"Enough," Red said softly.

Agent Rex Edgewater hit the wall of the freezer with a less-than-satisfying thud, and slid to the floor. The Russian had worked him over pretty well, but Rex knew from the previous photos and crime scene evidence that he had committed to memory that he'd gotten off lightly.

Red walked over to him and squatted down. She looked at him intently and then gave a deep sigh. Edgewater managed to open an eye when he heard her stand back up, and the look she gave him sent a wave of nausea through his battered body. He'd seen that look before. It was the look his mom had given him after the family vet had said 'there's nothing more we can do' and put the dog to sleep. It was over.

Thankfully the Russian followed her out of the freezer, and Rex heard the door slam and the lock catch. He sat catching his breath for a minute then tried to stand. He held his arms tightly around what he was sure was more than one broken rib, and walked to the door. Through the tiny window he could see Red and Ivan arguing. The Russian had his blood up after the beating and spittle flew from his mouth as he yelled at Red.

The commotion must have been something, because in an instant the little Chinese woman was at the door of the kitchen. Rex could see the look of shock on her face, but then she was gone. She had moved into the kitchen and was too short to see from his vantage point. He did see Red throw up her hands in disgust and surrender. She fished an mp3 player out of her pocket and left the room. When she did, Ivan Turgenev spun around and looked at the freezer. Rex jumped and skittered back towards the wall, but the Russian only looked into the window with one red eye, and then disappeared. Rex's energy was spent and he sat down to wait.




Outside in the sunshine the day was like any other, but inside Red's head there was a storm brewing. It wasn't as if the scene was a novel one:   She had seen people hiding things before, and she had seen Ivan do his work in extracting information before, but something about the past few minutes didn't ring true for her and she saw the same was true for Li Su when she'd told her what Rex had said. AGENT Rex, as it turned out.   Bloody hell.

She looped the headphones over her ears and looked to any casual observer like she was stretching for another run. She saw Argent at his campsite, watching the kitchen door, and quickly hit 'play' on her player. She jogged off to the opening powerpop chords of OKGO's "Invincible" like a woman with places to go.
When they finally come to destroy the earth
They'll have to go through you first
I'll bet they won't be expecting that




Curtis York sat placidly in his cave. The wait was over. His initial shock and confusion had passed and now the universe had opened itself up to him in a small jade tablet and he could hear every molecule in his body humming along with him in delight. He grinned with his new-found happiness. What is the meaning of life? He knew it now. What came first, the chicken or the egg? Knew that too. Why do fools fall in love? Bingo, knew that one too. The one thing he didn't know was that a scruffy man with a handgun had seen him in his cave and was slowly and deliberately coming up to kill him.   



Red did her best to look nonchalant, she'd had loads of practice considering her upbringing, but still couldn't help but be puzzled when she couldn't find the man with the mermaid tattoo. The pictures on his camera of the crime scene were one thing that could save her provided Madison had skipped camp. However, the man appeared to have left too. Confusing, and it made her just a bit edgy. She wasn't in control of the situation and didn't like it one bit. Where was he?



A few hundred yards from the dead Dundee, another body crumpled to the ground. Madison's clone nudged the fleshy man over with the toe of his wingtip and crouched down to poke at the drawing of the mermaid that was inked into the man's skin. He then grabbed the camera from the dead man's grasp and proceeded to smash it with a rock. He could hear the crackling of plastics as the pictures of the crime scene were dashed to oblivion, as well as the pictures the man had taken of flashes in the night sky. The clone then stood and heard faint happy humming. He scanned the area and saw a man in a cave in the rocks above him. He began to climb.