Keeping it Real by Annie Dalton Read Free Book Online

peered curiously round the door and saw twenty plus agents at their work stations, jabbering quietly into headsets. “Where did the incident take place?” one agent was asking her caller. “Any signs of You Know Who? OK, we’ll got you some backup. Do the best you can until then
    “We’ll show you round properly later,” Jools promised. “Right now you could probably do with a rest.”
    “I’ll carry that,” Hendrix said, taking my bag.
    “You think you’re so smooth,” Brice told him.
    As they shepherded me up flights of stairs, I was trying to take in the sheer scale of the Agency safe house.
    In one open-plan area, trainees calmly worked at computers which had up to ten different streams of cosmic data racing hectically across their screens at any one time. Next door a lone trainee was minding banks of monitors, all of which showed local trouble spots. One had a split screen which showed the same house from different angles.
    “That house used to be a vet’s,” I said in surprise.
    “Those were the good days,” the trainee said grimly. “The life forms that live there now aren’t exactly man’s best friend.”
    I felt a shiver go through me. “PODS live there now?” I’d taken my little sister past that house on the way to her tap lessons.
    “Officially it’s inhabited by humans,” Hendrix explained.
    “Just not any you’d like to meet,” Jools commented.
    I’d met humans like that on previous missions: people so closely involved with the Dark agencies, they were half-PODS themselves.
    “Much activity today?” Hendrix asked the trainee.
    He shook his head. “Just the usual.”
    We toiled up a final flight of stairs. A boy angel was pacing the landing with his mobile. I heard him saying, “No, since he started with the kick boxing, he’s much more confident, like a different boy…”
    I followed the others into a big student-style sitting room. Two angel girls looked up and smiled, then went back to chatting. A boy was stretched out on one of the sofas, apparently asleep.
    I’ve seen EAs in just about every time you can think of, but seeing them in my old neighbourhood made me so happy I wanted to cry. I’d been rubbing shoulders with angels all those years and I didn’t even know!
    I LOVE my job , I thought tearfully. I have the best life ever .
    “Can anyone else smell that stink?”
    I came back to Earth to see Jools screwing up her nose in disgust, and for the first time I noticed her tiny star-shaped stud.
    “Mel found hell turds at the school,” Hendrix said super-casually.
    Her expression changed. “Not again,” she said half to herself. She turned, flashing her warm smile. “Mel, I hate to be a pain, but I think you picked up something whiffy on those beautiful boots.”
    “Oh, I thought I could—!” I nervously inspected one boot sole, hopping to keep my balance. “Oh, no, I did !” I wailed. “This is SO embarrassing!”
    “Just give them here,” Hendrix offered with a laugh. Holding my boots carefully by their tops, he gallantly whisked them away.
    Jools started madly spraying everything in sight with some kind of heavenly Febreze. “You must think I’m so rude,” she said apologetically. “I just have this incredibly sensitive sense of smell.”
    I couldn’t believe I’d trekked hell dog poop into an angel house!
    “I tamed a hell puppy once,” Brice said with a straight face.
    My poopy boots were instantly old news. Every angel in earshot stared at him in horror. Even the boy who’d been snoozing sat up open-mouthed.
    Jools giggled nervously. “Brice, I never know when you’re joking!”
    “It’s true,” he insisted. “He was a smart little guy. Answered to his name and everything.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” laughed Jools. “What did you call him? Fluffy?”
    “I called him Bob,” Brice said with dignity.
    “Why would anyone call a hellhound Bob?” spluttered the boy.
    “You think I should have named him Fang?” Brice snapped. “He was a