The static from the radio filled the room, and Bo felt her heart hammering as she thought of how she might hear his voice again. Khan limped up to her side, his eyes glued where all of theirs were. On the radio in Helga's hand.

Finally, an answer broke through the static. "Hello, Forlorn. I hope you're having a wonderful evening."

It wasn't a voice that Bo recognized. Her shoulders sagged. It wasn't Adam. She half turned, heading back to her chair while the others talked with their teammate, until she caught a glance of Khan's face. He stared at the radio with round eyes, his mouth a straight line and his eyebrows drawn together. Something was wrong. Bo's eyes swiveled to Helga, whose hand shook as she held the radio.

"Who is this?" Helga asked.

Bo took a step forward. They didn't know the voice? If this was a radio channel that only Adam was supposed to have access to, then did that mean...?

"Just your friendly neighborhood militia," the voice responded.

"Clayton," Khan grunted. He stalked over to Helga and snatched the radio away. He raised it to his mouth. "How did you get ahold of this communication line?"

"Well, that's why I'm calling you," Clayton responded. "I wanted to invite you out to see me and my pals. We can have a little chat. Tell some stories. Maybe you'll learn the answers to some of your questions."

"I'm going to kill you," Khan growled.

"Oh, good, then you'll come meet us," Clayton said. "We'll be waiting at the clock tower for you. You can bring whoever you want. We won't mind a little extra company."

"Clayton," Khan barked, but the static had already died. He turned slowly to look at Helga, whose jaw was so tightly clenched that Bo saw the muscles jump.

"Do you think he somehow got a hold of Adam and the others?" Helga said.

Khan tossed the radio onto a chair and clenched his fists. "I guess we'll have to go and meet him if we want to find out any time soon."

Bo couldn't bring herself to ask any questions. If she talked to them it might delay them, and she had to find out as soon as possible if Adam was all right. So she kept silent and followed Helga as she grabbed some pistols from a locker near the kitchen. She handed one to Bo without a word, and carried the other to Khan, who was strapping on his brace again. He took it, tucking it into his belt. Bo had mostly seen his lively personality up until now, but suddenly she saw glimpses of the beast that Adam had tamed so long ago. His eyes glinted like coals and she was suddenly aware of just how tall and muscular he was. There was a good reason Khan was in the Forlorn.

Helga and Khan led the way out of the base and toward the hidden entrance.

"We're not taking the hoppers?" Bo asked, as the ducked through the fake wall and emerged onto the streets.

"The clock tower is only a few blocks that way," Khan said, jutting his chin in the direction. "It's not the worth the trouble of wasting gas and alerting everyone to our presence with the sound of the engine."

They walked down the abandoned roads. No one stayed out longer than they had to. They city may have offered some protection against bandits and wild animals, but it still boasted criminals and the dropping temperatures that plagued the night. Helga and Khan walked next to each other, their pistols out and a confidence in their gait that would dissuade any potential criminals that might be tempted to pick on the only prey walking around at this hour. Bo kept close to them, though she knew how to look intimidating herself. She may have been small, but she knew how to flash her gun and keep her eyes scanning the roads.

A large clock tower rose through the landscape of buildings. It rose from a city square of some type, though now it was mostly just dirty flagstones and abandoned vendor carts. In the morning it must have been crowded and busy, but now it was only filled with moonlight and the bodies of men in black lounging around. They looked up as the three approached. Bo counted the men, coming up with fifteen. Her group was horribly outnumbered, and even though she knew she could take more men than it looked like she could, she knew that there was no way they could take on fifteen men with guns and survive. Still, her grip tightened on her pistol.

One man walked forward, a smile on his face. Bo didn't need to see the silver streaks in his hair to recognize him as the man who had beaten up Khan in The Heart earlier that morning. He must have recognized her too, as his eyes lingered on her for a moment.

"Hello, Forlorn," he said, his voice deep and strangely cultured. He rested his fists on his hips as he looked over the three, and a smile clung to his fleshy lips. "It's been so long since I last you, Helga. Looking lovely as ever."

Helga didn't react, which made Bo think she must have an iron will. If he'd said something similar to her, she thought she might forget about being outnumbered and beat him to a pulp right there. Judging by the expression on Khan's face, he was probably of the same mind as Bo.

Ignoring the glares he got from two of the three, the man sighed and folded his hands in front of him as if he was a parent about to scold his children. "I've heard that Adam is planning on disrupting one of our people in their trade. Obviously, I can't have this," he said. "So far, the Forlorn have only been mild annoyances, but it's starting to get to the point where you're attracting the wrong kind of attention. Namely, mine."

"The Forlorn aren't afraid of you or the militia, Clayton," Khan said.

Clayton laughed. "Trust me, son, I know that very well. Which makes me wonder if perhaps we shouldn't give you something to fear? Perhaps an example will make Adam think twice about bothering the Judge."

"The Judge?" Bo asked, but the conversation was already moving on.

"We don't have contact with Adam, so you could murder us in broad daylight and he wouldn't get the news in time to stop any plans he has," Helga replied, aloof and barely interested. Bo almost stared at her in disbelief that she could be so calm at a time like this.

"Oh, we have some very fast hoppers in our possession. I'm sure our men could reach him before he tries to meddle in the Judge's business. I'm sure a bag full of your smiling faces would dissuade him quite well."

Bo's head snapped up. Ignoring the veiled threat of beheading, she zeroed in on the hints that Clayton knew exactly where Adam currently was. Suddenly, he turned into nothing more but a new lead, and she forgot the fear and anger she'd once felt. He could have held a blade to her neck and she wouldn't care at all. She just needed to find some way to get the information he had, and then to escape with her life in order to follow the lead.

Clayton kept taunting them, but Bo didn't hear what he was saying. Her mind whirred as she thought up a plan of making him spill what he knew about where Adam was. She knew she wouldn't be able to trick him into telling them. He'd be too smart to let out specific locations, but he had already mentioned the name of someone. The Judge. Perhaps the other two might know who that man was. At any rate, she needed to get herself and the other two away from this situation in order to ask them. But first... she thought she needed to make sure Clayton didn't have any more information on him that she might need.

"Forgive me," Bo said, interrupting Clayton mid-taunt. His eyes swiveled to her, blinking slowly as he tried to figure out who she was and why she was brave enough to cut into his conversation. "But I'm just wondering when this will all wrap up. I mean, are we going to fight? Or are you just going to talk our ears off?"

A stunned silence fell, and then Clayton laughed. He threw his head back, but he was not happy at all. Instead, he lowered his head and she saw the spark of anger in his eyes.

"What are you doing, Bo?" Khan hissed. Helga gave her a glare and a swift motion across her neck to mime killing the chatter. But Bo ignored them and started walking forward, a smirk on her face.

"Seems to me an old man like you should be doing something a little more gentle than trying to take on a gang of street kids, like those two," she said, jerking her chin back at Khan and Helga. "Maybe a nice game of chess would be more suited for you, hm?"

Clayton's lips pressed tightly together. "You're barely younger than me yourself. Do you play chess?" She'd hit a nerve.

Bo laughed. "Trust me, I'm at least a good ten years younger. And, fortunately, I haven't started sporting the silver yet." She motioned to the streaks in his hair, and he stiffened.

"You'd better stop talking," he said. "Or else I might grow angry."

Bo was only a few feet away from him now. She just needed to close the gap a little more...

She put her hands over her mouth and made her eyes wide. "Aw, how cute! Little old grandpa is going to get mad at us!"

Finally, Clayton snapped. His face flushed red and anger freely covered his face. He launched forward, drawing his gun from the belt around his waist and reaching out to grab Bo by the jacket collar. He yanked her forward so that they were toe-to-toe, and his pistol barrel rested against her temple. His breath was rancid in her nostrils, but she stared him down with a smile as the cold metal pressed against her skin.