Operation: M.I.A

XXVII // Bugs

Zander and I make our way to the desk. One of us slightly more embarrassed than the other. I am slightly ashamed of Zander - that he would be such an arse.

But I shake the blame and the accusations out of my head, knowing I will need to focus on whatever is about to come through those headphones.

I sit down on the end of Rylan's designated Queen-size bed and wait. He pulls the audio jack from the computer so we can all hear, and sound filters through the speakers.

"We do not have authorization for that!" a man's voice says, obviously in frustration.

"Well we have to do something. Soon. They are going to find them tomorrow at the latest. We need to step in, Jon." A woman. The woman.

I imagine the two I saw the first day here at the hotel, decking it out in their room. I'm sure it is supposed to be a professional relationship between them, but they seem like they are quite comfortable with yelling at each other.

"Fine," he huffs in return. And then his voice drops low. "But if you blow our cover before we can get to them, this one is on you."

There is no response from his partner.

I turn to Zander who has his hand under his chin and his elbows resting on his knees. He sits up and shrugs. "I don't know guys."

"Don't know who they are? Don't know what they want? How they found us? What?" I prod, looking for insight so we can hopefully figure out what we need to do to stay ahead.

He runs his hands over his face and then lets his arms swing wide, stretching, before they drop. "I'm pretty sure they are federal agents. But I don't know why they want us, or how they found us."

Rylan and I nod in agreement.

Zander continues. "And most importantly, we don't know if they are helping us or if they are trying to hurt us."

I ponder this. "I don't think they would have undergone a week-long stake out if they weren't here to help us. We were here all along. They could've knocked us each off at anytime."

"They could've been waiting for backup," Rylan quickly points out.

I nod, realizing he is right.

But if they are here to help, we could sure use them. "Wait, wait, wait, guys. Listen to the context. Can you roll it back, Ry. Just before she was talking about stepping in."

Rylan attends to the laptop and presses the space button to resume the audio.

"They are going to find them tomorrow at the latest. We need to step in, Jon."

I point to the monitor enthusiastically. "There!" I say. "She wants to get to us before they find us. We can only assume 'they' means Karina and her douches."

Zander nods, looking impressed and appreciative of my deductive reasoning. Then he gets up and walks towards the door. "Let's go find out."

Neither me or Rylan move an inch. We just look incredulously at what has evolved to be our leader. Always was, really.

"Either we die today, or we die tomorrow. Or we go get their help and save them the hassle of figuring out how to make us not kill them first."

Zan looks at me and drops the impressed look. He now looks quite the opposite. "Don't give me that face, Decklynn. It's not as reckless as you're making it seem. Just come on."

He opens the door and slides through.

I whip my head to look at Rylan in shock. "He just left." I say it as a statement, but it is a question of whether or not he dared to risk our mission without our explicit consent.