Page 9 of Black Bay Enforcer (Beasts of Black Bay #3)
Someone at Black Bay must be leaking classified information.
Katherine wasn’t usually so slow on the uptake but that little tidbit hadn’t truly penetrated until she was in the shower this morning thinking about the questions she’d been asked and what they implied.
“Who did you tell about the Venezuela op?” Kong had asked her.
She hadn’t even known he’d gone to Venezuela, yet someone must have said something.
Who? And what had gone wrong that led Kong to believe they had a spy in their midst?
He'd also asked about someone named Terrence Godwin. Had Kong been on a mission to apprehend some dangerous criminal and the person had gotten away? Because someone here warned them? That was a scary thought. Whoever the spy was, they needed to be stopped.
“ORION?”
“Yes, Miss Knox?”
“Hypothetically speaking, if you thought there was a spy at Black Bay, where would you begin looking?”
“I would begin looking into any new additions to the base first. As you were the last to arrive, I would start with you.”
“Well, I’m not the spy.”
“I would not take your word for it, Miss Knox.
I would access records, bank accounts, and transactional histories.
I would monitor your movements and communications until I was confident I could rule you out.
But I would not limit my search to you. That would be shortsighted.
Any new additions to the base would be suspect and treated to the same thorough investigation until I pinpointed this hypothetical spy.
“Should those fail, I would set a trap, feed false information, something different for each suspect, and wait to see which piece or pieces of intelligence leaks.”
Katherine nodded thoughtfully, thinking of the other newcomers to Black Bay.
Top-of-the-line medical doctors, scientists, and specialists had been brought in to aid the Resurrection soldiers in their recovery.
She didn’t know them well as they didn’t tend to mingle, but she had a hard time picturing any of them as spies.
They got excited about their research, their work, and things they saw as breakthroughs and opportunities.
None of them struck her as some sort of closet James Bond.
But then, a good spy wouldn’t stand out, would they?
Then there were the Resurrection soldiers themselves. Despite their recent traumas, all of them were elite military. Any one of them was capable of being the spy, but if so, ORION, being linked to them, would know unless ORION was the mastermind behind the plot.
She nearly rolled her eyes at her melodramatic thoughts. This wasn’t some futuristic crime thriller.
But, on second thought, what if it wasn’t all that farfetched?
The AI may have been boxed, contained strictly to the Resurrection hub, but it was a piece of cutting-edge, highly advanced technology.
It may have found a way to infiltrate Black Bay’s system.
Would anyone know if it had? Not if it was capable of hiding its tracks, and she’d bet it could.
To what end though?
Her skin prickled with goosebumps. ORION saw everything…
Gah, now she was getting all nervous and paranoid, and after her morning had started so great.
She’d gone to the mess hall for breakfast, half afraid that last night had been some sort of fluke and everyone would be right back to avoiding her again.
But they hadn’t. Not all of them. A few people had smiled at her, nodded her way, and even gave her a pleasantly uttered, “Good morning,” as she got in line. Katherine had been thrilled.
Paige had even approached her and asked if they could eat breakfast together to which Katherine had readily agreed.
The nurse had wanted to apologize for her abrupt departure at lunch the day before and to assure Katherine that she wasn’t being mistreated.
She’d gone on to share a story about how her husband had proposed and had practically gushed as she shared the tale of cute little otters presenting her with her engagement ring.
Not missing a beat, Paige had whipped out her phone and showed off the pictures. It was all so adorable Katherine had gushed right along with the woman. Not long after that, she’d gotten to meet the man behind the romantic proposal.
Jace Davies had the most amazing-colored eyes Katherine had ever seen.
They were a brilliant canary yellow that was so bright you’d almost think they were glowing.
There was an intensity there, though, that quickly reminded you that you were in the presence of a predator.
He hadn’t been in any way threatening, but Katherine had still felt a skitter of fear when he looked at her. He had the gaze of a watchful hunter.
She hadn’t asked because she wasn’t sure if it would be rude or not, but she’d quietly wondered if he’d been genetically engineered with feline DNA. Maybe a tiger.
That was the thing about the Beasts. All of them had been enhanced with predatory animal DNA. Some, like Lark with her reptilian eyes and the iridescent scales that framed her face and marked her arms, were easy to identify. Others, not so much.
As Katherine had lingered over her breakfast, more people joined them, talking easily and telling humorous stories about some of the things the residents of Black Bay got up to during their downtime.
It sounded like they worked hard, but they also played hard too, and Katherine hoped she might be included in some of their future escapades.
Maybe she would. Maybe now that she’d apologized and Kong and Lark had eliminated her from their potential spy list, word would spread and she’d be more readily accepted.
She’d keep her fingers crossed. Already things were changing.
And not just with the personnel on Black Bay, but also with the Resurrection soldiers.
It wasn’t part of her job description, but every morning, she made an effort to check in with them.
They rarely spoke to her unless she asked them a direct question and never smiled, despite her best efforts to coax one from them.
Katherine kept trying, reminding herself that these were wounded soldiers and recovery would take time.
But this morning, there’d been a sparkle in a few sets of eyes when she’d told them about how she’d almost fallen into a bush in front of the general, adding, “You know, I hear there are people out there who can make it a whole day without embarrassing themselves. Sounds fake to me.”
Seeing that spark of life in their oftentimes vacant expressions had made her want to pump her fist in the air in celebration. Katherine would gladly be the butt of a joke if it helped these soldiers even a little bit.
She’d bet some brownies would help as well. Maybe Kong would be okay with her making a second batch for the Resurrection soldiers.
And speaking of brownies, Kong had asked her to give him a list of the ingredients she would need but he hadn’t given her a way to contact him.
“ORION?”
“Yes, Miss Knox?”
“If I wanted to get hold of someone on base, how would I find their email address?”
ORION didn’t answer vocally, but a window suddenly opened on her computer. The base directory. Of course, there was a directory. Now she felt like an idiot for asking such a dumb question. No wonder ORION didn’t want her help.
Kong looked over the email Katherine Knox had sent him and grimaced.
While he didn’t regret the invitation to use his kitchen, there was one small hitch: even if he got all the ingredients on the list she’d sent, he didn’t have any cookware or dishes.
No bowls or baking pans, no measuring cups or spoons – not even a glass for her to drink from if she got thirsty.
He’d need to do something about that because, dammit, he wanted brownies.
Marching across the hall to Lark and Grady’s apartment, he knocked with a bit more oomph than he intended, the door shuddering under his fist.
The way opened to reveal Grady in just a pair of sweatpants, his battle-scarred torso, and the full impact of his cutting-edge prosthetic arm on display.
“What’s up, man?”
Kong bumped the fist he offered. “I need a favor.”
“Name it.”
Lark strode out from the bedroom, her vivid red locks concealed by the pale yellow towel that was wrapped turban-style around her head. “Hey, Kong. What’s going on?”
“I invited Katherine Knox to my place tonight. I’m picking her up when her shift’s through. She’s going to bake brownies but I don’t have any dishes.”
Kong looked from one blank face to the other. He thought he’d been pretty articulate, but both Grady and Lark were looking at him like he’d spoken an unfamiliar language.
Lark was the first to snap out of it, her face suddenly blooming with a bright smile. “You have a date?”
He frowned. “No. Not a date. I just invited her over.”
“A man inviting an attractive woman over to his place?” Grady pointed out. “Sounds like a date to me, man.”
Lark whipped the towel off her head, unleashing a long mass of damp hair, and jogged back toward her bedroom, happily calling out, “This is fantastic! We’ll go shopping. Give me two minutes.”
Kong looked to Grady in confusion. “I didn’t want to go shopping. I just wanted to borrow some stuff.”
“You can’t disappoint her now that you’ve got her all excited.
” Grady grinned and punched him in the arm.
Luckily for Kong, Grady used his flesh and bone fist rather than the robotic one.
A hit from that bad boy could break bones if his friend put too much effort into it.
Kong had once seen that arm of his snap some heavy chain like it was Silly String.
Of course, at the time, he’d been in a murderous rage, but still.
“Should I call in reinforcements?” Lark asked from the other room. “I think Jayla’s off today. Lynx might be too.”
Weakly, Kong repeated, “Reinforcements?” But Lark heard him.
Reappearing, she was securing an elastic at the end of her braid. “Everything has to be perfect for your date. We’ll all put our heads together.”
“It’s not a date.”
Lark ignored him, her phone already to her ear. “Jayla, do you want to go shopping? Kong has a date.”
He could clearly hear the excited squealing on the other end of the line and he looked helplessly at Grady. His friend was no help, he just grinned and shrugged. “Better just go with it.”
Five minutes later, he was being hustled out the door by Lark, Jayla, and Lynx, all three women chattering with excitement and smiling at him like this was the greatest thing to ever happen.
They were talking about having dinner delivered, and buying wine, candles, and arguing over what music to play.
What the hell? He just needed some baking stuff. This wasn’t a date.
Throwing a pleading look over his shoulder at a still-grinning Grady, he mouthed the words, Help me . His soon-to-be ex-friend shook his head and held his hands up at chest level, palms out. “This is all you, man. Have fun.”
Evil bastard. Kong would get him back for this. Something truly diabolical.