A second corridor greeted us when we stepped through, and our guide led us to the first door on our left. He pushed the door open and held it, bowing with a mocking grin as we entered. The small room he had ushered us into had two, two person bunks, a small bathroom with a door, and a corner shower with an opaque curtain. He let the door close behind us then dramatically gestured at the door. “Note if you will, the security measures”, he said in a deep theatrical voice. “Note the bars here, and here, the levers here and here activate the bars, which then slide into slots in the door jamb. These are guaranteed to hold against small arms fire, battering rams, and grenades. This black switch here on the wall to the left of the door activates your lights, the red button on the right summons security, should it be needed. The red switch next to the black switch operates the halon system in the venting, good for fires and the occasional ninja in the walls.” He bowed deeply, then hooked the door open with his foot and cartwheeled out the door, which closed on it's own. “Dibs on the shower”, Vi said and stripped down immediately. Java Juggernaut chuckled, then went into the bathroom, leaving me to claim my bunk first. After a few minutes Java cam back out, then looked at the bunks. He lifted the top bunk off the one I hadn't gotten into and set it on the floor beside the lower bed, and pushed it close. Vi finished showering and I could hear her shake herself free of the water. She stepped out and the smell of Jasmine and wet fur reached me. “Don't go to sleep, we're going to be active soon”, Vi said as I stretched out on the bed. “How do you fi..”, and I jumped as the door rattled. “I heard them”, said Vi. “You are requested to be present at the briefing in 10 minutes. Please ready yourselves.”

I looked around at the activity. Except for the garish costumes of the Masters, this could be any lab or tech floor in business. White-coated people gathered around terminals discussing one thing or another. Others were gathered around a few pieces of equipment that looked like antennas to me. They were busy taking them apart and hooking up some meters to the pieces with metal clips, and peering intently at the displays. Still other groups were inside a glassed off section of the floor, and working with surgeon masks and gloves on their hands, and with a belt around their waist that had a long copper wire attached to it that dragged its end along the metal floor, electrically grounding the person. The smell of oil and ozone was in the air, and the air itself was an antiseptic dry that you might find in such a place. “We are proceeding with many avenues of approach to this situation, and as you can see, we have not trivialized our response to the threat. You may be our enemy, but this is the enemy of us all.” Elitist finished speaking and turned his attention to Vi, who was licking her shoulder and glancing about nervously at all the activity. She caught Elitist's eyes looking at her. The two locked gazes and I watched Vi's ears flatten and her pupil's widen as Elitist looked back unflinching. Java put his hand on his wife's shoulder and leveled his gaze at Elitist, who smiled sardonically at the two, then turned to Smashing Pumpkin. “Show them their room and make certain they know about the security measures. They are our allies and it would be poor form to not to be open and honest.” Smashing Pumpkin led us out of the lab into a long, metal corridor that took us a full minute to walk to the end. There were no doors, only recessed fluorescent lights with a heavy plastic covering them. “Kill zone”, Java said to no one in particular. The door at the end looked like a pressure door in a submarine, with large arms radiating out from a center spoke. To the right of the door was a keypad, which Smashing Pumpkin shielded with an exaggerated stare and grin. He didn't look at the keypad but punched in a series of numbers, and the center spoke spun slowly, retracting the posts enough to pull the door open.