***
“I can’t stop thinking about her,” he said into the silence.
“About whom?” Connor asked, munching on some food or another loudly enough to be audible over their mics.
“Her,” he said forcefully, his eyes watching the house from his vantage point in the park across the street.
“Oh, that her,” Connor said. He was watching the rear of the house.
The single row of three-story homes in his section of downtown King City didn’t have much going for them. They were old, and while not in disrepair, the upkeep on them was certainly lacking as well. It was the little details that gave it away as an Agency stronghold. A new door, painted the color of the old one, but clearly made of high-strength steel, opened and closed much slower than a normal door. Or the window shutters. Again, painted to look old, but also made of military-grade materials. Justin suspected the windows themselves were bulletproof, but there was no way to test that theory without revealing himself.
There were more oddities, like the fact that so far two cars had entered a garage that could only fit one. Or that no one had emerged from the garage, even though it wasn’t visibly attached to any other building. Perhaps it was the shrubs out front that were positioned exactly four feet apart, which just so happened to be the necessary distance between auto-rising pillars, that would prevent any cars from ramming the place. There was no doubt about it; this was an Agency stronghold.
“Yeah, her,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“So go see her,” Connor said, the words partially garbled as he spoke with a full mouth.
“I’m kind of busy right now,” he explained, then his expression soured. “Though there doesn’t seem to be any excess activity going on here, does there?”
Connor responded with an agreement, just a noise at first as he finished chewing. “No, just the normal stuff. If they’ve got a big boss man here. Their extra security is far better than anything we could detect.”
Justin was forced to agree with him.
“Okay, let’s go downtown then,” he said, getting up from his prone position on the park bench, where he had been pretending to have a nap. His clothing was ragged and torn, making him look like a homeless person instead of the shifter he was. The only thing giving him away was his size, but he had affected a hunched-over limp that helped to disguise that fact, especially from a distance.
He kept up the act until he was out of sight of the Agency building. Then he doffed his disguise and fired up his spare bike. The first one was going to be out of commission for a while, so he had to take gentle care of this one, or else go back to using a truck.
Not an option. Two wheels or none!
“How did you know that she was the one for you?” he asked, speaking loudly to ensure he was heard over the roar of his bike as he cautiously threaded his way through traffic, ensuring he didn’t do anything to draw attention to himself.
They were headed downtown now, to the core, where the Agency’s headquarters building was. It would be much easier for them to watch it in concealment, but at the same time, they were venturing onto enemy turf. They had to be cautious, doing nothing to reveal their abilities where an Agent might be watching.
“Are you serious?” Connor asked from the relative quiet of his truck’s cab. “You’ve met this girl once. Don’t you think you might be rushing it?”
“Answer the question, Bravo,” he said, using Connor’s call-sign, as they were out in public.
There was a long pause. “It was her eyes, Charlie,” he said at last, using Justin’s own call-sign, letting him know he wasn’t happy about being forced into answering.
Her eyes. Once more he was looking up into those greenish-blue eyes.
A horn sounded and he shook himself. The traffic light was green and he was holding people up. Cursing himself, he sped ahead, waving an apology behind him. He was in the heart of the lair now, less than a block from the building.
“I’m at the target,” he said as it came into view.
It was a squat building, no more than seven or eight floors, painted a dull off-white, almost cement-like color. It looked as brooding as those who inhabited it.
“I have two visible guards on either side of the entry ramp. But there are two SUVs parked on the road as well. They look loaded. Probably a quick-response team of some sort.”
The building was on the corner of two major streets. One side, the one Justin was slowly cruising by, had the vehicle entry ramp. The other one, that Connor would be going by shortly, had the personnel entry.
“I have heavy activity,” Connor said, his voice quiet in Justin’s ear.
“Are you whispering?” he asked incredulously.
“Fuck you, I counted almost two dozen men in the lobby of the place, not to mention the half dozen or more loitering around outside, doing their best to seem inconspicuous. What the hell is going on?” Connor hissed back at him.
“Bigwigs in town,” Justin said. “We have to be right. They wouldn’t have this much security out front and visible. They must have all their teams on alert, or else these guys brought a lot of reinforcements with them when they arrived.”
There was silence for a bit as they contemplated the implications of that.
“So when are you going to see her again?” Connor asked as they circled around. They switched sides this time, so that each side of the building had two separate sets of eyes upon it.
Later, at night, Jared and Josh would do the same thing, to see what changed after dark at each of the three known Agency strongholds.
Justin felt the same sort of tension well up within him as he cruised by the lobby. The sight of so many Agents, many of whom he knew had to be aided by the Extremis serum, was definitely nerve-racking.
He began to fervently hope that Valen would release that second Sentinel team. There were a lot more men than expected.
“I’ve seen enough here,” he muttered. “Let’s go try the shipyard, shall we?”
“If we must,” Connor said, though Justin was sure he was already heading that way.
The Coleforn Shipyard, an Agency front, was quickly developing a reputation amongst the Underground. Several times now it had played a critical role in their actions against the Agency. Justin hoped that one day they would get around to just wiping it off the map.
“So, no plans to see her?” Connor pressed as they quickly made their way toward the harbor front, leaving the crowding of downtown behind.
Justin frowned. “She didn’t give me a number,” he admitted. “Said she didn’t have one, so she gave me her hotel room instead.”
Connor chuckled. “Sounds like you’re in, buddy.”
He snarled. “It’s not like that. I mean, it’s not-not like that, I hope. She’s stunning, and her hips…” he trailed off, catching himself. “But I don’t want to assume that. So I need to go over in the morning, I guess. Which means I have to wait until tomorrow. But I have to go early.”
“Why?” Connor asked, not teasing him at all for once.
Perhaps it’s because of his recent experience in this sort of situation.
“She’s here looking for her dad. I guess he disappeared? I’m sure she’s out during the days. I can’t go at night, because that’s just rude and presumptive,” he said.
“Ah,” was the only response he received.
Sometimes he just wanted to punch Connor. For a friend, he wasn’t being all that helpful.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he snarled.
Connor snorted loud enough for it to be audible.
With an angry growl he poured on some speed, losing himself in the whistle of the wind as it whipped by, tugging at his jacket and rattling the visor in his helmet. Inside, his bear thrashed and roared, angry at his friend’s attitude toward this mysterious woman. It knew that there was something special about her.
“How does it feel about her?” Connor’s voice said after several minutes.
Justin arched an eyebrow inside his helmet. His friend’s tone sounded almost…apologetic. He considered his answer, not needing clarification as to what Connor meant when he said “it.”
“Alive,” he said at last. “Anytime she enters my mind, it’s there, making its presence known.”
“It likes her.” It wasn’t a question from Connor, but a statement.
“What it knows of her, yes,” he admitted, revealing that his bear was interested in knowing more about Shay. Unfortunately, it was hard to distinguish between his bear’s primal desires. It could just want him to mount her, and he would never know the difference. The “communication” between his bear and his human side was primitive, to put it bluntly. He could differentiate between hungry and horny, but after that, things got a little blurry. Horny could mean something as simple as needing a partner for the night. But it could also mean that it had found a mate for life that would always make him horny.
He didn’t trust its opinion on Shay just yet.
Justin slowed as he approached the harbor front industrial area. The public and fishing docks to the west were far busier, but it was here where the Agency had established themselves. The flow of transport trucks grew thicker, a constant press of big rigs shipping freshly offloaded goods across the country to their final destinations.
“How are we supposed to see anything here?” Connor complained.
Justin didn’t object. Connor had had a bad experience with Maddy at the docks. He couldn’t blame him for not wanting to be nearby. He also had a point. The fence that surrounded the Agency facility here was solid steel, instead of chain link. There was nothing to be seen from street level. In addition, the entrance was heavily fortified. The single-lane entrance had high towers overlooking each side of it, along with a walkway that went across the entrance, providing an easily defensible location for the Agency.
Assaulting the shipyard, if it ever came to that, would be a costly process. He shuddered at the thought as it loomed up over him on his left. Despite his unease being near it, he had to agree with Connor.
“We’re not going to see shit here,” he said. “Maybe a vehicle or two going in or out, but that’ll be about it. I think it was pretty obvious that the action was all downtown.”
He was frustrated. The past few hours had felt like a waste of his time. He was glad to have been able to talk to Connor a bit, as much as they were likely to, at this point. Not that deep conversations on emotions were a common occurrence between shifters, but if it were to happen, it was going to be over the course of several bottles of beer.
“Thanks,” he said aloud.
Connor grunted. It was all that needed to be said between them.
“Let’s find a place to stakeout and watch the place for an hour. Then we’ll call it a day.”
“Sounds good,” he acknowledged. “You take first watch, and I’ll go get us some food.”
Connor grunted again.
With a flick of his wrist, he accelerated down the road, heading past the industrial sections toward the tourist areas, where he could get them some quality food. The single sandwich shop near the Coleforn Shipyards was…not exactly known for its good food.
His eyes roamed the sides of the street, trying to decide where to go.
Something caught his eye, and he slammed on the brakes, wheeling the bike sideways as he skidded to a stop in the middle of the street. Around him tires squealed as cars slammed on their brakes, followed a split second later by horns filling the air with their angry voices.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked, moving off the street without thinking about it. His attention was locked elsewhere.
“What? Everything okay?” Connor’s voice came back almost immediately.
“I’ll call you back. I owe you big time,” he said, pulling off his helmet and snagging the key from his bike’s ignition.
He jogged up the sidewalk a short way, laying his hand on the shoulder of the person who had caught his eye, and spinning them around.