Team: Echo (15 page)

“
I have a stand-in though,” he pointed out as he poured more
alcohol into her glass. “And we don’t have to drink them all,
though what’s in there might get me snockered if I didn’t have
someone helping with the drinking. I may have to throw another
couple bottles in. Anyway, she’s got Gareth to keep her warm if
need be. Your guys though will be pissed if I get you drunk today.
Especially considering it’s not even noon yet.”

“
I really don’t care. They will love it because that means
that they will get to pamper me all the rest of the night and
tomorrow during my hangover so that’s all good.” She took another
drink and smiled. “Trust me, we will be fine. I love those two men,
like crazy.”

“
More likely they will give me hell and then sit there telling
you, repeatedly, I-told-you-so or some rendition of it,” he
muttered. “They love you too, Penelope,” Mikhail looked her way.
“Never thought I’d see Dieter grinning that much but you make them
happy and that man is grinning a lot more now than ever
before.”

“
It’s good that they love me and yeah they will tell me the
whole I-told-you-so but they will still take care of me.” She
shrugged as she spoke. “It’s all good. I think that more drinks
would be good. I will stop when the world begins to tilt. After
that I will crawl upstairs and let them take care of
me.”

“
Good plan,” he told her, dumping the last of the bottle into
her glass. Getting up he took the empty to the sink, rinsed it and
then collected a fresh bottle from the freezer. Sitting down next
to her again he put the full bottle on the counter. “So little
sister,” Mikhail slid her a look, “now what?”

“
God I wish I knew. We can’t let the assholes back at the base
know because they will use this against us. Already they are pissed
that I’m your handler.” She took another drink and grinned. “I
don’t think that they imagined that I would be as abrasive as I am,
that I would be the good little agent and do as they told me to. I
think that the General nearly had a heart attack the first time I
told him to go fuck himself that I would allow them to install
cameras inside of this house. Bastards. Pervy bastards,” she added.
“They wanted to put them into your bedroom especially. They are
intrigued by how you guys paired up. And now that James and Dieter
and I have trio’d up then yeah. But yeah, they weren’t expecting me
to buck them and their dictates.”

Reaching out he rubbed her back. “Don’t let them get to you,
Penelope. They are trying to get you to slip up so they have a
reason to yank you off the detail. And we both know that if they
yank you the next one they send out will be one of their
puppets.”

“
Trust me, that’s the only reason that some of those fucks are
still breathing,” she grumbled. Something flitted through her mind
and she frowned. “Oh fuck,” she said and rose quickly. Swaying just
a bit she clenched the table and looked to Mikhail. “Don’t kill the
messenger; keep that in mind, please? It just dawned on me. They
were tinkering. I think. I could be wrong. But I think that they
are trying to have you and D and G procreate. Create more children.
They want to know if the tech, the nano’s that they implanted you
with, will pass on to the next generation.”

Frowning he held her elbow and shook his head. “I can’t have
kids, Penny, and what the hell do you mean nano’s? There was no
discussion of nanotechnology involved with the tech. They were
considering it but it never went further than that.” His entire
body went still before he stood and stared down at her with a
glacier cold gaze. “Did it?” he growled out softly his body rigid,
nearly vibrating as he held himself in place.

“
What I mean is that I overheard them talking. I was somewhere
I shouldn’t have been.” She flushed and then at his growl shrugged.
“Okay so I was in the ventilation shafts. I wanted to know what the
hell they had behind a hidden and locked door so I did. You might
not have been able to, but I have a feeling you can now.” She
whispered. “And yes, they did use the nano’s on you all. Why do you
think that I came out suddenly one day and said we were leaving?
Told them all to shove their shit and we left? I just didn’t know
how to tell any of you. I feel as if I’ve failed you all,” she
confessed.

Grinding his teeth he hauled her into a hug and held her
tight. “Damn it, Penny you have to tell us this shit right away,”
he muttered into her hair. Squeezing her he stepped back and held
her by the shoulders. “Preferably when it happens and not weeks
later, damn it.”

“
I know but I’ve been trying to think of how to break it to
you guys. God I told you before James and Dieter.” She swayed and
swallowed hard. “Oh lord, please don’t tell them that I told you
first. They would shit themselves if they knew that. Please, please
don’t tell them that I told you first.” She whispered. “Oh shit. If
they, oh hell. We could possibly have a mini-Mikhail running around
here,” she said, her eyes going wide as that went around in her
head.

Slamming back down into his seat he blanched. “Fuck,” he
wheezed out softly. “I won’t tell them, but you need to, Penelope.
I need to break this to the others rather quick like so they all
know what’s happening. Fuck,” he scrubbed his fingers through his
hair.

“
Yeah, I will tell them after I leave you.” Penny rubbed her
temples. “I’m so sorry Mikhail. I never even thought about it, I
really didn’t. Since it’s just you, Gareth and D and then me and
the boys I didn’t think about babies. I really didn’t. I have an
intrauterine device that I asked Mal to put in the last time we
were there but yeah.”

Rubbing his face he poured them both more vodka. “I think I’m
going to need another six bottles of this before I tell everyone,”
he muttered. Throwing back a mouthful he stared up at the ceiling.
“Fuck me.”

“
Good god you two are drinking at this hour?” James asked
coming into the kitchen. Stopping when they both looked his way his
eyes went wide. “Who died?” he whispered.

“
I will talk to you later,” Penny sighed and rubbed her
temples. “We will need to get Dieter so that we can all have a
private talk. Come on James.” She stood on shaky feet and looked to
Mikhail.  ”I will leave you to tell them, well whatever you
want to tell them. I’m telling the boys what we learned in the
letter and the other things too.” Leaning down she kissed Mik’s
cheek and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Catching her hand he looked at her. “Just go and talk to
them,” he told her. “We’ll do a meeting later and we’ll both tell
the others everything.”

Looking between them James took her hand when she held it out
and walked along with her towards the stairs. “What’s going on,
Penny? You both look like the world just came to an end and we
didn’t get the invites.”

“
Wait until we are in our room and Dieter is with us?” Penny
asked softly. “It’s a lot to process, a lot to take in and when I
tell you guys what I have to tell you I have a feeling that you
really won’t be all that happy with me, and that just hurts my
heart.”

Frowning he pulled her under his arm and held her to his side
as they walked. “Babe, whatever it is you can tell us. We might
blow off some steam and say stupid things but we will always love
you. We’re all human, Penny, well except maybe Mikhail. I
personally think he’s a cross-species alien of some sort. But the
point is that we all make mistakes and we all learn, grow and move
on from those mistakes.”

“
I love you, James, you know that. I need you to know that,”
she whispered. “I will always love you. No matter whatever else
happens I want you to know that.” She took a deep breath and asked,
“Where is Dieter? He will need to hear what I have to say as well
because it’s un fucking believable and I think I’m only going to be
able to say it once.”

“
He was shaving when I came to find you. Marius called it an
early day since we have a storm brewing so we all get to lounge
around watching movies and doing nothing much,” he told her pushing
the door open to their room. “Come on babe, it will be fine,” he
smiled, “And I know you love me, what’s not to love after
all?”

She took a deep breath and said, “Yeah well. We will see what
you say when we have confession time in our room.” As soon as they
were in their bedroom with the door closed Penny let out a breath.
“I don’t know who did it but someone sent off for a blood test to
match Mik and I as half siblings. Its positive,” she blurted. “So
that’s the easy part, Mikhail is my half-brother.” She rubbed her
hands up and down her arms before adding. “And the brass bastards
have added nanotechnology to your tech. I don’t know when they did
it but I found out the last time that we were there.”

Dieter cleared his throat and gave them both a guilty look.
“I sent in the paperwork,” he admitted quietly. “The brass knows
nothing about the test. I had a friend of ours run it so that it
was all kept out of public records. There is no record beyond what
you would have got.”

“
Dieter, you sneaky bastard,” James said and chuckled. “Well
if you hadn’t done it I would have,” he said looking to Penelope.
“Come on love, we can all see you two are so similar it’s fucking
scary as hell. As to the nanotech, well, the brass has some serious
explaining to do on that since we didn’t sign off on it. We didn’t
sign off to have it implanted because it’s in the early stages and
there was way too much trouble between the nano’s and the tech we
already had implanted, they weren’t working together, were fighting
one another point of fact.”

“
Evidently not the newest generation of it,” she whispered.
“They want to.” She flushed this time and felt a little faint,
dammit. “They want, especially for Daisy, Gareth and Mik, for you
boys to procreate. They want to see if the nano’s will carry on to
the embryo and then the child. They want to create their own
fucking army from birth. And before you ask, they fixed Mikhail and
Gareth both. They are neither shooting blanks any longer,” she
whispered.

“
Gareth never was but Mik,” James sat on the end of the bed.
“Holy hell,” he murmured softly. “Daisy is going to kill us all for
this one and rightfully so.” Raking a hand through his hair he
looked to Penny. “We’re fucked six ways of Sunday aren’t
we?”

“
Yeah, pretty much. D is not on any kind of birth control and
if she’s not pregnant now the boys will have to glove up until
she’s got an implant as I do. The birth control implants should
work for us so I’m not concerned about becoming pregnant but I am
worried about D getting knocked up. Can you imagine? They weren’t
around for her pregnancy with Honey, they would be fucking crazy
with this child if they got pregnant.” Especially Mik she was
afraid.

“
Who put in the birth control?” Dieter asked. “And just where
did it come from?”

James lifted a brow and looked up at her. “He has a point
babe. If you got it from the base even if it was little doc Mallory
you can’t trust it. The brass will have brought in the supplies
which means they could all be compromised.”

“
Oh son of a god damn bitch. I will cut all their fucking
heads off.” She loved her men but she so wasn’t ready to be a
mother. “I had Mal put it in. Shit.” She began to pace. “I love you
both, you know that I love you both like crazy but I’m so not ready
to be a mom.”

“
We know this Penelope,” Dieter said moving to her. Pulling
her into his arms he gave her a hug. “Call the doc in town and see
about getting it switched out. Tell him that the doctor who put it
in initially called with concerns that the shipment may have been
mishandled and the product likely was fine but she didn’t want any
risks taken and advised getting it changed.”

“
I think that sounds like a great idea.” Penny sighed and
closed her eyes, leaning into Dieter as she did so. “And what about
D? How do you think that she and Gareth will take this news?” she
asked quietly. “Oh, and your ass is so grass when Mik finds out it
was you that sent off for the tests. He was seriously fucking
pissed off.”

He just chuckled and held her to him. “He may try but he
wouldn’t want to piss off his baby sister by killing one of her
men. Gareth will likely be pissed about the nano’s we were all
adamant about not messing with the technology until it had been
proven viable. Even then we likely would not have taken that next
step.”

Penny blushed and shook her head. “I wouldn’t count on that
if I were you. He and I are just on even ground. Hopefully one day
it will work up to where he loves me like a sister but right now he
only tolerates me like one would a cold.”

“
Oh Penny, Penny, Penny,” James shook his head and laughed.
“How little you know about the crazy Russian you now claim as your
kin. But that’s all right; we’ll pretend ignorance for a while
longer and just watch as you muddle on through to figuring it
out.”

“
Damn I think that the vodka we were drinking is hitting me.”
Her room began to spin. “How about you boys undress me and we slide
into bed? I could use some cuddling right now. I could use a lot of
it actually if you boys were of a mind to just hold me, cuddle me
and love me for a bit?”

“
As long as you do not throw up,” Dieter said making a face.
“You do and I will be fighting you for a place in front of the
toilet.”