Secret Service

chapter five (part 2)

chapter five (part 2) BANNER ON THE SIDE BY FLORACONDA :)

• kieran •

          The building was a giant. And it had every right to be one. Ananke was a giant in our society, and the building was definitely not overcompensating for anything. 

As I craned my head back, taking in the entire length of the pentagonal chrome building, I felt the familiar rush of adrenaline I always got when entering the field for a mission. However, unlike before, this time I had to be less charge-in-and-rain-bullets-and-destruction-y and more Alice-y.

Cold fingers slipped into the neck of my suit jacket and yanked me away from the window. I turned around to glare at Alice. I was always more emotional pre-mission, while Alice seemed to be the exact opposite - she seemed to have no excitement or nerves at all. I thought it was good to let out all the steam before the mission, so during the mission, I was always completely focused and poised.

"Stop glaring at me, love, you'll get wrinkles." Alice said absentmindedly, going back to fixing her already-perfect dark hair, which was let down in loose curls, covering the sharp white blazer she wore over her halter-top.

I growled, "I don't need your sass right now, Quinn."

Alice looked away from her phone, which she was using as a mirror, to glance at me with a raised eyebrow. "You're nervous." she stated simply.

"I'm not-" I started to protest, but at her look, I stopped and sighed. "Okay, fine. A little."

"Why?" she asked, laughing a little, "Aren't you like the best agent in the agency?"

I glowed in the glory of the title for a brief second before replying, "Best combat agent. Not operator."

My contingency plans, at least the ones I was accustomed to and prefered, were the ones that required helipcopters and eloborate race-gliders to come and pick me up at the last second. Again, I worked better with life-threatening action plans instead of well-planned, sneaky operative missions.

Alice didn't respond for a while and when I looked over at her, her head was cocked to one side - a habit that I had realized meant that she was thinking - and a faint smirk on her face. 

"What?" I asked warily.

"Oh, Kieran," she said, and I noticed how when she pronounced my name she said it in three distinct syllables. "You don't have to beg me to teach you how to survive in the field for an operative mission-"

"You're so full of shi-"

"Shhh, child," Alice said quickly, pressing a finger against my lips to shut me up and looking off into the distance dramatically. "I'll help you. No worries. Hakuna Matata."

I grabbed her hand and shoved it away from my face, grimacing at the taste of the strawberry flavored Twizzlers she had been munching on when I licked my lips. "I'm not ask you to help me. I can do perfectly fine on my own."

Alice ignored me and said loudly, "Lesson One, love. You must always-"

"What? Be prepared? Have an infinite amount of back-up plans?" I jumped in sarcastically, fixing my tuxedo cuffs and glancing back out the window.

We were pulling in to the parking lot building that was across the street from Ananke's building. If we got off the car right in plain sight, and something happened to Axel and Delilah in the van, Alice and my identities and mission would be jeopardized. So the parking lot, it is. Another part of Alice's long-thought-out plan.

To be honest, I didn't think it was that important, but of course I would never tell her that. I would just be asking for an ulcer.

Alice quirked an eyebrow at me. "Yes, you're learning fast, love. But the most basic lesson in being a successful operator?" she asked rhetorically, before answering herself right away, "Lie like a pro. Wrap the lie in half-truths. Do that, and you'll be golden." She then opened the car door and stepped out of the backseat of the van.