The team leader quirked his eyebrows. “And did it help?”

  “No, he’s still pissed with me.”

  He shrugged. “Well, it sucks to be him, then. Why don’t you talk to Ms E about it? See what she can suggest. She might have dealt with his kind before.”

  “Yeah? How do you know?”

  “She’s dealt with all types in her past. I bet there was someone equally as stubborn.”

  “I’ll check on that.” She frowned and for a minute, he was worried she might be about to ask about Charlie again. Instead, she said, “So did you happen to see which way the furry scumbag went? I like that pair of sneakers, dammit.”

  Lars chuckled. He was about to deny any knowledge of the cat when there was a furtive rustle from the back of his office.

  “You!” Stephanie yelled and darted around his chair as Bumblebee leapt over his head and shattered the light.

  “Get your buttercup tail back here!” she shouted. “I swear, cat, you’ll make one hell of a floor rug.”

  They were gone in a scramble of paws and the thud of running feet, the feline with a red running shoe in its jaws.

  “Dammit, Bee! Give that back.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Stephanie walked into the office holding the sneaker between her thumb and forefinger.

  “Don’t ask,” she said, when she caught Elizabeth staring at it. “Really. Don’t ask.”

  The woman glanced at the shoe, then cleared her throat.

  “So,” she began, “if I can’t ask about the shoe, what can I do for you?”

  “I’m about to visit Garach to see how he’s shaping up. I wondered if you have any suggestions.”

  “You mean in case we didn’t manage to recalibrate his attitude?” she asked.

  “Something like that.”

  “Well, if he didn’t learn the first time, I’ll kick his ass,” Ms E told her. “He’ll remember that for a long time to come.”

  Stephanie screwed her face in reluctance. “I was hoping you could think of an alternative.”

  “Oh, sweetie, there isn’t one. Not for an attitude like that. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

  She sighed. “And here I was hoping there was another way. I’ve already been called barbaric once today. Lars said it was too bad.”

  “And how is that man?” her mentor asked. “Has he done my paperwork yet?”

  “He was working on it when I walked in.” She hefted the shoe. “Actually, when I ran in. Bee was hiding out in his office.”

  “With your shoe?”

  “I told you not to ask.”

  “I didn’t. You raised it.”

  “Well, forget I said anything about it.”

  “So, how was he going with my paperwork—you know, between hiding cats with contraband and being unsympathetic towards our medical folk.”

  “He said he was behind and I told him he needed a night off.”

  The woman’s eyebrows rose. “You did? That’s awfully generous of you.”

  Stephanie blushed. “It’s not like that. He’d had this email from an old friend. The guy’s in town in a few days and wanted to catch up. I thought it was nice that he’d reached out to him after all these years.”

  “Well,” Elizabeth said, “it’s always nice to catch up. Did he say why?”

  “He wants to meet for drinks at one of the local sports bars. I assume they’ll catch a little of the World Cup, but I don’t know… Lars mentioned something about raising a glass to old friends.”

  “Ah.” Now, it sounded like she understood. “In that case, I can understand why you said he should take a night off.”

  “I said it was important that he remember where he came from.”

  The woman’s face grew shadowed. “Indeed—and what did he say?”

  “He asked about Garach.”

  Elizabeth nodded. “I’ll talk to him.”

  Stephanie scowled. “I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said.

  Her companion shrugged. “If he’s still of two minds, maybe I can nudge him in the right direction.”

  “I think it would be good for him to catch up,” she said with a smile and headed to the door. “Which is what I should do with Garach.”

  “This friend,” Ms E mentioned as she reached the door. “What was his name?”

  “Charlie Woods,” she told her, left the office, and turned resolutely toward the medical center, her shoe still dangling from her fingers.

  Elizabeth watched her go and her eyes narrowed.

  “Sometimes,” she muttered and glared at the Witch’s retreating back as she closed the door, “you are still so very child-like and naive.”

  Still frowning, she returned to her desk and retrieved a communicator.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  She set the communicator beside her on the desk and summoned BURT.

  “Yes, Elizabeth?” he asked seconds after she’d tapped his code into the computer.

  “I think we might have a problem,” she told him.

  “What makes you say that?” he asked. “I see no indication of problematic activity in my scans.”

  “It’s a feeling. Kind of an itch between the shoulder blades.”

  “I…see…” BURT replied but obviously didn’t understand at all.

  Ms E smiled at the screen. “No, you don’t, but I need you to run a check on Charlie Woods, maybe Charles Woods. He used to serve with Lars when he was in the Navy.”

  “He did?”

  “Please, BURT. No more questions. This is important and maybe urgent. Could you…I don’t know…look him up?”

  “Certainly, Elizabeth. It will not take me long.”

  “I’ll wait,” she told him and tapped her nails against the face of the communicator.

  BURT wasn’t gone long, and he wasn’t happy when he replied.

  “There are some things, which…are worrisome,” he began. “I will have to search more. Whatever it is, it’s not obvious, only a couple of flags from many years ago left in his cache on his home device.”

  “You hacked his home device? Exactly how deep did you go?”

  “I hacked all his home devices,” he told her.

  “And?” Her fingers rattled on the comms device.

  “Well, his medical records show some time on Kattacor—”

  “The swamp moon?”

  “Yes, there were some parasites and a skin affliction he found particularly hard to shake. I believe it was fungal and had the effect that he was quarantined from Earth until it was cleared. He was most disappointed by that.”

  “I can imagine,” Elizabeth said dryly. “And?”

  “His newer machine had partitioned files where he thought his passwords would be safe, and his bank accounts show some curious transactions. I will have to investigate those further.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Something in her voice made him defensive.

  “I get bored and his was an interesting system to get into. I had to know what he was hiding to justify a firewall like that—and then there were the worms. Those were vicious.”

  “Attack worms?” she asked. “Isn’t that unusual?”

  “That kind of software is very specialized.” BURT sounded almost offended. “If I did not have principles, I could have amassed a small fortune selling a variety of infiltration, exfiltration, and defensive programs of a similar nature.”

  “I’m sure you could have, but what does that have to do with our Charlie?”

  “I’m sure he is someone’s Charlie,” he replied, “but he is certainly not ours.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I do not know, exactly.”

  “And do you make a habit of knowing what’s on the black market for home computer defense?” Ms E teased.

  “I research the data relevant to keeping my own files intact and secure,” he replied and sounded slightly huffy.

  “And hacking?” she asked, pushing him. “You’re quite good at it.”

  “I don’t do much of it because I lack time, resources, and need.”

  She snorted. “I notice you didn’t say legal authority.”

  “I have directives to accomplish. They did not suggest that legal issues superseded my goals.”

  “Hmmm…” she murmured as another thought occurred to her. “Where’s Todd?”

  “He is in the Navy.”

  “No, BURT. I meant where is he right at this moment?”

  “Oh…” After a few moments’ silence, he returned with the answer. “He has just been transferred to the Devil’s Care on escort duty. They are departing the Sol system for Dreth as we speak. The Navy is having problems with Dreth pirates again.”

  Elizabeth frowned and stared past the computer screen at nothing. When she had been silent for a few minutes, BURT spoke.

  “Elizabeth?”

  She held up a finger, still frowning. “Why Dreth? Why Lars? What the hell is the connection? Why mix them, now? It doesn’t feel right. It…simply doesn’t.”

  “What is there to feel?” he asked. “It is only data.”

  “No, it’s more than data, BURT. It’s…a feeling.”

  “Elizabeth,” he reminded her gently, “I do not have feelings. You will need to explain.”

  The woman sighed. “When I say feelings, BURT, I do not mean emotions like anger, love, or happiness. I think you would understand those.”

  “This is true—if only from an intellectual point of view—but what you speak of seems to be something else.”

  “These feelings I’m talking about are what humans would more usually call ‘intuition.’”

  “Guesswork?” he asked and she smiled.

  “Almost,” she replied. “Some say it’s because our subconscious notices things our conscious does not, but I experience it like this. During…uh, operations…before I worked here, I’d notice my senses would get a feel for an area.”

  “Your subconscious at work,” BURT observed.

  “Possibly, but even when you don’t see an attack, you might duck your head a split-second before a bullet whizzes past. You can’t quantify why you ducked at that particular moment or why anyone does.”

  She paused and he waited, knowing she hadn’t finished.

  “It makes no sense to duck,” she continued. “The bullet is ahead of the sound it generates. The sniper is too far away to be seen and yet you feel them. You know they are there. Something isn’t right.”

  “And that’s how you feel now?” he asked.

  “Yes. Something isn’t right. Lars is invited out for drinks by an unexpected blast from the past. Todd is heading to Dreth unexpectedly.” She paused. “I assume the Telorans want Earth…” She tapped her chin. “How would I make Earth an easier target?”

  BURT remained silent and simply let her work through it. This was one thing he didn’t fully understand, save for one thing. If he interrupted her now, something valuable would be lost.

  “Well, crap!”

  Before he could ask her what was wrong, she turned to him. “BURT, I need some very special hacking done. And let’s hope you find nothing.”

  Three hours later, Elizabeth closed the communicator and barely resisted the urge to hurl it across the room. She straightened and clenched her fist around it. “That asshole. I can’t believe he’d even think to do this to me.”

  She stood and returned the offending device to its drawer.

  “Not to mention get away with it. Respect, my ass.”

  Her expression cold, she stalked out of the office and ignored Amy and Elle who immediately attached themselves to her trail like two shadows. She was still furious when she arrived at the team’s training room.

  Most of them were out on the mats. Lars was taking Frog and Marcus through a serious of complex maneuvers, and Vishlog was sparring with Avery and Brenden. Johnny was working through kata designed to strengthen his damaged leg.

  As she came through the door, Lars’s lesson with Frog and Marcus turned into a sparring match. Marcus swept the team leader’s legs out from under him and Frog tried to pounce. He missed and their intended victim rolled clear of the attack and pushed to his feet to face them.

  They fought hard and fast and Elizabeth stopped to admire the sheer fluidity of it. In the end, Marcus fell when Lars’s fist caught him on the side of the head, and Frog ended up in an elbow lock that made her wince.

  The smaller man slapped the mat in defeat and they ended the match. Lars caught sight of her as he helped Marcus off the mats and settled him on the bench. “Frog—”

  “Yeah, yeah. Take him to medical and see how badly you broke him?”

  He managed a sheepish grin. “Yeah, and—”

  “And don’t tell Steph,” the man finished for him before he inclined his head and regarded his boss with a sly grin. “How much is it worth to you?”

  Elizabeth cleared her throat and the grin faded.

  “Don’t go anywhere for a minute,” she told him and ignored the faint look of alarm that crossed his face. She turned to Lars. “Have you decided to go out this Saturday?” she asked and he blushed a faint shade of pink.

  “Yeah,” he admitted sheepishly. “Steph reminded me that we all kinda need some downtime.”

  She gave him a sunny smile. “Sure,” she agreed. “By ‘downtime,’ I hope you mean an opportunity to destroy your enemies and eat their hearts, right?”

  He stared at her in bewilderment. “Uh—”

  Ms E didn’t let him finish. She turned, clapped sharply, and drew everyone’s attention but continued to smile as they walked toward her. “I have some news.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Elizabeth’s “news” sent a shockwave through the team. Wide-eyed, they turned to where the team leader stood utterly still, his face leached of color and his eyes as hard as flint.

  “Fuck,” Johnny whispered.

  Lars’s eyes focused and he looked at them. “I will personally rip all his fingers off and feed them to him, one digit at a time.”

  Frog looked at Johnny, who settled a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t want to know. Get Marcus to the infirmary and get him patched.”

  He looked around at the rest of the team. “Training!” he snapped and walked over to Lars. “Boss, you and me need pod time.”

  He glanced at her as he passed. “Anything else?”

  She looked at the leader and shook her head. The last time she’d seen someone look like that, they’d just lost half their squad and slaughtered the ones responsible. Pod time was a good idea.

  Johnny hooked an arm under Lars’s bicep and turned him. “You know where to find us.”

  Elizabeth nodded and watched them leave. “I certainly do,” she murmured and followed them out.

  Frog came behind her, guiding a still-dazed Marcus to the infirmary, and the rest of the team returned to training silently, their moves guided by worry as they worked with an intensity usually reserved for missions.

  The first place she checked was Tethis’ quarters. The second was the computing lab where Aaron was hard at work.

  “I haven’t seen him,” he said when she asked, “but he usually doesn’t come in here until after his walk.”

  She raised an eyebrow and he shivered. He took an involuntary step back and knocked his chair over.

  “The park,” he told her as he straightened his chair and tripped over his words. “There’s a park not far from here. Don’t ask me where.”

  His voice reached a pleading note and she smiled. “Thank you, Aaron.”

  He watched her leave and drew a shuddering hand over his brow. His knees shaking, he leaned against the wall to pull himself back together and decided he needed a coffee.

  It took him a moment to screw up the courage to see if Elizabeth was gone, but he finally managed to open the lab door and breathed a sigh of relief when the corridor was clear. “Tethis might have had the right idea,” he muttered and hurried to the team common room.

  Aaron wondered if the old mage would forgive him for letting Elizabeth ruin his downtime. In the end, it didn’t matter. Ms E scared the tar out of him and the old mage didn’t.

  Elizabeth waited until she was outside One R&D HQ before she began to chuckle. Amy glared at her. “That was mean, E.”

  “But funny,” she told her, unrepentant. “Oh, God! His face…”

  Her bodyguard eyed her with disgust. “Which way’s this park?”

  It took her a moment to remember. She might not have had a use for it or any reason to visit it, but she knew where it was. In her business, it paid to know the world around your home. You never knew when you would have to escape into it.

  There were several parks, but the closest one was barely a block away inside a square of high-rise buildings, on the other side of which ran the Metro. It could be accessed through several approaches and exits, but she took the most direct one.

  Her guards accessed the area map on their tablets and weren’t happy.

  “This is an ambush waiting to happen,” Amy told her. “Tethis needs a protection detail.”

  “And you can tell him that.” Elizabeth gave her a shark-toothed smile. “If I were you, I’d make sure Stephanie was on-side first, though.”

  Amy rolled her eyes. “He’s your responsibility, too, you know—what with him being a company asset and all that.”

  “Well, he feels safe here,” Elle commented, as they passed a high rise and saw the park across the road.

  Tethis was a distant figure seated on a park bench facing the central fountain. Dappled light played across his silver hair and dark-blue robes as he watched the people in the open space between him and the rose gardens that bordered the path around the fountain.

  A children’s playground stood several feet away and several curious faces peered at him over the low wall of a climbing-frame fort. To Elizabeth’s surprise, he waved and elicited giggles and waves in return.

  One pipingly clear voice drifted across the park as the children returned to their game.