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T erkel sat in the huge dining room, among several of his team. Terk, his arms full of babies, looked over at Celia.
She smiled as one of the twins stretched, smacking him on the cheek. “Kalen really likes your cheek,” she murmured.
“Yeah, but it isn’t Kalen. It’s Daren,” he murmured, as he kissed each baby on the top of their heads.
“Sounds like Royce completed yet another successful job, doesn’t it?” she noted.
“Yes, he did a wonderful job on this one. Considering that he and Heather will both be here in a couple hours,” he added, “I’m grateful we had a couple weeks in between jobs, so we caught a break on some things.”
“Yes, it’s nice to have at least some jobs that aren’t so overtly dangerous. Some escorting and investigative work gives everyone a bit of a break on the stress element,” she noted. “These ops that almost take my breath away are hard when I think that anybody could come close to getting killed. They are all our family, our growing family, and such a loss would just devastate everyone.”
“Which is why we also won’t go there,” he reminded her. “That is not something we want to think about or to put out there in the ethers. We take all the precautions we can, but it’s still our role in the world. I know it’s hard, but it’s a job that we must do because so few people are out there to do it.”
“What about Riff?” she asked, looking back at the man currently collapsed on one of the big chairs in front of the fireplace.
“Riff’s here,” he called out. “I’ve been off doing my own stuff over the last couple months, but I’m still hoping you guys will come up with something to help me with my personal matter.” He turned, glaring at Terkel.
“We may have a lead very soon,” Terk replied in a clipped tone. “The gals are running it down, and, no, I’m not telling you until we know whether it’s a good one or not.”
Riff straightened up in the chair slowly. “It needs to happen soon.”
Just then Angela walked in, looked at Riff, and snorted. “Of course you would be here.”
“Yeah, I’m right here,” he snapped, with a negligent shrug. “The question is, why are you here?”
“I came to do my usual check on the babies.”
“ Right ,” he muttered, getting to his feet. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
“You don’t have to run away just because I’m here, you know?”
“Yes, I do,” he declared, giving her a glare.
She shrugged. “Fine, if you’re still running away, that’s up to you. I thought maybe you’d grown up some.”
He sucked in his breath, and everybody in the room sucked in theirs, waiting for an explosion. Riff slowly turned to face her, fire in his eyes. “What the hell does that mean?”
She stared at him, her hands going to her hips. “You know perfectly well what it means.”
“No, I don’t, and there’s absolutely no point in talking to you until I have answers.”
“The answers won’t change the end result.”
He stiffened, then nodded. “They won’t change the end result, but they might change my attitude toward it.”
“Ah, you better hurry it up then,” she said, openly glaring now, “because I’m running out of patience.” And, with that, she turned and walked out of the huge dining room. Riff exited via a doorway on the other side of the room.
Terkel glanced from Riff’s back to Angela’s back and then to Celia, who had a tiny smile tipping up the corners of her lips. Terk sighed. “We really do need to get answers for Riff.”
“We do,” she agreed, “but it’ll be a while yet.”
“I know, but hopefully not too long.”
Just then Terk’s phone rang. He checked the Caller ID and answered, “Hey, Bullard. How are you doing?”
“I’m okay, but I could use some help.”
“You’ve got it. What do you need?”
“Somebody’s hacking into my system.”
“You don’t need our help for that,” Terk noted. “Your team is better on that IT sort of thing than we are.”
“Yeah, except this is energy-related,” he snapped. “I don’t know what they’re doing or how they’re doing it, but they’re attacking my system with energy.”
“Energy?” Terk repeated.
“Yeah, somebody keeps shutting everything down.”
“You might need to consider that it’s not energy.”
“I would, except for somebody named Tangerine—and who the hell names their kid after an orange? Anyway, Tangerine, who calls herself Reeni, or whatever the hell she said,” he muttered in disgust, “she came to my damn front door and announced that we needed help and that she was here to help us.”
“You don’t believe her?” Terk asked.
“Everything she’s talking about makes life even more of a mockery,” he admitted. “How do you listen to somebody named Tangerine in the first place?”
“Listen to her,” Terkel ordered, “because she means it.”
Bullard stopped, pausing before he spoke again. “Don’t tell me that she’s one of yours.”
“She’s not one of mine, and I don’t know her. However, I can check her energy from right here, and she’s got a lot of power,” he shared. “More so, she’s utilizing it to the benefit of others’ good—to your good. So that’s a very interesting combination.”
“Great, but I don’t trust her. I won’t work with her if I don’t have somebody from your team or at least somebody who’s vetted Tangerine to say that she’s on the up-and-up.”
“Interesting, and you also need help solving who’s after your system?”
“Of course I do,” he snapped once more. “At least if you come and confirm what she’s saying, then we’ll have a better idea about what’s going on—preferably before I lose all communications again. Pretty sure we’ve got hacking going on. I just don’t know at what level and by whom, so send somebody and fast.” With that, Bullard, as grumpy as ever, ended the call.
Terk looked around at everybody else seated at the big dining room table. “Do we have anybody? Most are off or at least committed to jobs here and there right now, aren’t they?”
“We have a couple potentially available team members,” Celia replied, “and we also have a bunch of applications for new hires. We just haven’t had a chance to assess them.”
“Yeah, well, they are hardly applications when they’re sent in on the ethers,” Terk pointed out, with a note of humor.
“Hey,” Celia countered, rounding on him instantly, “you sent out a beacon, saying that you had work, so don’t be surprised when people respond in kind.”
“I should never have done that,” he muttered. “It brought in too many weirdos.”
“They’re all weirdos one way or another, and you know that.”
“I know. I know. I know. I keep saying that it doesn’t matter, but some of these people are very unique ,” he replied.
“And we need somebody unique right now,” Celia stated, “somebody who can go into Bullard’s place, handle all of it, and deal with whatever is going on in his world. We owe Bullard, and he’s a friend, so we’ll obviously help him.”
“We’ll definitely help him,” Terk confirmed.
Just then everybody heard the front door opening. They all checked the energy, found friendlies approaching, and waited to see who had arrived. When Wade walked in, he smiled at everybody and pointed behind him. “Hey, guess who I found outside?”
*
Trevor stepped forward, a big grin on his face.
“Look who’s here. It’s the big man himself.” Terkel hopped up, handed off the babies to Celia, and walked over to give this old friend a big hug. “Good God,” he muttered, as he stared at Trevor. “I haven’t heard from you in forever.”
“Not until you sent out a damn beacon. What are you, nuts?”
“Yeah, I was discussing that just now with my wife.”
At that term, Trevor’s eyebrows popped up. “Wife?” He looked at the woman holding two babies and frowned. “Kids too?”
“Yeah,” Terk stated proudly.
“So, you got soft in your old age or what?”
“I didn’t think so, but that beacon idea wasn’t my best,” he admitted.
“On the other hand, it brought me in,” Trevor said cheerfully. “So what kind of work have you got?”
“You ever been to Africa?” Gage asked from the sidelines, as he got up and walked over to shake hands.
“Yeah, but not for a few years though. That’s where Bullard is.”
“You know Bullard?” Gage asked.
“I do, although I’m not sure that he particularly likes my style. I’m a little too unrestrained for him.”
“Oh, he’s also mellowed quite a bit,” Celia added, with a smile. “He’s married with kids as well.”
“Wow, the shocks just don’t quit,” Trevor murmured, still staring at the woman holding twins.
She got up, walked over, and introduced herself. “I’m Celia, and Terkel is my husband.”
Her hands held two babies, so he didn’t bother shaking her hand. “Pleased to meet you.” He turned to Terkel and said, “Lucky guy, you. How did that happen?”
Terkel snorted. “Don’t ask, but you’re damn right, and I know it. Still, I do have a job right now that needs somebody to turn around and head to Bullard’s place.”
“I’m on it,” Trevor replied. “Do I get to find out what the job is now or later?”
Sophia came in and replied, “Later. Here’s your file with all the information, but you need to get to the airport fast.”
Trevor checked his watch, grabbed the file, then lifted a hand and waved. “We’ll talk later, after this job.” And, with that, Trevor was gone.