The twins Jana and Hanna Van Buyten have been trained from childhood on to go on "missions" for a European secret service agency.
The agency's "clients" ranged from other countries with terror problems to single company bosses who needed getting rid of a blackmailer. After a chain of events both of them go AWOL on a road trip through the US - and guess who they meet.
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Somewhere on the road, some state, US
I had lost orientation long ago. I had now idea whether we had already crossed the border into the next state while I was sleeping or not - hell, I didn't even know which state we were heading to. Not that it mattered. After all, my sister and I planned to do this road trip as long as it was fun and then go AWOL wherever we thought it was worth staying for some time.
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"Let's stop for some coffee and pie", Jana said when we passed something that looked like it might at least sell something to drink. Jana knew me enough to realize that I'd had started getting bored some hours ago. Entering some random bar or diner or whatever would at least be a change. I opened the glove department and took out my cushions. "Must I really?" I begged although I knew it was neccessary. "It's so hot outside." "It's almost sundown and I don't have to tell you why we are doing this." Jana lectured me. "So stop complaining. Tomorrow we take turns." The sun was still burning and we were somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but we were still keeping our disguise up.
We were both wearing wigs (I had mine combined with a pair of rimmed glasses) and were totally differently styled. Today, Jana was wearing a blue black wig that (although the hair fell long on her shoulders) was somehow spikey-looking. Her blood red tank top had pearls on it and looked a bit too glossy for the early afternoon (she might as well have stolen it from a boutique in Paris) and her tight short jeans skirt left not much of her curves to imagination.
I, in contrast, was the blond, more plump-looking ponytail girl with bangs and glasses and an environmental conscience. I was wearing a kneelength slightly flared skirt made of imitation leather together with a cotton tank top. Since it was really hot today, I had the cushions under my clothes reduced to a minimum, so that I looked just a bit plumpish around the hips and the waist. And of course, my boots were much less stylish than Jana's. Nevertheless, even when we disguised, with shoes we didn't make much compromises. Our boots were always fit for battle.
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Jana pulled up in front of the bar or diner or whatever it was. "Harvelle's roadhouse", the sign said. "Looks closed, doesn't it?" I shrugged. "Let's try the door. If they don't want people coming here they shouldn't have this sign on the road." When we walked up to the entrance we saw it was open. Jana pushed the door open and the next moment stopped in her tracks. I bumped into her. "What?" I asked her. "Hotties at three o'clock." She whispered. She was right, there were sitting two some decently hot guys. But there was also a hot girl with a blond ponytail much like mine sitting next to them and a not so hot guy who seemed to belong to them. They had some bottles in front of them and some papers in the middle of the table. And they all were staring at us curiously as if we'd walked into the middle of a business meeting they were in. Even the middle aged darkblond lady behind the bar wasn't as friendly as you'd expect her to be. I mean, it was obvious that there weren't too many customers coming to this shed. But judging from their reaction, these people weren't too sad about this fact either.
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"Yeah, there are some hotties and they seem taken. So let's get the pie and leave." I whispered back and gave Jana a push in the back. "By the way, now I feel really fat." I said to make her smile. Then I smiled at the barlady. "Hi. My cousin and I were wondering whether we could get something to drink here and maybe some pie."
"Sure." The woman smiled back and guided us to a table opposite the one that was taken by the three guys and the blond girl. She was acting nice - but in a way you'd be with a tiger that might want to eat you the second you turn around. Somehow her friendlyness didn't seem real. She moved and looked as if she suspected us to do something bad. Strange. I hoped I was just seeing things. "I'm Ellen Harvelle, by the way." She said. "What brings you sweeties into a bar in the middle of nowhere?" She really tried hard to sound disinterested. Jana elbowed me. So at least it wasn't just me. "Road trip." Jana answered quickly. "My cousin and I are from Europe. We always planned on doing this since we were little. And as she wants to get married this fall we thought it's now or never." "Well, that's not your typical tourist tour you're on." Ellen wondered. Jana shrugged and studied the lady provokingly. "Maybe we aren't the sight seeing and tourist attractions type. We like to look behind the scenes. To really see. Not that this should be of your concern." They stared at each other's eyes for a moment. Now it was my turn to elbow my sister. "Jana, behave." I said. "Look, Ellen, I'm really sorry. Maybe we should better go." - "Not, not at all." Ellen quickly assured. "You must excuse me acting a bit suspicious. We just haven't had many visitors lately. And there's talk there are strange things going on outside." "You aren't seriously telling us that you're believing in evil things wandering around outside and so on?" I asked. Ellen ignored my question. "So, we've apple pie and cherry." she smiled. "Which one would you prefer?"
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"Seriously, she believes in this superstitious crap?" I muttered when Ellen had walked away. " 's she Irish or what?" Jana shrugged and stole a last regretful glance of the two hotties on the table opposite to ours. "Let's just eat and then hit the road again."
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But being somewhere outside the car was just too nice. So after the pie we had some hot chocolate and a beer and debated about where to go next. "Let's just get somewhere with a lake or near the sea. I want to spend some days swimming and tanning." Jana suggested. I rolled my eyes. I hated tanning. But since we had to look alike, it meant if one sister got tanned - then the other one had to let the sun burn her face, too. Like it or not. After some negotiations during which Jana had to agree to us climbing some serious mountains later this month, we finally decided to get back into the car and head southwards. We said goodbye to Ellen and opened the entrance door.
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Only, when we opened the door, instead of stepping out of Harvelle's road house, we stopped.
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The door "out" opened into an identical "roadhouse" again.