Part 4 (of 5)
Auggie only had one coffee to maneuver this morning as he walked the halls of the DPD. While a day without Annie was usually a little boring, it was probably best to not be distracted by her. He had a new piece of software in testing that needed his fairly undivided attention.
"Hey Auggie," Barber greeted as Auggie made his way to his desk.
"Morning, Barber," he replied.
"Missed you last night at Allen's. After Jai's thing we all headed over, expected you and Annie," Barber hinted.
"It was kind of a rough day for us," he slipped, already talking about them as an us, he was a better spy than that.
Barber just murmured in agreement, but he knew. Barber knew it was more than a rough day, it had been a hellish few months for his boss and Agent Walker. Barber was smack in the middle of it in the back of a surveillance van and wanted nothing more than to hightail it out of there that day.
Just then Auggie's phone trilled a new text. Worried it might be more revealing than he liked, he plugged his headset in and listened to it privately.
"They're beautiful," said the mechanical voice but he heard Annie.
"You're beautiful," he typed in return.
"You're just guessing on that one," the voice spoke back.
"No, of this I am sure," he typed out.
"Shopping with Danielle, but we should talk tonight," it seemed like the mechanical voice dropped an octave into the reality of all that still lay out there for them to discuss.
"My place? 8pm?"
"I'll bring dinner," the voice made him smile. It wasn't her voice, but it still made him smile.
Barber could see his boss grinning in the reflection of his huge monitor.
"Testing is starting up in 20, any last minute tweaks?"
"I think it is clean, but the testing team will route out some bugs I am sure. I ran full diagnostics yesterday and I think it is sound."
Barber set about launching the tests as Auggie tapped away at his keyboard. Barber was a little in awe of his boss, he played that keyboard like an instrument and aside from a few moments of panic, usually when Annie was in danger, he never saw Auggie flinch in the face of his challenges.
The clicking of heels got Auggie's attention, the cadence telling him it was Joan on her way right towards him.
"What can I do for you Joan?" Auggie smiled before she could open her mouth.
"You do know you are terrifying when you do that?" Auggie just nodded. "I need a possible extraction for an Operative in Lithuania, fog has rolled in and the charter flight we had set is grounded indefinitely. He could be in a jam in the next 60 minutes or so."
"Where is he now?"
"Salanta"
"About 25 km from the Baltic, right? Not far from the border."
"Yes."
"I have a buddy with a houseboat in Latvia, just over the border, if he can get there I can get him out no problem. Give him my direct line."
"Thank you Auggie," Joan tried not to sound like she took his miracles for granted, but he was good at getting agents out of jams.
The extraction was complicated by a rogue Chechen who showed up at the worst possible time, but by 5:30 ET Auggie was assured Agent Groves was on a houseboat drinking a fine Latvian lager.
"How'd the testing go?" Auggie emerged from his extraction haze.
"Two interface things, no bugs, but the users would like the button to say "execute" instead of "deploy" and they want it on the right instead of the left."
"Well I want to eat French fries at every meal, but it is not really in my best interest. I'll look at it tomorrow," Auggie began setting his desk back to rights.
"You leaving?" Barber was shocked, it wasn't even 6:00.
"I am before anyone can come up with a reason for me to stay…" Auggie's cell rang and he groaned until the little mechanical voice said "Annie Walker" between rings.
"Miss me Walker?" he smirked.
"So much," not her usual snarky reply.
"I am packing up for the day, where are you?"
"I am Christmas shopping with Dani. Would you prefer a Yonanas or Pajama Jeans?"
"I have no idea what either of those things are, but they sure sound fun."
"It is impossible to choose."
"We still on for dinner? I know Danielle probably wants every minute of your time and I am fine with that."
"Nope, she is exhausted from the flight last night and all the shopping, she really is OK with me abandoning her for the evening. She thinks we should talk."
"She's not wrong."
"She is hardly ever wrong, it is totally annoying."
"We don't have to wait until 8:00. I'll be home in 20 minutes."
"I need to drop all these gifts off at home, be there as soon as I can. Bye."
Barber slowed his breathing in hopes Auggie would think he was not there, but the blind agent was the most observant person Barber knew.
"Eric, I can hear your hair growing," Auggie chuckled.
"I wasn't eavesdropping.'
"You're a spy, eavesdropping is your life."
"I won't say a word. Except this, I will say this, you two are ridiculously cute together, you know that right? It is like crazy adorable."
"Barber, try to refrain from calling your boss adorable, just as a general rule," but the chuckle was back and Auggie said no more as he headed out the door.