Chapter 4: Beautiful Strangers

The ballroom is decorated in an opulent east meets west kind of fashion with about 100 people milling around in their formal wear. Brittany walks around the ballroom checking for points of egress looking for possible places for cover, and assessing possible weapons and threats. Standard protocol for a party with hostiles. She grabs a glass of champagne from a passing server planning to nurse it for most of the night or at least until she gets to chatting up Ricardo. Training said to be noticed but still forgettable and the best way to do it is look like you are enjoying the party. She walks over to the buffet and looks over the assembled food. She decides against eating at the party and decides to ingratiate herself with a few of the guests.

She makes two more laps of the room finding her target as well as his muscle amongst the crowd but she doesn't give him a second glance at least not yet. She walks up to a group of five standing near the dance floor and introduces herself as the Baroness. Larger groups are better than smaller because with a group of three you might be intruding on a conversation where with five or more it is likely just a mingling type conversation and it is usually easy enough to insert yourself. She meets a Senator Kelly Harris from Oregon, the Japanese Ambassador's very cute 19 year daughter Akita Miho, a C-list tv child actor from the 80's Jerry Supiran, a two star navy admiral Carl Lee, and a software millionaire by the name of Paul Pennington who Brittany thought was cute in his own nerdy way.

Akita Miho after introducing everyone said "As I was saying North Korea is a threat to the entire world, especially to my home country, but after the death of Kim Jong Il it is unlikely that Kim Jong Un will take an aggressive stance until he can solidify his power base. I think once he has a strong power base we may have to be vigilant in our defense." She says in with only a slight Japanese accent showing that she had likely lived the majority of her life in the States.

The Admiral says "True but Korea is a nuclear power that is ruled by a totalitarian dictator and as such they will always merit watching. They might not have long range missiles but a short range missile with a nuclear warhead is still a nuclear warhead. We watched the U.S.S.R. for 50 years for much the same reasons."

Brittany decided to chime in. "Yes, but like the former Soviet Union was they are in turmoil due to the death of their previous leader. A country in disarray is malleable and it would be in the world's best interest if we could hone the chaos into something more manageable like the west did with Russia. Setting aside Korea for the moment, personally I think that Iran's nuclear program is far more worrisome. North Korea has China as a nanny ready to spank them if they are insolent but Iran has no such threat. Yes we have a foothold in Iraq but it is a tentative foothold at best. Israel has several countries of people who loathe them between them not to mention Palestine who has the Iranian government in their back pocket. Pakistan is as likely to join with them as they are to try and stop them which leaves India who can't afford to agitate the centuries long feud with Pakistan. It is all a huge mess. Theocracy is never a wise way to run a country, it breeds zealots."

"What about Russia?" Miho says obviously glad there is someone at the party around her own age to speak to who also knows world politics.

Brittany purposefully laughs once at the comment but without humor. "Russia has many of its own problems some persist from the fall of the Soviet Union and others have sprung up since. While I am sure they would be hesitant at having such a dangerous threat at their door the cold war pretty solidly proved that outwardly attacking another nuclear power is pretty much out of the question. Once Iran has a nuclear bomb the country will be untouchable despite how much hatred there is lobbed at them from the west."

"My worry is that once they have a bomb what is to stop one of their zealots from just pushing a button and starting World War III. As you said Baroness there is no love lost between Israel and the rest of the middle east and you wouldn't need an ICBM to make it to Israel from Iran." The Senator says. Brittany notices that they seem to be losing Jerry and Paul and decides that it would be best if she could change the subject since they seem about ready to leave and being in a large group will make it much easier for her to be approached by Ambassador Ortiz since the rule of large groups still applies.

"A truly frightening hypothetical Senator Harris and one I am afraid we might have to face sooner rather than later. Especially with the States' somewhat unhealthy co-dependence with Israel. " She pauses letting her comment hang in the air before she looks around at the group speaking again. "I believe we have been unfair to two of the members of our little group though perhaps a subject change is in order. Given our geographic location how about cinema. I find the ins and outs of the 'biz' to be quite fascinating personally."

Miho seemed to be enjoying the previous conversation and was slightly put off by the subject change but not enough to walk away. As the group began discussing the directorial style of Kubrick versus Spielberg Brittany resolved to remain quiet for a bit. Miho seemed to be trying to catch Brittany's eye. Normally this would be her cue to take the pretty Asian girl aside chat her up and see how fast she could get her skirt up around her waist but this was not the time for such dalliances.

While they are politely arguing over whether Lucas is just a guy with great ideas and poor execution or the most overrated hack of our time she quickly inserts Clint Eastwood and they take off on another tangent. Miho by this time is edging her way over to her and Brittany is panicked because she can tell the girl is at the very least interested in having a private conversation with her, if not more and she can't allow herself to be taken off the floor. She is trying to come up with an exit strategy when she feels a gentle tap on her shoulder.

Oh thank fucking Joss she thinks to herself. "May I help you." She says politely. She turns around and quickly scans an extremely large man. She had already clocked him as the ambassador's muscle on her second lap when she walked in. He was a serious threat at 6'3" 240lbs of solid muscle. Worse than that was the way he moved. Most people when they are sides of beef like this guy are stiff and slow; they could still be extremely dangerous though since they could usually dish out and take a lot of punishment. She could tell by looking at this guy that he had martial arts training by the way he walked on the balls of his feet. He had managed to sneak up on her from behind an accomplishment for anyone let alone someone of his size.

She allows a little of her surprise to ebb through her facade because very few people would not be intimidated by the appearance of the enormous man. "My employer was wondering if you would do the honor of joining him for a drink."

With this many high powered people in the same room bodyguards are kind of a fact of life, but a good bodyguard is invisible until they need to be useful. The fact that someone sent their bodyguard to extend an invitation for a meeting at an event like this is, at best, pretentious at worst is downright threatening and for a normal person this might be a huge etiquette dilemma but this is exactly what she wants.

"Who would your employer be?" She asks making the annoyance in her voice plain to hear because of the breach in formality.

"Ambassador Ricardo Ortiz." He gestures with an open face up palm at the ambassador who she had also made on her initial scan of the room. The pictures of him really didn't do the man justice. He was handsome enough that getting a pretty girl to have a drink with him wouldn't even cause him any effort in fact she was pretty sure many of them probably approached him. Ortiz raised a champagne flute in her direction. She smiles coyly at the man before looking back at the bodyguard. She was on her guard so her fate would not be the same of so many others.

"I think one drink would be acceptable. One moment though I must make my excuses." She turns to the group of people she had so recently met and says happily. "My friends I must say it was a pleasure to meet you all but if will excuse me I will take my leave." They bid her farewell and she turns her back on the group since they had outlived their usefulness. She caught Miho pouting in her periphery but Miho's hurt feelings are the least of her worries at the moment.

She puts a smile on her face and walks slowly over towards the Ambassador making sure to saunter her hips on the way there. She consciously flips the little ringlets of hair out of her face hair purposely exploiting and drawing attention to the man's unhealthy blond fetish as she approaches his table.

"Baroness Lisa Miller," Brittany introduces herself, "a pleasure to meet you Ambassador Ortiz." She holds her hand out for him so he can either kiss or take it as he pleases. When she says her name and he hears her title his face falls for an instant, if it weren't for her observation training she would have easily missed it. She felt relieved almost immediately since she knew, at least for now, her life wasn't in imminent danger from the prick.

"A true pleasure Baroness." He kisses her hand and she lowers it back down to her side. "I was absolutely enchanted by your loveliness and I had to meet you." He says smoothly. His voice is heavily laced with his South American heritage but his English is flawless. The comment coming out of most men's mouths would sound utterly ridiculous and cheesy but he manages to make it sound enthralling and inviting. "Would you care to join me?"

She sits down in the chair next to him rather than across from him. "I think I could be persuaded." She says slyly after making herself comfortable.

"So what brings you to California?" He asks trying to break the ice.

"I'd rather not say." She says while smiling and looking away embarrassed.

"Oh come on." He replies amused by her attitude.

"Well I'm not saying I came for Disneyland and I am not not saying it either." He laughs pleasantly at her admission. "My Uncle set up the invite to the party. 'If you are going to fritter your family's valuable time away in the colonies you can at least make yourself useful for a single night.'" She changes her accent to be a little stiffer and a lot more pompous. "Nobility is not really my thing just an unfortunate side effect of my birth. There are those who choose this lifestyle like yourself and those who are forced into it kicking and screaming. I unfortunately am the latter of these. Of course there are advantages to this life, such as meeting beautiful men." The easiest lies were the ones that had a grain of truth in it, he certainly was beautiful. If she weren't unsure about her safety she would happily ride him sidesaddle like the English lady she was pretending to be.

"So you must have thought about it. What would you want your life to be if you weren't nobility?"

"You would think me silly." She says hesitantly but not shutting him down.

"I promise I won't laugh at you." He says smiling kindly. He is really good at this which just makes him more dangerous.

Brittany sighs deeply and obviously. "What is it about you? Five minutes and I am spilling all my secrets to a complete stranger." She pauses. "Oh very well. I would be a singer if I could. Maybe in some seedy bar in London or I don't know a Jazz club in New Orleans. Bartending or waitressing to make ends meet. I don't want to be a famous singer I am a noblewoman if I wanted a recording contract I could probably have one in a few months no I would want to have to struggle a little, maybe I could read palms during the day to make some extra money."

She subtly opens the emerald ring waiting for the expected question. She doesn't have to wait long.

"Palm reading?"

"Oh yes. My mother taught me when I was a small girl it was meant to be a joke but I picked up tarot and a couple other types of fortune telling. If you don't take it too seriously it really is quite fun." She quickly puts her hand out and grabs his glass of champagne and moves to put it on the table. As she pulls her hand back slowly she dumps the liquid into the glass and she covertly closes the ring. She takes his hand and pulls it towards her making sure she puts his hand against her stomach so he can feel her rock hard abs. He growls so low she almost doesn't hear it. She starts running her slender fingers over the lines in his palm.

"You have a short life line which if you believe this stuff means that you won't live to a ripe old age. Even if that is true I personally think it's how you live the life you have not how long it is. Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse I say." She moves her fingers making sure to seductively touch his palm. "Your head line is longer than your heart line which means you are more of a thinker than a feeler. Your fate and fame lines are both very long which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what that fate is. Your marriage line is tied to your money line which says your wife will have at least a little money." She winks suggestively at this and he smiles in a predatory way that would normally make her shove her tongue down his throat but this is neither the place nor the time nor would it really be wise to engage in a physical act with such a dangerous threat. "That is an impressive sex line." She says while she returns the predatory look full force. She clears her throat before looking down at his palm again. Tracing another line on his hand she says, "I would guess by your spirit line that you are not a believer. This line represents luck and it is small but a man of your ambition makes his own luck."

She closes his fingers making sure they "accidently" brush the bottom of her breast before she gently slides his hand back to him.

"That was...a singular experience." He says his eyes darkened with lust.

"Did I manage to get anything right?"

"The sex line." He says definitively and she genuinely laughs. A blush would have been more effective and she had met a few operatives that could make themselves blush on command but she could never make herself do it. The laugh worked almost as well showing that he had disarmed her. She reached for the champagne glass she had set down earlier hoping that he would grab for his as well. He didn't.

"Anyway that is what I would do if I had not been born into the Noble class. What about you? Is being an Ambassador full of the action and glamour shown in the movies?"

"Sure it is. If paperwork gets your heart pumping." He says almost bitterly. "Not to say there isn't any excitement in my job but it really is just paper pushing most of the time mixed with moments of abject terror rushing around and putting out fires. Though usually it is just media fallout." Brittany finished the glass of champagne she had been nursing and called the waiter over to grab another and then waved him off quickly but politely so that Ricardo couldn't grab a fresh glass and ignore the poisoned flute.

They spoke about inconsequential things for about 20 minutes before she grabs the purse that they had given her and she pulls out the phone and lights up the screen. She makes a fake grimace go across her beautiful features.

"I am afraid I must go Ricardo. My uncle prefers I just make an appearance at these things as I tend to not have a filter on my mouth especially when alcohol is involved and I tend to say things that embarrass the family." She pauses and thinks for a moment. "Like this little tirade for instance." She chuckles self deprecatingly. She pulls one of the pens and a small slip of paper out. She clicks the pen and hopes it is double purpose and almost sighs in relief when a pen tip comes out. "I had a wonderful time though and I am in town for a few weeks." She writes a fake phone number on the card and then hands it to him with two fingers. "Call me and we can get together. Please don't wait three days like people usually do. I am only here in town for a short stay and I would very much like to put aside some time for you."

Ricardo is trying to speak the whole time trying to interrupt her speech but has no real luck until the end. "I was hoping that maybe we could go back to my place tonight Lisa."

"Oh Ricardo, I have to follow certain rules when being courted by a person of your stature. I am tempted by your offer though and I have never been one to follow all the stupid court rules but I do have to drive back to Anaheim which is 40 minutes away and then be up at 8 in the morning to go to Disneyland with my friends. So not tonight but call me tomorrow night and we will make plans and see how many of those court rules we can break." She smiles darkly and his pupils dilate again.

"You never did have that drink with me you know." She looks at the forgotten stem. "One toast before I go?"

"Of course." He says while picking the glass up. "What shall we drink to."

"How about new friends and new beginnings."

"To chance encounters with beautiful strangers." He puts forward as an alternative. Her smile is somewhat wicked before they clink their glasses together lightly and she tosses back what was left in the glass and he does likewise.

She stands up getting ready to leave her mission accomplished and he stands with her kissing her cheek lightly.

"Well Lisa it was truly a..." His face begins to turn red and swell and he cuts off speaking as if he can't get enough air. He starts grasping at his throat and he sinks to his knees.

Shit it's working too fast Brittany thinks to herself. I can't ignore this and not call for help but maybe I can buy a few seconds to let this happen before he gets medical attention.

"Are you okay Ricardo?" She asks slowly. "Are you choking?" She turns to the hall feigning panic. "Does anyone know the Heimlich I believe this man is choking!"

"Out of my way I'm a doctor." A short fat balding man pushes his way towards the Ambassador. The doctor gets very close to him looking him over carefully and immediately pulls out his cell phone. "This is Dr James Conners I need an ambulance at the Japanese Embassy 350 South Grand Avenue I have a man in severe anaphylactic shock and I don't have my bag with me I left it at home. Yes...yes...just make sure the ambulance you send has epinephrine on board. Yes I am pretty sure he can hang on for 2 minutes but I wouldn't press much longer than that.

"We should take him outside so the ambulance doesn't have to look for him it could mean the difference between life and death for this man." Two large men step forward one is the man's bodyguard and the other is a party guest and they easily pick up Ricardo by his shoulders and half walk half carry him out the front exit. Brittany follows the men pretending to look worried. She hears the sirens of the ambulance coming from the North which shows up about a minute later. The paramedics leap out of the doors of the ambulance and run to the rear doors. They throw them open wide and one of the two jumps in the back to grab an epinephrine pen. The guy in the back of the truck tosses it over to the EMT that is waiting on the ground. He catches the pen easily and then jogs over to the ambassador and pushes it in his rapidly swelling flesh. For a few moments nothing of any real significance happens but after about 15 seconds Brittany watches as the swelling stops and then starts to recede. His breathing evens out but he is unconscious probably from the lack of air. The paramedics pull out their gurney and with the help of the two men place Ortiz on it and gently strap him in.

The paramedics look at the doctor "We are going to take him to the E.R. for observation since he isn't conscious." The doctor simply nods.

"This man is an ambassador make sure he gets the best care possible." The doctor says under his breath to the Paramedic. "We don't need an international incident coming down on all of our heads."

"Do not let anything happen to this man." The bodyguard says to the paramedics with horrible menace painting his voice and without even waiting for a response walks away from the truck after the gurney is pushed in. They close the door and moments later the ambulance roars away, sirens blaring.

Brittany made sure she watched the ambulance disappear into the horizon with a worried look on her face before she turned to leave. She pulled a 20 out of her purse along with the valet ticket walking slowly over to the valet stand trying to look as tired and stunned as possible. Neither part was too difficult since she still hadn't completely got over her jet lag and her mission just went seriously askew. The valet pulls the Vanquish up a few minutes later and she hands the man the twenty dismissively and without a single word exchanged.

The second she is in the car the phone begins to ring. She quickly puts the phone into the hands free system built into the car and begins driving back to the staging point.

"The mission is FUBAR. Ortiz is on his way to the hospital from an allergic reaction to the poison."

"We are aware of the situation Snowbird we watched the whole operation and you did well. This was just an unfortunate hiccup. Don't worry, our people say the epinephrine has less than a two percent chance of doing anything to the poison now in his system and even if the doctors manage to detect the poison there is no way they will be able to create an anti-venom in time. He will be dead by morning." Brittany gave a relieved sigh. "If by some miracle he manages to survive we will set up another hit on him but your part is done.

"Head back to the warehouse change clothes and get back to your other cover. We will contact you in three weeks for reassignment regardless..."

"I have a tail." Brittany says calmly.

"Activate the car defenses. Push and hold the AC button in and rotate it 180 degrees." A keypad extends on the dash when Brittany follows the instructions. "Press 5, 3, 6, 8, 2, 2, 9." The inside of the car changes immediately after she hits the 9. A heads up display is projected on the windshield listing weapons and their ammunition counts. On the right side of the windshield is a rear camera display. The angle of the camera shifts. "Which vehicle?"

"The Black BMW has been 3 cars back and one to the left since I left the embassy. It is pretty sloppy tailing not varying their position. I mean seriously." The camera locks on the vehicle she mentioned.

"Be that as it may Snowbird, I think it is more important to deal with them rather than chide their abilities." The operator says shortly.

"Of course where is my head at." Brittany responds sarcastically. "Lose or eliminate?"

"We would prefer to not have any bodies on this op besides Ambassador Ortiz but if it's necessary do what you have to do. Good luck." She hears the phone click and smiles huge.

Been a while since I've been in a car chase. She steps on the accelerator and the monster of British engineering darts ahead quickly. She easily passes 80 miles an hour going almost twice the posted speed limit weaving expertly through traffic. Making sharp turns at nearly every available opportunity. The BMW follows as best it can but the car is neither as powerful nor is the driver as good as she is. Despite all of this she is still having difficulty losing them. She muses to herself that it has been way too long since she was in a car chase if she can't lose a BMW in a Vanquish. She would need to practice when she got back to Lima.

The fact that she couldn't lose them was just making it all the more fun though. She yanks on the handbrake while taking her foot off the accelerator and spinning the wheel hard. Her handbrake right turn is textbook and she is slamming on the gas to rocket off down the street before the BMW even notices the turn. She thought she had lost them twice but as soon as she slowed down they would round a corner and be on her again.

The car chase was losing its novelty very quickly and she was going to give it one more shot to lose them before she took them out of the chase a bit more violently. She slows down just enough to let the BMW catch up but not so much that she is making it obvious that she wants them closer. She pulls another hard turn into an alleyway and then presses a button about 5 feet in. She pulls to the end of the alley and then stops the vehicle before checking the rear camera display. The BMW follows her into the alley about 8 seconds later. She probably should have killed them but she didn't like killing unless it was necessary to the operation and this would get them off her back anyway. A second into the alley they hit the spike strip the Vanquish had dropped on its way in. They immediately screeched their tires until they rammed into a wall and Brittany heard a satisfying karunk noise of metal hitting brick. They probably survived but she wasn't stupid enough to find out. She pulled out of the alley slowly and drove a more circuitous route back to the warehouse than she would have liked.

When she gets back to the warehouse Phillip is waiting for her. She looked more than a little ashamed. "Phillip I think I blew Lisa's cover."

"What are you talking about Lisa is in London with her friends, in fact if I am not mistaken she is going out for a VERY public, very loud breakfast with several of her friends right now with her leg in a cast and all. You honestly think we didn't have a contingency plan? I'm actually insulted." He says smiling.

Brittany sighs in relief as she starts stripping off the expensive articles of jewelry and placing them back in the box.

"Lisa said you could keep the bracelet with the garrote wire by the way, she will just have another made." Phillip offered generously.

"Tell her I said thank you and that the next time I am in the UK we will, the three of us, do tea and biscuits or coffee and bagels or something." He laughs softly at her and she smiles disarmingly. "Do they mind if I keep the pens? This mission I am on doesn't really provide me with the fun stuff very often but they are still nice to have for emergencies."

"Those pens are a dime a dozen I doubt they will even notice they are missing."

"I doubt your doubt but I will take it anyway." Brittany replies easily. She opens the clutch and pulls out the pens leaving everything else and she puts the pens in her real purse. She takes about 10 minutes to remove her makeup and party dress and then put on her previous outfit. She starts crying so that she can explain the lack of makeup and in case Rachel is up it looks like the conversation with Santana went on for a while. Crying on command is something she has been able to do since she was a little girl. Between that and her genius IQ she got away with pretty much whatever she wanted her whole life.

After she converts herself from Lisa to Brittany completely, Phillip takes her back to the hotel. They don't talk much everything that needed to be said has been said and their kind aren't notorious for trusting each other even if they do like each other. While Brittany at least likes Phillip she can't read him well enough to get a solid gauge on the man though. She expects the same is true for him or at least she hopes. It is difficult to make friendly contacts in the spy game. Trusted contacts never happen but you can at least be courteous she thought.

She exits the car after a brief good bye and good luck and makes her way back up into the room opening the door as silently as a hotel door can be opened. Which is to say not very. Fortunately, though, Rachel is crashed out on her bed with the T.V. on at low volume the noise likely masking her entrance to the flickeringly lit room. Rachel is on the far side of the bed obviously hoping that Brittany would sleep in her bed because she untucked the sheets around the bed as an invitation to her. Brittany smiled and pulled out her sleep clothes changing in the room using the light of the TV to assist her. She set her purse on the nightstand open like she had the night before. She turned off the T.V. and very gently climbed into bed to not wake Rachel. She thought about spooning her but decided to just let her sleep. They could maybe cuddle in the morning or maybe more if she could elicit some sympathy for the whole Santana situation out of her. She puts her head on the pillow and slips into a blissful exhausted slumber.