Quake Chapter Four

“I can either hum or think. I can’t do both.” Dirk said as we were driving through town to Rivera’s. “I guess he will just have to read my mind.”

“Well you never could walk and chew gum at the same time so I am not surprised.” I jokingly told him.

He shrugged. “I have nothing to hide anyway. I don’t have the hots for him.”

I punched him in arm.

“Don’t you be thinking that around him either. I will hurt you.” I threatened. “I can’t help but find him attractive but it doesn’t mean I will like him as a person. He is most likely arrogant and conceded. How could he not be? Anyway, who wants a man women constantly drool over? Not me. I am through with attractive men. I am going to find me an ugly guy who will treat me like I ought to be treated.”

“Like a spoiled brat?” Dirk asked.

I gave him the evil eye. “Your one to talk.”

We pulled into a parking space and before I could evoke an aura of calm I saw Simon standing outside waiting for us. He had changed into khakis and a navy polo. His hair was brushed into his face instead of tucked behind his ears like he wore it at the deli. It made him look even more……. ugh. I was seriously going to have to get over this.

I got out of the car and he smiled at me. I was more prepared by that time and smiled back placidly. Robin blushed when Dirk’s sleek frame slid out of his sleek black BMW. She wore a pale green summer dress and a pink blush on her pale skin. She had swept most of her dark brown hair back into a clip but some strands slipped out and fell prettily around her face. Poor Dirk didn’t have a chance. He would be in love by dessert.

“We put our name on the list.” Simon said. “They said it would not be long.”

He opened the door for me and we went inside to sit in the waiting chairs. Dirk started chatting up Robin instantly.

Simon leaned towards me. “No humming?” He asked.

“Nope. It is a pain to keep up with.” I told him.

I wasn’t looking at him but I am pretty sure he smiled. I refused to be moved by it and distracted myself by looking around the room. It had changed very little since I was here last. A large flowing room with white linen tablecloths and bright red roses in glass vases on the tables. Landscape paintings and flickering candles in wrought iron wall sconces decorated the walls. Being that it was a popular date spot I had only been here on actual dates. Three dates to be exact. Bits and pieces of memories from the dates floated to my mind as I watched the crowd of couples eating and flirting.

“If I would have known that I would have picked a different place.” Simon said.

I turned a questioning look to him.

“I wasn’t aware this was your date spot.” He said.

“It doesn’t matter. They were all terrible dates anyway. I was born and raised here. You would be hard pressed to find a place that didn’t have a memory attached to it.”

“I will do my best to make this date more enjoyable for you.” He said and smiled slyly at me.

I was about to point out that this was not an actual date and so didn’t count when the hostess called “Tracy party of four.” and Simon got up.

I wondered if Tracy was his last name or hers, or both.

We were shown to our seat and ordered drinks. None of us spoke much as we decided what to eat. When the waitress returned, a pretty young redhead, she sat Simon’s drink down last and smiled sweetly at him. Simon acted as though he hadn’t noticed though he could certainly read her intent in her mind as well as he could read the daily special on the menu. We promptly ordered. Robin ordered pasta while Simon and I ordered steak. Dirk ordered a burger and fries.

“So.” I said. “Let’s get down to business. How do you know us? How do you know about what Dirk can do?”

Dirk had been very surprised and excited when I had told him the story about Robin and Simon knowing about us. I did omit the embarrassing parts and hoped I would get away with it but alas that was not be.

“You were never supposed to know.” Robin explained. “We are assigned to watch you. When you lived separately you each had someone keeping an eye out for you.” she looked at me “We were told would be moving home sometime soon and it would probably be for some time and for us to take up posts at a closed down tourist trap and turn it into a deli.” I tried not to be horrified that someone knew my relationship was coming to a close at least three weeks before I did. “Simon loves to bake so he added on the bakery side.” She continued. “We knew things were starting to go bad when you” she looked at Dirk and blushed a little “started coming in almost everyday. We called and tried to get them to move us out or somewhere else in town but we were told to stay. Then you come in” she looked at me again “and make the king of control, lose control and laugh our cover out the window.” She gave Simon a disparaging look.

Simon smiled ruefully no doubt remembering the spectacle.

Dirk narrowed his eyes at me. “You caused them to blow their cover?”

“I will tell you about it later.” I said out of the corner of my mouth.

He looked back at me like he would not forget about it either.

“Back to more important matters.” I said. “Why on earth are you spying on us?”

“We don’t know.” Simon said. “We just follow orders.”

“What are your orders exactly? Who is giving you these orders?”

“Our orders are to keep tabs on you. To make sure you don’t fall into any trouble of any kind and to look for signs of loss of control from Dirk and for any signs of special ability from you.” I started humming to myself to mask any stray thoughts of my ability. I prayed Dirk remembered to do the same. Simon continued “I am not sure I can tell you who sent us.” He looked at Robin. “What do you think?” He asked her.

She looked at me for a long moment then spoke. “We are members of SID, the Special Intelligence Division. We are not affiliated with the government but we are hired out to work with the military on special ops missions. The payment for these operations keep our organization well funded.”

“So do all of you have special abilities in SID?” Dirk asked.

“Not all but most do.” She replied.

“Why have we not been told about this?” I asked.

“I am not sure. It doesn’t make sense to us either. Normally we have people who scour the papers for unusual activity so we can recruit new members. Special abilities often run in families so we always test family members. There are a lot of members of SID that are related. Usually we ask every person with an ability to join at some point in their life. I am not sure why you two are being kept out of the loop.”

“How many times have you been assigned to spy on us?” Dirk asked.

“This is our first time being assigned together but I have watched Shia for six months in Anaheim and Simon has watched Dirk for six months in Atlanta. We usually do a six month rotation. Only like genders are assigned to eliminate the possibility of a romance.” She looked at Dirk and he grinned at her.

“I think that was a good call.” He told her.

“How much trouble are you going to be in for telling us this?” I asked.

“I have no idea.” Simon said looking grim. “As long as we do not get dismissed from SID I can deal with whatever punishment they give me. Robin has nothing to fear. It was my loss of control that caused this.”

Robin shook her head. “No way big man. I could have let her think she had said it out loud but instead I chose to lessen her embarrassment and tell her the truth. We are equally to blame.”

Simon looked like he was about to argue but just then the waitress came up with a huge tray and placed our food on the table. After she had set out the plates of food she asked Simon if he needed anything else. He told her that he had everything and then gave her a thin lipped smile that was almost a grimace. Oh how hard it must be to have women fawning over him all the time.

“You have no idea.” Simon said flatly.

I started humming again.

“Do you think they will let us join?” Dirk asked.

Robin shrugged. “I don’t know. Now that you know about us I am not sure what the next step will be. We will just have to leave it up to our superiors to tell us what happens next. We check in every Monday and Friday so Monday we will have to explain what happened and wait for new orders.”

At that moment a phone bleeped in Robin’s pocket. She pulled it out of a tiny gold clutch and stared at the screen. She swallowed.

“You had better go ahead and answer it. He must know already if he is calling.” Simon told her.

“How does he know? Does he have people watching his people?” She asked.

“Only one way to find out.” He said.

She pressed the on button and reluctantly placed the phone to her ear. The person on the other end began to speak before she had a chance to say hello. Simon and Robin’s faces made almost identical expressions as they reacted to whatever the caller was saying. After a minute Robin said “We kind of already have.” There seemed to be a long silence after that and Robin and Simon exchanged a look. A few seconds later she hung up the phone without saying goodbye.

“How bad is it?” I asked her.

“Well it seems your Mother has a tail and she is outside right now watching us. The tail recognized us and called in our location. Our direct superior, we call him Noodle, called to request a full report on why we are here and to warn us to keep our cover. I then informed him it was too late for that.” Robin looked a little green.

“A SID representative will be meeting us tomorrow at three for a debriefing. He would like you both present. Can you make it?” Simon asked.

“Sure.” Dirk said. “The Pelican is closed tomorrow and three is well after church lets out. I don’t have any plans.”


“I just got to town. I have been here long enough to have plans.” I said.

“You do now, with the head of the Special Intelligence Division.” Simon told her grimly.

Well that was scary.