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“Kam told me there was some discussion about breaking them up. I guess they either decided not to or were going to wait. What can I do for you?”
“Nothing, really. I thought I’d bum a cup of coffee.”
“You’re always welcome. I got a new blend called Army of Dark Chocolate. It’s a Brazilian Arabica dark roast with just a hint of dark chocolate. It’s divine.”
“That does sound good.”
“Help yourself. And I now have my very own fridge so there’s real cream.”
“Oooh, moving up in the world since they put you downstairs.” He walked over to the door to the atrium. “Pretty, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I actually ventured out there the other day. I wanted to stretch my legs. It seemed easier to do it there than go outside. Besides, it was a lot warmer than it is this time of year in Iceland.”
Deciding she could use a break as well, she waited until Terry got his cup of coffee and made one of her own, sitting back in her desk chair. She and Terry enjoyed their coffee as they talked of inconsequential things. She observed his body posture over the rim of her cup. He was no Mason, but he wasn’t bad. He looked strong and as though he knew how to use his body. She’d never been good at detecting other shifters unless they were really obvious about it, but now regarding Terry, she did begin to wonder.
Could he help? Would he be willing to? Would she be willing to ask him to? It wasn’t only a question of him being loyal; NLGP had a dark side, and she had little doubt as to how they dealt with those they considered traitors. She doubted that he was just a cog in the great machine that was NLGP, but she was beginning to think he knew and saw far more than he let on. From the beginning, he had urged her to come to him if she needed help. The problem was how to determine whether he was another drone, oblivious as to what was really going on, or if he knew and had been warning her all along.
“I’d better get back at it before they notice I’m gone.”
“Thanks for coming by, Terry. Don’t be a stranger and thank you for all you’ve done for me.”
“Happy to help, Doc. Like I said, you come to me if you need anything—anything at all.”
“I may need to take you up on that.”
“Problem?”
“Nothing I can’t handle, but I’m afraid I may have gotten myself on Kam’s bad side.”
“She doesn’t have anything but bad sides,” chuckled Terry. “Sorry, Doc. I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
“No harm; no foul.”
“Not until the end of the day and someone reports what I’ve said.”
“You don’t sound too worried.”
“I’m not. We security guys look out for each other. Sometimes parts of the video are eroded, and you can’t see or hear anything and sometimes things get substituted—you know snip this out, dub that in. Or occasionally the whole system can just have a glitch. We’ve learned to deal with it.”
“Are you guys that tight?”
“We’re more friendly than friends, but we have a commonality that binds us—with the exception of you, everybody else in this place treats us like we don’t exist. So, we do what we can to help each other out—covering for a guy who has to leave early for his shift, erasing mistakes from some of the video footage, that kind of thing. Fact is, you’re the only one here whoever drops off goodies or invites us to have coffee with you. A lot of the teams have gone together and bought coffee makers, but with the exception of your old team, we are persona non grata.”
“That’s a rotten way to treat people.”
Terry shrugged. “It is the way it is, but we do look out for each other. I meant what I said, you come to me if you need help.”
“I may take you up on that—probably someday soon.”
His gaze sharpened and for the first time, she knew Terry was some kind of shifter. There were times when feeling strong emotions that a shifter’s eyes took on an ethereal glow. There were others when they had a hard handle on their feelings that the glow was limited to a very fine line around the pupil. The line around Terry’s pupil flashed, but not before she’d seen it.
“I wondered if that might not be the case. Don’t you worry. Those two goons they have stationed outside Dr. Payne’s room aren’t medical orderlies, but I suspect you knew that.”
She grinned. “I figured.”
“What time are you leaving tonight? The parking lot is getting icy, and I noticed you didn’t wear shoes that would be good on that. I’d hate to see you take a tumble.”
“Me, too. I was thinking maybe around six-thirty. I’m a little behind on my schedule.”
