Angela blanched a bit and started in on the hair on the left side of her head. If she kept it up she'd be bald by the time we were done talking.
"Who's going to bug your phone?" I demanded.
My stomach clenched as Angela stared at the ceiling for a long moment. As far as I knew this was definitely not normal protocol.
"You'll be working with another undercover agent," Angela said. Ignoring my question, she let go of her hair to pull a flask from her purse and take a healthy swig.
"Who's the agent and who's bugging your phone?" I asked as I thought about asking for a sip. This day was quickly turning to crap.
I'd been so happy for the last week. Jamaica was paradise and coming back to the real world was something I didn't think I had to do for a few more days. The last several weeks had been a whirlwind of nightmare inducing incidents that were sure to land me in therapy for a couple of years. I just wanted to pretend I didn't have to kill anything for five more days. Was that too much to ask?
"Council doesn't know I'm here," she said as she gave up on the flask and pulled a full bottle of whiskey out of her purse. "Something is going down and I needed to connect in person."
"Would you like to be a bit more cryptic?" I snapped.
She heaved a large sigh and took a huge belt off the bottle. "I'm sorry about the greeting. My mistake. I'm just a little jumpy right now."
"As awesome as that is to know, you still haven't answered any of my questions," I said. "Spill or we're out. You don't own our butts again until five days from now."
"Hence the henchmen," she said.
"You've got three seconds to start talking," Hank informed her tightly.
"Fine," she grumbled. "There's intense infighting amongst the Council as to whether or not we're going to do a big reveal to the humans."
"Very bad idea," I said as I shook my head and shuddered. We had enough problems living in regular society without being hunted by humans who would most likely think we were dangerous freaks of nature.
"I happen to agree with you, but I'm not on the Council. I simply work for the imbeciles," she said. "At this point I have suspicions that the Dragons are involved."
"How?" Hank asked.
"Well, if I knew I wouldn't have abducted your asses in the airport," she yelled and then gulped down the rest of the whiskey. "I'm sorry. Forgot my manners. You want a swig?"
She held out the empty bottle.
"I'm good," I said. "So what exactly are we supposed to do about that?"
"Along with finding out if the Dragons are trying to crossbreed species, I need you to ascertain if they're in cahoots with any of our Council members."
"Mission impossible," I muttered under my breath.
"And that's why I'm assigning another agent to work with the two of you," Angela went on. "You'll rendezvous in Chicago with the agent in five days. The Council is on a retreat in Wisconsin and will be back in session by the time you have to report."
"Why the hell would anybody go to Wisconsin for a retreat?" I asked, confused. "I mean, I'd pick some place cool like Hawaii or Europe or Spain. No, wait, Spain is in Europe. My bad."
Angela gaped at me like I had two heads. I decided to ignore that. However, I thought my point was valid.
"Who's the agent?” Hank asked, getting the conversation back on track. "What's his name?"
"It's a her and her name is Dima," Angela said.
"Absolutely not," Hank hissed and bared his fangs.
"You have to realize that I have no choice here," she said nervously trying to plead her case. "I'm taking too many chances as is. I would never do it this way if life as we know it wasn't at stake."
"It's a very bad choice," Hank snapped.
"Lost here," I cut in with a raised hand. "Who the hell is Dima?"
"The question should be—what the hell is Dima?" Hank suggested with a calm that belied his anger.
"Okay, I'll bite. What the hell is Dima?"
Angela tried to take another pull off of her now empty bottle and shrugged her shoulders. "A Dragon. Dima is a Dragon."
"There's a clusterhump in the making," I said with a laugh born of utter shock. "The whiskey has clearly eaten your brain. Call me crazy, but I don't think the Dragon will want to work with me considering I ripped the head off of one of her kinsmen last week."
"She's a double agent," Angela explained. "She's on our payroll."
"Which means she's on theirs too," Hank said. "Shitty idea."
"You got a better one?" Angela asked, completely frazzled. "Because if you do, I'm all ears."
Hank's jaw worked rapidly and I could tell he was about to lose it on Angela. I really wasn't in the mood for a bloodbath. As angry as I was at my boss at the moment, I liked her. We still had five days of very well earned vacation left and I didn't want to deal with the guilt Hank would have for ending Angela's life. It would wreak havoc on my sex life. That was unacceptable.
"We'll work with her," I said as Hank's head whipped to me in surprise. "But she will drink the serum that prohibits the Dragon shift. She'll have to stay hopped up on it the entire time we work with her or it's a no go."