Page 25 of No More Spies

“All right, Kala. I have a job to do. After what happened inMontreal, the director is worried about the state of the team.” Lena was in hermid-thirties, a pretty woman who dressed in a neat and efficient manner thatstill managed to be feminine. She reminded Kala a whole lot of Eve McKay.Lovely and intellectual, and she didn’t exactly like Kala. “You’ve spent threedays saying nothing.”

“I know. It’s been a good time, Doc.” She was hell onshrinks. Oh, they tended to look at her like she was their Disneyland, but allof her rides were closed, thank you very much.

An elegant brow arched over dark eyes. “You know I can benchyou, right? I understand that the Kara construct you use is very important toseveral ongoing operations, but if I decide you’re not stable, I’ll still pullyou out of the field.”

She had places she could hide a body. Always. It wasprobably sad that she kept a list. Uncle Jesse and Aunt Phoebe just moved andwere renovating, including putting in a pool. Getting the dead body of one ofyour enemies buried right before the frame went in was chef’s kiss. Lou’s dad’splace had a lot of land. Oooo, Uncle Boomer had a couple of pigs now. Theyloved to eat dead bodies, right? See, this was why she liked animals more thanmost human beings. They were helpful.

“All I’m asking is for you to talk about what happened.”Lena crossed one leg over the other, showing off the red soles of her shoes.“You do that and I’ll clear you. I’ve cleared everyone else.”

“Everyone who’s still here,” Kala grumbled.

“Yes, I would like to talk about what happened with CaptainReed as well,” Lena replied, frowning. “But we should start with how you werecaught by the suspect’s men.”

She’d been over this a million times. Or at least once, andthat should be enough. But no, the Agency needed her to go over and overit…like they were waiting for her to trip up and reveal something.

Like she was the real suspect.

Damn it. Her father had told her to take this seriously, andshe was fucking up again.

“I wrote a report. Several, actually,” she replied, sittingback and mimicking the shrink. Though she was wearing combat boots and rippedjeans.

Lena watched her every move and made a note in the smallbook she held on her lap.

Kala could guess what was in there. The rest of the team hadalready done their time with her.

Louisa Ward – sweet and charming. Einstein-level IQ. Anasset for the Agency, with the singular exception of her poor taste in friends.

Natasha Taggart – organized and emotionally intelligent.She’s the heart of the team as she manages to keep their big personalities incheck.

Tristan Dean-Miles – makes things work despite his naturalrepulsion when it comes to making hard choices. An asset, though more behindthe scenes and less in the field.

Cooper McKay – Captain America through and through.

Kala Taggart – morally ambiguous, with anti-socialtendencies. Keep an eye on her.

At least that’s what the last one said. She should know.She’d stolen the notes. That probably played into the whole morally ambiguousthing.

“I read the report. Now I want to hear it from you.” Lena’sperfectly cut bob shook. “Or we can close this report, and I can get back to DCearly.”

“I thought you were hanging around for a while.” If shecould shove the Agency shrink out early, everyone would cheer her on. It wouldbe easier than convincing Aunt Phoebe she needed toPoltergeistherpool. That’s what she would argue. Those X’ers knew how to use a pop culturereference to hammer a point home.

“I was. I’m here to gather information about more than theMontreal mission. I’m interviewing the team about Captain Reed and the possiblereasons for his recent decision to…take a break from his responsibilities.”

Zach. She carefully schooled her expression. Zach Reed hadbeen her team’s Army liaison since they’d formed. He’d been sent in to try tofind the team’s weakness, but he’d become a part of them. Or at least it seemedso. Now she knew he had more secrets than she could have imagined.

Forgive me. Take care of him.

She hadn’t told anyone about the text she’d found on herpersonal cell the morning after the Montreal op. She had no idea why Zach wouldsend her a message like that. She had to figure he’d screwed up and used thewordhiminstead ofthem.

Which him could he be talking about?

“However, I can certainly do the work I need to do back inDC since if I decide the team needs a long time out, everything touching theHuisman operation can transfer to another team,” Lena pronounced.

Uncle Sean had a freezer. He ran several restaurants, andthose had plenty of places to stash a body.

Fuck. She was going to have to go along with whatever theshrink wanted. “Fine. Do you want me to start at the beginning? It was abeautiful day in North Texas when a helicopter decided to take out my cousin’swedding. Not the helicopter itself, of course, but the assholes inside it.”

A long huff came from the doctor. “What were you doing inthe bar, Kala?”

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