Yawning widely, he looked around the conference table. Everyone was there, and then some—well, Karen wasn't there of course; he'd been told this morning that Stewart was certain they could fix her, but Tom didn't think sending her back here would be a good idea. So they had a new NSA representative, an attractive young female werewolf named Susan, who was wearing a very tight shirt that said, 'I've got my eye on you'.

  Apparently Karen's aide had decided to take the offer after Jolene had had a talk with her. She also made no secret of the fact that she would be filing reports with her boss on what was going on here. As the government was paying most of the bills, Sean decided to live with it. At least she was being completely upfront about it, though she'd promised Sean if she found out any secrets she wasn't supposed to know, she'd let him know. Which was only fair, she figured.

  Jolene was here today; she was would be filling in for Stewart until he returned. She said she had something important she needed to discuss with him about Jessie, but thankfully, it could wait. Hogan was still human, but other than Vincent, he was the only human in the room. Major Dougherty was now a cheetah, and quite happy about it.

  "All right, as you probably know by now, yesterday, at the request of Homeland Security and the head of the Secret Service, the president approved an examination of all CIA personal in Washington. The results this morning"—Sean sighed—"were not good. Several traitors were found, and while some were saved from their fate, several others were not.

  "All those we managed to save are now in custody; as they were turned into lycans in order to save them, Tisha is now questioning them, with the help of another lioness."

  "How does turning them into lycans save them?" Susan asked.

  "We believe it has to do with why djevels can't eat lycans. Our minds, our psyches are just different enough that we can shrug off their attacks, so when the mind they're occupying becomes a lycan one, it either kills them or forces them to go someplace else. We're still not exactly sure on that yet.

  "But those we saved remember everything and everyone, so they've been quite helpful to us in tracking down further traitors and collaborators."

  "And killing them, I hope," Major Dougherty muttered.

  "Only if we can't infect them. There's a lot of intelligence to be gained from anyone we save from the djevels. Next, our rogue magic user turned out to be a Gradatim researcher who continued their banned research into djevels after escaping execution and suffered the consequences of her actions when she summoned something she couldn't control."

  "What about the nuclear bomb?" Bill asked.

  "It was something of a dud," Sean said.

  "Something of? How's that?"

  "It was an old East German device the Russians had stored in a secret bunker during the Cold War. It was cheaply made, as it was meant to be used as a suicide device or a booby trap. They'd made about a dozen of them, and apparently they were forgotten. The djevels got their hands on them and distributed them because they've since learned about such things and wanted to use them on us."

  "Okay, but what about the dud part?"

  "Nuclear weapons do, in fact, go bad over time. They need maintenance. The bomb would've made a large explosion and spread radioactive material over a mile or so, but it wouldn't have started the chain reaction to create a nuclear explosion."

  "Still, better safe than sorry," General Yates said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

  "Was it the CIA interfering in our intelligence?" Claudia asked.

  Sean nodded. "Yes. Some of it was the traitors backed by the djevels, some of it was just people who don't like us, and some of it was people with their own agendas. Because of this, we've decided to secure some of our own intelligence assets, independent sources of intelligence, as a check against any future problems. These new channels will be managed by two of my wives, Cali and Peg. They're both busy right now, helping to set up one of the resources."

  "Where is this new channel located?" Susan asked. "I'm sure my boss is going to ask me."

  "I'm afraid I'm not going to share that information," Sean said with a smile. "It's my goal to keep these sources as secret as possible, for as long as possible. There are too many people I don't have control over involved in our current resources, and I really don't want to have to stage any more raids on places because they've become unreliable. My tasks are dealing with the djevels—primarily here in the US—and overseeing those dealing with them in other places.

  "I don't want to waste any of my time or resources on political infighting."

  Sean looked around the room again and yawned. "Sorry, I had an early morning, and have been pretty much going non-stop, plus sixteen sick kids, do the math.

  "Now, Clyde, let's start off with you; how goes the roundup on the djevels that got out up around Fort 72?"

  "It's going well, incredibly well. I don't think any have gotten away from us this time. I think part of that is, these djevels weren't as powerful as most of what we've had to deal with before."

  "I wonder if the djevel being an upstart had anything to do with that?"

  Clyde shrugged. "Maybe? I don't know. Things are still a mess up there; Chad's got a bunch of combat engineers rebuilding the fence, so everybody's really busy. My guys and gals are ranging into the DEZ to make sure if anybody heads over there, we can give them a heads-up right away."

  "Thanks, Clyde. Tell them I really appreciate all the hard work they're doing. Chad?"

  "As Clyde said, it's a mess up there, but at least it's a controlled mess now. The engineers have got a regular barbed-wire fence up, and the magic users are putting some interesting spells on it while they repair the damage to the fence the djevels did, as well as the fire, and a couple of wayward firebombs.

  "Also, Travis sent me the list of thoughts you had, and I've gone over it, calling a couple of the fire team and outpost leaders to get their comments. The ideas are good, but some of them will take a few years to fully roll out. We've got a lot of those small outposts out there. Right now I'm trying to at least work out some sort of priority."

  "Great, now let's go around the table," Sean said and listened as each of them filled him in on their status. Adam wasn't there; he was out at the Utah Data facility.

  All in all, things were stable, money was stable, and supplies were still coming in. When they finished, Sean waved a hand. "Thanks, everyone. Dismissed.

  "Oh, Chad, Claudia, Deidre, Vincent, and Bill, please stay."

  The five of them nodded and sat back down as the others filed out. "Do you need me?" Jolene asked.

  Sean shook his head. "Nah, I'll see you later."

  Jolene smiled, bent over to kiss him, then left the room, closing the door behind her.

  "What's up?" Bill asked first.

  "Phase two of the great round up," Sean said, then yawned again. "That's what."

  "Don't they let you sleep?" Chad teased.

  "No, they don't. Oh, and before I forget—no, we didn't steal that satellite from the CIA, we found it under a rock, finders keepers, and no we're not giving it back. But don't say anything until they get annoying," Sean said with a smirk, then immediately yawned again.

  "So it all worked out?" Chad asked.

  Sean nodded. "Cali and Peg are setting everything up as we speak."

  "So what's the big deal about getting a satellite?" Claudia asked. "I thought we'd just cleared up all our problems with that?"

  "The big deal," Sean said, smiling, "is that now we can look wherever we want to look—within reason of course—without anyone else knowing."

  "And that's important, why?" she asked slowly, giving him a curious look.

  "Okay, getting all the djevels rounded up into one area was phase one. Phase two is sending out teams to find all the ones we didn't catch, and eliminating them."

  "I thought phase two was to kill the ones in the DEZ?"

  "Actually, that's phase three," Chad said. "Look, we know where all those are, and as we get set up, we'll move in on them. It's going to be a big fight, and even if we were to kill them all next year, the ground isn't going to be safe for humans for at least a hundred years."

  "Why's that?"

  "Because djevels lay eggs and plant them," Sean said with a sigh. "That's going to be a no-go zone for a long, long time, so we're not exactly worried about anything more than containing them. Once we're sure we've got that covered, then we'll start seriously exterminating them.

  "But we really need to focus right now on finding the ones we've missed."

  "And why don't you want them knowing about that?" Claudia asked.

  Chad spoke up again. "Because we're worried we've missed a lot of them. Also, if our government's intelligence agencies are compromised, the last thing we need is for the groups we're locating to get warning that we're on to them."

  "Okay, so what's this meeting about?" Bill asked.

  "We need to put together another organization," Sean said, "for the teams out there trying to find the djevels we missed. This is secret, very secret. I'm going to let the Secret Service folks know, but only a few of them, and they're not going to get the full story. This isn't a political move, so I don't think they'll be a problem, because they're one of the few agencies that actively avoids such things. But we're only going to talk to them when we absolutely have to."

  "Okay, so where do we start?"

  "I don't know; I'm still thinking about it. I set up a meeting tomorrow at eight in the evening. I want all of you to be there. No humans; lycans only for now, and magic users. We may pull in some of the other races. We'll just have to see."

  "And where's this meeting going to be?"

  "Sawyer's."

  "Why there?" Vincent asked.

  "Because helping us with this will pretty much help him become king in his homeland," Sean said.

  "And that's good, why?"

  "Because I owe him. We all owe him. Plus, he's my friend."

  "And he's the sneakiest bastard on the whole damn planet," Chad said with a smirk. "If anyone is going to help us build and run a secret organization to hunt djevels, who better?"

  Bill nodded. "I see your point. Especially if Sawyer stands to gain from the whole affair. That'll wed him more solidly to us than any treaty or alliance."

  Sean nodded. "Very much so. Sure, he's doing it because I asked, but I always cut Sawyer in for a percentage of anything I do these days; that's how he knows I value him."

  "It sounds mercenary," Vincent said.

  Deidre shook her head. "In goblin society, you prove your friendship by sharing your profits and your good deals with your friends. It's one of the biggest acts of trust there is, to cut someone in, even when you don't have to. Taking advantage of such a gesture is seen as dishonorable, especially when it is made by someone of standing.

  "It may have escaped the attention of some of you, but Sawyer always does more for Sean than he would for anyone else. He always backs Sean, always bets on him. Why, he has even advanced Sean money—and that's all but unheard of from most goblins! In both goblin and dark elf society, Sawyer has become a paragon of honor. He is the first goblin ever to incur a debt owed to him by the lions, a debt they have acknowledged as fair."

  "Just remember, Sawyer is my friend," Sean said, looking around the table. "So if for any reason he should decide to prank you or cause you any other problems, either be civil with him about it, or come and ask for my help. Okay?"

  Everyone nodded.

  "Great. Now, I think I'm gonna go crash on the couch in my office for a couple of hours."

  Getting up, Sean left the room, leaving the others to look at each other.

  Vincent sighed. "I just wish he didn't hate magic users so much."

  "Oh, I'm sure it won't be all that bad," Chad said with a laugh.

  "No, you don't understand. Every time I have to meet with Sawyer, even if it's just being in the same room with him, I'm always missing something afterwards." Vincent sighed again and shook his head. "I have to send someone down to his shop and buy it back." Vincent looked around at all of them. "For a dollar."

  Chad snickered. "Why don't you just go there and buy it back yourself?"

  "I tried that, and when I left, I was missing something else."

  "Well, at least it's only a dollar!"

  Reassessing

  "So, they giving you grief over the satellite?" Sean asked Steve as he sat down in his local office. As the appointed governor of the Demon Exclusion Zone, and the person who was supposed to be overseeing Sean's efforts, Steve had a nice office in the same building in which the governor's office was located. He'd flown in this morning for one of his quarterly inspection and review tours.

  As Carson City was still the capital of Nevada, the governor had refused to move it, not wanting to look like he was afraid. It wasn't that long a drive from Sean's office on the base.

  Steve chuckled and shook his head. "I didn't steal it. So no, of course not! I think your willingness to let your new NSA rep have copies of the images calmed a few people down."

  "How pissed is Jill?"

  "At you? Interestingly enough, not at all. She's Homeland, after all, and the CIA was never under her umbrella. In fact, I think she's claiming you as a resource, as technically you are under her, and when she asks you for something, you give it to her."

  Sean snorted. "She's never asked me for anything, Steven."

  "Well, then, she's not lying, now is she?" Steve said, smiling. "But you may want to consider playing nice with her going forward. Surprisingly, she's realigned her department dramatically to focus on the djevel threats domestically, and she has a new liaison officer whose sole purpose is making sure Carl and the Secret Service are kept happy.

  "I think finding all the traitors in her office working with the djevels was a major wakeup call for her. She's got a contract with Duncan now for not only a magic user on staff, but for bi-monthly examination of all her staff. She's even paying to have the building equipped with permanent wards."

  "What about the CIA? What are they doing?"

  "Bitching to just about everyone who'll listen. The lawsuit that was launched by the traitors we saved? It got tossed out, so none of them are getting their jobs back."

  "Why did you even push for that, anyway?"

  "Because no one will find it suspicious that we've taken all of them in and given them jobs working under Sawyer's friend, running our new satellite division."

  "What about the lawsuit to force them to hire lycans?"

  "That one is still winding its way through the courts, but I'm fairly certain we're going to win. The new director of the CIA isn't putting up much of a fight. I think they're just going through the motions to satisfy whoever sits on their oversight committee. How much grief are you getting?"

  Sean smiled. "I refused to talk to anyone from the CIA for any reason, seeing as they're not allowed to concern themselves with domestic issues."

  "I'm surprised they didn't call the FBI."

  "They did."

  "Oh? What happened?"

  "Kensington knocked their dick in the dirt, as I'm both a lycan and a magic user, which means they're not allowed to deal with me. Only the Secret Service has that right."

  Steve laughed at that. "Oh, man, I wonder how long he's been carrying that grudge! So, what did Victor do?"

  "Apparently it got lost in the paperwork somewhere when he sent it to Carl. Terrible thing, a complete tragedy! But he's sure it'll turn up, right after they find the lost files on the Lincoln shooting!" Sean said, laughing as well. "According to Carl, Walker really pissed Vincent off, more than once, back when he was still alive. He's still carrying a grudge."

  "Nice to know."

  Sean nodded. "Now, let's get down to brass tacks. How much trouble did you get over that breakout two months back?"

  "None, and I could see there were people who were looking to bring it up, but you got that mess under control soon enough that there weren't any incidents they could go after you, or me, for. Plus your raid on the NSA, followed by Jill's raid on her own offices, then everyone else's, distracted enough attention that by the time they could try to make it an issue, it was last week's news."

  "So we got lucky," Sean said with a sigh.

  Steve leaned over the desk and whacked Sean on the head with the papers he was holding.

  "Hey! What was that for?"

  "You and I both know there's no luck involved in any of this. You did your job, you did it well, and then you went over and beyond to solve a problem no one even knew existed. Plus the First told me I'm allowed to smack you when you say something stupid."

  "Sure he did," Sean grumbled.

  Steve looked at him with an almost painfully wide smile on his face. "Oh, yeah? Care to make a little wager on that, Sean?"

  Sean held up his hands and leaned back in his seat. "Oh, hell's no! I know you too well to know when you're not bluffing. Plus that's just the kind of thing Dad'd do.

  "But that leads into the next item. I'm putting together teams to hunt djevels in North America, the ones we didn't catch up in the 'zone. I'm going to need a lot of help with that. I don't have access to the crime reports, and I don't have the trained staff, even if I did."

  "Have you talked to Vincent or Carl over at the Secret Service about this?"

  Sean shook his head. "Not yet. Oh, I dropped a few hints with Carl, but I want this out of the public eye as much as possible. The last thing we need is for the djevels to find out we're looking for them."

  "And there's enough political asshats out there that somebody would spill the beans from time to time, to guarantee fuckups, so we'll look bad."

  "Yeah, that, too. Might want to start a few rumors that I'll find a way to deal with anyone whose politicking causes people to die. I gotta draw a line somewhere, or you know for sure some idiot will figure as long as he or she gets reelected, they don't care how many people get killed."

  "Way ahead of you on that one!" Steve said, and then smiled. "Oh, by the way…"

  Sean sighed. "I know that tone of voice; how much is this going to cost me?"

  Steve smiled. "Five, maybe ten million."