“Of course, and yet, as somebody who is benefiting from your assistance,” she added, “I can’t say that I’m against what you’re doing.”

  “Of course not.” He motioned with his hand, leading the way toward the front door. “That doesn’t mean all this is something we want to continue.”

  “Yet, if you don’t continue,” she pointed out, “what else would you do?”

  “I don’t know. We all have families now, so we all have things that we want to consider, other than dealing with this crap on a regular basis.”

  “If you had enough money that you could all retire, you could look at that.”

  He shrugged. “That would be a lot of money.”

  “Yeah, but throwing a satellite into orbit, that’s also a lot of money.”

  “Ah, you heard about that, did you?” He chuckled. “In our business it’s mandatory.”

  “Sure, and I get that,” she acknowledged, “but it always just seems that the bigger the boys, the more expensive the toys.”

  At that, he burst out laughing and nodded. “Very, very true.” He looked over at Wallace and grinned. “You better watch out. She’ll be quite a handful.”

  He smiled. “I know, but sometimes you really have no choice.”

  Terk studied the two of them for a long moment and then nodded. “That is very true. Now, let’s figure out how to get you guys out of this, safe and sound.”

  “How do you make money off this?” Amy asked. “Because I’m not sure I have enough to pay you.”

  “You probably don’t,” Terk replied. “Who would? That’s just the nature of the work, and it’s incredibly expensive to run an operation like this. But a good share of the time we end up working in tandem with the government, and they can cover the cost.”

  “Does that work for you?” Amy asked.

  “Sometimes it does and sometimes not,” he said, sending her a smile. “In this case, you were kidnapped because of what happened at their offices, so the cost isn’t on you. The cost is on them.”

  “That’s a good thing,” she muttered, with a heartfelt sigh. “I was wondering, as I don’t have a whole lot of options otherwise.”

  “We all have options,” Terk declared, as he quickly led the way to the main entrance. “We just don’t always know it.”

  Inside, she followed the men, looking back and realizing just what a different atmosphere it was today, versus when she’d been in to interview just a few days ago. Different building but same government. She shook her head, hating the sense of insecurity still gripping her. She moved closer to Wallace, as she grasped his hand. “Hope you don’t mind, but I’m feeling a little bit like I’ve been here before, and it didn’t have the greatest results.”

  He squeezed her hand gently. “I get that,” he noted. “You’ll be fine this time though.”

  “Sure, I will,” she muttered, not at all convinced. “I just don’t want to get separated from you guys again. That’s when the sharp teeth come out.”

  Neither of them responded to that, and she looked over at Terk curiously. “Do you do much fieldwork?”

  He shook his head. “Used to, but, no, not a lot since I started Guardian,” he admitted. “I typically do if all of us are needed or if friends are involved,” he added, with a clipped nod. “Unfortunately both happen a little too often.”

  As they walked through the building and headed to the elevators, she looked over at Terk. “Do you ever get some radar hit, a sense of something wrong?”

  He nodded and, not even looking at her, asked in a low voice, “Are you getting something?”

  She looked around and nodded earnestly. “I can’t tell if I’m getting something or if it’s just stuff brought on from the last time I met with MI6,” she murmured. “That’s why I was asking you.”

  He nodded. “It’s always a good thing to double-check a situation because emotions can completely overrun your ability to detach,” he explained. “At the moment I’m not getting anything, but it would be quite a coup for somebody to grab all three of us.”

  At that, Wallace sucked in his breath. “That’s not a thought I want to contemplate. … Thank you for that mental image.”

  Terk shot him an amused glance. “Whatever senses you’ve got, turn them on—because you never quite know what’s waiting for us.”

  “I guess that’s why I was asking,” Amy whispered, still glancing around nervously. “We really do trust that this will be okay, right?”

  “I don’t fully trust anything ever,” Terk replied smoothly. “We do the best we can with what we have, with the expectation that it will all work out at some point,” he shared. “We’re not foolish about it, but we also realize that, in the world we live in and with the work that we do, things can happen. When things happen, they generally happen in a big ugly way in our world.” He motioned forward and added, “What we’re trying to do today is put a lot of that to the test.”

  Amy groaned. “I hear you. I just don’t like anything about it right now.”

  He chuckled. “So far, not a whole lot you like about a lot of things.”

  “Ouch,” she muttered. “That does make me sound like a prima donna, doesn’t it?”

  “I don’t know about that, but it does make you wary, and, after what you’ve just been through, I think that’s a good thing.”

  The elevator opened just then, and they stepped inside. Heads nodded in their direction, and a couple people just ignored them, as the elevator continued upward. She sent out a quick check to see if everything was okay in the world, as she could best figure it out. She wasn’t getting any feedback, so she just shrugged. When they got off at the top, she looked over at Terk. “I’m still not getting anything,” she whispered.

  He nodded, as they stepped away from the others. “There’s also a weird resonance in this building. I’ve never really understood why. Yet every time I’ve been here, something is dampening the energy, almost like a blocker was here.” She stiffened, hearing that, and Terk nodded. “I don’t think it’s necessarily deliberate on their part, but—”

  “And yet,” Wallace interrupted, “if they could do that, it would be really smart.”

  Terk nodded. “Smart for them, not so great for us. We don’t have a whole lot to go on here. However, when it comes to fighting some of these interesting characters in the world around us, the one thing I no longer trust is any government building, like this. You can never fully trust what you see or hear. What they’re trying to do is disorient us.”

  “So, you do think it’s deliberate then?” Amy asked in a low voice, as she looked around with a new awareness. “If Wallace and I were to join up with MI6, would we still be treated in the same way?”

  Terk nodded, thinking it over. “Probably. You would potentially be on the inside for some of it, but to expect to be on the inside for all of it would be a bit of a stretch,” he added. “In retrospect, after what the CIA did to us, their own team, I would suspect there would be some MI6 measures in place, in order to keep some information from you. What they don’t realize is how much we can find out anyway. So essentially what it comes down to is that they’re afraid of us, and anybody afraid of us is dangerous.”

  Wallace squeezed her hand. “He’s not trying to scare you.”

  Terk looked at them. “Goodness no,” he confirmed. “That’s not what I was trying to do at all. However, remember that information is power, and it’s critical that we share information on our side, so we understand what’s going on. We must know what’s happening around us, including the various allegiances at work as best we can,” he shared in a calculated tone. “For want of a better phrase, I don’t feel we’re in danger at this moment. Yet I do recognize that it was not necessarily a good idea for me to come along on this trip.”

  “I gathered that much,” Amy muttered, frowning.

  “On the other hand, Jonas and I have a few things that we need to sort out, and he’s come to my place many times. I figured this time, as a show of support and a willingness to trust our alliance, I would come here to just see what we were up against on this side, particularly after what happened to you,” he said in concern, with a nod to Amy. “I’ve been working on a different kind of a defense system, and I just might get a chance to try it out today.”

  “Such as?” Amy asked, confused and curious.

  “Something I’m calling mind over matter for now.” Terk grinned.

  “If you need our help, let us know,” Wallace offered.

  “Will do,” Terk replied cheerfully. “Just remember that people who are afraid of us are dangerous, and people will always be afraid of us because they don’t know what we can do, any more than we know exactly what we can do. As we’re finding out at our place, what we could do before versus what we can do now is very, very different,” he pointed out, “and, for that alone, we have to watch out.”

  And, with that, a door opened ahead of them, and Jonas stepped out. He lifted a hand in greeting. “There you are. I was afraid I would have to come down and find you guys.”

  “Nope, we’re here,” Amy replied.

  He looked over at her and nodded. “You’re looking much better.”

  “Better than what?” she asked, with a wry tone. “After all, I was kidnapped by somebody who got the information from your office.”

  He winced at that. “I was hoping we could get past that point.”

  “Oh, I’m sure we will,” she stated, “but it’s not very realistic to think it would happen today.”

  He snorted. “God, a comment like that puts you right in with this lot.” He motioned his hand at Terk. “No wonder you’re … Somehow something about all of you is so very similar to our guys.”

  Amy frowned. “And yet I would think most of us would feel that we’re completely opposite of anybody here, not similar.”

  “Yeah, but still, for some of us on the outside, you have some very major similarities,” he muttered. He motioned toward a room up ahead. “Come on. We’re going in here, where we can get some privacy.”

  As they stepped inside, she looked around and asked, “When you say, privacy, what does that mean? Are we being recorded?”

  He faced her and shook his head. “No way.”

  “Are we being watched?” she asked.

  Again he shook his head.

  She just nodded.

  “Why?” he asked suspiciously, looking around. “Do you feel as if you are?”

  “No, but it does feel odd, after visiting MI6 before, then being kidnapped as a direct result of my time with you,” she noted. “It’s made me very leery of your security here.”

  “And, for that, I’m sorry,” he said sincerely, “and you’re not wrong to feel that way. I’m just sorry it happened because of being interviewed by us.”

  “It certainly isn’t how I wanted that experience to go. I understand I didn’t make the cut anyway,” she declared, with a note of amusement in her tone. “Then I knew that earlier.”

  Jonas flushed and raised both hands in mock surrender. “And yet apparently you’re very good at what you do.”

  “I don’t really even know what I can do,” she admitted. “At least not anymore.”

  He didn’t say anything to that but asked in a curious tone, “Would you consider working for us?”

  She immediately shook her head.

  “Why is that?” He frowned. “Also, that was a rather fast response.”

  “Because of what just happened,” she replied, frowning at him in astonishment, unsure how he could not understand it. “If something sour is here and is big enough to allow such a thing to happen, why would I want anything to do with that?”

  “And yet, if we fix it …”

  “You’ll have to in order to even continue to function with any credibility,” she stated. “I can’t see how Terk or anyone like him would work with you after something like this. But personally, having already been burned by the mechanism in place—or lack of a mechanism—it would make me very leery to trust your group.”

  Jonas sighed. “It’s kind of what I figured.”

  “So, it’s a good thing I was written off anyway,” she said, with a laugh.

  He frowned at that. “It’s not that you were written off,” he clarified, “but we just … weren’t exactly sure what to do with you.”

  “Of course not, and you were right to not be sure,” she noted. “You need to go with your instincts too.”

  He glared at her. “That sounds suspiciously like something Terk would say.”

  She shrugged.

  Jonas groaned, then faced Terk. “This has given my government a pause on their plans to set up such a team,” he revealed. “So, their current thinking is that, if you’re around and are willing to do work for us on an as-needed basis, it might be easier than trying to find our own team of psychics.” He shrugged. “To be honest, it’ll probably just delay the powers that be, while they try to find qualified people.” He turned to Wallace. “What about you?”

  “What about me?” Wallace asked, a note of amusement in his tone. “Do you really think that I would accept if she didn’t?”

  “What does she have to do with it?”

  “I know what happened to her was because of a leak in your system,” Wallace explained. “So that doesn’t exactly promote confidence, you know?”

  “Maybe not,” Jonas muttered, “but we’re not fools here either. Surely we can fix what’s gone wrong in our own house.”

  “That would be a great start,” Amy interjected, “but the hotel staff may be involved too. In fact, all the hotels in the area are suspect as far as I’m concerned and should be part of your search for your moles.”

  “Moles?” Jonas repeated, frowning.

  Amy nodded. “It’s necessary if you plan to build such a team in the future.”

  He groaned at that and turned to Terk. “I know you wanted to talk to me and that they want to head to the hospital. I did have a few more questions for Amy,” he added, as he looked at her in resignation, “if you’ve got another minute or two.”

  “You’ve got a minute or two,” Amy confirmed, “but I definitely would rather be at the hospital than here. Yet I understand that this was a necessary stop along the way.”

  He smiled. “You mean, a necessary evil?”

  She shrugged. “Hey, you called it, not me.”

  He laughed and proceeded to ask her a few more questions about the layout of the sewer area where she had been held captive, if her kidnappers had had any communication with the outside world that she overheard, or anything along that line. Every response was a flat-out no, as far as she was concerned.

  “Remember that I was kept in a separate area. I didn’t overhear whatever they were talking about, outside of the planned meetings with them or interactions with my guards. However, I definitely got the impression that they were looking at setting up a team like yours. I think it was because they had heard that you guys were doing that. So maybe you should put out the message that your plans have been canceled and let it filter through to them. Maybe they’ll stop going after the people you interview.”

  Jonas sighed. “We have set up other protocols to address this issue.”

  She snorted. “Good, because that would really suck if these kidnappers grab somebody else. And it just adds to the fact that we need to get to the hospital and talk to that poor man as well.”

  “I would like to go along,” Jonas added, “if that’s okay with you. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted you to come here first, so I could go in with you at the same time.”

  She shrugged. “That’s fine, but we need to get going. I want to see that this poor guy is doing better and is protected, so he won’t be a victim of these kidnappers again. Whether their victims have abilities or not, these kidnappers seem to be running out of patience. So far, I’m not so sure that the boss man running this whole kidnapping operation is terribly convinced that anybody has abilities. And that one egotistical bastard—Dominic—who fancied himself a mind reader? Well, maybe he was just a lot of bravado and inflated confidence, yet he clearly had something going on. So the boss man has maybe one psychic working for him. From what I saw of Dom though, I don’t know that he’ll maintain his presence in that criminal organization if he can’t find others like him soon.”

  On that note, Jonas stepped away and made a couple arrangements by phone, then motioned at them. “Come on. Let’s head out to the hospital. We’ll take my rig.”

  She hesitated and looked over at Terk, but he was already shaking his head. “Nope, we’ll take our own rig. Thanks for the offer though.”

  Jonas stared at him but eventually shrugged. He was clearly not pleased with that. “Whatever,” he muttered, then proceeded to lead the way out of the offices again.

  As they went down the same elevator, she looked at him, still scrutinizing everything. “What kind of security do you even have here?”

  “I would have said it was good security,” he replied, “until this all happened.”

  “Yeah, it’s always a bit of a blow when you find out things aren’t quite as good as you would have hoped,” she muttered. “On the other hand, I am wondering about the moles. Even though you mentioned how you found one person who may have been involved in an information leak, there could easily have been multiple people involved.”

  “And we are looking into that,” Jonas replied, as he nodded in understanding. “What we can’t control is what people do when they’re out of the office. And just because they’re working under a contract that requires they not speak and have even signed various legal documents to confirm that they don’t, it doesn’t necessarily keep people from doing just that. Particularly if they think they’ll get money for it.”

  “Right,” she muttered, “and money always seems to drive the criminal enterprise, doesn’t it?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Speaking of money, you never did tell me what you would offer me, just that very tempting range of salaries,” she noted humorously. “But then I guess that’s because you didn’t get around to making the offer.”

  He looked at her and sighed. “You seem to be harping on that. Are you upset because you weren’t offered a job?”