The Phoenix Ghost

First Anniversary

'Vic, you, Owen and I will take two of the laptops and start going over the new intel Skugga sent us on our current assignment. Making Sang safe is only half our mission. Taking down the viper behind our Estonia assignment is the other half,'

The three men followed Silas toward the kitchen for their own supplies. The rest of the team were on surveillance and reconnaissance.

It was going to be a long night for all of them.

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Amanda could not believe she was back in Estonia. This was the last place she'd thought she'd willingly return to ever. But she had no choice. Volto had made that abundantly clear.

She cursed her father soundly for ever doing a deal with Volto. His hatred for Sang Sorensen had him jumping at the chance when Volto had approached him to partner in both taking her out and damaging the Academy's reputation.

It had not been enough for him to take the Blackbournes and her career from Sang. No, he'd actually wanted her dead and Volto had been very clear that once finished with her, they would ensure that Sang would be killed - by Volto's own hands in a very unpleasant manner. Too bad Sang had managed to circumvent Volto's plans and remained untraceable as a ghost since October...

Amanda had wondered then, and was still pondering now, if there wasn't more than just the obvious bigotry involved in her father's intense, violent intentions toward Sang.

She promised herself to take advantage of his incarceration to go through all his personal files and computer records - including the ones at the hunting lodge he didn't know she was aware was one of his clandestine properties. She could work the time in if she could be sure that Volto wasn't tracking her every move. She was confident that she'd figure out how to achieve her goal with a little more intel.

There had to be more to this story.

And if that happened to include incriminating information or extenuating information that could be used as leverage against Volto, then searching through Richard Andrews' records would be time well spent.

Not for the first time, Amanda cursed herself for not pushing for more details harder at the time her father had walked her through his plan and Volto's role in it. Now, knowing who Volto was and that they were batshit crazy, she was even more annoyed with herself. One thing was certain, no one would ever guess who Volto2 was; she doubted there was anyone alive who would even know of their existence. Frankly, she didn't understand the full facts herself. One more thing to investigate.

Amanda sighed. At least she was still able to use her former team as a resource. None of them had been reassigned to an Academy team yet and had been extremely happy to help her in isolated research jobs. She was very careful to make sure none were given tasks that could endanger them though; in her own way she cared for those three girls and would see to their safety if she could.

Amanda also wanted to identify Volto1. Volto had used very colourful language in discussing their anger toward the efforts this person had gone to towards thwarting their plans. Between that and not being able to locate the Ghost team's second residence, there was little else, besides these unpleasant tasks Amanda had been given, that the crazy fanatic talked with her about. Except for hitting on her. Amanda shivered in revulsion.

Amanda emerged from her thoughts as she reached her destination. She hated speaking with these two fuckwits. Kayli Winchester was an obnoxious, mouthy bitch and Blake Coaltar was a misogynist of top assholery quality. Fortunately, today it would be mercifully brief.

Amanda grabbed the two packages off the seat beside her and slid them into her tote bag to disguise her action of delivery. Her head was tilted down as she did so, but a deliberate movement behind the car caught her attention as her eyes looked out the rear view mirror. A pair of pale green eyes in a stoic beautiful face gazed intently back at her. The female tapped her rolled up newspaper on the metal bench she was casually sitting on, before she intentionally lay the paper on the bench and stood, walking swiftly away.