Read the following and then let me know what you think!
Chapter 1
Ward completed his tai chi work out on the beach banishing what little stress was left in his body until he heard his encrypted cell phone ring. He froze in place. Then, taking a deep breath and bringing his hands to center he bent and picked up the phone. When he looked at the identity of the person who was calling him it was a slight surprise that the name on the phone didn’t read Eddy. It, however, was not a welcome one.
"Yah," he answered the phone with a small, undetectable sigh and rubbed his forehead. He could guess who was on the other side and he figured it meant work, trouble, or both.
"Nice to talk to you too," the hard voice on the other end was that of Rob Brown, who at one time had been Jan’s agency partner in what seemed a lifetime ago. "I wouldn’t normally bother you, but are you working a case right now? Cause you're not answering your e-mails and I’ve been waiting for about twenty four."
"No, we’re not, and yes, she’s fine. You don’t have to keep checking up on her. We’ve been on a training op," Ward grinned. He was beginning to like the man. Over the last few years he had worked with him, off book, but this was a little invasive. There had to be another reason he was contacting him, and it couldn’t be good. Ward would just have to wade through the pleasantries until he found out. The more small talk, the worse it would be.
They had never given Rob more information than he needed about them, or where they lived. Ever since Ward had left the agency Rob had been his inside contact. Ward had become his secret informer that had brought about many arrests over the years. It had worked well. Ward had always been careful never to put Rob in a position where he could get in trouble for dealing with him, because for a long time Ward had been a wanted man by the PED. Rob had never believed the accusations against him. He also had never fully understood why the department would believe them either, but they had. When Ward had given Rob that initial trust by contacting him, it had gone a long way in cementing the fact that Ward had never gone bad.
Ward had discovered that with his special skills it was nearly impossible to live in the real world, and impossible to live with the department. Without life skills for the one world and no trust left in the other, he had had to find other things to do, and other ways to make money. He had done well. He had invested most of the money he had in property, and spent his free time helping those who needed him at times for compensation, or as it was more often now, without. It didn’t matter to him. When he called in information Rob believed him, and more importantly, he acted on it. At first it had been a leap of faith for both of them; then they had learned to trust each other in matters of work if nothing else. Once Jan left the department it had stressed and then solidified things even more between them. It was as if Rob had given Ward his daughter. Ward didn’t ever think that Rob would completely trust him with Jan’s heart, even though Ward knew it was perfectly safe. Lately, Rob had even started to like Ward. Strange world huh?
"Good, I've got something I think I need the both of you for,” his voice was serious, too serious.
"Incase you don't remember, we don't work for you guys anymore. And to top that off, we don't exist anymore either," Ward's voice was half serious. If the job was interesting enough they might consider it. One of the mind readers, a trainer they had worked with in the field years ago, had taken it upon herself to remove any evidence of their existence not so long ago, freeing them from everyone and everything. It still amazed him that she had chosen to do such a thing. It wasn’t her MO, but had been liberating. But for Ward it was about choosing jobs. Being assigned a job was definitely a different animal, and he wasn’t ready to cross that line again. They now had a type of freedom that at one time seemed impossible and unreachable.
"Hey this one wasn’t hand picked by me. I already turned it down on your behalf. I was made to contact you by the new director for your consideration," now Ward understood that this was a game. Since they didn’t exist, the director would have, should have, no knowledge of them. "I think you need to know who got assigned to be the new director." He was acting like a little kid with a secret now.
"No," Ward really didn't care. He looked out toward the ocean to see if he could see Jan coming back in. There was no sign of her yet. Ward thought about the directors he had worked for and with during his years at the department. Their choices of directors over those years had been passable to downright ludicrous. And since he no longer worked for them, he didn't really care if it got worse or better, but before he could finish his thought Rob gave him the name.
"Pat."
"Come again?" It was less of a question and more of Ward trying to breathe. Ward was truly taken by surprise by this information and he nearly dropped the phone. It took a lot to surprise him after how many years of service he had put in, but after a few minutes to pull it together his full attention was back on the conversation. Never in the department’s history, although it had been a relatively short history, had they ever even considered putting a mind reader in charge. Secret government experiments back in the sixties on mind control were reported not to have come up with anything, but they had. Once the operations had been ordered to stop, they moved it underground, black-ops. Those in the know had given these people a blank check and for it they had gotten a small group of people with very impressive skills, mind reading. Once the department, PED, was created they quickly made sure that each mind reader had a handler. They were the ones to be controlled, watched, not the ones in control. Ward looked up towards the sun. Yes it was still in the eastern sky where it had risen this morning just about an hour ago and moving in the proper direction at the correct speed.
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