Mina Cortez: From Bouquets to Bullets by Jeffrey Cook Page A

whole 'medical
complications' excuse that's covering for you here now should
prevent your parents being too surprised, these next couple days,
if you come back more out of breath, or don't quite hide the
stiffness properly when you walk.”
    “Oh, that doesn't sound ominous,” Mina
remarked ironically at the implication for her initial physical
training.
    “It didn't? I must not have said it right,”
he said with just a hint of a smile. “We're going to be thorough,
Cortez. From the sound of things, you're enough like your
grandfather that you wouldn't settle for less even if we would.”
More of a smile. “Which we won't.”
    “So his car accident—”
    Agent Park sighed slightly. “I think you can
guess what kind of 'car accident' it was, but that's also more of a
question for the Deputy Mayor. Today or a day like it, obviously,
not during everyday life.”
    “This stuff and everyday life ... it's a
little bit of cognitive dissonance.”
    “Yeah. The Inquisitor angle—” At Mina's
sudden eyebrows, Agent Park clarified with a sheepish gesture. “The
organization, 'this stuff'—it will bring some big cases. Sometimes
very big: international crime syndicates, black marketeers, and
human trafficking. Most of the time, though, I'm a cop. You're a
florist.”
    Mina nodded. But the big stuff colored
everything else, really. Even deliveries would be part of her
chance to do something important. Which reminded her. “The Director
mentioned a first case. What is it?”
    Agent Park sighed. “That's not really a
question for me either,” he answered, before urging her towards her
next meeting before she inquired further.
    There was a lot she was still confused about,
but she was feeling better about the situation in general.
Suspicions about the veracity of any of this cropped up now and
then, but her earlier encounter with the Director amidst a police
investigation helped. She was able to confirm pretty easily that
they were at the FBI building. Likewise, while still uneasy with
being kidnapped at all, she was positive that anyone able to kidnap
someone from the chipping center had to have some pretty high level
clearance.
    Now, they were willingly dragging her before
one of the city's longest-serving officials. While it was further
evidence the 'secret police' were legitimate, that meeting still
made her nervous. She was pretty sure she wasn't on the Deputy
Mayor's list of favorites after their meeting at Scott's party.
Just standing in front of the door, that growing comfort from Agent
Park's easygoing frankness suddenly dissipated.
    * * * *
    Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't the
friendly greeting she received. The Deputy Mayor met her at the
door. The big man Mina had seen at the party was settled onto a
couch to one side of the office, along with a much smaller Japanese
man in a similar suit. Where before, she had had to wait for the
hint of gun oil to guess at the man's being armed, now tiny
telltale signs raced through her brain, sizing both men up for
armament, combat readiness and state of alertness, and that was
with little beyond a cursory glance.
    That glance was all she got before the Deputy
Mayor all but hugged her. “Mina! It's wonderful to see you again.
I'm so sorry for the awkwardness at the party. Despite all of your
marks, no one was quite certain about you as an agent. It's a lot
of tough criteria, and not very many people are suited for it.”
    “So, are you one of the Secret Police?” Mina
asked. Her chip gave her the all clear on talking to the woman, at
least.
    “Oh, no. At least not as an agent. I'm a
political liaison. While I have a lot of responsibilities, one of
the big ones, at least as concerns your organization, is to make
sure that the city, state, and federal authorities aren't in your
way, and coordinate with you when necessary.”
    Mina blinked a couple times. “Federal? So ...
where, exactly, do we rank compared to the FBI? The Director
mentioned multinational