Royal (Terk’s Guardians #9)

Chapter 11

A s they landed in England, Calum shouted from the cabin, “Heads up.”

Janna watched as an official-looking vehicle drove toward them on the tarmac. “ Great . Does this mean we’ll be separated?”

Calum nodded. “Probably, bound to be a debriefing, if nothing else.”

She stared at him in shock. “I didn’t think far enough ahead,” she cried out. “This shouldn’t be allowed.”

Calum eyed her silently.

Royal took Janna’s hand. “If they’re paying money to save my ass, you can bet they’ll want intel as to what happened.”

She frowned at that. “But you’re still injured, so sick and terribly weak.”

“They do have medical facilities.”

She shook her head. “Yeah, but that kind of medical is not a good thing for you, not as an energy worker.”

He stared at her. “Okay. So now you are freaking me out. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, feeling like throwing a temper fit. She looked around the plane that she had mentally kept connected to the whole time, more so because of her own fears that somebody would be an asshole and would do something, rather than any actual possibility. Yet, as she sat here, not wanting to cause anybody any undue stress, she just basically kept a hand on the plane the whole way to England. She knew that they didn’t really understand what that was all about, but it was hard for her not to keep that physical connection. It was just the right thing to do. It felt just as right to do that as it felt completely wrong to let Royal leave in the vehicles coming toward them.

She quickly stepped forward, as the plane slowly rolled up toward the vehicles. She looked over at Rick and declared, “They can’t take Royal.”

He studied her mildly. “If you’ve got a reason to stop it, I want to hear it.”

She frowned. “I don’t know. It’s just wrong.”

“And that’s your emotions talking,” Calum noted, exiting the cockpit. “I’m afraid the government will need a whole lot more than that.”

She glared at him. “They shouldn’t,” she snapped. “Something about this is wrong.”

The door opened, and she walked out first. There on the tarmac, several men came closer to talk. The first one, wearing a suit and an overcoat, stared at her. “Good God, who the hell are you?”

“Good God, who the hell are you?” she snapped right back.

His eyebrows soared, as he looked behind her at the rest of the team coming out of the plane.

Calum smiled at the newcomer. “Hey, Jonas. I presume you’re here because of the CIA.”

“Yeah, although I’m not sure I want to be,” he admitted, looking back at Janna. “Apparently not everyone is happy to see me.”

She shrugged. “Anybody who’s trying to take these two men away will get the same attitude.” She crossed her arms, as she stood beside Royal. “Why does the CIA want him?”

“For one thing, they negotiated for his release,” Jonas replied, looking at her strangely. “I would think you would be happy about that.”

“Since I’m the one who initiated this rescue,” she snapped, “I can’t say I’m particularly happy about the fact that you guys want to take him away.”

“He needs to debrief,” Jonas stated. “And this is a government issue, not something that you’ll be able to stop.”

She took a step forward, definitely not a fan of this Jonas, and wasn’t surprised when he took a half step back, before asking the men with Janna, “What’s going on here?”

“Let’s just say that she’s invested a lot in making sure that Royal got out of Russia and wants to know for sure that he’ll be okay.”

“Is there any reason why he wouldn’t be okay?” Jonas asked.

“Royal was kidnapped, tortured, and starved,” she snapped. “The government didn’t seem to give a damn, so why the interest now?”

“I’m with MI6, so it wasn’t our government,” he noted calmly, seeming to understand that some of her emotions were more about the relationship she and Royal had than anything else. “So, you can back off a little bit on that,” he declared. “The bottom line is, my hands are tied. No matter what, he’s going with us.” He turned and looked at Royal. “Are you ready?”

“Depends on where I’m going,” he replied easily, “but yes.”

At that, Jonas nodded. “You’ll be coming with us to London, where we’ll debrief you. I know the CIA has somebody on the way over, now that we’ve confirmed you’re here. We’ll pick him up at the airport tomorrow morning.”

“Good enough,” Royal said.

As he stepped toward the waiting vehicle, Janna stepped up and accompanied him. No way he was going without her.

“Oh, no, no. No you don’t,” Jonas said, pointing at her. “You weren’t part of this deal.”

She gave him the sweetest of smiles. “It’ll take a better man than you to stop me.”

He stopped, his jaw almost literally dropping. “You did hear me say this is a government matter, right?” He was troubled and very frustrated. “Please understand that I can even order you to jail for interfering or disregarding instructions.”

“And again,” Janna repeated, “it’ll take a better man than you and anybody you brought along to make that happen. I’m staying with Royal. He’s been to hell and back, and nobody will do that to him again.”

Jonas let out a breath, as he raised a hand, pushing his hair off his forehead. “I wasn’t expecting to have you along.”

Janna declared, “Being part of the government means being adaptable, so this is a really good time to adapt.”

Calum and Rick both laughed. “She does have a point, and she has gone through a lot to ensure Royal got back, safe and sound. But she also doesn’t like any governments very much, so this is potentially a problem.”

“But it’s not my government involved in this,” Jonas said, frowning at her. “Besides, I’m not sure I even have clearance to take you along.”

“In that case, let’s all head to Terk’s,” Janna suggested.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, no you’re not,” Jonas declared. “I’m under orders too.”

Turning to him, she asked, “You got a problem with Terk?”

There was a stillness, while everybody waited for the answer. Jonas glared at her and then shook his head in resignation. “Oh no, that’s not fair. Of course I have no problem with Terk, but this is not my deal.”

“No? So, if it’s not your deal, we don’t need to listen to you then, do we?”

Jonas raised his hands in frustration. “God. Why are women always so difficult?”

She snorted. “Not all women are difficult and certainly not all the time,” she snapped. “Right about now I’m quite happy to be an exception.”

He glared at her. “I’ll make some phone calls.”

“You do that,” she said, standing her ground. With a smile, she turned to Royal and put an arm around his shoulders, as he tucked her up close and kissed her gently.

“It’s okay. I’ll find you when I’m released.”

“No. Something is wrong here. I know it.”

At that, Rick and Calum stepped closer. “Look, Janna. We deal with Jonas all the time,” Calum explained, “so, if you’ve got any inkling of something wrong here, we need to know what it is.”

“Definitely something is wrong,” she snapped. “I just don’t know how or when it will play out. I can’t leave Royal.”

“Details on what is wrong would definitely help,” Rick pointed out. “Nebulous doesn’t really do it for us.”

“No, it doesn’t do it for me either,” she snapped, glaring at him. “But I can tell you that something is wrong and that will have to do for now.”

When Jonas came back, he said, “I’m not sure what’s going on, but they seem to be okay to allow you to come with us.”

“Good,” Janna replied, inclining her head. “Smart choice.”

He glared at her. “Look. I don’t need any trouble.”

“I’m not planning on giving you any trouble, as long as you let me stay with Royal,” she explained. “My only interest is looking out for Royal. He’s been through enough already.”

“And yet I’ll remind you again that it wasn’t us,” Jonas replied, studying her closely, as if trying to figure out what made her tick. He looked over at Calum and asked, “Is there anything I should know about her?”

They all just grinned and shrugged.

“Does she work for Terk?” Jonas asked, suddenly suspicious, eyeing her as if she might blow up, like a time bomb or something.

She gave him the sweetest smile ever, although it made her look a bit menacing. “I’m considering it.”

He almost instantly backed up and glared at the others. “You know how I feel about all this woo-woo stuff,” he muttered. “Why is there another one?”

“We always find another one,” Janna declared, “particularly when everything went so wrong for Royal.”

He nodded. “Fine, you can stand guard. That will save me some man-hours.” He turned and looked at the other men. “What about you guys? Are you coming or are you off to see Terk?”

Rick studied him. “I’m coming along.”

She turned and looked at Calum and Riff. The other two nodded. “We’re coming too.”

Jonas stopped, then frowned. “Okay, that’s weird. What are you guys not telling me? What is it I need to know?”

“Something is wrong here,” Riff declared, stepping forward. “We’re not sure what the deal is, but we won’t just let it go, not without a little oversight.”

Jonas stared at them in astonishment. “You guys know me. We’ve worked together a lot, and I know there isn’t anything wrong. So what the hell is this?”

“When we say, Something is wrong , we mean, she can sense it, and that means, something is wrong ,” Riff explained, stepping closer and studying the men still sitting in the vehicle behind him. “How well do you know those guys?”

Jonas didn’t look behind him, but his breath leapt out in hard woosh . “I don’t, but one is a Russian ambassador. He wanted to see you, Royal, and the other is the US liaison,” Jonas shared, trying to keep calm. “As I mentioned earlier, the CIA has someone on the way over as well.”

At the mention of the Russian ambassador, everybody turned and glared at the vehicle.

Jonas nodded. “I know. He’s not who you want to see here. I get it, but we have agreements between countries, and, like everybody else, I have a boss. So I pretty well do what I’m told.”

“That may be,” Riff replied, “but Janna’s right. Something is wrong here.”

“You can’t honestly think the Russian will do something when we’re right here, when he’s here in England, do you?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Janna declared. “He’s planning it right now. I’m just not sure how far he’ll go, and what it is that he’s hoping to stop from happening.”

“Shit,” Jonas muttered, looking around. “If it was anybody else telling me this crap, I would have laughed off the whole thing and put my foot down. But, because you’re all associated with Terk’s team, now you’ve got my nerves on edge.”

“And they should be,” she confirmed, stepping closer and looking at the vehicle out of the corner of her eye. “All I can tell you is that something is wrong with that vehicle.”

Jonas sighed, shaking his head. “If you guys could ever come up with something more than, Hey, all I can tell you is something’s wrong ,” he began, mimicking Janna’s voice, “it would make it a lot easier to explain to people when I need help.”

For the first time, she realized just what he was up against, and she smiled. “That’s a very good point. We’ll ride in that vehicle with them.”

“Why is that?” Jonas asked. “Probably not quite enough room for everybody.” He was on the verge of losing his cool. “I wasn’t expecting everybody to come along.”

Janna shrugged. “Neither are they, but somebody’s making a rapid change of plans right now.” She studied the men, still in the vehicle parked in front of them. She looked back at Rick, Riff, and Calum. “What do you think?”

“Absolutely. We’ll all come along.” He looked at her and nodded. “That SUV will probably hold all of us.”

She looked back at the Suburban. “Great. Three, six, seven, eight, nine, counting Jonas. That’s all of us in with the Russian, driven by the US liaison. Good then, we’re going as a single unit.”

“You sure about this?” Rick asked, eyeing her carefully.

She nodded. “Yeah, that’s why I’m going.” With that, she led the way to the vehicle.

Behind her, she heard Jonas and the others arguing, as Jonas was looking for some explanation.

She turned to Jonas and added, “Don’t mention anything about this to anybody else, do you hear me?” He stopped and glared at her. “I’m serious. The repercussions will be fatal.” And, with that, she took Royal’s hand and headed over to the Suburban, opened up the big slider door, and they crawled into the back seat. She watched as Riff came out of the plane with Bruce in his arms, then turned her gaze on the two men in the front seat, as the passenger studiously didn’t make a sound, and the driver audibly gasped.

“There’s another one?” he whispered.

She leaned forward. “Yes, your lovely Russian friends tortured that one too,” she said, with a hard look at the passenger.

The Russian turned to look at her. “How did you get involved in this?”

She shrugged. “That may be beyond your pay grade.”

The look of astonishment on his face had her smiling as she sat back, but the Russian guy just snorted, as if he wouldn’t listen to anything she had to say.

That was the kind of attitude she expected from him anyway. She nodded. “Yeah, you don’t like hearing that, do you? That’s okay. Not a whole lot I like about seeing you here either.”

The other men clambered in around her, and, as they drove off the small airstrip, she checked on Bruce, who even now was unconscious. Worried, she looked back at Riff. “Maybe we should take him to the hospital first.”

“That’s not happening,” Jonas stated. “We have specialists waiting for him.”

“How did you know you would need them?”

“Terk told me.”

Satisfied with that response, she nodded and settled back. But there was nothing, absolutely nothing about this scenario that she was comfortable with.

*

Royal wasn’t sure what had Janna so worried, but since she was defending him, he let it go. Also he could sense the weird energy crawling through the vehicle, so he was totally okay with her preemptive actions. He just wished he’d had the opportunity to ask her more about what was going on, but her gaze remained focused and watchful. The others were on high alert as well. The thought that they were all in the same vehicle worried him, but then he realized that, if the Russian tried anything, that wouldn’t go so well for him, since he was with all of them and would get the backlash of whatever happened anyway.

As they drove along, Royal watched, worried as she stretched out a hand toward the front seat, instead of stroking the vehicle. He’d never seen anybody do anything like that. Now she was whispering something to herself too. And the farther they traveled away from the airfield, he felt the tension coil tighter and tighter around them. Something was definitely wrong; he just didn’t know what or how to fix it.

He sent out as much calming thoughts as he could, but, with her utilizing her energy on whatever was going on with this vehicle, he was hamstrung as to what he could do to ease the tension. Though maybe it wasn’t his job to do anything. He was tired, worn out, frustrated, and just wanted to be alone with her. But he also knew that he was bound by law to do a debriefing. Although, what that debriefing would give MI6, he didn’t know because he didn’t have any knowledge. The Russians had fought so hard to keep him there, and that distorted Royal’s importance. The Russians in the first prison had tortured him for intel he didn’t have, and now he would be debriefed again for information. Once again something else he didn’t have.

At least he wouldn’t be tortured this time. At that thought, he almost winced because there really wasn’t any guarantee of that. He could only hope that reason and good sense would rule the day, but he wasn’t in a position to feel confident of anything.

When the vehicle slowed at a turnoff, two vehicles came out of nowhere and halted their vehicle. The passengers in each car exited and drew their guns. Jonas swore. But, as Royal looked over at Janna, she was focused on something else.

He whispered, “What’s going on?”

“This is an attempt to take something back here, and I think it’s you.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

At that, the Russian turned, pulling out a handgun, which he pointed at Royal. “You don’t have to go back. All we care about is silencing you.”

With that, he went to pull the trigger. The vehicle was crammed full of so many bodies, which shifted to get between the gunman and Royal. The Russian hesitated because he couldn’t get a clear shot.

Calum grabbed his gun hand. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked. “We went to a lot of trouble to bring this man back from your nightmarish little hellhole, so we sure as hell won’t let you just pop him right now.”

“It would be a whole lot easier,” the Russian stated, glaring at him. “Do you think we will tolerate this? You broke this man out of our prison, someone arrested for treason. That is an unforgivable sin.”

“Treason? Really?” Royal asked. “What did I do? Nothing, that’s what I did. How about the fact that I was tortured? How about the fact that I was arrested and given no trial or even a lawyer or anybody to help me out? What about the fact that you basically threw away the key and forgot about me? I didn’t do anything wrong, and all you guys could do was torture me, trying to get me to say that I did something wrong.”

“You’re a liar,” the Russian said, with a shrug. “In my country, we don’t accept liars. Even our law says we could have shot you.”

“And yet you didn’t, so what was it that you wanted from me that kept me alive all that time? Because, honest to God, I don’t know. I don’t understand. This had nothing to do with me in the first place. This was all about leverage and government games.”

The Russian laughed. “Maybe, but I’m not privy to that either. I just follow orders, the same as everybody else.”

The vehicle’s side doors were opened as the two gunmen stepped closer and ordered them all out of the vehicle.

She shrugged, then reached out a hand and mentally sent orders to the metal. She didn’t know if it would work and had never really planned on it, not until this point in time. But instead of the Russian gunman, she focused on the two drivers, still in the other two vehicles, and that’s where she sent her energy. Both vehicles jumped forward, slamming into the two gunmen, now pinned against the SUV. The two were killed instantly.

Calum disarmed the Russian, while Rick and Riff restrained the Russian and the supposed US liaison. Janna looked over at Jonas and gave him a smirk. “See why I needed to come along?” She smiled as beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, but her concern was for Bruce, who opened his eyes slowly and looked at her. She smiled at him. “Hey. Believe it or not, you’re in England.”

He gave her a brief smile. “Don’t tell me. You must be Janna.”

She stared at him in shock. “How do you know my name?”

“Ah, that was entirely due to Royal,” he murmured. “All he ever talked about was you. Figured that, if he ever got free, he would find you and would make up for lost time. So, if I’m in England, and a beautiful angel is leaning over me, then you must be Royal’s angel, and that makes you Janna.”

And, with that, Bruce closed his eyes and drifted back into unconsciousness again.

*

Royal studied the silent crowd, as they waited outside the SUV, as more official cars pulled up. Most of the group, his team, and particularly Jonas and the American attaché, didn’t say a word. Everybody kept looking at Janna sideways. Royal didn’t.

He stood protectively at her side, hating to admit that he was still so weak, but no way he would leave her to stand alone at this point. He recognized that Calum and Rick were holding strategic positions too, as they all waited for additional teams to come sort out this mess. Not to mention first responders had been called, so ambulances and the coroner were coming to take away the deceased and the injured. The Russian ambassador had nothing good to say and was spouting threats at every question. Janna ignored everyone and stood beside Royal, staring off into space, as if in a fugue state.

Royal wasn’t entirely sure that she wasn’t in an altered state. He caught several looks from Rick, who was frowning at him, but Royal could do nothing but shrug. As far as he knew, Janna was fine, and this was just her way of buying time and avoiding the advent of whatever was coming next—which Royal could only hope wouldn’t be ugly for her, but he didn’t know. Then, as he thought about what had just happened, he wasn’t sure how anybody could blame her, short of having a significant understanding of energy work. Hell, he didn’t think any of them understood her gift.

When yet another vehicle approached, Royal felt the surge of energy as a tall man got out, two others accompanying him, immediately walking toward the group.

Jonas, a look a relief on his face, walked over and muttered, “I’m surprised to see you here, but I’m damn glad.” His words were just barely loud enough for Royal to hear.

Royal checked out Janna again, but she was still off in whatever zone she was in. He watched as the men around him, Calum and Rick and Riff, walked over and greeted the tall authoritative man. At that moment, Royal realized this had to be Terk. It was a reasonable assumption, since they’d landed in England, so of course Terk would be here. Honestly, Terk was probably the best person to appear at this particular moment. Somebody needed to explain what the hell was going on in some logical manner because Royal knew that any logical thinking had to be in short supply.

When Terk detached himself from Jonas, Terk and the two men with him all headed toward Janna, Rick, Calum, Riff, and Royal. Terk stopped for a moment, assessed Royal’s condition, and gave a slight nod. “Hell of an appearance,” he murmured.

Royal gave him a lopsided grin. “Yeah, you’re not kidding,” he muttered. “Thanks for the rescue.”

Terk just nodded and then squatted beside Janna, who now sat on the street, staring off into the distance. He lifted a hand and waved it through her field of vision.

She narrowed her eyes, shifted, and looked over at him. “Yeah, what do you want?” she grumbled.

He gave her a gentle smile, as he whispered, “You know I’m not mad at you, right?”

Her gaze narrowed, as he held her hand. “You have no reason to be mad at me,” she muttered. “Besides, what else was I supposed to do?”

The other four men squatted, so this ring of six energy workers were gathered together. Terk’s two additional men stood nearby. Janna’s gaze went from Rick to Calum to Riff to Terk, then to the two additional men near Terk.

She nodded. “All of you are the same, aren’t you?” she asked.

Terk nodded. “They’re all members of my team, all my friends and brothers-in-arms,” he confirmed. “And very much like you and Royal.” Everybody could see the visible hunch of her shoulders, as she pulled them in against his words. He nodded. “And you still have a way to go to accept that.”

“Not so much,” she muttered finally. “Some of it is an instinctive reaction. Some of it’s outright denial, and some is just waiting for the other shoe to drop over this mess.”

Terk looked back at Rick. “You want to tell me what happened?”

Rick flashed a grin, looking around to see if anybody else was close by. Once he was assured that no one was within listening distance, he began, “The official version is that the brakes failed on the two intercepting vehicles, and they jumped forward. The only other version is that the men were hired to take out certain people on this job and decided to throw in the towel at the last minute. So, we can pick and choose one of those.” Rick grinned. “The unofficial version,” he stated, his gaze turning to Janna, his tone almost too excited, “is that Janna here caused both vehicles to jump forward simultaneously to take out the armed attackers. It was one hell of a trick. I’ve never seen it happen, and I really wish she would come back to headquarters with us and teach everyone.”

At that, she stared at him. “Seriously?”

“Yes,” Rick stated. “We have never had anybody with a connection… to speak to mechanical equipment, and it would be incredibly valuable.”

She frowned at him. “Are you kidding? While it seemed necessary at the time, it’s not something I’m very proud of,” she muttered. “Why would I even want to bring it into the light?”

“Because, if you were there with us,” Terk said calmly, “you could learn to control it and could do only good with it.”

She frowned at the crime scene around her and behind them. “How is this doing good?” she muttered. “Killing people?” She stared up at Royal, her gaze huge, and it broke Royal’s heart.

He squeezed her hand gently and replied, “And yet what do you think they would have done to us, had you not stopped them?”

She nodded at him. “That’s the only reason I did it. I really wasn’t even sure it would work or that I could even do it,” she muttered, still in denial, then shook her head. It seemed to take her a minute to collect her thoughts, and then she looked up, glaring at Terk. “And I know you’ll say I could come and join your merry band of crazy men and learn to control it and so much more, but I don’t know.”

“You certainly could, and, yes, I would absolutely love to have you,” Terk agreed. “But you all should know that I’ve been talking to Janna about this for years,” He turned and looked at the others. “You guys don’t understand a couple things here, and it’s not my story to tell, but, if she’ll give me permission, I will.”

When he turned and looked at her, she shrugged. “Sure, why not? It’s not as if they don’t know everything else.”

“Janna was a very influential person, one of the very first social media influencers, so to speak, and it was a great cover for her travels. The government solicited her assistance, so, when she was attacked with the acid,… she was attacked not by a mentally disturbed fan, which is the public line, but by a foreign government agent, who found out that she was working with the US government,” he explained, and suddenly it all made sense. “Thus, the US government paid for the bulk of her surgeries. Still, that doesn’t begin to cover her pain and suffering and all the time she has spent healing. So, she’s never really forgotten nor forgiven them for having led her into something that they had told her would be a completely harmless op.”

At that, the others stared at her in surprise.

She shrugged. “Terk doesn’t really understand that I’m okay to have walked away from most of that. Sam’s birth,” her voice choked when she added, “and death changed a lot of things in my life, and I more or less isolated myself from everybody, as you all know by now. Only because this guy here wouldn’t stop calling out to me that I came back into the fold, so to speak.”

“And that’s where you need to stay,” Rick stated.

She looked at him. “You’re the last one I expected to hear that from.”

He gave her a ghost of a smile. “I may have had my doubts at the beginning because I really didn’t want to take a novice out into a prison-break op in Russia,” he explained, “but you did just fine.” As he stared at Janna, he shook his head and added, “Honestly, you did better than fine. And a skill like that, controlling mechanical equipment,… it’s something that you need to cultivate, if only to keep yourself safe. I don’t know whether it is affected by your emotions, fears, dark thoughts, or nightmares, but I know you deal with all that trauma.” Rick gave her a sidelong glance. “Still, that energy gift of yours is definitely something that needs to be protected. Plus, you also need to be in complete control of such a gift.”

It was obvious she didn’t know what to say.

“At the moment,” Royal interjected, “I presume that nobody knows what she did.”

“Correct,” Terk confirmed, as he glanced around. “You’ll all be debriefed, but now you’ll come with us. We’ll head in to talk to MI6 about this. As Rick described, we need to come up with some plausible cover story as to what happened, and they’ll check the vehicles, blah, blah, blah , and it will end up being some mechanical error, or it’ll be treason or whatever.”

He looked around at the others. “I don’t care what it is that they want to go with publicly, but it will not involve her name, not again,” he stated determinedly. “Janna’s been to hell and back over whatever involvement they brought her into in the first place, way back when. However, we do have a decent working relationship with MI6, with Jonas in particular. So, although he won’t want to know the details, no way he can avoid it, for obvious reasons.” Terk gave them all a crooked smile. “Let’s get real. Jonas deals with us frequently, so he already knows that something funky is going on with us, and a huge part of him doesn’t want anything to do with it.”

“Good,” Janna said, her voice faint. “Honestly, I just want to go away and hide for the next half of the century.”

“As it turns out, I happen to have a very large castle,” Terk shared, “and plenty of space to hide. The biggest advantage is that you can be yourself there. You don’t have to worry about our people finding out that you can do these things because they, too, can all do some pretty wild and wonderful things. And, if you wanted to learn some of those tricks, I’m sure there would be no shortage of time and effort available to make that happen. I think you will fit right in, though you’ll have to cope with all the babies coming soon, which will no doubt be quite painful to some degree,” he added, as an afterthought.

She looked up at him. “You mean, that onslaught of pregnancies you have going on at your place?”

Terk reached out a hand, palm up, and he added, “You’re already part of the family. Isn’t it time to come home?”

She looked up at him and replied, “I already have a place very close to yours.”

“I know that, but I suggest you temporarily stay with us for a while to heal and to get to know everyone. At some point the walls of the castle will burst from overpopulation, and then, if you want to, we’ll include your place within the boundaries of the castle,” he offered. Terk looked over at Royal. “I presume Royal will be staying too.”

She looked at Royal in surprise. “I have no idea.”

Royal squeezed her hand. “Yes, you do, and, yes, I will stay, if you’ll have me,” he told Terk. “A few days or more at the castle to get to know everybody would probably be an excellent idea. Janna has a tendency to want to isolate.”

She glared at him.

Terk smiled at that and added, “And that tendency is something we’ll work on.”

She groaned. “You’ll try to turn me into a nice person, won’t you?”

“You’re already a very nice person,” he stated gently. “Just a hurt one. And together, all of us, can fix that.”

Her bottom lip trembled, and she pinched it back tightly, almost causing her lip to bleed. He sighed, then looked over at the rest of the gang and asked, “Her ability stays silent and hidden, agreed?”

They all nodded.

“Just like the rest of us,” Rick stated. “Still, I would much rather have her on our side than be against her. Plus, we’ve now got a problem to deal with, the British government.”

“Yeah, we sure do,” Terk agreed, as he stretched. “But that’s okay, it seems to go with the territory. I’ll go see if I can get things arranged. Maybe the inquiry and all the debriefing can be moved to the castle.”

Royal frowned at him and asked, “Is that really what you want to do? Isn’t that bringing the enemy to your door?” He was getting insights that he hadn’t expected but now made sense on her ability to navigate metal objects. She was likely sensing mechanical energy on pathways. Machines carried energy, and all movement left energy trails. She probably had no idea how she did what she did, but, by moving energy, she could move… cars.

Terk gave Royal a small smile. “You’ll understand more when you’re there with us. Having MI6 in our headquarters is not a show of weakness,” he said gently. “It’s a show of strength, letting them know that they can do nothing to hurt us in our home base,” he explained. “Understanding the strength of our own defenses, we can welcome them in, knowing full well that they’re not an issue. So it’s a pretty-strong chess move.”

Royal thought about that and then nodded slowly. “That makes sense.” He leaned more heavily against the SUV, feeling his own energy ebb and flow with the strange conversation. “Any chance that we can get moving though? I’m really worried about Bruce.”

“That’s another reason to move everything to the castle,” Terk added, staring at the man whose eyes were now open and looking at them. “Bruce needs to come with us.”

She protested. “Are you sure that’s fair?”

Terk looked down at her. “And that’s the side of this life you don’t have any exposure to. It’ll be better to bring him to us than to leave him to the traditional doctors who will poke and prod at him, trying to figure out why he’s even alive. The reasons he’s alive are back at the castle, and the healers need to continue their work. That way Bruce can continue to heal and eventually thrive,” Terk shared. “The work is in progress, but it’s not that far enough along that we can walk away from the energy healing.” Terk turned to Bruce again, addressing him now. “How do you feel about a short holiday in a castle?”

“I would be okay with that,” Bruce said cautiously. “I’m not sure about the lack of doctors though.”

“Oh, definitely no lack of medical personnel there,” Terk corrected. “Even a gynecologist, who keeps getting in my way all the time,” he added, with half a smile.

“Hardly an issue for me,” Bruce protested, but the others were all grinning.

“Maybe so,” Terk agreed, “but let’s get you back to the castle, which is still several hours away. Jonas can come, along with the US representative,” Terk noted, his tone dry. “And, if they want to bring in the CIA operative, when he arrives, he’ll first have to pass my checks before I let him across the moat.”

“You really don’t like them, do you?” Jonas asked, as he stepped in closer, interrupting their little meeting.

“You know how I feel about the CIA and why,” Terk stated, “but they pay well. So, I’ll work certain of their assignments, but I’ll never trust them,” he vowed, his tone deep. “You got any problem with my taking these guys back to the castle, Jonas?”

Jonas hesitated and then shook his head. “At this point, I honestly wouldn’t know what else to do with them. Chances are, you’ll take them to the hospital, and they’ll pronounce them all totally fine, another medical miracle, or else think that we made up all this.”

“That could be,” Terk agreed. “Some things you’re just better off not knowing.”

“You mean, like what she did to those vehicles?”

“Did she do anything?” Terk asked, with one eyebrow raised.

Jonas flushed and glared at him. “A part of me really wants to know, and another part of me is like,… hell no. I don’t.”

“Maybe you should just stick with that hell no part,” Terk suggested, as he helped Janna to her feet. “These people need rest, and they need a chance to recuperate.”

“We still have to talk to them,” he warned.

“Yep, and you’re welcome to come by tomorrow, after they’ve had a chance to de-stress, eat, and sleep,” he stated with finality. “We’ll expect you at what?… Maybe 10:00 a.m.? Can you come that early? Yes, you can,” Terk said, with a chuckle. “You’re the government. You can make it happen.”

And, with that, Janna watched as two more vehicles pulled up. Terk escorted them, nobody making any protests. As soon as Janna had been placed in the back seat of one, Royal climbed in beside her, noting that both Rick and Calum hopped in as well. With the other team in the other vehicle, and Bruce settled as well, they drove away, leaving everybody else standing, staring at them.

She whispered to Calum, “Can we just pull away like that? Without dealing with the repercussions?”

Calum turned and gave her a smile. “There really are some great advantages to being part of Terk’s team,” he shared. “One, we have a lot of respect from this British government because we do jobs that they can’t do, and these jobs we accept always help people,” he explained, reaffirming what Royal had hoped. “And,” he added, having a laughing fit, “they’ve learned it’s much better to not ask questions, or to block us when we have a plan.”