// Carmellina Gomez //
"The Pawn has landed." Santi said through my earpiece. My earrings were designed so that a white pearl was on the front of my earlobe and the lock, a larger pink pearl, was on the back of my earlobe. I was thankful that this restaurant had a distractive enough ambience that only I could hear Santi's weird statement about Kim's arrival.
We conversed with the waiter back and forth, en Français. I ordered sautéed duck and Kim ordered escargot. He also picked out a bottle of wine.
"So, you look lovely this evening." Kim smirked but I kindly set boundaries.
"I'm here for business." I said as I popped in a piece of duck in my mouth. "Let's talk business."
Kim raised both his arms in defeat. Quickly after, he wiped his mouth with his napkin. "Okay, business." He covered his mouth with a fist and cleared his throat. "My name is Kim Coleman. I'm a weapons developer." He winked, for some apparent reason.
"Carmellina Gomez; amateur spy, former DJ/music producer." I responded. "What do you have that my team and I will benefit from?" I asked. "We both know what you want."
"Oh, I have the most priceless thing in my hand; time." Kim said in such snobbery. Though I couldn't quite get it, I cocked my head to the side. "Like I said, I can take you off the Interpol watch list. Buy you time to find disguises, prepare for possible raids and attacks. And, I'll provide the weapons and other stuff your team needs."
I raised my eyebrow. "You really want this iPad don't you."
"I wonder why." Santi said through my earpiece.
"Have we even tried decrypting it?" Sue's voice came in. I realized neither Kim or I have said or done anything the past seconds while I was listening to my friends' conversation. I took my knife and sliced myself another piece of duck.
"We could have, but it would have wasted our time. If we stayed in Montpellier to decrypt it, we'd be arrested by now." said Nic. "Lena, you haven't said anything to Kim."
"You guys are being noisy!" Marie whined. "Lena can't communicate with Kim while we're communicating with her."
The line went quiet. I watched as Kim picked at his snails. A waiter passed by and I called for his attention. "Excusez-moi, Je voudrais un banana split." He nodded at me and Kim looked at me with furrowed brows. "You're paying for this." I told him while I finished the last of my duck.
His then furrowed eyebrows raised. "So we have a deal?" Kim leaned in closer. I nodded. He happily scoffed in surprise and smiled. "Great!" I placed the iPad discreetly on the table. His large hand lay on the iPad, ready to grab. I lightly slammed my hand on it and pulled it closer to me.
"Nuh-uh!" I said. "After I finish my dessert."
He leaned back and fixed his suit. His elbow leaned on the table and supported his head. Kim had a thinking face on. Eyes were squinting at me. "I get the iPad now, you tell me when your team is free and I'll fix you up with Hamilton tickets."
I sat there, dazed. Obviously, for me, yes. I waited for the others to respond.
"Say yes!"
"Yes!!!"
"Oh my God."
Santi, Nic, Marie, and Sue practically destroyed my earpiece with the overlapping noise they were making. A high pitched screech suddenly blasted through my eardrum. I flinched and covered my ear.
"Is there a problem?" Kim observed my sudden gesture.
I reposed and shook my head. "I'm fine." I waited for my team to respond. I said our cue line. "I need some air." No response. I tried fixing my earpiece, wiggling it around discreetly. I would turn to look at them in the table at the back. But Kim would find out they've been here listening the entire time.
"But your dessert hasn't arrived yet." Kim said. I struggled to think of a reply.
"Oh yeah," I said casually. "Never mind."
Kim consumed the last of our wine bottle. I sat there waiting, then my banana split arrived. "Merci". I took a big scoop and Kim asked for the bill.
Suddenly, there was a beeping. Not coming from my earpiece. It was on the line. A female system voice said "Tracking...tracking...tracking...tracking...tracking..." over and over again. My head started to hurt. I covered my ear and hurriedly ate my ice cream.
My annoyed and worried expression was obvious to Kim. "Are you okay?" He asked. I forced a smile and nodded rapidly. "Mm-hmm! Fine! Fine..."
"Tracking...tracking..." It went on. "Subject located." And it finally stopped. But that meant our line has been being listened to all this time. By who? I didn't know. But whoever they are, they found us.
The high-pitched screech came back and so did the line. "What was that?" Santi said.
"I don't know." Marie blurted out before Santi could finish his question. I wanted to look at them, at the table they were at, but Kim would see. In fact, I'm surprised he didn't see them when he came into the restaurant.
"Listen, Kim," I started. "I'm going to be honest with you." He mm-hmm'ed. "My team was listening all along."
He didn't seem surprised. "Oh, I know. All hidden business deals are like that. At first I thought it was just your team was sitting on a table behind me, casually observing. But I realized your earrings were earpieces." Kim smiled smugly.
"J-just the one earring." I sat there astounded. "But, because of our earpieces, we were tracked and I think they've found us."
"I take it you're supposed to be leaving now." Kim reached his hand out, waiting for me to give him the iPad.
"Don't give it yet, Lena!" Santi commanded through my earpiece.
My response was for the both of them. "We have to."
I gave him the iPad. I didn't hear any response from Santi.
"Pleasure doing business with you." Kim smiled. "As promised, I'm going to help you now. Can your entire team hear me?"
Everyone on the line said "Yes." Santi's tone was more of a questioned one.
I nodded.
// Santiago Manalo //
"According to Lena, they tracked you by a what?" Sue asked.
"An android voice said that they located us."
"Oh, shit." I whispered to myself. "Nic, your best friend found us." I said while I raised my hand and a waiter walked towards us.
"L'addition, s'il vous plait. Nous sommes presses." I said to the waiter in French with my accent slightly showing. He nods and hurried towards the counter.
"I know." said Nic, whose tone of voice sounds like he's agitated. "We've got to go now."
"I'm still paying the bill." I said. "Lena ask him if he has any bodyguards in the vicinity." She repeated the question for him.
"Yes, three. Are you leaving now?" Kim asked casually. I saw Lena nod.
"Our deal was for the iPad, in exchange for resources." said Lena.
"And I'll deliver. You need time, money, identities and weapons. Money, time, weapons, I'll handle. Identities, you'll have to provide." I saw him slip something towards Lena, while the waiter holding our bill started walking towards us.
"I'll handle it." Mouthed Marie, then went to talk to the waiter, while Sue was tying her hair in a ponytail.
"That's a Satellite phone, which is directly connected to my phone, anywhere, anytime." Said Kim. "It's also Bluetooth enabled so your comms can be connected to it." Lena looked sideways then directly, for a moment to me. I nodded hastily then stood up along with Sue and Marie. "There's a guy in Rue des Pyramides. He's standing near the bike way entrance. He holds a black backpack and contains defensive measures which can save your life, and the money you need."
I got on my motorcycle as Nic went outside. I pulled him by the collar, to the bike. "We'll handle the guy in Pyramid Road. Wait for Lena to come out then find a way we could meet up. Remember the emergency rendezvous is in our hotel."
He nodded, as I revved the engine and we rode away.
"Then there's another guy," I heard Kim say through the intercom. "In Avenue Victor Hugo, the carrier is sitting outside of Starbucks."
"Wow! Very inconspicuous." Nic said sarcastically while the wind blew in my face. I pressed the side of my glasses and the circles for the different purposes of the glasses appeared.
"Navigation."
"Request acknowledged."
A map of the streets appeared in the upper right of the lens.
"Santi, where are you?" said Lena. I heard the rumble of an engine in the background.
"I'm near the location. 2 minutes' tops." I said weaving through traffic. "Nic, prepare your pistol."
"I think I see him." He said by my shoulder. He pointed to a guy leaning against the rail of the bike-way. He was wearing black with a bonnet on his head. I placed my hand on my jeans. Gripping the handle of the gun, we walked towards the guy.
He looked about mid-thirties, with dirty blond hair sticking out of his bonnet. He gave us a curious look then shrugged. "What's your favorite chess piece?" He asked, giving us a straight face.
"What?" Nic said. "We don't have much time. Are you Kim's guy?"
"What's your favorite chess piece?" Nic threw his hands up and stomped on the floor.
"Nic, calm down. Just let me think for a while." Chess pieces, I tried to think of anagrams, codes, then anything related to chess pieces and chess. Then it clicked, I knew the answer.
"Countersign castle or rook." I said he then looked expectantly for an answer to his question.
"What did you say, you just said your-" His eyes widened in realization. "Oh! Countersign the King." The guy relaxed, he slipped the bag off his shoulder, handed it to us.
"You should check the content inside before anything else." He said, I nodded, I reached inside and felt the cold hard cash wrapped in bundles inside. Then I felt the metal barrel of a gun. I pulled it out then the blue tinge of the grip, glittered in the soft light of the lamp post.
The guy stepped backwards. "Be careful with that. The safety is on the left side." I looked at the gun it was a bigger than a pistol about the size of a SMG, the muzzle was bigger.
"Thank you." I said to the man. "We'll be leaving now." I rode my motorcycle with Nic as I revved the engine.
"Good luck." The man leaned against the wall and started to light a cigarette. He said one last time at us. "You'll need it."