"So what's with all the fuss?" Ash asked as they entered the command centre. Vince ignored him.
"What do you think Ellis?" Vince asked politely, pointing to a cabin with glass walls set up in one corner of the room. It had a large desk with two chairs on one side and a plush leather chair on the other, and a file cabinet. The desk was set up with a printer a large monitor, waiting to be attached to a laptop to start working.
"Very nice." Ellis said with raised brows. Vince grinned.
"I know it does not look like much, but it's bullet proof and of course right here. This way Adam will worry less about you, and you'll worry less about him." Vince said cheerfully. Ellis arched an eyebrow.
"And I'll have to listen to less whining." Vince said but did not elaborate more about why he had set the whole thing up.
"Thanks Vince." Ellis said with a grateful smile and then she sashayed into the cabin, and closed the door behind her. Adam watched her set up her desk and make herself comfortable before she got to work.
Ash tapped him on the shoulder after a while and Adam turned to him inquiringly.
"Did you hear a word of what was just said?" he asked, looking exasperated.
"Repeating doesn't kill." Adam said, but he sat with his back towards Ellis this time.
Ash snorted, and waved his hand at Vince, who started again. Everyone else had just shaken their heads at how much of a goner Adam was.
"A missionary and his family has been kidnapped by some wannabe army in Africa. Now honestly, the missionary does not matter even though all of them are American citizens. His wife on the other hand, is the childhood friend of a Senator, who also happens to be the godfather of their baby daughter. Our mission is to get them all out." Vince explained.
"Okay. Where are they?" Adam asked.
"See, that's the catch. They kinda vanished, so most of it is conjecture and hearsay that is two days old and counting. We need to get on the field and look for them." Vince said looking disgusted. He hated field work especially when it involved real jungles as opposed to concrete ones.
"We'll need to get on ground immediately. We need someone to man our base, and to give us tech back up if we need it, but we also need everyone we have with us since this is going to be a people intensive mission." Adam said quietly. "Either Vince or Ash will have to stay back."
"What about Ellis?" Ash asked.
"What about her?" Adam asked turning to him with an arched brow.
"She is skilled enough to give us back up if we need it, and she can do all the tech manning of our base. There is also enough security here that she will be safe even by herself. None of us will have to stay back." Ash said logically.
Adam stared at him for a long moment. "Are you sure she can back us up if things go to hell?"
"Yep. We did not just play video games in those two weeks you all were gone." Ash answered.
"Fine. Let's ask her. Unless anyone has an objection?" he looked around but no one had a problem. Vince stood up and went to knock on Ellis's door. She looked up in surprise.
"What's up?" Ellis asked.
"Can you come out for a minute Ellis?" Vince asked. Ellis nodded and followed him. She perched on a chair between Ash and Adam. Ash explained the situation.
"What do you need from your tech back up in the worst scenario and the best scenario?" Ellis asked. Vince and Ash launched into a lengthy explanation. Ellis listened intently. At the end of it, she nodded.
"I can give you back up. What are you offering me for it?" Ellis asked. That got everyone's attention, while it made Adam smirk.
"Offering?" Vince asked, incredulous.
"You were not expecting me to work for free for mercenaries, now were you?" Ellis drawled. Ash laughed.
"What do you want?" Vince asked in full negotiating mode. He handled all their finances after all.
"Same cut as all of you if things go to hell. If they don't, then I'll just charge you twice what I charge my usual clients." Ellis said decisively.
Vince just stared. "There is no room for negotiating in there."
"You can't negotiate with me if I am your only choice." Ellis said with a grin.
Vince turned to Adam with a disgusted look. "You're freaking contagious, you damn mercenary." Everyone in the room snickered.
Ellis rolled her eyes. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to work." She started to get up, but Adam placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry babes, but you're on our time now. You gotta sit through all the planning, so that you'll know what's going on." He said and he did not look even a little bit sorry.
Ellis dropped back into the chair. It was going to be a long day.
...
"Okay I have to admit, it was a good idea to use Ellis as a tech backup." Adam said finally.
Ash rolled his eyes. "Finally over your temper tantrum?"
"You noticed huh?"
"I am not the only one. Good thing Ellis doesn't give a damn about how angry you are." Ash said with a sigh. Adam nodded.
"Why didn't you say you had a problem with it?" Vince asked curiously. "You asked the rest of us."
"My problem was personal not professional. Ellis can decide things for herself, and the least I can do is respect that." Adam said stubbornly.
"She's good. We only had a briefing for two hours before we took this plane, and she already had all this info for us. She has also sent maps and quite a bit more data since take off through the plane's channels." Vince said with an appreciative sigh.
"I know." Adam said quietly, flicking open his own palm screen to study the data Ellis was even now sending them. They needed to be as prepared as possible before they landed in the jungles of Africa.
"She'll be fine." Ash said.
Adam looked at his friend and suddenly he chuckled. "Ell's right. You suck at the cheering people thing."
Ash gave him a look of supreme disgust before he flicked his own screen open and started studying the data.
...
"Okay, Vince, there is a camp of some sort right in front of you. I hacked into a surveillance satellite and that's what it's showing me. Be very careful. At least a 100 men and they seem heavily armed from these images." Ellis said into her headset.
"Gotcha." Vince's voice was clear even though he was half the world away. Ellis had decided that she loved technology.
"Ash you're clear. Keep moving forward. There is a village 2 miles ahead of you, but that is all I have." Ellis said.
"Okay. Let me know if you see anything else. I am heading to the village and asking them about this damn missionary." Ash answered.
"Adam, I have nothing for you. The satellite imagery is mostly useless for the part of the jungle where you are. I am combing through it, but, I haven't found anything yet." Ellis said quietly. All of them had the channels open at all times, so that they would know immediately if anyone was in trouble.
"It's okay, love. I'm used to playing it blind." Adam said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.
Ellis nodded to herself and kept combing through the imagery she was getting through the satellite she had hacked. The men had divided into three teams to make the search faster, but it had made them more vulnerable, and hence more cautious. Now Ellis was trying her best that nothing went wrong.
Ellis reached blindly for her coffee mug and took a sip only to realize that it was empty. She scowled at it, before finally giving in and getting up to get more coffee. She kept the headset on, just in case, as she made her way to the kitchenette.
Ellis made the coffee, but she felt like something was wrong. Trusting her instincts, she whirled around, and a man was standing at the entrance of the kitchen staring right at her.
"When did Adam hire a pretty girl like you?" he drawled.
Ellis's eyes narrowed. "Who're you?" she asked coldly, doing her best to ignore the fear trying to crawl up her spine. She heard a sharp intake of breath on the headset and then absolute silence. The entire team was listening to her conversation with this stranger now.
"Now now, is that anyway to talk to your senior, girly?" he said casually, and Ellis felt herself snap. She drew out the gun she had had in her waist holster and levelled it at him. Since she was great at handling guns, it had taken her a fraction of a second to do so, and she could see that she had startled this intruder. Good.
"Put your hands where I can see them." Ellis said icily.
"Now now girly..." he started, but she shot a bullet into the wall right next to his head.
"Hands where I can see them." Ellis's voice was deliberate, but it was clear that one wrong move and she would shoot to kill.
The man placed his hands flat on the table in front of him, fingers spread.
"You're making a mistake girl." He said almost growling.
"Who are you?" Ellis asked. She could almost feel Adam and everyone else waiting for his response with baited breath. She knew that they were staying silent so as to not distract her, but she almost wished she could hear Adam's voice.
"James Chan." He finally answered.
"Adam, he is calling himself James Chan. Six feet tall, black hair, dark brown eyes, Asian descent and a tattoo on his neck that I can only see half of. Looks like a Chinese dragon though." Ellis said briskly.
"Tell him Mikki has a new boyfriend." Adam answered.
"Mikki has a new boyfriend." Ellis repeated deadpan.
"NO WAY IN HELL!" James yelled.
"It's him." Adam said coldly. "Put me on the speaker. I'll deal with this."
Ellis pressed a button on her headset, turning it to speaker mode without taking the gun off him. Then she moved back, putting as much physical space between herself and this Chan as she possibly could.
"You're on, love." Ellis said calmly.
"Chan, meet Ellis. We're on a mission and she is our tech backup. Do anything to pester her, and you answer to me. Until we come back, either leave, or you can be her bodyguard. Decide now." Adam said in a voice that sounded like he was planning murder.
"Bodyguard." James answered, then "Does Mikki really have a new boyfriend?"
"No. She's still waiting for you, you bastard." Ash answered, his tone withering.
James visibly cheered up.
"Still want to be bodyguard?" Adam asked.
"Of course." James replied.
"Right. Ellis, give him a headset, and then feel free to ignore him." Adam ordered.
"Okay." Ellis nodded.
"Oh and one more thing Chan, if you touch Ellis to get her back for pulling a gun on you, I'll kill you." Adam said pleasantly.
James raised both eyebrows at Ellis, but she seemed unsurprised by this declaration. There were no exclamations of surprise from Ash and the others either. James was amazed by how much favour this newcomer was getting over him, but there was nothing he could do about it right now.
"Fine." James snapped. Ellis gave him a nod and then motioned for him to move ahead of her. Just because Adam had warned him, did not mean she was going to trust this guy.
They moved back to the command center and then Ellis really did ignore him. She concentrated on the mission, which actually went smoothly. It was Ash who found the missionary and his family. Someone in the village had seen them being transported against their will. After that it was just a matter of following the trail. They slipped into the place in the dead of the night and sneaked the family out. No fighting required at all.
They had placed the missionary and his family on a plane and then considered the mission finished. Ellis though did not relax until they themselves were all safely on the plane home.
"You're not half bad as backup." Adam said with a smile, even as he relaxed into his seat on the plane.
"Half bad? I am damn good and you know it." Ellis said haughtily.
"Well, maybe." Adam drawled.
"Get some rest Ellis. You've been up as long as us, and I can barely keep my eyes open." Ash said.
"You know I can't sleep here." Ellis answered.
"Chan can take you home if you want." Ash retorted.
"I am a bodyguard, not a driver." James snapped. Everyone ignored him.
"It'll be hours before we get there." Adam said quietly. Ellis took a breath to argue, but he spoke again. "Drink Lots of coffee. That way, you'll just be ready to crash when I get there. I'll take you home. You can finish your actual work meanwhile, if you want."
Ellis smiled. "I think I'll do that."
They finally closed the contact channel, but James was watching her strangely.
"I have known Adam White and Ash Lee for years and I have never ever before heard them talk like that. Just what did you do to them?" he asked, sounding stunned.
"None of your business." Ellis said loftily.
Then her headset beeped and she switched it on. It was a private call from Adam.
"Hey." He murmured. Ellis felt herself smile.
"You should be sleeping." She said as she stood up and walked to the cabin Vince had prepared for her.
"And you should be working." Adam answered without missing a beat.
"You gave me like five seconds between the two calls." Ellis chuckled.
"It was more than that." Adam retorted.
"Uh huh."
"Yep. So how was working for me?"
"It was okay. I get double pay." Ellis said happily.
"You tone and your words do not match. Oh and just so you know, according to Vince and Ash, things probably would have been pretty bad if you had not hacked into that satellite." Adam said, part amused, part proud.
"Yeah, and you're finally not angry that Ash dragged me into this." Ellis was plain happy.
Adam sighed. "You know me."
"Yeah I do. But did you notice something Adam?" Ellis's tone turned as bright as the noon Sun.
"Yeah I did. You took care of Chan all by yourself. Even your voice did not waver." Adam said, and she could tell he was proud.
"Yep!"
"What did he do to make you pull the gun though? Except show up unannounced?" Adam asked.
"He called me... 'girly'." Ellis said quietly.
Adam was silent for a long while, and Ellis wondered if she had sent him on a guilt trip.
"That's not how he used to talk. He's been working undercover in South America for nearly six months on a mission he took for some government or the other. There is a chance that he picked it up from that bastard. If he did..." Adam let that trail off.
"Then we can find him." Ellis finished.
"Exactly."
"Wanna talk to Chan now?" Ellis asked.
"Hell no. He won't tell me anything until I am sitting in front of him anyways. Just peek out of the office and tell him I have a job for him." Adam said.
Ellis strode to the door, opened it and stuck her head outside. "Chan, Adam says he has a job for you when he gets back."
Chan looked at her in surprise then nodded, before he went back to talking on the phone.
Ellis slipped back into the cabin, still she could not forget his expression. It had been quite earnest.
"Any idea who he'd be talking to while looking very earnest?" Ellis asked Adam. "Oh and how did you know I was in the cabin?"
"His wife, Mikki; and you're too private to have this conversation in front of Chan." Adam replied.
"He's married?" Ellis exclaimed.
"Darlin' get all the gossip from Ash later, will you? It really is not my forte." Adam said with a dramatic sigh. Ellis laughed.
"Go to sleep Adam. I'll see you when you get back. I love you." Ellis said with traces of her laughter still in her voice.
"I love you too." Adam replied and then cut the call.
"You're his girlfriend?" Chan asked, sounding incredulous. Ellis looked up to realize that he had opened the door to the cabin, and was standing just outside.
"Fiancée, actually." Ellis answered.
"Marrying the boss? Or the boss fell for you?" James asked, walking in and sitting across from her.
"I don't work for Adam. This is just a one time favour." Ellis explained, amused.
"So you're not really part of the team." James mused.
Ellis shook her head.
"Then what's with the office?" James asked.
"It's so I can have my own space here when Adam's working. He worries. It was Vince's idea, I think. Or maybe Ash got tired of babysitting me." Ellis shrugged.
"You're pretty comfortable with all of them." James observed coldly.
"Your point?" Ellis asked.
"Which one are you really interested in? Vince? Ash? Adam? Or all of them?" James's voice was harsh.
Ellis just stared at him before she chuckled. "You can think what you like. But do it outside my office."
James glared at her before he stormed out. Still, he never left the command center and never did he shirk his bodyguard duties, even though he now seemed to openly dislike Ellis. She just ignored him as she worked on her laptop.
...
"Wake up, love!" Adam said shaking Ellis lightly. She blinked at him, then just extended her arms. She had apparently fallen into a light doze on her office chair.
"I haven't had time to shower yet." Adam pointed out mildly.
Ellis just waved her arms a bit more in his direction and closed her eyes. Adam sighed and picked her up. She kept her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
"Want me to grab her stuff? She'll just make me bring it when I come in the morning." Ash asked, careful to keep his voice low.
Adam nodded. He had managed to get some sleep on the flight, but she had been awake for nearly three days now. No wonder she had fallen asleep at her desk. Ash quickly packed Ellis's laptop and then followed Adam out. No one batted an eye at seeing Ellis asleep and being carried in his arms, but James had had enough.
"What is it with you all following one woman like the world revolves around her?" he asked coldly. He had not raised his voice, but he had not lowered it either. Ellis raised her head from Adam's shoulder, blinking blearily in his direction. Adam's voice had not really woken her, but hearing a strange man had.
"Go back to sleep, love. I'll deal with this." Adam said to her, his voice gentle, even though he was glaring at James. But Ellis was awake now, and she slipped down from Adam's arms and stood up with one arm around his waist.
"Adam, you're filthy." She told him sleepily, not making any move to step away. Adam chuckled.
"Now that you're awake, you can take your own stuff." Ash said, handing her the laptop bag. James noted that Ellis was careful not to brush against his skin. It just ignited his temper even more. He opened his mouth to speak, but he felt the muzzle of a gun against his ribs.
"Not another word." Vince whispered. James nodded, even though his temper was now rising by the second.
"C'mon, time to go home." Adam said easily, dropping his own arm around her shoulders. Ellis nodded, resting her head against his shoulder.
"Bye guys! See you later! Oh and I'll throw a party for the success..." Ellis yawned "...later after I've had sleep."
Adam shared a look with Ash over her head as he left the room and threw a glance at James. Ash gave him a nod, saying that he'd deal with this. Adam led Ellis out, and she was half asleep again before they even reached the car.
...
As soon as Adam and Ellis were out of the building, Ash grabbed James by his collar and slammed him against the wall.
"What do you think you're doing?" he snarled.
"What am I doing? What is it with all of you and that woman?" James snapped.
"That woman? Has anyone of us ever insulted Mikki?" Ash breathed, "Then what gives you the right to be rude to Ellis?"
"Because she is obviously not serious about Adam, and somehow she has you, and even Vince hooked." James snapped.
Ash stared at him in open mouthed astonishment, before he moved back. He was shaking and it took James a moment to realize it was from laughter, not anger.
"An affair with Ellis?" Ash finally sputtered amid gales of laughter. James looked around and almost everyone was laughing.
"I have no idea what made you think that, but believe me it's not possible." Vince said, trying to sound reasonable, amid chuckles.
"Then why did Ash go through so much trouble to not touch her in front of Adam?" James asked coldly.
"Because she hates touch. She can barely stand to shake hands, let alone anything else. It's only Adam that she can allow to be close to her. So trust me, having an affair with Ellis is impossible." Ash answered, and he was no longer laughing.
"Not to mention, Adam would kill us." Vince added.
"And her?" James asked.
"Adam would never hurt her. Ever.He was pretty serious when he told you he'd kill you if you mess with her, so you better stay away. He's already going to be mad at you for this one." Vince replied.
"Adam's not the only one you'll have to deal with. She's my friend too. Don't ever think of bothering her, Chan." Ash said coldly, all traces of laughter gone.
James nodded, but he knew that they were far from done. He didn't trust this touch-me-not act, not one bit.