Page 36 of The B-Team

“I thought those shoes were superglued to your feet,” Isobel agreed.

“Oh, for the love of Gucci,” Rachel snarled. “Can’t a pregnant woman have sore feet?”

Ryan held up his hands. “It’s just weird, that’s all. It’s kind of like seeing Batman without his mask.” She glared at him,making him hurry on. “Not that he isn’t still Batman without the mask. He’s always Batman. And you’re always Rachel. See?”

“No.” She tossed her handbag onto a chair, draped her coat on top, and started pacing. Something else she never did.

“Are you okay?” Ryan asked, risking life and limb.

“Do I look okay?” she snapped.

Ryan wasn’t sure how to answer that, so he looked to her husband for guidance. “Hey, Harvard, you want to help us out here? We need a Rachel wrangler.”

Rachel made an irritated huffing sound as Harvard headed for the chair next to the one loaded with her discarded belongings.

“Give her a minute to de-stress; it didn’t go well,” he said. “So, what’s happening on your end?”

“Well,” Ryan said, “Julia’s looking for a message Elle sent her about something relevant to the current situation. Unfortunately, she can’t remember what the message is about, so she’s going through all of them.” He gestured to Claire, who was quietly arguing with the person on the other end of the phone. “We heard back from Claire’s brother, and he doesn’t have any information on the Metropolitan Police. He says he’s a country bumpkin cop, not a big city connected cop. Meanwhile, Claire’s sixteen-year-old niece is trying to access the dark web to find dirt on Fitzwater, and we’re trying to stop her from doing that. From the looks of things, our efforts are going great guns.”

Claire’s voice grew louder. “Katy Boyle, you either help me the way I want, or I’m talking to your father. Is that clear?”

There was a pause before Claire said, “Good. I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up and looked around the room. “Teenagers are a nightmare.”

“Aren’t you going to have like a million of them soon?” Ryan asked.

“Don’t remind me.” She sank back into her chair.

Ryan turned back to Harvard and continued his debrief. “Rochelle’s gone to the American Embassy for help, and the lawyer thinks Joe will get out sometime today, which is good because Julia needs him. Like a lot.” He cast a nervous glance in the direction of the heavily pregnant Julia, but she was engrossed in her iPad and wasn’t listening to anything he said, so he carried on. “The lawyer says that the commander’s more interested in Lake, Callum, Elle, and Evan than anyone else, and he’s considering pressing terrorism charges against all four of them. Whether or not they’ll charge the rest of us with aiding and abetting their acts of terrorism is anyone’s guess.”

“Absolute load of rubbish,” Rachel exploded.

She was pacing the room, her hands on the small of her back, belly sticking out, and a waddle in her walk. She looked like a really angry duck. Not a common duck. One of those posh ones you saw at Buckingham Palace.

“You know,” Claire said, “everybody keeps talking about Joe and Lake and all the rest, but nobody mentions my Samuel. It seems to me that he’s just been swept up in this mess. It’s clear the police are out to get Lake, and the London office in particular, so why even arrest someone who only works out of the Scottish office? What’s the point?”

“I’m sure Grunt will be back soon,” Ryan said, using his most soothing tone. “If they release Joe, they’ll probably release him too. They’re kind of like a set, right?”

“I hope so,” Claire said. “Because if he doesn’t call the kids tonight, there’s going to be a riot in Invertary, and my family will never babysit for us again.” She held up her phone. “I’m already getting messages from Flynn, complaining that my kids keep trying to ride his alpacas. Seriously? What does he expect? Those animals are literally built like walking armchairs.”

“Okaaaaay,” Ryan said, unsure what else to add.

Thankfully, Rachel saved him from saying something dumb by deciding to continue her rant: “The police have nothing to back up their terrorism charges. Honestly, they’ve got barely anything at all. It’s as though their only motivation is to ruin the good name of Benson Security. Fitzwater must realize he can’t make anything stick, yet he carries on regardless. I assume the goal of his petty revenge isn’t to put Lake in jail but rather to ruin his reputation.” She stopped and glared at everyone. “I abhor small-minded people.”

“Good to know,” Ryan muttered.

Rachel started pacing again.

“As I was saying,” Harvard said, “things didn’t go well with the uncle. Rach asked the minister to call his nephew and put a stop to this crap, but we don’t think he’s too eager to help us out.”

“Ha!” Rachel scoffed. “All he did was tell us to exercise patience, that the team will be released if there isn’t enough evidence to bring charges. He doesn’t care one bit about the time they’ll spend in cells waiting for that to happen or the damage this whole situation will cause to our reputations. I’ll tell you one thing for certain—I willnotbe attending his son’s wedding, nor will any other member of my family.”

“That’ll show them,” Isobel said drolly.

“I found it!” Julia exclaimed.

Everyone turned toward her. Rachel stopped pacing.

Julia beamed at them all. “I found the email Elle sent, and I think I know what’s going on.”