Read Team: Echo for Free Online Page A

being able to be
with people that simply accepted her and weren’t afraid to treat
her like an equal instead of an outsider.
    “ Then have your coffee while I load up the truck and we can
head out. Make sure you drink some water before we head out too, it
will be hot out there again today so you’ll have to make sure you
stay hydrated.” Lifting the cooler he headed for the door. “Ten
minutes Penelope and then we need to be moving.”
    “ Don’t worry, I will be ready,” she promised him and finished
her coffee quickly. Grabbing a bottle of water she took a drink and
walked out to the porch, shading her eyes and looking over the
beautiful landscape. “It is certainly beautiful here.” She murmured
softly and headed towards the truck where James was waiting. “Told
you I would be ready.”
    “ Uh-huh,” he grinned and opened the door for her. “In you get,
the others will be wondering if I decided to have a nap at this
rate,” he chuckled. Moving around to the driver’s side James slid
in and got them moving. “There’s a spare cap in the glove box, wear
it so at least you protect the back of your neck from the
sun.”
    Penny took out the cap and put it on. “Another thing that I’m
sure will be blamed on me,” Penny murmured. “You being late that
is,” she told him. “I wouldn’t worry too much about me burning.
Yes, I do have pale skin but surprisingly enough I don’t burn. I
once was in a perch for nine days in the middle of the desert
waiting on a target and didn’t burn. At least it’s beautiful here
and I don’t have, well no cancel that. I do have people here who
want me dead.” She said with a laugh.
    “ Only a couple,” James shrugged with a chuckle. “I personally
have no interest in seeing you dead,” he told her as he took them
to the spot and parked. “Naked on the other hand, I’m totally in
for that,” he grinned and jumped out of the truck. Whistling loud
he waved a hand. “Food and drinks are here,” he
bellowed.
    Penny just shook her head. “Rascal,” she muttered but got out
right along behind him and shoved the hat on her head. Humming
along she leaned against the truck and smiled at the guys as they
walked up. “Okay, so where am I going to be working today?” she
asked no one in particular.
    Grabbing a bottle of water Marius looked her over. “Well,
that depends,” he said. “Do you know which end of a shovel goes
where? Or should I even ask that question?” he grinned.
    “ I’m betting the answer has something to do with the pointy
end going up your ass, Sphinx,” Victor commented with a nod to
Penelope. Grabbing a bottle of water he poured some over his head
and sighed. “Oh god, that’s so much better.”
    Penny grinned, “I think that I can figure out how to work
something like a shovel. I don’t know though. I am blond.” She
tossed her hair, trying for the vapid look as she stared at Marius.
“Besides, I’ve had to dig a grave or two in my lifetime. I think I
could be talked into digging another.”
    “ I don’t know if you really want to offer that for, Sphinx,”
Gareth commented. “He’s awfully big and that would have to be a
damned deep hole to keep him in. We’re pretty sure he’d come back
as a zombie just to get revenge on the rest of us if we did bury
him.”
    “ He has a point,” Dieter nodded, ducking his head to rummage
through the cooler. “Sphinx is quite large, too much work in this
sun to bother with. But we are digging a, what did Mik call it?” he
looked at James.
    “ A fire break my man,” James chuckled. “We’re digging a fire
break and clearing out all the dead shrubs and crap that have
keeled over since his mom passed and left him the
place.”
    “ That makes sense,” Penny said and looked at the area. “It
will also make a clearing so that anyone approaching the house
would be easily seen from one of the upper rooms. I would imagine
that he’s already begun to put in surveillance markers and some