‘Well, um, listen. I won’t be making it in today. I, uh, have a couple things I need to take care of. It’s urgent. I called Hammond before calling you, and we agreed that since you’ve got Falwin, the team won’t suffer without me there. I’m real sorry about this, Lys.’

Concern that Tony was calling in during a high-profile case – something he had never done in all their years working together – combined with the tone of his voice had alerted Alyssa that he was keeping something from her. ‘Is everything okay, Tony? Do—’

‘I’ll get in touch later. Again, I’m really sorry.’ And then he was gone, leaving Alyssa to stare absently at her screen, consumed with a fresh wave of worry for her teammate.

Swinging her feet to the floor, she’d slogged her way to the bathroom. A quick shower and a to-go cup of java later, she was ready to head to the station, even though she didn’t expect the others until six.

However, thanks to Balloon Fiesta traffic, it had taken an extra half an hour to get there, so she’d pulled into the precinct parking lot just ahead of Cord – and the storm that seemed to roll in out of nowhere. The dark clouds hovered menacingly, and she tried to shake the feeling that, coupled with her dream and Tony’s phone call, they were a bad omen. No sooner had she climbed out of her SUV and slammed the door, than the first rain pellets hit the top of her head.

‘If there’s a single guarantee in Albuquerque,’ Cord said as the sky suddenly opened up, and the two of them raced up the steps, ‘it’s that it’s going to rain at some point during the first week of October.’ Water sprayed everywhere as he shook the wetness from his hair.

He definitely wasn’t wrong. ‘Like clockwork,’ she agreed, leading the way to the conference room where she wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Hal already setting up. ‘I bet you twenty bucks the storm moves out within the hour and mass ascension will go off without a hitch.’

Cord bent and peeked out the window. ‘Nah. Sucker bet.’ Then turning to Hal, he said, ‘Morning. Can I help?’ He pointed to the photographs lying in Hal’s lap.

Hal didn’t stop pinning the pictures to the bulletin board, simply speaking around one of the pushpins in his mouth. ‘That’d be great. Thanks.’