Chit and the squ -- 

Chit and Kara and the oth --

Chit and his *family* sat in the belly of a Greyhound bus, resting, listening
to the comforting roar of the engine and the wind as they raced down the
highway towards their goal.

They'd planned on going to Toledo. Chit had even contacted Teral to let him
know they were coming. But Teral had warned him off -- the bunnies had
ToledoWarren surrounded, and were intercepting any squirrels that tried to
come to its aid. So they headed for the only other real destination. 

Cleveland. CWRU. UCirc.

Teral may not have been much of a hacker, but he still had a backdoor from
his days as root that the new sysops hadn't found yet, and he was happy to
edit some files on their behalf. They were marked as coming from a tiny,
forgettable little warren, much like theirs really had been, only in
Pennsylvania rather than Missourri. They got mocked up personnel records
(for Chit and Kara, at least, the others would be registered legitimately
when they arrived) and a copy of their orders hidden in a corner of the 
file system that could easily have been left unsearched. 

They even got to keep their real names. Most of them, anyway. 'Chit' was
such a common name that there was no point in altering it, and the others
had never been in the records in the first place. Kara's name was changed,
though, since 'Chit and Kara' had almost certainly crossed Loren's desk.
'Colette' was the name they chose. Sort of a tribute to her memory.

There wasn't much danger of being recognized -- Kara's story had been a
bit exaggerated, and the mentat in question never found out her name. If he
saw her, she'd just admit it was her. Colette. The only other squirrels that
would recognize her were the other scouts, and she was sure she could trust
them to keep her secret. Chit, of course, looked nothing like the real Chit.
And the rest of them had never been to the warren before.

The only one who could mess them up would be the courier, and the chances
of stumbling across her in a warren the size of UCirc were negligible,
especially considering that she spent most of her time harrassing innocent
squirrels in far flung warrens.

So it didn't look like they'd have any trouble fitting in. Completing their
mission was another matter...

Because they weren't following Teral's plan. All he wanted was for them to
pilfer a few key supplies and sneak to ToledoWarren through the bunnymover
tunnels. Easy enough. But they had more in mind.

Because the squirrel who had set the assassins on their trail -- the
warrenleader, the high priest, the prophet, Loren Greycoat -- was still
alive. 

And blood cried out for blood.

==
Chit