Chapter 18: Fire on the Horizon
"There's nothing on file," She said, her hands typing out much faster, making me wish that I could see what the hell was on her screen. I could hear a conversation on the other side going now, all in harsh whispers and worried tones. "What brought this question to bare?"
"I met her."
My rather droll sounding reply caused the lady to give out a sigh so full of relief that I'm sure that we could bottle it to reduce the need for helium.
"Well there doesn't seem to be any... but if you want I can kick this upstairs, just leave a number and I'll get back to you."
With that, she hung up before I could leave her with a number. I turned to look at Louise, who'd been standing close to overhear the whole conversation. She was standing now, her form towering over me while having a single eyebrow raised in amusement.
"What do you think the good Doctor's Would only kill three people experiment was?" Louise asked, picking up a red jacket and throwing it on with the same care that I'd expect from someone that wanted to tear their clothes rather than wear it. "Let's find out."
I was left alone in her room for about twenty seconds, just sitting there silently waiting for the computer to turn off. It didn't really matter if the youngest O'Reilly got far from me, unless Louise magically became the Flash. I doubt I was going to have many issues with catching up with her.
But still, there was something… wrong. I could feel myself being watched.
I'd tread carefully from this here on out.
x-x-x
(Betty)
She didn't have to wait for long till her partner stepped into the apartment, his body covered in sweat as if he had just run a marathon. Betty couldn't help but giggle at the state her companion was in, it was cute to think that the man felt so threatened by her that he needed to go out and prove himself superior.
A notion that he was soon going to find was… wrong.
"You know there are easier ways into a girl's bedroom than scaling the outside of the building," Betty snarked, her grin wide and cat-like. "And here I was thinking that Octavius was the perve."
He didn't speak, finding that as long as he never lowered himself to her level of snark he could complete his duties and retain his sanity. If the man knew he could get away with it he'd kill her himself and burn the body.
"You know the strong silent type doesn't really match your file," The woman remarked, walking around the man till she was standing on behind him. One of the things that her gaze found was the sidearm strapped to his leg, a standard nine-millimeter pistol, something that brought a frown to Betty's face. "Side-arms were meant to be left here."
For the first time since he returned, the man snapped to attention his own frown soon to follow as he turned around to face Betty.
"And I said that I wouldn't go into the Doctor's apartment without some protection," His reply lacked any true heat in tone but his eyes told Betty all she needed to know. Grant was mad that she dared to question any of his decisions.
"Listen to me," She said lowly, her teeth grinding into a snarl as she tore the gun from his side. "The idea was not to bring anything metallic, she might have set up an alarm system-"
"And I checked before going in, there was nothing there-"
"-That could've wiped her computer systems as you got close," Betty continued, ignoring the man's rather childish attempt at interrupting her. The older woman was far too professional to be taken aback by such actions. "Then where would we be?"
Grant just glared at her, even as she sat back down on a comfy chair, her left foot on the coffee table while her right was draped over it. She knew that this would cause him to crack up a bit, the level of nonchalance that she was showing around Grant obviously grated on his nerves.
Usually, she wouldn't engage in such behavior but this was a different time and there was something really wrong with the way that Grant carried himself, the way that his smiles never went to his eyes. The way that his voice never went under a certain octave.
This guy was wearing a mask, one that Betty wanted to tear off and shove down his throat.
"It doesn't matter, we've got the information that was on the drive," Grant eventually replied, his voice small but clear. "And the target is still unaware of our presence here."
"And the bugs? Did you plant those as well."
Grant scoffed, something that the man had been doing a lot since he'd been assigned to work under Betty.
The two just weren't compatible with working together on such long term missions, which would've surprised their superiors given how similar they were. On paper, they were the perfect pair, maybe they could even be the next Barton and Romanov…
… reality just didn't want to follow through with that idea.
"Of course, I did," Eventually he spoke up, but only after Betty glared at him for around thirty seconds. "I'm a professional, I know how to get the job done. I don't need to get babied."
"Well," Betty replied, elongating the word so it came out as sarcastically as possible. "Our techies in the other room haven't gotten a signal from that apartment. So you must've screwed up somehow."
There was an icy chill in the air, something that seemed to be from the fact that the window was still open from Grant climbing in.
What wasn't from the open window was the thick tension that filled that air, especially as the two started to get closer to each other, as they started to circle around each other as if they were about to engage in mortal combat.
"Hey, guys we've found... out… why… " One of the technicians entered the room, trailing off as their eyes saw how the two were looking for some brawling. "What's going on?"
Suddenly it was like someone had turned a valve, released all that built up the pressure into the outside world and the two agents were transformed. Instead of being near ravenous human beings, ready to tear each other from limb to limb, the two looked to be the best of friends.
"Nothing," they spoke together as if they were synced by some cosmic force, even continuing on to their next sentence. "What have you found?"
The tech just raised a brow, examining them like they were part of the puzzle they were here to solve.
"Turns out the good Doctor has somehow managed to shield her apartment," he said, laying a laptop down on the coffee table, a schematic of an apartment layout visible on its screen. "We're not sure how exactly, whatever it is its high tech stuff, but-"
"And you're sure she's not just found the bugs and disposed of them?" Betty asked, bringing up the far more likely scenario with the air that one would use when asking if the other person had left the oven on.
"Oh no, see we're getting some signal from the bugs but they're muted," The smallest of the people here explained, his finger pointing at a series a red dots that littered around design plans. "So we're not going to be able to spy on her right now but if she opens the front door… then we're going to see some action."
She didn't even bother to look at Grant's face, knowing that he'd be wearing that smug grin of his. Something that would've meant she'd break the facade of professionalism that was put up and shove his teeth down his throat.
"Well, that just means we need to get her out of the building," Grant spoke, his arms crossed against his chest while his mouth stretched into that grin Betty so hated.
"Sounds like you've got an idea?"
"Arson."
x-x-x
(Patrick Doyle)
"Making my way downtown," Louise sang, much to the annoyance of those walking past her, which was to my own amusement. You wouldn't think that someone that was as physically built as Louise would be into randomly singing while walking down the street. "Walking fast," She continued a smile on her face, which grew as more confused people were passed. "Faces pass and I'm home-bound."
But at over six feet and with arms like tree trunks, I wouldn't like to be the asshole who thinks that it would be smart to make a comment.
"Why that song?" I asked, stopping the girl in the middle of the street, people now just walking around her as they continue their journeys. Louise didn't bring herself to answer right away, instead, she just stared at me with a dull but amused expression on her face.
"People just put on funnier faces when I pick songs like that," she shrugged. "No one looks at the sport star physique and goes… " Louise trailed off, obviously trying to remember the name of the person that sang that song, then she clicked her fingers together. "Vanessa Calton."
"I would've thought that they'd make faces simply because the over six-foot-tall red-head is singing in the middle of the street."
"Sure but there's a funnier look when it's something cringy."
Louise didn't seem to have that high of a threshold for cringe, especially if such a vanilla song was what she thought cringed was.
There wasn't any response after that, Louise just decided to return to our walking. Though this time it was without singing anything from Vanessa Calton. See we were heading towards a Stark Industries owned Laboratory, the only one currently active in the city.
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