23. A Little Time Later In A Land Close to Home
SPAM Agent Henry Whitlock, Code Name Doolittle
W alking up to the interrogation room, I knew I looked good. My new leather jacket was sexy as hell, so when I saw K watching me, I touched the front and struck a pose. And turned like a model.
K chuckled and put his hands on my chest, rubbing the supple leather. “You look nice. But this is Florida, dude. Aren’t you hot?” He slid one hand down and gripped my ass.
“You know it.” I winked at him, getting another laugh. But as soon as I leaned in to swipe a kiss, a deep voice cleared behind me.
“Cut that crap out, you two, or you don’t get to watch.” Leader One glared at us, but he still put his hand against the bio-reader to let us in. “Now, if you’ll be serious for a minute.”
I chuckled and followed him in, promptly tripping on the threshold. I fell forward, nearly ramming into Leader One. Thankfully, K grabbed me, righting my fall. “I’ve got you,” he whispered in my ear. He couldn’t be there to catch my fall every time, but he would always have my back.
Since we were both officially off the case, but neither had our new assignments, he got approval for us to witness the final triplet interrogation. Truly, I didn’t know what to expect. The small room looked like a theatre but smaller. There were three rows of seats on risers, with the back row being the highest, but even the front row was high enough to look directly into the huge window in front of them. We stepped up and took seats in the middle of the front row.
“Get comfortable, guys. This will start in…” Leader One looked at his phone, presumably for the time. “About a minute.”
Sure enough, as soon as we were seated comfortably, a light behind the glass flipped on, allowing us to see the room on the other side. An empty chair sat in the center, with a spotlight on it. And with nothing else there, the light highlighted the soft gray walls. All simple and fairly tame.
Then the door opened, and a bound and gagged triplet was shoved inside and put roughly into the chair. His hands were bound in front of him with a chain that led to his waist, where he wore a thick leather belt with carabiners attached. The chain was snapped to one of the loops, and another thick chain dropped from the belt to his ankles, which were shackled together. There was also a thick collar around his neck that wouldn’t be out of place in a BDSM club. Leather studded with gems.
Then he lifted his head and hissed, and those gems lit up, flashing until the triplet set back in his chair.
A red-haired woman came in after him and stood to the side. She was petite with braids piled on her head and looped on the side. I’d learned looks were deceiving, so I didn’t judge. I also didn’t ask what was happening. I watched. I listened.
She closed her eyes and the triplet screamed. When he stopped a minute later, he panted heavily. But then the questions began. “Who are you working for?” she asked.
“Shadows. Dark. Unknown.” It took me a second to make out what the triplet was saying. His voice was quiet and rough.
The woman countered. “Not good enough.”
The triplet ground his teeth and hissed. “I don’t know.”
“You know something. If you want this to end. Or should we bring in your brother?”
“N-No. I’ll try. I’ll try.” His eagerness made me wonder what they’d done to the other triplet. But then he hissed again and growled out, “Try and kill you.” That was followed by a spew of vile things, violence, rape, and torture, proving to me how evil he was.
The redhead took a step back as the triplet stood and leaned forward. It looked like she would fall, but then the gems flashed around his neck again, making him collapse. The agent caught her balance and stood closer to him. She did some weird thing with her hand. At first, he made gurgling noises, then he started whispering things we couldn’t make out.
“Look there.” Leader One pointed to a narrow screen over the window where words flashed across it rapidly. “Agent Pepper is digging into his head and feeding it into our systems. That is what she’s getting.”
“Looks like addresses.” K stood and put his hand on the glass. “He’s giving us locations.”
Then everything changed at once. The triplet stared right at the window and bared his teeth. “I know you’re there. We will capture you, and I will kill you slowly. You think you’re so smart.” He fell to the floor and crawled, pulling his lithe body closer to the glass we stood behind. “You know nothing. You’re getting nothing but fucked up the ass.”
The agent inside with him twisted her hand in the air, and the triplet fell flat on the floor. His hair fell forward, obscuring his face, which was pressed to the floor. As he started screaming, the noise turned to a higher pitch, screeching painfully in my ears. “What the fuck is he doing?” I wanted it to stop.
“Wait.” Leader One stood. “She’s getting a name. She’s digging deeper than before. Knowing you’re here must have helped weaken him.”
“His anger.” K stepped away from the glass, visibly shaken.
I rushed forward and pulled him into my arms. “I’m not letting anything happen to you. He can’t get out.”
Leader One spoke into his phone. “That’s enough. We’re calling in the Europe branch.”
“Europe?” I asked.
But it was K that answered. “Those addresses are in Lisbon, Spain, and Italy.”
“And Russia,” Leader One added. “And the name he gave us is a known major player in the Russian mob. Or at least one branch of it, but maybe he’s higher up than we thought. In any event, we have to turn the information over to Europe to handle now.”
As Leader One spoke, the door to the other room opened, and two agents, covered head to toe in what resembled hazmat gear, entered. Their white suits had thick plastic masks over their face so we couldn’t see them. One grabbed the triplet and turned his head while the other jabbed him with a long needle. He quieted to hissing and then slumped.
“He’s not dead, is he?” I asked.
“No. We need his information. He’s not done, neither is the first brother we captured.” The white suit agents dragged him out of the room. “That’s for control.” The redheaded agent, Pepper, followed them. “She’s good. The best we have. But the triplets are strong. They have other abilities besides hypnosis and a strange link binding them. It broke them when you killed one of them. But it’s helped us break through their defenses.”
“Huh.”
K stepped away from me and stared through the window. “He knew we were here. That was creepy. But I can practically see how that information fits together. The bigger picture. They were selling the victims to the people at those addresses.” He pointed at the monitor above the window. “Those are affluent addresses. Those people need to be stopped. And beyond that, I’d bet if you traced the funds—follow the money—it’ll lead back to that Russian.”
“Most likely, yes.” Leader One clicked his phone, then slid it into his pocket. “But you’re guessing at some of that, and we don’t guess.”
“Am I?” K glared at Leader One. Then he broke out laughing. “Okay, I am.”
“Goofy.” I shoved him. He was a little weird, but he was my weird, and I wasn’t giving him up for anything.
“Right.” Leader One pointed at us. “In my office in twenty minutes.” He walked out without any other explanation.
“We’re not in trouble again, are we?” K slid back against me, seeking comfort that I was more than happy to give.
“I don’t think so. Come on.” But I wasn’t entirely sure.
“Come in. Sit.” Leader One pointed to those horrible chairs in front of his desk, but we still sat in them. You didn’t argue with Leader One. It wouldn’t get you anywhere. Even I knew that.
“Sir?” K asked.
Leader One held up a finger, asking us to wait, while he flipped through a file on his desk. “I have new assignments for both of you. K. You are being appointed to a new special task force.”
“Task force?” His sexy eyebrows narrowed over his eyes. There wasn’t anything about him I didn’t find attractive. He was a little awkward and super smart—literally. And even though I didn’t know why he loved me, I would never take that for granted.
“Yes. This is something we’ve never done before, but you’ve inspired the leadership in this organization.” Leader One folded his hands together and leaned forward. “K, this task force will find kids in trouble who have new powers. It’s to help them, not necessarily recruit them. But SPAM is always open to that. Ultimately, it’s to help kids come to terms with their abilities before they do anything stupid.”
K bounced in his seat. “Oh, Gawd. That’s perfect.” And it was. That was exactly what he wanted to do. He was being handed the perfect job, helping define his purpose, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
“After checking into your brother’s case more, it was determined that unusually late onset of puberty can be a significant sign of someone getting powers. Not every time, but it’s something to look for. You’ll be assigned a partner with access to medical records to search for that.” That was a considerable bombshell Leader One dropped on him.
“Woah.” K put his hands on his head, looking altogether stunned. “That. That’s incredible, really. That could make finding these kids in time so much easier.” His eyes flew wide. “Oh, Gawd. That’s my brother helping me from beyond.”
I touched his shoulder. “That’s great, K.”
Truly, I was heart-melting happy for him. But it didn’t help me define my career. I glanced away to find Leader One staring at me. “Your assignment is a little different. K will be on the road a lot, but at least to start, you won’t.”
“Okay, what am I doing?”
“Training. As I said. I think this will help you figure out what you want. We have facilities throughout the Tampa-St. Pete area and around Central Florida. You’ll go through some of the most rigorous and thorough training we have. Keep in mind as you do this that it’s to prepare you for anything. If you get through—”
“When I get through it.” There was no way I was dropping out. Not now. Not when I had everything to prove.
“Right.” He tapped the folder. “ When you finish, we’ll meet again to discuss your next steps. I anticipate you’ll have your pick of assignments then. Understand, this is not a punishment. It’s a reward. Not every agent receives this.” He put his index finger on top of the folder as if he was pointing at it. “This is elite training.”
I nodded. “I understand, sir. I won’t let you down.”
Then he smiled. It was weird seeing that expression on his normally overly neutral face. It took me a second to realize it was a smile, not him baring his teeth at us. “I know you won’t. Neither of you will. You two have more potential than most agents that come through here. I wish I could keep you together.”
We understood. We didn’t like it and were sad about it. But since we were still together in our personal lives, we were resigned to it. In fact, we’d bought a new home together. One even Mr. Wiggums, aka the cat, approved of, and he moved with us. And after our meeting with Leader One, that was exactly where we were going. But first, we had to finish the paperwork on these new assignments. Leader One handed each of us a file, and we headed to the basement to get busy.
“Hey!” K asked nearly two hours later as we got in the new car we bought. “Want to stop for Mexican?”
“Yep. Anything you want, K.” And I meant that from the bottom of my heart. It was going to be Doolittle and Special K, aka Henry and Kyler, forever if I could help it.
Thank you for reading Code Name Doolittle! Hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it.