Page 50 of Happily Ever After

Organization Time

Raphael Mirabaud

Marching orders.

In the small hotel room, ten Rogue Security operators andWelfenlegionstaff sat on chairs, on the bed but not too close together, or stood.

Magnus Jensen leaned against the wall by the door, looking out the window at the afternoon clouds and the traffic on the street below. His ice-blue eyes missed nothing: not thebirds swooping from the gutters above, not the swerve of a black van in the traffic, and not the twitch of any one of the operators in the room. He glanced at the paper Raphael had handed him when he’d walked in, folded it a few times, and placed it in his shirt pocket.

Aiden Grier had a bruise swelling on his eye, and his knuckles were still bloody. He grinned like a maniac, and violence lithis blue eyes. He held a piece of paper clenched in his fist.

Luca Wyss sat on the bed, leaning against the headboard. He’d kicked off his shoes, and his olive green tee shirt looked a size too small. The sleeves looked uncomfortably tight around his biceps as he laced his fingers behind his head. His piece of paper was folded over and resting on his jeans.

Raphael stood in front of the television,his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He held a clipboard, an old-fashioned plank with a piece of paper on it.

Yes, everyone on his list of team leaders had arrived and been given their orders.

Good.

Raphael said, “You’ve received a list of the operators assigned to your team and their contact information. All are awaiting your instructions. Due to the nature of the mission and the concernabout operational security, everyone is on a need-to-know basis only. You and your teams will perform the tasks in order and then evacuate unless contacted for further operations.

“Good luck. Infiltration begins in an hour.”

Magnus was the first one out of the room.