Chương 60: Which Way?

Regina reached over and picked up the keyboard. She changed the R next to her name to an A.

"Does that answer your question?" she asked, before leaning back in her chair.

"Welcome to the team." Elena replied her voice giddy with excitement.

"So how does this work?" Regina asked.

"Do we go off to spy central or something?" She laughed.

"No, nothing like that. To keep everyone involved safe, we don't have a centralized location," she said, her tone becoming far more serious.

"We have a network of hubs so to speak. No one knows where the others are, if a cell gets raided, with a flip of a switch all access to our servers is terminated and ties to it are severed."

"Smart," Regina said, nodding her head.

"We must stay one step ahead of Blackwood and his men. It's dangerous. Unfortunately, we can't provide you with any real type of backup if you find yourself compromised." Elena said, solemnly.

"You will, for the most part, be on your own. We communicate through our servers, video conference, communicators, you know like the one I gave you. Stuff like that, but none of it can be traced or tracked."

"I prefer to work alone anyway, so that suits me just fine," Regina said, flatly.

"I will be your sole contact person. If anyone from another hub or team reaches out, assume they are compromised. They are to be considered a security threat."

"Okay, so just your cheery voice on the other end of the communicator," Regina reiterated.

"Yes, if something does happen to me, my backup is Alex. You will have a series of codes. Sometimes words. Sometimes numbers and sometimes both. They will be sent to you daily. If he initiates contact, he will give you the passphrase of the day. If he gives you that code, you need to assume I am either dead or in custody," Elena said, firmly.

"Under no circumstances are you to give him or anyone else any information without that code. If he gives you the wrong code word, that means that he was compromised as well."

"What if you both end up compromised?" Regina asked, curious.

"Let's hope it never comes to that Regina, if we both end up compromised then you will truly be on your own and flying blind. It will mean the systematic end to our efforts, and all will be virtually lost," Elena said, not wanting to entertain the possibility. Regina gave her a knowing nod.

"Understood."

"We have been building this for eight years. We have evaded suspicion successfully. We have infiltrated some key offices, and to date no one has been exposed. Blackwood does not even know we exist and we are doing our best to keep it that way," Elena said, reassuringly.

"We're careful Regina, we've had to be. With your areas of expertise, I'm hoping that you will be able to strengthen our security protocols. I mean look what you've done here on your own, it's remarkable," she said looking around the room. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"This didn't happen overnight," Regina said, proud of her work.

"It took me years to put this together."

"I'm sure," Elena said.

"That's the thing, you were on your own. Now imagine what you could do with our resources and connections." Regina's mind reeled at the possibilities.

"What kind of resources are we talking about?" she asked.

"Limitless," Elena said.

"Financial, technological, scientific, you name it, we have it." She smiled.

"We are not just a band of rogue scientists, you know. We've got some backers with some deep pockets. We have built a strong network of people from a wide range of specialties."

"Alright, good to know," Regina said, taking a deep breath.

"Where do we start then?"

"Right now, we both need to go home and get on with our daily routines. Nothing raises suspicion more than dropping off the face of the earth for large periods of time," she began.

"You will go to work Monday and keep your eyes and ears open. Don't do anything out of your normal routine," she added.

"What about my apartment being searched after I left?" Regina asked.

"Is it safe to go back there?"

"Our contacts say that they are no longer looking at you, they didn't find anything there except you." Elena said, then asked.

"How the hell did you pull that off by the way? All our intel says you are still in your apartment; you haven't left. Unless you have some way to be in two places at once…" Regina started to laugh, catching Elena by surprise.

"What?" Elena asked, "What about this is so amusing?"

"With all your intel I'm surprised you don't know this…" she paused, shaking her head.

"I am a chameleon goblin…"

"I knew that," Elena interrupted.

"Let me finish…" Regina said, holding up a hand.

"So is my sister, Roxie," she said, and saw Elena become confused.

"She and I have been pretending to be one another since childhood, here watch," Regina said and began morphing. Elena watched as Regina became her.

"It's like looking in a mirror," Elena said, surprised by Regina's transformation.

"I had heard of certain goblins being able to do this, but I believed it to be merely a tall tale. Until you came along, of course, but I've never witnessed it firsthand. It's incredible." Regina morphed back into herself.

"It's rare and even rarer that siblings share the trait, but Roxie and I can become whomever we want at will."

"That's amazing." Elena said, astounded by this new revelation.

"Your sister can do this too?"

"Yes, why?" Regina asked.

"Do you think she would be interested in joining the team?" Elena asked.

"Wait let me rephrase that question, how would you feel about her maybe joining the team? Other than her ability to shape shift, do you think she has the skill set needed to be an asset?" Regina cocked her head, "I definitely think she would be an asset, she was on the job too, well that was until Blackwood took over and fired her whole department." she said considering the possibilities of working with Roxie.

"I can ask or arrange a meeting."

"Don't do anything yet." Elena said.

"I need to discuss it with my group, and we need to vet her first, but I don't think there will be an issue there," Elena said.

"Having both of you and your unique talents would definitely tip the scales in our favor to some degree."

"Roxie was heartbroken that she never got to realize her dream of becoming a full-fledged agent. She was the top of her class but now sits behind a desk answering calls at one of Blackwood's call centers."

"Don't do anything yet. I'll reach out when I have the go ahead." Elena looked at her watch.

"We really should get going though. Got the blindfold ready?" Regina looked at her puzzled.

"I think we are now past the blindfold stage of our encounter."

"Actually, no we're not. I don't want to know where we are, how we got here or anything of the sort. The less I know the safer you are," Elena said.

"Good job!" Regina smiled.

"You passed the test," she said, pulling the blindfold out of her pocket.