Undercover in Progress

Adrian's Antics

Silence was my only answer for a moment before I heard some scrabbling around and cursing. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just got my foot caught.” I could only imagine how funny it would’ve been to see. Instead of laughing though, I decided to be nice. Shocker, I know.

“Here, take my hand.” I told him, putting my left arm out behind me with an open hand. I could hear him moving, trying to find my proffered hand and a minute later I felt his hand clasp mine. I took hold of his hand and tugged him closer, all the while still facing forward, so I wouldn’t lose my way. I pulled his hand until it touched my back and then I released it. “Now find my shoulders and hold onto them like we’re doing the conga. That way you can walk where I walk so you won’t have as much trouble.” I explained.

“Thanks.” Adrian replied from directly behind me. I almost jumped but not quite. I had been expecting him to be close, just not as close. I felt him place his other hand on my back and then felt him trail them both lightly upward until he found my shoulders. The action made me shiver slightly.

Once his hands were firmly planted on my shoulders, I set off slightly slower than before but was soon walking at my normal pace.

“I have to ask, how do you know your way through here so well even though it’s too dark to see anything?” Adrian asked, sounding intrigued.

It was a fair question so I decided to answer him honestly. “I had to come this way for another mission before and we’ve been making plans and staking out the area since before Harry put in the request to do this.”

“Oh, when you were looking into Mr Henderson? I remember reading about that and how it ended up being a false lead.” I gritted my teeth, remembering all the work that had gone into that mission because Mr Henderson was so close, location-wise and it had seemed otherwise, to Victor. All of it had been worthless as it ended up being a wild goose chase. Although I had to admit my knowledge from that case did help when it came to this one, so I guess it wasn’t all a complete waste. “What did you mean when you said you’d been staking out this place ‘since before Harry put in the request’?” Adrian enquired. It seemed that once he got going he wouldn’t stop until I’d answered all of his questions. Great.

I sighed internally but answered his question anyway. “Well we’d already begun surveying the area to see if we could do it. There was no point in us requesting to do a search only to figure out later that it wasn’t actually possible, imagine how that would’ve made us look. I think it’d be enough to get at least one of us pulled from the mission. So once we were sure it was at least a possibility, Harry sent in his request.”

“Huh,” Adrian replied thoughtfully but remained quiet otherwise.

When we reached the edge of the forest by the bench we all met at earlier Adrian released me and I got my first good look at him since we’d entered the forest and he’d fallen. I may have been able to hold in my laughter before but now that I could see him, I couldn’t. Adrian had mud and leaves all up his left side and back and it was even coving his hands. Then there was his face and hair. His hood had fallen down at some point, probably during his fall, and now as a result he had leaves and a few twigs stuck in his hair and his face had random smudges of dirt where he must have absentmindedly rubbed his hand over it at some point post fall.

Adrian didn’t look amused by my outburst but I simply couldn’t help it. It didn’t last long though; I wasn’t the kind of person to keep laughing endlessly. “You done?” Adrian asked when it was clear I’d calmed down.

“Yep.” I told him. I went to wipe my eyes with my left hand but stopped myself just in time when I saw the dirt coating it. I was confused for a moment until I figured out it must have been from when I took Adrian’s hand to help him. That also meant that I probably had dirt all over my back as well. Oh well, at least it’d only be on my jumper. I’d be changing it when I got back to the Flinn’s anyway. The Flinns! I’d completely forgotten about them for a moment.