I would like to sincerely apologize to everybody who keeps up with this story! I have been so caught up in school and could not figure out how I wanted to write this chapter. I'm starting the next one right away so that I don't keep you guys waiting. Thanks for the patience! : )

Chapter 13: The Kiwi Club

Task Force Headquarters

Odette's high heels made a tapping noise as she walked down the halls of the team's headquarters. She held printed out documents from Ali's handler, Demetrio, in her hand and smiled at the thought of how disappointed this task force would be when they saw how small it really was. It was thanks to her skills in espionage that it was that tiny. She often found herself wondering why she was skilled at completing assignments that involved acting, deceiving and manipulating people. Maybe it was because she now had to kill her best friend, ex-best friend.

Odette remembered how naïve she was when she joined the CIA. She thought she would be different from everyone else, that she would be different than her family in France. She did manage to prove that she was more than just a gypsy like her mother was, more than a thief like her step-father and more than just a pretty face. She worked long and grueling hours to accomplish the missions she was assigned. She even managed to take credit for Ali's ideas. She remembered the day she met the introverted blonde. They were instant friends and considered themselves sisters within a month of knowing each other. Did Odette ever suspect she would give up the only real friend she ever had? Did she ever suspect she would kill innocent people?

September 15, 2007

Langley, Virginia

"Would you just calm down!" Odette and Declan shouted at Derek.

"I don't know why we need a new team member," Derek complained, running his hand through his short dark brown hair.

"I don't know either," a soft voice from behind the trio interrupted their conversation.

"Oh," Odette mouthed as she saw a young, pale blonde woman with bright blue eyes make her way inside their command center. This was the new girl, this was Alexandra Sarna.

"I'm guessing you're Derek Falconer," the young woman timidly assumed.

"You're guessing or you know?" Derek sneered.

"I'm sorry?" she asked with an anxious expression on her face as Odette's stomach cringed. Derek would give her a hard time for questioning her intuition; he wouldn't let the poor girl feel accustomed to the new surroundings until she learned how to trust herself.

"In the spy game you have to know how to trust yourself before anybody else-"

"Okay! Give the poor girl a break! Alright? I'm sure she trusts herself just fine!" Odette intervened, smiling at Alexandra.

"Thanks," Alexandra replied. "I was afraid I wouldn't have anybody to stick up for me."

"Well, we are teammates now," Odette answered. "End of story."

"You're Ali's friend, right?" Odette's thoughts had been interrupted by a short, Caucasian man she knew was Danny Williams.

Odette nodded, "I've got files from the government."

The man's hand extended and waited for Odette to hand her the small stack of information. She decided to make it look like she cared, she would pretend that whatever was in these files had to stay in them and that a jury had no right to hear about it because of government secrecy.

"Before I hand them over, Officer Williams, I need you to understand this is from the CIA," Odette said.

"I understand-"

"It stays a secret, a judge cannot hear about this nor a jury."

The officer glanced at his feet, he seemed nervous to Odette. As if he didn't trust Odette. He had no reason to believe the weapons specialist was working alongside Francois; Odette had been careful with evidence… meaning there was none.

He then looked back up at Odette, "We just need some background information on the guy."

"I'm taking that as cooperation with the Central Intelligence Agency," Odette remarked.

"No, it means I want you to go and burn this file," Danny answered sarcastically as Odette let him have the files on Jacques Francois.

She then turned around to leave, but noticed Ali wasn't in her office.

"Where's Ali?" she called with her back to Danny.

"Oh, she went to Hawaii Pacific University to talk to some professor," Danny replied as he began to leaf over the manila folder.

"And the rest of the team?"

"Steve and Kono got a call from a hotel barman about something troubling," Danny explained.

Odette felt her stomach drop. The woman who Francois had killed had symbolic scars on her hand and a tattoo. True, it wasn't much to go off on, but that's the one thing Ali had managed to be known for, using small, irrelevant clues to find bigger pieces of evidence.

Odette couldn't let her find out the truth; that she was behind the demise of her old friend. She didn't remember how it exactly began, but she remembered receiving a letter in the mail from her mother who lived in France. The letter (although she was pretty sure it was from Francois now) described how Francois's health was declining and that her mother wished she would visit him before anything happened, so Odette did. She flew to England and used her connection with Sir John Sawers, the Security Intelligence Service's executive, to see her stepfather.

Odette remembered seeing him in the prison. His hair had been a revolting length and she almost didn't recognize him because of the way he had aged. They talked, Odette recalled, about nothing in particular the first few times, but then he began telling her about why he was put away. She learned that Ali had put him in the prison and she didn't blame her friend, it was a part of the job. Odette knew that.

It had been the job that convinced Odette to join Francois's little scheme. Dangerous missions that nearly killed her and a check that barely paid for the house she lived in with Declan changed the way she looked at things. She couldn't stand for something like that; it was a slap in the face.

Francois explained his deal, it was radical, but Odette had been known for radical ideas. One of Francois's managers offered him a large sum of money, around thirty-eight million, to find Alexandra and kill her. He explained that his boss was now the leader of the assumed cult and wanted to purify the new leadership by killing off the person who had torn the group apart… Alexandra Sarna. Odette felt uneasy about dealing with someone who was insane (anyone who believed that had to be crazy), but the money was just too appealing. She shook hands with her stepfather and helped him escape from prison.

After Francois was a free man, both of them traveled to Russia, where they used warring millionaires to kill each other to obtain their little black books. It was in their little black books that Odette found an assassin's name, David Vlotkovsky, and she hired him to assassinate Ali. When he failed to do the job, he was killed and Odette decided to do it herself, but Francois told her the plan had changed. The job now was to kidnap Ali and bring her back to Estonia to some small village Francois's employer lived in.

"Thank you Kono," Odette said, a little nervously, and sent him a half smile. "I'll see you later."

"I'm Danny!" she heard him shout after her and realized she made a mistake. She had shown someone she was under duress.

"Of course, I'm sorry, lot's of names, hard to remember," Odette lied and quickly marched out of the team's headquarters and pulled out a prepaid phone. She dialed her stepfather's number and waited for him to answer.

"She's putting it together," Odette informed when he answered.

"The professor?"

"You know?"

"What can I say? I followed her," Francois gruffly replied and Odette imagined him sitting in an expensive car, smoking a cigarette. "We'll introduce ourselves tonight."

"I'll get ready."

Hawaii Pacific University

"Professor," Ali knocked on the large door that led to Professor DeBroglie's office. Chin stayed in the car to call Kono about the update and she was alone, aside for a folder with pictures of Katia's tattoo.

"Eh, come in!" she heard him shout from afar.

When she entered his office she was surprised to see that it was a lot more messier than his classroom. He had a large, oak desk on which he stacked thick books and papers; his walls were covered with either photos of him in different countries or old, parchment-like posters of symbols.

"Detective," he greeted, making Ali remember she lied to him earlier.

"Professor," she smiled warmly. "I had a question about another symbol."

"Do you have a photo?"

"Oh, yes," Ali quickly pulled out a photo out of the folder. "This is it."

The professor looked at it closely. She knew it wasn't much to go off on, it was just a tattoo which probably meant nothing, but she had to try. The littlest details always offered something. There was another knock on the professor's door which made Ali turn her head around. A young female student with dark hair stood in the doorway.

"Just a second, I'll be right with you," DeBroglie shouted as he looked up at Ali. "This, detective, is a gang tattoo."

"A gang tattoo?" she repeated.

"I'm sure of it!" he excitedly reassured. "It's an Eastern European gang, they have no name and they're nothing like the Yakuza or Cartel, but they do have dealings with illicit drugs."

"Are you sure professor?" Ali asked in confusion. How had this case gone from being about religion to drugs?

"If I weren't, I would quit immediately and get a job at a gift shop," he replied, making Ali think of Chin's previous job.

"I know of an opening," she jested as he laughed.

"Thankfully I'm quite pleased with this job," DeBroglie responded.

"Yeah," Ali nodded. "Thank you professor, I'll let you know about the gift shop."

With those final words Ali turned around to leave Professor DeBroglie's office. She noticed the girl who knocked on the door had taken a seat on a chair a few feet away and was working on some homework. Ali smiled as she passed the girl who quickly stood up and let her books fall to the ground.

"You're a cop?" she chased after Ali.

Ali stopped walking and looked at the girl, "Yeah, why?"

"I heard you talking about a gang from Easter Europe-"

"That's police business-"

"No!" the girl interrupted. "My boyfriend… he isn't the smartest or the most hardworking, but he means well. We were at a club when some dude with this Russian sounding accent comes up to us and starts talking with Nick."

Ali gave the girl and incredulous stare, "What did they talk about?"

"Drugs," the girl explained making Ali's day a lot easier.

"Okay, give me your name, the name of the club and a description of the guy," Ali ordered.

Task Force Headquarters

"I've got miraculous news!" Ali sang as she walked back in to headquarters with Chin closely following her.

Steve couldn't help but grin at how relieved she looked. Her smile, he decided, was definitely her best feature; it lit up her face and her eyes seemed to sparkle even more.

"She must have just gone out for malasadas," Danny remarked, stifling a laugh from Kono.

"No," Ali rolled her eyes.

"We just found a suspect," Chin informed.

Steve, along with Danny and Kono, looked at the pair as if they just told him the president was behind this. He couldn't say that he wasn't impressed; after running into a near dead end, they managed to find someone linked to Katia.

"How?"

"A young wahine overheard the keiki talking to the professor and told us about our guy," Chin notified.

"So who's the suspect?" Kono asked inquisitively.

"We haven't put a face on the guy," Ali said. "But that's because he's smart and used an alias."

"What's his alias name?" Danny questioned.

"Andrew Jackson," Chin revealed, causing everyone to raise a brow.

"Like the-"

"President," Steve finished for Kono. "Where do we find him aside from our currency?"

"At Club Kiwi," Ali informed. "He's a part of an Eastern European gang that has a hand in drug deals. He might be able to lead us to Francois. We have a description of the guy and our witness remembers him ordering mojitos three times."

"Why would the mojitos ever be of importance?" Danny asked with scrutiny.

Steve gave him a look then said, "Because, it means that's his favorite drink and something to recognize him by."

Steve saw Ali give him a thankful smile, and then focused back to the conversation.

"What's our move?" Kono asked.

"I think it's time for Ali to do some spying," Steve suggested.

"Undercover work?" Ali probed.

Steve nodded his head as the main, glass doors flew open and Declan stepped in nervously.

"Hey, buddy, your wife was here half an hour ago," Danny shouted, which Declan ignored.

"We have to talk," Declan nervously demanded as he looked at Ali.

"Oh, um, yeah," she agreed apprehensively. "This will just take a minute, guys."

She led Declan to her office, where she closed the door and had him sit down. Steve didn't want to be one of the men that overreacted about a situation, but it was pretty hard for him not to. He just saw a man that was nearing hysteria, demand that Ali talk to him.

"You want me to check it out?" Kono offered.

"No, we'll let her explain herself," Steve declined as he stared into Ali's office, at the duo talking about whatever was bothering Declan.

He decided to focus on formulating a plan for Club Kiwi instead of worrying about Declan. It was hard for him to remember that Ali was a spy and knew how to handle herself.

"I want the Camaro to be the car she arrives in at the club," Steve began. "Danny, it's your lucky day you get to wear a suit and tie as you are the driver."

"Great," Danny jestingly smiled. "Which tie should I sport?"

"You can sport any tie you want to as long as it doesn't distract you from the job, I know you were born to ooh and ah at pretty things-"

"I was not born to ooh and ah at pretty things!" Danny defended himself.

"That is the biggest lie of the century!" Steve argued as Kono and Chin rolled their eyes.

"How? How is the biggest lie of the century!"

"Any pretty girl makes your jaw drop!"

Danny nodded his head to show that he knew he was defeated and after a second of silence he said, "When you say you'll pay for drinks, my friend, that is the biggest lie of the century."

"Whatever, just listen" Steve sighed. "Kono and Chin you two will also go inside the club as backup. Do not approach Andrew Jackson, leave that to Ali."

"Where will you be?" Chin asked.

"Behind the club. I'm not seeing Jackson by himself," he answered. "We'll have Ali lead him out back, where he will be by himself. If all goes well, you two can make your exit to the Camero while Ali and I handle our friend and we all meet up here with Andrew Jackson."

"Got it," Kono nodded her head.

"Club Kiwi," Chin remarked. "The flashiest club on Oahu."

Steve glanced at Danny who said, "So… a red tie?"