“Tell me about it.”She rolled her eyes.“I’m off tomorrow.I’ll help you put the starter in.”
“Mmh.I already did it, sweetheart.The car works fine.I just finished about an hour ago, and it was too late to pick you up from work.I called, and that Sickwitzer woman?—”
“Sistowicz,” Rowan corrected automatically, around a mouthful of chicken.
“Sickwitzer,” her father promptly agreed.“Well, she said you’d already left.”
Rowan crumbled a saltine into her soup.“Thanks for the thought, anyway.I hate riding the bus.”
“Mm.Good for the environment.”Her father grinned, and Rowan was startled into a laugh.She was already forgetting the Taylor house.By the time she finished her soup and got ready for bed, she was humming.She had two whole days off, and her car was fixed.
Life was good.
CHAPTERTWO
“Are you sure?”Henderson said, settling the camera back in its spot.The older man closed the case, flipped the locks down, and glanced up at Delgado.
“Pretty damn sure, General.The instruments went crazy.”Delgado shrugged.“She bolted, so I followed her home.”
“And?”
“Nice house, about four blocks from here.No security.She’s not government.”Delgado folded his arms.Catherine brushed past him, her mohawk nodding.Thank God our mystery girl didn’t see that.Might’ve scared her off even sooner.
The woman had just appeared out of nowhere as he’d stepped outside to scan the perimeter.She’d blown out the alarms he’d set up, whether by chance or skill, he wasn’t sure, but he was beginning to think chance.
Of course she’s psi.The instruments were going nuts.And it felt like a jolt of electricity—she’s definitely got some talent.Lotsof talent.
Only one thing bothered him.She’d bolted as if the hounds of hell were after her.He’d been projecting reassurance hard as he could, but she’d grown more visibly jittery during the whole conversation and finally run away.
“I deliberately tried to be nonthreatening,” he said, as Cath fitted her telem rig into its carrying case.
Catherine snorted, her nose-rings glittering.“Since when?”
He ignored the gibe, as usual.
“We should check it out.”Henderson sighed, a familiar sound.“If she’s got that much talent, we want to recruit her.If she’s government, we need her neutralized.I want to test some more of the telem rigs here and iron out that bug in the flux phasing.”
“We could do that back at HQ,” Delgado offered, knowing they couldn’t.It was his job to make the suggestion.
“Not bloody likely,” the older man said.“If there’s any leakage we’ll have Sigma on our tail in no time.And if this woman is psi enough to bust through our perimeter and knock you into a tizzy, Sigma will find her.”
Delgado made a short movement of agreement.He hadn’t been able to see much except pale blonde hair, glowing in the uncertain light, and the sparkle of her eyes.She’d been clutching something in her hand; he’d identified a cell phone and eased his hand away from his gun.She hadn’t noticed.Hadn’t had a clue.Civilian.
Then why did she run?
Something about this bothered him.She’d been buttoned-down so tightly she was practically invisible, which meant at leastsometraining.But then why run away?
He’d waited until the downstairs lights had turned off, and then made a recon of the house.Nice little two-story affair, old like all the houses in this neighborhood, with a slightly shaggy garden, a clean, green kitchen seen through a bay window.Whoever she was, she was a neat little soul.There were thorny bushes underneath all her windows, which made it a little difficult, but he’d detected no invisible traps or defenses.That made it even more of a puzzle.
“Okay.”Henderson pitched the call to duty loud enough for everyone to hear.“Let’s roll back to base and get some chow, team.We’ll work out a surveillance on this woman for a few days and see what we can suss out.”
“I’ll stay,” Delgado offered.“If there’s a leak on the telems and it brings Sigma here, they’ll try to scoop her up.She’s all over the spectrum, General.”
Henderson actually paused for a few seconds.“Your instincts are too good to disregard, Del.I’ll send Zeke over with a car and some chow for you, ten-four?”
Delgado nodded.“Got it.If Sigma shows?”He knew what the other man would say.
“Scoop her first and bring her.”Henderson didn’t sound happy.The white patch over his right temple glowed in the darkness as he slid behind the wheel of the van.Cath slammed the back doors and leapt into the passenger seat.“And Del, if she’s government, get rid of her quietly.We’ve got to get these rigs running.”
