DAY TWENTYNINE 6:33AM

Anger Management

Logollos slammed his fist into the the armrest of the seat of the private plane. Making two men look up at him.

He had just gotten off the phone and things had just taken some drastic turns. Turns he hadn't anticipated. Turns that could mean big trouble for him.

DAY TWENTYNINE 6:21AM

Knight & Rook

They had come into his apartment. Six men, all in black, all faces covered. They had dragged him out of bed, tied him up like a pig and gagged him. 

Simon lay on the floor and he could hear them going through his house. Taking everything that was paper and discs. Including his DVDs and CDs. Everything was being scooped up.

He knew that they were professional because they didn't talk. They knew the score, these men were top-shelf.

LEGACY. He knew that it had to be them. Because they stank of a death-squad. He cursed to himself; he knew that he had failed. 

Then he heard the sound of the front window smashing and someone said, "Cube!"

DAY TWENTYNINE 5:53AM

Same Old Same Old  

"Are you seriously stopping for coffee?" Suki asked with a grin. 

"Well, we'll go through the drive-thru," Scorpio answered, mirroring her smile. "What can I say? You've taught me well." 

He rolled down the window, placed the order, pulled up, exchanged the coins for the drinks. He was beginning to understand it, why the rituals were so important when things changed so much. 

"What should I be expecting from the day?" he asked once they were back en route. 

Suki sipped her coffee. "Besides the ultra-violence? We just have to save the world, that's all." 

Scorpio nodded. "Then maybe I should take the time now to say thank you."

DAY TWENTYNINE 5:24AM

Left Behind

Father Donnelly awoke to the sound of a car pulling away. His first reaction was panic, he sat up and looked around. 

"Mother?" the words slipped over his lips. Of course Mother wouldn't be here, she would be with the others...

Gone. It was strange; he could remember the fire happening years ago... but the ache was as fresh as if it had just happened.

He noticed a sheet of paper on the pillowcase beside him, and reached over and read the message  Suki had written: 

Father,
The hour is at hand where we must follow different paths. You need to go where you are most needed, for where I am going it will go against the grain of everything you have lived for.
Please, I hope you understand this decision. The chalet needs someone there for guidance, and you are their beacon. And when things shift again (and believe me there is going to be one hell of shift) the flock needs a shepherd.
When all is said and done, hopefully we shall meet and have a coffee or maybe a dance or two.
Suki

DAY TWENTYNINE 5:17AM

Saves Nine

Scorpio caught the keys from the air. "You're letting me drive?" 

Suki smiled and opened the passenger door. Scorpio got in the driver's eat and adjusted the mirrors. "So how did she get your number?"

"Max left them some files. There was a phone-list in them. Apparently mine was the third number on it." 

Scorpio started the car. He wondered who the first two were, and if they had answered, and if they had then what they had said... But he didn't ask. Suki had been in a strange mood since what happened after the niteclub.

She continued. "The files had info on LEGACY operations. These detectives probably know more about your former employers than you do." 

Scorpio pulled out of the motel parking lot. "And they're going to meet up with us then? And then what?"

Suki watched the sky lightening in the distance. "Well, for starters we find out whether you're really onside or have been playing me this whole time..."

DAY TWENTYNINE 4:49AM

Like Glitches Through Time

Suki stepped out of the shower to answer the cellphone as soon as it rang. Not bothering to dry off, she didn't even give the phone a chance to ring a second time. 

"Ms. Fujimoria?" a female asked at the other end.

"Suki," she replied. 

"You don't know me but I think we have a common interest here," the woman on the other end said. "We have a mutual friend."

Suki walked from the bathroom and into the motel room. Past the single bed with the clothes she had lain out for today. A white blouse, a long black thin tie and a plaid-like skirt. All the shirt was was missing was the name of a school on the upper right side. 

"Have you seen Max?" Suki asked.

"No," said Riveta. "But he brought us into the game."

DAY TWENTYNINE 4:12AM

Return Trip Ticket 

"I would hug you if there weren't so many tubes sticking out of you," Riveta said. Her sarcasm was betrayed by the smile shining on her face. 

Stone smiled back. "They won't be for long..." He held her gaze for a moment, and she understood. Partner telepathy. Stone, despite his condition, wasn't planning on still being in the hospital come sunrise.

"You're planning on going back, aren't you?" she asked. 

"Are you planning on stopping me?"

Riveta took his hand in hers. "No. Coming with you."

DAY TWENTYNINE 2:13AM

Polarities

Suki inhaled the cold night air. The sweat chilled on her body. 

Donnelly smiled. "You know that was actually really fun." Scorpio had a tipsy smirk on his face. At least three women had asked for his phone number inside. He patted Donnelly on the shoulder. Donnelly returned the gesture, then looked over to Suki. She was already heading to the parking lot.

"Are you alright to drive?" he asked. He and Scorpio had both had a few drinks. He wasn't sure if Suki had. 

Scorpio checked his watch. "Man, we were in there for hours."

Suki turned back to face the reverend. She looked serious. "Father... Do you remember Mayganne?" 

Donnelly paused. His mind went suddenly quiet. "Of course, young Mayganne..." Suki watched him closely. Something inside the reverend changed, like an eclipse. And he remembered. "Oh god, the poor girl... The fire..." Tears flooded his eyes. "Oh dear Lord, all of them... In the fire..."

He stumbled. Scorpio caught him. Donnelly suddenly looked old and frail. 

"How could I forget?" his voice was high and strained. "Dear God.. Hank and Susanna... Amber, Janice... Jo and Milligan. They're all dead."

Suki moved closer to him. She glanced at Scorpio; he looked sad. "I'm sorry, Father," she said. He was sobbing now. She gently reached up and tilted his face towards hers. "Father... Do you remember Max?" 

Donnelly looked confused. Trying to tread water in a tsunami. "I don't... I'm sorry... Oh God..." And he was crying again.

Suki helped Scorpio lead him to a bench. He slumped down, broken by sorrow; he didn't react when Suki fished the handgun out of his coat pocket. She tucked it in her waistband. 

Scorpio looked at her. His voice quiet. "So it worked."

DAY TWENTYNINE 1:55AM

Kaleidoscope 

Max tried to lose himself into the music. His body felt sore and aching, he couldn't risk the dance-floor. He tried to just listen, to watch, the swirl and flux of people. Ever since the chalet. Everything had sharp edges. Her arm was moving like smoke, he tried to read it, she was gone, three other dancers swirling into the space. Max blinked or the lights strobed. The bass thumped or his heart beat. Something had happened. Driving up the laneway, the trees surrounding him. Leaves like voices, clustered and brushing against each other, voices at the bar beside him. Drink orders, pickup lines. Branches trying to reach out and entangle, over decades. The music crescendoed, arms thrown up in the air, the crowd like coral, he had made his decision. 

To risk it, she was deciding whether to give the guy her phone number, he was deciding whether to ask the other guy out, he had decided to risk it. Hoping, hoping, hoping she looked good tonight, she would meet someone new, hoping he would get that promotion, hoping he had made it to the chalet in time. He knew that ops had timetables, the DJ worked the turntables. He knew that he had a window, jewelry flashing in the technocolour lights like broken rainbows. The bodies moved through the music like trees in a windstorm, driving up the lane ready to risk the infection moving through him into her, or to find it was too late, the song changing up the tempo mixing down, samples playing hide and seek in the beat. To maybe find her changed already, the world changed, always changing, dancers finding the melody, the rhythym, trying always to find the way through the worlds.

Or maybe she would be gone, already too late, but the enemy was on the horizon, chopper blades like crows' wings, like scythes ready for harvest. So Max into the risk, standing at the bar, music and lights spinning together, and the strange pulse in him, that had started the other day, as he was driving up the lane, like a signal, like an injection. The crows cawing behind him. The crowd cheering. Max was coming to save the day, Max was coming to end the world, Max standing at the bar. The Crystal Method on the speakers, 'This transmission is coming to you', mixed with the KLF, 'What time is love?'. And he pulled up to the chalet. To save her or kill her. 

He took a drink. He could see faces he knew at the windows, among the trees, old faces, lost faces. Dragons in the crowd, dancing, couldn't be, couldn't be her. She was long gone. And they were all gone. They were all gone. He knew they were just there, but now they were gone. He pushed away from the bar, towards the dance-floor, trying to reach her, moving slow like a branch growing, but she was already gone. Couldn't have been her... The crows had landed, he was already hiding, he was hiding back at the bar. She asked him for his phone number and he imagined his cell phone ringing and it not being the Professor or Control or a crisis or static, and he started to laugh, and she was gone.

He arrived, he had arrived at the club, because of the name probably, to try the ritual, Light had arrived at the chalet, the castle, black armour, enemy knight, and everyone was gone. Somehow they had all disappeared. Tried to disappear into the music and couldn't, he was different now. Tried to find them but they were gone, they were trying to find them but they were gone. They were both alone together. Each other's prey.

DAY TWENTYNINE 00:32AM

The Best Laid Plans 

Greg’s day had been very long. And his night had been too short. The meeting had gone very well, but was exhausting. The private celebration he had arranged for himself with some local talent, charged to his discretionary fund, had also gone well and was also exhausting, albeit in a much more satisfying way. He had been ready for sleep when the phone had rung, and everything had started to fall apart. 

“You’re telling me that they are gone,” he said, his voice perched on the edge of fury. He listened. “If you are implying that the intelligence I extracted from Sanderson was faulty… No, I’m sure you weren’t.”

Greg got out of bed and moved to the wet-bar. Poured a drink. 

“So Cube must have tipped them off… Which means he’s made Agent Light…”

He took a sip. Something was wrong. 

“Except that Theory planted that coverstory, about the infection, so that Cube would sever contact with the experiment… Would he really have risked it?”

He took a gulp. This was the wrong time for the situation to be moving so far outside parameters. The result of today’s meeting was that the backers were ready for the project to move to Phase Three. Except that thanks to Cube they had lost the project, then found it, and now lost it again. 

“No, of course you don’t. Fine. It’s time to cancel Light’s involvement. Use one of the Sanction Roster. It’s time this gets sorted out. I want a report on my desk by the time I return tomorrow.”

Greg sat on the edge of the bed. He could see himself in the mirror on the wall. Here, alone in the room, backstage, out of the spotlight, he looked tired.

DAY TWENTYEIGHT 22:38PM

The Ritual

Suki pulled into a crowded parking lot and she knew that she had found the perfect spot, since it was still pretty early and the place was already jumping. 

"What are we doing here?" Father Donnelly asked. He was curious as to the nature of what was going on. "You can't be serious at a time like this?"

"Father, I'm more serious than ever," Suki replied. She reached back and shook Scorpio. "Hey big fellow, it's time to make some magick." 

Scorpio awoke at the slightest touch, guns drawn ready for action. Then a quick second and they were hidden away. His reflexes honed, a panther ready to strike.

Donnelly couldn't believe what was unfolding before him. He had a hard time understanding the nature of this girl, and yet he felt inside that she seemed to be one step ahead of the game. 

The trance beat could be heard in the parking lot, the line of people waiting to get into Maggie Mae's. 

"So what is it that we're doing here?" Donnelly inquired. He got out of the car and glanced around; he seemed out of place. Like a fly in a spider's web. 

"Cast away any doubts, and join the dance," Suki said with a smile. If there was one thing she learned from Max, it was the ritual of the dance.

DAY TWENTYEIGHT 14:47PM

The Edge Of Darkness 

"You think this is far enough?" the man in the passenger seat said. 

"Yeah, I think so," the driver replied. "This is secluded and out of the way."

"Why didn't we just throw him in the incinerator like the others? Why out here and out in the middle of nowhere where he'll be found by a hunter or two lovers looking for a secluded spot to screw?" 

"You just answered that question," the driver said. He turned off the ignition and looked around. "They want this body to be found eventually. It'll be a cold case, no questions later to follow up, only hunches."

"You mean like a mob execution?" the passenger said, as he opened up the door and slid out. 

The sedan was parked on the side of a dirt road, there was nothing for miles around, no sign of inhabitants of any kind.

The driver took the keys to open the trunk. "Once we get closer to town we torch this car." 

"I hate walking," passenger-man said, as he stood by and waited for the trunk to open.

That's when a tire iron swung out and smashed Driver in the side of the skull, where you could hear a sickening crunch. Before Passenger could react, the tire iron swung around and hit his arm. 

Stone got out of the trunk - he was naked, covered in blood and his fingernails were missing. There were two visible bullet wounds, one at the back of his skull, the other in his back.

"I spent three years in a POW camp, you boys don't know jack about torture!" he said as he swung the tire iron at Passenger. 

Once he made sure both were really dead, he rubbed the back of his head and knocked on the metal plate there.

DAY TWENTYEIGHT 11:15AM

Phase Game

Max dropped a cigarette and butted it out with his heel. He watched the chopper disappear over the horizon. 

Now, it was time to answer some questions.