"Then contact the Directorate. Given them the information. There's nothing I could do without the official go-ahead anyway."

Which was a only a teeny-tiny lie. If I was so inclined, I could investigate just about anything. Guardians were the super-cops, the hunter-killers, of the non-human world, and we had free rein to investigate where we willed. Though if I did investigate, and did find something, I'd have to report it back to my boss. A full investigation could only go ahead with his official approval.

"All I'm asking you to do is an initial investigation. If you feel there's nothing the Directorate can do, then I'll try other sources."

He sounded all together too reasonable all of a sudden, and my hackles rose. Blake and reason just didn't sit well with my memories of the man. "You were ordering me a few moments ago."

"Perhaps I'm seeing the error of my ways."

"And perhaps tomorrow they'll put a woman on Mars." I shifted from one foot to the other. I wasn't trusting this new and improved Blake to last more than a second, but it didn't hurt to play along anyway. "Why do you think her disappearance is a Directorate matter?"

"There's a pattern. For a start, they all stayed at Monitor island for more than a week."

"And?"

"And they all disappeared within a week of returning… "