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Li frowned. “Meanwhile, with Chase back in Atlanta, I’m officially jealous of you. It takes so much planning to be in the same place at the same time.”
“You know,” Alder said, “I wrote an algorithm and I push the data to my seven partners so we’re always aware of each other’s schedules.”
Compared to Alder’s seven-sided relationship, even my roster appeared simple. But also, somehow depressing.
“But we digress,” Kessler said. “You were about to tell us all the smutty details.”
“I like Evan Prescott very, very much,” I said. “That’s all you’re going to get from me.”
“She takes all the fun out of making fun of her,” Kessler complained, then winked at me.
I smiled back at her and ate my breakfast while I listened to the other women discuss their plans for the day. Alder was trying to locate online schematics of one of the suspected Carbonados sites for Sparks. Kessler and Li had already begun reviewing IT’s research information for the later briefing. All of them would spend the rest of the day planning the next moves against our agency’s biggest, baddest enemy organization. Meanwhile, I would spend my time ordering supplies to restock the medical bay. That wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, I was looking forward to the quiet, zen experience.
It was one more way I was different, and one more reason they wouldn’t miss me all that much when I was gone. But sitting around the breakfast table with those four smart, energetic, dedicated women, I knew I was going to miss them like hell.
* * *
Evan
A few minutesbefore the team meeting began, TJ, Bennet and I handed over our phones to Jensen and entered the SCIF. I introduced Bennet to each person, ending with Red because I knew Bennet would hold her hand longer and flirt with her just to annoy me, the way only a best friend can. I crossed my arms and waited for him to fawn.
As predicted, he shook her hand and held onto it. “Graduated magna cum laude at age twenty. Third in your medical school class. Top of your surgical internship program. Dr. Bond, it is an honor.”
Red blushed and tittered like a teenager. I huffed, but I did it quietly. I wasn’t jealous, not really. How could I be jealous of Bennet flirting with her girlish side when I got to spend time with the full-grown woman? Besides, that blush was pretty damn cute.
TJ stood at the front of the room and the rest of us took seats. Bennet slid into my normal place, to Samantha’s right. I pulled a chair between him and Sparks and stared at the screen, waiting for the briefing. Given how unprofessionally I’d responded when sitting directly next to Red, having some distance while I took in the mission information wasn’t a bad idea. We were waiting for Jensen, who clicked the cipher lock less than a minute later. X, the scary lady who ran this place, entered along with him, speaking to him in a quiet voice. Weirdly, she was smiling, which didn’t make her look any less formidable. No one else in the room looked unsettled by her early appearance, except maybe Red, who clasped her hands together and sat up straighter.
“Good morning Alpha Team,” X said. She nodded at TJ. When she stood in front of the screen and faced us, her lips were pressed into a thin line. There were dark circles under her eyes, and the paleness I’d taken to be her natural color when I’d had my one-minute introduction to her on Monday had faded into a pallor. The woman was dead tired, stressed as hell, or both.
I glanced at Red, who was frowning. She met my eyes briefly and I thought she saw it, too. I hadn’t been briefed on the organizational and operational policies of HEAT, but its business model seemed to be based on a cross between government intelligence agencies and the military. My past experience gave me a lot of insight into what that meant, and coupled with her recent time in DC, I deduced X had been in front of congressional oversight committees, albeit behind closed doors because of the classified nature of HEAT’s existence. From everything I’d heard, those closed-door meetings were a fresh hell that had broken many a grown man and a few women, too. If my assessment was correct, X didn’t actually look that bad, considering.
“I can’t stay long,” X told the team. “I’m due in Geneva. But I thought it critical to attend your briefing this morning and make sure we all understand our roles and responsibilities in the upcoming mission.” She focused like a laser beam on Red as she spoke, then turned toward me. “Mr. Prescott.”
I sat up straight and hoped a drop of sweat didn’t break out on my forehead. “Ma’am.”
“We’ve brought on Sentinel Security”—she glanced at Bennet—“as a subcontractor for this mission. As part of the agreement, you will report directly to Alpha Team lead, TJ.” X turned her attention back to me. “To be clear, you are here as a courtesy and in an advisory capacity. You are not authorized to deploy during the operation nor to make any decisions regarding any member of this team. Do I make myself clear?”
Given the weighted silence and pitying glances from the others in the room, I got the impression this was extreme agitation, even for X. I suppressed the overwhelming urge to stand and salute. “Crystal clear, ma’am.”
X relaxed her shoulders ever so slightly and focused on Red. “Dr. Bond,” she said in a softer voice. “Samantha, I’m glad to see you looking so well. Dr. Sloane assured me a few days of rest would ensure your full recovery.”
“I’m glad to have Dr. Sloane’s support to return to full duty,” Red told her boss’s boss.
“Physically, you’re cleared for duty, but officially, you’re suspended until further notice.” X turned toward TJ. “Your supervisor says that you defied a direct order.”
Red’s face was still unreadable, but she clenched her hands together until her fingers turned red. “It seemed to be the best course of action, ma’am, and it led to the safe detainment of Hank Claybourne.”
TJ stepped beside X. “Bond, if he had been someone else, things could have gone sideways in a second, and you damn well know it.”
“He’s right,” X said. “Chain of command isn’t just a catch phrase around here, it’s a way of life.” She glanced around the table. “I know I’ve given the Alpha Team members a lot of leeway, and despite some close calls, things have worked out thus far. But the odds are not in your favor. Beginning today, I’m reining you all in. TJ is in charge of the team for a reason.” She stared down Red again. “All of you will show him the respect and deference his position accords him.”
Based on TJ’s tight jaw and stiff stance, he didn’t like this lecture from the agency director any more than the rest of his team. But I was sure he knew she was right, because I knew it, and despite our rocky start last weekend, we were cut from the same military cloth.
“Now I’ll turn the briefing over to TJ.” X took a seat along the wall, away from the team, but her presence remained palpable.
TJ poked the room laptop to life and clicked through slides that displayed on the screen. An obit with a picture of the young soldier in his army dress greens flashed in front of us. “Alder,” he said, “would you catch the team up on your background research on Staff Sergeant O’Dell?”
“Absolutely.” Alder took the clicker from TJ, advanced to the next slide, and stood beside the screen. “O’Dell was due for his honorable discharge in another month. According to his coworkers at Fort Meade, he was actively being courted by a private firm claiming to be a government contractor. He didn’t share their name with anyone, but we did find an offer letter in his personal email account. Tracking down real information about them is quite the shell game, but given our past history with Carbonados, I was able to take some shortcuts to confirm it was them.”
