This is a part of a series with one of my other stories ("Forged By Fire") but can be read as a stand alone. I own nothing but Teresa seeing as Annika is actually an alias for an already established girl. The song for this chapter is the "James Bond Theme"

Fortune Favors The Brave

Chapter I: Aware

Her feet, snugly held in battered Adidas sneakers probably a couple years more worn than they should have been, smacked on the packed dirt of the road. It was a fight to keep her breathing level and her heartbeat steady. Her mouth was dry as the Sahara. On the outside she looked like a native, tan skin and dark eyes, except for the flame red hair tucked snugly under a worn baseball cap. She was young, between twenty-two and twenty-five, with smooth curves. Her body was all muscle with no extra fat. Her name was Teresa but her parents, both avid readers, had fancifully shortened it to Tink after Tinker Bell. Her older sisters, twins, had been Arwen and Eowyn. Both had died along with her parents.

Teresa turned the corner and, in a smooth motion, slid into an alley. Her body remained completely still. Heat tugged at her skin, something dangerous struggling to break free, but she pushed it down. She gritted her teeth and glared at the outside street. There they were. Her eyes narrowed. Agents. Were they here for her of the woman she had been living with for the past four months? Both were on the run from past experiences but if Teresa were the betting kind she would be inclined to place her money on her roommate. She waited until they had faded back into the crowd before heading for the apartment.

Annika Berger was fairly tall, brunette, beautiful, and probably could have been a model or actress. Instead she had informed Teresa that she had joined the military, stolen a precious government secret not long after World War II ended, and had been on the run ever since. Teresa wasn't inclined to believe the story since Annika didn't look a day over twenty-five but she let it go. If Annika wanted to keep secrets Teresa wouldn't stop her. "Tink?" Annika asked in her British accent when Teresa threw open the door. "Is something wrong?"

"There are agents here," Teresa informed her in a low voice. "I think they're looking for you." It was a credit to Annika's character that she didn't question her roommate. Instead she stood, snapping her laptop shut and slipping it into a bag that she slung over her shoulder. Meanwhile Teresa pulled a handgun, loaded of course, out from under one of the couch cushions.

"Good luck Tink," Annika said, taking the gun from her, and then headed for the back door. Teresa didn't waste any time on pointless good-byes. Instead she worked to eliminate any trace that Annika had ever been there. Mail with Annika's name on it and the few pictures with her in them were burned in the kitchen sink. Smoke drifted out open windows and ashes were washed down the drain. The extra toothbrush was dumped in a trashbag in the alley and extra clothes were spread through several others. Teresa was just sitting down for a refreshing cup of tea when someone banged on the door.

Teresa froze on instinct, her mind going blank for a moment. No one banged on a door unless it was the police, agents, or the nosy old lady next door. "Open up," someone demanded. "We have a warrant for the arrest of Annika Berger. Open up!"

"All right, all right," Teresa snapped, hoping her voice wasn't shaking. "I'm coming." She forced herself to stand and stomp to the door even though she was quaking inside. She flung open the door to be shoved aside.

"Search the house," a man barked. They did and Teresa let out several cries of protest as they tossed things about.

"You're wrecking my apartment," she all but shrieked.

"You're apartment," the leader said skeptically.

"Yes mine," Teresa snapped. "Whose else did you think it was?"

"Annika Berger's," the man said. "Her name is on the door plate downstairs."

"Because the landlord never comes in," Teresa complained. That was actually true. Teresa had officially taken over the apartment a month and a half ago when Annika had supposedly moved out and the landlord had never changed the name downstairs. "Annika was the last resident."

"Are you sure she isn't a roommate?" the man asked.

"Why would I want a roommate?" Teresa scoffed back. The man nodded slightly as if this made sense.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot here," he said. "I'm Agent David Link from the United States FBI. We've been looking for Annika for almost forty years, thus our urgency today when we thought we had a break."

"Teresa Hunter," Teresa replied, shaking his hand. "I guess I can understand that Agent Link."

"David please," the man replied.

"Hey," someone else cried. "Come look at this David."

"If you'll excuse me," David said politely.

"Of course," Teresa replied. "But if it's my underwear he's looking at please smack him." David chuckled and headed off toward the other man. A few moments later he was back with a picture and his face grim.

"Miss Hunter do you know this person?" he asked. Teresa glanced at the picture and suddenly felt the dread of realizing she had forgotten something. She opened her mouth to deny knowledge anyway when the agent interrupted her. "Forget it," he said. "Arrest Miss Hunter and sweep the apartment." Teresa mouth went dry but her eyes blazed with anger.

"Wrong move," she snapped and then kicked out at his head. He fell to the ground with a cry as Teresa flipped the man behind her over her head and on top of him. The rest closed in and Teresa's eyes blazed gold.