Page 55 of Astrid
CHAPTER24
Astrid leaned backand ran her fingers through her hair, and stopped just short of screaming in frustration. She looked at the others, and saw they had the same expressions.
“I’ll share my frustration if you share yours,” she called out.
“I still haven’t gotten those autopsy reports from the Canadians,” Ava said.
“I’m trying to get satellite images of the area where they told us the guys with the military guns lived. It’s like something’s blocking it,” Joyce said.
“I’m waiting for a call back from Uncle Chip. Apparently, he’s in a meeting. You?”
“Trying to coordinate the locations those women were reported missing, you know, their addresses of their homes, their work, where they were last seen. Trying to get any overlap of information.” They all stood and made their way into the kitchen area, and after making a fresh pot of coffee, and waiting for it, they talked about what else they could do while they waited for information from the Canadians to come pouring in.
“You don’t think they’re blowing us off, do you?” Astrid asked at one point of pouring hot coffee into her cup. She saw the expressions on the others, and they shook their heads.
“No,” Morgan said, and sighed. “At least, I don’t think they would. If they do, I’m going to be very pissed off.”
“Not to change the subject,” Joyce said as she poured her own cup of coffee. “Can I ask you a question, Morgan?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“You told the guys last night that you had been a commander while you were on the teams, are you talking like Bernie?”
“No,” Morgan said as she shook her head back and forth, and held up her hands to ward them off. “I was the leader of the team. You know, each team had a leader, and there were people like Bernie who coordinated everything from an office. I was the leader out in the field. I don’t know why I said I was a commander.”
“More clout, maybe?” Ava asked, then opened the refrigerator, and grabbed a bottle of cola. She opened it and took a huge swallow. They continued to stand there, then after they had their drinks, they went back to their desks to see if they could get anything done.
* * *
“Shit,”Harry said as he hung up the phone from his commanding officer from the RMCP office back home. He was at work, but so far after working for seven hours already, the only people who had arrived were the people working back at the house. Most of the time their job was boring as hell, and they hung out at the shack at the front entrance. He looked over at the other two men with him as he hung up.
“What’s up?” Griff asked, while looking out the window toward the road that was at least half a mile away. He looked over at Harry, and quickly sat up, making sure to kick Paul’s chair as he did so, making him jerk awake.
“What’s up?”
“Just got off the phone with Commander Dickson.”
“And?” Paul asked as he scrubbed his face, then winced when he took a slug of the coffee he’d set down when it was too hot to drink. Now it was ice cold.
“And he ran the names we sent him last night. I can nutshell it, and tell you what Miller told us when he dropped us off at the truck Dickson just confirmed. Yes, the women are former United States Marines, yes, they each have ten or more years in. Yes, their entire files are blacked out. He also said he talked to a man by the name of Chip Boswell out of Buffalo, New York, and realized that Boswell started the first agency, and Morgan Stuart is his blood niece and started the second one here in North Dakota. They called the group the women we met last night Boswell Two, and according to Dickson, that’s the actual name of the uncle, hence why the name of the group, but according to Boswell over in New York, there are at least five more women coming to work for Boswell Two to help the women already there.”
“Help how?” Griff asked as he stretched, before standing and getting himself another cup of coffee. He leaned his hips against the counter and studied the other two men.
“Doing whatever they can to gather information, compile it, and report to the proper authorities.”
“What does Dickson want us to do?”
“Cooperate with them one hundred percent. Give them whatever information they request, work with them, share our Intel, and Dickson has it on Boswell’s authority the women will cooperate with us.”
“Did Dickson e-mail the information they requested last night?” Paul asked as he continued to drink the cold coffee, then got up for a refill. “Because, if they don’t get what they requested after us promising we wouldn’t keep anything from them, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of their anger.”
“That’s what I told Dickson. He said he’d write an e-mail explaining why there was a delay, and attached the files. We can only hope they won’t shoot us when we get there on Saturday.”
Griff grinned. “Yeah, you caught that too? Never expected four females to have weapons strapped to their ankles.” He shook his head as he remembered what he’d seen the night before. They continued to discuss the upcoming meeting in a couple of days, and still keep an eye out for any traffic that came up to the guard shake they waited in. They didn’t know whether it was a good thing or not that no one came that day, nor the next.
* * *
“Woohoo!”Ava yelled out, and the others jerked and watched as her fingers began flying over the keyboard. She looked up with a grin., “Check your e-mails, the information we requested is coming in.” Joyce and Astrid did as told, and they laughed as they started pounding on the keys too. Morgan had stepped out, and had been gone for almost an hour. She walked back in and grinned when she saw the women working.
