St. Petersburg Nights
By Natasha Shaitanova
Chapter 25: Arrivals
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any other recognizable, copyrighted persons, objects, places, etc.
Quick A/N: After a prolonged absence, I decided that this story deserved to be finished. So…let's try to carry through the final few chapters))
Soundtrack for chapter: Bushido – Endgegner.
Bu decided to get some money on the side and copyright all of his music videos on YouTube. Well, he missed the best one ;)
http /www .youtube .com /watch? v12KKKh bOFOY
Just get rid of the spaces, sweethearts. It's a great vid. Hopefully, Bu will get out of his little asshole mood soon and the rest of the vids will be reposted.
The flight from Paris to London landed five minutes ago and he was already striding out of the airport, not bothering to check the baggage claim. He had a small gray backpack slung across his shoulder and large aviators easily covering half of his face.
"Where to, sir?"
He rattled off the address with a perfect accent. He'd practiced during the flight.
When the taxi rolled to a stop, he thanked the driver and paid with a reasonable tip. Nothing out of ordinary. As he strolled along the boulevard, he took out a pair of wallet pictures and studied them for a few moments before throwing them in a nearby trash.
Harry was reclining on the familiar couch in his apartment with a tumbler of gin clutched in his hand. The bottle was resting on the coffee table.
"It's insane," he mumbled against the cool glass. "What a fucking collaboration..."
Malfoy's words wouldn't leave his mind, no matter how hard he tried to distract himself.
I want you to help.
"Translates to 'I want to use you'," Harry snorted and took another gulp. He had not talked aloud to himself since the last mission that left him in a similar position – drunk and tired. Rattling the ice in the glass, Harry considered pouring another when a shrill beeping filled the room.
"Hello?"
"Harry? Is that you? You don't quite sound like yourself…Am I calling at a bad time? Well, in any case…"
Hermione, Harry groaned slightly and shifted the phone against his ear. He could not imagine a worse time for her to call.
"Harry, are you still in London? Have you seen the news?"
"There are a lot of news, Hermione…"
"Harry are you drunk? You sound drunk. No, there is only one story that interests me and you know what it is."
"No, Hermione, I don't. Only you are all-knowing. I am only Harry…"
"Harry, I need you to snap out of it. How much have you had?" he could hear her huffing on the other end of the line. "Harry, now is not the best time to be wasting."
"Really? Because I'm having a great time with it…"
"Harry, focus! What the hell is going on with the Malfoy deal?"
Harry rolled and tried to busy his face in the sofa pillows. His voice came somewhat muffled over the telephone. "That's fucking confencal…cf'dshal…confidential information!"
"Oh really? And what about the information on how a certain reporter helped the big-shot agents track down the minister's daughter and asked for nothing in return?"
"…Don't guilt-trip me, Hermione. I'm not in the mood for games."
"I'm not playing games, Harry. But I do see a lot of things which don't add up and I would like to know why."
She packed lightly. A wallet, a sports suit, a bottle of water, and a sniper rifle.
She got into the rental car and threw the sports bag onto the passenger's seat. Her new cell-phone lay in the cup holder and vibrated lightly once the shut the door. Flipping it open, she listened.
The voice on the other end came over scratchy and neutral; she immediately recognized the effect of a scrambler. She memorized the address he recited and hung up, starting the engine. There were still three unused numbers in the phone's contact list.
"The deal was made to keep everyone quiet and to keep Montgomery afloat. It was sketchy and it was too damn hasty, but that's all they had to go on at the time."
"Just how much is being covered up in this machination?"
"Everything."
"But what about—"
"Hold on, call on the other line," Harry cut Hermione off and switched to the other caller. "Hello?"
"Potter, I want you in my office in fifteen."
"Ms. Cox? What's this about?"
"Fifteen minutes, Potter."
Harry pulled a face at the dial tone before reconnecting with Hermione. "That was my boss. She wants me for one thing or another, I need to go."
"Harry, I'm not letting this one go. It's better if we are talking when the story hits the fan."
"You mean the shit hits the fan and I hear what you're saying. I'll get in touch."
He hung up and threw the phone back onto the coffee table. Surely he had some sobriety concoctions in the bathroom?
Dean and Harry stood at attention in Cox's office, the latter sporting somewhat bloodshot eyes and a throbbing headache. Dean shot him a concerned glance as Rosalind occupied herself with a thick manila folder. 'What's up?' he mouthed.
Harry glanced down at his hand and mimed pouring a bottle. Dean had to cough violently to mask his amusement.
"I hope you're well rested since yesterday's excitement?"
"As well as can be," Dean responded with a straight face.
"Good, because I have another mission for you," Rosalind looked up at her agents, studying them over her glasses.
Harry managed to snap out of his stupor to stare back, incredulous. "Already? What else managed to get screwed up in the in the past couple of hours?"
"Some formality would be appreciated, Potter," Rosalind frowned before pulling two envelopes from the thick folder. "Here is the information you need. It's a quick hit, over and done with in a matter of hours."
"You want them taken out?" Dean opened his envelope upon finding it unsealed.
"Easy as that. It's a quiet job, you simply make them disappear."
Harry did not bother to open his envelope and instead watched Dean's reaction as he scanned through the brief. His response was not altogether encouraging.
"What the fuck, Rosalind?" Dean refolded the papers clumsily in his anger. "What happened to the deal?"
"He's a liability."
Harry watched the interaction uneasily. "Who's the target?"
"Malfoy."
The rest of the numbers had called in. Their owners sat in a crowded café, together with the early arrivals, chatting about their college days at Oxford.
"Remember how we looked in the yearbook pictures?"
"Oh, it's unforgettable! Although I think my freshman one was somewhat better than that atrocity from sophomore year."
Everyone nodded and laughed. So the first picture would be the first target.
"But remember that transfer student? It's a shame they forgot to put him in the yearbook."
"Oh no worries, we used to hang out back then. I'll show you our pictures sometime."
Murmurs of interest affirmed the suggestion. The third target was established.
His insides clenched, mouth going dry. "Which one?"
"Malfoy senior," Dean was still frowning. "But we sent him underground…"
"Malfoy has a trail and it will catch up with him," Rosalind put the folder back in her desk. "We cannot take the chance that he'll speak when that moment comes."
"Well, why didn't you tell him that? Tell him to run, not that you'll shelter him!" Dean was definitely glaring now, hating the situation.
Harry spoke up for Rosalind, masking his relief. "We couldn't afford to have him run. Either way, he has to be taken care of. This way, it's easier."
Dean turned to Harry, astonished. "You're unbelievable." He spun on his heel to rush out of the office, as Harry's voice rang out behind him.
"Meet at the designated time and place. I'll call to confirm."
Upon apparating back to his apartment, Harry stuffed the envelope in his safe and rushed to grab his ready backpack for the hit. After a cursory check to verify the contents, he disapparated once more, thus time aiming for a certain safehouse.
Draco was drinking a cup of coffee and skimming through the channels of an ancient TV set when he heard a telltale crack in the back yard. He flinched forcibly, causing the cup to slip and smash against the tiled floor. Cursing as hot liquid scalded his ankles, he grasped the ministry wand and rushed to the rear of the house.
Harry didn't wait for Draco to leave the shelter of the house on his own, but instead walked right onto the porch, motioning for him to come out.
Seeing Potter, Draco relaxed visibly, replacing the wand in his pocket. He opened the back door, glancing around before silently joining the agent on the porch. With a questioning stare, he pointed to the lilac bushes and led the way at Harry's nod.
Brushing aside a sense of annoying deja-vu as Draco pulled him out of sight of the house, Harry wasted no time in jumping into the issue.
"They marked your father as a target."
Thrown at the unexpected declaration, Draco could not mask his surprise. "What? Who?"
"The MIA. My orders are to go to his safehouse and take him out in exactly 3 hours and 20 minutes. Any ideas?"
Draco paused. "Why are you telling me this?"
"He was given a deal. When I signed up for this job, I didn't anticipate deadly triple-crosses of our own agents."
"In other words, you don't give a shit about him but it would make you guilty," Draco crossed his arms. Even as he glared at Potter, he wasn't entirely sure why he was avoiding the importance of the conversation.
"Yeah, you know, it would," Harry glared back. "And I'd prefer it didn't happen. So, can you contact him?"
Draco shook his head. "They made sure I had no means of knowing where he was being relocated. Something about security…?" he scoffed. "Don't you have means of contacting him, considering that you are being sent to kill him?"
Harry simply looked as though he called Malfoy's intelligence into serious question. "What, you expect me to stroll up to him and tell him to run before I shoot him and then say 'whoops, I missed'? The MIA will bury me!"
"Not our dashing hero, then," Draco sneered, but did not give Harry time to reply. "There is someone."
"How soon can they get him out?"
"With a bit of luck? Maybe in two hours."
"Make the call."
-
A/N: alright, with this preliminary stuff out of the way, the rest of the characters will be back in the game in the next chapter. Hmm…I foresee more guns and car chases, how does that sound?
And so, you saw this coming…please review for more guns and car chases! XD
-Shaity out.