Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Fourteen

After finishing our drinks, Ward and I went straight back to our hotel. Kayla and Derek still walked at a leisurely pace, even though it was killing me, and I dropped the act as soon as we made it through the door to our room. As soon as Ward closed it behind us, I turned around and punched him in the arm.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"For the waitress in the café, Derek. Both Sam and Kayla are annoyed as hell at having to watch that. Don't let it go to your head."

Ward raised an eyebrow and took a few steps in my direction. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Come on, Slater. It worked. I got the information we needed. Besides," he leaned forward on the counter, very much in my space. My heart sped up a little, but I aggressively ignored it, "you have to admit, I can be pretty charming when I want to be."

He had that grin on his face again, the one he'd used on the waitress, and I did have to admit it was charming. But not out loud. The whole point of the punch, after all, had been to keep his ego from blowing up.

So, instead of agreeing, I said "eh" and shrugged my shoulders as I pushed past him to walk to the living room.

Ward looked shell shocked, but I didn't wait for his reaction before moving on. We had more important things to deal with.

"What did the people in the antique shop say?" I asked as I settled into one of the chairs.

I watched Ward shake his head and take a deep breath as he straightened up. Then, he turned to me and cleared his throat, all business again. I gave him a mischievous grin as he sat in a chair of his own, but he ignored it.

"They didn't say much that we could use," he answered instead. "Mostly they were discussing the blue glow the girl in the coffee shop told us about. But it sounded like the guy wanted to go out to the caves for himself with another group to look for the source. He seemed to be reporting to the woman behind the counter, and if I had to guess, I'd say their group is the source of the chatter SHIELD picked up on. We'll have to be even more on guard when we head out to those caves tomorrow."

"Alright, obvious question here, but do you think it's another one of those orbs that we found in Costa Rica?" I asked.

"I mean, it fits the description. But either way we're going to have to be on guard. That girl you took out in the jungle might have friends here in Narsaq."

"I knew we should've insisted that headquarters told us what they found out from what we brought back. What if it was important information that could help us right now?"

"Well, we're just going to have to deal with it," said Ward, crossing his arms. "That's our job."

"What? Going into situations without the information we need because the top brass is being stupid?"

"No. Getting the job done no matter the obstacles."

I rolled my eyes, making sure Ward didn't miss it.

"Whatever," I said, standing from the chair and heading for the bedroom. "Sounds like we're going to have a long couple of days."

"Especially since we have to camp," Ward chimed in. I groaned. So much for comfortable beds and cute hotel stays.

As I got ready for bed, my mind kept returning to everything we'd learned so far about our mission tomorrow. I couldn't help feeling like we were going in woefully unprepared, and I wanted to change that if I could.

Eventually, as I laid in bed staring at the ceiling, a faint plan came to me. It wasn't guaranteed to be a difference-maker, but the more resources and options we had available to us, the better. No matter how badly I wanted to enjoy this last comfortable night of sleep, I resolved to wake up early in the morning to put my plan into action. Like, earlier than Ward early.