Determinant: a gene or other factor that determines the character and development of a cell or group of cells in an organism.

Chapter 38: Ten Years Gone - Holding On

Mitch's homecoming is delayed by the discovery of a new plot by the Shepherds that threatens to tear their newly reunited family apart.

Mitch was gone when Jamie woke up, but she didn't panic. Evidence of his presence was all around, from the towel still in a lump on the floor to the depression of his head on the pillow next to her. In the days after his disappearance, she'd had more than a few mornings where she'd opened her eyes, expecting him to be right there in bed, only to be crushed under the despair of the truth. As time wore on those mornings grew more infrequent, until life without him had become her new, terrible normal. She'd learned a long time ago how to distinguished between reality and her brain's hopeful daydreams, and waking up on the plane in scratchy sheets definitely wasn't something her brain would conjure.

Her wardrobe was woefully sparse - just the outfit she'd been wearing the night she'd met Logan at the hangar and a few things Rami had given her. Even her sleep shirt had been borrowed - one of Clem's that the girl had packed hastily for her trip to Germany. She pulled it off of her, slipped on her own clothes and ran her fingers through her hair to tame it. The shorter cut was easier to manage than the fiery mane she'd sported since she was in her early twenties, and it certainly made her morning routine shorter. She glanced in the mirror briefly, then looked at the clock.

They'd been in the air for almost nine hours now, which meant they would be in Montenegro in a short while. She needed to track down Mansdale and find out exactly where he wanted to land, then she'd go find Mitch. She guessed he was probably with Clem getting caught up, and despite the longing she felt to glue herself to his side and never let him out of her sight again, she knew he needed those moments to reconnect with his daughter. There would be plenty of time for them when they went home, but Clem was still working on her degree and Jamie knew it was important for Clem to finish. She would likely return to school as soon things settled down.

Mansdale was lounging in the cockpit of the plane, or what had once been the cockpit. It looked more like a breakfast nook now with a bench seat under the large windshield and a small wooden table that had been bolted to the wall and floor.

"You look comfy," Jamie remarked as she leaned against the open doorway.

He shot her a smug smirk and laced his fingers behind his head. "I'll be even better in a few hours when we land."

"I wanted to talk to you about that. Do you know where we need to go? I just put in the first city that came up on the flight path list, but if there's somewhere specific you want to go…"

"I don't care, so long as I'm inside the border. I'll figure out the rest when I get there."

"What about fuel? We'll need more to get back to the states." She purposefully didn't phrase it as a question, wanting to impress that Mansdale owed them that much at least. He probably didn't; he'd brought Mitch back from Pangaea with him, helped her rescue him from Siberia and even found someone to refuel the plane for her (for free, she added reluctantly). In all likelihood, she owed him, but she would never say it.

"Rami said he'd fill you up one more time," he answered. "He likes you," he added at Jamie's incredulous look. "You remember how to get to his place?"

"I think so. The more pressing question is what the hell do I do with the plane once we get home?"

Mansdale shrugged and laid his head back against the bulkhead. "Not my problem."

It was a curt dismissal, and Jamie left him to his thoughts with barely an eye roll at his antics. She wandered in the direction of the kitchen, knowing that she'd find Mitch and Clem either there or in the lab. They were laughing about something when she walked in, and she smiled at Mitch when he looked up at her. He gestured to the seat next to him, as well as the steaming mug of coffee sitting on the table there. It was such a disgustingly normal domestic thing to do that Jamie couldn't help but kiss him as she took her seat.

"Oh God," Clem groaned. "It hasn't even been twelve hours yet, guys. Can you save the lovey stuff until after we're home?"

"Nope," Mitch said happily, reaching for Jamie's free hand. "I've got nine years of lovey stuff to catch up on." Jamie's heart fluttered as he lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles, earning another groan from Clem.

Jamie cleared her throat and took a sip of her coffee, unsurprised to find it sweetened the way she used to like it. She took her coffee a bit more bitter these days but bit down on the comment that sprang to her lips, unwilling to remind Mitch again just how long he'd been gone. Clem picked up the conversation, easily continuing where she'd left off when Jamie had come in. She was telling Mitch about her high school senior prank, and Jamie found herself grinning at the memory as Clem told the story.

"We were the class of '23 right? So we rounded up twenty four chickens from Sam's farm and put bandanas on them with numbers one through twenty five, skipping twenty three. The teachers had rounded up all of them by lunchtime, but no one could find the one with twenty three on its back. So they dismissed us all early and spent the rest of the day searching the school for a chicken that didn't exist."

Mitch tilted head back and laughed with Clem. "That's pretty good. I think my class did something, but I wasn't a part of the 'in crowd' so I can't really say what it was. Jamie?"

Jamie swallowed her mouthful of coffee and cast her memory back to her senior year of high school. "I, uh…"

"Oh, come on!" Clem begged. "Please?"

Jamie sighed. "It was a tiny town in rural Louisiana," she told them. "Our graduating class was in the low double digits. We didn't have enough people to pull off a really big prank. I think a few of the boys let their goats out onto the football field, and some of us filled the principal's office with balloons. That was it."

"That's pretty good," Mitch said. "Good," he repeated, his tone now oddly distant. Jamie turned quickly to see his brow wrinkled in confusion. "Good…good...pretty..."

"Mitch?" Jamie's heart pounded as she shoved her chair away from the table and stood. Mitch reeled back in his own chair, his body listing to one side like he was dizzy. Jamie reached out to steady him, bracing him against her own body as she reached for his pulse. It was racing.

"Dad?" Clem had come to his other side, her eyes wide and fearful. She glanced at Jamie for answers, but Jamie didn't have any.

"Mitch?"

"Pretty good," he repeated one last time. His whole body shivered once, and he shook his head softly as his eyes refocused.

"Oh God," Clem whispered. "Is he having a stroke?"

"Mitch?" Jamie crouched down to look in his eyes. "Mitch are you okay?"

"Yeah," he breathed out heavily. "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay," he repeated, looking up at Clem. He stood on shaky legs but regained his footing as he marched over to the counter where a clear bowl of M&M's sat. Clem had already picked her way through them, leaving only two colors.

"It's not a stroke," he told them, "but it is brain related." He dumped the candy out onto the counter and separated them into two piles. "I can talk for now, but we've got to move quickly because the brain is like a pinball machine. One area gets stimulated, it affects another." He finished his sorting and pointed to each pile in turn. "Blue, and those are red., right?"

"We need to get you to a hospital!" Jamie tried tugging on his arm but he shrugged her off.

"Just answer my question, please," he snapped. "Red and blue, yes?"

"Yes."

"I think there's pressure on the speech center of my brain," he explained. "I've got to find out what's causing it." Pressure in any part of the brain wasn't good, and Jamie felt her heart skip a beat. She'd just gotten him back; she couldn't lose him now. "We need to get in there," he concluded.

Clem balked. "What do you mean 'get in there?'"

"I mean get in there," he pointed to his temple.

Jamie weighed the options. They could continue to Montenegro and find a doctor, hopefully one skilled and knowledgeable enough to help. But if there was pressure in his brain, it could likely burst at any moment, or start pressing on other parts of his brain and cause some serious damage. They didn't have hours. They might not even have minutes. She made her decision.

She opened drawers until she found what she was looking for - a small handheld drill. "Let's do it."

"Are you really gonna perform brain surgery with that?" Clem cried, her worry and skepticism coloring her tone.

But Mitch just smiled. "That is exactly what we need."

"There's probably some anesthesia in the lab," Jamie told him. "We'll need to use a local so you can stay awake." She tried to squash down the part of her that was screaming inside, telling her to wait and get him to a medical professional. There were so many things that could go wrong, it told her. But Mitch was looking at her proudly - confidently - and she took a deep breath. If he believed she could do it, then she could.

They all went down to the lab, Clem protesting the entire way. Finally Mitch just turned and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Listen, I know this is scary. But if we don't relieve that pressure, I could die before we reach Montenegro." Jamie saw Clem grimace, then her bottom lip trembled once, twice, before she took a breath and nodded. "Good girl. Now I need you to go over there," he gestured to the cabinet in the back, "and find a small halo. It looks like a metal collar about the size of a large cantaloupe with a thumb screw on one side." She went on her task as Mitch turned back to Jamie. "Where's the medicine?"

"I'm not sure," Jamie told him. "I don't know how well Logan stocked the plane."

"Logan?" Jamie heard the sharp disgust in his tone and realized she hadn't yet told him the story of how she'd found him. "What the hell does Logan have to do with any of this? With you?"

"Okay, can we talk about this after I perform major brain surgery with a drill?" Jamie bit back. She knew she had no right to snap at him, that his attitude was justifiable even, but she was already nervous about this whole thing and she didn't feel like explaining it all right now.

"Fine," he growled. "Just start looking." They searched on opposite ends of the lab for a few minutes before he opened the refrigerator. "Ah ha!" he exclaimed. "Here we are." He pulled out the ones he thought they might need and began filling the syringes Jamie had found. She was glad he was doing it; if something went wrong she had no idea how much to give him and she wanted to be ready for anything.

"Found it," Clem returned with the halo and Mitch's smile was thin as he took it from her. With the help of a mirror and Jamie's nimble fingers, they had it around his head and in position in a matter of minutes. He hooked himself up to the monitors and began instructing her on the local anaesthesia and where to inject it as Clem sterilized the drill.

"You can do this," Mitch told Jamie as she donned gloves and took up the syringe. She forced her hands to stop shaking as she placed the tip of the needle on the point Mitch had indicated. She saw him stifle a wince as she slid the needle into his scalp, her thumb depressing just a little to deposit some of the medication. She repeated the action a few more times, each in a different spot on his head, and waited.

"Okay," he said after a few minutes, "poke me with the needle."

"What?"

"Just to see if it worked," he told her. "I don't want you cutting into my head if I can still feel it." She did as he asked, but he didn't respond. "Good. Okay, now grab the scalpel."

"I can't watch," Clem turned away, her voice green and weak. Jamie ignored her, took a breath, and made the incision. She bit down on the queasy feeling that rose in her throat and concentrated on the outcome. They were saving Mitch's life, and she could deal with a little blood and gore if it meant she didn't have to watch him die. It bled - a lot - but Mitch told her it was nothing to worry about.

"Head wounds bleed," he explained. "Just wipe it away with that cloth." She did, and then used the halo to pry the flap of scalp away from his skull. It was gray white underneath the flesh, speckled red from the blood she'd wiped away.

"Okay," he looked in the mirror they'd set up so he could watch the procedure. "That's great. Now for the fun part." Jamie set the scalpel down and reached for the drill. "Grab a mask. You don't want to inhale bone dust." She did, tying it behind her head but not yet raising it over her face. "Okay, drill firmly but evenly," Mitch instructed. Jamie wondered how he could be so calm. He was letting someone with zero medical experience drill into his skull, and he was acting like he was walking her through something simple, like changing a tire. "Just until the skull pops, then turn it off. Do not drill too far." She thought she might have heard a quiver of uncertainty in his tone, but his face gave nothing away.

"Until the skull pops," Jamie repeated. "Got it."

Clem scoffed. "Got it. Like this is no big deal."

"Hey," Mitch called. "Come here." Clem shuffled over, every line her body tense and fearful. "This is gonna be fine," he assured her. "Tell you what. When it's all over, since you're an adult now, we'll go have a beer."

"I already had my first beer when I was fourteen."

Mitch grimaced. "Not a fan," he shot at Jamie. "You gave a fourteen year old a be -" The monitor Mitch had hooked himself up to began beeping rapidly, and Jamie could see he was struggling with the words.

She shouldered Clem out of the way and fastened the mask over her mouth and nose. "We need to do this now."

She pulled the trigger on the drill and raised it to his head. She had expected her hands to shake more, or for her stomach to quell, but faced with the real possibility that he could die right there in front of her steadied her mind and body in a way that nothing else had. She kept her eye on the screen, at the bright image of Mitch's skull and the brilliant brain beneath it. She could see the drill where it pressed into the bone, feel the vibration as it worked beneath her hands. It didn't take long, and the moment the drill penetrated his skull she cut the power and pulled the drill back, looking at Mitch expectantly.

There was silence for the span of two heartbeats, three, then, "Good." The sound of his voice released the tension in her shoulders, and she set the bloody drill aside and grabbed the small video camera attached to a wire. On another screen, Jamie saw the lab through the lens of the camera, and as she grabbed the wire the image moved rapidly to keep up.

"Here we go," she told him. She slipped the small end into the hole she'd created and carefully pushed it forward. The screen displayed the sickly gray matter of Mitch's brain, and she heard Clem take a deep breath as though fighting a wave of nausea.

"Okay," Mitch's eyes were also on the screen, and he directed her to the area he wanted. "To the left," he said. "A little bit left." She moved the camera. "Your other left," he drawled, zeroing in on something small and cylindrical. "Right there," he lifted a finger as Jamie settled the camera right in front of it. "What is that?"

Jamie shrugged, but Mitch couldn't see it. His eyes had closed, fluttering under their lids as if in a nightmare. "Mitch?" she called, but he didn't answer. He took a breath, then another, and his eyes opened. "Mitch, say something."

He cleared his throat gently, licked his lips, and spoke in a tone much lower and rougher than before. "Whatever it is, it looks artificial."

"Then let's get it out," Jamie said, reaching for a pair of forceps.

"No," he stopped her with a word. "That's a live current. We don't know what kind of brain damage will occur if we extract it."

Jamie set the forceps down quickly. Brain damage was bad. "Okay," she said. "What do we do?"

He rattled off a list of instructions that sounded ludicrous to her ears, and she'd seen him cobble together some impressive stuff with almost nothing. She left him hooked up to the equipment at his request on the premise that it would be easier if they didn't have to cut him open again. Jamie agreed, but covered the opening with a clean cloth to keep dust and dirt out in the meantime.

Mansdale wasn't happy with their change in plans. "We had a deal," he growled. She saw his fingers twitch and wondered if he would make a grab for the tablet. He didn't, but she could feel the anger rolling off of him in waves.

"Look," she spat, "if we don't land right now and get what we need, Mitch will die."

"Why can't we get those things when we get to Montenegro?"

"We don't have time," Jamie explained, keying in the sequence that would land the plane on a remote stretch of road in southwestern Russia. They were still hours from their destination, and Jamie wouldn't take the chance. "Look, this won't take but a few hours. Fewer if you help."

Mansdale growled again, then sighed. "Fine. What do we need?"

"I'll get the battery and the lollipops. Clem's going to find some velcro somewhere. Which leaves the pig for you."

"A pig?" he exclaimed. "Like a pig, pig?"

"Yep," she smiled. "Any pig will do."

They landed with little fanfare, and Jamie checked on Mitch one more time before they set off on their tasks. He looked like he was resting, but she knew better. There was no way he'd risk going to sleep with a hole in his head and a strange device attached to his brain. She turned to go, scuffing her shoes on the floor, and his eyes opened. For just a moment she saw the fear in them, the terrified thoughts that he had been keeping well hidden from both her and Clem. She offered him a smile, a small one full of promise, and he tried to return it. It didn't quite reach his eyes, but she could see the love and trust he held for her. It was enough to spur her forward, to get the things he needed to make this right so they could finally go home.

It took longer than she'd planned to get everything together, and in the end she'd had to help Mansdale with the pig.

"You couldn't find a smaller one?" she grumbled as she wiped her face, leaving a streak of mud behind. At least she hoped it was mud. The pig squealed in protest as Mansdale slipped a rope around its neck and the two humans began shoving it toward the truck.

"You wanna complain or help?" Mansdale shot back.

"I can do both," she smirked. "Okay, here we go. One, two, three." They lifted the animal into the rear space of the SUV. The pig scrambled for purchase on the slick surface and finally fell over on its side. Jamie felt bad, but if it saved Mitch's life then it didn't matter. Still, she hoped he could do whatever it was he was going to do without hurting the pig too much.

The pig squealed and grunted the entire ride back to the plane. Clem was already back and was speaking in low tones to her father. At their entrance, both looked up with matching expressions of curiosity.

"Don't ask," Jamie said firmly, leading the pig over to the cage next to Mitch. Mansdale shut the door and locked it before turning to Jamie expectantly.

"Well?" he asked, obviously ready to get back in the air.

"When we're done," Jamie barked. "Go find something useful to do."

Mansdale snarled and stalked away. Jamie wondered how long it would take him to get tired of the delays and just leave. She hoped it was sooner rather than later. She turned back to Mitch with an eyebrow raised in question, her meaning clear. What's next?

"The pig's brain structure is similar to a human's," he said once they'd rigged up everything according to Mitch's instructions. "So by connecting it to mine, we can flash the device and make it safe for removal."

Clem looked around at the pig, the battery, the cables and the velcro. "So I kind of understand all this other stuff, but why the lollipops?" She held up the bag.

Mitch reached for them eagerly. "Oh, those are for me," he said happily. "For after."

Jamie laughed. "Let me go get some sedatives." She wasn't going to expose the pig to any more pain and distress than it had already been through. The procedure Mitch had explained might kill it anyway, but she couldn't bring herself to do it to a still conscious animal. That would just be cruel. She heard Clem pick up her conversation with her father as Jamie walked away, but they were too far away to hear what they were saying.

It took almost half an hour to set everything up just right. Jamie checked and double checked that everything was exactly the way Mitch had described. All that was left was for her to complete the circuit.

"Okay," he said finally. "Connect the cables to the battery. It'll engage."

Jamie grabbed the jumper cables and connected them, black first, then red. The device whined, powered up, then sparked. The battery popped loudly and Jamie shielded her eyes for a second before quickly grabbing the clips off the posts. She glanced at Mitch but he seemed fine, then her eyes fell on the screen that was connected to the tiny camera still in his head.

"Well that's not good," she said. "The current just exposed it." She leaned in for a closer look, hoping it wasn't what it looked like. But what lay underneath his brain matter and the small tube was undeniable. "It's a bio-drive," she spat. "It's Shepherd technology."

"How do you know?" Mitch asked.

"Because I spent enough time on the Shepherd sites to know what one looks like. The guy who created it...he's a nasty piece of work. Last I heard he was serving life in prison for crimes against humanity."

"Okay, well, let's just get it out."

Jamie shook her head. "Any tech they created is dangerous. We need to know exactly what it does before we get it out of you. And I know just who to ask." She stalked away from him purposefully, resisting the urge to just yell for Mansdale.

"You know I can't go with you, right?" Mitch called after her, but she kept going.

She found him in the nook at the front of the plane, but rather than his easy going demeanor from earlier, now he was surly and unhelpful.

"You know, this wasn't part of the deal," he snarled.

"Deal's changed. You want a flight to Montenegro? Help us."

"I have helped you. I have done nothing but help you since the moment you let me out of that cage." He stood up and leaned in, the two or so inches he had on her made him seem larger in the cramped space. "And I'm done helping you until we get to Montenegro."

"How do I know you won't just run off the moment we land?"

"You don't," he straightened. "But the way I see it, you don't have much choice."

Jamie opened her mouth to speak, but a quiet beep from a wall panel in the corridor interrupted her.

"What's that?" Mansdale peered over her shoulder as she inspected the source of the beep.

"I don't know." Jamie reached out and pressed a large button in the center of the screen. It changed instantly to show the exterior of the plane, and several armed men approaching. "That's not good."

"Hunters," Mansdale whispered. "They found us because of you."

"That's really not important right now," Jamie turned from the panel and bolted down the hall. "The outer doors are sealed, but it won't take them long to breach if they brought the right tools. I need to get to Mitch and get him unhooked."

They raced down the stairs to the lab. Mitch turned his head as far as he could without disrupting the equipment.

"What's going on?"

"We have visitors," Jamie said. "Clem!"

"Here!" The girl came out of the conference room. "What's wrong?"

"Hunters," Mansdale barked. "They found us."

"You mean you," Clem shot back. "It's you they want."

"And probably Jamie, too," Mansdale smirked.

"Jamie?" At that Mitch did try to move, but the velcro held him firm. "Why would they want Jamie?"

She began unhooking him from the pig and the battery in an effort to make him more mobile. If the Hunters breached the plane, they wouldn't hesitate to take down anything they deemed a threat to get to Mansdale.

"It's a part of that long story I haven't told you," she said. "Right now I need to get you closed up and out of this chair." But she got no further. The back door that led from the lab to the vehicle bay slid open, and Jamie whirled in surprise. There was no way they could get in that way unless…

"Hello, Jamie."

Unless someone had the code, she finished silently. "Logan." She squared her shoulders. "How are you?"

"Better now that I'm out of that jail cell in Guatemala." He leveled her with a hard stare, then swept his eyes past her and onto the man behind her. "Mitch?" She almost laughed at the expression on his face.

Mitch just stared back blankly. "Logan."

"I heard you were dead."

"Rumors of my death were only mildly exaggerated," he drawled.

"What are you doing here?" Jamie asked.

"Oh come on," he raised his eyes in a muted roll. "You don't think I had a tracker installed on this plane? We've known where you were since you left Guatemala." Jamie's eyes cut over to Mansdale the same moment he glanced at her, and she knew they were thinking the same thing. Rami.

"Mansdale," Logan stepped up and raised his rifle at the other man. "You're under arrest." Three more men stepped out from behind Logan and moved toward the former Shepherd. Mansdale took a step back, then another, ignoring the shouts for him to lay down. Jamie saw the moment he made his decision, winced when he turned to run and gunshots took him down.

"No!" she darted forward to where he lay face down. "Mansdale? Can you hear me?" She could see his dark jacket covered in blood, oozing from three neat holes in his back. She looked up at Logan hotly. "Damn you! I needed him!"

"For what?" Logan's men pushed Jamie away as they collected the body. "Just another Shepherd that got what was coming to him."

"Look, someone put something in Mitch's head, a biodrive. I needed Mansdale to find out just what it is and what it does."

"I can help," one of the men still at the door raised his hand. He removed his mask with his free hand and smiled. His hair was more gray than black now, and his green eyes sparkled with a humor that was incongruous with the situation.

It took her a moment for her tongue to catch up to her brain. "Robin?" She hadn't seen him since he'd dropped her and Mitch off outside the base in D.C.

"The one and only," he nodded. "How are you?"

"Been better," she told him honestly. "You're a part of this?"

"Since the beginning," he affirmed. "You remember what I told you about our Initiative?"

Robin had been a part of a group like the Shepherds, who had been bent on preserving the natural world from the destructive influence of man. But unlike the Shepherds, Robin's group hadn't resorted to attempted genocide. It seems their focus had shifted in the last decade.

"How's Bruce?"

"Dead. He didn't survive the gas." Robin glanced around and finally saw Mitch. "Doctor Morgan, it's good to see you're still among the living."

"Can we save the reunion for later?" Logan snapped. "Jamie, I need to talk to you."

"Not until Mitch is -"

"I will take care of Doctor Morgan and the biodrive," Robin promised. "I'll find out what it is and how to remove it safely. You have my word."

Jamie stared him down for a moment, assessing his intent, but found no deceit in him. Finally she nodded. "Mitch?"

"Is there much of a choice?" he grumbled. "You go have your little powwow with junior. I'll stay here." She could tell he didn't like it, but it was like he'd said. There wasn't much of a choice.

She followed Logan up the stairs to what had once been the lounge. It looked more like war room now with the dark wall paneled with screens and the long table. He set his rifle down on the edge of it and pulled out a chair for her. He took the one next to it.

"Listen," he began, "I don't blame you for Guatemala. I probably would have done the same thing. But I want to tell you - for the record - that I would have helped you get Mitch back."

"I didn't even know he was still alive until Mansdale told me," Jamie said. "Did...did you know?" There was a hard edge to her tone that promise violence, and she saw Logan lean away just a fraction.

"No," he shook his head. "Not really. I had heard rumors of something in Siberia, but I didn't know it was Mitch. I swear. If I had…"

"What," she huffed humorlessly, "you would have told me? We both know you've never really liked him."

"Hey, I'm pretty sure the feeling's mutual," he shot back. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, obviously reining in whatever volatile emotions had bubbled up. When he opened them, he looked calmer, more in control. "I didn't come here to fight. Or even to toss around blame. Like I said, I would have done the same. I came here because I - because we need your help."

"The Hunters need my help?"

"We're not Hunters," he reminded her. "We work for the IADG; like a black ops team," he explained. "We do the stuff that they can't exactly advertise."

"Like kill Shepherds in cold blood?"

"He ran," Logan sniffed. "I'm not going to apologize for taking out one of the Shepherds' ring leaders. We've been after Mansdale from the beginning." He took a breath and slipped a small tablet from the cargo pocket on his leg. He tapped the screen and typed in a code she couldn't see to unlock it. A few more taps, then he laid it on the table.

The image showed a woman, probably mid-twenties, with light brown hair just brushing the tops of her shoulders and a flat smile. "This is Brittany Mason," he said. "We've been tasked to find her and bring her in, but she's eluded us."

"And you want us to find her?" Jamie asked incredulously. "Even if we could, why would we?"

"Because you owe me," Logan said simply. "While I can forgive and forget, my bosses...they're not so enlightened. They wanted me to bring you up on charges for what happened in Guatemala. I convinced them that it wasn't worth the effort, that you could even help us."

Jamie understood what he wasn't saying. "So it's either help you find this woman and arrest her or go to jail? Gee, not much of an option."

"Don't forget about Mitch," Logan pressed. "The IADG would love to hear he's back among the living. I'm sure I can convince my squad that they didn't see him, but only if you help us."

Jamie hated this whole situation. All she wanted to do was take Mitch home and hide away from the chaos of the world. They'd done enough for humanity; they were due some peace after all of it. But fate seemed to have other ideas. At every turn there was another wrench in the plan, another challenge to overcome.

"What will happen to her?" Jamie tapped her fingers on the table just next to the screen. "Brittany. What did she do?"

"She stole something from Reiden Global, something they desperately want back. I don't know what it is, but my bosses want us to find her before they do. A few mercenary teams have already been dispatched; the sooner we find her, the safer she'll be."

Jamie felt her jaw clench at the mention of her old nemesis. They were slowly rebuilding their global empire, clawing their way back from the ashes that Jamie had been sure meant the end of them. But as always, money talked, and Reiden Global had a lot of it. They were once again at the fore of the corporate pack, dipping their greedy fingers in whatever they could. The latest reports said they were throwing their substantial weight behind solving sterilization and contracting with the government. If Reiden wanted Brittany so badly that they were willing to risk being exposed by mercenaries, then Jamie wanted to know what she knew.

"Okay," she said finally. "But I won't lie to her."

"Of course. Just convince her that she'll be safer with us, that we can protect her from Reiden."

"Do you know where she is?"

"Not exactly," Logan tapped the tablet a few more times, switching the screen from the picture of Brittany Mason to a world map. Five blips blinked across the globe, three in North America, one in Mexico and one in Europe.

"She's got resources," Logan explained. "But there aren't a lot of places she could get without our noticing. She's likely still in America, but she has family in Mexico and France. Start with these three," he indicated the red dots hovering over three separate cities in the midwestern United States, "and then head to Mexico. We'll give you as much fuel as you need."

"Commander Hale," a voice called from the hallway. "Robin needs you in the lab."

Jamie jumped up first and beat him out the door, brushing by the young man in black fatigues on her way to Mitch. Robin was removing the halo when she came in, and he gave her a placating smile when he looked up.

"He told me to," he began, indicating Mitch, who was trying to stand. Jamie came up on his side and helped him to his feet, steadying him for a moment before letting go.

"I'm fine," he told her.

Jamie spit questions at a rapid pace, her old reporter skills rearing up in the face of the unknown. "What's going on? What about the biodrive? What did you find?"

"Easy, Jamie," Mitch put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's talk in the kitchen. I need a sandwich."

Robin and Logan followed them, the former rattling off what he'd discovered as Jamie kept a keen eye on Mitch. "The drive in his head is an obsolete one, Biodrive 1142. It was Shepherd tech, designed to network human thoughts to a collective consciousness, but it was a failure."

"Why was it a failure?" Jamie didn't like the sound of any of this.

"Because all of the test subjects died after three months of having the drive put in."

She looked sharply at Mitch. "You took it out, right?"

Mitch grimaced. "Ah, no. There's a little catch to this gizmo," he tapped the side of his head gently. They made it to the kitchen and Mitch started assembling a sandwich as Logan and Robin posted up at the door. Jamie leaned against the counter waiting for the other shoe to drop. When Mitch didn't elaborate, she cleared her throat and called his name gently. He turned to her with a pained expression.

"Robin found the data from the experiments with the Biodrive. Everyone who had the drive removed lost all of their memories. Complete amnesia."

"So if we remove it you forget all of us - me, Clem, your mom, everyone."

Mitch nodded solemnly. "And if we leave it in, it'll kill me."

The information floored her, and she walked over to the table and sank down in a chair. Mitch finished making his sandwich, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and then took the chair opposite her. Logan and Robin busied themselves with something on Logan's tablet as Mitch reached across the table for her hand. She gripped his tightly, tears fighting their way up through the frustration and despair. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't they just have their happy ending? Why did the universe hate them so much?

"Hey," Mitch pitched his voice low to keep the other two from hearing. "We're going to figure this out. Robin found the schematics and put it into sleep mode, so whatever it's supposed to do, it can't. We'll find a way to get this thing out. Okay? "

"Mansdale could have helped us," Jamie swiped the tears from her eyes with her free hand. "If Logan's team hadn't killed him, he could have helped."

"I don't think so," Mitch bit into his sandwich, chewed, swallowed and continued. "See, the program that created this drive was scrapped thirteen years ago."

"Then why did the Shepherds put it in you?"

Mitch took another massive bite and washed it down with a sip of water. "I don't know," he said finally, "but it might have something to do with Blue Diaspora. That's what the Shepherds back in Siberia wanted to know."

"What is Blue Diaspora?"

"I have no idea," he admitted, "but they seemed pretty sure that I did. Robin said this thing connects a human brain to a collective consciousness, so maybe it's something I had access to while I was connected to whatever network they hooked me up to."

"And you can't remember any of it?"

"No," he finished his sandwich and brushed his hands off on his jeans. "But I'm gonna find out."

It felt like too much. Jamie closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, praying that when she opened them this would have all been a horrible dream. But if it were a dream, her mind reasoned, then Mitch wouldn't be here when she woke. No, this was still better. At least she had Mitch now. They could handle whatever the universe threw at them, just as long as they were together.

"Okay," she took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "You should know that Logan wants us to track down someone. Brittany Mason."

She saw Mitch's eyes cloud with a dark emotion at the mention of their ex-friend. Even though he was standing just feet away, Mitch didn't bother to hide the derision in his tone when he answered. "And why would we do that?"

"Because if we don't, I'm going to jail. I ditched him in Guatemala and got him arrested by local authorities so I could steal the plane and come find you." Mitch's eyes bugged out, and she thought she saw a ghost of a smile on his lips, but then it was gone. "Plus he's handling jet fuel, which is stupid expensive."

"Well then, I guess we don't have a choice. Where to -"

He stopped mid-sentence and pitched forward suddenly, his eyes rolling up in his head. Jamie shouted his name, getting Logan and Robin's attention. They came over and helped lower Mitch to the floor as Clem came flying through the door.

"Dad!" She fell to her knees and shook him. "Dad!"

Jamie's heart felt like it was being ripped out. He was dying. That thing in his head was killing him right in front of her, and there was nothing she could do about it. His name burst from her lips in a sob as she clutched his shirt, begging him to stay with them.

"He's okay," Robin said after a few seconds. "He's still breathing. Just blacked out, I think. Too much stress on his brain."

Behind his eyelids, his eyes danced back and forth as if in a dream. He began to stir and Jamie supported his head as he came to.

"Mitch?" she carded her fingers through his hair, noting the slick sweat accumulating around his temples. "Mitch!"

Jamie pushed back on his shoulder to keep him down when he tried to sit up. "I...I remember where I was…" he rasped. "I know where I was when they put the biodrive into my head." Jamie felt his chest rise and fall through a hard breath, and then he was pushing to his feet. "We have to go there."

"Whoa," she grabbed his arm and steered him toward a chair as Clem went for a glass of water. "Easy," she focused on him to keep the tremble from her voice, "you blacked out."

"Mexico," he said. "We need to go to Mexico."

"Kind of a big place," Clem said as she set the glass down on the table. "Any place specific?"

Mitch took a small sip and closed his eyes. "Yucatan," he said after a few seconds. "It's...a small cabin in the north."

"You got a city?" Logan had been hovering at the outskirts, listening intently to everything they were saying. Jamie wanted to throw him off the plane again.

"No, Lionel, I don't," Mitch growled. "But if we go there, I can find it. I know I can."

"Alright," Jamie stood and led the group to the lab. The small device that controlled the plane was still on the table where she'd left it. "We can check out Mitch's thing and then go look for Brittany," she told him. "We'll just have to check Mexico first. And we're gonna need fuel."

Logan didn't look happy, but he didn't argue. "Get us to Ankara," he said. "We'll refuel and resupply there."

Jamie typed in the coordinates and felt the rumble of the engines as they began to power on. She grabbed Mitch's arm and helped Clem get him to a jumpseat for takeoff as Logan and Robin went in search of the rest of their team.

"Do you think it's a great idea to bring him along?" Mitch jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the retreating Logan.

"Maybe he'll hop off in Turkey," Jamie said hopefully. "If not, we'll figure something out."

"You could always just throw him out of the plane again," Mitch joked sleepily, his energy finally draining from him like a battery slowly losing power.

Clem's head whipped around toward Jamie with an incredulous expression. "What?"

"He had a parachute," Jamie defended, not bothering to give her the rest of the story. "Get strapped in." She waited until Mitch had buckled his shoulder harness securely before she took the seat next to his. "Next stop, Ankara."