But like I said, their deployment was rare.
‘Do you want me to do this?’ asked Clio, ‘or is this one of those touchy feely things?’
‘Touchy feely things. This is more Ramin’s bag.’
‘I've never actually killed an angel you know!’
‘I know,’ I said, and laughed, then got up from the table. ‘My round.’
This was a good call. I could feel my concerns not exactly disappearing, but getting back into perspective. Maybe it was the company, or maybe it was the cherry. Either way, it was working. I laughed, thinking of Clio trying to convince an angel to leave this mortal coil.
I sat back down and handed Clio her drink. ‘Angels aside, I think there's more going on. The thing is, I've been noticing problems at home. Like, since when do we rescue totemic artefacts? And what's with Ramin and Paul not finding their missing treasure?’
Clio took a drink. ‘Honestly, honey, I think you're jumping at shadows. I'll grant you that something is wrong on this side, but if you start running after loose threads you may compromise this mission?’
I stared up at the ceiling and exhaled. The problem with being the leader was trying to anticipate every problem, which was bound to make you look down rabbit holes. The trick was not to go down them.
‘You think I'm overreacting?’
‘No,’ Clio said, quick to jump in, ‘curses no, you are usually right on the money. It's just if there is something going on back home, I doubt it has anything to do with this mission. And if there was something going on back home, more serious brains than ours will already be monitoring it. But, I tell you what, when we get home, I'll start doing a bit of quiet research?’
And that's why we have teams. One person can never see both sides of a coin at the same time. We drank our pints, and that was the last time we laughed together.
# interlude 2
The following text conversation was retrieved, doing a sweep of the ghost files of the Q Zone security system. It has been added to the evidence report for Case No: 234530/H. As yet neither correspondent has been identified.
- Just to let you know we have intercepted an Angel from the live team. It looks like they are having problems and are aware that someone may be after the egg; they suspect foul play.
- Why are you contacting me to tell me you are screwing up?
- I just thought you would like to be kept in the loop.
- Do you think for a minute you could report in a straightforward manner? Need I remind you that we want the egg. If you fail to deliver it, the repercussions for you will be severe.
- Are you threatening me? It works both ways, you know.
- No, it doesn’t. Your disgrace will be front page news whereas we will simply slip beneath the typeface.
- There’s no need for —
- You contacted us. Don’t get in touch again until you are able to arrange the handover of the egg.
#25 Neith – Beta Earth
The following morning I woke refreshed; cherries in stout and good company had soothed out the blow to the back of my head and I felt human again. We had two days until the retrieval point and I was beginning to buzz. As you get closer to a fixed point, you can't help but react. I know some teams that approach it in a nearly Zen-like state. However, with the cock ups and unseen opponents playing interference, I was not channelling the Zen-like part of my psyche. To be fair, I wasn't certain if I even had a Zen-like part to my psyche. What I did have was a countdown.
‘Ramin, I need you to send the angel.’
The team looked up at me. Sending an angel meant we were in trouble.
‘Are you sure?’ asked Paul.
‘I'm instigating Level Three. I want us all to run a sweep on ourselves for trackers. I want fifteen minute, simple buzz check-ins and hourly reports. I want full personal surveillance until the mission is completed.’
Clio picked at her teeth. These were Level Four procedures in all but name.
‘Boss, do you not think —’
I cut her off. I had taken her advice from last night and she was probably right, maybe there was nothing untoward going on back home, and even if there was, it wasn't going to be connected to us. But here? Here, there was definitely untoward stuff going on.
‘Since we arrived, the old woman in Poland was found dead. Charles and the dealer were gunned down in broad daylight. By a car that Paul didn't notice. Let that sink in for a minute.’ I paused. Paul was one of Alpha’s finest surveillance guys. ‘Furthermore, the car was abandoned and the occupants managed to evade all the cameras in the vicinity and leave no trace of having tampered with the surveillance network. Two men broke into Charles’ house and referred to a woman who was giving instructions. These may have been the same men in the drive-by shooting, but they weren't the same men at the memorial service.’ I took a breath. ‘Now, the memorial service. This team not only knew to target Julius, but they also knew about us as they split in two, leaving a team outside. How did we miss that? Clio, you were the last one in? How did you miss a second team?’
I hated questioning the others like this. I was all but accusing them of incompetence, but for someone to have evaded notice they had
