“It’s all good. They were waiting to unload some stuff.”

  No signs of distress from Terk, not yet anyway. “So?” Brody prodded.

  “We’ll drive around to the back, and they’ll load it up.” And that’s what they did.

  It blew Brody away when they had everything loaded. “Now that’s a lot of groceries.”

  “Well, that’s what it’s like feeding sixteen people three meals a day all the time,” Terk murmured.

  “Amazing,” Brody said. “I wonder how Levi and Ice do it.”

  “With lots of help.” Terk laughed. “And a lot of commitment from the people they have there.”

  “Agreed,” he murmured. “And you’ve seen it in action many times, haven’t you?”

  “I have.” Terk nodded. “It was something I considered setting up at one point in time, but it never really occurred to me that I could do it, not when we were all still working for the government.”

  “Well, we’re not now.” Brody curiously looked at his friend. “Would you reconsider now?”

  “Maybe,” he said calmly. “We’re just not there yet.”

  And no way to argue with that. Until this attack on the team was settled, they wouldn’t be planning much of anything regarding their future.

  They made three more stops, where, once again, the groceries were either loaded or Terk went inside and picked them up.

  Brody was curious about something and needed to get this out of the way, so, when Terk hopped in after the next shop, he asked him, “By the way, why is it you’re doing this and not somebody else?”

  “Because everybody else has something else to do, for one thing.” Then he admitted simply, “I’m also checking to see how you’re doing.”

  Brody winced at that. “Wow, so this is kind of babysitting duty.”

  “Well, if it was babysitting, it wouldn’t be half as much fun. And I can do this, so why not?” Terk murmured, as he looked out the window. “Everybody else takes on so much of the laborious work that it makes me feel bad. So I help with things as I can.”

  Brody stared at Terk. “Good God, I have never had a thought like that. Neither has anyone else, and that is something I’m certain of.”

  “No, maybe not,” Terk agreed, “but, at the same time, there is always something to do, and our people are good about jumping in to get things done. And it doesn’t have to be the job that we think it’ll be. I’m totally okay to do my part. My team needs to see it.”

  “That’s the trick, isn’t it?” Brody said. “We all do something to help out in any way we can to make it all run smoothly.”

  “Exactly.” Terk smiled, as he motioned at the parking lot he was pulling into.

  “Where are we now?”

  “We have a delivery from Charles,” he said, smiling.

  “Really? What’s he sending over?”

  “Hopefully not MI6,” Terk stated in a dry tone. “I may have worn out my welcome there.”

  “Do we ever get a welcome anywhere?” Brody asked curiously.

  “Not really. Not if you ask me. But it’s all good.”

  Except that, when Terk went inside, he didn’t come back out for a long time.

  Brody was getting frustrated. Frowning and fussing in the vehicle, he finally gave up and hopped out, moving closer to the building, and slipped up to the corner near a side door.

  He waited there, listening for any sound or anyone out of place around him. When he heard nothing, he immediately contacted Calum. “I’m not sure what’s going on,” Brody explained, “but Terk went into the building, where he’s supposedly picking up stuff from Charles, and it’s been a while.”

  “Shit,” Cal said. “That’ll be MI6 trying to screw something up.”

  “Well, they don’t really get that option, do they?”

  “No, not necessarily, but you know those guys don’t give a shit either.”

  “I can stay out here and wait, or I can go in and attempt to mount a rescue,” Brody suggested. “Do you have any way to contact Terk?”

  “Contacting Terk if he was open to being contacted would be easy,” Calum replied, “but he’s not showing that he’s open to communication.”

  Brody was astonished to hear that. “If that’s the case, I feel like I need to go in there.”

  “Depends on whether Charles is even there,” Calum noted. “Give me a second to check, and I’ll get back to you.” And, with that, the call was disconnected.

  When Calum phoned him back not even three minutes later, he said, “Charles says to go in there, and, if there’s a problem, and you don’t contact me in the next few minutes, Charles will be all over it.”

  “Good enough.” Brody turned the corner and headed toward the side door. Instinct had him stepping back, just as he was about to open the door. Good timing as the door opened in front of him, and two men came outside, talking.

  Terk was not one of them. Brody had already slipped into the alcove and watched the pair closely. They headed away from Brody and got into a vehicle. Brody waited until they disappeared and slipped inside the same door.

  As he stealthily walked in, he tried hard to keep his presence hidden. If MI6 had any kind of security cameras, Brody would have been picked up already. As he walked forward, he heard Terk’s voice.

  “You really don’t want to be doing this,” he said.

  “We’re a little damn tired of you guys,” said one guy, disgust in his voice. “Plus you keep leaving us bodies.”

  “Oh, do I now?” Terk asked. “And here I thought it was the bad guys killing other bad guys. You don’t really know which side you’re on, do you?”

  “I know which side I’m on,” the one guy stated, “and I’m tired of you fucking around with my government.”

  “Interesting,” Terk noted, but absolutely no inflection filled his voice.

  Brody was about to go in when Terk stepped into his brain, and the message was clear as day. Stay out.

  Brody hesitated at that, unsure if Terk was maybe telling Brody to stay out for his own safety, which would piss him right off. He waited in the shadows and started recording the conversation. He wasn’t sure who was pulling the strings right now, but it sure as hell didn’t sound like this meeting was on the up-and-up.

  Terk’s team had seen that time and time again too. Some asshole figured that they should have been in on something and wanted payback for it.

  When the guy came back at Terk again, he was snarling. “And why the hell shouldn’t we just take you out right now?” he asked, his tone full of venom.

  “Wow, that’d be totally illegal for MI6, would it not?” Terk laughed. “Or do you guys work outside the law now?”

  “I don’t give a shit if it’s legal or not,” he snapped. “You’re making a mockery out of us all.”

  “Nope, I can’t do that. If you’re not the idiots you’re currently pretending to be here,” Terk stated, “feel free to contact your superiors about this.”

  “Well, I guess what our superiors don’t know,” he said, “won’t matter. Sometimes you have to be a little more proactive, and we have a lot of leeway in our jobs.”

  “You seem to, indeed,” Terk noted in such a calm voice.

  Brody had a detached sense of wonder hearing the agent, obviously some midlevel man, beyond pissed at what was going on. Clearly this guy wasn’t sure he had any recourse for the accusations he was flinging about, and that was probably making him feel all the more impotent and frustrated.

  Terk’s team came across this every once in a while, with somebody who thought that they should be somebody bigger or somebody better or somebody who could change the way things were being handled. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn’t.

  Brody hoped this guy got his knuckles rapped. Or better yet, taken down more than a few pegs. This guy is dangerous.

  He sent Terk a warning, but his friend was clearly in control. The guy was a loose cannon, one of the ones destined to go off on his own and without a thought about his team. That kind of maverick attitude was not helpful when it came to an organization like this.

  Brody wondered how long it would take before somebody from upper management got wind of what this agent was planning on doing on his own.

  Not that Brody cared, as long as the loose cannon guy let Terk leave.

  When Terk spoke next, his voice was calm as a sunny day. “I’m walking out of here right now, but I’ll be sure to pass on your concerns.”

  The guy snorted. “What makes you think you’re walking anywhere?” he asked, his voice turning deadly.

  At that, Brody stiffened and approached even more quietly. This was not the kind of behavior they expected, and something was definitely going on here. Still recording, he edged even closer, so he could just barely see where Terk stood next to a closed door on the opposite wall.

  As they came into focus, Terk was smiling at the guy. “Are you ready to do this right now? You’ve got two henchmen with you. Local agency grunts?” he asked in a mildly curious voice.

  One of the guys asked, “Hey, who are you calling a grunt?” His tone had a deadly note to it. “You’re operating illegally in this country. We could take you out, and nobody would ask any questions.”

  At that, Terk laughed. “In that case, you should have done it already. Now I’m leaving, so, if you’re planning on stopping me, I suggest you grab that gun out of your holster and put it to good use. Otherwise you and I will have something to talk about later.”

  “What will you do? Run and say something to our bosses?” he asked in a mocking voice. “Do you really think we haven’t thought of all that?”

  “I’m sure you have at some point,” Terk replied calmly. “And I really don’t care about complaining to bosses. I know who they will believe already, and it sure as hell isn’t you.”

  Brody checked their expressions when they all went quiet. A moment of shared consternation.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the lead guy snapped. “And, if you mean that washed-up old soldier Charles, you’re barking up the wrong tree. It’s well past time that he retired too.”

  “Ah,” Terk noted with interest. “You’re now threatening Charles’s life? That’ll go over really well. Charles has devoted his entire life to your country and now look at you.” Terk was egging on these guys. “You’re mocking somebody who has done more in service than you could ever dream of. All you’re thinking about is yourselves.”

  “We are not,” one man protested. “We’re thinking about our country.”

  “No, you’re not. This has nothing to do with your country. This is all about you guys making sure that you’re noticed and big men in the company,” Terk said in a mocking tone. “That’s all this is. It’s a power move, hoping you can make a move further up. I’m sure you’ll try to make my death look like somebody else in the company was responsible, right? That’s always a good ploy, isn’t it?”

  The other guy looked uneasily at his friends. “We’re doing this because we need to. Nobody else will listen to us and this needs to be done.”

  “Maybe there’s a reason why nobody listens to you,” Terk stated, with half a smile.

  “Why the hell are you so damn cocky about this anyway?” the head guy asked uncertainly. “It’s not as if you’ve got any way to get out of this.”

  Terk looked at him, bored. “What makes you think I need a way to get out of this?” he asked. “You guys have no frickin’ clue.” He succeeded at making them feel uneasy, questioning their plan. “That’s the problem with being a low-level grunt and a midlevel wannabe.”

  He looked from the guy in charge to the other two. “You’ve not been clued in to the intricacies of life above you because they already know you can’t be trusted. MI6 already knows that you’re not worthy of moving up a step and that you’ll never be what you thought you would be. That’s probably what brought this on. Chances are you guys were given your walking papers or at least a warning about not trespassing where you don’t belong.” Terk snorted. “And, like typical grunts, you couldn’t take that message and carry on your merry way.”

  “Stop calling us that,” one guy yelled at Terk. “We’ve devoted years to this outfit. They’ve got no business shutting us down.”

  “You have to earn your promotion to move up a position,” Terk stated. “And this? … This just earned you all kinds of black marks. But that’s all right, keep going, and we’ll see just how far you’re willing to go in pursuit of what you think is good for the company.” He air quoted the phrase, clearly grating on them.

  “He’s awfully confident.” The second guy spoke up for the first time. “I don’t like this. Let’s be done with it.”

  “That’s just the kind of assholes they are,” the head guy replied. “Americans. … Nothing but pigs.”

  “This is not about him. It’s about all the injustices that he keeps perpetrating on our soil. We have to do what we need to do to keep our people safe.”

  At that, even Brody was surprised. It was really pushing boundaries to make it sound like Terk had done anything against England.

  The fact was, the assholes who had attacked Terk’s team were already here on their soil. Some of them surely came from other places, but they were all one, and they could travel as freely as they wanted.

  Even being on a no-fly list didn’t stop known criminals from traveling, since, with private planes, they could travel anywhere. So anything they wanted was easy and simple for them, as long as they had lots of cash. Regardless, the allegations against Terk here were a complete distortion of the facts.

  Just then, Brody heard somebody approaching. He quickly stepped behind a pillar to stay out of the way. Yet now he had people on both sides of him. Potential enemies. They may or may not see him, depending on whether they turned and looked in his direction or not.

  He immediately pulled up an energy screen, trying to block anybody from seeing him. The pillar had a side mirror, and, looking at himself, he realized just how shaky he was and how damn thin.

  Shocked and horrified, he pulled harder and harder, trying to find a way to make that energy a little bit stronger and to keep as still as possible to keep hidden. I am not up to this shit now.

  He suddenly realized just how weak he felt and how much danger he was in. Without thinking, almost in a panic, he sent out an SOS. He contacted Clary to help him build his energy shield.

  With no questions asked, Clary sent energy, suddenly flowing through his veins. He quickly managed to pull himself up in an energy field and to create an energy shield that would block him from anybody approaching.

  And just in time. Somebody came through, looked once in his direction, and kept on walking out the same door Brody had entered. He let out a shaky breath as he realized the shield had worked.

  Not on his own but with help from her.

  He realized just how much more he owed her.

  Just doing my job, big guy.

  He winced at that because, God, how cold and formal was that? But he was also the one who had put them on that footing. He needed to do something about that but not right now.

  Right now he needed to focus. Terk was in danger. Keeping the energy as a strong shield around him, Brody stepped forward until he was through the room, almost to Terk, without being seen by these three fools.

  One of the grunts looked in his direction and then looked away, not even seeing him. And that’s how good the camouflage was, which was worth its weight in gold. Bear with me, Clary. Terk is in trouble.

  By the time he stepped forward, almost right up beside Terk, nobody had noticed anything. This shield was stronger and more intense than anything Brody had ever produced before. It was fascinating, but he didn’t have time to think about that.

  Terk looked over in his direction, and Brody saw the surprise on his face, but it was quickly masked. Terk turned, looked at his captors. “So, do I leave without a fuss or do we have a problem right now?”

  “We have a problem,” the first man said, pulling out his gun. He looked at his two cohorts. “John has gone and he was the last one in the building. Let’s get ready, and we’ll take him out, ambush-style.”

  “And our report?”

  “We’ll write it up that he attacked us because we were questioning him too closely. It’s obvious he was losing it and went off his rocker,” he explained casually.

  Just the fact that he was willing to put that level of deception into this made him all the more dangerous. Standing beside Terk, completely hidden, was one of the most freeing aspects that Brody had ever experienced before. But he also knew that he couldn’t sustain it much longer.

  He walked around behind the first man and just as he raised his weapon, he hit him hard.

  Now the report will be more accurate, asshole.

  Chapter 7

  Clary held the energy firm and strong, as she tried to sort out what was going on.

  She heard voices around her and her own sister telling the team to be quiet. “Something’s happening.”

  Clary knew her sister. Cara was picking up some of what was going on. But it was all about trying to keep Brody safe. And obviously that would be a little more difficult than Clary had thought, when he could find danger in grocery shopping.

  Bringing him back here to his team, where he was even more exposed to this gigantic mess threatening them, would bite her in the ass. But she hadn’t really thought this through. She had seen the sense of bringing him back into the fold, as it would calm him somewhat, and it would keep him connected, and the group could help him revive his spirit, but this was too much.

  The group obviously cared about him. They were a family and would make all attempts to try and connect him back to life. She just hadn’t expected this ambush.

  When she had finally tried to shake out of Brody’s system, again, more trouble brewed. But she didn’t have any context. She was shaking when her sister quietly showed up at her side. “Do you need help?”

  She gave a light headshake. She didn’t waste the energy trying to answer her. It was not as clean-cut or as simple as she would have liked it to be. But, as it was, something was going on.