Chapter 36

Konner looked up from the phone to see Calum standing at the door grinning. He motioned to the phone as if to say, you try.

Calum came over and stood in front of his desk. “Deacon.”

“Cal?” Deacon made a strange noise. “I’m not even surprised you’re there.”

Calum’s grin widened. “I hear you have two clan members en route.”

“Uh, yeah, Konner just told me.” His tone was completely flat, Konner wondered if he was in shock or just not showing the emotion.

“Boys? Girls? Adults or children?” Gia, Deacon’s mate, sounded excited enough for the two of them.

“Mother and daughter, eleven.” Konner inhaled and gave Calum a quick look. “And there are two more, but getting them out of there is more complicated.”

“Out of where?” Now Deacon’s tone held emotion and it wasn’t a friendly one.

“The other side of the ocean, my friend,” Konner didn’t want to go into too many details over the phone and especially because it was bending a whole lot of rules to the point of breaking.

“We could…”

“No, we can’t.” Konner finished before he got too many ideas. “We can’t break Alliance treaties and go there and pull others out.”

“Shit.” There was mumbling as he explained to his mate. “When are they due to move?”

“In the next few weeks, I don’t have a date because things have to stay flexible.” A polite way of saying if shit went sideways, they had to adjust plans on the move.

“There’s a trailer on the way to your place now, Beckett is taking care of it for me,” Calum added.

“That solves that panic.” Deacon sounded relieved. “Think we’ll put it up by the cabin until the house is ready. Leaving them down there alone doesn’t feel right.”

“We still need to get supplies, and clothes.” Gia sounded like she was holding the phone to her mouth and yelling in it now. “Your foreman said the new units wouldn’t be done for a month.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Deacon told her, his tone changing again.

“Maybe if we can rush through one and put them all together for a bit?” Gia mused. “Well, unless they’re men, then that’s not right to put them with them.”

“I don’t have details right now.” Konner straightened and crossed his arms. “I’ll let you know when I do.”

“Are there a lot over there?”

Konner looked at Calum, they both knew his young teammate was now realizing what he signed up for might be quite different than he’d planned. “I’m not sure. It’s hard to track them down without setting off any alarms.”

“There has to be something we can do about that.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, Konner thought he saw pride on Calum’s face. “We’re going to be taking it to the king later and filling him in.”

“Yeah, good. Being held in a country you don’t want to be in isn’t much different than the then shit they we’re dealing with here with Tomas.” Deacon’s growl was back in his voice.

Konner nodded. Finding his mate had changed him in a few ways that Konner hadn’t imagined possible. Deacon was usually good with a few words and no conversation, never mind him displaying actual emotions more than once during the call. “We’ll get them out one way or another.”

“Did you find any of yours, Konner?” Gia was near the phone again.

Konner sucked in a deep breath and blew it out quietly. “Not so far, but there are several leads.”

“I hope you find them.”

He nodded, not wanting to comment and voice it, or get his hopes up again. “I’ll call you when I have more details.”

“Thanks, Konner,” Deacon scoffed. “I have to go slow Gia down or we’ll have to have a transport deliver the list she’s making.”

Konner grinned. “I’ll send details when I have them.” He hung up the phone and looked at Calum. “he handled it better than I thought he would.”

“Oh, he’ll be freaking out shortly." He sat down. “Deacon processes in a different way and then it all catches up to him at once.” He shrugged one shoulder. “He’ll get through it, Gia is very grounded.”

Konner sat down, he was running out of momentum finally, the last two days he’d burned through a month worth of tasks he’d been putting off because he didn’t have the time. “We’re you looking for me?”

Calum held up his phone. “I just got off the phone with Devin. His father agreed a conference call with the team leaders was warranted with the information you brought back.”

“Which team leaders?” He sat back and rolled his head from side to side, trying to relieve some of the tension in the muscles.

“The eight relevant ones.”

He couldn’t hide the surprise in his reaction. “That’s a good thing, though, to get them involved. Maybe they can figure out a way to get around this and correct it.”

“You’ll be part of it.” Calum smirked at Konner’s rubber neck response when he jerked his head around to look back at him. “It should happen shortly, Nate from the tech team is working on a secure conference call right now, while your pal Fallan gets in touch with all the leaders.”

Konner sat forward, leaning on his desk. “All right. I don’t know the teams like you do, so give me a bit of background.” What he wasn’t in the mood for was flack from anyone right now and the last thing his exhaustion would tolerate was some team leader harping about how he’d bypassed all and any protocol and been poking around in countries that were off-limits to the North American branch of the Alliance.

Calum sat back, looking relaxed, although Konner now suspected he never truly was as chill as he let on he was. “Some of them you know." He smirked. “Your own team leader, of course, Devin, Jesse, and Raymond.” He looked down at the floor, like he was trying to recall the others. “Nate from tech, nothing we do now will be without the tech team keeping us off the airwaves, or whatever it is.” Calum glanced down at his phone. “Kenzo from the special ops team, he’s pretty easy going.” He shrugged. “At least off mission.”

Konner had encountered a few of the ops team, like Tripp, they all seemed like they didn’t have a care in the world, he assumed that flipped like a switch when things were heavy, because some of the stories of what they’d done, there was no way easy-going, quiet mannered personalities could pull that off.

“You may have met Kaid Rivera along the way, he’s in charge of the clean-up team.”

Konner smirked. “They are in and out so fast, I don’t know how they do it.”

Calum grinned. “But they’re good at it. The last one is Uri from the surveillance team, I don’t know him that well, but it’s said he can be standing right beside you and you wouldn’t even know he was there.”

Konner’s eyebrows went up.

“Most of his team is the same.”

“Are they all flyers?” Konner leaned back. “I always wondered how they managed to keep eyes in so many places at once.”

“I’m not sure. I know Uri is, but the rest of his team I’m not familiar with.” He grinned. “I guess that’s why they’re the unseen and do their job so well.”

Konner rubbed his forehead, this call needed to happen soon, he was starting to fade now that he’d stopped. Pushing back from the desk, he went over and picked up the water jug. “All I know is without them, most of the other teams would have walked into some pretty intense situations without their help.” Grabbing a glass, he poured some of the river water and took a big drink of it.

Calum’s phone rang at the same moment Reeves leaned his head around the door and looked at him.

“Yeah?” Calum nodded at Konner. “Hold on, I’ll put it on speaker.”

Konner looked at Reeves. “is it imperative? I need to be on this call.”

Reeves opened his mouth and then shook his head. “No, it can wait.”

Konner nodded his head once as Reeves closed the door.

Calum set his phone down. “Okay, we’re both here.”

“Dad will be on it just a minute.” He recognized Devin’s voice without issue.

Setting the glass and water jug on his desk, he sat down, it was going to be hard to follow a conversation with voices he didn’t know.

“I hear we have you to thank for this new information, Konner.”

Konner knew that voice as well, “I suppose you do, Raymond.” He hoped his friend wasn’t put off that Konner had been going behind the Alliance security protocol to get things done.

“Konner kept me in the loop,” Devin said, surprising Konner that he was sticking up for him when it had only been the past week they’d been communicating.

“Mister Flores and I have been in full communication with his dealings over the years.” Shepard Addison had joined the call. “There was no way for him to operate under the radar if we brought all of the community in on it.”

“Understandable, sir,” Raymond said in his clipped, no-bullshit tone.

“My concern is if anything has leaked out there to anyone we don’t want knowing it.”

Konner looked at the phone.

“I can assure you, Nate, that any of Konner’s dealings are more secure than anything," the King responded. “I believe one of your team has ensured that.”

“I’m guessing Fallan was involved.” He sounded exhausted the way he said it.

“She is very helpful anytime I talk to her.” Devin validated her involvement with that answer.

“I don’t mean to be a pain, but I had to stop on the side of the road for this call and I don’t like standing here cooling my jets when I need to be somewhere else.”

Konner smirked over at Calum when Wynter spoke in the politest way he’d ever heard her talk.

“We’ll keep it brief, Wynter.” Shepard’s tone was light. “Konner has been dealing with some associates in South America for quite some time, in locating members of his clan, and a few others whose numbers have dwindled, he has a network set up to get them over here, without causing too many waves.”

“Waves? More like a tsunami if they’re caught.”

“That’s exactly why it’s been kept to a few, Kenzo.” The king cleared his throat. “On his most recent check-in with his contacts, some information has come to light that we, collectively, need to deal with.”

“Information?”

“Yes, Uri, it has come to light that the ambassadors and their representatives that are part of our allied network are not working for our combined worldwide plan.” Shepard sighed loud enough everyone on the call picked it up. “I’ve been worried about this happening for some time, not just over there, but elsewhere as well. Feeling it and proving it are two entirely different things.”

“Does this tie into our current situation here, because things have been getting hotter by the minute?”

“It does, Kaid, which is the reason for this call now, we need to start reaching out to friends and contacts that we know are aligned with us and come up with a way to put a stop to it.”

“Are you telling me that these ambassadors or whatever are working with the Tomas organization?” Raymond cut off the King without thought.

Konner leaned on the desk, and blew out a quick breath. “I’m not even sure if it’s that way, Raymond, or if the Tomas organization is working for them.”

“There’s been chatter for as long as I remember about how bad it is in other countries, that what Tomas has been doing is nothing new.” He recognized Nate’s voice this time. “This is way too big for us to handle from here.” He sounded overwhelmed.

“Your task hasn’t changed at this point, Nate, we need your team to find out who left the door open for that breach.”

“Yeah.” Nate made a sound of annoyance. “We’re still on it. It’s like looking through a pile of thread on the floor, for one particular piece, without moving any of the other threads.”

“We understand how difficult it is, but I have faith in your team’s abilities.”

“Oh, don’t worry, sir, we will find it.”

“Are we tackling the South America problem first, because worldwide seems like we’re biting off more than we can chew?” Wynter sounded frazzled now and Konner knew there was nothing more dangerous than an upset Wynter Carr.

“For now—” Shepard’s tone was harder “—we reach out to any we know and trust implicitly to see if we can find a direction to deal with this.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t want to endanger any of our kind anywhere in the world and if we start stirring things up, that’s what will happen.”

“So, we reach out to one area at a time, bring them in, do some planning before we execute anything,” Uri said in a contemplative way.

“I agree,” Kenzo added. “Do a little recon in all the directions and see what we’re up against.”

“Many of the clans have origins across the globe.” Konner recognized Jesse’s voice. “Might be an easier route than jumping right to teams and associates of the other ambassadors.”

“Until we vet them and see who can be trusted,” Raymond added briefly.

“I agree, that is a route we should explore.” Shepard seemed content to let the leaders come up with that plan. Konner couldn’t imagine what it was like for him, to sit there and know there were these problems, but his hands were tied because of red tape. “I know I don’t need to say it, but I feel obligated to do so.” He paused. “We can’t let the ambassadors know are we are reaching into their domain and poking around.”

“That’s going to be hard to pull off.”

“I understand that, Kaid, which is the reason for this call. All of you will need to work together with your combined strengths—I know we can succeed.”

“I’ll be the coordinator for this,” Devin piped up. “keeping you as far out of it as possible, Dad.”

“I’ll work with Devin on this.” Calum’s voice startled Konner, he’d been silent up to this point.

“Thank you, Calum, I knew I could rely on you.” The King sounded amused.

“I know this isn’t the topic of this party, but Konner’s clan member was right on the money with deciphering that journal we confiscated, and now more pieces are fitting together.”

“Journal? The one with the transactions in it?” Wynter wasn’t big on paperwork, Konner knew that from personal experience, she was more for guns and not pens.

“That’s the one,” Nate confirmed. “It makes sense now if there are other organizations like Tomas’ across the globe...”

“You think our missing clan members have been shipped to other countries?” Jesse’s tone was more focused now.

“I think it’s a possibility.” Nate sounded distracted. If he was anything like Fallan, Konner suspected he was doing ten things at the same time as being on this call.

“Well, shit. That tosses a fucking wrench into it, doesn’t it?”

Calum and Konner both smirked, Wynter’s polite King-worthy speech was now gone.

“I understand it’s a lot to take on, Wynter, but our priority has not changed, we shut down all locations here in North America before we branch out.”

“Understood, sir, just point me in the direction, I will send my team and hand them their asses.” She cleared her throat. “That’s to say, my team is ready—sir.”

Calum covered his mouth, but there was no hiding the big grin behind his hand.

“I’m right there with Wynter, sir, if you need my team to jump in with the incursion and retrieval team, we have no problems mixing it up.”

“I’m glad you volunteered, Kenzo, you were my next call,” Devin spoke up. “We have a lot of locations that need to be breached in a short time of one another just as soon as Uri gives me the details.”

“My team are on them now, Devin, we should have enough information to act on in the next few days,” Uri informed him.

“To save ten more calls today, how are those four locations I called you about for Konner?” Calum looked across the desk at Konner.

“We’re on those too, three of them will be a walk in the park, low security, like they think they’re gods or something and untouchable. The fourth one is going to be more of a challenge, but..." He stopped for a second. “I’m assuming I can speak clearly on this call?”

“You can.” The King interjected. “All the teams here will be brought on it.”

“Okay, we’ve confirmed two of your kind are at the fourth location, Konner.”

Konner stood up and looked down at the phone. “How have you confirmed this? I’ve had many false leads over the years.”

Uri cleared his throat. “Well, unless one-forms have learned how to breathe underwater for hours at a time, I’d say it’s a pretty good indication.”

Konner put his hand over his mouth, so he wouldn’t blurt something out to rush an operation.

“That saves another call,” Devin said before he could speak. “Planning is already underway, Konner.”

Konner dropped his hand and nodded. “Are they safe until a team can get there?”

“As safe as they’ve been this long.” He sighed. “They’re treated fairly from what we can tell, so that buys us the time to figure out how to get in there.”

“Electronic security?” Nate asked.

“And a few other obstacles,” Uri sounded annoyed.

“You hash this out with any of the leaders here you need, Uri, collectively there is nothing these teams cannot do.” The king told him.

“I’ll do that, sir, I’ll set up a call when I have more intel to go on.”

Konner paced away from the desk and stood by the window, two more of his. His mind was going so fast, he didn’t know how to process it.

“Shaelan has a list of what will be required to get them home safely without endangering their health.” From Calum’s voice, he knew he was now standing too.

Konner was just about to turn and tell them about Deacon’s clan members when Terah walked into his line of sight. She wasn’t at the pond now? Her cycle must have ended.

“Konner.”

He jolted and turned to see Calum giving him a pointed look. “The information about Deacon’s clan members.”

Konner nodded and came back to the desk. “Sorry, just processing that there are two more of mine out there.” He blew out an abrupt breath. “Two of Deacon’s will be here in a few days, but there’s two more that we’re having trouble getting to and getting out.”

“Kaid, you may be of assistance for that, I believe some of your distant relatives are in the same area,” Shepard informed him.

“I have a few wily cousins that will likely be happy to help.” Kaid sounded amused.

Konner nodded. “I will get in touch with you later with some details.” He needed to reach out to his contacts, and process that there were two more coming home to his people soon. He glanced at the window, and he needed to see Terah, he’d worked himself to the point of exhaustion to avoid her the past few days.

“Sounds good.”

“This has been a very productive call, everyone. Thanks to Konner’s information, I feel like we’re turning a corner that’s been in the far distance for a long time.” Shepard Addison acknowledging everything Konner had been doing would have normally been a huge ego boost, but right now he couldn’t even focus enough to remember what day of the week it was.

“I know you all have tasks to be doing, so we’ll end this call for now and schedule one when we have more information.”

Konner looked back at the phone.

“I’ll make space at the center for as many new guests as you bring me.” Raymond’s boots echoed in the hall he was walking in.

“Enjoy your brief downtime,” Devin told everyone. “We have several ops in the works for the next few weeks.”

Calum crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “Shaelan and I are with Konner until we’re called for setup.”

Konner barely heard the rest of the goodbyes; he’d gone back over to the window and was watching Terah talk to Kole. He didn’t know what it was about, but the boy looked up at her with a huge grin and excitement on his face.

“You all right?”

He turned to see Calum standing beside him now, his phone in his hand.

“Yeah,” he said in a quiet way, “just processing.”

“I’ll be there when they go in and get yours out.”

Konner looked back out the window. “Appreciate it.” He watched Terah kneel in front of Kole and the child sit on her legs as they looked out over the lake. “Maybe bring your friend, the one that took down his brother.”

“Blair. Yeah, I have a feeling we’ll have no problems getting Blair to leave the mayhem at home from now on.” Calum chuckled. “You should deal with distractions, my friend.” He gave him a light smack on the shoulder.

Konner turned to see Calum motion out the window with his chin. He nodded reluctantly and then blew out a breath. “I should.”