Page 15 of His Witness To Love

“And what happens when you die?”

“If,” Brie replied with lips pressed tight.

“If? If!?” Rachel shook her head vigorously, refusing to accept what she was hearing. “You could hide this all out; let it pass.”

“People are dying, Rachel.”

“I don’t care! You shouldn’t have to,” she turned to Mack. “Don’t you love her? If you did, you wouldn’t let her do this.”

“That’s enough, Rachel!” Brie yelled, slapping the counter.

Rachel stood in shock, somewhat like a scolded child, looking from one face to the other in defeat. She exited the room crying, “I can’t watch you do this to yourself. I can’t watch you end it all being some hero.”

“Okay, love, here’s what’s going to happen,” Mack said as he started to lay out the plan for her.

CHAPTER TEN

There was a lot more than Team Six around this time. The last few days had been failure after failure. Brie had been tagged with a wire on her dress and a tracking device just under her skin on her left forearm. For three days, she had roamed the streets, tempting whoever it could be that watched her every move outside the manor. She was bait, but the fish just weren’t biting. It was proving a lot more difficult than anyone had imagined.

“Turn into the café on your left and order something simple. Just take a break, be free with it,” a disembodied voice said in her ear.

Brie turned into a classic brown-themed shop sporting a pouring mug as its board. She picked a seat next to the huge pane of glass for onlookers and ordered a coffee. The coffee was smooth with a sharp tang and…Lime? She couldn’t be sure, but it was wonderful.

She knew Peter was somewhere close by, watching everything going on around her. The wire was a one-way device so she could listen, but nothing could be said back. It reduced the chances of her giving the gig up.

The coffee forced her to take deep breaths; it was refreshing. It reminded her of her mother’s strange mixes, mixes her brothers were always willing to try out. Root beer with flaky nuts had been the one she tried. She decided the experiments weren’t for her.

Her brothers had always prodded her for being unable to handle the mixes.

“Little Bug!? Is that you?” a familiar voice called out.

"Huh?" she thought, a bit disoriented.

“By God! It is you!”

A man in a suit leaned over from the table next to hers, and Brie couldn’t believe it.

She was looking at her brother!

“And here I was thinking popping up at the house was going to be a huge surprise,” his laugh was loud and clear, just like she remembered it. She couldn’t go to him. The wire and everything were worlds apart from her brother. Besides, they would realize he wasn’t a threat by how happy she would look around him; thankfully, Mack wasn’t at the cameras to get the wrong idea.

“I should stop calling you, little bug. Look at you; you’ve grown; give me a hug, old girl.”

She dug her face in his clothes as she hugged him; she hadn’t spoken to either brother in years, so she was glad no bad blood had grown between them.

“I’ve missed you, Benneth.”

“And you, Brie, I’ve missed you way too much. What do you say we get out of here?”

The yes was out before she knew it.

The town had new color with Benneth at her side, he was always the quirkier of the two brothers, and she loved it. He had a thing for birds and so much more grown-up. His love for animals could rival hers.

Drinks were bought, and numbers exchanged as they moved along. This was the best thing that had happened to her in a long time.

Agent Peter Rodery could only watch as Brianna's camera showed her exploring the city; at the moment, his only concern was for the civilian who had come up to join her; from the exchanges, they seemed to know each other. It didn’t seem romantic, but without audio feedback from her, they could only assume. They had gone from shop to shop, even stopping at fountains to dip their hands and laugh.

A call came in for him from a member of Team Nine; the blood samples from the guard sent to forensics had been worked on. As he listened, Peter understood that two separate samples had been found dated not too far apart from each other; they hadboth contaminated the object within the same three-hour window.

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