Part two of Coincidences. I'm taking a break on my AR/NCIS crossover, Those Who Wander, to bring this to you. Enjoy and R&R! ~ SamayouTamashi
The messages came in uneven intervals even after K-Unit was deployed back into Afghanistan. The first two came the week after the spies vanished from Ben's apartment the day after he had invited them all over.
Sometimes the notes were weeks between, and on other occasions arrived mere hours apart. Even the handwriting varied widely based on who was doing the note. Though it was Ben's rough, blocky script that they saw most often, there were also ones in the neat cursive that Alex used and a plain even font that could only have been typed on a computer.
Yet despite the wide variety in the messages received, the notes all consisted of one sole word: safe. Only more recently had there been anomalies in the messages that clued the SAS men on to the fact that not all was as good as the spies were making it appear.
The weekly mail had just been shipped in from the command base lying a few miles to the west. Wolf grabbed the familiar yellowed card with only "K" written in the upper right corner to designate its intended recipient. "It's Ben's handwriting," he announced back at K-Unit's tent.
"Same?" Eagle asked.
"How'd you guess?" came the wry but relieved retort. Another message, another recognition that the spies were still alive.
Falcon had leaned over his unit leader's shoulder when a tint of color on the normally bland paper caught his keen eye. "Hey, what's that?" he pointed at an indistinct splotch on the lower left corner shaped almost like a tear drop. "It look like…blood."
"Let me see that," Snake said, snatching it from their grasp. Peering closer at the stain and feeling the texture of the mark it had left, he nodded sadly. "Falcon's right, but whose is it?"
Ben was running breathlessly across the back roads of Athens, taking a short break only to use the long-range pepper spray Smithers had so kindly given him for irritating people on one of his annoying pursuers. Leaving the abandoned and little used streets behind, he emerged into a crowded agora. He wandered quickly and haphazardly between the stalls of vendors, blending into the shadows as Alex had patiently showed him at least a hundred thousand times. Eventually, he could no longer see any of the men who had tailed him since entering the ruins of the Acropolis.
He backed into a dark corner of the crowded bazaar to pull the cheap plastic watch from his wrist. Taking a battery from the stash in his left shoe's false bottom, he fixed the small metal rod into the watch's base. While the watch's hands were still frozen on a time just after midnight, a low crackle became audible from one of the two gold earrings on his right ear. "Red calling White," he spoke quietly into the face of the watch that acted as a microphone. "Red calling White, do you copy?"
As a customer neared the stand he was close to, Ben shifted nervously back against into the corner. In the background of the radio encased in the lowest earring, the sweet sound of tiny bells was jingling in time with the stamping of light feet. Other than that, no other sound was coming through.
Forcing himself not to panic, he thought over the possibilities to himself. His partner could very well have been killed or injured badly before being able to answer his call, but it was also just as likely that White was in a public place where it would look strange to be talking to your watch. While communication was important, it wouldn't help if one of them was found.
The background noise quieted as the bells quieted and the sound of clinking coins filled his ears. Ben suddenly chuckled as a soft feminine voice answered his radio signal. "White here. Sorry about the wait, but I have to keep my cover."
"We're going to separate for awhile," Ben said in all seriousness. "I have a tail on me, and I think my cover's blown. Try to keep yours and get in. I'm going to jump ship and try again in a week or two in another location."
"Agreed," his partner answered, "but if you can't get in the second time, you have to swear to return to England and let me complete my job here."
Ben ground his teeth together. "Fine, but same for you."
A beautiful laugh made his ears ring. "Gotta go. The men are calling for another dance. Something about us gypsies drives them crazy."
"You'll have to show me later," he grinned as he heard the answering scoff, telling him that there wasn't a chance in hell.
"Yeah, yeah. Talk to you soon." With a final clink of coins and the bells ringing in time with the dance, the connection was cut off.
Switching gears, Ben flicked the top-most earring, clicking a nearly invisible switch into place and establishing a new connection with MI6. "Ready to pull out, sir," he told Blunt. As the head of MI6 grunted an affirmative, he pulled a card from his back pocket and grabbed a pen from one of the tables. On the yellow card, he scrawled a quick note to Wolf and the rest of K-Unit identical to the ones he'd sent them previously. Anything else could be dangerous if intercepted, so he'd kept it to the bare minimum.
As he put the pen back from whence it had come, Ben sliced his finger on one of the sharp pieces of wood that hadn't been sanded down on the table. Muttering a short string of curses, he didn't notice a drop of blood fall on the corner of the paper as he dumped it into his messenger bag.
The dancer quickly gathered up the coins tossed into the hat by the side of the street, where other gypsies from the same traveling group were giving their own performances, and made sure the radio receiver recently tucked into one of the hems hadn't moved or become visible under the coins piled on top.
Giving a final dance for the gathered crowd before the noontime break, the gypsy mixed both the silver bells on her wrists and ankles and tempo of stamping feet with the graceful swish of hips and silk to awe the crowd. The skirt was a little too long and the shirt tighter than it should've been, but the dance was just as elegant as any the crowd had seen in this area of town. A sapphire piercing on her navel matched the deep blue depths of the dancer's eyes, both equally captivating.
With the ringing of the noon-bell from the wagon, the men and women began to disperse, dropping silver bits of multiple countries' currencies into an assortment of hats and instrument cases.
Anastasia*, or Ana as she went by, moved among her fellow gypsies with the gentle steps of a dancer and the constant nervousness of the thieves she lived among**. Her long wavy black hair was skittering back and forth as every tiny movement caught her attention. Many of the performers around her showed similar signs as they pretended to be here for loose change, not the wallets tucked carefully into purses and pockets.
She tossed her unruly hair over one shoulder, pinning her bangs back with a metal clip to get them out of her eyes. If Ben was going to be out of the picture for the immediate picture, new plans were going to have to be put together.
Small tent-like structures had been established behind the trailer the main family used, mainly for those who were straggling along like herself. Slipping into one of the smallest ones, she took off the skirt and small top to replace them with ragged jeans and a loose white top. Using a handheld mirror, the black dye was covered over with a temporary pale brown layer of easily washable ink and she braided it into one long strand going down to her shoulder blades. The sapphire on her naval was placed delicately in a small bag with the rest of her clothes.
Removing the last of the make-up on her face, Ana became Alex once more.
The dye Smithers had given him for his hair had not only been keeping it dark black these past two months, but also grown it out at a fast rate. He was assured that with a little work each morning, he could easily pull of the changing of genders despite his flat chest and minimal curves. Ben, much too amused for his own good, had pointed out that many girls had flat chests and minimal curves. At that, Alex had threatened to murder him painfully and extraordinarily slowly if any pictures made their way to the internet or other public venues. While the spy had backed off, that smirk was still in his eyes and demeanor.
Weaving between the stalls as he crossed the street, he made multiple turns through the maze of buildings to find himself in front of the Acropolis, the most recent meeting place for the executive board of SCORPIA. With their board now down to only four of the original thirteen, the last ones were scurrying around, trying to hold down their bases of power. One of the weakening bases linked the islands off the coast of Greece, but for how long they would remain loyal to a slowly decaying SCORPIA, was going to be based on the upcoming meetings next week.
Thus, his job here was to make those meetings go as badly as possible to undermine SCORPIA's strength in Greece and the surrounding area. Alex was going to do something that would not only destroy their workings along the Mediterranean, but place doubts in the minds of all their colleagues.
It took all of his willpower not to let out an evil laugh right then and there.
K-Unit had barely three minutes notice when MI6 requested them to pick up an operative. Knowing that only Ben or Alex would be asking for them, Wolf got his unit out and moving in just under sixty seconds. The chopper waiting for them said they were headed for just past the border of Greece, a couple miles into Albania by the shore of Lake Prespa***.
While the helicopter was hovering a foot above the dusty ground, Snake and Wolf hopped out, Eagle and Falcon staying to cover the unarmed pilot. "Fox!" Wolf called out, and a body fell from a tree to their right.
"You scared the hell outta me with the chopper and everything!" Ben said, dusting himself off and rubbing his now-sore shoulder.
Snake noted on first glance that his former-teammate was in decent condition, with no visible wounds or signs of pain (ignoring those from the recent fall). At second glance, he noticed how Ben's demeanor had entirely changed as he entered the open space, wincing at the sunlight as he left himself exposed. He truly had turned into a regular spy, the medic sighed.
"How're you doing, and where's Cub?" Wolf demanded as the trio bundled into the helicopter for a ride back to England and home base.
"I'm doing great, which I hadn't expected. Need a short break and then I'll go in for a second try."
"So you couldn't get in?" Falcon asked.
"I don't know how, but they must have known what I was doing there. Whatever they were looking for, it wasn't evident on Alex, apparently, since he was successful on his side of things."
Wolf raised an eyebrow at the sparkle in Ben's eyes, like he had some sort of secret that looked ready to burst. "And where is he exactly?"
"Undercover on the streets working as a performer." He leaned forward in his seat, a smirk rising from his normally calm and collected face. "A female performer."
Eagle snorted before he saw how truthful the spy looked (for once). "Wait, seriously?"
"Alex is working under the name Ana as a gypsy dancer just on the outskirts of Athens."
"A gypsy dancer?" Snake grinned. "And who managed to convince him that it would be the best approach."
"It was a mix of both Blunt and Smithers' ingenious minds. Through Blunt's cunning and Smithers' inventions, they created the perfect cover for him. There was no way he could resist the opportunity."
"Now please tell me you got pictures," laughed Eagle. "There are so many wonderful blackmail chances here that I would love to grab a hold of."
At this, Ben's eyebrow twitched. A sign of intense distress, Snake guessed.
"See there would have been millions of pictures emailed to all of you by this time if he hadn't threatened me with a slow and excruciatingly painful death if he found even an iota of something that looked familiar on the web. Knowing Alex, he could manage all of the threats he laid down for me if that should ever happen."
Even Wolf had to feel sorry for him.
"So I took the infinitely less painful route."
The unit leader could still see that familiar glint of amusement in his eye. "But...?"
The spy threw up his hands in defeat. "There was one small little thing he never thought about."
"Which would be...?"
A cell phone was drawn from the messenger bag he was carrying on his back. "He forgot that my cell phone has a camera installed in the back of it. It doesn't matter if I don't upload the pictures anywhere, since he never specified any actions to be taken if I were to hold on to a few for my own personal blackmail opportunities." He smiled at Eagle, giving him a look that said "I got there first".
"We get to see them, I take it?" the soldier retorted.
"Why else would I have taken them in the first place?" Ben tossed the phone to Snake, who had to blink a couple times as he saw one of the pictures. "That's...wow. That is the work of a serious spy. I honestly didn't think it was possible."
"Let me see...Jesus!" Falcon looked closer at the small picture. "Are you sure you got the right person? That doesn't look anything like Cub."
"Oh it's him all right. If you look at the edge of the skirt," he pointed to where the silk came barely above his knee, "there's his holster for the Glock I got him for his birthday."
"I will never be able to look at girls the same way again," complained Wolf, handing the cell back to its owner. "You've just made me question everything I thought was true."
"Creepy, isn't it?"
Wolf remembered the message all of a sudden. "Wait, then whose blood was on the note you sent us?"
"What blood?" He stared confusedly at the soldier, who was looking just as dumbfounded in return. Ben thought back to the most recent card he'd sent their way and recalled the healing cut along the side of his finger. "I think I know what you're talking about. It was just an accident, and I must have gotten some on the card without realizing it."
Snake facepalmed himself. "You mean we were all worried that you two were out in the middle of some warzone, shooting off enemies, and dripping blood all over while you accidentally sliced your finger?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Now I feel stupid."
"Not for long, you won't be. Things were easy on my side, but from what Alex has been telling me, they won't be like that for very long."
"What exactly is he doing?" Wolf asked.
"I'm not sure of the details, probably because he didn't want me to knock him out and drag him back to England, but it's fairly basic on his part and works mostly just smoke and mirrors. The plan is based on simple magic tricks. You use some kind of distraction to pull attention away from what is really going on.
"Alex's main goal is basically to undermine SCORPIA's relations, not necessarily cause harm to anyone in general. Using lots of smoke and a couple strategically placed mirrors he'd managed to get positioned in the Acropolis, he was going to make it appear as if multiple people were attacking, instead of just two...one, now. After all, if many people could get past SCORPIA's defenses, then imagine how the clients would feel about their own safety."
Wolf tilted his head slightly. "He thought of this all on his own?"
"He plans most of our ops nowadays," Ben nodded. "It must be his uncle's influence while he was young, because Alex is really inventive on his ideas and likes to ensure there are no casualties. Anything difficult or dangerous, he takes himself."
"Oh good," Eagle sighed. "So if Blunt retires, we don't have to worry that someone completely incompetent is taking over?"
"Someday, he'll be a great head for MI6. For now, he is fifteen and I plan on getting back in to at least help pull him out of the operation once it's over with and done." The MI6 spy looked all of them in the eye, knowing that his former team already planned on joining him.
A/N: I was reading Whirlwind by randomfluff (which is one of the most hilarious and best fanfics I have read in my entire life) and thought, "Wouldn't it be funny to have him undercover as a girl in my story?" After all, I had to give Ben something evil to scheme on, and the plot bunnies weren't giving me anything else to work with. So my sister backed me up, and now we are laughing hysterically. Oh the possibilities...
Also, Those Who Wander will be on hiatus for a couple days as I scurry around, trying to get two separate plot lines going for each story. Hope you guys don't mind if I post a little slower for the time being.
*Anastasia is a Greek name meaning resurrection, which I figured would be appropriate given that she has been 'reborn' with a new identity.
** I know that not all gypsies are the thieves and schemers they are made to look like, but it was something I needed in this story. No offense meant to anyone.
*** Yes, all of these places are correct based on Google maps. All spellings have been taken off Google, so any misspellings are their fault.
