Alex had a sudden feeling Seb was enjoying this – that the guy was perverse enough to delight in making everyone even more suspicious of him than they already were. From what Willow had said, he hadn’t even broken into houses that often; it’d been mostly for a few months when he was thirteen, or something. Naturally, Seb did not volunteer this information.

“A thief,” summed up Sam, his broad face creased with disgust. “Now, why doesn’t that surprise me? Alex, did you know this?”

“Shut up, Sam.” Alex leaned against the table, watching Seb. “Do you think you could help us get into the offices?”

Seb gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I don’t know. My skills weren’t very...” He glanced down at Willow beside him; she seemed to sense the word he wanted.

“Subtle,” she volunteered.

“No, not very subtle. Just smash the window, grab some things and go, you know? As much as I could carry.” Alex managed not to roll his eyes at Seb’s guileless tone. Yes, he was definitely enjoying this. Willow seemed to think so too; her mouth had pursed, as if she was trying not to laugh.

“Well, that’s not very helpful here, unfortunately,” said Kara stiffly. “Alex, believe me – we’re only going to get one chance at that office, and it’d better be a good one.”

The larger map of the Torre Mayor was still spread out, sleek and professional next to Kara’s hand-drawn lines. Looking at it, Alex thought he’d find some way to get the team in there if it was the last thing he ever did – but without more information, it wouldn’t be much better than a suicide mission.

“Okay,” he said finally. “I’ll keep checking out the Torre Mayor, in between training the team. Kara, I want you to start casing the cathedral. Figure out the routine there, and find a way for us to break into the offices – we’ll get you a video camera like Wesley said. But we’ve got to know what we’re going to be walking into.”

“Will do,” said Kara. Glancing at Seb, she hesitated, her reluctance clear. Like the others, she hadn’t warmed to him; Alex doubted that his little revelation just now had helped. “Seb, if you wouldn’t mind – would you go over the map with me, see if I’ve missed anything else?”

From the amused spark in Seb’s eyes, he knew exactly how much Kara didn’t want to be dealing with him. “Yes, I’d be happy to.”

Everyone started dispersing, heading off to the kitchen or the TV room. Alex gave Willow a wry look as they walked across the firing range. “The guy doesn’t like making things easy for himself, does he?”

Willow glanced over her shoulder as Seb and Kara bent over the map. “He just...is who he is, I guess.”