  “There are two types of world leaders, those the public sees and then the other kind,” Ori said. “Supernatural councils are among that second type, as you know. We have the Sut Resi. Think of them as a global council. They are who the Guard, and all of the Akhkharu Nasaru, answers to. Those people are elected, and they are a secretive bunch. I’ve never met one as far as I know. They often point us to our assignments.” “Their goal for the most part is to protect the people no one else can, or will, assist. They, and by extension us, have no political or religious affiliation, no national borders.” Kai stopped and looked around at them. “Sometimes because of financial limitations, or the political climate in an area, those that need help can’t get it. That’s where we come in. “Sometimes it’s simply a matter of no one else sees a problem since it takes place over too many years and miles. Other times one of our operatives gets wind of a problem we can help with while”—he made quote signs in the air—“working inside another intelligence organization.” “Humans think in years, werewolves in decades, vampires in centuries,” Blair said softly. “Yeah.” Lucas nodded. He looked at the others. “Part of that chart I told you about. It basically relates to each of our species’ lifespans.” “Succinct. I like that,” Kai said. “Some of us are more military in nature, some focus more on espionage and intelligence gathering, others focus on research or diplomacy,” Ori picked up the thread. “You four are a wonderful mix of those skills and like freaking jack rabbits. Quickly and quietly slide through a tiny hole in a defense system. In so fast no one notices. You do what you need to do, then get back out again with no trace until the damage is done and it’s too late.” “We’ve been working this particular case for a few years,” Kai told them. “Ships, yachts, boats going down for no real reason, and oftentimes no one survived, and those few survivors haven’t provided much information. There are times nothing was recovered. They simply disappeared,” Kai told them. “Innocent people--children—all killed.” “Like the Bermuda Triangle?” Blair asked. “Except this has been happening all over the globe and only in fresh waters. There wasn’t a lot—one here, another there, some separated by months or years,” Ori said. “It started about a decade ago, give or take a few years. As far as we can tell, the various vessels don’t have anything in common. There is no direct evidence of smuggling or stealing goods, but we won’t rule it out. No contraband shows up from the missing vessels.” Kai shrugged. “Sometimes they’re cruise ships carrying nothing but people on vacation.” “Your werewolf friend, and more recently, Bronwen and Vaughn, always show up in the general vicinity. Occasionally they arrive before anything occurs, but usually it’s right after. So, I suspect the university boat isn’t the first vessel to vanish in this area,” Ori said. “All sorts of boats and even cargo ships go down in the Great Lakes. Most of the time it’s attributed to weather conditions,” Forge said. Kai nodded. “When a vessel is found, it’s usually extremely damaged. Not a lot of evidence to examine. We’ve been following the trail left by this werewolf and Bronwen.” He rubbed his forehead and sighed. “It always feels as if we’re four steps behind.” “We know this werewolf is from Scotland, and we think we know what pack he might belong to. What he does, or any other details about him, we don’t know. It’s as if the guy never existed,” Ori added. “Yet clearly he does, since he shot me,” Forge grumbled. “You told us there were other werewolf operatives. One of them couldn’t get some leads from the Scottish pack?” Lucas asked. “Have you ever had contact with a pack from that part of the world?” Kai asked. Lucas shook his head, and Kai continued. “If you think American packs are mired in old-fashioned ways, you should meet some of the Scottish packs. All those movies made about rival clans? They take it to a whole new level. There must be dozens of small packs that don’t like one another, never mind someone from another part of the world. Local supernatural councils simply won’t tolerate any sort of illicit means of gathering information when a pack’s members haven’t broken any laws and we can’t prove any laws were broken. We never know when we may need them, so we tend not to get on their bad sides.” “Oh, come on, you must have some decent hackers,” Blair said. Ori nodded. “We do. However, cyberespionage only works when there is a computer to hack.” Blair’s face fell. “Oh.” Code Name Jack Rabbit is available in eBook, paperback, Kindle Unlimited and through your local library digital catalog.    
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