Carson Taggart opened his mouth, and she raised a palm to stop him. “Special Agent in Charge Taggart, I have not yet asked a question, so there is nothing for you to say.” The man blinked as if slapped, and Diana touched his wrist under the table. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated on the other woman in the hope that her magic warning system would give her something to confirm or deny that she had powers, but to no avail. That’s more a Sloan thing, anyway. I should try to get him into one of these meetings. She made a mental note to talk to the others about that idea.
Cyphret nodded as the ARES leader remained silent and continued her opening remarks. “You failed to stop the attack on the Army transport, you failed to capture all the enemy leaders, and you failed to keep them from stealing the item you were supposed to protect. Along the way, several Army guards died.” Diana was the one who bristled this time at the entirely inappropriate retelling of the assault on the train. Bryant kicked her, and she schooled her face back to neutrality.
The other woman had seen her expression, judging by the shark’s grin that covered her face. “Senator Tomassi, do you have anything you’d like to add?”
The neutral-toned Louisiana politician was the scion of a family that had made its money the old-fashioned way through government construction and service contracts involving prisons south of the Mason-Dixon line. He was a perfect male counterpart to Cyphret. They should be on a yacht in the Mediterranean or something, sipping champagne in the sun. Diana shook her head at the image in her mind.
He drawled, “Nothing other than to remind everyone that at our last meeting we discussed leadership changes but didn’t act on the idea. Perhaps it’s time to rectify that error.”
The agents had caught onto the game and remained silent, expecting that the female senator would now ask the others to speak. Instead, she looked directly at Diana. “Why did you not intercept the train sooner, before the guards aboard were attacked?”
“We contacted the Army. They told us to mind our own business. Thus, we were unable to intervene until the enemy arrived. We were prevented from earlier action by the rules that govern our operations—the rules your committee have put into place.” She shrugged. “Had I possessed full authority, I would have stopped the train as soon as we knew about the threat.”
The woman waved her hand. “Impractical. We can’t overreact to every one of your organization’s hunches.” She turned to Taggart. “Do you confirm this story?” He nodded but didn’t speak. Cyphret sighed. “Fine, then. Explain, if you would, Agent Sheen, how you came to lose the very thing you tried to preserve.”
Answers flitted through Diana’s mind one after the next, most of them profane and some deeply so. She found the neutral path between sarcasm and honesty and walked it carefully. “With respect, Senator, it is very easy to second-guess an action afterward. In the moment, our strategy was sound, and would have been successful, in fact, had the enemy not made the unexpected move of sacrificing the leader.”
Tomassi quipped in a low voice, “Perhaps that’s something our teams should try more often.” He shared a dark chuckle with Cyphret. Somers looked angry, and Finley maintained the bored expression he had worn since the beginning of the meeting.
Cyphret shook her head. “So, what you’re saying is that your team were defeated by an unexpected tactic. Perhaps Winston is right and we do need better leadership.”
Bryant intervened. “I am confident that Agent Sheen and her people acted optimally in all respects, Senator. I have reviewed all the data from the battle, and there is nothing more they could have done. The only action that might have changed the outcome was to have allowed the agents to board earlier and defend against the initial attack, rather than coming in after.”
The senator turned on him with a wicked frown. “Agent Bates, we haven’t even begun to discuss your failures. Would you care to explain how the ARES locations in Buffalo and Hartford met such dramatic reversals?”
Diana had never seen a look as hard and menacing from Bryant as the one that grew on his face in response to the question. She tensed her muscles, ready to intervene if he did something crazy like jump at the woman. Cyphret seemed to sense the danger. She leaned back in her chair and shifted slightly toward where Tomassi sat.
Bryant, however, mastered himself and spoke in a rough tone. “Clearly, there is an information security problem at the highest levels of the organization, Senator. Our enemies seem to know things they shouldn’t. Rest assured, we are working on this matter with all our available resources and will act accordingly once we’ve gathered appropriate evidence.” She heard the threat in every word, and by the way that Cyphret and Tomassi paled suddenly, they did too.
Guilty consciences, Senators? If there is a leak, I really, really hope it’s both of you so we can throw you into prison cells right next to each other.
Finley slipped into that moment and took the conversation in a different and more productive direction, and the pair of antagonists were more or less professional for the rest of the meeting. Bryant’s face never lost its hard expression, though, and Diana looked forward to helping him find the leak and to assist in plugging it with a level of violent vengeance appropriate to the crime.
Nehlan waited outside the building where the enemy agents were meeting. The elf was unhappy to be on Earth and deeply frustrated that his superior had not permitted him to call upon one of his own underlings for this task. “It’s too important, Nehlan,” he had said, followed by, “This is vital, Nehlan.”
Yes, we’ll see how vital it all is when your magical essence is added to my necklace. He had already decided to betray his master, to withhold the antidote and allow the poison to do its work. Anyone from the council would be better as a boss, given the attitude the wizard now held toward him.
He was wrapped in illusion, of course, and had taken on the guise of an elderly man who sat alone. The elf had scowled away several efforts by others to speak to him and kept his attention focused on the door the woman had entered through hours before. The plan had been worked out in advance and the tracer spell was ready. He’d only needed the time and the place. Their contacts had provided both. Now, it was merely a matter of waiting for her to appear.
He had requested permission to simply kill her and be done with it, but no, that was not to be. His master wanted to make a statement of one kind or another—or relished the drama of the act or some such nonsense. Nehlan snorted to himself.
Fools. All of them fools. It’s unfortunate that they do not see that the most direct path is almost always the best path. His subordinate Kergar had died at the hands of the woman, a loss that still rankled. Not due to the absence of that particular being, no, but what the dwarf had represented—the projection of the elf’s power on this accursed planet.
She stepped out, part of a trio in similar outfits. The older one separated and strode away, and the woman and the man who’d been seen in her company previously walked past about ten feet away. He staggered up and lurched forward a little, like an old man would, muttered the incantation, and waved his fingers at her. He targeted the purse she carried on her shoulder as he felt it was safer to place a spell on the bag rather than directly on her.
The woman stopped and looked back suddenly, and he gave her a gap-toothed smile before he tottered away in a different direction and mumbled incoherently all the while. She continued to gaze around, then shrugged and resumed her journey.
Soon, woman. Soon, you will get what’s due to you. He changed direction and began the long walk to the nearest secluded spot, already thinking of the meal that awaited him at his bunker deep in an Oriceran forest and away from the horrible beings that surrounded him on this planet. When the tracking spell stops moving and darkness falls, you will be mine.
Chapter Seventeen
Being back at her old MMA studio as Lisa’s guest, rather than the other way around, was utterly bizarre. A sign of how things have changed for us both, I guess. She tied her belt in place and turned to
see her best friend doing the same. There was a sparkle at her neck, and Diana laughed.
She snagged her half-heart necklace and held it up to Lisa. With a grin, the other woman extracted her own and completed the symbol and the words Best Friends. They both tucked them away with smiles on their faces.
Lisa pointed at her. “Don’t embarrass me.” Diana remembered the times she’d said the same and shook her head.
“I’ve missed you, you idiot.”
“Me too. Witch.”
“Wench.”
“Shut up and get in there.” Lisa pushed her out of the dressing room and into the main space of the dojo. She bowed, stepped on the mat, and began warming up. She noticed right away that while her kicks and punches were as powerful as before, her flexibility had decreased since she’d headed north. Dammit. Not enough training simply for the sake of training. I need to do more stretching or something. She and Rath had done evening yoga in front of the television for a while, but things got busy and their house was destroyed, and… And then and then and then. Excuses, all of it. Get your act together, doofus.
Lisa broke her concentration when she launched a kick that stopped an inch from Diana’s nose. Her level of trust in this familiar space was such that she didn’t react, having given and received similar attacks countless times over the years. “Good one. You’re improving. Hella slow, but there’s progress.”
Her friend extended both middle fingers but hid them quickly behind her back as the school’s senior teacher and owner appeared out of nowhere. He was tall, very dark skinned, and movie-star handsome. Hey, I’m not actually his student anymore. The no dating in the dojo rule doesn’t apply. Diana gave him a flirty grin, even though she’d never really try to get between him and his also-a-kick-ass-black-belt wife. “Hello, Jackson.”
“Welcome back, Diana.” His voice was deep and sexy, and she still enjoyed the sound of it exactly as she always had. “Your friend there is basically trouble on two legs.”
She laughed and stuck her tongue out at Lisa, who fell backward onto the mat with her arms spread wide as if she’d been killed. “Right? I’m surprised you haven’t kicked her skinny ass out of here yet.”
He gave a slow smile. “There’s a place here for anyone who wants to train, regardless of booty size. You know that.”
She laughed again. “I do indeed. That’s the thing I’ve always liked best about you. Come one, come all.”
He nodded and raised a fist, and she bumped it. Just like old times. He wandered over to the next set of pupils and she took the few steps to stand over Lisa. “Get up, slacker.”
“Go away. I’m dead. You killed me. Seriously. Your flirting skills are so terrible they actually stopped my heart.”
The assistant instructors clapped to summon the students to line up, and Lisa bolted up like a rocket to run to her place. Diana was still senior by belt rank, so she took her place higher up in the order. The teachers led them through a brisk warmup, then separated them into sparring pairs. Everyone hurried to don their combat gear, which consisted of half-gloves that only protected the knuckles from punches, shin guards, and foot protection in case someone failed to stop their blow early enough.
Lisa had pulled some strings to put them together and lined up across from Diana. An instructor senior to them both watched over their bout. He was no-nonsense and towered over them both. “No groundwork until I call it.”
They nodded, and her opponent grinned through her mouthpiece. “You’re going down, cupcake.”
Diana’s laugh was poorly timed, as the man started the match before she was ready. Lisa’s first kick flashed in her face, and Diana guided it past. She stepped in to discover that the real attack was a spinning sidekick that tapped her on the ribs before withdrawing. Stupid. Get your head in the game. A part of her mind whispered magical options to her as she blocked, kicked, and punched. She wasn’t sure whether to be happy or upset that her arcane abilities had become so entwined with her physical ones.
Lisa’s foot was in the air for a round kick to the face when the instructor set them free for groundwork with a yell. Diana grinned and grabbed the leg, then stepped in to knock Lisa off balance with a body block. The woman fell, and Diana made sure to land on top of her. The elbow that would normally have struck Lisa’s solar plexus poked into her stomach instead at only partial force but still drove her breath away for an instant.
She didn’t realize it was a trap until her friend had locked out her arm and wrapped her legs around her knee. Lisa bent against the elbow and Diana tapped the mat with a grin. She rolled off and clapped as the other woman rose. “Damn, girl, nice job!”
The blonde nodded. “I am awesome.”
It struck her for the first time how similar Lisa was to Kayleigh. They shared a sassy attitude that encapsulated an optimism she envied. Her mind wasn’t wired for that sort of relentless positivity, apparently. Which is probably why I’m drawn to them both when you come right down to it.
She shook the thoughts away with a grin. “Okay, awesome woman, let’s see if you can do it twice.”
They sat at the bar of the Beagle in the same chairs they used to virtually own. Diana had been shocked to find them vacant when they arrived but caught the wink the bartender threw at her friend and realized she must have arranged it in advance. Lisa ordered, but Diana didn’t get the chance to speak before Julia appeared and gave her a glass and a hug. A taste of the drink proved that the server’s skills in selecting beers she’d like had not atrophied, and she thanked the woman, who retreated into the crowd.
Lisa shook her head. “This place never changes. I don’t come here nearly as often since you moved away.”
“Where do you go instead?”
She shrugged. “Nowhere, really. It turns out, now that I have a nice house that’s not under and over annoying neighbors, I like chilling at home.”
“Not alone, I hope.”
She laughed. “Not always. But I’m a little gun-shy after Steve, to be honest. I don’t get serious as quickly as I used to.”
Diana swiveled to lean one elbow on the bar and face her. “That might be a good thing, given your checkered past.”
She made a face at the insult but sounded okay with the situation. “Agreed. I think for a while there, I believed I needed another person in order to be happy. Now, I feel like I can probably be happy either way. Not that I’m closing the door or anything. Especially if Jackson ever leaves his wife. Damn, that man is gorgeous.”
“You are not kidding.” Diana laughed. “But maybe the dojo should be a refuge for you like it was for me.”
She nodded. “I get it, now. I mean, I always got it, but before I dated Kenneth and made things at the school uncomfortable for a while, I hadn’t really realized what having that safe space to simply focus on me was all about. Now I do, and I want to keep that protected.”
Yeah. It would be nice to have that again sometime. But there’s stuff to do before that can happen. She grinned. “Rath will be so impressed when he hears you were able to take me down once.” The rest of the bouts had all gone Diana’s way as a result of her depth of experience both in and out of the training space.
Lisa pouted. “You could have let me win at least once more so everyone didn’t think it was a fluke.” Her pout evaporated into a relaxed giggle.
“First, I never let anyone win. It’s not in me. Second, no one paid any attention. And third, someone watching you train would know you’re the real deal.”
“Honest?”
“Cross my heart.” She touched the necklace, and Lisa laughed.
“I went past one of those vending machine stands in the movie theatre—the ones with the candy and the stupid trinkets and stuff—and there was a box that had jewelry for a dollar. I happened to have four quarters, and I thought I’d give whatever came out to one of the kids hanging out nearby. But that was what I got, and I decided it was a sign that it was meant for the two of us.”
“Big spender, you.”
She laughed. “You know it, sister.”
“Are you a partner yet?”
Lisa frowned and motioned for a refill of their drinks. “No. And it’s looking more and more like I won’t ever be. I tell you, there’s something happening there. I have no clue what it is. Hell, maybe all the partners are having affairs or are in a polycule or involved in some swinger group and they simply don’t want to ʼfess up. But it’s like secrets on top of secrets now.” She took the new drink as it arrived and swallowed a third of it. “I really thought I would be there forever, but these days, I honestly doubt it.”
Diana’s spirit dropped a little, even though Lisa seemed less upset that she would be if the situation were reversed. “I get the secrets thing. When we’re someplace private, remind me to tell you about the senators. They suck, with a capital S.”
Lisa raised her glass. “To sharing secrets, but only with those we trust.”
Diana clinked it. “To best friends.”
At the corner of the bar, unobserved by the two women, a man in a business suit watched them using a hidden camera on his phone that pointed sideways instead of forward. He’d been ordered to track them while the brunette was in town and deliver all the information he gathered to his boss, who would then send it on to his boss. The person at the top of the chain was a mystery to him. All he knew was that his superior referred to him as Spock when they talked about him, and always with a laugh.
He recorded the time they entered and noted that they were on their second drink. His fingers moved rapidly as he made a show of texting and tried to portray himself as a man waiting for a date and, eventually, a man who was stood up by his date, if needed. When the women left, he followed a couple of minutes after and saw them climb into the blonde woman’s car. They headed a few blocks up and took a turn, and he smiled.
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