03. Compound

[Grim Wolf]

Around an hour after they had taken off, the copters wound steadily down. Simon disliked the feeling of being in a chopper normally; being in these particular transport copters was too odd. They moved silently and sleekly, unbuffetted by winds or rough conditions, so that he barely felt them moving at all. Only the gentle slant of the floor and the quiet thud of the helicopter on the ground alerted him to the fact that they were landing at all.

Without a word Lucius moved to the door. He and Simon had not spoken to each other for the remainder of the flight; whatever Lucius had needed to say had apparently been said. He moved it aside and then moved to the rest of the doors, his white clothes flapping backwards in the gusts still being generated by the rotary blades.

Simon followed. And looked around.

They had flown through the desert--that much could be seen from the two or three windows inside each copter. But aside from that fact it would not have been obvious that they were in the desert; a concrete wall, well over ten feet tall, surrounded them, its head laced with barbed wire. The compound around them consisted mainly of low, dirt-brown buildings.

They were also surrounded by guards. That was hard to miss.

These did not wear black--probably because they were in the desert, Simon reflected, and with the harsh sun beating down on them. Rather, they wore white, with the letters "MSA" emblazoned in black on their backs. Each was also holding an all-too-apparent machine gun. Not all of them were nearby, of course; many were on the walls, and here and there they were patrolling through different sections of building. Still, around fifty were encircling their group.

Around a hundred guards, Simon thought. Around a hundred machine guns.

"Welcome," Lucius said calmly, as they stepped out of their copters. "To Monitor Compound #362." He gestured with his head towards the nearest building. "Come along."

KARMA COUNT COMPLETE: 5/23/10

This post has been edited by Grim Wolf on May 23 2010, 08:43 PM

[warriorjames]

Ancient sighed as he felt the helecoptor land. This was probably the landing area...and who knew how well guarded it was. Wasn't he surprised when he stepped out and saw numerous men with machine guns.

This wasn't exactly what I was expecting, Ancient thought to himself, Though, I guess I can understand that they need to be cautious.

Relax, Wingman responded, I'm sure Simon could come up with something to get us out of here if need be.

Have you ever heard of an automatic weapon?

No

Well, then trust me when I say that you don't want one pointed at you

Wingman merely nodded at Ancient and hopped out of the coptor as Ancient looked at Lucius wave for them to follow them. Josh and Haruhi also got out and followed close. Something didn't seem right about this place.
-------------------------
Words-146
Posts-1
Karma-2 (0+(1+1))

[Chaos Shadow]

Her anxiety only grew worse as the helicopter continued to move throught he air. Ancient had gone quiet, and though Chaos wanted desperately to talk more, she was uncertain whether she wanted to keep conversation to her guardian Digimon, or to try and speak with Ancient again, try and revel in her human-ness, or to remain silent and bottle it up until there was an opportunity to speak to even more people, and she eventually settled on staring out the window.

She envied Ancient, for a moment. He could communicate telepathically with Wingman, at least. If she wanted to say anything, though, she would have to say it, and she wasn't sure she wanted to speak out loud. Partly because she might sound like an idiot, or begin rambling; partly because she was afraid that if she opened her mouth she would wind up throwing up the nothing in the pit of her stomach.

She became aware in a burst that she had not yet eaten.

What had she consumed lately? The bottle of the water. Pass on the turkey sandwiches, even in hunger she couldn't stomach mayonnaise, and it had hardly been much time at all, come to think, perhaps only twelve hours since they had arrived -- it felt like so much more -- and twelve hours between meals was nothing new to her. She remembered a day in college, a desperate and terrifying day, where she had gone over twenty-four hours between meals and over thirty-two hours between sleep cycles. There had been an even better couple of days when she had been awake approaching forty hours straight, although she'd had food to get her through that stretch.

She smiled to herself, laughed slightly. shook her head. Only a couple of months gon, but it felt like a lifetime ago.

The desert stretched out the window when she returned to the present, and she quickly realized why she had faded to the past. The present was boring. Expanse of brown-orange, tufted ocassionally with prickly plants and marred by some movement from a desert animal that she couldn't quite make out. That changed, however, when the helicopter began to swing, ever so slightly, and slow down, and suddenly the orange-brown of desert sand vanished and was replaced by cold gray.

Not exactly a not-boring sight, but the suddeness of the transition -- or perhaps it wasn't so sudden and she had just faded out so thoroughly -- nearly made her jump. Suriumon, dozing next to her, did not notice; Nihimon did.

"You okay?" the ermine asked.

"Yeah, m'fine," Chaos lied. "I, uh, I think we arrived."

The helicopter was descending now, and within seconds she felt the gentle jolt thorugh the body of the vehicle as it settled on the ground. The faint roar of the blades above them faded out and then disappeared entirely, and after another pause, the doors slid open.

Ancient clambered out almost immediately. Chaos, however, was less enthusiastic, and instead decided to kill a bit of time by making a show of waking up Suriumon. The wolf was already up, having been disrupted by the jolt of the landing, but Chaos still put on her show, hoped that nobody was looking inside anyway.

"You can stop shaking me," the wolf growled. Chaos retreated.

She waited a moment more, and then, realizing that they would probably just 'escort' her off the helicopter if she continued to remain inside, she rose to her feet, picked up Nihimon, and stepped to the edge of the chopper.

"Remember," she said. "Don't let them separate us."

No response, which she took for assent. She lightly jumped out of the helicopter and to the ground, and immediately found herself frozen.

This is bad...

Armed men, all of them wearing an eye-blazing white that reflected powerfully in the desert sun. Chaos squinted and waited for her glasses to adjust until she could look about mostly normally. Then she began taking in the details.

Movements along the walls. Movement further away. All brilliant streaks of white in the harsh sunlight, all of them moving with studied rigidity, all of them armed. Machineguns, she realized, and was aware that any one of them could raze their group to the ground if they were given two seconds and a half-decent reason.

"Welcome," the smooth voice of Lucius suddenly said. "To Monitor Compound #362."

Monitor Compound.

They were here for observation. Clarification: they were here to be observed.

Chaos wanted to ask what their intentions were. She wanted to ask whether the machineguns were necessary. She wanted to ask what else they had out here.

She opened her mouth. Her voice was only a whisper, heard only by those immediately around her.

"Are there seriously three-hundred and sixty one other compounds?"

Stupid. Stupid.

But she could manage nothing else. She was a prisoner now, they all were, and something was squirming in her stomach-- fear? Barely suppressed, writhing panic? She found herself swallowing bile that suddenly rose in the back of her throat and was thankful beyond all measure that she had not had anything to eat yet.

Monitor compound.

Her anxiety had built up too much. She actually felt the edges of her eyes tear up as the fear suddenly threatened to overwhelm her.

Monitor compound.

To be observed. To be studied. Were they to be experimented on? She blinked, rubbed her eyes with her free hand as the other cradled Nihimon to her chest. Her heart was pounding, her lungs rattling, and she suddenly found herself flashing back to the cold on her back, splayed on the table, arms and legs strapped down while the weaving five-headed beast stood over her with its scalpel-sharp claw poised at her sternum and its fishbone teeth spread in a grin and oh god what had it done to others, she could smell the pungent scent of old blood not quite cleaned off of the floor, what was it going to do to her, gut her and look at her insides or sew something inside of her and watch her melt away as the body conflicted and fought against itself, and what was it going to do to others that it caught, strap them down and use the notes about her slow dissolution to teach it how to turn a human into a puddle of good, oh god oh god oh god--




[ S'good to be back. ]

[Nova]

Nova in his surge of anger from before did the smartest thing he could do at the moment to calm down during the flight, he took a nap. However, due to the shortness of the flight it wasn't to restful. So right as the Helicopter landed he was nudged awake by Frost, who was repeating tapping him with his cold hand. Needless to say, this quickly got Nova's attention.

As the tamer pulled himself together he quickly noticed Enix get out of the Helo first, and almost immediately he heard a low growl, the dragon's usual response to seeing something he definately did not like. This immediately sparked the tamer curiousity as he moved from the Helo and when he got outside he was why Enix was irriated.

It seemed that Simon's 'Friend' had taken them to some sort of Prison judging from the many many guards with Machine Guns. And if it wasn't a prison, it was something god damn close. There was even a sudden hiss of irriation coming from Nova himself.

Frost jumped from the Helicopter last, and almost immediately froze as he saw the guns, "Ummm this doesn't look good at all." He then quickly moved over to Nova, trying to make himself as small as possible.

They then heard Lucius talking, but it was probably only Frost that registered what he said. Enix was eyeing all the guards around them, and Nova had his mind on other things.

"Come on guys." Said the tamer to his partners as he moved over to Chaos, he waiting til Lucius was away from them before he started speaking to her, "Damnit Chaos, what the hell have we gotten ourselves into? I rather deal with Coyotes or Cops than some sort of prison." He said almostly silently yelling.

He hated going from the frying pan to the freezer.

Post: 1
Karma: 3

[Allosawyou2]

As they touched down, and Serina silently looked around, fear crept into her heart.

A military compound... not another one... oh God, not another, not again, Digimon and military do not mix... Seriina frantically thought, recalling her past.

Rootmon and IceAgumon looked concerned, only they could tell the subtle change in Serina's face, whih usually gave very little away, but they could tell something was wrong.

"Don't do anything to anger these guys, or those metal things they are holding will chew you up before you can do anything." Serina said, her tone low.

[Grim Wolf]

Lucius ignored their little side-conversations, their worries, their hesitations. Simon supposed he had good reason to do so; they were literally surrounded by guards. Even had their Digimon been able to Digivolve, a hundred guards with machine guns might have been able to slow them down. At their current level...

The base, fortunately, was easy to follow. As was the pattern in these sorts of things (Simon had led a relatively exciting life but still lacked much in the way of context save for media), Simon expected things to be maze-like, difficult to trace. Instead, it was almost a direct route from where they landed, through one of the nearby buildings, and down a broad staircase. Most of the compound, Simon suspected, was underground; here and there he spied men in white labcoats working, some at computers, some at desks, some on tables complete with equipment Simon didn't understand. Her and there they stalked through the halls, quite free of any escorts, but all carefully nodding towards Lucius.

Eventually (left at the staircase, right past the room with the larger computer, right at the room with a doohickey that looked like an iron lung) they came to a closed brown door. This was an oddity; the halls they had moved through had been mostly a sterilized white, the doors shiny sliding steel constructs of the kind Simon expected to see in a place like this. Lucius knocked upon this brown door, and a voice called for them to come in.

He opened the door. They followed.

The man inside was very nearly as pale as the labcoat he was wearing. In point of fact, his entire being screamed white; his loose hair was frosted to his scalp, though he looked relatively young, and his lips were thin to the point of transparency. In contrast, his eyes were a flashpoint of color; deep, stormy blue.

"Ah, Lucius," he said pleasantly. "You've brought them."

"As you instructed, Doctor," Lucius responded, inclining himself faintly.

"Good man." He rose to his feet, straightening himself out and dusting imaginary dust from his clothes. "Well, this is exciting, isn't it? Real Tamers. And with Partners, to boot; I'm so pleased!"

Simon felt his face contort in shock, This man knew about the Digital World; knew enough to know the terminology of the Digidestined. It had been so long since he left that Simon had forgotten what it was like to deal with humans--people, unaltered, who knew nothing. And now, after only recently dealing with police who had been alarmed by their state, they had encountered a man who knew something.

Perhaps his expression was mirrored on some of the faces of of the others, for the pale doctor quickly lifted his hands in a placating gesture. "Oh, please don't be alarmed!" he said quickly. "The different Monitor Compounds make it their business to know as much as possible. Mind, we're still woefully unpreprepared..." He trailed off, muttering to himself.

"My apologies," Lucius said to the whole group. "He tends to be a bit...unfocused."

"Ah, where are my manners!" exclaimed the doctor. "I'm Doctor Fumio Kaden, and Direct of Compound #362." He smiled and nodded politely as each of them introduced themselves, shaking the hands of those who extended their own and nodding to the Digimon, and then retook his seat. "Well, I'm sure you're all full of questions--I know I am--and I suppose, in order to make you all most comfortable, I should address your concerns first." He laced his fingers together. "In the interest of fairness, I should tell you there are certain things I am prohibited from disclosing, but as you all know some of our biggest secrets already clearance is variable. That said..." He leaned back in his chair. "Would you all like to ask me anything?"

[Chaos Shadow]

Chaos only realized after a few seconds that Nova had spoken to her. She shook herself out of her stupor as best she could, looked over to him, tried to control her breathing, but she could still feel her heart beating hard and fast inside her chest, feel the tips of her fingers shaking. Stupid. There was no reason to be afraid-- at least not for that particular reason, the reason that was making her quake in vague, half-realized horror.

She fought through it.

"Sorry," she said quickly. "I dunno." She paused, thought about his words, and shook her head. "Devil you know, huh? But honestly..." She looked around, and somehow she felt better for it. The guns weren't pointed at them. They were behind walls, hidden. They needed to keep themselves a secret, for now at least, although...

"To be perfectly honest with you," she said, "I actually feel a lot better in here. I mean... claustrophobic. And I don't like these guys staring at us, but..."

It was hard to explain. It was almost impossible. Easy enough that, if he asked, she could default to her first option; while they were in here, with people that knew the secret, with people that would not fire on them unless they did something really absurd -- and none of them were stupid enough, she knew that. Which meant that they wouldn't need to fight innocent people, like those policemen, just doing their jobs and suddenly being assaulted by dragons and wolves and sentient plants and dinosaurs made of ice and what have you. No, it was far preferable to keep separate from them, at least for now.

But Chaos had another reason for preferring the prison, despite her own paranoia. Back on Mirage she had needed to hide, to lie constantly, to fear what would happen every ticking day if she found herself in the wrong crowd, if she wandered into the wrong town, if she mentioned something suspect to the wrong person. To be in the compound, behind thick concrete walls, away from civilization, surrounded by people who would ask no questions and have no suspicions...

She was reminded, somewhat painfully, of Malebolgia.

Conversation cut out as they carried on, moving into the depths of the compound. She decided to speak no more as they began seeing people through the open doors in the corridors, passing them by. Simon seemed to have some trust in Lucius, so he was at least somewhat okay to speak with; the others, though, she didn't have a clue.

She did pull back slightly, though, away from Nova and anybody else near where she was, and fell in step at the back of the group. It was clear in a moment that she was not snubbing anybody up there, or that she didn't specifically want to talk to them. Ray was still behind them, hobbling along on his badly-injured leg, and since nobody else seemed to be providing assistance she pulled back and offered her shoulder for support. Kamidramon was doing his best to help, but he was only three feet tall, rendered incapable of hovering, and it was not very effective.

So as they made their way through the compound and finally came to that out-of-place door, Chaos and Ray were the last two in the group to step through.

A voice spoke, and Lucius responded. Chaos leaned around to try and get a look at the figure that was now talking, and almost immediately found herself petrified. Not by him, specifically, but because Lucius had referred to him as 'doctor'.

Doctor. What kind of doctor? Or was he actually a doctor, rather than somebody who had a doctorate degree? And if he was actually a doctor of some sort... surgeon? General practice? Specialist of some sort or another? Either way it made her nervous, because he might very well be a surgeon, with all the knowledge necessary to be able to carve them open without killing them, see how their insides worked, if there were any differences now that they'd been the Digital World, or if they would do that the Digimon and then just run tests on them, or--

"Oh, don't be alarmed!" he said quickly, addressing the whole group. Chaos wondered if anybody else had made a telling expression, or if her own bubbling sickness had been enough. Although he only made assurances about why he already knew some of their terminology, which did little to help her feel less sick at the prospect of where they were...

But as he continued on, and mentioned that he was the Director of the Compound, her fears were assuaged somewhat. No, probably not an actual doctor, just a scientist, high-ranking, who had his degree. That would explain the lab coat, that would explain the title.

He addressed them in turn as some of the group found sufficient tact to introduce themselves. It took Chaos a few seconds to bring herself around to it, too, although she did not extend her hand; she was still in the back of the group, and she was using her right shoulder besides. Nihimon remained silent, trying to hide as best she could in the girl's long hair; Suriumon remained silent, but did not bother trying to tuck himself away. He merely watched, he merely waited, he merely studied.

Man's a vampire, she thought suddenly. Or at least a computer geek.

She was hardly a tanned masterpiece herself and certainly understood what it was to be pale and pasty, but as she studied him more closely when he took his seat, she recognized that this was... she could not help the pun, it was beyond the pale. If it hadn't been for his eyes she might have taken him for an albino. There must have been some kind of pigmentation problem, nobody was that pale.

Ah, but that would probably be a rude thing to ask about.

She had questions, sure enough, but doubted that he would be able to answer them. Still, might as well try.

"How'd you find us so fast? We barely made it out of the desert and into a Holiday Inn before Lucius picked us up."

[warriorjames]

As the group decended into the facility, Ancient was a bit on edge. This was unknown territory, and without any of his swords by his side he probably wasn't going to be of much help. After all, he had gotten his abilities locked away to become a Surveyor.

And that was when something odd clicked in his head: He wasn't in the Digital World anymore, so the limitations that the Digital World had placed on him no longer applied themselves. This meant that he could tap his skills again.

Oh...this was sweet on so many levels.

Antient took a look around ar they passed by the computers and desks, eyeing for anything that could potentially be used as a weapon in the event things went south and the armed guards came down upon them. There didn't seem to be anything at first glance, but theye was probably something around this place that he could use.

Finally, Lucius brought them to a brown door, which seemed completely out of place. The entire facility was white, so why did they have this door another color? What was behind it? He soom found out as Lucius opened the door and had everyone good through.

What was behind it, however, was not what Ancient had expected.

An man clothed in white stood before them. His skin matched the coat and the walls, but his eyes certainly gave him an interesting look. Haruhi sat down while Wingman and Josh merely stood as the doctor asked them to introduce themselves. Ancient was the only one of his team to do so, since Wingman and Josh were slightly on edge and Haruhi's attention was focused on analyzing the surrounding area.

The 'doctor' them began to explain things to them, and then opened up the floor for them to start asking questions. Chaos was the first to fire off, asking how the heck this guy knew where to find them. That also got something in Ancient's head going...something he had never thought of: Even if this doctor cound get them back into the Digital World, would they wind up on Miage Island, or would they end up in another location of the Digital World?

First things, could this guy even get them BACK to te digital world?

"How much do you know about the Digital World? Do you know where all of us came from?"
------------------------
Words-404
Posts-2
Karma-7 (2+(1+4))

[Nova]

[Omiting to post this turn. Reason: laziness, Just assume Nova said Hi and shook hands. Frost said Hi, and Enix gave guy the look.]

[Chaos Shadow]

[ ...bump? ]

[Twilight]

"And," Cain added quickly on the end of Ancient's question, "how is it you know anything about the Digital World at all?" Kikota had forgone introductions; probably best not to volunteer any information himself, and let the others answer the Doctor's questions, to avoid getting caught in a lie or lacking an answer to something a Human child should have an easy response to. For the moment he was hoping they would simply believe he was a quiet, introverted kid and focus their attention on their party's more outspoken members. He tried to keep himself from being visibly on edge, keeping his observations of the MSA complex subtle, but there hadn't been much to see that made any sense to him so far anyways.

[Grim Wolf]

[Apologies for the quality, I'm rather tired.]

Before Cain had quite managed to speak, Kaden whirled towards Ancient, eyes widening. "Where you came from?" he repeated. "Are you implying that you're not all from here?" He ran a hand absent-mindedly through his thick hair. "That would be...I mean...that's..."

"Doctor," Lucius cut in.

Kaden started, looking about in all directions, then gave an embarassed cough and nodded. "Yes, I...sorry." He considered the group once more. "I will start with your question," he said. "Though it came last. I will answer yours--" he pointed to Ancient. "After his, and yours--" he pointed to Chaos. "Last. It seems the best order."

He tapped one foot thoughtfully. "There have been many Digidestined taken particularly from this world. I cannot say why. Occasionally they have brought their work home with them, so to speak. An encounter with these creatures--these Digimon--was what first brought many of the world powers into awareness of the existence of parallel universes."

"Certain countries, after covering up these encounters as best they could, decided it would be in their best interest to create an organization to investigate these matters and train to respond to them. This organization would operate under the umbrella of UN authority but not be directly responsible to any one nation. That is this organization; the Multiversal Security Administration. I am one of sixteen compound directors in the world, each of us placed in isolated areas for purposes of study but close enough to..." He trailed off, looking for a word. "Respond. To any...peculiar phenomena."

He smiled. "Since that time, we have only encountered inhabitants of your Digital World, and them rarely. Most are humans, like yourselves, returned after completing their...purpose, I suppose. Apparently the Digital World has something like a consciousness capable of responding to internal and external threats. Though why it would choose to resort to interdimensional travelers for purposes of-"

"Doctor!" Lucius said, slightly more forcefully.

Kaden blinked, scratching at his hair almost frantically. "My apologies," he repeated. "We have been able to talk to some of these. They named 'Digidestined', 'Tamers', 'Partners', 'Digimon', that sort of thing. We had to deal with a few instances wherein wild Digimon were pulled from the Digital World by peculiar circumstance. Other than that..." He shrugged. "We know enough to know what a Digimon is, but no member of the MSA has ever been to the Digital World; all the Tamers old enough do not wish to join."

He looked at Chaos. "What little we have managed, however, is that we can track the energy signature of the rift from our world into the Digital, and vice versa. It allows for a quicker response. We detected your arrival, cross-referenced it with a GPS and assumed you'd have made your way to one of the nearby downs. Once we heard police chatter indicating a break-in and some weird animals..." He shrugged. "It was not hard to guess that we were needed."

He waited with an expectant look as soon as he'd finished talking, as though he expected someone to ask another question.

KARMA COUNT COMPLETE: 8/20/10

This post has been edited by Grim Wolf on Aug 20 2010, 12:34 AM

[Chaos Shadow]

"He meant the Digital World," Chaos said quickly as the man began to react rather noticeably to Ancient's innocuous -- though apparently poorly phrased -- question. Or maybe it was phrased just properly and he had his answer right there; either way she decided it would be best to deflect any questions about their disparate origins immediately.

Not that it would be difficult to believe they all originated from Earth. They had the fortune of being universally human, for one reason or another; none of them bore the indication of being from another universe. No fox-men or demons here.

No cat-people, either.

That was her only contribution as Kaden took stock of the questions and answered them in turn. And then he finished and looked at them all expectantly.

She almost found it cute, the expectancy, the excitement. She had to smile.

And still smiling, she asked the next question.

"What, exactly, do you intend to do with us, then?"

The smile flickered.

"Because we all have people who are probably looking for us, one way or another. Family." She thought back to her own parents, waiting, thousands of miles away. Concerned and scared; Chaos should have been back home, and she had never stayed away an extended period of time without calling ahead and telling them. "Or friends."

She hadn't meant it as a threat, more an observation, but she realized how it might be interpreted after she'd said it. We have people who know we're missing, she'd said. They'll surely be looking. You can't keep us here.

Well. Maybe she had somewhat intended it to sound the way it did.

[Nova]

Nova said nothing, but continued to look back and forth between Lucius and the good Doctor. The Doctor's answers seemed to be well thought out. But to him, something seemed... well off. As if lacking some real substance. They were telling the truth it seemed, but not the whole truth, they were hiding something obviously. He wanted to know what it was, but had no real opening to persue, not yet anyway.

Also the Doctor said their main purpose was to be close to respond to most cases, but he had said himsself that encounters were few and far between. Also that most encounters were with humans who had returned, but they literally had a small army here.

Something, clearly, wasn't adding up correctly.

Chaos however, then began to speak and made a very valid point. They had family in this world, and that in time they will be looking for us, they could not keep us here as prisoners.

Post: 2
Karma: 1
Total Karma: 4

[Grim Wolf]

"A perfectly valid question!" Kaden said energetically, smiling. "And how could you avoid being worried?" He gestured about him. "This is, without doubt, a military compound, and while I personally may have research as my first and foremost goal, there is a reason we are called the Multiversal Security Administration." He chuckled, a genuinely cheerful sound radically at odds with the disturbing statement he had just made. "Cross-universe events--at least in our world--are very rare, so we do not often need to deploy our forces."

He started to pace, the smile never leaving his face and never failing to look genuine. "I have told you that no Tamer has ever volunteered to join the MSA. This is true. We do not recruit into our ranks those reluctant to join, and I cannot begrudge them their right after hearing what they have undergone. That said, you--" And his head whipped sharply about and raked them with a piercing gaze. "Are evidence of one of the most serious violations of the multiverse border we have ever observed. There is no evidence, as yet, of Digimon following you, but not even twenty-four hours have passed since your arrival."

Simon glanced towards Lucius, who had until this point interrupted whenever that manic edge had crept into Kaden's voice. This time, Lucius said nothing. "I am the Director of this Compound," Kaden continued. "You are fascinating specimens from a research standpoint, but you are all humans--and young humans, at that--and represent no threat to our world or the universe at large. I am willing to make this concession at this moment, and as you are already in possession of the secret which is at our heart it would grant you a great deal of leeway within this facility."

"That said." He folded his hands in front of him and the smile vanished, creasing into a frown. "I say this with no hostile will towards any of you and my sole intent being to make this clear. We are one of the broadest and most powerful organizations ever developed under international authority. We are under no obligation to alert any American authorities, including your parents, as to your location. And until such time as we are quite certain that no trouble is following you--that we will not be required to help curb a threat not only to our mission but to the world at large and, quite possibly, the universe--I have no intention of doing so."

Simon's lip curled. It mattered little to him--he had no family whom it would be worthwhile to contact. But the others, at the least ones from earth...surely the others had loved ones they'd been missing.

"Don't get me wrong," Kaden said, the smile returning to his face. "My cautious is due in part to a great number of instabilities detected over Nevada, most of which have vanished within seconds of their appearance. They have, in point of fact, been decreasing steadily. Assuming this trend continues, I imagine we'll be able to call this an isolated instance and at least put you in contact with your families within the week." He shrugged. "Should it change, of course..."

Well, Simon thought, he'd talked to Tamers. He knew how committed most of them were to doing the right thing, whatever they thought that was.