3571 Military Rd., Arlington, Virginia.:
Becky pulled in front of the address Jasmine gave her and loved how the place looked. It was so nondescript that no one would ever think about it being a safe house. It was a modern ranch-style construction, and as she got closer to it. She noticed it had a two-car garage.

Becky calls Jasmine to get the access code. She steps out of the SUV and starts talking with Jasmine. She walks over to an innocent-looking statue and tilts a flower pot back, revealing a weatherproof keypad. She inputs the code, and two keys drop out of a little door.

Becky walks back to the SUV and over to the passenger side. She knocks on the blackout passenger window. Becky watches as the window lowers. “Let’s go in.”

“Alright.” Deanna opens the SUV door.

The passenger doors open as well. Tammy helps Vicky out of the SUV and closes the door behind her. The four of them walk towards the front door, with Tammy and Deanna keeping an eye out for trouble.

“Hey, Becky, how did you know the SUV had been tampered with?” Tammy had heard the alert on Becky’s cell phone when they got close to the SUV.

“It’s a program I wrote for all our vehicles. The SUV has micro-cameras embedded around it, and when someone comes close to it, it records their presence. So, when I or any of my teammates get close to any of the vehicles equipped with the cameras. It lets us know.” Deanna had explained the process to them.

Becky walks up to the front door and inserts the key. After unlocking the door, “Voice verification required.”

“Bubba, come and get it.” Becky gives her password.

“Verification accepted.” A clicking sound sounded.

“Come on, ladies, let’s get inside, and I’ll park the SUV in the garage.” Deanna opens the front door and walks inside.

Vicky and Tammy follow next. Becky had turned around and headed back to the SUV to drive it into the garage.

“This is a nice place.” Tammy walks into the place and looks around.

Vicky follows and stands next to Tammy. She will be happy to get off her feet. Her legs were killing her.

“Why don’t the two of you make yourself comfortable, while I let Becky in?” Deanna walks towards the kitchen and out into the garage.

Tammy noticed Vicky was trying to cover up the pain she was in.

“Come over and sit down, Vicky.” Tammy figures the wounds on her legs were hurting her.

Vicky walks over and sits down on the nice sofa. She wished she wasn’t in so much pain, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

“I brought your pain pills and antibiotics with me.” Tammy pulls out the pills for Vicky and hands them to her.

“Thanks.” Vicky accepts them and takes the amount her doctor prescribed for her.

Deanna and Becky return a few minutes later and sit down in the living room with Vicky and Tammy. The two women look towards Vicky and Tammy. “Do you ladies have any idea who is trying to kill you?”

“Nope, but I think you got it wrong, Deanna. They are trying to kill my best friend.” Tammy squeezes Vicky’s hand.

“But why, is the question.” Vicky knew it had nothing to do with her family because her mother would send her older siblings and Sasha after them.

A ding sound could be heard coming from Becky’s cell phone. She pulls it out and looks at the message.

“What is it, Becky?” Deanna looks at her short cohort.

“It’s from Ada. She said that the hotel room looked like someone had tossed it. She also said that she and Alya will bring groceries and dinner with them as well.” Becky shows the text message to Deanna.

Deanna looks at it and sends a message to them to bring her armor from her secondary storage unit. She sends them the access code to Ada.
After she does that. She looks towards Vicky, “Start from the beginning on the assignment the government sent you on.”

“You know I can’t tell you everything about the assignment.” Vicky looks at Deanna.

“That’s fine. I can get the original order from the source itself. Just tell me what you were told.” Deanna hits the record app on her cell phone.

“Alright, we were sent to eliminate members of a terrorist organization known as The Shadow Collective. They have been operating behind the scenes on a lot of conflicts going on around the world. They’re also responsible for supporting a bunch of terrorist organizations and donating to several senators and congress members in our government. They want to change how our government works and get their agenda pushed through.”

“That explains a lot about our current political environment.” Becky hated the current person in the White House.

“Well, we were told a meeting was supposed to happen, and to eliminate everyone there. It’s standard practice for my team to do a thermal scan before entering a building to give us an idea where everyone is. We did the scan and picked up seven people sitting around a table. So, the order was given to break into the room.”

“Is that where you discovered that the information was false?” Deanna was starting to see this was a setup.

“Yes, it was. No sooner had my team entered the room than we discovered someone had been there before us. The bodies were dead and made up to make us believe they were alive. Just as we discovered the truth, the bombs started going off. We couldn’t react fast…” Vicky starts
breaking down as the tears start to flow, and a horrified look appears on her face.”

“Easy, Vicky.” Tammy wraps her arms around Vicky and holds her close to her body. “You’re not there, sweetie. sshhh!!” As Tammy brushes Vicky’s hair.

Deanna and Becky were concerned about Victoria’s mental state. She was suffering from PTSD. Becky figures that what happened to Vicky has scarred her for life.

Tammy uses her gift to calm her friend down. Vicky was going to need to see a specialist to help her overcome what happened to her. Tammy feels Vicky quieting down and relaxing as Vicky calmed down.

Deanna noticed that whenever Vicky broke down, Tammy managed to calm her down. “How do you do that?”

Tammy inhales and slowly exhales before speaking. She looks directly at Deanna and Becky, “I was born with a special gift. I can influence a person’s emotional state when I touch them. Vicky has always known about my ability, and her parents as well.”

“So, that’s why you became a nurse?” Becky could see how Tammy’s gift could be helpful as a nurse.

“Yes.”

“I see. Vicky, are you okay to answer a few questions for me?” Deanna wanted to know who gave them the order.

“Yes, what do you want to know?” Vicky takes a tissue out and wipes her eyes.

“Who normally gives your group your orders?” Deanna wonders how they got their orders.

“Don’t know. Colonel White normally receives the orders and then passes everything along to Captain Grossfeld to give to us. After that, Captain Grossfeld and Lieutenant Highwater, our strategist. They plan out how we are going to handle the problem.”

“Which means, they give you your matching orders. What was your position in the group?” Becky was curious.

“I was the team sniper and hand-to-hand expert. We didn’t need sniper support on this mission. So, I went in to support my teammates.” Vicky takes a breath and tries to relax.

“I really need a drink.” Vicky wanted a stiff drink.

“Which you can’t take with the pills you are taking.” Tammy knew Vicky couldn’t drink any alcohol with the pain pill she was taking.

Deanna turns the recorder off and gets up to stretch her legs. She had to admit that Vicky and her team had been set up. She gets an alert letting her know Ada and Alya were approaching.

“Well, dinner is here.” Deanna stands up and walks towards the garage.

The garage was big enough to park four vehicles. Becky looks towards Vicky and Tammy, “I hope you ladies like Thai.”

“We grew up on Thai food.” Tammy loved Thai.

Vicky didn’t say anything. She just looked over towards the door leading to the garage. She wanted to see who these other women were.