Crap, this has been sitting here for ages, and I completely forgot about it!
To anyone that's still keeping track: I'm really sorry!!!!! I totally get it if you've abandoned this by now.
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Alex spent a long time staring at Heidi in complete and utter shock at first, then realized that it all made sense. He remembered that pause as she slid out of the booth, the morning after the figure attacked him. The unconscious guard in the snow. How she appeared out of nowhere earlier. Why she stumbled over her name when he first met her and seemed just as disgusted by that book he was holding as he was.
Even as he stared at her with his eyes bulging to the point where they were in danger of popping right out of their sockets, he noticed how well built she was, the well defined lines of the muscles in her arms where her sleeve had been rolled up and the graceful control of her board when they raced.
And he, like the stupid drooling fool he was, had missed it all. But the real question was, quite frankly:
"Who the hell are you?"
"Ah, I knew that was going to come up." She started rummaging around in the closet, taking random things out of all kinds of places; out of buckets, behind bottles. Small objects that she hid from his view as she tucked them into her many pockets. "Well, you seem to have guessed I'm not exactly who you thought I was."
Somewhat obvious, but he silently waited for her to continue.
"I am, in fact, your contact." At this Alex remembered what Mrs Jones had said before he left. "She who sucks the mint out of peppermints and life out of people made me come. Which was annoying, considering I don't even work for her, but I came anyway. I may not answer to her, but I do have to answer to someone...but the point is, I'm backup. They figured Blunt was too important for them to send you here on your own to get."
Well that was just wrong on all kinds of levels.
"But the whole thing was just a huge waste of time because he isn't even here! I've searched this entire freaking mountain and he's nowhere...unbelievable..." She started grumbling under her breath about the injustice of it all, including a very colorful bank of swear words. At least he was learning something.
"If you're my contact, then what took you so long to contact me?! And why did you attack me?"
"Oh, yeah that was because I didn't know who you were. I thought you were another guard. As for what took so long, well, I never really saw you do much, so I figured I'd wait till you started snooping-" She stopped abruptly, interrupted by voices outside.
"...crazy. He's crazy I tell you: making us jump around all over the place. England, here, now Hong Kong? Can't he just stay in one place?"
"I dunno. I don't get it either. But he pays well, and we get to stay in some pretty nice places. I've always wanted to travel. Not quite what I had in mind..."
The Complainer and Silver Lining man walked past and Heidi turned to Alex with a grin on her face. "Looks like we got our break. Get your stuff. Its time to take a trip to the wonderful city of Hong Kong."
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Yeah, short. But I don't even remember what I was going for anymore. Will figure it out, or do something different...