Never Again

CLOSED

“No, I can’t see it being a problem if you don’t.” He responded with a polite smile. “You’re a busy woman, I can respect that. If we can’t get a hold of you, I’m sure we’ll have other agents who can take over, so I wouldn’t worry about it.” 

She gave a nod and stood up, stretching her hand out for Peter to shake. “I should probably be going now, actually. I have a few things to do and check in the with FBI. When you need me to sign the paperwork, just give me a call. I’ll swing by and give them my signature so we can get started.”

Nodding his head, Peter took the notepad, tore of the page and stuck it on a pile of things he had to go through. He could jot it down on the file later. “That’s fair enough. It would be handy if there was someway you could let us know prior to going on a mission? We wouldn’t need details of course, but just so we know when not to expect you, that kind of thing?”

“Will that be a problem?” If so, maybe this wasn’t the greatest idea she’d had. Hopefully, they could work something out. She didn’t see why not. They were both professional organizations.

Leaning back in his chair, Peter scratched his chin. Hiring wasn’t usually his department - once he’d given the all clear on a new member, other people usually took over. “Well, I can call some people, get some forms written up, for our benefit mostly. Then we can get you meeting the teams and I’m sure you’ll be able to jump right in.” He said with a smile, attempting to channeling Nathan in terms of professionalism. “But how about we start with your personal details, so we can contact you?” Peter rifled through a draw in his desk before pulling out a few sheets of paper and handing them along to Barbra, as well as pen. 

“Those are the fastest ways to contact me, though sometimes I won’t reply right away. If I’m on a mission for the FBI, depending on what it is, it could take some time to get a response back. And my FBI missions will always come first. Not that Fortis isn’t important, but we don’t want to raise suspicions.”

“Of course, of course. Absolutely confidential. Well we’d be glad to have you on board. I understand your want to keep this private, but I can’t risk my company. I need to know that, should the FBI found out about this, it wont come down on my head.”

After another minute, Barbara glanced at him with her eyebrows raised expectantly. “Well, what do I need to do to move forward this this? It wasn’t something I was planning on, more of a whim decision, but I’m sure about this move and don’t want to give myself time to chicken out.” She half teased, smirking at Peter slightly.

“If you threaten our son again…I’m going to put my heel through your skull.”

When she got to the point, Peter listened carefully, rubbing his chin and nodding his head. It was captures his interest, of course, and it couldn’t hurt to have someone from the FBI around on their side. “That all makes a lot of sense.” Peter said, pursing his lips and folded his arms. “And how, can I ask, would you be offering to help out with the EHRA mess?”

“My ability is enhanced speed, so I’m sure Fortis will find great use for it, especially with these Hunters popping up more and more.” Barbara raised an eyebrow at him, almost as if surveying Peter again. “And again, I can’t emphasize this enough, my involvement will have to be top secret. Classified. The FBI can’t find out about me working for Fortis.”

Micah nodded, not exactly thrilled to hear that she was on the trail of the Hunters as well. “Well, we’re meeting,” He said with a smile. It was a little bit painful to look at her, she was so normal. “The Hunters are definitely active in New York. But they’re recruiting at a higher rate, and some of their members are getting sloppy.” Micah informed.

She smiled over at him, surveying Micah for a minute. If I had known your mom, I’d say that she’d be proud. It’s probably true either way and she’d also say to watch your back. My opinion? I think you’re starting to get a little cocky too.” Barbara paused, giving him a firm stare. “Don’t let saving the world get to your head.”

“Hm?” His head snapped up when he heard the knock on his door, and a familiar face appeared. Peter was about to greet Tracy, but she introduced herself as someone completely different. Gesturing for her to enter, Peter stood up to greet her, extending his hand. “Nice to meet you Ms Zimmerman. You’re uh, you’re not related to a Tracy Strauss are you?” He had to ask, given that there obviously was something going on, and it had to be more interesting than staring at business papers.

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, staring at Peter expectantly. “I work for the FBI.” Getting straight to the point was probably the best idea at the moment. “The organization doesn’t want to be affiliated with Fortis, for obvious reasons, but I’m considering joining. It would have to be top secret, of course. Also, I’ve offered my teams services to Tracy, but not to Fortis. I’m sure you can understand that and unfortunately that’s the way it has to be until this mess with Shelby and the EHRA is cleared up.”

She stood and extended her hand, not sure if they were close enough to hug each other, but feeling odd being so formal with her sister. “It was lovely to meet you, Barbara. I have to get back to the office, but I hope we can see each other soon. And thanks for your help. It’s good to know you and your team are out there.”

[closed]

She laid her palms flat on the table and said, “Whatever we do, it’s going to take time. I’m just not sure how long we have before this starts to become irreparably damaging.”

“Don’t worry too much about Shelby. If you can attack him and win on a constitutional ground, I might have a way to get Shelby from a different angle. That is, if, you win with the law, otherwise with I’m thinking probably won’t work. I’ll have to do some more research on it as well to get my facts straight.”

Instead, she returned to their previous topic. “I heard that Shelby might be involved with the Hunters somehow. Know anything about that?”

Barbara thought about telling Tracy about the FBI agent they had undercover inside the Hunter operation, but blowing such a big cover was too much of a risk. “Do you know of anything else about him? Maybe something we can use a leverage or as a reason to put more people in his path?”