By time we all got to the house, we were all tense. We all knew that we were diving more into danger but we were all afraid to get out now. We were on a train, heading for a cliff and we all knew it.
The three of us sat in the family room of my house and talked about what to expect next. The discussion that followed terrified me. For the first time in a long time I was scare of what was to come. But I couldn't show how scared I was. I needed to be strong, for them, and me.
Breaking me out of my thoughts was a buzz to my phone. "Hello?" My voice was light, hardly sounded like a leader voice.
"Hey, I'm almost there," Zach's voice rang out through the other end.
I nodded at the wall as if he could see it. "We'll be waiting for you," I said and hung up the phone. I turned back to Auggie who was drawing something on a piece of paper.
"Ok after we bug the computers what will we do?" Auggie asked, looking at me for direction.
I frowned. I really didn't know. I hadn't thought that far ahead. I was used to following orders never giving them. "Um....well..."
"Also, how do we get in?" Auggie asked another question before I had time to respond to the other one.
I frowned again. He wanted plans to explode from my head as if I was full of them. But the truth was that I wasn't. I wasn't amazing, I wasn't a star player in the CIA, I was just Annalise who's father was the superstar.
"I can pretend to be getting money out from my bank account," Mara suggested.
I smiled at her as if to tell her thank you. At least she came up with something because my mind was running blank. "That's good, and while you're distracting them Auggie, Zach, and I could go in through the back of the building," I spoke up, going along with her plan.
"Yeah ok, then how do I get in?" Mara said looking eagerly at me.
I smiled lightly at her. I didn't want to tell her that I didn't want her to go in. I was trying to minimize the damage where I could. But she was so excited to help. I could see a drive in her eyes. I was so thankful to her and I don't know what I would do without her. She was my right hand gal and she backed me up with everything. I owed her more then I could give to her. And that was why I didn't want her in the building.
"Do you have any B26 info still?" Auggie asked, changing the topic quickly.
I nodded, as I got up from the floor to find it. "Yeah, I do in fact," I said then went upstairs. I searched through my room upstairs trying to find the small box that was labeled B26 in my scribble hand writing. Quickly, I found it shoved in the corner by my bed. I took the box and ran down the stairs with it. I walked over to Auggie and Mara again and set the box down in front of them. "It's everything I got, all the info, I kept all."
"Wow, " Mara and Auggie said both at once looking at the small box of files and paper notes that had my scrawl on them.
We then started to pour over the files and notes. Breaking us out of our study was a knock on the door. Knowing who it was, I jumped up and got it. On the other side of the door was Zach holding a bucket of fried chicken.
<>
He smiled at me. "Hello, I thought you were going to be hungry and....oh hell, I saw this at the store, wanted it. I thought we could share," Zach said and scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably.
I smiled at him. I needed this humor to break up the tension in the air. "Sure thanks," I said as I took it. "Come in, please."
Zach stepped in and looked around at the house. "Nice place you got here."
"Thanks. Zach this is my team, Mara and Auggie this is Zach," I said to my friends.
They looked at him with small smiles. "Hey," they both said.
"This is great, I love small teams," Zach said as he sat down next to Mara.
Auggie looked at the bucket and smiled. "Is that fried chicken?! I'm starving." Auggie got up from the floor to take it off my hands.
"Help yourself. Courtesy of Zach," I said and gestured to Zach.
"Thanks man," Auggie said looking at him as he took a piece and bit into it.
"No problem....so you're Auggie?" Zach said.
Auggie nodded as he continued to eat. "Yeah, August or Auggie for sort."
"Cool name."
"Thanks, it's a family name."
Zach then turned to Mara with a small smile. "And you must be Mara."
"Yeah, I'm Mara," she said and smiled at him, liking this attention.
I watched as the two of them shared a small moment. I wondered if Mara was still going out with Carter or if she was open to a change.
He turned to meet me in the eyes. "So what's the plan?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat. He looked at me with such eagerness. He wanted some grand plan but that wasn't me. I wanted to get in and get out without getting hurt. That was the only goal that I had.
I suddenly felt inadequate for what I was expected to do. It was just me, no older then 19, not even 20. I was lacking experience but they expected so much from me. "The plan is to bug the main computer on each floor."
He nodded, accepting the plan as workable. "That's good. I worked here in DC for a while for MIA. If I remember right I know where the main computers are."
"Great!" That was more information then I expected to get from him. Maybe this plan would turn into something.
He smiled at me and just like that, I knew that this team was the best I could find. I didn't need a team a 50, I just needed these three. We didn't know it just yet, but we were exactly where we needed to be. We were a team but most importantly, we were now family.
I brushed some of my hair behind my ear and looked at the map of the building. I knew that without him helping us, it would be definitely harder if not impossible to get out of there alive. We owed him. I could feel my confidence raising as I realized that this wasn't going to end as badly as I thought.
For the next hour we talked about plans and who could bug, there were 23 floors and 15 of them had main computers. Zach said that he did a lot of bugging when he worked for them so we decided that we should spilt up in groups of two. Zach and I would be the main buggers as Mara and Auggie would watch our backs. We figured we could get in and out in about an about 2 hours.
As we started to pack up, I went up stairs with Mara to get supplies. As I rummaged through boxes of stuff she spoke up. "Is it ok if I say I'm scared?"
I stopped what I was doing and looked at her. I could now see the fear in her eyes. In the privacy of this room, she was terrified. I frowned at her. I wasn't about to make her do this. I wouldn't judge her if she walked away. "That's ok. You know you can still back out."
She frowned as she shook her head. "No, I'm doing it. Told you I was. I'm going to stand by you. You're my friend and I can't leave you. But I've never done a mission with no backup. If we get caught, we're done. "
I nodded. That was what scared me the most. I knew that they would use me to get to my father, but my friends, they were easy to get rid of. I was throwing them into more danger then they knew. "I know." I knew what I was getting myself into but I didn't like it. I needed to help the CIA and my father.
Mara put her hand on my shoulder. "If I don't make it, will you tell my family I love them?"
I shook my head. I wasn't going to have this conversation with her. Not now or ever. She would be fine if it was the last thing I did. "Mara, don't even think that. We'll make it through," I said looking at her.
Breaking us from our moment was a call from Auggie. "Are you girls ready?" Auggie yelled from the bottom of the stairs. We were taking too long.
I reached into the box and pulled out a few ear pieces and another gun with a frown. We had no more time to talk about this, we had to move. "Yeah we are." I loaded the gun and followed Mara to the stairs as I put the gun behind my back under my shirt.
"Ok good, Zach said we can use his car," Auggie said as he started to go out the front door.
I looked at Mara to see if she was ready for what would happen next. "Let's get this over with," she said, her fear in her eyes was gone and her shield was back up.
I nodded. Yes, lets get this over with.