“Are the other leads as weird?” Julius asked.
“Honestly?” Maximus replied. “Yes. It’s a random grab bag of locations and leads. It’s why we’re sending out so many teams. It’s hard to tell what might be going on other than, potentially, a lot of money laundering. That might be the simple explanation behind all of this.”
Julius’s face lit up, satisfaction creeping into his eyes. “Ah, everything makes a lot more sense now. These people have to fund themselves somehow, and since they’re newer than the Corps and the Group, they have to be more careful.”
“That’s the working theory, but it’s just that, a theory with no proof.”
Julius and Maximus went back and forth about the possibility. CJ tuned them out. It wasn’t that he didn’t care at all about how the evil organization got their money, but he had no illusions about being a grunt. Maximus was a leader, and Julius a spy. They needed to understand those sorts of things.
CJ needed to identify targets and then shoot or blow them up. Low-level recon didn’t require a thorough understanding of the big picture as long as he was detail oriented during the mission itself. Some men were destined for command, and some were destined to take orders.
“So, in other words,” Julius said, “check out the area, look for anything unusual, and if we find it, call for reinforcements. And if we find nothing?”
“We don’t assume that means nothing happened,” Maximus said. “But we’re not going to waste too much time following up on trails with no obvious leads. Get your gear ready by 0900, and Trajan will fly you directly to New York. For now, dismissed.”
CJ lingered for a moment before following Julius out of Maximus’s office. No one had been involved in a major mission or operation since the Hawaii incident with Dr. Quinen. It’d feel good to get off the island, but traveling to one of the most densely populated cities in the United States while having to maintain a cover and investigate a shadowy group guaranteed this wouldn’t be a leisurely excursion.
Not that he minded too much. He liked the bustle of human cities and dealing with people. He never had much trouble getting along with them, unlike some of the other hybrids.
Selena appeared from around the corner, offering both CJ and Julius bright smiles. “He’s not pissed off about anything is he?”
“Probably, but nothing he’s showing,” CJ replied with a smile.
“Thanks.” Selena nodded once more before hurrying past them.
Julius stopped and looked over his shoulder, following Selena’s progress into Maximus’s office with a curious look. He stopped looking her way when she closed the office door.
“It’s interesting,” he said.
“What?” CJ asked. “Selena? She’s nice, sure. Not really my type, but not my Vestal, so that makes sense.”
“Does it?” Julius scratched his chin. “You are one of the fate guys, I suppose.”
CJ stared at the other hybrid, more curious than irritated. “And what about you? Are you like Cornelius? Do you think it’s all pointless hope?”
“No, the proof is in that office right now.” Julius nodded down the hallway. “Hope can exist as long as there is a possibility of success, but hope isn’t the same thing as a guarantee of success. There’s another factor, though. One I don’t think a lot of you have thought about.”
CJ chuckled. “I think we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Vestals lately.”
“You don’t understand.” Julius sounded disappointed. “Finding a Vestal might not be enough.”
“Yeah, it is. Sure, we have to convince them, and that can take some work, but I haven’t heard of a case yet where a Vestal turned down their hybrid permanently. I don’t even think that can happen.”
Julius gave CJ a smug, almost pitying look. “When doing data analysis, you have to control for all the variables.”
“This is bonding, not science.” CJ shrugged.
“The point is the number of bonding pairs we have to analyze is pretty small,” Julius said. “And they’re almost all based on Luna Lodge bonded pairs. By the time they started getting their mates, they weren’t hidden from the world.”
“But they are now.”
“So? There’s a whole community there. Not every woman, even a bonded woman, might be willing to agree to effective exile in a place like here. I think we’re all drawing the wrong lesson from Selena.”
CJ frowned. “You’re saying even if we find our Vestals, it won’t matter?”
Julius nodded. “I’m saying we should prepare ourselves for that being a possibility. This might be an island, but it’s not Isla Luna. It’s not a community. It’s a disguised armed encampment with minimal contact with small coastal fishing communities.”
“Anyone ever tell you you’re a bowl of sunshine, Julius?”
“The only person who has anything to fear from the truth is a deluded man.” Julius clapped CJ on the shoulder. “Keep it in mind. Of the rest of us, I think you’re the one most obsessed with getting a Vestal.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“I don’t hold it against you.” Julius’s tone was low, almost threatening. “But we’re going on a mission soon, and I need you to concentrate. I don’t doubt your skills, but the situation is different from Hawaii for all of us.”
“Sure.” CJ smiled. “It’s better.”
“Better?” Julius looked uncertain. “How do you figure?”
“In Hawaii, we had to sit around on our asses in some ratty motel while Maximus had all the fun until we went into the forest and kicked ass. Now we get to hang out in New York City.”
“This is a mission, not a vacation.”
CJ shrugged. “No law saying it can’t be both.”
Chapter Four
Kendra shifted her foot, moving to a red hold on the climbing wall. This problem was tricky despite her experience. She’d spent
