Grabbing her rucksack, Dr. Penelope MacKay stretched and prepared to disembark. Home. Safety, serenity, and the magical Western Sierras. The little A-frame in the foothills above Cedar Valley sounded like heaven after her last assignment. All those kids, and the grownups, too, pathetically grateful to have clean water. Something everyone deserved, the most basic of human rights. How bad was it that she and her team had to do their work in secret?
The US government was not even “technically” aware of their trips to provide aid to the most downtrodden of people in the world. Their funding came through a number of concealing accounts until nobody could trace it. When she’d been recruited, after receiving her doctorate in hydrology, her team leader told her not to buck the system. If they tried to go public, the most ignored, most desperate people would lose what help they could provide. Since then, she’d become a leader of her own crew, but never got over the anger at having to do her work in secret. The team called her The H2O Commando.
She reported to a mysterious figure via text only. She’d been recruited by a now retired team leader, her mentor in her PhD program, who also had never met Water12—the mysterious figure who led them all. Sometimes, she wondered if there were Waters one through eleven.
Her team counted on her to keep them safe, to use her gift—although few knew where she got her information—to get them out of dangerous situations before harm came to them. This time, it had been too close for comfort. The dents on the underside of the plane weren’t from love pats, but from the automatic weapons fired at them before they got high enough to avoid them. Luckily not low enough to pierce the skin.
But they had escaped, and she could only hope the drug lord who controlled the area wouldn’t put the effort into finding and destroying their well. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Tomorrow, she’d be back at the university, teaching students eager to learn water management in a world where drought and flooding had become all too common. She enjoyed all of her work. Passing on this knowledge was as vital as anything else she did. Rising ocean levels, melting ice caps, wild weather…all these things affected the availability of fresh, clean drinking water for the people of Earth. And rich or poor, everyone needed that resource.
The private airport outside Sacramento looked like any other similar place. Lots of small planes, hangers where owners stored them, various pieces of equipment, and a single runway for the two or three takeoffs and landings a day. But the foundation that supported their work, Friends of the Streams, also owned and operated the facility. The other plane owners provided a mask for their work. Most had no idea.
Climbing into her Jeep, she tried not to grimace at the filth covering her. They hadn’t had time to hang around and take advantage of some of the water they’d provided to clean themselves. But she had a big, beautiful shower waiting for her at home. Those she’d left behind would be grateful for a pot of water heated on the stove to take a sponge bath, to clean their babies and wash their dishes. Her travels reminded her to be grateful
Once on the highway, she flicked a glance down at her phone. There would be dozens of texts and emails waiting for Professor Penny, but she’d deal with those later. For now, home, shower, rest…eat something. Because they needed every inch of space in the small plane for equipment, their food was minimal and not that good. High calorie, full of protein, and basically in bar form. And they made it a practice to refuse hospitality from their hosts partly because they had so little and also because lack of fresh water made for a dangerous likelihood of food-borne illnesses.
A black SUV pulled off the shoulder of the road as she passed. Probably someone who’d stopped for a rest, but, after her time out of country, she was more wary than usual. To her relief, he fell back behind a couple of other cars, and she lost sight of him.
Paranoia, thy name is Penny.
She’d texted a takeout order to Gondola, Cedar Valley’s outrageously delicious Italian restaurant, the moment she took her phone off airplane mode, while the plane was still taxiing down the runway, so when she pulled off the highway and in front of the place, one of the servers came right out and handed her the bag through her open window.
“Here you go, Professor Penny.” The girl, one of her students, wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know where you went camping this time, but you sure must have been roughing it.” Translation: you stink.
During the summer, she was “known” to spend a lot of time hiking the Sierra trails. Which she, in fact, did love to do, when she wasn’t hiking the jungles, savannahs, and forests of countries some of her students had never even heard of. But this was February, the end of President’s Day weekend, which she’d combined with a couple of personal days and a Friday when she didn’t teach anyway to accomplish her mission. “Death Valley is great this time of year, but I don’t camp at KOAs.” She laughed. “Sorry, Cindy. I know I need a shower.”
“It’s okay, Prof. I’m jealous. I enjoy backpacking, but I spent my weekend working to pay tuition. Maybe sometime I can come with you? When I can get time off?”
Tucking the bag onto the seat next to her, breathing the scent of garlic and oregano and all the things that made Italian food amazing, Penny nodded. “I like my time alone, but maybe after graduation?” In truth, she’d had her eye on the sharp student for a long time. She not only was a hard worker paying her own way through school, but she also spent her limited free time volunteering with at-risk youth. “I understand you’ve been accepted into the combined master’s/PhD program?”
Cindy’s grin lit up her whole face. She gave a little bounce, looking even younger than she was. “I have been! Can you believe it? They only take a very few candidates, and I heard there were several hundred applications. What an honor to be selected.”
“It is. Congratulations.” She paused. “I will be needing a new TA in the fall. Interested?”
The girl reached out then froze. Penny couldn’t blame her—days in the jungle without bathing and all. “So interested! I can’t believe you’d even consider me. There are so many good students on campus.” She winced. “And I really want to hug you for that, but umm...”
She grinned. Nobody in their right mind would hug her until she had a chance to clean up. “Stop by my office after class, okay? I think you’re just the person for the job.” And another job as well. But she’d need to work with her for a while in the university setting before she could be sure. “All right. I need a shower.”
“No, you…”
They both laughed. “It’s okay. I know I’m dirty. I’m off to clean up and eat this delicious food.”
“I bet you’re tired of freeze-dried camping stuff, huh?”
“You’d be right.” Giving her student a wave, she rolled up the window and headed for home. In the rear-view mirror, she saw Cindy jumping up and down. Her excitement was refreshing. Sometimes, in the field, they worked so hard they lost sight of the good they did. They were just tired, dirty, and sad they couldn’t do more. Fresh blood helped with that. Cindy’s enthusiasm would make her a perfect fit, as long as she could also keep quiet about her new side job. Penny had ways to test that, as well as other factors. But she had a good feeling.
Driving out of Cedar Valley, she glanced in her mirror and again spotted a black SUV. The same model as the one earlier, but that shouldn’t seem strange. SUVs were as common as tomato fields in the countryside around town. So, it shouldn’t seem odd. Not even when it took the highway exit she did and also drove into the foothills. So did a lot of other people. Many of them also in SUVs. Black and otherwise.
She shouldn’t worry unless it followed her right to her home.
Her anxiety amped up. No sooner had she parked in the garage than the SUV stopped on the road outside her house. Then two men got out and walked up to her door.
Clive Harrison read the printout and frowned at his boss, Lord Henry Smythe. “America? Who is this Phoenix Agency, anyway?”
Lord Henry waved him to a seat in the gazebo. The rose garden was in hibernation in February, the bushes trimmed back and waiting for spring to bring them back into leaf and bloom. Clive had been summoned on short notice from his position in the north, where he managed a couple of his lordship’s estates, to the manor outside London. As in, he’d gotten a call late last night and driven without resting to get here. “Remember when I went away last fall?”
“When you met her ladyship, of course.” And a lucky man, he was. Her ladyship was not only beautiful, but well-spoken and kind. Clive tried not to be jealous of his old friend’s good fortune. Maybe one day he’d meet his own lady, someone to come home to after long days of work, to sit by the fire and eat and drink and laugh. To make love to and raise a family with. But he shouldn’t be ungrateful. His life was good as it was. Just a bit lonely, from time to time.
“Well, it was more than that. I was asked by our old boss to travel there to do a job for Phoenix. They are a privately owned US based organization that does a lot of the same work we used to, and I have agreed to handle the occasional mission for them.”
“Okay…I thought you retired when I did, but, after all the excitement, it would be understandable if you were bored.”
“It’s not that, old man. But I couldn’t say no. And, of course, it had a result I never planned on…”
“Ohhh.” He crossed one leg over the other and rested his hand on his ankle. “Of course, it resulted in your marriage. What a fortuitous series of events.”
“Exactly. And, last night, we received a contact from Phoenix for another assignment. My wife’s cousin is in danger, and her ladyship recommended she contact the agency. They asked me to handle it, but I find myself unable to travel just now.” His serious demeanor lifted a bit, a small smile quirking the corner of his mouth.
“May I ask why?” It couldn’t be a bad thing. Not if it caused that expression.
“We aren’t telling anyone, yet, but her ladyship is expecting. And she is not feeling at all well.”
“Congratulations, your lordship!”
Lord Henry rolled his eyes. “We’ve known one another nearly twenty years, Clive. Can’t you just call me Henry?”
“Okay…Henry.” He wrinkled his nose. “But it doesn’t feel right. You being a peer and my employer.”
“Because I asked. I consider you one of my closest friends.”
Clive extended his hand and pumped Henry’s. “Then, congratulations, Henry, to you and her ladyship… I mean Lady Amelia…errr, Amelia.” He swallowed and released the man’s hand. “It’s going to take practice.”
“You’ll get it.” Henry stood and tugged on his slacks to straighten the pleats. “Let’s walk.”
Clive bounded to his feet. “As you wish, your…Henry.”
They strolled down the gravel path under gray skies pregnant with rain. “It’s nice to get a little exercise before we’re driven back inside. Also, I would rather discuss this with you out here, where we are unlikely to be overheard.” The winter garden with its bare-branched trees offered little concealment for anyone trying to listen in. The strategy reminded him of their former days as colleagues in service to the Crown. “Since I am unable to go, I recommended you to take my place.”
“I beg your pardon?” Surely, he wouldn’t be going on his own. While he’d done his duty at MI6, he’d always been Lord Henry’s subordinate. His sidekick, as they said in the movies. He’d never taken a job on his own.
“Dan Romeo is your contact at Phoenix. When I went, I had the opportunity to meet with him, but he wants you on site as soon as possible, so you leave this afternoon and fly directly to California.” Reaching into his pocket, Henry withdrew a tablet and handed it to Clive. “All the information is on here. It is encoded, but keep it close to you, nonetheless. Once you’ve memorized the details, delete them.”
“Should I destroy the device then?”
Henry’s grin was infectious. “No. Unlike most electronics, when you delete, the information will truly be gone.”
“Then why keep it?”
“It’s an e-reader. Full of those spy novels you love so much.” He chuckled. “Something to do on the plane.” They walked and talked a bit longer, then he was off.