Chapter Fifty Four – No tomorrow

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The night was fast approaching and, for the second day in a row, Vale and Starling found themselves parked around the corner from Senator Woodley's DC house. Tonight, however, there was no light-hearted banter. They sat silent in Starling's Mustang, the equipment they would need turned on and ready. Vale was dressed in his old army fatigues, dark grey to avoid detection. Both agents wore earpieces. Starling was doing some last minute calibrations of her infrared.

"This is it, then."

Vale tried not to sound nervous, though he knew he had every right to be. This was not, as he kept telling himself, just another mission. This was an unsanctioned, unapproved, illegal anti-government-official mission. They were practically terrorists. If they were caught they would go to prison, for a very long time. Never mind his job and his freedom, he would also lose the woman he had spent the past year pursuing. Vale was pretty sure Ardelia Mapp was not one to visit a lover in his prison cell – no matter the reasons behind his crimes.

He swallowed back the nerves, however, because he had to. He had to be strong for Starling tonight because she looked on the edge of breaking. The facade she always wore – that mask of control and composure – was under a lot of strain tonight. He knew she had doubts, about the legitimacy of their actions, but he needed her to be working at her best tonight. He needed her to guide him through the Senator's nest of motion sensors and infrared cameras. His future lay in her hands. She was the only thing between him and getting caught. So, he was going to sound like he wasn't nervous, because that's what she needed him to be.

"This is it." She replied, nodding solidly. "You ready?"

"Yup."

"We go over in five."

Vale eyed the wall he was about to scale. It would be difficult, but he could do it. He had done the same before, in the field. He had done worse.

"Everything up and running as it should be?"

"Systems are solid..." Starling frowned, flicking through her many screens and lists. "I have everything. We just need to synchronise." She held out her watch.

"On the hour?"

It was coming up for seven o' clock; two hours before the guard's shift change. It was the end of the day for them, and they would be at their most sloppy.

"On the hour."

The two Agents poised over their watches, eyes on the laptop computer's clock. It clicked over – 19.00 – and they pressed.

"Okay. You'd better get out there. Position near the wall and wait for my signal."

"Okay."

"Earpiece good?"

Vale nodded, tapping the small plastic device moulded into his outer ear.

"As good as it was last time you checked."

"Okay..." Starling looked away again, back at the screens. "Then we're good to go."

"Rolling?"

"Rolling." She shot him a grin. "Let's do this."

He slipped out of the car, with a 'good luck' in her direction – despite her earlier claims, that they needed no such thing. Making his way over to the wall, Vale stuck to the shadows. In his dark fatigues, he was near to invisible. The street lamp above them was dark, as was the one across the street. Starling had seen to them earlier in the evening, driving past in his pickup truck. Vale counted out the seconds inside his head. Ten, twenty, thirty...

"Okay, go."

He threw the hooked claw over the top of the wall and listened until he heard it catch. Tugging the rope, he felt it go taut. His climbing aid was solid. Producing two short, thick splints of metal, he thrust them into the softer mortar, between the stones. They dug into the wall, forming perfect footholds. Giving one last tug at the rope, he glanced over his shoulder, at Starling in the car. She nodded, and he heard her voice in his ear.

"Ready. You have five seconds to the top, pause for ten, then over in fifteen. I need you on the ground, with the rope away."

He nodded.

"Go" Starling whispered.

Launching himself at the wall, he scaled its face with brute power he had not used since his days in the Corps. His shoulders were still strong and the footholds held firm as he levered himself up to the top. He clung there, waiting, counting off the seconds in his head. One, five, ten...

"Go." Starling's voice reminded him gently, in his ear.

He needed no second bidding. Grasping the lip of the wall in two hands, he pulled himself up and onto the surface and swivelled until he was lying belly down along it. He had used five seconds. He had ten more. Not five feet away, he could see the small black form of the security camera, swivelling around to face him. Nine seconds... eight seconds...

Freeing the grappling hook with one foot, he pulled the rope up from the outside of the wall and dropped it down to the ground on the inside. Then he followed it, sliding his body down first and hanging there, before dropping. The drop itself was almost ten feet and Vale winced as he did it, almost expecting to hear the crack of his leg bones as he made contact with the earth. He landed, uninjured, however, and quickly rolled away into the nearby undergrowth. Starling's voice in his ear piped up again.

"Safe?"

"Safe." He whispered back, pressing in the earpiece. "Continuing along the perimeter."

There was an eight foot gap in surveillance, along the far wall. This was the one weakness in the Woodley household security. It allowed Vale to reach a thick patch of shrubbery which bordered the pool. From there, he crept through the shadows, around the back of the pool house and up to the edge of the trimmed garden lawn.

"Okay, are you ready?"

Vale had finished counting off seconds in his head. That was Starling's job now. His was to run, as fast as possible.

"Camera seven is almost finished its sweep. You will have ten seconds to clear the distance to the tree."

Eyeing the tree – about fifty feet away across the cover bereft lawn – Vale could not quite imagine himself making it. It was going to be tight. He had said as much to Starling back in the car. An Olympic runner on a track would be fine, but he was running in kit, in the dark, on uneven and snowy terrain. To make matters worse, it had rained earlier in the afternoon and there was a thin but crunchy layer of ice atop the snow. His footsteps would be like canons in the quiet air.

"I've got you covered. Move on three."

She had it covered, he knew that, but it did not help his nerves. Those guards were armed and he was not, (as the charge of armed robbery being far greater than unarmed).

"One... two... go!"

"Shit..." he muttered, and threw himself out across the snowy yard.

Vale ran so hard his knees felt like they were going to break. He ran in an arc across the snow, thighs beginning to lose all feeling as he switched into the turn. Reaching the tree, he could not afford to slow down, so he caught it against the side of his body. Gripping with his fingers, he swung into its far side, just as Starling's voice sounded in his ear.

"You're out of cover."

"I'm through." Vale panted and clung to the far side of the tree. "I'm through…"

He could hear Starling exhale heavily.

"Okay, we're cutting this close, so listen carefully." She cleared her throat and Vale could hear her tapping at her keyboard. "To the porch in five, crouch by the pot plant for seven, then you're going to have to make the pass across the patio..." Starling paused. "We're gonna be out in the open, for that one, so it's all down to speed."

Vale nodded, from his position behind the tree.

"Okay... okay..."

"You've got twenty seconds before camera nine pans around. Hold tight."

"Okay..."

"And Vale?"

He swallowed.

"Yeah?"

"You're doin' good. Hang on in there."

Vale nodded again – though he knew she could not see him.

"Okay, let's move." Starling said.

Launching himself into motion again, Vale tore across to the porch, rolling into position alongside a large pot there. He sat, planted, as the voice in his ear counted to seven. Then, bunching his leg muscles, he kicked out again, propelling himself fast across the stone patio. His feet slapped loudly across the stone. The noise felt louder still in Vale's ears. He half expected the panic to kick in, but all of a sudden he was at the far side, flat against the wall of the house. Starling's voice in his ear told him that he had barely scraped the edge of the camera's surveillance.

"You did good, Vale, real good." She sounded relieved. "For now, I think we're in the clear."

"Where d'ya want me?"

"Uh, stay put for thirty seconds. I'm checking with camera six."

"Okay. Out."

The line in his ear beeped then went to static. Vale lay his head back against the back of Woodley's house. He was in this up to his neck. He shouldn't be in this up to his neck. Blowing a heavy breath out of pursed lips, he clenched his fists rhythmically, to keep his mind in check. Starling knew what she was doing. She had had this planned for months. They would be fine. They would get the evidence, and get out, and they would be fine.

Starling's voice came back over the line.

"Okay, you're heading up around the house, huggin' the wall 'till you get to the second window from the porch."

"Got it." He pressed himself up flat and began to shuffle fast around the edge of the building.

"And move it, marine, we don't have a lot of time..."

He did. Keeping tight to the woodwork, Vale shuffled around until he reached the second window. It was four foot or so off the ground, due to the uneven terrain, and edged with pale blue curtains. One look inside told Vale that it was the right room. He reached a hand up and felt along the sill. It was thick, sturdy enough to support his weight. Turning around, he placed both hands upon it and pulled himself up.

Getting his knee up onto the ledge was difficult, but he managed. Crouched on the ledge – just out of sight of the cameras, due to the corner of the house – Vale slid an odd device out of his pockets. One part of the device was obviously a glass cutter, but the other was a strange sort of plunger.

"It's tempered glass, so it'll shatter. We need the plunger to pull the shards out towards you." Starling reminded him.

"Okay chief, I got it."

Vale worked quickly, pulling the cutter around and knocking the shards away from the frame of the window. Once they were cleared away, he pulled a small box out and opened it. Powder. He blew it over the window frame. The first time, it fell to the ground, uselessly, but the second time it illuminated a red laser, just above the window sill.

"Have you illuminated the beam?"

"It's all good, Starling." He pulled himself parallel to the laser beam, orientating his body ready for the drop. "All good..."

Tensing his shoulders and back, he lifted one leg and extended it over the laser alarm beam. This had to go right. One slip up, one tiny break in the beam and they would be in over their heads with security officers, police and alarm bells. Vale took a deep breath, then swung his body over.

The floor was carpeted. He landed in a roll.

"Damn!" he grunted.

"What?"

"Nothin'." Vale shifted, stretching out his leg, which had cramped on impact. "I'm in. Jus' nearly killed myself doing it."

"Injured?"

"Negative."

Lifting his head, Vale scanned the room. The walls were blue-striped, to match the blue carpet. It seemed to be an office. There was a large mahogany desk over at the far wall, on front of which sat an ornate desk chair. The desk was littered with papers, a few old coffee mugs, a trophy or two, and a black phone. Vale turned his attention to the matching mahogany cabinet, on the opposite side of the room – the reputed position of Senator Woodley's safe.

"Heading in?"

"Head on in." She was shifting papers on her end of the comm. line. "And Vale, you've got thirty minutes, before they do a sweep of the grounds and find your window. I need you in and out before then."

"Will try my best, Agent Starling, but he does have cable… I might just be tempted to stop for a while."

Vale walked over and knelt beside the cabinet.

"Have a cold beer, catch the game…"

Opening the cabinet door revealed a fat metal safe, coloured green with a black brand printed across its face. Vale reached out and touched it lightly.

"Hey Starling," he spoke quietly, into the air. "I found the safe."

"Combination six – thirty five – twenty."

Gabriella Woodley had given Mendez the combination two days before she was killed. Starling's voice was steady as she read it, but she swallowed forcefully afterwards. The line crackled with static tension. Had Woodley changed the combination – would it work?

Vale twisted the knob to the number twenty and heard the tumblers click home.

"Thank fuck" he muttered, and then to Starling, "we're in."

She exhaled and swallowed again, over the line.

"Okay." Vale had never heard her sound so relieved. "Do you see it?"

He searched through the papers and files inside the safe. For a moment, panic filled him as he couldn't find it, and then his fingers closed over something hard and plastic.

"Got it." Vale pulled the hard disk drive from the inside of the safe, turning it over carefully in his hand to read the numbers imprinted there. "One terabyte information, solid state hard drive."

"Pretty." Starling was smiling – he could tell. "Let's bring her home."

Vale slid the drive into the front of his fatigues, zipping it in above his belt. It would be safe there, for his return to Starling. Unless, of course, he was shot in the chest – at which point he wouldn't really have to worry about it anymore.

Pushing this thought aside, Vale walked back over to the window.

"Okay, I'm ready to come back."

"I am..." Starling tapped at her computer "...almost ready for you. Just give me a second or two to calibrate the camera times."

He did, eyes sweeping the ground for any sign of movement. There was none. Their entry had gone completely unnoticed by the guards. The only risk now came in disturbing the laser on his way back out – or getting caught by the camera during his run back across the patio.

Vale bounced slightly on the balls of his feet. He had almost forgotten the adrenaline rush of a field mission. This was not combat, but it came a pretty close second when you were talking about nerves. He had not felt this terrified in years – of getting caught, of getting shot at. Vale hated getting shot at. He told Starling as much over the comm. line.

"Bad choice of career." She answered, simply.

He guessed she was right.

"Okay," Starling cleared her throat, back to business. "I've got you ready. Clear the alarm beam on the window and drop to the grass. When you're there, tap the earpiece and I'll give you a count."

"Okay."

"We'll count you through, same as the way in."

"Okay."

"You ready, marine?" her voice sounded, close in his ear.

Vale nodded to himself, taking a deep breath in and out.

"Ready."

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They were out in less than ten minutes; Starling needn't have worried about the guard's patrol. By the time the security men walked the house and found the broken window, Starling and Vale were five miles away, heading onto the freeway. Vale was driving and they had the radio on. Starling had the black hard drive on her knee, with her hand laid across it. She was staring out the window with a distant expression on her face.

"You okay?" Vale asked, glancing over at her.

"What?"

Starling looked around, genuinely caught of her guard.

"You okay?" Vale repeated.

"Oh, yeah, fine."

She pulled a smile on quickly enough, but Vale could see the ghost of anxiety leaving her face.

"What's up?" he asked, because he knew Starling never volunteered information. You had to push her.

"Nothin'," she said again, waving her hand. "Just have a long way to go, yet."

"Well we've got the hard drive, right?" he gave her an encouraging smile. "That's got to be good."

"Yeah, now we only got to get the thing decrypted, find out where Woodley's financial Achilles heel is, find that and get a copy of it to the Director."

Vale turned his eyes back to the road, watching the white lane markers flash and disappear underneath his wheels as he changed lanes. He overtook a white sedan, and then slid back into the outside again.

"Guess we still have a bit to do then, huh?"

"Yup…"

His companion had turned her attention back out the window. She seemed somewhat disheartened.

"Come on, Starling, we'll get there."

"I know that. I don't need you to tell me."

"Seems like you do."

A moment or two passed.

"Well I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine."

"I'm just sore."

"Sore?" Vale snorted. "Fuck off sore, Starling, I'm sore! I had my ankles near broke jumping through that window. I busted my ass off jumping over walls and hiding from cameras and shit." he threw her a slightly bad-tempered look. "Don't be saying you're sore, now."

"I'm sore we have to be doing this at all."

"Wasn't it your idea to do this in the first place?"

Starling narrowed her eyes, but did not turn to face him.

"I mean, you knew the plan when you got into this. You wrote the plan." He pointed out. "So there's no point being sore about what we've got to do. What we've got to do is what's got to be done. This Woodley's guy's a wife-murdering ass-wipe and the Feds can't stop him, so we've got to. It's just how it goes." Vale shrugged to himself.

"Damn, Vale, you're more convinced over my cause than I am." She sounded slightly amused.

"Well someone's got to be. I agreed to help you on this because I thought it was the right thing to do."

"Semper fi…" Starling muttered darkly. "The corps must have loved you."

There was a gap in conversation, during which Vale tried not to take Starling's words too personally.

"Quit being such an ass, Starling, you're hungry and stressed out." Vale nodded towards the glovebox . "There's a can of coke and a snickers in the cubby. Eat something and stop bitching at me… I'm trying to drive."

Starling muttered something under her breath, but did as she was told. Pulling out the coke, she popped the top, and downed about half the can in a few mouthfuls. The snickers went in a similar fashion. A minute or so later, she offered what was rest of the can to Vale and he accepted.

They continued along the freeway in silence, until they passed the sign for Arlington.

"Dee's gonna ask you where we've been" Starling said, eventually breaking the awkward silence between them. "And where I'm heading off to."

"I'll tell her you're working late on the Mendez case. She's up to her ass on this drugs case, so I doubt she'll check up on you."

There was another pause, as Vale manipulated the car off the freeway and onto a slip road. The sign overhead read 'Arlington'. They drove silently down towards the sprawl of houses that was Starling's neighbourhood, watching the streetlamps as they flashed by.

"Sorry 'bout earlier." Starling murmured.

"It's no problem."

"I can be a bitch when I'm hungry."

"Yeah, you can."

The edge of her mouth twitched.

"I'll see you tomorrow when I get back from the hotel."

"You sure I can't come with you?"

Starling was off to meet a contact – someone she said could decrypt the hard drive and tell them where to look for Woodley's incriminating financial information. She refused to let Vale come with her to the hotel. She wouldn't even tell him which hotel it was, only that it was in DC. Her reason was that the source would spook. He was of skittish temperament, so Starling said, who would vanish at the slightest provocation. And then they would be in a whole heap of shit.

Vale did not know who this mysterious source was, though not from lack of asking. Starling said that she trusted him and that should be enough. How Starling knew so many people of the criminal underworld was beyond Vale. He guessed it was something that came with years of experience. The man who sold them the glass cutter was an old informant, from Starling's old job in drugs and trafficking. The man at the hotel was probably something similar.

"Well, I'll be right at the end of the phone, if you need me." He assured her, with a sigh.

Starling's expression softened slightly.

"I know, Benedict."

They pulled onto a side road, which lead to Starling and Mapp's duplex. Vale's companion let out a loud yawn and stretched in her seat. As they drove up to the house, she gathered her things; zipping up her coat and packing away the hard drive, in a bag she had stowed at her feet.

"I'll get along just fine on my own."

"You're nervous, though." He pointed out.

Starling's emotions had run pretty close to the surface tonight. At first, he had thought it was due to nerves about their breaking and entering mission. However, as the night had worn on and they had accomplished their mission successfully, he had realised that what she was really nervous about lay in the hotel across town (Vale was not sure which hotel, as Starling had pointedly neglected to tell him).

"Huh?" she frowned over at him, with false bravado. "What you talking about?"

"You're nervous to go over there."

"What – to the hotel?"

"Yeah, to the hotel, to see the computer guy."

Starling shook her head.

"Uh, well it's not because of the computer guy, believe me." Starling chuckled.

"Then what?"

She sighed.

"I'm nervous about a million little things, Benedict Vale." She shot him a smile. "Don't mean I need your help over there."

They had arrived at the duplex. Vale pulled the car up beside the driveway and parked. Beside him, Starling was staring out at the house. Vale followed her gaze. All the lights were out except for Ardelia's living room. Starling's housemate was probably waiting up for them. It was nine o' clock and Starling was usually long back by now, from work. She would be worried.

"You just go in, tell her I had to work late and that I'll see her tomorrow." Starling turned to face him with a mischievous smirk. "Do your thing, keep her happy."

Vale concentrated hard on not letting his cheeks blush.

"I'll tell her you'll call."

"Okay then, I'll call."

Starling slid out of the car and hoisted herself up. She was now fairly pregnant and required extensive manoeuvring to get pretty much anywhere. Vale handed her out her bag, which she slung over one shoulder. Then he hopped out the driver's seat, allowing her to walk around the Mustang's bevelled nose and take his place.

"You better call."

Shutting the door, she gave Vale a finger-wave. He watched as she backed the car up and turned in the street. As the Mustang's exhaust lit up the air with sound, Vale turned away, facing back at the house. The light to Ardelia's living room was still on and now he could see her silhouetted in the window frame.

Though he had got the good end of the deal, Vale could not help but wonder what Starling was getting up to, over at the hotel. He would call her later and see how it was going. Pushing his hands into his pockets to protect them against the cold, he headed up the driveway, past his truck – which he had parked there earlier – to the front door of the duplex.

Mapp answered on the second chime of the doorbell. Vale had never been so glad to see her face.

"You would not believe the day I just had."

She wrapped her dressing gown tighter around her waist. Her legs were naked underneath the gown. She was barefoot.

"You should come inside and tell me about it."

"I would…"

She raised an eyebrow.

"…but I'd have to kill you."

His girl's face split in a smile.

He walked into her arms and she kissed him. Then the pair disappeared inside, into the welcoming warmth of the small duplex. The light from the window pooled outside, lighting an orange square on the snow. And then they turned it off, and the only light came from the moon above.