∞∞∞
“Alright, what’s the plan then?” Doc asks the next morning as we all sit around the table having breakfast.
Van clears his throat, “We need to find Pete and Murray. I would be inclined to find Pete first, especially since Navy said that it was important that we find him as quickly as possible and that he was in danger."
“Good point,” Reed replies. “I think that it’s possible that he’s in danger because of Murray, so we may get lucky, and it could be a case of two birds and one stone.”
“Which will be great so long as it doesn’t mean that we’re too late,” I reply with a frown.
“Has Kar managed to narrow down the location yet?” Van asks me as he takes another bite of toast.
I shake my head, “No, I haven’t heard anything yet. I’ll give him a text now and see if he’s got anything new to tell us.”
“He would have messaged already if he had, but you know, Kar, it can’t hurt to let him know that we need a rush on the info,” Coen reminds me.
I nod and pull out my phone, sending a quick message to Karhu.
“It will probably take him a while to respond, especially if he’s deep diving into the job. If it’s a particularly interesting job, then he gets so absorbed in figuring it out that he tends to forget to do things like update the relevant people, or eat, ” I pause and grimace slightly, “or bathe. I love Kar like abrother, but dude gets funky when he gets obsessed with a case and forgets basic hygiene.”
“Fortunately, he is incredibly good at what he does, so it isn’t often that something challenges him and he ends up deep diving into a case,” Coen adds with a fond smile.
We’ve both been there at times to shove food in Karhu’s face or force him into the shower because neither of us can stand the stink anymore.
“Which means, if he has deep dived, then Pete is giving him more trouble than he anticipated,” River points out.
“It would make sense that he is difficult to find,” Reed agrees. "I mean, he has managed to stay hidden in the Earth Realm for a really long time, and there’s a good chance that Casimir has been trying to find him. So he has had to know how to stay hidden and stop himself from being located by magic or technology.”
“He’s also a species of demon that we know nothing about, so for all we know it could be a part of his skillset,” Raiden speculates thoughtfully, and I know that he’s added it to the list of things that he wants to look into.
At this point, that list has to be taller than I am.
Easily.
“So, what are we going to do until Kar gets back to us?” Ransom asks.
“I guess we should go over the wolf file that Rana sent over. I want to make sure that the team that takes over the case has as much information as they possibly can. One, to ensure success, but also to ease the amount of interaction that Rana has with the agents so that she doesn’t have to have any more involvement than she actually wants to have. It won't be easy for her to deal with them. Agents can be prickly and quite brusque, and Rana is most likely teetering on a knife-edge with her emotions, and is already overwhelmed because of how different everything is for her now. I don’t want to make it any harder for her,” I explain.
It's something that I’ve been concerned about with us no longer working on the case.
It really doesn’t sit right with me, but there’s not much else that we can do about it. We’re supposed to be here in Ireland, Navy was very clear about that, and she hasn’t steered us wrong yet.
“Let's do that then. You sent us all the file that Rana sent you, right?” River asks, easily understanding where I’m coming from.
I nod, “Yes, well, Griff did it for me because the mystical powers of most technology elude me.”
The guys smirk as Van says, “That’s a fancy way to say that you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing when it comes to almost anything technological.”
I shrug, trying to hide my smile, “Yeah, that’s what I said.”
“I’ll make some more coffee,” Reed suggests, still smiling as he pushes away from the table.
“If it’s okay with you guys, I’m going to read it in my room. I want to take notes, and everything I need is up there. Plus, I don’t know if you guys have noticed this about me or not,” I tease, “but I get distracted really easily, and some of you are still shirtless.”
Coen’s smile widens as he sees that my gaze is currently on him, and he holds my gaze as he stretches his arms above his head, pretending to stretch. I narrow my eyes slightly. I know what he’s doing, he’s trying to distract me, but I will not break eye contact.
I am firm in my resolve.
It won’t happen.
