"Action Man Says He's Coming."

He was tall, clean-shaven with short graying black hair and hollow, brown eyes. As soon as he saw Jessi, he stiffened. His eyes moved to Becker.

“Captain Wilder”, he said a bit confused.

“Becker”, he replied coolly.

“You two know each other?” Jenny asked.

“Sandhurst”, Becker answered. *Don’t say anything. We all know you went too but it might cause trouble if anyone were to find out because you deserted. Wilder won’t say anything to protect his record and he doesn’t want to acknowledge your failure in his eyes*, Becker cautioned in her mind.

*Good cuz I want nothing to do with his sorry, no good, self-righteous bastard either! * she growled.

“Top of his class, one of my best cadets”, Wilder said.

Jessi wanted to punch the son of a bitch! She had been almost as good as Beck but he’d been a hypocritical dick about it.

“If you to are going to hug can you do it later, cuz there’s an anomaly somewhere”, Conner said.

“Move back into the foyer”, Wilder ordered.

As they shuffled back he met Jessi’s eyes. She shot daggers back at. He smirked. If looks could kill he would have been spazzing on the floor, choking on his own blood.

Just then men came up from behind them, they were surrounded.

“What’s going on here?” Jenny asked a little alarmed.

Jessi didn’t like this at all. Being surrounded by possible enemies was setting her on edge. The animal side of her brain that came with being a shape shifter was trying to take over. She suppressed a feral growl that threatened to escape. Becker put a hand on her shoulder, which helped a little.

They waited they. It was beginning to really piss Jessi off. She was just about to say something when a woman walked out and over to Jenny. She was in professional clothes with dark hair and cold, calculating, gray-green eyes. If Lester were there he’d probably describe her as “a velociraptor only better dressed”. It was fitting. Jessi instantly got one of those instinctual feelings; she was cold, calculating and manipulative.

“You must be Jenny Lewis. I’m Christine Johnson. Nice to meet you”, she shook Jenny’s hand. While Johnson was confident with a slightly haughty air, Jenny was a bit unsure. Johnson was asserting her dominance and letting them know this was her territory.

“What is this place?” Jenny asked.

“Jenny, this definitely detected an anomaly less than a hundred feet away from here”, Conner popped in. He looked at Johnson and said, “I know that may not mean anything to you but trust me, not a good thing”.

“There’s no anomaly here”, she said confidently.

Wait a second. How did she know about the anomalies?

“What do you know of the anomalies?” Jenny asked.

Johnson just smiled at her. She was flexing her power. She knew she didn’t have to say anything and that she was in control here.

“Let’s just have a look, ya know, just to be sure”, Abby suggested.

“I can assure you, you’ll find nothing”.

She was hiding something, Jessi could feel it. Unfortunately the thick walls blocked her telepathy.

“Right. I want unrestricted access to the whole place and a full explanation of what it is you’re doing here”, Jenny said with a sudden authority. She was getting sick of bullshit too.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible”, Johnson said in a calm voice but it was easy to tell she was getting annoyed.

“I can make it happen with one phone call so let’s just save some time, shall we?” she replied with a touch of much needed attitude.

“James Lester has no authority here. Now I suggest you all go back to the ARC and do what it is you all do best”, Johnson said in a dismissing tone.

“Did you hear what we just said? You could be in danger. Just let us go in and have a look”, Abby said getting frustrated.

“That’s very thoughtful. But we’ll be quite safe”, Johnson said. She turned back to Jenny, “Do give my regards to James”.

They began to leave.

“Captain Becker is it?” she said stopping him. Jessi stopped a step ahead of him. They turned back to her.

“I gather you and Captain Wilder are old colleagues”, she smiled sweetly. Jessi didn’t like that look.

“Yes ma’am”, he said politely. Jessi could tell he didn’t like her either.

“Perhaps you’ll get the chance to work together again someday”, she said.

Becker nodded and walked over to Jessi.

“I don’t like her”, she said as they drove back to ARC.

“No one does”, he replied.

“I don’t like the way she looked at you. Like you were a pawn she could convert to her side. She’s too use to having every whim seen to”.

“You know I wouldn’t do that even if I could”.

“Yea I know. But still. She’s going to be a problem”.

“How do you know?”

“She knows too much about the ARC, the way she looked at looked at you and she’s hiding something back in there. She’s planning something”, Jessi said suspiciously.

“Ok Sherlock snow leopard”, Becker chuckled.

“I’m serious”, she laughed.

“I know but there’s no use worrying about it now”, he smiled.

“Fine”, she sighed.

“Good girl”, he smirked.

She stuck her tongue out him. “Bite me”.

He snapped in her direction.

“You missed”. They’d just pulled into the parking garage of the ARC.

Becker reached over and bit her shoulder.

“Ouch!”

“You told me to bite you”, he chuckled and shrugged.