"Kimiko da yo! What'cha doing? Why are ya watching Ian nii-chan? You aren't going ta hurt him are ya? No, of course you're not. If ya were going ta try ta do that, ya could have right away since you've been watching all this time.

  "Why do ya look so nervous? I won't hurt you. Nobody will hurt you as long as ya don't try ta hurt us. You won't will ya? Of course you won't, I already talked about that, didn't I?

  "Oh? I'm not supposed ta be able ta tell that you're there? Really? I'm not supposed ta be able ta see or hear you either? How strange. I've known that you were there from the day I got here.

  "Just for a tiny while at first I thought that ya might be The Lady, but ya couldn't be, could you, cause ya don't feel like her. In fact ya don't feel like a girl at all. It's strange, but ya don't feel like a boy either. How could that be?

  "What? You're what? A neuter. What's that mean? Oh, it means that you're not a girl or a boy. Are ya something in between then? No? Your species has three sexes and neuter is one of them? Oh, I see. Can I ask a question? What's a species?

  "Why did you just hit yourself in the head? Doesn't that hurt? Do ya need a bandaid? I think I have some here, somewhere or other. Oh, ya don't need one? That's good. I hate it when ya get all itchy when ya have a cut that's healing and then it gets all scabby and ya have ta try not ta pick off the scab until it falls off by itself. That's hard!"

  Grgur was feeling quite overwhelmed by the onslaught of questions. It decided that it'd best "Wally" Kimiko and then pull back and regroup. Unfortunately it was just a bit too late in reaching that decision.

  "That's quite enough Grgur. You can't 'Wally' ME. nobody but The Lady can, and she won't. It's part of our agreement. If I need to forget something I'll supress the memory myself, just as I have all along.

  "I only 'awoke' this time because your 'watching' is as obvious as an elephant stomping on bubble wrap. I know that you were selected from over 100 applicants for this job, but you need to remember that you're just an apprentice who's been on the job barely 50 years. I don't care a rat's ass what you were before or how smart you are. In the OB you just barely outrank a worm.

  "If you can't give up your stupid pride and dedicate yourself to doing this job properly, and that means with a lot more subtlety than you've shown so far, I'll have you replaced so fast you won't have time to sneeze.

  "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?

  "I thought you would. Now, here's what you're going to do. You're going to go into 'No-Time' and contact your trainer in observation techniques. You're to tell her that you're having problems maintaining a light enough touch and that you need some coaching. Only after you've finished that, are you to get back to your job here.

  "If I feel your presence again, you're going to be spending the next 200 years cleaning toilets at that resort on Io that you like so much.

  I'm going to go back to being Kimiko now. Pray that you don't have to talk to the real me again until this project is completed.

  "I'm feeling sorta sleepy Mr. Watcher-san, so I'm gonna go ta bed now. Maybe I'll talk ta ya later after I wake up. Oyasumi-nasai."

  Grgur fell into "No-Time" purely as a defensive reflex. He was so surprised, and, yes, ashamed, that his reaction to what had happened would have been broadcast to every being in a 60km radius if he hadn't.

  The threat implicit in 'Kimiko's' last sentence was frightening enough that it would have been shaking in its boots, if it were able to wear boots. As it was, its entire body was trembling. How could it have been so stupid, and yes, pompous?

  It forced itself to be entirely objective, or at least as objective as it could be given the situation. What it saw wasn't very pleasant. It had been very excited to be chosen for this position, especially given how hard it was to obtain. Even more so since an opening for a watcher only occurred every 60 or 70 years. It had succumbed to the lure of self-importance and had swallowed it all the way down. If it weren't for her intervention just now, in a few years the hooks would have been set so deeply that it would never have been able to dislodge them.

  Fortunately no other being had noticed what had occurred. "Kimiko" had made sure of that. He could still feel the residue of the cloaking field she'd thrown up. That in itself was a blessing. If she'd thought that he was un-redeemable, she'd not have bothered and would have broadcast her thoughts to the entire department. Doing things half-way was not part of her makeup.

  OK. More deep breaths. Lots more. Karla and Jane surely would have understood why. He'd learned the technique from watching them. Calm. Calm. It had to calm down. Right...this was about as calm as it was going to get. Now it had to hurry, and stay calm at the same time. Not so easy, but very necessary.

  One could only stay in 'No-Time' for a few days at a time (no, no pun intended; it was too stressed to realize that it even was one at the moment), and it had a lot to learn before that time expired. It sent out a tendril of thought to its trainer and prayed that she'd be up for a crash refresher course for an abashed trainee.

  ---------------------

  Ian, who was totally unaware of what had just happened, continued his musings about family and names and the state of the world as he knew it. Finally he admitted to himself that he just didn't have enough information to come to any solid conclusions.

  He turned back to the latest report from the DARPA research group working on designing the ultra high-capacity, lightweight battery. If they could just break through the last few bottlenecks, it wouldn't matter if they did nothing at all the rest of their lives. The results of this research would change the world. Thankfully it would be for the better.

  Ian shook his head. So many scientific breakthroughs had resulted in unintended and unexpected disasters. He was sure that someone, somewhere would figure out how to abuse this discovery as well, but he was completely certain that the good arising from it would far outweigh any possible negatives.

  Seeing as it was a Sunday night, Ian dutifully shut everything down at 10PM. He'd promised Karla that he'd not come to breakfast muzzy, and he intended to keep that promise. Besides, he really did hate having trouble thinking because he was sleepy. There were so many opportunities to bait Kumiko that he'd miss if his mind wasn't sharp.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  If he slipped up while so doing, even a minute amount, Jane would be on him like a bear at a honeycomb. He might survive the experience, but he'd be pretty torn up. But, hey! He lived for challenges, and this was the most intense one he'd been able to take up in a very long time.

  ------------------

  Grgur flinched. Males! They were all certifiably insane until they were out of adolescence. It didn't seem to matter what species they were either. They'd torment or physically abuse the female that they liked when they were pre-pubescent. Then in early adolescence they became totally unpredictable.

  It had been a major surprise when it had first learned that young female humans tended to prefer older males. Now it understood completely. What amazed it more than anything else what that their males lived long enough to become adults in the first place.

  As it thought about it, it realized that it was probably the nearly universal laws against homicide. If it weren't for them, the females would kill about 40% of the males before they matured.

  Hmmm. Perhaps it was unfortunate that they did survive. If the 60% who successfully resisted their hormonal urges to abuse the females were the only ones procreating, many species might have had a more peaceful history.

  Ah ha! Now it understood what Karla had told it earlier. Girls thought of boys and romance separately. Of course. It made perfect sense now.

  [[You're confused? About what? You thought that I was gone for training. Silly. I was in "No-Time," remember? For me almost a week had passed. And it's a good thing too.

  I was such a foolish, nay, stupid being in those days. My trainer saw my problem immediately. Once I regained consciousness, she made it plain that I'd better see it too and deal with it properly. It seems that while I was masking my presence correctly, I was not masking my emotions, and they were leaking over into the physical realm that I was observing.

  Oh? What did I mean "regained consciousness?" My trainer is of the "old school." What that means is that her methods were very much similar to those of what the human military term "drill instructors." If words do not suffice to impress a lesson, then physical pain will have to do the teaching.

  While my body disliked the method, I cannot deny its effectiveness. In truth, I had failed to learn the first time around, so it's hard to complain very much.

  (Though I'm not entirely sure that it was necessary to render me unconscious. Once cannot feel pain if one is unaware of one's self, or anything else for that matter.)

  You're still confused? Oh, I see. You'll get better at keeping things straight. You'd better. If you should become confused about exactly who is speaking, assume that it is me, your 'professor', reporting on events that occurred many years ago when I was only a Watcher on one of its first assignments. I hope that that helps you. Now, pay closer attention. There's a good deal of information yet to cover before the end of the term.]]

  --------------------

  Ian's calculations were meticulous and well considered. He'd even reviewed them a number of times to make sure that he'd be getting the maximum effect from the minimal effort. The chances were vanishingly small that Jane would notice anything at all. As far as they went, his calculations really were perfect. However, no calculation is entirely accurate if you don't don't account for all the relevant variables. In his compulsion to completely bamboozle Jane, he'd forgotten that there were other people living in the house as well. Yes, that's right. He'd forgotten about Karla.

  Just a quick refresher for you. Karla's various job activities had left her with an exquisitely honed sense of when things were out of place. If there was something "not quite right," her paranoia kicked in and she began to wonder what was being plotted.

  To be sure, most of the time nothing was being plotted at all. However, those few times where she'd survived because of her suspicions had left her with an intense need to know why her whiskers were tingling when she noticed changes in her environment.

  So here they were. Monday morning. Coffee, then breakfast, as usual. Kids getting ready for school, as usual. Jane's cooking - superb - as usual. Kumiko making reasonably subtle cow eyes at Ian - as usual. Ian's response of feigning total ignorance - NOT as usual.

  Ah ha! He wasn't ignoring her quite as completely as he usually did. He was.... Just what was he doing? It grated on her nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard. Worst of all, she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was that she'd noticed.

  She waved an absent goodbye to the kids as they left to catch the bus to school. Then she sat and pondered.

  A few minutes later, after Jane had finished straightening up the kitchen, she wandered over and asked Karla: "What's up Mama? You have your 'thinking cap' face on?"

  Karla startled a bit then came back to her surroundings. "Oh, Jane. Yes. Something's going on between Ian and Kumiko that's different from usual. What's irritating me is that I can't quite figure out what it is."

  "Really Mama? I hadn't noticed. But, as you've told me, sometimes I'm not all that good at spotting subtleties.

  "Oh my GOD! That's it! I almost blew it again. Mama, come here, right now! I need you to review what I found out yesterday. I'm all set to crack open the biggest group of bad guys yet, but something isn't quite right. I don't know what it is. Good thing my subconscious was working or I'd have sent out the orders to start last night."

  Karla let herself be dragged down the hall to Jane's workshop. Jane literally pushed her down into the center chair and then started showing Karla the data.

  Two mugs of coffee later, Jane turned to Karla and looked at her.

  Karla was almost overwhelmed. Jane had a truly unguarded look on her face that said: "Help me Mama. I've done something wrong and I don't know how to fix it. I know that you can. After all, you're my mother. You can fix anything."

  Some things never change. Children, no matter how old or "mature" they are, always seem to turn to a trusted parent, or some other adult they depended on as a child, when they're overwhelmed. What the kids don't seem to realize is that, as they get older, the problems that they want their parent to fix get more and more complicated.

  It's easy to help with a skinned knee or a minor spat with a friend. It's a whole order of magnitude different when the problem is a fight with a spouse or a problem with your mortgage.

  Even so, most parents are gratified that their kids still come to them, even if the parent has absolutely no idea what to do. After 20 or 30 years of such things, they're good at winging it if nothing else.

  "Well Jane, you have problems. Not just one. LOTS of them. Thank God that you didn't send out the activation. You and your entire group would have been blown out of the water within days.

  "Your mistake here is that you didn't take into consideration WHO it is you plan to go after this time. I don't recognize most of these names but some I do, and that's bad. If I know about them, they're people in the public eye. If you suddenly drain them financially, they're going howl like banshees.

  "Given their power, the local police, or in some cases government intelligence services, would have no choice but to go along. You'd be toast, and your entire clandestine operation funding police agencies around the world would no longer exist.

  "Most likely the FBI or the CIA would hand you over on a silver platter if it meant that they'd be able to keep the politicians from finding out about some of their secret, off the books projects."

  Jane fell back into her chair. She looked devastated. "But what do I do Mama? I can't just let them go without doing anything. You've seen what they've done, are still doing. Isn't there something we can do about it?"

  "Sorry Honey. Those aren't questions I can answer off the top of my head. This has been going on for a long time. If your data is correct -- don't glare at me girl! -- they're not going to drop out of sight and go into hiding tomorrow, or ever.

  "The longer that they've gotten away with it, the less they'll think that they'll ever be caught. That means that we have time to get our minds organized and then plan out what we're going to do. Just remember. Being patient doesn't mean doing nothing. Use the cheetah as your example. It sneaks through the grasses so slowly that it almost seems not to be moving at all. When it finally strikes, it's the fastest land animal in the world.

  "Your operations here are going to have to be like that. You're going to have to do a great deal of planning, and then execute your plans like a bolt of lightning from a blue sky. You can't let even a hint of anything slip out ahead of time."

  Jane was back in hero worship mode. No, scratch that, mother worship mode. "Thanks Mama. I knew you could figure it out. Could you? Would you help me plan it this time? I don't think I can do it by myself. It doesn't look like it'd be safe to even allow Interpol to know, would it?"

  Karla gave a great sigh of relief -- internally of course. Jane had finally offered to let Karla "advise" her with her dirty work. Yes, that's what it was. After all, it was totally illegal and all that.

  Karla had been afraid of some major snafu happening ever since Jane had revealed her connections to the FBI and Interpol back in June. Now she had permission to stick her nose in where she'd wanted to go all along.

  What? Of course she had. You can't protect your child if you don't know what the child is doing. But you can't just stick your nose in uninvited. If you do, your kid will cut it off and won't ever trust you again. BUT, if they ask, well, that's another matter entirely, and Karla intended to take full advantage of her new access.