"Nyet." Sofia shook her head sadly. "Instead they joined Interpol."

"I heard about that," Adam admitted. "Something sent them over the edge, even used terrorists and nukes to get their own way."

Sofia raised a hand to silence him. "Hmmm," she mused in agreement.

"Say, you know how they were going to destroy the world with nukes? I'd say it was Interpol, what happened with that?"

"You have some place to stay?" Sofia asked, ignoring the question. Adam paused for a moment, wondering just what was going on, before replying.

"Uh, just got here."

"Wait a minute." Sofia led him outside. "She not well," Sofia explained. Adam shrugged and took her word for it. She went back in to see how Cammy was. "Anything I do?" she asked.

****

"I'm here." Jessie had barely made it back to the States before her phone rang. "Yeah, I really need some help and thought you might be able to help me." Jessie paused for a moment. She knew that the man was really looking for Nancy, and by rights she should hand it off to her to deal with. But Jessie also knew that she was busy, and she could at least hear the guy out before passing it on.

"Sure."

"You will? Oh thank you, thank you so much. I...well I've never done something like this before, call up a mercenary and all."

"Look, is there some point to this?" She wanted to get on with things rather than picture herself as some call girl listening to a virgin on the party lines.

"Well, you see I've had all these threats made against me, and that's against the law. I know it is because I looked it up."

"You mean death threats?" Jessie asked.

"Threats to harm. It's right there, but the police won't help me because nothing has been done. It's a legal loophole that's being exploited to make them untouchable."

"What do the police say?" Jessie pressed.

"That I should just stay away from that area."

The man suddenly grew angry. "It's meant to be their job to do something about it."

"Sounds like they're making up excuses not to if you ask me."

"Could they be corrupt?" the man wondered.

"No, that doesn't really happen, but there is that thing about them ignoring crimes so that it appears there isn't any."

"How about you just tell me what you want?" Jessie suggested.

"Names." That struck her as odd. "I need names so I can have action taken against them, legal action. The police won't help in any way, but there's nothing I can do myself."

"You want me to find out the names of those after you so you can have them dealt with?" Jessie asked slowly, making sure she understood. It was impossible not to wonder if the police would not do anything even if they had names. Still, she knew it was wrong that that wouldn't help, and besides which the man sounded desperate. "I'll see what I can do. I need a few details from you however." It sounded easy enough, and it was not only a chance to be a hero but to show what she could do.