Gifted Connections 4

“She hasn’t been feeling well lately, and she was recently shot,” Jace stated diplomatically as he put an arm on the back of my chair.

Kirk frowned, clearly confused and displeased by this news.

“Greg will be working with Blake, Jace, Gavin, and Lincoln to help determine what gifts we’re working against since the sun will be up shortly,” Will explained. “Terrance, Drake, Remy, and Sierra, can you go through all the gifted people we have here and comprise a list of their abilities? Troy, are you still okay with making sure order remains out here with Leo?”

Troy nodded as he wiped his mouth. “That was the plan, and Leo’s cool with helping me. I’ll send Jaxson to you when he wakes up, and Noah plans on returning to the clinic.”

I was surprised how quickly Leo had bounced back from his shock. He went from shock to annoyance at Troy for keeping it from him for so long, then awestruck to the point of engrossment, asking a million questions. Lucky for Troy, he still had his right-hand man.

“Are they still camped out there?” Drake asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

Knowing Will and Paul, the first thing they did this morning would have been to see if the enemy still resided right outside our doors. They would have been debriefed with the situation, and I was sure we’d find out our new assignments soon enough.

“They are,” Paul confirmed. “They are trying to figure out how to breach our main entrance and the helipad. Unless they have someone that has the equivalent gift of a nuclear bomb, they will be unable to breach it. Marcel and Yaris are on duty up top with ten other operatives. Spencer and Ford and another team are in the stairwell of the helipad.”

“Is there a way to activate or allow them entrance at those points?” Jace asked apprehensively.

“There is,” Paul answered with a perplexed expression.

“If Horatio enters the fight, then he can easily make them open the doors,” Jace informed him.

“I don’t think Horatio will join the fight. Ever since his last attempt to abduct Blake, he hasn’t been seen in public. He nearly lost his life that night, and he’s not brave enough to put himself in the middle of a battle anymore,” Paul stated.

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Greg said as he came to the table. I was somewhat surprised to see Harry strapped to his back in a carrier, sound asleep. “It was a rough night,” Greg explained wryly. “Randy’s sleeping right now, so I have Harry duty.”

“Your dad tried to kidnap you?” Lincoln asked in confusion in my ear.

I nodded, figuring I could explain it to him later. “Dysfunctional.” I reminded him softly.

“I’m not sure if we should have anyone operating the doors,” Will said returning to the original issue. “We can always have someone operating the cameras and have a response team nearby.”

“I’ll put Darren on the cameras with a few others,” Paul reluctantly nodded. He was apparently not crazy about the idea, but he liked the idea of Horatio controlling someone to open the doors and allowing the enemy to enter even less.

“Good morning, everyone,” Georgia said cheerily.

I looked up and realized she had a tight, red halter top on, with her generous bosom on display, a short leather skirt, and black stilettos. I almost choked on my coffee I was so surprised. I looked over across the room and noticed with exasperation that most of the girls were coming into the dining room wearing clothing more befitting a night club. They had their hair carefully done and makeup heavily applied.

“Is there a lock on the war room door?” Remy asked in dry amusement.

Will, Kirk, and Greg seemed equally amused as Paul let out a growl. “I’m having key cards made as we speak,” Paul said in exasperation. “Only the people with keycards will have access.” He then stood. “Okay ladies,” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “Your duty day starts at 0700, most of you are out of uniform. You have fifteen minutes to get within regs.”

Georgia made a sound of disappointment but still turned to leave the room, along with over sixty percent of the girls. The rest had second shift today.

“Make sure you let the other girls know that, too!” Terrance added as he bellowed across the dining room with laughter lacing his voice. He then gave Lincoln a smirk. “Somehow I don’t think they were dressing up for us.”

“Me neither,” Lincoln muttered with vexation before taking a large bite of his breakfast burrito.

“Bet you fifty, Jemmy will be out of uniform,” Troy leaned behind Jace towards me.

I rolled my eyes and smiled. “I really don’t want to lose money by gambling on a lost bet.”

Darren gave Lincoln and I a quick rundown on how to use the computers to access the cameras mounted outside. Jace and Gavin were already proficient with the security systems, so they didn’t need the tutorial. We were able to zoom in, freeze on a person, and then print it out. Then we took it over to Greg who would write their gifts on the photos. It impressed me that he was able to read a gift just from an image.

Jace already explained to Lincoln and me that he was the only reader they knew that could do that. Most readers could just sense the presence of the gifted, like Herman. Some of them were even able to tell you what the gifts were. But no one but Greg was able to see it through an image.

Sierra, Terrance, Drake, and Remy were going through our database and printing the pictures of the gifted who were currently residing in the facility, writing their gifts down as they went through each one.

Jaxson had finally woken up. He and Kade were carefully hanging all the pictures on the whiteboards. One whiteboard was filled with the images of our attackers, and the other board was used for our people.