Espionage and Eggs - Part 7

"She meant a lot to you," Jan's tone was soft and gentle.

"It was a senseless car crash on her way in one day that killed her," staring off into space for a moment he continued to talk almost as if it was yesterday, "I tried to make sense of it, but," and he stopped.  Jan had placed her hand over his.  It was more than just a touch.  They both felt the connection even though they hadn't opened their minds.  The warmth spread up from their fingers and made a mental connection that surprised them both.

"I'm sorry," didn't seem to cover it, "you seem to have had to deal with loss way too much lately," she was picking up on the man he had walked in with months ago when they had first made eye contact.  She knew both men had experienced a great loss but could feel the depth of it now.  He looked up and into her eyes and with an intensity she had never experienced, their eyes locked.  It was just a few minutes until the waitress came over with their food and the spell was broken.

"So, tell me how a desert dweller comes to love water," the spell was broken as they pulled their hands apart to eat.  For the next few minutes they both ate and talked not sure of what had just been shared.  It was almost as if they had been reading each other's minds; yet it had been a far more intense experience and definitely nothing either one of them had ever experienced with someone else.  The conversation meandered from her love of water because of a trip to the ocean when she was very young, to his love of climbing and what's now called base jumping as the only thing that had made him feel free.  It wasn't until her phone beeped that they were brought back to reality.

"Damn," she looked at the message on her phone.

"Being called in for an assignment?"  He wanted her to say no, but was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen.  As casually as he could he scooped up a bite of the omelet he had order.

"No, more like being caught playing hooky from one," at that information the fork stopped midway to Ward's mouth.  "Before you say anything more, I fixed it the same way you made sure I would be included in this training."

"Your cover?"  He wanted to be mad, angry.  She had jeopardized a mission and maybe a bunch of people's safety to be with him.  Yes, he wanted to be angry but what he really felt was flattered.

"Still good.  The bodyguard assigned to me for my special trip to the States won't be waking up for a couple more hours and when he does he won't be telling his boss about it," she took this moment to put a bite of food in her mouth.  "Raul will wake up in a seedy hotel, an awful headache, and more than enough proof happily provided by a well paid lady to show how good of a time he had."

"Really," Ward almost laughed.  She had taken a chance, but had set it up brilliantly.  Problem was it had still been a dangerous move.

"Assignment's heating up, I needed a break, and you ship out on diplomatic duty in a week," placing the fork back on her plate she crossed her arms on the table in front of her and stared at him.

Ward smiled.  Jan had managed to surprise him once again.  Instead of answering her unspoken challenge right away he also crossed his arms on the table and leaned in just a bit.  They had both just proven they could and would bend the rules for the right reasons; he wondered just how far she would go.

"How about you send a message back to Rob that you already have a ride," the smile grew wider and his eyes sparkled, "I'll drive you back and we can spend that time figuring out how many more rules we want to break."

Jan put the last bite of omelet into her mouth savoring the flavor.  He had been right this was a great place to eat.  She was just about to reach for the cup of coffee when her phone chimed.  They both half smiled as she looked at the offending object.  It wasn’t hard to guess who was calling, and if she was completely honest with herself, she had gotten away with this for longer than she had expected.

“Excuse me,” Ward slid out of the booth silently pulling out his wallet at the same time.  He was giving her both time and space to take the call, and wasn’t that sweet.  Something else she could like about him.  Jan watched him walk to the register, and she wasn’t ashamed to admit she was enjoying the view.

“Yes,” she said with a sigh.  Jan wasn’t ready to come back to the real world.

“Are you crazy?”  Rob, her handler or partner, was trying hard not to let the anger seep through but she could tell he was losing by the deep rumble and controlled tones.  He must have sweated through at least two shirts by now.  She almost felt guilty.

“No,” but before she could continue he jumped back into the conversation.  Leaning back against the booth she readied herself for the verbal tongue-lashing she was about to receive, and if she thought about it, deserved.

“Then why in the world are you jeopardizing all the work you’ve put into this operation as well as your personal security?  And let’s not even mention what you might be risking back at the department,” this time he wasn’t hiding the frustration, “I can’t keep you protected from everything you know.”

“I’ve got our assignment covered, and you might say that that big lug of a bodyguard Carlos sent along with me is uncovered,” she could almost hear Rob grind his teeth, “as for the department.  They don’t really care who I sleep with as long as I don’t make any attachments.  This may be a little out of the norm but…”

“There is still the matter of who you are spending your time with.  You don’t realize how much of a player he is?”  Now she could hear the worry in his voice.

“Aren’t we all players in this business?”  Jan heard him suck in air on that one and wished she could take it back just as soon as it left her mouth.

“You know what I mean my girl, and let me tell you he’s been through a number of ‘friends’,” making sure that he stressed the last word, “don’t think you are any different than the rest of them, and by the way you are better than that, or that either of you could be different than who you are or,” and this was where Rob ran out of ands, ors, or buts.  To his credit he didn’t stutter or growl.

“Alright Papa,” Jan couldn’t help but smile now.  Rob may be her partner, and the person who kept an eye on her for the department, but in the end he acted more like her father.  He had been more of a father, and better one, to her than her real father had been.  But when he started into the father mode she would always smile, secretly she liked it, but she couldn’t help but tease him about it. 

“Aghh,” his exasperation was evident, “I know what that means I lose.  You’ve had this set up for a while haven’t you?”

           “Yes and no.  I needed to blow off some of the steam that’s been building up on this assignment.  This sounded like fun, and it was.  I’m now more than ready to go back and take him down,” it was her turn to take a breath and sell the next statement, “And as you stated we can’t make any real commitments so that works out well for the both of us.  We have a little fun and then we both walk away, friends.  At least this time we are with another person who already knows the rules,” she glanced up and noticed that Ward was taking his time at the register.  She really hated this smiling thing that was happening to her, but she couldn’t help but smile when she looked at him.  He smiled right back at her as he slipped the wallet back into his pocket and made small talk with the cashier.

Intermission - Book Trailer

Espionage and Eggs - Part 6

He leaned against the outside of the building, under the eves to stay out of the rain.  It was the only door out of the makeshift barracks that they had used to clean up in after the training operation.  The session had finished about thirty minutes ago and it was now about five in the morning.  He was tired.  By all rights he should have crawled into the dorm and gone straight to sleep.  Instead he was standing outside waiting to drive back into town, hopefully with company.  Ward had showered and changed in record time.  He had left the locker room and had been standing in the rain for fifteen minutes waiting for her.  Even if the dorm rooms were just fine for him, he had already checked and knew she had arranged to go back into town.  He hoped he would find a better spot to sleep today.

Glancing at his watch he saw that it was still an hour before sunrise.  They were ten miles out of town and deep in the woods.  He watched the drops of water drip from the edges of the roof, and wondered just how much longer he would have to wait for her to come out.  His skin began to tingle, the hair rising on his arms.  For some odd reason, he couldn’t read her mind, but he knew she was near.  Ward could sense her breathing and her heartbeat, just not her thoughts.  It was an odd, yet compelling feeling, and in some ways far more personal.  He turned just in time to see her walk out of the door and out from under the cover of the roof into the rain.  She turned to smile at him, and stopped.  Her hair was still wet from the shower, and she had brushed it back off her face into a ponytail.  Her face was free of make-up.  Even without the conventional trappings she looked wonderful.

“That’s how I did it,” and he immediately knew what she was talking about.  She had listened in on their conversation in the locker room without them knowing it.  It wasn’t fair but he should have expected it, she was that good.  How much she had seen he began to wonder about, but not for too long.  Ward had intrigued her as much as she intrigued him.  She had felt that invisible pull the first time she had seen him.  When the training mission had been assigned she had also done her work and known he had had a hand in setting it up and including her.  From that moment on the game had begun.

“Interesting,” may have only been one word but it covered the array of feelings and thoughts he was having.  He hadn’t moved from the side of the building.  Jan took a step closer, intentionally increasing the heat between them.  “Be interested in discussing it some more over breakfast?”  Ward didn’t move, just smiled.  Yes she was his match in more ways than one.

“What do you have in mind?” Jan stood in the rain and Ward watched the rain dribble down the side of her face, all the while she ignored it.  Ward was having a harder time ignoring it.  He wanted to reach out and wipe it off of her cheek.  She must have known because all she did was smile again as she looked him in the eye waiting for an answer.

“In about a half an hour a great little place in town will open up.  It will serve just about anything you have in mind.  We can catch the sunrise as we go in,” Ward couldn’t read anything in her mind.  For that matter he wasn’t allowing her to read anything from his mind either.  At least he thought he wasn't.  The word play was getting to him though, and for some odd reason she seemed to be enjoying the banter just as much as he was.

“How’s the coffee?”  Jan ran her hand through her hair, pushing the pieces that were beginning to wash back into her face behind her ears.

“Better than most, worse than others,” Ward stood up and took the keys from his pocket.  He wanted to pull her under the eves and out of the rain.  Somehow she seemed to thrive standing in it, and she looked at home in it as well.

“Then shall we go before the rest of the genetic freaks get out here and they have to come along,” she smiled and started to walk to the small parking area.  With that one sentence she allowed him in on a secret as to whom she had been reading in the locker room. "By the way. . ." was all he got out before she continued talking.

"If you get lucky I just may let you pay the bill," she had driven one of the department’s cars and assumed Ward had done the same.  To her surprise they climbed into a small nondescript, but adequate four-door sedan.  Most likely a department car, but of a different class altogether.  As they drove off Bobby walked out of the small building that housed the locker rooms.  Neither one of them saw him.  He took a few minutes to watch Ward drive away with his prize, and a curious feeling he couldn’t quite identify went through him.

They hadn’t said a word since they had left the training area.  Jan sat at the table across from Ward waiting on her order.  It was a waiting game now to see who was going to talk first, and she didn’t have time for it.

“So, were you wondering just how good my hands were as well?” and she smiled.  It was a flash of something that crossed his face and the sudden stillness of a hunter that had been discovered that let her know that his thoughts had not been about her training.  They had been purely about other things. 

"The water pipes make great speakers," she continued.  Slowly it dawned on him and he laughed. 

“I should have known,” he picked up his coffee.  "I'll keep that in mind for the next time though."   

“I take it that this was the first time you included a girl in your little group,” it wasn't a question.  Picking up her cup she took a small sip of the hot liquid as she looked at him over the rim.

“Not so,” and he smiled back mischievously.  He waited while she put her cup back down and then continued, “My first handler was a woman and she trained with us a few times out here.  Obviously she didn't want to let that little secret slip.”  It had been a long time since he had been able to talk about Melissa without being overwhelmed with sadness.  They had never been anything more than friends, best friends.  She had always been there for him.  More to the point they had always been on the same track when they were working together.  He hadn’t had that for a while.  His new handler, Gregg, had been a waste of time and as soon as Ward could he had requested someone new.  Not something that was normally done, but Ward had proven himself enough of an asset that they had done it.  Normally once assigned a handler there had to be something of a catastrophe for a change to occur.  Even though he knew it would happen sometime, Ward wasn't going to wait for that to happen.

Espionage and Eggs - Part 5

It had only been a quick glance at first, but then something had compelled him to look her way again.  His eyes had been captured by her intense stare.   It began innocently, but he had stared a moment too long and then their eyes had locked.  It had only been for a minute, but that minute had changed him forever.  Her eyes had invited him to get to know her back then, but he hadn’t even gotten a chance to talk with her.  He had looked in her files, when no one was watching, to learn everything he could about her.  Ward was no stranger to computers and could break into any system that existed including his own department.  A skill he had shared with no one within the department.  He liked the idea that he could have any information he wanted, whenever he wanted.  In college he trained to be a doctor, but found that he had a way with computers as well once he had joined the department.   He saw no reason not to use it.

What he found in her records was impressive.  She had been undercover a number of times according to her files, a lot of dangerous assignments.  Each time had ended with the successful completion of her mission and the capture of the suspect.  Nothing surprising there, that's what they did for a living.  Her training session’s scores had been excellent, and in some cases they had exceeded the scores and standards of the others in this as well as many other departments.  As for her mind reading abilities, only a few readers were truly in her league.  In fact, his score on the ESP tests and hers were almost identical, but she certainly had discovered something that he hadn't.  Digging a little deeper, he had found that the recent assessments of their mind reading skills were comparable, and their accuracy levels were off the charts.  As he continued to read the file he discovered that his range for an accurate read was a bit farther and he was able to break past mental blocks a little easier according to the scores, but that might be the only differences between their abilities.  They were well matched and at the top of their field.  The more he learned about her, the more he wanted to learn about her.  She was a psychology major, and had a minor in languages.  She had joined up right out of college and there were no messy family situations that had to be dealt with.  Like all of them she was a loner.  She had never had a partner change in the department and her operations base had always been the Phoenix office.  He had hoped that this training mission would be an opening to get to actually talk with her.  All he knew right now were the dull facts that they put in her file, and he was pretty sure there was nothing dull about her.

“Did you see her time on the blind assembly?” Bobby let out a whistle, “That woman has good hands,” Bobby put his head back under the water to rinse off the remaining mix of mud and shampoo.  “Shot the hell out of your record,” Ward walked out of the showers and wrapped the towel around his waist as he went over to his locker.  How good the woman’s hands were not the only things Ward was interested in.  But he kept those thoughts closely guarded.  It was never a good thing in a room of mind readers to let them see just who peaked your interest, whether it was business or pleasure.  Right now Ward wasn’t even sure which it was, but he knew he was going to find out.  She had made him think and feel things he never thought were possible.

"Want to get a coffee and some breakfast?"  Bobby asked as he walked back to where he had stored his street clothes before the training session.  Ward was already dressed and zipping up his bag.

"Love to, but already have plans," or at least he hoped he did.  If he was right, Jan was about to leave the women's locker room.

"Hope she's worth it bro," was all Bobby had time to say before Ward walked out.  Ward should have known he would see through to his real motives.

Intermission - Book Trailer

Espionage and Eggs - Part 4

“Yah, but how did she find us in all that mess and pitch black conditions?  She picked us off as if we were standing in the middle of an open field at noon.  I couldn't even read that she was anywhere around,” Bobby vigorously rubbed shampoo into his matted hair, “Could you read her?”

“Genetic freak, that’s what she is,” the only other man on the mission made his comment as he got into the showers.  The training mission had included just the four of them, Jan had been set up as the one they had to capture and bring in.  One woman had bested all of them, and egos were now hurting, all except for Ward’s.

“We’re all genetic freaks if you want to get down to the nitty gritty and no, had no clue she was even around,” he wished he could have said the last part with more conviction.  Since the first time he had seen her in the office, he had never stopped feeling her when she was around him.  

Jan threw her mud-encrusted clothes into a pile with a little more force than she needed.  She had lost her mission and she was agitated, to say the least, about it.  Never had she ever let her emotions control what she had done before, but this time, this time it had been different.  Walking into the shower she turned the water on and let it warm before walking under the spray and letting it coat her completely.  As the warm water washed over her she thought about what had happened, and why it was getting to her.  She had retrieved the envelope, which had been the training mission, and this win was what she should have been focused on.  But it had never been her mission. 

Jan was on leave from her job, or mission, in Central America.  It had been a deep cover operation for the last month and a half with Rob, her handler, being her contact.  She had collected enough information to shut the operation down, but they had needed time to set up the team that was going in for the takedown.  What she needed was to be away from the womanizing gunrunner for a bit.  Making the excuse that she needed to go shopping for some very nice unmentionables for their special night, she had gotten out of his control and back to the states.  It had been a bit harder throwing the tail for this training operation, but she had.  It was the only chance she would get to meet up with the legendary Agent Ward Lowe for the next month or so, so she had risked her cover to come on this training mission, but how could she not. 

So like all good agents, she had doctored her file so that it looked as if she would be in town for longer and Ward had taken the bait.  Ward had arranged the session and Jan had accepted without Rob knowing.  He was going to be pissed.  Correction was pissed.  By now he knew where she was and what she was doing.  Handlers were never very far away from their readers unless she was undercover and even then they weren’t far away.  He probably even knew that she had lost.  She laughed at herself.  He had no idea if she had won or lost, or even why she had taken this training operation, but he would figure it out quickly.  He would also figure out that she had a thing for Ward as well.  That long and tension filled discussion would have to be had later, most likely when they were on the plane back to Central America.

Circling back to the same thoughts she had had before she climbed into the shower she swallowed the fact that she had lost.  Halfway through the mission she realized it had nothing to do with the envelope.  It was more of a competition between the two of them.  He wanted to get to know her and vice versa.  Ward had even planted himself by the shed so that he would be the last one standing.  Jan had planned to engage him a bit more before taking him out, but when he had called her babe she couldn’t help herself.  She had taken Malone’s weapon just as a prop, and she had used it well until he goaded her.  And he had done it on purpose.  Raising her hands she rubbed the soap into her hair.  Voices drifted into her head.  Now for a mind reader that wasn’t strange, but this time she wasn’t reading their minds.  Laughing quietly she realized that the guys had forgotten the plumbing could and would carry their voices right to her ears.    Smiling she realized that she might not have lost at all.