In fact, given their bravery in the face of annihilation, they deserved his loyalty all the more. And so, after John had sent his notes to Madeline and Ayala, he had requested and been granted shore leave from a surprised Captain Bhade. The captain was not one to give out passes willy nilly, especially not to junior officers asking that they immediately be allowed twenty-four hours away from the ship. But they were, for now, briefly, in Portsmouth for systems maintenance, and the junior officer in question was the man who had not too long ago saved three of his sailors’ lives and possibly his entire ship. Given that John had rarely, if ever, requested shore leave before, the captain had allowed the junior to cash in whatever credit he might have, and made an exception. In fact, if the captain remembered correctly, the boy had not taken leave since his famous visit to San Diego, when he had apparently bedded an American female naval officer, and for two days straight, or so the rumors had gone. Smiling at the memory, Captain Bhade had waved the man out the door to whatever conquest he had in mind.

So while Madeline had been rushing to catch the last flight out of Minneapolis, John had been using a fake passport and credit card Ayala had given him to discreetly head to Heathrow Airport, boarding the last of the daily flights across the Atlantic en route to Philadelphia. Landing at one in the morning, he had then taken the train to DC.

He had approached Neal’s house emanating a healthy, humanoid warmth to assuage any suspicion from the Agent he knew was, even then, watching from across the street. Entering through the basement, John had met Ayala there, already hard at work cauterizing the room. They had formulated a plan, John bringing her up to speed on the full scope of the threat.

They had left Neal be, in order to avoid any sign of fear or concern on his face when he left for work the next day. They knew that if he came to the basement in the morning they would have to tell him what was going on, but fortuitously Neal had a late start the next morning, and he left unhindered and unencumbered, just as they had hoped.

When Neal had boarded the bus from Georgetown, Ayala was already rushing to catch up with him. If things did not go as they hoped, they might still have to disappear. They had a plan for that. He would need to be warned, and she had his documents with her along with five loaded hard drives containing his combined research to date culled from the now magnetically scrubbed PCs in the basement. Along with the disguise he would need to get out of DC alive, she had everything they would need should they have to flee.