#agent sierra

XXXXX

They left the penthouse apartment with a confused, and still heavily drugged, Holly Wallchester tied up amidst the debris. The Ketamine was slowly wearing off so at some point later in the night she would fully come to her sense. But she wasn’t their problem anymore. The Cleaners would deal with her and that would be that. And besides they now had a life to save. The three women stood outside the apartment as Hotel whipped the black Audi around and slammed on the brake.

“You ladies call an Uber?”

Papa and Juliett both rolled their eyes at the Getaway’s attempt at a joke. Sierra just smiled and climbed into the front passenger seat while the other women piled into the back. The waterfront was a good 40 miles from the upscale area where the criminal defense lawyer resided. And the only way to get there was by the freeway. But even then the journey would take the average driver, going 70mph, about half an hour.

Luckily for them Hotel was nothing close to the average driver.

“Let’s go save Victor,” Sierra said.

Hotel nodded, eased up on the brakes and then slammed his foot on the gas. The car shot out of the apartment building’s parking lot.

Even though Hotel didn’t drive like many other daredevils out there, gunning the gas to 90 or 100 for no reason expect to look cool, he knew how to gain distance quickly. Most people thought that the only way to do this was to slam on the gas. But that was far from the truth. All you needed to do was to pass other cars. Weaving through cars gained distance and cut travel time down better than anything. And he didn’t need to drive any faster than 70mph.

He was that good.

In only a few minutes Hotel had already cut down ten. Sierra looked over at the Getaway as he drove. Even though he wore black driving gloves on his hands she could still see how tightly he gripped the steering wheel. It didn’t take any imagination to know that his knuckles would be white underneath them. Just as she was about to ask if he was okay he caught her off with a question.

“So what’s the plan, Sierra?”

“Simple. Get to them before they kill Victor and kill them,” Juliett piped up from the rear seat.

“No, that’s not what we’re doing, Jule,” Sierra said with slight venom in her voice. “They took Victor yes. And probably badly roughed him up, but, we’re not killing them. We get Victor and Bouvier and that’s it. Got it?”

“You got it mom,” Juliett said with a slight grumble.

XXXXX

Even before Hotel stopped the car Juliett was out and rushing across the parking lot. Without warning she rammed into one of Bouvier’s goons. The guy was taller than her by a lot and pretty bulky too but she caught him off guard. He was leaving his post at the warehouse door for a smoke break cigarette and lighter in hand. And the very last thing he expected was a 5’6” woman, with the crazed look of murder in her eyes, bum rushing him and tackling him to the ground. Pinning him to the blacktop with her knee Juliett pulled his hair back with one hand and brought a knife to his throat with the other.

“You feel this knife? This is my favorite knife and it’s been covered in a lot of blood. If you don’t want yours to be next then you’ll do exactly as I say.”

The hired gun stuttered out a reply which was muffled by the asphalt in his face.

“Sorry? What was that?” she asked through grit teeth as she dug her knee deeper into the man’s back.

“Fuck you bitch.”

“That’s what I thought you said.”

Juliett quickly shoved his face into the black asphalt of the parking lot; hard. She was angry and desperate which in turn made her even angrier. She was the one who always brought a knife to a fist fight and she brought the guns to a knife fight. No matter what fight she was in Juliett was always the most prepared person in the room. But this whole thing with Vic being captured? That was something she never thought would happen. So she never planned for it and was caught off guard which made her unsure of what to do next. Juliett always had a plan and she hated being the one who didn’t have a plan.

“Speak to me like that again and I will slit your stupid throat and end your pathetic little life. Are we clear?”

The man nods almost imperceptibly.

“I asked,” Juliett said while pressing the knife ever so deeper into the skin of the man’s throat, “Are we clear?”

“Yes. God please don’t kill me!”

A trickle sound interrupted Juliett before she even began ordering the man. The perfect time to add insult to injury on the man’s already bruised ego.

“Ooooh is the widdle baby scared? Did the baby go wee-wee in his widdle pants?”

Sierra cut her off with a sharp look. They had come too far and were too close for things to be screwed up. She couldn’t have anything setting Juliett off with what was at stake. It wasn’t just Victor’s life. It was all their lives. She bent down so that she was squatting slightly and staring the goon directly in the face.

“Now. My girls and I have come a long way to get what’s ours. That’s two people you got in there,” she said with a nod to the warehouse door.

“Our brother and one other person. Want to take a guess as to who that is? Your boss; Bouvier. See, the easiest thing to do would be to go in and kill them all. I’m not talking about the guy you work for and I’m obviously not talking about our brother. That makes no sense. Why would we kill him? That’s crazy. Hon, I’m talking about your work buddies. The other hired guns in there.”

“You wouldn’t! You’re bluffing!”

“Does my face look like I’m bluffing?”

The goon shook his head.

“But I’m feeling a little generous today so I might let them live. Only if you let us sneak into the building. Oh we can get in just fine. No troubles there, hon. The only problem we have here is you have people watching the only way in.”

Juliett shoots Sierra a confused look and mouths What about the skylights? Or the side windows?

Papa slides up to Juliett and whispers in her ear so that the slightly captive guard can’t hear them. There was no way that they could even reach the skylights in the first place. The outside ladders to the roof, if there were any in the first place, had all been removed. And none of them were tall enough to jump through the side windows; even with a running start. Five feet off the ground was too much of a height so there was no way they would even attempt it. As Papa explained to Juliett how they couldn’t run headfirst into danger this time the goon under her knee tried to plead with Sierra.

“I have three kids and I was just diagnosed with cancer, lady! Puh-please don’t kill me!”

“I just want you to watch the door, hon.”

The man nodded and Juliett took her knife away from his throat. Once she took her knee off his back she backed away. Let the scumbag help himself up. It wasn’t her duty to play nice with people like him. Bouvier, or anyone else for that matter.

That wasn’t in her job description.

XXXXX

Kilo had been quiet the whole ride to the waterfront and through the whole ordeal with the door guard. The other women knew that she was taking Victor’s abduction harder than they were so they let it go. She blamed herself despite their best efforts to get her to stop. And now that they had snuck inside the warehouse, with slight help from the door guard, the group stood behind a cluster of boxes and metal drums. Sierra held up a fist signaling for the others to wait where they were. Then she cupped a hand over her eyes and then brought the same hand behind her ear; signaling the group to look around and listen to get a feel for the situation. The others signaled back okay and went about surveying the room.

All except for Kilo who had stopped short inside the doorway.

“Ki! What are you doing?” Papa whispered.

The Musician stared off into the center of the warehouse. A group of men stood in a pool of light; surrounding a slumped figure in a metal chair. One of the men was wearing a black suit and stood a little far off from the rest. He had thinning hair and a creepy smile. But Kilo’s attention wasn’t on the man in the suit. Or any of the goons around the place.

Her focus was on Victor and the cattle prod which was being used to electrocute him.

Turning to Papa, since she was the closest to her, Kilo pointed at the Swallow, tapped her head and then tapped a finger to her chest. You cover me.

Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye Sierra whipped around so that she faced Kilo. She shook her head on and began signaling for her to stay. But Kilo was already gone and in the process of taking out the goons closest to the door. Shots were fired and the other people were already altered to their presence. There was no going back now. Sierra sighed and shook her head. She motioned for the others to follow her as she joined the firefight.

Kilo ran over to Victor and began untying him.

Completely unprepared for the state that Victor was in Kilo felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. She bit her lip hard as she worked at the knots in the rope. Whoever tied them had to have some practice as they were very good. And tied super tightly. Her voice shook slightly as she spoke.

“Vic? Are you okay? Dude, I am so sorry, this is all my fault!”

“It’s nothing, Ki, jus’ a little blood. It’s nothing. Hey. What’s the difference between a lawyer and a vampire? A vampire only sucks blood at night.”

Victor didn’t even skip a beat before firing off another one; “Don’t be sad, Ki, you know what they say; a pessimist’s blood is always b-negative.”

Kilo looked down as the tears began to fall. Victor was obvious badly hurt, with some internal bleeding and broken bones for all she knew, but he still managed to keep up the horrible puns. So maybe things weren’t as bad as they seemed. She quickly wiped the tears away and continued working on the knots.

Meanwhile Juliett ran after Bouvier who tried to make a hasty escape. He had snuck around to the exit and was almost to the door. Juliett smirked slightly; not on her watch. She reached into her breast pocket and threw the contents at the man’s feet. He tripped on the small metal ball bearings and fell flat on his face. Juliett was on him faster than ants on a picnic.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Sierra said in her mom voice.

“Since when are you the expert?” Juliett responded bitterly.

She had Bouvier right where she wanted him; on the ground, face painfully smashed into the concrete, with a 9mm Beretta to his temple. Hell, he couldn’t even talk without moving his face across the concrete. She wasn’t going to waste the chance to severely maim the man. Or kill him. Besides HERACLES was a ‘take no prisoners’ kind of organization so they definitely weren’t going to let him get off scot free. And besides he had fucked with them first.

“In case you haven’t noticed, mom, everything we do is wrong in one way or another. And almost all of it is because someone like this scum,” she shoves Bouvier’s head into the floor, “did it first.”

“I know, hon, but you don’t have to do the same to him.” Sierra said recognizing the look in Juliett’s eyes.

“I’m not.”

Just as the words left her mouth Juliett got two shots off into the side of Bouvier’s head. Blood and small bits of brain flew back at her. The blowback slightly colored her arms and face with a minor amount of gore.

Sierra sighed and walked around the warehouse to make sure they didn’t forget anything. She found Victor’s laptop on a crate that was turned upside down to function as a makeshift table. Bouvier had left it there, presumably, because he couldn’t figure out why it didn’t have anything on it. And now it was covered with blood and suffered a couple light dents from stray bullets. Sierra picked up the laptop and tucked it under her shoulder as she went to rejoin the others.

Kilo and Papa walked up to the others carrying Victor between them. Despite everything that happened his wore a slight smile. He was just happy that this whole thing was over with and they got the bastard responsible.

“Hey. What do you call a group of frequent blood donors? The IV League.”

“Dude if you weren’t possibly dying right now I would punch you for that.”

“Good thing I might be dying then.”

The group walked out of the warehouse; leaving the blood and death behind them. Once they reached where Hotel parked they piled in the Audi silently. Hotel looked at Victor in the rearview mirror. He gave the Cobbler a slight smile; happy to see the man was still alive and kicking. Pulling away he started the drive to the rendezvous.

They drove in silence.

XXXXX

One of Bouvier’s goons grabbed a fistful of short, blonde, hair and yanked his head back. As the man pulled further another one of the goons put a towel over the spy’s face. Closing his mouth, and holding his breath, Victor tried to prepare himself for what was to come next. Time spent with the Enforcers, during training, was meant to acclimate every operative to all manners of torture. Other times it was used to subdue rebelliousness in certain operatives. Neither of which was really achieved despite the Enforcers’ best efforts.

And even though the Cobbler had been through similar situations many times it didn’t mean that he didn’t feel the pain.

At this point he couldn’t feel the bottom of his feet at all thanks to a heated iron fire poker. Or the majority of his face. His right eye was heavily bruised and swollen shut. Lips split and bleeding. Bruises were forming on his left cheek. His arms ached from being tied behind the metal back of the chair for so long.

At least it’s not a strappado position. Now that’s torture.

Cold water poured over Victor’s towel-covered face and his mental preparation didn’t matter. Water soon filled his nostrils and he had to open his mouth regardless. But just as quickly his mouth was also filled with water and he began to choke. That went on for a few minutes then the water stopped flowing and the soaking wet towel was finally removed. He spent the next couple minutes choking, gagging and gasping for air. When he regained his senses Victor smiled at his captors and spoke in hoarse voice.

“Water you guys doing? Torture doesn’t work.”

Bouvier paced, in front of where his men had tied up the spy, with his hands behind his back. He was obviously getting restless and annoyed. The night was not turning out how he expected it to go. He wasn’t getting a single thing he wanted. And not only did he want the team to back off of his ex-lawyer but he also wanted them to turn over the dirt they found on him. For Victor to personally give it up or at least give him the means to.

“I played nice before but I will let it know that I am no longer going to play nice. I had my men recover the laptop it had on its person. Tell us how to retrieve the files.”

“What files?”

Victor’s secret weapon, or fail safe, had sent a copy of every single thing on the laptop back to base. And then it erased every shred of evidence from the laptop’s hard drive. There was no way he could actually recover the files unless he was at his little setup back home. It happened in the matter of a few seconds. All thanks to a little bit of programming activated by the simple stroke of three little keys.

“It will do what I asked or it will suffer the consequences.”

“Listening to you is unbearable enough.”

Yves Bouvier’s face goes red with anger as he open palm smacks Victor in the face.

If you could see your face, man. Priceless.

“Are you a female dog? Because you slap like a bitch.”

Smiling annoyed the Swiss man turned to one of his men and whispered something in the guy’s ear. Victor strained to hear but once he tried to move two massive hands pushed down on his shoulders; keeping him in place. The man nodded to Bouvier and walked out of the light. Victor listened to the man’s footsteps as they fainted; trying to figure out the size of the room he was in but Bouvier began talking and covered the footfalls.

“I know who it works for and I know why its masters are after me. But know this; neither will be able to prove anything. I was able to get the best lawyer money could buy and I won. What makes it think this time will be any different? I win. I always win.”

This guy really needs to stop calling me it or I’m gonna sick Jule on him.

When he finished Bouvier grabbed a set of pliers from one of his men.

“It will tell me how to open the laptop or I will start with the pinky finger,” he said as he tapped the metal of the pliers lightly against Victor’s fingernail.

“Hand job? No thank you.”

After angering Bouvier with yet another stupid pun the blonde chuckles at the man’s attempt at a show of desperate aggression. He had seen real desperation, real aggression and viciousness, and knew exactly what certain people were capable of when they had no other options. But the man who stood before him? Bouvier? He was not the vicious person he tried to come across as. Maybe he could fool other, less experienced, people but he wasn’t fooling the spy.

“There’s just one thing I want to know before you start grasping at straws here,” Victor said.

“And what’s that?”

“How’d you find me?”

This time it was Bouvier’s turn to chuckle. But instead of answering Victor’s question he simply opened the pliers, slid the end under a fingernail, closed it and yanked with all his might.

XXXXX

“I’m here if you need me, hon,” Sierra called as Kilo took her slightly smashed equipment and locked herself in Wallchester’s bedroom.

Kilo was still beating herself up for Victor’s capture. The only difference was now she was using that as fuel to find him. Being the team’s Musician, and in charge of all the comm. operation as well as tracking devices, Kilo knew what she had to do. Problem was the usual way she would go about this would be to simply do what they called a Triple Tap but that would not in this particular situation.

A Triple Tap is pretty much exactly what it sounded like.

Each comm. link was outfitted with a special radar based tracking system. The radar could only be activated by tapping the ear comm. three times very quickly. The tapped comm. then starts to emit a low beep in the ear of the operative wearing the comm. But the beep is also emitted in the ear of the nearest comm. as well. And the closer the two get the faster and louder the beeping becomes. The comm. is simply reset by a double tap.

The problem with the Triple Tap is that the radar only works if the other comm. link is functioning properly; which Victor’s wasn’t.

So Kilo had to use the backup tracking device. Just like the ear comm. the backup also used radio transmission even though no one was living in the eighties anymore. There were only two good things about the backup trackers. Backups were always on the operatives, since they were embedded in their inner thigh, and they only turned on if the ear comm. stopped working. This meant that Victor’s was definitely working, and, that Kilo could get it to work.

In theory at least.

The main problem with the backup was that even though the radio wave was UHF the signal would most likely be very weak. It almost always was and that’s why none of the ops used the backups unless they had to. Not to mention there was no telling if the people who held Victor found the backup, and removed it. But this was Kilo’s only shot so she had to take it.

Kilo looked at her banged up equipment that lay across the thick black comforter on Wallchester’s bed. The audio/radio receiver wasn’t too badly damaged considering how hard she smashed everything. A handful of bugs were completely ruined but a couple of them were still good. And the StingRay was fine except for a couple slight nicks and a few scratches. Not that she needed either of those at the moment. But the one thing she could use at the moment was completely busted; the long distance amplifier.

Choosing the only option she had at the moment Kilo turned on the radio receiver.

She shook her hair out of her face and put the headphones on. Nothing came in. Trying to keep her cool as best she could she turned it up to receive VHF waves. And still nothing came through. If Kilo was honest with herself she would’ve admitted that she didn’t expect anything to come in. And yet she was still angry when nothing did. Biting her lip and staring she thought hard about what to do next.

Kilo found herself thinking about what Victor would say if he was there.

He’d sit right up against the headboard, or the wall, depending on how the bedroom was laid out. The Kevlar-lined laptop, which was decked out with stickers, would be lying on his crossed legs. Knowing her brother as well as she did she knew that he would never pass up the opportunity to make a horrible pun. He was definitely annoying his captors with them. Or who knows? Whoever held him hostage might even like the dude’s stupid puns. Suddenly a voice came through her comm. disrupting her thoughts.

Ki?

“Vic?! How did you…”

It’s Sierra, hun.

“Oh…” Kilo felt like an idoit.

Just wanted to ask you if tried ramping up the radio receiver to catch VHF.

“I did but I got nothing. Either Vic is too far or there’s too much stuff in the way. I’m gonna bump it up UHF.”

Like Bluetooth?

“Exactly. Might even get a few cell phone calls mixed in and that would be cool.”

XXXXX

They needed the lawyer as coherent and cooperative as they could get her to be with the Ketamine in her system. This meant that Papa couldn’t risk hitting the woman’s head against anything. So she went about moving the unconscious woman as slowly and carefully as possible. When the five minutes had passed for the drug to fully take effect Papa connected to Hotel on the comm. link. He wasn’t that far away from her location as it turned out and it only took him six minutes to arrive. Together they successfully got Holly Wallchester into the backseat of the black Audi without anyone noticing.

Hotel was oddly quiet during the drive which bothered Papa immensely.

Then again they all had Victor’s capture weighing heavily on their minds. No one knew where he was or what was happening to him. None of them could figure out how Bouvier, an art dealer for crying out loud, got the drop on them. But Papa had an idea. Looking in the rearview mirror she looked at the criminal defense lawyer’s sleeping form. Her black eyebrows furrowed in anger and her lips curled into a scowl.

I am going to screw with her head so much for this.

It only took ten more minutes to arrive at Wallchester’s residence. It helped that Hotel always drove like his life depended on it. He dropped Papa at the door and then zoomed off to drive and clear his head. And now Papa entered the penthouse apartment with an unconscious Holly Wallchester in a fireman’s carry. Her duffle slid off her shoulder to the floor she didn’t even bother to try to close the door.

“Sleeping beauty coming through,” she announced as she carried the woman deeper inside.

“Jule, grab a chair,” Sierra commanded once she heard the Swallow’s voice. Juliett quickly ran into the only area of the penthouse apartment that went unscathed by the intruders. She swung the white double doors to the closet, which sat at the back of the living room, wide open and grabbed one of the few small metal chairs from inside. Once she set it down firmly in-between all the debris and broken glass on the floor Papa sat Wallchester on the round, black, seat.

“Hotel got you here fast, didn’t he? He say anything, hon, about sticking around?”

“Rope, I need some rope,” Papa said, ignoring her leader, as she started to wrap the lawyer’s arms around the back of the chair.

Juliett rushed over to Papa’s duffle with a slight glee in her emerald eyes. Rummaging around, she quickly found the rope and then slung the bag over her shoulder before rushing back. As Papa tied Wallchester’s arms Juliett helped tied the woman’s legs to the chair. And then Papa wound the rope around the woman’s stomach two, three, times and pulled it tight before tying it to the back of the chair.

“And now we wait.”

Sierra stood with her arms crossed over her chest and a silent angry look on her face.

“You know Hotel. He’s off zooming down the highway blasting Nirvana and whatever other grunge crap he listens to,” Papa said with a wave of her hand as she checked each knot to make sure they were as tight as could be. When all were good and tight she pushed herself up to a standing position.

“I can’t believe you let him go off like that.”

Papa turned to face Sierra her face scrunched up in a mix of confusion and anger; “I didn’t let him. He went off on his own like he always does. Besides you know regulation better than the rest of us so you know he’s not allowed to be with us on missions.”

“Regulation doesn’t apply when things get out of hand and last I checked I’m team leader so, in moments like this, what I say goes.”

“You didn’t say anything before so how was I supposed to know? I’m many things but mind reader isn’t one of them, Sierra. And yeah? Well, last I checked I’m not his fucking mom!”

Either the Ketamine wore off like it was supposed to, or, all their arguing woke Wallchester up.

“Wah… Where am I?”

“I guess regulation is out the window but I still have a job to do,” Papa said bitterly before turning her attention to the woman tied to the chair. Turning on her Robin persona Papa went to work. They were losing the night and even though no one said it none of them wanted Victor to be missing in the morning.

“Don’t worry, baby, you’re home. You’re safe.”

Papa’s sultry voice seemed to calm the lawyer down a bit. Her face was calmer than before but she still looked around with confusion in her eyes. Kneeling down in front of the chair the Swallow gave Holly one of her doe eyed smiles. Plan was to lull the woman into a false sense of security and then grill her. With the connection they already shared, and the drug in her system, it would be rather easy. But before Papa could question the woman Kilo burst through the bedroom door.

“Waterfront. Papa, dude, ask about the waterfront.”

All four women, including Wallchester, turned to Kilo with almost identical confused looks.

“You know how I was listening to UHF radio waves trying to latch onto the signals from the backup? Papa doesn’t know since she wasn’t here but that’s what you missed, dude. All caught up? Good. Catching the right UHF from the backup isn’t easy since the signal is really weak. Well, the equipment picked up a ton of other things that I had to get rid of. People talking, TVs, radio stations, alley cats. Stuff like that. But, dude, guess what? I picked up something else.”

“What?” Sierra asked with a raised eyebrow. She hoped that Kilo’s excited rapid fire was ending with some good news.

“I picked up a very weak cell phone signal. The phone was being used when I picked up on it so I booted up the StingRay and I located the cell. It came from the waterfront. And I intercepted the call, so, I’m more than sure Bouvier has Vic.”

“Get to the damn point, Ki! What was the call about?” Jule said impatiently.

“Oh. The guy was asking someone to bring something they both called The Pig Squealer. The other guy asked what he wanted it for and the first guy said, and I’m quoting here, the Swiss said he wants the spy to squeal.”

Papa turned to Holly at the same time that Juliett did.

Both women had firey anger in their eyes but the difference was that Juliett also had a knife in her hand. And she was holding the blade firmly against Holly’s neck. It was clear to everyone, except for the lawyer, that if the woman moved her head in the slightest her throat would be slashed open. If that happened then the Cleaners would have a less hard job on their hands and in Juliett’s book that was a good thing.

“Tell us what you know.”

“Bouvier is super paranoid. During the trail he wouldn’t let me talk to anyone and I mean I’m not supposed to talk about ongoing cases but this was different. He took my phone and didn’t give it back to me until the trail was over. Three of his men have been following me ever since. When they saw us together he got even more suspicious.”

“How did we miss multiple rabbits?” Sierra spat angrily.

“Easiest way for him to find out that we were in Holly’s penthouse would’ve been a bug, right Ki?” Papa asked.

“Yeah, regular people can get their hands on bugs, of course. Or he could’ve had a tiny alarm set up somewhere that he knew Holly wouldn’t set off. But, dude, I did a full sweep of this place three times so I doubt I missed anything.”

~~~

The penthouse apartment had an air of money, which was given off by the luxury decor, stale wine and loneliness. Kilo lay on the floor, on her stomach, in the large space between the glass coffee table and the wall. A large, nasty looking, wine stain colored the floor in front of her but she didn’t pay it any attention. She was listening carefully to the conversation that flowed through her comm. It was her job to listen for important things. The things that people only said when they let their guard down. That’s what they trained her for and so that’s what she did.

But sometimes it was just so damn boring. Tonight was exactly that.

“So,” Papa’s super-sexy voice filled her ears as the Swallow turned her charm on the target.

“What’s it going be, baby? My place or yours?”

Kilo cringed slightly at the thought of Papa working her magic. Imagining her slide over in the booth, or across the bar, to whomever was enough to make Kilo want to puke. Sometimes she really hated her job. Whenever she had to listen in on one of Papa’s go-arounds she hated it even more. Biting her lip Kilo hoped that their target, Holly Wallchester, would say no.

Can’t somebody say no just once? she thought desperately.

“Lead the way, sugar,” responds the woman.

Swearing under her breath Kilo punched the soft, faded tan, carpet. Virtually nothing happened. The small fibers of the carpet sprung back into place almost instantly. Rising from the floor Kilo let out an annoyed sigh.

Well, I guess it’s good they aren’t coming back here.

Walking the short distance to the door of the adjacent bedroom she tucked a chunk of hair behind her ear. Biting her lip again she put her ear against the wood.

Loud metal clashing and pained grunting sounds floated to her.

Shaking her head she stepped back from the door. Victor tended to box himself in whenever he was working; said he couldn’t handle distractions. And yet whenever she connected to him on the comm link he answered right away. But now that he finished his work he was deep in whatever game he was playing, WoW most likely, there wasn’t a chance in hell that she would get his attention.

Walking over to the kitchen she wondered why Vic didn’t just wait until they got back home and use that setup.

They weren’t holed up in a safe house a good distance from all the action. The pair was taking up a short time residence in the target’s apartment. Knee deep in the action; the deepest they’ve ever been. As a rule the Cobblers & Musicians were supposed to kept as far away as possible. But the mission was in one of the very few areas where they did not have a safe house nearby.

Kilo walked through the space between the counter and the wall; entering the kitchen. Her boot-less socked feet hit the cold white title.

The kitchen, and the apartment, was as fancy as high-end penthouse apartments go. Even with all that luxury every single thing from the coffee table to the fridge was just for show. Or at least appeared to be. All the appliances looked like they had just been bought and everything had screamed do not touch. Kilo loved rooting around in other people’s lives so she took the comm silence as the opportunity that it was. And as always she started with the kitchen.

“Okay, let’s see whatcha got in here.”

Opening the cupboards first Kilo’s eyes scanned the boxes, cans, and packages. Boring old-people cereal. Kraft boxed mac and cheese; the worst kind. Cans upon cans of tomato paste. Lots and lots of angel hair pasta. A pretty random empty cardboard box the size of her head lay on the very top shelf. Nothing she wanted so she closed the cupboard and moved on to the next one.

The second cupboard was filled with expensive-looking plates and cups.

You live alone, like the old lady you apparently are, why in the world do you have so many freaking plates?

Kilo stared at the plates for a minute of two and then shrugged. After closing the cupboard she turns around and inspects the stove. Opening the oven door she hopes the woman left something inside. Like maybe a pizza or a chocolate cake. Hell, she’d take a damn veggie casserole.

Nothing.

Biting her lip she walks the few short steps to the fridge. Gripping the handle she opens it but the door doesn’t budge. Luckily she pulls hard enough the second time and it opens. Holly Wallchester’s fridge is filled with fresh fruits and veggies. So fresh in fact that many of the vegetables still have dirt on them.

Freaking vegans.

The rest of the fridge was filled with half-full bottles of wine. Kilo frowns and then opens the freezer. She doesn’t want to look thinking that it would be barren. But she looks inside anyway; not really wanting to leave Vic alone for a snack run. And a beautiful sight greets her in the form of a tub of chocolate ice cream with chocolate swirl and brownie pieces.

Smiling to herself she takes the tub from the freezer and closes the door.

Jackpot!

Reading the nutritional label on the tub the ice cream isn’t some fake vegan rip-off. It’s surprisingly actual, real, ice cream. She pulls the lid off and the tub is almost full. Only a couple medium-sized scoops had been taken out.

Freaking double jackpot!

Kilo grabs a spoon from the drawer underneath the counter. Digging into her ice cream she walks back over to the door to the bedroom. Knocking loudly she performs the secret knock she and Vic came up with long ago. The entire team spent so much time together the pair needed a few things for themselves. They came up with the secret knock years ago in basic and it stuck ever since.

“Hey, dude, you want some ice cream? It’s awesome.”

“No, I’m good.”

“You sure? It’s loaded with chocolate.”

Kilo can practically see Victor’s annoyed face as he says; “I don’t want any.”

“Suit yourself,” she singsongs before walking away.

“Just don’t steal any from me later,” she threatens quickly.

Victor says nothing in return and so she plops down on the couch; sitting crossed-legged. Turning her attention back to her ear comm she listens back in on the conversation. Spooning heaping spoonfuls of ice cream into her mouth. A wad falls on her pants, coloring the black fabric, and she gets up to grab a towel from the kitchen. Papa’s voice floats through back through her comm.

“Are you sure about this?”

That was one of her classic moves. She made her marks think they had the power by acting timid. Or by acting like she was helpless. And by the time Papa got what the team needed and when the target put two and two together, it was already too late. If they did. Best part was it worked every time.

“Of course. I want you inside me, Robin. I want you. I. Need. You.”

Holly started to punctuate her words by kissing Papa’s neck. Kilo could hear the passion filled sounds loudly in her ears. She also heard the primal urge in the woman’s voice. Then she heard the sound of clothes rustling as Papa’s dress brushed over her head as she stripped. With a grimace Kilo quickly double tapped her comm.

She couldn’t take any more of this; not tonight anyway.

Disgusted by the fact she was eating ice cream that had touched lips which were now touching Papa’s lips Kilo puts the lid back on the container. Walking back into the kitchen she throws it back in the freezer compartment and washes the spoon. Wiping her hands on her pants, Wallchester owned not a single clean towel, she exits the kitchen.

Once she’s back on the couch Kilo grabs the TV remote from the glass coffee table.

Kilo turns on the TV and flicks through Wallchester’s Netflix account. Even the large flat screen TV was just for show. The woman hadn’t even watched a single show or movie. The favorites section of the account were the shows everyone talked about; Games of Thrones, Stranger Things, American Horror Story and Orange Is the New Black. But not a single episode had been watched.

Intel was right. She cares about nothing but her work. And keeping up appearances.

When she got tired of the ice cream she returned it to the freezer. The ice cream wasn’t as good as she thought it would be and she was still hungry. Whether she liked it or not she would have to go for a snack run. She could listen in on Kilo and Wallchester while she ran to the store. And the closest one was just a block or two away. All would be well.

So she turned her comm back on and connected to Victor. She began tossing a glass ball filled with gold glitter up and down.

“Hey, dude, I’m doing a quick snack run. Should be back in five. Maybe ten.”

Cool. I’ll be here.

Kilo pulled her boots on and tied them as quick as possible. Then she grabbed a wad of Wallchester’s extra cash from the trendy wooden key plate on the small side table underneath the coat hooks in the short hall. It’s not like the woman was going to miss it especially if the next few days went the way they were supposed to. She went back to the bedroom, quickly knocked, and told Vic she was leaving. Then she opened the door and walked to the elevator. Luckily for her there were no other people in the elevator. Once the elevator stopped in the lobby Kilo exited the building and then walked down the semi-crowded street.

Once out in the street Kilo tapped into Papa’s conversation with Wallchester.

“Oh wow! Your work must be so stressful!” Papa’s voice floated through and her fake interest was obvious. Well, apparently not at all obvious to Wallchester. And even if most people hate their work they love talking about how they hate their work. And Wallchester was one of those people.

A vegan and a venter! Just my luck!

Kilo thought bitterly as she turned to the side to avoid a moving man with loads of boxes.

“You don’t even know the half of it! I’m a damn criminal defense lawyer. All I do is defend these scumbag delinquents. And without a paralegal I have to do most of the grunt work myself.”

“Oh yeah. That’s pretty stressful,” Kilo agreed.

“And don’t even get me started on dealing with paparazzi!”

“Wait a minute… Weren’t you the lawyer on that art gallery/money laundering case? Some Swiss businessman or something?”

“The Bouvier Affair? Yes. That was me.”

“You didn’t take any bribes from him did you?”

“I’m not at liberty to say…”

Wallchester started to reply but Papa cut her off. Turning her sexy voice on even more Papa was getting Wallchester to admit the truth. By this time Kilo had made it to the small corner store and was paying for her snacks. A couple bag of Funyuns, a couple energy drinks, a few chocolate bars and a large bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos for Vic. He had been holed up in Wallchester’s bedroom for a while so he’d definitely be hungry when she got back.

Just as she was about to pay for the snacks an unknown voice came through her comm link.

If you ever want to see your friend again you’ll do exactly as I say. And you’re gonna start by leaving Miss Wallchester alone.

Kilo dropped the money in disbelief and ran through the store. Pushing through the sudden night sidewalk traffic of the city she continued to run. She ran all the way back to Wallchester’s apartment. And once she was in the elevator she rapidly pushed the button for the top floor. But the elevator started to fill up with more people. Kilo kept close to the buttons and pressed whatever floor numbers other people called out. Despite the fact that only a few buttons were pressed the elevator was slow going.

Come on, come on, come on!

Kilo bit her bottom lip and started to impatiently repeatedly press the button for the top floor. Once the elevator made it to the penthouse floor she rushed out of the elevator. Everything looked fine from the outside but the door was slightly open. The door was fully intact and so the lock on the door was obviously picked. Kilo reached inside her pocket and pulled out her gloves. Once her gloves were on she reached into the holster at the small of her back and grabbed the black 9mm Beretta which sat there. Then she pushed the door open.

The rest of the place was torn apart. Wallchester’s living room belongings were strewn about the room. Shattered glass was everywhere. The sofa was completely destroyed; each cushion was ripped open. The bedroom door was kicked open the room was trashed and Vic was gone.

So was his laptop.

“Why did you take him?!” Kilo said through grit teeth when she connected to Victor’s comm.

Aw… Can’t find your precious hacker? Don’t worry we’re taking good care of him. the voice taunted in Kilo’s ear.

“Whoever the hell you are I’m going to find you and you’re gonna tell me why. Then I’m going to kick your ass and save my brother.”

Oh you’ll find out why we took your little friend. You’ll find out soon enough.

“He’s not my friend. He’s my brother and you’re dead meat.”

The only response Kilo received was a loud cackle-type laugh and then the click off a comm shut off. She ran to the other room and grabbed her equipment. Biting her lip she started the remote comm tracker in her small tape recorder. But with the comm broken she had to rely on the backup tracker which was embedded in the back of his knee. Every agent had one but they rarely thought about them. Now Victor’s life was hanging in the balance and dependent on a backup. All because of Kilo and her stupid boredom appetite. With her bottom lip about to bleed she connected through to Sierra. Kilo didn’t wait for any conversation formalities to pass between them. They didn’t have much time.

“Vic’s been abducted!”

Sierra was someone one could count on to keep a cool head even in situations like this. That’s what leaders did and she was good at it. “Do you know when or where he is now?”

“No but it happened just a few minutes ago. Five maybe ten. I… I just went down a couple blocks to the store and… Shit! Shit! Shit! This is all my fault!” Tears began to fall and Kilo couldn’t stop them.

“It’s not your fault, Ki. Trust me.”

“It is!” Kilo cried through tears. “We’re supposed to look after each other. Keep each other safe no matter what. And I let him down. I let everybody down.”

“Breathe, okay? Just breathe. We’ll find him. You’re probably tracking him as we speak.”

Kilo laughed and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “Yeah, I am.”