There was a knock on my door that broke my stare from my desk, interrupted my thinking, and brought me back to the here and now, made me realize that I had been sitting there, doing absolutely nothing for over an hour.

"Come in," I said, standing up as the door opened.

Eldritch gave me a weak smile, as she stepped into my office and closed the door behind her.

"Hi," she said, as she stood there, hands behind her back, and waited.

"Hi, yourself," I said. "Come on in."

"I'm not staying long," she said, as she walked towards me across my office. "I just wanted to stop by, though, and apologize for Sunday night."

"Don't," I said, walking around my desk and leaning against the front of it. "I was out of line with Weisz. You had every right to be upset with me."

"Not about Weisz," Eldritch said, stopping a few feet from me, hands still behind her back, eyes locked with mine. "About coming at you like I did earlier, when you were trying to get to Ferguson."

I looked away from her briefly, took a deep breath, and looked back to her.

"What you did," I said, holding up my hands a bit, "you thought was in my best interest."

"But, you're right when you say you're a big boy, Jeffery, and that you can take care of yourself. You don't need me or Anna or anyone else telling you what to do in those situations."

"I appreciate that," I said with a small nod.

"I just... I wanted you to know that I'm on your side here, Jeffery," Eldritch said. "You're not alone. You do have friends, and I'd like to be counted among them."

"I really appreciate that, Eldritch," I said. "Where is this coming from?"

"I've just been thinking," she said with a shrug. "About where I stand in this city, in this place. I don't have very many people to turn to, Jeffery. I can do alone, I can do solitary, I did it for years before Churchill, but here, in Pacific City, with you..." She paused, seemed to think about what she was saying. "With all of the New Mages," she continued. "I'm part of something."

"What is that something, though?" I asked, and she looked at me confused. "What are the New Mages, Eldritch? What have we done, as a group or individually?"

"The group's still relatively new," Eldritch said.

"But, it's the lynchpin of Erlend's plan and policies," I said. "So, what are we? What do we really do; what are we really a part of here?"

I pushed off of my desk and turned from Eldritch, walking around my desk and looking out the window.

"Erlend and Anna have their schemes, their plans that they don't want to share. Toss on top of that the Ghostface Legion they lead around, killing anyone they find. Michael's just... Who the hell knows what's up with Millennium Man? Victoria's not balanced, hasn't been for as long as I've known her. I don't trust Weisz one bit." I looked at Eldritch over my shoulder. "And not just for personal reasons. What has he done for this city or the team?"

I turned around to face Eldritch, walked towards her.

"Lin's a child. I don't like that she's part of this, she's too young, she's too vulnerable. And, she has very little concern about taking someone's life."

I stopped close to Eldritch.

"So, that leaves us, Eldritch. And, where do we stand?

"I need to be able to trust you. I need to be able to turn to you and rely on you. And, when the chips are down, I need to know that you're in my corner, Eldritch."

"What are you talking about, Jeffery?"

"I'm talking about this city and this team and where both are heading. I don't like the path we're on now, Eldritch, and I'm going to try and fix that, but I need help. I want to count you among my friends, among the people I can turn to, but I have to know that if it comes to that, if I do need to turn to you, that you will be there for me."

"Are you making a move against Erlend?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Not at all. But, I am making moves he won't like. That he may try to stop and that I firmly believe need to happen if this city is to survive."

"Survive what?"

The Imperial Magistrate returning.

But, I wasn't about to say that.

Not yet.

"Survive life, Eldritch. Day to day. Ferguson shows how ineffective things are currently, that we cannot take care of everything on our own, that something different needs to be done if we're going to avoid a repeat.

"Eldritch, I need to know whether or not you're in my corner. I need to know who I can trust."

"You can trust me, Jeffery," she said quickly.

"You're sure?"

"I'm on your side here."

I stared at her for a few seconds, her staring back, the look on her face dead serious but also curious.

"Okay," I said with a nod.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "What moves are you making that Erlend won't approve of?"

"I'm going for Dean Williams tonight," I said.

"You know where he is?"

"I know where he will be."

"And, what's wrong with that?"

"He doesn't approve of my means for getting this information," I said, looking away. "Nor would he approve of how I'm going to take him in."

"How's that?"

"Alive," I said, looking her back in the eye and giving her a small smirk.

"How are you getting the information?" she asked, and my smirk faded real quick.

"I can't say," I said, turning from Eldritch and going around my desk.

"So, you're asking for me to trust you, but you're going to hold out on me?"

"This is something I can't discuss, Eldritch," I said, looking to her. "Or, I lose it. And, I can't afford to lose this information, not now, not when I'm so close to getting this sonofabitch."

"Will you tell me afterwards?"

"If I can, yes," I said with a nod. "The moment I can tell you, I will."

She stared at me for a bit, seeming to decide whether or not that would suffice, but then she nodded, accepted it for what it was worth, and that was that.

"So, when are we going after him?"

"We?"

"Jeffery," said Eldritch, planting her hands on my desk and leaning toward me. "You ask if I'm in your corner, if I've got your back, if you can trust me. So, trust me when I say yes on all counts. I'll help you."

"Not on this," I said, shaking my head.

"Damn it, Jeffery," she said, pushing off of my desk. "Make up your goddamn mind."

"I want your help, Eldritch," I said. "In the long run. With the big things. Yes. But, on this, right now, I just need your trust and for you to back me up if the shit hits the fan."

"But, I can't help you keep the shit from hitting the fan?"

"You can help me best by not being involved," I said. "Not yet."

"This trust thing, Jeffery, it's got to work both ways."

"It does..."

"Then, why are you cutting me out?"

"Because I have to," I said. "For now. But just right now."

"Jeffery..."

"I could have not said a word to you about it, Eldritch. Just by saying what I have, I'm trusting you, all right? I can't do much more than that right now. Not yet. Just, please, let me take care of this."

She threw up her hands and shook her head, as she turned away.

"Fine, Jeffery," she said.

"Eldritch, please..."

"Just don't get yourself killed," she said, as she opened my office door.

And, she slammed it behind her.

That could have gone better.

***

"You're taking him down in a nursing home?"

"Outside of it ideally," I said. "And, hopefully that'll cut back on his wanting to go nova if we don't time this right."

"Go nova?" asked Isiah Rowe, as he looked up from his burger and fries.

"Blow up."

Isiah shook his head, as he picked up his burger and tore in.

"The only thing I'm worried about," I said, leaning back, tapping my plate with a fry I'd been meaning to eat for the last five minutes. "Well, the biggest thing I'm worried about is how he's going to do this. I mean, ideally the police thought of this, found his relatives, and put a watch out, or told the people working the place to keep an eye open for him."

"So, maybe they police are already casing the place and will pick him up for us," said Isiah with his mouth full, reaching for his soda to wash it down.

"After you do your thing," I said, pointing to him with my fry.

Isiah nodded, as he swallowed.

"Of course," he said.

"So, how close do you need to be to him to do this?" I asked, finally popping the fry in my mouth.

"Depends on how many people there are," Isiah said, as he lifted the top bun off his burger and started picking out the onions he had asked to be left off. "I mean, if it's just him on the street, within eyesight and a block or two should do. The more people, the closer I need to get."

"Will he know what you've done to him when you do it?"

"I'm knocking him out, Jeffery," said Isiah, looking to me. "So, yeah, he'll know."

"Right," I said, nodding, grabbing another fry and eating it.

"So, are we going to wait for him to come out?"

"That's what I figure," I said.

"How do we know he's going to come out the front door?"

"It's the only way out," I said. "Anything else is a fire exit; alarms would go off. He probably wouldn't want to draw that kind of attention."

"Yeah, but, if we see him going for the front door, why don't we just hit him up then."

"The guy's going to visit his mother, man," I said. "I can't just interrupt that."

"The guy killed a hundred and twenty people..."

"And, his mother deserves one last visit from her son, before we put him away for good."

"All right," said Isiah, shaking his head, picking his burger up again. "It's your call."

I finally grabbed my burger and took a bite, as Isiah stared at me.

"What?" I asked with a full mouth.

"You're showing an awful lot of compassion for a man you want to beat the shit out to get a message across."

"It's not for him," I said, then swallowing. "It's for his mom. It's not her fault her son's a mass murderer."

"Maybe it is."

"Just the same, Isiah, I'm not about to keep the guy from his mother when it really makes no difference if we get him before he goes in or once he comes out."

"If everything goes according to plan."

"It will, Isiah, all right?" I looked at my watch.

Two hours to go.

***

The Carriage Hill Assisted Living facility looked like any ol' apartment building in downtown Pacific City. Probably was one at some point, refurbished to become a warehouse of elderly and invalids that families either couldn't handle or didn't want to handle. A place where many were put to die.

I don't like these places.

The block was relatively empty, as Isiah and I walked past on the other side of the street, eyeing the building the whole time.

"How close do you think you need to be for this kinda crowd?" I asked.

"If it doesn't get any busier, a block and a half maybe, though a block would be more preferable."

"How about up there?" I asked, pointing up above us.

"Right across the street?"

"And twenty floors up."

"Yeah, I could pull that off. But, I'd have a hard time identifying him from up there. I could just tuck in there," Isiah said, nodding beside us to the alley we were walking past. "We both could be there, you could point him out, I knock him out, you go make sure he's down and wait for the police."

"I don't want us in the same place on this one."

"Why's that?"

"If I'm spotted ahead of time, this could go south very quick, and I don't want you to get hurt. Here." I fished a GI Joe walkie talkie out of my inside coat pocket and handed it to Isiah.

"Are you serious?" he asked, as he marveled at the camouflage paint scheme.

"It's the best I could do on short notice," I said, pulling another one out of another coat pocket. "They supposedly get a hundred feet outta them, so let's try it out."

Isiah sighed and shook his head, turned around and walked toward the alley we'd gone past, as I made my way across the street and into an alley right next to Carriage Hill.

"All right, you hear me?" I asked into my walkie talkie.

I heard beeping in response.

Morse Code.

And, I was flashing back to being ten and out in Isiah's aunt's yard, walkie talkie beeping directions, as I tried to find my fellow soldier who was pinned down behind enemy lines.

I read the corresponding chart.

T-O-O-L.

"Love you too," I said. "Am I coming in clear?"

"Yeah" was a staticy but still audible response.

"Awesome."

I crossed the street back to Isiah.

"Okay, I'm going to wait in an alley just down the block on this side of the street to watch for him. When I see him going in, I'll point him out and you let me know if you know who I'm talking about. Once we're confirmed on that, I'll cross the street and wait."

"Why not just stay where you are?"

"I want to be closer when he collapses. Don't let others get an opportunity to get to him and all of that. Having to wait for traffic would get in the way."

"Okay," said Isiah.

"But, if you don't know who I'm talking about when he goes in, I'll stay where I am, so I can tell you when he's leaving. Just to make sure of it, okay?"

"Got it."

"Sweet. Now, we wait."

And, we waited.