Author's warning: major character injury in this chapter.
"Craig says you were visited by Annie yesterday." Jeff was attempting to mark papers - to be precise, he was checking "Rate My Professor" (to his satisfaction, he was still top of the Greendale rankings) on his smartphone while a pile of papers sat on the table in front of him - in the Faculty Lounge when Britta threw herself into the seat opposite.
"What are you doing here, Britta? This is the Faculty Lounge!"
"It's one of my days as a teaching assistant, Jeff - it counts." She said somewhat shamefacedly.
"I'm really not sure it does."
"Stop changing the subject - what was Annie here for?"
"It was Annie and Atal, and it wasn't a social call. They needed to consult with me on an ongoing case, that's all."
"You?" Britta roared with laughter. "What's the matter - are there no jerkass lawyers with an inflated opinion of themselves left in DC anymore?"
"I'm not allowed to talk about it. They made that very clear." Jeff said with frosty dignity.
"Well, the fact they didn't carry you off in handcuffs at least implies you're not the subject of the investigation, anyway." Britta sounded almost sad at this. "it was a pity she didn't at least say hello though."
"She was on a tight schedule," Jeff said. "She didn't have much free time, and she wanted to talk with me about the way her party ended."
"Ah," Britta went serious for a moment. "Did it go well?"
Jeff smiled softly, remembering the kiss. "Yes I think so - I took her to dinner at Morty's and we had a good talk. She apologised for taking so long to get in touch and I apologised for - pretty much everything, really." Jeff said wryly as Britta rolled her eyes.
"That makes sense, I suppose." Britta said. "It's just that it might be a while before we get the chance to see her again."
"Actually," Jeff said. "She also promised that as soon as this case is over she'll be back for a real visit - a couple of weeks at least, and she'll see everybody then."
"That's good to hear, but be careful with her Jeff." Britta said, still in a serious tone of voice. "She may not be the baby of the group any more, but she's just come out of a nasty breakup and is probably feeling vulnerable."
Jeff frowned. "When have I ever gone too fast or taken risks where Annie is concerned, Britta?"
She nodded, reluctantly. "Yeah, I think that's been part of your problem. Just don't change tactics now, okay?"
Jeff nodded, and, as he didn't particularly enjoy conversations about his flaws, decided to change the subject. "Speaking of babies, but where's Taylor? Shouldn't you be collecting her for lunch?"
"Ian offered to take her to buy ice cream so I've got a free break."
Jeff looked slightly surprised. "It looks like he's taking this boyfriend thing seriously."
Britta smiled. "Up to a point. Taylor said 'bollocks' the other day - I think he's teaching her to swear in British."
XXXXXX
(FBI Office - Norfolk, Virginia)
"The evidence wall is going to become a lot more popular when these go up." Dave from IT chuckled.
"Don't be jerks, guys." Atal warned.
"Hey - you and Annie got us these pictures -"
"Well, unless she's hiding out on a beach they're not going to help us identify her." Annie snapped. "Let's stick to the ones where she's fully dressed please?" She looked closer at the pictures. "And wasn't her boyfriend in the one where where she wasn't wearing a top?" Her voice had acquired a dangerous tone. "Please tell me you haven't photoshopped him out - that's tampering with evidence guys! Do that on your own time, please."
The room went quiet - Annie's temper was sufficiently well known that nobody wanted to be on the wrong side of it. Well, I can't say Jeff didn't warn me, she sighed to herself. In the end, Jeff had given her a USB stick containing all the pictures from his Washington holiday - all two hundred and eighty seven of them. Nataliya was in fifteen of them, and wearing no more than a bikini in five, it was the latter set of pictures that had provoked the adolescent excitement. (Annie had been touched to note that there were more pictures with her in them - eighteen, to be precise - even though she'd only spent a single afternoon with Jeff. These however had not been shared with the rest of the team.)
"We've run them through facial recognition software, and there's a ninety-eight percent plus probability that she's the abortive contact in the coffee shop." Dave was all business again. "Can we get an arrest warrant?"
"What for? All we can prove so far is that she bought a coffee." Annie sighed. Jeff would laugh at me if I tried to take this to a court. If he was her lawyer not only would he get the warrant thrown out in thirty seconds but he'd counter-sue us for harassment just for fun.
"At a time when her agent thought she was in the Bahamas doing a photoshoot." Atal was digging through the report produced by the officers tasked with going through her background.
"Better, but still not enough." Annie looked around the room. "I think we need to sting her." She looked around the room and saw the nods in agreement. "I'll talk to Captain Austin and get the approvals we'll need."
"Her boyfriend is hosting or visiting three major lobbying functions in the next two weeks." Atal added. "The rest of us will comb the guest lists and identify likely marks who would be willing to help."
XXXXXX
It was late at night in Annie's apartment - and when did I started thinking of it as mine, and not just Shakti's? Probably when she became a friend and not just a cousin of Atal's and told me I could stop looking for a place of my own if I was willing to share and pay half the rent and utilities - and she'd done as much work as she could face. The apartment was mostly dark and empty - Shakti was on another date with her new boyfriend - so she took out her tablet and fired up the Messenger app, she noticed with a smile the "online" light.
AnnieE: It's been a busy day. Can you say something to cheer me up?
JeffWinger: I was awesome today.
AnnieE: Interesting to see what you think cheers me up. {smiley face} But aren't you always? {winking face}
JeffWinger: Well, yes. {smiley face} But today was special. I was in court on a Justice Project case - an old couple who'd had their pension fund basically stolen by corrupt managers had come to us and we managed to track down the assets and get them compensation.
Annie: That's really good to hear, Jeff.
JeffWinger: And the best thing is, most of the prep work was done by the student volunteers - all I had to do was read their briefs and be awesome in court.{grinning face}
AnnieE: Nice to see you sticking to your core competences, Jeff - laziness and showing off (eyeroll face}{smiley face}
JeffWinger: Ouch! You know me too well, Annie.{blushing face}
AnnieE: And yet we're still friends. I have terrible taste in men.
JeffWinger: Best friends, even. {smiley face} What about you, G-Woman, how has your day been?
AnnieE: {tongue out face} You know I can't talk about work, Jeff {sad face} But I am on course to get back to Greendale by Spring Break, if not sooner {happy face}
JeffWinger: That's great news, Annie. Everybody is looking forward to seeing you.
AnnieE: Everybody?
JeffWinger: *I'm* looking forward to seeing you, Annie.
AnnieE: {smiley face}
JeffWinger: It's true though - Abed, Shirley and Frankie have all asked to be informed when you confirm the dates you'll be travelling so they can take a weekend in Greendale. Abed has said Troy will be there too if he can clear a gap in his schedule.
AnnieE: Aaawww! {blushing face}
JeffWinger: There are people out there who actually like you. Live with it, girl.
AnnieE: Thanks, Jeff. {smiley face} And I'm sorry, but it's after midnight here and I've got a busy day tomorrow. Thanks for the chat but…
JeffWinger: I understand, goodnight Annie.
AnnieE: Goodnight Jeff.
Annie smiled softly as she shut her tablet down. One unexpected but happy outcome of her trip to Greendale and clearing the air with Jeff had been getting their evening conversations back. She hadn't realised how much she'd missed having someone who was consistently light and amusing - and unconditionally supportive of her - to talk to until they'd stopped after her and Paul had broken up.
XXXXXX
(Outside Mark Petrocelli's house, Chevy Chase, Maryland)
There were four of them in the unmarked van. There were three other unmarked cars in the street, and four more cars in neighbouring streets.
"The Trojan will come online and contact us as soon as she plugs in the USB stick." Dave from IT said. "That'll be the proof we need and you can go."
They had identified a Senate staffer who had met with Nataliya a couple of times previously and who had agreed to meet her again when the situation was explained to him. When he met her again at a function a week earlier, he'd asked her on a date and while out on it had deliberately left the table for long enough for her to help herself to a USB stick that had been planted for the purpose. Now Annie and the others were waiting for her to complete the chain by either uploading it or passing it on to a contact. In the event she uploaded it, there was a Trojan embedded on the stick that would immediately send a message to Dave's laptop. Annie already knew this of course, but she recognised Dave's need to talk through his nerves and let him babble.
"We have a connection!" Dave's voice suddenly went a couple of octaves higher. "You can -" but he was already talking to an empty vehicle as Annie and Atal burst out and started running across the road.
XXXXXX
(Inside Mark Petrocelli's house)
Nataliya had let her guard down after the aborted rendezvous at the coffee shop as the days had passed and it became increasingly clear that even if whoever had poor Brian had managed to break him they had not got anything useful from him. To be on the safe side she had destroyed everything that could conceivably link her to "Patricia Hollister" from , but she didn't truly believe she had got away with it until she had gone on the modelling assignment to Berlin and neither leaving the country nor re-entering it had caused any issues with the TSA apparatchiki at the airport.
After returning from Berlin, where her GRU handler had met her and assured her there was no sign of any active investigation, she had resumed grooming her remaining contacts and cultivating new ones. A particularly promising one who worked for a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and couldn't stop boasting about how influential he was had been dazzled for long enough not to notice her lift a USB stick from his briefcase.
She connected the stick to her laptop, only for a program that wouldn't normally show up on a file search to suddenly start flashing an alarm warning her of an unauthorised outgoing connection being attempted. She froze with shock for a moment as she realised the stick had been bugged then hit a certain combination of keystrokes causing the laptop to aggressively reformat the hard drive and anything attached to it. She didn't wait for it to finish, instead running downstairs and brushing past Mark with a brief apology on her way to the door that provided internal access to the garage. She was already in the two seater sports car Mark had got her for her last birthday and waiting for the garage door to open when she heard the hammering on the front door start.
XXXXXX
Annie was standing slightly back as Atal knocked on the door when she suddenly heard the noise of a car engine coming round from the side of the house. Acting entirely on instinct, she turned in the direction of the noise and reached for the gun in her shoulder holster. She was already drawing it as the car came into view, accelerating hard, with their suspect behind the steering wheel. Annie ran to get into a firing position, screaming "Stop! FBI!" as she did so - the car continued to accelerate as several things happened almost simultaneously. Annie fired twice even as she registered the car wasn't stopping, then she desperately tried to dive sideways to get out of the way as the car swerved to avoid her shots - in the same direction. Annie felt a sickening thud as the side of the car smashed into her, and then she was flying through the air. She crashed into the ground, her head hit a hard surface and everything went black.