Look out for the <>!
I followed Mara into her family's restaurant and found an empty table. We took a seat and Mara frowned at me. She knew something was up and I couldn't hide it from her. "What you have you been doing. And don 't say it's nothing."
"What do you mean?" I asked, buying time to sort out my thoughts better as I looked over the menu. I had been here a million times and I already knew what I wanted, but at least the menu could hid my face from her.
Mara sighed as she pulled down the menu that was shielding me from her gaze. "Annalise, don't lie. I'm your friend."
"I'm not lying. I don't know what you're talking about," I said, holding my ground.
Mara frowned as she tapped her fingers on the table. "Ever since I have come back, you have been jumpy and constantly looking over your shoulder as if someone is watching you. What happened?"
I frowned at her as the memories that I tried not to think about came flooding my mind like a broken dam. "MIA... have you heard of them?"
She frowned as she shook her head. "No. what is it?"
I was suddenly worried that she wouldn't believe what I said next. I didn't until B26 came to me and even then I wasn't sure. It wasn't until that Florida case that made me realize that MIA was real and they were a threat.
She placed her hand on mine and smiled lightly. "You can share, I won't judge."
And I knew she wouldn't. Mara was the least judgmental person I knew. But I was still struggling to get the words out of my mouth. "They trying to bring down the CIA from the inside out."
Mara frowned at my words.
Mara wouldn't judge but I knew she wouldn't believe this.
"Ok, details," she said, asking for more to go off of.
I nodded. She wasn't shutting this down. She was the first person that wasn't brushing me aside. She wanted to understand, so I dove into details. I talked about anything that I could remember until our food was sitting beside us, cold. Finally I picked up a fry and bit into it. "I want to shut them down permanently. But I can't do this alone."
My love of the CIA was not the only thing motivating my actions. I was doing this to save my life too. Without MIA, I wouldn't have to run from my house. Maybe this was B26 goal all along, for me to get so deep into it, I couldn't actually leave. They had to have known I would come back.
She smiled lightly as my words resonated through her. She believed me. "Count me in."
"This is going to be dangerous," I added, making sure she knew what she was getting herself into.
She shrugged. "I know. I am a spy, what I do is dangerous. Auggie doesn't know, does he?"
I looked at the food in front of me and shook my head. Auggie knew something was going on, but there hadn't been a good moment to talk about it. "No. After what happened with Toby in Florida, don't know how to bring it up," I said, looking at the table shamefully.
"You'll find the right way to talk about it, I'm sure of it," Mara said kindly then changed topics. "Brining them down, that's a big goal. What's your next step?"
I nodded. This wasn't my goal. But it was starting to become mine. "I'm thinking about going to the bank that bought the old MIA building tonight to get some more information and proof. I know without it my grandmother will never believe me."
"Ok, I'm in. Let's go, after we eat of course," Mara said as she took a bite of her salad.
We then dug into our food, it being the only thing that motivated our actions. As I looked at Mara, I couldn't help but smile. It felt good to finally tell someone about MIA that actually believed me. Suddenly, I didn't feel like I was doing mission impossible anymore. What B26 wanted me to do felt tangible for once.
Breaking me out of my thoughts was a buzz to my phone. I picked it up quickly and said a hello.
"Annalise are you ok?" Auggie asked. I could hear concern in his voice. He heard the fear in my voice, I was sure of it. I had to sell this or he would hear right through me.
I shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine," I lied as I looked at Mara. I wasn't. We were going to break into a bank with no back up. If this went wrong, it was all over.
I could almost hear him frown on the other end. He wasn't taking it. "Ok well, I hope you know that the more you worry the more wrinkles you'll get," he said jokingly.
I chuckled, he always had a way of making the situation not as serious. Our work was incredibly weighty and grave. I had seen so many people get lost in the darkness of it, but Auggie, he never did. He was a light when the whole place seemed pitch black. "No way," I said with sarcasm.
"I guess you learn something new every day. Like today I found out that go fish the card game wasn't called gold fish. I called it gold fish all my life and my parents didn't stop to correct me."
"Really? You really thought it was called gold fish, like the snack?" I asked with laughter. And suddenly, my worry was gone. I had no fears in the world as I talked to Auggie at this moment.
"I know it's pretty sad. Go on laugh. I even laughed myself. But seriously, you know you can tell me anything right?"
I frowned. "I know." I felt like stiches were getting pulled out of my skin. It was painful and raw. I had to tell him about MIA, I just had to find the right time to do it.
"Good," he said trustingly. "Well, anyhow the reason why I called you was because I wanted to go on a proper date with you. Are you free tomorrow?"
the conversation suddenly switched to a pleasant one, one that I wanted to linger on. I felt my cheeks grow hot. We have never been on an official date before, just the thought of it made my heart flutter. "Of course," I said to him.
"Great, I will see you then," he said and hung up the phone.
I smiled to myself as I put my phone back into my purse. A real date.
"Let me guess, Auggie?" Mara asked with a smile.
I nodded. "He wants to take me out tomorrow."
"So romantic," she gushed.
I smiled at her. "I know.
"Anyhow, I have a few fake ID that I have in the back, do you want to use them for tonight?" she asked as she finished eating her meal.
I nodded. "I think that would be perfect. We should go in with a cover."
"Great, I'll get that for us," she said then stood up from her seat and walked off into the back.
Minutes ticked by and Mara didn't return. Fear took hold as I worried that she ran off. She really did think I was crazy and ditched me.
"Sorry, my dad misplaced them," Mara pouted as she came back to me. She placed the ID cards on the table and I picked them up to look at them.
I smiled at her as relief hit me like a wave. She was still here and she was still willing to help.
On one of the ID's my photo was apparent. I wondered how long she had thing around because I never remembered using this. I wondered if this was CIA approved or if this was made by her brother in the back yard on a summer day.
"For emergencies," Mara said. "I have one for Auggie too if it helps," she added as if this made it all better. Mara would always move mountains for her friends. I hoped that I was just as much of a support as she was to me.
I smiled lightly. "You are such a planner." That was something that I would never get tired of, she planned for anything and everything. It made me think she really had my back with anything.
She nodded. "I get that a lot."
I looked at the small card again and noticed that the name of the card read Patrick Scott. "Mara why do I have a guy name?" I asked as I held back a frown.
Mara frowned at me and took the card to look it over. "Shoot! I told him Pat Scott. Sometimes he's not as reliable as I would like. Anyhow I'm sorry."
As much as I knew this was a red flag, I couldn't let Mara go in alone. Regardless, I was going to be her backup. "We could still make this work. I have heard odder names, right? I'm Patrick Scott. Pat for short," I said as if I believed what I was saying myself.
Mara's frown turned into a slight smile. "Are you sure?"
I shook my head. I wasn't going to let her do that. "No, this should be fine. So, what's your name?"
"Ellie Perry."
I nodded. At least someone got a normal name. And for a minute we laughed, hard about the names. We both knew this was the calm before the storm. And for a second, we felt invincible.
Within minutes, we were looking at the bank in front of us. As we parked the car I looked at the large 20 floor structure in awe. I honestly thought this place would be small, I was clearly wrong.
"Remember, I'll open a bank account. You'll take photos with the glasses camera you're wearing and I'll be the one talking," Mara said quickly and quietly as we got out of the car.
<>
She handed me the glassed and I put them on. "Where did you get these again?" I asked her as I looked at my reflection in the mirror in the car. I was sure that they added 10 years to my age. Maybe now people would take me seriously. I put my hand in my pocket and felt the small button that allowed me to take photos.
She shrugged. "Maybe I stole from from a pass assignment I was on. No one would miss them if they thought they were broken."
I smirked. She had more guts about breaking rules that I would ever have. Maybe that was why people liked her. They could see that she was a bit of a rebel. "This isn't going to set off any alarm, right?" I asked her just to make sure.
Mara frowned. She wasn't sure. "Maybe," she said as she walked towards the building.
By time we made it into the massive structure, my heart pounding out of my chest. Stepping in here was stepping into the unknown. For the first time, I was walking into their hands knowingly and it set me on edge. There were so many things that could go wrong in here and I was preparing for the worse.
I looked around the lobby seeing that there was no metal detector or guards. I made sure to push the button in my pocket as much as possible. If this was really MIA I would think they that would guard this place a little better.
"Can I help you?" a woman asked with caked on makeup as she walked up to us.
There was something that rubbed me the wrong way about her. Maybe it was the fact that I knew she was MIA.
Not seeing my distrust, Mara spoke up, "Yeah, we would like to open a bank account here."
She frowned quickly and held back her surprise. This wasn't a bank. "Oh, um, ok... follow me," she said taken off guard as she led us to this window with a guy on the other side. "Hold on please," she said as she walked into the room with the man and whispered something to him.
"Hey, Pat. Look at this," Mara whispered to me as the two were busy with their conversation. I followed her gaze to a bank symbol. It was a circle with three things in the middle. In the middle there was a Sun and to the left and right there were men. And around the circle there were three cities written on it, Washington D.C., New York City, and London.
I pushed the button in my pocket. "I just took a photo of it," I whispered back to her. This had to be MIA headquarters.
"Welcome to novus suscipio. Can I help you two?" The man asked, drawing us out of our own conversation. I looked at him and noticed the girl was gone. I looked around casually if I could see her but panic filled me once I saw she was completely gone. We had been made. I braced myself for the alarms to start going off but it was silent.
"Yes please, can you help us get a bank account?"
"Sure, but can I ask, why did you choose this bank?"
"Well, you have a headquarters in London right?" Mara asked.
Great, getting more information. There was a reason Mara was good at what she did.
The man nodded although he was just as surprised as the other lady that came up to us. Maybe we were saying too much. I nudged her to give her a hint if she couldn't see it herself.
"I'm from London."
My heart stopped as I quickly looked at her in panic. What was Mara thinking? She couldn't pull off a British accent. She never could. We were going to crash and burn.
"England?" he asked, not believing her.
We were dead. She blew it already.
"Yes," she said confidently like she's lived there her whole life.
"You have no accent."
She rested her hands on the table in front of her. "I have spent most of my life here. But I want to go back to my roots. My cousin, Pat is going to show me around London and she spoke highly of this bank," she said and looked at me.
What was she doing, bringing me into this conversation? I stepped on her foot lightly to show that she went too far. She looked at me with a smile as if to say sorry. If I knew what was good for us, we would have left here, but we stayed still.
"So you're Pat," he asked, looking at me.
I nodded as I quickly remembered how a English accent sounded. If we lived through this Mara owed me. "Um, yeah, Pat Scott," I said with the most British accent I could muster.
He nodded at me. "Great, let's get started," he said and got some of the paper work.
I nodded at him. I smiled slightly. It actually worked. Maybe we weren't going to burn after all.
As Mara did the paper work, I looked around and took pictures with my glasses. The whole building was empty. No one was walking around or stopping in. This place was a ghost town. For being an MIA base, it seemed a little too empty. Maybe they weren't as big as I thought they were or maybe we needed to go up a couple levels to really see what was going on.
Finally I saw one person walked in to the building he was stubby and bolding. He looked at me and fled to the elevators. I frowned as I watched him. He looked so familiar to me and I think he recognized me. I felt my hands shake slightly. We couldn't stay here much longer, we were going to get our cover blown.
Breaking me out of my thoughts was the banker man. "And that's it Miss Parry," the man said kindly.
"Thanks Jeff. I don't know what I would have done without you," Mara said and took the paper work from Jeff. Mara threw him a fake smile then together we walked out of the building.
Once we got into the car Mara spoke up, saying, "MIA makes you go through tons and tons of paper work and red tape to make a bank account. For being a cover, it isn't user friendly."
I nodded. It was like they weren't even trying to blend in. Why didn't my grandmother come here? She would see that this was a cover.
Once we got to Mara's home we printed out the photos I took. Looking at them, somewhere blurry but others were clear. As we looked at them in detail, we tried to see if there was anything that we missed. After what seemed like hours Mara yawned and stretched. I felt the same way, my back was cramping up from looking at the photos hunched over. "I can't find anything out of the ordinary except the mounds of paper work you have to do."
I shook my head, there had to be something in these photos. Something that would tell me something I didn't know. "I'm not giving up yet." Even though eyes were getting heavier and I could think strait. It was getting harder to concentrate.
Mara stood up from her chair. "Ok well I'm going to bed."
I nodded at her. I should follow her lead. "I will too," I said and I put the photos in my purse. Maybe when I wasn't so tiered I could look at these at work.