"Carolyn Blaisdell, you get down here this minute." Dear Kermit had added that particular sound byte to her computer and it meant only one thing--a high-priority incoming message. Now the wife of Todd McCall and knowing her father to be dead, Carolyn still jumped at her father's voice. Stifling the still-automatic response, barely dimmed with the knowledge of his demise, "Coming, Dad," she ran for the computer.

Usually the yell meant Kelly needed a sympathetic ear; lately it had come to mean Kermit and Karen needed an emergency babysitter. This was too early on a Saturday morning for either request. Whatever it was, it was a welcome respite from the current chaos, the intermediate result of traditional Saturday chores of a family with child.

It wasn't too surprising that it was from Kermit; but the message was strange: "Call Karen. She needs to talk to you. Should be at the office."

Carolyn puzzled over the message while she dialed the private number for Captain Simms. Was there a problem? Did they have such a fight? Why would they need her?

"Captain Simms." All business, just a shade distracted, as if she were continuing what she had been doing when the phone rang. The serious tone stayed, but the focus shifted completely to the phone call when she identified the caller. "Carolyn? Good. Please come over here now; I need to talk to you. I'll explain when you get here. Yes, it is very important."

"Karen, this is Saturday. We're in the middle of cleaning house and Todd and I have plans later. Couldn't I come in Monday?"

"I wouldn't ask if it weren't necessary. Please, come just as soon as you can."

Her husband was curious, but not worried. "If she had bad news to tell you, she'd have come here herself. You have to go to satisfy our curiosity. Bobby and I will be just fine. Go!" He kissed and then pushed his not-really-unwilling wife out the door. "We'll finish up the cleaning while you're gone."

A few minutes later, Carolyn was weaving her way through the detectives in the squad room. Peter's old partners, Mary Margaret and Jody, were either off today or out on some assignment. The few who knew Carolyn exchanged greetings with her on her way to their Captain's office.

She knocked and opened the door just enough to poke in her head. Captain Simms looked up from her work. Still all business, Simms came to the door to greet Carolyn and escort her to the chair by her desk. Carolyn had left her home curious, but now she was also nervous. Karen was treating this as an official visit. What on earth could she want?

And then Karen smiled. "We both got messages from Kermit this morning." Her smile changed just enough to convince Carolyn that she'd not been called in because of a disagreement between them.

"Yes, but mine only said to call you." Carolyn's curiosity was back in full force.

"Mine said much more than that." The dreamy smile floated for a moment, then suddenly disappeared, and the business air was back. "Carolyn, some of what I'm going to tell you is between us for now; the why will become obvious when I tell you what. I also have to ask you a favor." Karen took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. "Kermit quit the force yesterday."

Her visitor sat up sharply at that. "Quit? Kermit? Why would…? Oh, no!"

"He wouldn't tell me why, just that something had come up and he had to take care of it." She was on her feet now, pacing; anger and frustration permeated the room. "Now I get a message from him--he's in France, with your sister, Kelly." She swerved to face Carolyn, "Did you know Kelly was going to France this weekend?"

Carolyn started at the question and thought for a moment. "Well, she'd told me in her last e-mail--Wednesday, I think that was--that she was thinking of going to Ste. Adele to see if she could find Peter's grandfather. Why, is there a problem?"

"That's a very good question. His message just says that they're both in France. He did say 'Grandfather is well,' so I suppose they're in Ste. Adele with Matthew Caine. He also sent an enclosure, saying you'd know how to read it."

"He did? Now why…" It suddenly hit her…they had talked, not all that long ago, about encryption of messages, and how to decrypt whatever he might send her. "Yes, he's right, Captain." Here in the office, that title seemed more appropriate than the usual 'Karen.' "He taught me how to use an encryption program when he was …when we were…. As part of an exercise we were doing last year." She had come too close to making a reference to something only she and Kermit could know about--her attempts, mostly successful, to decrypt her father's messages, sent after he left home and job.

Shortly after the report of her father's death, Kermit, with her help, had realized that the short electronic letters he had been receiving from her father, his friend, Paul Blaisdell, had had information encoded within them. Kermit had given Carolyn the task of decoding them. She had succeeded but only found a list of locations and a set of names. Kermit had recognized none of the names, and they had yet to come up with an explanation for why they were important.

Simms broke into her reverie. "Part of why I'm telling you this is that before he left, Detective Griffin made a suggestion about his replacement. He said he had been training you to help him. How far did your training go?"

Carolyn started to laugh, and then realized the woman was serious. She stared at her for a moment and then took a deep breath. Speaking slowly, she said, "He did say I was almost as good he was at finding data, but I never thought he'd…" Then, at a more normal pace, "Captain - Karen--you know I can't work the hours your people work. Bobby's too young for me to be gone long; I'm not ready to leave him in day care, and I can't do shift work. I'm not sure I can help you."

Simms nodded her understanding. She found it difficult to leave Holly behind with the nanny every morning, but she was a police officer first, had been a police officer first. Her adopted child came second. However, as a captain, she could keep her hours more normal than she had been able to as a sergeant and lieutenant; this child was not going to be the casualty of her career her first-born had been.

Now Carolyn interrupted her thoughts. Timidly, she suggested, "Could I work part-time? Do some of the work at home? You have an intranet installed here--Kermit had linked me to it for a while last year while I helped him with something."

Simms wasn't certain she was happy about that. "What about security? If you're hooked into us with a phone line, then that makes us vulnerable to any hacker with intent, criminal or just curious."

Carolyn understood her reticence, but she knew something Karen couldn't know. "Kermit and Blake worked out something that Kermit said was safe. They installed a special modem on my computer that could only talk to your computers. I don't understand much about it, but you know how they are about little black boxes."

Karen grinned at that. "I can accept your solution for some of what you do. Some will still have to be done here, if just so the data isn't on your computer. You do understand that, don't you?"

"Sure, and it will be a good excuse to get out of the house sometimes." The two women laughed at that.

Then Simms was all business again. "This message from Kermit did say something about the data being dangerous. I'd rather you work on it here; you can use Kermit's office while he's gone."

Carolyn was not surprised at that statement. Kermit had quit before and had returned. This time might turn out the same. She shook hands with her new boss and strolled over to her new office.

As Karen had told her, there were no signs of Kermit -not even a gummy bear. She turned on the computer and watched it come to life. Good, he had set up the computer in his office exactly the same as hers at home, even to the log-in screen. Now she had to figure out the password. She thought for a few moments and then laughed and typed 'sweetcakes.' It worked. That Kermit! He deserved ice down his shirt, at the least, for that. As soon as she was in, she changed the log-in and password; she knew the value of security.

The new Hundred-and-First Precinct geek, if only part-time, and yet to be approved by the Commissioner--not a problem, according to the Captain--inserted the disk her new boss had handed her with the admonishment to return it before she left the office. The disk contained the enclosure from France. Her new captain had written down the e-mail address that Kermit had used and Carolyn put that information to one side until she needed it.

She was trying to decide what to do next when she was interrupted. Her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her bag and opened it. After a moment's thought, she answered it, "Hundred-and-First, McCall speaking." The thought occurred to her as she spoke that that was a fine way to inform her husband of her new job.

"Hi, Sweetcakes."

Kermit!

He continued, "I figured you'd be there already. Why, you sound right at home. I can't talk long. Do you remember the encryption key we selected, the special one?" He hung up.

She stared at the phone for a moment and then hastily closed and stowed it and turned back to the computer. She started up the encryption program that matched the one Kermit carried with him and entered the decrypt key: Do you remember the encryption key we selected, the special one? It didn't work. Frowning, she counted the letters--there were sixty-four. She reversed the letters, but it still didn't work. Then, typing carefully, she replaced every other letter with its case reversed. This time, it worked.

Well, it sort of worked. Kermit had added a message to another file before he had encrypted the whole thing to send to Simms. "Congratulations, you've gotten this far. Now figure out Rogres' key. Do not talk about this to anyone but me. There are too many people who want this information, whatever it is." It was signed simply, "K. "

Sighing, Carolyn started experimenting with some simple ciphers. They didn't work. Then she tried pattern matching. She forgot about Bobby, Todd, Captain Simms, Kermit.

An hour later, thirst and a full bladder pulled her from her seat. She was amazed to see people in the squadroom. She had been so immersed in her work, her ears had turned off. Having heard no sounds outside her office, she had assumed everyone had left.

They were equally amazed to see her. Those who had seen her enter the Captain's office had left to work on their cases; the people now in the office had not known that Carolyn was on the premises. These were the officers who watched her emerge from 'isn't that Kermit's office', get coffee, and return to the same room.

Captain Simms heard the murmurs and came out of her office. She stood for a moment until she knew she her troops' attention. "We have a new part time employee, Ms Carolyn McCall. She is replacing Detective Griffin who is on leave. When you have a computer search request, you will route it through the Chief or myself. She is working on a special task and is to be left alone. Am I understood? Good." She turned and returned to her work.

With coffee cup full, bladder empty, and attention temporarily diverted, Carolyn remembered her family. She called home.

Todd must have been next to the phone; he answered on the first ring. "Hi, Car, what did Karen want?"

Carolyn kept it short. "She had a special job she wants me to do. I'll explain when I get home."

"Will you be home soon? Bobby misses you and so do I. He says to tell you we've got the house almost done."

She chuckled at that. "Well, give him a hug from me. I love you both."

"Me, too. Remember, Love, our guests are invited for four thirty. Will this special job keep you later than that?"

"I'll be home in plenty of time, Todd. I may have to return to finish this tomorrow or Monday, but I'll stop in another couple of hours. I love you." She hung up and went back to her work. The guilt she felt at leaving so many chores for her husband disappeared as soon as she turned back to the monitor.

"Hmmm, I've tried the easier decryption possibilities," she muttered to herself, "Maybe I should try something far out…" She copied the file to the hard drive and then fired up her disk utilities software. "First, let's see what the file looks like…" She selected that option off the menu and then sat back with a whistle as the text popped up on the screen. "Damn! No wonder the decoders I tried gave me garbage. This is almost readable now."

She could see an apparent pattern of dates, names, and places, but what might have been the first and last words had odd characters in them. She thought for a few seconds; this pattern reminded her of something… yes. An old Wordstar document she had tried to recover from a bad disk… She hadn't succeeded in restoring the file, but there was enough information on the disk, displayed by a program similar to what she was using now, that she'd been able to retype the school essay without rewriting the whole thing.

The word processor on Kermit's computer--no, her computer now--should be able to import the file. With a few keystrokes, the file appeared, completely readable. Carolyn started to scan the information, but a quick look at the clock told her that she was almost out of time. She quickly encrypted the file, using the same key Kermit had used. Then she ran it through a special program he had written that shifted each bit one position to the left and sent it to the e-mail address Simms had given her. She copied the same file that went to Kermit onto the disk from the Captain and then erased the file from the hard drive, using another Kermit Special.

Carolyn locked the disk in the safe--with Karen's help--and came home.

All the way home and up to and through her front door, her mind remained enthralled with the information she had decoded in the office. Then she hesitated. She had been on a high since Simms had made her offer; she had worked with the data with the detachment of a surgeon; now, the full import of what she had been working on hit her. The disk was related to her father's death, she had decrypted it, she expected to be one of the first to learn it's its importance. She staggered back against the closed front door, tears welling up within her. After a moment, she regained a small measure of control, and called for her husband. "Todd, I need you!"

He ran in, still holding the dirty diaper he just removed from his son. She just stood there, leaning against the door, tears rolling down her face. Suddenly she started to shake. She whispered, "Hold me, please?"

"Of course. What's the matter, precious?"

"Kermit finally has the disk, and he sent it to me. He thinks this will tell us why Daddy died. Oh, Todd, I miss Daddy so." It had been two and a half years since Paul Blaisdell had left, thirteen months since they'd heard that he'd died. This news and her assignment had just reopened a wound that was still not completely healed.

Little Bobby came toddling in from the room where his father had been changing his diaper, saw his parents hugging, and started to rush over. After a few steps, he fell. Intent on reaching his parents, he pushed himself into a crawl and continued moving furiously toward them. He wasn't talking yet, but his cry said, "Mummy, Daddy, hug me too. Hug me too."
Carolyn wiped her eyes, picked up her son, and gave him a fierce hug. Her thoughts switched to the baby. What was her new job going to mean to him? To all of them? She felt rising excitement replacing the sorrow and gave Bobby another hug.

***

After dinner, the small group in Doctor Cesar's home sat in the comfortable living room and talked. Suspicious that the strangers in the village might be eavesdropping, they talked of minor aspects of their lives, true and falsified. Kermit, in the role of Kelly's French uncle, spoke of his region, the farms and vineyards. Kelly told about life at Oxford. Matthew and Angeliquè took turns telling stories about the village of Ste. Adele. Kwai Chang shared some anecdotes from his travels since he had left Sloanville.

In the midst of the conversation, Carolyn's message, with the file, arrived. Angeliquè had agreed to leave the computer on with the incoming message signal enabled specifically so they would know as soon as anything arrived. Kermit reprocessed the message, reversing the procedure Carolyn had used. He took only a moment to look over the information; it strongly paralleled the clues Paul had provided in his e-mail. He needed to find out more about the names on both lists, and he knew just who to ask, later.

Pointing out that life starts early in a village, Angeliquè pushed them all off to bed at nine o'clock. Kwai Chang and his father went back to Matthew's home immediately behind the hospital. Kelly and Kermit were shown to guestrooms in Angeliquè's cottage. They all turned down the lights and went to bed.

Thirty-five minutes later they met in the cavern below the hospital, Matthew and his son using the entrance from his home. Kwai Chang and the doctor went to work around their patient, checking vital signs and inputs and outputs and then exercising Paul, making sure his muscles did not degenerate too badly.

As Matthew, Kermit, and Kelly moved to one side, where their discussion would not disturb the others, Kelly demanded, "Okay, Uncle Kermit, just what is going on here? Why are you here?"

She turned to Matthew and continued, "I came down from Oxford just because Peter had told me his grandfather was here--you, Master Caine. I sure didn't expect all the rest of this." Kermit was included in the next question: "Am I, are we in danger here? Is it my fault?"

Matthew was quick to ease her mind. "No, Mademoiselle Blaisdell, what danger exists, is not because of you." Then Matthew turned to Kermit, lifting his eyebrow as an invitation to explain his presence.

Kermit wasn't sure just how much he wanted to tell Kelly, nor did he quite know where to start. He waited too long.

Matthew asked, "It is about the disk that I found on the body of the woman, the assassin who so severely injured Monsieur Blaisdell, is it not?"

Kelly had seen the doctor hand a disk to Kermit, and knew that Kermit had done something with it on the computer, but all else was mystery. As a daughter of a government agent who had become a policeman, she knew that sometimes things had to remain mysteries, but only sometimes. She was not yet ready to concede that this might be one of those times.

Kermit began to pace circles around the other two as he tried to decide exactly what to tell her. He knew Kelly could handle being told she didn't have a need to know; trouble was, that would be a lie. She was here; she needed to know from what she might have to protect herself. At least the elder Master Caine had given him a place to start.

"Yes, it's the disk. Carolyn was able to decipher it - did it much faster than I'd expected. It's a list of people, places, and dates; but, now that we have the data, we don't know the significance of it. We do know that it has something to do with your father, Kelly. And we do know that there are people who want it. People we don't want to give it to."

"As to the danger, there were those three goons at the bistro today, and the well-dressed man in the church. I'm really hoping he didn't recognize me. His name is Sid Harrison and he used to be part of the Company when your father was doing contract work for them. We've crossed paths once or twice. I don't know if he and the other three are working together--I suspect one or the other has figured out the assassin was killed here, so the disk might be here.

Kelly put a hand on his arm, momentarily stopping his circling. "But if they don't know where the disk is, why are we in danger? Can't you call the local police to help? You're a policeman."

Kermit sighed deeply. He had not wanted this subject to arise. "Kelly, I quit the force yesterday, turned in my badge and gun. Being a peace officer puts too many restrictions on my actions. The enemy here won't play by the rules and I can't either."

Kelly was amazed. "You quit the force? What about Karen? Who else will-"

Kermit interrupted her. "The force and Karen will survive without me. I told Captain Simms to hire your sister for the computer work. Let's get back to your question about the danger here. There are some high bidders out there who want the disk. At least one of them knows what's on it, might even have contracted for the information on it to be gathered. If any of them recognized you, they might think you came to get it, or they might think you know where it is." He started walking again.

"Well, I sure didn't sneak into town. Why didn't they grab me earlier today?"

"They might not have recognized you; if they're going by a picture. But, once they report to their bosses with the pictures they took, you're in danger. We need to get you out, fast."

Kelly was surprised. "I didn't see them with a camera. When did they take my picture?"

"Come on, Sweetcakes, don't you watch TV? Or read the photography mags? Cameras can be hidden almost anywhere." As he spoke, he ceased his pacing and removed his jacket. He removed a device from the jacket after fiddling with the placket. As he held it up, Kelly laughed with astonishment.

No more than one inch by two, the box had a small cable that he carefully pulled from the button. He opened a tiny door on the back of the camera and traded the tiny chip inside for another he had removed from a pocket. He placed the used chip into a specimen bag, marked it, and placed the bag into another pocket. He then carefully reattached the camera to his jacket. "This new digital technology is terrific. I'll download the images into a computer later. Now, you were saying, Kelly? Oh, yes, pictures. They're sure to have taken their own and by Monday, or even tomorrow, they'll know who you are and maybe who I am-even with the disguise."

Kelly was feeling anxious by now. This was not the first time she had been in a dangerous situation. She had been taken hostage at her sister's wedding; had been eating with her family and Peter's father when one set of attackers had shot up the house; and had been in the house with her stepmother, Annie, when another set of attackers had broken in. The first time, Peter had saved her just as her guard was preparing to rape her. The second time, the attack had only been intended to shake up the family - her father in particular. The third time, Kermit had shown up and dispatched-Killed, use the right word, Kelly --the attackers before they could get to her or Annie. Three threats had been more than enough for her. Now she was in danger again, had just stumbled into it. Damn! Life just isn't fair.

Just as her anxiety threatened to overrun her calm mien, Matthew put his arm around her shoulders. "My son has told me about many of the adventures he has shared with your family. From those stories, and from your chi, I know well that you, Kelly, are developing into a very strong woman. Without your inner strength, Peter would not have gotten to you in time at your sister's wedding. When the men broke into your home to kill you and Annie, if you had panicked and started screaming, they would have found you before Kermit found them. But you kept your head each time; and if you are captured because of this situation in which we find ourselves, you will keep calm again. You know we will find you. Believe in yourself and trust your friends."

Kelly felt the strength emanating from the old man. She put both arms around him, giving him a hug and drawing on his chi. Her anxiety faded.

He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, patted her on her back, and sent her to bed. "Whatever tomorrow brings, you will need your sleep."

"Yes, Grandpa," she giggled, and went back through the root cellar, the wine cellar, and the kitchen to bed.

Kermit wiggled his eyebrows at the old man, and said, laughing, "Grandpa, where can I process this picture file? The computer here doesn't have imaging software. Does the hospital computer?"

As he was asking, the doctor and Master Caine walked up to the two of them. Angeliquè hugged Matthew and kissed him on the cheek, saying, "Hi, Grandpa." Then she answered the question. "Yes, it does. It's in the room just two doors to the left of my office. Can you find it with the lights out?"

Kermit spoke to her first. "Merci, Madame. I will find it easily." Then he addressed the group. "I need to run to Marseilles to look up an old friend. If he can help me with the names on this list, I won't be back until I'm satisfied the danger to the Blaisdell family is over. Please tell Kelly I'll come up and visit her at school in a few days. I'm sure she has some packing to do before she goes home. You're going to send her back tomorrow on the bus? It leaves early in the morning, doesn't it?"

"Please, Monsieur Griffin." Angeliquè positioned herself close to his shoulder, where he would knock her over if he moved. "You cannot leave us now. You must wait until morning. Then you will see Mademoiselle Blaisdell to the bus yourself."

"Madame, I must leave now. Thank you for your hospitality." Kermit began to back away from the group, making sure he would not knock over the doctor.

She looked to Matthew and then to Kwai Chang for support. Finding none, she shrugged and offered her hand to him. "Bon Soir, Monsieur. I wish you luck."

Kermit shook her hand, nodded to the two men, and turned to go.

As Kermit headed for the entrance to the root cellar and the hospital, he heard Matthew. "My son, do not wait up for me. Angeliquè and I are going to take our nightly walk and we may return late."

For the first time, Griffin wished Peter were there - just to watch his father's reaction at Matthew leaving on a date. He knew the young Shaolin priest would eventually forgive Kermit for leaving him behind, but Pete would also forever feel guilty for not being involved in this mission, whatever it turned out to be; and so, Kermit had not even told Peter he was leaving. Peter had adapted too well to his priestly role to be comfortable with the dirty work Kermit always saw as a possibility when he left on a mission. Thinking again of Kwai Chang Caine's reaction to his father's statement, he chuckled to himself as he left the chamber, not quite hiding from himself the pang he felt at the sudden memory, unbidden, of his special woman-would he see her again, and would she forgive him?

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