FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Search and Rescue

'Dispatch for car six-eleven-seven.' came out of the police radio in Adalet's car.

She put away the beef and lettuce sandwich she had barely taken a bite out of and picked up the microphone. 'Six-eleven-seven, Adalet here. What's up dispatch?'

'Can you assist Frazella with a drug bust? There's a couple of junkies that need to be taken in for questioning.'

Adalet sighed at the prospect of delaying her mid-shift meal. She was glad for Dormin's cooking though, it kept her going all night if she had no time to eat something in between, but she preferred not to come home to him all hungry again. At least not for food. 'All right dispatch, on my way. Send me the address.' She started the car and drove off to where the navigation led her.

Adalet stopped in one of the poor neighbourhoods at a run down bar with its sign hanging askew. The streets were virtually empty because few people wanted to go out on these badly lit streets. The windows of the bar were replaced by panels and the same dull brown paint used for the building, and were mostly covered by graffiti. She recognised Frazella's old grey sedan parked in front of her. It seemed about as old as its owner and probably had one or two dents more than last time she had seen it. She went to the boarded up door of the bar, stepped inside and took a moment to scan the situation. It seemed everyone had left apart from the old barkeeper who lugged a crate to the back and Frazella with his suspect.

Frazella leaned back against the bar making notes. The forty-six year old man had just as much dents in his blue jacket and brown pants as his car. There were two young women and one guy sitting in the booth in front of him.

Frazella looked up from his notes to her. 'Adalet, good to see you. I need to take these jokers to the station to have a chat about who's delivering the stuff since their old supplier died in a shooting last month.'

Adalet gave him a nod. 'Still cleaning up the streets, eh?' She walked up to the junkies who sat quietly in handcuffs. The two women sat very close and Adalet suspected they were a couple.

'A never ending job.' Frazella said and moved next to her. 'But it'll keep me occupied and prevent me from going berserk on my own.' He gestured at the women. 'I think the ladies would feel more comfortable riding with you.'

Adalet watched the women holding their hands together while they looked down at the table in front of them. 'All right then. Let's go.' The women glanced at her and shuffled from their seat. 'This way.' she said and walked ahead of them to the door. The moment she laid her hand on the door knob a shot rang behind her.

She turned in time to see Frazella double up from the close up shot taken by the guy with a pistol. Despite moving away and drawing her own gun she was too late. The guy took a shot at her fast and the impact of the bullet hit her hard in the chest. She clenched her teeth against the pain in her ribs and fired back, twice.

The guy dropped on the floor and was dead in two breaths.

The two women had jumped aside in a corner and whimpered while holding each other tight. Adalet kept her gun aimed at the guy and stood up with some difficulty, stepped closer and kicked the gun he had used to the end of the bar. Still keeping the gun aimed at the guy's head she checked for a pulse. Satisfied there was none she moved to Frazella. He groaned while he pressed against his bloody stomach wound. She called dispatch and was glad for her habit of wearing her armoured vest.

***

Dormin scanned the hotel suite when he entered it. Standard setup, main living room, bedroom to one side, a kitchen. Just a bit more luxurious with the finish and size than what he could afford. If he ever booked one of these things.

He gestured to his client that it was safe to come in. The businessman had asked for a bodyguard after rumours popped up he was targeted for an unfriendly takeover of his transportation business by an unknown party. As long as the investigation was active, legal recommended him to get some protection. It was also deductible according to finance.

The man, Larry Procane, sixty-four years old but still looking ten years younger, wasn't too pleased with it but accepted the temporary inconvenience. He hoped it was temporary in any case because it all looked to be just a rumour and not a serious threat. None of his competitors would use anything but a large check for a weapon to threaten with. He took off his coat and went for the mini bar to get a drink and returned to one of the chairs in the centre of the room with a glass of whiskey. 'You can relax now, I'm safe and sound in here. You being here is just a formality.'

Dormin nodded. 'Looks that way.' He fetched a glass of water for himself and stared out the window to the busy street ten storeys below. Lights from trendy clubs and restaurants and passing cars lit the street. The noise was a background murmur behind the insulated windows. Even if he didn't suffer from insomnia, he doubted he'd sleep long in such a part of the city without proper soundproofing.

A knock on the door was followed by a woman calling out room service. He went to the door and opened it far enough to take a look while his hand rested on his gun. The young blonde woman in light blue skirt uniform gestured at the trolley in front of her. 'The tapas you ordered.'

Dormin nodded and opened the door letting her in, taking a quick look at the trolley's lower trays. His client was fond of eating tapas in the afternoon because he usually ate late, and had ordered some as soon as they had checked in. The young woman swayed her hips while she pushed the trolley to the middle of the room. 'Would you like these at the dining table, or at the seating?'

Larry gestured to the table in front of him. 'Over here, please.' He leaned back and watched closely with a little smile while she bent and turned each time she put a small plate with sliced meat or vegetables on the table. Dormin watched as well, but only to make sure nothing happened.

She handed the receipt to Larry, who added a big tip by the looks on his face, before she took out a bottle of matching red wine. She pat her pockets and sighed. 'Oh dear. Forgot the corkscrew.' She looked at Dormin who stood close to the mini bar. 'Could you hand me the one from the bar, please?'

'Of course.' he said and opened the cupboard door where the corkscrew would hang inside. He heard a gasp and a click, then the loud bangs delivering two hard hits to the side of his back.

The next two he hardly heard from the pain numbing his senses while he fell to the floor. His training kicked in and he pulled his pistol, aimed where the woman would stand while he hit the floor, and fired twice through the back of the couch the moment he lay still.

After a thud silence returned.

Ignoring the pain and probably cracked rib, he crawled to the side to see the woman lie face down on the floor. Her hand was empty and he checked for her pistol. He found it in Larry's dead lap as he stood up with difficulty. Blood staining her uniform made it clear his shots had been fatal. A strip of duct tape underneath the trolley's lowest tray revealed where the gun had been hidden.

He went over to the cupboard in the corner with the hotel phone and sat against it while dialling reception to get an ambulance and police.

***

Terry hurried inside the police station towards the canine officer at the front desk. 'Adalet and Dormin! Where are they!? Are they okay!? Were their shots serious!?' She looked left and right quickly before staring at the officer again.

The officer held up his hands and backed away from the fox leaning close with her ears flat and her tail wagging nervously. 'Relax. They're not hurt badly apart from some bruised ribs. They're professionals and wore their vests.' He gestured at the office to his right. 'They're at her desk.'

Terry had hurried away before he finished the last word.

'Adalet! Dormin!' They both looked back at Terry as she came up to them. 'I'm so glad you're okay!' She cupped Dormin's cheeks and gave him a big kiss while Adalet saw a few of her colleagues snigger softly as they glanced at the lively fox.

Dormin took Terry's hands in his. 'Don't worry, it's not my first time and we'll be fine in a few weeks with enough rest. Just no hugging until then.'

Terry nodded and took Adalet's hand. How are you doing?'

Adalet gave her a smile. 'It's the first for me, but as he said, we'll be fine.'

Terry nodded. 'You'll have to tell me everything on the way home.'

Adalet closed the open case folder on her desk and put it in one of her trays. 'You'll have to stop on the way where we can get something to eat, I don't think Dormin's in any shape to cook soon.' A single chuckle made him wince. 'Not even to open a can.'

***

'So it was rather unexpected?' Terry asked while she carried the bags of takeaway food inside Dormin's place.

Adalet hung her jacket on the coat rack by the door. She and Dormin both hadn't bothered putting on their jackets after taking them off with their body armour. 'In my case nothing seemed to escalate to violence. It wasn't a serious drug bust.'

Dormin sat down on the couch. 'No one thought my client would really be threatened by physical harm. It was a formality for any large corporation when it comes to rumours of a takeover.' He frowned at the large screen in front of him. 'But that still doesn't excuse my failure. I shouldn't have taken my eyes off of her for a single moment.'

Adalet sat down next to him and took his hand. 'Something like this hasn't happened in a very long time. And there was no reason to suspect any violence in this matter.'

He nodded. 'I know, but it still was a failure and I don't understand why that woman was sent to kill him. He'd be happy to take a fat check and be bought out.'

Terry brought plates to the table with the food. 'Maybe we can find out?' Adalet and Dormin looked up to her. 'I found the settings that made the portable try to contact home base as soon as it runs and finds a suitable network. I disabled it and have been poking around the thing. One of the interesting things I found is that I can have it search for something and it'll use any means necessary to gather information. It's like a super search engine armed to the teeth to go after information. This is ultimate spyware.'

Dormin leaned back carefully. 'You mean we can let it search for a person for instance, and it'll come back with all their digital information?'

Terry nodded. 'Not just what's available on the usual public spaces, but also on any network accessible from the grid.'

Adalet whistled. 'The government loves those kinds of toys.'

Terry went back to the kitchen and retrieved the portable from the hiding place. 'The operating system is named SMN.' she said as she sat down on the couch and unfolded the machine. 'I thought I'd just call her Ismene.'

'Her?' asked Dormin.

Terry grinned. 'I just get a female sense from this thing. Not sure why, but it just feels that way. And it fits the name.' She typed in a few commands. 'Whatever algorithm is used in this system, I think it's much more like an artificial intelligence than a run of the mill piece of clever software.' She showed the screen with a growing list of document names. 'See? She already knows the names of your shooters by just asking about today's events.'

Dormin and Adalet leaned closer and saw the names of the attackers in the list. Adalet nodded. 'Their names haven't even been made public yet. How does she know?'

Terry expanded the list. 'Got it from your own system. And I never even told her how to get into it.'

Dormin hummed in thought. 'Won't that kind of thing be traced back to us?'

Terry grinned. 'She knows how to hide.' She typed in a few more commands. 'I set priority to any financial traces to see who might have paid them. We can eat in the meantime.'

The list on the portable flashed one name in red later and Terry took a closer look. 'Hey, there's a name that's linked to both your shooters. Steen LaRossa.' She finished the last bite of her plate, picked up the portable and opened a map showing the links between the various bits of data. 'Looks like whoever paid the ones who hired the shooters is one and the same. There must be some connection between your client Larry and your colleague Frazella.'

Adalet and Dormin examined the map and the information collected so far but saw nothing that would prove or even indicate that connection. Dormin handed the portable back to Terry. 'Can you get her to look more into this Steen? See what comes up?'

Terry nodded and typed in more instructions. 'I'm not sure if there's anything to be found. I'll bet it'll take a while.'

Dormin nodded. 'That's okay. I feel like getting some sleep anyway. I'm not used to being awake during the day.'

Adalet chuckled. 'I think none of us are.'

He smiled a little deviously at her. 'You're welcome to join me. Carefully, of course.'

She chuckled and returned his smile. 'I'll be gentle.'

He turned to Terry. 'And how about you?' Terry gave him a wide grin. 'You still need to ask?'

Terry let Ismene do her thing and went hand in hand with Dormin, like Adalet, to the bed. She helped Adalet take off her clothes, then undressed herself and grinned at Dormin when she helped undress him. 'I see one thing wasn't damaged during the shooting.'

He chuckled and kissed her. 'But I won't be able to make use of it until my ribs have healed enough.' She flattened her ears and watched him with big sad eyes. He poked her nose. 'No matter how much I want to, I can't. Not without straining my chest.'

They crawled on the bed and Adalet and Terry laid close without leaning against his chest, but they made up for it in passionate kissing until they fell asleep.

***

Dormin woke up first again with a pounding headache. This time he didn't need to wait until the women woke up. They were merely holding his arm and hand instead of the usual snuggled up position they slept in, because of Adalet's and his injuries. He already felt a little lonelier because of that, even when they only became lovers just few weeks ago. There was something about them that made him think there was no future without either of them now.

He got up, careful not to wake them, and went out of the bedroom area to do the strength training he could do first. The shower after that reduced the rest of the headache and he sat down on the couch with a large mug of water.

The screens from the portable turned on and a summary on Steen LaRossa popped up. He read it and hummed in thought. The document stated Steen did security consultancy for a couple of firms, including a couple of jobs for Elecore in the past.

The back of Dormin's mind stirred again.

Terry walked up to Dormin after a while and gave him a deep kiss as she sat next to him. 'Got some results from Ismene?'

He nodded and pulled up the search path map. 'Although nothing indicating a link between Frazella and my client. The only thing that stands out is that Steen did a few consultancy jobs for Elecore. But since he has a longer list of clients it may be coincidence. Although it would make sense if Adalet and I were killed.'

Terry examined the search path which had nothing in common between the victims. 'So, the link could be you and Adalet?' She looked worried at Dormin. 'The hits were to mask an attempt to kill the both of you?'

He stared at the map. 'The back of my mind says that might just be it.'

Terry took the portable and typed a new search command. 'I'll have her search more on this guy and his connections. Maybe she can find something concrete.'

When Adalet woke up she felt stiff all over. She groaned as she half rolled off the bed and walked over to Terry and Dormin on the couch. 'I don't ever want to be shot again.' she said and sat down slowly on the couch.

Terry put away the portable. 'I'll make some tea to help you relax.'

Adalet gave her a smile. 'Thanks.' She watched Dormin check out a security firm. 'Is that a clue?'

Dormin showed her the search results from Ismene. 'This is Steen's current project, consultancy for Koan. And that security firm is specialised in high tech clients. I'm thinking maybe Elecore wasn't the only one with access to suspiciously sophisticated hardware.'

Adalet nodded. 'You think it's related to Terry's toy?'

Dormin gestured at the search path map. 'We are the only thing that make a link between Frazella and Procane. And it might be even worse.'

Adalet looked at him. 'We're the reason for the shootings?'

Terry brought back a tray with three mugs of tea and handed Adalet and Dormin one each. 'The only thing missing is an attempt on my life to confirm the theory. Which might not have happened yet because they haven't found me yet.' She sat down and blew on her hot tea. 'Usually when I thought someone would look for me I'd just move far away. But this time I don't want to leave at all.' She leaned a little against Dormin and he put his hand on her thigh, scritching her fur.

'Either we all need to go away, or none of us will.' he said and she smiled softly at him. He laid the portable on the table. 'If Ismene can't find anything, I'll think we need to have a talk with Steen.' He stood up with a little groan. 'In the meantime we'd better prepare ourselves for another attempt at our lives, just in case it's true that we were the target. And they'll probably try to make it look like an accident again.'

Terry continued checking out the results Ismene delivered with Adalet. Together they filled in some missing parts through their contacts, while Dormin took care of the weapons.

Terry stretched after a while. 'Damn. I need to stretch my legs.' she said and went to the kitchen to make more tea, then went up to Dormin.

He looked up from cleaning one submachine gun. 'Any progress?'

Terry shook her head. 'Not really. Just filling in minor blanks so far.' She stared at the array of guns and ammo. 'Can you teach me to shoot?'

He looked up at her again. 'You want to learn how to handle a weapon?'

She nodded. 'I've played plenty of games, but never used a real gun. And I think if they're really after us I need to know how to defend myself.'

Dormin hummed in thought. 'Okay then, get dressed and we'll go to the basement of one of the old factories here. I use it to shoot and check my guns once in a while.'

***

Adalet watched Terry and Dormin return from her training later. Terry grinned. 'I guess things went well?'

Terry chuckled. 'It was fun.'

Dormin put down the bags with weapons. 'I think gaming helped to get her up to speed. She's good at remote targeting.'

Adalet smiled. 'Good. But a real shooting is nothing like this.'

Terry nodded. 'But at least I know what to do with a weapon now. As for actually shooting at someone, I have no idea what I'll do.'

Dormin put his hand on her shoulder. 'Well, I do know what you can do now.'

She looked back at him. 'What?'

He smirked. 'Clean the guns.'

***

'There.' Dormin spotted the nearly forty year old man with black hair and dark blue suit with a black briefcase as he walked up the steps to the front of the apartment building where he lived. Adalet nodded and got out of the car with Dormin.

They had parked on a small car park across the street from the building. The neighbourhood was busy enough for them to avoid drawing attention. If anything they looked like a couple who had been spending time at the better shops and lunchrooms that occupied the ground floors of the several multi-storey office and apartment buildings.

Adalet used the universal keycard Terry had given her to open the front door and they stepped into the front hall with marble finish floor and pillar motif on the walls. 'Looks like he makes plenty more than I do.'

Dormin checked the list of names hanging on the wall next to an array of mailboxes. 'Third floor.'

He and Adalet took the stairs to avoid the elevator camera and made sure the hallway at the third floor was empty before moving to Steen's front door with their gun drawn.

Adalet held a flat microphone to the door and heard commercials playing through her mobile's earbud. She nodded at Dormin who switched the safety off of his gun. She used the key card again and a soft click told them the door was unlocked. She opened the door slowly to see if there was another lock or chain on it but it opened far enough for them to slip into the short hallway.

Dormin checked the corner and took a glance at the living room which was empty. He gave Adalet a nod and they moved into the room on each side. The sound of a sliding door came from an adjacent room and they approached it.

Steen walked out of the room a second later. He noticed the two intruders too late.

Dormin tackled him to the ground and Adalet put her gun to his head. 'Good day, mister LaRossa. I think you know who we are.'

Steen looked up at her and sighed.

Dormin zip-tied and pushed Steen on a couch made from different coloured blocks under the watchful eye of Adalet, and then turned off the TV before sitting down in a similar styled chair across from the couch. 'So, let's start with the simple why?'

Steen glanced at Adalet who was searching the room for anything useful. She knew he was making a lot of money seeing the simple cube styled designer furniture which had a price tag which went up the more simplistic its form. The low and high cupboards were plain oblong white boxes and the contents were hidden behind nearly invisible panels that swung up or down. Most of what she found were bottles and glasses and technical documentation.

Steen looked back at Dormin. 'Honestly, I don't know the exact reason. I only got a request to get rid of you two by making it look like bad luck. I got the feeling it had to do with criminal activity you two were involved in.'

Dormin leaned back in the chair. 'And of course no names, numbers, addresses.'

Steen gave him a sly smile. 'Of course not. They pick me for my confidentiality.'

Adalet tossed a catalogue of weapons back on the shelf she had found it on. 'And how do you get your requests?'

Steen looked at her. 'Encrypted mail, which I destroy after I confirm the job.'

She hummed and nodded. 'And when did you get that request?'

Steen frowned. 'About six days ago. I got lucky in finding the opportunities to take you out so soon.'

Adalet hummed again. 'On your business account or another?'

Steen smirked. 'Rerouted through several others to my business account. I get a lot of encrypted mail so it's not out of the ordinary.'

Adalet stared at Steen for a few moments, then looked at Dormin. 'Okay, Terry says a trail to the original sender was found by Ismene.'

Dormin stood up. 'Good, then we can go.' Steen looked up at him. He pulled out his gun and shot Steen twice in the chest.

Adalet and Dormin walked back to their car and drove back home while Terry accessed the building's security system and replaced their faces on the recording from the front door camera with other ones.

***

Terry beckoned Adalet and Dormin closer when they arrived back home. 'Ismene just finished going through the connection logs of his provider and the backbones where the mail could have possibly come from. I'm damned impressed how fast she could go through all that data with the connections made around the time he got the mail.'

Adalet leaned on the back of the couch and looked over Terry's shoulder at Ismene's screens which were now full of terminal windows. 'You've got a source?'

Terry activated one console. 'Koan. His current client. Or better said, his last client.'

Dormin sat down next to her. 'So he didn't get the job directly. I wonder why?'

Terry punched up two bank accounts. 'It's possible he got himself paid twice. Once for being the contact and setting things up, the second for being the hitman. Double pay for the same job. He's a real consultant.'

Adalet straightened herself. 'So now we need to pay a visit to Koan.'

Terry switched to another window. 'Ismene's already looking for clues to who might be involved. We'll have to wait for that.'

Dormin stood up. 'Time to eat and get some rest while we can then.'

***

The clouds made the night extra dark and that was to Dormin's liking when he parked the car out of sight a bit away from the back of the Koan campus. The firm was one of several that made airships for the transition between the worlds in the known dimensions and featured a giant concrete and glass hall with two relatively smaller ones for smaller craft. Attached to the main hall on the front side was a low office tower where all but a few windows were dark. To the side and back of the hall stood truck trailers, containers, barrels, and a few large pieces of an airship hull.

Terry, Adalet, and Dormin got out of the car and checked their surroundings. The area at the back of the campus was a natural field with an occasional tree and bush. A wire mesh fence stood between them and the large hall where Koan built the airship prototypes.

Adalet examined the back area and found a warning sign on the fence. 'So, how do you want to get in? Looks like the fence is hot.'

Dormin grinned. 'Nothing a pair of well insulated clippers and gloves can't handle. Something like that never stopped me and my unit before. After that it's up to Terry.'

Terry checked her bag of electronic goodies. 'I think I have enough junk with me to get through any electronic lock. And I have a secure remote connection to Ismene.'

Adalet smiled while she felt excited to be on the officially bad side of the law for once. 'Let's go then.'

Dormin saw he didn't need to bypass the fence to avoid the alarm and cut out a hole low and wide enough for them to crawl through. He did feel a tingle going through his arms when he cut it, but the voltage was too low to hurt him. They hunched and hurried through the shadow near a steel bar fenced off section with barrels and cylinders filled with various liquid gasses.

Terry typed on her mobile. 'I receive a wireless signal here, and she's in.' She stared at the output from Ismene. 'She got into the security system.' She typed in a few commands and smiled. 'Okay, paused the camera feed at this door. Unless they look closely at the monitor it won't show.'

The three went up to the fence and climbed over it. The door was unlocked. 'I think it's not a high priority security for them.' said Dormin and peeked inside through the crack of the door.

The hall he saw was dimly lit and had two airships inside with scaffolding and various toolboxes underneath. A soft hum of ventilation fans and an occasional bleep from a machine filled the silent space. He used the scope on his submachine gun to check the other side. 'I see windows and doors, probably to offices and changing areas. No cameras as far as I can see.'

Terry checked the camera feeds on her mobile. 'I see nothing either. Seems safe.'

They snuck inside and hurried to a corner with steel racks of construction materials on them. Terry resumed the camera feed from the back and they hurried while hunched along the side of the hall to the front and next to the first door they encountered. Adalet took a quick look through a window. 'Office. Dark, probably automated lighting.' she whispered.

Terry typed into her mobile again. 'Yes, but centrally managed. I turned it off.'

They snuck into the office and huddled into a corner behind a desk and low file cabinet. Terry took out an adapter and plugged her mobile into a free network port in the wall. 'Ismene is crawling through the network now.'

Dormin and Adalet each moved to one of the two glass doors leading out of the office and peered through them for signs of activity.

Terry moved up to them a minute later. 'Ismene found the original sender's computer in the server logs, but there are no messages on the server. We have to take a look at the computer itself.'

Dormin nodded. 'You know where it is?'

Terry showed him a floor plan on her mobile with a green circle in one room. 'It's in this office.'

The three moved quickly to the office several floors up via the stairs and took up positions inside. Terry hooked up her mobile to the computer under the desk and let Ismene do her thing again.

'Got something.' whispered Terry. 'A whole load of encrypted data. I'm copying it now since Ismene can't decrypt it fast enough through this mobile.'

'Let's hope there's something useful inside.' whispered Adalet.

When the copying was done, Terry unplugged her mobile and saw a warning message from Ismene pop up. 'Shit! The security software on this machine warned about unusual activity and it alerted the security guards.' She pulled up the security feeds. 'Several guards are coming this way, elevator and stairwell.'

Dormin opened the office door a crack. 'Let's go then, through the other offices since they have connecting doors.'

Terry followed Dormin while Adalet took the rear as they hurried low across the hallway into another office, then through a connecting door into the next.

Terry checked the security feeds again. 'They have downstairs blocked.'

The lights came on on the whole floor. Dormin looked up. 'Damned!' Something moved at the desk next to him and he aimed his submachine gun.

The white furred rat species with wild long beige hair who had been asleep at its desk blinked its black eyes and groaned. 'Shit.. I fell asleep again..'

The three watched as the rat yawned and stretched, the light grey coverall hugging the two small humps on its chest revealing her gender. She rubbed her eyes, took the mug from her desk and stood up from her chair.

The moment she saw the three people in black with the man pointing his gun at her she let the mug fall to the floor.

The crash alerted the guards. Dormin heard them exchange orders and enter the office they had just came from while covering the door to the hallway. 'Shit. It's going to become a shooting match.'

Adalet took cover behind a file cabinet and Terry underneath a desk.

The door to the office opened and one female guard peeked through it. 'Ourania, right?'

The rat stared at the doorway. 'Yes?'

The guard spoke into a mobile. 'There's an engineer of ours with them.' She was silent for a moment. 'Eliminate, are you sure?' Silence for a moment again before she said 'Confirmed.' and 'Eliminate all. No witnesses.' to the other guards.

Dormin jumped up at Ourania and pulled her down to the floor. Bullets pierced through the furniture above their heads and Adalet and Terry fired back through the walls next to the door. A crash and gunshots came from the adjacent office door and Dormin fired at the door and the wall beside it while covering Ourania.

When things turned silent apart from the humming of machines and the garbled couching of one guard in the hallway Adalet crawled closer to the door and surveyed the situation. 'Everyone down, one man in rough shape.'

Dormin rolled off of Ourania and checked her. 'Are you okay? Not hurt?'

She blinked and panted. 'I think so.'

He stood up slowly and went to the adjacent office. Three guards laid on the floor in their own blood. 'Clear here.'

He went back to Ourania. 'I know this will be hard to understand right now, but your life here is over. Something is going on and they don't hesitate to kill you for it to keep it a secret. We can protect you the best we can if you come with us. Will you trust us?'

She blinked again at him and nodded slowly.

He gave her a quick smile. 'Good. I hate to see innocent people killed.' He took her hand. 'Come.'

The four of them went down the stairwell silently. Terry used the elevator management to sent it down and distract the few guards on the ground floor. Dormin and Adalet burst through the stairwell door and shot them before they realised what had happened.

To cover part of their tracks they returned the same way they came in and waited close to the fence only long enough for Terry to erase the backups of the camera feeds. Dormin drove the car back without using his lights until they were far enough away. 'I think they expected us.'

Adalet reloaded her gun. 'I got the same feeling. Or at least they knew who we were. We're not safe anymore.'

Dormin grumbled his agreement. 'We'd better pack up our things quickly.'

He drove home by the quickest route without cameras and slowed down in his neighbourhood. 'Terry, can you check my hidden cameras?'

Terry typed on her mobile. 'Already on it. No sign of activity.'

He accelerated again. 'Good. Once we're inside grab what you need. Then we drive to Karl's place.'

Dormin drove the car to the back and he, Adalet, and Terry moved into formation inside to be on the safer side. Terry collected the laptops and Ismene, Dormin collected the rest of his guns and ammo, while Adalet took point at the corner of the building providing cover if needed. When they had what they needed they went back to the car and Dormin drove away to his old friend's place.

Ourania watched Terry unfold Ismene and type into a console next to her on the backseat. 'Would this be a good time to ask what's going on?'

Adalet turned back on her seat to look at her. 'You got caught up in something we don't even know for sure what it is about.' She gestured at the others. 'They are Terry and Dormin, I'm Adalet. The short story is that Dormin caught Terry while she broke into a firm where he worked as night guard. He found the portable she's using now and someone has been trying to get it back without leaving witnesses, including me, a police officer, and now you.'

Ourania looked at the portable. 'Is it that special?'

Terry grinned. 'I don't think we even know how special she is yet. Ismene is not of any so far known world.'

Ourania leaned closer. 'I haven't seen any design like that. What software does it run? And what specs does it have?'

Adalet chuckled while Terry and Ourania exchanged technical knowledge and looked at Dormin. 'I think Terry has found someone who is up to her level.

Dormin smiled. 'Good. It's frustrating to not have anyone to talk to about certain topics.'

***

When Dormin drove the car through the neighbourhood of Karl's place, Adalet put her hand on his. 'Wait up. I don't trust it.'

He parked to the side of the road. 'What is it?' She looked around at two small groups of people hanging around at corners of the streets. 'They seem to be on edge. Something is spooking them, the way they keep an eye out in the direction we're going.'

Dormin watched the groups as they talked and gestured all in the same direction. 'Wait here. I'll go check.'

He put on an old jacket and cap and got out of the car, crossing the street and walking casually along it towards Karl's place. Close to it he noticed a car that looked too new and shiny to belong in the neighbourhood. He kept on walking and went around the block, watching a few small groups of people who seemed to be more lively than usual and another car out of place at the other side of the back road to Karl's place. He went around again to return to the car.

'The place is being watched.' he said when he got behind the wheel. 'They must have tracked down anyone I know in the city.'

Adalet gripped her pistol tighter. 'Great. They're going full force after us now. Where do we go? I have no safe house.'

Ourania looked up from the screens of Ismene. 'I have a place that no one knows about. And there's something there I would like to see if Ismene could help me with.'

Dormin turned to look at her. 'You trust us enough to help us? You don't know us or what we want to do.'

She looked at him. 'You did save me from being killed. And Terry showed me everything she knows about Ismene. It's logical to trust you when you yourself even question why I should.'

He chuckled. 'You do know there's something called reverse psychology?'

She smiled. 'And it can be looped into infinity. It's the multiple factors that define the outcome.'

Dormin smiled as he turned to the front again. 'All right. Where do we go?'

New Home Base

Ourania's directions let them out of the city and into a flatter part of the country with grasslands and forests while the first rays of the sun touched the sky. At an unmarked intersection of the road they followed she had Dormin take a right and drive down a road with cracked surface and grass growing through it leading through a part of a forest. After a while they exited the forest and arrived at grasslands with several abandoned factory buildings and train tracks leading up to them. She pointed at an oblong brick hall several storeys high with narrow vertical windows of which several were broken. 'Stop to the side of the big one.'

Dormin parked the car and they got out, breathing fresh, unpolluted air for the first time in a while.

'This used to be a test facility for various types of aircraft.' Ourania said. 'It belonged to a friend of the family and he left it to us when he moved overseas after he married a foreign woman. Technically it's still in his name, but I've been using it to do some experimental work on my own on an airship my father gave me when he retired it from his transportation business.'

She led the rest across the concrete tiles marked by grass and puddles to the entrance at the front of the building. She unlocked the door and walked into the large maintenance hall with an older transport airship parked inside.

Terry whistled at the blunt wedge shaped airship which seemed to be held together by rust brown stained paint. 'That's an old one.'

Ourania grinned. 'Yeah. Nowadays it's all about aerodynamics and round shapes, but I prefer the classic hard lines.'

The airship had a low forward slanted front which expanded in width and upwards to the end of the forward section, where two large ring engines on each side divided it from the slightly slanted full sized rear section. The airship rested on a low and slim base which ran from less than halfway the forward section to halfway the rear section while the five three pronged landing struts rested on the floor.

Ourania walked towards the airship. 'I rebuilt part of it over the years and modified the engines so that it still looks old but has more performance than many modern airships.' She unlocked the door at the front of the connecting base and stepped inside a compartment with stairs leading up to the forward section and stairs at the back leading to the rest of the airship. 'All of that work was to try out a theory I came up with and could impact worlds.'

Adalet raised one eyebrow. 'Worlds?'

Ourania nodded. 'What I've constructed here can be used to wage wars and spy on anyone who doesn't know what to look for.' She gestured at the stairs at the front of the compartment. 'I'll show you what I mean in the lounge.'

Up the stairs they found themselves in a space spanning the width of the airship. Couches and booths in a variety of grey and blue divided up the thick grey carpeted space for passengers to spend time while they travelled from one world to the next. On one side at the back were several screens and stacks of books and papers with various smaller and bigger electronic and mechanical parts strewn all over a worn part of the carpet floor.

Ourania moved over there and gestured at a whiteboard filled with quick drawings and notes hanging on the back wall. 'You know how we can travel from one dimension to the other via local dimensional connecting leaks while synchronising our matter frequency and time shift to the destination.'

Dormin looked at the scribbles on the board. 'That's the basics we were all taught in school, yes.'

Ourania wiped part of the board and drew a circle with a stick figure in it. 'Then you know that until the synchronisation is done you're in a sort of neutral state and have less interaction with the rest of the world.'

Dormin nodded. 'With the luck that if something goes wrong your matter reverses back to its original state.'

Ourania drew a circle around the first circle. 'I started wondering if it was possible to create another field encompassing the normal one and use that to conceal it. The few mentions I found about fields interacting made it look like it wasn't possible, but I couldn't let go of the idea and started calculating and experimenting on my own.' She grinned wide. 'And then I found the solution.' She drew lines in the ring made by the circles. 'Dark matter.'

Terry pricked up her ears. 'You're creating a dark matter field?'

Ourania grinned. 'Yes, one just large enough to cover the dimensional transit field.' She drew an arrow going into the ring on one side and one going out at the opposite side. 'Waves going into the field on one side travel through the dark matter field and come out at the other side as if nothing happened.'

Terry frowned in thought for a moment. 'But to accomplish that you need to adjust the fields constantly to keep them synchronised to each other and the dimension you're in.'

Ourania tapped with her pen at several algorithms she had written on the board. 'Indeed. I've only managed to run a small model for a few seconds with the processing power at work. For something the size of this I'd need massive computing power.' She smiled at Terry. 'And I think that's where Ismene can help me.'

Dormin and Adalet let Terry and Ourania discuss the matter of using Ismene and see if she has the capacity to handle Ourania's experiment to them and explored the airship. Ourania had unlocked all parts of the airship so they had free reign. The two headed for the cockpit first.

Adalet examined the controls at the two pilot seats while Dormin looked at the engineer seat. There were loose panels and wiring everywhere. 'Say, do you know how to pilot one of these things? Maybe had some instructions in the military?'

Dormin sat down in the captain's seat after removing a small electronic board and studied the view around him. 'Actually, I did have a few lessons and had to fly a few small ones during missions. They all have the same basic principle.'

Adalet sat down in one of the pilot seats and looked out of the windows in front of her and below at her feet. 'I used to imagine flying to every world in my own one when I was little.' She grabbed the joystick that controlled the airship. 'I was allowed inside one cockpit during a flight with another boy. The pilot explained in simple terms how it worked and said most of the time it was boring, but the great thing was visiting other dimensions. I've been so busy with my work that I haven't yet taken a real good vacation outside of this world.'

Dormin chuckled. 'I've been sent to several dimensions, but not one was a vacation. Only active duty and coming right back after finishing it.'

Adalet got up from the seat. 'Well, now that they're really after us it doesn't matter where we are.'

Dormin gave her a little grin. 'I guess it doesn't.'

Adalet and Terry went through the rest of the ship and learned that there were two floors in the front and rear sections with two main corridors on each floor going from front to back. The top floor was mostly private rooms while the lower floor had the cockpit, lounge and a couple of larger rooms used for dining or meetings in the front section, and kitchen and storage in the rear section. Above the floors were the large cells for the light gasses that lifted up the airships. Now they were empty and Adalet and Dormin could enter each one through a small central corridor.

When they returned to the lounge they found Terry and Ourania busy with Ismene. Terry was typing while Ourania scribbled on a notepad and watched the screens.

Adalet watched the screen full of code. 'I guess you're going to test running this thing with Ismene?'

Ourania looked up at her. 'We believe Ismene can handle the work easily. Terry's writing the code for my algorithms and the interface to the engine management. What do you think of the ship?'

Adalet sat down in a seat close to her. 'Looks simple but effective. The only thing I noticed was the amount of screens in the cockpit.'

Ourania nodded at the drawing on the board. 'When the outer shield is active it blocks everything from outside. The only way to see things is through passive and active sensors. Another reason I needed a powerful computer to run the ship, it needs to convert all that input to images on the screens inside.'

Dormin hummed as he looked out the window at the hall. 'Sounds like being inside a submarine.'

Ourania turned to him. 'Exactly. We're blind with our own eyes so we need to rely on sensors. The only advantage is to actually see something while there's light outside. Only in total darkness would it be the same because we can't shine a spotlight while cloaked. And it would reveal our presence anyway if we could.'

Dormin chuckled. 'Portable eclipse.' The silence behind him was obvious and he turned to the confused women. 'This airship is the full shadow and the dark matter shield is the penumbra between us and the world lit by the sun. Outsiders can't see us in the dark.'

Ourania chuckled. 'Right. You could look at it that way.' Adalet chuckled. 'We'll have to stay in the dark anyway so they won't find us.'

'Done!' said Terry and grinned as she leaned back in her chair. 'We can test the interface.'

Ourania stood up. 'The main interface is in the management system behind the cockpit. We can hook up Ismene there.'

Adalet and Dormin went outside to observe the airship while Ourania and Terry attached a cable from the airship's electronics to Ismene. Terry checked for communication and Ismene reported active connections to all systems. 'We can try it.'

Ourania gave a thumbs up to Adalet and Dormin and activated the airship's ring engines. All four engine panels turned green. 'Power is good, engines are running.' She pushed the button for the engine position control and the four ring engines moved outwards beyond the hull until the were halfway exposed. 'Engines in position, and activating the dark matter shield.' She pushed another button and Adalet and Dormin's eyes grew big when they saw the airship disappear.

'Wow!' said Dormin. 'That's a very neat trick!'

Adalet stared at the seemingly empty hall. 'This is unreal.'

Dormin peered and hummed. 'If you look very closely though, you can see a slight blur appear and disappear in some places.'

Adalet stared hard for a short while. 'Indeed. But you have to know something's there, otherwise you wouldn't notice it.'

Ourania examined the screens with the outside view in the mostly dark cockpit. 'Just as I thought, it's dark within the shield. How's Ismene doing?'

Terry pulled up the activity monitor. 'Oh, she's doing very fine. She could drink tea and eat cookies if she was a person. I'm impressed and surprised at the power she has because I didn't even expect it to be this easy for her to process.'

Ourania came over and examined the various terminal windows with output. 'Damn. I could have done so much more if I had her when I started on my theory and experiments.'

Terry grinned. 'Well, looks like you can start thinking about what to do next.'

Ourania shut down the engines and Adalet and Dormin hurried inside to tell her what they witnessed.

She was thrilled at the news and pulled out a bottle of Sinth, a slightly sweet, yellow, and strong liquor, from underneath a stack of books. 'My father always drank this as a toast when something good happened.' she said as she poured it into four cups from a roll that laid behind the water cooker in the corner. 'Although I think this would be worth four bottles instead of four cups.' She held up a cup. 'To Ismene, who made this possible.'

Dormin held up his. 'To you, who actually invented it.'

Terry held up hers. 'To science, which gives birth to miracles.'

Adalet lifted up her cup and pondered for a moment. 'The heck with it. To any reason for having a drink.'

Everyone chuckled and drank.

Terry coughed. 'Damn! Good stuff.' she rasped.

Ourania nodded. 'You sound like my dad did every time.'

Adalet wiped away a few tears and watched Dormin.

He gave an approving nod. 'Nice.'

Adalet leaned back into the soft couch of the booth they sat in. Despite the age the blue-grey fabric looked barely worn. 'So, what now?'

Dormin, who sat next to her stared into his drink. 'Current status, we're pretty sure we're being targeted and they know enough about us, or at least me, to have found Karl's place. That means I'm cut off from any place I know. And any places you know are suspect.'

Terry glanced at Ismene. 'The data encryption hasn't been cracked yet so we have no idea who's behind it.'

Dormin took a sip and looked at Ourania. 'And due to unfortunate circumstances you're now caught up in this mess.'

She nodded. 'I'm not sure what to think of it. If I wasn't there things probably would have been the same for me for the rest of my life. Work, maybe find someone who's related to work after many years, marriage, divorce, grow older while still doing this work.' She chuckled. 'Maybe it's not so bad to get dragged out of a boring ordinary life.'

Terry chuckled. 'I wouldn't call mine boring up until I got my hands on Ismene, but it sure got more interesting.' She smiled deviously at Dormin. 'And exciting.'

He grinned a little at her and glanced at Adalet. 'Yeah, despite the downside of people wanting to kill me, I don't want to miss the new direction my life has taken. So, it's time to adapt. First order of business is a new place to live.'

Ourania gestured around her. 'And this is the place no one knows about that I mentioned earlier. If you want to stay hidden, nothing hides better than this thing.'

'Are you sure?' asked Adalet. 'You'd be stuck with the three of us.'

Ourania smiled. 'You're the most fun people I've met in my life so far, and you've helped me achieve my goal by letting Ismene prove my idea works. This airship needs her. So if I can return the favour I'm more than happy to do so. Besides, this thing has more than enough rooms for all of us.'

Adalet glanced at Terry and Dormin and blushed. 'Ah, about that.'

Ourania looked at her. 'Something wrong with the rooms?'

Adalet cleared her throat. 'Well..'

Dormin smiled softly at her and put his hand on her thigh. 'What she means is that she, Terry, and I would only need one room.' He looked at Ourania. 'And we don't want to make you feel uncomfortable with our relationship.'

Ourania stared at the three for a moment. 'Really? You three are..?'

Terry chuckled in her cup. 'Yeah. I'm afraid I started teasing for fun and kind of dragged them into it.'

Dormin chuckled. 'No, you saw the feelings I tried to ignore and I'm glad you did what I was rather afraid to admit.'

Adalet emptied her cup. 'That's right! If you hadn't taken that first step I might have regretted not taking action myself for the rest of my life.' She looked at Dormin and smiled softly. 'I'm happy the three of us are together.'

Ourania watched the three exchange loving gazes and smiles, and sighed. 'Sounds like you're caught up in a lucky situation. I always thought I'd never have much luck in love because I'm mostly lost in my interest in technology.'

Dormin emptied his cup and put it on the table. 'I don't see why not. I have no real idea about your species but I do think you look good. And you're interestingly smart. As a member of the male species of any kind, I think the man who captures your heart is lucky.'

Terry watched Ourania stare at Dormin with big eyes and then look into her cup. 'I don't think it would be a problem if you want to borrow Dormin until you find that love of your life.'

Dormin choked and coughed while Ourania and Adalet looked at Terry in shock.

She grinned. 'Whoops. Am I doing it again?'

Dormin made a quick meal with some supplies Ourania had available and she led the rest to the large suite at the front above the cockpit afterwards. It had comfortable seating in the middle at full height windows for a panoramic view. At the left was a large bed and at the right another seating arrangement with a bar and a large screen. Everything was in the same grey and blue shades comfortable to the eyes.

She opened a cupboard next to the bed. 'There's everything you need to make up the bed here. I've used the bedding from another room to sleep on a couch in the lounge while I worked here and they're good, even if they're old.'

Dormin took out pillows and blankets. 'Thanks. We'll be fine with this.'

Terry tried the mattress with her hand. 'Besides, as long as Adalet and Dormin suffer from their bruised ribs there's not much more than sleeping that we can do.'

'Terry!' said Adalet as she saw Ourania's embarrassed look. 'Don't say such things.'

Terry shrugged. 'I only wanted to reassure her we'd behave in bed.'

Dormin chuckled and turned to Ourania. 'I think we'll limit how much Terry gets to drink in the future. Sorry about that.'

She looked away. 'It's okay. I saw worse at office parties.' She went over to the suite door. 'I hope you can sleep well tonight.'

He smiled back at her. 'I think we will, thanks.'

She gave him a nod and a quick smile, then went back to the couch she always slept on. Her imagination quietly wondered how and what the three of them did when they were getting intimate. She shook her head. 'Don't start on that!' she told herself and tried to think of what she'd need to finish the airship management systems and controls.

***

Dormin woke up after a few hours again, smiled softly at Adalet and Terry sleeping next to him despite his headache, kissed them softly on the forehead and slipped out of bed. He put on his pants and checked the bathroom at the other side of the suit. The faucet was dry so he stepped out and headed to the back where the kitchen was.

The lights were on and illuminated the corridor from the doorway, and he wondered if he had forgotten to turn them off when he last used the kitchen. He stepped inside and surprised Ourania around the corner, who dropped her sandwich. 'Ah! Sorry! I wanted to freshen up and there was no water in the bathroom of the suite.'

She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. 'Oh, right! I forgot I had most systems disabled.' She looked down at the floor and squatted just as he did to pick up the slices of bread and cheese. She grinned at him. 'I always get hungry when I work late.'

He smiled and nodded. 'I know the feeling.' He collected the food. 'I'll make you a new one to make up for the scare.'

Ourania watched him make a cheese sandwich with the use of some herbs and lightly toasted bread. She couldn't stop her imagination from examining and probing his firm body. The bruises at his back looked painful while the burn on his side made her curious, but she thought it was impolite to ask about it. It actually made him more interesting to her and a voice in her head nudged her. "You heard the offer from Terry. It was not like any of them denied it. How much chance do you think you'll have meeting someone like him when you're constantly behind a desk or in the bowels of an airship? You could at least try him one time."

Dormin turned to her. He smiled gently at her, then tilted his head. She blinked and pushed her imagination back. 'Sorry, what?'

He chuckled. 'I asked if one was enough.'

Her heart skipped a beat. 'One!?'

He nodded and put down the plate with the sandwich in front of her. 'Will you have enough with one sandwich? I can make more.'

She relaxed and smiled embarrassed at the plate. 'No, one will be enough, thanks. I didn't plan on staying up much later.'

He smiled at her and turned to wash his hands and face while she watched him and chewed slowly on the best sandwich she had ever eaten in her life.

'So, you're one who stays up late as well?' Dormin asked in the dimly lit lounge after Ourania offered one more shot of Sinth to fill up some time.

She sank back in the couch of the booth they used. 'I always did my best work at night when there are no other people around. Sometimes I'd just crank up the music and continue as if in a trance.' She chuckled. 'It's not unusual to suddenly realise it was the morning coffee break when a colleague came to check up on me.'

Dormin grinned. 'I guess we're all the same then. The three of us are also nocturnal.'

Ourania's gaze went to the window but she didn't look as much outside at the shades of darkness in the hall, as at the dim reflection of Dormin in the glass. 'So how did you three end up together?'

Dormin took a sip of the liquor that warmed his chest as it went down. 'As was said in a few words before, I caught Terry breaking into a firm I worked at as a night security guard. She escaped and I called in the police, and it was Adalet who showed up to take a first look. When I found Terry's backpack with a portable in it later I drove to the station in the morning where someone was asking Adalet about the break-in. We thought something was off and she visited me later at home to check out the portable. When we did we got a visit from an armed unit shortly after. We escaped to an old place of a friend of mine, tracked down Terry and learned through her the portable you now know as Ismene had been a special project at a firm that wanted to keep things so secret they'd kill for it. In short, we framed the head of security there who tried to kill one of the software engineers and returned as if we knew nothing while that guy got arrested for murder and the firm investigated.'

Ourania nodded and glanced at him. 'Was that when you three, got, close?'

He took another sip and smiled softly. 'Ah, yeah, at the end. It just sort of happened when Terry noticed I wasn't, unaffected, when they wore only a night shirt.'

She saw his blush and her inner voice told her it made a note about wearing night shirts. 'She's very forward, it seems.'

He chuckled. 'Yeah, seems so. She blames me for it though since she never cared about getting together with someone before.'

She chuckled. 'I can imagine.' The moment she said it she held her breath. 'I mean, some people just meet the right one unexpectedly.'

Dormin smiled and nodded. 'Yeah, seems it has been this way for us.'

He finished his drink. 'I'll see if I can get a bit more rest before they wake up.' he said and stood up. 'Thanks for the drink.'

Ourania smiled at him. 'Thank you for the great sandwich. I'll try to get some sleep as well now.'

He returned her smile. 'Sleep tight then.' he said and walked out of the lounge.

Ourania watched him leave and laid back on the couch, grabbing a pillow for her head. She closed her eyes for a moment before grabbing another pillow to clutch against her chest to help her sleep.

***

The next day Ourania explained the workings of the airship to Terry while Adalet and Dormin drove to a nearby town to buy supplies. When they returned they found Ourania nearly in tears in the empty hall.

'Are you okay!?' asked Adalet, putting the grocery bags down.

Ourania nodded and smiled. 'I'm just so happy to see it work.' she said and looked at the empty hall and chuckled. 'Or maybe I should say not see, which proves it works.'

The airship appeared again in a brief blur and Dormin grinned. 'Yeah, it kind of makes it confusing.'

The three went inside to the cockpit and Ourania hugged Terry. 'That was a fantastic sight.'

Terry grinned at her. 'Next time it's my turn to see it.' she said and gestured at the outputs on Ismene's screens. 'I think it's safe to do further tests.'

Ourania examined the output. 'I'll have to make a list for the things needed to prepare the airship for flight. And we'll need a list for making it a permanent home.'

Adalet looked at Dormin. 'How about we take care of that while the two brainiacs take on the first list?'

Dormin chuckled. 'Sounds better than the other way around.'

Terry pouted and crossed her arms. 'Are you saying just because we're geniuses we can't make a good home?'

Adalet looked at her. 'You want us two grunts try to get this thing going with only our knowledge of armed and unarmed combat?'

Terry grinned. 'Yeah, maybe you have a point.'

The four of them went to work and some time later Terry called out to everyone. 'Ismene had cracked the encrypted data!' she said and showed documents on the screen in the lounge. 'From what I see it's François Miller who's behind the call to assassinate us.'

Ourania leaned closer to read a short mail requesting the removal of certain individuals from the work force. 'He's the financial man at the firm. Why would he be involved in this?'

Terry pulled up a list of notes made by Ismene. 'The firm is about to get a special order to build some airships with highly sophisticated hardware and it has to be done with the least amount of people knowing about it. Some of the hardware came from Elecore and they don't want any leads coming back to them. We know they had worked on several portables like Ismene and they don't want us ending up at this firm to ask questions.'

Adalet sneered. 'But we did end up there because of their actions, and not because we tried to find the hardware.'

'Who's the client?' Dormin asked.

Terry examined the list. 'Unknown. François's probably the only one who knows.'

Dormin looked at Adalet who gave him a nod. 'Then we'll have to pay him a visit.'

***

François Miller paused the porn movie he was watching. The girl's crying face while she was tortured filled the large screen. He let the image sink in and enjoyed the surge of excitement through his body that it caused. That's what good obedient girls were good for in his opinion. He got up and went into the kitchen to put some fresh ice cubes into his glass. When he turned around again he looked right into the muzzle of a pistol.

'François Miller, I presume.' the man behind it said.

Dormin and Adalet kept their guns pointed at François as he sat on the black leather couch in the living room. 'I don't think we need to introduce ourselves, do we?' said Dormin. François swallowed. 'We've already read the documents about the order and the requirement that came along with it, so we only have one question, who.'

François rubbed his wet palms on his black pants. Sweat stains grew in the armpits of his white dress shirt. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

He cried out when Dormin shot the side of his thigh.

Dormin took a step closer while François clutched his thigh and cried out in pain. 'Who!'

François glared up at him. 'I have no name! I only have a contact address!' Dormin aimed at François's other leg. 'I swear! I was approached at the Green Café by some guy and only see him there in the evening!'

Dormin relaxed his gun. 'Name, description.'

François shook his head. 'No name. He's some guy in his thirties, black hair, dark blue suit. Drinks whiskey. He shows up after I arrive. That's all I know!'

Dormin nodded at Adalet and she went to the front door. François glanced around. 'He won't come if I'm not there.'

Dormin aimed his gun at François again. 'We'll just have to risk it.' he said and pulled the trigger.

Adalet crawled behind the wheel of the car and drove away after Dormin got in. 'I'm not too happy with having to shoot him.' she said.

Dormin reloaded his gun. 'I know. But it's necessary to keep us safe and I've been trained for this kind of thing. You won't have to do it.'

Adalet took a turn and headed for the road leading outside the city. 'It's hard to think of being the good guys when what's needed to be done to stay safe is the same thing the bad guys do.'

Dormin put away their guns and sighed. 'In the end the only difference is the damage done to ordinary civilians. Keep it low or non-existent, and you're in the good camp.'

Adalet nodded slowly as they drove in silence through the night.

***

The Green Café was a reasonably popular club for the higher paid managers in the city. The audience wasn't too young apart from the trophy boy- and girlfriends the clientele brought with them. The dance music brought them to the floor in the centre and made for entertainment for the older generation like they were watching dogs play during a walk in the park. It also made for doing business deals.

Dormin leaned closer to Adalet after a forty-something woman in black skirt suit passed them and measured him up with a predatory smile. 'Will they think I brought you here, or you brought me?'

Adalet smiled deviously. 'I look all business in my grey suit, which means I brought you.'

Dormin straightened his jacket. 'Yeah, thought so.'

They found an empty booth and a young black waitress in tight white leather skirt outfit soon joined them.

'Two of your best whiskeys, on the tab of François Miller.' Adalet said.

The girl smiled. 'Coming right away.' she said and went back to the bar with a light tread.

'Think he might show up?' Adalet asked.

Dormin surveyed the crowd. 'I hope they'll be curious enough when we show up here and use Miller's name.'

The waitress returned and served their drinks. She gave Dormin a quick wink before returning to the bar.

Adalet nudged him. 'Hey, you're not going to flirt with other women while we're on the job.'

He grinned and wet his lips with his whiskey to see if there were effects of drugs. 'So it's okay the rest of the time?'

Adalet pouted a little. 'I didn't know you were a player.'

Dormin caressed her thigh. 'I think I'm the one being played with by you and Terry.'

Adalet chuckled. 'Okay, true.'

They watched the crowd for a while when a black haired man in dark blue suit sat with them. 'Miss Saliman and mister Oarion. I see you're more tenacious than we had anticipated.'

Dormin felt Adalet's thigh tense. 'It's kind of a natural reaction when someone keeps on trying to kill you.'

The man nodded. 'I suppose it is.'

Dormin sipped his whiskey. 'So why?'

The man chuckled. 'I think you already know how powerful the hardware is that your foxy friend stole from us. We can't have that out in the open.'

Adalet sneered. 'Just for that?'

The man smiled coldly at her. 'That's enough for you to know.' A canine and a feline male in dark grey suits stepped up to the booth. 'And now we'll have to say goodbye. If you try anything we'll shoot you and everyone here in the club, making it look like an unfortunate mass killing incident.'

The men gestured for Adalet and Dormin to follow them and they walked out the front like normal guests. Adalet glanced at Dormin's calm face and tried to keep just as cool while she wondered what he had been through to manage that.

The canine led the group to a car park and through a doorway in the brick wall at the back. There he turned and gestured with a nod for Adalet and Dormin to stand further back. They moved over and Dormin stared blankly at him.

The man smiled a little. 'I see you've stared death in the face more often, as calm as you are. Too bad it won't help you escape this time.'

Dormin shrugged.

'Kill them.' said the man and the canine and feline aimed their guns at Dormin and Adalet.

Several shots rang and the three men collapsed to the ground while Dormin and Adalet grabbed their guns and stepped back from them. The man groaned in pain while he grabbed his bleeding thigh and looked back up at the airship that hadn't been there before and the fox aiming a sniper rifle at him.

Dormin pushed him on his back and pressed the gun underneath his jaw. 'Now tell us the rest.'

The man chuckled. 'I don't think so. You're in over your head.'

Dormin looked at the feline and canine. 'Anybody have anything to say?'

They glared at him and Dormin pulled the trigger.

He stood up from the corpse. 'You sure?'

The feline spat at him. 'They'll kill us if we talk, so you might as well kill us now.'

Dormin aimed at him. 'Okay.' he said and shot him, then the canine.

Adalet stepped back and breathed deep. 'I feel like we're in a war.'

Dormin emptied the pockets of the dead men. 'We're in something much worse. These guys have no compunction about taking innocent lives.'

He took wallets and keys and went with Adalet to the car park passing cars until one reacted to the keys. They searched the interior thoroughly, collected more weapons, some identity and business cards, and gave a thumbs up to Terry before getting into Dormin's car. The airship disappeared from sight as soon as Dormin drove away.

Adalet looked through the wallets and cards. 'Their identities are for a secure transport company. A few cards from storage companies.' She took out her mobile and took pictures of everything. 'Let's see what Terry can do with this.'

Back at Ourania's airship facility they sat together in the lounge.

Dormin looked at Ourania who glanced at him. 'You've now seen what we do to fight back. If you have any problem or doubt you should tell us before you regret what you're getting involved in.'

Ourania glanced at the others and took a deep breath. 'I've never been so close to violence until that first night at work. And seeing how it's used in a trap set up by us, it's sort of unreal. I can't empathise with those guys though since my logic also tells me that it's us or them. I just wonder how cold I can be.'

Dormin nodded. 'No one can be really cold unless they're really screwed up in the head. And those people don't walk around free or alive for long. You're fine, but expect to get hit with realisation at some point. That's the hardest thing before it gets easier.' He turned to Terry. 'How are you doing?'

She gave him a little smile. 'It was easier than I thought when I imagined what they would do to you two. But I couldn't outright kill them.'

Dormin gave her a gentle smile. 'You did good. You don't have to do more than this if you don't want to. If you want to do this at all. The rest can be done by me. I'm the only one trained for this kind of job anyway.'

Adalet put her hand on his. 'Are you okay with bearing that burden for us?'

He smiled softly at her. 'I've done this enough times to have passed the point of no return. Ending the lives of bad guys had become a normal event in my life a long time ago.'

Adalet leaned closer to him and kissed his cheek. 'I hope we can end that sort of thing soon.'

He looked at her and grinned slightly. 'But what will I do for a hobby then?'

She chuckled and Terry felt her stomach grumble. 'I know, cooking! And you can start right now because I'm hungry.'

While Dormin was cooking with Adalet helping, Terry checked on Ismene's progress on finding more information about Polioni, the transport company, and briefed the rest when they ate a little later. 'They are part of a larger corporation with a variety in businesses like construction, low volume manufacturing, accounting. It all looks like a normal everyday thing and no major problems with the law. But there was one lead Ismene found, most of the shareholders and investors lead back financially to Elyssa Sornio.'

Adalet stopped her fork midway to her mouth. 'Elyssa Sornio? She's one shrewd woman. May have tried to convict her for the crimes done by the criminal empire she runs, but it has always ended up as lack of evidence or with someone taking the fall.'

'I've heard of her.' said Dormin. 'Ex-soldiers are welcomed in her companies.'

Ourania blinked. 'I think I missed something. But then I hardly watch the news.'

Adalet looked at her. 'She stays mostly out of the limelight so she's not really a household name. It is said she came up from the bottom and gained control over ever more territory from other crime gangs in a relative short time. She didn't make a huge mess out of it but did it with precise and brutal strikes.' Adalet put her fork down. 'And not a single piece of evidence could be traced back to her. This is definitely not good.'

'We'll have to be smart about how to get at her then.' said Dormin and leaned back. 'Observation, collect any information there is, find the weak spot.'

Terry gestured at him with her fork. 'If Ismene finds enough info on her we might only need to fill in a few blanks.'

He nodded. 'Hopefully enough to take her down without bloodshed. Locking her up would be a more effective punishment than killing her.'

Adalet sighed. 'You think we can achieve more than the police departments?'

He smirked at her. 'They don't have two geniuses with an invisible airship and a portable supercomputer.'

Adalet let out a laugh. 'Right!'

Getting to Know the Enemy

The four worked on getting the airship ready as soon as possible. Dormin hoped they would be hidden at the facility but didn't count on it to be forever. Adalet agreed.

While Terry steered the search for information about Elyssa on Ismene, she also ran more tests with Ourania on the airship and the dark matter shield. The transparency of the shield was tested with radio and light waves and solid objects, and if passing through the dark matter bubble changed them in any way. It was at least too weak for the instruments to detect as long as the airship was far enough out of sync.

Ourania connected the last wires to the controls for the cargo area in the cockpit. It still looked like it had been ripped apart for parts but it was fully functional now. She went back to her corner in the lounge to check the to-do list when she met Terry there who made some changes on various identities she owned.

'I think I've done all on the list.' Ourania said as she sat behind her computer. 'Everything is functional now although it still looks messy. But tidying up can always be done later.'

Terry looked up from the new tablet she had linked to Ismene after securing her in an armoured box out of sight in the lounge. 'So we're good to go?'

Ourania double checked her work list. 'I'd say so. If I missed anything we'll find out when we're gone.' She leaned back in her chair. 'Ah, now I feel I can relax somewhat.'

Terry chuckled. 'I can imagine.' She sent a message to Dormin and Adalet who were stocking up the kitchen and making sure they had all the necessities on board.

They arrived a bit later and sat down in the booth at the window. Dormin had brought a bottle of clear liquor called Slingfitsh and shot glasses.

He poured them all a drink. 'This is what my unit drank after a successful mission.' He held up his glass. 'To a job well done.'

The rest clinked their glasses with his and downed the liquid tasting slightly of sweet and sour apples.

A fast spreading warmth went down Ourania's throat and she smiled a little. 'Tastes like victory.'

Dormin nodded. 'The sweet but also sour side of the job we were in. It helped to relieve the stress that had been building up by getting fully drunk.'

Adalet sighed. 'I don't mind getting drunk now.' She pulled a soft pillow behind her back and stretched her legs. 'Even though it's less now, my ribs still ache.'

Dormin refilled their glasses. 'Give it a week, then it'll feel well enough to do all normal things as long as it's not too intense.'

She took another drink. 'In the meantime this will have to do as a painkiller.'

Terry chuckled. 'I'll join you out of sympathy.' she said and took a drink.

Dormin turned to Ourania. 'I didn't notice any name for this ship, does it have any at all?'

Ourania shook her head. 'It only had a designation number when it was in active use. But I did come up with one after I read a myth about a hero who fought and tamed an invisible monster and made it her mount. Diafanis.'

'Oh, I like that one.' said Terry. She held up her glass. 'To Diafanis.'

They clinked their glasses and drank to the new name.

***

The next afternoon Dormin drove his car into one of the smaller buildings and hid it behind a stack of old barrels and crates.

'Won't they know it's yours when someone finds it?' Ourania asked when he came back to the hall.

'The license plates are false and the registration has been altered by Terry to a known criminal who vanished a while ago. It'll be enough to deceive a quick look into it.' he said and looked up at the airship. 'It's too big to take with us anyway. We'll have to find something else for personal transport. And I think I have an idea.'

'Motorcycles?' said Adalet when Dormin showed pictures of those in use by the military.

'Fast, agile, and easily taken with us because of their size.' he said.

'Easier to maintain.' said Ourania. 'I can see the advantage.'

Terry nodded. 'And there's the cool factor.'

Adalet hummed in thought. 'It would be easier to get away through small streets and alleys.'

Dormin scrolled through the different types. 'We'll need all wheel drive, the ability to attach cases for our gear, double seat.'

'Already on it.' said Terry and typed on her tablet. 'Ismene found a specialist in motorcycles who can customise for specific use. He does a lot of work for people who take long trips out in the country. I've requested an estimate for four bikes.'

Ourania looked nervous. 'Four? But I don't know how to ride, and I don't know if I can be of use when you go out to, whatever needs to be done involving violence.'

Terry gave her a little smile. 'I ordered one for redundancy. I think your most efficient place is here on Diafanis.'

'And unless I'm the only one who has a license, you'll all need to learn how to ride a bike.' Dormin said. 'It's not as hard as it looks though.'

Ourania nodded and leaned back in the couch. 'Okay then. I'd be afraid I'd mess things up if you needed me to come along to shoot bad guys.'

Terry chuckled. 'I think I'll be a bad enough problem when I go with them.'

Dormin gave her thigh a pat. 'Don't worry, I'll make sure to train you well.'

She looked at him with half closed eyes and growled playfully. 'Promise?'

He chuckled. 'Sure. But for now, let's get going. We need to take a closer look at Elyssa.'

Ourania flew the Diafanis out of the hall and Dormin closed the huge roll doors. He took a last look at the building where he had left his car and climbed inside the airship. He noticed everyone felt a little tense as he entered the cockpit. They all realised they weren't going to live a normal life anymore with a home to go to at the end of the day. He seated himself in the captain's seat while Ourania and Adalet piloted Diafanis and Terry kept an eye on things at the engineer's seat.

Ourania instructed Adalet in the controls and let her retract the landing struts and start the procedure to take them out of sync.

'All green on the sync.' Adalet said when all synchronisation units were active.

Terry checked the sensors and status. 'Confirmed, we're going out of sync with this dimension.'

Ourania gestured at the engine controls. 'Then we can extend the engines.'

Adalet toggled the switches Ourania had indicated and the four ring engines extended halfway out of the hull. 'In position.' she said.

'Activate the dark matter shield.'

She toggled another switch and Terry saw a little spike in activity from Ismene when everything turned dark outside. She checked the status on Ismene and Diafanis. 'Everything running smoothly as far as I can see. We're good to go.'

Ourania nodded at Adalet after a look at the outside view through several screens in front and above them. 'Let's fly.'

Adalet smiled a little in excitement and increased power to the engines for thrust. 'Let's fly.'

***

Terry checked the map on her screen again. 'This position is good. No air traffic routes here.'

Adalet triggered the anchor mode to automatically keep the airship in position and stared at the skyline of the city that filled the screens. One building was at the centre and Ourania zoomed in on the penthouse. The watched it from a higher position because the surrounding wall with downward slanted horizontal slits prevented viewing the penthouse from any of the other high-rises around this one. It provided enough privacy to be able to use large windows and a shallow swimming pool surrounded by a multitude of plants.

'That's Elyssa's residence?' asked Dormin.

Terry turned to him. 'Yes. One of several, but this is where she usually lives according to Ismene. It's unknown where she is exactly right now though. Chances are good that she won't be back until later in the evening.'

Dormin nodded. 'I'll take first watch, you go eat and rest.'

The women unstrapped and Adalet gave him a quick kiss. 'I'll bring you a plate.'

He smiled at her. 'Thanks.'

Terry gave him a quick kiss as well. 'I'll make sure she won't forget to bring something to drink.'

He chuckled. 'Thanks.'

Terry looked over her shoulder at Ourania and smiled a little deviously. Ourania blinked and glanced at Dormin before looking back at Terry. 'What?'

Terry chuckled. 'Oh, nothing. I'm hungry, what's for dinner?' she said and walked out of the cockpit.

Ourania sighed and stared at Dormin's face before looking away. 'If you see anything strange at the controls call me right away.'

Dormin smiled softly. 'Of course. You enjoy your meal and get rest.'

She nodded quickly and left the cockpit imagining that inner voice of hers was sniggering at her.

As predicted it was late when lights came on in the penthouse and Dormin got a good look at the interior. Most furniture was of simple design and black against a backdrop of lighter wood. He turned on the recording and sent a message to the others. They arrived the same time lights went on in the bedroom and off in the living room at the penthouse.

'Elyssa is the dark woman with the long, dark red, curly hair.' said Adalet to Ourania as they watched them move about in the bedroom. 'We don't know much about the white feline and red-brown canine at the force. Even informants couldn't tell us their real names. We suspect they're bodyguards of some sort.'

Terry checked the search results. 'Ah, according to Ismene the feline is Gwen, the canine is Stefanie.' She looked up. 'Apparently Ismene found an old message in which their names were mentioned by Elyssa.'

They watched as Gwen and Stefanie approached Elyssa, pulled down the shoulders of their knee high dresses, let them fall to the floor exposing their bare fur, pulled down Elyssa's dress exposing her bare dark chocolate body, and moved in close to kiss her.

'Looks like they're more than bodyguards.' said Terry and Adalet nodded.

The two ran their hands all over Elyssa's body and kissed her in her neck while she shut her eyes and sighed in their warm attention. She stepped back after a moment and pulled them to the bed where she sat down on her knees.

Stefanie crawled on her knees before her and closed her mouth around Elyssa's, their tongues dancing around each other. She cupped the sides of Elyssa's firm breasts and pressed her own against them. Elyssa ran her fingers through Stefanie's fur down her side and massaged her behind.

Gwen moved behind Elyssa on her knees and pressed her front against Elyssa's back, cupping her behind and massaging it while she kissed and bit gently in the sides of her neck.

Elyssa pulled back and cupped Stefanie's cheeks, then slid her fingers through her long, brown hair while Stefanie worked her tongue down and around Elyssa's breasts. Gwen moved down as well, kissing and licking down Elyssa's back until she reached her behind and gave the area between her buns her full attention with her tongue.

Elyssa's face radiated the pleasure she found in it and Stefanie bit gently on her nipples before working her tongue down her body to give the area between her legs her full attention with it.

Elyssa threw back her head and squirmed with her hips between the feline and canine's muzzles.

'Definitely more.' said Adalet and glanced at Dormin while the urge she had to suppress for days welled up.

Terry put her hand on Dormin's arm and he saw her bite her lip and turn her ears back. Ourania's eyes switched from the console in front of her to the view on the screen and back.

He cleared his throat. 'Let's skip this for now. We can see if anything else happens later on in the recording.'

Ourania saw the desire in Adalet and Terry's eyes and glanced at Dormin wondering what he was capable of to have these two as lovers, and what it would be like to be like them. A tingle shot up her body and she took a deep breath. 'I'm going to tidy up the secondary systems. Can't have it looking like a mess here forever.' she said and walked away briskly.

Terry sighed. 'I've done so long without, but now I feel frustrated when we can't love each other for more than a day.'

Dormin laid his hand on hers. 'So do I, Foxy.'

'As I.' said Adalet and laid her hand on Dormin's knee. 'I'm going to wear two vests from now on. And so will you.'

Terry and Dormin chuckled. He put his hand on hers. 'I didn't care much about getting shot before apart from the inconvenience, but now there's a real drawback.' He stood up from his chair. 'I'll go make us something to eat to take my mind off things as well.'

Terry sighed. 'Yeah. I'll go help Ourania.'

'I'm going to check on the state of the rest of the bedrooms, collect all linen for a thorough wash to get rid of the years of dust.' Adalet said and kissed Dormin passionately.

She pulled back reluctantly and walked out of the cockpit while Terry kissed him before following her. Dormin watched the screen and the three women in their heat of passion for a moment, then walked out to take care of the need for food.

Terry walked in on Ourania at the cargo bay where she was working on the electric system. 'How's it going?'

Ourania looked up from the row of connectors in the central box. 'It's coming along. A lot of the wiring had been added during the years Diafanis had been in use and when I started modifying it for my experiments. I just need to run the cabling where it belongs and extend the connector boxes like these.'

Terry nodded. 'I'll tidy up the sensor network side and update the wiring schemas.'

'Thanks.'

Terry smiled a little. 'It'll keep my mind occupied.'

Ourania glanced at Terry as she opened another switch panel and checked the schema on her tablet. 'Ehm, you're not holding back because of me, are you?'

Terry looked at her. 'Holding back?'

Ourania kept her eyes on the connectors in front of her. 'I mean, with him. If you need some time on your own I could go out to buy parts I need anyway.'

Terry stared at her for a moment, then chuckled. 'Oh! You mean going wild with him?' She smiled a little. 'No, at least that isn't the original reason. It's that Adalet and he need more time to heal their bruised ribs. Things would be too much of a strain on their chests and back right now.' She sighed and looked at her tablet. 'I guess we can't really hide it, eh?'

Ourania glanced at her again. 'I saw the way you two look at him. He must be some amazing guy.'

Terry chuckled. 'Well, he did save my life with Adalet. But it's something more that I can't explain. Something that started soon after I met him. And the same seems to go for Adalet. He awoke a real interest in us that we hadn't felt before.' She grinned at Ourania. 'He's our alpha now.'

Ourania chuckled. 'That sounds wild.'

Terry looked back at the switch panel. 'Whenever you feel like it, just go for it. I've seen your look in the cockpit.'

Ourania gripped the underside of the connector box. 'I, don't know..'

Terry smiled softly. 'You'll find out. It took several days for us while we were constantly together.' she said and closed the panel. 'I'm off to the next one.'

Ourania watched her leave the cargo area and sighed. 'I think I already know the outcome.' she said to herself and forced her mind to focus on her job again.

***

'They're asleep now.' said Dormin when they all came together later in the lounge to eat. 'Probably. Everything's dark now.'

'Anything they did, after?' asked Adalet.

He shook his head. 'No, went to sleep right away.'

'So we need to follow them until something comes up.'

Terry tapped on her tablet. 'As far as Ismene can tell Elyssa's doing seemingly normal business all the time. Meet regularly with the heads of the companies her money's invested in, talk to prospects, private parties.'

'We'd need to find out how she communicates her orders.' Dormin said. 'Which means getting close enough to her.'

'Well, there's one way I can.' Terry said. 'As long as the right equipment's there. I'll just get in through her grid provider.'

Dormin nodded. 'Nice. Hopefully that will bring us more clues.'

'I also know someone who specialises in spying equipment. We should visit her later.'

'Just what I was thinking of looking for.' said Dormin and smiled at her. 'We'll start with these things and see what comes up.'

Dormin flew Diafanis later with some instruction from Ourania on the things he wasn't familiar with. She had to suppress a little giddy feeling inside at working close to him for a while and was a little disappointed she couldn't teach him more with his prior experience.

He flew Diafanis to a high rise where they could land on the roof and remain virtually unseen with the dark matter shield off. Ourania reversed their synchronisation back to native and turned off the shield after Terry confirmed there were no cameras on the roof.

'Be careful.' said Adalet when Terry and he were ready to leave and gave him a big kiss.

He smiled and cupped her cheek. 'We'll be back. Keep things safe here.'

She nodded and squeezed Terry's hand. Terry gave her a smile. 'Don't worry. He shoots and I bite.'

Adalet chuckled and watched them until they went through the roof access door.

They went down the service stairwell to keep out of sight and Terry bypassed the alarm on a window on the first floor through which they could access a part of the ground floor roof and get down to the back alley.

'Whereto now?' asked Dormin as he checked the alley both ways.

Terry gestured to the left. 'This way. We need to go a few blocks.'

The place Terry had in mind was a seemingly average electronic repair shop which sold some lesser known brand multimedia equipment on the side. It was located in a small dimly lit street with a few more shops and two late night restaurants serving spicy food usually eaten when drunk or in the process of getting drunk. The few customers inside proved the point.

Terry walked inside and went up to the counter where a young guy was working on the internals of a media player. 'Hi. Do you have something for privacy?'

The young guy gestured with his head to the back. 'Check the last rack.'

Terry gave him a nod and went to the back with Dormin looking at a selection of camera equipment, personal alarms, and various security software.

'This is it?' asked Dormin as he looked around.

Terry opened a panel in the wall and pushed a button. 'Not really.'

A few moments later they heard a click and a small section of the wall between the rack and the corner opened up. A middle aged woman with neon blue shoulder length hair and a pink shirt with cartoon animals peeked out. 'Terry! Good to see you, come in.'

Terry grinned at Dormin and slipped trough the opening with him. Inside they found a slim but deep room with a couple of desks in front and a row of racks filled with electronic parts going up to the back.

The woman sat down behind the second desk and gestured at the chair of the desk in front. 'How have you been?'

Terry sat down. 'Good, until I got into some weird trouble.' she said and gestured at Dormin. 'This is Dormin. He saved me from a very bad situation.' She looked back at Dormin. 'Meet Flux. She's a genius in concealing electronics.'

Dormin gave her a nod and smile. 'Pleasure to meet you.'

Flux examined him for a moment. 'You're ex-military, right?'

He nodded again.

'I can tell from the way you stand. I have more customers who came from the military.'

He chuckled. 'I guess they drilled us too well.'

She smiled at Terry. 'So you found a boyfriend.'

Terry's eyes grew big.

'I see the way you look at him. And for that I only need our natural female instinct.'

Terry grinned. 'My life suddenly got more complicated.'

Flux leaned back in her chair. 'Well then, what do you need?'

Terry and Dormin left the shop an hour later with several bags and headed back to the high-rise and Diafanis. Adalet was glad to see them back and she lifted off at once to go back to their position close to Elyssa's penthouse.

Ourania hummed when she saw a grid connector between the rest of the electronics from Flux's shop. 'Let me guess, you want to exchange the grid connector at her place with this one that sends back data?'

'Not quite me.' said Terry. 'The provider will, so we won't be seen by them and risk being recognised.'

'And how will you do that then?'

Terry smiled and leaned back. 'Simple. By messing up Elyssa's connector.'

***

Ellis, the young engineer from ShnellCom sighed when he parked the minivan at the underground parking for his first appointment of the day. He could already sense the impatience and general distrust rich clients usually portray when he needed to fix their connection problems. Especially because his boss told him to go to this customer first. Another one with a free priority pass.

He got out of the car, grabbed a box with a new connector and his toolbox from the back and went up to the elevator. He pushed the button and was glad he didn't have to wait long for it to arrive. The doors opened and before he could avoid them a woman in tight dress and a fox carrying two bags rushed out. They bumped into him as they were hurriedly talking about missing a flight and toppled him back on the floor.

'Oh no!' said the woman and bent over to him. 'I'm so sorry! Are you all right?'

Ellis looked up at her and straight into the cleavage exposed by the loose dress. The woman didn't have a large cup size, but the inside curves he saw were nice enough to make his morning better. Her black hair fell down and her blue-grey eyes looked worried at him. Her beauty definitely made his morning better. She reached out a hand to him.

'Ah, I'm okay.' he said and took her hand. She was stronger than he had expected as she helped him up and gave him a gentle smile. 'Thanks.' he said and smiled back at her.

'I'm sorry.' said the fox woman as she held the connector box that was knocked out of his hand. 'We were in such a hurry we didn't look where we were going.'

She gave him a little smile and he thought the lighter red-brown braids at the side of her head were cute. 'Ah, no, it's okay. Accidents happen.' he said and took the box with a smile.

'You sure you're okay?' the woman asked.

He nodded, gave her a confident smile and picked up his toolbox. 'I'm sure. But you better be careful on your way when you're in such a hurry.'

She smiled at him and gave him a peck on his cheek. 'We'll make sure now, thanks.'

He watched them hurry into the car park and stepped into the elevator with a good feeling that would last all day.

'It's done.' said Adalet on the phone when Terry and she walked out the back of the building with the original connector box in one of the bags. 'We'll be there in fifteen minutes.'

'Good.' said Dormin. 'I missed seeing you in dress.'

Adalet smiled. 'I'll have to wear this more often then.' she said and disconnected.

'I wonder if he'd think the same of me in a dress.' said Terry.

Adalet took one of the bags from Terry. 'Oh, I'm sure he will.'

Terry checked with Ismene back aboard Diafanis and grinned when she saw the modified grid connector had made an active connection via a split data stream through several servers. 'It's working. We have a network connection now. I'll have Ismene try to infiltrate other equipment gently so it doesn't set of any alerts.'

Dormin gave her a pet on her head and she wagged her tail. 'Good work. If I had you on my team years back, some reconnaissance missions would have been much easier.'

Adalet smiled deviously at him. 'If that were the case we'd probably been kicked out for indecent conduct.'

He chuckled. 'Yeah, probably true.'

'Looks like they're leaving.' said Ourania as she saw the three women walk out the living room.

Dormin went up behind the pilot seat with Ourania. 'Let's see where they're going then. Can you get a detailed look on the street?'

Ourania adjusted a couple of controls and the screens in front of her showed a nearly clear view of the street with enough detail to read license plates.

'Elyssa's car is a dark green Winston sedan. Can't miss it.' said Terry.

A few minutes later the car appeared from the parking exit, turned right on the street and Ourania flew after it while Adalet kept an eye on their surroundings and Terry on any air traffic nearby.

***

Elyssa visited several firms around the city of which Terry found regular business agendas with the help of Ismene.

'Nothing unusual so far.' she said. 'Oh, I see a common appointment for some of the heads. Looks like Elyssa will hold a meeting at a club just outside the city this evening. Probably with all the big bosses from looking at the few calendars Ismene got hold of.'

'I suggest we go there now and see if we can have a listen to what's being said in that meeting.' said Dormin.

'I'll prepare some bugs.' said Terry.

Ourania switched her screens back to normal view. 'Off we go then.'

Diafanis landed a while later out of sight at the edge of the terrain belonging to the club. Adalet, Terry, and Dormin moved inside the treeline leading up close to a grey stone mansion with several large buildings attached to it serving as stables and guest houses. Dormin picked the lock of one of the houses and Terry connected to the local network inside to search for any available computer.

'Found the reservation system.' she said after a short while. 'And the location of the meeting.' She found a floor plan. 'And it's somewhere inside the building. No windows to peek through.'

Dormin straightened his jacket and looked at Adalet. 'Maybe our vice-president here wants to have a look with her security expert to see if the location is suited for a highly confidential meeting.'

Adalet gave him her business smile. 'I want to be absolutely sure no one will listen in.'

One minute later the three walked through the front door and up to the reception desk in the large hall furnished with dark woods and dark tones of red and green. The young lady at the desk smiled warmly at them. 'How can I help you?'

Dormin gave her a quick smile. 'We heard from a reliable source you offer services to conduct highly confidential meetings.'

'We have a variety of options, what did you have in mind?

Dormin glanced around. 'Let's just say it'll affect the stock market when things are leaked.'

A man in his thirties in black suit popped up in the doorway behind the desk. 'I think we have just the thing for you.' he said and rounded the desk in one smooth move. 'I'm Harold Kramer, business manager for Billton Estate. Welcome.'

Dormin gestured at Adalet 'Miss Withers, our vice-president,' and at Terry. 'miss Salucci, our security expert.'

Harold glanced at the car park outside through the large front windows. 'I didn't see you arrive by car?'

'Cars are too easily traced back to their owners. We came in by a more anonymous way.'

'Ah.' Harold said and nodded. 'Would you care to follow me?'

He led them to the meeting room that was scheduled for Elyssa as Dormin expected. The room had a round light coloured wooden table suitable for twenty people to sit at in comfort in the expensive chairs around it. It also featured a well stocked bar against one wall, and Dormin and Adalet took a walk around the table examining it all.

'Are the walls secured against radio waves?' asked Terry.

Harold turned to her. 'And the doors. No transmissions can go in or out unless a private grid connection is requested. We also check daily for any bugs.'

Dormin gave her a nod and she put her tablet and case on the table to take out her spectrometer. 'I'll just make a quick check.'

She moved slowly along the walls and Adalet turned to Harold. 'I see you have a nice selection in the bar. I would like to see your menu options.'

Harold glanced at Terry to see she hadn't moved far and see Dormin watching her. 'Of course, no problem. I'll be back in just a moment.'

Adalet glanced at the door after he left and moved towards it to check the hallway. 'All clear.' she said and Dormin took off his shoes to stand on the table.

Terry grabbed a power supply from her case, got up on the table and stepped on Dormin's hands to reach the dropped ceiling, lift one tile and plug the supply in one of the power outlets for the lighting. They got down from the table, wiped any dust from it and went back to their places.

When Harold came back Adalet studied the menu and asked a few questions while Terry finished her sweep.

'All good.' she said and put away the meter in her case. 'No signals detected.'

Adalet gave Harold a smile. 'I think I can recommend holding the meeting here.'

He brightened for a split second before his business smile reappeared. 'Thank you very much.'

They left the meeting room and before they rounded a corner in the hallway Terry bent down to plug in another power supply in a power socket concealed behind a potted plant.

Dormin gave Harold a hand when they reached the reception desk. 'We'll let you know as soon as we've arranged a date.'

'We'll look forward to receiving you.' Harold said.

Dormin walked behind Adalet and Terry on their way out and Adalet whispered 'Are you sure it'll work?' to Terry.

Terry smiled a little. 'Don't worry. These things look like and work like regular power supplies. The one at the ceiling uses a vibration sensor in the plug to pick up sound and transmit it to the other across the electric circuitry. That one transmits at encrypted low frequency radio waves which we can unscramble. If anyone finds them they'll think it's just something someone forgot.'

Adalet nodded. 'I'm glad you're on our side.'

Dormin checked the time. 'How about we go have a look at the motorcycles?'

'Oh, yes.' Terry said and grinned. 'Let's see how cool we'll be on those things.'

***

Ourania dropped the three off at a nearby industrial park where more airships touched down. She was glad there were two more older airships and they wouldn't stand out as much between the younger ones.

The taxi drive to the cycle specialist didn't take long and they arrived at a two storey building with a row of different motorcycles in front under a canopy.

Terry's tail wagged at the sight of some low choppers with wide wheels.

Dormin chuckled. 'We need something more agile.'

Terry flattened her ears and sighed. 'I know, but it's so cool to just cruise around on one of these.'

Dormin walked over to one of the tattooed guys with the store logo on his black shirt and referred him to the request made earlier by Terry.

The burly guy looked it up and smiled. 'Ah, I see.' He gestured to follow him. 'Let me show you the one we have here.' Dormin was led to one model in a section between touring and off road. 'This one has two wheel drive for extra off road abilities, but it also an advantage for normal street driving. It has higher clearance than normal bikes and enough options to attach storage cases to take your whole house with you.'

Dormin chuckled. 'Just the bedroom and kitchen will do.' he said and examined the bike.

Adalet and Terry were looking at some of the other choppers and street racers when two feline men approached them. 'You ladies looking for something that can cruise for a long time or that can give you a high speed thrill?'

The women glanced at the feline in faded jeans wearing a leather jacket and the one in tight leather outfit with too much rubber in a certain place.

The first one nudged the second one. 'I'm thinking we're looking at something that should either handle smooth or rough terrain.'

Adalet lifted her eyebrow at Terry while the felines laughed to themselves. She and Terry turned to them and she put one hand on her hip. 'Just one type of terrain? How sad is that?'

The felines stared at her.

Terry grinned. 'What we need is something that handles any kind of surface.' she said and passed the two with Adalet to hook up their arms with Dormin, who stood behind the felines.

'Have fun playing with your toys.' said Adalet and grinned as the three of them walked out of the store and left the felines speechless.

Dormin smiled a little. 'I'll bet that hurt.'

Terry gave him a big grin. 'Good. So how's the bike?'

'It's good, they can have four ready in two days. And they can deliver at the airship parking.'

'

Back aboard Diafanis Terry updated Ourania on what they did and how they put the felines back in their place. Ourania chuckled and glanced at Dormin who was looking at the list of accessories for the bikes.

Terry leaned closer to her. 'Thinking about a test drive?'

Ourania shot back. 'No way!' she said, then looked away. 'I mean, I wasn't think of anything like that.'

Terry grinned. 'Okay. The bikes won't be here before a few days anyway.' she said and pulled up the connection from the mansion on one of the engineer's screens. 'We have contact.'

The others came closer. 'But will we get good quality sound?' asked Dormin.

Terry nodded. 'The sound sensor is very good. I should only need to filter what we get a little.'

'Good. They'll arrive soon so let's eat quickly.'

***

'There they are.' said Adalet, who watched the entrance of the mansion with Dormin from afar.

Dormin used a camera and shot video of everyone arriving at the car park. The familiar green car appeared between the other cars. 'And there we have Elyssa.'

They watched as she got out with the feline and canine, all three dressed in black business suits. Elyssa greeted the men and women who were outside and joined them as they walked up the steps to the front entrance. Gwen and Stefanie followed.

'She's not a speciest.' Adalet said. 'Looks like almost every known world is represented here.'

'Would have surprised me if she was.' said Terry over their private link. 'Especially after what we saw last night.'

'Are you already receiving something from the room?' asked Dormin.

'Staff setting up the table so far. I've adjusted the sound a little already but we can't be for sure until we hear voices.'

By the time the last arrival had entered the mansion Terry had calibrated the sound. Adalet and Dormin went back to Diafanis and joined up with Ourania and Terry in the cockpit just as the meeting began.

'Ladies, gentlemen.' said Elyssa after everyone in the room exchanged greetings. 'I'll keep it short. I've read your reports and things are looking good. I hope that everyone sees the slow approach is more efficient than the old fast one which burned a lot of you in the past, some even literally.' A couple of the heads exchanged glances. 'You can chase fast riches, but you'll slip in the end and crash hard. Besides, who's actually using any of that wealth for something nice and not just merely storing it under ever thickening layers of dust?'

Most of the people around the table glanced around uncomfortably. Elyssa smiled. She loved poking at their weaknesses.

'So, on to the latest business, how's the renovation of the subway doing?'

One female rat leaned forward on the table. 'We're on schedule. The planned date for a temporary local shutdown hasn't changed.'

Elyssa nodded. 'Utilities?'

A male bird cleared his throat. 'Everything is in place and prepared for maintenance.'

'Roadworks?'

'Commencing tomorrow.' said a woman.

Elyssa smiled gently. 'Good. It'll be fun.' she said and looked around the table. 'If there aren't any more questions I suggest we enjoy our dinner.'

Dormin leaned back in his seat. 'Something about this sounds weird.'

Terry turned in her seat while the sounds of shuffling, talking, and a few laughs came out of the speakers from the engineer's console. 'They didn't mention anything specific, but I get the feeling they have something planned that's going to happen soon.'

###