the Sixteenth Surgeon

Chapter 9 "The Smoldering Lullaby"

A petite young woman woke from a restful nap and checked her phone. She smiled and replied to the flirtatious message before removing a small object from her purse, a compass, adorned with silver and resembling an old pocket watch. She noticed it moving back and forth between 2 points.

"Why the hell won't you work today?" she said grabbing her laptop and checking the program. There was a bold signal and a faint ghost blip that couldn't decide if it was active or not.

"Hey, take a look at this." She said as a familiar young man strutted into the room. It was Jack, one of the twins, wearing a bath towel and fresh out of the shower.

"What's the problem?" he asked.

"Your tech is buggy as hell." She complained.

"No it's not, right there." he said poking the screen.

"I can see that...why is there another blip that periodically appears?" she asked.

"Um...no idea. Do you have any other relatives in the area?" he asked.

"Unlike you I'm an only child. There is my location, and there is Roman...what the hell is that blip, it has to be a glitch." She insisted.

"This stuff doesn't "glitch", honey. Everything I have is advanced tech, military experimental...the adaptive cammo suits, the tracking system, all of it absolutely state-of-the-art and it doesn't have bugs." Jack bragged.

"Well, then he must have cut off a foot and left it on the corner of 15th street and Madison...because the genetic tracker says there is something there and the other day his signal disappeared entirely for almost 4 minutes. I highly doubt he teleported to the damn moon for tea and leaves body parts lying in alleys, so that means logically your tech isn't perfect and could use some upgrades." she snipped.

"Lotta expectation for something I gave you for free. Sis would kill me if she knew I was sharing tech with another Surgeon, let alone Roman's freaking daughter. So maybe knowing the risk I am taking and letting you use for nothing...some gratitude would be nice." He said heading to the kitchen for a sandwich.

"It's not free, you get all this." She grinned sarcastically, striking a sexy pose.

"Good thing too, doesn't matter how great your personality is, I don't give out information and assistance to just anyone. You're lucky I owe you a favor, and the fact that you are an animal in the sack doesn't hurt things." he said, brushing his teeth.

"Men...the things you'll do for a dime-piece." She chuckled, trying to boost the signal strength. "There was something there, I know it." she added

"Well, it's a DNA tracker, DNA is a funny thing, even a cousin or half sister or distant relative might show up as a partial signal. So the tech is working, maybe you got a second cousin working for Roman you didn't know about." he muttered with a mouth full of turkey and swiss.

"Maybe someone is pregnant." She said coldly.

"What?" he hollered.

"Nothing." She said closing the laptop and looking pale.

Carla yawned and stood in front of the mirror, checking her hip where she caught a 5.7mm round the other night. The scar was almost entirely healed." She turned her attention to the knock on the door, tucking her shirt in to hide the mark. She opened the door and Roman Blue was standing there with a single rose and a stack of papers.