Page 4

I nod as I help Jensen stand, which he hates, and then we all make our way into the front room. I reply, “I’ve calmed down a bit now, and I get that it’s not important in the grand scheme of things, but I need to know.”
“I want to know, too,” Jynx replies. “She was so fucking adamant that she wanted her normal, enough that she voluntarily moved hours away from her mother and had minimal contact with her for her safety. And they got on; it wasn’t like Mona was a bitch.”
“Fuck,” Ace suddenly curses, “You need to give Mona a call and let her know what’s going on and that we’ve got it handled.”
“The last thing we need is to end up with conflicting people, getting in each other’s way as they all try to achieve the same goal,” Riot points out.
Jynx nods as she pulls out her phone and adds, “I’m going to have to take the job on pro bono and assure her that we’re personally handling it.”
Trick nods, “I think we should be able to work that out. Mr R wants Rylie found, so although I’ll have to let him know that you’re assisting, I don’t think he’ll make a big fuss. I’ll message now.”
Jynx nods, “That’s fine. At least if we’re involved, we can make anyone who comes from Mona stand down.”
“Is that likely to happen?” Rafe asks with a frown, clearly not liking the idea of having a third party that we need to watch out for.
Rip shakes his head, “No, it’s unlikely. We have a working relationship with Mona and have had it for the past few years. It shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s better to have every eventuality covered.”
Rafe nods in agreement, “Yeah, good point.”
Jynx leaves the room to make a call as Ace offers to help Peter set everything up. When she comes back in, she says, “We’re all good. She was actually about to call to get us on the job anyway. I’ve also called Sawyer, and he’s got everything handled back there for a while.”
“He’s good. Do you think we’ll ever meet him and the others that you’ve mentioned?” I ask, getting distracted but also immensely curious about these other people who are so involved in Jynx’s life.
Jynx shrugs, “I’m sure it will work out one day. It’s a bit more complicated now that everyone has somewhat conflicting vocations.”
“Yeah, I get that. It would just be nice to meet them. They play such a big part in your lives that it feels weird that we haven’t met them.”
“I know,” she replies, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. “We’ll work something out, but it probably won’t be for a while.”
Chapter Two
“Alright, it’s all setup, guys,” Peter announces, interrupting our conversation, and prompting those of us who were still standing to take seats and then look up at the TV.
“Start with the file. We’ve seen the pictures; we know who we’re looking for.” Trick suggests. “We need to know what she was working on, and then we can start to work out where the fuck she could be and if she’s really missing or has been taken out.”
“Is Mr R worried that this has something to do with the mole? The one that could get hold of that stupidly rare poison?” Jynx asks, wanting clarification as Peter works on bringing up the file.
“Yeah, whoever was using the rogue agents to get the information for them is incredibly well connected and powerful enough that he could easily persuade them.”
“Got it,” Jynx replies.
“Well, the good news is we have a file. The bad news is that there’s not a lot in it,” Peter explains with a frown on his face.
“That actually makes sense,” Atlas says and then explains further, “she’s a ghost agent. She’s not supposed to exist. So, it would make sense that there was only very minimal information on her actual cases. I imagine that when she’s finished a job, the case file is filled in properly and all the details added. But because her cases are even more sensitive than the usual jobs we do, it makes sense that the file is pretty sparse until then.”
“I actually hadn’t thought about it that way,” I admit.
“Alright, what have we got then?” Mason asks, “Hopefully, it will give us at least some kind of a starting point.”
“Right,” Peter says, “let’s see. So she’s been on the job for two months. The original objective was to follow the information, or at least try to. So she was working in the background following the information while we were locating the moles in the agency. Her last check-in was three weeks ago, and she hasn’t been heard from since. She was supposed to check in every two weeks and was never a day late.”
“That doesn’t exactly point to good news,” Mal mutters.
Jensen shakes his head, “No, it doesn’t. If she’d been late a few days before then, I’d be more inclined to think that she may just be caught up with something, but if she’s consistently been on time and now she’s so late, that would suggest that something has gone wrong.”
“I agree,” Trick replies, and then, looking back at Peter, asks, “What was her location in the last communication with her?”
Peter quickly scans the document and then frowns, “A small town in Vermont, but just from getting a quick glance at the rest of the communications, her investigation hasn’t been limited to just the US. That’s where the majority of her leads seemed to take her, but there were two outside of the US, one in Canada and one in France.”