P. Stormcrow

Bringing Sunny in for questioning turned somehow into a visit to his mother’s house. After all, he was not a suspect—yet—so they had no grounds to bring him in.

Of course, the operative word was “yet”.

But nothing prepared them for the woman in a flowing flower print skirt, standing in front of them with a ramrod straight back and her arms crossed as if she was the most fierce guardian in town. Finn had thought they had parted with Edith on decent terms, but it appeared she was still angry over her son’s apprehension and subsequent sentencing, no matter how lenient it was, in Finn’s humble opinion.

“What do you want, Agents?” Edith snapped at them.

Finn resisted the urge to raise her hands in the air in the universal sign of surrender. This time, she kept quiet, opting to let Jackson work his charm instead. It’d be much more effective than her shooting her mouth off. She only hoped his silver tongue would be sufficient.

“Afternoon, Ms. McDaniels. Is Sunny around? We would like to speak with him.”

A look of fear flickered over her features, but passed in the blink of an eye as she gathered herself. “Haven’t you guys done enough? You’ve already cut off his abilities with that cat. He’s no harm to anyone now. What more do you want from us?”

Had she forgotten what landed Sunny with the feline sentencing in the first place? It was getting harder and harder to hold back. But no, that trepidation Finn glimpsed was real. This was a mother’s worry talking. The reminder mollified her.

“All we want is some information he may be privy to,” Jackson explained, then added with haste. “He’s not in any trouble.”

Edith narrowed her eyes.

“Damn it, get the fuck off my keyboard!” 

Sunny’s voice echoed from somewhere within the house. 

With a heavy sign of resignation, Edith stepped backwards. “Come in then. I can’t guarantee he will talk to you, but I’ll pass on the message.”

“If you can let him know that this is about Inguz Tech, that would be much appreciated.”

Surprise widened her eyes, but she only nodded while ushering them inside and closing the door behind them. “Take a seat.” She gestured toward the living room and stalked off.

Everything looked the same as last time. Or at least, at first. It took Finn a moment to pinpoint the minute differences like the missing decorations that personalized the place and made it feel more homey. Was it because of the cat? They had assigned it to Sunny, but how much did its presence impact Edith herself? Memories of the room where she and other witches conducted the ritual surfaced, and her skin tingled with warmth. Did the other women visit anymore? Was she even part of the coven still?

They didn’t have to wait long. Heavy footsteps preceded the arrival of the man, with thunder darkening his face and a scowl on his lips. 

“What do you want now?” he snapped. His entire posture was stiff, as if he was prepared for a fight.

“We understand you used to work for Inguz Tech?” Jackson may have phrased it as a question, but they all understood it was rhetorical.

“Yeah, what about it?” Sunny tried to shrug, feigning nonchalance, but the glimmer in his eyes gave away his intentions.

Allen cleared his throat from behind. “Before we start, we should clear things up first. Where were you this morning at four a.m.?” 

“Seriously?” Sunny darted his gaze from agent to agent then groaned. “Here. Sleeping. Because who the hell gets up that early?

He had a point. 

“So no witness?”

At that moment, a meow interrupted their conversation, and they looked down to see a cat twinning between Sunny’s legs, rubbing its head against his leg. Finn’s heart dropped to her stomach as she realized a flaw with this kind of sentencing. Was Sunny going to drop kick his forced pet?

To her utter surprise, however, he stared down at the feline, huffed once, then deflated as he softened and scooped it up in his arms. Instead of chucking the cat across the room, he scratched behind its ears, drawing out purrs of contentment. The entire scene bewildered Finn.

“I suppose you can ask Ma. Sometimes she keeps weird ass hours. Something to do with optimal time for spells.”

Well, guess he answered his own question.

“So let me take a stab at this,” Sunny continued. “You need information about Inguz Tech for a case, but they are being tight lipped so you are hoping someone else can tell you.”

They said nothing, but the smug smile told Finn he didn’t require confirmation from them.

“You’re all aware I’m still under NDA, right? I say anything and they’ll have their army of lawyers after my ass.”

At last. Finn was getting tired of this dancing around. “What do you want, Sunny?”

Allen opened his mouth, but closed it again at Jackson’s shake of head. 

Thanks for the back up, partner.

They studied each other. It was always a game of cat and mouse with him, but Finn held him with a stare of her own, refusing to withdraw. He knew they needed the intel but she couldn’t let on how desperate they were.

“Let’s go. We’re wasting our time here. He won’t ask for anything reasonable.” She spun on her heels to leave, startling all three men around her.

“Are you sure?” Jackson asked under his breath as he also turned to follow, but the ever so slight upturn of the corner of her lips told her he had caught on.

“Yeah. They are cooperating anyway, right? Let’s see what they send over first. Besides, we should concentrate on the rune gloves more.”

“You’re bluffing!” Sunny yelled after them.

In response, all Finn did was raise her hand over her shoulder and gave him the old one-finger salute. 

“Wait!” Sunny called out just as Finn reached for the front door knob. “Just. Wait.”

He caught up to them, a little out of breath. Finn smirked but schooled her expression to one of disbelief before she turned ever so slowly to face him with an arched brow. A thrill ran down her spine when Jackson and Allen also followed her lead.

“Look—” Sunny continued this time without waiting—”things have been hard, okay? So three conditions.”

She crossed her arms.

“First, Inguz Tech and especially Eve Albright, can’t find out it came from me. Second, I want compensation. Five hundred up front and if it’s useful, you can pay me another five hundred later.”

That was fair. And cheap. What was the other shoe? “And?”

He glanced this way then that before dropping his voice so that only they could hear. “Help me get a job. A tech one. Not some fast-food joint or janitor work.”

She blinked. “What?”

“A job?” Jackson echoed from behind a little louder.

“Sh!” Sunny flapped his hands up and down. “Not so loud. Inguz Tech was my first gig out of college and Ma was so disappointed when I lost it. Plus, I think the bitch blacklisted me or something because I haven’t been able to get my foot in the door with any tech company since. It’s driving me nuts being stuck at home.”

She glanced over her shoulder to exchange looks with the other two agents. In any other FBI department, that would be well within their means and but was that even a thing her new team did?

“That… can be arranged,” Jackson replied at last though there was still caution in his voice.

Tension drained from Sunny’s stiff shoulders. “Okay. Come on, it’s easier to talk upstairs.” He motioned them to follow him.

As they walked, Finn glanced down at the cat that had rejoined them. So many questions. But a slight brush of fingers on the back of her hand drew her attention upwards once more, and she found Jackson grinning at her. 

“What?” she mouthed silently.

“Good work.”

She flushed red and looked away. 

Unlike the rest of the house, there was a lot more clutter in the attic-turned-bachelor pad. He had shoved aside the desk from the little window and now an elaborate cat tree stood in its place. The feline following them skipped on ahead, climbed the platforms with a few graceful leaps and settled in a curled bundle.

“Take a seat where ever.” Sunny pulled out his own computer chair and slumped into it.

Allen was the first to ease himself on to the edge of the bed and brace his elbows on his knees. But Finn opted to remain standing, leaning against one wall while sticking her hands in her pockets. Meanwhile, Jackson moved to brace himself against Sunny’s desk. 

“So what happened between you and Eric?” he asked.

A more intense anger lit up Sunny’s face and his cheeks flushed red. “That bastard stole my research!”

“Wait, wasn’t it his job to collate the results across all the different projects?” Finn interrupted before Sunny could get on his soap box.

“Yeah, but he’s been trying to spin off his own team forever.”

“So he was using his position to steal ideas,” Finn continued to prompt.

“Exactly! And just because the others are too afraid to say anything doesn’t mean I was going to roll over too. Then Albright had to walk in on the spat and Eric, of course jumps to playing victim.” He rolled his eyes and huffed.

So everyone under Albright could be holding grudges against the guy. Great. 

“What kind of research did you guys do?” Allen asked. 

That was it. The million dollar question. Finn had to remind herself to breathe and stopped herself from leaning in close. Body language gave away so much more and Sunny was not stupid. 

He shrugged. “They keep things pretty compartmentalized. But—” he grinned and leaned in as if sharing a secret—”you know how Inguz Tech holds multiple military contracts, right?”

Finn did not like where this was going and judging by how Jackson furrowed his brow and how Allen stiffened, neither did they.

“Right,” she echoed.

“Well, the pressure’s always on to come up with new stuff, so supposedly, the company is turning to creative ways of weaponizing beyond science.”

Her blood ran cold. 

“So is that why you went to work for them?” 

How the hell did Jackson still sounded so casual? Finn’s own mouth had dried up like a desert in response, but here was her partner with no reaction at all.

“Yeah. Kind of. Their job posting quoted Arthur C. Clarke. You know that whole bit about magic and technology.” Sunny waved his hand in the air for emphasis. “At first I thought it was just some recruiter trying to look edgy, but yeah…”

Rune gloves. Weaponizing magic for military purposes.

Well, fuck.