Cam and Quinn exchanged a look. “There is something you should know. His girlfriend was the operations officer that was killed.”
“Yeah, he already told me.”
“Wow. It’s good he’s being so transparent with you.” Quinn leaned into the camera. “He doesn’t normally talk about it.”
Stefanie swirled the wine in her glass. “It was in the context of my house being secure.”
Quinn nodded. “That makes sense. He didn’t want you to get hurt. Are you worried about your safety now?”
Stefanie scoffed and took a sip of wine. “No, I’m worried I won’t be able to take the trash to the curb without a chaperone. He wants me to go with him to the gun range to prove I know how to use my gun that I have a concealed carry permit for.” She took another sip of wine. “You couldn’t just send Alexis’s dog instead?”
Quinn laughed. “Well, Waffle is one of the most popular employees at the Bureau. It’s hard to resist those big brown eyes and wagging tail. However, I think you’re better off with a human to protect you in the lab. Think you can make it work with Joey?”
“Of course.” Stefanie gave a long-suffering sigh.
“Great. So, when do you have him starting at work?”
“Tomorrow. We’ll get him in, get the lay of the land, then use the weekend to strategize. Not sure he is the kind of guy that can slip in without notice, but we’ll do our best to work as a team.” Stefanie took another sip of wine.
Quinn snorted. “Something tells me you are more alike than you are different. Joey is very mechanically inclined. I know there aren’t that many of you in the lab, but sometimes that’s worse. It’s almost as bad as a small town.”
“Exactly. Not a lot of secrets in the lab.” Stefanie took a long drink of her wine. “Okay. There could be one big secret in the lab. But not many personal secrets. Ree can hear all of this, right? I’m not sure who can know what, which is exhausting. I’m not good at compartmentalizing anything, especially information.”
“Yeah, I think in this case, it makes a lot of sense to include her on everything. All of us are cleared to talk on this op. It may look like only Joey has your back, but you’ve got a team working behind the scenes too. And if things heat up, the risk/benefit will change, and you’ll have us all there physically.”
Stefanie’s pulse kicked up again. She knew there was risk when she started this. She just had to keep going, even though she didn’t have any idea how it was going to end.
11
Joey woke up in a strange place and took a moment to remember where he was. Not at his house. Not in another country. He was in San Francisco, California. He blinked fully awake just as his alarm went off. Six in the morning, on the dot. He rolled out of bed and got a quick workout and shower in. He hadn’t brought a lot of gym equipment, but he could make do with bodyweight exercises. At exactly 7:30 in the morning, he parked his rental car in the Oceanic Exploration Group’s parking lot. The building was a medium-sized office building that could have housed any number of different businesses – there was nothing particularly notable about the exterior. However, there was also a large storage building, not unlike an airline hangar, in its own space across the parking lot. Everything looked pretty new.
Despite being a relatively recent addition to the industry, the Oceanic Exploration Group had become the most competitive game in town for oceanic research. Why would Dmitri pick this company to infiltrate? The ocean was huge, so it was a lot harder to make a big, front-page impact, like when he had caused a rocket to explode mid-flight. It would take a major oil spill or industrial accident for someone to even detect what he was up to. They were obviously missing something. Well, he made his living walking into situations with a lot of unknowns. Joey left his car and spotted his new friend walking in front of him. He’d gotten a little too focused on operational safety the night prior. Today, he’d make it up to her. They just had to survive one day in the office first.
Joey walked through the double doors and found Stefanie chatting up an administrative assistant, another of the OEG’s new hires. Peggy Bennett looked up brightly. Stefanie turned to face Joey, all traces of annoyance at him completely gone. Either he’d blown his behavior out of proportion or she was acting. She fidgeted with a ring on her right hand but gave him an easy smile. Ah, she was acting. “You must be the new dream job intern.” Stefanie reached out a hand. “I’m Stefanie Ryland. I hope we live up to your expectations.” She looked over to the administrative assistant. “Peggy, this is Joey, our new intern.”
Peggy reached for a badge that had already been made before Stefanie had finished her introduction. “Joey Trenton, welcome to the team. We’re happy to have you here. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask. I handle reception and our communications, so I usually know what’s going on.” She gave him a knowing wink over the top of her cherry red reading glasses. She wore stylish, bright clothing and the chain on her glasses was color-coordinated to compliment both the glasses and her shirt. Peggy oozed friendly confidence and he liked her immediately – he made a mental note to take a closer look later when she wasn’t actively trying to make a good impression.
“Thank you, Peggy. I’m honored to be here.” Joey flashed
