“He got you.” He guffawed, pushed off the wall, and collapsed into his chair. “The pile of chips and electricity got you!”
Arne slumped against the wall with a grunt of exasperation. He stayed that way for a long moment before he looked at Elizabeth. “So…”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “So… What?”
“Where is it?”
E glanced at the screen. “It’s number 369211— Well, fuck me!” She ripped a drawer open and snatched a handful of communicators. “Amy!” she shouted and registered her head of security leaning against the door of her office.
“Amy,” she said in a much more reasonable tone. “It’s the Brogans.”
“The who?” But as she said it, the woman’s face paled. “The Brogans?”
Elizabeth nodded and pushed past the two men to reach the door. Amy didn’t wait to be told. She moved out ahead of her boss.
“Elle!” she snapped and turned to Amy. “Get Lisa and Elle on deck and kitted out. We’re going to war.”
“We are?” Arne and Matthias followed on her heels. “Someone had better start talking.”
“No,” Amy retorted. “Someone had better shut the hell up and listen. The Brogans are—”
“Todd’s parents,” Matthias interrupted when he finally put two and two together. “Oh, fuck me.”
He headed after Elizabeth at a run. “You can’t do this alone!”
“Well, aren’t they the cutest pair,” Arne snarked, followed more slowly, and stopped. “Wait. Todd? As in Stephanie’s Todd?”
She broke into a jog toward the ready room. “Now you’re getting it. How about you shift those old bones and get your kit?”
“Who’s there?” Todd’s mother called.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and put the kettle on. Honestly, their son might be one hell of a scary fighter but his parents were the gentlest of lambs. Her hand trembled as she made coffee and tea exactly the way they liked it, and she frowned. Adrenaline was not what she needed as she set the cups in their places at the table.
They probably wouldn’t get to drink it, but it was the only way she could think of to make herself look less threatening. There was nothing she could do for Matthias. He lounged at the back door and looked like a householder’s nightmare in his combat armor.
Todd’s mother obviously thought so. She got halfway down the stairs and froze. Even then, she didn’t run. She simply stared at them.
When they didn’t move, she descended another two steps. “What are you doing in my kitchen?” she asked and followed it with, “Are you from the Marines?”
Ms. E shook her head and tried her most disarming smile. “Mrs. Brogan, we work with Stephanie.”
The woman’s face lit up. “Todd’s friend’s people?” Her smile faded. “But what are you doing here? And why are you dressed like that?”
“Ask them if they have any ID, honey,” said Todd’s dad. “They should have ID.”
“They should have knocked,” the woman declared and sounded almost angry before her face grew pinched with worry. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because we’re trying to save your lives,” she told her. She glanced at the clock on the wall. “And we’re running out of time. You need to come with us if you want to live.”
Todd’s mother burst out laughing. “That’s something our Todd would say.” She chuckled, deepened her voice to imitate Elizabeth’s words, and accented them with something vaguely European. “Come with me if you want to live.” She turned her head. “Oh, Tony, you have to meet these people.”
Elizabeth stifled a groan. It was hard to believe the sergeant came from these people. She put it down to it being late and them finding themselves in slightly surreal circumstances. Or nerves. It could also be nerves.
She hoped that was all it was because if she discovered they were this stupid all the time, she might simply kill them herself.
“Look,” she said. “I’d like to call Todd so he can verify who we are, but I—” She glanced at Matthias. “Fuck it. I forgot that was even an option! Fuck it all.”
“That’s not very reassuring,” the woman informed her but she stepped into the room and studied her intently. “Do you have any ID?”
“Why aren’t you calling the police?” she asked her and sounded almost pained.
“Because we assume that if you were here to kill us, you wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to make coffee and try to not scare seven kinds of shit out of us.” Tony Brogan didn’t have a problem being blunt. “Now, why don’t you tell us what this is all about?”
“I’d like to be able to do that, but we honestly don’t have the time,” Ms. E told him. “I need to get you somewhere safe and my people need to set up so they can deal with the assassination team.”
“You mean they’re sending more than one person?” Todd’s dad asked. He gestured to his wife and himself. “It’s not like either of us could do a damn thing to stop someone determined to end our lives.”
With a long-suffering sigh, she wondered if Amy might have been right when she’d suggested they tranquilize the parents and explain once they’d moved them.
Elizabeth had argued that this wasn’t the best way to win their trust and Matthias had said they needed them to cooperate, and they’d discarded the idea. Now, she wished they hadn’t.
Before she could respond, her earpiece crackled and Amy’s crisp tones reached her.
“We have incoming. Get them out and get your ass here as soon as you can. It looks like they went with Aegis Ninety-One.”
“Fuck!”
Todd’s mother raised her eyebrows. “I take it that means we have to leave now?” she asked and for a fleeting second, E wondered if Todd needed his mother.
She shoved the thought aside hastily. Of course he did and even if he didn’t, Stephanie needed them to be okay.
“Yes,” she managed. “We have to go now.”
The woman looked at her dressing gown and slippers. “But I’m not dressed,” she protested and her husband slid his arm around her waist.
“That’s what you get for trying to talk them to death,” he told her and gave her a gentle smile. “Besides, I would be proud to have you on my arm, however you were dressed.”
“A man after my own heart,” Matthias declared and hastened to open the door. He blushed. “Except that it would be Elizabeth. No disrespect.”
He turned his most charming smile on the woman, and Elizabeth didn’t know which of them made her want to puke more—Todd’s dad with his besotted smile of comfort or Matthias with his equally charming declaration of love.
Later, she would make him eat those words. Maybe.
Focused on the task at hand, she strode past the couple and out to where the transport waited. Lisa stayed in the driver’s seat long enough to keep the engine running and handed over smoothly. As her guard slid out, E took her place, popped the rear doors, and tapped the steering wheel while Matthias ushered Tony and his wife inside.