Goens felt guilty, standing at a window in his corner office he looked out at the city of New York. It was twilight, the sun having just set and giving the brick buildings around him an orange glow.

He'd been hard on Gwen, harder than he’d intended to be. He knew she was loyal to the job and honest, but damn her attitude. She always did whatever she could to get under his skin.

He still intended to go through with firing her, considering everything it would be irresponsible of him not to. Letting her go was the right move. But he felt a need to apologize to her.

Goens decided to go down and talk to Bobby, get him up to speed on what was to be expected. Turning he walked from his office. Moments later he was exiting the elevator. As he approached the half open door of the CCI office. The rustling of boxes and packing tape caught his ear.

Push the door open he saw Rahm Patel and another agent packing up the office. “What's going on here?”

The two agents stopped and turned to look at him. Patel looked sheepish and scratched the back of his head. He looked like he was looking for the words to explain.

“We're packing up sir.” The other agent said

“I can see that.” Goens snapped at him. “Who are you?”

“Ronald Green sir, I do forensics. I just joined the team"

Goens turned to Patel and asked “Did Gwen bring him in to replace Rotor?” Then frowned at the nod he received. Taking a deep breath he sighed and asked “why are the two of you packing up the office?” He looked back and forth between them and when he didn't receive an answer he asked “Well?”

“The CCI department is being transferred to DC" Patel finally said.

A shocked look crossed his face. “Who ordered that?”

“I got the call from Gwen myself.”

“Gwen? Gwen doesn't work here anymore.”

“No We don't, we're being moved to DC.”

Goens screwed up his face with 1 hand before planting it on his hip. “I fired Gwen yesterday. She doesn't have the authority to transfer you to DC even if I hadn't.”

“She got her orders from Doug Carter, he's temporarily delaying the suspension and investigation you ordered.” Patel said

Goens face turned as red as his cherry-colored tie. ‘The woman is insane, her audacity knows no bounds’ Goens thought to himself. His fingers curled around and almost broke the back of the chair he was standing behind. He was so livid he couldn't say anything. Patel and Green just looked on. Goens turned and left the room to return to his office.

Once there he called Doug Carter's office and when his secretary picked up, Goens was informed that Doug had left for the day and to try again tomorrow.

Looking out the window, thoughts raced through his head. He leaned back against the desk and picked up the phone. He had his secretary connect him to the CCI dept and when Patel picked up he ordered the scrawny man to his office immediately.

Two minutes later he heard the knock on the open door behind him. Turning away from the window he gestured to Patel to come in. “Close the door behind you.”

Goens sat behind his desk as the other sat across from him. “Rham, tell me what you know about Rotor. What happened to him I mean.”

“Charlie?” pops sank Into himself, “Charlie Rotor was a good agent, it's sad what happened.”

“What happened?”

“You should know, why do you want me to talk about it sir?.” Pops asked

“Just humor me, I don't think I know as much as you give me credit.”

“Well nobody really knows what happened. He called Bobby and left a message saying that he’d figured something out and that he was going to check something out. In the voicemail he sounded very excited. But he was never heard from after that. He just disappeared. I retraced his cell GPS, it stopped about 2 blocks away. We scoured the whole area and found nothing. We have no idea what happened to him.“

“Surely there was more to it.” Goens said

“No sir, that is what happened and all we know. We've been thinking that he made the same discovery that Gwen just did and moved on it before telling anyone. He was always doing stuff like that, taking risks I mean.”

“What discovery?” Goens asked

A look of confusion passed over Pop’s face. “That most of the unsolved cases we have are related. They're done by the same man and all the companies are owned by the same guy. There are a ton of tiny pieces to this. Or did you try to fire her before she could tell you.”

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Goens face flashed red with anger but he controlled it. “I want a full report on this.”

“Unfortunately sir my computer is currently in pieces but once we're set up in DC I'll make sure I forward you a copy.”

“That's fine," Goens said, waving the man away. After he’d gone Goens resumed his position in front of the window and began to think.

***************

Gwen turned off the small car and breathed a sigh. She grabbed her luggage out of the trunk and looked up at the house. It was two stories high, had gabled windows and was painted white. As she approached the front door she saw some flowers in a bed to the side of the front door and mixed with them were dozens of tiny plastic butterflies on long thin sticks. She knocked and a moment later the door opened.

“Aunt Gwen," Julia said, giving her a hug.

Gwen returned the hug one handed, her other hand still holding a bag

“Come in, come in.” Julia said. Blue painted walls and blue furniture greeted them inside. Sitting at a bar flanking the kitchen were two Hispanic women about the same age as Julia. The resemblance the two shared was striking, they were obviously sisters. “Aunt Gwen, this is Dela and Rosa, they work with me.”

“We've heard a lot about you.” Dela said

“Yeah, little miss blabbermouth never shuts up about her amazing Aunt who leads a task force in the FBI" Rosa said winking at Julia who turned red.

Gwen smiled politely and responded “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Ignore them and follow me.” Julia led her aunt upstairs and showed her to a room in the corner of the house. Inside was a bed, dresser and a vanity with accompanying mirror and chair. “Towels are in the hall closet, help yourself. Dinner is almost ready. I'll leave you to unpack” Julia gave her another hug and ran downstairs.

Gwen put a few things away but didn't take the time to fully unpack. After the first bag she went back downstairs to join the girls for dinner. Rosa was setting the table when she entered the room.

“Is it true you like, married a mobster to get into the mafia and bring them down? Rosa asked her.

Gwen was taken aback at the unexpected question. “That was a very long time ago, when I first joined the FBI. But mostly, I never actually married him, we were just engaged.”

“Wow, you're a legend. All the stories she's told us-"

“Rosa, leave the woman alone, she's been travelling for hours. No doubt she's tired and hungry and she definitely doesn't need to be harassed by your loud mouth.” Dela said to her sister as she entered the room carrying a pan of buns and a small plate of sliced cheese.

“Sorry. I have a habit of saying what's on my mind. Not everyone appreciates it. “She finished with a glare at her sister.

“It's ok" Gwen said she took a breath and was about to say something else when Julia entered with a large metal bowl and set it on the table. She then returned to the kitchen and came back a moment later with two large bags of potato chips and a large metal spoon.

“I hope you like sloppy joes Aunt Gwen, it's my own recipe” Julia said, removing the lid to the metal bowl. Inside was a steaming pile of sauce covered meat.

Outwardly Gwen showed every bit her enjoyment of the meal, it tasted wonderful. It'd been many years since she had indulged herself like this and inwardly she knew her body wouldn't be happy.

After a while of quiet eating Rosa asked Gwen, “are you working on anything interesting right now?”

“Rosa!” Dela interjected, and then to Gwen she said “You don't have to tell us.”

“It's okay. Yes actually, it's unlike anything that the FBI has ever encountered before.” Gwen proceeded to tell the three girls about the mystery of James Malaki. The girls listened enraptured and when she was done she smiled realizing the girls had actually stopped eating to listen. “What about you girls, anything interesting lately”?

“Wow. Not like you. We just took down a drug dealer yesterday. It must be awesome to be in the FBI" Rosa said

Gwen thought about Goens and said “It has its moments but there is a lot of bureaucracy that gets in the way. Sometimes I actually envy the freedom you have on the job.”

“If it wasn't for the reputation DJ has built for us it'd be hard to get work.” Julia sighed and continued “Being a mercenary and being a good guy is hard. Too many mercs go bad to follow the money.”

“Who is on your team now?” Gwen asked

Julia thought for a moment and with a gesture to the other two girls said “the three of us. Rosa is our IT guru, and also does communications. Dela is a striker and she's the best sniper on our team. I'm a striker but I also do a lot of undercover work. Then you have Connor, he's like me, a striker that does undercover work.

“Big Ben is our heavy weapons guy, he's in love with his new grenade launcher, he’s named it Mary and I wouldn't be surprised if he sleeps with it. Danny is a striker and our explosives expert. Lee is the team second in command and he normally leads breeching actions. Then DJ is the team leader, you've met him before.” Julia finished

Gwen thought back, she had indeed met the man. It was maybe four years ago. Tall and lanky, he was built like a steel whip cord with a mind just as sharp. “If I recall you two were dating?” Rosa’s eyes grew wide as saucers but she kept her mouth shut and Gwen wondered if she'd made a mistake.

Julia flushed red briefly “ya, um, that didn't last long. Working together and dating; it was never a good idea to begin with.”

Gwen took a breath and held it before saying “Well, dinner was a real treat. Thank you Julia. I think I'm going to finish unpacking and turn in. You girls have a good night.” Gwen rose from the table as the others said goodnight. They were clearing off the table as she climbed the steps. Back in her room, she returned her mind to the problem of James Malaki. After she'd finished unpacking her bags she sat on the bed to set up the alarm clock. Before she could finish she got a call from Bobby. “Hello?”

“Hey Boss". His youthful voice had so much energy that it made her more tired in contrast. “We just got a lucky break. Pops got a hit on his credit card. He just bought a one way plane ticket from Chicago to Baltimore, it lands at one PM tomorrow.”

It took Gwen a moment to process what he’d said. “Excellent, I want all of you in place, we're going to follow him after he lands.” She felt rejuvenated at the news.

“Already on it Boss, we're almost done setting up at the new office. You gotta see this place.” Bobby said

“Okay, get some sleep. Tomorrow will be the day we finally catch this bastard.” She hung up and laid down, tried to sleep and eventually succeeded.