The radio static filled Natalia's ears with a background white noise. She fiddled with the earpiece. It was quiet.

Two jobs in one day, and her partner couldn't even bother to show up.

Her phone vibrated against her hip. She pulled it hastily out of her pocket, and flicked through screens to answer.

"Where the hell are you, Lilli?"

"I'm sorry, Vasch overslept, and I had to wake him up, and the bunnies-"

"Are you going to be here?"

"Yeah." Lilli said, distractedly. "I'm in a taxi. It shouldn't be more than five minutes at most."

Natalia brushed a hand through her hair, impatiently. "Alright then. I'm outside the restaurant, freezing and looking like an absolute creep."

"Well, I'm sorry. Also, you speak Portuguese, right?"

Natalia shrugged without realizing that Lilli couldn't see it. "Yeah-ish. I mean, I can speak Spanish and it's pretty similar. You were the one who was supposed to learn Portuguese before deployment."

Lilli had already hung up.

Natalia shoved her phone back into the depths of her purse.

You could tell a lot about Natalia from the contents of her purse. There was icy, peppermint gum, a massive collection of hair ties, two blue nail polishes, a delicate and lacy pink wallet, pads, loose change, a conceal and carry permit along with a handgun, and a manilla folder of documents, all confidential. Her second bag was a satchel with a laptop.

Natalia was a spy, which was less cool than it sounded.

A taxi skidded to the curb, yellow and black like a bumblebee. The door spat open, and Lilli got out.

"Sorry I'm late."

"Don't mention it. We've got to catch the next bus, which should be here in," Natalia checked her wristwatch, "less than fifty seconds. Hope you like running, because it's a block down."

"Yeah." Lilli sprinted out in front, like a small rabbit, avoiding and weaving through the blocks of human coagulation. Natalia walked with fast, long strides, keeping Lilli in her peripheral vision.

The bus pulled into a slot on the side of the road. Lilli caught her breath as the door opened, and Natalia extracted money from her purse, paying for their passage.

Natalia felt all eyes on her as she walked down the aisle to take the farthest seat in the back, next to the window. Lilli got in next to her.

"You know, sometimes I feel like this job isn't what I thought it would be. It's mostly a lot of clueless speculating and paperwork. All for nothing. I don't know if we've actually done anything useful-"

"Hey, not here." Lilli warned.

"You're right."

"How long is this trip?"

Natalia avoided looking at Lilli. She chose the window as an object of her attention instead. "Oh, you know. About two hours." she mumbled.

"What? Sorry I couldn't hear you."

"Two hours."

Lilli groaned.

"But," Natalia offered, "I brought my ipod and double earbuds."

"Ugh, but I don't want to listen to post-modern rock."

"Don't worry, I downloaded some of your music too."

"Okay."

"But first Nirvana." Natalia grinned.

Lilli was too polite to roll her eyes. "Grunge is stupid."

"No, your music is trash."

"Whatever." Lilli took the earpiece that Natalia offered her, and plugged her ears.

Natalia let out a deep sigh, that had been caged in her for months, accumulating through stress, rainy days, insomnia, paperwork, and too much coffee.

"Sometimes I just wish I was somewhere else, you know? You're the only person I know here, Lilli. I want to be happy, I just don't know how. I feel…..restless. I just-"

Lilli's head was the right height to rest on Natalia's bony shoulder. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was slow and deep in sleep.

Lilli worked herself too hard. Straight out of college, still really a little girl, Natalia thought. She was like a little sister. Truthfully, Natalia was a little jealous of Lilli's youth, not that she herself was old. But Lilli hadn't lost her spark yet. She was still filled with zealous potential, like a crocus underneath the earth's skin, reaching for the sun from dirt beneath-the-surface, and somehow still beautiful.

Natalia's head stacked on Lilli's like a boulder. Their hair ribbons fell neatly next to each other, blue and green. Winter leaned on Spring.

Name: Natalia Arlovskaya
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Occupation: FBI; Espionage
Physical Appearance: Long, light blonde hair, tall, thin, dark blue eyes
Location: Unknown
TARGET

Any noise that the explosion made was drowned out by screams of fear, sirens, and the sound of the bus skidding.

Natalia was on her feet, but Lilli was already at the front of the bus yelling at the driver. "PULL OVER!"

A quick glance out the bus window showed that there was a path of carnage where the bus had plowed through cars to crash on the side of highway, but by now there was no one left in the crosshairs.

Natalia's mind had stopped working. Meanwhile Lilli was commandeering the controls. She opened the door, and before the rush of people could stampede, the voice that had been kind and sweet was a lion. "STOP. I WANT A SINGLE FILE LINE."

Natalia scoffed darkly. She couldn't even see Lilli through the crowd, but miraculously they all obeyed her voice.

Natalia was the last one off, and Lilli was waiting a distance from the bus. Police cars and ambulances swarmed. The noon sun reflected off green, broken windshield fragments like they were sea-glass dragon scales. The crystals crunched beneath the throbbing foot traffic.

Natalia cleared her throat. "What do you think?"

"Someone fiddled with the engine. That's why it didn't really cause any internal collateral, and why it waited so long. Not a car bomb, but still very deliberate. You have enemies?"

"We all have enemies. Comes with the job."

"Goodness, we were just going to talk with some business guy."

"Yeah, but everything is important. You handled the situation well….I'm sorry I didn't help you."

Lilli smiled. "It's fine," her face recoiled back to sobriety. "But I hope no one was seriously injured."

Natalia focused on the green of Lilli's eyes rather than the violent aftermath around them. "Let's go find a place to sit down. I'm exhausted."