~Chapter 6~

~Chapter 6~

~June 15th, 2019- Emma Lector’s Hotel Room in New York City
Emma was at her whit’s end. She had been dialing every number she could think of, looking for a way to get in contact with Josh Taske. Unfortunately, not only was the man feared and respected by every Underworld contact she tried, he was just as impossible to find.
She was flipping through a list of old contacts, friends she had kept in loose contact with since her leaving her secretary position with the Whitehouse. She had tried calling a few Washington DC police officers she knew of, but while they had definitely heard of Josh Taske, they had no idea where he lived or how to get hold of him. Even Senior Secret Service Agent Al Bono, who had been only a rookie when Josh had lead Matt Gold’s security team five years ago, didn’t know how to find his old boss.
Finally, after trying even the head of the Secret Service himself, there was only one number left to try. Emma dialed it despondently, praying that this was her lucky break.
The phone rang twice, and was answered.
“Yeah, Lucy Vale.”
Emma swallowed, “Yes, Miss Vale? My name is Emma Lector; I served as Whitehouse Secretary for a time.
“Yeah, I remember you. What can I do for you?”
“Well, you see, I’m kinda in some trouble and I’m trying to get in touch with you old boss, Josh Taske.”
It sounded like Lucy choked on a glass of water or something.
“WHAT!? Why do you want to talk to that jerk?”
Emma was surprised; she remembered Lucy and Josh being a great team. Josh, the decisive leader, and Lucy, the strong and faithful second-in-command.
“Um… excuse me?”
“Let me just warn you that working with Josh Taske is a life-threatening job.”
“Miss Vale, my current problem is life-threatening as is; I don’t think it can get much worse. But I thought you and him were close?”
Lucy sighed, “We were. Then all that crap with Regent Taske trying to kill the President and hiring a few assassins to do the job. My fiancé, Ralph Rosas, was killed by a car bomb intended for Josh Taske.”
Emma was shocked, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know!”
“Eh, forget it.”
Emma hesitated, “Please, Miss Vale, I need to find Josh Taske, it’s an emergency.”
Lucy groaned slightly, “Hell, I guess he’s your best bet then. Always good in an emergency, the Captain was. Listen, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, I don’t know where Josh is, but I might be able to help you find him. In Los Angeles there is a woman who calls herself Hollywood. She has a print shop somewhere in the city called “Hollywood’s Prints”. The police believe she makes forged documents and ID’s, but haven’t been able to prove it. Now if anyone can tell you how to find Josh, it would be her.”
Emma wrote the name of the woman and the print shop down.
“Thank you so much!”
“Yeah, whatever. Just watch your back.”
Emma hung up and started to pack. She could be in LA by maybe tomorrow, depending on the airlines. Time was running out, and Emma had to get to Josh before it was all gone.

~June 16th, 2019- Josh Taske’s House in Eugene, Oregon
With Nathan and Scarlet around, life was a little bit easier. Josh and Lexy had more time to finish some of their projects and chores, and they had a little more time for each other.
Wraith still told Maria and Elijah stories every night, but now Nathan would listen in and add commentary to the stories involving him.
Scarlet and Maria had hit it off right away. Maria and Lexy had set up a cot in the girl’s room, and Scarlet was impressed by Maria’s Japanese-style décor and small weapons collection.
Surprisingly, while Maria still idolized Nathan and spent whatever time she could with him, it was Jackson that Nathan really seemed to get along with. Something about the kid brought out as close to the best as you could get in Nathan. Nathan had left his old Harley Davidson motorcycle in Josh’s garage last time he had been there, and now he wheeled it behind the garage and had it in pieces along the back walkway.
Today, Jackson was sitting outside with Nathan, bundled up in a warm blue coat. Beside him on the ground sat a juice bottle, from which he took a sip whenever he saw Nathan take a swig from his own tequila bottle.
Even though Nathan knew Jackson really didn’t understand much of what he told him, he still explained what every part was and what it did.
Cooling fins, spark plugs, the crankcase, oil sump, Jackson had them all shown to him and had their uses demonstrated. If he was about six years older, maybe he could have assembled his own motorcycle engine, who knows.
Lexy, Scarlet, Maria and Lola all came out of the backdoor to the house and approached the two mechanics.
Lexy, seeing Jackson sitting on the ground with his grease rag and sippy-cup, smiled, “You two busy trying to fix that old bike?”
Nathan grinned, “Yep, I figure once we get it all figured out we can take it over to Anubis to get it tuned up.”
Scarlet winked at Lexy, “That is if he ever gets it all figured out.”
Lexy laughed, “No kidding. Hey, Nathan, we are all going shopping. Wraith, Josh and Elijah are inside.”
Nathan waved them on, “Gotchya, go have a blast.”
Nathan turned to Jackson, “Well, Jacky, where were we?”
Jackson pointed to a disc-like object.
“K’wank-shaft”
Nathan nodded, “Ah yes, the crankshaft…”

About half-an-hour later, Lexy and Scarlet were busy browsing through dresses, blouses, and skirts in Lexy’s favorite clothes shop. Lola was helping Lexy choose clothes, while Maria disappeared and showed back up again, impatient with the whole shopping experience.
Lola showed her mom a black skirt, “Mommy, this one pretty.”
Lexy looked it over, “Yes, it is, but I’m not really looking for a new skirt.”
Scarlet took it from Lola, “Where did you find this, Lola?”
Lola showed her, and Scarlet chose one in her size.
Lexy was going through a rack of miscellaneous tops.
“So Scarlet, I hear you and Nathan have been working together a lot.”
Scarlet, looking through other colors of skirts, smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, it’s interesting, I’ll tell you that.”
Lexy winked at the female assassin, “Anything romantic happen?”
Scarlet laughed, “If you mean him saving my butt from a Mexican drug dealer or saving me from being tortured and killed by an eccentric Canadian arms dealer, yeah, it’s been romantic.”
Lexy looked surprised, “You know, I know what you do and I’ve heard plenty of storied from both Josh and Nathan, but it still is a bit of a shock whenever I hear something about one of you being captured, tortured, and almost killed.”
Scarlet shrugged, “Well, when you’re the one being captured and tortured you really don’t think about the differences between your job and that of say, a banker or lawyer.”
“I guess that’s true. So nothing in the line of romance between you and Nathan?”
Scarlet shook her head, “No, not really. Not that I would mind a bit of romance to spice up our relationship, it’s just that I’m not sure what Nathan’s feelings are.”
Lexy pulled out a pretty red top, “Yeah, I guess that would put a damper on things. Why don’t you ask him?”
Scarlet snorted, “Ask Nathan? If he did have feelings for me, he’d just hide them and shut himself off from me. If he doesn’t, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“But what if he doesn’t shut himself off or make fun of you?”
“I can’t imagine that man showing any genuine emotion. He keeps everything locked up inside. He sees strong emotions as a weakness, or as a way to control him or hit him where it would hurt.”
Lexy sighed, “Yes, he does. But maybe he’ll be different. I think he does care for you, but maybe he has the same doubts about you that you have about him.”
Scarlet stopped her browsing and stared thoughtfully at the floor.
“Maybe…”
Maria suddenly popped out from under the wrack of clothes Scarlet was looking through.
“Aunty Scarlet, you done yet?”
Scarlet smiled down at the little girl, “No, not yet.”
Maria turned her mouth into a pout, “Well hurry, ‘K? I wanna go.”
Scarlet laughed, “Okay, why don’t you help me go faster then?”

~June 16th, 2019- Samuel Grayson’s Apartment, NY
Today Samuel had the lights on in his apartment. An international news station played in the background from a small Sony radio, but somehow the room still seemed gloomy. Maybe it was because curtains still covered the windows, or maybe because the room didn’t look lived in. Or maybe it was just the man who occupied the room.
Samuel stood in the small kitchenette and stared with his weird gray eyes at the small bulletin board that rested against an easel on the table. Pinned to the board in his neat, precise handwriting were a number of index cards depicting the changes he intended to make, not only to the Board, but to the entire Taske empire.
Jay Marcos sat in the small living room area, pieces of a Sig Sauer pistol laid neatly on the coffee table along side a cleaning kit.
Marcos looked up at Samuel, “He’s late.”
Samuel nodded, “So, you noticed too.”
“Do you think James suspects anything?”
Samuel shook his head slowly, still staring intently at the bulletin board.
“No, he has his Plan and the recent breakup with Miss Lector occupying his mind. The only way he would notice is if someone else brought it to his attention, and no one is going to do that.”
Marcos raised an eyebrow and nodded his head as if to say “Well, that sounds like a long-shot observation, but whatever”.
“You don’t trust my judgment, Marcos?”
Marcos looked up, surprised the man had noticed.
“I trust you judgment, I mean, how could I not trust your judgment? All of your predictions and observations are a hundred-percent accurate. And even if I wanted to doubt you, I’m in too deep.”
Samuel smiled eerily and nodded, “Good.”
A knock on the door startled Marcos, and he reached into his jacket for the twin of the pistol he was cleaning.
Samuel, unarmed and unperturbed, walked to the door to open it.
“Put your gun away, Marcos. It is only the tardy member of our little club.”
Hosea De Carlos entered the room and tossed a few files onto the table.
“Sorry I am late, seniors, I was held up leaving the Regency building. There are the files you asked for.”
Samuel picked up the top file and began flipping through it.
Marcos quickly reassembled his gun and, after holstering it beneath his jacket, got up to look over Samuel’s shoulder.
Samuel looked up at De Carlos, “Have you looked through these?”
Hosea nodded, “Yes, on the bus on my way over.”
Marcos whistled, “Training in both Japan and Europe? James made a good choice with these two.”
Samuel handed the folder to Marcos to finish looking through, and picked up the next.
“It does not matter. Pallas and Apollos have an impressive record, but Josh Taske will take them down like amateurs.”
Marcos looked up at Hosea, wide-eyed.
“You’re kidding, right?”
Samuel laughed harshly, “I do not joke with things like this. Josh Taske, along with Lexy, Nathan, Scarlet and Wraith, will defeat the Twins without much trouble.”
Hosea looked surprised at Samuel, “Nathan and Scarlet are with Taske?”
Samuel looked up from the file he was perusing, “Yes, one of my contacts in Portland saw Nathan’s Jeep drive through Portland in the direction of Eugene. He then followed them and confirmed their arrival at Josh’s house.”
Marcos finished the file on Pallas and Apollos, and then picked up a thicker file.
He looked questioningly at De Carlos, “What’s this one?”
“That is the file on Senor Taske and the Board agents he killed in 2011 through 2013.”
Marcos looked to Samuel, “You think James sending Pallas and Apollos will set Josh off again?”
Samuel shrugged, “That is the one thing I cannot predict. After Josh discovers that James Hughes, with the full blessing of the Board, sent assassins to kill him again, will he decide to hunt James, will he hunt a few Board agents like he did a few years ago, or will he state the coup d'état that has been the subject of so many rumors recently? I cannot tell.”
Marcos looked at the file Samuel was holding, “What’s that one?”
Samuel’s smile was lethal, “This, my dear Marcos, is a bios on each and every member of the Board. Including you, Senor De Carlos here, and even what little they know about me.”
De Carlos and Marcos looked at him, stunned.
“Senor Grayson, what do you plan to do with this information?”
“It is simple, to carry out our plans, we must know what we need to say to win over certain Board members. And we must know which members are already likely to lean in our favor.”
Hosea De Carlos and Jay Marcos exchanged glances.
Marcos thought back to what he had said a little while ago. He had said he was in to deep.
And maybe he was.