Page 33 of Joshua's Mistake
Wanda was right, he had a lot of agents he trusted on Key West. Though he didn’t trust anyone other than Will enough to disclose that Banta was involved. Not yet. That could send some, if not all, of them running. He’d rather not start a psi bloodbath if he could avoid it. The problem was he didn’t have a better idea. His instincts told him to stay on the island and enlist a few friends to help. Keeping Tessa safe was his only priority.
Finally, he looked up at Wanda. “Is Trip in town?”
A wide smile spread across Wanda’s face. “Now you wouldn’t be planning a little war, would you, Josh?”
“I’m thinking it’s time I called in a few favors. Are you in, Wanda?”
Tessa didn’t say anything. She remained in the most defensible corner of the room and watched the exchange.
“I figure you’ve saved my neck a few times. I imagine Trip will feel the same way. You won’t find him until dark and then you know the place.”
“Yeah, I know the place.”
“What do you need from me?”
“For now, I need you to monitor the wire. Find out where they’re looking and keep an ear out for mention of me or my brother. I may need you to send word for him to take his family underground if it looks as if they could be a target. When the time is right I’ll want you to put the word out about Tessa being here and draw them in, if they don’t figure it out sooner.” Joshua paid close attention to Wanda’s reaction. They’d worked together in the past, he trusted her, but the last few days made him cautious.
As far as he could tell she was on the level. He didn’t detect any deception.
“I’ll let you know what I hear. You over at Will’s?”
“Yeah. This will likely move pretty fast, Wanda. I expect by tomorrow the island will be flooded with Psi Agents who do not share your loyalty to me.”
She cocked her head. “Sweet of you to worry, Josh, but I’ll be all right.”
He smiled at a fleeting memory of Wanda ten years earlier taking out three operatives in spite of her limited psi skills. Telekinesis and fact-finding were her specialties. If you needed information Wanda could ferret it out.
“How many agents do you think are on the island at the moment?”
Wanda didn’t hesitate. “Ten including Trip and me. And of course, there’s Will, but I never count him as psychic. Handy with a rifle though. No one can argue with that. You want me to gather them?”
He looked down at the floor for a minute. “At Will’s as soon as you can. You ready?” he asked Tessa. Without waiting for an answer, he turned and walked to the door. “Oh and Wanda, see if you can find out who gave the order to have Tessa probed. I think it came from someone high up in Washington but I can’t be sure.”
Wanda gave one short nod and he left the office. He felt Tessa close behind him as they made their way back out to the street though she didn’t make a sound.
Once they were outside she slid her fingers into his. They might have been any couple on vacation in the Florida Keys. “Now what, back to Will’s until it’s time to meet with your friend?”
“We have an errand to do first.”
“Oh?”
“I have storage on the island.”
“I’m intrigued.”
He gave her hand a squeeze and continued back to the pickup truck. “What did you do before you became a Psi Agent?”
“You read my file.”
“I didn’t get that far. I know you’re a good agent, successful, motivated. That was all the file really said.” He held his breath. She could refuse to tell him. If she didn’t want to share her story, then this was just a fling for her. It surprised him how much the idea hurt.
“I grew up in Ohio. My parents had no discernible psi skills though my mother was pretty intuitive about most things and I suspect she could have developed those skills.”
“How did the agency find you?” Having had no parents he could remember, he wondered how her life had been. Maybe one day she would share it with him. It was another shock to realize he wanted to know what having a family to grow up in would have been like.
“I was in the academy for a local police department. There was an accident on the range. One of the other officers accidently fired his weapon. I sensed the mistake. In my mind the bullet slowed down as it was heading for the instructor. I pushed the bullet. My adrenaline was so torqued up everyone in the room felt the energy shift.
“It wasn’t long after that, when the agency came to offer me a job.”
