunion.

The mood was broken by Hando, walking up the steps toward the house, passing them ... where Uma's hands were trying to make sense of Ann's belly ... and Ann was trying to make sense of Uma's hair ... and Hando said as he passed, "Crazy sheilas ... put a sock in yer gobs if you got nothing better to do but that caterwalling ... we got work to do."

Uma and Ann looked at each other. They were just about to lay into Hando, when Maximus touched Ann's arm to guide her inside.

"Did you hear what that ... did you hear what he just said to us? The rude S.O.B.," Ann stuttered to Max.

"Hando, there is enough tension in the air tonight without you manufacturing more trouble for yourself. Take care, boy, in how you address the ladies," Max said. "For I would not like your odds were they to join together in reducing you to your appropriate place."

Ralph stopped whatever rejoinder might have come from Hando by asking Max what had been arranged for the mission to France.

Ann turned as she went in the door, looking at the other three cars. One she recognized as belonging to Chili. Another held Dino, Terry and Cullen. A third, piloted by Jack Aubrey, held Stephen Maturin, John Nash and Cort.

But Max propelled her forward, moving her inside the house. "Please ... make yourselves at ease in our home ... Ralph, would you see to refreshments for our guests? I wish to speak with my wife alone for a moment."

"Max? What is it?" Ann asked.

"Upstairs."

Inside their bedroom, he closed the door on a house quickly filling on the floor below them. She tried to look as calm as she hoped he would think she was.

Everything about him changed the moment the door shut and he turned back to her. His stoic demeanor softened into a smile and he leaned down to kiss her forehead.

"Tonight?" she asked in response, stiffening, pushing herself away from him. "You leave now, don't you?"

"Below, they will be busy checking our arms, ammunition, gear we must have for our use in France. I must join them soon to assist. I shall be taking weapons of my own along."

"Then you have to go? Now?"

"I wish to say to you ..."

"I have so much I want you to know ... to make sure you know ..."

"I know already." His voice was whisper soft.

"But I have to say it ... I love you, Maximus. I am so happy with you. You have given me so much ... love, understanding ... a life ... and this child of ours. I just can't put into words ... I just love you. I want that to be what you remember, no matter what. Let it keep you safe to know I'm here, always loving you so much."

"I will come back to you, cara. Never fear that. I wish you to know that, above all things, for the love I feel for you has restored my ability to believe I still have a purpose in living."

"Max ... I ..."

"And I wish you to know ... that if I was sent here to learn something, I have learnt it through you ... and I am a better man for it."

Her fingers touched his lips as they drifted close again. He placed a closed fist in the center of his chest, then opened that hand and placed it over her belly, as if letting his child have this message from his father.

His words took her ability to speak away from her. She was determined to be strong, that the last impression he had of her was strength ... so that he could do whatever would be needed, face the threat they both felt was hanging over them all. Inside her mind, she willed him to think of her if the moment came when he might be taken from her.

For it had occurred to her, as the danger seemed to take more solid shape with John's disappearance, that just as this seemed to have started with Luke's belief that Maximus held the key to the past to which Lucius wished to return, it could be that something inexorable had begun there that Maximus could not escape. That something from Max's other world, his past world, had come too close to him when he'd been partially in Elysium, before pulling back and closing that rift, marooning Lucius and his men forever. Maybe that's what was happening ... that something in that other place was trying to reach through and pull Max back to his past. Maybe the gods wanted him back, she had begun to fear.

It was even possible it was Lucius behind this new threat, she'd been thinking. He had found a way into the future once, hadn't he? Maybe he was behind this gathering force they feared ... and maybe it would never stop until it had claimed Maximus.

Don't go without fighting for everything you love that's here, she said to him inside her mind. We will wait for you forever if we have to.

Maximus took a long look around the bedroom, his head tucked in over Ann's as he held her. In this room, their sanctuary. This was where he would return ... but he would return only after he'd destroyed this force that threatened his family. If he should be facing his final battle, it was as a man who had reclaimed a part of himself he'd lost without understanding he might have wanted it back. He had not lost as much of himself as he might have once imagined, though.

"Anna, let me tell you of our plans," he said, guiding her to the bed. At first they sat on the edge but as he talked, she nestled her body in as close to his as she could. Gradually, he shifted until they were lying on the bed, holding each other in their final moments before he would leave her.

When he finished, she pulled him in to cover her, his chest over hers, his arms around her. She needed his weight to press her down into the mattress as it had so often done in passion. Now it was solace. Until she began kissing at his neck and then with a low growl, he'd responded by fondling her breasts and ravaging her mouth. It was over as swiftly as it began; but even as the madness eased, her face remained buried in his neck, a vain attempt at hiding tears. His hand was between her thighs, he realized as he eased away from her grip on his shoulders. He moved to cup her face, his thumb softly stroking her cheek until her eyes met his.

"One last thing ... Ralph and Hando must come with us, for we need them there badly. Therefore, I have taken other measures to assure your safety."

"Don't worry about me, Max, not at a time like this."

"Of course I would concern myself with your safety, Anna," he tsked.

"Am I in danger?"

"I believe you are, yes," he said. She was grateful for his honesty. "Chili has agreed to be your protector in my absence. Terry has arranged for a safe house for your use. Chili will take you there and ..."

"Why can't we just stay here?"

"The man watching this farm will know when we leave in force. He will follow us. But if he believed you were here alone or with one lone sentry, he would come back for you ... You will not be safe here. Chili will take you into hiding before they even realize you have gone."

"How is that going to work?"

"Cullen has determined evidence of only one man watching. When we leave in force, several cars full, the man watching us will follow. At some point along the route, the cars will separate. We believe the man will make the choice to follow whatever car I drive; he is, after all, concerned most with me, is he not? However, it will not be me driving but a decoy ... the others in the car will similarly be decoys. Why not use what we have in abundance to our own use, eh?"

"You mean ... some of you will switch identities?"

"Before he realizes what has happened, we in the main group will be on our way to meet the private jet that will secret us out of the country."

"And when he does realize he's been fooled ..."

"He will return here, to find you. But Chili will have already taken you out of here, on another route, toward safe keeping. There will be no way he can find you."

"You've thought this all out."

"I told you ... you are my first and last concern. Of course I would."

She stroked his chest and then hugged him in to her. "Of course you would. Thank you."

"Obey Chili. Stay with him at all times. Do not ever be further than your voice can summon him. Understand?"

"Yes. I'm no hero after all ... I am grateful for his help." She answered firmly ... knowing he needed to know as he left her that he did not have to actively worry about her. He had far more important matters to be thinking over ... John Biebe was missing and Clarity was frantic. Whoever was behind it ... it was connected to what they were going through. They were both convinced of this.

For long moments, they lay on their backs, her knuckles on his chest, his hand covering  hers. Below, the sounds of men getting ready. Every so often, they would hear Uma's voice, easy to pick out in the otherwise masculine voices.

Max rolled toward her, careful in how he cradled her belly between them. He put his lips on her cheek, whispered to her that she must protect their child now in his absence. And then his lips stole over hers, his teeth gently nibbling her lower lip even as she tickled his lip with her tongue. They drew into a deeper kiss then, building up slowly, savoring the taste of each other and memorizing the feel of tongues. By the time they parted, they had said all they should to the other. 

Downstairs, when they joined the others, there were packed duffel-type bags she knew held guns and whatever else they were taking. Max left her there, going alone into his study to prepare what he would take. Ralph was dressed all in black, and for the first time, Ann witnessed a side of him she'd known he had but always seemed to find hard to accept. It was seeing him, squatting next to Cullen, both dressed so alike, both going over a checklist with the same attentive look in their faces ... She had known of his military background for he had told her these things and others about himself in those long hours they waited for Luke to end their present and future. He had been in Special Forces ... and now she was convinced, it might have been an even more elite cadre within that group. He simply seemed so in tune with Cullen, so cut from the same cloth just then.

No wonder Max wanted him there with them in France, she thought. Ralph's eyes caught hers. Just be careful, she mouthed to him. He rolled his eyes ... and then gave her a soft smile before getting back to his tasks.

Uma was standing over near the doors leading to the back deck. Ann joined her, encouraging her to step outside, where they could pretend it was normal that they'd be seeing each other like this, and ignore what was going on behind them.

Uma told Ann of how she and Andy had come into the pub, unexpected, but needed. Uma would be going with the team to France ... the belief they had, she said, was that she had a reason for being called back and this must be it ... that she would be with them to confront whatever force or entity was endangering them all.

"Stay close to Max," Ann cautioned Uma. "He will never let anything happen to you. Well, Terry wouldn't either but ... I just ... well, just stay close to one of them, okay? No heroics. I know it sounds so wussy ... but ... they are the ones who should protect you."

"Nash is coming along, too," Uma said, now edging away from Ann's worries. "They figure they may need his special and beautiful mind to go up against these guys from Mephisto."

"Do you think Sid is ... I mean, I have wondered ..."

"I think it's always possible Sid is behind anything bad that happens to us. I asked Clarity that same thing when she first called me."

Ann shrugged. "He's been quiet and all ... I've kind of forgotten about him."

Just then the door from the house opened and Andy stepped through, his hands on his head. Uma leapt toward him. "What have they done? I told them to leave your hair alone!"

He grinned as he let his hands down. Ann saw that he now had dark hair, fringed bangs ... and his face ... "Is that a beard?" she asked, now coming closer. "Why is your hair like that? You almost look like ... like Max!"

"That's the idea, sweetheart."

And then Uma held one hand over her mouth in horror at the very sight of him. With her other hand, she reached forward to touch his darkened, shorn hair. "It's a wig!" she yelped with relief.

"Oh ... you're one of the decoys," Ann said softly. "Who are the others?"

"Jason's playing Thorne ... just a bit of neatening up of the hair, shave, and there ya go. Jack Aubrey will be played by none other than Bud White in a bonzer of a blond wig ... you gals keep your hands off him. And Hando ..."

"Yes? Who is going to be the stand in for Hando?"

"Arthur."

"Arthur? No way!" The women said it together and then turned to each other, giggling, a break in new tension.

"What, they found a skull cap to make him look bald? Oh, Lord, Hando will never recover!"

"No, they shaved Arthur. Wanted it to be authentic, Hando said."

"Poor Arthur!"

"I think Angie will tear them all a new one when she finds out."

"How did they all get here? I never saw them get out of any of the cars," Ann asked.

"They were on the floor of Chili's caddy. Didn't want the guy watching to know we were bringing in ringers, eh?"

"Oh. That's smart."

"And the real Max, Terry, Jack and Hando will be huddling on the floor of one of the other cars that leaves. As will I," Uma said. "We want the bloke watching to think it's just me, you and Chili left here by ourselves."

"Andy, you have to be very careful. The guy could still hurt you when he realizes ..."

"No worries."

"We all have to be careful," Uma said, her hand now seeking Andy's.

When they were leaving, it was simple. No lingering goodbyes, even among the couples. It was rather quiet. Those leaving had their minds on what would come. Those acting as decoys were dropping into character, even though they knew they would be seen only from a distance.

And Chili and Ann stood at the bottom step and watched their tail lights leave a trail of red ghost images in the night as they turned off the lane that led to the farm.

"We give them 15 minutes and then we're on our way. You ready, Ann?"

"Yes," she said, staring after the last traces of his existence until the color of red disappeared in the blackness.