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When Rae and Lilly got home, Lilly ran to Wilson and gave him a hug. Tessman saw a different side of his friend as he asked how her day had been and what she’d learned. Wilson spent at least five minutes completely focused on the little girl. Tessman realized that Wilson was already Lilly’s dad. When did that happen?
“So, are you staying for dinner?” Rae asked him. She was in the kitchen getting dinner started.
“Please stay,” Lilly begged. “Mommy said she wants you to.”
“She did?” Tessman asked her with a smile. “When did she say that?”
“In the car after school,” Lilly said.
Tessman’s gaze went to Rae. “Thank you for the invitation. I’d love to stay.”
***
Later that night, after he was at his condo, Tessman received the text from Shepherd with his next assignment. He was assigned to the next CIA Referral Mission that would deploy two days later with Wilson and four of the members of Alpha Team. There was quite a bit of mission prep he’d begin to do at HQ the following day. He had to be in by zero seven hundred.
When he got to the office, he and the five other members assigned to the Op met with Shepherd and Digital Team member Caleb ‘Hound dog’ Smith. He’d be assigned as the primary Digital Team contact while they were on site. The focus of the case was a business, not an individual, like was normally the case. But as usual, the CIA would not disclose who they’d been surveilling or why when this company name came up. Or what was learned that could possibly be illegal, necessitating the surveillance of this company.
“The principal ownership in SLTD Inc. is Chinese, which is a big hint as to why we were passed this one,” Shepherd said. “They have three main interests in Boise, which will be divided between the six of you to look into. That’s why we’re holding a few days before you deploy, so you can have a good look at those interests from here.”
“Forward requests that you don’t have the tools to look into, to me,” Anthony ‘Razor’ Garcia, the team lead for the Digital Team and a member of Alpha Team, said. “Smith and other members of the Digital Team can help, but I want to route the inquiries.”
“Of particular interest are large swaths of farmland south of Boise, too close to the Mountain Home Air Force Base for my liking,” Shepherd said. “The second division of SLTD of concern for me is the food processing plants it controls. And lastly, SLTD runs a freight and cargo line out of Boise International Airport.”
“They’ve got their hands in a lot,” Tessman remarked.
“Into too much that we don’t want the Chinese anywhere near,” Alpha Team member John ‘Coop’ Cooper agreed.
“Even if the owners are American citizens, unlikely,” Garcia said, “they very well could have ties to communist China. That’s one of the things Smith will be looking into.”
“I’m not sure what concerns me more,” Alpha Team member Madison ‘Xena’ Miller, who was also Cooper’s wife, said. “The proximity to the Air Force base or the control of our food supply.”
“Both aspects concern me greatly,” Shepherd said.
The meeting ended, and the team filed out. Tessman went to his office to begin to do the research on what he’d been assigned, the freight and cargo line out of the Boise International Airport. Three hours in, he was nodding off at his desk. And he thought turning a wrench on the Power Grid Protection Project was boring! This was far more boring work for him. Plant his ass out in the middle of the desert, the mountains, the forest, anywhere with a scope trained on a target and he was in his element. Desk work and research were not his element.
He got up and went for a walk to revive himself and ended up in the kitchen on floor five where he knew Angel, the Office Manager, and Alpha Team member, Ethan ‘Jax’ Jackson’s wife, always kept left overs from the lunch meals she had catered in, almost daily. He grabbed several sandwich spirals and a bag of chips. He was looking through the cookies when Angel entered behind him.
“Don’t finish all those cookies,” she said with a smile.
“No ma’am,” he replied.
“Madison was just down here raiding the cookies. Shepherd has pulled her from the next CIA Mission and replaced her with Mother. Did you know that?”
“He did?”
“Yeah, and she was pissed. Said she’d already done hours of prep. Mother’s in her office with her now and she’s doing a turnover,” Angel said.
“Yeah, I’d be pissed too. I’ve spent the last three hours doing my homework. This is a big case. It’s no wonder Shepherd is having us do a couple days of prep before we ship out,” Tessman said.
“I heard.” Angel stared at him expectantly.
“What?”
“I understand you were over at Wilson and Rae’s place yesterday,” Angel said with a grin.
Tessman flashed her an amused grin. “You know, don’t you?”
“Yeah, they do live just down the block from me. I was dropping Johanna off at Elizabeth’s this morning and Rae was there too.” Johanna was Angel and Jackson’s nearly one-year-old daughter. Elizabeth was married to Doc, also on Alpha Team, and she babysat the majority of the children of agency members. “She said you were there for dinner last night. I know Rae and Lilly moving in with Wilson was a shock to you and I also know that the two of you are close. You’re not losing a friend, you know. I know Garcia felt that way when Jackson and I got together.”