Dedicated to: stephanievlm
Omg, dude. You’ve commented on like every chapter. More than once, too. You totally rock. You should change your name to StephVLMRocks or something like that.
:3 Thanks for the feedback!
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September 15th
Agent R. Harris and Agent A. Peterson discover lose ends in the mission with the help of Operative J. Lin from Alliance.
30. Finding a Lead
Date: September 15th
“You know, I keep picturing you with highlights,” says Jeffrey, scrutinizing my hair. “Like, blonde highlights. Have you ever had those?”
I glance over at Alex. He smirks at me, knowing that I have in fact had highlights before, and I turn to narrow my eyes at Jeffrey. Jeffrey stands in front of us, leaning against a brown wooden table with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Jeffrey, what do you want?” I ask tiredly. I don’t have time for Jeffrey to ask me about the history of my hair. Not when I should be in class, and then meeting with Natalia soon after.
He stops looking at my hair and glares at me. “Okay, when is it my turn to ask the questions? Because the last time I was here, you guys left me tied to a chair. And knocked me out.”
Alex lifts his hand to stroke his chin, as if he’s thinking deeply about what Jeffrey has just said. “Right, right . . .” he says softly. “So what do you want?”
Jeffrey sends a sharp look Alex’s way, but shifts his eyes back to me. “I want to talk.”
I want to ask why everyone wants to “talk” to me lately, but I decide I won’t get a legitimate answer. And even though I’m almost afraid to ask the question, I say, “About what?”
“About the mission.”
Alex stands from the couch and moves to be by my side. “Um, what mission?” he asks slowly.
“You know what mission.”
“No,” Alex says, “I don’t, actually.” He narrows his eyes. “Jeffrey, you’re not Operations. Why would we trust you?”
Jeffrey tilts his head back and closes his eyes. “Because I’m Alliance.”
I blink at him. “And?”
“And . . . we’d make good allies?” he tries.
I give him a blank stare.
“Look,” he says seriously, opening his eyes, “we’re both here for the same reason. And unless I’m missing something, you guys haven’t walked out of here with any of your captured agents. If we work together we’ll save a lot more time.”
I turn to my partner just as he turns to me. Then together, we turn back to Jeffrey.
“No,” Alex and I chorus as we turn to leave.
“You’re never going to get them back,” Jeffrey says. We continue walking. “Not without my lead.”
We pause. I turn back to look at him. “You have a lead?”
“Yeah, I do.” There’s a smug smile on his face.
Next to me, Alex sighs. “Okay, let’s say, hypothetically, that we agree to work with you. Will you tell us what you know?”
Jeffrey examines his nails, the smug look still on his face. It annoys me. “Maybe,” he teases.
I turn back. “Not good enough.”
“Wait, wait, okay! I will tell you what I know,” he concedes. “Or better yet, I’ll show you.”
. . .
I stare at the napkin in front of me, trying to keep my head from going into overdrive.
My eyes read the words on the paper over and over again but in reality my brain is working to figure something else out. The napkin reads: Message received. I have no doubt that this is in response to a text message from the man Alex and I ran into at the hotel.
But there is a pair of lips printed on the napkin, in pink lipstick, as if someone wearing the lipstick kissed the piece of paper.
A signature of sorts.
And a scented one at that. The print smells like roses.
“Where did you find this?” I ask Jeffrey.
He shrugs. “It was left outside the main building for someone to find, around two A.M.”
My mind races. There are only two people I have seen with this specific scented lipstick.
“Both Susan and Maria wear the lipstick that was used on this napkin,” I inform. “Which means one of them is probably involved with Maxwell.”
Alex moves to stand behind me, looking over my shoulder at the paper, and then continues his pacing. I turn to Jeffrey, watching him as he thinks.
“Who do you think it is?” I ask Jeffrey.
“I say Maria,” he responds. “She can be a little too dense sometimes. And the fact that she’s even here means she was smart enough to get in, which is surprisingly hard.”
I nod. “That’s a good point.” I look at Alex. “What do you think?”
He stops pacing. “I think it’s Susan. I mean she’s way too perceptive to be a regular student. She’s too smart. Seems like she’s had some kind of training.”
“That’s a good point too,” I admit.
“What about you?” Alex asks. “What are your thoughts on all of this?”
I take a moment to think. Both Susan and Maria make viable suspects. But there has to be something else. “I think we’re missing something.”
“Maybe it’s both of them,” Jeffrey deadpans.
Suddenly it feels like I just broke down a wall that was blocking the sun.
“Or,” I say, looking at Alex and Jeffrey, “maybe it’s all of them.”
Jeffrey looks confused, but Alex’s eyes settle on mine. “The Cherubim.”
I nod. “Makes sense. I mean they were here when the kidnappings took place. Even before I got here.” I pause. “Except, if the Cherubim are involved with Maxwell, Maria isn’t.”
Jeffrey’s eyebrows furrow, and he looks between Alex and I, seemingly trying to catch up. “How so?”
“I’m the one who introduced Maria to the Cherubim,” I explain. “They don’t even really like her. They only put up with her because we were a package deal at the time.”
I think back to all the times Natalia rolled her eyes at Maria.
“There’s a flaw in your theory,” Alex intones. “The guy from the hotel. His text instructed him to speak to the girl. That’s singular. As in one person.”
“Right,” I say. “But I looked through the man’s phone. He’s been in contact with this ‘girl’ before, but her number is restricted. Which means he had no idea who he was even talking to from the start. And I’m willing to bet that Maxwell doesn’t know either.”
I let them take a moment to think this over. Eventually Alex says, “So you think the Cherubim are all working together.”
“I don’t see another way for any of them to take down more than one trained agent and bring them to Maxwell,” I tell him. “But Maria is definitely not a part of their secret club.”
“Well, either way,” says Jeffrey, “if she’s not a part of this thing with Maxwell, she’s still a part of something.”
Alex runs a hand through his hair, messing it up stylishly in the process. “So that leaves us with three girls involved with Maxwell, and one unknown variable. What the heck does that mean?”
I take a deep breath. Then something beeps, and I realize it’s almost lunch time. In fifteen minutes I am meeting the Cherubim, without Susan, to “talk”.
“It means we need a plan,” I tell them both. “Now.”
* * *
Geesh. That escalated quickly, huh?
Well alrighty then.
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P.S. For all you people who 'awwed' at the Ralex moment last chapter, you totally had the reaction I wanted. So yay! :3
'AwesomelyBlaze