┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
New Americana: Halsey
"Meet Olivia Prior, member of Dutch Parliament, known for championing education reform and fighting government corruption." Matty informs and I cross my arms.
"Ooh, I like her already. Is she in some kind of trouble?" Mac plays with his paperclip.
"No, she's just wants to send us a postcard. To people she doesn't even know exists." I nod and the others chuckle.
"Uh, I'm sorry." He sets down the paperclips and stands up, now beside me.
"You were saying?" Matty questions.
"This woman, is she in trouble?"
"Actually, she may be the one causing the trouble. According to the CIA, Prior has been leaking state secrets to a terrorist group." She looks at me and I bite the inside of my cheek.
"Any idea why she's betraying her own country?" Jack wonders.
"No. In fact, the CIA is having trouble verifying their intel, and they won't alert the Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst, until they do."
"The hell is that?"
"The intelligence services of the Netherlands."
"Oh, yeah, yeah." He nods and I grin down as Mac snickers.
"Okay, what say we just call them Dutch Intelligence and move on, 'kay?" Matty turns back to the screen and pulls a map up. "The CIA believes that Prior will be meeting with her contact tomorrow, in Amsterdam."
"But since sending agents to observe the meet would technically be spying on a close ally..." Evan trails off.
"We get to do their dirty work." McKenna inquires.
"Bingo." Matty tells her. "You are gonna record the meet and get concrete proof...that Prior is an enemy agent."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. Record?" Jack says.
"Yeah."
"So no black bag? No interrogation? Just surveillance?"
"Observe and report. Nothing more."
"What's he so excited about?" Bozer speaks up as Jack claps his hands and sits.
"Jack loves surveillance ops. He's got an inflatable butt pillow. It's a whole thing." Mac remarks.
"Hey, this is the closest thing you're ever gonna get to a vacation around here, alright? You park the van, you sit back, you relax, and you watch Riley and McKenna press record." Jack tells him.
"Well, actually, Jack, it's not as simple as just-"
"Okay, Riley, I'm sure there's lots of cool computer stuff, too, okay? My point is, no fistfights, no Lina having to dodge bullets, no running, and no getting shot at. I'm in."
"Well, that's precisely why I decided that this is the perfect first mission abroad for Bozer." Matty grins.
"Hold up." Bozer freezes. "You just said I'm going on this mission?"
"You're going on this mission."
"I'm going on this mission. Watch out, Amsterdam!" He flicks his coat and Riley holds her head. "Here comes Bozer! Wilt Bozer." He wraps his arm around my neck. "Wiggity, wiggity, uh...thank you, ma'am. I mean Matty."
"This is literally the easiest first mission abroad that I could give you. So don't screw it up."
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"And that jet? Amazing." Bozer goes on as I stand in the back of the truck with him, Mac, Evan and McKenna. "It was everything I thought it would be. Just like the one Roger Moore gets thrown out of right before he fights that evil dude on that space station. Do I need to be prepared for something like that?" He turns to me.
"I think we can safely rule out space travel, Wilt." I nod and cross my arms.
"Odds are, the plane flight will be the most exciting part about this trip." Mac adds.
"Well, a little boring sounds pretty exciting to me. Anyone else wanna check out the Van Gogh Museum?" Riley turns to us.
"You had me at Van Gough." I sketch in my journal.
"I'm in too. Why not?" McKenna shrugs.
"No, not me, thanks. I brought, like, ten Willie Nelson live CDs. I'm just gonna chill out in the van, put a dent in these." Jack tells us.
"CDs? Really, Jack?" Evan questions.
"Mm-hmm."
"You know they invented iTunes, right?"
"Yeah, but everybody knows CDs sound better."
"Well, people only say that about vinyl because-"
"Look it up. It's proven." Jack cuts Riley off.
"You know what, forget it. I give up." Riley looks back at her book and I continue sketching.
"Okay." He stops the car and I glance up. "So...this is where Prior's supposed to meet her contact. So until she shows, I say we sit back, relax, and enjoy my man Willie." He puts the cd in. "Yeah, there it is. Want me to turn it up?" He turns it up and I see him blow into something.
"I don't remember James Bond ever doing that." Bozer inquires and I go back to my sketch.
"You drawing the end of the world or something, Lina?"
"Already have, Jack. Years ago." I keep sketching.
"That's good. Always prepared."
"Exactly. Okay." I finish sketching and carefully tear out the paper. "Here you go." I hand it over to Bozer.
"Did you just draw me Sabertooth fighting Spider-Man?" Bozer gapes.
"You've been asking me to since last week. Thought it was time to shut you up." I go back to my other sketch in my journal and continue to work on that one.
"And you did this from memory?"
"I've seen the movies a thousand times. Might as well be in my bloodstream."
"Who the hell is Sabertooth?" Jack asks.
"And there it is." I mutter and the others chuckle.
"Funny, smartass."
"Lina, this is...this is amazing. Thank you." Bozer tells me.
"Anytime." I nod, now shading in my other sketch.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Okay." I head over to Bozer. "Surveillance 101: if the other team spots you, game over. You wanna assess your surroundings while blending in."
"Assess and blend. Got it." Bozer offers his fries.
"Thanks." I eat a fry.
"Did the big men and women in the White House teach you all this stuff?"
"Yeah, some. But all of my combat training I learned in Japan."
"What?"
"After I got out of juvie, I got a mentor before going to college. Taught me everything."
"And what about you, Mac?"
"I learned some from Jack." Mac heads over. "The rest I learned from Thornton. She may have been a traitor, but she was a hell of a spy. Always had every angle covered, always thinking ten steps ahead."
"That's what spies do. But she was a double agent. And she couldn't keep up. Guess she wasn't that great after all." I keep my eyes ahead.
"I still don't know how you knew she was the mole from the start." Bozer tells me.
"I already told you how, Wilt. I'm Batman."
"Well, speaking of Batman, picture this. Him fighting Venom, Carnage and Green Goblin."
"DC and Marvel crossover, not bad." I nod.
"Hey, Mac, Lina, I got a match on Prior at your three o'clock, blue sweater and pearls." Riley comes in through my earpiece.
"I see her." I tilt my head up.
"Hey, I know I'm new to this, but even I can see that that woman is acting 50 shades of shady." Bozer remarks.
"Yeah. Shady doesn't hold up in court, though. Matty needs video of Prior handing the codes to her contact."
"Well, I'll tell you one thing, she may be a traitor, but she's no pro." Evan inquires.
"Yeah, she looks as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs." Jack adds.
"She's checking the time on her phone, which means she's expecting her contact any second now, right?" Bozer turns to me and I send him a nod.
"Boom. The kid's a natural."
"Now the hard part. Can you I.D. her contact? It could be anybody in the square." I raise my eyebrows and then check the time on my watch.
"Or it could just be someone on her phone." Mac glances at me and I follow his gaze to a man handing Prior something. "Looks like the CIA intel wasn't exactly 100% accurate."
"Looks like Prior's as surprised as we are." McKenna speaks up.
"What? No. We didn't agree..." Prior's voice comes in and out.
"We gotta hear the other end of that phone call, right?
Just-just boopidy-boop it." Jack says.
"Boopidy-boop on a landline takes hours to set up, Jack. McKenna and I can't." Riley tells him and I look around.
"Yeah. If you're doing it digitally." I head over to the stand.
"Can I help you?" The clerk asks.
"How much for this?" I hold up the small stereo.
"20 Euros."
"20 Euros? Thank you." I hand him some money and the guys follow me. I see a young guy walk by us with a backpack and headphones hanging from it. I quickly swipe them. "But spies have been tapping phones for a lot longer than computers."
"You would know." Evan tells me and I smirk as I head to the fuse box. I take out my knife and cut some wires. I continue working and I make a knot out of a red wire. I now place the headphones on my ears.
"It's in the red planter box. Clock's ticking, so move fast." A man with an accent cuts out.
"Wait, did you guys hear that?" I crane my neck.
"Yeah. Clock's ticking?" Evan responds and I see Prior reach into the plant by the restaurant.
"What's in there? Her payoff?" Bozer guesses.
"Not unless she's getting paid in bloody gold bars." McKenna tells him.
"That thing looks really full." Riley comments.
"That's not a gold bars look." Mac says and I turn, locking eyes with him. "That's the look I used to see in Iraq, on the faces of women who were pressured into carrying IEDs."
"She's here to set off a bomb?" Bozer panics.
"Yeah, well, mission just changed."
"Stay here. Do not leave this spot." I take off the headphones and hand Bozer my gun incase before running off with Mac.
I grip the fence and swiftly hop over it. The wind blows against my face, making my hood fall over my head. Mac follows behind me and we reach the parking lot. We keep our eyes on Prior and she spots us. Mac and I start running and Prior drops the bag. Mac and I kneel down to the bag and share a look as the clock runs down.
"Evan and I got Prior, guys. You just keep that bag from going boom-boom." Jack tells us.
"Jack, forget Prior. We gotta get this bomb out of the square before everyone dies." I keep my eyes on the timer. "Give us a ride, now." I zip up the bag and Jack pulls up.
"Lina." Riley heads out with McKenna and they slide open the door.
"Riley, McKenna." I look around. "I need you to find the least populated area within a minute of here."
"Yeah, we're on it." McKenna nods and I turn. "Hey." She turns me back around. "You got this." She squeezes my forearm and I nod before heading inside with Mac. "Bozer." I see Bozer hop in. "I thought I told you-"
"I'm part of the team! And you don't have time to argue." Bozer tells me. "Sorry for the yelling."
"Uh-huh." I close the door and Jack takes us off. I head to the back and I set the bag down. I open it and look down at the bomb.
"Man, this thing is all booby-trapped. It's like someone knew someone like me was gonna try and disarm it.
We don't have time to stop it." Mac looks at me.
"Felt pretty heroic at first, but now I regret jumping in the van." Bozer heaves.
"Ugh! We're in the middle of a business district. There really isn't a least-populated area." Riley groans.
"Mac, Lina, how much room do you need for the blast?" Evan wonders.
"Uh, okay, I'm looking at, uh, a pound and a half of NP10." My eyes dart around the bomb. "Let's say two pounds to be safe, so...pressure wave velocity of 1,030 feet per second."
"Yeah, I don't understand a word you're saying, so you just let me know when to turn, okay?" Jack tells me.
"At the current external temperature, I'd say air density is approximately 1.27 kilograms per meter cubed-"
"Yeah, uh, Harvard, I don't wanna interrupt, but there's an alleyway coming up here on the right."
"Factor the shockwave into the Hopkinson-Cranz Scaling Law and the minimum safe distance becomes-"
"Lina! Alley?"
"Will that work?" Evan asks.
"No!" I yell and silence fills the truck. "Two hundred feet. We need a space that's two hundred feet wide."
"Got it!nNext left. Wide street closed for repaving—should be empty." McKenna points to the left and Jack makes a sharp left, swerving us all.
"Okay, everybody out, now!" I urge and we all head out of the car. "Keep running! Don't stop!" I pull Riley down to shield her and the bomb explodes.
"Did we do it?" Bozer looks at the truck. "I think we did it. Nobody got hurt."
"Yeah, no body got hurt, but the blast cracked my rig." Riley opens her computer and my stomach churns as I keep my now watery eyes on the truck. "The only proof Prior's a terrorist is gone."
"For fuck's sake!" McKenna shouts.
"Hey, uh...I don't think they're coming to thank us for saving their lives." Evan gets up and so do we.
"Pretty sure they think we just set off a bomb in their capital." Mac inquires.
"Wait, so now they think we're the terrorists?" Riley gapes.
"Yeah, it looks like it." Jack confirms and an officer shouts in Dutch, raising his gun at us.
"You guys got a plan, though, right? Lina?" Bozer says.
"Yeah." I whisper before looking around. "Run." I turn and the others run with me.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Remind me again why we don't just grab a cop and tell them the truth?" Bozer breaks the silence and I continue walking with teary eyes and an upset stomach. "I mean, we're not terrorists, we're secret agents from the U.S."
"Operating in a foreign country without permission." Riley tells him.
"Yeah, but this country's our ally."
"And you don't spy on your allies. So even if we could convince the cops that we're not terrorists, we're still here illegally, so we'd still go to jail." Mac inquires and I thickly swallow before craning my neck slightly away.
"Hey, Lina, you good?" Jack asks.
"Yeah." I cough inside my arm to fight the sick feeling inside me. "Hey, Wilt, I know you didn't sign up for this, but don't panic. Pretty sure we're gonna get out of this just fine." I cough inside my arm again.
"Pretty sure?" Bozer begins to panic. "Lina-"
"Yeah, Bozer, relax, baby, relax." Jack assures and I place my arm over my mouth before turning. "Woah, hey, Lina. Lina!" He calls out and I spot a garbage pail in front of a store before I projectile vomit.
"Lina!" Evan exclaims.
"Oh, no." McKenna mutters and I cough and gag with tears spilling from my eyes.
I hear everyone's footsteps get closer and I retch. I bow my head lower into the garbage pail and I feel Riley's hand on my back. I then squeeze my eyes shut.
"Alright, alright. It's okay. It's alright. Let it out. It's okay. You're okay, Lina." Jack says.
I open my eyes after a few seconds and I keep my angry gaze down with a heaving chest. I then kick the other garbage pail in rage and I turn away. A phone then rings and I clench my jaw. I flex my fingers and make a fist.
"Yeah, Dalton: 7652. Longhorn." He puts his phone on loud speaker.
"I'm looking at an explosion in Amsterdam. Tell me it wasn't you." Matty answers.
"No, no, everything's fine. The mission's fine." He heads over to me with the others. "We got proof that Prior was working with the terrorists. There was just, uh...there was a little bomb in her purse that kind of exploded, destroying said proof, and a bunch of buildings around it, and everybody thinks that we did it."
"That's a long way from fine, Jack. You're about to be in the middle of a very serious international incident.
I'm enacting emergency protocol. Sending exfil coordinates now."
"On the bright side, we did confirm that Prior's a traitor, and I don't think that anyone got a good look at us." Evan points out.
"Oh, I'd say they got a very good look at you. Dutch Intelligence just launched a nationwide search for seven suspects matching your descriptions. You know what will happen if you get caught operating on Dutch soil."
"And that's bad, right?" Jack guesses.
"Very. So get to exfil. Fast." Matty orders and he hangs up.
I rub my jaw and then check the time on my watch as I walk past the others. I place my hood over my head and look both ways. I now start to walk and the others follow me all the way into a park.
"Sounds like they're everywhere." Bozer whispers.
"Yeah, that's cause they are." Evan tells him.
"Stay close and keep your head down." I keep walking.
"Don't we have, like, a...a Phoenix safe house, somewhere to duck into?" Bozer walks beside me.
"Those things take weeks to set up. This was supposed to be a one-day observe-and-report." I stop at the sound of sirens.
"Lina, that bomb going off isn't your fault." Jack tells me.
"Shut up, Jack." I turn back.
"Okay."
"Keep walking." I walk back to the same way we came and the others follow. I then stop at another cop car coming towards us with its sirens going off as well. I now grab Mac by the hand and pull him into the bushes. I pull the others in as well and go in last.
"How in the bloody hell did they find us so fast?" McKenna wonders.
"Street cams." I look up. "I was hoping there wasn't gonna be as many in the park."
"Shh, shh." Jack places his finger over his lips and I hear men speaking in Dutch.
I take a step forward and slightly peak my head out. I wait for the cop to get closer and once he does so, I put him in a headlock and then place my hand over his mouth. I squeeze my arms against his throat and his muffled screams against my palm soon fade out. I now let him go and lay him on the ground.
"Oh, hell yeah." Bozer clasps my hand. "This is in your top ten best moves."
"Agreed. Sorry there, Frenchy. You're gonna wake up with a headache." Jack remarks.
"He's Dutch." I correct.
"Yeah, whatever. Where's his radio?"
"Up his ass, Jack. Where the hell do you think?" I grab the cop's radio from his holster.
"You were right. Dutch Intelligence is using the video cameras to track our every move." Jack looks up at the cameras.
"When'd you learn to speak Dutch?" Riley asks.
"Uh, it's classified."
"Let's go." I head out and the others follow me. "Guys." I turn back.
"What?" McKenna questions.
"I'm gonna tell you something and you cannot freak out."
"Oh, God. What is it, Lina?" Evan sighs.
"If an operative is caught spying on one of our allies, the consequences to our agency would be severe. And I don't think anyone is gonna be claiming us." I shake my head.
"So, what you're saying is-"
"The CIA has no affiliation with us, the DIA has no affiliation, the NSA has no affiliation." I pause. "We're on our own. There's no pilot coming. The coordinates are useless." I nod at Riley's phone.
"Oh, my God." McKenna whispers in disbelief.
"Yeah, I know." I nod. "Now let's go." I turn and reach case of steps. I then stop and cover my ears with the others as a high pitched noise is made through the whole area.
"What the hell was that?" Bozer grimaces.
"That would be our comms going dead." I take out my earpiece.
"Yeah, Dalton: 7652. Longhorn." Jack speaks into his phones and line goes dead. "No code-in, no comms, no exfil?"
"Lina's right. We've been disavowed." Mac nods.
"So, on a scale from one to Cairo-"
"It's off the charts." Jack cuts Bozer off. "Bozer, Phoenix has completely abandoned us here."
"Matty severed all ties." I add.
"So we're on our own in a country where everyone thinks we're terrorists?" Bozer gapes. "And no one's coming to get us out?"
"Exactly." I weakly tell him. "So like I said, let's go." I turn and continue walking down the stairs.
"I can't believe Matty left us to be captured, thrown in prison." Riley huffs.
"Phoenix has 44 more agents around the world undercover. If they claimed us, it would have put their lives in danger and exposed the agency. Matty had to disavow us. It's protocol."
"And what's protocol for getting us re-avowed?" Evan mocks.
"I don't know. This has never happened to me before, shockingly. I just know people who have experienced this." I tell him.
"Yeah, same. I knew a guy from The Farm who got disavowed. He ended up doing four years in a Chinese prison and still didn't get to go home. Ended up living in Shenzhen, working as one of them dudes who stands in line for people." Jack informs.
"Is that even a real job?" McKenna furrows her eyebrows.
"In Shenzhen, it is."
"So there's a chance that we could never go home?" Bozer turns to me. "Well, what are we supposed to do?"
"Well, right now get off the street. Then we can worry about what happens next." I reply.
"Oh, you know what? Wait a minute, wait a minute." Jack stopz. "I think I know somebody who can help us out. C'mon."
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Hey, honey. How you do—" Jack is cut off as a dark haired woman slaps him while shouting in French, making me grin down. "Oh. Eight years ago, I was here with the CIA on an undercover op. Jena was part of my cover." He's turned around by Jena and she kisses him.
"We're doomed." McKenna shakes her head.
"No one's doomed." I cross my arms and Jena shouts in French.
"I know, I-I know. Honey, I know. I hear you, and I'll explain everything. Okay, can we go inside and-and talk, just...for a second?" Jack pleads and Jena turns, heading inside.
"You speak Dutch and you speak French?" Evan questions.
"Neither. He's fluent in supermodel." I deadpan.
"Who are your friends?" Jena looks at us.
"Bozer. Really cool. He's the gaffer." Jack points at Bozer. "Uh, Riley and McKenna are the stylists. Evan is the glue of the whole group, he kinda helps us all at once, has a crazy memory. And twisted steel and sex appeal, they're the models, old blue and brown eyes right there, the couple everyone loves, Mac and Lina." He pats Mac's shoulder and I force a grin. "If we could just come in and catch up, for a minute, please? You look great."
"Okay." She turns and we follow Jack.
"Hey, listen, listen. I'm a fashion photographer from Miami, you guys are my team, I hate oysters, and my name is Bryce Villanova. You got it?"
"After you, Bryce." I nod and we all head inside the house. I check my time on my watch and I sit down. I pull my hood off my head and I slowly blink, then rubbing my eyes. I then turn my head as Jena speaks French to Jack from a few feet away.
"I can't believe it. This is our life." Evan looks around.
"Well, start to." McKenna tells him.
"I-I don't know. I just went out for breakfast one morning, and I kind of kept walking." Jack says and Jena speaks French again. "Because I was getting scared about how I felt about you, Jen. You know how I feel about you, babe."
"I know we've been cut off by our own government and the whole world thinks we're terrorists, but...this is amazing." Riley grins.
"Yeah." I force a chuckle before I get up. I rub my jaw and walk towards the kitchen, now looking out the window through small slit in the curtains.
"Hey." Mac heads over from the corner of my eye.
"Don't even."
"What?"
"You know what. Don't."
"Okay, I won't. But Jack is right. That bomb going off isn't your fault."
"Last time something like this happened, I was barely the drinking age and I'm in a lunch meeting with the President. A waiter comes in, hands him something on a platter and I get this sick feeling in my stomach. Cause I knew I had never seen that waiter before. So I grabbed the platter from him and I lift up the cover. It's a small bomb. He runs out and the President panics. I tell him to be quiet and to get his shit straight, in the most respectful way. He follows me out of the room and I raise my gun. I keep going and I hear a click from under him. He stepped on a pressure plate that the bomber built in under the floor. He was good. Very good. At least better than me back then. Cause, how do you flawlessly sneak into the White House and get your bomb inside? The President starts panicking as the timer on the small bomb goes down faster. I tell him not to move until I get back. I get out as fast as I can. Time keeps going down and I'm even starting to panic. And by the grace of...whatever, I find an open spot out in the land. I run over, toss the bomb, and it goes off. I hit the ground and all hell breaks loose. My ears start to bleed from the noise, but I get up. I make my way back into the White House, informing the guards on the way. I get back to the President. I assure him he's safe and pull him off the pressure plate. I start telling him how sorry I am for not disarming the bomb and then he hugs me. With tears in his eyes. Thanking God I'm okay. And that he wouldn't know what to do if he lost me. And then I pulled away, and I...and I threw up on his shoes. And we both started laughing. And that was my first time ever having experience with a bomb. Then today..." I turn to look at Riley, Evan and McKenna in the living room. "Thinking about all of you getting blown up-"
"But we didn't." Mac turns me around to face him. "We didn't. And no one else was hurt. Just like before, back at the White House, and now. We're gonna be okay." He pulls me into him. "I promise." He squeezes me and I return the action, closing my eyes.
"I got Wilt." I pull away and punch his chest before turning. "You know, if they knew we were here, they'd be up here already." I stand beside him.
"I feel like an idiot. I just wanted a taste of being a hero." Bozer tells me. "But this, this isn't like the movies."
"No. But it's a good thing."
"Why is that?" He turns to me.
"Well, in a movie, the ending's already written. In real life, if you just stay calm...think...you can find a way out of anything. At least that's the way it's always worked before." I exhale.
"Okay, I think I smoothed things out with Jenaveev." Jack heads over with the others before Jena shouts in French while throwing something at him. "Well, you know, for the most part, anyway."
"I don't blame the woman, Jack." Evan crosses his arms.
"Hey, look, I know I should've told her I was an international spy years ago, but what do you want me to do, put her life in jeopardy?"
"So instead, you lie to her, sleep with her, and then leave the moment your assignment is over?" I raise my eyebrows.
"Like you've never done that, Miss America."
"I have in fact not, Jack. Cause I don't think like you do, and thank God for that." I nod.
"You want change for that two cents' worth, Harvard?"
"You don't have two cents to give, Jack." I shake my head and Mac chuckles.
"Yeah, what are you laughing at?"
"Well, she's right." Mac agrees with me.
"What happened, happened. Okay? I don't see anybody throwing a moral compass at James Bond.
Just cause I go out and I lasso a golden unicorn on assignment, all of a sudden I'm the Evil George Clooney?" Jack goes on.
"Clooney's married. To a brilliant attorney." Bozer tells him.
"Yeah, well, he hopped on a lot of lily pads before he settled on that one. Now, look, my past is the past. Alright? And hold on, you're telling me you never had anything with anybody? Not in college, not in the White House, the President's son, any of the guards?"
"I did school online, Jack, like I've told you once before and the President doesn't have a son, he has two twin daughters who just started the fifth grade. And even if he did have a son, I would never do that, nor do I have the Jack Dalton urge to. My work is my work, nothing more, nothing less. Got it?"
"Yeah, whatever. What's our next move?"
"I think we have to run. Our prints are all over that van, and the only proof we didn't do this is gone." Riley informs.
"You just wanna give up and go?" McKenna turns to her.
"Better than prison—especially Dutch prison. Twenty to life eating pickled herring? No, thank you."
"Pickled herring is gnarly." Jack adds. "Besides, the whole country already thinks we're terrorists; let's just bounce."
"Not the entire country." I walk over to the tv. "We just need Olivia Prior to admit that she did this and not us."
"How? Without Phoenix's help, even running a phone tap is risky." Riley tells me.
"Well, then we'll just have to meet Olivia Prior in person."
"Oh, yeah, that sounds way less risky."
"She's a member of parliament, Lina."
"And I'm Miss America, what's your point?" I tilt my head.
"My point is, how we gonna get anywhere near her without those cameras seeing us?"
"Then we'll just have to make sure the cameras don't see our faces." I grab a pair of sunglasses. "Hold still." I put them on Jack's face. "So, what do you say, Bryce?
Think that golden unicorn held onto any of your old gear?"
"Who's Bryce?"
"My first boyfriend." I grab the tv remote and walk past him.
"No way, what—really?" Jack follows me. "That's the someone you were with during your days at the Big House?"
"Yeah. We met when I went to go take my GED after I got out of juvie."
"He was locked up too?" Bozer guesses.
"No." I scoff. "His mother was gone and his father was a drunk, so he had to take care of his two other siblings. He was studying pro-bono law, but, you know, sacrifice and all that." I slide open a door that's connected to the shelf the other tv is sitting on.
"Of course. Harvard going after someone almost as smart." Jack remarks.
"He was smart. He is smart. Very smart. We dated for three and a half years." I grab a case and gather more supplies.
"What'd he do? Tell me so I can track him down and beat him to death."
"He didn't do anything, Jack. He was very good to me. Always. He put up with a lot. He knew I was keeping things from him and he understood what I had to in order to keep him safe. But, you know, a strain is only a strain for so long. And I wasn't just working for the White House anymore."
"You started looking for Murdoc because he contacted you." Mac inquires and I lock eyes with him.
"Yeah." I get up. "Ended things with Bryce and headed down to Kansas."
"Bryce was very nice. I liked him." McKenna nods.
"Yeah, me too. He couldn't match your irritating attitude, but he put up with it." Evan adds.
"Cause I let him." I bump my shoulder against his.
"Well, hey, I gotta meet him now, Lina. This guy sounds like the American Dream." Jack says.
"Exactly." I take the sunglasses off him. "And that's not what I wanted for him, or his family. As long he was with me, he was never safe."
"Because of Murdoc." He nods in realization.
"I have no problem being under the gun and taking the bullets, but I would've never forgiven myself if him or his family were killed just for knowing me."
"I hear you, I hear you. But, hey, Murdoc's away for good now. So maybe you should call Bryce up. He could be a mafia boss by now."
"Mafia boss?"
"Yeah, that's who I kinda picture you with. Someone in that realm."
"This is the real world, not a Wattpad fanfiction."
"I don't know what that is, but, hey, I'm just free styling here. Anyway, you have his number?"
"No. I gave him a new phone and a passport when we broke up. Told him to start over somewhere else. And even if I did have his number, I wouldn't be calling it." I grab more remotes that are scattered around.
"Well, why the hell not?"
"Things change, Jack. I also don't go for the smart ones. You can be dumb, but you better be funny."
"Agreed." Riley nods.
"I care about the inside, not the outside. Now, I need you to find that camera gear." I turn.
"Yeah, yeah, okay." Jack replies and I enter another room, laying all the remotes down.
I now open a drawer and grab another pair of sunglasses. I take out my knife and open a remote. I start working and I pick off something from inside one of the remotes. I then shake the batteries out and start making a camera on the inside of the sunglasses.
"Bryce teach you this?"
"No." I lowly chuckle. "I did." I get on my knees and continue working. "So, humans can only see visible light, but cameras can see visible and infrared. That's why they can boost images in low light and at night.
So, with some of these LEDs from these TV remotes hidden inside of some of Jenaveev's many sunglasses, the Dutch should be seeing stars."
"Well, God Bless America." Jack laughs.
"How do I look?" I put on the sunglasses. "Make sure to get my good side."
"Oh, yeah, you're in business, Harvard." He points the camera at me.
"Good." I take off the sunglasses and hand them to him.
"Okay, well, that fools facial recognition, but how long before someone watching the feed notices seven people walking around with halos for faces?" Riley asks.
"Not long. That's why we have to move quick." I hand the other pairs to everyone else.
"Yeah, these don't quite have the sleek lines I prefer in my eyewear, but...I can make 'em work." Bozer holds up a pair from the drawer. "I'm not going, am I?" He looks at me.
"This could get real bad real fast. Matty would've never sent you on this mission if she knew it would turn out like this."
"But I'm here now, alright? I mean, what if it does go bad fast? What if y'all leave me here and don't come back?"
"Then at least you'll still be alive." I grip his shoulder.
"No." Bozer tells me.
"Wilt-"
"Lina." He places his hand on my wrist. "You would do the same for me. And I understand you wanting to protect me. I care about you a lot, too. But as someone who knows people better than they know themselves, you should know that I'm going to do this. With your permission or not." He pauses. "And that's said in the most respectful way possible."
"I believe it is. But I have this feeling in my stomach and it hasn't gone away since we got here. And if I were to send you out there with us and something happened to you because I didn't listen to my instincts..." I shake my head, not being to finish the sentence. "Promise me you'll listen to me this time and just stay here and be safe." I raise my eyebrows.
"Yeah, okay." He nods.
"Wilt." I tilt my head down to his height since I'm only an inch or two taller.
"I promise, Lina."
"Thank you." I hand him my gun. I now put on my glasses and head out with the others. We part ways with Riley and McKenna and the walk down the street.
"Well, it looks like your little glasses are doing their thing, Lina. No alerts." Jack tells me. "All quiet on the Western Front."
"Yeah, well, Western Front's actually about 250 miles from here, but..." Evan trails off.
"What?"
"Nothing." He crosses the street with me.
"Need to send Riley and McKenna the all-clear." I pull my hood off my head.
"So, disavowed, huh?" Jack says.
"Yeah." I nod.
"And I know this gig doesn't last forever, but I always thought I'd get shot or hit by a missile or fall into a nuclear reactor—some real blaze-of-glory stuff, you know? But having my career end like this, it's...well, it's kind of embarrassing."
"It's embarrassing and it's temporary. We'll fix this."
"What if we can't?"
"We've been through worse."
"Mm?"
"We can call take care of ourselves." I glance Riley and McKenna across the street.
"So what's the feeling?" Jack asks.
"What?"
"That sick feeling in your stomach you told Bozer about before."
"Just a natural bodily response, Jack. It's like fight or flight. And I feel—no, I know that if I had brought Wilt with us..."
"Well, hey, now, I'm sure he's hanging in. She wouldn't have sent him in if he couldn't handle himself, you of all people know that."
"You can know someone completely and not at all."
"Okay, I don't know what that means, but you can't look at this with old eyes. Okay? He's been through a lot in the last few months. He's not the same old Bozer; he's a new Bozer. He might surprise you. Hell, he might just surprise all of us."
"It's really hard to take you seriously with those glasses on." I chuckle.
"Is it?" He laughs with Evan and Mac.
"Yeah." I snicker.
"Well, do your best." He fixes his glasses and I see Riley bend down to tie her boot.
"That's the signal. Left shoe. Prior's on her way." I grab the bag and Jack pulls out the map.
"Alright, here she comes, here she comes." Jack steps out with Evan and they walk. The pair then stop the same time the car does. I now walk over and lock eyes with Prior before using a pole to stop her from locking the windier.
"Hello, Olivia." I head in the passenger seat and the others get in the back. "Nice to see you again." I take off my sunglasses. "Let's take a ride." I raise my gun at her temple and she tenses up.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"We were there, Olivia. We saw you. Just admit you were in on the attack." Jack says as we stand in an empty parking lot.
"I didn't know there was a bomb there, not until I got there. I swear." Prior tells him and I study her face.
"Drop the act, Olivia. The CIA already knows you've been working with terrorists." Mac inquires.
"No, she's not." I tell him.
"Wait, what?" Jack turns to me.
"Why were you there?" I walk past Mac. "Either you tell me or I cut it out of you." I hold up my knife.
"I only went there because of the photos." Prior informs.
"What photos?" Evan questions.
"A few weeks ago...someone sent me photos of me with another man. You need to understand, I love my husband-"
"An affair? Huh? That's what you're gonna tell us? That's what got you blackmailed by terrorists?" Jack questions.
"It is the truth. They were gonna post the photos online if I wouldn't do exactly what they told me. Here." Prior hands me her phone and I look at the photo.
"How many times have you seen photos like that in the Big House, Lina?"
"Shut up, Jack." McKenna sighs.
"They told me to go to the cafe. I went. I thought they were going to ask me for money. I thought they were going to tell me to vote against the upcoming referendum. I..." Prior tears up.
"Okay, so if that's why she went to the cafe, then everything Matty told us, all the CIA intel, was wrong." Riley inquires.
"Okay." I hand the phone back. "I've seen the pictures, I wanna believe you, but you need to go back and explain everything exactly how it happened."
"A waiter gave me the phone, and there was a man on the phone, and he told me, get the purse from the planter box, carry it down the street, and then when I see someone follow me, drop it and run." Prior nods.
"Wait a second, when someone follows you?" I tilt my head.
"Yes."
"So the man on the phone knew that we were going to be there." Mac says.
"I think I know why the CIA intel was bad." I realize.
"Why?" Jack wonders.
"We were set up." I turn to him.
"Hang on, now. That would...That would have to mean somebody manipulated the CIA and gift-wrapped this mission for us. Who could do something like that?"
"Who was the first phone call?"
"The first call was from the woman. She called herself Pop." Prior replies.
"Pop?" McKenna raises her eyebrows.
"Mm-hmm."
"As in Snap, Crackle, Pop, Rice Krispies, or...?" Evan guesses.
"I don't think she was referring to the cereal. Pop is Dutch word. And in English, it means chrysalis."
"Chrysalis?" I rasp out.
"Mm-hmm." Prior nods.
"You sure?" Evan takes a step forward.
"Positive."
"Patricia Thornton." Riley shares a look with me.
"Who is she?" Prior looks at us.
"Up until a couple of months ago, when she was arrested for treason, our boss." I chuckle. "Like I'm back in the White House all over again." I turn.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"We'll be in the next room if you need anything, okay?" I crouch down to Prior and she nods. I hand her a bottle of water and get up.
"Wait. I know you." Prior says and I turn back with a pounding heart. "You said the White House before. When I came to America to visit my grandchildren, I remember seeing your face in the back when the President was making his speech."
"He always wanted me there and I hated the cameras. So he insisted to put me in the back as much as he could." I scoff.
"You used to work for him? The President of the United States?"
"I did. Lina Petronis." I hold out my hand.
"It's an honor." She shakes it. "How did you do it?"
"I wasn't in the best shape for a long time. And I was in really bad shape when I got to the White House. And he was the only one who saw that. Who saw me. And for some reason, he took a chance on me. He showed me compassion when I thought I didn't deserve it. It's only right to give you the same chance." I nod before turning. "Stop doing that. It's not cute." I walk past Mac and exit the room with him following behind me.
"She's not my girlfriend. She's just a member of parliament that we kidnapped. If you don't believe me, go ask her." Jack says.
"Maybe I will." Jena walks past him.
"Okay."
"Olivia has agreed to stay put until we figure out what to do with her. Any luck confirming her story?" I roll up my hoodie sleeves to my elbows.
"Yes and no." Riley tells me.
"The blackmail photos were sent from an untraceable e-mail." McKenna informs.
"But the encryption key does match the one Thornton used while selling state secrets as Chrysalis."
"So even though we know Thornton set us up, we can't prove it." Bozer inquires.
"She must have put all this in place months ago as a contingency plan; that way, if we start talking, she drops all that fake intel on Olivia." I sit down.
"Yeah, and next thing you know, we're all killed in a bomb blast." Jack finishes.
"It was just luck we outed her before she could do it." Mac tells him.
"Yeah, but by then, revenge is as easy as a phone call from prison." I look up at him.
"She had us checkmated before we even left for Amsterdam." He nods.
"But that's the great thing about chess. You can always clean the board and start a new game. Checkmate isn't forever."
"Wait, Lina, I got it." Jack claps his hands and sits in the chair.
"Fine. Let's hear it, Jack." I lean back and Mac sits next to me.
"Why don't we just track the source of the CIA's intel, leak that right back to Thornton."
"Yeah, that sounds great, Jack, but we need Phoenix's support for every single bit of it."
"I say we march Olivia into a police station and make her tell her story." Evan shrugs.
"Only problem with that is no one's gonna believe her without any hard evidence." Mac sets down his paperclip that he made into a double infinity sign.
I thickly swallow and then hear a creak. I take out my gun and raise it at the door. The others get up as well and an envelope is slipped through the mailing hole in the door.
"No one move." I crane my neck to the others and they all nod.
I slowly make my way towards the door with my gun still raised. I crouch down to the envelope and turn it over to see PETRONIS written across it. I now stand back up and place my gun in my holster.
"What does it say?" Bozer asks.
"Just my name." I head to the kitchen.
"What?" Riley and McKenna say.
"Jack, don't bother. They're gone by now." I glance at Jack who's walking towards the door.
"How could somebody know where to find us?" Bozer heads over.
"You really have to ask?" I hold up the envelope to the light. "This might be another gift from Thornton. Looks like a note." I open the envelope and a dump a flash drive out of it. I hand it to Riley and then open the piece of paper. "7652. Longhorn. Sorry I can't do more, but you can help yourselves."
"That's my code-in. Matty must have sent that." Jack tells me.
"Yeah." I nod.
"It's a dossier on the deputy director of Dutch Intelligence, Harlan Wolff, blueprints of the building where he works, and the details of their domestic surveillance program." Riley looks at her computer
"Why would Matty send us info on the people hunting us?" Evan wonders.
"Probably trying to get us out of the country. Besides, it's always good to know who you're running from." I tell him. "You can help yourselves. If Matty risked her entire career sending this, then it's gotta do more than just help us turn tail and run."
"Hold on." Riley keeps typing. "According to these memos, Dutch Intelligence records all domestic calls, archives all CCTV video, and scoops up every bit of data transmitted within the country to..." She looks at me and our eyes widen.
"Okay, you two are getting the same look in your eye that he gets when you're about to say..." Jack points to Mac.
"We know how to clear our names." I tell him.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Back at the cafe, Riley and McKenna were disguising the signals of our comms and wireless cameras as normal cell traffic routed through towers of a local Dutch telecom." I stand up with Riley.
"Okay, now you're just using big words that nobody else understands, like he does." Jack looks back at Mac.
"That video we lost, McKenna and I were routing it through local cell towers." Riley tells him.
"Matty just told us Intel saves all cellular data." I clarify.
"So, if we can get you into Dutch Intelligence HQ, then..." Evan looks at Riley.
"I might be able to reconstruct the video that clears our names." Riley nods.
"Yes!" He hugs her and she returns the action.
"Yeah, I love the enthusiasm, but you're forgetting we're fugitives here talking about breaking into a building full of spies who are looking for us. The last time I checked, the only one that's cool wearing his sunglasses inside is Jack Nicholson." Jack tells us.
"You're right." Mac sighs. "Can't walk in there wearing these faces."
"But luckily, we have a friend who can help us make new ones." I cross my arms. "Wilt. Can you make good enough prosthetics to fool the facial recognition and get us into that building?"
"Oh, I-I don't know, Lina. They'd have to be good. Like, really good. Like, maybe my best work." Bozer tells me.
"Not maybe—they would have to be your best work." I nod. "We'd all have to be on our A-games. We're not Phoenix agents anymore, so no one's giving orders. We'll all have to be on board." I look at the others.
"I'm in." Riley steps forward.
"It's a given for us." Evan wraps his arm around McKenna's neck.
"Yeah." McKenna nods.
"Yeah, whatever." Jack crosses his arms.
"I'm in." Mac looks at me.
"Hold on. Let me make sure I fully understand our options. Option one—flee Amsterdam and most likely run for the rest of our lives. Or...option two—you all put your trust in me...and we may end up in jail today." Bozer turns to me.
"Precisely." I nod.
"Well...I could never say no to you, Lina. Okay. Let's do this." He grins and I clasp his hand in gratitude.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Okay. Now we'll just need some gelatin blocks, liquid latex and plasteline." Bozer says as I sit at the counter next to Mac, sketching in my journal.
"We can't get any of those things, remember? No Phoenix." I tell him.
"Well, how am I supposed to do what I do without the stuff that I do it with?"
"We'll just have to-"
"Improvise." Mac I say at the same time as I shade in my sketch.
"What is that?" Bozer leans forward from the corner of my eye.
"Half Venom, half Carnage. Basically the ultimate symbiote throwing the Rembrandt Tower at Spider-Man and Harry Osborn's Green Goblin. Guess my own kind of crossover." I tell him.
"Marvel and Amsterdam: The Chronicles." Evan mocks.
"Exactly." I keep sketching.
"Who's your favorite Spider-Man?" Bozer questions.
"Andrew Garfield, no question. He's got the height, the looks, the best suit. Great acting."
"Yeah, you got a crush on the guy too." He grins knowingly.
"Bryce is British. Guess I have a type. Now, get to work." I half joke before looking back at my journal.
I then turn as Mac gets up, helping Bozer find alternatives in order to make our masks. I look back at my drawing and set my pencil down. I now start shading in my drawing with my multicolored pen. I feel his stare on me and I slightly shift in my seat. I slowly look up and see him quickly turn his head. I grin in the corner of my mouth and continue sketching.
"This stuff won't hold up like my normal work. Y'all are gonna have to move quick." Bozer holds up something white and jiggly.
"Well, it wouldn't be a mission if we weren't on an impossible timeline." I quirk up.
"I've said this before and I'll say it again, I don't know how you do it. Is the field always this..."
"Crazy? Yeah. Always. On my worst days, which were a lot of them, I've nearly died alone. On my best days, I've saved hundreds of lives, and no one even knew I was there. It's just the job. It's who we are."
"Before this, all I wanted was to go on a real mission.
Now...I'd do anything to be back at the Phoenix talking to that damn robot."
"Some people are meant for this job. Most aren't." I shake my head. "If this plan works, that's for you to decide for yourself."
"Alright." Bozer sighs. "Let's glue some processed food to your pretty face."
"Alright." I set my pen down and get up, now heading over to him and Mac. I put my hair up in a ponytail and then tighten it. I then freeze as he hugs me.
"Don't die, Lina. Promise me."
"I promise." I firmly nod, hugging him back.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Okay. I.D. badges worked like a charm." Mac looks down at his badge as we walk down the hallway, posed as janitors.
"Now time for the real test." I look up at the camera and I share a look with Mac. "No alarms, no guards, thank you, Wilt." I hand an earpiece to Mac and I place mine in my ear.
"Testing one, two. Hey, Lina, Mac, it's your pal Jack here." Jack comes through. "But I guess you already knew that. Hold on, let me start again. Okay, if you're listening to this, you've made it past security, so you're gonna hang a louie at the end of this hallway.
And since we don't dare transmit signals into the freaky-deaky Dutch HQ, I made you this Jack-on-tape to help you find your way. All you gotta do is follow my instructions based on the blueprints Matty sent, and hopefully you won't get caught or, you know, shot to death or-"
"If I die listening to Jack's voice, I'm gonna kill him." I lean against the wall.
"So am I." Mac scoffs and takes out his knife, using it to get into the keypad on the wall.
"Me three." Riley speaks up.
"No, no, no, wait a minute. That sounded bad. I'm gonna start over again. Okay, take three." Jack cuts out and Mac gives me a nod. I wheel the cart inside and he follows behind me.
"That was good timing." He sighs. "Jack was about to start narrating Willie Nelson's CD jacket as a surprise bonus track."
"Thank God that didn't happen." I tell him.
"Yeah." He chuckles.
"Now let's just hope Dutch Intelligence's data mining scooped up the video we need." Riley takes her laptop out from the cart and opens it.
I now feel sweat start to coat my neck and face. I scrunch my nose up as it gets itchy. I turn and share a look with Mac as he takes his eyes off his sweaty palm.
"Wait, wait. Don't wipe your face." Mac grabs Riley's arm. "Sorry, but you're gonna wipe a piece of it off."
"Bozer said time would be a factor—I just, I thought we had more of it." I sigh.
"Guess he wasn't counting on how much heat these servers put out." Riley remarks.
"Once our faces melt off, they're gonna know we're here. How much time do you need?"
"Best guess, ten minutes."
"I don't think we have that long." Mac sets the mop down and grabs the cart. He takes out his knife and does his thing before I kneel down next to Riley. I look at the computer and then my watch. "Longhorn. Blackhat needs more time. It's about to get ugly." He speaks into something. "Get the scientist to safety. Over."
"Copy that." Jack replies.
"Scientist will buy blackhat time." Bozer comes through.
"No, what-what's he doing? Hello?" Mac calls out.
"Dammit." I get up. "He's going for Wolffie." I head out and rip off my fake nose. "Game on, motherfucker." I look at the camera.
"What she said." Mac now takes off his fake nose, standing next to me.
"Let's go." I turn and me and Mac run down the hallway. I make a left and we make our way out, now heading down some stairs.
"What's up, guys?" Bozer turns to us with Jack, Evan and McKenna next to him.
I now stop in the middle steps and look up. I lock eyes with Evan. We share a smirk and I elbow a guard in the chest.
"Oh, hey, I forgot to tell you guys, I like to—" Evan head butts a guard from down below.
Mac fights the other guard behind me. The guard I'm fighting goes for a punch, but I duck. I grip the railing with both of my hands and spin my body around. I give the guard a double kick to his stomach and he cries out, falling down the stairs.
"Whoo! Hell yeah, that was awesome!" Jack calls out to me and I lead Mac in front.
"Evan!" I duck and Evan punches the last guard before we both throw him onto the floor, then high fiving.
"Whoo!" He high fives me and Evan before we all start running. He then stops me as Wolffie heads over with armed guards. The others raise their hands up and I crane my neck to the guards behind us, then smirking.
"Okay, then." I look at Wolffie and I start fighting a guard. All hell breaks loose and me and the guard struggle against each other. I punch him across the face. I then send a kick to his stomach and he crashes into one of the glass windows. I grab his gun.
"Lina!" McKenna yells and I turn.
I raise the gun up as a shield to block the bullet. It goes off and she screams. I now lower the gun and the guard who pulled the trigger looks at me in disbelief. I send him a grin before knocking him out with the back of the gun.
I now turn and fire a single bullet at the rest of the guards' legs. They cry out and fall to the floor, holding their wounds. I then whip around and drop the guard's gun. I take out my gun from my holster and raise it at Wolffie's as he goes for his gun.
"Don't think so." I clench my jaw, tightening my grip on the gun.
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Lina just took out eight guards. Oh, my God." I hear Bozer heavily pant from behind me. "Oh, my God."
"Dude, I should've filmed it. Man." Jack whispers.
"Attention, Director Harlan Wolff." Riley's voice now comes through. "This next jam's for you."
"I like movies too. Especially ones that exonerate wrongfully accused citizens." I glance at the video of Prior playing.
"Yeah, we all second that." Evan agrees.
"Forget Prior, Jack." I hear myself say. "We gotta get this bomb out of this square before everyone dies.
Give me us ride. Now."
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Didn't I disavow you people?" Matty says as we enter and I close the door.
"Oh, c'mon, now. You can't get rid of us that easy." Jack tells her.
"We got your message. Thank you. Couldn't have done it without you." I nod.
"Yeah, well, I just got off the phone with your new friend Harlan Wolff. After the seven of you were cleared, he found this." Matty picks up a remote and I look at the screen. "The man who left the bomb for Olivia Prior was an operative working for The Organization. Dutch Intelligence apprehended him this morning, and he confessed to working for Thornton. So, I gave him the intel he needed to add the bomb to Thornton's charges in exchange for sweeping our involvement under the rug."
"So it's really over?" Bozer heads over.
"Yes. It's really over. But...I would avoid going to Amsterdam for a little while."
"Oh, no, man, I did it again." Jack panics.
"What?" Evan questions.
"Jenaveev, I told her we were going to buy groceries, and I-I just left the country, forever."
"Well, it's probably for the best if she never sees Bryce Villanova again, Jack." McKenna nods. "Just saying."
"Oh, no." Jack takes out his phone.
"No, don't call her—you're gonna make it worse." Riley follows him out.
"Jack, don't call her." Evan trails behind.
"Hey, you did a good job. I'm proud of you." I tightly hug Wilt. "And I'm looking forward to the next time you're in the field with us. If you decide there is a next time."
"Thanks, Lina." Bozer grins.
"You know the talk I once heard about you dodging bullets?" Matty looks at me.
"Yes." I reply.
"Well, something else showed up through the surveillance." She grabs the remote.
"Oh, Matty, you don't have to—it's not..." I watch myself fight the guards on the screen.
"Oh, great, PTSD. Almost thinking you were gonna get shot to death." McKenna inquires and I see myself dodge the bullet before knocking the guard out.
"Do you know how many calls I'm getting?" Matty turns back to me.
"I had to get them to back off. If I'm charged for that, fine. But I'd do it again." I shrug.
"I don't mean calls about arresting you, Lina. I mean calls about you. CIA, NSA, FBI, multiple high intelligence agencies want you."
"Well, tell them they can't afford me. I very much enjoy where I am."
"I know. Which is why I already told them that."
"Good."
"But listen to me." Matty pauses the video. "You are great at what you do. Really great, and even though I think you're amazing in that little video, you also put the lives of your teammates at stake. If those guards has opened fired before you did-"
"I know, Matty. I know. But like I said, survival instincts kick in. And that means you don't stand down, no matter what."
"Yeah, and I don't know if you've noticed, but, we are all helping." McKenna points out.
"Exactly. Lina made the first move, we followed. It wasn't just her who put lives at stake." Mac adds.
"Or completed the mission." I turn to him and we share a grin.
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
AUTHOR'S NOTE
🖇️🧠🪵🧨💥
this was another one of my favorite episodes. the whole thing with jena and jack belongs in the history books😭
PLS
riley is jack's daughter that's it.
him in these shirts lord
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃