Katrina looks at me warily, I know she's still got her concerns, but I nod, and she sighs, tapping the touchpad on her computer. Immediately the screen flashes to life and splits into four quadrants. Three of them have one person alone in them, while the other has three people. Five operators total, with Major Munchak sitting in command of all of them.

We make our introductions, and Major Munchak sits forward. “Now Sergeant, let's just make it clear what you’re asking us to do. You're asking for Peter DeLaCoeur and Isis Bardot to be killed, correct?”

“If I thought it could be handled any other way, I would sir,” I reply, looking behind the computer as the rest of my family watches, their faces grave. “But Peter's already sent two contract killers against us. We got lucky with Orloff, and he still put me in the hospital. You all know Isis is even better than Orloff, she doesn't play games like he did. We need to eliminate him, because I can't be sitting around waiting on the goddamn courts to put him away. He's already had Isis kill at least five people, seven if you're including Katrina's parents, former colleagues of mine, and even Peter's own wife. He is not going to stop without a bullet in the head.”

The Major nods, and looks around at everyone. “Any objections, morally?”

“None,” Lincoln Vincent, one of the major’s men, replies, “but there's more than the morality of it all. We don't do this for free. I stopped that shit five years ago.”

I look at Katrina, who nods and taps at her keyboard. “You should all see on your screens right now a new window pop up. It's a screenshot of a numbered escrow account in the Cayman Islands. As you can see, there's three million dollars in it currently. Here's the breakdown. You accept the contract, each of you gets fifty thousand forwarded for expenses. The rest of it is performance-based. You take out Peter, you get half a million.”

“And the rest of it?” Roberts, another one of the major’s men, asks. “By my math, that's only seven fifty grand. What's the other two million and change for?”

“250 grand is for the Major for coordinating this,” I tell him, and Roberts nods in understanding. “One million is for whoever takes down Isis. The other million will be divided up among you afterward, a team fee for a successful mission.”

“More money for the bint than the bastard,” Buffy says, chuckling. “You must be worried a lot about her.”

“I am,” I reply gravely. “Read her file, study her. Because she can put a round right between your eyes at five hundred meters without you even knowing what's happening until your nose is being pushed out the back of your skull, and that's just the beginning. Trust me, you slack off with Isis, you are going to end up sinking deep in the Gulf.”

“Let me handle that part, Sergeant,” the Major says. “As a favor to you, I'm bringing everyone to me to do a little bit of training and team building. I'll send you a message when we're deploying to New Orleans.”

I give Katrina a look, and she nods. “Agreed. In the meantime, I urge you all to go as quickly as you can. We're safe for now, but I can't believe that'll last forever.”

The Major nods, and leans forward. “Miss Grammercy, I give you my personal promise that we'll work as quickly and professionally as possible. Honestly, based off of what Harold says, I might be asking you to help out. Do you have other assets you can let us use?”

“I can put you in touch with the woman who trained me,” Katrina says, and the major smiles.

There's only a few more details to iron out, and within five minutes the call wraps up. After Katrina sends a quick message to Darcy, her mentor, giving her an update. “Questions, guys?”

Melissa shakes her head. “So now what?”

“Now,” I say, leaning back, “we find stuff to occupy our time. Carson, I have already decided that I'm teaching you how to shoot a rifle, but honestly we need to find stuff to do to occupy our time and our minds that doesn't have anything to do with this stuff. Any ideas?”

Andrea's the first to speak up, rubbing her belly. “Well, I was kind of hoping, Carson and I talked about having a wedding-type ceremony. Maybe we can plan that out? Also, I need to get some more prenatal appointments taken care of.”

Melissa perks up, grinning. “I love it. And I want to get to work on the rock I hacked out, do some carving with it. Maybe a wedding gift for Carson and Andrea.”

“And what about you and Nathan?” Jackson asks, his own smile breaking out on his face. “Last I heard, you two are engaged, too.”

There's a brief silence, until BA decides to say something. “Wabu!”

Everyone looks over, shocked. “Did she just talk?” Carson asks, his eyes wide with wonder. “What did she say?”

BA, who's sitting in Jackson's arms, looks around and spreads her arms wide, grinning. “WABU!”

Andrea gets it first, tears coming to her eyes. “She's saying... love.”

I can't think of a better first word for a child, and even Katrina's got a tear in her eye as she goes over to hug her daughter. “We love you too, baby girl.”