Awakening (Book 2 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Ten

The next day, true to his word, Porcali had gathered the team together to plan out first where they were moving everyone to. Safe house twenty-four wasn't going to be able to hold fourteen people for however long it was that they'd be grouped. 

Carter had brought out the map that pin-pointed every safe house in the city from the van when Porcali asked for it.

Carter had been the one who had labeled the map. He took extra care with every paperwork that he had turned in to the captain. 

There was never any smudges or stains or even a nick of pencil where it shouldn't be. It had a lot to do with being anal-retentive, Nathan had told Carter one day when they were the only two who were in headquarters. They had gotten there at the same time and, never conversing before other than meetings, decided that they'd make some friendly conversation over a cup of coffee.

Carter had seen Nathan around; always sitting at his desk alone with his hands behind his head and staring at the monitors. He wouldn't talk to anyone unless they spoke to him first. And even then it was very minimal responses. 

But he learned that Nathan was actually a good man. He wouldn't berate Carter on Carter's need to have everything in order. 

He only grinned and shrugged, "So you're a little OCD. Everyone is. Some are just better at it, I guess." 

Since then, Carter wouldn't be so embarrassed about the way he'd lay out his paperwork or the order in which he made his coffee.

Like now, Carter was laying out the map and placed books, with their titles on the binding right side up, on each corner to keep it in place. Sam, knowing about Carter's pet peeve, deliberately used a finger to slowly edge one of the books out of its place. 

Carter's eyes flicked up to Sam, narrowing. 

The kid only shrugged, smiling. That was all he knew how to do, Carter thought. But he wasn't as bad as Carter made him out to be since Sam had placed the book back in its spot before chuckling. Only to move another book out of place.

"Damn it, Sam!" Carter hissed. He couldn't say more because he had turned his head to give Adam the eye when he was standing near the table with a cup of something steamy.

Most likely coffee. And coffee stained.

Adam, unaware of the glare he was receiving, was observing the map, sipping his coffee slowly. He nodded, using his finger from the hand holding the coffee to point at the map. 

Looking at Carter, not paying attention to the look he was receiving, Adam raised a brow, "This your doing?"

It was color coordinated to the tee. There were arrow labels of red, blue, green, and yellow pointing at large black sticker dots all over the city. Each one, he later learned from Carter's explanation, was coordinated in a specific color rating the level of safety that particular safe house had. Blue being the lowest and safest level to red being the highest, and most dangerous. 

Green and yellow were difficult to decipher because they were rarely used. But Carter had developed a system based off the past paperwork reports of those houses used to place either a green or yellow arrow on that black dot on the map.

Carter gave a firm nod accompanied with a grunt. He then looked at the cup in Adam's hand lifting his eyes up to Adam's who frowned at his coffee before raising his brows at Carter. The two men stayed quiet, neither being the first to say or ask what the problem was. Sam, at the end of the table, stood with his arms crossed and squinted his eyes shifting from one to the other before shaking his head and nodded at Adam.

"Best to know now, bro, that when you are around Carter and his precious items... steer clear of having anything that is going to stain them. Unless you want the diva in him to come out. He'll get ghetto on you."