I climbed inside the truck. There wasn’t anything else to say. This was our life.
Closing my door, David circled around to his side and hopped in. “As much as it sometimes annoys me, I wouldn’t swap it for anything in the world. It’s a privilege to work for the Specialists. And I’m glad I can share it with you.”
I nodded, softening a little at his last statement. David always came across level-headed about this secret life we lived. I didn’t know how he did it. He willingly accepted whatever happened. Never once had I seen him not be positive, not be the voice of reason. Never once had I heard him say a negative thing or express discontent.
But then he’d lived on the ranch his whole life. He didn’t know anything other than this private world.
He leaned over and kissed me, caressing the back of his fingers down my cheek. “I want you to answer my question before we leave.”
“What question?”
His eyes did that sexy crinkle thing. “You don’t mind if I call you my girlfriend, do you?”
I didn’t even try to hide the huge grin that crept onto my cheeks. “I don’t mind at all.”
David laughed and started the truck’s engine. Any lingering melancholy drifted away as we pulled away from the Boardwalk.
thirty minutes later, we entered the underground conference room and closed the door behind us. I wondered if TL held meetings at such weird hours as part of our training. I’d been to unexpected meetings at five in the morning, three in the afternoon, and midnight.
TL sat at the head of the long metal table with Parrot to his left. Jonathan, our physical-training instructor, sat at the other end. David rolled a leather chair out in his usual spot to the right of TL, and I made myself comfortable beside Parrot.
If history repeated itself, TL was about to take Parrot’s monitoring patch. At least that was what happened with me, Wirenut, and Beaker the first time we met TL down here away from the others.
When we first got recruited by the Specialists, TL had required each of us to wear the flesh-toned tracking device. He kept tabs on us everywhere we went. Even the bathroom. I still cringed at that thought.
To my knowledge only Parrot, Mystic, and Bruiser still wore theirs. He’d taken mine, Wirenut’s, and Beaker’s right before sending us on our first missions.
And since I was in here with Parrot, that meant I was probably going with him.
Inwardly, I sighed, although at this point it really didn’t surprise me. So much for working from home base, as TL had originally promised me.
TL closed the folder in front of him and looked up. “What can any of you tell me about the Junoesque Jungle?”
Suddenly my mind zinged back to when I was nine years old, the year I tested out of eighth grade. “We had completed a whole unit on the Junoesque Jungle in my science class,” I replied. “There are three hundred species per every two acres, more than any other area in the world. Five species of plants that exist there are bougainvillea, curare, coconut tree, kapok tree, and strangler fig. Some of the animals that live there include chimpanzee, tamarin, harpy eagle, kinkajou, silvery gibbon, and toco toucan. Of course I wouldn’t know a kinkajou from a gibbon if one walked right up to me and slapped me in the face.”
I swept a proud smile over everyone in the conference room, then slowly realized from their perplexed looks that, once again, I’d made a complete nerd of myself.
TL’s lips twitched. “Your science teacher would be proud.”
Everyone chuckled, and I joined in. Joke’s on me. I mean, really, what was the point of getting embarrassed? They expected this stuff from me.
“Yesterday afternoon,” TL began, getting everyone back on track, “in Rutina, South America, a sixteen-year-old girl walked out
Closing my door, David circled around to his side and hopped in. “As much as it sometimes annoys me, I wouldn’t swap it for anything in the world. It’s a privilege to work for the Specialists. And I’m glad I can share it with you.”
I nodded, softening a little at his last statement. David always came across level-headed about this secret life we lived. I didn’t know how he did it. He willingly accepted whatever happened. Never once had I seen him not be positive, not be the voice of reason. Never once had I heard him say a negative thing or express discontent.
But then he’d lived on the ranch his whole life. He didn’t know anything other than this private world.
He leaned over and kissed me, caressing the back of his fingers down my cheek. “I want you to answer my question before we leave.”
“What question?”
His eyes did that sexy crinkle thing. “You don’t mind if I call you my girlfriend, do you?”
I didn’t even try to hide the huge grin that crept onto my cheeks. “I don’t mind at all.”
David laughed and started the truck’s engine. Any lingering melancholy drifted away as we pulled away from the Boardwalk.
thirty minutes later, we entered the underground conference room and closed the door behind us. I wondered if TL held meetings at such weird hours as part of our training. I’d been to unexpected meetings at five in the morning, three in the afternoon, and midnight.
TL sat at the head of the long metal table with Parrot to his left. Jonathan, our physical-training instructor, sat at the other end. David rolled a leather chair out in his usual spot to the right of TL, and I made myself comfortable beside Parrot.
If history repeated itself, TL was about to take Parrot’s monitoring patch. At least that was what happened with me, Wirenut, and Beaker the first time we met TL down here away from the others.
When we first got recruited by the Specialists, TL had required each of us to wear the flesh-toned tracking device. He kept tabs on us everywhere we went. Even the bathroom. I still cringed at that thought.
To my knowledge only Parrot, Mystic, and Bruiser still wore theirs. He’d taken mine, Wirenut’s, and Beaker’s right before sending us on our first missions.
And since I was in here with Parrot, that meant I was probably going with him.
Inwardly, I sighed, although at this point it really didn’t surprise me. So much for working from home base, as TL had originally promised me.
TL closed the folder in front of him and looked up. “What can any of you tell me about the Junoesque Jungle?”
Suddenly my mind zinged back to when I was nine years old, the year I tested out of eighth grade. “We had completed a whole unit on the Junoesque Jungle in my science class,” I replied. “There are three hundred species per every two acres, more than any other area in the world. Five species of plants that exist there are bougainvillea, curare, coconut tree, kapok tree, and strangler fig. Some of the animals that live there include chimpanzee, tamarin, harpy eagle, kinkajou, silvery gibbon, and toco toucan. Of course I wouldn’t know a kinkajou from a gibbon if one walked right up to me and slapped me in the face.”
I swept a proud smile over everyone in the conference room, then slowly realized from their perplexed looks that, once again, I’d made a complete nerd of myself.
TL’s lips twitched. “Your science teacher would be proud.”
Everyone chuckled, and I joined in. Joke’s on me. I mean, really, what was the point of getting embarrassed? They expected this stuff from me.
“Yesterday afternoon,” TL began, getting everyone back on track, “in Rutina, South America, a sixteen-year-old girl walked out
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