Page 62 of Fighting Salvation

“Do we know who the father was?”

“No, no record I’m afraid. That’s also not all.”

“Jesus, Lopez, just hit me with it.”

“Joel Hansen was a twin. His sister died when she was two. She drowned.”

“Fucking hell,” he said.

“I can’t tell you much more than that, but from what I can see, it was merely fate that your mother ended up in South Africa with your father at the same time and place as Hansen.”

“Thank you for telling me, Lopez. I know that couldn’t have been easy for you.”

“My pleasure, boss man.”

“Oi. May I remind you I’m your boss man, not this idiot,” Jack called from the back.

Bás chuckled. It seemed all was still well with the world around them and insults were again being thrown like little love bombs. “Okay let’s make a plan.”

Everyone sat around the table which was now mission control with laptops, maps, and weaponry spread out. Hurricane had taken Novem outside and out of the way. Her reaction to the influx of people had been clear terror and he knew he needed to figure that out very soon too. They’d found a few toys left by the previous owner and she was enjoying those with her oversized guardian watching over her.

“Firstly, I want to say Watchdog is the priority here. Getting him back is imperative.”

“Agreed,” Jack said.

“That said, we still have the opportunity to get close to Hansen and I believe we need to execute both at once. That way if something should go wrong, we have a second option.”

Duchess leaned back and crossed her arms, her body language making it clear she didn’t like the idea. “So we split the team?”

“Yes. We have enough people to do so now with Eidolon here to help.”

“Yet we know it’s a trap. Hansen wants us there and we have to ask ourselves why.”

“I know that, but if we keep the team together, and Watchdog isn’t there then we lose the chance of finding him by snatching Hansen.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I, but do you have a better idea?”

Duchess scowled at him but kept quiet because she might not like it but it was the best plan.

“Okay, I propose Reaper, Bein, Bishop, Titan, Reid, Jack, and Rafe go with Duchess to get our boy home. Hurricane, Rykov, Lotus, and I will go to the meeting point.”

“Excuse you, what about me?”

He couldn’t look at Val as he spoke but he lifted his head now and found her angry gaze on him. “You’ll stay here and look after Novem.”

She slapped her hands down on the table and stood. Rafe leaned back, folded his arms, and began to chuckle. Bás shot him an angry warning look but he just laughed harder.

“Oh boy.”

“If you think for one second I’m getting side-lined because we’re sleeping together then you have another thing coming.”

Rafe’s smile disappeared and he grimaced. “Woah, no need for that kind of talk. A brother does not need to hear that.”

Val turned her glare on him. “Oh, shut it, Muppet.”

Bás gave him the middle finger and then jumped when Val yelled. “You too, Niall.”