Summer of Jonnor

The World Outside

Jude was having his weekly FaceTime chat with Brandon, who was updating him on all the music stuff he'd been doing at Idyllwild. "Competition is so intense here," B. was saying. "There are a lot of other really good piano players. It's really forcing me to level up my game."

"Sounds great," Jude said. "I mean, that was the whole point of this right? To get way better at playing?"

Brandon nodded. "How's it going with Connor?"

"Great," Jude said. "We've been hanging out a lot. Hey, do you think you'll play with Someone's Little Sister again anytime soon?"

Brandon gave him a quizzical look. "Yeah, at Ronnoc. Taylor didn't tell you?"

Jude's eyes grew big. "Someone's Little Sister is going to play at Ronnoc? Wow."

"I thought you'd know that, since this whole thing was your idea."

"Well, I just told Taylor to run with it and I haven't kept up with all the details. It's evidently going to be more elaborate than I thought."

Brandon smiled. "Well, isn't that the whole point? To have it be really special?"

"Yeah. And thanks for participating, it's cool that you and Mariana are both gonna help make it that way."

"Hey, I'm your big brother, and I've missed seeing you. It'll be great."

"Yeah. Love you, B."

"Love you too, Jude."

***

Stef was working on reports at her desk when Mike walked up. "Roberts wants to see you. And the Fed guy Turner is here."

She shot him a look of concern. "Really? Why would he be here?"

"Your guess is a good as mine. Hopefully it's not something to do with that warehouse business."

"I thought the investigation was closed, didn't the FBI wrap it up a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah, maybe something came up. Anyway, I guess I should let you get in there."

Stef nodded and walked into Chief Roberts' office and closed the door. Turner was sitting at the Chief's desk, his right leg draped over his left. "Hello again, Agent Turner," Stef said, shaking his hand. She sat in the chair next to him. "What's up?"

Chief Roberts spoke. "It's time for us to do our annual re-evaluation of our partnership with the FBI under the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and Turner here thinks you would be an excellent candidate for the position that's open this year. We put you in for a background check and everything looks good, if you want to accept the assignment the next step will be for you to have some interviews over at the FBI."

Stef smiled. "Sounds like an amazing opportunity."

Roberts smiled. "Great, we'll be taking you off normal patrol duty so you can start learning about the current investigations. Turner and his men will direct your assignments, I'll have some minimal oversight but for the most part you report to him. If you get selected, you'll start having weekly meetings with his team."

"I'll be in touch to set up the interviews," Turner said. "I'm really pleased to be working with you on this, Officer Adams-Foster. You're just what we're looking for."

She smiled at him.

***