LONDON CALLING

Jess chuckled and sighed " yeah would be ny dera holiday," maybe once this is over I can perseade Jack to take me there for a week or two." she said slightly louder than she needed making Jack look up at her and smile.

"yeah once this is all over and we can trust who we leave with the boss and family." he said back making his mind up that he definalty would as he agreed inwardly they both could use a holiday. " why don't we eventualy by a home there so we can live there in the winters here. " he sugested and saw Jess's eyes light up at the idea.

On hearing the talk Jack nodded " yea he's got a lot to awnser for" he said in responce.

Marcus appeared in Paris outside the headquarters building and saw the rather burned out look that it had. Clearly, Robert's booby trap spell was designed to stop anyone who tried to break in, regardless of wherever that entry point was.

"Deadly business, this was, Robert," Marcus shouted as he walked inside.

"In the office, Marcus," Robert called back. Marcus knew where that was, so he turned to his left and walked down the hallway to the last door on the right.

"Maybe you ought to just raize it and start over," Marcus replied.

"No, the bones are still good," Robert said. "I bet we took you from some high priority assignment, didn't we?"

"Nope. Last day of a holiday in the Bahamas," Marcus said.

"Very nice. Haven't been there in ages," Robert said.

"You look like you need some recuperative leave yourself. Read me in--the whole story," Marcus said seriously.

"We have to go back a few days if you want all of it," Kate said.

"Then go back and tell me all of it," he said.

In London, Khaat heard Jack suggest they consider buying a house in the Bahamas or going on holiday.

"Don't wait for it to be quiet or convenient to go on your holiday," Khaat told them. "If you wait for that, you'll never go. Things are not ever that quiet or convenient. If you want to go, just go."

"Just not this week," Brian teased. "We need you both this week. Incidently, I am going to hope that Michael has the grill under control for dinner tonight. I might honestly be hungry by then."

"He told me he was doing a grilled vegetarian plate tonight," Khaat said, playfully teasing Jack about his very narrow minded attitudes about food.

Jack looked up at Khaat and groaned " great rabbit food " he said softly Jess shook her head and chuckled "don't worry I think there are some left over ribs in the fridge if Jessie's not got to them first, oh and I hope he does too, I don't like over cooked fish." Jess said looking at Khaat as she grinned seeing Jack pull yet another face at the mention of fish.

Jack looked threw his books and placed the last one down " okay all my guys are clear." he said and stretched out his back once more " gods I hope I never see the inside of an archive again" he said

"She was teasing, Jack," Brian said, "but you really should stretch your palate a bit. First of all, even for your werewolf side, it needs a diet of about 40% fruits and vegetables to get proper nutrition. Even for you, a diet that's heavy in red meats will certainly cause heart disease, stroke, chronic stomach and gi tract problems, and a very early death. And, frankly, I'm sure your wife and the rest of us would like to have you around for years to come."

"I think Michael mentioned he had some lovely salmon fillets to grill and maybe some shrimp skewers," Khaat told Jess. "I bet he'll fix Jack some sort of something or other...." She closed her books having most of her women checked, and as she closed her books, a paper bird fluttered through the air and landed on the table in front of her. She opened the message.

"It's Marcus," she said. "Merely saying they're staying over in Paris tonight. Says it's all fine, but they'll be back sometime tomorrow. Says he's gotten my father to actually take a night off. I have no idea how h's managed that, but if that's the case, then I'm glad for it. He says he's arranged some top notch accommodations for the three of them and they'll be back sometime tomorrow. Says we should continue with the plan as is until we hear otherwise."

"Well, if that's all it took to get your dad to take a night off, we should have called Marcus a long time ago," Brian teased. "Anybody have an irregulars on our lists?

"Not so far," Khaat said. "You?"

"A couple that I can't find a lot on just yet, but nothing crooked that I can find," Brian replied.

Jack huffed and nodded " guess I could try it" he said " but meats always tops for me." he added and looked to Khaat and shifted his head so it w stipped to one side " hum those sound nice and tempting?" he said but paused seeing the bird and stood up. On hearing it was nothing but a message from marcus he relaxed and sat back down.

" good about time he had a day off" Jack said " after this I think we all could use a day off." He watched the others and sighed softly " I hope the wolves are behaving" he said to Michael. " they can be a bit like teenagers at times."

When Khaat and Brian had done all they could get accomplished before the archives were due to close, they suggested they all apparate back to Brian's estate. Khaat and Brian had a good portion of their list checked, but Brian wasn't happy with two of the records he was researching, and Khaat had one on her list she wasn't happy with.

"I think we've done all we can today," Brian said. "If we don't head home soon, they'll either kick us out, or they'll lock us in for the night."

"I don't want to stay here all night, that's for sure," Khaat said. "This place has to be completely creepy after dark. Probably haunted."

"Haunted?" Brian frowned. "You're a seer. You talk to ghosts all the time. Why would that bother you?"

"I only talk to ghosts i know. Not dark ones," she said. He laughed out loud.

"So friendly ghosts are on your list, and unfriendly ones are not, right?"

"He doesn't get it," Khaat said, looking at Jess.

"I'm married to a seer. I'm sure I'm going to see all sorts of weirdness," Brian shrugged. He looked at Jack. "You end up with ghosts in your bedroom, Jack? I do. All the bloody time. And she's worried about ghosts in library."

"Let's go home," Brian said. "I'm hungry. And i know Jack is hungry. Right, Jack?"

Back at Brian's estate, Michael had the grill loaded with all sorts of seafood for the adults and some burgers for the kids. Angus and some of the women had arranged a huge buffet of all sorts of different salads, vegetables, main dishes, breads and muffins and rolls, desserts, and beverages. Surely no one would go away hungry. They were setting up tables end to end on the lawn to create one long, family style table. The kids had had a wonderful day playing outside, and some of them were filthy dirty. And no one really cared. They had all needed a day with some down time. For now, the children felt safe.

"

Jack laughed and shook his head at the banter " I sincerly hope not." he said as Jess blushed beet red then stood up " I do think we should head back, it is late and yeah Im famished, starving what ever you want to call it." he said with a chuckle moving to Jess and taking her hand.

" by the way Jack there are no ghosts in our bed room." she whispered and then laughed out loud.

" good thing too, they might not want to stay there for long, good or bad." Jack ported Jess back to the farm and let go of her hand. She moved to the kitchen and smiled seeing Michael had everything under control.

"I think we're ready to eat," Michael told her. I just have to finish setting the fish and meat on the buffet. I think we should make sure that the children's plates are fixed first and that they're settled, don't you? Anyone seen Kate or Robert?"

"They're alright," Khaat said. "Marcus sent a message that he got them to take the night off, and they're staying in Paris overnight at some sort of first rate accommodation he's arranged for them."

"Good for them. Maybe Robert will get a good night's sleep for a change, then," Michael said. "Angus and Edward and Gabe worked on vetting the foster homes today, and they all check out. We should be able to move most of them on to foster homes tomorrow and get them out of this instability. I think they're going to do some hard digging on the children's legal families tomorrow to see if any of them can return to their own homes or if we need to make other arrangements for them."

The organization always checked the families before returning the children to be sure that the children weren't being used in some malicious way to raise money or some other foul purpose. If the families were appropriate, the children were returned. If not, then Robert never bothered to return them because he had learned early on that if he attempted to return them, those children merely ended up in Gelding's clutches again.

Michael put the seafood and meats on the buffet, and he called people to come and eat. He had chosen a couple of bottles of wine from Brian's cellar, not enough for anyone to get intoxicated with, but just enough for everyone who wanted it to have one glass of wine with dinner. And then he went over to Jack quietly.

"After dinner, will you find the wolves and take them a generous supply of meat? The staff here have said that they haven't been able to find that pack of wolves you befriended. They're not in the area where we made contact with them. I don't want anything foul to have happened to them, but that does concern me a bit. Nor do I want them to go hungry. We made a deal with them, so we need to keep it. There is plenty of meat in the big walk in fridge here. Make sure you take the pack plenty if you find them."

Jack nodded his head as he looked at the food infront of him " yeah they do wander and also don't take to strangers." he said " I'll take them a double amount and a special treat of fresh rabbit I'll catch on the way to them." he added "They like that, well their alpha does." Jess helped with dishing up the food and dishing it out to the adults and children who remaid in the farm.

Jack grabbed a large bag of meat and headed out to the area he knew the wolves would be. Once there he sat in a small clearing and waited. About five minutes later the small cub appeared and he gave him the meat and a small rabbit he caught along the path. With a yip it took the bag in its mouth and headed away from them. Jack stood up and headed back to eat his own food.

After dinner, the operation's staff took charge of the children and took them for baths and to get them settled for the evening. Brian could see that, even though the children had had a good time, they were getting tired, particularly the little ones.

Michael was relieved that Jack had not been worried about the wolves and that he had returned as quickly as he had. That told him, in itself, that he had been successful in finding them. He went outside to the firepit and tossed a couple of logs in and used a spell to light a fire. It was a nice warm night, and the firepit was a place that the adults could gather, sit quietly, and unwind after a long day. He lit a cigarette and breathed out slowly, tired from a day of rapid-fire, endless cooking for a massive number of people. He had made some breakfast pastries and a few breakfast casseroles so that all Angus would need to do is to bake off the casseroles, serve up the fruit salad and the pastries and make some tea and coffee. If the children were being moved on, it would be a busy morning.

As Michael sat there, he closed his eyes, and then he heard a noise, like someone trying to get his attention.

"Psst. Psst!" the voice said. He opened his eyes and looked around but saw no one. "Michael!" the voice called. And then he saw Kate's face in the fire.

"Kate? Something wrong? Why are you whispering?"

"Don't want to wake Robert," she said. "Saw a vision tonight. A strange looking woman, reminded me of a gypsy. She's trouble. Big trouble with some powerful dark arts spells. She was doing something with a big branch or a big stick--like she's trying to make a staff. She's on the move tonight. And I don't think its' good. Be on your guard tonight. Make sure they know. They won't make it into the farm tonight. Robert did some sort of funny business there before we left for Paris. So stay where you are tonight, and stay sharp. I don't know if she's headed your way or not, but stay sharp anyway."

"Will do. Are you safe tonight?"

"Yes," she smiled. "Very. Just take care of yourselves, alright?"

"I'll pass the word on. Thanks, Kate," he said, as her face faded. His first thought was that he needed to find Brian and Jack.