Square and toward the Midtown North Precinct. He did his best to ignore the clamoring little voice inside his head that said Aaron was right and Jade the photographer was the best thing to cross his path in months. She’d seemed to be reasonably intelligent and in possession of a functioning sense of humor on top of being gorgeous. If she’d been anyone else, he might even have been interested in getting to know her, but she was a photographer for a newspaper, and that meant she was only interested in him for a story.
Besides, even if Aaron was right and she had been interested in talking to them as people and not as potential sources for a story, he’d completely blown it with her. He’d be surprised if he ever saw her again.
ade navigated her way down Eighth Avenue, headed for the southernmost boundary of her catchment area. Times Square had been quiet for a change, so she’d decided to do another sweep of her entire territory, looking for problems to solve. She was crossing Forty-Third Street when her phone made the same angry siren noise it had made the night before, and her eyes widened as she dug into her purse to find it. She couldn’t remember the last time there had been two imminent danger alerts within a day of each other. Typically, karma and destiny and all of the other forces in the universe worked together to keep employees of the Fate Divisions out of harm’s way.
She unlocked her phone’s screen and found herself staring dumbly at the words in bold black font.
Imminent Danger. Midtown West/Intersection of Eighth Avenue and Forty-Third Street. Bailey, Jade: Account Enforcement, Karma Division. All Department Assistance Requested.
“Damn,” she breathed, the curse slipping from her mouth as she jerked her head up, looking for any sign of the danger she was supposedly in. She wasn’t doing anything that might provoke anyone; she’d been headed down to the lower boundary of her territory to start a sweep of the area, but she wasn’t currently engaged in any karmic enforcement.
Her safest bet was to get under cover, she realized, and before she really had time to think about it, she was moving, sprinting for the nearest building. She found herself in the lobby of the Westin, greeted by a concierge with a pleasantly concerned look on his face.
“Is everything all right, ma’am?” he asked, his tone solicitous. “Can I help…”
He trailed off, his attention caught by something on the other side of the windows. Jade turned around, the world moving in slow motion as she looked out the glass doors of the lobby and saw people ducking and running for cover. Several of them barreled into the hotel, as she had, and with the door swinging open, she heard the noise of gunfire from outside.
She broke off from the concierge, whose attention was on the chaos outside anyway, and made for the ladies’ restroom as glass shattered in the lobby. She knew from her training that if everything went sideways and someone started shooting, the safest place to be was a room with thick walls and no windows.
There wasn’t anyone else in the restroom when she got there. She ducked into the farthest stall from the door and locked herself in, drawing her feet up onto the toilet seat to keep anyone from seeing them. She also dug into her purse, slipping her hand into the small zippered compartment in the back, and drew her .380 caliber Walther PPK-S.
Karma Division encouraged their employees to carry firearms for personal protection, pointing out that despite their special assistance from Fate, employees could still find themselves in a precarious position due to the unfortunate effects of free will. Her father had bought her the weapon for her eighteenth birthday, and she carried it religiously although she’d never needed to use it for anything but target practice. If the imminent danger alert was because someone was targeting her specifically and not just because she’d been standing in an area that was
Besides, even if Aaron was right and she had been interested in talking to them as people and not as potential sources for a story, he’d completely blown it with her. He’d be surprised if he ever saw her again.
ade navigated her way down Eighth Avenue, headed for the southernmost boundary of her catchment area. Times Square had been quiet for a change, so she’d decided to do another sweep of her entire territory, looking for problems to solve. She was crossing Forty-Third Street when her phone made the same angry siren noise it had made the night before, and her eyes widened as she dug into her purse to find it. She couldn’t remember the last time there had been two imminent danger alerts within a day of each other. Typically, karma and destiny and all of the other forces in the universe worked together to keep employees of the Fate Divisions out of harm’s way.
She unlocked her phone’s screen and found herself staring dumbly at the words in bold black font.
Imminent Danger. Midtown West/Intersection of Eighth Avenue and Forty-Third Street. Bailey, Jade: Account Enforcement, Karma Division. All Department Assistance Requested.
“Damn,” she breathed, the curse slipping from her mouth as she jerked her head up, looking for any sign of the danger she was supposedly in. She wasn’t doing anything that might provoke anyone; she’d been headed down to the lower boundary of her territory to start a sweep of the area, but she wasn’t currently engaged in any karmic enforcement.
Her safest bet was to get under cover, she realized, and before she really had time to think about it, she was moving, sprinting for the nearest building. She found herself in the lobby of the Westin, greeted by a concierge with a pleasantly concerned look on his face.
“Is everything all right, ma’am?” he asked, his tone solicitous. “Can I help…”
He trailed off, his attention caught by something on the other side of the windows. Jade turned around, the world moving in slow motion as she looked out the glass doors of the lobby and saw people ducking and running for cover. Several of them barreled into the hotel, as she had, and with the door swinging open, she heard the noise of gunfire from outside.
She broke off from the concierge, whose attention was on the chaos outside anyway, and made for the ladies’ restroom as glass shattered in the lobby. She knew from her training that if everything went sideways and someone started shooting, the safest place to be was a room with thick walls and no windows.
There wasn’t anyone else in the restroom when she got there. She ducked into the farthest stall from the door and locked herself in, drawing her feet up onto the toilet seat to keep anyone from seeing them. She also dug into her purse, slipping her hand into the small zippered compartment in the back, and drew her .380 caliber Walther PPK-S.
Karma Division encouraged their employees to carry firearms for personal protection, pointing out that despite their special assistance from Fate, employees could still find themselves in a precarious position due to the unfortunate effects of free will. Her father had bought her the weapon for her eighteenth birthday, and she carried it religiously although she’d never needed to use it for anything but target practice. If the imminent danger alert was because someone was targeting her specifically and not just because she’d been standing in an area that was
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