Face had almost fallen asleep sitting against the wall, but he woke up as Kyle shouted over the intercom at some of his men. He did not sound happy, which made Face happy. Kyle had spent the last several hours bossing his men around and it sounded to Face as if they were preparing for an attack. Colonel's coming to get you, Kyle, Face thought.

Groaning with the pain of his bruises, he sat up and tried to stretch the cramp out of his legs and arms. Kyle spared him a glance then went back to tapping at his consoles. Seeing Kyle using the third hand too, Face had to fight down a wave of nausea.

"You know a normal person would have had that taken off," Face said, unable to keep the disgust he felt from showing up in his voice. Then he restrained it again, and adopted a more mocking tone. "But then what would you use to hold your beer when you're driving?"

"How'd you like to find out how hard I can punch you with it?"

The thought of it touching him really did make Face feel sick and he shut up. The fact Kyle could use the thing, just like a normal arm, was what really freaked Face out. Back on Venus, he'd seen plenty of the nanite-induced extra limbs. Generally, they were useless, just flopped limply and occasionally twitched with random, misfiring nerve impulses. However, Kyle seemed to have full control of his extra appendage and Face didn't want to think about what he did with it.

Kyle went on working, until his console buzzed with an incoming transmission. He groaned, and then made a face that suggested he had just gritted his teeth. When he flipped a switch, the large screen on the wall in front of him lit up with an image. Though "lit up" wasn't a good word. The image showed a deeply shadowed figure, its face invisible. The figure spoke, a man's voice.

"Mr Kyle, my latest arrival estimate is twenty six hours. Please be ready."

"Look," Kyle said. "I told you before, you should wait. I've got a situation to handle here first."

"I have other appointments to keep. You are already six weeks behind schedule and your delay in closing this matter has forced me to make this personal inspection. You would be advised not to cause me any further inconvenience."

Face suspected Kyle's palms, all three of them, were sweating. He looked at the shadowy man on screen. What's the point of that, he thought. What's the point of sending a video transmission and then hiding in the dark? Why not just send audio only? Grandstanding, that's what it came down to. To being in love with his own sneakiness. Revelling in it. This guy probably owned a cloak and a dagger.

And he arrived tomorrow and Kyle didn't seem ready to welcome him with open arms.

The transmission cut off and Kyle swore colourfully for a while. When he finally paused for breath Face smirked, enjoying Kyle's discomfiture very much indeed.

"So, time to get out the good china then, Dougie?"

-o-O-o-

Hannibal had been bluffing the crap out of Leto for only five minutes when the office door opened and Maggie Sullivan and Caithlin Warner came in. The two women held the hands of a small girl, Caithlin and Matthew's daughter, Lily.

"Colonel," Caithlin said, looking around. "Where's Ted?"

"Morning," Hannibal said, walking away from the cell. He'd lit up a cigar a few moments before, took it out now. "The sheriff is questioning Joy right now."

"Oh." She frowned. "Well can you tell him I've called an emergency council meeting, please? Matthew has gone out in the bus to collect the rest of the..." She trailed off, staring past Hannibal, at Leto. "What the... That's... Where did he come from?"

"We just found out." Hannibal jerked his thumb back at Leto, not looking. "This Leto guy's been impersonating Face, using a Pseudo suit."

Maggie and Caithlin both gasped and stared at Leto. Caithlin recovered first and turned back to Hannibal.

"Then where's Face?"

"Missing," Hannibal said, hating the word, the uncertainty in it. "We assume Kyle has him as a prisoner back at his base."

"I..." Maggie shook her head, still amazed, disbelieving. "He was... How long?"

"Wait, does this mean he sent the message to Kyle?" Caithlin sounded hopeful. "The one from Joy's workshop? She's innocent?"

"Sorry." Hannibal shook his head. "It looks like Face wasn't replaced until we went to the power plant. I'm afraid this doesn't clear Joy."

"Damn," Caithlin muttered, then glanced guiltily at Lily. However, the girl hadn't noticed the swear word, too busy staring wide eyed at the top of the bookcase, where Duchess still paced.

"Mommy!" Lily pulled Caithlin's hand and pointed, sounding awestruck. "Look! Kitty!"

Hannibal smiled. The child had probably never seen a real cat in her life.

"Yes, honey," Caithlin said, sounding distracted. "It's a kitty."

Lily pulled away from her mother and ran to the bookcase to get a closer look.

"Best keep her away from it," Hannibal advised. "It's a little annoyed." The cat had established a perimeter now, by lashing out at anyone who came too close. BA came and picked the girl up, so she could see the cat, but he kept her at a safe distance from it.

"Right," Caithlin folded her arms. "What now, Colonel?" She scowled at Leto. "Will he tell you where Kyle's base is?"

"Oh yes," Hannibal said. "Eventually he'll tell us."

"Don't lay money on that, ladies!" Leto shouted.

"We've got the data from Seth Calvin though," Hannibal said. "Murdock managed to get it back here, even though Kyle tried to kill him and Calvin to stop him. That makes me pretty sure that data is what will give us what we need."

"Kyle tried to kill them?" Caithlin asked. She looked as if she couldn't take much more of this in. "My god! Are they okay?" Maggie turned to Hannibal too. She'd still been staring at Leto. He thought she looked like she wanted to be sick as she suddenly turned and walked over to sit down heavily at Ted's desk. Neither of them could deal with it, Hannibal thought. People missing, people almost killed. None of that is meant to happen in this little village that they call a city.

"Colonel?" Caithlin made him turn back, away from Maggie. "Are they okay?"

"Thanks to Murdock, yeah. They're analysing the data now." He shook his head, and put his cigar back in his mouth, chomped on it. "But that will take several hours."

"Hours?" Caithlin bit her lip. "There's no way to get the location faster?" She scowled at Leto. "Maybe we can offer him some kind of deal?"

"A deal?" The idea sickened Hannibal. "Yeah, I'll make him a deal. He tells me what I want to hear and I don't beat the crap out of him."

She scowled. "I don't like offering him something any more than you do, Colonel, but we have to be practical."

"Yeah, you rear echelon types were always so very practical."

He regretted his words at once, the bitter tone, and knew they were born of frustration and she didn't deserve to be the target of it. But before he could apologise she snapped back at him.

"You think because I was never up to my knees in blood I don't know anything about war, Colonel? I compiled casualty lists. You think they weren't written in blood?"

"It's not the same and you know it." Hannibal didn't want to argue, but couldn't help it. The anger boiled up. "You didn't see them die."

"No," she pushed her hair back over her ear with a shaking hand. "I just had to compile the lists and find the names of my friends there." Her voice rose. "I just had to compile the lists and dread every day that I'd find Matthew's name there!"

"Caithlin," Maggie said, in a quiet voice. "You're upsetting Lily."

Hannibal turned to see the girl snuggling tight into BA's arms, a scared look on her face. When Hannibal turned back, Caithlin walked past him and took Lily from BA.

"Sorry, honey," Caithlin's voice shook. "I'm sorry." She didn't say anything to anyone else, just walked out of the office carrying her daughter. Hannibal watched her go. She came out here and she believed it could be a peaceful place, he thought. A place she could just be a mother and a wife and a teacher. She even became mayor and brought in her anti-gun law to try to make the war nothing but a memory. But Kyle came. And then we came. The war followed her even out here.

Not the same, he still believed. Not the same as combat. But if she didn't see the blood, she saw the numbers. She saw the scale, the waste. Not the same, but he couldn't in good conscience claim that meant it had been easy.

Turning back to the cells, he regarded Leto. Perhaps they could try a practical approach. Leto smirked as Hannibal approached.

"Crazy bitch, huh?"

Hannibal reached into the cell and grabbed Leto, pulled him forward hard enough to make him curse as he crashed into the bars. On the other hand, the 'beating the crap out of him' approach had its attractions. But after a second, he regained control and let the struggling thug go.

"Is there?" Hannibal asked, gritting his teeth. "Is there something we can offer you in return for your information?"

Leto grinned horribly. "You know, that journalist chick? Amy? You give me a couple of hours with her and I'll switch sides altogether."

BA seemed to arrive at the cell door without actually travelling through the intervening space. One second he'd been standing beside the sheriff's desk, the next he stood at the cell door, grabbing Leto. Leto smashed into the bars for the second time in under a minute.

"You lucky there's a lady here," BA growled. "Else I'd pull you out through these bars and break every bone in your body."

"Whoa, man, what is she, your sister?" Leto struggled to get free of BA. "The Colonel asked, didn't he? Just 'cause Kyle's getting some, he forgets... Ow! Okay, okay, shutting up now!"

BA's words about there being a lady here reminded Hannibal that Maggie still sat at Ted's desk. He looked over and saw she had her head in her hands and realised with a shock that she was crying.

"Maggie?" He moved over to stand beside her. "You okay?" He guessed Caithlin's words had stirred up old memories best forgotten.

Maggie looked up at him. "Isn't there anywhere? Anywhere I can get away?"

Hannibal glanced over at BA, who looked away quickly. No help from there, then, Hannibal thought. The sight of her tears made him feel helpless. Action. That's what he needed.

"Maggie, let me take you home." Hannibal offered her his hand. "Come home and get yourself, um, fixed up."

She looked up at him, and then wiped her sleeve across her eyes.

"I... I'm sorry, John," she said in a shaking voice. "It's just all of this, Face missing, Murdock and Calvin almost killed. It's... well it's the war isn't it? It's what I came here to get away from. But now..."

"I know," Hannibal said, making his voice as gentle as he could. He glanced back at the cell, not wanting Leto to see her like this. "Come on, Maggie. Let me take you home."

She looked at him again and after a moment she took the hand he offered.

"Thank you, John. I... I'm sure I'll be okay in a minute."

Hannibal wasn't so sure about that.

They left the office and walked down the street, arm in arm. She stayed quiet, tears still running down her face.

If she'd asked, he would have left Maggie at her door. But only if she'd asked. She didn't. When she unlocked her door and stepped inside, Hannibal followed, needing to make sure she'd be okay. The room they went into was dim, but she didn't move to turn on the light. Instead, she moved close to him and put her arms around his waist, rested her head on his chest. Hannibal wrapped his arms around her, as he'd wanted to moments ago in the sheriff's office, and in fact, every moment since he'd met her.

"It's okay," he said softly. "We'll get Face back safe. Murdock and Mr Calvin are okay. Nobody got killed. Nobody is going to get killed." His voice grew still quieter and he bent to speak close to her ear. "It's not the war, Maggie. The war is over."

She turned her face up to his. "It's never over, John. You know that. You just saw that."

Then she kissed him. Not a peck on the cheek this time. This kiss came with hunger and desperation in it. He had to respond, held her tighter, felt heat rising inside him.

Not now, his brain tried to say. There's too much to do, there's no time for this. I have to find that base. I have to get Face back. And she's not herself. She's upset, vulnerable. There are rules. All of that added up to 'not now'.

Her hand stroked down his neck, fingertip touch, so soft. The touch of her gentle, skilled hands sent a thrill of desire through him.

Not now became right now.