Winter sighed as her mother motioned for her to step into another room.

“Yes, mother dearest?”

Mrs. Shields scowled. “I took crap like that from your father for twenty years, and look where that got him.”

Winter winced as a painful image of her father in a foggy sealed chamber burst forth in her mind.

“No, I’ve brought you here to send you away. To Japan, actually. There’s an African diplomat there and he’s giving us trouble. He’s a main leader in the effort against deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where on of our biggest bases is hidden. It could be exposed. And heaven knows, Lá Pretni doesn’t want that.”

Like this witch knows anything about heaven. “You want him taken out?” Winter asked, however.

“Now, honey, think of this as a sort of initiation. Your first mark. Isn’t that lovely?”

Winter rolled her eyes as Mrs. Shields outlined the more complex details of the mission.

Ten minutes later, Winter was out the door and flipping open her cell phone.

The regular one.