23 yawned. Valdoon glanced over from the van controls, "Getting tired?"

The slighter man grimaced, "My eyes are going fuzzy from trying to pick out dots on the screen."

Doctor Helding looked up from the Medical Journal she was editing, "We're almost at the end of this shift. I could take a turn at the Scanners if you want."

"No. Calm down, folks; it was just a yawn." 23 and Major Seale traded an amused glance. Turning back to his station, 23 changed the subject, "Colonel, could we detour out closer to Pie C-5?"

"Umm." Colonel Valdoon looked at his readouts on the van and the satellite map they coordinated from. "If we head straight back from there and cover the rest of B-4 tomorrow, yes. But why, 23? Did you get something on the Scan?" He knew, even as he spoke, that the Lieutenant-Colonel would have said something immediately if the scanners had picked anything up.

23 shook his head and changed a few screens. "Nothing definite. But I didn't see the Niner Pack in their usual place. C-5 is inside their territory and I just wanted to see if they moved."

Valdoon nodded, "Good idea. Seale, tell the troop transport."

The Major relayed the message and the vans changed direction.

23 was muttering to himself as he poured over his scanners. "There's the Niner Pack. But where's the redder tag? Fan out the scans. East? No, South. There's the rest of them!" He looked closer at the readings, "Colonel! There's a group of them at the Sutter Cabin. Not the full Pack."

Colonel Valdoon looked at the data 23 had transferred to his controls, "Only a few tags, but I don't like the looks of the deployment." He altered the vehicle's direction and speeded up.

"Island City HQ, this is HL-1. We have possible Recessive aggression of Refugees."

"Acknowledged, what is your plan?"

"We're going in. ETA, three minutes, 10 seconds."

"Acknowledged, HL-1. Good Luck."

The vans pulled up near the cabin. There was no sign of movement, but that was not unusual. The Recessives would have scattered. The troops spread out from their transport with cautious deployment. Valdoon came out of the command vehicle and snapped his Eyecam into place.

"Talk to me, 23."

Inside the van, the Lieutenant-Colonel didn't pause as he analyzed the readings of 12 people and sorted their individual Eyecam pictures. Keeping the LOS scans on the main screen, and deciphering what Colonel Valdoon was requesting with the knowledge of years of aquaintence, 23 responded, "I got you, Colonel. I'm reading one tagged Rec inside and two outside." He mentally pulled out the important statistic that was missing, "O-layer disruption is zero, so I'm betting on no firearms."

Dr. Helding watched over his shoulder and paid particular attention to the vital signs and medical readings of the troops.

Major Seale moved up next to Colonel Valdoon as they walked towards the cabin, trank gun at the ready. He looked at the dingy building and muttered, "Is it me, or did we just rescue a family from this same house?"

Valdoon shrugged, "One family moves out, another group discovers it."

"Maybe we should put in a hotline with a note: New tenants call HazLib One for all your rescue needs."

Allowing himself a grim smile at the suggestion, Valdoon motioned to his Weapons' Officer, "Seale, take Morrissey -- handle the inside."

"Right, Colonel." The Major waved at Morrissey and they moved in alternating cover positions around the house. Seale went inside the front door while Morrissey proceeded around.

Valdoon issued a general reminder to his unit, "All personnel: Use Tranquilizers only." Replies came back, acknowledging the command.

They moved about the building, encountering only a few Recessives, who were promptly tranquilized. Corporal Bower found the body of a young man, Refugee by the clothing. There was no doubt about his being dead, and Colonel Valdoon refused to let Dr. Helding come out of the van to check for herself. The blood around it was fresh, and Valdoon cursed himself for bad timing. If they'd only gotten there sooner... He sent Corporal Bower back to the transport for a body bag.

Colonel Valdoon paused midstep as he focused on his communicator. Major Seale and Lieutenant Morrissey were talking to each other... They’d encountered Recs. Valdoon started towards the cabin, but stopped as Seale yelled, "Watch the woman!" The Colonel waited until the voices had calmed down, then activated his own comset, "Morrissey, Seale. Report."

Seale's voice came through, "Colonel, we have a hostage situation. Two Recs holding a woman. We got one of them, the other is heading your way."

23 relayed the report to the rest of the units and all the troops were alert and ready when the Rec came around the corner with the woman held in front of him.

Dr. Helding froze one of the eyecam screens and studied the blood on the side of the woman's head. 23 made no protest, knowing that she needed to see it, even though his cover of the group was now effectively cut in third. He paid more attention to the hard data to compensate for the lack of visual input.

In the cabin, Major Seale rose from checking the stunned Recessive. The one with the hostage had moved outside, but Morrissey was handling that. Seale moved carefully to the outer door. Morrissey had planned to cover it, but the hostage situation had forced them out of position, and he was on the side of the house. Seale opened the door a crack, then it was jerked out of his hands and a Rec reached for him. With instinctive reactions, the Major stunned the Rec, but he was so close the edge of the nimbus caught him as well. The Recessive fell and rolled on the corner of the porch. Seale dropped to one knee as fuzzy sparks flashed in his eyes. A whimpered scream sounded from below him. The incongruity brought him back to brief awareness and he looked down at the porch. When the Recessive had rolled to the corner, the opposite edge of the porch had lifted up. He started to get up, but sank back down and waited for a moment for his vision to clear.

Taking careful aim with his tranquilizer, the Colonel shot the Recessive, avoiding the woman. She was caught by the nimbus, of course, but in the Colonel's experience, a trank nimbus was preferable to being dragged around as a hostage. He moved forward to catch her as she fell.

Dr. Helding waited with her kit for permission to come out. As the medical officer, she was considered non-expendable personnel and only when the Commander gave a clear code, could she start treatments. It was frustrating, but understandable considering some of the situations they had been in. A few moments after Valdoon had lowered the woman to the ground he called her out. She moved quickly and hooked a portable diagnostic on the woman while examining her visually as well. The head wound was narrow, but deep. There was probable neck and spinal trauma. Dehydration was evident, and shock had set in. The diagnostic read faltering brain-waves.

Looking up at Colonel Valdoon, the doctor gave her verdict, "We have to get her back as soon as possible. At the best, she's falling into a coma and our trauma set can't handle the extremes of condition she's in."

Major Seale lifted up the edge of the porch. He was looking into a deep, dark pit. The darkness daunted his vision and the eyecam was in his way. He switched it off and spoke softly, "Is anyone down there? It's okay, I'm a friend." He heard only rapid breathing. Sighing, he looked for a prop and found a wooden board that looked right. He stuck it upright between the porch and the ground and slid into the pit. Scrambling noises indicated the people in the pit were moving back from him. Once his vision adjusted to the darkness, he saw two young girls huddled in the furthest corner from him. Crouching down to their level, he spoke again, "It's okay. We're here to help you. I won't hurt you, I promise." The two girls traded looks, then one moved forward and hesitantly touched his hand.

When he'd calmed them down, he straightened up and started to climb out of the pit. Just as his head cleared the top, the board that was propping the porch up slipped and the porch fell heavily upon him. He slid back into the pit with a groan. One of the girls had the audacity to giggle at him. Looking up at the cracks of light, he had to admit it probably was funny and also laughed. "We'll wait here for a moment."

After Dr. Helding went out, 23 put his controls back to continuous eyecam scans. Frowning, he noticed that Andy Seale's was off. He tuned his microphone to Seale's frequency to ask him to turn it back on, when the Major's icon vanished from all his readouts.

Frantically, 23 adjusted circuits and called in vain, "Seale? Seale? Andy!!"

There was no answer. Scrolling all the eyecams, 23 searched for visual sight of his friend. Major Seale didn’t show up on any of them. Through his audio relays, he heard Dr. Helding’s pronouncement of the medical condition of the woman. The Colonel’s voice came through, "Okay, folks. Load up. I want the healthiest Rec for tagging."

Then Colonel Valdoon came through the door of the van, helping Dr. Helding carry the patient in.

23 turned from his panels, "Colonel, we can’t leave yet. Andy’s missing."

Valdoon looked up in shock, "What?"

"His icon just vanished from the tracking screen. I can't make voice contact, and I can't see him on any of the eyecams." 23 sorted through all his readouts again, looking for anything.

Colonel Valdoon moved back outside and beckoned to one of the troop, "Morrissey." The tall Lieutenant came over, and Valdoon continued, "Wasn't Seale with you?"

Morrissey had heard 23's pronouncement through his headset and was worried. He shook his head, unable to give any reassurance, "We took opposite flanks, sir."

Valdoon's frown grew deeper. "Take Telasner and check the house."

"Will do, sir." Morrissey motioned to Telasner, who was already heading to them, having heard her name. They moved together into the house.

The Colonel scanned the area around. His troops were all where they were suppose to be -- except for Seale. He glanced at the two that were struggling to load a large Recessive in the main car. Dr. Helding was supervising, making sure the Rec was healthy and didn't already have a tag.

23 ran the diagnostics again. Clear. He was frustrated and worried. The tracking systems were his own, and this was the first time since the trials that a serious problem had come up. And what could have happened to Andy anyhow? The Major was his best friend in the RCF, and an incredibly competent HazLib soldier. "Blast!" 23 pulled out the readouts to just before the icon disappeared. There had been a slight jump in the health readings, but they'd settled back to normal at the last point of contact. He couldn't get an eyecam playback -- the recordings were kept in the individual chips, not the main van, to cut down on transmitter and feedback interference. A good idea initially, but 23 vowed he'd change it when he got back. Just after they found Andy.

The Rec was brought inside. 23 spared him a glance, and did a double-take. Huh. That's the Niner's Pack Leader! Wonder if they'll take him back after he's tagged. 23's attention was reclaimed by a frantic beeping in his headset. He looked at the readouts and swore. He activated Valdoon's voice circuit, "Colonel, we've got another problem. Due North." 23 tuned to the Colonel's eyecam to see if the readings were accurate.

Valdoon looked in the direction 23 had indicated, what now? The sunlight was creating a glare. Squinting, he focused on the top of the hill. His mouth didn't quite drop open as he saw a whole line of Recessives come over, with more behind them. Several had firearms, and were using them, despite being just out of range. That's a full Pack!

Morrissey came up to him just then, "No sign of Seale, sir."

The Colonel frowned and glanced behind him to Telasner. He addressed his question to both of them, "Did you look behind the house?"

Morrissey and Telasner shook their heads in response to the real question of 'Did you find him?' The Lieutenant answered to the verbal question, "We looked everywhere."

Dr. Helding poked her head out of the door to the van, "I've got to get that women out of here now, her condition is deteriorating."

23 was right behind her, "We can not just leave Andy!"

Valdoon's inclination was to side with 23, but he looked at the Recessives moving in. The bullets were now ricochetting off the troop transport. Far too many for eight people! Not including 23 and the Doctor. Biting his lip, Valdoon looked towards the house again, hoping to see the Major come out. He shook his head. "We don't have a choice."

There was a brief silence around him, and Valdoon frowned, "Load up. Move out."

Morrissey and Telasner darted into the transport. Dr. Helding shoved 23 further back in the van, as Colonel Valdoon climbed in. 23 was still shaking his head in protest. Valdoon glared at him, not without sympathy, but with command. 23 moved back to his station and silently put the satellite-coordinate-relay-system online.

Moving to the front, Valdoon glanced at the empty seat where Major Seale normally sat. He bit his lip again as he drove the van out of the area. Bullets were pinging off the sides of both vehicles now. The Recs were gathering around the cabin, not trying to stop the Haz Lib team, but rather, driving them off.

Valdoon said quietly, "If we couldn't find him, the Recs probably can't either."

Dr. Helding looked up and opened her mouth to remind him about the amplified senses that the Recessives had. She closed it without saying anything. The three of them were all Command Personnel. Tom and 23 knew Recessive traits only too well.

23 snorted silently at the Colonel's remark, but he also said nothing. If the Colonel wanted to try and be reassuring, 23 wasn't going to stop him. But he wanted to know what had happened. 23 stood up and stumbled as the van rolled over a bump. He fell to one knee, but waved off Dr. Helding's helping hand. More carefully, he stood up again and moved to the front. "Tom, give me your headset."

Colonel Valdoon glanced briefly at him, then returned his attention to the controls. At the next smooth patch of road, he freed a hand to take off his headset. Handing it to the Lieutenant-Colonel, he asked, "Do you think it could have been a faulty beacon?"

The details of the electronic parts were already going through 23's mind. "I'll check it out. But the icon wasn't the only thing to vanish."

"Umm. Right." Valdoon put up a topical map on a side-screen next to the front view, glancing at it between looks at the road. Zeroing in on the house, he studied the surrounding area. "23, how long were we out there?"

23 slipped wearily into Andy's seat, examining the headset, but glancing at the map. "Not that long."

"I need a number, 23." Valdoon thought about what he'd just said. "Sorry."

"Huh?" 23 was activating the computer and calling up information. "Oh." He grinned at the Colonel's self-consciousness, "Never mind, Tom. When you have a number for a name, you get use to word-confusion like that. Total time from when we stopped the vans to when we left again was twenty-one minutes. Time from when Andy's icon vanished inside the house to when Sargeant Morrissey reported back was less than seven."

"Seven minutes?" Valdoon frowned at the map. "Where can a person disappear to in seven minutes? You sure he was in the house at the last reading?"

"In the house, or just outside it -- next to the back door. He had his eyecam off, and I was just about to tell him to turn it on when all the readings went blank."

Dr. Helding looked up, "He had his eyecam off? What was he looking at before that?"

"Umm." 23 glanced back at her, then to the unconscious patient. "I don't know, we were concentrating on the lady." He diplomatically used the ‘we’, even though inside he wanted to snap. But he’d made no objections at the time when Doc used his scans, and he wasn’t going to make it a case now.

"Two Recs... We need more information." The road was now pretty smooth, and Valdoon put the van on automatic while he worked with the map. He placed an 'X' at the back door of the cabin, and started evaluating routes straight out the back. Directly behind the house on the West, and circling around slightly on the South, was a large dirt mound. To get around it, a person would have encountered the RCF personnel stationed on the sides of the house. Colonel Valdoon connected the vans' communicators. "Lieutenant Morrissey, I'm putting a map of the area through. Mark on it your route around the house the first time, and where Seale was suppose to be."

There were noises of movement in the transport van as people rearranged to let Morrissey have the seat next to the driver, with the computer controls. Lines started appearing on the map and Morrissey reported, "I went around the outside here, while the Major went inside. He spooked two Recessives inside that were holding the hostage -- his report."

23 nodded in confirmation, he had the transcripts of Seale's original report out and was reviewing them.

Morrissey was still talking, "He tranked one of them, the other moved out the door with the hostage. When he saw me, he moved in your direction. I followed him. As far as I know, Major Seale was still in the house."

"23?"

The Lieutenant-Colonel put up the time next to the 'X' mark. At the front of the house, he also put the time when Morrissey had received his orders to check the house again. Morrissey traced his route that time in a different color, and Telasner put hers in as well. Between the two of them, they'd covered all of the house, and all of the points in the back of the house and to the North that Valdoon had marked as possible hiding areas.

"Humph. So much for that. Seven minutes. I suppose he could have gone over the dirt mounds."

23 looked at it, then shook his head. Silently, he pulled up his tracks of when the 'Niner Pack had come in. Most had come from the North, but some had circled in on the West side. The grotto beyond the dirt mounds was a concentrated area of tags. Outloud, 23 added, "Bacraft was watching that perimeter. His eyecam will show if Andy went up that direction."

In the troop transport, there was more sounds of movement, then a readout at 23's station lit up, as the chip from Bacraft's eyecam was activated. 23 moved back to his station and scrolled through it. "Nothing."

"Well, bloody hell. He can't have just vanished!" Valdoon tapped his fingers on the side of the driving wheel.

"You have--" 23 bit off the rest of his remark.

Valdoon answered him anyhow, with a slight grin, "No, I don't have a better explanation. Any of you?"

There was a general silence from the troop transport. Telasner was the first to speak up, "If the Recessives had gotten to him, we would have found traces. The Recs aren't neat. We found nothing."

"They take hostages." One of the privates spoke up.

"Rarely."

"And the Major was too good to let that happen to him."

"Corporal, it can happen to anyone."

"Without a sound over the comsets?"

The troops talked it out, while Valdoon and 23 listened. They didn't say much themselves, but the Colonel coordinated the ideas and noted any that sounded even semi-plausible for later follow-up.

23 had finished taking the headset apart and was checking all the relays, trying to figure out a way all the relay circuits could go dead at the same time. As they were approaching Island City after an hour of straight driving, 23 put the headset back together and handed back to the Colonel.

Valdoon raised an eyebrow at him.

23 raised one hand and knuckled his forehead wearily, "As far as I can tell, it's impossible." He sighed, "I'll try again on the rest of the headsets. Maybe there's something different about production on them."

"Mine's the command headset, would that have made a difference?"

"Not really. But that's why I'll check the others."

... ... ...