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belknaphouse · 5 years

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Jefferson Office Facility #235, also known as Belknap House, had grown from the original house in the last year and a half to a small cluster of buildings around the parking area at the top of the hill, the house itself, and several training and monitoring stations on the slope leading down to the pond at the bottom.

The house itself was the home of the Hughes family, all of whom were field agents, Kyra, who was the office's liaison to the Deep Ones, and Tiamat, who seemed to be Ben's personal tutor. Any agents who were on site for training stayed in one of two double wides that flanked the driveway.

Midsummer had passed with only a minor incident, when some of the local cultists had tried to get past site security and access the pond. Ice and Cassie had mostly wiped out the cultists while Ben had neutralized the effects of their aborted ritual, but since then, the site, which was already a bit odd because of its position on a nexus, had become more odd.

Ben yawned and finished his mug (64 oz, "I <3 Caffeine") of Death Wish coffee, and immediately refilled it from a second pot. He stumbled out the kitchen's sliding glass door onto the deck, looked up, and muttered, "It's raining again."

"Are you going to stand out there and get wet?" Cassie called from the kitchen, just as a frog hit Ben in the head and bounced off, followed by a shower of frogs and fish.

"Gah!" Ben ducked back inside and slammed the door. He rubbed his head and grumbled, "Well, I needed a shower any way..."

"Go, sit," Cassie commanded, laughing and shooing him toward the dining room with both hands. "Ice! Come fetch our husband, would you? He's being an underfoot!"

"He's what?" Ice exclaimed, walking into the kitchen and taking Ben's arm. "That's MY job!"

Cassie laughed as Ice led Ben into the dining room, where Tiamat was already sitting, with her own 64oz mug of Death Wish coffee.

Tia looked up from her iPad and shook her head. "Ben, you really need to learn to keep a thermos of coffee by your bed, if being decaffeinated affects you this badly." She tapped on the pad. "We need to finish breakfast soon. According to the schedule, we're supposed to go to the Brooklyn facility today."

Ben looked at Tia and sang softly, "Home again, home again, jiggity-jig."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That's the building where Cassie and I lived before we moved here. The Office bought the building, rather than try to decontaminate it." He drank a few swallows, then asked, "So why are we going there?"

"There are apparently some pings we need to check out."

"Bets that most of them are just metas?" Ice asked.

"It wouldn't surprise me." Tia looked up and smiled at Cassie. "That smells delicious."

"Chocolate-coated bacon," Cassie said, "plus eggs and toast for everyone." She looked toward the figure in the hallway door and smiled. "Yes, anchovies for you, hon."

Kyra laughed, the gill slits on the sides of her neck fluttering as she did, and took a seat at the table. "You're a sweetie. Did I hear right? Brooklyn? So are we taking the Suburban or the flyer?"

"That depends," Ben said. "Is my helmet ready?"

"Ready and waiting for you," Kyra said.

"All right." Ben nodded. "We'll take the flyer, then."

#belknaphouse #headed for brooklyn

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