Page 52 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

I wasn’t sure I wanted to lose any manpower, but since she was already working solely on this, I couldn’t really argue that this wouldn’t be valuable. “Fine, but you’re taking Fox with you.”

Her face dropped and she groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Not Fox. Anyone but Fox.”

“He’s fucking crazy as hell. You know I can’t let him deal with people. He’ll end up killing someone.”

“So, you’re sending him with me?” she asked incredulously. “All you’re going to end up with is another dead body, and it won’t be mine.”

“If you want to go, you take him with you. But if you leave, you keep a tight grip on him. We don’t need more alphabets coming after us.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But know that I’m taking him with me under duress.”

I sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of my nose. “You know what? Don’t take Fox. Take New Guy.”

“Excuse me? I’m not taking him,” she said quickly.

“You didn’t want to take Fox, so now you’re taking New Guy.”

“Boss,” she groaned.

“I don’t want to hear it. You have to break him in at some point.”

She flipped me off as I turned and walked out of the room. I really needed some fucking coffee, but I wasn’t even sure how to make coffee without a fucking coffee pot. I headed into the kitchen, staring at the coffee pot and willing it to brew me just a single cup.

“Can’t we turn it on just long enough to brew a few pots of coffee?” Scottie asked.

“Until we are sure we can get a fuel truck out here, we have to conserve as much power as possible,” I muttered, wishing I could say differently.

“What if we boil the water?”

I turned to him, curious at his suggestion. “Do you know how to make coffee from boiled water?”

He rushed over to the cabinets, digging around inside. Finally, he pulled out a silver pot of some kind. “This is an espresso machine.”

I pointed at it, my eyebrows raised. “I’ve seen an espresso machine. That’s just a hunk of metal.”

“No, see, you put the coffee grounds in…” He unscrewed the middle and pulled out a sieve. “In here, and then you pour the water in the…um…well, it might take some experimenting, but I’ll figure it out.”

“And where are you going to get boiled water?”

He frowned, thinking that over. “The training center. I’ll build a fire and put the machine over the flame.”

“Great, so we might get coffee in an hour?”

“Do you want coffee or not?”

I weighed my options, which were pretty much go without coffee or risk burning down the building with Lock’s crazy idea. “I need coffee.”

He grinned, grabbing the rest of the supplies.

“You know, if you were IRIS, there’s no way I would let you do this!” I shouted as he ran out of the room.

20

BETH

That dreaded feelingin the pit of my stomach had returned. Ever since I went into work yesterday, I felt like someone was watching me. The whole way home, the hairs on the back of my neck were prickling, but every time I looked over my shoulder, I only saw regular people. If someone was following me, they were doing a damn good job of blending in.

I looked through the slats of my blinds, studying everyone on the street. There were so many people out there, walking now instead of driving. I hadn’t heard any more about how long this power outage was going to last, but earlier, I could have sworn I saw military vehicles driving a few streets over.

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