The guards glanced at the crew members as they passed them, checking for the plastic seal of approval pinned to their chests. More interested in their amusing anecdote, they waved the group on, Teo along with them.

Hey, I'm pretty good at this James Bond stuff, he decided on the quiet, spotting the party he sought in the private bar.

Teo huddled up against a large pillar and gave Rhiannon a wave as she glanced in his direction.

Her eyes fixed on him, and as Doc turned to see what had captured her attention, Teo ducked behind the pylon.

'Do you know that man?' Doc asked. 'The one hiding behind the pillar.'

Rhiannon nodded, swallowing a mouthful of drink.

'That's Teo, my mother's Sensei.'

' Really.' Doc foresaw an added bonus here. 'And has the location of your base been erased from his memory?'

She shrugged. 'Not to my knowledge.'

'See, Stanley. Let this be a lesson to you. Even delays can prove beneficial,' Doc emphasized with glee.

Then he lowered his voice: 'Bring him to me, alive ...

he is no use to me dead. Understand?'

'No problem,' Stanley acknowledged.

'Watch it,' Rhiannon added. 'Teo is a Shihan of Tae-kwon-do.'

'We're trembling,' Stanley informed her, motioning for some of his team to follow him.

'There's enough black belts among that lot to sink a ship,' Doc explained, 'and they're all considerably younger than your friend.' He clinked his glass against hers. 'This ought to be a pushover.'

Rhiannon grinned. 'Don't count on it.'

As Teo did a quick check on Rhiannon, he was alarmed to find Doc's bodyguards filing out of the bar towards him.

If Doc has become as accomplished as you say, he'll be able to siphon information from us faster than Floyd sucks it from the Internet.

Teo, recalling Tory's fears, began to panic. You idiot!

He cursed his lack of foresight, as he made a dash down the terminal to escape the ICA personnel.

'Freeze!' One of the security team shouted a warning, and people began to flee the area as he pulled a gun.

Teo halted alongside another of the airport's large support pillars and turned to discover that he now had several guns aimed at him. He quickly darted for cover and pulled the Stormer from his pocket. He fired off two laser blasts and two of his pursuers went down. But there were so many against him, Teo found it impossible to keep track of all their movements.

A gunshot rang out and Teo hit the ground. Numb with shock, he stared at his shattered left kneecap in disbelief. It didn't take long for the pain to start permeating from the wound in short, sharp bursts.

Shit! He rolled himself over and continued to fire at anyone who tried to approach him. Conscious or unconscious, if Doc gets his hands on me we can kiss Watarrka goodbye. Teo fired another laser blast and raised his tally to four.

Airport security had been alerted to the disturbance by this time, and more armed men were converging on the area.

Blood poured from the wound in Teo's leg, creating a huge dark pool on the floor around him. His sight began to blur, and he didn't expect to be able to hold them off much longer. In the back of his mind he started praying for a miracle. Tory had got him out of worse than this before today. Goddamn it woman, why do you always have to be right ... I shouldn't have come.

'Drop it.' Stanley jumped out to confront the sniper, closely followed by the remainder of his team and several of the airport security guards. 'You can't shoot us all.'

There's only one thing for it, Teo thought, as he placed the weapon aside and slowly raised his hands.

As two of Stanley's men dragged Teo to his feet, their guns resting against his temple on either side, the remainder of the force dispersed.

Brennon retrieved Teo's weapon from the ground, and after briefly looking it over, clicked it onto his belt.

'You're pathetic,' Stanley spat at his captive, angered that he'd taken out so many of his men. He didn't realise they had only been knocked unconscious until after he'd smashed Teo across the face with the butt of his gun.

'Sir, they're all still breathing.' Someone had finally bothered to check.

'Well ...' Stanley stood corrected, watching Teo's nose bleed another river onto the floor. 'You're just a damn nuisance then.' He motioned to the two men supporting the captive to follow him back to the bar.

Halfway to their destination, Teo regained some of his wits. With his one good leg, he dug into the floor in front of him and reached up to grab the pistol hand of the man to his right. Goddess grant me strength. He squeezed the man's trigger finger.

'No!' Doc jumped from his bar stool and raced into the terminal, just in time to see his bonus prize splatter his brains all over the immediate vicinity. 'Goddamn it!'

Doc was furious. 'What did I say?' He confronted the blood-soaked security guard whose gun had served as the suicide weapon.

'I didn't expect ...' he looked to the body he'd let drop to the floor, too awestruck to complete his explanation.

'These are radicals for heaven's sake. Just what do you think that means?' Doc began to lecture the guard, when he was unexpectedly besieged by emotion. Feelings that Doc had not experienced for centuries ran rampant through his being and he was powerless to block or even hinder the overwhelming sorrow and ... fear.

I'm coming for you, Cadwaladr.

Tory Alexander's promise of wrath resounded in Doc's head, and he looked nervously about him.

'Is something wrong?' Stanley ventured to ask.

'It's time to leave.' Doc backed up towards the bar, a creepy expression on his face.

'What about him?' Stanley referred to the casualty.

'Get the local officials to take care of it. We're a little pushed for time.'

Back in the chasm that had led them to the underground base of the Unken, Tory, Brian and Rhun were concerned to discover one of their recon units missing.

Brian pinpointed the whereabouts of Merlin II on his vehicle's tracking system. 'According to this, he's at the airport.'

'He must have followed Doc there,' Tory figured, hoping Teo had the good sense to stay out of sight. 'I'll head straight to him. You two take Merlin I and meet us there.'

Rhun gripped Tory's wrist to detain her. 'Promise me that you'll stay away from Doc until we get there.' When Rhun saw the look of defiance on his mother's face, his demanding tone changed to a personal appeal. 'Please.'

Tory's mood lightened. Rhun was her voice of reason when she was beyond reason herself. She reached out to rest her hand against her son's cheek. 'I love you,' she said, tears moistening her eyes. 'Fear not, I hear you.'

Rhun smiled, satisfied with that, as she stepped away from him and disappeared.

Tory emerged from the ethers to find herself in one of the airport terminals. Chaos reigned supreme. Armed security guards were everywhere, so Tory willed herself to be seen as wearing their uniform and to appear and sound as a local of the male gender. She looked about expecting to find Teo close by, when she noted the blood and guts splattered all over the floor.

Oh Goddess. Tory said a silent prayer as she barged into the centre of the commotion.

There, in a great pool of his own blood, was a man unrecognisable due to a massive head injury. The sight repulsed Tory and as she did not spy anything that identified the corpse as her dear friend, she turned away to breathe a sigh of relief. But the image of the dead man hung in her mind taunting her with tiny details.

Her stomach turned as she realised that protruding from beneath the legs of the blood-drenched overalls were a pair of army boots like the ones she was wearing. Slowly, Tory turned to take a second look.

'No, please, no.' She fell to her knees beside the body, as she recognised Teo's wedding ring. 'Oh, Goddess, not him.'

'You know this man?'

Tory did not even hear the security guard question her, until he repeated the query. 'Not really,' she lied, suppressing her urge to explode into rage. 'What happened here?'

'The ICA tried to take him into custody, and the poor bastard shot himself.' The man sounded sympathetic.

Tory wept when she heard this, though no one present could see her anguish or the tears that streamed down her face. 'It wasn't suicide then,' she told the man. 'It was ... a sort of martyrdom. He died, so that his friends might live.'

The guard crouched beside her, looking the body over. 'How do you know?' He wondered what his fellow worker had espied that he had not.

'It doesn't matter.' Tory took Teo's lifeless hand in hers. 'Creation knows I'm right.'

Her words made the guard very curious though he was not given the chance to question her. She vanished along with the body he was supposed to be guarding.

'Great wonders of Allah!' The guard bowed low to the ground, as did everyone else, believing they had witnessed a miracle.

Teo was not an immortal, Tory knew, as Taliesin was his perfect incarnation. Teo was also most certainly dead, and still Tory would not give up on him. She'd been in exactly the same predicament with Brian once and if she'd conceded defeat then, her brother would be rotting in the ground right now. Tory recalled Brian mumbling something about the fountain of rejuvenation when she regained consciousness earlier in the day. Babylon seemed as good a place as any to seek a means to resurrect her friend, and even if the healing capabilities of the fountain fell short of her hopes, perhaps Neraida's people possessed some advanced technology that would suffice.

Hence, Tory willed herself to Neraida, but as the blue-white ethers of her flight faded away she was left in total blackness.

'Neraida, are you here?' Tory cried out in panic.

'I am.'

Tory looked to the soothing voice that was quite close by. 'I need your help, desperately.'

'So I see.' Neraida lowered her gaze to the body at her feet. 'Here, put these on.' She placed a set of goggles in Tory's hand. 'I've been expecting you.'

'You have?' Tory was relieved to hear this. She placed the support strap around the back of her head and positioned the lenses over her eyes. Amazing! It was as if someone had suddenly switched on the lights.

The large circular chamber hosted many large, round mounds, made from the same strange black metal as the recovery room Tory had destroyed earlier. There were several control panels and a couple of large screens in the room. Tory guessed it to be a communications centre, but she was far too concerned about Teo to be interested in it. 'So you can help my friend.' Tory assumed this was why their arrival had been anticipated.

'No, Tory,' Neraida took a step back, 'I'm afraid I cannot. But I can be of aid to you.'

'What about the water of rejuvenation?' Tory stood tall to confront Neraida, her frustration bordering on rage. 'Isn't there something else we could try?'

'Tory,' Neraida urged her to see reason, 'the waters of the sacred fountains will only work on our kind.' She walked over to one of the large control panels, waving her hand over it. 'I am sorry for your loss, but it was his time ... everything happens for a reason.' She motioned Tory to one of the twelve dark mounds before them.

Tory was about to contest her new friend's apparent indifference to the situation, when a bright spherical light erupted above the mound in question. The tube of light extended from the roof to the mound's platform and grew so intense that Tory was forced to remove her eye wear. A figure took form inside the swirling tubular light mass, and once the form appeared solid the room fell back into darkness. Tory quickly replaced her goggles and her knees went weak when she realised it was Teo who had appeared. Frozen speechless, she watched him approach the stairs leading down to where she stood. As he descended, Teo began to change form.

'Sweet mother of mercy,' Tory mumbled, tears of relief tumbling down her cheeks. 'Taliesin!' she cried, bounding towards him and launching herself into his embrace.

'Tory Alexander.' He held her tight, feeling all that she did and more. 'It has been too, too long.'

Doc and his team made a very dramatic entrance into the US President's oval office in Washington. They barged into a closed meeting and immediately began to rearrange the furniture to set up their computer equipment. The President's men were outraged, naturally. But Doc had a few quiet words in Langford's ear, and the President adjourned his meeting and sent for General Berkley.

Rhiannon was introduced as a rebel spy who had defected from the Unken ranks to aid their cause. To prove her worth she had supplied the ICA with the code-key to the Unken's computer system. Doc, knowing Langford was no computer whiz, endeavoured to explain the significance of this.

'So, as the Unken have refused to negotiate, we can use this key-code to hack into their system and disarm their weapons.' Doc smiled in conclusion. 'If they won't consider peace, we shall force it upon them.'

'That's wonderful news.' Langford seemed surprised to be relieved of the pending disaster so quickly. 'I knew I'd made a sound decision sending you, Doc.'

'Mr President.' The General appeared grave as he stormed into the office, slamming the door closed behind him. 'The Unken have launched a missile on New Mexico, estimated time of impact thirty-five minutes.' Berkley turned his dark eyes to Doc, who appeared to have lost some of his cheer.

Eddie, Doc's young computer pro, was madly typing away on his keyboard. 'I'm in,' he announced, as he continued to key-crunch for a moment. Then Eddie looked to Doc, concerned. 'It's true. One of their ICBMs has been fired.'

'Well, of course, it's true.' Berkley blew a fuse. 'What the hell do you think we do here in the Pentagon?'

'Calm down, John,' Langford urged his Head of Defence, looking to Doc for some answers. 'Can we still deactivate it?'

'Impossible!' Berkley interjected, not prepared to waste any more time on diplomacy. 'We must blow it out of the sky while it's still in the boost stage - meaning we have two minutes to decide and counting.'

'And what,' Doc poised. 'Make us look like the bad guys? No, no, no. For although we cannot change the missile's course or shut it down now that it has been launched, we can detonate it. The subsequent explosion will rip a hole in the ozone layer above the Middle East causing massive devastation. It's too late to avoid that now. Still, I'm sure you'll agree Mr President, better there than here. In the world view, it will be the Unken who are to blame for the cock-up. The ICA will clean up as usual, the US will lend massive support, and we all come up smelling like roses,' Doc concluded, looking to Berkley. Even Berkley appeared appeased.

'This never leaves this room.' Langford gave the nod.

'Where are they?' Brian repeated for the fiftieth time since they'd located Merlin II at the airstrip. 'Maybe Tory has gone after Doc?'

'She wouldn't,' Rhun insisted, sick of watching his uncle pace, 'not after she promised me.'

'Where the hell are they then?'

' I don't know! ' Rhun finally lost his cool. The stifling heat certainly wasn't aiding his patience. 'Look, she said she'd meet us here, so this is where we stay.'

Brian didn't respond, his eyes had become fixed on the horizon. 'This is very bad.'

Rhun looked to the sky to see a fiery trail being blazed across it.

'Either the Iraqi's are launching a space mission, or that's a missile.' Brian boggled at the sight a moment.

'It couldn't be bound for New Mexico, surely.' Rhun was baffled by this development.

'That's it. We gotta make a move.' Brian assumed control of the situation. 'You transport Merlin One and Two back to base. I'm going after Tory.'

'Hold on,' Rhun objected.

'Don't argue with me, boy. I'm still your uncle, no matter how long you've been kicking around, and I'll whip your butt without hesitation, so don't test me.'