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Chapter -10- Super Spy

That night...

Conner's dream was surreal, if not almost real. In it, he enjoyed the passions of Tamae. They were together as man and wife. He dreamt it was just the two of them. Tamamo was nowhere to be found in the dream.

In fact, the dream was quite erotic. He couldn't recall ever experiencing something so intense before, but that was only the first part of the dream. He woke up feeling relaxed, well rested, and emotionally restored.

The second part of his dream was too corny to think about, but he remembered how happy it made him - simply holding her on their honeymoon after they made love. Simply connecting with her.

And then Tamae was gone, and consciousness crept back into his mind. His dream was replaced with the soft sound of a shower hissing, and a faint light splayed across his face.

Conner sat up in bed. Illumination from the adjacent bathroom cast a pillar of light over his face from the door that was left ajar. He heard shower water running. Steam poured from the gap in the door and its frame.

He turned on a lamp and went to a nearby closet. His father's sneaking suit hung ready and waiting for him. He took it from its hanger and gave a tug at the stretchy material.

Conner carried it to the bathroom, nudging the door open, and laid it on the sink counter. "Karla?"

"I'm here," she replied. "How do you feel?"

"Well rested. You?"

"Sated. Again, I am sorry about last night."

"It's..." He almost said 'it's fine,' like some automated response, but it wasn't 'fine' at all. He drew in a deep breath to calm himself. "It is what it is. It's behind us. I had a great dream, I slept hard, and I feel like I'm ready to get this job over with. Look, you apologized last night. I argued with you and I didn't mean to be like that. I was really tired. I'm sorry."

"It was our first argument."

"Then it's official," Conner said.

Karla's head peered out of the shower curtain with a horrified look in her eyes. "What is official?"

"That we have a normal relationship. Everyone argues some times."

Karla's amber gaze softened. "Oh, yes, of course. That. It is very official, then. With all due respect, I took what I wanted - you said deities have a problem with such things. Perhaps you are right. But Shinto deities often prefer to be what humans should aspire to become. The kitsune are not always such, however. Thank you for your patience. I am pleased this will stay behind us."

"Well, uh, was it ... good for you, or whatever?"

"Oh, Conner-kun, when we get together, even Kashima cannot contain the ground-shaking of Namazu."

"Uh, what?"

"You give me earth-shattering orgasms," she said bluntly.

Conner opened his mouth but couldn't think of a clever reply. "Oh. Uh, right on." He gave pause and said, "So we can skip the Natto breakfast beans, right?"

Karla laughed and disappeared back into the shower. "Are you still upset I fed those to you for months on your family's island?"

"They're not my thing. I get it; they're good for you. Sometimes I feel like you fed them to me because of my poor chopstick etiquette."

"You're the only man I know that lays chopsticks flat on the table. Disgusting."

"Hey, I was thinking. What about wetsuits. We could help Sandy swim across the Potomac."

"And then what? She's either shot, or she will be drown by a Kappa monster."

"Uh ... is this another Japanese thing?"

"Isn't_everything_ a 'Japanese thing' with me?"

"Yeah, at times. You've been adapting."

"Rachel, and now Karla have helped with that." Tamamo stepped out of the shower and walked, nude, past Conner. She lifted a towel off the wall. "Hurry, love, before the hot water runs low."

"Oh, uh..." he moved towards the shower, glanced back over his shoulder at her, and stepped in. He stole another glance at her.

Karla placed a small stool in front of the bathroom mirror and sat down on her knees, supporting her weight on her shins.

She used a towel to wrap up her hair and another for her body. She stayed in what looked like an uncomfortable kneeling position, on the stool, and brushed her teeth.

"If Karla's body isn't used to 'seiza sitting,' she's going to be in a lot of pain after you let her go."

Karla cut her brilliant brown gaze back at him. "Are you staring, love?"

"Oh, uh, no." He disappeared back into the shower to get ready.

"Are you sure you'll be able to handle this?"

"I could handle a day in Kabukicho without speaking Japanese. I'm sure I can handle the CIA."

Karla broke into delighted laughter. "You are too much. You should have seen your face when the police walked by in full riot gear."

"I just thought to myself that it looked too hot to be wearing all that crap."

"Mm. Finish showering. We leave shortly."

"Finish brushing your teeth," he teased back.

"Oh, and that lady, Sandy, brought us a canvas bag this morning. Looks like something for a sniper rifle, but it's supposed to be for your cane. She said that wearing it on your back would draw attention."

X

X

An hour later...

Sandy adjusted the induction headset. It rested against the skin in front of her ear. "AJ? You there, old man?"

"I'm here, Little Princess." His voice came over the headsets worn by Sandy, Karla and Conner.

"You're golden?"

"It's been a long time since I've been to the Eagle's Nest. If their formula for advancement is still '_screw up and move up,' I'm still a god amongst men._"

Sandy smirked. "Alright, AJ. You know the drill. We're headed into the stairwell. Stand by."

Sandy led the group into the stairs adjacent to the main elevator.

"What was the point of that?" asked Karla.

"He's old-school CIA," Sandy explained. "Back in the days when the CIA missed the latest detonation of a nuclear test blast by India, and back when they claimed to have mistaken a Chinese embassy for a munitions warehouse in downtown Belgrade. People that made those mistakes were keen to show blame on the weakest link in The Agency, causing them to resign. Those who were truly at fault could screw up and then move up in rank."

"So does that mean we're working with a screw up?" asked Conner.

Sandy smirked. "You think the CIA makes a mistake about a Chinese embassy? All you have to do is prove, on paper, that your target was mislabeled, then you can blow up an embassy where your target is hiding. If the assassination is an accident, it wasn't an assassination."

Karla cringed. "There is no honor in..."

"Stop," Sandy told them. "No, I don't mean what you're saying. I mean, stop walking down the steps. I want you to strip down to your underwear."

"Excuse me?" Conner quirked a brow. "My sneaking suit doesn't have..."

"Not you, her." Sandy reached into her satchel and withdrew sweatpants and t-shirts that read, 'DCCIA' on the front. She handed a pair to Conner. "Put these on over your suit." She handed another pair to Karla. "Hand me your skirt and blouse. I'll give them back to you later."

Conner tilted his head. "You want us to blend in if we're caught?" He glanced at Karla with a frown. "You want her to strip down to her underwear in front of us?"

Sandy rolled her eyes. "I'm another woman, and you're her boyfriend. So it won't be an issue."

Karla snatched the sweats. "This is not an issue for me. I am not ashamed of my appearance." She unzipped the side of her skirt and removed her blouse, draping them over the handrail of the stairs.

The articles of clothing slid down the rail to Sandy, who put them into her satchel.

Karla dressed. Conner put his sweats on overtop of his sneaking suit. He stuffed the odd collar sewn into the sneaking suit, so that it was beneath the t-shirt collar. He slid his feet back into his shoes.

"Good." Sandy nodded. "I have a stolen access card, which goes to my old office. It amused me to use my old office, and I know where everything is in relation to it. There are very few people here at this hour; I wanted it to look like I'm a senior agent bringing in two recruits for an op."

"What's the plan?" asked Conner.

"From my old office, We'll have access to a computer. From there, you'll disable the firewall on another computer. From that one, I'll change the password and firewall of another. From the third computer, I'll install a program algorithm that will create a temporary feedback loop in the surveillance."

Conner grimaced "I can access a computer from the hallway, and simply make it so you will have access. Trust me on this."

"Fine, I can do the leg work if you can break their defenses remotely," replied Sandy. "We'll have a window of time to get into the restricted one - our mission objective area. However, once that hand is played, we can't reuse it, and from there ... things get complicated."

"How so?" asked Karla.

Sandy sighed. "Well, for one, I won't immediately be at a computer with the access we'll require. The basement is a game changer. Secondly, a pattern in the system logs won't appear as a 'glitch' if we do it twice in a row."

Conner arched his brows at the woman. "When we're leaving, will it be in silence, or will we be in a hurry, attracting lots of attention?"

Sandy replied with a grim smile. "The latter. But we have to do all these things to buy ourselves enough time to have a head start. A pattern of glitches in the computer will be flagged immediately, and it will trigger security protocols. That means people will be patrolling the halls."

"What about your friend in the van?"

"He will get you two out safely. We stole a CIA-owned surveillance van, so it won't look out of place being here, on the premises. The cameras in the parking lot switch to thermal every four minutes, but we outfitted the van with thermal insulation and we're pumping coolant through the wall panels, so that it looks like it's cold."

"How come he can't hear us?" Conner asked. "We should have brought better gear. I could have secured a better..."

"No," she said. "Transmission can't get through in the stairwells. They're lined to block reception from older devices. Same, underground. I chose these older headsets on purpose so we can't be tracked to our headset receivers once we're underground."

"Oh."

Sandy eyed Conner. She frowned and turned away from him. "I heard you were some prodigy Master Thief. I heard you were working with power players. But you're just an agile teenaged boy. You have an outdated sneaking suit, you ask too many questions, and I only called you because you came highly recommended. I'm not trying to die, here - I'm trying to help fix the world. Before we walk through that door at the bottom of the stairwell, you need to convince me why I should go through with this."

Karla opened her mouth to speak but Conner gestured her to silence.

Sandy crossed her arms. "Well?"

Conner lifted his canvas bag and said, "You know the cane in here? This is all the gear I need. Outdated? It was ahead of its time when it was made. I don't need validation from you."

"Oh, good, you've got spirit." Sand smirked. "But that doesn't convince me."

Conner nodded. "When the building fell in Chicago, I was in it. I had, like, five minutes to get from the first floor to the thirteenth floor, find files, bust out the window, and jump across an alley to the roof of another building, three stories below. Turns out, I did it in under four minutes because that's when the first bomb went off. By the time it went off, I was already across the way, looking back. I saw each of the explosions from the other building."

"How'd you jump across an alley and land three stories down without killing yourself? A parasail? A grapple and rope?"

"I used the office chair as a landing cushion and let momentum carry me through the landing. Then, to get away from the debris falling from the first building, I jumped to another building. I made it down in time to rescue my friend from falling debris - he was coming out the fire escape door on the ground level."

She eyed him, studying his facial expression. Silence. Sandy turned to Karla. "Did it happen that way?"

"I wasn't there. When he got back to the safe house, I helped to wash the white-caked power off his face. Evan would have died. Lucky for Evan, Conner is the prodigy that people tout him to be."

Sandy glowered at them both. "Fine. We're staying professional until we make it to the tunnel. You exit through an airshaft, leading up to the sewer just outside of the Pentagon. AJ will pick you up and bring you to Dulles Airport. From there, you're free to leave."

Conner nodded in return. "Understood."

"What's the point of the stupid stick, anyhow?"

"If we're lucky, you don't have to worry about it. If we're attacked, you'll see why I brought the cane. Let's move."

"Fine," she said. "Follow me. We're going to exit this door and we'll be on the fifth sub-level. From there, we have to take a special elevator down. It's one of only two that have access to The Catacombs. And before you ask, 'The Catacombs' is just a name for the deep section. We don't have any dead people there. Let's move."

"Wait, I do have one question." Conner held his free hand up and said, "It's a serious one."

"Fine, what?"

"If we're masquerading as recruits, why did we come here in stealth, break in, and then change clothes?"

"So you wouldn't have to check in and register at the gates. AJ and I worked this job for three days to bring in the parts to set up the van sitting in the lot. After all, we couldn't just drive through tonight."

"Let's go." Conner went down the steps to the door at the bottom. He opened it for the women and gestured for them to go first.

They stepped into a plain looking hallway, decorated with a few plaques, and a few work-related injury posters. "Stay casual," Sandy whispered. "You're young recruits. You both look young."

Conner cleared his throat and asked, "The CIA has always had a terrible public opinion - why? If I'm going to be joining The Agency, I just want to know the background."

A man came out of an office and stopped the trio. "Who are you three?"

Sandy showed him her badge. "I'm taking two recruits to my office."

He looked at her badge then nodded down the hall. "Elevator's on the left." The man turned his gaze to Conner and said, "To answer your question, kid, it's always had a bad reputation."

"Yeah, but why?" Conner asked, tilting his head to appear curious.

"Christ, kid, where to start?" The man shrugged. "Maybe Vietnam? Nixon dragged the CIA into a plot to oust Salvador Allende without telling his own Secretary of State, or Congress. I bet Bill Rogers was pissed. In '91, we were ordered to cease political assassinations but ... let's face it, the current President, for whom this building is named, helped us keep it quiet. But people talk. The biggest blunder was in early '94, when Aldrich Ames was arrested for selling secrets to the Russkies. We're also notorious for strong-arming other agencies into cooperating with us, but giving them nothing in return. Welcome to The Agency, kid."

Conner smirked. "Sounds like my kind of place. Not the bit about the traitor; the part about maintaining control over other agencies. Whatever it takes for the Commander in Chief, and my country."

The man grinned at Conner. "Christ, I remember when I was your age. Just like you - full of life and full of shit. And what about integrity, huh? You willing to step on your pretty friend, there, to get ahead?"

Conner licked his lips, trying to remember a quote he saw in a movie. "The CIA director once said, 'Some have clamored for heads to roll in order that we could say heads have rolled. Sorry, that's not my way.'"

The man smirked. He stepped back into his office. "James Woolsey. Y'know that little speech got him fired. Just remember that. Good luck, kid." The man closed the door behind himself.

Sandy eyed Conner for a moment. She offered a hint of a smile. "Follow me."

Karla leaned close and whispered to Conner, "I thought you were bad with pop cultural references?"

Conner whispered back, "Except spy movies. I love spy movies. I can recite most James Bond flicks."

"Mm, I am still impressed. You knew something from the real world - something that goes beyond fiction."

Conner shrugged. "I know lots of stuff."

"Do you now, love..."

Conner whispered back. "The leader of the hunters that went with you to the Celestial Realm was a high-ranking member of the Opus Dei."

Sandy smirked. "My hearing is better than your whispering. What do you think you think you know about those guys, Mr. Parker?"

"One of their members was Rob Hanssen, a Russian spy working for the FBI. See? I love spy movies."

"So you're not basing what you know about them from the Da Vinci Code?"

Conner shrugged. "That's a movie, right? I haven't seen it."

Sandy snorted in amusement. She touched the control panel and the elevator doors opened. The trio stepped aboard. Once the doors closed, she said, "Well, are you two ready to arouse the sleeping tiger?"

Conner grinned. "Okay, now I like you."

"We better not get caught."

Conner shrugged. "What? I'd have a lot of time to relax, serving twenty-three hours a day in solitary confinement. Isn't that what Hanssen got?"

"Let's face it," Sandy said, "we would be shot on sight, you two. That's why I need a Master Thief to help with my escape. The door leading to the tunnels - it's locked with seven deadbolts, all requiring different keys. There's another door a few feet beyond, in a staircase that twists in an inconsistent way, and that has three more deadbolts, requiring three more keys, not used on the first door."

"No problem." Conner grinned. "Picking locks is one of the things I do better than my parents and sister."

"Good. I like your confidence. I can't wait to see you working under pressure." She stepped off the elevator, switched passes to one in her back pocket, and crossed the hall to another elevator.

She swiped the second card on the control panel for the other elevator. Its doors opened. "Let's go, you two." The trio boarded the new elevator.

"Different one, huh?" Conner mused.

"The one we came from will go to the top floor, and stops where we just got off. This one goes further down."

Karla tilted her head. "Is this to maintain compartmentalized information by sector?"

Sandy shrugged. "Let's say the CIA building is hit by a nuclear strike. Anyone below this floor would want to quickly evacuate. If the main elevator has been blown up with the top of the building, how else do you evacuate people below this point?"

Karla paused to think. "A self-sealed elevator that does not connect to the main ones," the succubus said.

"Exactly," Sandy said. "This one goes fairly deep."

The elevator button panel resembled something akin to an elevator from a tall building.

Conner approached a glass panel above the wall plate. "What's this thing?"

"A Kearny air pump. Just incase you're trapped in here during a nuclear attack." Sandy folded her arms. The little round lights on the panel counted down to the second lowest subfloor. "Conner, this door isn't likely to be easy. Lock picks and the like will not help much. After you open access to the firewall, I'm leaving you two at the door."

"What're you going to do?" he asked.

"I'm going back upstairs to access the files. Then I have to computer hop. I have more computer accessing to do, and then I'll come back and we all leave."

"I'm an ace with computers."

"I don't need a computer ace," she told him. "I have AJ and my employer to walk me through this. All you have to do is open a bunch of locks on two doors."

"I understand." He leaned against the elevator control panel, laughed, and then said, "I just saved you time."

"Pardon?"

Conner smiled. "From the computer controlled elevator panel, I just networked in and reset all the firewalls. Somewhere, the head of the CIA IT department is about to get a phone call. But we have time."

The elevator doors swished open. Sandy guided them down the hall, where they took another elevator up two floors. The hallway had a similar look to the one they just came from.

However, the next elevator car had a distinctively archaic feel to it.

Conner grimaced. "Love the faded faux wood panel interior. Very rustic."

The older elevator rumbled down the shaft. It creaked and groaned as if showing its age to make its occupants uncomfortable.

The doors opened to a hallway seemingly from out of a forgotten time.

The old plaster walls had cables running along them on one side. A ventilation register was waist-high on the wall. Two old bicycles were on display, mounted to old metallic hooks.

The tires appeared to be new but the bikes, themselves, looked like models from the late 1960s, or early 1970s.

A phone out of the mid '50s hung on the wall adjacent to a modernized telephone.

The floor dipped - the ramp was made from horizontal wooden slats. At the bottom of the ramp, it evened out into asbestos tiles. The light fixtures were equally old but the bulbs were modernized low-cost compact fluorescent light tubes.

"I thought you said this was added _after_Nine-Eleven? That was almost fifty years ago." Conner looked around at the so-called décor. "This hall looks like it's almost a hundred years old. I mean, I realize this place wasn't around a hundred years ago, I'm just saying it looks way older than it should."

"The tunnel was linked to this hallway after Nine-Eleven, Mr. Parker. This hallway was part of Allen Dulles' design for this place. This bunker was designed to ensure the continuity of intelligence if a nuclear bomb hit Washington DC."

"Jesus," Conner whispered.

The trio walked down the lengthy hall. It connected with a newer, more updated hallway section. Conner and Karla were quick to note that this section appeared high tech and modern.

Much like the lodestone strata compass out in front of the building, there were a series of dots and dashes on the marble floor.

Conner tilted his head, staring at the slight markings. "I don't read Morse code."

A hint of a smile tugged at Sandy's lips. "At least you're astute enough to recognize it as Morse code."

"Well yeah, that much is obvious," said Conner.

"Most young agents think it's imperfections in the surface. It says 'Shadow Forces' and 'Virtually Invisible. ' We're on a time crunch here, guys. C'mon."

While walking through the hall, Sandy handed two plastic weapons to Karla and Conner. "These are only to be used in an emergency. They only hold a few rounds. They're accurate at a distance of fifty yards. But they're loud. You're likely to go deaf, firing in here. Like I said, they're for emergency purposes only."

"No thank you," said Karla.

"Pass," Conner added. "She has fire, I have my own thing going for me."

Sandy narrowed her gaze. "If you miss and hit something important, you'll cause more damage than good. You could start a fire down here. Bullets won't set fire to the gaudy wood panels or recessed lighting."

"Still won't need it," Conner said. "I'm a professional. I have this handled."

"The ceiling is too low to swing your cane vertically, the walls are too close together to swing your cane horizontally. Take the gun."

"I don't need it," Conner said calmly. They approached a simple wooden door with metal locks. Conner pushed against it, knocked on it and nudged it with his foot. "Solid. Old as hell but solid. Is this it?"

"Yeah."

"Why isn't it metal?"

She shrugged. "There is a metal mesh inside of it. Best of both worlds - wood chars, metal melts. So can you do this?"

"I see," he said. "It's more resistant when combined. Having both spreads out the heat, making it more resistant. Makes sense. Anyhow, I've got this covered. No problem."

"Fine. I'll be back soon. You better have our way out completely secured, Parker. I mean it. I may not trust a kid, but I trust my employer, who trusts you."

"Just hurry. I don't want to stand around here with the door open while I'm waiting for you. It would look suspicious."

"Yeah, right, I'm hoping you'll be started on the second door by the time I get back." Sandy headed out of the hallway, took the elevator.

Conner stood, facing the door, alone with 'Tamamo-no-Karla.'

"Can you do this?" The possessed succubus looked around the silent hallway. She looked up at the grey noise hum of an air vent above her head.

Conner smiled. "Hey, I have an escape plan so good I could make John Dillinger envious." Conner reached into the sweats and withdrew a bag that was attached to the right leg of his sneaking suit. "These are family heirlooms designed by a family member even better than me. Eli Thomas Belle-Parker; he was a true genius with locks but he wasn't much of an athlete."

"Dillinger died at a young age, Conner. Do you really wish to aspire to be like such a man?"

"Dillinger retired. He went into witness protection. Even his own father, when seeing the body, said the person that was shot and bagged wasn't John."

"Mm, you cannot believe every conspiracy theory you read, Conner-kun."

He grinned. "It was a Parker that helped Dillinger start his life over in California. After seeing the kind of people he had surrounded him with, he wanted to get out of crime."

Karla watched Conner work on the locks. "You are serious, aren't you?"

"I am." He made short work of the first lock. "He wasn't such a bad guy. He defended himself against one officer during his whole crime spree. He wasn't a killer like some of the people he worked with. Baby Face Nelson, for example, killed three FBI agents after killing plenty of other people." Conner turned the second tumbler.

"Why do you know so much about these criminals?"

"Because they were criminals. Villains. My family doesn't do that stuff. We took Dillinger aside because the public fascination with him. But some of the people he worked with were beyond the Parker family's desire to help." The third tumbler opened on the first door.

"What happened?"

"We helped arrange for Dillinger to leave for California. We changed his identity, and we were disgusted that Melvin Purvis and his crew claimed they killed John Dillinger. That was a load of shit. So there you have it - Hoover is a crook and a liar. Purvis is no better."

"Do I want to even know what happened next?"

"Pretty Boy Floyd used to rob banks and destroy mortgage notes, freeing people of home debts. Kind of heroic to help the American citizens. But agent Melvin Purvis caught up to Floyd. He hired some local cop, a sniper from the First World War. And then the FBI lied and said they had_no help_ taking down Floyd. Hoover's FBI were Government-sponsored crooks, much worse than my folks."

"Oh, I see. I'm surprised to hear the Parker family had run with mobsters and killers."

"Dillinger wasn't a killer. That was just ... defending himself. It doesn't make it right, but he wasn't his intent, you know?" Conner made his way through the fourth lock. "There we go."

"Melvin Purvis hunted all three of those infamous criminals?"

"He hunted the Parker family, too, but argued with Hoover about how to go about it. I'm told we managed to have rather ... damning evidence about J. Edgar Hoover, and we used it to blackmail Hoover into pushing Purvis away from his investigation into our family. Purvis resigned and went into law. Later, he joined the Army and went into intelligence. I'm read he got fairly high in rank, and helped to put Nazis behind bars. But, later, he turned is attention back to the Parker family."

"How did the Parker family get out of it?"

"The family contacted Hoover and threatened to release the damning evidence concerning Hoover and Clyde Tolson. I have no idea what the files said. But whatever it was, Hoover stopped Purvis from investigating the Parker family." Conner took down the fifth lock. "Hey, I'm almost through the first door."

"Should I be worried how the Parker family handled such a notorious director of the FBI?"

He grinned up at Karla and began working on the sixth lock. "We offered to make a private donation to the FBI. We even offered to do a few secret jobs for them, because by that point, they had learned about supernatural people."

"How did your family shake the man you mentioned earlier?"

"Oh, Melvin Purvis ... we didn't have any say in how it was handled. We just made an arrangement with Hoover to take Purvis off our collective asses. The day after we called Hoover and made a donation and an offer to do a clandestine operation..." He paused and said, "One to go on this door!"

"Excellent! What happened to Purvis?"

"It's nothing I like to talk about. No one in the Parker family wants to talk about Purvis."

"Conner?"

He pushed the antique lock pick tools into the seventh lock. "One of the family members visited Hoover in his office. Hoover said he would 'handle Melvin Purvis,' and 'not to worry about it anymore.' The next day, Melvin Purvis was dead. After an FBI-led investigation, it was determined the guy had killed himself. But the coroner never ruled Purvis' death as a suicide. So ... my family believes Hoover had the man murdered. The family was disgusted."

The final tumbler slid open.

"We didn't want the man to die," said Conner. "That's just fucked up. By the way, I got the first door open."

Karla sighed. "The United States Government was run by children on-and-off until the 1980s. As people learned more, the public made sure the country was more carefully scrutinized."

"I'll take your word for it." Conner opened the first door and made his way to a metal-enforced second door with three locks. "God, these things are a trip." He nodded to the two enormous locks on the top and bottom left, and another one on the middle right. "They're huge."

"So did the Parker family stay involved with the FBI?"

"We already gave Hoover the private donation up front. It wasn't announced until some fundraising ball. But once Purvis died, the Parker family distanced themselves and refused to get involved further. To my family, the FBI was a bunch of corrupt criminals. We're not murderers." He fidgeted with the first lock and sighed. "We're going to be finished long before she manages to do this ... computer thing."

"And that is a problem?"

"I don't want to stand around with the door open, looking like a goon just in case someone walks by."

Karla arched her brows. "Love, there is no one in this area. I do not believe anyone on the night crew has access to this hallway."

"Let's hope that's the case." Conner made his way through the first lock. He worked on the third, which was the only other one on the left side of the door. "Okay, these are definitely a little more tricky because of the design. But the tumblers are kind of rusty or, at least, they're in need of oil."

"I enjoy talking to you, Conner. I enjoy your stories. It seems you do not wish to talk about this man, Hoover, but I'm glad I goaded you into telling me about the others. I feel the need to maintain some measure of connection to you."

"This has been the lamest job I've ever worked. This is supposed to be the _original_CIA. I'm really disappointed."

"Mm, now that you've complained about it..."

"Sorry, I don't believe in superstitions. Not anymore. You've shown me a world of deities. If crap is about to hit the fan, it's because it was fated that way, or because of some godly design. Listen, Tammy, I don't care who is listening. I love you. We need to get through this thing. This slump or whatever."

"You believe we are in a slump?"

"With all due respect, I feel like last night hurt us."

Karla brought her hands to her lips. "Conner-kun, do you really?"

"It didn't end us, it just ... it was really weird."

"Oh, Conner..."

"Karla told me what she was cool with. She said 'no carte blanche,' and then you do what you want anyhow. Now she's going to be a royal bitch, and you're going to have to settle things with her."

"I can make her forget."

Conner's eyes widened. He looked back at Karla, staring into the brown eyes of Tamamo-no-Mae. "Are you serious?"

"Is that not preferable? It would cause any drama to be..."

"You'll completely end any chance of her ever trusting you again. My grandmother told me once, that, for a while, Karla used to have trouble trusting you. But if you take her memory of the event, it would be ten times worse. You better talk to her, like mind-to-mind, before you let her back out. I mean it."

"I will do just that," said Tamamo. "If it truly upset you, then let us never speak of it again. I will never betray your trust in such a way from this point forward. I promise you."

Conner finished the second tumbler, on the bottom left. He turned to Karla and hugged her. "Thanks, Tam. It means a lot to me that we can talk about this and get past it. You're my first, and I don't want to complicate things further. I really care about you and Tamae, and I don't want anyone else involved."

"I understand. Then, this chapter is closed. We won't speak of it. Tell Tamae the same, so that it stays behind us."

"Alright hon. I'm fine with that." Conner released her, turned back to the final tumbler, on the right side of the door, and pushed the tool into place. "Oh, figures. It's always the last one."

"How do you mean?"

"The damn thing needs to be oiled. A key is thicker than a lock pick. Also, you hold a key by the opposite end, which means a key has more torque when turning it. These tools are thin, almost flimsy."

"The metal in the lock is brittle?"

"Maybe. I think it's just stuck, really."

"Allow me." Karla reached over his shoulder and put her hand near the metal. She created a low heat source. "I will not burn it, because it will expand. But I will warm the lock. Perhaps the housing of the lock will expand more than the tumblers within."

"It's worth a try I guess." He shrugged. "If you could better control Karla's teleportation ability, we could leave it locked and it would be better for us to get away."

"Conner, you know I would do anything to keep you in my life. I am selfish. Usagi pointed this out to me, and I saw it immediately. I would do shameful things to keep you happy."

"But that's just it, if you go over the top, that won't make me happy."

"It is a confession, love. I mean that I would commit unspeakable acts and hide it from you in order to keep you at my side. I recognize this about myself. I will try to become a better person."

"Okay, let me try the locks again."

Karla withdrew her hand. Tamamo's flame disappeared.

Conner eased the tools into the lock. "Look, everyone messes up every now and then. But everyone's capable of redemption. The question is, do you learn from your mistakes, or do you become a backslider and fall victim to your old habits?"

"I ... have changed many times in four millennia. I was a curious person. And then I was a curious person who took lives. And then I learned how to handle my behavior. I've gone through phases. I've learned many lessons. Each time I've become a better person in the end. But some lessons take longer to learn."

"Hey, I love you for who you are, okay?"

"Could you possibly? I am glad you love me for who I've become, but I will continue to improve."

"It was a one-time-thing, Tam. Why are you upset all of a sudden?"

She sighed through her nose. "I learned the intoxicating drug of the succubus last night. You fell asleep and I was not yet sated."

"I fell asleep after the blowjob."

"Hai. And as you lay on your back, in your sleep, I straddled your hips until I was satisfied."

Conner froze. He kept his hands on the lock tools but stopped working them in the lock. He stared at the door in silence. "I should have seen the signs."

"Signs?"

"I had a dream about having sex. I woke up feeling different than normal. You were in the shower and said you were 'sated' or however you worded it."

Karla nodded. Tamamo's shame glistened in her gaze, but Conner kept his eyes on the door.

"Conner-kun, look at me."

He glanced over his shoulder and their gaze met. "Karla will be so..." He grimaced and shook his head. "Tamamo, do you realize what you did?"

"I was selfish."

He turned to face her and placed his hands on either side of her face. "You raped her." He trailed off in realization. "You raped ... me. Jesus. This is ... this is weird. I didn't want to have sex with Karla. What if I get her pregnant or something? Fuck, Tam. Why would you do that?"

"I deeply regret my actions but I needed to heal."

"But I told you I didn't want to do those things, Tamamo! Christ, you wait until I'm out cold because of that ... that ... succubus spit thing. And then you did whatever you wanted! You betrayed me. How am I supposed to feel about that?"

"You are supposed to acknowledge that I was honest with you."

"And you are supposed to acknowledge that you had neither my permission nor Karla's permission to do what you did. That was incredibly selfish. And, on top of all that, I told Tamae I wasn't going to have sex with Karla. How the hell do I explain this? What if she never talks to either of us again?"

"I can make her!"

"No!" Conner shouted. His voice reverberated throughout the old hallway. "You'll break her trust even more! Eventually, people remember the things you've taken away from them! And then they resent it!"

Karla backed away from the door and leaned against the paneled wall, facing him. "Do you forgive me?"

"I need to process this. I need to, like, come to terms with what happened." He pushed his tongue tip into his aching broken molar. "How the hell does that shit make me stay asleep through sex anyhow?!"

Karla sighed. "It is chemistry. There is a substance found in the release of a human's secretions during orgasm. When that mixes with my saliva, or my secretions, the two chemicals create a new chemical. I am energized by that chemical. Normal humans are subjected to a powerful tranquilizer. If you took Karla's pills, you would fall asleep."

Conner gawked at her.

Karla continued. "If the newly bonded chemical compound touches your tongue, the inside of your penis, the inside of a woman's vagina or flesh within the anus, that tissue will rapidly absorb the compound into your bloodstream, rendering Karla's partner unconscious."

"Stop talking!" He erupted. "It was a rhetorical question! I'm just mad I didn't wake up and stop you! I don't need, nor do I want the goddamn chemistry lesson!"

"What can I do to make you forgive me?"

"Jesus, I can't believe we're talking about this right now."

"I need to know you forgive me. I cannot stand by and lose what I have with you."

Conner punched the wall adjacent to the door. He punched it again, and then a third time."

"Stop!!" She screamed. "Your knuckles are bleeding!" She grasped the canvas bag by the nylon strap over his shoulder. "You are without reason, when I need you to be focused and sensible!"

He whirled around, teeth ground in anger. The canvas bag slipped from his shoulder, "Tamamo, goddammit..." But it was Karla's face. His mind equated Karla as a victim, not the enemy. He shrugged away from the bag with his cane.

She leaned the cane bag against the wall and frowned. "I felt as though I was dying. I lost my willpower."

He couldn't be angry with Karla's face. "Tam, listen ... you can't be controlling. You can't just hit me with a bombshell like this, and then demand for it to be in the past. I need to focus on this lock before that lady gets back. We need to get out of here. And then I need to sleep on this, and talk to Tamae, and _then_I can figure out if it bothers me or not. I'm a little too ... I'm in shock. I didn't think you were capable of that sort of thing."

"Conner, please. Please, do not abandon me - do not abandon what we have built."

"Fuck!" He turned back to the door and started fidgeting with the tumblers again. "I never said I'm breaking up with you. Dammit, when did you suddenly become so clingy and weird, and insecure? This isn't you. And this isn't Karla. So where is this coming from?"

"I do not know, but I lost the love of my life nine hundred years ago. I do not want to endure another nine hundred years of grieving because of my folly."

"No offense," he said, carefully tweaking the lock pick tool, "But that's the most god-awful emo thing you've ever said."

"I ... I possess Karla's mind. I believe you are using the word incorrectly. It is a musical..."

"I believe you are avoiding my point."

"Yes. You are right."

A door at the end of the hall, adjacent to the hallway opened. Sandy burst through it in a full run.

Conner leaned back from the second door and squinted. At his low angle, he could see stairs behind Sandy. The door slammed shut and Sandy raced down the hall towards Karla and Conner.

The door swung open again and armed guards raced through in pursuit. They had handguns with flash suppressors. Loud discharges filled the hallway, but not loud enough to deafen the group.

Conner made his way through the last tumbler and pushed the door open. He stuffed his cane bag under one arm and pushed on the door.

There was a rather audible click, which sounded nearly as loud as the silenced guns. The door creaked open on noisy hinges, under its immense weight.

Conner grabbed Karla by her shirt and shoved her through, "Go, go! Use your hands and your telekinesis thing, and illuminate the stairway down. Make some sort of shell to keep us from getting our asses shot off!"

Karla went through, Conner followed.

"Fast work!" Sandy shouted. She grasped the first door and pulled it shut behind herself. It did not re-lock as she had hoped. "I thought you were full of shit about the firewall thing, but they were all down! I'm a believer!"

Karla moved out into a dark cavern, able to see easily from Tamamo's vulpine eyes.

Sandy shoved Conner forward, "Get a move on!"

"I can't see, it's too dark!"

"Then trust me and walk with me! I have night vision in these contacts!" She shoved him into moving. The trio hurried down the uneven hand-carved stone steps. "Get your asses in gear, both of you!"

The old staircase was part concrete, part caked dirt and clay, and extremely moldy.

Shouting could be heard from behind as armed agents worked to shove the first door open. More suppressed gunshots filled the air, followed by the shouting of a superior agent. The gunshots ceased, briefly.

"There are more than a few people back there," Conner said in a snide tone as they hurried down the old staircase. "How deep does this go anyhow?"

"I don't remember; it's been a long time," said Sandy, "And there are at least a dozen of these staircases, so move!" she huffed. "Where are these legendary superpowers, you two?"

The stairs evened out into a dark tunnel. Karla, Conner and Sandy ran together through the wide, flat tunnel. Another gunshot rang out, muffled by the flash suppressor.

Karla reached back, in full run, and discharged a rounded glob of fire. The blindingly bright orange discharge created a rapidly moving light show against the sidewalls as the round fireball hissed down the hallway of the tunnel.

The fireball narrowly missed one of the agents.

"How far!?"

"I don't remember!" Sandy shouted. "I was in it once, during construction! It's off limits except in times of life or death!"

Conner unzipped his canvas case and discarded it as the three of them ran together. "Seems appropriate! This is life or death!"

Sandy fired two rounds over her shoulder. The first of three plastic weapons she had on her did not have a flash suppressor. The discharge was excruciatingly loud.

"Jesus Christ!" Conner shouted. "Are you serious?! Don't you ever do that again!"

"I need to pin them down!"

Conner reached over, with his cane, and disarmed Sandy of her pistol. "Not like that!" He took the gun off the hook and shoved it into her arms. "Put it away," he huffed.

The sound of their feet echoing off the walls could no longer be heard over the ringing in his ears. "I need to hear for balance! That's how it works!"

Karla released another fireball, which sailed through the darkness. It illuminated the tunnel, flying backwards towards the staircase and agents. "What if this place is a dead end??"

Conner grimaced at the thought as they ran. "Then it lives up to its name! Keep running!" He squinted. "I see something up ahead! I see light!"

"What is this place?!" Karla exclaimed.

"Some of these tunnels have been here since the civil war! This is the newest part!" Sandy thumbed the safety on her weapon and holstered it. "Hey, there is an intersection up ahead!"

"You two go on ahead, Conner said. "Keep headed straight. I'll handle these guys following us!"

"Conner, no!"

"Move your ass," he cried back to Karla. "We need her file to stop that nuke, so you _better_keep her alive! I'll be right behind you!"

They hurried through the intersection, approaching dim low-power LED lights on the walls, mounted at about knee height.

Conner broke to the left and came to a halt, hiding in the intersection. He pushed a finger into one of the pockets on his suit.

He withdrew a capsule filled with sloshing liquid and slammed it on the ground, using the base of his cane to break it.

Smoke gushed outward, filling the intersection. The expanding cloud made it impossible for the pursuing agents to see.

Conner emerged from the smoke, hands tight on the staff of his cane. The hook glowed, illuminating the tunnel. He swung for the first agent. The metal hook on the top of the cane struck the closest agent so hard that the man went straight to the ground, hands over his face.

Conner performed a roundhouse, followed by another swing of his cane. He brought his left knee up, hitting another man, who was unprepared for an attack in the dark.

Several of the agents were blinded by the glowing cane in the pitch-black tunnel. As the smoke cleared, the strip of low-power LED lights could be seen along the lower portions of the walls again.

At the back of his mind, Conner thought they looked like the track lights used in movie theaters to help people see their way out in the dark.

Conner thrust his cane out. The glowing top snagged against a pistol. He rotated his wrist and jerked the weapon from the attacker's grasp. "Give me that," he said under his breath.

Conner spun around and used the weapon and metallic hook to knock the man flat onto his back.

Electricity discharged from the tip of the cane. The gun fell to the ground. A web of electric tendrils arced out in all directions, linking the attackers in the immediate vicinity.

Conner blinked to avoid the bright discharge. He squinted throughout its duration.

Filled with a burst of fresh adrenaline and ego, Conner pivoted about with a roundhouse kick. He knocked down the final attacker left standing.

Conner released another smoke capsule, using the base of his cane to break it open. Smoke filled the area.

He dashed through the intersection, following the two girls.

Up ahead, there were several bikes on the walls. Karla and Sandy had pulled three of them down and were waiting for Conner. Like before, they were rather old fashion in style, but the tires were surprisingly new with good tread.

Conner charged his cane. "Look away." He swung the cane from left to right, destroying the remaining bicycles mounted to the wall. He nearly tripped over an old fashion bike pump during his over-swing.

"Let's go!" Sandy shouted. "Now!"

Conner mounted his bike and started pedaling. None of the bikes had derailleurs or other components for changing gears. "What are these things doing down here?"

"They're for very important persons," Sandy said. "It's a long straight tunnel. Be glad the tires aren't completely flat!"

"Mine are a little low," Karla said. "But they're manageable."

A round sailed by. It struck the tunnel wall, bounced off, and created a flash of sparks on Sandy's tire spokes. Instead of flinching, she pedaled harder.

"We have their attention now," Conner called over to the other two. Another stray bullet hit his cane, which he kept horizontal across his handlebars.

He felt the vibrations of the hooked top, which rang out like a tuning fork. Conner clenched his molars from the vibrations sent straight into his palms.

The tunnel changed in style. The dank mold and clay-covered surroundings appeared cleaner and made in a different style. It was modernized concrete with occasional patches of redbrick masonry to fill gaps and holes where needed.

There was a small section with a machine built into the walls. The group passed by it too quickly for anyone to make an educated guess as to its true use or meaning.

"Why couldn't AJ help us again?" Conner said in a snarky tone, panting while pedaling.

"The three of us managed just fine, now didn't we?" Sandy replied on her next breath.

The tunnel opened up into a large dwelling up ahead. The three of them emerged into a massive underground chamber with a higher ceiling. In the center of the room an old train car awaited.

The car that sat on the tracks looked at least seventy years old, and just maintained enough for functionality. As they grew closer, Conner thought it could have easily have been a century in age.

Sandy exclaimed, "We made it to the sandhog room! Thank God! I actually _know_my way from here! It goes south to the Pentagon, then north into DC!" She was high on adrenaline. "God I haven't been in the field like this forever!"

"Suck it up," Conner announced, "We're almost there! Does that thing still run?!"

"Of course!"

The trio leapt from their bikes, hurried to the rails, and boarded the flatbed train car. Upon it was a tall antenna that touched a metallic rail wire above the car. There was an archaic control panel at one end of the car and comfortable but horribly outdated wicker seats.

Conner, the first one aboard the tram, quickly approached the control lever and gave it a tug. An electric DC generator rumbled to life, providing localized power to the tramcar.

It began to move forward.

Karla settled into a wicker seat, bracing her palms on the arm rests. Meanwhile, Sandy withdrew a tall bottle of water from her pack.

The tramcar picked up speed. It disappeared into a tunnel, leaving the larger room behind.

Sandy guzzled the water until she choked on it. She spit water back up, coughing hard. She waved her hands at them to gesture that she was fine.

The tramcar continued to pick up speed, powered by the DC motor. It surpassed twenty miles an hour, headed towards Pentagon City.

Gunshots sounded out again, some without sound suppression. The noise thundered through the grand subterranean corridor. But the gunshots were too far away to be seen.

"Can you see them?" shouted Karla over the rush of the wind. She knelt down behind the wicker chair, braced herself, and extended her arm to take aim.

"Not anymore," said Sandy

Karla placed her wrist across the top of the wicker backrest and unleashed a fiery discharge. The glowing ball of flame provided illumination, allowing Sandy to fire in conjunction at targets in the distance. Three of the CIA guards were on the bikes.

"You should've trashed them with your cane," said Sandy, taking another shot seconds after Karla's next fireball.

"I did," Conner said, "but we didn't have time for me to hit them more than once."

Due to the movement and the larger tunnel, Sandy's gunfire wasn't nearly as deafening.

A bullet struck the platform, splintering the edge of their wooden tramcar. Another gunshot rang out, and passed over them. It struck the top of the tunnel and bounced. Another round hit one of the rails, creating a shower of sparks.

Conner squinted. "I thought non-ferrous material like a lead bullet didn't cause sparks in real life like that!"

Karla and Sandy continued to return fire, literally, with flames and bullets, respectively.

Sandy smirked back at him. "Just don't expect bullets to blow up cars. It's safe to say that one really is rare."

The DC-power lightweight flatbed quickened its pace, gaining speed and distance on the bicyclers.

Conner sighed softly, glad that they were losing the attackers. "How do we get out of here and where are we?"

"Beneath the G.W. Parkway, I think. We'll pass through an empty station first - that's the Pentagon. When I tell you to get ready, I want you two to damn well be ready. Once in Washington, we'll jump off and let the rail go. From there we'll walk until we find one of the mole holes."

"Mole holes?" asked Karla.

Sandy nodded. "On occasion, there are small tunnels that branch off of this tunnel and disappear for a mile or two in any given direction. We'll come up beneath a monument or in the basement of an old mansion in DuPont Circle or ... any number of other places."

Conner asked, "Any one we're looking for in particular?"

"Yeah, you guys are getting out right after the Pentagon station. That's their twenty-sixth subfloor. We have to be really careful where you two hop off. If you find your way into the Pentagon, you'll wind up shot."

Karla sighed. "So we're getting off soon. Good. Where will AJ pick us up?"

"At the edge of the Pentagon parking lot. The stairs angle up and you'll find your way to a sewer. Take the first ladder up to a manhole cover, and you'll be in a parking garage at the Pentagon City mall. From there, he'll hear you on your headsets."

"Told you I'd get the locks open." Conner said, amusing only himself.

"I'm impressed, okay?" Sandy said. "You did good. We're alive." She pulled out a file drive. "This has everything the DC-CIA has on that Loki guy: the nuke, what was stolen - everything. They also have their own assessments and satellite imagery in these files."

Conner took the usb drive and gave it to Karla. "Put it in your bra. It's safe and secure there."

Karla smirked and put it down into the front of her shirt. "Of course it is. If I didn't know any better..."

"I don't care about your huge boobs, okay? My pockets are full of smoke capsules, the lock pick gear, and a bunch of other crap. I want to know it's safe, okay?"

Karla held her hands up, defensively. "Yes, Conner. Okay. It's safe."

"Okay, good." He turned to Sandy. "I see lights up ahead. That's the Pentagon station?"

"Yeah." Sandy checked the magazine of her plastic weapon. "You two are jumping off just a little further up. It would be best if Karla teleports the two of you."

"Oh, we're on a first name basis now?" Karla asked with a slight grin. "If we need to break into the US-CIA, will there be something like this beneath them?"

Sandy smirked. "No, I doubt it. The continental United States doesn't have a sensational escape route clouded in myth and mystery." She turned to Karla and offered her hand. "Saundra Moore. It's a pleasure."

"Karla Loupe." They shook like typical western culture.

Conner made his way to the edge of the flatbed tram. He sat down on the end with his feet over the side. He rested the cane across his lap and sighed. "So, who do you work for? Who is this guy, Peter?"

"Repeat after me," Sandy said, "For whom do you work?"

Conner glared at her. "I've heard you speak the whole weekend. You say, 'got,' and end sentences with prepositions and..."

"I am ... look, my heart is pounding." Sandy shifted her weight in the lightweight wicker chair. She eased into the control lever, slowing the acceleration somewhat. "Sorry, after spending so much time with him and his wife, and being corrected, I'm doing to you what they have been doing to me. Just know that Peter is looking out for your best interest. You'll meet the man soon enough."

Karla sighed. She knew it was time to teleport herself and Conner off the train car. "Ready, Conner?"

"I want to know who this guy is," Conner said, glaring back, over his shoulder, at Sandy. "Why are you working for him?"

"He's one of the good guys," Sandy said. "Okay, this is your stop. I can't go any slower without shutting off the motor. God only knows if this electric dinosaur would start up again. So move it!"

"I need answers!"

"No, Conner, you need to stop a nuclear bomb, now go!"

Karla moved towards him. She placed her palm on his shoulder and, all at once, they disappeared.

Conner and Karla reappeared on the empty tracks. Momentum carried them forward, stumbling to the ground.

Conner got back to his feet with a grunt. He reached behind himself and sheathed the cane on his back. "Wow. Your first teleportation, Tam. Thanks for not putting us in a wall - great work."

"Karla is smoother. We would have appeared standing without falling over. She has learned how to remove inertia in mid-teleport."

"So, you figured out the trigger for it?"

"Emotion. And I have had plenty of emotional things on my mind for the last twenty-four hours. So, yes. I figured it out. But I do not possess her finesse."

"Alright, well, let's find our way up to the surface. If this old man, AJ, can get us to Dulles Airport, we can catch the redeye back to the United States."

"I fear we may have missed it."

"I'll charter something," Conner said. "Money talks. I have plenty."

"Hai. We are lucky, love."

"Don't."

"I'm sorry?"

"Don't start calling me pet names like everything is okay, Tammy. I need to register this nonsense. I need to figure it all out. I need to get my head on straight. How are you feeling? Did you heal?"

"I have. I am certain that I am well enough to return to the Celestial Realm."

"Then that's what you should do when we find a mirror. I'll find Tamae and I'll bring her there. We'll talk this over as a couple, all three of us. We'll stay with you, while I use the files to figure out where we should go next. Then we'll use the mirror thing to try and find this stupid bomb. Hopefully, by then, the three of us will have worked out our differences."

"Do you mean it? You want to save our relationship?"

"I have to try," Conner said. "So the three of us, together, will work it out. Just, for now, get out of Karla when we find a mirror. I'll bring Tamae and we will make everything work."

"I promise to leave Karla alone as soon as I find a mirror."

"Okay, good. Nobody deserves to be used like that."

"Hai," Tamamo said. Conner wasn't used to hearing such defeat in Karla's voice, nor in Tamamo's inflection. "The rearview in AJ's van will suffice. When we get to the surface, I will release Karla immediately, I promise. But there's something you should know."

"What?"

"I have already suppressed Karla's memory of last night. As Karla, I no longer remember my own actions. I only hope we put this behind us. I assure you it will _never_happen again."

"Tamamo!"

"No! We need Karla to stop Falcon! I know what I've done is wrong! I know this, Conner! And it will never happen again! But we need Karla and we need her to trust us. At least for now!"

"God dammit," he grumbled. "Fine. But when this is all over, you have to promise me something."

"Anything, just name it."

"You get your multi-tailed ass back to that doctor in Japan. Usagi, or whatever his name was. You need it, Tamamo. I mean it. You don't kill anymore - great. He helped you, wonderful. But you used Karla's body to have sex with me, even though we both told you NO. You want to save this relationship? You get the proper help, or this shit is going to make us both too fucked up to ever have anything lasting."

"I promise. I will return to Usagi just as soon as I am able. You have my word."

"Alright." Conner sighed. "There are stairs up this way and I can smell sewage. Follow me."

---

Next Chapter: https://www.sofurry.com/view/836092