Page 82 of Polestar
Do I tell them about the Gate?
She bit her lip.
No, there will be time for that later.Focus onthiscase right now.
“We’re all here, boss,” Aaron prompted, fingers tapping against his thigh.
Right.
“Jack is on the line with us,” she gestured toward the conference speaker phone on her desk.
“Ana and Magnus?”Carson leaned in.
They were all clearly impatient for a status report.
“Dark.”
The team erupted, all speaking at once.
“Fuck,” Raya said.
Carson said, “When are we going in after them?”
“They should have been back by now,” Aaron picked up Joey’s pacing across the back of the room.
“Yes,” Joey nodded.“They should have.The seaplane they used to fly into Barentia hasn’t been returned yet.”
“What do we know?”Jack’s voice came through the speakerphone.
Joey hardened her voice.“First, we know they are both highly trained agents and that if they’re in trouble, we need to give them time to resolve the situation.So we prepare in the event we will have to go in—and it looks like we may,” she added before anyone could interject.“But we have to be careful.”
“Fucking politics,” Ian growled.
“Yes.Fucking politics,” Joey repeated and reminded them of what they already knew.“While we have access to most waters, there are still some jurisdictions we are not free to enter without permission or a very good cause.”
“And you know we can get in undetected,” Carson said.“So, where is the problem?”
“Do any of you know much about the Barentians?”
Aaron and Raya were the only ones that nodded.
To the others, Joey briefly explained their history and relationship to outsiders.
“So grumpy, xenophobic polar bear shifters,” Lirikai said.
“But why?The other polar bear communities don’t go to the same extremes to keep outsiders away,” Raya asked.“What are they hiding?”
“Everyone has their reasons to shut out the world,” Ian said, casting Raya a grim look.
“What else do we know?”Aaron asked, bringing the meeting back to the point.
Jack filled in, “since Magnus identified Aksel Matochkin, our nearly dead shifter victim as his brother-in-law, we dug around into him.He and his sister Ulla are children of King Matochkin of the Novaya Zemlya polar bears.Their territory rides the line between the Kara Sea and the Barents Sea.Matochkin is notorious for his eccentricities and volatility.”
“Seems an odd partnership for Thornsson to make,” Aaron said.
“Magnus told me that his mother was from the Icelandic clan west of Barentia, while Ulla is from the southeast.Other ancestral matrons are from all over the arctic region, including northern Canada, Alaska and Russia,” Joey said.
“Unions with each of the clans,” Lirikai said.“Do you think Thornsson is planning something or expecting trouble?”
