We were back in the office after a couple of days out at Chayton's ranch. The trip into Flagstaff took an intermanable amount of time caught in a line up when construction on the highway to repair potholes cut is down to one lane in rush-hour.

Over an hour late getting in, I missed the staff meeting and went straight into my office. Chayton took the guest workstation next door. I found documents outlining all the information Sparky and Spunky uncovered in raids all over the Middle East.

Recovery of over one hundred missing women and children from twenty-five tribes/bands including Latin American, Canadian, and African indigenous peoples. Horrifying statistics. I forward the list to Chief Choogan of the Slave Lake Cree band and almost a dozen of our own. The rest of the rescued women came mostly from Europe and I wondered if I could develop a contact in Interpol.

Shooting a quick email to Chayton, I asked him if he had anyone he could recommend. I knock on the window beside my open door, brought my head up from the reports I was reading.

Meixing stood there in a pair of nearly white, ancient jeans and a baggy sweatshirt with the ASPCA logo on it. The natural beauty of her translucent skin revealed without the pancake of foundation was far more attractive. She wore a necklace of chunky irregular jade pieces strung on a leather thong.

"You look far better today," I said.

"I feel better. And I'm trying to figure out why your mystery caller bothered to disguise his or her voice. It could be either."

"You got to the bottom of it then?"

"I'm not sure. Like I said either male or female possible, and it came out the same no matter what tool I used to unscramble it. I did figure out it might be a woman though, because of the purchase records I ferreted out of the common buyer from four different VOIP providers for the numbers attached to your messages. Whoever this is, they are clever."

I waved her into my office, and she curled her legs under her as she sat on the easy chair in the corner beside the orchid on the end table there. Seeing her preferred posture, I made a mental note to make sure Jane took care of ergonomics for everyone.

"So, we'll assume female for now. Where is she located?

"In northern India where the original Indian tribes were located. The ones ours were named after, because of our similar cultures, at least that is my theory as where the name came from. She is in the southern foothills of the Himalayan mountains."

"VOIP, voice over internet provider, right? The bane of every office and the jewel of all the tools scammers need world-wide."

She snorted before she answered. "You got it. At least with patience the trail can be unraveled. If we are going to do more of this, I will need access to more computing power. I don't want to hack in somewhere to steal it."

"I take it you could. I'll talk to Edison and get you an account and allotment of time with one of the government centers."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Nice. Thank you." She traced a finger along one of the orchid blooms. "Do you have anyone looking after these? I see them all over the office."

"No, we just replace them whenever they die. I love them but no one wanted to take care of them and the plant service which originally supplied them went out of business."

"I'll take them on. I have several at home."

"I'll let Jane know. Give me a budget for anything you might need."

"That easy? Wow. I heard a rumor you changed up the office policies in the old office, but – wow!" She hopped up and paced restlessly.

"Any progress on finding more missings on social media?"

"Compiling a list now. Someone is going to have to interview the families for their history etc."

"Get Marcel involved in making files for them, and then share them out between you, Tommy and Joey."

Meixing nodded and then said, "Thanks, for everything."

"You're welcome. Let me know if there's anything else you need."

She bobbed her head again and disappeared into the hallway. My new open door policies were already paying off.

Chayton was right on her heels as he came in.

"Interpol?"

"Yeah, the European connection of all those missing women our special ops teams liberated while we were gone."

"I'll see if Edith has someone, otherwise, Andrew Quade might have a contact for us. He worked with us, and still takes the occasional assignment. He's got an in with an Inspector in France."

"Thanks. It's almost lunch time. Damn, I hate loosing half the morning to a traffic jam."

"Stupid of me not to look at the road closures. We could have missed it."

"Don't kick yourself. I looked. It wasn't listed." I picked up my water bottle, "We're scheduled for witness testimony tomorrow. The trial is moving swiftly, and Derringer isn't winning any points. Sam has it under control and he's going to release Tommy from the team. I didn't realise he was working the trial as well."

"Make sure he gets paid for the double duty," Chayton said.

"Uhm, no. I haven't been in court once yet." Tommy appeared at my door as we spoke.

"What can I do for you?"

"We need another person for interviews. That utility worker who can do our printing, copying, help with the interviews and run for take out on a busy day."

"I'll let Jane know. I think we might have enough for two, or maybe three university students, enough hours to give them benefits." I was thinking out loud.

"Use the student unions to post them," Tommy suggested.

"Noted. I have to talk to her about several things which have come up. Edison too. I'll do that before we leave for lunch. Anything else?"

He shook his head and left.

"I'll deal with Edison and further with Andrew if needed. Should have an answer by tomorrow," Chayton said. "I like the flow of your office. No closed doors is a great way to go. Marcel came in to ask me why DHS documents are all still in Word format, I'm chasing that down. PDF is the new standard practically world-wide now."

I sighed. "All part of why things get missed. I'm still not through all the reports form our information liaison. Who the heck are they anyway?"

"No idea. Just signs with their initials and the email reflects the same."

"I suppose that's prudent. They are handling a lot of sensitive information. All of us are cleared for the same. Anyway," I said as I stood, "I have to see Jane."

Chayton pulled me into his arms, giving me a hug and kissing me silly in the process. "Keep that in mind for later."

I had to grab the handrail in the hall to keep my balance. It didn't seem to matter how often we connected like this, it always put a flutter in me.