Globe Trotting – Cape Town P7
"Annie, wait," Auggie called before she hung up.
"Yeah?"
"Did you find a gun?" he asked confused.
"No," she said thinking back to all the places she had looked.
"Don't touch the nebulizer, it could be armed," he cautioned.
"OK," she recoiled her hand from the safe.
"I know he has an army of goons with guns, but to not have a weapon on hand is very odd," Auggie surmised.
"Well, it can't be too volatile right? He wouldn't want to accidently kill himself. I can get the rest of the stuff out of the safe without touching it."
"Good."
"Thanks Auggie, your mind is the second sexiest thing about you."
"Keep that in mind when I am old and gray," he laughed and disconnected the call.
Annie got the computer up and turned on, she inserted the flash drive and let it do its techy voodoo while she snapped photos of the pages and pages of documents in the folders, hand written formulas and sketches of devices similar to the one still in the safe.
Yuri's computer proved to be as difficult as expected, high levels of encryption and firewalls on top of firewalls, but eventually Auggie's data mining bored through. Annie could see window after window of data flashing by and Auggie pinged her phone to say he was getting it too.
Once the machine was exhausted and all the files documented Annie returned everything to the safe and called her husband back.
"I'm clear," she reported, meaning Yuri could wake up any time now and not find a mote of dust out of place.
"Of the espionage game, the call girl game is still in play," he warned.
"I can hold my own with Yuri, he still appears to be dreaming away."
"According to his phone he has an 8:00 am breakfast meeting, so hopefully you will be offered room service and left alone."
"Good to know," Annie nodded.
"What are you going to do to bide your time?" Auggie asked knowing Annie would not let her guard down enough to sleep.
"There is a bath tub the size of some small swimming pools in this room, I am going to take a bath."
"Nice."
"Good cover maintenance too, totally in character for me to want to enjoy the hotel amenities."
"Tell yourself whatever you want, I know you can't pass up a good hotel bath tub," Auggie chuckled.
"Remember Venice 2 years ago?"
"When I rerouted an Air Force jet so you could take a bath in that stone tub? Yes, I and all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff remember that."
"You are exaggerating a tiny bit," Annie squeaked.
"Maybe, enjoy your bath. Get home soon and safe."
"I will do all of those things, thanks Auggie."
***555***
Annie thoroughly enjoyed the bath tub and the high-end bubble bath the hotel provided. She put her I Pod on low and leaned back against the cool tile, she was too well-trained to fall asleep despite how relaxing he bath and the music were. She listened to the soft jazz and let her mind wander back to dancing with Auggie at their wedding just over a week ago.
What a strange life they were going to have as a couple. Strange and wonderful. Annie was trying not to get her hopes up, but if the intel she just obtained was as important as it sounded she could be responsible for keeping a bioweapon at bay.
She finished her bath, slipped her lingerie back on with the hotel robe. She ate some of the food Yuri had ordered and finally crawled into the big bed around 6:30 am. It was soon after that Yuri began to stir, he stretched and scratched and Annie turned on her side in an attempt to spoon into him.
"Morning," he said happily as he kissed her shoulder.
"Mmmm," Annie replied noncommittally.
"Sleep well?" he asked as his fingers trailed along her side.
"I did," she rolled onto her back and looked up at him.
"Good," he kissed her long and deep and then stopped, brushed her hair back and looked her in the eye.
The eye contact was truly freaking her out, she didn't realize that she missed it until she saw Yuri really examining her.
"Order us some breakfast, yes? I unfortunately have to go to a meeting soon," he hopped out of bed with a real spring in his step.
Annie called room service and stretched back out in the big bed while she listened to Yuri shower, grateful she wasn't expected to share that process. If he was suspicious of what went on after he was drugged he gave no indication, Annie had to remember to send a cookie basket to the drug guys in DST.
***555***
Auggie heard Annie arrive on her side of the safe house shortly after 8:30, he waited patiently for her to make her way to him.
"Next case I want you to have to sell your body for money," she greeted him as she passed through the security panel.
"Tired?" he asked unnecessarily.
"Exhausted," she dropped into his lap and looked at his screens.
"Do we have enough?" she asked hopefully.
"We have a lot, but maybe not enough to take him in right away. The team in Moscow has raided a warehouse there and the team here is close to nailing down the lab site."
"Yuri said he was going back to Moscow tonight, so I am off duty, Dimitri told me to rest up for next week," Annie reported.
"Good, you can help me with translation on some of these docs you snapped."
"Of course, but can we sleep first? You were up all night too," she pointed out.
"I didn't have to fend off big Russian guys in my underwear."
"Yuri had his own underwear on and you are tired," Annie laughed and kissed him gently.
"I was worried about you," he admitted quietly.
"I know."
"You know I was always worried about you right? From that first mission at the Capitol Grand on, I put up a nonchalant front, but I was always worried about you Annie," He stood with her still close.
Annie didn't say anything just nodded, her head tapping against his chest.
TBC…
