Team: Echo (2 page)

       
“Because he is a father now, he has to ensure that his
daughter is not stumbling onto some barracks or some other asinine
thing when she’s there.” Penny knew who the men were referring to
and it pissed her off that they referred to Honey as if she were a
hindrance to their carefully laid plans.

       
“From
what we understand the child isn’t truly his. He is unable to have
children.”

       
“She
is his and if you even dared to say anything like that to him he
would pull your head off your shoulders. Sir.” Penny had only met
the men for a very short time but she knew, without a shadow of a
doubt that the men loved Honey, completely and fully. She knew that
they would do anything at all to protect her as well, and so would
she.

       
The
man snorted, “Sounds a lot like what he said.”

       
“Because Honey is his daughter, as far as the child is
concerned as well as the child’s mother and the actual genetic
father.”

       
“Beside the point and the point is that you will work for us.
You will become their handler. They refuse to allow anyone from DOD
onto the farm; they refuse to allow even the scientists into the
home. So that leaves you. Already you are a family friend. You have
a home within an hour of the Farm and you live next door to the
child’s mother. Do I need to make this an order?”

       
“They
will not accept this.” Penny told him stubbornly. “And yes, sir, I
do believe that you will have to make it an order.” Because there
was no way in hell she was going to spy on her friend’s lovers and
family with anything less than an order.  

       
“Fine.
You, agent Penelope Morgan are now officially assigned to the White
Operations Unit code named Knights of Ares.”

       
“Seriously?” Penny’s shock showed on her voice. “Ares? For
real?” Lord, they must be out of names to call teams or something
if they were naming them after Greek Gods.
       

       
“Ares is the God of War and that is what we are in. A war.
They will be the Knights, the men that stand the line between
darkness and light; they will fight back the shit storm that is
only just beginning. Agent Morgan there are things in this world
that you know nothing about. There are happenings that are going on
that are way outside the realm of the normal. These men will stand
in front of the human race and ensure our survival against things
that are
not
of the human race.”
        

       
“I’m
so going to regret this.” Penny whispered and nodded. “What’s
next?” She was processing what the DOD director told her, she
wouldn’t touch that one with a ten foot pole because to call her
boss’s boss an idiot and request he seek psychiatric help was just
not done.

       
“Next
I show you the same thing that I showed them, I will show you just
why this is necessary.”

       
“Again, I’m so going to regret this.” Penny looked to her
Director and nodded, “Thank you, sir for the years with you. Looks
like I’m now someone else’s issue. Oh, and when you go back to
Washington will you please tell the ex to get over his fucking
self? Tell him if he sends me one more email or package I will
ensure that charges are filed.”

       
“And
you didn’t tell me this before, why?”

       
“Wasn’t necessary. I already had enough issues and
difficulties going on. You were facing enough bullshit just helping
me keep my job so, yeah. Now however it looks like I work for the
DOD instead of the Agency so now I can tell you exactly what’s
happening. So yes, please make sure to let that bastard know
exactly what I said.”

       
“Will
do.”

       
Walking out of the room with her head held high Penny steeled
herself to see the men, men that she had grown close to in the last
five months and a couple that she had far too many wicked thoughts
about. Yep, it was turning into a wonderful damn day.

Chapter Two

Wiping a hand down his face he squinted up at the sun and
groaned when he spotted Sphinx heading their way. Reaching over he
caught the others attention. “Looks like we’re going to find out
what that call was about,” he said.

“
About damned time,” Gareth grumbled as he stretched and
twisted slightly. Pushing up out of the ditch they’d been fixing
for the last three days he turned to give a hand to each of the
others. Once everyone was up on solid ground they turned to look at
the incoming ATV.

“
Sorry boys, we’ve got shit hitting the fan,” Marius, aka
Sphinx, said as he pulled up in a cloud of dust. “We all need to
get cleaned up and to the airport. We need to report in to the
base, the Colonel just let me know we’re getting a handler and he’s
sounding fucking pissed so I doubt we’re going to like it much
either.”

“
Crap,” Mikhail muttered, looking towards the house and then
at Gareth. “You know she’s going to kick our ass when we tell her
we have to head out again. Especially since we only got back three
days ago.”

“
Not much can be done about it. She knows what we’re doing.”
There had been full disclosure among all the men and Daisy. “She
may be pissed but she’ll get over it. It’s Honey I worry about, she
knows something’s going on but because we’re not talking about it,”
Gareth shrugged.

“
She’s not old enough yet to know what’s going on fully but we
may need to tell her more,” Sphinx said, looking at those there.
“The others are already at the house getting ready. We will worry
about explaining more when we get back.”

“
If we get to come back here after this meeting,” Dieter
commented.

Looking to the big German, whose accent was more pronounced
since they were in a safe place, James nodded. “He has a point you
know. They could be calling it a meeting but it could be a briefing
right before they ship our asses out for another mission against
these assholes.”

“
Negative,” Sphinx told them all. “The Colonel has assured me
that this is a meeting, strictly a meeting so we can decide if we
can put up with the one they chose to be our handler. This person
would deal directly with the Colonel and all the others, keeping us
in the shadows. Unfortunately he also said that they want more gear
put into place out here.”

“
Fuck that shit,” Mik said, his hands fisting at his sides.
“They’ve already done too much around here and I refuse to let them
fuck with our lives more. I already feel like we’re living in a
fucking fish bowl, Sphinx.”

“
I hear ya and feel ya there,” Marius said on a sigh. “Look,
we’ll go, we’ll meet and then we will come home with or without the
handler. But we all need to make the decision as a group since it
will affect all of us.” Checking his watch he shook his head. “We
have two hours to get to the airport so we need to move now. Let’s
go lads,” he ordered, moving back to his ATV.

Sighing Mikhail looked at the others and then headed for the
truck. Climbing in he waited for Gareth, Dieter and James to climb
into the back of the truck with all the tools before he pulled away
from the ditch.

* * * * *

Walking into the base of their operations two hours later
they moved as a perfect unit, smooth and in step. They’d nicknamed
the base Tartarus which, given their units new name, was seemingly
fitting. Striding through the halls together every one of them, to
the man, took note of the cameras, people and exits. It was part of
their training but more than that, it was now a part of their new
lives and ingrained in the technology that gave them that extra
boost and made them more than they’d been.

Reaching the conference room a pair of Marine’s yanked the
doors open and saluted them. Odd but then their lives were anything
but normal now. Tipping his head to the one he passed James turned
his focus to the new faces in the room and one that they all
recognized.

“
Shit,” Sphinx said under his breath as they came to a halt of
solid muscle just inside the doorway. Pulling out the hundred bucks
he’d stuffed into his front pocket he held it up and looked to
Mikhail. “I fucking hate it when you’re right.”

Shrugging the large Russian collected the money from all the
others and set to counting it as they all moved towards the table
and the empty seats. Folding the bills he stuck them into his
pocket and sat, his cold gaze moving to the only woman. “Glad to
see I was right about you,” he commented softly, before looking
away to his CO.

“
You all know Penny,” the Colonel said, standing behind a
chair, his arms braced on the high back. “Well, you know the
persona she presented as she recovered from her injury and worked
on small projects on the DL for her bosses in DC. Boys, meet
Penelope Morgan formerly of the CIA and now working for the DOD.
She’s been assigned, without consultation, as your handler for all
things from this point forward.”

All eyes turned to her and there wasn’t much love in the room
in that moment. “Why?” Sphinx asked, dismissing her as he looked
back to his boss.

“
I’ll answer that,” the other man there said, straightening
his cuffs.

Sphinx turned a look on him that had him stopping his words.
“If I’d wanted your explanation I would have asked you Director. I
don’t. I want to hear it from someone I actually trust instead of a
pencil pushing rubber necking asshole that kisses the Presidents
ass only when needed but runs his own fucking agenda on the side.
When I want to hear whatever pretty little speech you have prepared
I’ll ask, which won’t ever happen so zip it and sit there looking
annoyed and pissy.” Looking back to their CO he lifted a
brow.

“
The DOD feels that since we’re technically under their
purview for this exercise even though we are completely independent
of them which they should all know.” The Colonel slid the man a
look before returning his gaze to the team. “They want a mole
inside the house to ensure that what we’re telling them in the
reports is actually fact and not watered down half-truths. She will
watch and record everything you do in daily life and report back to
the Director here,” he waved a hand. “She will also be your
go-between. From now on you won’t have any direct contact with me.
All contact from us will go through her to you and you through her
to me. While I agree a level of separation is required this wasn’t
what I wanted to have happen. But apparently some pencil pusher
with a rubber neck has managed to get his foot in the door on this
project and overridden what we’d originally set in
place.”

“
So basically you’re telling us that all the security we put
into place to protect us and our families has been negated because
someone doesn’t like looking in from the outside?” Dieter asked,
his accent smooth American now that they were in a room with
unknowns.

“
Pretty much big guy,” their CO said with a shrug. “But that
will be changing as soon as you leave this room, with or without
agent Morgan. Everything about you will cease to exist, you will
be, as far as the world knows, ghosts. Every scrap of info from the
moment you were born will be collected and put into a secure vault
off site and all public and military records scrubbed. No one
beyond a select few will know your true identities. All that will
be on record, if someone can actually get that far, will be your
codenames and nothing else. This is now full black-ops rules we’re
operating under boys.”

“
And our families?” James asked, his normal lazy drawl nowhere
to be seen. “What about them boss?”

“
They will be given a number to call in the case of any
trouble as well as regular check-ins with the military that we have
already cleared for this operation. They will be watched and
protected at all costs, we need you guys out there doing what needs
to be done so we’re taking measures to ensure you can do that,” the
Colonel said, looking at them all one at a time. “So, the question
is, do you take agent Morgan on as your handler or should we dump
their bodies in some sort of horrific yet believable accident a few
miles from here?”

Chapter Three

Penny looked at all of the men and before anyone had a chance
to speak she spoke up. “I had no choice in this,” she told Mikhail
and Gareth. “And I will do whatever I have to in order to keep
Honey safe, you both know that.” The child had grown on Penny and
now she would move heaven and earth to keep that child safe, just
like every man in the room would. She turned back to the Director
and then the men to add, “And I will be living in my own home. So
you will have that buffer from me as well.”

“
Actually you won’t,” the Director said. “The Agency has sold
your house as you no longer work for them. You have forty-eight
hours to clear the property,” he added, with a small dismissive
flick of his wrist. “The new family takes possession in three days
and the Agency will need the twenty-four hours from your departure
to scrub the place to leave no trace of you ever being
there.”

“
Are you fucking kidding me?” Penny growled and looked at the
man, standing with her hands on the table and facing off against
the man. “I did not approve that you asshat bastard. My name is on
the land contract you douchehat.”