"Everyone!" Brandt said. "Strip down and go outside!"

  Sean blinked as they all did so.

  "What are you…?"

  "Have everyone's clothing searched to make sure no one tried to smuggle anything out, then please search all your people as well. The protocols are quite clear, and I don't want to lose any of my people."

  Sean nodded. While he knew no more djevels could be summoned from the Onderwereld, he was worried that someone might find a way to open a portal to the inside of the DEZ, or worse yet, the lions' home.

  "Sounds like a good idea," Sean said with a nod. "Someone call the local police, and let them know we'll be doing a burn, so they don't get their panties in a bunch."

  "You know," Estrella said, looking around the room, "if she did this before we got rid of the Onderwereld, that means either she corrupted Keith and his wife, or he was corrupted beforehand, and she knew about him because another djevel told her."

  "What are you getting at?"

  "We should do a quick search here—you, me, and Cali—before we torch the place. If djevels can still corrupt people into joining them and working for them, we've got bigger problems than we realized."

  "Or, worse yet, can still possess people," Cali added.

  "Fine, go search, but I need to go through these clothes, so we don't end up with a bunch of cold, naked, old people wandering around outside."

  "What about getting the others to help?"

  "We've been to the Onderwereld; the others haven't. I'm sure Perkins will look the other way for us because of that, but I'd rather not push him on the others. Eruditio has been a good friend. I don't want to endanger that."

  Cali and Estrella nodded and went through the scattered notes while Sean cleaned up.

  Catching Up

  Roxy sighed and looked over the logs, crossing off another entry on the list as she went through Dougherty's account. They'd told him earlier today what had been done to him. Roxy, Jolene, and Daelyn felt it was only fair that he knew how badly he'd been used and abused. He'd been pretty mad until Roxy pointed out that Jessie had been used worse than he had; she'd been all but whored out to dozens of men. Also he had taken his medallion off, something he'd been expressly told not to do.

  She was trying to find the uploaded files they'd been putting on his system. The altered intel pictures they were getting hadn't started out altered. They'd been shipped to a blind web address she hadn't been able to track down yet, and then, according to information she'd been able to dig out of the mail servers, the updated image showed up about 10 minutes later. Not enough of a lag for anyone to complain, but it was obvious that someone with a good deal of computer power and editing abilities was doctoring the images.

  The most interesting part was, they were only doctoring the images that came to them in Carson City. She'd persuaded General Bonds to kick some ass and get her access to the archives in the Pentagon, and all those pictures were unmodified. Probably to build more evidence for what a shit job Sean was doing out here, because he was so obviously ignoring intelligence.

  So now the question was, who was messing with their pictures? Even though Sean had completely shut down the NSA in Utah, the most recent satellite download had been tampered with. Comparing it to what was in the archives at the Pentagon had made that clear.

  Then there was the software Karen had uploaded into the system via Dougherty's account. It was a pretty impressive piece of work. It went in and set all the hooks to continue diverting the satellite images, but it stayed resident in system memory, and never flushed to a hard drive. Karen had to keep refreshing it, however, because of the weekly changes to the system's security, which was done to avoid these very kinds of problems.

  She'd pulled the power cord on Dougherty's personal computer, which had access to the systems in his office, pulled out the hard drives, and was now parsing through swap space. She found enough evidence of the program, but she still hadn't found anything remotely close to a fingerprint. She'd set their old college computer science professor Rob Cruise on the problem yesterday afternoon. He'd been the one to discover the program sometime late last night. Now he was going through everything electronic that Karen, Jessie, and Susan owned, looking for the upload device.

  "Found it," Rob said, holding up one of the plugged-in phones.

  "Whose phone is that?"

  Rob smiled. "It's not the phone; it's inside the USB cable!"

  "How the hell did you find that?" Roxy asked, impressed.

  "The USB diagram was stamped on the wrong side. I tell you, this thing is quite a piece of work. It's got no power of its own, so you have to plug it in to make it work. The payload is incredibly small, because it's just putting in a short-lived virus that either uploads or downloads the main virus, depending on which end is plugged in first."

  "Huh?"

  "If you plug the fat end into the computer first, it uploads the payload that's been stored on it, executes it, then self terminates the loading program. If you plug the small end into a phone first, it looks at the phone's access level, then downloads the latest version of the payload, if it can reach the site, via the phone."

  "So they didn't have to have anyone coming out to do this?"

  "No, they just had to update once a week by plugging into a phone like Karen's, I'd guess, then come in here and plug into Dougherty's system while Jessie kept him distracted."

  "Why not just have Jessie do it? Why was Karen there?"

  "Because if the cable was accidentally plugged into Dougherty's phone, there would have been a log of the connection being made to the server sending out the latest downloads. While that might not be an issue for most phones, Dougherty's is a secure phone issued by the military, and they audit those records."

  "So, whose phone do we plug it into so we can see where it goes?"

  "Susan's. Right after I backdoor the hell out of it," Rob said with a grin. "I haven't had this much fun since I was in college! Oh, I'm so going to rape her phone and make it give up all its secrets!"

  "Just make sure you find out where it's coming from and who made it," Roxy said with a happy sigh. "Now I don't have to dig through this mess, trying to find something that's probably not even there. How soon do you think before you have an answer?"

  "An hour, two tops," Rob said.

  Roxy got up and stretched. She'd been helping him since this morning because she was one of the better hackers at the base. Now it was time to check on the kids—who were all still sick, she was sure—give her Mom a break from watching them, and catch up on anything important Daelyn might be dealing with, as she'd put her in charge when she'd come over here.

  "Great, just document everything. I'm sure we'll need it later."

  "You got it! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Rob said, still snickering to himself.

  Roxy shook her head and left him to it. Cruz seemed much more carefree than she remembered him, back when he was teaching at the college. Then again, his responsibilities were less, in a way, and he had those three gals, who were all quite sweet on him. Then of course, he'd admitted to Sean and the rest of them that until he'd had to take care of his sister and her family, he was quite the party animal.

  She popped into Jolene's office on the way to Daelyn's. With Stewart off helping Sean, Jolene had taken over with Susan and Jessie.

  "Hi, Jo. How's it coming along with the girls?"

  "Sue's doing well; I'm going to cut her loose tomorrow. I have her on 'house arrest' you could say, until then."

  "So soon?"

  "It wasn't that big a deal for her, when you get down to it. She was still following her bosses' orders; they wanted to know what was going on here. She's a new hire, fresh out of college, so she didn't have a lot of responsibilities, and she came here from a party school."

  "Chico?" Roxy asked with a grin.

  "No, NYU. So for her, she was just ordered to go out and do what she secretly wanted to do anyway, just a lot more of it than she normally would have liked. So it wasn't too big a problem to work her through it, blur a few things, add some emotional distance, and she'll get over it. She's just worried about what she's going to do for money."

  "What, did they fire her?" Roxy asked with a frown.

  "No, she's going to resign. For all that it didn't hurt her too much, she's still pretty upset that she was used like that. That wasn't what she signed up for. She honestly just wanted to help. Turns out she's really smart, has a master's in some sort of math-based discipline that does predictive analysis." Jolene laughed. "I don't remember what it's called."

  "Maybe we should give her a job at the casino; she could help find the cheaters."

  "I don't know if that'd be enough for her. She feels bad about working for the enemy, even if she didn't have any control over it."

  "She's not thinking of doing anything stupid, is she?" Roxy asked.

  "No, thankfully. But Jessie, on the other hand…"

  "Bad?"

  "You know how Stewart said she 'doesn't like men'?"

  Roxy sighed and sat down. "How bad?"

  "Really bad. She's gay, and sleeping with men seriously creeps her out."

  "And they were whoring her out to dozens of them," Roxy growled, shaking her head. "Must have been like living in her own personal hell."

  "That's why they did such a number on her; they needed to turn her into something she wasn't, and that caused all sorts of behavioral breaks in her. She acts like a clueless bimbo half the time because they made her into one. Now that I'm peeling the layers back, all she wants is to kill herself."

  Roxy winced.

  "I'm thinking the only solution is to completely burn the last two years of memories out of her mind."

  "You can do that?"

  Jolene sighed and gave a slight nod. "It's not easy, and I'll probably need you, Sean, Stell, and Peg to work up the power to do it. But it's just…" Jolene sighed. "This is one of the things we're not supposed to do."

  "Maybe you should ask her if that's what she wants," Roxy said softly. "If she makes the choice, I don't think you can be held to blame."

  "But it won't change what happened, Rox."

  "No, Jo, it won't, but it's a lot better than her killing herself, isn't it?"

  Jolene nodded slowly. "Yeah, yeah it is. I guess I'll ask her about it tomorrow. I had your mom drug her so she'll sleep until tomorrow. What's Peg up to?"

  "Helping my mom watch the kids. So's Roberta."

  "Hmm, maybe we should hide in Dae's office and kill a bottle of wine with her before we go back…"

  Roxy smiled. "Now that sounds like a plan."

  "You and Cruz figure out who screwed up our stuff yet?"

  "No, but Sawyer thinks it came out of the CIA, and Sean told me the NSA head thinks it came from there as well, and they're trying to nail it down."

  "Well, just make sure he understands that he's not allowed to stay away another night. He needs to get back here tomorrow."

  "Yeah, I miss him, too."

  Jolene snorted as she got out of her chair. "I just want him to experience being thrown up on by both of the twins at the same time. Just our luck, they'll be over this flu by the time it gets back!"

  "Yeah, I think we're killing a bottle with Dae, maybe even two!" Roxy chuckled as she and Jolene headed off to talk to Daelyn.

  #

  "So how sure are you that this program came out of the CIA?" Sean asked Tom. This meeting was a lot more private than the last one; it was Tom, Sean, Estrella, and Cali.

  "One hundred percent. I put the people you cleared on backtracking the internet connections to the address your guy sent us. When you got a current satellite download from the Space Forces' photo recon sat, it went to that address, and an analyst at the CIA picked it up, then eight minutes later, they sent out the altered image."

  "Any idea who it was?"

  "Oh, yeah, it's one of their image specialists. I called in some favors from friends over at Homeland and a few guys in the imaging department at the NSA. There's only about twenty that they feel have the level of skill to do that kind of turn around on an image, and I have the security to access their duty logs. Only six of them are at work right now. Going back and looking at the last week's-worth of alterations, I was able to knock two of them out."

  "And our four winners are?" Estrella asked.

  "Jason Arrens, Fayette Dunlop, William Salinger, and Britney Cousins."

  "Why does one of those names sound familiar?" Sean asked.

  "Which one?"

  "Dunlop," Sean said, then clicked his secure comm unit back to the base.

  "Oak, here."

  "I need Roxy, it's Sean."

  "Hold on, I think she's killing a bottle of wine in Daelyn's office."

  "What? I thought the kids were sick."

  "Have you ever had to deal with a bunch of sick kids?" Oak laughed. "Trust me, you'd be killing several!"

  Estrella snickered, and Sean realized she'd turned hers on when he had.

  He looked over at Cali, who was the picture of total innocence, which of course meant she'd heard it, too.

  "Hi, Hubby!" Roxy said, snickering.

  "Hi, hon."

  "Hi, Rox!" Cali said. "Miss you!"

  "Me, too," Estrella said. "Save us some wine!"

  "I thought you were a beer girl?"

  "Only if Dae's bringing her family's stuff, then it's wine!"

  "Got it! Any other orders?"

  "Rox…" Sean sighed.

  "Yeeees?" Roxy said and giggled.

  "I didn't think lycans got drunk?" Cali said.

  "Oh, it won't last, but we've killed, what, four bottles, Dae?"

  "More like six, and I think Jo's about to pass out on us!" He heard Daelyn snicker in the background.

  "Rox, does the name Fayette Dunlop mean anything?"

  "Oh, yeah, she's that gal at the CIA whose son shot Steve. You know, the one who got shanked in prison?"

  "Ah, thanks! I gotta…"

  "Not so fast! When you comin' home, Lion-Boy?" Roxy asked with a snicker of her own.

  Sean sighed. "I'll grab the next Osprey heading home. I'm almost done here."

  "Woo-hoo! Sean'll be home in four hours!" Roxy said, and he heard Daelyn cheer, and Jolene muttered something about vomit.

  "Is Jo okay? She doesn't have to puke or something, does she?"

  "Nah! She's fine," Roxy said and giggled. "Bye, Hon! Bye, Cali! Bye, Estrella!" The line went dead.

  "It's Fayette," Sean said, looking up at Tom, who was smirking at him.

  "I'll call Jill and have her arrested."

  Sean shook his head. "Not yet. Let's see who else might be helping her first. We know not to trust the images, and we hopefully have a few days before she finds out. See if Keith has been talking to her at all; they had to have been coordinating somehow."

  "Good point."

  "Okay, if they try to fire you, tell them I said no, you can't be fired unless I approve."

  Tom scowled at him. "That's not how things are done, Sean."

  "Yeah, well, I need someone here I can trust, and right now, that's you. I also want twenty percent of the analysts here infected in the next forty-eight hours."

  "What!"

  "Ask for volunteers; start off with some line like 'seeing as we've got all these lycans here, if anyone's ever thought about becoming one, you might want to talk with a few,' or some other BS."

  "You're serious, aren't you?" Tom sighed.

  "Yes, very. Lycans can't turn traitor, plus if we get any more possessed around here, they'll smell it. I'll have Adam come out here tonight, along with a team to vet everybody. I'll make sure he tells them you're their alpha, so there won't be any issues with them listening to you."

  Tom looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, that would definitely help with any loyalty issues around here. That's been my biggest fear after finding out Keith, his assistant, and two of his mid-level analysts were traitors."

  "Glad you agree," Sean grumbled and had to work hard not to smile as Tom suddenly looked embarrassed.

  "You know, it's a good thing you go around looking like that all the time."

  "Oh? Why's that?"

  "Because I'd be even more embarrassed if everyone saw me taking orders from a 'young kid'," he said, making air quotes with his fingers. "You look too easy going as a human, Sean. As a lion, yeah, I believe you're going to gut me if I don't do what you say. So does everyone else."

  "So I've learned. Oh, if you want your wife infected, you can tell whomever you want to do it that I approved it."

  "I'm surprised she isn't already," Estrella said.

  Sean almost laughed out loud as Tom suddenly blushed. "Erm, ahh…she wanted me to be a werewolf, but I kinda want her to be a cougar, and…"

  Sean flipped channels on his comms. "Jack!"

  "What's up, Sean?"

  "I need you to infect Tom's wife."

  "What? Sean, I'm a bit busy right now!"

  "You've got two hours!" Sean snickered.

  "This is about making you jump out of that airplane, isn't it?"

  "Now what ever gave you that idea?" Sean said and clicked off.

  "Anything else before we leave?" he asked Tom.

  "What about Stewart and the magic users?"

  "Stewart's in charge of the loyalty vetting program. I've asked him to share his findings with you, but if he needs something, make sure he gets it. Once he's done, I told him to put together a meeting with you, some of the Eruditio people, and the colonel to make sure things are all in order, then help you set up a program to vet all future hires."

  "I'll have to speak with Jill at Homeland and the president about that."

  "Jill's got Sapientia vetting everyone at Homeland as we speak," Sean said. "At her insistence, no less."

  "Ah, good." Tom stood up and stuck out his hand. "Thanks, Sean. I don't care if you are my god, I still owe you for what you did here."

  Sean smiled, stood up, and shook hands. "Now, I need to get back home before my other wives kill me."

  Heading outside, Sean and the girls gathered Travis and his security team.

  "What now, Sean?" Travis asked.

  "Get us a ride home. I don't think we need to be here anymore."