Mackenzie Previn entered her small room aboard the Vast Explorer, roughly closed the door, and locked it. It had been one heck of a day. A week ago, she and her friends, the intrepid crew of Adventure Inc., had been hired by some seedy looking little man to find an ancient artifact. Judson's interest had been piqued by the mere mention of it. The artifact was a gem, The Blue Heart. Legend stated that the ship it had been on had sank somewhere off the coast of Peru in the early 1800s, but no evidence of the ship, its crew, or the artifact had ever been found. Their client claimed to have found the ship's final resting place and had the photographic evidence to support it. He just needed an experienced diving team to explore the wreckage and retrieve the gem. 


Mac cursed and stalked towards her dresser. She stripped out of her grime-encrusted t-shirt and jeans, carelessly tossing them onto the floor, slipped into another t-shirt and some loose fitting sweat pants, and pulled her long, dark hair into a high ponytail. She craved a shower, but that would have to wait. First, she needed to work off some of her excess angry energy. 


She pushed her bed to one side, clearing a large space in the center of the room, and began a vigorous exercise regimen. Mac rotated through a series of push-ups, jumping jacks, and sit-ups before finally reaching the most satisfying part of her daily routine: practicing her kicks and punches. Her movements became more forceful as she allowed her mind to wander over the events of the day. 


They should have suspected something. Their client, Moeder, was a crook. Mac and Judson had surfaced from their dive, jewel in hand, and had come face to face with a small group of angry men wielding guns. Gabe, who had stayed aboard the boat to monitor the dive, had been out cold, sprawled on his back on the deck with a large bleeding cut on his temple. Moeder had snatched the jewel from Judson's hand and ordered his men to dispose of all three of them. He had planned to sell the jewel rather than give it to a museum as promised and he didn't want anyone to notify the authorities. 


Moeder and one of his men had kept their weapons trained on Mac and Judson while the other two began dragging Gabe towards them. Fortunately, Gabe had chosen that moment to attempt to rejoin the land of the living. His sudden struggling had proven to be just enough of a distraction to allow Mac and Judson time to act. 


Mac smiled as she reenacted her movements during the fight. She kicked and punched into the air, remembering the satisfaction she'd felt as each of her blows had found its target. While no experts, the men they'd fought had been good and had landed a few blows of their own. Judson was sporting a split lip and a swollen, black eye and Mac could already feel her bruised limbs begin to stiffen. She knew that her skin would be a rainbow of colors in the morning. 


The ringing of her cell-phone interrupted Mac's intense workout. After a final kick, reminiscent of the one she'd used to render Moeder unconscious, she snatched up the phone. 


"Hello," she barked into the phone, still breathing heavily. 


"Well, hello yourself, sugar," a familiar male voice responded. "Am I interrupting something?" 


Mac sighed, dropped bonelessly onto her bed, and smiled her first true smile in a long time. "No, no, you're not interrupting anything. I'm just working off a little excess energy. It's been a bad day. We had a client who went sour and we had to teach him a lesson." 


"Oh?" In her mind's eye, Mac could easily see the man's eyebrows rise. "Is everyone alright?" 


"Yeah. Well, mostly. We're all pretty banged up and Gabe has a concussion so we have to make sure to check on him and wake him up every hour tonight, but we'll all live." 


"I'm sure you will," he agreed, relief obvious in his voice. "So, which lesson did you teach this client of yours? Was it the one where he no longer has any teeth or the one where he ends up walking funny for the rest of his life?" 


Mac giggled. She actually giggled!! 'Black Ops? Yeah right,' she thought to herself. 'A few words from this guy and I melt into a puddle of gelatinous goo, giggling like a little school girl.' 


"Both, actually," she responded as she made herself more comfortable on the bed, curling her legs up underneath her. She felt the anger and adrenalin leave her body in a rush. 


The man chuckled. "You really have had a bad day, haven't you?" 


"It's getting better by the minute," Mac answered with a grin. "It's good to hear your voice." 


"It's good to hear yours as well. Where are you?" 


"Peru. But I think we're going to head for home tomorrow if we're all feeling up to it. So, what's going on? Why did you call?" 


"Since when did I need a reason to call you?" the man asked with a laugh. "If you'd prefer, I can hang up and wait to call you back until some Earth-shattering event has taken place." 


Mackenzie joined him in laughter. "You know better than that. I love hearing from you almost as much as I love spending time with you." 


The two eased into a conversation that was punctuated with bouts of laugher and comfortable silences. Over the next fifteen minutes Mac found herself relaxing, the deep voice emanating from the phone lulled her and provided a sense of security, despite the great distance that separated them physically. 


A quiet beeping noise drew Mac's attention to her watch. "Hey, I'm sorry, but I have to cut this conversation short. I promised Judson that I would play Florence Nightingale for the first half of the night and my watch tells me that it's time to wake our boy up." 


"Of course. You go and take care of your friends. I understand." 


While she knew his words were sincere, Mac could easily hear the disappointment lacing his voice at having to end the call. It was a feeling they shared. "Look, why don't I take some time off when we make it back to the States? I could come spend a few days with you and we can catch up on things." 


"Won't that put your friends in a bind - being short-handed?" 


"Nah. Don't worry about it," Mac reassured him. "We don't have anything scheduled for about a week anyway. Gabe has to travel to Vermont for some family thing and Judson had mentioned something about taking a break himself. So it looks like I'm all yours." 


"Great!" The cheerfulness instantly returned to his voice. "I'll look forward to it. Call me when you get into town, okay?" 


"Sure. I'll do that." 


"I'll see you then." He paused. When he continued, his voice had taken on a serious edge. "I love you Mackenzie and I'm...I'm very proud of you." 


Tears suddenly threatened to overflow Mac's eyes and she swallowed convulsively in an attempt to dislodge the lump that had formed in her throat upon hearing those simple words. When she finally found her voice again, it was little more than a hoarse whisper. 


"I love you too, Daddy." 


THE END