Shade accepted the dagger which hid in the darkness created by the cloaked mutant. Casually tossing the dagger into the light, he mentally counted off the seconds until the dagger disappeared again after which he responded to Sonya's question.

"Yeah." Shades said simply.

"Let me know when you have the right guard. And don't hesitate to ask if you need some help making the right guard go on 'vacation'." He added, strongly hinting about the guard demise.

> "Let me know when you have the right guard. And don't hesitate
> to ask if you need some help making the right guard go on 'vacation'."

Sonya winces a little at Garth's suggestion and shakes her head. "No, that won't be necessary."

She has to admit, though, that it would be a lot simpler than what she has in mind. Finding the right guard and arranging to keep him sedated, even for just a few hours, is going to be a huge pain in her behind, but she shies away from the idea of arranging to have an innocent bystander killed for her convenience.

Oh? So what do you think the Order did with the real Doug?

The thought takes her aback for a moment, but she shrugs it off. She's gotten good at that. Besides, if the guard turns up dead, they'll do some forensic thing and discover he died before arriving at his shift, and that'll give the game away, same as it did when she took Stanley's body.

No... her way is better.

I could kill him afterwards, though.

She shakes that thought off, too, but it keeps circling her mind just out of reach. On some consideration, she can't decide what's worse -- the fact that she can't think of a practical reason not to do so, or the fact that she seems to need one.

"Anyway, I'll give you a call when it's set up. I'll need you to provide a distraction once I'm inside." With that settled, she walks off quickly.

(( dropping off thread; continuing here ))