"Missus Martini?"

"Getting tired of those I'm here to rescue sounding shocked about it, and you're only our second of this particular foray. Everyone else I rescued after I'd been kidnapped was hella grateful."

"Get me out of here without getting yourself hurt and I'll fall onto that side of things."

"Will do. Team, let's rock and roll." Stepped inside so I had a clear shot at this Roomba of Evil, took it, and we all did what we'd just done before. Rhee had Falk out and Joe blocked the rest of us from being hurt. Randy carried Falk off to find where Buchanan and the others were, even though Falk insisted he wasn't hurt.

We waited for Randy to return, which was pretty quickly. "I think I can go almost as fast as an A-C now," he said. "Joe, you probably can, too. Want to switch jobs and test it?" Joe nodded so they traded places while Rahmi opened the next door.

Kyle was in here. "He's the biggest guy, most likely," I said to Rhee. "Will you have any issues?"

She snorted. "We practice carrying two of our people, one over each shoulder, as battle drills. Kyle will not be an issue."

"Kitty, be careful," Kyle said. "That thing is evil."

"The Roomba of Evil, I know. However, it's toast against Drax Industrial's laser blaster." Hey, I'd taken the gun with the coolest sounding name, so sue me.

Our extraction process worked smoothly again, though Kyle was hit with some debris. Joe picked him up. "And we're definitely as strong as an A-C now, because there's no way I could have hefted Kyle before."

"Do I want to know what happened to you?" Kyle asked, sounding worried. Rightly.

"Tell you later." Joe ran off while Randy brushed himself off.

"Joe's right, the body armor's top-notch."

"Good to hear, Randy. Let's get the next captive out, shall we?"

This prisoner was Len. "Kitty! I knew you'd find us!"

"Len is my favorite, I'm just sayin'." Joe returned and nodded to me. Gave him the nod right back. "Gang, let's lock and load."

Once again, we did our thing and once again it went smoothly. Decided not to question this. If we had a rescue that was actually going smoothly for once, I, for one, was not going to complain about it. Besides, it was only going smoothly because we'd found the helicarrier and Jerry had had the brains to tell me to weapon up.

Len was lighter than Kyle and Rhee was faster therefore, so he wasn't hit with shrapnel. However, Joe took him to the others anyway.

"This is going remarkably well," Rahmi said.

"I cannot express how I seriously hope you haven't just jinxed us." We opened the door. "Dammit. Girls, this is why we never mention when things are good. Because it always explodes in our faces."

Just like the Roomba of Evil had on the prisoner in this cell.

CHAPTER 80.

ON THE PLUS SIDE, such as it was, the Roomba of Evil had literally blown up, so we didn't have to deal with it. We just had to deal with a body with its head blown off.

Fortunately, I'd already barfed my guts out a little earlier, so I could keep myself to just a little gagging. The flyboys and the princesses were all battle trained, so they handled it stoically.

The bright white room was splattered with blood and gray matter. Actively chose not to look at it. Actively chose not to look at the headless body. Therefore, actively chose to look at my gun. It was far less upsetting.

Rhee retrieved the body. "Who is it?" she asked.

"I have no idea." The guy was in a black Armani suit, or what was left of it. Every man who'd been captured wore the Armani Fatigues because the P.T.C.U. agents who worked closely with Centaurion dressed to blend in, so it could be anyone. It could be Siler-it was his body build. It was Manfred's body build, too. Tried not to freak out, because that wasn't allowed to the leader. "Take the body to wherever the others are. We'll get everyone out then determine who this is that way, if the others don't know."

Joe helped Rhee-he took the shoulders because he was a gentleman-and they headed off.

"What happened?" Rahmi asked softly.

"I'd assume he was trying to get out or he was trying to disarm the Roomba of Evil and hit its self-destruct switch. It's clear they're loaded to explode because they're sending out far too much shrapnel for the single shots I'm hitting them with."

Joe and Rhee returned, looking solemn. "Falk's going through the guy's pockets. Hopefully we'll know soon enough who we lost."

"Okay, on to the next." Tried not to sound grim. Failed.

The next one was also not good. We had another man down. On the positive side, he had his head. On the negative side, he didn't have his middle, and the room looked even more like a scene out of a slasher film than the last one had. He wasn't someone I knew, but he looked familiar. "I think he's one of Falk's team." Meaning one of Mom's people.

Randy helped Rhee take the body away this time. Joe patted my shoulder. "Hang in there, Commander."

"They died because they came to save me. And because no one else did, so no one got here in time to save them." The rage hit, and it hit harder than ever before. "Speaking as the FLOTUS, I'm glad Jeff can't feel how angry I am because it could kill him. But, speaking as the Commander, this makes me never want to forgive him or the others."

"No, that's not what you want," Joe said gently. "Not really. I understand why you're so angry. I'm angry, too. This is war, though, Kitty, and I know you've been through this before. The higher-ups screwed up and our forces paid the price for it. It happens all the time. It's not good and it's not right, necessarily, but it is part of how things go. You focus on who you can and did save, and try to honor who you lost."

"What else?"

"That's it. Other than making your enemies pay for their part in it. Which you do all the time. But Jeff and the others aren't our enemies, and I know you know that, no matter how upset with them you are."

Took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I've never been this mad at Jeff or the others before, but you're right. I don't really want to never speak to them again or anything. I want to yell at them a lot, though. I just never want anything like this to happen to anyone on my team."

"I know you get told this all the time, but that's both your strength and your weakness. And as someone who's willingly followed you since pretty much you started, I follow you because you care and you've never not cared. But I don't want you turning to hate. I don't want you to become like the people we despise. I want you to be angry because someone on our side or an innocent was hurt. But I don't want you to want to hurt the people who love you, even if they really screwed the pooch on this one."

Managed a laugh. "They really did. And I really wonder why."

"Camilla said fear. I'm sure she's right. I have to think that whatever they were told, it terrified not just Jeff, but Chuck, James, and Tim, too. So that has to be pretty bad, because those guys don't terrify easily." Randy and Rhee returned. "So, let's keep on saving who we can, Commander, and we'll deal with the fallout once we have all of our people back, whether it's safely or to bury them with honor."

Didn't care, hugged Joe, body armor and weapons and all. "Thanks. I really needed that little talk." Heaved a sigh. "Let's get to the next one, folks."

"There are only ten of these," Rhee said as we went to the next door.

"Right, and we've done six of them, so only four more to go."

"And only one to a cell."

"Thank goodness-it's barely wide enough for one."

"Yes, but we had thirteen missing, if I counted correctly."

Did the math fast in my head. "You did count correctly. So, either we find people doubled up, or when we're done here we're not actually done. Always the way. Let's get these last four out, then, as fast as we can do it."

The only change was that Rhee and Rahmi switched, so Rhee had the door and Rahmi had the excitement, so to speak. The next cell didn't have a dead body in it, for which I was hugely thankful. It had Manfred, who looked even worse than Buchanan had. Figured he'd tried to game the Roomba of Evil with hyperspeed and it hadn't worked. At least he was alive, for which I was even more hugely thankful.

We did what was now actually feeling a little like a routine maneuver and got him out without issue, with Randy prepped to take the shrapnel hits.

Joe took Manfred off to the others, and Christopher came back with him. "We've found things I think you're going to be interested in. Need my help here?"

"I'd say yes but if Rhee is right, and so far there's no reason to think that she isn't, we're still going to be missing people when we're done. Need you to search around here for anything that could be a door or something we've missed. Take your dad with you-he's got the most exposure to my methods, and I can guarantee that you both need to be thinking like me and trying to spot what a sneaky person would have created to hide the rest of our team."

"Will do." Christopher zipped off and we got into position again.

This one was another tragic discovery. Another agent, another head blown off. Joe was right-I needed to focus my anger on the people who'd done this, not on Jeff and the others. Which I sincerely planned to, once we could figure out who they were.

Joe and Rahmi took this corpse, who again might or might not have been Siler, to the others. "It'll be okay, Kitty," Randy said. "We'll make them pay."

"What if one of these guys is Nightcrawler? Then Lizzie's out another parent. Of course, whoever's dead probably had family who are now going to get the lame letter that doesn't bring your loved one back."

Randy nodded. "Just like Bill's parents did." He hugged me. "And just like way back then, that you care about people you may not even know and are angered by their death and mourn their loss means you're still the person I'll follow to Hell and back."

"Thanks." Hugged him back as Joe and Rahmi returned. "Already went into Hell to get you guys. So, technically, does that make this place Purgatory?"

"No," Joe said. "It's too clean and sterile to be either Purgatory or Hell."

"We say that Hell is an absence of anything," Rahmi shared. "There is nothing to do, and you will never interact with anyone ever again."

We all agreed that sounded horrible. As we went to the ninth cell, considered that this was the fate that awaited Algar should he ever be caught by the Black Hole People's Police Force. Didn't feel he deserved it, but then again, that was because he was on my side. Something to remember-the bad guys rarely saw themselves as evil. They saw themselves as in the right and being expedient.

This cell had our first female-Colette was inside. "God am I glad to see you."

She was sitting on the bench and looked far less beaten up than the men. "I'm glad to see you, too. Don't enter the room-"

"We know about the Roomba of Evil."

"I have more than that." She pointed up, so Rahmi, Rhee, and I all looked.

Colette did indeed have more going on. There was what looked like strong netting hovering at the ceiling. And it was hovering, as in staying up under its own power.

"Wow. What is that?"

"It's a stun net. If I try to get away or try to hurt myself, it'll come down and wrap around me, stunning me into unconsciousness."

"And you know this how?"

"Our captors explained it to me. And, sadly, I saw it work. Evalyne and Phoebe didn't believe them."

"Are they still alive?"

"As far as I know, but I have no idea if anyone other than me is alive."

"Many are."

"But not all." She looked ready to cry and to kill something, both. I could relate.

"No, not all. Hang on while we confer on how to handle this."

"I'm faster than the net, but there's nowhere to go," Colette shared. "And the, ah, Roomba of Evil is set to block me and slow me down."

Rahmi and I looked at each other. "I'm willing to risk it," she said.

"I don't know." Rhee looked into the room. "The issue isn't beating it out of the room. The issue is getting the door closed before the net can escape."

"Good point." Had a thought. "Did anyone happen to bring a flamethrower?"

Randy pulled a small tube out of his back pocket. "I did. At least, that's what I think it is."

The tube was marked as Personal Flamethrower. "Only one way to find out." Pointed it away from everyone and anything and hit the red button with my thumb. A long flame shot out. "Okey dokey, Randy, great call. Rahmi, I'm going to shoot the Roomba of Evil and then flame the net. Get ready, because this one's going to be a lot harder."

We were in position. I shot the Roomba of Evil, no issues. Rahmi ran in and grabbed Colette while I shot the flamethrower at the net.

Had to keep the button down to keep the flames going. Fire was good because it was definitely hurting the net and it also melted the shrapnel, though some of it still made it out and hit Randy and me, too, this time since I hadn't jumped back and out of the way. The guys were right-the body armor was great. Still not as good as what Alfred in Bizarro World made, but pretty damned awesome otherwise.

Fire wasn't as good, however, because even flaming the net could fly and follow its target. Which it did, just managing to slip past the closing door.

Was ready to scream and start running when someone came up behind us and blasted the net with a fire extinguisher. The net crumbled.

"Wow. Nicely done." Turned to see Adriana grinning at me. "Got tired of playing Florence Nightingale?"

She shrugged. "Someone saw you testing your flamethrower. I just went to the logical assumption."

"Great. Let's open our last cell and see what we've got."

Opened the cell and felt my jaw drop. Wasn't sure who was more shocked-me or the prisoner.

CHAPTER 81.

JANELLE GARDINER stared at me, as openmouthed as I was. I recovered quickest. "Wow, you're still alive. Up until these past few days I wouldn't have thought I'd say this-but thank God."