Whatever Sawyer's intent had been, the travelers learned that he had reported nothing to Backstage Peripheral of his success in vorticing Avatars in to the Antipodes. The Keeper had been left to infer that from perturbations in local mana levels, in reports of setbacks to the Supers, and, lately, in the scanty news of a suspicious embassy from the Centerlands, on its way to see her. But reliable information had been hard to get, especially with the Supers stirred up enough by their reverses, attributed to the Keeper, to break their truce with her and renew the war against Peripheral.
"What?" cried D.J. "When did this happen?"
"Only just," replied Alvina. "From what you've told us of your journey, likely when you were in Entropy."
"Would that explain the sudden attack on us in Op/Ed?" Dabbler wondered. "If the truce had broken down, our safe-conducts would have become worthless."
Alvina shrugged. "All I know is that things started happening thick and fast after that. We barely had time to organize the rescue. In fact, if Dox hadn't tipped us off—"
"Dox?" asked D.J. "The Super in charge of Settings?"
"The same. He's a double-agent for the Underground."
"Though hardly the most reliable," Mary put in. "In fact, I've often suspected him to be a triple agent for his own kind."
"Somehow I'm not surprised," Dabbler murmured.
Captain Nice nodded. "Never did trust that guy," he said. "Fortunately, in my tram work, I didn't have to have many close dealings with him, aside from message bearing."
"Yes," said Mary sadly. "Now that you're suspected, though, we'll have to develop alternative means of linking the Underground cells."
"Surely I wasn't your only go-between."
"No, but you were the most reliable."
Nice couldn't help but look pleased at that.
"So what happens now?" D.J. asked. "Can we still get to Peripheral, or is here—wherever 'here' is—just as good?"
"More to the point, can we rescue Sindy and Diana?" put in Dabbler.
D.J. looked at him reproachfully. "Dab, the mission—"
"Mission be damned, if it means abandoning them! D.J., these are our friends we're talking about!"
"Hardly just friends," murmured JigSaw. Dabbler shot her a dirty look.
"Dabbler," said D.J. slowly. "Have you considered that they may be – lost? Killed in the same attack in which we were captured? After all, if the ninjas couldn't find them—"
"That don't signify," said Stripesy. "The way that operation went we were lucky to snag you guys. We could easily have missed 'em."
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Sat Sep 27 02:31:00 2003
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