He nodded briskly. “Okay. You’ll need to write it up, of course.”
She nodded, profoundly relieved. No questions. No second-guessing. He believed her story. Trusted her judgment. The paperwork of making an unauthorized kill was routine.
Karen and Isabella popped over the ridge next, and as sirens became audible in the distance, Aleesha and Misty joined them.
Jeff looked around. “Who’s your pacesetter?”
The slowest runner always set the pace, and the others stayed with her.
Aleesha answered. “Me or Isabella, depending on who’s carrying the most weight.”
Isabella grinned. “Hey, I’ve been working out like crazy.”
Aleesha grinned back. “I’m it, then. Let’s go.”
Kat fell in behind Python in the Medusas’ usual retreat order. Not surprisingly, Jeff assigned himself to bring up the rear-the most dangerous position in a fighting retreat. They ran steadily until they emerged from the park. Aleesha found a narrow road, and took off down it.
They ran hard for nearly an hour before the lights and noise of a village came into sight ahead of them. Jeff called a halt. They pulled off the road into a clump of tall weeds. He pulled out a map and spread it out on the ground between them. “I place us here. Do y’all concur?”
Kat glanced at the map and nodded her agreement.
Jeff continued. “It’s too far to run to any major town from here tonight. We can either obtain wheels or find someplace to camp.”
Kat spoke up. “I vote for wheels. I want to see what the Ghost gave me and we’ll need a computer to do that.”
Jeff stared at her. “He gave you something?”
“Looks like a computer disk. He said he found it by accident. It’s why he wanted to meet me.”
Jeff nodded. “Wheels it is, then. Who’s good at hotwiring cars?”
Aleesha laughed. “Boy-o, we be de Medusas…Lay dem baby blues on how we do business.”
Misty stood up, grinning. “Kat, your shirt, please. Maverick, if you wouldn’t mind turning your back…”
Kat stripped out of her close-fitting black turtleneck while Misty did the same. They quickly traded shirts. Additionally, Misty popped off her bra before pulling Kat’s shirt over her head. The effect never failed to startle Kat. The black fabric was skintight and left shockingly little to the imagination.
Misty announced, “You can turn around now, Maverick.”
He did so. Kat didn’t blame him for gulping. Misty was magnificently endowed, and Kat’s three-sizes-too-small shirt showed the girls off to full effect.
“Well, then,” Jeff commented dryly. “That’s certainly…informative.”
Kat’s eyes twinkled as he glanced over at her, clearly checking to make sure she wasn’t jealous of his reaction to Misty’s display.
“Pass me your cash, ladies,” Misty muttered as she applied mascara, using a small mirror Karen lit for her with a flashlight.
While Misty finished putting on eye shadow and lip gloss, the Medusas pooled their emergency cash. Misty counted it quickly. “That should be plenty. Wheels for six, coming up. Back in a few,” she said breezily. “The usual bet, Mamba?”
“T’ought you’d never ask, girlie. De usual.”
Misty disappeared down the road, rolling her pants down around her hips to show off her flat, tanned midriff, her golden hair loose and flowing behind her as she ran.
As they hunkered down to wait, Jeff asked, “What’s the bet?”
Karen explained, “Misty has five minutes once she arrives to acquire whatever she’s going after. In this case, a car.”
Jeff gaped. “Five minutes?”
Kat blinked innocently. “What’s wrong? That too slow for you?”
He spluttered. “She can’t do that in five minutes. She has to buy a drink. Settle in at the bar. Strike up a few conversations. Work her way around to suggesting that she’s looking to buy a car. Negotiate a deal. It takes hours.”
Kat couldn’t resist. She replied blandly, “Is that how a male team does it? How quaint.”
Jeff retorted, scowling. “No way can she do it in five minutes.”
Aleesha jumped on that lightning fast. “Care to make a side bet, big guy?”
He glanced over at Kat. “Will I lose?”
“Oh, yeah. Bargain for three minutes. Then you might stand a chance.”
He shook his head. “This I have to see.”
Karen gestured toward the village. “Be our guest. Just don’t get caught.”
He moved off quickly down the road and disappeared into the night.
Kat felt oddly bereft without him nearby. She was losing her marbles.
Aleesha startled her out of her disgusted musings. “Nice caboose dat boy’s sportin’.”
Kat replied, grinning. “Shall I tell Michael you said that?”
Aleesha chuckled, dropping the Jamaican accent. “Be my guest. He knows that when I quit looking I’ll be dead. He also knows he’s got my heart forever.”
Kat asked curiously, “How does it work having both a significant other and a job like this?”
Karen crowed. “Oh, ho! Our little Kat does have a crush on Maverick. I knew it!”
Kat scrunched her eyes shut in dismay as Aleesha’s motherly arm looped over her shoulder. “’T’ain’t nuttin’ to be ’shamed of, kitten. He’s a fine one, he is.”
Kat blinked in surprise. “You approve of him?”
Isabella laughed. “It’s not up to us. If you like him, then go get him. I, for one, will be glad to see you happy for a change.”
The others nodded. “I’m happy,” she declared, a tad defensively.
Karen, the team’s tall Marine, and usually one to keep her nose out of others’ business surprised her by saying, “No, you’re not. You’re like I used to be. I was happy to be a Medusa. I was happy to have this job. But I wasn’t personally happy. Because I wasn’t, I just didn’t allow myself to have a personal life. I didn’t even know how unhappy I was until Anders came along.”
Kat couldn’t deny it. Ever since Karen had hooked up with the Norwegian Special Forces officer, she’d been a different woman. These days, she practically glowed from within. Kat muttered, “I don’t need to glow, dammit.”
“Ahh. Sure ye do. Glowin’s good fer a girl,” Aleesha replied.
Kat just shook her head. At least they approved of Jeff. That would save her a few hassles, at any rate.
“Speak o’ de devil. Here comes Kat’s firefly-mon now.” Aleesha glanced at her watch and cursed under her breath.
Kat grinned. Aleesha must’ve lost the bet.
Jeff rejoined them, shaking his head and muttering, “She’ll be along in a minute with the van. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Kat patted his shoulder. “It’s all right. We Medusas take a little getting used to.”
He glanced up at her, his eyes gleaming. “Now there’s an understatement if I ever heard one.”
Her pulse jumped. Sheesh. She couldn’t even have a normal conversation with the guy without twittering like a schoolgirl. She really needed to get control of herself.
The sound of an underpowered engine putt-putting up the hill toward them yanked Kat’s mind back to the business at hand.
Jeff ordered, “Let’s move out, ladies.”
As usual, the folks at H.O.T. Watch Ops came through like champs. How they managed to procure a cottage on a secluded beach on the north side of the island at this hour, Jeff had no idea. He rode shotgun and relayed directions from Ops to Misty and her tight T-shirt as she drove them to their ramshackle lodgings.
As hidey holes went, the place wasn’t bad. It had running water in the kitchen sink, a flush toilet, and most importantly, electricity and a computer. The desktop model was several years out of date, but it had a CD-DVD drive, and that was what they needed to read the disk the Ghost had given Kat.
In short order after they arrived, the team gathered around the computer, watching it boot up at snail speed. Kat held out a cardboard CD sleeve to him. He took it, examining it closely. “What did he say when he gave this to you?”