Trinity slept well. And though she didn’t remember her dreams, she woke up smiling.

She took a quick shower, dressed, and padded downstairs to rustle up some breakfast, all before her alarm went off.

She was just spreading butter on toast and wondering when Hawkeye would wake up when there was a knock on the front door.

That was certainly odd. They didn’t tend to get a lot of guests.

She wondered vaguely if someone might have thought this was the main academy in spite of the signs.

She opened the door to reveal a young, black man in a gorgeous suit.

“Hello there,” he said, in a melodious voice.

“Hi,” she replied, wishing she hadn’t answered. He was probably here to recruit for a church or something.

“Is Veronica Nunez here?” he asked.

“Um, not right now,” Trinity hedged.

Veronica had already been with the K-9s for hours. But she wasn’t going to tell this guy that until she knew what he wanted.

“I’m Ron Zyres with the Clam Falls Daily Tribune,” he explained. “I’d like to talk with her about her old friend, Georgia.”

Veronica hadn’t really been in contact with Georgia for years, except…

Trinity realized with horror that it must be about the aliens.

And as far as she knew, Lobo was out there with Veronica.

“Veronica won’t be back today,” Trinity blurted. “But if you want to give me your number, I’d be glad to have her give you a call when she does come back.”

“Uh, okay,” Ron said. “But I was told she lived here. I’d be glad to wait until evening.”

“Oh, no,” Trinity said, shaking her head, and praying to think up something good. “No, no. She’s traveling to look at a new dog.”

“Trinity, are you cooking?” Hawkeye’s voice wafted down the stairwell.

Shit.

“Don’t come down here,” she yelled, her voice squeaking slightly.

“Why not?” he asked.

Why not? Why not?

“I want to surprise you,” she called back up, hoping that Ron couldn’t see from his vantage point that all she had going back in the kitchen was toast.

“Oh,” Hawkeye said from upstairs. “Excellent. I will wait.”

She turned back to Ron. She was relieved, until she glanced through the side window and spotted Conan’s big form approaching. He was barely twenty yards away. He would be on the doorstep within seconds.

“Well, I guess I’d better get out of your way,” Ron conceded, and moved as if to turn back to the door.

“Oh, no,” Trinity said with too much feeling. “No, you need something to eat. Come have some toast.”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Ron said, looking rightfully suspicious.

“I insist,” Trinity hissed and half dragged him to the kitchen.

She snagged a handful of slightly burnt toast off the counter and pressed it into his palm, pulling him out the back door, just as Conan came in the front.

“Um, thank you,” Ron said, eying the toast.

“It was my pleasure,” Trinity told him, panting slightly. “Veronica will be in touch.”

“But I haven’t given you my number,” he protested.

“Right, right,” Trinity said. “Sorry, I guess I’m just star struck.”

“You are?” Ron asked, looking at her more carefully.

“I’m a fan of the paper,” she shrugged.

“Wow. We publish in Wisconsin,” he said. “Our circulation is nineteen hundred people.”

“I meant the paper as in… all papers,” she said weakly, snatching the card he’d been pulling out of his pocket when she had sidetracked him. “I’m a big supporter of print media.”

“Well, we the journalists of America, thank you for your time,” he said with a half smile.

“No problem,” she said.

He scrambled off quickly, as if he were narrowly escaping with his life.

She could hardly blame him. She couldn’t have seemed more deranged if she had been trying to scare him on purpose.

If it kept him away though, it was worth it. Veronica would have to call him and give him a phone interview though, maybe even meet with him someplace to prevent him from coming back here and finding the other aliens.

It was incredible to see what lengths people were willing to go to for peripheral information on the boys in Stargazer and the women they loved.

Something occurred to her.

She slipped her phone out of her pocket and texted Veronica.

Trinity:

A reporter was just here looking for you to ask you about Georgia. Told him you were traveling. Don’t post anything online that would say where you are.

Veronica:

Holy crap. OK

Trinity:

It got me thinking. I should check security on your computer.

Veronica:

Thanks.

Trinity:

Can you give me passwords tonight?

Veronica:

They’re on a sticky in my laptop case.

Trinity:

What are you 100 years old? That’s NOT a good idea.

Veronica:

Whatever. They’re hard to remember.

Trinity:

I’ll set up a better system for passwords while I’m in there. C U L8TR.

Veronica:

xo

Trinity dashed back inside and thundered up the stairs.

“Is my surprise ready?” Hawkeye asked.

“Oh, er, it was only toast,” she muttered on her way past him up the stairs to Veronica’s new digs.

“Toast,” Hawkeye said in a pleased way. “Excellent.”

“There’s none left.”

Hawkeye looked confused. But he didn’t push for an explanation.

“Hey, where are you going?” He asked.

“I have to check something for Veronica,” Trinity yelled back. “Don’t wait for me.”

She slipped into Veronica and Lobo’s room.

Veronica’s purple laptop case sat on the desk by the window.

Sure enough, she found a list of passwords on a yellow sticky note, visible the moment you opened the thing.

All the passwords were cute variations on the names of the K-9 officers Veronica trained.

Trinity rolled her eyes. Clearly she was going to have her work cut out for her to get Veronica secure.

Nonetheless, she got right down to business.

In about three seconds she could see that someone had been trying to access the computer.

She would have to set up good security for all of them.

But there was something about it that was tickling at her brain…

A moment later she was jogging down the stairs, out the back door and across the field to the chapel.

She logged onto a computer on the academy server, and took a closer look at that virus she’d fought into submission.

When she found what she was looking for, she was so horrified that she flung herself out of her chair, pacing the black and white tiles in an attempt to kill her nervous energy.

This was bad.

Someone was trying to set up spyware that would have monitored all communication.

“Trinity, are you okay?”

Hawkeye’s big frame appeared in the doorway, and for a moment she felt a sweet sense of relief. She wasn’t alone. He was here.

Then the truth landed on her, crushing the air out of her lungs.

She was pretty sure the entire academy was being hacked just because Veronica was an old high school friend of one of the brides.

Trinity didn’t think she could face what she’d be up against if she married an alien herself.

The last thing in the world she wanted was to be some kind of celebrity.