Vance's personal project

[Jordanna]

"Let's don't drag him into it." Vance sobered. "Speaking of which, what's the Boy Wonder doing to help our problems?"

[skybright]

Daws shrugged. "He's set up a bank account for people to donate to helping the Spooks relocate -- a lot of the startup money is his own cash, too. And he's gonna see about getting a line on real estate possibilities -- maybe finding them someplace they can rebuild on. He's been doing a lot of PR stuff, too -- talk shows and debates, stuff like that. Trying to soothe all the anti-mutant backlash. I dunno how well that last is working -- but it's better than nothing, I suppose."

[Jordanna]

"Hmm." Vance tapped the ashes from his cigar into an empty saucer. "I'm kinda curious how Tiernan would explain the whole thing to him. If he'd claim innocence about the attack, or come out and tell Cole he ordered it--and if so, how he'd justify it to a politician he thinks he's got in his pocket."

[skybright]

Daws shrugged thoughtfully. "It's an interesting question -- but so far as I know, us and the Spooks are the only ones who know it was Tiernan. If Cole were to go askin' about it, I get the feeling Tiernan'd be more interested in who was giving Cole ideas than in explaining or denying anything."

[Jordanna]

"I wasn't saying Cole oughta ask about it. But Tiernan's supposed to be The Great Mutant Philanthropist, after all. It'll be kinda hard to ignore a humanitarian crisis in his own backyard--at least not without people noticing." Vance grinned rather wickedly. "I wonder if it wouldn't be just possible to make Tiernan help pay for the mess he made himself."

[skybright]

Daws answered Vance's wicked grin with one of her own. "I bet Cole could hit 'im up in just the right way, at that. Particularly if there was a little press brought to bear on the situation, too." She chuckled. "Have I ever told you that I love the way you think sometimes?"

[Jordanna]

"Probably just when I think along your lines," Vance retorted with a grin. "Putting the screws to Tiernan might not be a total fix, but it'll be a lot more than we can do on our own."

[skybright]

"It certainly will." Daws rubbed her hands together briskly. "I'll drop the idea by Cole the next time I talk to him."

[Jordanna]

"Good." Vance poked at his coffee again, looking frustrated. "I wish I could get out there and put my hand to some of this work myself. Just sitting around here is killing me."

"You can still barely do anything more than sit," Miriam retorted.

[skybright]

"Give it some time." Daws said calmly, "It won't be all that long before you're back to your old self, and you know how our life goes -- there'll still be plenty that needs doing then."

[Jordanna]

"I hate down time," Vance muttered.

Miriam gave Daws an exasperated look. "You see what a model patient he's been. Henry and I couldn't get Handy and the rest of the troops to break up their council of war and get out of here until after midnight."

"Well, we got things settled, for a while at least," Vance countered. "The boys have got a plan to go on until I can take charge again. Handy can be pretty good at managing things when he has to."

[skybright]

"All your boys are pretty skilled at handling what needs done." Daws agreed, "They'll do all right with their end of things until you're back on your feet."

She shrugged laconically. "Speakin' of which -- I suppose the sooner I get started on my end of things, the better." She dug her pocket notebook and a pen out of her coat and slid them over to Vance.

"I could use Doris' maiden name, whatever last address you had for her -- and anything else you think could be useful."

[Jordanna]

"You're gonna hate me for this. Her maiden name was Smith." Vance pulled the notepad closer and began scrawling the relevant details about his ex-wife.

Miriam watched the swaying tip of the pencil, and raised an eyebrow. "Why do I have the feeling we're about to perform another unceremonious deportation?"

[skybright]

Daws shrugged one shoulder. "Vance's ex. It's better to get her out of the country than to let Tiernan get ahold of her." She gave a faint grin. "This keeps up, maybe we should all consider going into the travel-agency business after we finish our guerrilla war."

[Jordanna]

Henry had discreetly excused himself from the room sometime earlier, but now he returned, with an egyptology book in hand. He had apparently arrived in time to hear Daws' explanation to Miriam.

"It's not quite the emergency that Miriam's parents were, is it? If Mrs. Vance hasn't come to Tiernan's attention yet, perhaps you could give her a few days to quietly settle her affairs."

[skybright]

"I don't see why not." Daws shrugged. "Hopefully Tiernan won't catch wind of her before I manage to track her down. I suppose that'll be dependent on how easy it is to find her." She shot Vance a wry look. "There's a lot of Smiths in the state, if she changed her name."

[Jordanna]

"She could've changed it to Gussie Ferguson for all I know." Vance shrugged. "Remember, I've been dead for a while--and we didn't have anything to say to each other for a while before that. What little I did hear then was from Nate... and Deanna."

[skybright]

Daws nodded. "Well, it shouldn't be terribly hard to track her unless she's trying not to be found. People for the most part leave a pretty easy trail to follow when they move from place to place -- change-of-address forms, things like that.

"If she is trying not to be found, though . . ." she shrugged and gave a cheeky grin. "Well, it still shouldn't be terribly hard for me to track her down."

[Jordanna]

"She's got no reason to lay low. She never did." Vance pushed the notepad back toward Daws. "Doris didn't go into hiding over what happened to Deanna and me. She knew it was about me, not her." With a humorless chuckle, he added, "And she probably spat on my empty grave for it."

[skybright]

Daws grimaced as she slipped the notebook and pen back into her trenchcoat pocket. "Not going to be a particularly pleasant meeting for anyone involved, is it?"