He approached slowly, climbing each step with gentle determination. She wore the soft, welcoming smile she gave all new clients and parents of prospective students as they entered the training ground. His eyes were open, clear and direct. His face was calm. So calm and patient. The outcome of this meeting was assuredly his and so he had no reason to be anything but calm. The smile on her face began to fade. But his air of patience gave her a small bit of comfort. It wasn't violence then he was here for. He was prepared to take his time, to convince her of the absolute rightness of his mission, to convince her to play a part in it.

He stood two steps below her, his head even with her shoulders as he gazed up to her. But the look on his face made her feel smaller. Reading body language, even miniscule reflexes and tics not noticed by those with lesser training, was second nature for her. She recognized before he even stopped moving that this was not about the Training House or even the Guild. It wasn't even about her, exactly. Stopping below her wasn't to help her feel less intimidated - it was to show her that she was but one pinnacle, one obstacle to overcome to achieve a larger goal. And that this one obstacle was not going to be much of a challenge for him. The smile on her face slowly disappeared, a look of alarm only recognizable by the widening of the eyes.

"Inara Serra. You are lovelier than your registration holo." He said with a gentle nod of the head. Perfect timbre of the voice gave the statement's delivery a quiet fondness. It was delivered to achieve two tiny advantages - to give her a moment to collect herself and to let her know he had access to her Guild records. He wasn't a fool, he knew what Companions were required to learn and he wanted her at her fullest capabilities. It would be the only way she could truly accept his offer.

Her smile returned, a bit more brittle than before as she acknowledged his compliment. "Thank you." She kept eye contact with him.

Moments passed in silence. He waited for the invitation to join her. The invitation never came. A small genuine smile came to his lips. 'Good. A weaker person could create many inconveniences.'

"Ms. Serra there is a important issue which I would like to discuss with you." She watched him climb the last two steps, cross the veranda and to a small sitting area in the shade. He sat and gestured to a chair near him. Slowly she crossed the distance and lowered herself into the chair, careful to keep her hands and feet within striking distance. Certainly she was curious about what issue he came to discuss, but the word dangerous emanated from him. She looked into his eyes and cocked an eyebrow indicating that she was listening.

Still holding his smile he thought a shock would be appropriate at this moment. He asked "Ms. Serra: where is River Tam?"

It worked in shocking her. "Who?" she asked. But they both knew it was too late. Her face reflected how startled she was with this line of questioning and they both knew that she could not deny knowing River Tam.

He tilted his head slightly and kept smiling. He didn't need to say or ask anything else.

Sighing she revised her response. "I don't know, but even if I did, what reason would I have for telling anyone that?"

"Because it will prevent the loss of life. She is dangerous in ways you cannot suspect or imagine."

"She's a girl. A very traumatized and wounded girl. But dangerous?" Inara shook her head. "I do not believe that. But I do believe that telling you where she is would result in the loss of life. Hers."

"Is her life more valuable than any number of innocent lives?" A subtle shiver traveled her spine as she realized he did not dispute the fact that the loss of River's life was also a given in this man's goals.

"What lives are at stake because she is free? From what I understand, the only life at risk is her own."

"Malcolm Reynolds life." Inara's eyes narrowed at the mention of his name. "And the lives of his entire crew. But more than that - any person that crosses paths with her are at risk. She is dangerous. A bomb which can and will explode at any moment. But unlike a bomb she will explode again and again and again. Destroying more people each time."

Inara scoffed. "If she is dangerous then it is because of what was done to her."

"I'm not here to debate who is at fault. Of course she is dangerous because of what has been done to her. She is also dangerous because of what she can do. But this is not about why she is dangerous but how she is dangerous."

He took a moment before continuing. "Ms. Serra, River Tam is unstable. Surely you know that having spent time with her. But her instability is unlike anything created by nature. She will bring down Serenity and her entire crew. She will bring havoc and destruction on any person, any group, any community she comes in contact with."

Inara smiled and responded "I'm still here."

He smiled at this. What an excellent response!

"By chance, yes. And the dynamics of the crew of Serenity played no small part in that."

"Meaning?" she asked.

"Meaning that the relationships on Serenity, the very environment are enough to keep her from causing major destruction, though I suspect you can recall more than a few instances where minor destruction happened because of her. I can assure you though, it is a temporary respite. Eventually she will destroy all that she touches."

"We'll agree to disagree on that point," Inara said.

Again the Operative smiled. It was a true pleasure to work on this level of parry and thrust with words. So often it is reduced to physical violence. It gave him a deep and rare satisfaction to work within the realm of communication and not physical force.

"You make a good point though Ms. Serra: you wouldn't know the location of Serenity at any given time. And you don't need to know. All that is important is the ability to make contact, to ask them to come here. You don't have to convince them to give River to me. All I ask is that you give me the opportunity to convince them myself."

"I don't think they would even be interested in hearing what you have to say. Besides that, you still haven't given me reason to do such a thing."

"But I have. You stayed with Serenity well over a year. Surely their lives have some value to you."

"They do. But I'm not convinced that their lives are at stake because of River."

"Fair to say. Perhaps you'd let me show you something then." His hand worked his way into a cargo pocket on the side of his slacks. Bringing it out he presented her with a holo.

She looked at it for a moment before reaching her hand up to take it from him. Turning it to her she activated the replay and watched. And there was River in a bar. Her face was turned up, looking at the screens playing an advertisement. She slid her coat from her arms, it settling slowly on the floor behind her feet. And then she methodically and gracefully began to fight her way across the room. Kicking and punching and throwing men twice her weight. Bottles and bodies falling to the floor. It would have been beautiful to watch if there were no bodies bleeding and dying in her wake, if there wasn't blood on River's knuckles. She recognized Mal, running up the steps, his hands franticly running over his body. River took on one man with a knife, one man with a gun. Not flinching or even breaking a sweat she disarmed and killed them both and then a third in the background. And then River turned, swinging a gun she took from a combatants hands and aiming it at Mal who had turned aiming his own pistol at her. The screen turned black.

Her heart racing and lips parted as she took shallow quick breaths, she looked at the man sitting opposite of her.

"You see then? What she can do, what she will do if I do not bring her home?" He reached over taking the holo from her hands and placing it securely in the pocket he pulled it from.

Inara's stomach felt weighted down and filling with cold as though she had drank a pitcher of ice water.

"Is he... that is, she didn't..."

"No, she didn't. By a stroke of pure luck Malcolm Reynolds survived. But all those other people? Do you think they woke up that day suspecting it would end at the hands of a young and unstable girl? And how much luck do you think Malcolm Reynolds really has?"

This caught her. She broke off eye contact from him. Her eyes turned and settled on something innocuous, something safe - the blooming flowers and vista of mountains in the distance. 'Quite a bit actually,' she thought. 'But all of his luck is bad.'

"Ms. Serra..." his tone was so reasonable, so assuring. "... it's such a small thing I really need from you. Just bring them here. In doing that you will be protecting countless lives, including Malcolm Reynolds as well as your own."

She looked at the mountains while he spoke, thought of Mal and of River. He would know, wouldn't he? If she waved him, if she made it obvious it was a trap? How could she tell him? Smiling to herself she thought 'I won't argue with him. I won't push his buttons. He'll know then that my offer is not what it seems.' Surely he wouldn't come and risk himself, the ship and everyone on board knowing that it was a trap! He would stay off the radar as he has always done. He would keep them safely away. He would keep them safe. But if she did nothing, made no attempt to contact them, then this man would have to seek another path to Serenity and to River. She may even be able to contact Mal and warn him after he left. Swiftly she sorted her thoughts, it would do no good to spend too much time speculating while this man sat there watching her thoughts play out through her eyes. She may be able to hide much by keeping her face immobile, but she suspected this man had teachers every good as her own when it came to interpreting the behavior of others.

She looked back to him smiling. "I am sorry. But I cannot help you. A scene, taken out of context can be interpreted a number of ways. And that is assuming the holo you showed me has not been altered. Even if River is dangerous, which I do not believe she is, it would be against my own conscience to betray her to any person who is a part of those who wounded her so deeply. It's true, I do care for the crew of Serenity, but that includes River."

The Operative sat back, not looking disappointed in the least. His next statement came quietly, so much so that Inara leaned in to hear him better. "Ms. Serra. I cannot convince you that the images you saw were unaltered or that it is an accurate representation of the danger River Tam poses. But I believe that she is dangerous. More than that I believe that her existence is the epitome of wrath and destruction. Her existence impedes any possibility of creating worlds that are free of sin or vice. And that is all I truly want. It is all I work and live for." He paused to watch her absorb his words. 'Time for another shock,' he thought.

"Tell me Ms. Serra: do you think Malcolm Reynolds would not come if say, your life was in danger? If the young men and women here were under siege?"

She sat back as though he had struck her.

"I would not want to do it, but make no mistake: I will if you cannot find yourself willing to assist me. I do not want to harm anyone or take anyone's life. I wish only to speak with Captain Reynolds, to convince him how very important it is that we get River Tam back. But if you do not believe me, if you don't think think that this cannot be done without violence, then it is violence I will bring."

She shuddered hearing these words. "You can't. They're innocent. They have nothing to do with this. You want 'worlds without sin' and yet you comfortably threaten me with the very thing you are working against."

"Not so much comfortable Ms. Serra. But I will do what needs to be done to protect more lives than just those in this Training House. And there are so many more innocent lives than the ones that live here."

She closed her eyes and realized what she saw from his arrival - there really was no alternative. None worth taking in any case. Feeling the tears that could not come, not now, she squeezed her eyes for a moment. Opening them the Operative saw what he expected. Brittle and grim acceptance of his request. Inara stood, walked through the terrace doors that led to her bedroom and readied herself. It wouldn't do for Mal to see her fear, or her regret in contacting him. Pinching her cheeks and brushing her hair behind her shoulders she stood and accessed the cortex to send the wave to Serenity. She would do this to avoid the threat of violence to the hundreds of students, teachers, priests and priestess here. And she knew that Mal would get the warning, would see the trap and stay away. She smiled thinking how this ruse simply wouldn't work. It gave her comfort and she used that feeling as a base to function from in talking to Mal. The Operative stood by the terrace doors and smiled.