23: Follow Orders

SASHA POV

“Great shot!” Drake congratulates me as I accidentally land another bullseye. Dammit. It’s a miracle he doesn’t seem to suspect a thing yet. “That’s all our arrows. I’ll go collect them—”

“No, you don’t have to—” I protest. He seems to enjoy the idea of taking care of me, which I hate; I don’t know how to deal with it.

“I insist. You got them last time. I’ll be right back.” The smile he flashes me before he heads down our lane would make a lesser woman go weak in the knees. As he reaches our target, my wrist buzzes, and I check my fake fitness tracker.

Message from the boss. He wants to talk to us, STAT. I told him we’re in the field but idk how long his patience will hold.—Rika

I grind my teeth together in frustration. What the fuck is Anselm’s problem? Normally he lets us check in with him, rather than interrupting us in the field. What makes this mission so important to him?

I’ll ask Rika to try to find out for me, but in the meantime, he’s still my commanding officer—damn him to hell—and we still have to find a way to satisfy his whims.

One fake family crisis, coming right up—Sasha

I pull out my phone and tap the screen a couple times, then put the phone to my ear. “Mom? Can I call you back? I—” I answer it, cutting myself off for the imaginary distressed family member to scream into my ear. “Really? Again? But I thought—- All right, all right, I’ll call Aunt Talia again and— What do you mean, she’s not helping you? She told me—”

“Is everything all right?” Drake mouths to me as he approaches while Rika’s nonsense distressed yelling track assaults my eardrum.

I shake my head. “Mom, I can’t really— No, listen, I’m out in public— Let me call you back in like an hour, okay? It’s hard to hear you out here, and I can’t think— I’ll help you figure it out, I promise. Just give me an hour.” I hang up the fake call and sigh, letting my frustration at Anselm interrupting our work enhance my acting. If Drake’s up to anything unseemly by WASP standards, I could have had it out of him by the end of the night, without Anselm’s meddling.

“What was all that?” Drake asks me.

“I’m really sorry—this has been wonderful—but I have to go. My mom’s on the verge of a panic attack because of this situation with my brother, and their finances, and the call quality out here is just so rubbish,” I explain without actually explaining anything. “I have to go back towards civilization so I can try to help them sort things out, and—”

“Nikki, you good, girl?” Zoe cuts me off, jogging over to investigate. Rika’s following close behind her, and Callum and Xander are also moving this way.

“I mean, I guess, but my family…. I’m really sorry, I know we’ve all been having such a good time, but I really need to get to a place where I have better cell signal so I can try—”

“Say no more, lovely. We got you.” She wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls the bow out of my hand, passing it off to Drake as we start walking, by Zoe’s instigation, towards the SUV. “Gentlemen, this has been lovely, but it seems we have a crisis on our hands. Do you mind settling up with Sherwood Forest for us? I’ll Venmo you for our portion of any fees or whatever.”

“I mean, sure, but what’s the emergency?” Callum questions. He’s wearing that suspicious expression I’m coming to hate.

“My family…. I can’t even begin to explain, not now,” I respond, pleading with my eyes for him to let it go. Try as I might, I can’t seem to conjure any tears to really sell this.

“Do what you have to do,” Drake assures me. He must have flown to catch up with us, but he’s next to me again. “Just…text me?”

I think he’d say more, if Rika and Zoe weren’t so close, but his expression is saying enough, more than enough. The knot in my stomach twists tighter.

“Yeah. I’ll text you. Once I’ve got everything sorted. And…I’ll try to tell you what’s going on,” I whisper, voice trembling a bit. There it is. You got this, girl.

“This means I win!” Xander exults behind us, back on the range.

“Oh, piss off!” Rika shouts back at him. She’s had more than enough of his shit.

“See you later, then,” Drake waves, forcing a smile.

“For sure,” I agree, and then I’m climbing into the SUV, partially propelled by Rika and Zoe, and the door closes behind me.

“Not a moment too soon,” Rika mutters as she drops into the front passenger’s seat. “Drive, Zoe. Get us out of here.”

“I’m working on it,” Zoe grumbles. Behind us, through the thick glass of the SUVs windows, I can hear Xander shouting at Drake: What do you mean, you STILL haven’t kissed her?! But then the engine roars to life and the tires are spinning in the dirt patch, drowning out the guys’ voices, as Zoe backs out and then puts us back on the bumpy, pathetic excuse for a road that brought us here.

“Fucking hell,” I sigh as we round the first bend and Sherwood Forest disappears from the rearview mirrors.

“I’ll say. Any good intel from that, before we call Anselm?” Rika demands.

“Could’ve had, by the end of the night, if there’s any intel worth getting.”

“Ooooo, but I thought you weren’t seducing—” Zoe teases, but I’m not having it.

“You can see as well as I can there’s no seducing to be done there. But I was planning to go back to theirs, if he invited me, in the interests of ending this mission sooner rather than later. Far as I can tell, he’s a decent guy and he doesn’t deserve this.” And I might actually enjoy spending time with him, if the mission wasn’t hanging over my head all the damn time.

“Here’s hoping we can convince our Commander of that,” Rika rolls her eyes, pressing the speed dial button for Anselm on the SUV’s instrument panel. For whatever reason, no matter where in the world we are, he can always get in touch with us, even when the GPS has no signal.

The phone doesn’t even make one full ring before he answers it.

“Special Ops 13. You know how I hate to be kept waiting,” Anselm rumbles. Great. He’s in one of his worse moods. “My data shows you’ve strayed rather far from your assigned location.”

“Apologies, Commander. We were in the field with the lycans we’re meant to be investigating,” Zoe informs him with her special brand of bright professionalism.

“And? Have they been eliminated?”

Eliminated? For what? Where is the importance of justice now, Anselm? Or do you know something we don’t about these lycans?

“No, Commander. As yet, none of them have said or done anything compromising, either in our presence or any of the places Rika’s got surveillance equipment operating, since we first established contact with them.”

“With all due respect, Commander, how long do we have to keep this up with nothing incriminating arising before they can be exonerated?” Rika inquires, exasperation creeping into her tone.

“I don’t understand,” Anselm growls. “You’re the best we have. Our scouts in that area cannot hold a candle to operatives of your caliber, and yet they turned up evidence to suggest that these lycans pose a threat to our efforts to keep the existence of beings such as ourselves a secret from humans. There must be something more you can do, something you’re missing….”

“Maybe the lycans caught wind of the scouts sniffing around and learned their lesson?” Zoe suggests helpfully.

“Or maybe they’re being extra careful since we destroyed that vampire coven,” Rika offers. “I’ve been keeping tabs on social media for supernaturals around here, and rumors are flying that WASP special ops had something to do with the sudden shutdown of Tipsy Griffin’s.”

“Don’t tell me you weren’t smart enough to keep your actions covert!” Anselm snaps. “Really, I expect better—”

“Commander, no one saw us do anything in that bar, and we went in civilian clothes. Even the support operatives who came to the site only saw the aftermath,” I protest. He is not going to cast doubt on our abilities, after all the work we’ve been doing on this.

“Ah, you do have a voice.” Go fuck a cactus.

“But rumors are going to spread when a major supernatural hangout gets shut down overnight,” I continue as though he hasn’t spoken. “And how many others under WASP’s jurisdiction do you suppose had connections to that place, knew that illicit activities were going on there, cared about the ones that we executed? I’m sure some such individuals were our informants, but others are likely more dangerous to WASP’s goals in this area. We should be doing followup related to that incident, not wasting our time on these stupid, boring lycans!”

“Watch how you speak to me, Sukoshku. Your job is to follow orders, not question them.”

“Commander…. Begging your pardon, but Sasha does raise a valid point—” Zoe hedges.

“Other operatives are handling that followup and cleanup. Not, of course, that it’s any of your business. A team with your skills would be wasted on such…monotony.”

“By that logic, Commander, it seems that we’re equally wasted on this mission,” Rika hisses. “The lycans seem to be keeping every letter of WASP law. We’ve found nothing noteworthy about them whatsoever, beyond the scouts’ report. Is it possible they’re being framed?”

“Poor form, to cast doubt upon the intentions and efforts of our scouts. I’m certain there’s more to these lycans than you’ve seen. Furthermore, I sincerely doubt that none of them has taken an interest in any of you, if you’ve actually been spending time with them.”

“We have been. Frequently. Most of this afternoon, and it would have been longer if you hadn’t insisted on speaking with us,” I grumble.

“Last time I checked, Commander, taking an interest in us isn’t against WASP law,” Rika adds, no doubt trying to smooth things over with Anselm for me.

“So one of them does like one of you,” Anselm surmises, craftiness darkening his deep tones. “And still nothing incriminating has come up? Unbelievable.”

“Is it so inconceivable, Commander, that they might actually be innocent?” I demand. I’m fast losing my patience with him. Go away and let me do my damn job, or else come here and do it yourself, you fucking coward.

“I very much doubt their innocence.” He pauses, clearly contemplating something. “Perhaps absence will make the heart grow fonder in this case, as it has been known to do in others.”

“What do you mean, Commander?” Zoe ventures.

“The three of you are bored. You have surveillance equipment set up—where, exactly, Rika?”

“Throughout the townhouse they share—every room. They use it as a home office, so they don’t leave much. I have cameras at both exterior doors, as well, and in the field they use for working out,” Rika replies.

“Plenty of coverage. Find a way to bug their phones, if you haven’t already. With that done, I see no reason I can’t send you out of Columbus for a short mission or two. By the time you get back, the one whose attentions you’ve attracted ought to be positively pining for you. And that ought to put an end to this.” He chuckles to himself, sounding satisfied with his scheme. “Expect a call from me in the next hour or two. See that you don’t spend that time with the lycans.”

“Then you want me to bug their phones remotely?” Rika demands, clearly finding the idea outlandish.

“I’m sure you, of all our operatives, can figure out a way to make it happen.”

And with that, he hangs up, leaving all three of us fuming and at a loss for words.