Page 24 of Handcuffed to the Bear

“Do you want me with Kemp’s team?”

“Not right now. Since you’re Ross’s point of contact, I don’t want you potentially out of touch. Check in on Cho and Rosen, see what they need.”

It felt like being given busywork, even though he knew she was right. He didn’t even get the satisfaction of stomping out of her office. She was doing everything she could, and he saw her pick up the phone as he left, probably to get in touch with another of the agencies where she had contacts. She was on his side. He just wished he could do more to help.

Damn it, Jack, if you’ve decided to go cowboying off on your own this time, I’ll strangle you.

He found Cho in the main conference room, poring over a huge nautical map of Puget Sound, pinned down on one side with a large mug of coffee. The conference table was covered with detailed marine charts of the coast from Seattle to Alaska.

“Oh hey,” Cho said, waving him over to the table. She twiddled a red marker between her fingers, tapping it idly on the map. The Lion’s Share Software’s cruise route from past years was marked in various colors. “As far as we can figure from the marine radio chatter, nothing out of the ordinary happened last night. The boat toodled around the San Juan islands like always, and then headed back.”

“Any places someone could have gotten off along the way?”

She gave him aWell, duhlook. “Oh, gosh,anywhere? It’s not exactly the open ocean. They could easily have put in for a little while at any of the islands, or rendezvoused with a boat.”

“Damn it, Jack,” Avery sighed. He could imagine, all too easily, Jack coming upon some sort of rendezvous or clandestine meeting, and taking off in pursuit without telling anyone. “We should’ve put in a big cat shifter. Less likely to be caught out as a spy.”

“They don’t grow on trees,” Cho pointed out. “Dev was on another case, and Noah won’t do field work, you know that.”

“He’s still an agent,” Avery muttered. “Whereisthe Director’s golden boy, anyway?”

“Over in Idaho with everybody else. He’s running the official cover-up operation.” She shoved a box of push pins into his hand. “Stop letting your head spin around the worst-case scenarios, and start marking potential harbors along the route.”

“We don’t even know he’s still on the U.S. side of the border. Regardless of what Customs says, if Jack left with someone, they could’ve sailed right across while it was dark.”

“Seeing how we know absolutely nothing so far, including whether anyone is missing at all, Avery, stop being a worry-wolf and push some pins.”

An intern came in with a coffeepot and a stack of cups, and Cho brightened. “Nice job,” she said, and the kid beamed. “Although we’re going to need sugar and creamer, too. Lots of it.”

He must be one of the new recruits, since Avery didn’t recognize him. He looked sixteen, but he had to be at least eighteen or he wouldn’t have been allowed in the op center for liability reasons.

“Who are you, anyway?” Avery asked him, waylaying him before he could rush off on Cho’s command.

“Intern Pete Mayhew, sir!”

The kid made his prey instincts twitch, not to mention that just looking at him made Avery feel exhausted and unbearably old.

“Okay, I gotta ask,” Avery said. “What’s your shifter animal?”

“Jumping spider, sir!”

.... oh. He would’ve guessed squirrel.

“Why is he running coffee errands instead of doing something useful?” he murmured to Cho after the kid scurried off to get the coffee mix-ins.

“Because he is amazingly, spectacularly incompetent at everything else,” she murmured back. “At least this way, Rosen and the other interns don’t have to keep cleaning up his filing errors.”

“When did we hire him?”

“Three days ago.”

“Andwhydid we hire him?”

“Because everybody’s got to start somewhere, Avery. I’m sure you remember what it was like being that age.” She took a sip of her coffee and made a face. “Well, I guess we can add another item to the list of things he’s not good at.”

“When I was his age, I was in the Army.” His leg twinged a reminder. “Which worked out wonderfully for everyone involved, so yeah, point taken.”

Cho gave him a sympathetic look. “That’s where you met Jack, isn’t it?”

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