tell her all about the boat and picnic and what a great time they were having even though she wasn’t there to weave her spell of magical bliss.
Part of him wanted to say he was sorry too. Sorry for being such a jerk and insinuating her duties at home aligned with watching the grass grow. He felt exhaustion settling into his body and desperately wanted a nap. But the kids needed supervision down by the lake even if they were just skipping rocks. And what was he going to do for supper? Geeze! Why had he ticked Tessa off? This was all his fault but if he gave in now Tessa would gloat for the rest of his life.
At that he decided he missed that beautiful smile and longed to hold her in his arms as she laughed and teased him. His heart thickened with regret as his eyes looked out at the lake. They could’ve sat out tonight and counted the stars. That always got her in the mood. The thought of her soft naked skin next to his started to make his clothes feel tight and uncomfortable.
He opened the Blackberry one more time. Maybe he would just leave her a message saying the kids missed her.
Agent Nicholas Zoric, former Serbian Nationalist, sat on the edge of an empty desk, cleaning his nails with a switchblade knife. He watched with one eye toward the wall of windows that enclosed Director Benjamin Clark’s temporary office. Dressed in a suit and tie, the director paced his generous office before Nicholas Zoric’s friend Chase Hunter. Chase sat in a chair looking up at his boss seemingly unconcerned at the verbal abuse being hurled at him. Nicholas carefully closed his knife and smiled over at Tessa Scott who was handcuffed to a well cushioned office chair. For the last ten minutes she had been eyeing her surroundings, looking for another means of escape, he guessed with great amusement.
“What’s gotten into the boss?” Vernon Kemp stopped next to Nicholas and stared nervously into the office where Benjamin continued to beret the team leader at Enigma. “I’ve never seen him in such a rage, especially at Hunter.”
It was true. Chase Hunter was the golden boy at Enigma, the secretive operational force under the protection of Home Land Security. Cloaked in mystery, only the president and Secretary Tobias Stewart, head of Home Land Security, knew the full extent of their operations. They filled a gap of missing intelligence desperately needed after 911.
Teetering on misuse of the law, Enigma had been able to gather vital intelligence from not only within the U.S. but the world. Having the uncanny ability to fit almost any profile and assimilate into any population, Chase was the poster child of Enigma. The president’s complete trust in Chase’s operational force never wavered and gave him free reign when it came to national security. Only Tobias Stewart kept Chase from turning the law and intelligence gathering into a legal nightmare. The way to keep Chase in check was to put Benjamin Clark as his superior, the one man that Chase respected as much as the president.
Vernon shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his ragged jeans. Although some said Vernon Kemp was probably the smartest man in the world when it came to computer technology and artificial intelligence, his appearance implied he was an over aged skateboarder who had dropped by to bum a few bucks from his friends. His hair, red and unruly, fell past his ears. Boyish freckles were evident across his small nose and rosy cheeks. His lopsided smile revealed a bottom row of crooked teeth. Although well into his twenties, Vernon looked like he just graduated from high school. The black glasses he occasionally pushed up on his nose gave Vernon a somewhat geeky look. It wasn’t until you looked into his hazel colored eyes that evidence of a shrewd, almost devilish manipulator materialized. The innocent gamer transformed into a storm trooper with a keyboard.
With a Ph.D. from MIT in computer analysis and design at the age of twenty one, Vernon quickly came to
Part of him wanted to say he was sorry too. Sorry for being such a jerk and insinuating her duties at home aligned with watching the grass grow. He felt exhaustion settling into his body and desperately wanted a nap. But the kids needed supervision down by the lake even if they were just skipping rocks. And what was he going to do for supper? Geeze! Why had he ticked Tessa off? This was all his fault but if he gave in now Tessa would gloat for the rest of his life.
At that he decided he missed that beautiful smile and longed to hold her in his arms as she laughed and teased him. His heart thickened with regret as his eyes looked out at the lake. They could’ve sat out tonight and counted the stars. That always got her in the mood. The thought of her soft naked skin next to his started to make his clothes feel tight and uncomfortable.
He opened the Blackberry one more time. Maybe he would just leave her a message saying the kids missed her.
Agent Nicholas Zoric, former Serbian Nationalist, sat on the edge of an empty desk, cleaning his nails with a switchblade knife. He watched with one eye toward the wall of windows that enclosed Director Benjamin Clark’s temporary office. Dressed in a suit and tie, the director paced his generous office before Nicholas Zoric’s friend Chase Hunter. Chase sat in a chair looking up at his boss seemingly unconcerned at the verbal abuse being hurled at him. Nicholas carefully closed his knife and smiled over at Tessa Scott who was handcuffed to a well cushioned office chair. For the last ten minutes she had been eyeing her surroundings, looking for another means of escape, he guessed with great amusement.
“What’s gotten into the boss?” Vernon Kemp stopped next to Nicholas and stared nervously into the office where Benjamin continued to beret the team leader at Enigma. “I’ve never seen him in such a rage, especially at Hunter.”
It was true. Chase Hunter was the golden boy at Enigma, the secretive operational force under the protection of Home Land Security. Cloaked in mystery, only the president and Secretary Tobias Stewart, head of Home Land Security, knew the full extent of their operations. They filled a gap of missing intelligence desperately needed after 911.
Teetering on misuse of the law, Enigma had been able to gather vital intelligence from not only within the U.S. but the world. Having the uncanny ability to fit almost any profile and assimilate into any population, Chase was the poster child of Enigma. The president’s complete trust in Chase’s operational force never wavered and gave him free reign when it came to national security. Only Tobias Stewart kept Chase from turning the law and intelligence gathering into a legal nightmare. The way to keep Chase in check was to put Benjamin Clark as his superior, the one man that Chase respected as much as the president.
Vernon shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his ragged jeans. Although some said Vernon Kemp was probably the smartest man in the world when it came to computer technology and artificial intelligence, his appearance implied he was an over aged skateboarder who had dropped by to bum a few bucks from his friends. His hair, red and unruly, fell past his ears. Boyish freckles were evident across his small nose and rosy cheeks. His lopsided smile revealed a bottom row of crooked teeth. Although well into his twenties, Vernon looked like he just graduated from high school. The black glasses he occasionally pushed up on his nose gave Vernon a somewhat geeky look. It wasn’t until you looked into his hazel colored eyes that evidence of a shrewd, almost devilish manipulator materialized. The innocent gamer transformed into a storm trooper with a keyboard.
With a Ph.D. from MIT in computer analysis and design at the age of twenty one, Vernon quickly came to
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