Free Belligerent (Vicara) by B.N. Mauldin Page B

leader,” she said with a small smile playing at the corners of her lips.
    Aria raised an eyebrow. “Would you like to spend most of your time locked in labs with potentially lethal chemicals?”
    Clarisse giggled behind her hand.
    “Never mind. I take it back.” Mackenzie said as she slid down a little further into the water.
    Her teammates were right. She didn't have any choice but to accept Ryan which meant she needed to learn everything about him: skills, intelligence, limitations, fears, weaknesses, quirks and potential sources of distraction.
     
    *
     
    Logan stared at the door to the last bedroom on the left for longer than could be considered normal before raising his hand and knocking sharply on the wooden surface. Nothing happened for a few moments. Logan considered that maybe Ryan had descended the ladder from his loft. That tended to trip him up as well. Actually any kind of heights tended to cause him to be a little less than graceful.
    Eventually, the door to the bedroom opened and Ryan filled the space, blocking the entrance with his lanky frame. “Yeah?”
    Logan grinned and hoped his smile looked convincing. “I come bearing gifts,” he said and suddenly wished he had convinced someone else to handle the task in his place. Unfortunately, nobody else was any good with electronics - beyond the basics, of course.
    Ryan stared down at him, making their height difference seem even greater than it was. “What kind of gifts?”
    “Gadgets,” Logan replied and gestured that they should move into the room.
    Ryan hesitantly stepped backwards to where he was no longer blocking the doorway. “Come in.”
    Logan glanced around at the changes that had been made to the room. “I've never seen this space look so neat,” he said before he could help himself. He tended to ramble, and the more uncomfortable he was - the more he rambled.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, James was always kind of a mess. Walking chaos, really. There were always coveralls covered in grease stains tossed on the floor or random car parts spread around the room. Plus, he always had all those posters tacked up in a haphazard sort of random order. I don't think there was a single one that wasn't crooked.” Logan's breath caught as he realized that the room would probably never be James's room again, and he loudly cleared his throat to hide the choking noise that was trying to emerge from his chest.
    “Who's James?”
    Logan jerked from his thoughts. “Shifter didn't tell you? James was our transportation specialist before you,” he said, but the explanation didn't seem enough. James was their eighth, or he had been anyway.
    “Why isn't he still your transportation specialist?”
    Logan realized he had perhaps said too much. If Ryan hadn't been told about James then there was a reason for it. “I brought you a communicator,” Logan said, pulling a device from his backpack. “You'll need to keep it in your ear most of the time. They're completely waterproof, so don't worry about getting it wet.”
    Allowing the topic of James to slip, Ryan asked, “How does it work?”
    Logan exhaled in relief when Ryan accepted the change in conversation.
    “You place it in your ear. Tap once for listening mode. That leaves your line open for emergency calls from the others. Tap it twice in a row to talk to any of the rest of us. Tap it three times in a row to shut it off completely, though we almost never keep them completely turned off. It's too risky and you'll miss too many notices that way.”
    Ryan placed the device in his ear and tapped it once.
    Logan reached up to tap his own twice. “Ryan's now on the comm line with us,” he informed the others. Ryan gave him a surprised look, and Logan held up a finger. He set his own comm back to listening mode. “Just wait a moment,” he explained.
    As Logan expected, Clarisse was on the line almost immediately. “Hello, Ryan!” Her voice came through the comms clearly. “Don't forget to keep