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Headquarters Island. She swallowed. Had she made a mistake and allowed a trickle of Energy free to attract the Hunter here? But that didn’t make sense. Why go through the effort to ride the train here rather than teleport to check out a possible Energy burst?
    Nothing made sense.
    Porthos looked as if he was talking to himself, moving his lips, looking at the forest, then back at the train, then started moving his fingers as if counting. He then began walking back toward the train, eyes distant and clearly deep in thought.
    He thinks we’re coming from the human settlement and he’s trying to figure out how long it will take us to get to Headquarters if we take the monorail. It would give us a chance to move a large number of Alliance to Headquarters without detection.
    She nodded her head in a sign of respect to the Hunter. He was thinking, something she’d not seen in quantity from the Aliomenti. He’d considered the Alliance immersion in human society as evidence they’d enter the Island in that fashion and even use their transport system. Clever.
    Wrong. But clever.
    She returned her thoughts to the larger concern. Porthos had touched the palm reader and the gel. She had to get that gel off him and out of his skin. A thought formed. She floated to the top of the rear train car, ensuring that Porthos entered that car alone, and waited until the train started before implementing her improvised plan. Thankfully, she’d already transformed her physical appearance prior to her arrival. Porthos hadn’t seen her true form in person, though she suspected his research prior to the attack on her home nearly two centuries earlier had emblazoned the face of Will Stark’s wife in his mind. He wouldn’t recognize the dark-haired, brown-eyed woman as the same person.
    Recognition would doom her upcoming efforts to remove the gel from his system.
    She expanded the nanoskeleton to provide private workspace atop the monorail train. She opened her purse and formed small slivers of her nano swarm into small towels, approximately ten inches per side. She folded the towels, dropped them into her purse, and slid the strap back over her shoulder. She checked her clothing to ensure she fit in with the other human commuters and then jumped from the top of the train.
    She landed on the divider between the cars and peered into the cabin. Porthos sat by himself, leaning back against the headrest, with his eyes closed. She dipped down below the glass opening in the door and removed the nanoskeleton. She took a deep breath and stood slowly, peering inside.
    His eyes remained closed.
    Hope opened the door and entered the car.
    The door to slammed shut behind her and she jumped.
    Porthos’ eyes snapped open and he sat up, staring at her. His eyes took her in from head to toe, and a lascivious smile curled his lip.
    She forced herself not to shudder in disgust. “Sorry,” she said. She sat down in the seat and looked out the window. She could feel his eyes still on her.
    A few moments later she turned her head to look at her hands. She turned her palms away and then back, frowning, and rubbed them. Her frown deepened. “Disgusting,” she muttered. “I hope I don’t get sick.”
    She reached into her purse and pulled out one of the “towels” and began to “wipe” her hands clean, allowing relief to cover her face. “Much, much better,” she muttered.
    She allowed herself to “recognize” his stare and turned with caution to face him. “Sorry,” she said, allowing a sheepish tone to creep into her voice. “Am I bothering you?”
    His eyes lit up in a manner that made her uncomfortable. “Not at all, my dear, not at all.” He paused. “I heard you mentioning getting sick? Is there an illness circulating that I’m unaware of?”
    She smiled. “There’s always something, isn’t there? No, I was just thinking as I got on the train the other day about all of the hands touching those scanners.”
    He frowned. “What about