'Did you get a chance to track the transmission?'

Stan moved to view the screen for himself, but the man shook his head in the negative.

'I told you to hold off.'

Stan looked to Doc. 'Well, I thought we'd best advise our illustrious leader before he gave too much away.'

Doc was pacing now. 'It's impossible! How could she get through airport security?' But no sooner had he asked the question than the thought of Tory popping in and out of ICA headquarters came to mind. 'Shit!' He was annoyed he'd already handed his net information over to her. What did she want with it? 'Hold on,' he advised, cooling his temper dramatically. 'This can be twisted to our advantage.'

'Do you want us to pick her up at the airport for questioning?' Stan wasn't sure he followed what his boss was on about.

'No. But I want pictures of her, before she gets off the plane.' Doc closed his eyes to cast a psychic shield around himself, and his men fell silent.

Whenever their superior found himself in a precarious situation, he always paused thus for several minutes. His men had always assumed he was praying.

With a clap, Doc spurred himself to action. 'Wish me luck, boys ... I'm going to make a date.'

The diplomat returned to his seat to find his charming spy had vanished. Fickle little minx. He spied her on the far side of the cabin speaking with another man. When Doc caught her eye, she waved him over.

'My friend's fiance.' She motioned to the young man beside her, all excited by the happy coincidence.

'Imagine that.' Doc shook the young man's hand, noting that he wore leather gloves that ruled out the possibility of skin contact.

Seeking another's company was a clever move on her behalf, as it prevented him from getting too close to her.

Must not dwell on such matters now.

If she came from the Goddess or was indeed the Goddess herself, she was almost certainly more proficient at the psychic arts than he. No thought of what he suspected must enter his mind whilst in her company. Only when he could be sure his thoughts were his own would he ponder the events of this day.

Hours later Rhun returned to base, carrying his sister in his arms.

'What went wrong?' Ray went to retrieve Rhiannon from the boy-wonder, wanting to punch Rhun's lights out for escorting her into such a precarious situation in the first place.

'Nothing went wrong!' Rhun sidestepped the crazed engineer, placing his bundle on the sofa. 'As promised, I returned her to her senses before we left the airport ... a bad move. As soon as she realised what she'd done, she fainted.'

'Did she get the code-key?' Floyd wanted to know; the whole success of their mission depended on it.

'Is that all you're worried about?' Ray turned to have a go at Floyd instead.

'Ray!' Tory grabbed hold of his collar and guided him to a seat. 'Mellow. Everybody else, out.' She ushered them towards the door. 'You, too.' She pulled her son away from Rhiannon.

'Aren't you staying?' Ray became anxious as he watched Tory follow Rhun toward the door.

'It's okay. Rhiannon will remember everything when she wakes.'

Still, Ray found it rather disconserting that Tory should grant him special consideration in this case.

'Why do I get to stay?'

'You said you had something to say to her, so say it.'

Tory sealed the door on the way out.

Great going. Now everybody suspects what you're not even sure about yourself. Ray raised his bones and neared the girl on whose behalf he'd been acting like a complete whacko all day. Dark eyes, dark hair, young and halfway innocent. Ray considered that, in retrospect, this was how he preferred her.

'Rhun, is that you?' She stirred.

'No, should I run and fetch him for you?' Ray thought this was the perfect way out of this situation, as Rhiannon would surely be wondering why he alone was there to greet her.

A vague image of Ray storming the observatory made Rhiannon smile, and she grabbed his arm to prevent him going anywhere. 'Not so fast.' She pulled him down to squat beside her. 'Are we alone?'

Although he knew damn well they were, he cast his eyes around the room to forestall the inevitable.

Confessing he desired her was easy. It was admitting she'd been right that really hurt. 'Yep ... we are definitely alone,' Ray confirmed, just knowing the next question would be why?

Rhiannon raised herself to a seated position and slid a hand inside the collar of his shirt. 'I know why?'

she whispered, urging him to a kiss he had no wish to avoid.

Although Ray had not expected this, he was grateful she'd found a way to cut through all the bullshit to get straight to the heart of the matter.

'You're welcome.' She melted to a smile as their lips parted. Ray went to speak, but her hand covered his mouth. 'No. Don't say anything.'

'Well, you -'

'No,' she insisted. 'You don't have to explain, apologise, retaliate, object -'

Ray rolled his eyes and kissed her again, so that he might have a chance to convey that he felt exactly the same way. He didn't want to discuss the issue any more than she did.

'Enough said then.' She spread her legs and slid into his lap. 'When and where?'

Her frankness took Ray a little off guard, although he couldn't begin to fathom why? Any other woman and he would have had her flat on her back and half naked by this time. God. He couldn't think, knowing she'd be following his reasoning.

'It's mother, isn't it?'

'Is it?' He hadn't considered that.

Rhiannon nodded. 'You bet her one hundred dollars that you'd get her into bed before you fell for anybody else?'

After a second's thought, Ray laughed. 'You're right, you know. That's exactly it.' He laughed again, then abruptly stopped. 'Was it really a hundred bucks?'

'A small price to pay.' Her lips did a slow dance around his mouth, along his jaw, and down his neck.

'The question is ...' She sucked his earlobe in anticipation. 'When?'

'Now is good?' What the hell, he figured, they were already in the mood.

'No, now's no good,' she contradicted.

'Now's no good?' He couldn't see why.

'Company,' she explained in a word.

Before the shock of the announcement had even sunk in, Ray had them up and standing at attention.

'Asap, my place,' he proposed, as the door vanished and the room filled with people.

Ray left Rhiannon to impart the details of her mission to the others, deciding that perhaps he'd better grab a shower as he'd not had one in days.

Rhiannon handed the info-card she'd managed to scam out of Doc over to Floyd. It seemed Mr Alexander had a rather appropriate handle also, as he travelled cyber-space under the assumed identity of the Dragon Slayer. 'We arranged to meet in a VRN bar called the Cauldron?' She shrugged as she referred Floyd to the address she'd typed into her notebook, which like all web-site addresses was a jumble of seemingly random digits.

'I know that place.' The hacker bit his lip, recalling conversations he'd had there. 'I've even spoken with the son-of-a-bitch!' His attention returned to Rhiannon, with a look of desperation on his face. 'But the code-key, did you get it?'

With a cocky grin Rhiannon advised. 'A, R, W, Y, S, T, L, I, break, twenty-six, dash, thirteen, dash, five-nineteen, stop.'

Tory was watching over Floyd's shoulder as he scribbled it down: Arwystli 2613519. 'Oh shit, I don't believe it.' She grabbed up the piece of paper, staring intensely at the information. 'It's a date.'

'How can it be a date?' Teo stepped in to calm her down. 'Look, thirteen ... there's no thirteenth month in the year.'

'Ah!' Noah politely intervened. 'But in the year five nineteen, there was a thirteenth month by the Celtic calendar ... Ruis, if memory serves. Yet the twenty-sixth day is not really part of that month, it being one of the five dark days, which stood apart from the rest of the calendar.'

'Sorrowing, they called it. The dead of the year, when time stood still.' Tory faltered, entranced and horrified as she recalled the events of that particular year. 'This date was the day before I died, physically, that's why I recall it so well.' She looked to Noah, who now knew her story better than anyone. 'Caradoc died on this day.'

'Father's bastard brother! Who killed my grandfather whilst trying to steal Gwynedd from beneath us?' Rhun found this an interesting twist. 'You think Cadwaladr is a reincarnation of him, don't you?'

This was almost an accusation, as she'd not mentioned this theory to him.

'Who's Cadwaladr again?' Brian wasn't following.

'My great-great-great-grandson.' Tory jogged his memory, as they had discussed this before.

'The one we suspect might be Doc,' Noah added to further clarify the situation.

'Well, it makes little difference.' Floyd thought he'd bring everyone's attention back to the events of the present. 'Because, if Doc hasn't thrown us a bum steer -'

'Oh, I don't believe he was onto us,' Rhiannon advised. 'Or, at least, he wasn't suspicious in my presence. Although he was quite browned off when Rhun turned up.'

'Good.' Floyd retrieved the code from Tory to admire and relish it. 'Then by this time tomorrow no matter who the prick really is, we're going to know him fairly well, I'd say.'

'And you're sure he won't be able to trace your line back to the ranger station at Watarrka?' Tory, who was no computer whiz to be sure, thought that what Floyd had in mind seemed risky.

'There are ways and means.' Floyd grinned. He would have to go through many computers before he could attempt the break-in, but he would see to it that the base was protected. 'Just leave it to me.'

It was Floyd's turn to usher everyone out of his room, except for his prodigy. Nicholas was in for an all-night session - brainstorming the downfall of the Agency, smoking dope, and key crunching with Floyd was Nick's idea of the perfect Saturday night.

In the wee hours, trying to research became a complete farce. No matter how hard Tory tried to concentrate, the intense sexual ecstasy her daughter was feeling proved too great a distraction - even from three caverns away!

Seeing no other way to avoid the event, Tory took a seat on her bed to renew the psychic shield around herself.

Even when she'd done this, the sensation of love lingered, along with memories of Maelgwn. She wondered about the unfortunate situation mentioned in his message - if, indeed, the message had truly been from him.

'Did the Earth move for you, too?' Rhun entered, unannounced. He could do this, as his voice overrode all the cavern's vocally-activated systems.

'You felt it too, huh?' Tory smiled at their predicament.

Rhun grinned, dropping himself down beside her. 'I don't suppose we can ask them to keep it down.' Rhun nudged his mother's shoulder in fun and so picked up on her plan to make contact with his father. 'No, you must not. It's absolutely out of the question! Forget what Inanna told you. She's a lying whore.'

'I wish I could. But every time I close my eyes, I see macabre visions of Maelgwn being tortured to death.'

'It's just your subconscious playing tricks on you,'

Rhun insisted. 'I assure you, Father is very much alive.'

'But how could you tell the difference between your father and an exact clone of him?'

Although Rhun denied the claim, he understood her reservations. 'Fair enough. How do you expect to know the difference?'

'I don't know, but I have to try. There are extra precautions I can take when travelling in an astral form, just as you and Maelgwn did during inauguration.'

'And how do you know that, when the inauguration of Kings is strictly forbidden to those of your gender?'

Rhun stood, agitated by her lack of respect for an age-old tradition. 'You were spying on me the whole time, not just during my quest.'

Tory sucked in her cheeks, playing innocent, her eyes looking anywhere but at him.

'Then you should also know I have an Otherworld affiliate. A dragon, who guarded the gateway and my physical form, whilst my spirit wandered through its realms.'

'I, too, have such a guardian,' she informed him stubbornly.

'Rubbish!' He objected. 'Who sent it to you?'

'I don't really know.' Tory mused on the possibilities.

'I think it came of its own accord.'

Rhun thought it highly peculiar that any Otherworldly creature would assist someone of the middle kingdoms without being obliged by some higher force to do so. 'Look, I really don't think it works that way. What manner of beast is it?

'Take me to the strongest ley crossing around here, and I'll introduce you,' she teased.

'You're not serious. Not now! What if something goes wrong? Think about the mission tomorrow.' The safety of their whole community was at risk, Rhun felt they both had to be functioning at one hundred per cent.

'What do you take me for? Of course not.' Tory raised herself to give him a shove, and Rhun smiled at underestimating her. 'We shall wait for the full moon.'

By mid-afternoon the conspirators had gathered in Floyd's headquarters, eager to see the hacker's handiwork.

The plan was that Rhiannon would meet Doc at the VRN bar as previously arranged, which ensured that Doc's computer was online. Whilst she was keeping Mr Alexander visually preoccupied, Floyd would hack into Doc's computer using the password they'd procured.

Once they had access to their subject's hard-drive, they required a five minute window per fifty gigabytes of information to download; chances were, Doc would catch them in the act and run a trace. Anticipating this, Floyd went via several different websites and a couple of satellites to place the call. So that, even if they were caught copying files, it would take Doc longer to trace them than it would for them to retrieve the information they sought.