Chapter 11: Code Breaking and Entering
Brittany woke at six thirty in the morning, a little tired but very excited. She ended up falling asleep not too much beyond two in the morning after spending the entire night creating her cipher. She set it to attempt a decode before going to sleep and if she did everything correctly it should be decoded by now. She worked on it for 8 hours straight before she finally had her eureka moment. It took her almost that long to decode a single sentence of the email.
What she saw in the text amazed her. It was sheer elegance in it's simplicity but still quite ingenious. The whole message was written in "leet speak" so when the code breakers would crack the encryption they would still be getting odd characters and start all over again. When she broke some of it into a readable format, it was still incredibly difficult to read. The code, she determined, was going to be ridiculously difficult to break especially since they seemed to use rotating leetspeek characters and normal characters, seemingly interchangeably, even using multiple characters for one letter just to throw people off. The letter A for instance could be: A, a, , /\, /-\, or 4. She didn't know whether to shake their hand or punch them in the face. Given her mission it was likely she would be doing both.
The sentence read: /\|?r!\/a1 0|= |D/-\ckA63 0n 7|_|3$. Which translated to: Arrival of package on Tues. It wasn't much information especially since the email was a month old but what it lacked in usable Intel it more than made up for in decryption information. Each character in an encryption code stood for another letter or character and this gave her 20 characters that she was fairly sure of.
After that it was just a matter of keying in the decryption program and since there were several base programs to start with all she had to do was key in her decryption algorithm. It took her about 25 minutes to do that and then she crossed her fingers and pushed the decrypt button. She went to bed after this but her sleep was restless, she tossed and turned all night but never entered lucid dreams so she didn't remember them when she woke. When her alarm went off blasting Slipknot it was just too much after only 4 hours of rest, if you could even call it that. She was a trained spy so she could go for weeks on this much sleep or less but that didn't mean she had to like it. She immediately went to the computer and looked at the email. It was still a mess but it was a mess that was resolving. She determined that three of the characters she entered earlier were wrong and deleted and replaced them with other possibilities She also managed to work out a possible 14 new characters and added them to the cipher and allowed it to work it's magic while she got into the shower. Trial and error.
While thinking in the shower she mused that it was quite possible the code breakers had broken the code a dozen times over by various people and they just never even realized it . By the time she finished her shower her laptop was done with its second pass. It was coming along nicely but this was going to take most of the day or possibly even longer so she resolved to take the laptop with her to school. If someone asked why she had a computer with her she would just make sure she had a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic game up on the screen to switch back and forth between. She added a few more characters to the cipher and began to get dressed.
After getting dressed she went downstairs and poured herself a bowl of cereal but more importantly she grabbed a thermos of coffee. She took a sip and felt the warmth spread from her head down to her toes. Brittany knew it was a crutch and one a spy should be without but she got addicted in Grad School. She needed to find a better way to get her energy because caffeine shakes are horrible for sniping and stealth. She washed the bowl out after consuming her Lucky Charms and put it in the dish washer and refilled the thermos with the remainder of the coffee pot.
When she got back upstairs she realized she didn't have enough time to start the next round of programming if she wanted to get to school on time so she threw her laptop into her bag and started to walk out the door. It was pouring rain so she ran back inside and grabbed her umbrella and her letterman jacket before running out to her bug and activating the home defenses. She drove quickly because she spent too much time with the decryption algorithm and she didn't want to be late. Brittany may have been failing all her classes but her attendance was impeccable. Well going to school anyway what she did there was a different story. She arrived with a little bit over ten minutes to spare and she headed in the direction of her first class.
As she walked by the choir room she heard the familiar dulcet tones of Rachel's singing voice and she is pulled by it towards her. She moves on autopilot and as she gets closer she hears the lyrics. Rachel sat at the bench her eyes closed tapping the keys firmly. Her dark brown hair cascaded down her back as she leaned her head back waiting for her cue to sing the next line. Brittany stopped entranced for a moment at just how beautiful the girl was when she sang. She was always beautiful of course but when she sang it was like she was fulfilling her destiny. She thought that the same would be true on her Broadway stage or a seedy nightclub in the Bronx. In fact she thought she was more beautiful when she was singing for fun rather than when she was driven towards her goal.
She walked up to the piano and just bathes in the warm waters of her voice.
Everything's changin'
when I turn around
All out of my control, I'm a mobile
Everything's changin' out of what I know
Everywhere I go, I'm a mobile, I'm a mobile
She gently puts her hand on the back of Rachel's shoulder.
"Ahhhh." Rachel yells in surprise jumping off the bench. Brittany does her best to not laugh at the girl but is pretty unsuccessful. "Not cool Snow you scared the crap out of me."
"Sorry I was just trying to let you know I was here without interrupting you. Guess we know how well that worked out." She says still snickering. "I was enjoying the song but I suppose I did kind of sneak up on you."
Rachel glares while she catches her breath. "Well other than trying to give me a heart attack was there a reason you were here? I don't think I have ever seen you here in the choir room this early in the morning."
"Yeah there is. I wanted to give you this." She says wrapping her arms around Rachel's waist. Rachel initially stiffens at the contact.
"Oh." Rachel says pleasantly surprised. After a second she returns the hug wrapping her arms around Brittany's neck laying her head on Brittany's shoulder and closing her eyes. Brittany kisses Rachel gently on the cheek.
"Oh my God." Both girls turn to look at the bane of the school's existence standing there filming them hugging.
"Jacob Ben-Israel I swear on my fluffy duck slippers if you don't leave us alone right now I am going to have Santana break every bone in your body." Brittany says not bothering to let go of Rachel or even giving him a second glance after refocusing her attention on Rachel. She knew no one was afraid of her but everyone was afraid of Santana. The irony that Brittany could actually make good on the threat she just claimed Santana would do was not lost on the brilliant girl. Without so much as another peep JBI took off running down the hallway both girls well aware that he was going to post the video of them hugging. Not only was it juicy gossip but two pretty girls touching would guarantee him some pretty decent hits. "Jackass."
After he leaves Rachel releases the hug and turns to Brittany. "Not that I mind the embrace but what's the occasion?"
"A thank you. What you did for me last night was huge. I am currently in the process of decoding the most recent email that we received through our HLS email monitoring. I still have several hours worth of work to get the details but I am pretty sure this email is directions somewhere. Possibly out of town but to what I don't know yet. Either way it might be enough of a lead to at least postpone the final solution abductions."
Rachel resumes the hugging once again throwing her arms around Brittany's neck with wild abandon. Her smile is practically ear to ear. It doesn't last very long but both girls enjoy the second hug immensely and they both pull away their cheeks tinting red slightly at the feeling of their bodies pressed against each other.
"What if this email doesn't pan out to be anything?" Rachel asks not doing all that well in hiding the worry in her voice.
"A valid question." Brittany says nodding. "If this email doesn't come to anything we have more than a dozen more that we now know how to decode. There is bound to be something we can use to infiltrate the ring in one of them. What it means is that my coming here wasn't completely useless and even if we haven't solved the mystery by graduation day we still have a good chance at cracking and co-opting the ring." Brittany says all this casting her eyes often towards the door to make sure no one was listening to their conversation. "So again thank you."
Rachel smiles widely. "You are very welcome." Brad chooses this moment to walk in the door and while his face is completely expressionless his eyes have always spoken volumes to Brittany. The seething hatred he has for all the glee kids is even more intense whenever Rachel Berry was in the room. Her hand was always close to some kind of weapon whenever Brad was around because she was never sure if or when he would lose it. She just hoped that it would only entail a Rachel style storm out and not something more tragic that would make headlines.
The warning bell went off letting them know they had 3 minutes to get to their first class. "I need to go now." Rachel says. "Bye Brittany, have a good day Brad." She says actually acknowledging his presence and the anger seemed to dissipate in his eyes by a small fraction. Rachel smiles and pulls her hair behind her left ear. She bites her bottom lip and it looked like she wanted to say something but she shakes her head and walks out the door without another word. Brittany shrugs her shoulders and walks towards her first class also saying goodbye to Brad hoping that it's just their apathy towards him that brings the ire and she resolves to, at the least, make sure his assistance is recognized by her. He doesn't say anything but she can tell he almost smiled.
She sits down in the back of her first class and sets up her laptop while her remedial math teacher Mr. King tries to teach the high school kids fractions. Brittany admired the man actually. He had been teaching remedial education classes for 30 years to the trouble makers, the hard headed, the less intelligent and those with learning disabilities. Through all of this he usually had a smile on his face and even when the worst students disrupted his class he never lost his temper just politely asked them to leave his class and come back tomorrow ready to learn. He didn't even usually send them to the Principal or detention unless what they did was horrible. He just asked them to leave to cool down and they almost always came back with an apology on their lips. Most of his students liked the man.
She felt bad about doing this in his class but it was just too important. She set up the My Little Pony Flash Game which was a quest for a pony to find her cutie mark. The great thing was it could sit idle for long periods of time without any negative consequences so she could just pick up the game if someone became too interested in her laptop. The latest run through was complete and she was right it was directions to somewhere out of town. She needed to complete the decode for an exact location but she is pretty sure it will only take four to six more attempts to get a solid 95% of it. With a code like this it is unlikely to ever be 100% because a single typo could throw off the entire code but a few random characters are fine as long as the majority can be understood. She typed in the changes to the cipher slowly as to not arouse suspicion. It takes her about 4 minutes of this to set up for the next run. She types in the begin sequence and clicks back to put the game back up.
"Brittany, what are you doing?"
"Playing a game Mr. King." She deadpans not looking up from her laptop.
"Well can you play it another time please, I know school is almost over for the year but we do still have some things to learn before your final. Put your laptop away please." He says this very kindly and without a trace of annoyance in his tone.
She really did like the man. "Sure thing Mr. King." she said as bubbly as she could. She knew closing the laptop would put it in sleep mode further delaying the decode but a trip to the principal would not be the best thing when she was so very close. Most of her other teachers didn't really care what she did since she probably had the lowest GPA in the school so she would just finish in her other classes.
The rest of the day went excruciatingly slow for the blonde girl. She kept trying to get moments alone to work on her laptop but her popularity was a serious detriment to her mission. People kept interrupting her to talk, but she managed to get a lot done ditching her friends at lunch telling them that she was going to spend some time with Rachel. Not entirely untrue but their spending time together consisted of her plugging away on her laptop while Rachel sang for fun in the auditorium. It was nice having musical accompaniment while she worked though, Rachel singing her way through a couple of Christine's songs in Phantom. She worked as hard as she was able during the school day and managed to complete three more passes on the laptop. By the time last period bell rang she was fairly confident she had it decoded enough to read the majority of it without error. She transferred the body of the text into a word file and transmitted it and the cipher to the CIA so they could begin decoding the other emails. Extremely excited she once again tracks down Rachel and like before finds her in the choir room.
There weren't a ton of extra curricular clubs that met on Wednesdays other than practice for the sports teams and with the seasons pretty much over for all of them the school emptied like a cheerleader's stomach after a kegger. As such she wasn't too worried about being overheard and she runs in the room and grabs Rachel from behind and swings her around. She panicked initially but when she realized what was happening she screamed in delight.
"I did it Rachel. I broke the code." Brittany effuses while beaming widely.
"That is so amazing Snow. I am so happy for you and by proxy me. I was not looking forward to being water boarded."
"It's unpleasant…but it's unlikely to kill you. It just feels that way." Brittany says shuddering lightly.
"You've been water boarded?" Rachel responds horrified.
"Yes I have. Anti-interrogation training is just a nice way of saying 'how long can you last while being tortured before you break' which everyone does. The best part of course is that it was done by my own country." She sighs deeply. "Most people who have vital information to the country and have a chance of falling into enemy hands go through something similar. Special Forces, combat pilots, astronauts."
"I see. Doesn't sound fun though." Rachel says morosely.
"It's not." Brittany responds with finality.
"Off topic off topic, back to the subject at hand what was in the email?" Rachel asks excited.
"It's directions to a safe house where they keep the illegal immigrants in between getting them into the country and their final destination in Ohio which looks to be South. It isn't very specific on the next leg of their journey. Maybe Cincinnati. This is total speculation but I would say Columbus or Cincinnati where they hop maybe a freight train or the back of a freight truck and head towards Chicago where the mob can move them to anywhere in the country. Anyway that is for logistics to figure out, but this house is something tangible. Something I can sink my teeth into. I pulled it up on a spy satellite and it is off a dirt road in the middle of nowhere surrounded by forest. I am going to go recon it tonight possibly raid it depending on my orders. Probably hit it around eleven or midnight."
"Sounds exciting." She pauses and asks tentatively. "You think maybe I could come."
"A world of no. It's bad enough you were there when I killed those two goons, I am not going to willingly take an untrained civilian into what will more than likely be a hostile situation. Not gonna happen babe."
Rachel looks a little down at being rejected for the mission but Brittany has to draw a line somewhere she supposes. On the other hand she has already committed several acts of treason in the past week in regards to Rachel so what was one more. She ultimately decides there are just too many unknowns on this mission for her to be safe and she doesn't want anything to happen to her so she shakes her head and mutters an apology to the girl.
"Can I least come over while you gear up for the mission. My fathers are gone for the evening at some conference in Toledo. They are going to get a hotel room in the city and make an evening of it. I really just hate to be alone." She admits kind of sadly.
"Sure Rach you can crash at my place if you want. Just do me a favor and stay in my bedroom after I leave, my house can be a little dangerous if you don't know your way around." Rachel laughs at what she perceives as a joke. "No seriously my house can kill you." Rachel's smile falters. "Come on lets go I have a keyboard in my room you can practice with. I can play a little but I wouldn't say I am any good. Playing musical instruments is not one of the skills that have come easily to me but you can't say I haven't tried. I took lessons as a kid and even up until college but no luck, but anyway I do have one that you can use. A guitar too but I am even worse on that than I am on the piano." She smiled gently.
"And people say I ramble." Rachel teases.
"Shut up." Brittany responds playfully. "Let's go yeah?"
Brittany leads Rachel out to the parking lot and they get into their respective cars to drive over to Brittany's house. Rachel parked just like they did the day before but Brittany parked in the garage so she could get to her car without being seen later. She walked back outside and she let them both into the house and up the stairs. Instead of going to the surveillance room like they had previously, they went into Brittany's bedroom. The room was dressed in dark greens and silver and Rachel was briefly reminded of the Slytherin Common Room in Harry Potter but instead of cold and uninviting it seemed understated and comfortable. A huge cat waddled up to Rachel and rubbed himself on her leg. "You weren't kidding when you said he was fat." She reaches down to pet Lord Tubbington who immediately rolls onto his back and lets Rachel rub his stomach. He starts purring at every stroke. "Sweet though."
"Yes his grace is wonderful aren't you My Lord? Who's a good feudal lord huh?" Brittany coos at her cat and joins Rachel in petting his stomach. Lord Tubbington meows in response to the two girls petting him. Brittany stands up leaving Rachel to pet her cat and walks over to the bed side table to grabs her remote for her TV. "I don't have much in the way of DVDs but I do have Netflix. I was watching Dollhouse if that interests you."
"Never heard of it." Brittany gave Rachel a scandalized look.
"Love of Firefly and never heard of Dollhouse? I really don't think we can be friends anymore." She said as seriously as she could. She lets a smile rise slowly on her face. "I will start at the beginning and we can order some vegan pizza or something later. I like veggies on my pizza so don't worry about it. I would make something but I am not really set up to feed a vegan sorry for that." She finished when Rachel seemed about to say something about her food choice.
The two sat on opposite sides of the bed eating some non buttered popcorn that Brittany had popped while Rachel watched the pilot episode. For several hours the two of them got lost in the tragic story of Echo and her fellow actives. At 5:30pm Brittany's phone rang and she paused the television. She looked at the caller ID and looked over at Rachel.
"Completely silent now not a peep." She gets a nod from Rachel and accepts the call. "Hello."
"Snow? Robertson." Her mentor said tersely.
"Go ahead for Snowbird."
"You have authorization for your mission tonight. Solo mission. Recon has been canceled we want full infiltration of the farmhouse. Once you arrive at the perimeter give us an update of the situation and we will update your orders as needed."
"Understood. Has satellite telemetry revealed anything about the house." Brittany asks wanting to know as much as possible for her infiltration.
"Two story farmhouse maybe four or five bedrooms. Two points of egress apart from the windows it appears to have a basement or storm cellar. We estimate 4 to 8 people inside." Robertson had a sense of humor but when it came to the job he was all business.
"Okay I will depart base at 2200 hours park a few miles out and hike the rest of the way I estimate I will be close to the house at 2330 and at 2345 I will begin my assault." She responding knowing that Robertson preferred his operatives to speak to him in a similar manner when on the job.
"Please take lethal and non-lethal measures as we have not decided what to do with the people in the farmhouse. When you call in to update we will advise you further."
"Yes sir. Call you back in about 6 hours." She hangs up the phone and un-pauses the show and doesn't say anything.
"Was there something unusual about that call?" Rachel asks after a few minutes.
"No, but you really don't need to know all the details of what I am going to do tonight. You don't want to know. Trust me on that."
"Oh I see." Rachel says and sits silently more staring at the television than actually watching it. "Snow. If I might say something."
"Of course Rach."
"You don't seem to enjoy the things you have to do for your job so why do you do it?"
Brittany pauses for a few moments thinking before answering the question. "There are certain aspects of my job that I find unpleasant for sure but all and all the job is extremely fulfilling, knowing that I am doing something important for the country. My actions let our citizens continue to be free and relatively safe. If I have to do horrible things so others won't have to, then that's what I'll do." Brittany set her jaw firmly to prove that she was serious and Rachel couldn't read any falsehoods in her eyes and tones. Even if Brittany hadn't meant it she was a practiced liar how would she ever be able to tell the difference.
They didn't talk much over the next few hours just shared a more comfortable silence than two people who had just recently connected were entitled to. They ordered and ate a delicious vegan pizza with extra mushrooms and watched TV until about 9. Just when the show really started to pick up Brittany got up off her bed and walked over to the closet.
"I am going to change now. Look or don't I'm not ashamed of my body. Hell I work really hard to keep this body so please feel free to ogle it as much as you like." She wiggles her eyebrows at Rachel in a suggestive but slightly joking way. She unzipped her cheerleader uniform a lot more slowly than was necessary letting it fall to the floor in a pile and she kicked it away with her bare feet. She shakes her ass a little and sticks her index fingers in her spankies slowly pulling them down her hips revealing a lime green thong that matches perfectly her bra. She unlatches her bra letting her pert breasts fall out of the cups and she lets the bra fall on top of her uniform. She takes the green thong down her hips slowly making sure Rachel had a perfect view of everything she was showing her. Rachel lets out a not so small whimper and Brittany can't hide the smug smirk that crosser face.
She was almost sad that she had to put less attractive underwear on but she needed more function than form for this so she in all her glory grabbed a black sports bra and a pair of boy shorts from her top drawer. She puts them on very slowly so Rachel could appreciate the view for as long as possible. A sound of loss came unbidden from Rachel and Brittany can't help but rub it in. "Your choice Rachel."
She sticks her arms into the closet and then spreads them pushing the clothes to either side of her secret panel. She places her hand on an invisible palm print panel and the wall flips over and pushes outward and then expanding sideways for several feet. She grabs the cat suit first which she pulls on and it leaves nothing to the imagination covering her body like a second skin. She next takes a Kevlar vest and throws it over the cat suit. She steps to her equipment and pulls a short sword and sheathe and slings it over her shoulder strapping it in place. She puts a set of throwing knives on the inside of her left forearm and a dagger on the outside and another dagger on her right arm. She also leaves the platinum garrote bracelet on her left wrist it felt like a security blanket after only a few days.
She straps a, for lack of a better phrase, utility belt around her waist and on the small of her back puts a gun strap in which she puts a tranquilizer pistol with 20 darts. She was not overly fond of tranquilizer pistols because of the range but a tranq rifle was just to cumbersome for an in and out mission. If she could easily snipe them all it would be worth carrying it but she assumed most of the people at the house would be in it, it was only logical. Next she looked at her large collection of guns. After a few moments of contemplation she decides to just go with her standard outfitting. She starts with her housebreaking pouches. There are two of them containing a small lock picking set, a glass cutter, a small battery powered soldering gun with solder and a collapsible glass cutter. She definitely had better breaking and entering gear but it was all very large and it's not like she was breaking into a museum or a castle, it was just a farmhouse after all.
On her right hip she straps a holster and puts a silenced 9mm Beretta her go to mission weapon, it has a nice range, a mild kick, silences fairly well and rarely jams. On her ankle she straps a five shot American Derringer .45 Colt a small but handy weapon in a pinch but one she doesn't like to use if she doesn't have to. Lastly on her left leg her weapon of last resort a 9mm Silenced Ingram. Small enough to easily carry as long as she doesn't leave a clip in, the problem was it was loud even silenced. Unless you were a good hundred feet away or behind several walls you could hear the damn thing. However anything in the way of the weapons spray was going to have a religious experience.
She took out several clips checked the magazine's springs and then began to load them. She looked over at Rachel who just seemed fascinated with watching her. Brittany looking back to her task says. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"Oh I just find it interesting watching you in your element. You move so smoothly and confidently. It's like you're an entirely different person."
"Well." She says as she slams the now fully loaded clip into the bottom of the 9mm. "I am a different person. You only caught a brief glance of the real me the other night. You still don't really know much about me." She pulls the slide back chambering the first round and then turns the safety on and places the piece back in it's holster. She loads up four more clips each holding 10 rounds and latches them onto her belt. Next she loads a very small clip, then removes, loads and replaces the Derringer. She doesn't load any other clips for that piece it isn't a weapon she wants to have to use but one that makes her feel safer knowing it is there. She also loads three 21 shot clips for the Ingram and places them on her belt as well. The clips just sticks out too far for it to be practical to pre-load the fully automatic weapon. Of course if the need arises she can always use the Beretta clips in the Ingram. She was very careful to make sure her clips were interchangeable so the reverse is also true.
Lastly she put on a pair of supple boots. They were enough to protect her feet but still thin enough to be perfect for stealth. She had tougher boots for the more direct approach but she hardly ever used them she was much more often a thief in the night. Brittany adjusted her Derringer so that it was both concealed and easy to access. She grabbed a pair of thin well oiled leather gloves as well as a ski mask. She didn't put either on just took them over to the bed where she gingerly sat on the end and continued to watch the TV show. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and couldn't stop her frown. She always looked so lopsided with her gear. She wishes that she was a bit more ambidextrous but her right hand was her weapon hand. She was pretty good with a knife or dagger in her left hand but she couldn't shoot or throw for shit.
"Well that is something we should fix don't you think?" Rachel said.
"Huh?" Brittany responded having completely forgotten what they were talking about a few minutes prior. "Oh the getting to know me thing right?"
"Yes. I know I can't delve into anything serious because of your cover but maybe I could ask about your likes and dislikes?" At this Brittany shrugs and nods.
"Ok um. Favorite book, favorite movie, favorite TV show, favorite song, favorite singer." Rachel says all in one breath.
"Geez Rach, I'm not leaving right this second I have about a half an hour left." She pauses the TV show. "Book: without question Ender's Game. I could easily make an argument for something more classic like Macbeth or Pride and Prejudice but there is something about the way Card using Ender's struggle at the Battle School as a metaphor for the isolation, abuse, and ostracizing that children of above average intelligence go through. Not to mention the theme of prejudice and message of empathy and eventual acceptance of outsiders and it just spoke to me from a very young age. It's a shame really that the author doesn't espouse the beliefs his own characters represent." She shrugs again.
"On a less heavy note, favorite movie Monty Python and de Holy Grailen." She said in a Swedish accent. "Love that movie I can quote it from beginning to end." Rachel smiles at her excitement. "TV show right? I thought that would be obvious, Buffy. I don't feel I need to justify that. Favorite Song. My Headband." She pauses and Rachel glares deeply at her pursing her lips. "Just messing with you. Honestly though this is always a tough one for me since it's ever shifting. At one point it really was My Headband terrible as it is I thought it was kind of cute. I like funny songs like Lonely Island and Stephen Lynch. I have to say right now I am really fond of Virgin State of Mind by K's Choice it comes in and out as my favorite. Always wanted to perform it in glee since not only is it one of my favorites but totally in my range but I figured it might be a bit deep for stupid Brittany to get. I heard it on an episode of Buffy though and I was hooked.
"Favorite singer, I don't really want to say."
"Why is it someone totally embarrassing like Barry Manilow or Michael Bolton?"
"No, nothing like that and I actually have mad respect for Michael Bolton after he made Jack Sparrow with Lonely Island. So no." Rachel scrutinizing every detail of Brittany's face she finally relented. "Ugh fine my favorite singer is…you."
Rachel looks at her with an expression that so obviously says 'whatever' and Brittany rolls her eyes. "Well if you aren't going to take this seriously we can just stop." Rachel says.
"I am completely serious Rachel. I remember the first time I heard you sing On My Own on your Myspace page. Quinn and Santana and a few of the other Cheerios were writing hateful comments on your page and when they asked me to write something I just said I forgot how to type. I couldn't bring myself to do it, you were so beautiful and so amazing even if you were, you know, poorly dressed." She says smiling to show that she was teasing her and not insulting her. Since then every time you sing even just in rehearsal it takes my breath away. I think that is one of the reasons Santana picked on you so much because she could see the way I would be affected by your voice. Well amongst other things."
"What other things?" Rachel said affronted.
"Oh, no nothing like that. I meant that I think, can't say for sure, but I think she may have had a bit of a crush on you and her teasing was her repressing her own feelings and lashing out at you in a very juvenile punch the girl you like in the arm kind of way."
Rachel sat back for a minute taking in all that Brittany had said about her singing and about Santana's possible feelings. "Huh," is all she really got out. It was a lot and the whole Santana thing made sense to her in a very real way. "What about Quinn does she have a crush on me too?" Rachel says her tone light so Brittany can tell she is obviously joking.
"No I don't think so, again I can't be certain but I doubt it. I think that she saw in you something she hated more than anything in the world. Herself. Back when she was Lucy at her old school she was you, or at least you four years ago. She was picked on, shunned, and she had no friends. So she saw you and loathed you for everything SHE was and attacked. Then you did something truly unforgivable. You started rising up, slowly, without changing anything and started taking things that she had and had always wanted: her boyfriend, real friends and even popularity. Quinn changed everything about herself her body, her hair color, her face. After all that she discovered even after her makeover, cheerios, dating the most popular guy in school and becoming Queen Bee she still didn't really have any friends. Sure she was popular and beautiful but she was still so very alone.
"Not that people didn't try to be her friend though. You tried, Mercedes tried and most of Glee did as well but she was so used to the backstabbers in Cheerios who tried to use her for her status she unconsciously bottled her feelings up. Santana and I were close to her and we care about her but I am what I am and Santana doesn't let people in if she doesn't trust them and Quinn just holds everything so close to her chest so between the two of them they never really felt the need to open up to each other and just be. I am glad she finally started to let you in this year after the whole Beth fiasco thing. Still surprised she did that though considering you took Finn from her not once but twice. I think it was the whole managing to rise from the bottom to semi popular without changing much but your wardrobe. She wanted to know how you did it and still managed to be you."
"Well I am nothing if not persistent." Rachel says smiling. "I do feel bad about the whole Finn thing though, especially considering how it all turned out."
"What did happen there anyway? You guys seemed to be going strong and then all of a sudden you weren't a couple. The last few times you broke up there was a huge blow out and a lot of shouting. This time you were both all 'yeah we aren't together anymore,' it was kind of weird."
Rachel thinks for a second. "Oh there was definitely shouting we just had the good sense to do it behind closed doors this time. We promised we would keep it our business and no one else's but you have really trusted me with a lot and it would be unfair to not share with you after all that you've risked. Remember a few months ago when Mr. Shue proposed to Miss P?" Brittany nodded. "Well later that night Finn took me into the auditorium and proposed to me." Brittany's jaw just dropped that was not the answer she had been expecting. "Well, being the romantic I am and the wonderfulness of the moment I of course accepted immediately. We kept it secret for a bit so it could just be, you know, ours. Just for a little bit.
"After a few days we started discussing our future and we realized that our dreams, they didn't really mesh well together. I wanted the stage and all the good and bad that goes with it and he supported that but only up to a point. That point is when we started to have children. Once I had our first child he wanted me to retire from the theater and be a stay at home mom. He also wanted me to pop out three or four more little rugrats whereas I only wanted one. He would get a job doing whatever and attempt to support us and I would rear the children. I told him that I had no problem taking some time off for a year or even two but that I would still stay busy during that time. Maybe recording an album maybe doing voice over work for cartoons. Regardless, I would never give up on my dream. This didn't really sit well with him and his version of life didn't sit well with me, so after a few days where our conversations ranged from calm discussion to all out war we both decided that it would be best if we ended our engagement and our relationship as well. Irreconcilable differences. Having both come to the same conclusion, while it hurt us both, we didn't feel the need to hate each other afterwards. So we decided to stay friends and stay in touch and to never mention our failed engagement to save us both the embarrassment not to mention the heart attacks it would have caused our parents." She shudders.
"I personally think you made the right decision. Your voice should never be kept from the world, In me, you have a fan for life. Any albums you release and I know there will be at least a few. Also any shows you have I will go to at least one performance. I may not be able to come and say hi depending on who is around or what my cover is but I will try and I WILL be there," She pauses before saying almost under her breath. "Assuming I live that long."
"Whoa, you better not die on me Snowbird, Brittany Susan Pierce and whatever your real name happens to be. I know we may not be able to correspond openly but I expect some way for you to communicate with me after you leave. I don't care if you send me a letter with a blank page just something." Rachel almost screamed this getting up on her knees and pointing her finger angrily at Brittany.
"Settle down Rach. I promise I will figure out a way to let you know I am alive regularly. Just give me a bit to think about it okay? Tonight when I am done I will text you the letter c if they ask I will just say it's an accident. I won't be able to do it again but this once I can pull it off."
"Why 'c'?" Rachel asks.
"I don't know first letter that popped in my head." She said shrugging. "You should just try and go to sleep and hopefully by the morning I will be sleeping right next to you."
"You better be." Rachel says under her breath.
"I do need to go though. Things to see and people to do." Rachel smiled painfully at Brittany's tasteless joke. "I will see you in the morning." She pauses before walking out the door and instead walks over to her bed where Rachel is sitting. She leans down and kisses Rachel's forehead. "Sleep well." Brittany stalks out of the room psyching herself up for her mission. She is in her car in seconds and driving out of town in the direction of the farmhouse.
With every foot of black asphalt that flew behind the VW Brittany faded more and more and Snowbird took her place. The drive took thirty minutes and she pulls off the main road into a clearing of trees. She drove in a few hundred feet until her car couldn't be seen from the road. She turned off her car, got out and went to the trunk opening it. She grabbed a small black backpack from a small compartment in the bottom of the car's trunk. Along with the usual gear she kept in it which all pertained to surveillance she placed her ski mask and gloves inside of it. She shouldered the bag and strapped it across her chest and tightened the straps so there was almost no movement. She double checked that her weapons were secure in their holsters and that the safeties were on. She estimated there to be about 2.5 miles to the house so she set off at a steady run. Enough to get her heart pumping but not enough to tire her out. She estimated that it would take her anywhere from 15-45 minutes depending on terrain and need for stealth.
Her breathing evened out into a steady rhythm as she ran. The only sounds in the still night are the leaves crunching under foot and the own pounding of her blood in her eardrums. She paused for a moment pulled out her phone and activated the link for the spy satellite that was relocated for this mission. She looked up her location to make sure she was still on course, adjusted her heading slightly and continued on noticing she had covered a little more than half the distance in about 12 minutes. Snowbird moved through the trees but noticed the trees began to thin as she got closer to the farmhouse and about an eighth of a mile out she slowed down to approach the house stealthily. The trees didn't cover the field coming up on the house but the farm itself was not looked after so there was a field of tall grass she could use for cover.
She took the bag off of her shoulder and pulled out the mask, the gloves and a multifunction set of goggles. She hasn't really had a lot of time for video games recently but she loved them in college and they always reminded her of Sam Fisher's goggles from the Splinter Cell series. Hers had a few advantages including a Bluetooth function that connected through her phone to let her talk to her superiors and also broadcast imagery up to the satellite and back to Langley.
The black mask covered up Snow's pretty face before she turned the Bluetooth connection on and put the goggles over her eyes. She turned on the thermal imaging and noticed a heat signature right away off to her right. He was pacing the grounds lazily and smoking a cigarette which was also giving off a heat signature. Snow began to circle around the place looking in every window switching regularly from night vision to thermal. When she got to the road leading in and out she circled back around to where she had stowed her pack. She kept the goggles on and activated a call on her phone.
"This is Roost." Snowbird heard the voice of Robertson over her goggle headpiece.
"This is Snowbird I have spotted the prey. Preparing to strike."
"What does your catch look like?" He asked her.
"Two rabbits in the field. At least 5 more in the warren."
"That seems like a big hunt for one bird did you want a wingman?"
"Negative. I will fly solo." She usually preferred to work alone, you couldn't always trust your partners in the spy game. Never knew when one or the other would have orders to kill their partner. It happened more often than Snowbird would like. She wished she could trust anyone in the field for situations like this one.
"Understood. You should save one for later that seems like an awfully big meal.
"Copy." Leave one alive. She thought to herself.
Snowbird switched the goggles to thermal and moved out of her hiding spot making only slightly more noise than a squirrel moving through grass. There was one thing that caught her eye that was a little unusual that she left out of her report. The cars. There were three of them in the driveway: an early 2000 Toyota Corolla, a late 90's Honda Accord and a 1980's Mustang. Not exactly the cars of made men but the second sentry definitely had a piece out while he was patrolling. She pushed this thought to the back of her mind, it didn't change her mission.
She located the first sentry in the back of the house and observed him for a minute. The man was complacent. He hadn't moved in the last ten minutes other than to pull out and then proceed to play with his phone. Good for her, but not so good for him. She removed the short sword from its scabbard. The carbon steel blade was a dull black that made sure no light reflected off anything but the very sharp edge.
She wasn't one of those psychos on the job who got off on the killing but she knew when she accepted the job what it would entail. She also felt what John Cusack said in Grosse Point Blank was apt. "If I show up at your door, chances are you did something to bring me there." She was only ten feet out and the guy hadn't heard her yet. Part of her wished that he did. She disliked killing people like she was about to even if it was immensely safer. His head was down looking at his phone. His chin was too close to his chest to effectively draw a blade across his throat. Another shame, it would have been less painful than what she now had to do. Probably not as quick though. At five feet she drew the eighteen inch blade back. She grabbed the man's shoulder with her left hand eliciting a brief "huh" from him before she thrust the blade into his chest and through his lung taking his ability to scream out as he drowned in his own blood. She wanted to tell him sorry for his ignominious end but that would require her to make noise and she still had several more to go. She watched the fear and pain in his eyes as he looked up at his killer while dying slower than she would like to watch. She made sure she was in night vision so she could see his face clearly though. She remembered the face of every person that she killed. This man would be no different. When the light finally faded from his eyes Snow withdrew the sword letting his body fall gently to the ground. She cleaned her blade on his shirt and moved off towards the opposite side of the house.
The second rabbit in the field seemed to be taking his sentry position much more seriously. He was moving around with gun drawn though not at the ready and he held a flashlight in his hand as her patrolled the front of the house. The guy was far more alert than a person doing guard duty would normally be and that set off a warning bell in her head. Was she expected? Unlikely, the only person who knew she was coming tonight was Rachel. Unless? No. She wasn't even going to entertain that thought. Regardless, the sword wasn't going to be the right weapon for someone this alert so she placed it back in it's sheathe and drew her pistol.
Snowbird's silent footsteps take her closer to the man's back her gun raised. At 50 feet she lines the sights up on center mass on his back and puts light pressure on the trigger 3 times in quick succession. The soft pew pew pew made by her handgun is swallowed by the light breeze blowing through the Ohio forest. The guy drops into a smile pile of leaves and it makes a soft crunch. She stalks the remaining 50 feet to the man and raises her gun once more placing one more bullet into the man's skull. She reached down and turned his flashlight off then flipped him over to look at what was left of his ruined face. He was good looking, much more so than her first kill tonight. No time to dwell, she had work to do. Keeping her gun drawn she switches to thermal. After a very brief sweep of her egress points she decides on the back door as it was currently unwatched and unguarded. She was starting to think these people deserved what they got if they can't even keep a decent watch.
She walked up the steps of the porch wincing slightly when the wood squeaked under her soft boot. She knelt into a crouch to avoid casting any sort of shadow across the frosted glass of the back door. She tried the doorknob but it was locked. She pulled out her lock pick set and began to work as quickly as she could while still being quiet. It was a farmhouse lock. She was actually a little disappointed with the ease the tumblers fell to her skilled fingers. She opened the door slowly. It was well oiled and didn't squeak and Snowbird let out a breath that she didn't even know she was holding. Switching back to thermal she surveyed the house. There were several heat signatures in the house she immediately discarded the water heater and the electric central heater and locked on to the other signatures.
There were three heat signatures upstairs. The first two resemble prone persons in the same room. Likely, given the time, they are on the sleep shift. The last one seems to be in the adjoining room sitting possibly at a desk and from the other heat source in the room more than likely sitting in front of a computer monitor and typing away on the keyboard. Downstairs there seem to be several more, one that is a flat screen television with one person watching it and lastly two people who seem to be eating something warm. Downstairs first.
She was in the kitchen and the two heat signatures were in the next room. She just hoped the TV was loud enough to muffle her actions from the third person. Sticking with the semi automatic she stood up fully and moved to the door. She wasn't going to be able to look in the room first without alerting them so she pulled the swinging door open hard and quickly stepped in with her left foot to keep it from swinging back. Snowbird brought the first one into the gun's sights and shot once into his head she shifted her gun to the second man, barely more than a boy, who looks at her with spaghetti coming out of his mouth and a fearful look on his face. She didn't hesitate firing but instead made sure the fear faded from his eyes with the forceful precision of a 9mm bullet. She did pause to take note of the meal. Italian mobsters eating Spaghetti Bolognese. If this mission got any more cliché she might put herself in real danger because her eyes will be rolling so much it will be hard to get a bead on her targets.
She left the bodies where they were and moved towards the person in what she assumed was going to be the living room. The hallway was bare, no pictures or tables it must have been vacant before it became a safe house. She moved along the corridor and came across an open area style living room with no door into it. There was a man sitting in what appeared to be a lawn chair watching some reality show that Snowbird didn't recognize on a smallish flat screen television. He obviously hadn't heard his allies perish because he hadn't moved at all. There was a heavy set woman on the screen giving a testimonial how she was going to bleep that bleeping bleep in her bleep. At least it isn't Jersey Shore. She latches her gun back in the holster and pulls out the dagger on her left arm. It slides noiselessly from its sheathe. She inches her way towards the man. She grabs the man by the hair and she feels the blade sink into his neck severing his vertebrae and killing him before he even knew he was going to die. She pulled the blade out with a little difficulty as it seemed to catch on his spinal cord.
She exited the living room thinking in her head five down three to go. She was practically doubling the amount of people she had killed tonight. It didn't thrill her but at least it was getting easier. She thought to herself that maybe that wasn't a good thing. No time to dwell though so she started repeating three to go in her head like a mantra.
She moved towards the stairs and noted they were wood and she almost swore out loud. Even as silent as she moved it would be difficult to climb them without any squeaking. She started to ascend the greatest obstacle she had yet encountered. She set her toes down gently and grabbed on to the railing to redistribute her center of gravity so that it was never in the center of her body where it can give her away.
It took two minutes for Snow to climb the stairs and they only let out the most minor of squeaks on stair eight. It was a moment that made her heart pound in her chest and her palms to sweat but after a few moments and no reaction she continued her climb. She reached the top of the stairs and after a moment decides the one at the computer is the one she is going to spare as he might be in charge. No way to tell for sure though. For all she knows he could be playing Angry Birds but she would take a chance. That left the two sleepers to exile to the void so she moved towards their bedroom which happened to be the room next to the office so the gun was out of the question.
The door was cracked slightly and she moved it out of her way. She needed them not to wake up so she pulled out the tranq gun and put a dart in each of them allowing the drug to lure them into a sleep too deep to wake from. They swatted at the dart but it was fast acting and they never actually woke just a natural reaction to the foreign object in their skin. She walked over to the two of them and ran her blade across their throats and they slowly bled out. She forced herself to watch as they slowly and silently died both as punishment for her acts but more importantly to make sure they didn't wake up and alert her last target.
Last one. She moves down the hallway to the room the door is slightly ajar and she can hear the clacking of his fingers on the keys. Snowbird kicks open the door and lines up the tranquilizer gun. The man's reflexes are keen because he is ducking as soon as his eyes see Snowbird. The darts fly harmlessly over his head but he can feel the disturbed air of them rustling his hair. He grabs the chair from where he is and stands up throwing it at Snowbird. She deflects it with a well placed hand knocking it to the ground but she loses the tranq gun in the process. He would have liked his nap better. She thinks before wading in. The guy was hideous he had a nasty burn scar on the left side of his face, his skin was sallow and leathery, and his jowls hung on his face like a British Bulldog. He was young and fit though and he moved well as he backed away from the desk going for the holster on his side. She thrust forward with her fist not to do any damage but to keep his hand from his gun and she had the desired effect.
He launched back with a roundhouse kick. Snow ducked under the quick strike and aimed with an open palm at his stomach. He took the hit but rolled with it to minimize the damage so that it didn't knock the air out of him. The man took his two fists and brought them down on Snowbirds back but she arched her back and his fists just glanced of the Kevlar. Snow spun her hips letting her leg trail behind trying to sweep out his legs. He jumped over her leg but it allowed her to roll back slightly so she can stand up from her crouched position and wade back into the melee. He jabbed several times left left right left right right. Mixing his punches kept her off guard but none of them connected. The guy had been trained how to fight but he obviously wasn't as good as she was it was just going to be a bit of a slog to take him down.
She let him wear himself down for a few seconds while studying his timing. On his sixth jab she blocked his right arm with her left wrist and stepped in thrusting her elbow into his face. He wasn't able to dodge it effectively and the elbow clearly rung his bell as he stepped back just a little. While he was dazed she thrust out with her left foot in a straight kick to his chest that knocked him back into the wall hard, his head made a thud sound as it collided with the drywall. He tried to clear his vision and just barely saw Snowbird spinning in for a tornado kick. He got his left arm up just in time to block the kick but he heard the crack moments before he felt the blinding pain of his Ulna shattering.
He dropped to his knees from the pain holding his broken arm close to his chest. Brittany quickly retrieved the tranquilizer gun from the ground and put two darts in his neck. Even with the pain and adrenaline he passed out in seconds. She opened up a pouch in her belt and pulled out two zip ties placing one around his legs and the other around his wrists. She broke the bone near the center so hopefully this won't cause any lasting damage. She pulls the goggles up off her face so that Langley can't see what she is about to do. She pulls her phone out of her pouch and texts the C to Rachel before activating the Bluetooth again to contact Langley.
"Nest."
"The Snowbird has cleared the field and the Warren. One Rabbit is on ice but it's a little bruised it might need to be tended to."
"Understood. Fly away little bird the hunting dogs are on their way."
Without another word she went back around the house and picked up the shells from the bullets she fired and the tranquilizer darts she shot into the three men upstairs. After she removed all evidence of her being there she went to go reclaim her backpack from the tree placing the goggles back inside and began the two mile trek back to her car again using the GPS to find her way back flawlessly. She put the bag into the trunk and drove back to her house. She felt Snowbird float away from her as she got closer and closer to Lima and unknown to her a slight grin came to her lips as she got closer to Rachel.
She parked, opened the door and then climbed the stairs to her room. She wanted to just strip and go to bed but she couldn't treat her gear like that so she made sure she put it all back into its proper place before stripping out of the cat suit. She decided she would clean it all tomorrow after school it was just too late to do it tonight. She checked the clock it was just after two in the morning and she wanted to get a least a few hours sleep. She crept into the bathroom and she washed her hands and face. Wiping away a few tears that had seeped out of her eyes. How did that escape her notice. Maybe it wasn't getting easier after all. She stayed in the sports bra and boy shorts as they were perfectly comfortable and went out into the main bedroom. Rachel had decided that the entire bed was hers and was sprawled out across it her arms and legs almost touching all four corners but she is short and the bed is large.
She gently climbs under the covers pulling the brunette to her and the girl stirs.
"Thanks for the text Snow I was a little worried it had been a while." She mumbled sleepily.
"Sure, but could you not call me that for just right now. I don't want to hear that name right now."
"Yeah of course Britt." Rachel says a little worry in her voice. She wraps her arms around the blonde who cuddles into the dark haired girl for the very first time without any sexual overtones. After her red test she had cried herself to sleep and this night she wanted to do the same but the warm embrace of Rachel and her strength allowed her to stave away the tears for now. Her exhaustion and emotions led her into her dreams more quickly than she usually did and she dreamt almost exclusively of 17 faces but whenever the dream would get to the point of horribleness. Someone else would pop into her dreams, her mom, Artie, Santana, Quinn but more than anyone that night Rachel saved her.
A/N: I know absolutely NOTHING about code breaking nor did I have any desire to look up how to go about it, so if it sounds like I am talking out of my ass, it's because I totally am. The My Little Pony Flash Game totally exists BTW I actually DID do research on this… though it's pretty boring as it is nothing but three point and click mini games and walking around.