I was still quite tired so I decided to take a quick ten minute nap before having to head out to get to the university campus on time. Daniel left ten minutes before I did both of us taking our own cars. I still wasn't happy about the fact that I had to leave my gun at home but I guess I'll just have to deal with that for now, how bad can it be. Well, the answer to that would be, very bad. I'm not used to be in a place that's as crowded as this and without any form of protections I felt very vulnerable and unsafe. It wouldn't have been so bad if there was at least somebody here I knew but there wasn't and it was really starting to take its toll on me by the time I had finished just two out of my scheduled five lessons for today. I was constantly looking around me as I walked trying to stay out of the way of as many people as possible. I was suspicious of everybody. I needed to get my head straight so I went to the bathroom to sort myself out.
Stop worrying so much, this is university not the marines, what's the worst that's going to happen? I pulled myself together and walked back out with a clear head. I was perfectly fine, I had just managed to calm myself down and tell myself I was overreacting when somebody pulled me into a dark corner where I couldn't be seen pushing me up against the wall and covering my mouth, not that they needed to because I wasn't going to scream. I quickly pulled them off me flipping the position and pushing them harshly up against the wall pinning their hands by their head. "McKenzie calm down it's only me." Daniel's voice rung through my ears and I sighed a breath of relief letting him go.
"Don't ever do that again." I snapped. "You're lucky I didn't have my weapon."
"Calm down. Your fine, I'm fine there's no harm done." He reassured as I ran a hand through my hair gently pulling at the roots. "You need to try and act a bit more normal McKenzie, you seem to on edge and it's going to be way too easy for anybody to tell."
"I need to act more natural. I'm trying to hold myself together because I'm unarmed, on my own and surrounded by a bunch of people I don't know. I've just come out of a war zone so excuse me is that's making me feel a little uncomfortable." I snapped again, I was trying to calm down but it wasn't working.
"Would you like me to stay with you for the day because most of our lessons are with each other anyway?" He asked even though he knew I couldn't.
"I want you to but you know we can't. We're not meant to know each other." This was just frustrating me more and more. "I hate university." I groaned leaning against the wall.
"Right I'm staying with you today. Most people make friends on the first day anyway and right now I don't want to leave you in the state you're in, I don't think it's safe." He leaned against the wall right beside me and I was thankful for having him there. This was the first time in five years I had left a marine base and I wasn't coping with it as well as I hoped I would so I really didn't want to be left alone. "Here." He said handing me his Glock 18 pistol which I took gratefully slipping it into the waistband of my skirt after making sure the safety was still on because quite frankly I didn't want to accidentally shoot myself in the leg. I then rummaged around in my backpack for my plain black hoody to conceal the weapon now hidden at my waist. "Better?" He asked.
"Yeah thanks." I smiled before walking back out and into the open area of the campus grounds. I stayed right beside Daniel the entire time but we didn't talk so it just looked like a coincidence that we were walking in the same direction.
Right now I had some stupid lesson on computer coding or something along the lines of that. I wasn't really interested. I was too busy sat at the back surveying everybody else in the class. We had both been put into this class because we had narrowed whoever we were looking for down to somebody in this room so our timetables had been scheduled so that everybody was always in a class with either me or Daniel so now we just had to figure out who it was and stop them before they managed to break into the firewall at the pentagon. Looking around there was nobody who immediately jumped out at me because they all looked like smart, sensible people not criminals who were trying to steal top secret military secrets. Then again I didn't look like a secret agent who was going to kill somebody in this classroom with me right now so looks can most definitely be deceiving. The only person who really struck me as out of the ordinary was Daniel because he definitely has this whole bad boy look going on right now with all the tats and piercings and all black clothes, he stuck out like a sore thumb. I had noticed a couple of the girls giving him the once over and silently scoffed, I mean how cliché can you get with all of the good girls falling for the bad boy. I was bored out of my mind, scanning the room over and over again for anything that would possibly indicate who the person I was looking for was but there was nothing. I changed the position I was sitting in so that the gun wasn't digging into me but it was difficult with a skirt on, I really hate whoever's idea that was.
I looked over at Daniel and saw that he was also scanning the room looking for possible suspects as he wrote notes on whatever the professor was saying, I was too bored to pay attention and school had never really been my thing anyways so I just got on with the task in hand. When we all loaded up our laptops I was glad I had picked a seat at the back of the class because it meant I could see everybody's screens which gave me a slight upper hand. I loaded my own laptop up before scanning my eyes over the other laptops in front of me but yet again there was nothing suspicious about them. The day seemed to just drone on and on and just when I thought I was finished I'd remember I'd have another stupid lesson to go to, this is the reason I didn't stay on in further education.
When I did finally make it back to my home for the foreseeable future I was surprised to see Daniel in before me sat on the couch with all of the curtains closed just flicking through the TV channels. He hadn't spotted me yet so I stayed close to the edge of the room sneaking around the back of him and into my room, no point in disturbing him. The first thing I did was take off my disguise leaving my contacts in just in case I had to get changed again and go out but I very highly doubted it. I pulled on a pair of sweats and a plain black t-shirt before heading back into the living room jumping over the back of the couch and taking a seat giving Daniel a fright as I did so. "Bloody hell McKenzie you scared me." He scolded me as though I was a little child who had done something wrong.
"Sorry." I giggled moving to get myself comfy. I had literally just gotten comfy when my work phone started to ring so I had no other option other than to answer it. I switched it to my earpiece placing the wire round the back of my neck and hiding it with my t-shirt so I could speak to them as well. "Tell him to put his earpiece in." I knew exactly who 'him' was.
"Daniel, catch." I said throwing him his earpiece and he wired it up the same way I did with mine. "Okay we're wired."
"I need an update." Boss Man said down the phone. I'm sure I had already been told his name now I just can't remember so he can stay as Boss Man.
"Nothing unusual to report, sir."
"Car registration plates?" I knew he would ask for them. He needed to keep tabs on us whether or not we're allowed back up because if this goes wrong then they need to be able to cover it up so that meant keeping tabs on us.
"Nine, eight, tango, zulu, alpha, two." That meant 99T ZA2. That was my reg plate but I couldn't remember Daniels. "Daniel what's yours?" I asked seeing him struggle to remember.
"I can't remember the phonetic alphabet. Its 36R DE7." He whispered to me and I had to translate it. We never translate long messages but things like registration plates are easier to say in the phonetic alphabet because that way there can be no confusion over what's being said.
"Three, six, romeo, delta, echo, seven." 36R DE7, I needed to try and remember that. I quickly wrote it on the inside of my left wrist so that it could easily be covered by my watch so that I had it there in case I needed it.
"Thank you." The line went dead but I left my earpiece in rearranging the wires so that I had it taped to the place where my shoulder and neck joined so it was as close to my mouth as I could get it but it was still hidden by my t-shirt. "How can you not know the phonetic alphabet?" I asked in disbelief, it was one of the first things he should have learnt.
"It's American and in case you haven't noticed I'm not American like you." He argued trying to excuse the fact he didn't know it.
"Yes and we work for an American department so it should have been one of the first things you were taught."
"Oh yeah and how do you know it because you didn't learn it from the department considering you only just came back this week?" He challenged.
"Fine I lied I wasn't a in the British Royal Marines, I was in the USMC." I admitted. "I got in with them through the department and I was put in for sniper training because I was a good shot. That's how I know the phonetic alphabet and you need to learn it."
"Fine, whatever." He huffed crossing his arms over his chest like a child who's just been told off. If we keep going the way we're going this operation just isn't going to work, we need to grow up and get on with it and we can sort whatever is going on between us out when we get back to the safe confinements of Department 21. If we make it back there.