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cheapest wool in Sanctuary.
    Betty elbowed her way through the crowd which seemed to
thicken as she went. At last she stood at the corner of Jenny's
octagonal shaped booth. She flashed Betty a smile which revealed
too many teeth, all of them rounded or pointy.
    “ It's my Betty!” Jenny declared. Never before had she said
anything like this, and her voice was raised as though Jenny were
talking to the crowd not Betty. “How are you feeling, love? Long
time since I last saw you.”
    At
Jenny's words, the Never Weres thinned as surely as Jenny had told
them all to bug off. Betty wondered what would have happened if
Jenny had not said anything to her, and shuddered to think of the
possibilities.
    “ What can I do for you? You look like a six by six took out
your house overnight.”
    Betty chuckled despite herself at the mental image of a
six-wheeled truck ploughing through her front door. “Wool today.
Lots of wool.”
    Jenny spread her hands out over the booth. “Plenty to pick
from. Are you doing a blanket, a lace doilie, a pair of
mittens?”
    “ Hmm? No no. Well, I need some more gray to finish off a dish
towel, the cotton for that. I've made all the others. Guess I
hadn't thought about my next project yet.”
    Jennie whistled. “So it is true, then.”
    Betty glanced nervously around. “What is true?”
    “ You're talking the waves.”
    “ I
host a show. Of course I talk the waves.”
    Jennie was assembling an assortment of skeins—thick and thin,
creams and reds, moss green and coral—and she said, “That is not
what I mean.”
    Betty grimaced. “It is not decided at all. I won't be used as
a pawn. It's bad enough I can't have my own bank
account.”
    Jennie stared at Betty, her expression equal parts relief on
her lips and concern across her brow. “Betty, you can make a
difference. Ain't no one here who will trust an Alpha, and ain't no
one in HQ who will trust a Tango. Except you.”
    Betty groaned and wished she couldn't guess why it would
matter. “It is the Cold War with the bear?”
    “ They have nukes, Betty. Or so the shadows say.”
    Betty understood now: If they went to war, Sanctuary would be
first on the lines, and if the troops wouldn’t take orders from
their interpreters they would fail and total war would break out.
War with nukes. Maybe more than that.
    “ Shadows say a lot of things.”
    Jennie nodded and traded Betty her goods for a buck and a
nickel; perhaps they'd both been overzealous but it was hard to
focus. Betty asked, “I haven't seen Tom around Tango.”
    “ Hasn't been here, either.”
    “ Not
since tea time in the market.”
    Jenny hushed her. “Look, you can't go talking like that here.
Go to the rockability club. Wear something with a full skirt. And
put rags in your hair and lipstick on.”
    “ Maybe. Thank you.” She wasn't sure she wanted to get
involved. Not yet.
     
    The
next morning, while Betty was getting water during her break
between the local events and the weather, Liza entered the break
room. Betty gave the short woman a spry grin. “You're here
early.”
    Liza
did not look amused, and the woman's grim expression set Betty's
heart still. Before Betty could ask what was wrong, Liza said, “I
heard you had coffee with the pink-suit.”
    “ My
old friend, Pearl. Why?” Unvoiced, Betty wondered as well who had
told her. But that was less important.
    “ That may be.” She squinted. “I can't understand
you.”
    “ What do you mean?”
    “ Where you're going, where you come from. What you
want.”
    “ All
a part of the mystery, my dear one. Stay tuned to find out
more.”
    Liza's face went hard. “That's not funny.”
    Betty looked down at the sink. “No. Neither was Richard's
leaky faucet joke.”
    Liza
took Betty's arm. “I like you. So I'm going to tell you something,
and I hope you take it seriously. Betty, be careful. Be careful who
you interact with, who your friends are, where you eat your dinner.
Things are dangerous here.”
    Betty