“But let’s talk about it when I get there,” he conceded that much to her.  He hang up, and picked up his “go bag” stuffed with his tablets, work phones and chargers.

As he gunned his motorbike to life, he thought that he’d almost wished that she was shaky or panicky – that way he imagined she would be more amenable to a more conservative approach he was considering until he could take stock of what was happening.  But given that something had clearly caught her attention, by now she was probably only thinking of Tina and Angelica at this point, solely focused on protecting them.   Which meant she probably already had options in mind that could expose her to trouble.  He would need all his wits to push back on any ideas she was clearly forming along those lines.

What could have happened?  There had been nothing notable in reports over the last four months.  Over that time, about the only serious issue that he’d monitored was Bette’s work in Afghanistan, but once she and Tina had departed that location, everything was quiet, as usual.

He motored carefully down the icy streets and arrived at Bette and Tina’s 25 minutes later, having been slowed down, somewhat, by a string of red lights and delivery trucks.  Aarrghh!, he thought.  Always happens just when he was in a hurry!

He rang the doorbell, and, after a pause, he heard the electronic door unlock.  He stepped through and wheeled his bike to the back of the building and unlocked the storage area, but saw that there was no space for his motorbike.  He pulled the door of the storage area shut, relocked it, and sighed.  Just another thing to delay him.  Forget it, he thought, I’m not going to worry about it, then just wheeled the Ducati to a spot where he thought it couldn’t be seen from the street, then locked its wheels.

Brom soon found himself being welcomed by a still-glamorous looking Bette, who managed to give him a smile, and a hug and kiss hello.

He gave her a small encouraging smile.  “So, what’s up?”

xxxxxxxxxxx

Bette and Brom were in her home office, reviewing print-outs of various reports that he picked up from the company’s cloud which his team had collated over the past six months.