Amy stiffened at that, but, with Wallace patting her hand, she realized Dom was probably just trying to get a rise out of her. As she watched the interaction between Dom and Jonas, she realized something else was going on here. “You two seem to know each other,” Amy noted. “Is he one of the assholes who works for you?”

  Jonas shook his head. “No, I was wondering about hiring him for the same job that I had been looking at you for, but I figured he was too unstable.”

  At that, Dom glared at him. “Like hell.”

  “So you know him as Dominic too, right?” she suddenly asked Jonas.

  Dom glared at her.

  Amy muttered, “Oh, right. I’m just supposed to shut up, aren’t I?” She chuckled.

  “Yeah, too late,” he muttered. “Believe me that I’m counting every one of the mistakes you make right now, and I’ll be sure that you pay for them. All of them.”

  She stared at him. “I’ll pay for something when I don’t even know what I did?”

  “Remember that part about shutting up? Any chance you could try that? Even just for a minute for the sake of my sanity?” Dom asked.

  She shrugged. “Oh, I can try, but I can’t help but wonder, when you two clearly know each other and when clearly something is going on between the two of you.” She considered Dom for a long moment. “Since you’ve kidnapped me twice now, I really want to know what’s going on.”

  “Nothing’s going on. We got wind of MI6 creating a new team, so I applied. That way I could get the details on what they were looking for—and not get accepted,” he said, with a laugh. “They can use whatever excuse they want for that,” he added, “but I know the truth.”

  “Yeah, you’re too unstable,” Amy declared, with a nod. “Anybody can see that.”

  Dom sucked in his breath and stared at her. “Have you got a death wish?”

  “Nope. You know what I do have?” she replied. “I have a really short temper when it comes to assholes like you, kidnapping me a second time, and then planning to use me as a bargaining chip,” she muttered.

  “If you had anybody decent looking after you, they would have protected you.”

  “Looking after me?” she repeated, stiffening and glaring at him. “Is that kind of like needing a keeper? As if I can’t look after myself?”

  “I would say, from the looks of it, you really can’t look after yourself, now can you?” Dom asked, with a sneer. “You do see where you are for the second time?”

  She slumped back in place. “Good point,” she muttered.

  He burst out laughing. “If you weren’t so damn ugly, I might think about keeping you around.”

  She snorted. “Wow, just when I think that maybe something human is inside you, you go and open your mouth again, and some other shit pops out.”

  He stared at her. “You do realize that I can have you killed at any moment.”

  “You do realize that I can die at any moment, regardless, right? Just walking around here in this toxic sludge is likely to get me killed, particularly after I’ve spent however long down in this unhealthy piss-hole,” she said, glaring at her surroundings. “You guys really know how to show a girl a good time.”

  “If you want a good time,” Dom whispered, his voice dropping in a threatening tone, “I’ll let the men have you.”

  “Yeah?” she asked, daring him. “You and how many others?”

  He stared at her in shock.

  Getting a telepathic message from Terk, she gave a slight nod at his suggestion. She wondered why Terk had been so silent up until now. She smirked at Dom. “You have no fucking idea what you’re up against, and I’m getting really tired of your shit.”

  Dom stared at her, then shook his head. “I’m pretty sure that bravado of yours is all a bluff,” Dom replied, “but I have to tell you, you’re working that angle pretty well.”

  “Uh-huh,” she murmured, staring at him. “You’ve got no idea what I’ve got working.” And, with that, she settled back. “Now, if you have your threats over with, I need water.”

  “I don’t give a shit what you need.”

  She glared at him and repeated, “I need water.”

  He groaned and bellowed, “Could somebody please get the diva a bottle of water?”

  Almost instantly a bottle was placed beside her. She popped the cap and took a long swig. Then she handed it to Wallace. “You need some?”

  He nodded and took a swig, then handed it over to Terk. Terk had a drink and then handed it to Jonas. By the time Jonas had a drink, the water was gone.

  “That looks to be have been completely choreographed, planned, sharing that drink,” Dom pointed out. “What the hell?”

  “Or maybe we are all just thirsty, you idiot,” Amy replied. “You might try using some common sense as you try to convince everyone how psychic you are.”

  Terk added in a calm voice, “We’re just trying to be cooperative.”

  “Yeah, right,” Dom grumbled, red-faced now and turning to confront Amy.

  Then the door to this room opened. The same boss man walked in that she had seen the last time. She smiled. “There you are. I wondered when you would show up.”

  He frowned at her, saw the other three captives, then turned to look at his minions. “This again?” he asked.

  “Haven’t had a chance to get started yet,” Dom said to Burly.

  But Dom’s demeanor did change, as if somewhere along the line he’d taken a couple of dressing downs, which she was glad to see, but it also meant that the boss had more control over Dom than she’d expected, and that wasn’t good. Certain things she was okay with, but surprises like that were never good.

  Dom looked over at her and smiled. “See? Now you’ll be in trouble.”

  She stared at him in amazement, shaking her head. “Just like a two-year-old. Blows me away.”

  Burly stared at her, then asked Dominic, “What’s going on?”

  When Dom wouldn’t reply, Amy interjected, “Dom got in trouble with you, didn’t he?”

  Burly laughed. “Very true, but so are you. You had no right to leave, but you went ahead and did just that.”

  “I had every right,” Amy declared. “You kidnapped me and held me against my will, so of course I had the right to leave. That’s how it works. You, as the kidnapper, try to force me to stay. I, as the prisoner, try to get the hell away.”

  Burly blinked. “It’s not as if there are any rules to this.”

  “There sure as hell are,” Amy argued. “It’s a rule of nature between predator and prey. You can’t get mad at me for self-preservation.”

  Burly shrugged. “You do have a point.” He turned back to Dominic and the others. “You are now picking up MI6 agents?” he asked, walking over to stare first at Terk and then at Jonas. “And your reason for that?”

  “Because they’re idiots,” Amy shared.

  Burly turned that gaze on her, and she wondered if she’d finally pushed it too far.

  “You’ve got a mouth on you, that’s for sure,” Burly noted, “but you might want to watch it before I decide you’re too much trouble.”

  She felt Wallace squeezing her hand in warning. She smiled up at the boss. “Maybe so,” she conceded, “but, if you’re just here to kill us anyway, what difference does it make?”

  “Why would I kill you?” he asked, looking at her curiously.

  “Considering what you did to that poor man in the hospital, that seems to be your MO when people don’t cooperate.”

  He frowned at her, then turned to his minions again. “He survived?”

  They all nodded.

  “That does not make me happy,” Burly muttered.

  “Right,” Amy noted, “so the poor guy wasn’t even intended to survive.”

  “No, he really wasn’t,” Burly admitted. “We’ll have to take care of that now too.” He turned and looked at Dom. “That is another one of your fuckups that you’ll have to unfuck. Where is he now?”

  One of his minions shared, “He’s still in the hospital, and he’ll be there for a while.”

  “Arrange for him to have an accident,” Burly suggested. “Better make it a sudden embolism or something,” he added, with a wave of his hand. “If the local authorities have already talked to him, I really don’t want him out there spouting off more shit,” he explained.

  Immediately she felt bad for having mentioned it. Chances were, Gerry would find out soon enough, but now she wanted to warn everybody about what would happen next.

  The boss looked over at Jonas. “So, Dominic here has some vendetta against you. Apparently you turned him down for the same job that I hired him for.”

  “That’s because he’s unstable,” Jonas repeated. “I work for the government. You know as well as I do that stability is important.”

  “Sure it is,” Burley agreed, “but instability allows you to do more things, to use them in better ways, special ways.”

  “It does, but there are consequences when you work for the government.”

  “Something I’m not too bothered about,” Burly muttered, with a laugh. “I can do far more without the government holding us back. You should be happy that I’ll at least carry on your wishes and find others like him to hold a team together,” he added. “I’m sorry that didn’t work out for you guys. It would have been fun to watch you struggle but crash and burn.”

  “What makes you think it didn’t work out?” Jonas asked curiously.

  “I heard it was canceled,” Burly stated, studying him.

  “Your information is wrong. Obviously we’ve had to change a few things,” Jonas conceded, with a shrug, “but we’re still going ahead.”

  “That is, if you can find anybody.”

  “That’s always the challenge, and, of course, we need stable people,” he repeated for a third time, nodding at Dominic.

  Dom glared at him. “I’m perfectly stable, asshole,” he snarled. “You just didn’t want genius.”

  “And obviously your nose is still out of joint,” the boss noted, turning to give him a hard look. “I don’t want any personal vendettas here.”

  “Of course not, but what was I to do. Leave him there? He was talking with this guy.” Dom waved a hand at Terk.

  At that, the boss faced Terk and frowned. “Do I know you?”

  Terk shrugged. “I have no idea, but I don’t know you.”

  “Right, that makes sense. Who are you?” Terk gave his name, and the other man shrugged. “Don’t know the name. Why were you there?”

  “Because Amy’s a friend of mine, and, after what she was put through, I offered her a place to recuperate. Just a favor for old times’ sake.”

  “Ah,” Burly replied, “a good Samaritan. You haven’t figured out that being a good person results in getting your ass kicked, huh? Maybe you will after this. That is, if you survive.”

  Terk didn’t say anything right away, watching Burly closely, then spoke. “What is it you’re planning on doing with a team of psychics?” he asked curiously. “That’s been done before.”

  “It’s been done before, just not successfully,” the boss clarified. “I plan to change that.”

  “It’s hard to do if you don’t have stable team members,” Terk pointed out.

  At that, the boss turned once again to look back at Dominic. “So I hear—repeatedly,” Burly muttered, “and it’s something I’ll keep in mind.”

  Amy tried to hide her smirk, tried to keep from telepathically sharing the Gotcha reverberating in her mind. Burly’s words gave the impression that, if Dominic became a problem, he would be disposed of.

  Burly shrugged in response to Terk’s point. “You’re right. It has been done before and with some varying degrees of success, but, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I’m certainly getting word about some teams who have had the right abilities,” he shared. “I think it’s just a matter of finding who can do what.”

  “Could be,” Terk agreed, with a nod. “I don’t imagine finding that out is an easy job. How do you test them? How do you figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s just full of shit?” he asked, as he nodded toward Dominic.

  The boss laughed. “You guys really don’t like Dom, do you?”

  Amy snorted. “He is responsible for my being here twice now.”

  At that, the boss laughed again. “Good point. We actually wanted Wallace.” He turned and looked at him. “So, sorry, bud, you’re it.”

  Wallace stared at Burly. “Why do you want me?”

  “You were heading for the same interview, were you not?”

  “Sure, I was, and, like Amy here, I also didn’t pass.”

  He turned and looked at Jonas. “Why not?”

  “Same thing,” Jonas muttered. “I need people who are stable.”

  The boss looked over at Wallace. “Interesting. So what’s your story that renders you so unstable?”

  “One of the requirements is no family, no friends, making sure that you can go out and get your ass kicked and not give a shit,” he replied, staring at him. “That tends to be a problem for a lot of people. Plus, when I get asked questions about my personal and private life, I tend to tell people to shut the fuck up. Job interviews don’t go so well after that, you know?”

  Burly laughed. “I can’t believe it was actually a job interview.”

  “No, not a job interview, more of a discussion in advance of something possibly happening,” Wallace pointed out. “They hadn’t got the paperwork together, and he was just starting to do the groundwork for it. But he couldn’t make a case for the government if he didn’t have people identified that he could potentially utilize. So, he was attempting to get together a list of people who might be willing.”

  “Would you be willing?” Burly asked.

  “Not really, because it seems the reason why people want psychics is … suspect,” he explained, “for lack of a better word.”

  “Meaning you have morals, and you don’t want to be pushed into going against them?”

  “Exactly,” Wallace replied.

  Burly smiled. “The good news is, … if you have abilities, I’m interested. The bad news is, if you have abilities and don’t want to utilize them on my team, I have no problem keeping her to ensure you behave yourself.”

  At that, she stiffened. “That shit again,” she muttered.

  He nodded. “Yep, that shit again. What does matter is making sure that people are obedient, and, for me, loyalty is everything.” He gave a sideways glance to Dom. “I can handle some instability, as long as the loyalty is there. The minute the loyalty is in question, then you have nothing.” He turned and looked at Jonas. “I’m sure you would agree with that.”

  Jonas nodded. “Yep, which is why, as soon as I get out of here, I’ll find the mole you have successfully used to follow whatever we’re doing.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that one,” Burly said. “I can’t use him now, so I might as well put him away.”

  “Put him away?” she cried out in shock. “You’ll just kill somebody?”

  “Is that what I said?” Burly asked, deflecting.

  “Yes, more or less,” she declared, staring at him.

  He shrugged. “Well then, yes, more or less, that’s what I’ll do. I do have to maintain a certain level of secrecy, you know?”

  She didn’t like hearing that at all.

  Burly looked back at his men. “Separate them,” he ordered. “I want to talk to Jonas privately, and then I’ll have a conversation with Wallace,” he shared, with a smile directed at him. “After that, we’ll see how cooperative everybody is as to what comes next.” He glared at Amy, as she stood up.

  “If you hurt him,” she stated cheerfully, “I won’t help you at all.”

  He laughed. “Do you really think that’s anything to threaten me with?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, “but you seem to want a lot of cooperation from this new team. How can you even begin to think that a team with gifts and morals would work under coercion? You would have to watch your back all the time,” she pointed out, with a headshake. “Is that really what you want?”

  He just glared at her.

  She sighed. “I’ve heard of some pretty stupid things in my life, but this one takes the cake.”

  Burly snapped, “Don’t you ever shut up?”

  She shrugged, looked back at Wallace, gave him a three-finger wave, and faced Burly once more. “Don’t forget about me.” She was taunting him, poking the bear, and it seemed to be working just fine. She gave a sly smirk in Terk’s direction.

  And, with that, she was gone.

  *

  Wallace stared at the new room he had been led into. It amazed him that this many “clean” rooms were down here. Yet no doubt they were still in the sewer system, and it wasn’t exactly a room. It was more of a space, a half hallway. He sat down on the single chair waiting for him, knowing that an interrogation was coming.

  But he could really do or say only so much, and absolutely none of it would go the way Burly wanted. Wallace couldn’t afford that to happen either. This was way past delicate subject matter. This was stuff that nobody should be allowed to even begin to think about. Whether the boss man wanted his own team of psychics or not, he would have to find people who were willing, and Amy had pointed out the big fly in the ointment.

  You couldn’t coerce a team. Maybe one individual. But a whole team of energy workers? No, the team had to be willing. They had to be on board every step of the way, particularly a gifted team like this. If you brought in psychics, you would have shit going on all over the place.

  Wallace smiled at that concept because people just didn’t realize what it was like to have psychics all around you. They knew everything. It didn’t matter what you shared with them at first, the psychics would know if something else was going on, would know if some other process was ongoing that they weren’t privy to, would know of other plans that involved them but which they hadn’t been informed of. Then heads would roll—figuratively. Kinda like what Terk and Wallace and Amy were already doing, hoping to mess with their kidnappers’ minds.

  The boss man would end up with a hell of a shit show in no time. As far as Wallace was concerned, Jonas was completely correct in reading Dominic as being unstable. Lots of psychics were, unfortunately. Terk seemed to do a decent job of weeding them out, but then he had a lot of people on board who could help him with that. Everybody had impressions and insider information, but, when it came to energy-worker stuff, it was all about instincts and being able to read energy. Lots of people on Terk’s team could see that energy.