Night before
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their appropriate owners.
Note: this story contains some spoilers for the official series.
Contrary to the overall reputation of Rio de Janeiro, the bar was a relatively quiet place, quiet enough for Grant and Kara Lynn to settle down and to drink their success.
"...For years everybody has pissed on Twinkies; now it is the Twinkies turn to piss on everybody!" Kara Lynn told her partner in a bright and enthusiastic voice.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but good for you!" Grant replied in an equally cheery tone. "Now what do you want to do now?"
"You," the woman shrugged, "but since you're not available, maybe someone else?"
Grant paused, opening and closing his mouth several times, before reaching a decision. "Ok, how about the fellow over there?" he pointed out a man about his age, but with a slimmer build and shorter height than his own, to the ex-brainwashed woman. "He's been giving you the eye for a while now."
"Okay!" Kara Lynn said brightly and stood up, taking her purse with her.
"Ahem!" Grant grabbed her quickly by the arm, shooting a look at the purse.
"Oh, it's in there," Kara Lynn told him in an assertive tone of voice, so Grant released her, and off she went to the man, who had been making eyes at her (especially because currently her mask was on, obscuring her true, still scarred, face). Before long they were engaged in a lively conversation, too.
"Ooh! Burn?" another voice – also female, but not Kara Lynn's – sounded from behind Grant.
Grant shifted in his seat and turned around. His interlocutrix was about as tall as agent 33 was, slightly slimmer, looking mostly like a native of the country, but with bright chestnut hair and eyes that starkly stood out of the crowd.
"Well, excuse me," Grant nodded, even as he took an appreciative look at the new arrival and her slim and fit figure and rather revealing clothing. "I don't think we've met. I am Grant, and the woman that just left is Kara. We are not a couple. We are coworkers. I never date coworkers – leads to bad blood, you know?" A brief shadow appeared on his face, but even quicker than that it was gone.
"Fair enough, and howdy – I'm Qahira," the woman nodded enthusiastically. "I doubt that we're coworkers, so you want to go out on a date? I promise you a night that you won't forget in a hurry!"
"Ooh, I like the sound of that!" Qahira replied brightly. "Shall we go?"
Grant stole a brief look around – Kara Lynn was already gone – and nodded. "Let's!"
They left, arm in arm.
/ / /
Meanwhile, Kara Lynn was already outside, but unlike Grant, who was led off to pastures new and unknown, she was merely led to a nearby alley, where-
"Is the man with you?" asked a newcomer, also male, of her new partner.
"No, he seems to have left with someone else," her date of the evening asked.
"Curses! We'll have to wait until the day tomorrow, unless," the second man turned to Kara Lynn.
With a snake-like quickness the ex-brainwashed woman grabbed the taser in her purse and smashed it into the latter's forehead. This isn't how a taser is supposed to be employed, true, but Kara Lynn was still putting her personality back together, let alone her past, and so her approach to all things was often apocryphical instead – but still functional, as it was in this instance, as the second man crumpled and fell in a heap at her legs.
The first man, the man who approached her in a bar, stared.
"This isn't how it's supposed to be," he muttered to Kara Lynn, "we just wanted to talk-"
"I don't care!" the latter declared brightly, as she grabbed him by his collar and gave him a look with eyes that were just a tad too bright and luminous to be normal. "I want satisfaction and fulfilment, and you're going to give it to me now!"
"What, right here?" her interlocutor asked incredulously.
"...No. We're going to our room!" Kara Lynn made a decision. "Follow me!" She grabbed the man firmly by his collar and led him away, leaving his companion behind...
/ / /
While Kara Lynn was readying herself up for some fulfillment and satisfaction, Grant was preparing... well, for something else: Ms. Qahira had led him to her home, where she had quickly and dexterously moved off to one side, while Grant got confronted by two or three really big blokes, each one featuring enough facial hair to make an average Cossack jealous.
"And the meaning of this is?" Grant enquired politely, even as he rolled back his sleeves – he was nowhere that obtuse, you know?
"It means, Mr. Ward, that if you cooperate, you won't get hurt," Ms. Qahira said calmly from her observation point. "Do you understand me?" She paused and added, clearly as an afterthought: "Hail Hydra."
"Mm-hmm," Grant was not particularly impressed, as he looked around, made some quick mental math and smiled, in a manner reminiscent to Kara Lynn, when the latter was thinking about sex. "Hail Hydra indeed, lady – I got a lot of aggression to get out of my system, and your boys will do nicely. Bring it on!"
TBC