Chapter 7 #2
Terk nodded. “Smart for them, not so great for us. We don’t have a whole lot to go on here.
However, when it comes to fighting some of these interesting characters in the world around us, the one thing I no longer trust is any government building, like this.
You can never fully trust what you see or hear.
What they’re trying to do is disorient us. ”
“So, you do think it’s deliberate then?” Amy asked in a low voice, as she looked around with a new awareness. “If Wallace and I were to join up with MI6, would we still be treated in the same way?”
Terk nodded, thinking it over. “Probably. You would potentially be on the inside for some of it, but to expect to be on the inside for all of it would be a bit of a stretch,” he added.
“In retrospect, after what the CIA did to us, their own team, I would suspect there would be some MI6 measures in place, in order to keep some information from you. What they don’t realize is how much we can find out anyway.
So essentially what it comes down to is that they’re afraid of us, and anybody afraid of us is dangerous. ”
Wallace squeezed her hand. “He’s not trying to scare you.”
Terk looked at them. “Goodness no,” he confirmed.
“That’s not what I was trying to do at all.
However, remember that information is power, and it’s critical that we share information on our side, so we understand what’s going on.
We must know what’s happening around us, including the various allegiances at work as best we can,” he shared in a calculated tone.
“For want of a better phrase, I don’t feel we’re in danger at this moment.
Yet I do recognize that it was not necessarily a good idea for me to come along on this trip. ”
“I gathered that much,” Amy muttered, frowning.
“On the other hand, Jonas and I have a few things that we need to sort out, and he’s come to my place many times.
I figured this time, as a show of support and a willingness to trust our alliance, I would come here to just see what we were up against on this side, particularly after what happened to you,” he said in concern, with a nod to Amy.
“I’ve been working on a different kind of a defense system, and I just might get a chance to try it out today. ”
“Such as?” Amy asked, confused and curious.
“Something I’m calling mind over matter for now.” Terk grinned.
“If you need our help, let us know,” Wallace offered.
“Will do,” Terk replied cheerfully. “Just remember that people who are afraid of us are dangerous, and people will always be afraid of us because they don’t know what we can do, any more than we know exactly what we can do.
As we’re finding out at our place, what we could do before versus what we can do now is very, very different,” he pointed out, “and, for that alone, we have to watch out.”
And, with that, a door opened ahead of them, and Jonas stepped out. He lifted a hand in greeting. “There you are. I was afraid I would have to come down and find you guys.”
“Nope, we’re here,” Amy replied.
He looked over at her and nodded. “You’re looking much better.”
“Better than what?” she asked, with a wry tone. “After all, I was kidnapped by somebody who got the information from your office.”
He winced at that. “I was hoping we could get past that point.”
“Oh, I’m sure we will,” she stated, “but it’s not very realistic to think it would happen today.”
He snorted. “God, a comment like that puts you right in with this lot.” He motioned his hand at Terk. “No wonder you’re… Somehow something about all of you is so very similar to our guys.”
Amy frowned. “And yet I would think most of us would feel that we’re completely opposite of anybody here, not similar.”
“Yeah, but still, for some of us on the outside, you have some very major similarities,” he muttered. He motioned toward a room up ahead. “Come on. We’re going in here, where we can get some privacy.”
As they stepped inside, she looked around and asked, “When you say, privacy , what does that mean? Are we being recorded?”
He faced her and shook his head. “No way.”
“Are we being watched?” she asked.
Again he shook his head.
She just nodded.
“Why?” he asked suspiciously, looking around. “Do you feel as if you are?”
“No, but it does feel odd, after visiting MI6 before, then being kidnapped as a direct result of my time with you,” she noted. “It’s made me very leery of your security here.”
“And, for that, I’m sorry,” he said sincerely, “and you’re not wrong to feel that way. I’m just sorry it happened because of being interviewed by us.”
“It certainly isn’t how I wanted that experience to go. I understand I didn’t make the cut anyway,” she declared, with a note of amusement in her tone. “Then I knew that earlier.”
Jonas flushed and raised both hands in mock surrender. “And yet apparently you’re very good at what you do.”
“I don’t really even know what I can do,” she admitted. “At least not anymore.”
He didn’t say anything to that but asked in a curious tone, “Would you consider working for us?”
She immediately shook her head.
“Why is that?” He frowned. “Also, that was a rather fast response.”
“Because of what just happened,” she replied, frowning at him in astonishment, unsure how he could not understand it. “If something sour is here and is big enough to allow such a thing to happen, why would I want anything to do with that?”
“And yet, if we fix it…”
“You’ll have to in order to even continue to function with any credibility,” she stated.
“I can’t see how Terk or anyone like him would work with you after something like this.
But personally, having already been burned by the mechanism in place—or lack of a mechanism—it would make me very leery to trust your group. ”
Jonas sighed. “It’s kind of what I figured.”
“So, it’s a good thing I was written off anyway,” she said, with a laugh.
He frowned at that. “It’s not that you were written off,” he clarified, “but we just… weren’t exactly sure what to do with you.”
“Of course not, and you were right to not be sure,” she noted. “You need to go with your instincts too.”
He glared at her. “That sounds suspiciously like something Terk would say.”
She shrugged.
Jonas groaned, then faced Terk. “This has given my government a pause on their plans to set up such a team,” he revealed.
“So, their current thinking is that, if you’re around and are willing to do work for us on an as-needed basis, it might be easier than trying to find our own team of psychics.
” He shrugged. “To be honest, it’ll probably just delay the powers that be, while they try to find qualified people.
” He turned to Wallace. “What about you?”
“What about me?” Wallace asked, a note of amusement in his tone. “Do you really think that I would accept if she didn’t?”
“What does she have to do with it?”
“I know what happened to her was because of a leak in your system,” Wallace explained. “So that doesn’t exactly promote confidence, you know?”
“Maybe not,” Jonas muttered, “but we’re not fools here either. Surely we can fix what’s gone wrong in our own house.”
“That would be a great start,” Amy interjected, “but the hotel staff may be involved too. In fact, all the hotels in the area are suspect as far as I’m concerned and should be part of your search for your moles.”
“Moles?” Jonas repeated, frowning.
Amy nodded. “It’s necessary if you plan to build such a team in the future.”
He groaned at that and turned to Terk. “I know you wanted to talk to me and that they want to head to the hospital. I did have a few more questions for Amy,” he added, as he looked at her in resignation, “if you’ve got another minute or two.”
“You’ve got a minute or two,” Amy confirmed, “but I definitely would rather be at the hospital than here. Yet I understand that this was a necessary stop along the way.”
He smiled. “You mean, a necessary evil?”
She shrugged. “Hey, you called it, not me.”
He laughed and proceeded to ask her a few more questions about the layout of the sewer area where she had been held captive, if her kidnappers had had any communication with the outside world that she overheard, or anything along that line.
Every response was a flat-out no, as far as she was concerned.
“Remember that I was kept in a separate area. I didn’t overhear whatever they were talking about, outside of the planned meetings with them or interactions with my guards.
However, I definitely got the impression that they were looking at setting up a team like yours.
I think it was because they had heard that you guys were doing that.
So maybe you should put out the message that your plans have been canceled and let it filter through to them.
Maybe they’ll stop going after the people you interview. ”
Jonas sighed. “We have set up other protocols to address this issue.”
She snorted. “Good, because that would really suck if these kidnappers grab somebody else. And it just adds to the fact that we need to get to the hospital and talk to that poor man as well.”
“I would like to go along,” Jonas added, “if that’s okay with you. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted you to come here first, so I could go in with you at the same time.”