Jim filled out all the paperwork for the hotel. He had to show ID, and his badge, to confirm that it was the Cascade PD and not his own wallet that was going to be charged! At his inquiry, the desk clerk infromed him that it would fine for them to check in early, since they had several empty rooms. Then, with a smile to the desk clerk, Jim grabbed the two room keys and followed Ed into the elevator.

Blair was a sound sleeper. He never heard the approaching footsteps. He was oblivious as the driver's side door of the vehicle was expertly jimmied, and silently opened. A huge hand reached in, stretching toward the sleeping anthropologist.

Jim unlocked the door to the hotel room and swung it open. Nice. Homey, neat, and most importantly, clean. With his heightened sense of smell, Jim had a real problem with dust. But he couldn't detect anything that would irritate him in this room.

*Yeah, Blair's still outside!* he thought. He smiled, and stepped aside as Ed moved past him to set the bags down on the floor.

"There you are, sir," said the old man, with a smile.

*This man loves his work!* Jim thought, as he dug into his wallet. "Here you go Ed!" Jim said, handing him a ten. "Thanks a lot, maybe we'll see you later!"

"You can count on it sir, I'm always here!" Ed cheerfully pocketed the generous tip, and bowed to Jim as he left the room. Jim smiled, taking another look at the room, then headed downstairs to wake up his partner.

The deft hands made no sound as they carefully unzipped the backpack that Sandburg was cradling on his lap. Silently, they reached in, and pulled out the small laptop computer that Sandburg relied on to complete his Sentinel thesis. The thief carefully tucked the compact unit into his jacket, and began to rezip the backpack, but the zipper caught, leaving the bag partly open.

The mysterious man tugged on the zipper, trying to close it. Suddenly, his hand slipped, and he accidentally elbowed the sleeping young man in the ribs.

Blair's eyes shot open. "Wha...I....Jim?" Then he focused on the huge face in front of him.

"AAUUUUUUGH!"

The thief scrambled backwards out of the driver's side door, as Sandburg quickly unlocked the passenger side and tried to do the same, flinging off his seatbelt, trying to distance himself from the intruder. His hand fumbled with the door, which suddenly opened. Blair tumbled backwards out the door, landing with a thud on the pavement, which knocked the wind out of him.

Jim had just stepped out of the front doors, when he heard the terrified cry. *Shit!* He drew his gun and charged toward the alley where he'd parked, cursing himself for leaving Blair so defenseless.

As Jim reached the corner, he was knocked down by a huge figure who suddenly ran out of the alley, coming from the direction of the blue Ford. As Jim fell, he saw the man turn and bolt across the street. Jim quickly got to his feet, his gun drawn, and bellowed at the running figure.

"Stop! POLICE!!!" The big thug reached the opposite side of the street, moving impossibly fast for someone so huge, and vanished into an alley before Jim could get a clear shot at him.

"Jim...*gasp*...Jim!" Blair croaked from the sidewalk, trying to sit up.

All hopes of an arrest forgotten, Jim quickly reholstered his gun and dropped to his partner's side.

"Blair! Are you all right?" Jim held him by the shoulders, trying to steady him, as Blair's breathing slowly began to return to normal. "What happened?"

"Wind...knocked out....," Blair panted. He was quiet for a minute, letting his lungs recover, feeling his heart thundering in his chest from the shock. "I'm OK." He let Jim slip his hands under his arms and help him up. "Did you SEE him?" Blair exclaimed.

"Yeah, Chief, I saw him." Jim let Blair stand on his own, and turned to look toward the spot where the guy had disappeared. "What the hell happened?"

Blair shrugged. "I'm not sure, I was asleep and then all of a sudden something hit me in the ribs, and then there was this... this FACE!" He shuddered. "Man, it was hideous!"

Jim had only seen the guy from the back. "What do you mean, Chief? He was ugly?" Jim began to run his hands over Blair's head and back, inspecting his young friend for injuries.

"Man, ugly is an understatement." Annoyed, Blair waved Jim's hands away. "Cool it mom, I'm fine." He leaned down to retrieve his backpack from the sidewalk, as he continued.

"You remember that dude in ROBOCOP, who got melted by the toxic waste?" Blair asked.

Jim was walking around the vehicle now, looking for hints as to what the intruder was after. "Yeah, the guy who's skin got all bubbled, and sort of ran down his face?" His Sentinel sight picked up some tiny scratches on the driver's side door, and he zoomed in for a closer look.

Blair was still talking, as he brushed off his backpack, not noticing that it wasn't closed.

"Well, this guy looked WORSE than that!" He exhaled, calming himself, and ran a hand through his unruly curls. "I mean, I've seen some strange things in my travels; you'd be surprised at what's considered attractive in some cultures. But this guy...." He shuddered again. "I've never seen anything like it."

The driver's side door had been forced open, and by a pro, judging from the lack of damage. Jim had never seen such a skillful job in his life. He looked under the steering wheel, but found no sign of an attempted hot-wiring job. He was puzzled. Why would a guy with those skills waste his time breaking into a vehicle, if not to steal it? Surely not just to scare his partner half out of his wits.

Suddenly Jim's head snapped around toward Blair. Unless the guy had intended to do more than just scare him! Jim came around to his partner's side again, concerned.

"Did he do anything, Blair? Did he try to hurt you, or...." Jim trailed off, shaking his head. That didn't make any sense. He put a hand on Blair's shoulder and led him into the hotel. "I don't get it, I mean, it doesn't look like he was trying to steal the vehicle." They crossed the lobby, and Jim gave a reassuring nod to the front desk clerk, who was looking at him in concern.

"Is everything all right, detective?" the clerk asked. "Would you like me to call anyone?" The woman had the phone in her hand.

Jim glanced down at his still-shaking partner, and nodded. "Yes, could you call the Seattle PD for me please?" Jim gave a brief description of what had happened, and then herded Blair toward the elevator. "I'll be back down in a few minutes," Jim called to the clerk, who was dialing the phone. He and Blair stepped into the elevator, and Jim pushed the button for their floor.

Blair was shaking his head. "I don't know, man. Except for nudging me in the ribs, he didn't do anything. He seemed to be more scared of me than I was of him." He shrugged, and went on.

"Maybe he was just some homeless dude, looking for spare change, or food, or something." In all the excitement, Blair hadn't noticed the change of weight in his backpack.

The elevator dinged, and they stepped out into the hall. Blair followed Jim to their room, and took the extra key that his partner handed him.

"Well, if he was just a homeless person, I'd love to know how he learned to break into a vehicle like that!" Jim unlocked the door and stepped into the room, followed by Blair. "I mean, that was a slick job he did. He hardly left a mark."

"Maybe that's how he makes his living," Blair said. "I mean lots of people leave change lying on the dash of their car. He could have taught himself how to break into cars over the years."

Blair was nodding to himself, as he continued with his theory. "Pretty harmless way of getting money for food, at least he's not mugging people!" Blair knew he was grasping at straws at this point. He looked up at Jim again, and then waved his hand dismissively.

"Well nevermind, man. No harm done. Life in the big city, eh?" He smiled up at his partner, with a shrug.

Jim smirked. "Right Chief," he replied, not bothering to point out that Cascade was roughly the same size as Seattle. "But let's let the local force decide, just in case."

* * * * * * *

The "homeless dude" ran like hell. He was cursing his stupidity for waking the young man. The boss wasn't going to be happy about that! He was supposed to slip in, steal the computer, and slip out without a trace. Instead, he had allowed the kid to get a good, close look at his face.

*Poor little guy*, he thought, remembering the look of terror on the young man's face. He hated it when people were afraid of him, which was often. It was hard to avoid, when you looked like something out of a nightmare.

Lucas really was lucky. The boss didn't have to keep him on the team. Brute strength and remarkably agile hands were his main assets, but there were other people with his same skills.

*Smarter people!* came a nagging voice inside his head. He sighed, sadly. He should have just left the stupid zipper alone! No, he thought, slowing as he rounded the corner into the next alley. The boss definitely wasn't going to be happy.

"Idiot!" the black-haired man with the binoculars hissed, as he ran up. "Damn it, Lucas. I gave you a simple job. Can't you do anything without screwing up?" He snatched the laptop out of Lucas' hands, as the huge man humbly held it out to him.

"I'm sorry, Gerad...I'll do better next time," Lucas drawled, quietly staring at his feet. He hated it when Gerad scolded him, it made him feel...well...*stupid*.

"There may not be a next time, once the boss hears about this." Gerad reached a gloved hand into his pocket and produced a cell phone, which he quickly dialed, tucking Blair's laptop under his arm. "Gerad here...how's it going?"

"Everything's according to schedule," Came the voice from the other end of the phone. "He's on his way in now. We'll meet you at the rendezvous in 4 hours."

Gerad sighed in satisfaction. "Good...good." He ignored the nervous look his huge cohort was giving him. "Tell the boss we got the package, with no problems, and we're keeping an eye on his...friends." Gerad grinned at the sound of snickering at the other end of the line. "See you in a few hours!"

He broke the connection, and re-pocketed the phone. "Come on, Gigantor, we've got work to do." He grabbed Lucas by the elbow and led him through the alley to the sleek, black car idling at the curb.

"Gerad?" Lucas, as he and the smaller man got into the vehicle.

Gerad sighed. "What, Lucas?"

The hulking man fidgeted sheepishly with his hands. "Thanks for not telling on me." His deformed lips twisted into his attempt at a smile.

Gerad recoiled. "Ugh!...Hey, no problem big guy. Tell you what, you can repay me by never, EVER smiling at me again, OK?" Gerad planted his palm on Lucas' face and cruelly shoved his head away.

* * * * * * *

Blair and Jim walked through the South American wing of the Seattle Museum of Natural History. Sandburg was animated, pointing things out to his partner, who really wasn't all that interested in learning how the early natives of Peru had used various berries to make dyes.

History wasn't Jim's thing, but he was going along with Blair, just to make him happy. And the trip to the museum really wasn't that boring, he thought, watching the almost child-like excitement of his partner as he exclaimed over each exhibit.

The Seattle police hadn't seemed very concerned about Jim's report of Blair's little adventure with the intruder. They simply told Jim that there were a lot of homeless in that area, and it wouldn't be surprising if one of them happened to be deformed. Jim politely thanked them for their help, then decided to join Blair for a trip to the museum. He figured it might not be too bad, plus he didn't feel too good about letting his young friend go out into the city on his own after that morning's incident.

Jim shook his head, sighing. What a Mother Hen he had turned out to be! If someone had told him 2 years ago that his world would virtually revolve around watching over an enthusiastic anthropologist, Jim would've laughed in their face. Blair went up to a display that contained a scene from a Peruvian village of many years ago. He gestured to Jim. "Hey man, check this out! This is set in the same area we were in!"

Jim came over to stand beside his young friend, and studied the scene. It showed a large Indian standing in front of a hut, looking down at a pair of children playing a game with sticks. The sight of the big Indian made Jim think of the fellow he'd encountered on his last trip to Peru, when Simon and Daryl had disappeared in the jungle. He whistled.

"Boy, talk about deja vu!"

Blair glanced at him. "Huh?"

Jim continued. "This guy looks a lot like the panther-man I met up with down there, when I went out on that surveillance run." He remembered the bizarre encounter with perfect clarity, and how relieved he was when he found his powers returned to him.

Blair was staring at him in confusion. "Man, what ARE you talking about?" *Panther-man?* Had Jim gone nuts?

Jim stared down at him. "What?...I told you about that....didn't I?" He was sure he had talked to Blair about the mysterious encounter, but the blank look on his partner's face said otherwise. *I must be losing it!* Jim thought.

He took Blair by the elbow. "Let's go to the cafe and grab some coffee, Chief. You're gonna love this story!"

* * * * * * *

The house stood about 30 miles outside of Seattle. Lucas was still amazed by its appearance, after all these years. On the outside, it looked like just one more big old deserted house waiting to be torn down, like the three or four others scattered sparsely throughout the foothills. If a nosy trespasser were to peer through one of the grime-coated windows, all they would see would be a series of dingy, cluttered rooms. From every outside view, this house looked like there had been no one near it for a very long time.

But this house was special. Klaus Zeller and his team had been basing their West Coast operations out of it, and a handful of smaller hideouts for years, now. Their trick to not being discovered lay within the enormous staircase. If you stood on exactly the right step, and pressed on a certain one of the little wooden rosettes that decorated the banister, the secret would be revealed. Lucas could never remember which one it was, so he very rarely left the place by himself.

He invariably watched in fascination as Gerad or one of the others pressed the secret release. He was always thrilled as a section of the stairway dropped down inside itself at an angle, revealing a passageway. So now instead of standing on a step that was partway up the stairs, you found yourself standing at the top of a flight leading down into darkness. Lucas thought it was just about the coolest thing he'd ever seen!

Ten steps down there was a long underground corridor and then a door. Behind this door lay the hideout where one or more of "The Ice Man's" team could invariably be found. Right now it was Gerad and Lucas, having recently returned from swiping the computer from the scrawny little sidekick of that detective Zeller hated so much.

Gerad sat at the desk in the study, his eyes glued to the screen of Sandburg's laptop. Zeller had given him instructions to look for clues about Ellison's relationship with Sandburg, plus anything about Ellison himself. It had taken only minutes for him to locate the information that Zeller had told him to look for. Gerad sat back in the richly upholstered chair, and read out loud to Lucas, who stood quietly in the far corner.

"Sentinels were individuals of ancient tribes that, most likely due to genetics, possessed extremely heightened senses. These senses were honed through isolation, and then used as weapons to help protect the members of the tribe, as well as locate food, and watch out for predators." Gerad glanced over at Lucas, who just stared stupidly at him. Gerad sighed in resignation, and continued.

"In the time spent with my subject, I have come to learn that all five of his senses are at the Sentinel level, rather than just one or two, as in previous subjects. He has grown more comfortable with using this gift the longer I have been with him, and can now control it enough to use as an effective tool in his war against crime." Gerad finished reading, and stood, stretching, turning again to Lucas. "Neat stuff, huh?"

Lucas just gazed at him, and nodded a little. "Yeah...neat, Gerad!" He had no clue what the other man had been talking about.

Gerad grinned at him as he spun around in the chair. "I've got a feeling the boss is going to be pretty darned pleased with this little discovery," he said. He crossed to stand in front of Lucas. "Zeller said ages ago he had a feeling there was more to this Ellison person than met the eye!"

The phone on the desk rang, startling Lucas. Gerad laughed at him, and crossed to answer it. "Gerad here, report."

"Everything went like clockwork, dude! Those idiots never knew what hit 'em!" Skiff's Californian voice was jubilant. "We're on our way, now. Should be there in about an hour!"

Gerad smiled, turning to give a thumbs-up sign to Lucas. Lucas smiled, then quickly threw his hands up to cover his mouth, looking in fear at Gerad. "I'm sorry Gerad," he mumbled around his hands. "I forgot...."

Gerad was waving for him to be quiet. "Great, Skiff. Let me talk to the boss for a sec."There was a pause, then a low, smooth voice reached Gerad's ears.

"You have information for me, I presume?" said a voice touched with a German accent.

Gerad involuntarily shivered. *Good name for the boss, 'Ice Man'. You could freeze fire with that voice!* he thought.

"Yes sir. Lots of information!" Gerad leaned over the laptop, and read Blair's last paragraph to his boss. There was a long pause when he finished, and he could almost hear the satisfied smile in Zeller's voice as he spoke.

"Well done....Well done indeed." The Ice Man chuckled. "Go ahead with the next step, and remember.... I don't want either of them harmed...YET." Zeller's sinister chuckling faded as the phone was handed back to Skiff.

"So we'll see you soon, Gerad!" came Skiff's voice. "Yo, tell the Freakshow I'm looking forward to hearing all about his mission!" With a cackle, Skiff broke the connection, and Gerad hung up the phone.

"The boss is on his way!" Gerad said as he turned to Lucas. "Everything went fine."

Lucas nodded as he lowered his eyes to the floor. "Did Skiff call me Freakshow again?" he drawled, sadly.

Gerad chuckled as he came over to slap the giant on the back. "Aw, c'mon you big sissy. I'm sure he means it affectionately." He held up a warning finger as Lucas started to smile again. "Uh uh uh!" The smile vanished. Gerad laughed. Lucas sure was easy to train.

"Let's go, we've got a lot to do before they get here!"

* * * * * * *

"I need another volunteer!"

The seminar had been going on for about thirty minutes. Jim and Blair had to hurry back to the hotel from the museum to change into their sweats and T-shirts for the class. They'd both lost track of the time while in the Museum's cafe, as Jim had been describing his bizarre experience in Peru to his partner.

Blair had stared at Ellison as he told the story, his eyes growing wide as Jim described the Indian Chief/Panther in detail, the test he'd been faced with, and how it felt to have his powers restored. A lengthy discussion had followed, Blair asking what Jim thought it meant, Jim's theory, Blair's dissection of Jim's theory, etc. Before either of them realized it, it was nearly two o'clock.

They'd rushed back to the hotel, Blair tossing his backpack on the bed. He'd wanted to enter some information from the museum into his laptop while it was fresh in his mind, but there wasn't time. If Blair had tried to use his computer, all thoughts of the seminar would've been forgotten!

The large, gray-haired gentleman addressed the group of people seated on the mats on the floor of the large meeting room. His eyes scanned the range of faces, and settled on the slight, young man with the headful of dark curls.

"You!" he said, pointing at Blair, who swallowed nervously, and got to his feet. He gave one last, reluctant glance down at Jim, who was seated beside him.

"Go get 'em, Chief....," Jim said, patting Blair on the back as he stood. "Make me proud!"

Blair smirked down at his partner. "Yeah...sure, man...whatever." Then he took a deep breath, and came to stand before Anderson, the gray-haired instructor, who stood a good foot and a half taller than himself.

*This guy's even taller than Jim!* Blair thought, as the instructor showed him how to stand. *There's no way I'll be able to take him down!*

"All right," the instructor, Anderson, said. He assumed a threatening pose, arms up, hands outstretched towards Blair's throat, and continued. "Now...Sandburg," he said, glancing at the nametag on Blair's shirt. "I'm an attacker, about to get my hands around your neck...what are you going to do?"

"Hope not to die?" Blair said weakly, sending a wave of titters through the class of mostly women. Then he got serious, and tried to remember what the instructor had shown the last few "volunteers," most of whom had ended up lying flat on their backs.

"Um...I'm going to...um...I'll try to...um."

"Too late!" the instructor shouted. He pounced on Blair, locking his hands on his shoulders, and sweeping his leg under Blair's feet.

It all happened in a rush. The next thing Blair knew, he was on the floor looking up at the instructor, who now moved his hands to Blair's neck. Anderson spoke down to him, "I just broke your neck.... You're dead."

Blair craned his head from his position on the floor, and made eye contact with Jim. The detective was looking at Blair and the instructor with a very disturbed look on his face. *Great, I've just embarrassed the crap out of Jim!* thought Sandburg. The detective probably wished they'd both stayed in Cascade.

Jim was horrified. Sure, it had only been an exercise; the instructor knew how to floor Blair without hurting him, but....

*It was so FAST!* he thought. Sandburg had been absolutely helpless. If this had been real, then his partner would be dead, and Jim hadn't even had time to move! Ellison sighed, shakily, as he realized for the first time just how vulnerable his friend was. Jim had thought he'd always be able to protect Blair in such a situation, as long as he was nearby. Now he wasn't sure how safe Blair actually was when he was with Jim, and it bothered him. It bothered him a LOT.

"Now then," said the instructor, as he helped Blair up. "What do you think you did wrong?"

Blair thought about it. *Wrong? Letting Jim make me believe I could pull this off, that's what I did wrong.* he thought. But he bet that wasn't the answer Anderson was looking for. He took a guess. "Well, I didn't really know what to do...so I guess I just sort of froze."

"RIGHT!" Anderson exclaimed, making Blair jump a little. This sent another wave of giggles through the females in the room. The instructor didn't notice, as he explained. "That's it, exactly. You froze." He turned to speak to the rest of the class. "I can't tell you how many lives have been lost because the victim just didn't know how to react to an attacker."

*I know how to react.* Blair thought. *Run like hell and yell for Jim!* He shook himself to clear his head, as Anderson turned to him again.

"OK, let's try it again." Anderson took a different position, this time raising his right arm up, as if brandishing a weapon. "I've got a knife, and I'm coming at you." He shifted slightly, as Blair resumed his stance. "Ready?"

Blair sighed helplessly, gesturing a little with his hands. "But I don't.... How can I...."

The instructor interrupted. "No! I don't want you to think about what you're going to do. Just use your instincts." He raised his arm again, preparing to charge. When Blair looked hesitant, Anderson began to shout at him.