Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
“No. We’re not going there.” Ezra leaned forward. “All we’re saying is try to keep some professional distance. I know how hard this is. I’ve worked some intimate operations and it’s tough on a person who has any kind of soul. If you find yourself getting in trouble, call me and I’ll pull you out.”
Levi’s eyes narrowed. “Not your call, man. This is my op.”
“And she’s my operative, so we’ll have to agree to disagree. I promised I would watch out for her. I promised Knight and I promised Big Tag. I assure you, I will pull her if I think she’s in trouble,” Ezra vowed.
That was a whole lot of testosterone flying around. She needed some popcorn to go with all the boy drama. If she was lucky, they might throw down right here in front of the Starbucks.
Her money was on Ezra in a physical fight, though she was certain Levi would be sneaky.
Levi chuckled, a humorless sound. “Wow. I thought the rumors about you were all jealousy and gossip. Turns out they’re true. You are on thin ice, my man. The Agency likes its employees to be loyal to the Agency. Not some security firm whose leader couldn’t hack it. There’s a reason you’re playing second team. One more bad move and you know what’s going to happen.”
“I don’t need advice from you on what a bad move would do to me.” The words came out of Ezra’s mouth, low and dangerous. “I’ve been doing this job a lot longer than you.”
Levi’s eyes rolled. “Yeah, a whole four years.”
“In the field,” Ezra shot back. “I’m a field agent. You’re a glorified paper pusher. You’ve never had to do the job she’s doing. You sit back in your cushy office and make decisions that affect the rest of her life and you’ve never even done the job.”
“Just because I work with my brains and not my hands doesn’t mean there’s not blood on them, brother. Remember that.” Levi stretched as he stood up, his big body moving with ease. “I’m only trying to watch out for you, buddy. You know the brass can get an itchy trigger finger when it comes to burning an agent. Your friend knows all about that.”
Ezra was completely still, not a muscle moving except his jaw as he spoke. He was a tightly coiled cobra and Kayla wondered if he was about to strike. “Funny, I think Ten Smith is pretty happy now.”
Levi was as loose as Ezra was tight, as though he deeply enjoyed the tension. “Don’t let your name get too close to Smith’s right now. With everything going on, you don’t want to be associated with Smith’s crew. You’ll be painted with the same brush and it won’t go well for you. I hope Big Tag is as loyal to you as you’re being to him because I’m worried you’re going to need a job one of these days.”
It was time to pop the testosterone balloon. Kayla leaned forward, speaking to Levi in low tones. “No one is going to need to pull me out so stop threatening him.”
“Oh, sweetheart this is about far more than you.” Levi glared at her. “Has he told you?”
“Told me what?” She wasn’t about to give the dude up. Ezra was the only one she could trust on that side of the op.
Levi looked between them like he couldn’t quite trust either of them. “Were you aware that we believe someone is interested in continuing Hope McDonald’s work?”
It didn’t surprise her at all. The fact that it had taken this long for the Agency to identify someone was the surprising part. “Interested? I would assume that’s pretty much every military in the world. They would never admit it, but the idea of creating super soldiers with no loyalties except to the teams they work with would be intriguing.”
“See, now you are being naïve,” Levi replied. “And you’re not thinking outside a narrow box. Her work is about more than soldiers. The time dilation portion of her work alone could be worth billions. Think about how it could be used. We would no longer need prisons. A prisoner could serve years in the blink of an eye. Minutes would pass in the real world, but with the right drugs and computer simulation, fifteen years complete with all the memories of confinement would live with the prisoner forever. He would come out the same age he went in, but with the wisdom of all those years.”
“It sounds like torture to me.” She didn’t like the almost admiration in Levi’s voice.
“Then you’re not listening closely enough,” Levi complained. “What about the twenty-five-year-old who gets a disease we can’t cure? He can live a life with that technology. He can have a whole life, memories that no disease can take from him. This technology can give us the one thing in the world there’s never enough of. Time. A doctor working on a cure for cancer can have more time to research, to push the boundaries of his mind. Think about what we could do.”