Last First Chance (Al-Ameen Family Spin-Off)

Perfect Intersection

Naina was in the car, leading us and the other agents who were scattered around the block.

"You guys," Naina's voice comes through our ear pieces. "It looks weird that you're sitting there without talking and not eating. Act normal," she chides.

I press my ear piece's mic to respond. "Copy."

"I want to eat it," Maheen sighs desperately.

"But you can't," I remind her.

"But you can't," she mimics me in a high pitched voice.

I cross my hands together on the table, staring at her. She had her hair up in a tight bun, with her bangs tucked behind her ears. She was wearing a plain black shirt with black jeans but she had on some sparkly stuff on her eyelids that made them stand out more than usual.

"What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?" she touches her nose and cheek.

"Nothing, I spaced," I lie.

"So do you always dress so casually on missions?" she asks, examining my clothes now.

"When we need to blend in, we can't come strapped with guns," I point out sarcastically.

She nods thoughtfully as if I didn't just sass her out. "But you always dress like an old librarian. So this is actually you standing out," she snickers.

I guess I was indeed dressed differently today in my black t-shirt and blue jeans.

"It seems everything about us both is quite different now," I sigh, running a hand through my hair.

"Somethings never change though," she looked at me with that annoying little smile she always has on when she's messing with me. "Zindagi bhar kharoos ke kharoos hi reh jaoge. (You'll always be a stickler)."

"Phir bhi kharoos ke saath itni dosti ki thi tumne. (And yet, you were best friends with that stickler)," I remind her smugly. 

"Thi. Dost thi. Mat maari gayi thi meri. (Was. Was your friend. I didn't have a brain back then)," she mutters. 

Before I can respond, she tilts her chin at something behind me. 

"Hasan," Maheen whispers. "Four o' clock."

I turn my head slightly, trying to see what she's looking at. "Naina," I press my in-ear mic. "Messi jersey, Black sneakers. You have eyes?"

"Affirmative," Naina says. "Agents secure the block," she announces to all the agents here today.

"Let's go," I gesture to Maheen. We get up, and I lead the way, following the man as he walks down the sidewalk.

"He's heading to the library," Maheen says. "It is the perfect intersection between two runners' paths."

I repeat what she just said to Naina, who commands us to follow.

The man stops suddenly and so I stop too, blocking Maheen before she goes further. The man looks left and right and then slips into an alleyway behind the library.

We follow quietly, watching as he walks deeper and deeper into the alley and then stops behind a garbage bin.

Maheen tugs at my t-shirt and points to a garbage bin we can also hide behind to watch. Maheen pulls out her phone and takes a video as a young man- probably a university student- walks into the alleyway from the other side, opening his backpack as he gets closer. The person we followed steps out slightly so we can see half his body. He opens his own backpack and takes out a small packet, covered in tape and newspaper.

Once the handoff is done, both men say something quietly to each other and leave the same way they come.

Instinctually, I press Maheen against the brick wall of the building, shielding her as the man walks by so he can only see my back.

The man walks past, scoffing at us as he probably-and understandably- assumes we're doing something very unlike what was actually happening here.

I look down at Maheen. Her eyes are buzzing with excitement, her cheeks flushed with the thrill of the mission. Slowly, her eyes shift to the left, looking at my arm that's leaning on the wall beside her head.

I hear her breath hitch, and her eyes go wider as they come back to meet mine.

"Mahee," my voice is a whisper. I don't actually know what I'm wanting to say, but I just feel like there's something that needs to be said.

"You guys are clear," Naina's voice sounds off in our ears.

Maheen pushes me away, "control yourself Hasan. I know I'm gorgeous but you can't be falling over me everywhere," her face is full of mirth. At least she's not mad.

"Shut up Maheen."