Chapter 11

TUESDAY 12:50 P. M. CST News Stand, Chicago, IL

As Mike was just finishing the Irish stew his mom had sent down for lunch, Lannee's voice announced, 'My Lord, we have an intel update for you.'

'Lady Lannee, be welcome and please proceed.'

'We thought it needful to inform you of the lessening of probes in and around the border regions of Illinois. Though there is still minor traffic, two of the major players have ceased operation in those areas. It's as if they simply packed up their gear and headed for home. The only remaining probes look like the gathering of corroborating evidence by organizations based in other parts of the country. We are also getting preliminary reports on the seeming cessation of any ongoing operations across the nation, even though our resources are spread thin in some areas. I will keep you updated on any more developments as they come to light.'

At this, Mike simply shook his head and sent, 'My Lady, I don't even know how to begin to thank you and your people properly. The depth of information you have presented would make spy masters drool with envy. Please make certain that all of your people know how much we appreciate their hard work. Maybe it's time for another warehouse party? What do you think?'

Lannee could feel the blush sweeping over her face as she sent, 'My Lord, please stop. It is our honor to serve and that is the only motivation involved. My people would be embarrassed to death if such a thing were done. Is there anything else I, or Clan Faery can do for you this day?'

'I certainly can't think of anything off the top of my head other than making sure your people know we appreciate them and their efforts.'

'Very well, My Lord. Be well until we speak again, ' Lannee sent while breaking contact.

Mike stood there with a bemused expression playing across his face as he wondered once again, how he had gotten so lucky as to have folks like Lannee helping out.

He then turned his mind to the up coming event and realized he hadn't done anything to boost The Stand's regular order with their suppliers. Whipping out his cell phone, he contacted the suppliers his dad used for: maps and city guides, periodicals and paperbacks, especially romance and fantasy books. The only wrench he tossed at them was guaranteed three P. M. delivery. Of course, the wholesalers were so tickled with this windfall, they said they'd use DHL if they didn't have any 'in-house' trucks available. He then contacted The Sun Times, tripling their order for the early evening edition and leaving this as a standing order until further notice.

After this flurry of communication, Mike started thinking about how dropping a hint of tonight's festivities to Henry's office could go a long way toward quashing any nitpickers after Henry took the Mayor's seat. He then started chuckling over the image in his head of Mayor Henry Donaldson AKA Nostradamus Jr.

Reaching out through the Mage Net, Mike contacted Rick and Alice about his recent thoughts. While Rick was kind of wary about messing around like this, Alice was about to blow a gasket wanting to implement it immediately. She then laid out that passing this off as 'women's intuition' would be the way to make Henry pay attention. Mike just chuckled and gave her his blessing.

TUESDAY 1:30 P. M. CST Crossing Saturn's Orbital Plane, Sol System

By judicious use of impulse generated, delta v bumps, Miklit's pilot had warped their trajectory to three degrees out of the plane of the ecliptic. Miklit was in whole organ agreement with this move, as dodging planets, not to mention the upcoming asteroid field, was not in any top-ten list it was aware of. Of course that didn't keep Pilot's digit from being glued to the Abort key.

As far as the duo could tell it was looking like they had managed to ease into this system undetected and by a stroke of good fortune even the singular Dragon probe that had been recorded by ship's systems, was being passed off as a minor Solar flare. Unknown to the not-so-dynamic duo, this was extremely good news for them.