Alex drifted along behind Silvia, keeping pace with her new teammates until something buzzed in her pocket. She fell back a little as she pulled out her cell phone--she'd made sure to put it on vibrate so it wouldn't disturb any of the evening's briefings, but she didn't think anyone would mind her checking it now, while they were en route between different stops on the tour.

[i]New message from [b]Jericho[/b],[/i] the screen said. She wasn't surprised, though she had expected him to wait a little longer, to be sure she'd be out of her meetings. She opened the text and read, [i]Are you dead?[/i] She'd been getting variations of that same message sporadically all week, ever since she'd told her best friend and her family that the Guardians would be going into hiding.

[i]No, Jer,[/i] she typed, the corners of her mouth twitching upward, [i]not dead yet. Thanks for checking.[/i]

[i]Somebody has to,[/i] he replied. No other messages were forthcoming, but it wasn’t hard for Alex to fill in what went unsaid. She had a lot of practice.

[i]Love you, too,[/i] she sent, pocketing the phone with a grin. Nothing made Jericho more uncomfortable than open expressions of affection, which was possibly why Alex’s parents never seemed to believe her when she declared that she would marry him by the time she turned thirty-five.

She looked up, addressing her first question to Silvia. "This is probably going to sound really stupid," she said, "but do the facilities here include internet access?"