[JEH Building, 12:10PM]

> "Were you listening in on my conversation?"

> "Who us?" Leo asked innocently.

> "Yeah, you. Anyway, we're going to the Big Apple. Apparently a subway
>worker was mauled to death by something. We're supposed to find out
>what."

>"What about Vanessa?" Zenya asked, glancing at the empty desk.

>"I'll give her a call to meet us in New York." Jordan said. "We'll meet at
>Dulles in about 2 hours. Jenny should have us booked by then."

As Martin left the office, he noticed the door to Delta’s office across the hall was open and immediately recalled the e-mail he had recently received. Although the mission in Montana was over, there were still a lot of unanswered questions. Exactly who was conducting the experiments? How had it worked? And just what sort of information was Agent Calloway supposed to have?

Martin looked through the open doorway and knocked on the door frame.

Kate looked up from her computer screen and the report she was still struggling over. Explaining the damage to one of the rental cars hadn’t been too much of a problem, but the questions it raised about the conduct of the team at the time were a bit trickier, and the explanation that they had all been under the influence of some mysterious gas bomb at the time sounded somewhat incredible - certainly not the most incredible thing to come out of the division, she was sure, but still it needed to be worded carefully. And she didn’t even want to think about the portion of the report dealing with the near plane crash. At least they hadn’t blown up a plane, as Zulu had. She would hate to be in Agent Stern’s place just now, she thought.

"Agent Reed, come in. What can I do for you," Kate said. She pointed to a chair in the corner. Martin pulled it closer to the desk and sat down.

"I’m not sure. Do the names Crucifix Games or The Group mean anything to you?"

Kate’s eyes widened slightly at that. "The Group does. The information I have comes from an informant. I don’t know how reputable he is, although he certainly seemed to know what he was talking about. The Group apparently is involved in conducting covert experiments of one sort or another. The one I’m aware of involved mind control of some kind."

Martin nodded. "What have you heard about the case Zulu just got back from?"

"Besides the plane," Kate asked with a grin.

"Besides the plane."

"Not much."

"Four apparently normal teenagers turned homicidal as a result of a combination of triggers. An online role-playing game, and something to do with cows."

Kate was about to laugh at that idea, until she thought of Charlie. Dogs, cows, was the use of one any stranger than the other? "The.. uh, shall we say test subjects.. had they experienced an abduction?"

"Alien," Martin asked.

Kate shook her head. "No. Had they been missing for a period of time prior to committing the murders?"

"Not that we know of. It was a small town and I’m sure if they had been we would have heard about it."

Relieved in a way to hear that, but still struck by the similarities, Kate frowned. "Well," she said, dismissing that thought, "all I can really tell you is that a company called Cross Industries actually conducts most of the experiments that The Group is in charge of." She saw recognition on Martin’s face. "You’ve heard of it."

"Oh, yes." He rambled of a partial list of the hell the Crosses had put Zulu through, and with every example, Kate became more and more alarmed. That the Crosses would want revenge on the team was at least understandable, but their revenge had extended to the friends and family of the team members.

Shortly after, Martin excused himself, saying that he had to get to the airport, and Kate went back to working on the report


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