Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox so graciously provided by JMS and the Wachowskis.

Note: No, I'm not dead or in the throes of some awful life event. Just overwhelmed by a difficult job. I beg your continued patience – I will finish this story but updates will be unpredictable. Thank you to everyone who has favorited/followed/reviewed/recommended this story.

Reminder: I'm also on Twitter as " avidbeader" if you're reading here as a guest and would like story updates there.

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"Demonstration? What demonstration? You yelled about someone being attacked, jumped up, and just stood there staring and twitching! What did that fucking demonstrate?" Felix glared at Wolfgang, who was still holding Riley's hands.

"I wasn't…I wasn't here. I was somewhere else, helping a…friend. He got jumped by five bastards, him and his partner and their friend."

"And? How am I fucking supposed to know that?"

"Wait, wait," Riley interrupted. "We need to do this logically. In a way we can prove. Let's start with this. Wolfgang, you go away. Upstairs, where you can't hear us."

Wolfgang immediately caught on and nodded. "That should work."

Riley watched him go. She waited until she heard a door close and turned to Felix, who still looked angry. "All right. Ask me things about yourselves. Anything big or small that I shouldn't know but that Wolfgang would."

"What? Telepathy? Wolfgang's spacing out because he's thinking at other people?"

"Sort of. Now ask." Riley could feel Wolfgang's presence as he paced around them.

"Where did we meet?"

At school, in detention. I'd got into a fight.

"You met at school, in detention. He was there for fighting."

"What's our favorite movie?"

Wolfgang almost snorted. 'Conan the Barbarian'. Tell him to ask harder ones.

"Conan the Barbarian and ask harder ones."

"Fine. On our last…job, he insisted on taking a break and turning on the television. What were we watching?"

Euro Talent Spotlight. He said the contestant looked like a camel and she wouldn't win.

"Euro Talent Spotlight. And you were rude about one of the contestants! A camel? Really?"

Wolfgang broke into a grin as Felix flinched from Riley's tone. "Okay. I think I get it."

"Now, tell me something that Wolfgang couldn't possibly know. And I'll tell you something about myself that he shouldn't know. Then he'll come back down and answer the questions."

Wait, I have a better idea. Ask him if he has his lucky lock.

Riley frowned. "Do you have your lucky lock?"

Felix's eyebrows shot up at that. "Yeah, but Wolfgang is the only one who can open it." He pulled out a combination lock attached to a pair of keys and handed it to her.

"Why?" She began turning the dial.

"Don't know. Just some silly teenage shit. I carry it but he knows the combination. Plus it's really sensitive – even if you know the numbers you have to—"

Riley tossed the open lock at him with an impish grin.

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Lito was exhausted. Going through a police interrogation in real life was somehow longer and more draining than filming one with multiple takes to get the lines right, the camera angles right. The same questions asked, over and over. He stuck to what had happened other than letting the officers think that he had done all the fighting and pointing them toward Joaquín Flores as the one who had sent them. And when they asked, he gave autographs without protest.

Finally they were done and he was allowed to meet Hernando and Daniela in the main lobby of the building. As he approached, Daniela was on her phone, but stood up and kissed his cheek.

"Hernando will be back in a minute. He's bringing us coffee from Allende down the street."

Lito nodded and pulled out his own phone, which he had silenced during the interviews with the police. As he thumbed it on, his eyes widened at a slew of texts from both his agent and Cristina.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?

WHAT'S GOING ON? THEY'RE SAYING YOU WERE JUMPED BY A GANG IN MY BUILDING?

I HAVE CRISTINA BLOWING UP MY PHONE TRYING TO GET YOU. WHAT DID YOU DO?

HOW? HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO GIVE ME AN EXCLUSIVE THAT YOU'RE GAY AND THEN FIGHT OFF A DOZEN MEN? WHO IS GOING TO BELIEVE ME IF I TELL THEM YOU'RE GAY?

THE PRODUCERS ARE ALL OVER ME! IS THIS GOING TO TAKE YOU OFF THE SET AGAIN?

YOU'D BETTER GET BACK TO ME AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF NOW!

The last text included a link to a YouTube video. One of the witnesses had uploaded it over two hours ago and it already had over eight thousand hits.

Daniela saw his expression and turned the phone to read the messages. "Oh, no. Cristina's not backing out on you! She knows Wilson Cruz and Ricky Martín! Or Christian Chávez! And nobody would dare say Orlando Cruz can't fight!"

Lito looked up at her in confusion. "Orlando Cruz? Since when do you follow boxing?"

She shrugged. "I get around. Let me handle her. You get in touch with your agent."

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Capheus stretched out on the bed in his hotel room. Kabaka had taken an entire floor of a luxury hotel for them and he had his own room, with a lovely view of the city. He reached for Kala and gently brushed at her with his awareness.

She walked over to the window. "Very nice. This will be beautiful after the sun sets."

"I think I have a way for us to meet. I will tell everyone of this wonderful restaurant I heard being described by a couple of people in the airport."

"Really?" Kala's eyebrows rose in amusement. "You speak Hindustani?"

"No, but there were people speaking English and I know that."

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He looked curiously at her workstation, with its collection of glass beakers and tubes. Kala and her co-workers were busy putting things away for the night. She slowed down and let the others move toward the locker areas where they stored their belongings.

Once she was alone she spoke. "All right. So you tell me when you all are coming and I drop by just in time to help the servers with an unexpected large group?"

"And I excuse myself to the restroom at some point."

"I think that will work. Is tonight too soon?"

"Probably, but I will propose the idea and let you know."

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"How did you do that? Wolfie, you fucking bastard, how did she do that?"

Will jerked at the shout from an unfamiliar voice upstairs. He groped for his earbuds and jammed them in, scrambling to play something on the iPad loudly enough to drown it out.

Riley was there in an instant, leaning over him. "It's okay, I'm working on it!"

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She leaped from her chair, shushing Felix. "Quiet! Don't shout! At least don't shout names or anything about where we are!"

Felix looked at her crossly and tried to sit up, fuming that he couldn't jump up as she did. "Why not?" Wolfgang appeared from the stairs and he asked again, "Why the fuck not?"

"Because of how our connection works…and because we're being hunted."

Felix allowed Riley to guide him back to his pillows, but flung the open lock at Wolfgang, who caught it easily. "Who's hunting you?"

Riley sat again and looked at Wolfgang, who nodded at her. "You tell it. I can help when you want me to."

She drew a deep breath. "There is a group of us. I don't want to give too many details, just in case they catch you, somehow. There's me and Wolfgang and the girl from India. There are more and that's all we're going to say about that. We can speak each other's languages, use each other's skills. If we let ourselves stop concentrating on our own surroundings, we know what the others are doing. We can experience what they see and hear, smell and taste and touch."

Felix looked over at Wolfgang, who just shrugged.

"You really expect me to believe this shit?"

Riley tilted her head at him. "How did I open your lock?"

"Wolfgang told you the combination and how sensitive it is!"

Riley started to protest and realized that Felix was still thinking in terms of telepathy. "All right. What would convince you? If Wolfgang's specialty is opening locks, let's get one you know I haven't seen."

"I don't know how we can do that," Wolfgang interrupted. "I'm the only one who should be going out right now."

Riley scowled, refusing to give up yet. "What about downstairs? There were bicycles – did they have locks? Felix, would you believe us if I went and got one and opened it without Wolfgang in the room?"

"Why is it all about locks?"

Felix's question stopped them both and Wolfgang and Riley looked at one another. Wolfgang looked thoughtful. "He's right. It doesn't have to be locks."

"Well, we can't demonstrate from me. All I can do is spin records."

Felix looked interested at that. "You're a DJ?" She nodded. "That sounds like fun."

"It … it was."

Wolfgang put a hand to her shoulder. "Don't say that. We're going to figure this out."

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Will watched as Riley flung her hands in the air. She started pacing across his room. "Why won't he believe us?"

He stood and intercepted her, putting soothing hands on her shoulders. "It'll be okay. We'll figure it out. You can have Wolfgang do something with computers or martial arts without giving any details about Nomi or Sun, something like that. I would tell him about BPO – there's enough online to show him it's a real place. That might help."

Riley nodded and they leaned into one another for comfort.

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Lito watched the video again, showing him move like flowing water as he methodically took out the attackers. The volume was faint, but he could hear the tones in his voice change as Wolfgang, then Will instructed Daniela. What the hell do I do now?

Nomi sat next to him. "Let me see."

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Lito leaned over her shoulder as her fingers began flying across a keyboard. "Okay, the original video is down and that person's ISP has a temporary ban on reloading it. It'll take me a little while, but I'll track down any reposts. Amanita can keep an eye on Instagram and Tumblr for me. Bug, you're monitoring Facebook and Twitter."

"I am?"

"You are. Lito, give me any probable search terms besides your name."

Bug looked at Amanita. "Who's Lito?"

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"Lito. Lito Rodríguez. Tino or El Caído or both."

Daniela looked up from her phone. "What are you doing?"

"If you were trying to find this video, what else would you search?"

She pondered, then gave a few more names of popular characters in his résumé. Lito repeated them.

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Nomi jotted down the names Lito gave her. "Okay, cycle through these search terms. Limit your searches to the most recent option, not over four hours old. Bug, wipe out every instance of the video. And any related pictures. Neets, if you find anything, get one of us and we'll take care of it. If we're lucky it won't take more than an hour."

"Roger." Amanita began typing immediately.

Bug looked from one to the other. "Can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on?"

"I'm saving a friend's ass. Details later."

He huffed, but sat down and began.

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Daniela charged through the receptionist's office before she could do more than yell and barreled through Cristina's door. The reporter was on her mobile, insisting to someone in English that yes, she had seen the video and no, she didn't know why it had suddenly disappeared from YouTube. She disconnected and flung the phone down.

Daniela hesitated for one instant after hearing that the video was down. Cristina looked up at her crossly. "What do you want?" Then she realized just who had come in and switched back to Spanish. "Oh, Miss Velázquez! I'm sorry, it's been such an afternoon—"

"Don't kill your story about Lito. Just because he was able to fight off an attack does NOT mean he lied to you about being gay. Think about Orlando Cruz! Think about—"

"I'm not going to kill the story! But I have to figure out how to approach it now. The video is already gone from YouTube and the photos are disappearing even as I refresh them! Someone is clearly erasing this from the Internet and I don't know who! Lito's agent doesn't have the connections to do something like this and he'd rather have the publicity anyway."

Dani glanced at her phone, confused, and tried refreshing the video on her own phone. She blinked at the takedown notification. "That's…quick."

Both of them jumped as voices rose in the reception area. Cristina stood up as a young man barreled in despite the receptionist trying to grab him and insist he wait.

"What is it, Emilio?"

"My video of Lito Rodríguez! It got taken down and now I can't reload it! It says I have a 24-hour ban on my YouTube account!" He waved his phone at her in frustration, showing the message in the app.

Daniela leaped forward like a gazelle and snatched it from his hand. Emilio wailed but the receptionist was still clinging to his arm and slowed him down. Daniela dodged behind Cristina and quickly jumped to his photo files and deleted the video.

Cristina convinced the receptionist to let Emilio go and steered her back to the door. "Go get yourself a coffee and lock the main door behind you." The receptionist sped out, glad for the excuse to leave.

Daniela moved behind Cristina's desk and tossed the phone at its owner. Emilio looked at his photo files and turned red with anger. "You bitch! You fucking bitch! You deleted it!"

Cristina stepped in. "Emilio, pull yourself together! You shouldn't have been filming that in the first place, you should have been calling the police! They would have taken your phone as evidence anyway. This way you don't have to get another one."

As Cristina continued to try and soothe Emilio. Daniela whipped her own phone out and texted Lito.

CRISTINA STILL DOING STORY. GOT LUCKY AND GOT THE PHONE WITH THE VIDEO LONG ENOUGH TO DELETE IT. ALREADY YANKED FROM YOUTUBE.

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Lito read the text and laughed aloud as Hernando approached, a coffee cup in each hand.

"What's so funny?"

Lito held up the phone, showing Hernando the text. Hernando sat down next to him, still with a coffee in each hand, and looked at his partner with a nearly awestruck expression.

On Lito's other side, Nomi did not bother to hide her smugness.

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Amondi listened in as Capheus suggested a local restaurant described in rapturous tones by a pair of travelers in the airport. She immediately demanded that they go tonight and listed her reasons.

"First, the doctors could tell you to keep me in hospital before the operation and I wouldn't be able to go. I'd have to eat nasty hospital food." As she said that, Capheus winced, realizing that this was the voice of experience speaking.

"Second, if it's as good as they say, we'll want to go back as often as possible. So we should start tonight. And third, if we don't like it we get it over with."

Kabaka laughed and swept his daughter into a hug. "Very well, my light. We'll need to reserve three cars to carry everyone. I'll ask downstairs about calling and warning them we're coming."

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As Kala arrived home from work, her sister pounced on her. "Thank goodness you're home! I need you to do me a huge favor! Papa called and said he needs me to come in and waitress – he got a call about a party of twelve wanting to have dinner at seven and I had plans with Veda and Anjali. Please, can you go?"

Kala made a show of rolling her eyes and protesting. "Really? I've been at work all day. Today was your easy day with only two classes."

"Please? I promise I'll owe you!"

Well, that could be very useful if I need her to cover for me. "All right, but you owe me a serious favor."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Just let me get changed, all right?"

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Sun followed the guard to the meeting room and smiled slightly as her lawyer rose and bowed to her. "Ms. Bak."

She bowed in return. "It is good to see you. What news do you have?"

"You will be released from solitary and returned to your original cell tonight. Everything will be arranged for you to appear in court tomorrow morning at ten. The judge will be reviewing new evidence and I expect that you will be released immediately. At worst, you will spend tomorrow night here and leave the day after."

"That is excellent news. What has happened?" Sun was reasonably sure she knew, but wanted to know what the lawyers had.

Nomi planted her hands on the table, leaning over them and grinning like the proverbial cat that had ingested a canary.

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Sun leaned over Nomi's shoulder as she pulled up various records showing what she had done. Getting the death of Sun's father re-labeled as suspicious instead of a suicide. Tracking and highlighting new fraudulent activity by Sun's brother or his associates. It all added up to a clear picture that at most, Sun was not alone in the fraud.

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Sun tuned back into what the lawyer was saying.

"…so I think the judge will have no choice but to release you. The police will want to question you again. Please do not speak to them without me."

"Of course. Thank you."

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Kala arrived ten minutes before seven to find her father frantic. "Kala! It's lovely to see you! Please, have you see Daya?"

Kala put on an air of impatience. "Yes, and she begged me to come help you out. She had plans she didn't want to break."

Sanyam threw his hands in the air. "That girl! No loyalty to the family!" He reached under the counter and pulled a folded apron from the pile. "Well, I will not turn down your help. We got a reservation for a dozen people and they should—" He looked up sharply and gasped. "They're here! Niraj, Basu, quickly! Set the tables together!"

As her father swept forward to welcome the party, Kala began tying her apron. Her eyes sought out Capheus, who was hanging back in the group, and he smiled back at her. She assembled a tray of glasses and brought them over, carefully setting them at each place. Niraj, one of the younger waiters who had his eye on her sister, followed with the pitcher of iced water and leaned in. "So, where's Daya tonight? I have a major test to swot for – I would have traded shifts if I'd known she wasn't going to be here."

"She had plans," Kala replied in a severe tone, hoping to cut off any more conversation. She noticed Capheus leaning in to speak to the oldest woman in the party and move toward the back of the restaurant. He paused and looked around, and Basu pointed him down the correct hall.

Kala finished setting out the glasses and returned the tray to the bar. She caught her father's eye as he distributed silverware and tilted her head toward the back. He nodded but flapped one hand to signal that she should not dawdle. She went down the hall, just past the doors to the restrooms, and slipped into the storage room that held linens and extra chairs. Keeping the door cracked, she watched for Capheus.

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Capheus emerged from the restroom and started back up the hall toward the dining area. As he passed a door, it opened a crack and Kala hissed, "In here!"

He slipped in and closed the door behind him. As he turned, ready to warn Kala about the experience that Riley and Wolfgang had undergone, she gasped, "It's so good to finally meet in person!" and jumped forward, her arms going around his neck.

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Mother…father…sister…family…

The panic of losing his mother in the crowd was balanced by her gratitude in overhearing her mother defend her.

The agony of leaving her sister with the nuns was balanced by his ecstasy at seeing the festival crowd through Ganesh's eyes.

The taste of his father's cooking…

The patience as her mother listened to her babble…

The building frustration as his parents encouraged him into the engagement…

The fear as she cared for her mother, fighting to supply her with the necessary medications…

Kala managed to let go of Capheus as the flood of sensation passed, but her legs wavered. He held her up until she was steady.

"What was that?" She demanded in a frantic whisper.

"That was…what happens when we meet face to face."

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Author's Note: Thank you for reading!