| "A Troubling Discussion" | ||
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Outside Petrenko's Dacha June 10, 2008, 0755 hours He didn't like leaving Bella (was that really her name?) unconscious, but it was the best he could do. He hoped to fuck that nothing went wrong; he was not a skilled medic in even the slightest way. Still, Nelli was watching over her from a distance, giving him at least a little comfort. Not enough, but he had learned to take even the smallest fragments of hope and turn them into something he could use to keep going. His movement was perfect, his footsteps not making any discernable noise at all. There was no need for him to be this perfect on his little journey to Trouble but he made himself do it because of the anger he felt at having let Trouble's team-mates pick him up. It was his way of punishing himself for the error, and the fact that it had led to Kirill's capture. Retracing Kirill's steps he had ascertained that Kirill had been following the same path that he himself had when he had been spotted. That meant that it was very likely that Kirill had effectively taken his position and subsequently been caught. It must have been too dark for the others to notice the change in personnel, or maybe they just hadn't cared who they got. Either way it had been his fault that Kirill had been caught, and another reason to punish himself. Not far now, he told himself. His senses were at their peak; every sound, sight, smell, and touch was felt by his body. Nothing escaped. There she was, leaning up against a tree, deep in thought. He could see that she was fighting with something, an idea or a feeling he couldn't tell, but it was enough to keep her from sensing he was near. He didn't like seeing that troubled expression on her face. He also didn't know why he felt like that, and that was something that troubled him. He should view her as a potential enemy or a possible ally, but something inside of him was saying that it could be more than either of them. He shuffled his feet slightly on some loose leaves, making the noise that he usually avoided like the plague. He saw her eyes flick up at him, the noise having done its job and alerted her to his presence. He watched her closely as he approached, looking into those green eyes and trying to figure out what was behind them. Was it something that he wanted to know, or was it something that he would have to extinguish? He didn't know at this point. Only time would tell. The expression on her face told him that something wasn't right. It was almost as if she wanted him to know that something was amiss. That set his senses searching for possible danger. He couldn't find any evidence of another person in close to their position, so that meant that the danger had to be further out, and that could only mean a sniper. He moved in closer, his eyes narrowing as he reread her expression and coming up with the same answer. They didn't leave her face because there was no need to; a sniper would be far too far away for him to detect with such a large area to check. He tilted his head slightly, just to see if he could hear any noise the sniper might be making. He was under no illusions as to his abilities, and knew it to be an almost pointless exercise. Still, it was something to do. He watched as her hand reached down towards the pistol strapped to her thigh. His mind started screaming Don't do it! until he realized that this wasn't right, that she couldn't be doing what he had first thought. It didn't make sense. Why put herself at risk when the sniper � where are you? he wondered � could take him out in no time, and with a lot less risk. Slowly her hand reached the pistol and took it out of the holster. His hand was ready to remove his own pistol from its position in the small of his back at a seconds notice. With their eyes still locked on each other she offered him her weapon. It hit him full force, the realization that she had broken the agreement. "You're not alone." "No," she whispered in reply. "Take it," she said, gesturing to the weapon and the comms unit she had pulled out of her ear with her other hand, "and my comms." "Sniper?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "Best in the world," she said softly. Sergei would have something to say about that, he thought but didn't say. "They wouldn't let me come alone," she continued, "I didn't have a choice other than not meeting you." "You gave your word," he reminded her. "That I did. But consider their position-" "We did," he said, cutting her off sharply, "when we made the decision for me to come alone." That comment hit her, he saw. She managed to recover well but he had already seen a glimpse of something that made the whole situation a little bit better. She did care, to a degree at least, and that meant something. "Then you're better at negotiating with your superiors then I am, Moonlighter. I had no intentions of leading my team into a blood bath and this was the only way I could come here to talk to you," she told him. When he didn't answer she continued. "This is how it is. Take it or leave it." He thought it over. She had broken her promise but it seems that she really didn't have a choice. Added to that was the fact that she was offering her gear not only as a peace offering but also as a measure of trust, despite the fact that in reality it meant fuck all considering his every move was being watched by a pair of eyes attached to a body that in turn was attached to a rifle. Still, it was the thought that counts. "Keep your weapon." "Thank you," she replied. The pistol was returned to its original position. "So," he asked her. Might as well get the conversation started. "We still want Petrenko dead," she informed him. No real surprise there. "In return?" he asked her. "What do you want?" she asked him. "What are you offering?" Shaking her head she replied, "You asked the question so surely you have something in mind." "Time," he answered. It was a simple enough answer. "What kind of time?" Trouble asked. Obviously not simple enough. "Two days. Tomorrow night you can have him. We'll make no effort to stop you." "Tonight," she responded. She must be in a hurry, he thought with a smile. He shook his head. "Tomorrow night. Take it or leave it." A day would be cutting things too fine, but there was no sense in trying to explain that to Trouble. It was obvious that she didn't have much to negotiate with, and it would not help her if he went off into detail why things couldn't be a certain way. It would be much easier to just give her a yes/no option. "Take it," she finally answered, a smile forming across her face. "Good." He smiled; the pressure of having gotten this sorted was slowly bleeding away. He was proud of himself for having managed to get this far off his own back. "You have one of my team-mates," she informed him. "Nice girl," he said with a grin, thinking back to the pretty face that was now fast asleep. He then thought of how she had gotten to that state and the grin faded. "She's alright, I just have this thing about keeping my team alive, you know?" "Well, you do have one of ours." He was suddenly worried: what if they didn't have Kirill? What would that mean? "That's true. He's safe. Uncomfortable and refuses to speak, but safe." "Well, I appreciate that," he told her. Thank fuck for that! "Even exchange?" "Of course. Tonight?" "Same place, midnight?" "Done," Trouble agreed, a small nod of the head accompanying the word. Well that was it. He was about to turn and leave when he realized that he hadn't had his bit of fun with her yet. It seemed that in the meetings they had had there was always a little joking around, and he felt like he should continue the tradition. "You know, if we keep meeting like this people are going to start to wonder," he told her with a sly smile. She grinned at that one. "Ah, quite the scandal." "Indeed." "You are part of a highly trained team of nameless soldiers, yet they won't tell me about you," she said evenly but softly. "And I'm not sure if that worries me or not." "I don't think we're supposed to really know about each other," he lied to her, not knowing how much she was allowed to know, and therefore not giving anything away which he might not be allowed to know. He now fully understood how she could lie to him about coming alone. "No, I don't think that's it. I mean, why would they send us to meet in New York? Why risk exposing either of us if they didn't want us�our teams�to eventually meet." "And we were supposed to meet like this?" he asked sarcastically. "Of course not, this was coincidence�or bad intel. I think the higher ups wanted us to meet eventually, but not like this, not on�" "Opposite sides," he finished for her. "But they wouldn't let you come alone." "Yeah, well, when I said higher ups I didn't mean my direct report. Maybe�" she said, her eyes focused on him, clearly taking in details, "maybe we're supposed to work together at some point." "That would be a first," he said, "your side and mine working together." It was a lie, he knew, but not an important one. Sergei had told him of a few of the stunts he had pulled in his career, and surprisingly some of them involved working with the Americans. "It's a big dangerous world out there. If two men of power, one on my side, one on yours, decided to pool their resources, exchange intel, weapons, people, could you imagine the advantage in that? Could you imagine the possibilities of having an international team of highly trained operatives working together?" He shook his head: she had the capacity to surprise him. "You're an optimist, Trouble. I thought you might be a couple things...but not that." She smiled at him. "Well, maybe I'd just like to hang out and have a beer with you without having a weapon shoved in my face." He laughed at that. "Well, being that your name suits you well, I think hanging out with you might be dangerous." A grin. "Understood. But still, we did good today. We saved a lot of people from getting dead." He nodded his agreement. "Do you think all negotiations go this way?" "No," he said shaking his head, "I don't think any negotiations have or ever will in the history of negotiations ever go like this." "Good, because I hate being unoriginal." He smiled. "I kind of figured that out. I'll see you tonight, Trouble." "Moonlighter," she said before he could turn away, "I never got to thank you for New York." "You would have done the same." "Well, maybe one day I'll get to return the favour." "Maybe," he said, then turned to leave. He heard her say something, must have been into the replaced comm. Once again he tuned the conversation out and turned his attention to getting back to Secondary to check up on the girl. She should be waking up in the next half hour, and he wanted to be there to make sure that everything was alright, and also to inform her that she would be going `home' at midnight. Return |
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