Chapter 1
The tall grey headed man in charge of this raucous rabble looked about the crowded office through the press of people to where everyone was talking and laughing at once. His eyes rested on the person he was searching for and found she was the centre of attention amongst the middle of the gathering. Seated at her desk with her feet resting on top and swinging back in the chair hands linked behind her head she was accepting the congratulations and good natured ribbing of her fellow officers.
She'd done exceptionally well with her last case he thought. Dogged and determined and with the help of her partner she had pursued the smallest clue till she had found one painstaking lead after another and like a jigsaw, piece by piece she built her case and gone for the jugular and brought the offenders to justice. He joined the group surrounding her and joined in the congratulatory laughter.
'Well done Cyd� you certainly nailed their balls to the wall.' He offered with a rare smile as he pulled out a chair and sat down facing her.
She lowered her feet off her desk onto the floor and she grinned across at him knowing just how pleased he was with her with that rare smile. 'Thanks Mac. Do I get a raise now?'
'No agent Wade.. no raise.. you work for the love of the job don't you?' he found himself smiling back. He liked and respected Cydney. He found her irrepressible enthusiasm good for the office morale. And he was pleased that by partnering her with Dennis Neville she had grown in leaps and bounds from the raw fresh innocent faced officer that was first assigned to the department to the dedicated competent agent with the nose for smelling out trouble she was now.
Although it wasn't long before she lost her innocence and gained some measure of cynicism that all the officers in the agency possessed she wasn't jaded by her experiences. She had a lively sense of humour that helped keep her work in perspective and that made her popular within the department, even though the agents often found themselves in dangerous positions in the course of their investigations. Her hard work and persistence in tracking down the people that abused the environment had seen her advance through the ranks till now she was one of his most trusted and gifted agents.
'Oh the love of the job Mac�. Underpaid, over worked, you get shot at, have no sleep and eat at weird hours and oh yeah I forgot about my caffeine addiction that keeps me awake during the said long hours with no sleep. Yeah I lurveee my job. I can't wait for what's up next. Who's ball's am I going to nail to the wall now?'' she said rubbing her hands together.
John McDonald smiled as he got up. 'I'll find you someone to terrorise, have no fear about that. So where are the drinks tonight, the usual watering hole?' he asked about the offices habit of celebrating with each other after a case was closed. He looked at the agent's faces gathered around him and got the nod of affirmative from them. 'Great first round's on me. Meet you all there after work, that's if you lot are actually doing any work?' He pointed at Cydney. 'You get the finest bottle of champagne the establishment has Cyd. Catch you later guys.'
The office settled back down as the agents resumed their work. Cydney now at a loose end till her next case pulled over a file that her partner had left on her desk. Intrigued at what he was up to she perused through his notes and whistled softly as the import of what she was reading sank in.
'God Nev what are you up to?' she whispered to herself as she tapped her pencil on the desk and considered what she had read in the file. He was keeping his cards close to his chest here. She knew Nev was off on his own doing some fieldwork ready for her to join him on this next case. They had been separated for the last few weeks while she had been of necessity undercover during the last operation. Biting her lip in concern she hoped he was alright for this looked to be potentially a very dangerous case.
She turned around in her chair and yelled at the young red headed man near the coffee machine. 'Hey Wayne has Nev checked in lately do you know?'
'Yeah I think Mac said he checked in last night. He mentioned something about a contact he was waiting for this morning and then he would be coming home to collect you.'
'Good.. I was wondering about him that's all. He's normally scrupulous about checking in and I hate not hearing from him.'
'I dunno why you like his ugly mug so much Cyd�not when you could have a real man like me for a partner.' Wayne joked and ducked from the pencil that got tossed his way. 'Ouch you wound me�. I'm spurned for another, I'll never recover.' He clutched at his heart and stumbled around making Cydney laugh at his tomfoolery.
'When is that wife of yours having that baby Wayne? It feels like she's been pregnant forever.'
'You're telling me Cyd.' He grinned has he perched himself on the side of her desk swinging his leg as he spoke. 'She's not due for another few weeks yet. No sign of you increasing the ranks of the EPA anytime soon is there Cyd?'
'I need a man for that Wayne. I can't do that alone. I'm good but not that good.' She swiped his coffee with a laugh and took a sip. 'I'm beginning to think I'm married to this job, anyway what man would put up with my hours? I'm so starved of sex even old O'Reily over there is beginning to look good.' She said loud enough for O'Reily to prick up his ears and say.
'Did someone mention me?' the middle aged rotund balding man asked as he turned his head around at the sound of their laughter and realising they were kidding him he pulled a face at them and resumed his report writing.
Wayne and Cydney guffawed. 'You need to get out more Cyd. You need a life. I could set you up with my brother in law.' He offered with a grin knowing the response he would draw from her.
'Yeah as much as I love your wife Jane, I think I see enough of your ugly mug at work without having to be related to you as well. I'll pass on that thank you very much.'
'Hey he's a good catch, he still has all his own teeth�Ok just kidding.' He eyed the coffee cup in her hand warily as he grinned. 'Nev sure has his hands full with you. Do you ever do as you're told?'
She considered. 'Sometimes ..maybe. Only if Nev asks nicely.'
'Yeah I bet.' He looked at his watch. 'Well looks like its knock off time. Is the guest of honour coming?' he asked reached behind her desk and threw her leather jacket at her.
'You bet I am� because tonight the drinks are on you lot.' She stood up and slipped easily into her jacket before opening her top desk drawer and removing her handbag and slipping it over her shoulder. 'And I don't have to get up tomorrow�. Oh a day off. I think I'm going to sleep all day.' She laughed gratefully. Wayne flung an arm lightly about her shoulder as he gave a general shout. 'We're off� catch you all there later dudes.'
Amongst loud and jovial remarks not to drink the bar dry before the rest of them had a chance to get there Cydney and Wayne grinned and made their way to the elevators.
The comradarie of the office meant that they were a high spirited bunch. A close knit team made up of individual personalities they worked and played hard together. And Cydney didn't often feel the lack of a man or a relationship in her life. She was contented with her lot in life and a relationship only had the potential to complicate things. It took a special man to understand what she did for a living and the demands it entailed on her time and lifestyle. She was treated like one of the boys by the fellas in her office she being the only female officer in this particular branch of the Environmental Protection Agency. There were of course, a few of the secretarial staff with whom she was on friendly terms with. And there were also several girlfriends from her collage days that made up for the lack of female companionship in her life.
Both her parents had passed away when killed in a car accident in her late teens. She had lived with her older brother whom she adored but now saw rarely as he lived on the other side of the country with his young family.
She made sure that she rang at least a couple of times a week so at least her nephews knew her voice if not her face and because her brother was keen to keep in touch with his younger sister's life. When not working she had an active social life with her fellow agents often inviting her home to their families and her collage friends made sure she didn't devote all her spare time to her career. It wasn't that she was career driven or even particularly ambitious, just that she was dedicated and once on a case she gave it all her attention and often had to be dragged away from it and made to put it aside for a short while. But occasionally the lack of love and romance in her life would make her consider her future but then she would find these thoughts pushed aside as work and it's importance took priority.
Wayne bought Cyd a drink and they climbed upon a couple of bar stools as they awaited the arrival of the rest of the office. He watched her take a sip the drink from under his hooded eyes as he considered this likeable woman beside him.
Tall with shoulder length blonde hair that was often carelessly pulled back from her face in a ponytail, she had a pretty but interesting face that wasn't strictly classically beautiful. But it was the animation in her face as her features came alive when she spoke or laughed that was Cydney's attraction and it could turn heads. She possessed the most unusual stunning grey eyes that often by necessity had to shield her inner thoughts from the world as the demands of her job dictated they must. For to be undercover and not be able to act the part deemed necessary could be life endangering for the agent and her backup. And in this skill Cydney had been an apt pupil. She wasn't reed thin either but owned a fit athletic body fine tuned and toned by long workouts in the gym and by her martial arts training. Wayne had seen this training first hand when she had saved his life once on an undercover mission. The gunman hadn't even known what had hit him.
'I'm not going out with your brother in law Wayne..so stop plotting.' Cydney broke into his thoughts with a smile oh her face. He laughed knowing she had deliberately deflected his thoughts away from her with her wisecrack. It was another thing he liked about her, that off beat sense of humour she possessed which often, when in a tight spot relieved the tension.
"Nah I wasn't thinking about Harry� I was thinking maybe Jake my cousin.' He grinned.
'God just how many relatives do you have?' Cydney swallowed the last contents of her glass.
'More than you want to know I bet�' he retorted but was interrupted from continuing as the rest of the office invaded the bar and with their usual style they partied the night away.
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In a run down budget hotel room Dennis Neville paced nervously across the floor, he had a bad feeling about this as he ran his hand through his hair distractedly. He was always one to trust his instincts and he was sure he had been followed here. He had tried his best to avoid all possible pursuit but he couldn't shake this feeling of uneasiness that threatened to overwhelm him. He gently pulled the blind and curtains aside and studied the cars parked outside the hotel rooms. Nothing suspicious there he thought but still there was something gnawing away at his mind.
Dennis was in his early forties and single with an elderly mother and the lines on his face told of his dedication to the job. He thought about his dilemma and knew that his fate was in the lap of the gods. If destiny was his to meet then meet her he would, but on his own terms. Cydney was the closest thing he had to family and he trusted in her skills as an investigator. If anything happened to him he could trust her to see the job through to the end and he trusted her with his life and what might be his contact's life. He made a decision to ring her. You never knew when the unexpected might happen in this game and she needed to be forewarned and brought up to date. Picking up his cell phone her rang her number.
'Pick it up Cyd�' he pleaded as her phone persistently rang and rang.
'Hello.' A voice groggy with sleep answered.
'Cydney? Are you awake?'
'Nev is that you?' she asked and he sensed by her tone of voice that she was wide awake now. 'Um I guess this isn't a social call�where the hell are you? I've been worried all day.'
He found himself grinning despite his earlier pessimism. 'No Cyd�it's not a social call. I'm in Kentucky.'
'Kentucky! Friggin Kentucky? I thought you were in L.A. What on earth are you doing in Kentucky Nev?'
'I followed my contact here. Look Cyd�I'm not sure that I'm going to make it back home�I need you to pay attention ok?' he insisted.
'Nev? Are you ok?' he heard the uncertainty in her voice.
'Well so far� maybe. Look don't worry about me Cyd. Now be quiet and listen for a sec, it's important. This morning I picked up a video tape from my contact. It was a tape of him filming toxic waste being dumped in a disused mine. I sent the package to our safe house. You got that Cyd?' he kept his voice even.
'This is serious shit isn't it Nev?' She heard her fear for him in her voice.
'Yeah Cyd�very serious shit�we're fighting in the big league now sweetheart. It ain't gonna be pretty.'
'Get out of there buddy..get out of there now.' She urged him.
'I wish I could sweetheart. I think it's too late�.too late for me now, so listen carefully�'
*****************
Cydney placed the phone back beside her bed with a heavy heart. 'Shit, shit, shit Nev.' She whispered feeling the tears threaten to choke her.
Climbing out of bed she knew there would be no more sleep tonight. Dragging herself to the kitchen she made a cup of coffee and drank it, her mind processing and thinking over all the information Nev had imparted to her. She needed to think clearly, she needed to push all emotion from her mind. She shook her head at the unknown contact's identity. Nev had dropped that bombshell in her lap. That was a real mind blowing revelation, who would have thought it? Draining the dregs of her coffee she decided to go to the office to research through Nev's files. It might pay to be ahead of the game, if as Nev thought they weren't playing in the little league now, but the majors.
Chapter 2
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