“Wise. We’ll worry about being offended by the people not helping us. Right now, King Raheem is our golden teddy bear and I want him to stay that way. Have we determined which team Abigail’s going to be on yet?”
The four Gower siblings were hybrids. Hybrid females were rare and always talented above the norm. Hybrid males had the same likelihood for being talented as the full-blooded A-Cs. Michael, for example, hadn’t had any talents other than being charming and smart and athletic enough to become an astronaut. He was the rarity of his siblings, though.
In addition to being the Supreme Pontifex, Gower was a powerful dream and memory reader. Naomi had had this talent, too, but she had been able to not only read dreams and memories, she’d been able to alter them as well.
Abigail, the youngest Gower, was a reverse empath—she felt thoughts as emotions. So if someone near her was thinking angry thoughts, Abigail felt angry, and so on. She was also able to manipulate the gasses that were natural to Earth that the Field agents used to alter human memories, but she didn’t need an implant to do so.
Naomi and Abigail had worked as a team frequently and had learned how to create shields together—shields that could hold off bullets or bombs. They were the reason that any part of D.C. was still standing after Operation Destruction. But doing this had burned out both girls’ powers, which was why Naomi had taken so much Surcenthumain during our raid on the Gaultier Underground Cloning Facility in order to get her powers back and protect everyone.
That plan had backfired, as so many of our plans liked to. But after our trip to Beta Eight, Abigail had come home with all of her powers back and all of her sister’s powers as well. And probably more besides. Meaning she was now one of the most powerful A-Cs on the planet. And someone who could tell what everyone was thinking via her own emotions as well as alter their dreams and memories and create shields was someone you wanted on your team.
These days, Abigail and Mahin had become besties—Abigail had found a replacement sister, and only child Mahin had found a person who felt like a real sister to her. Mahin was also an earth bender, for lack of a better term. If it had dirt in it or on it, or just was dirt, she could move it. The girls worked together a lot now and were a formidable team. Meaning that whichever team Abigail was going to be on was likely the team Mahin was going to be on.
“Sorry, Abigail and, therefore, Mahin are with Team Subterfuge. Under the circumstances, we figured it’s more important for them to be protecting Francine, Abigail in particular. It also gives Francine someone who speaks Farsi, as well as various dialects of Arabic, which I’m sure we’ll hear while we’re doing the dog and pony show.”
“Who’s going to be translating for me?”
“Colonel Butler, as I know you know. Stop being a sore loser—you currently have the best gig in this palace. I know what you’ve been scarfing down all afternoon because I verified that there was nothing deadly to you in the food.”
“I don’t have food allergies.”
“I know. I’m just nosy. By the way, nicely done with the king. I honestly had no idea how that was going to go.”
“Did Mona give you any idea of what she was planning?”
“No, but it worked, so hurray. Back to logistics. Mona is, of course, staying with Francine. That means that so are Khalid, Oren, Jakob, and Leah.”
“Can’t argue with that. I want to argue with it, but I can’t. What about my Secret Service detail? Are they clued in?”
He snorted softly. “Beyond clued in. The moment we’d cleared the rooms of bugs, Evalyne asked Malcolm to tell her what you were really planning to do.”
“They have to stay with Francine.”
“They do, and they’re clear on it. The six who came with us are your normal detail, the six most loyal to you, and are also fully aware that, when it comes right down to it, they can’t actually protect you. However, they’re also clear about what’s coming and what’s at stake, and because Evalyne is willing to break the rules, the rest of them are as well. Right now, we sent them to be with Paul, because you don’t need them here and he truly might.”
“I don’t want any of them hurt, but yeah, Paul might actually make them feel useful and them being willing to go along with the plan is a huge win. I hate having to lie to them.”
“They know. They’re all willing to take a bullet for you, same with Jeff’s detail. And not because of your positions and their jobs, but because of who the two of you are. Pretty much you’ve weeded out most of the bad agents already and the rest working the White House detail are droolingly loyal.”
“That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.” It did. It was nice to have confirmation that we hadn’t made these poor people hate us for constantly making their jobs close to impossible to perform as they were used to. If Surcenthumain wasn’t such a risky drug, I’d have suggested giving it to our details, just so they could feel more involved with the team.
“Good. We’ve done the same thing for your Centaurion protection detail—they’re with the Supreme Pontifex.”
“I’m glad they’re with Paul, but they could be really helpful with what my team will be doing.” In addition to Manfred, I’d asked for the two teams of Field agents we’d rescued from Stephanie’s Haunted Asylum Lair to be assigned to me, in part because I hadn’t been able to keep any Field teams around long on my security detail, since they were as annoyed with how hard I was to protect as the Secret Service, but a lot less willing to put up with it. These two teams seemed willing to go for my kind of gusto, however, and I had hopes that they’d continue to work out.
“They could be, and Daniel, Joshua, Lucas, and Marcus have all fought to go with you as well. But Malcom and Siler both feel that the people on Team Subterfuge will easily face as much risk as those on your team. And Team Subterfuge will have the most humans as well as the most who have literally no combat experience. In other words, we’re keeping the A-Cs because we all want to survive this.”
“So touchy. Fine, fine. Who do I get?”
“In addition to Butler, you’re ‘stuck’ with Alpha Team, Buchanan, Wruck, and Siler.”
“What about Len and Kyle?”
“You mean the two bodyguards assigned to Queen Katherine since she arrived in Washington, D.C.? Those bodyguards? Those bodyguards who need to be very clearly seen with Queen Katherine at all times? Them?”
Heaved a sigh. “Gotcha. The boys will be bummed, though.” Had a thought. “Um, where’s Adriana?”
“Good question and I’m glad you asked. She’s doing what she does best.”
“She does a lot of things really, really well. Is she in the country?”
“Yes, but no longer in the palace, and she’s taking direction from Camilla and Malcolm, who are coordinating Team Commando. As in, you will get to find out when it matters.”
“Touchy much? Okay, how is Camilla going to do anything, since she’s identified as my lady-in-waiting?”
“Two good questions in a row, I’m impressed.”