Finding Romeo

Chapter 8

I heard him growl and huff, I'd obviously pissed Luka off. But seriously, he should know by now not to try and win a word battle with me.

I smirked and closed my eyes, hoping he wouldn't kill me in my sleep. The small pistol I had hidden in the back of my jeans calmed my nerves enough to drift off into sleep.

* * *

I woke up to an insistent beeping and flung my arm over to smack the alarm clock beside my bed, only to have my hand hit something hard and materially.

One. Ow.

And two. What the...

Forcing an eye open I peered into the bright sunlight, everything coming into view and my mind finally clicked back into place.

Ah right, I wasn't at home. I was in a van with a private detective who's been trying to catch me for years and, ironically enough, I had agreed to it.

And the beeping noise that had was seemed to be the shortest snooze in history? That was the alarm on the computer going off letting me know someone was hacking in.

Right, I should probably tend to that..

I shot upright and stumbled out of the seat, landing in the chair and sliding gracefully in front of the computer, slamming into Luka's chair, who jerked awake and reached for his side holster.

"Who's sleeping on the job now?" I murmured and ignored him, my fingers racing over the keys of the keyboard and I watched them hack their way through my multiple firewalls. Now was the hard, yet fun, part. I had to track down their location while continually putting up firewalls to keep them out.

They were good.

I was better. And faster.

I worked fast, blinking the sleep from my eyes as I zeroed in on their location.

"Start the van and start heading into Midtown Manhattan," I ordered, not even looking to see if he would do what I said.

We may have been bickering before, but now it was time to work together like the team we were supposed to be. I was doing my part, now it was time for him to do his part in catching these guys.

Luka must have sensed the seriousness of the situation because not a moment later the van lurched forward and was speeding through traffic. Well as much speeding as someone could through New York City anyway.

They put up a firewall to block their location again and I hacked my way through it. Now they knew for sure that someone was trying to find them.

Meaning we had less time to find them.

"What street?" Luka barked from the driver's seat, the car shifted suddenly, causing my chair to roll forward quickly, slamming my stomach into the desk in the back and knocking the air out of my lungs. Luckily everything was bolted down, except for the chairs, otherwise the computer would be flying around.

Retracing their signal through several Wi-Fi connections, narrowing down the location more and more I called out "7th Avenue!" before chanting "Come on, come on" at the screen, hoping it would load faster.

"Which store?" Luka yelled, already unbuckling.

"Shit," I growled. The information from the screen disappeared, leaving me with nothing but a general location between two stores, both having free Wi-Fi.

"Tell me that's a good shit," Luka said, his voice raising until he was almost yelling.

"Either the Deli or the Coffee Shop." I called, getting out of the chair and jumping out the back of the van as Luka came to a stop in a no parking zone. My heart was thumping hard in my chest, adrenaline pumping through my veins and making me feel more energized than I had in days. Weeks. Months even. "I'm taking the Deli," I call.

"Right, because there's no way it could be the coffee shop. We should go in together."

"Sometimes things aren't as obvious as they seem. Plus, remember, Ms. Brainiac here. You should listen to me! Now shut up and check out the coffee shop." I snapped, striding into the small Deli. The bells over the door dinged and I looked around to see if anyone was using a computer. Not a single person.

What kind of place was this?

Generally if there was free Wi-Fi then there was always someone using it.

Odd.

A noise behind me caught my attention and I turned, spotting someone dart past through the crowd. Luka darted past seconds later and I ran back out the door, watching them run through the crowd.

There you go Luka, use those muscles of yours.

They were way off through the crowd now and there was no way I could catch up, so why bother? Plus there was some more things here for me to do.

* * *

Awhile later Luka came stomping through the crowd, empty handed. I started to wonder if he had killed the runner, but the anger on his face told me otherwise.

The runner was good at slipping away.

"Lost him?" I said, tilting my head and smirking from my place on top of the van's hood, where I sat sipping coffee.

"No thanks to you! We should have went together, that's what teams are supposed to do right? We're supposed to be working as a team, so we have to work together. Which means you have to listen to me. It's your fault that asshole got away!" Luka was screaming at me, the vein in his neck throbbing angrily and his face a dark shade of red.

"Let me stop you right there," I said, holding a finger up. "You know splitting up was the best idea. It was a 50/50 shot. You went into the right place, where the hacker was, and he still got away. Making it whose fault he got away? Yours."

"We have nothing now," Luka snarled, stepping forward. "Do you really think they're going to try hacking in again? Mr. Vladimir will be hearing about this and then he'll let me finally take your trouble making ass in so you can rot in jail where you belong."

"We don't have nothing," I said, holding up the laptop that I had been holding onto. The hacker was actually stupid enough to dump the thing in the Coffee Shops trash and I had managed to grab it before someone dumped a half full coffee cup in the trash. Rookie move on the hackers part.

I hopped down from the van and walked right up to Luka until our chests were almost touching. "While you were loosing our hacker, I was getting the laptop he had ditched and searching it for anything useful." I soaked in the moment for a moment before smiling widely at him. "And I got a name. So if you're done making petty threats, then we should probably go and get him." I held up the extra cup of coffee I had got and held it up to him. "Coffee?"

--------------------

A/N

This chapter is dedicated to SparklyTwinkle!