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assent. "Do you have any ideas how we're going to get out of this mess, Captain?"

"I want everyone working on the series of exercises Lily gave us. She says if we learn them all we have a good chance of being able to live in the world under fairly normal conditions. She thinks the experiment wasn't a failure, that it could have been very successful had we learned the things we were supposed to have learned."

"Does she think Higgens killed the others?" Ian asked bluntly. There was ice in his voice, a merciless sheen to his eyes.

"Higgens is involved, yes, and General McEntire. It looks as if Ranier may be, too, but we have no proof. As soon as we master the shields we'll be able to hunt down the men responsible. Not only are they murderers, but they're traitors to our country," Ryland pointed out. "They have to kill us now. They have no other choice. Don't take your eyes off of Jeff, even for a moment. I'm not losing another man."

"You won't, Captain, not on my watch," Ian said. "And Nico never misses."

"Stay on Jeff, Ian."

"I'm all over him, Captain."

They went back into Hollister's room where the others waited expectantly. "As soon as Nico gives us the go-ahead, we're taking Jeff out," Ryland said. "Tucker, you're the strongest. I want you to carry, Jeff out."

Tucker's teeth were very white as he grinned at Jeff. "Don't worry, I'll handle you like a newborn babe."

Jeff groaned. "I can't believe he's going to make you carry me."

Sam poked him good-naturedly. "I'll make sure he doesn't drop you more than once, surfer boy, although it might fix you right up if you landed on your head."

"You'll take their backs, Sam. I don't want a single hair harmed on that surfer boy's head. I'd have to face his mama." Ryland shuddered.

"We wouldn't be getting cookies anymore, that's for sure," Gator complained. "Nobody makes cookies like Jeff's ma."

"Not to mention"-Jonas Harper looked up from where he was sharpening a four-inch blade with loving care-"he's a chick magnet. Pretty boy Hollister walks down the street and we don't need to look for women, they just follow him around."

Kyle Forbes stretched out his legs and burst out laughing. "That's because he isn't always fondling a knife, Jonas. Women run when you walk into the room."

Sam hooted and jabbed at Jonas with his foot. "Throwing knives doesn't really impress women, Jonas."

"It did when I worked in the circus," Jonas said. "They thought it was sexy."

Jeff tossed his pillow at Jonas. "You wish they thought you were sexy. Didn't your last girlfriend dump beer over your head?"

Laughter erupted. Jonas held up his hand. "That didn't count. She caught me with the Nelson twins sitting on my lap. She totally had the wrong idea."

Tucker retrieved the pillow, incidentally bashing Gator over the head with it as he did so. "That's not what I heard, Jonas. I heard she caught you in bed with the twins."

"That's the way I heard it too," Kyle said, "except the twins were hiding under your bed."

More hoots greeted Kyle's comment. Jonas took it in stride, grinning sheepishly. "You all are full of it. Gator has that hot Cajun blood and Jeff just stands there looking like a doofus and the women faint at their feet."

"I know you didn't just call me a doofus," Jeff said. "You're feeling your oats, Jonas, because I'm stuck in this bed."

Jonas grinned wickedly. "I've been giving it some thought, Hollister. With you out of the way, I might just have a shot at those Nelson twins. Tucker, drop him on his ass out there in the woods, you'll be doing us all a favor."

Kyle raised an eyebrow. Normally an extremely quiet man, a genius with explosives, he entered into the fun to keep Jeff Hollister's spirits high. "Jonas, aren't you forgetting his sisters? You swiped his sister's pictures out of his wallet and you kiss them every damn night. You think either one of those girls is going to look at you if you don't deliver their darling baby brother home safe and sound?"

The pillow came sailing through the air again, smacking Jonas in the back of his head. "You're the one who swiped my sisters' pictures, you perverted knife-wielding nutcase. Don't you even look at my sisters. They're both going to be nuns." Jeff crossed himself, kissed his thumb.

We've got watchers, Rye. And they aren't civilians. Nicolas always spoke in the same low tone. No one had ever