LONDON CALLING

Jessie looked to Robert and nodded " they called it PTSD to start, then I had a blow out and well..only my best freind knew what realy had happened he told me about dyagon alley and the ministry and well here I am today." He looked at abby and the pout she had. Looking back at who had spoken he paused seeing the most beautiful woman stood infront of him.

"um yeah Jessie Tyler, pleasure" He glanced at Abby and gently pushed his plate with two cookies on it over to her. " you can have mine." he said then placed his finger to his lips and smiled.

He listened to her talk about Brian to Robert and was glad of a slight repreve at meeting the bosses boss. It was now he realized he'd left his hip flask on the counter and looked up at Angus hoping he understood wha was inside.

"sorry, still not use to carrying the darn thing." he apoligized to him. He looked back at Khaat " Mr Lupin, tells me you own a restaraunt Ma'am, I have to try the food there some day." He slipped the flask into his pocket.

Khaat watched Jessie give his cookie to Abbey who seemed delighted by the gesture. Khaat never said a word. She wasn't an overly strict mother, and Abbey already knew it at her young age. Khaat was, though, more the disciplinarian than Brian. Brian adored Abbey, and Khaat believed he gave in to her too often.

"No harm done," Angus smiled, seeing Tyler pick the flask up off the counter. "I'd have reminded you before you went too far without it." When Tyler brought up the restaurant, Angus smiled. "You really do need to check it out. It's called Sparks. It's a bistro, but the food is exceptional. Khaat has a top notch staff, so it really is more of an investment property now. She normally has too many irons in the fire to be able to take care home and hearth and hospital and bistro too."

"She's the director of St. Mungo's," Robert filled in Tyler. "She's a healer, but she normally is tied up with administration duties. The healing duties end up with folks like Jess and me.

Brian came into the kitchen, clean and dressed for the day in clean jeans and a denim shirt. The first thing Robert saw, though was a thin, dark red line that seemed to be going all the way around Brian's neck.

"What is that?" Robert frowned, not liking what he saw.

"What is what?" Brian asked. Robert went over and opened one button on Brian's shirt and pulled his collar away. He knew at once what it was.

"Do I even need to ask you what did this?" Robert said, wanting to see if Brian was going to tell him the truth.

"Piano wire," Brian said.

"Did you know about this?" he asked Khaat.

"No," Khaat frowned deeply, "And he didn't think to tell me either."

"Who tried garroting on you, and how did you escape?"

"One of Gelding's men," Brian said. "I made out better than he did. He's dead."

"You might get more of a training today than I intended," Robert told Tyler seriously. "We might need to go to Paris."

Jessie nodded a thanks to Angus at his words. " definatly gonna check it out now" he said making a note to call in for lunch some time and try the food. He stood up off the stool he'd sat at and straightened up his body as another man entered the room.

Hearing Robert chastizing him gently Jessie watched the interaction his eyes caught the red line on the mans throat. He also caught how well dressed this man was, Now he realized this man was Brian Quinn his boss. This was his home and family and he admired him for it.

"Sir, any trainning is worth while trainning, and being out there is the best trainning there is." Jessie said " Gelding? he's bad news, raly bad."He said "Sir lets hope its not a full moon in paris." Jessie said with a slight smirk.

"Gelding has been a thorn in my side for entirely too long, as was his father before him," Robert said. "Angus, find Jack. If he's not here, send for him. I want him here."

"If you're going to Paris..." Brian began, as Angus sent a silent signal for Jack.

"You're not. You're grounded for today so Khaat and Jess can tend that for you. You should have been killed," Robert said. He reached up to onyx ring he wore on his right hand and twisted the set in it. Khaat noticed it at once. He was sending for someone else, someone in addition to Jack. She wasn't sure entirely who this time, but he was gearing up for a skirmish.

"Angus, taken Tyler downstairs and outfit him," Robert said. "Waste no time."

"You heard the man. You need gear," Angus said, motioning to him, and headed down to the basement.

Jessie listened to Robert and tesed his muscles setting himself ready for the mission ahead. As soon as Robert had finished Jack appeared beside Angus.

"Hey Angus, Robert" he said looking to Brian then giving a low growl " Gelding." he said in a low menacing tone. Jessie saw Jack look at him and motioned to him to follow Angus. "move it newbie, we haven't got all night." he said making Jessie double time it behind Angus.

"what did he mean gear?" Jessie asked walking beside Angus down towards the basement. " are our wands not enough?" He wondered what gear they meant.

Jack looked at Robert as he watched Jessie leave. then turned back to Robert. " okay how'd you get the new look?" he asked motioning to the red ring around Brians neck. " have to say not a good look on you."

"Not where Robert's missions are concerned," Angus replied to Jessie. "And where Gelding is concerned. Tom Gelding has a large network of goons of all skill levels. Don't make the mistake of underestimating him. You're about to get a baptism by fire. This is not what Robert intended on your first day with us. He wants to make sure you're ready." He led him through a hallway that had a number of doors and laid his hand on the second door on the left. It appeared to have a charm on it that recognized Angus's touch and unlocked the door at his touch. "Lumos," Angus said, using wandless magic to light the room.

On the left wall, there were floor to ceiling bins of neatly folded trousers, sweaters, shirts, vests, socks, shoes, hats, scarves and gloves. Mission wear, and in all sorts of colors. There were two rolling racks of coats, one for men and one for women. There were benches for putting on shoes and changing rooms and mirrors mounted to the walls. Two highboy dressers held other miscellaneous things, like hair ties or barrettes to pin up long hair, brushes, combs, wand holsters, handkerchiefs, and all sorts of accessories.

"The trousers are designed to have all sorts of pockets to hold all sorts of equipment. The sizes run from small sizes on the top to sizes that are actually too big even for Jack on the very bottom. Find your size or the closest we have and get yourself outfitted. Since this is a daytime mission, you should pick the green and beige. You might need to try to conceal yourself, but we don't want to be so obvious as to try to use camouflage. That really would be ridiculously obvious in Paris. Oh, and you'll find there are shirts marked as number 2 shirts. That's because they have an extra pocket for those little wolfsbane vials you and Jack carry. Once you're changed, we'll load you with weapons."

Upstairs, Brian sighed as Khaat started to prepare an ice pack for Brian's neck. Brian hated when Robert pulled rank on him, but he had expected it.

"Not my favorite look either," Brian replied to Jack. He was about to explain when he heard someone apparating in. It was Michael. Robert noticed straight off that Michael was not even remotely surprised.

"How's it looking?" Michael asked Brian, going over and checking Brian's neck at once.

"You knew about this?"

"Knew about it because I was there," Michael said. "Who do you think got your boy out of the frying pan last night?"

"You were there, and you didn't come tell me?"

"No, I did not come and tell you because, frankly, I was tired, filthy dirty and in need of a shower, a decent breakfast, and a smoke. Not necessarily in that order, and I needed them before I needed you," Michael replied. "I got your boy home in one piece and headed home to my own place."

"Michael," Robert started to speak.

"Extraction expert, remember?" Michael said, looking at Robert. "Getting your team home in one piece is my job, when I'm not extracting some little gem or bauble for my collection. He's in one piece, even if he is a little worse for wear."

"I'm fine," Brian said. "I told him to go home. I didn't want anyone fussing."

"I do not fuss," Robert said, defending his position. "But neither do I take it lightly when someone would have preferred to decapitate you."

"Gelding has a few new blokes on his team, and they have some new, deadlier tricks," Brian said. "And one of them is a woman. She's a complete viper, that one is."

"He's telling you the truth. That woman is lovely to look at, but you're safer if you stay about a football field or three away from her," Michael said. "And, here's the rub, she's a shapeshifter."

"Metamorph?"

"Probably, but she seems to bloody change her entire appearance at will. Not going to be able to get a good description because she changes it. I don't know for sure what she does really look like."

Jack looked at Michel and shook his head listening to Michael. "you can mask your appearance, but not your scent that never changes no matter the form" he said leaning back on the counter.

Jessie listened to Angus and took down a pair of combat trousers with several pockets down the legs and a number two shirt slipping his hip flask into one of the pockets as he slipped off his shirt placing it folded neatly on an empty shelf in front of him. "Yes Sir" he said now moving to marine mode.

Sitting down he laced up a pair of boots in his ushual militery style while looking at Angus. " So how long you known the quinn's and Mr Lupin?" he asked wanting to get an all round impreshion of both familys. Jessie thought about what Angus had said about the baptisum by fire.

"well at least they see what Im capable of under real conditions, if I cock up I die." he finished lacing his boots and stood up " so I'd better not cock it up and we'd better get this guy, for Mr lupin and Mr Quinn."

"I've known them for decades," Angus said. "Met Robert years ago in Paris. He had need of someone to help him track a particularly nasty man, and he contacted my family for some backup. My grandfather sent me to assist, and, well, the long and short of it is that I've been with them ever since. I did know Brian and Khaat already from our time together at Hogwarts, but I guess I didn't really think we'd see much of each other after school finished. Turned out to be a much smaller world than I thought. Over the years, Robert has seen fit to widen my responsibilities. Wouldn't trade this for the world.

"Robert takes some things very seriously, especially if one of the team is injured. That, he takes personally. Robert is a strategist. That's his biggest strength. Brian's strength is that he's a fighter. If there were ranks amongst us, Brian would be an infantryman. He's good with all sorts of weapons, and he's particularly good at hand to hand combat. He can be a real taskmaster when he's training someone, but he's even harder on himself. And, keep in mind, Robert trains him. Having trained under both, I'd rather train under Brian than under Robert. Robert is relentless."

He saw Tyler was changed and ready.

"Let's go check out the weapons." He led the way out of the store room and locked it again and then went down the hall to the next door and opened it in a similar fashion and turned on the lights. There was row upon row, shelf upon shelf of pistols, rifles, all manner and styles of knives, wands, explosives, ammunition. Just for good measure, there were a few larger knives and swords and a couple of rudimentary wood magic staffs, but Robert hadn't brought many of those here because the use was so limited for them. There was a whole cabinet of accessories--knife sheathes, gun slings, holsters, lighters, matches, backpacks, ropes, climbing gear, full gear for camping including small wizarding tents. The main weapons storage was at Robert's farm, but even this small armory could equip the team here at the ranch for quite awhile.

"This room still impresses me," Angus said. "Looks like he's planning on starting something, doesn't it? The fact is, this is all defensive. It's not meant for anything else. What sort of weapons, besides a wand, are you comfortable with. Most of us have a real preference for one particular weapon. For example, Robert likes pistols. Khaat likes switchblades--big ones. Kate likes rifles and all manner of things that go boom. What's your preference?"

Jessie followed behind Angus listening to him talk about the others as they went. Entering another corridor he paused in the doorway of the wheapons room and gave a low whistle at the sheer volume of wheapons.

"I can see why" He said and slowly moved around it looking at each weapon. He could see they were all in imaculate condition. When Angus asked what weapon he prefered he looked around then grinned like a kid who found his favorate sweet in a candy store as he moved to several Bo staffs. Looking one over he took it down and held it in his hand.

Turning slightly on his feet he shifted his balance as he then spun the staff, twisting and sturning making the staff almost look like a sheild infront of him, but not once did he lose his footing or balance. Pausing he looked at Angus,

"Mines the Bo Staff, I can take down an enemy but leave them alive, plus with my added..um anger it uses up excess energy." he told him shrinking the staff and slipping it into his pocket. " I was told once don't fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. " He said

Angus watched Jessie with the bo staff. Tyler was a martial arts guy, and he was sticking to what he was used to. Well, that was what Angus had requested he start his gear with, after all.

"If you think this is impressive, wait until Robert shows you the real weapons locker. This is the small one. There are two more. There is another that is bigger than this, and one more that is bigger than both of them. Robert is a collector, but if he ever let us have full access to all three of them? Well, lets just say we could hold out for a very long time.

"Your philosophy about practice makes sense. Be aware that Robert's philosophy is more like 'You're all going to learn 10,000 kicks and you're going to do each one 10,000 times,'" he laughed.

"We've had a couple other martial arts guys," Angus said. "I knew one that used nunchucks and another that was just crazy accurate with shurikens. I had no objection to the nunchucks but the guy with the obsession about shurikens was a little creepy for me. As for the bo, it certainly is impressive. I don't disapprove of it, but it isn't my strong suit. I suppose I'm more of a ranged weapon guy." Well, that was what Edward had taught him to rely on. When one was hunting an out of control werewolf, ranged weapons were far safer. Keeping one's distance from a ranging werewolf just plain made sense. "That, and firearms. Bullets can stop a whole lot of things." He walked over to one of the cabinets and took out what looked like an oversized swiss army knife.

"Keep one of these with you. It's basically a souped up swiss army knife, wizard version. There are all sorts of little toys on here. Robert has these made, but I have no idea where. I've decided I really don't want to know. Either he has some little twisted bits in his brain that he can think of all sorts of diabolical things, or he has a weapons maker who definitely likes his work a little too much. Either way, most of us have found these things to be immensely helpful. See anything else you want to start out with?"