Page 39 of Smoke and Mirrors

He shakes his head and winces. “Kace, we’re a team. We don’t hide things from each other.”

“You think they’re gonna feel good knowing their secret is out?”

He shakes his head.

“Sometimes not knowing is better than knowing, Luca. Telling them would only disturb and distress them. There’s no need to concern them if we don’t have to.”

He nods and pats my shoulder. “You gotta get your head right, Kace. Maybe think about moving?”

I furrow my brows and nod my head once just to placate him. I normally move every three to four months, and I’ve been in my apartment for two months now. Maybe it’s time? Looking past him to see the other members of our team sitting at their desks, I whistle gaining their attention. “Seven to the boardroom,” I call out.

Chapter Twelve

KACE

They all rise swiftly obeying my direct order, as always, and start heading toward the hall. I smile weakly at them as they walk toward Luca and me as we all move down toward the boardroom. It’s only now that I realize Noah is noticeably absent. He must be out on a mission.

General chatter and laughter filters down the hall as we walk. I push open the door to the vestibule. Standing just inside, I let my team move past me after swiping their ID cards then using the iris scanning device on the inside wall. Once they’re identified, they move forward and take their seats around the immense oval wooden table located in the center of the vast room. The table has the Seven insignia stamped in the middle, and the logo of The Agency is adorned on the walls and in the center of the carpet.

The head of the table is always left empty for the boss. No one sits there except for her. I always sit to Mom’s left, and then the others sit wherever they want to around the table. But normally, Luca is to my left. He’s pretty much my second-in-charge.

“Anyone know where Noah is?” I ask, taking up my seat as the black high-backed chair rolls back on the carpet.

“He went out on assignment, he hasn’t come back yet,” Tanner replies in her innocently sweet voice.

She’s the only female on the team, and her voice is deceiving. She sounds innocent and cute, but she’s feisty and can kick ass quicker and harder than most of us, except, maybe, Eli. But her background in martial arts and gymnastic skills makes her a very tough competitor in hand-to-hand combat. She trained as a Navy Seal and came out from service in Iraq because her father was terminally ill. That’s when The Agency approached her. She left the Navy and joined us. She may be all woman, but she’s tougher than some of the manliest men I know while still being a girly-girl.

“Does anyone know what his assignment was?” I ask.

“No, he spoke to the boss and left pretty quickly afterward. He’s been on radio silence ever since,” Blair tells me, and I nod.

Blair’s an interesting character. No one knows much about his past other than he was pulled from the streets as a teenager and put into juvenile detention. His fighting skills were so good that he caught the attention of a guard, and he was placed in an underground fighting ring. When he left juvie, he went full time into the underground world of fighting and was a champion. He basically beat everyone up so badly they almost died every time they fought him in the ring.

My father was always scoping places like that for not only the criminals who needed bringing to justice but for people he could induce to train. That’s where he found Blair. He pretty much recruited him in one sitting. Blair’s coach was the guard from juvie, and he was drugging him to make him stronger and more aggressive. Blair had to go through a detox program and withdrawal once he left the ring. It was brutal, but he came through it even stronger than before and with a kick-ass attitude to fight for those who deserve second chances.

Then when Tanner came in about six months later, he was fully recovered. He came out of his shell entirely and became a different man. She made him believe in himself when he thought he wasn’t capable of being himself. They make a good team, and they do most of their assignments together. They just work better that way, and they look out for each other.

We all watch out for each other, but with those two, it’s a little deeper.

“Okay, well, hopefully, he comes back in soon. Would be good to get some intel on what’s happening with the Cavaleri’s since Roberto went down,” I say, knowing Noah is the best hacker within our group and quite possibly within The Agency as well.

We’re all trained in computer infiltration techniques, but Noah, he was brought into The Agency due to his brilliant brain. To gain Noah’s services, our IT team infused a particular software program into cyberspace, hidden inside the Dark Web within a darknet for a ‘specific’ brilliant mind to find. Basically, the hacker—which in this case was Noah—had to crack into the program and run through a maze of fifty high-IQ questions to break the code and find a phone number hidden within.

Once he’d accomplished that task, which was incredibly intense and complicated, he could ring the number. He was then required to follow some particular instructions find a meeting place. Once there, he had to answer a payphone and follow more directions leading him to the Museum.

More paperwork was required, plus an array of mental health and general knowledge questions. Once the answers were analyzed—the psychological crew watching his every move during the process—he was brought in and told what the test was for. Then, after some discussions about our mission statement and skills, he was eager to join after finances were discussed.

It’s amazing what money can buy.

He was then assessed on his marksmanship abilities, which were not sniper-worthy, but nonetheless outstanding for a civilian. He credited his abilities to years of video gaming. Hand-to-hand combat testing followed where it was learned he was previously trained in jujitsu, so he had some remarkable abilities.

He was the perfect candidate.

He was brought in, and he’s been our computer geek ever since.

“To be honest, I’m glad Roberto was taken out. He was a slimy son of a bitch, and the way he used to look at women…. sheesh, I wanted to stab him with my stars multiple times,” Eli says in his low voice.

We all chuckle while I imagine Eli throwing one of his metal stars across a crowded room and hitting Roberto right in the jugular. Even though Eli is as huge as the Hulk when green, he’s a soft guy at heart. He has a large family, but they’re all females except for his father, of course. Three sisters, four nieces, and a Nonna he adores. He’s also the best cook out of all of us, always bringing in his heritage Italian food. How he stays so amazingly muscular with all those carbs, I’ll never know. He was in the police force and gunning to make detective when the assassination attempt happened on President Jackson. Luckily, the attempt failed, but the President was shot in the arm and chest. She lived but was in the hospital for a prolonged time, and Eli was there when it happened.

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