Page 24 of Astrid
“Shit, she’s not going to like riding a desk. If she comes here, what would she be doing?”
“Uncle Chip first said that she could take over for me, so I could go out in the field, but now I’m thinking that maybe she’d be good going with the others over to Idaho.”
“Or...” Ava said as they turned and headed back inside the garage. “If she’s still as good as she was when I knew her when I was an EWM, she could coordinate both locations from here. You said three more people will be coming to us?” She looked at Morgan for confirmation. “That’ll give us seven operatives. I’m not telling you what to do, but what if you were the go between with us and Idaho?” She grinned at Morgan. “Does Wyatt have a private plane you could use to get back and forth?”
Morgan laughed, as she shook her head. “No, at least not yet.” They looked up when Justin and Chuck came out of the office, looked around, then headed toward them.
“What’s up?” Morgan asked.
“We’d like to discuss something with you,” Justin said as he lifted the tube in his hand and looked at Joyce. Without saying a word, she led them inside to the area she’d set up as her desk, and smiled when she remembered Alex had used his one arm to put together the desk that had been delivered a few days ago.
“What’s up?” Morgan asked again, and waited until Justin removed the papers from the tube. She frowned when he took a deep breath.
“Chuck and I were discussing something, and though they’re not on the plans I drew up for the house or the office, there is a way it can be done.”
“What?” all four women asked.
“How would you feel if we could connect the office and the house?” Justin asked.
Then, Chuck added, “Underground.”
“Excuse me?” Morgan frowned at Chuck, and watched as Justin rolled out the blueprints, and Chuck started pointing and talking about the plans.
“Can you show me?” Morgan asked. It ended up that they all, including Alex, who had joined them as Chuck began talking, followed them, and they went to the basement of the house first. Down in the room they’d set up with all their information, Chuck went over to the wall where all the satellite pictures hung, showing the Idaho locations from Stella’s tracker.
“This is where we can make a doorway, and then you’d have a tunnel from here to the office.” Again, they laid out the blueprints and showed them the location. “We’re at the point right now in the office build that if you want it, this would be the perfect time to put it in.”
“What is it?” Astrid frowned at them. “Are we talking a tunnel? Something you crawl through?”
“I guess it would be like a tunnel, but we can make it so that you can stand up in it. But it would be very narrow, none of us men could come down it side by side, but maybe you women could.”
“Could you have cubbies along the way?” Alex asked. They all looked at him in confusion, waiting for him to explain.
“Come again?”
“I don’t know what they’re called, but you said this would go directly into the war room at the office. What if something happened and we needed to get out of the house, but didn’t have any weapons on us? Could you make areas where we could store guns and ammo to grab on our way through?”
Joyce grabbed his face and kissed him soundly, “And that’s why I love you.” She laughed and looked at the others. “Can we?”
Justin smirked and nodded to Chuck. “I don’t see why not, you’re not talking anything the size of a normal room are you?”
“No just something we can either put a gun safe in, or a crate to hold them out of the dirt, and boxes of ammo.”
“Come up with some dimensions, and I’ll see what I can do.” Chuck nodded, then helped Justin roll up the prints. “So, you want the tunnel?”
“Please,” Morgan said, and actually hugged him. Astrid frowned when the man stood there stiff as a board, until Morgan released him, then he turned on his heel and strode back up the stairs.
“What was that about?” She frowned at her boss.
Morgan waved it away, but explained quickly. “Chuck grew up with the J’s. Ever since I was ten, he’d ask me out, and say he was in love with me. I always turned him down, because he was like another brother to me. It wasn’t until after I went back home after losing my memory that we finally sat down, and I told him it would never work between us. That’s when he admitted he’d done it for so long, that if I ever took him up on his offer of a date, he’d probably drop dead in shock. We decided to keep it like it’s always been, and remain friends.” They nodded, and after the guys left, Ava, Morgan, and Alex began going over the information they still had to gather, while Joyce and Astrid returned to the garage. Before she went to the garage Astrid made a detour and went over to the construction site for the new office. She walked in, and the first person she saw was John. She did a happy sigh at the sight of him. Instead of walking into the melee of construction, she put her fingers to her mouth, and let out a loud whistle, grinning when all the men looked up. John broke off from what he’d been doing and came to her.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Do you have a ladder?”
“Sure, do you know what size?”
Astrid frowned, but answered, “One to get me to the roofline on the garage.”
