“We fucked up.”

Wilma glanced at Antonio. Her partner was staring straight ahead, meeting the gaze of the third person in their—no, his office. Alamini Otieno was bigger than either her or Antonio. Even sitting down, he seemed to fill the room. He’d been her boss since she’d first joined…

And Wilma had a hard time remembering a time when he’d been more annoyed.

“Yes, yes, you did, Agent. Care to mention why?”

“We didn’t go for the bomb-threat,” Antonio said. “We were worried about possible exposure…”

“Exposure,” Alamini said. “Something we’re allergic to. But…” he turned and looked up at the monitor, showing the feed from a news helicopter flying over the school. Most of the quad was taken up by a huge crater, some of the buildings collapsing into the depths.

The rest won’t survive, Wilma thought. The whole school was a write-off.

“If we’d called in a bomb threat and that had happened,” Wilma said. “There’d been even more publicity.”

“You’re right. But you wouldn’t have sent two children into what could have been a deathtrap.”

“Well sir, they felt that the—” Wilma jumped as Alamini brought his palm down on the desk, the sound echoing through the office—and beyond. There were more people here now, and Wilma could tell that half of them were trying to covertly listen to the boss reaming out two of his agents.

“Teens think that they can handle it. Teens think that they will be the exception. That they’ll be the hero of the piece. Why do you think so many people love to recruit them for wars? What did you think they were going to do? Tell the two people who clued them in on this secret mission to save the world that they weren’t ready? Closed casket funerals are never easy on the family, so we should try and avoid that sad situation, correct?” He sighed. “Well, they’re alive, if only by luck. But from now on, they’re working in here, or setting up monitoring stations, and they will not have access to neutralizers or storage units.”

“If there’s an emergency—”

“Then, not having tools will help convince them to run away and yell for help, yes?” Alamini toyed with a golden ring, the metal contrasting with his dark skin. “And it’s not as if we don’t need help here. This is…”

“Unprecedented. A breach of this level…” Wilma frowned.

“And, just possibly, something came through.”

“A temporary AE?” Alamini asked. “That’s what the analysts think.”

“Then why did it save—” Wilma put her hand to her head. “Of course. They can see the aether. They’re both sensitives, and Mari was close to dying…”

“And probably forced an AE to become realized for a few moments.” Antonio nodded. “It makes sense.”

“What about the Other Firm, sir?” Wilma frowned and gestured at the image. “We know that they were active, and granted, they haven’t done anything like that since Mexico City, but…”

“But, they could try again.” Alamini swung his chair around and looked at the maps. “I don’t think so. Mexico city involved a warehouse full of equipment designed to control the breach. Here was nothing. Their involvement in the junkyard looked more like an experiment that our interns bumped into than an actual attempt to create or maintain a controlled breach.” He chuckled. “And while they may be optimistic idiots, they’re not that idiotic, at least not to the level of believing they’d be left free to work after they destroyed a school.”

“So not them. But a major breach from the other side.” Antonio said. “I’d almost prefer…”

“So would I,” Alamini said. “But we may have an advantage in about a month.”

“What?”

“A wide area breach sealer system,” Alamini said. “I went down to R&D and kicked some behinds, and now they’re willing to accept good enough instead of perfect.

“How wide area?”

“The entire town,” Alamini said. “If we can set it up, we can protect the entire town, but it’ll take some time.”

“I thought they weren’t certain about the outcomes.” Wilma frowned. “Are we using the town as test subjects?”

“Yes. But the rate of increase is going up, not just here, but everywhere.” Alamini pointed at Wilma. “You know that. Whatever is happening is accelerating the number of breaches, and it’s not just the Other Firm playing games. If we can’t seal the breaches in a wide area, if we have to keep running around and sealing them one by one, it’s only a matter of time until…”

“Until?”

“Until we are forced to go public, come clean, and hope that the government makes the right decision. You’ll understand why I’m putting more faith in our mass sealer system.”

“Oh yes,” Antonio muttered.

“So, good news, nobody died. Bad news, you should have been telling those kids to run. Effective immediately, they’re out of fieldwork.”

“Understood,” Wilma said, as she and Antonio left the room.

The lower level was humming along, with nearly twenty techs, agents, and other support staff moving around. Well, we wanted help, and we got it.

“So…” Antonio looked at her. “David and Mari already expect to be put on in house work, but…”

“But not anything like this.” They’re going to be pissed. And Wilma could understand why. They were smart kids, and they’d shown they had what it took to handle a situation. Problem was, she could also see Alamini’s point. They’d used Mari and David because they didn’t have enough people. Now they did.

I bet they’re not going to see it like that…

After all, Wilma had been their age once, and she would have been pissed off enough to chew nails.

Wonderful… “Let’s get ready to face the music,” she finally said.

“And about your… gifts?” Antonio asked.

“They get to keep them. Just in case Mari and David need them.”

“Your funeral,” Antonio said.

“But it might keep us from having to attend theirs,” Wilma said. She had a feeling that sealing the breaches wasn’t going to be nearly as simple as the eggheads were letting on.

We’re just never that lucky.