Page 49 of Legacy's Destiny

Deacon straightened, hitting his head on the shower head. “Damn it, that hurt.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Why did you ask about Echo?”

“Deacon, I’m not a fool. I’ve seen the transcripts from your mission, and I can put two and two together to the point that they actually total four.”

“Why the hell did you pull our transcripts?” Deacon turned off the water. “My team expects their communications to be private. Shit is said that doesn’t need to be up-channeled.”

“True, that’s why we only do quarterly audits. We’ll never have another Charlie Team situation. The original team, I mean. It imploded when Guardian first started.”

“That happened a lifetime ago, Uncle Jacob.”

“People would still be alive if there were checks and balances. We do audits not to invade your privacy but to ensure no team is going rogue. No one knows except management and, now, you. Besides, your mission was randomly selected. I was just glazing over it when I noticed some interesting conversations … Sparky.”

Deacon dropped his head. “Shit.” Jacob’s laughter dug into his embarrassment. “We met the night before the assignment. Neither one of us knew who each other was.”

“We’ve verified that. I also pulled her clearance paperwork to track down any loose ends and completed a background check on her. There were no loose ends, and she passed the check with flying colors. She’s good to go if you were considering bringing her into the organization.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know if things are at that point. She plans on resigning from her current employment but doesn’t know what to do with her future. I’m not going to push her one way or the other.”

“Hmmm … she does what exactly?”

Deacon chuffed a laugh as he pulled on the scrubs. “Honestly, I have no clue. It involves IT. She mentioned nanotechnology once, but I didn’t delve any deeper. Other things were more important at the time. Whatever she does,she’s damn good at it, and her employer has been ignoring her warnings about their shortcomings in redundancy.”

“I’ll check into that. You know we’re always looking for quality people.”

“I do, but as I said, she wants to take time off.”

“Got it. Still, I’ll provide you with information should she feel inclined to work with us.”

“I appreciate that, Uncle Jacob.” He glanced down at his scrub pants. “Shit, the scrubs they gave me are at least a foot too short.” He pulled the tie as tight as it would go at the waist. Hopefully, they wouldn’t fall off his ass as he walked through the hall of the hospital.

“Easy fix. Shove them in the top of your boots,” Jacob offered. “Not many doctors over there as tall as you.”

Deacon put on the hospital socks and shoved his feet into the boots. “Hey, what do you know, that works.”

“Would I ever give you bad advice?”

“Nope.” Deacon laughed. “Unless it’s about horses. Then, yes. Definitely, yes.”

Jacob laughed. “Okay, it isn’t my fault you weren’t a good enough rider to handle Whiskey.”

“Whiskey was an unbroke gelding that Uncle Frank had bought from rodeo stock. He was rank.”

Jacob laughed. “But you stayed with him.”

“Until I landed on my ass.”

“True.” The man laughed. “Good times.”

“For you.” Deacon couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. “Did you know Mom and Dad are here?”

“No,” Jacob said truthfully. “They don’t check in with me. Tell them I said hey and that Frank and Amanda miss them.”

“Will do. Oh, and, Uncle Jacob, Ronan and his team saved our asses. I won’t tell him that, but we would’ve been in a badspot had he not shown up with that M61 20mm rotary cannon and bolted it on that chopper.”

“And now I know whythatrequisition is on my desk.” Jacob sighed. “At least he fucking asked for it. He didn’t wait for permission, but he asked for it.”

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