It did not dawn on her all at once but it did come over her as a wave ... an inevitable force that she might run from but would be drawn beneath if it touched at her ankles in the surf.

It was Buck, of course.

It would be, would it not?

He had paced in the back seat, snorfling in a way Ann put down to general unease at odd circumstances. And maybe Sgt. Candals had a cat that rode in the car ... and maybe Buck was being all Alpha dog about having to ride amidst the scent of a dastardly feline. That was what might have been her thinking if she'd actually had any part of her that could care if Buck didn't like riding in the back seat of this car.

All Ann really devoted her active mind to was one thing: what was she going to do to get help for Chili? But on the edges of that were this: how vulnerable they were ... separated from each other, unable to reach any friend, certain that some outside force was drawing closer to take advantage of this vulnerability.

Maybe it was that barely formed edge of a thought that was the reason that when it did happen that she found herself backed into a situation that was a wave over her head, she did not fight so much as she swam counter to the shore, hoping she could swim out of the rip current, which was the only way one ever got out alive rather than fighting it directly.

They pulled up to the vet's office. Sgt. Andrew Candals, the Moro Bay Sheriff's Department officer, parked smoothly and waiting on them as they got out was his wife, all clad in nursing gear like so many vet tech's wore in Ann's experience. The wife nodded, motioned them toward a door she heaved open. Ann reached in the back seat to put Buck's leash on him. Now he was openly agitated. She hissed at him to settle down and gave a little tug on the leash to get him to hop out and walk with her.

Inside, she followed in the darkened hall that led back to where there were crates and runs for dogs being boarded. The wife stopped before one that had a whining Lab on one side and a howling Basset hound on the other side. Ann could barely hear the wife asking her something. And then the wife reached out to take Buck's leash and that's when Buck started barking, growling, snapping and lunging at the end of the leash.

Embarrassed, out of sorts and pretty tired, Ann simply picked up her struggling dog and shoved him inside the run the wife had opened. Together they closed the crate. Ann pointed a warning finger at Buck, barking and whining in some strange mix she'd not seen before.

"I have his shot record and stuff but it's in the car ... back at the station," Ann said as the wife led her into an area Ann thought was where they'd fill out paperwork to board Buck.

Inside the inner exam area, Andy closed the door they'd just gone through from the boarding area, shutting out the cacophony of the disturbed dogs they'd left behind them. In its wake, there was an awkward pause between Andy and his wife.

Ann was fingering Buck's leash nervously and maybe she sensed the wave coming or maybe she was already getting some recognition she should have been running from it.

"Mrs. Cooper, we don't want to hurt you," a voice from another doorway said a second before a man walked out of shadows and into the room.

She swiveled to look at the man she'd not noticed and then took a step back. If Andy had not caught her, she might have been able to turn and at least try to get away. But it was already too late and Andy's hands gripped tightly into her upper arms.

"You!" was all Ann could gasp out as the man from the shadows walked into the light, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Who do you see when you look at me?" he asked her, his voice low and breathy. "Who frightens you so?"

"You are not William. I know you cannot be ... you ... you're the one from the market," she said, her own voice hushed, the words rushing from her. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"In good time. All in good time. I will tell you this much, Mrs. Cooper. My name is Levon. William is my brother. Or should I have said, he was my brother?"

She was shaking now. On the tip of her tongue was a plaintive plea for him to tell her what he wanted, to beg him to let her go ... but somehow she was beginning to reach down deep inside, a subdued inner voice telling her that giving in to panic was not an option. She had higher responsibilities.

"I want you to come along quietly because I do not want them to hurt you. Not now. And they do not want to hurt you either, Mrs. Cooper."

She looked at the 'wife' and then turned to look over her shoulder at Sgt. Candals. She took in big breaths and dove deeper down inside, where strength was lurking. She imagined Maximus in this moment. What would he do? That one thought, one image ... it was what she grabbed hold of in that time of need. Suddenly, her chin rose and she fixed Levon with a look of pure disdain. She would not go down that easy, she told herself.

He smiled softly at her. "Good. Then we understand each other?"

"Who are you people? What possible reason could you have to have to gone to so much trouble to come after me?" She was remembering something Max had told her once about using fear to guide her ability to notice details ... that it was often those very details that would help one's instincts take over. And knowing somewhere inside, sure and strong, that what happened here was closer than she'd ever been to her reason to have come this far.

"Where's your husband, Mrs. Cooper?"

She hesitated. When she answered, her voice was belligerent. "I don't actually know. He wanted it that way."

Levon smiled and hummed lightly as he turned to start pacing in the center of the room. "She doesn't know where he is. Do we believe that?"

"No," Sgt. Candals said, his grip tightening and then releasing her. She rubbed cold hands over where he had held her.

"Does it matter that she won't tell us?" Levon mused again, surely for her benefit.

"Nope," Sgt. Candals said and when she glanced at him, she saw the smug look he gave her in response. "We have other ways of getting it out of her."

"No, it really doesn't matter, Mrs. Cooper, but I still wanted to see how you'd answer," Levon said, now glancing at her over his shoulder. "You see, you're just the bait now, Mrs. Cooper. And as long as you don't cause us trouble then we ..."

"Bait?" she interrupted him. And then she laughed, a short derisive chuckle that brought a frown to Levon's face. "Oh? I'm the bait ... for my husband, you mean? Jesus. When will you people ever get a different schtick?"

Levon turned to face her full on, tilting his head as he regarded her. "Excuse me?"

She waved a hand in the air, as if dismissing the threat. "You people ... you come into our life, fuck it up for us, then think you're somehow going to scare us by holding on to me because you think you'll get Max to do something for you. Pfft. Been there, done that, got the corpses to prove it doesn't work."

Silence inside the room was a vacuum. Outside the room, dogs barked and howled. Ann braced herself. She had instinctively decided her course of action. She would not be the woman they had anticipated ... she would give them something to think about. Even if she could not escape or elude whatever they intended for her, she did not have to go to her fate willingly ... she would not be defeated before the battle really began.

And it was just like Max had once shown her ... when you choose, really choose. She knew they were going to take her out of there. If it had just been her, she could have fought them, tooth and nail, struggling and fighting back ... hoping someone would hear her screams and come help. But that option was out - she would not risk her child with such a physical confrontation. She knew they were taking her to get Max to lose his focus on getting John back, which meant to her that this was what they really feared ... that Max and the others would disrupt whatever they were doing to John. Maybe she could give them something to disrupt Mephisto's plans - something they were not expecting.

Besides, she really was getting a little tired of being threatened and manipulated by people who just thought of Max as a commodity. She was tired of being nothing but a vulnerability for him. She was not that woman. She was her. And if this was all she had, then at least she had that and she would use it to protect their child to her last breath.

A pale glow entered Levon's eyes. He walked toward her. She stood her ground. The closer he got, the steadier she became, and the more details she absorbed. He did look like William but now she could really see the differences. Especially in age. Levon was quite a few years older, she'd bet on it. He held himself different. Where William seemed to be loose and touchy when he wanted to threaten her, Levon was tight, as if his rigidity was only about his own effort to hold himself in check.

And she could see fury flashed through Levon. William was never angry around her.

Levon was now so close to her that she could see the flecks in his irises as he stooped to look directly into her eyes. Still she held her ground.

"If you were not pregnant, you would pay dearly for what you just said," he said, a deep voice that defied gravity.

"Let me tell you something, Levon," she said, the child inside her choosing now to kick and making her grimace as her hands went instantly to her belly, smoothing over it, soothing her child who must be feeling the adrenalin coursing through her body as a jolt of pure energy. "I am not the little wussy woman you seem to think I am. Yeah, you spooked me when you showed yourself at the market. But you picked on the wrong person when you started messing with me, okay?"

"Oh, really?"

"You think I'm afraid of you?"

"Yes."

"I'm not."

He smiled now, straightening up to his full height and looking down at her. Her chin rose to keep eye contact. "No? Then why are you trembling so?"

"Because I'm angry. Simple as that."

"I think not. Where is your husband?"

"Some day, he will be standing in front of you and you will die at his hands."

"Perfect. You see? We both know he will come for you now. It's even what we both want."

"You're as big a fool as your brother."

When he slapped her, it came from nowhere and it left tears blinding her eyes. She stumbled under its force but Sgt. Candal reached out to keep her upright. The welt stayed evident for hours. It was a burning ember that gave her something sharp to focus on ... something other than her fear over what would happen now. To her. To Max. To their son. To all the others.

The air was closing in on him. He intensely disliked this feeling. It brought back memories of death and anger over his inability to control the blood that left his body, there on the beach.

Hando rose from the seat on the jet and stretched. He needed some kind of physical activity. This was the best he could in the close quarters.

As he stretched, he twisted his torso to work out some kinks in his back. He had been sleeping, exhausted enough to finally let go and let the dreams take hold. Dreams of running, running, running and never knowing why except his heart would burst if he did not. He hated these dreams. They'd been coming to him for months. In the dreams, he could feel his hands grip a cold steel shaft and that's usually when he would force himself to wake up. Wake up, damn you.

Turning now, he studied Maximus, his head thrown back in the seat where he'd settled for the flight. His eyes were shut. He swallowed and Hando watched his Adam's apple move. His beard was ragged. Maximus didn't give a shit about the niceties right now, Hando thought, and if anyone on this plane did not know that Max was getting ready to unleash hell, then ... well, then they were idiots.

Ralph was sleeping also. Hando would have studied his face except Ralph had pulled a blanket clear over his head. Must have been to shut out the light.

He turned back, swiveling his torso until he faced toward where the pilots drove this puppy, sitting behind a closed cockpit door. What he saw when he looked in that direction was Dino, standing in the entryway to the galley, sipping coffee from the looks of the steam that curled from the mug he held. He held it out to Hando, his eyebrows going up, a silent invitation to Hando to join him for a jolt of java.

Why the hell not, Hando thought to himself. Red's one of those kind, he told himself, an internal monologue to occupy himself as he walked toward where Dino now disappeared into the galley. Hando had never spent any time with Dino, had only seen him come in the pub on rare occasions, knew he worked with Thorne and Cullen, knew he kept his own counsel. Even on this trip, all of them thrown together, Hando could not recall Dino offering much in the way of idle conversation. He spoke with Thorne ... usually the two of them with their heads together, giving you the impression they had stuff to talk over they didn't think the others could add to, uptight bastards.

Then again ... yeah ... then again, Hando knew their reputations ... knew Dino was "one of them" ... that group everyone in the pub seemed to believe were the ones you called in when the going got tough and you needed a professional to stand with you.

When he stepped inside the galley, Dino was leaning against the counter on one side. He handed Hando a mug, nodded his head toward the coffee pot. The aroma suddenly filled Hando's senses and he found himself hungry for food, breakfast ... sausages, biscuits ... anything, even girly food like those fig croissants Ann shoved at him that last morning he was at their place ... breakfast with them and they didn't know it'd come to this, did they? He could picture that smug smile on her face as she plopped the fig croissant on his plate, knowing he thought they were beneath him when the woman could be cooking him a proper breakfast.

But he also remembered how she had fresh flowers in the bedroom he stayed in when he had come over to help keep watch on the place a few days ago. And she had tucked a note inside his jacket, that he found on the flight out, saying, "Watch over him for me. And don't do anything stupid because I'll kick your ass if you get hurt." and knowing she found it just as hard as he did to say the things regular people did.

"They better not have hurt her," Hando said, his voice a raspy hoarseness. He hadn't expected to say that, it just came out. He cleared his throat, gave Dino a baleful glare. "You know what he has in mind? You gonna help or go all sissy on us, Red?"

Dino studied Hando. Calmly. Taking his time. Not about to be rushed or made to feel he had to engage in a testosterone battle. Maybe that was Dino's secret ... let the other guy beat his chest and whizz off his territory ... Dino simply did what needed doing and winked about it later.

"You ever heard of the scorched earth approach to war?" he finally asked Hando, his eyes steady on the bald man before him. He sipped his coffee and waited on Hando.

"Sure."

"It only works if you are doing it to immobilize another part of the enemy force by making them fear your might and your ability to create massive destruction without regard for life or property. Otherwise, it is a waste of your troops and it is an emotional reaction to a situation that requires a cold hand instead."

Hando's lip twisted in response. He sipped the coffee. "This is crap," he said, looking at Dino. "You made this?"

"Just remember something, Hando. I've been at this a long time. So has Max. There's something to be said for shock and awe tactics, the kind Max's army used in major battles. But there's also something to be said for a tactical strike that only takes out what needs taking out. There aren't enough of us to ..."

"So you've left your bollocks at home, have ya, O'Leary? Well then stand behind the rest of us ... we won't let you get hurt."

"Max may surprise you with what he decides he wants to do, is all I'm saying to you, man. So be prepared to use some finesse. The Romans had plenty of war tactics and not all of them involved the scorched earth deal. You think you got it in you to really follow his tactics, his directions? He may be plotting something you least expect."

"That wishful thinking, O'Leary? You hoping he don't do anything that scares you? Poor puss ... your reputation's safe with us."

Dino smiled and shook his head. "I'm here to serve the mission."

"Yeah?"

Now Dino moved, smoothly stepping closer to Hando. "In the words of my good friend Thornie, I am not your enemy."

"What are you trying to say to me with all this lip flapping you're doing, Red?"

"Don't cross me. Not now. Not ever. My stake in this is way too fucking big, Hando. We are getting ready to walk into a place with professionals ready to face us. They will have anticipated that Max will react. We will have one chance. And even then, we are unlikely to survive this."

"That scare you, O'Leary?"

"Yes," Dino said, almost sighing the word out as he leaned right into Hando's face. "And if you were as smart as Max thinks you are, you'd be scared, too."

Hando opened his mouth, a sarcastic rejoinder already formed ... but instead, he dropped his eyes. "Have you wondered, O'Leary, how these people got on to us? I never thought of myself as a freak, that I had to hide this secret. We all seem to treat it so casual."

Dino took a step back. His eyes closed. He pictured Heather's face ... her asking him, before he left, if he understood all the ramifications. And him saying to her ... honey, nothing ever comes free but this life is worth its weight in the finest gold there is and I'd pay it threefold if it gave me the chance to love you even for a second.

"Yeah. I have wondered. Max's explanation ... that it was just some coincidence that this guy Lucius saw him in Rome and figured out Max had a way back to their past ... my gut tells me it was too big a coincidence."

"Do you remember coming to this time or whatever it is?"

"No. I don't. But I was in the same time period as I was whenever it happened so I didn't know until I found out about the others, the others like Terry ... like you."

"What was the one thing you wanted to know when you found out?"

"How."

"Yeah. Mine was ... why ... why me."

"Max tells me he's been training you in hand-to-hand ... you as good as he says?"

"Better, mate."

"You'll have a chance to show me, eh?"

In the back of the plane, two men sat, aware the other was awake ...

"Where will they take her?"

"Somewhere close to their headquarters. Where they feel safe. Where they use her to bring me to them."

"Then why are we going there, Max? Jesus. Why just deliver yourself to them?"

"Because it is where she is. I could no more leave her in their hands than I would live without her."

Ralph pulled the blanket down until he was blinking his eyes into the brightness of the plane's cabin. He looked across the fuselage ... to where Max sat, his head still back, his eyes still shut.

"Do you know exactly where she is?"

"No."

"Then how do we find out?"

Now Max's eyes opened and he turned his head to gaze at Ralph. "They will tell me. They will be grateful for the opportunity to tell me."

"Do you have a plan?"

His only answer was a cold smile that curled his lips slowly before he gave Ralph the briefest nod.

Terry stood on a balcony looking out over the untidy grounds. He had a distinct frown on his handsome face. He had a scruffy beard from not having shaved in more than a day. He ran a hand through his shortish hair.

He refused to let his thoughts wander too far away from the mission and his responsibilities for its success. He would not worry over Gaia and Lucas ... he knew he'd done what he could by having Leon take them to a safehouse. He also knew Gaia would do the right things, even if they were not the things he'd expect.

In a similar way, he would not worry over the team heading to Mephisto headquarters. He had to consider the ramifications of failure there, of course, as it would impact them in France, but he would not worry over them.

The team headed by Maximus was, unfortunately, having to operate in complete silence and isolation. To even call out or make any acknowledgment they were on the run would weaken their ability to get to the Mephisto headquarters and neutralize those who were ultimately pulling strings over the threat to all of them.

In so many ways, the four who went to Tennessee were on a suicide mission. They were the sacrifice as their odds were long, based on Max's past surveillance of the secure facility they must infiltrate. The best a reasonable man might hope for was that they would destroy the threat as the Mephisto people eliminated or captured them. An involuntary cold rush chased over Terry's spine ... those four men in Mephisto's hands was worst case failure. Imagine what they'd do to them with no one in a position to stop it?

The rest of them would have to go into hiding if they failed in Tennessee. There would be no other options. They would not be able to send anyone after them. Instead, everyone in their group would have to disappear ... even from each other. For if they stayed in contact, then they could be tracked down one at a time.

He shook his head to chase that out of his brain ... he did not have time nor was it productive to think ahead to what may come beyond these cursory broad plans. All he should concentrate on was what he could and should be doing.

Terry would leave it to the four heading to Tennessee to have success on their mission ... it was up to him to assure success on the mission in France. And as for those left behind who did not know what was happening in either place? Well, they had to fend for themselves. Terry had to trust that those left behind with the abilities to watch over the group safety would be doing just that. His own people had already sent agents to each of the families that might need such specialized help ... and to the women on their own such as Angel. Before the men along on the missions in both France and Tennessee had left, they'd each taken their own steps to get their loved ones to a place of safety. With the turn of events, perhaps what they'd done had not been enough, hence the efforts to dispatch his own people to those in need. But at this point, they were powerless to do anything but go forward with the mission that was going to either eliminate the threat or harm their enemy enough to give time for all to disappear after.

There he bloody went again, Terry sighed to himself. Dino always gave him a ration of shit for his tendency to feel he alone carried the weight of everything himself, for his inability to realize he was not solely responsible for everyone in his range. King of pain, indeed.

He glanced down and noticed Uma and Cullen sitting together on a small stone wall that fronted an herb garden. They were talking. Or rather, Uma was talking and Cullen was taking notes. By the time Terry made it down to the main area of the lab looking for Cullen, he was in time to watch him stride in and give his notes to Nash.

Spread before Nash were read-outs that Terry recognized as he neared the table. They were the data and records and maps that had been sent to a friend's firm in Luberon and then transmitted to a local contact who'd couriered them out to the chateau just twenty minutes earlier. They'd had to go to these lengths because they had opted to not allow Sid to intercept their own communications about their real search for where he was. It was fine he knew they were looking, for he would expect them to. But they did not want him to know they were zeroing in. Instead, the only communications he could intercept had been about failed research and busted leads. Best to let him think they were chasing their tails.

Would Sid think about what out of the box things this team might consider? Would he be up for the human factor of random acts of inspiration? They hoped not.

"Hey, boss. You heard of the 'X-factor'? Well, we got the 'U-factor' working for us," Cullen said from where he went to lounge into a chair across the room from Nash's table.

"What are you up to?" Terry asked, already putting things together.

"We're putting all our research before Nashie here and now giving him all the impressions Uma picked up when she and Max had that little confab before he left. She has some real specific details ... and some other things ... but it's about where Sid may be at this point in time," Cullen said.

"We're hoping he picks up a pattern," Cort said, his hand touching Nash's shoulder only to have Nash shrug off the contact as he scowled down at the papers before him.

Terry motioned for Cullen to follow him outside where he proceeded to ask him if he'd lost his fucking mind, to even for a moment consider putting the search in the hands of the two novices in their group.

Cullen lit a cigarette, coolly blowing smoke out before fixing Terry with a look and saying, "We brought them along for a reason. Why not use them if they can help?"

"Mate, it was Maxie baby who was thinking she was some sort of key to this. Not us."

"Speak for yourself," Cullen said softly. "Maybe you're too close to see it but Uma is not just decoration. Put aside your history ... and open your eyes to what's been happening."

"You thinking she's suddenly developed some second sight? That she's now the Oracle of the Come On Inn? You telling me you'd let the next stage of this mission hinge on her 'impressions' she thinks in her fear that she's picking up now?"

"You weren't in there. I was," Cullen said sharply. "If there's a shot this short-circuits us chasing all over the Luberon to try to find the Biebe's then I'm glad to use it."

"And what if this is just in her imagination, mate? We are wasting valuable time that should be spent on a methodical search and ..."

"Let's just wait to see what Nashie makes of it, eh?"

"There's too much at stake."

"You think I lost sight of that? You know me better than that, boss."

Just then, Stephen's voice called to them ... Nash had figured out where the other lab had to be. It was less than an hour from them.

The plane they were in after New York would never be traceable to either TOL or to any of its principles. A long-standing arrangement was set into motion during a refueling stop at a small airport outside London. Dino had used a landline inside the lounge for the flight staff, having the pilot call in a message that said one thing on the surface, but alerted TOL staff to something else altogether.

By the time they made the airport on Long Island, another plane was waiting for them. It would not take too much effort to figure out how they'd left the airport, but that effort would take time. And they needed that.

They were convinced the Mephisto people knew someone in their group was coming there. They just didn't want them to know when or how they may appear to try to rescue Ann and to neutralize the larger threat to the entire family of the pub.

There was a strong possibility that the Mephisto people still bought the decoy operation - which would mean they may be searching for Maximus in all the wrong places. But Sid had known Maximus was on the plane going to France, so depending on his game, they had to presume Mephisto did as well.

There were far too many unknowns. But for a man like Dino, that could be the relish of his work - he enjoyed such a scenario of check and countercheck at times. He preferred to know the cards both hands were holding, however, as it tended to lower the risk and increase his confidence in the moves that should be made.

More than anything, though, he was disturbed by the overriding sense that cloaked this operation ... he wasn't so thrilled that this particular game held such personal risk.

As the second plane, owned by a corporation with no connection to TOL but piloted by one of their people, took off, Dino gazed over the New York area and thought about his life now, where he had settled with Heather and together they had brought a child into the world. Would they need to leave? Would they have to run? He breathed in deeply. If they did, as long as they went together into this great unknown, they would be fine, he thought to himself and knew it was true.

Other than carefully choreographed communications, the group on the plane was cut off from everyone they knew. This was especially critical once they left New York. They had to appear to disappear, as if they simply melted away.

Their first ploy was to send the TOL plane on to New Orleans, with the hope it may give Mephisto pause as to what they were going to do from there. Their second ploy, in recognition of the fact that at some point Mephisto would likely trace the second plane, was to have that plane fly to Arkansas, as if they were going to the scene of the abduction to investigate and trace Ann's movements. In reality, the plane would make an uncharted touch-and-go type landing at a small airstrip outside Chattanooga, once used by drug couriers but now used as a place where smaller industrial flights could land with cargo.

Not a single man in the team had possession of his own cell phone anymore. They were left behind when they left the plane in New York. They would be on the flight to New Orleans. They turned them on and left them inside the plane, just in case Mephisto and Sid had been thinking ahead to every eventuality and that may mean GPS tracking was being done. It was something they had to assume that Mephisto would think to do. The only cell they had with them now was for emergency use and had been purchased by cash with prepaid 'minutes' cards, all to be untraceable to them. It would be a miracle if they could be traced through that phone. Though necessary steps considering the force they faced and their unique talents, it also cut them off from the team in France in a way that Dino and Ralph found added déjà vu moments for them.

At the airstrip outside Chattanooga, they kept a low, easy profile. They wanted to raise as little curiosity as possible. When they left, they headed up into a mountainous area that looked down from its heights onto the tranquil small city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, home of pivotal Civil War action, a train that inspired a song and a strong resilient self-dependency.

Max's previous surveillances of Mephisto had not been limited to the property of their headquarters, set just outside Chattanooga city limits, hard up in the lower reaches of a rough foothill of granite and scrub pine. He had also done low level tracking of key personnel. He had found and watched the homes of each of the Geek Troika. He had considered making his first tactical strike there, at one of their homes. But he believed that in the current events, those abodes would no doubt be vigorously protected by Dunnell's forces. Similarly, when they took a brief drive to an outlook where they could study the headquarters complex, it showed a perimeter that now was more bristled with obvious displays of guards and guns. Security had been greatly heightened. Those inside were obviously convinced an assault was a probability.

Maximus had talked with the others on the team about what he'd learned from the portfolio of the chief security man, Theo Dunnell. You can't always tell everything from such a bio. But Max had had a sense of him and believed that in this instance, he was behind many of the things that had already been done in the attempts to neutralize opposition to Mephisto's plans for those men of the pub. Dino agreed. He said a man such as Dunnell may not have been the brains behind whatever was driving the Mephisto owners to kidnap Biebe to conduct scientific tests, but he had to be the one behind Clarity and Ann's kidnappings as tactical maneuvers. And more than that, Ralph had said, he was no candy ass security joe hiding behind a desk ... he was also not the kind of professional they'd want to take on unless they were forced to.

Max said only one thing in response ... that he believed they took Ann for two reasons: to bring Maximus there where they could capture him, perhaps hoping to turn him as they had turned Lucius, and also because the fetus inside her would make every bit as important a research subject as John Biebe was.

There was silence, uncomfortable and bitter.  

It was Maximus who broke it. He spread out maps of Chattanooga and hand-drawn schematics he'd developed from his surveillance. Whatever his plan was, Max shared little details. He spoke in broad strokes of "divide and conquer" or what his age called 'Divide et impera.' He did share that he felt the first priority was to rescue Ann ... and then they would have a free hand to stop the larger, looming threat to the family. No voice disagreed with this.

Their first stop after the initial review of the various locations that Max took them to see in the daylight hours was an expensive condo development that overlooked a plunging vista of tree-shrouded rocky foothills. Each unit looked as part of a uniform set with tasteful landscaping setting a refined mood.

"Tell me again what you hope to gain? Because I still think this is a waste of time," Dino asked softly. "What's she going to get us?"

"She will know many things. People in such positions always do. And what she tells us, will be valuable," Max said softly, studying Dino for a moment before smiling softly and putting his hand on the other man's shoulder. "We are facing a formidable enemy who hides from us behind security systems that will be risky to penetrate. It is my belief it may be a ... how do you put it? A red herring?"

"False trail?" Dino asked, his brow burrowing. "You think they want us to go there but if we do, it's all in vain because Ann's not there?"

"I think it likely. Even if she is there, I would need to know a more exact location inside. I would also wish to know about security precautions inside that may trap us. And, too, I would wish to exploit any divisions among the principles."

"And this woman in here ... she can tell us ... wait, what am I saying. Yeah. She'd know, wouldn't she?"

"And I know certain matters about her that foretell her cooperation with our goal."

He knew that they would find him. His opinion on their limited intellects had not undergone a change but he was not blind to their combined skills. By strictly human standards they were at the top of the heap. Any actor capable of creating a personality like his own would not have made any character who was without some redeeming qualities. You only had to look at the man himself, Sid thought. Now there was a complex psyche if ever you found one. You'd have to be to do justice to a cyber freak like himself.

One of the aspects of all this that amused him most was the way the other men struggled to grasp the fact of their unconventional origin. It disturbed them, offended them, they railed against it or tried to ignore it. They worried about what it meant in the long term and clung together as if there was safety in numbers. They thought of each other as brothers even though they were genetically unconnected and had no other bond than that they were all the figments of someone else's rather powerful imagination.

But none of this worried Sid in the least. After all, his character had already been a hot-potch of evil entities - so why would the knowledge that there was one more in the mix throw him in the least? Other than he suspected that his sympathetic and humane side, that annoying trait he tried so hard to suppress but that was coming to the fore even more and more these days, had been some legacy from the actor. That was the one thing Sid couldn't stand about his maker. The man couldn't even make a decent bad guy without injecting some humanity and pity into him. Even an unhinged thug like Hando had moments when you felt a grudging respect.

You had to give it to the Scooby Gang though. They had all pulled together and pooled their limited intellects and instincts with a fairly impressive level of success. It would not be long until they found his lab. This mess they were in could all have been avoided if they would only realize what they were doing when they treated him like a pariah. There were a lot of hard lessons to be learned from the current crisis and it was high time he established his primacy amongst this pathetic group of misfits.

Sid felt like a weary parent disciplining an unruly teenager, forced to resort to tough love in order to teach them a valuable life lesson. He was not abandoning them entirely to their fate but neither was he about to extend the help he could so easily give. What would they ever learn if he was always on hand to step in and bail them out? The fact that his interference had actually assisted the forces that were working against them to reach this level of emergency, did not really register. If they failed he could intervene - if he wished. If they succeeded, it would only be because he had shown up their inadequacies and demonstrated who the real driving force behind this set up was. Either way, the proper respect due would be coming his way. Or he would let them all hang out to dry. Who needed that bunch of losers anyway?

However, compared to the sad little geekoids who ran the Mephisto Corp, his would-be Band of Brothers were super brains. And then there was Nash, who did have a modicum of smarts, he had to admit. Sid had always thought John Nash was a man he could work with - and he, fortunately, did not seem to have that over-sensitive social sense of responsibility of the rest of them - always useful in a crisis.

You can read a measure of the man - or woman - from how they deal with adversity.  Sid found it interesting how each of the pub lab rats had found their own particular bolt hole in it all: some had gone for direct action, tough guy style, some were concentrating on keeping up the spirits back home and providing support and affection ('Can you feel the love?' Sid thought with a pained expression), others had decided to look after their own loved ones in a place of greater safety, aware that the group as a whole might be a magnet for even worse trouble. There was so much to observe and learn about these interesting little humans at a time like this. It was so much more than a game! This was the ultimate laboratory controlled test. This was playing God.

Then there was the Biebe factor. That had been a clever piece of legerdemain, Sid congratulated himself. There was no way he had been about to let those geeks get near his beloved Clarity. Biebe could take care of himself -with help from the Scoobies. But his coup extracting Clarity from the jaws of disaster was a brilliant sleight of hand even for himself - with a wonderfully entertaining odyssey all of its own.

And, of course, it was a valuable addition to his experiments. Not to mention an undisputable demonstration that he was the one who truly held the reins in this world of theirs - and the only one who understood how they had arrived and where they were going. If they had just asked him nicely he might have even told them for nothing...

Swinging round on his leather chair, Sid threw back his head and laughed manically. The gang was so close he could almost smell their fear... 'You're getting warm, boys and girls....warmer and warmer...'

Marleen hated her name. Her mother had misspelled it on the birth certificate. She had been trying to spell Marlene, as in Marlene Dietrich. Stupid backwoods girl she was ... she'd misspelled the one name she'd wanted to give her daughter in the hopes she might be the strong, man-hating woman she'd viewed the Blue Angel to be.

To Marleen, this about summed up the legacy she'd been given by a mother too dumb to spell her name right and too scared to correct the mistake because then her loutish lump of a husband might find out.

But there was this also ... Marleen still shook her head at her mother's inspiration for her name. That was all she saw when she looked up on those screens and saw the inimitable Dietrich?

She never saw the other possibilities that lurked there if you were only looking without looking behind your shoulder at a man for approval or disapproval for your every thought?

Not Marleen.

Not since the day she was 15 and went with girlfriends on a trip to the big city of Knoxville, maybe a two hour drive from her holler of a town. One of her friend's mothers had driven them in for a day of fun to celebrate the friend's birthday. They'd shopped downtown, walked into a restaurant and ordered whatever they wanted (she got a hot roast turkey sandwich served with juice all over and mashed potatoes on the side and she'd never forgotten sitting there wondering how you ate that sandwich until the waitress dumped a knife and fork next to her plate), and they went to a movie house showing old black and white films. There was one playing she noticed starred Dietrich. It was the first time she'd seen her in anything but still pictures her mother had put in her baby book, such as it was.

That was as good a reason as any to see the film. And it was what may have been the major turning point in her life.

The movie was "The Devil Is A Woman." How well Marleen remembered words that flashed on the screen as an intro: "Kiss me ... and I'll break your heart." What she took from it was the sense of power Dietrich's character had, playing with men in order to get something she wanted, whether it be jewelry or slavish devotion. And it wasn't as if she didn't in many ways warn the man she'd break his heart ... was it not his own fault then that he wallowed in his obsession, she would come to ask herself years later when she viewed the movie from a woman's eyes.

But at the time she saw it, she was still a girl and what she saw on the screen was a mystery. She didn't understand then why it affected her like it did ... but this was a type of woman she did not know existed. And it cannot be said with truth that she set out to be this incarnation of her misspelled namesake but she did find that she spent many nights laying awake and wondering about the fevered dreams she was having.

It was not long, though, that she began getting turned on by the power she had over anything that possessed a penis. No shrinking damsel was she. She knew just what to do with those raging hormones that pushed those boys to fumble their way inside her bra and panties. But she also knew the damage she did them when she exerted her power. And she knew what it did to her when she met a boy in college who knew how to use her power for his own purposes.

She still hated her name, the way it was spelled. But she kept it. 

And maybe that said more about her than anything that though she had long ago had the power and means to change the spelling of her name legally, she could never bring herself to do it. She seemed to need it, an intentional flaw through which she saw herself alone against all comers.

Maybe a year earlier she met Theo Dunnell when she came to work at Mephisto as the administrative assistant to Warren Bush. For months, they'd circled each other ... it had been inevitable that they would collide. They danced around each other on purpose, to heighten the interplay ... and they both knew exactly what they were up to.

Then the time arrived for them to do something about the crackling energy that oozed between them every single time she would pass him in the hall or brush against his hip when she was admitting him into the inner sanctum of Warren's office.

He had asked her out on a date. He took her to a very nice restaurant then out to jazz club in a cellar that reeked of smoke and sex. And from the moment he'd moved up so close behind her as they waited to enter, she had known he had decided.

What followed had been the months in between then and now. It had descended for them both. It had an intensity that transcended all but one affair she'd had before. Sometimes she thought Theo got lost and those missteps begged to be answered but she would never ask the question. She was not a woman who wanted anything that even smelled of a man who'd decided he might see something in her that she was not.

In the past two months, tension had come into the mix that had nothing really to do with them. He never talked about work but she knew it was centered there. He was growing impatient wearing a collar with three men tugging at it. He wanted to take over but he was also content in the role that allowed him to dip into the brutality of his devious machinations.

It was this matter with Luke Ferris, himself a man of intense focus when it came to her bedroom. There was a rivalry between them, one having nothing to do with her but for which she was a battlefield ... and enjoyed having the power to affect each of their moves as she so wished. Between the two men, it was a challenge that was equal parts insulting and sadistic toward the other. That Luke had slipped from Theo's grasp remained a source of irritation and, yes, it could be said even a humbling mistake laid at his feet.

He would not repeat the mistake with this Cooper case.

She missed Luke because having him around to toy with Theo had been an intense experience. She missed that Theo no longer had that kind of rival, someone he knew could take him down if only the cards were reshuffled a bit so that Theo did not always have the superior forces of might and power. She had done her best to help Luke ... not necessarily because she liked Luke but because she liked his affect on Theo ... and Theo was a toy she wanted to break. It amused her. It fed her own addictive need for power over a man who could overpower her.

Funny how life turns on such things.

If Theo disappeared from her life tomorrow, all she would miss was the power she had over him. And the power he would use to wrestle it away before she could submit.

For days now, security had been a whirling storm at Mephisto. Theo had brought in scads of new crew and every car entering was searched thoroughly. Marleen rather liked the searches. She began to enjoy even more the special attentions of one of the men who worked for Theo. She'd never given him much attention but he proved quite deliciously thorough and rude. Just this morning as she drove in and he stood over her, looking in her eyes, it had occurred to her that he might be Luke's replacement ... that he might be able to challenge Theo's feeling of being the ultimate Alpha dog around Mephisto.

She knew what this security uptick was all about. In her position, there was little she did not know. A smart girl like her kept her eyes open, her ears alert and her skirts so short the men around her never minded having her around even when they should have waited until she left the room before doing a lot of their planning and plotting.

What Marleen particularly enjoyed the last few nights was when she could use this dangerous Max Cooper to toy with Theo. He had become the diamond she used to cut into his soft layers and lay low the parts of him that were vulnerable to her in this mood. It was good for Theo, in the grand scheme, she told herself. It got him more on edge and a man like him on edge was incredibly dangerous, especially if you tied his sexual prowess to his ability to prove no man would take him on his home turf.

She was looking forward to the showdown for she knew it was coming. They had, after all, done the one thing a man like Max Cooper would not allow them to get away with.

Marleen had seen Ann Cooper brought in. She had smiled as she watched from behind a digital camera. Marleen was there because Warren Bush, her boss, had sent her there. He wanted her to be there taking digital video of the wife's arrival. The video, Warren had thought, may be needed to show just how serious they really were ... a ransom demand's proof of possession of the target, is how Warren had put it to Dunnell when he dispatched Marleen on her mission. Warren could have sent any number of people but he sent Marleen because she had volunteered and he thought it was a sign of her loyalty. Marleen had indeed wanted to witness the arrival of Max Cooper's woman. But this was for her own purposes, no one else's.

The night before, Theo had been quite thoroughly brutish in reaction to the news that Ann Cooper had been found and taken. Marleen knew why ... it was because Theo wanted to take down Max Cooper to make up for what had happened with Luke Ferris. And now he had the weapon and the bait ... he had bested Max Cooper.

So Marleen arranged to be there, standing discreetly in a hallway as Theo had met the woman of Max Cooper. She filmed her arrival and the moment Dunnell greeted her. And when Theo turned from the encounter and met Marleen's eyes, she saw inside him that he'd enjoyed that meeting in a way that annoyed her. Something had happened between Theo and this Cooper woman. Something that turned Theo on in a way only she had. Was this ... certainly not ... it was not jealousy, Marleen told herself. She was not jealous.

That was not allowed, Marleen thought to herself as she watched Theo walk away. Something would have to be done. How little did she know the opportunity was close at hand to allow her to punish Theo.

If she didn't know by now how to adopt a Stoic manner to hide an open heart, then she was a door they could walk through ... and on the other side, they could harm Maximus.

Ann could never be in his league but she could use what he'd taught her by example, if nothing else, she told herself. But she also had those long discussions, those open teachings when he explained so much in that voice she could hear even then so clear and beloved that it seemed she could touch it if she just reached out her fingers. And even though he had said, the last night they'd ever talked about it, that the one thing he never wanted was for her to truly be the Stoic he was ... he'd never foreseen that she might need it. He had said he feared if she did, it would change Ann's heart, and that he did not want for he loved her heart ... and he loved that she was untainted by the very life experiences that had made it so difficult for him to believe again that he could find unfettered joy in the arms of a woman who lived and breathed in unison with him.

He had changed her forever. The force of who he was and, most importantly, who he let himself become for her, this was the nexus of their lives. It was the center from which all other aspects of themselves ranged out into the world. From the safety of this nexus, all was possible for them as individuals and as partners. They had created it together but he was the only man who'd ever been strong enough to bring her into his center, and she believed this was how it worked for them.

The last thing he'd said to her before he'd left for France was that it was up to her to protect their son who grew inside her. But from the nexus where she found her safety, she also knew she was finding the power to provide some measure of protection for Maximus as well.

And it all hinged on her ability to remain above whatever hurt any outside force could have on her in this time of danger to them all. She could buy Max whatever time she could so his actions to save Biebe had more chance to succeed. Whatever was going on there in France, she knew it mattered. But more than anything, she would do what he had last asked her ... she would protect their son.

The drive from Arkansas to Chattanooga was fourteen hours of tedium. The fake Arkansas cop turned out to be something else entirely, of course. He had liked telling her about how Mephisto had altered poor Chili's record and knew that an alert broadcast to every state they felt he might have been heading for with her had certainly caught the attention of law enforcement. It was only a matter of time before something happened. They'd actually zeroed in on Arkansas after he used his credit card to pay gas just past the state line. And within ten minutes of that, they were in a company plane, flying to south Arkansas, ready to step in when they picked up the transmitted information about Chili's arrest. From there, a little surveillance, a hastily developed badge and it was easy to be ready when she was finally alone.

She had not asked them a word about her dog. She did not want them to know how it hurt inside to worry over Buck, who trusted her for his care. He was now locked in a kennel in a vet's office that would have no clue who he was or how he'd come to be there. What would happen to him, she wondered inside while she never showed any indication those in the car with her.

She also didn't ask about Chili, and for that she consoled herself that at some point, he would find a way to get out of that jail. She simply trusted in Chili's abilities and filed it away somewhere else, somewhere she wouldn't worry anymore because one thing Maximus said about all this was that you had to shed all those worries in times such as this. You had to focus, focus and focus ... always focus, never waver, never let anyone get into your head so much they could take away your focus.

Find something to focus on that gave you what you needed to stay strong, she heard his voice telling her. This is what she did ... she concentrated on a single memory and replayed it over and over. Nothing could really hurt her if she was inside that memory. Maximus was inside the memory ... he would let nothing hurt her. She was also inside the memory ... and she would let nothing hurt him. She wondered, looking outside as they drove over the Mississippi River, if he was thinking of the same memory as she was right then, wherever he was ... if this was also what he focused on. She told herself that the day would come when she would be able to ask him that very question.

The woman turned out to be a nurse, brought along to watch over any health issues that may arise for Ann on the drive. She told Ann this, as if Ann would take comfort from knowing they cared about her health. But Ann guessed that her health was important to them for reasons that were not about her own welfare. She glanced away and focused on something else. She would not react with fear.

Ann was the reason they were not flying, of course. The nurse, Gail, had nixed the idea once she got a real assessment of just how far along Ann's pregnancy was. Andrew had grumbled. Levon had accepted the decision and responded by leading Ann none too gently to the car. Andy drove. The nurse rode shotgun. Levon sat next to Ann in the back. For many hours he alternated between scowling out his window, deep in thought, and studying Ann's profile as she gazed out her window.

They had stopped for Ann to use the restroom several times. They had also stopped for food along the way, fast food joints along the highway then pulling over at a rest stop or park so they could eat at a table away from other people. When they stopped for gas, Gail escorted Ann to the restroom and Levon trailed behind to watch over any attempt by Ann to either break loose or try to get help. She did neither. There was no safe escape in her condition. Getting help was impossible for they were careful about when they let her out of the car, timing it so no one who could interfere was close enough to be of any real help.

On a gas stop just before Nashville, Andrew had the bright idea to buy them snacks from inside the station's convenience store area that would serve as their lunch. Ann turned her nose up at the offerings, insisting they find her some bottled water, crackers, fruit and yogurt. With one raised eyebrow, Levon had dispatched Gail to gather whatever could be found that would satisfy their captive.

Something about Ann's demands made Levon change tactics on the next leg of the trip. As they entered Nashville, he moved from silence to talk. He asked her about many things she had not expected and did not know if she should answer. They seemed harmless inquiries, as if he were chatting her up, but she got the impression they were a tactical move on his part ... perhaps to soften her up? To trick her into saying something she should not? To make her drop her guard with him? To even, as odd as it seemed, make her see in Levon that he was a person and not simply the man who would terrorize her and make her pay for what they had done to his brother?

She looked out at Nashville and gave him abrupt answers to his questions, her tone haughty and undefeated. She was mentally viewing a map of where they'd come from and trying to figure out where they were going. She had the impression they were near their destination and that perhaps this was why Levon had turned garrulous.

When the questions moved from her childhood in New Orleans and to the pity of what Katrina had done to her hometown, then from his favorite restaurant there (Commanders Palace) to his memories of a trip he took to the city with his wife, she was not prepared as she should have been for him to abruptly ask her about how she met Ralph. He came with the property, she responded, turning to look at him evenly.

She almost missed that they were turning off the eastbound expressway and joining one that went south. She was studying Levon as he studied her and if his eyes had not darted away to look at where they were going, she might have missed the signs saying they were on merge lanes heading south to Chattanooga. Where now, she wondered, but refused to ask.

Instead, she looked back at Levon. His face had grown hard and rigid when a moment before it had seemed almost contemplative.

"Tell me about my brother William," he said to her, an abrupt demand.

"You first."

Levon leaned across the seat toward her. She willed herself to not react to the move though it felt distinctly threatening. His voice was low, as if he wanted this only between them. "Do not feel you know me well enough to believe you can play games with me and live to tell the tale, Mrs. Cooper."

"I am playing no game. I am simply accepting of my fate."

"Tell me about my brother."

"I didn't get to know him well enough to tell you anything," she said and hoped she was so far inside her safe place that he could not read the lie.

"I know why he was at your farm. I know all about it. Now I want to know what I don't know and what I have the right to know."

"Then ask the question plainly and don't beat around the bush."

"Very well." He paused, licked his lips, his eyes hardened, his hand reached out to circle her wrist. "Tell me how your husband killed him. I want to be able to picture it."

Ann blinked. Her head shook from side to side, very quickly, very small, and very involuntarily. And then, her voice was hushed to say, "This is why you came after Max? Because you thought he killed William? Oh my god."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Max had nothing to do with William's death. Not a thing. He wasn't even there."

"He was there. Do not lie to me."

"He wasn't there! He was in Rome. Luke and his men took him there. They left William and another man there with me. They threatened to kill me if Max did not take them back."

"Take them back?"

"To Rome. To their past."

"What?"

Suddenly they both simply looked at each other, aware instantly that they were in that moment unsure what it was the other did not understand or know ... but that what they were saying to each other was at cross purposes.

"I thought you said you knew why William and Luke and the others were there," Ann said slowly. "You knew they thought Max could ... could take them back to ... Oh, Jesus. You didn't know. You still don't know. But Mephisto ... if you're with Mephisto, you would know ... if you're not with them, who are you with? No, wait. You said ... Andrew said you were all with Mephisto."

Andrew chose that moment to speak up. "Hey, you two, stop with the jawing, okay? And, Levon, you know Mr. Dunnell said no questioning her until we get there and he can do it himself. Best you just follow orders. You know how Mr. Dunnell gets when his orders are not followed."

Levon's hand on Ann's wrist tightened. His eyes bored into hers. He opened his mouth to say something but then a light flashed in his eyes. A second later, he glanced up toward Andrew, to find the driver's eyes studying him nervously in the rear view mirror.

And this is when Levon began to grasp that Mephisto had not told him everything. He had shared all he knew with them about the Cooper's and did so because he thought they shared some common mission. But something was wrong, he now realized, and he had never once heard a thing about Rome.

So, Mephisto is playing another game, Levon thought swiftly, and it's one I'm not in on but Andrew and Gail are, no doubt. And there is something Ann Cooper can tell me that their bosses do not wish me to know, Levon thought grimly. No one was standing in his way of knowing the details of his brother's fate. No one. Not Max Cooper. Not Ann Cooper. And not Mephisto.

He let the hold on her wrist ease and then he held her small hand between his two larger hands. He looked down at his hold on her and saw his wedding band. It was a part of him, something he'd never take off. He felt the edges of Ann's wedding band as he held her hand in his.

His eyes drifted up to hers. To find her studying him without emotion. Whatever confusion she'd shown a moment before, this woman was now back in the same zone she'd been in during the rest of the trip. He held her hand gently, using the sense of touch to ease her, to manipulate her in a tactile manner into dropping her guard.

But Ann Cooper was not fooled. And she had quickly assessed that Andrew knew things that Levon did not. And this told her that Levon was not perhaps really a part of Mephisto ... that maybe his only angle really was his brother. That her assumption that both brothers had worked for Mephisto must be wrong. She was not at all sure how to use the information but she maybe this was a tool to use in some way ... if she could drive a wedge, create confusion, stir up crossed purposes ... anything to give more time for Maximus to succeed in France, even as small as her contribution may be it would be worth it.

"Tell me why they went to Rome, Ann," Levon asked softly, using her first name now, trying to incubate an intimate relationship between them that did not exist. "I wish nothing but to know about my brother. As you can see, I do not know all details ... though I thought I did."

His eyes darted up to the rear view mirror; the look Andrew saw in the reflection made him swallow hard and glance at Gail. Then they both turned their avid attentions to the road before them.

The road to Chattanooga. It wouldn't be long now, Andrew thought, until they were there. A few more hours. Then Mr. Dunnell could deal with this.

"Why should I tell you anything? Why should I help you?"

"Why indeed."

"What will you give me in return?"

Levon studied her eyes. "Would you not wish to know the same thing if I had killed your husband?"

He sought to shock her, Ann thought, but he would not succeed. She would never imagine Max's death at their hands. It would not be allowed to enter her mind. But she could pretend it had affected her because she had figured out a way forward. A way to save Maximus, if what Levon was doing was more of a personal vendetta than what Mephisto was up to. It was all so confusing and she was acutely aware of the possibility that she was taking a misstep. But she had to try ... it was all she had left to give him.

"Yes, I would want to know it all. You're right." She paused, swallowed, then purposely looked deep in his eyes. "Max was in Rome. Luke had taken him there. So he was not at the farm. William was under orders to kill me if Max did not give Luke what he wanted. But ..."

"And when Max gave Luke whatever it was, then he came back and killed William as retribution?"

"No. William was dead by the time Max returned."

Levon considered this. She seemed so steady, this woman across from him. Her hand did not shake or even tremble. Her eyes never strayed from his. She was not sweating. He thought about this scenario ... it was not what Dunnell had led him to believe had happened. He tilted his head and asked, "Then how did William die? Was it Ralph? He is capable of it, is he not?"

"No. It wasn't Ralph. I am the one who is responsible for William's death."

It was a bold move. It was also calculated. Ann had already surmised from all she'd gathered from her interactions with Levon that he was after whoever killed his brother. But she was a special case to him - he would not really harm her precisely because she was pregnant. A thought, an idea, a concept had begun to take form inside her about why this was, but she tamped it down so that she could maintain her focus on what was before her in this moment.

"You?" Levon breathed, his hands now gripping hers and his eyes narrowing to study hers. "You ... killed my brother? You expect me to believe you have the capability of taking down my brother? You're lying."

"I'm not." She looked down at where he held her hand. Then her eyes came back up to his. She was totally calm. She was totally committed. She had to believe it to make him believe it ... and inside her, there had always been the belief that in actuality, the guilt for William's death was more hers than anyone's. "Your brother William knew I was pregnant. He was going to kill my child ... he told me that Luke had given him orders to kill my child to punish Max no matter the outcome in Rome. You should not be surprised what a woman is capable of in order to save her child. Would your wife not be the same way about your own child?"

She stabbed him back in the same way his words about Max's death stabbed at her ... she knew he had to be married, wearing the ring and all. Why not torture him with facing the idea of his wife being in the predicament she'd been in just as he'd sought to do by placing in her mind the idea of her facing Max's death as he had faced William's? Turn about ... fair play, eh?

"My wife ..." Levon said softly. And then he closed his lips tightly against each other. He let her hand go. "You are trying to protect Ralph or your husband. It won't work."

"I'm telling you the truth. I'm sorry you cannot accept it. I killed William. No one else did. The only thing Max did was bury the body."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"It's the only truth there is."

"It won't save him. I will still kill him."

"I would expect nothing less from a man whose brother would kill an innocent fetus because his boss said so."

He turned from her, jerking his head to the side to stare out the window. Was his brother capable of such a thing? Truly capable of taking such innocent blood? Of killing an unborn child? Why would he do that? Did she mean he was going to kill her and since she was pregnant, he'd in effect kill the child? But what stung in his heart was this: he instinctively believed his brother was a man who could kill anything if he were so ordered. Even a pregnant woman. Even the woman's unborn child.

Nonetheless, Levon believed the woman was protecting her husband. It was simply impossible to believe this woman would ever have the power or skills needed to kill William, even if she caught him off guard.

There was also the more troubling realization that Mephisto had not been entirely truthful with him. And Andrew was now nervous, Levon could tell, so this was something Dunnell must have warned him to be wary for. He noted the way Andrew's movements were more frequent, reflecting an agitated state. A telltale line of sweat beads was formed along the back of his neck, just below his hair. And the nurse, Gail, was fidgeting in her seat now. She glanced back at them, over her shoulder, no doubt spooked by the abrupt silence. He turned just in time to catch her eyes. She lowered them before glancing toward Andrew.

Yes, something was not right there, Levon thought, and now they were on alert about him as much as about Ann Cooper, weren't they?

What was it he didn't know about William's real mission, Levon pondered. And who would tell him? Not Mephisto, he surmised. Then who?

He glanced at Ann. She was watching him calmly, her hand stroking her rounded belly. He saw it move and she winced. A memory of long ago washed over him. Of his wife sitting on the couch, smiling at him as he laughed at something and then she made a soft sound of surprise and he'd looked down to see her belly move ... for the first time. Life. A sign.