As promised, here is my new story (and last for 2020!), "Surveillance." It features Kate Macer and Reggie Wayne from Sicario again. I hope you all enjoy. Have a safe and happy New Year!

*I'm activating a trigger warning now for the rest of this story.

"Do you have him?"

"Nope. Oh, wait...yea. There he is. I got him."

"Don't lose him again."

"It's hard when he's in a house, and I'm over here."

"This is our job. If we screw it up..."

"You don't have to remind me."

"I feel I have to."

"You don't."

"Don't screw up, and I won't."

The exchange ended, and Kate Macer gave her colleague, Reggie Wayne, a sharp look. He ignored her and pressed his eyes back into the binoculars. She sighed and went back to watching her video recordings, making notes every so often on the pad of paper beside her. They'd been at this for a week, and so far, they'd gotten nothing. Reggie kept losing their target, and she had to keep reprimanding him. It was getting tiring.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Reggie asked. Kate rolled over in her chair to look out the window. Some new guy was in the front lawn next door acting crazy.

"I don't know," she answered. "He's not on our watch list."

"Well, he's got our guy all riled up," Reggie pointed out.

"Son of a..." Kate trailed off, getting up and storming to the door. She went down the hill, keeping behind the trees as best as she could.

"Stellar place ya got here!" a voice was calling. She bristled inside at the similar accent he had to hers. For some reason, it irked her.

"Get off the lawn," another voice said loudly.

"Just taking a stroll!" the Brit went on. "Ya can't be mad about that, can ya?"

"I said get off right now!"

Kate already knew that this was not going to end well. Roger Hastings did not play nice with others. She knew he would kill for less. Regardless of how much she was annoyed by this blatantly drunken idiot, she had to save him from getting murdered.

"There you are!" she called, stepping over the shrubs now and hurrying towards the Brit. She caught sight of three men looking at her in her peripheral vision. "You're at the wrong house, you idjit! The party is over here."

The Brit turned to face her, and she saw a flicker of annoyance there, which made her even more annoyed than she already was.

"Ah, so I am," he replied, slurring a bit. He held up his hand that was holding a beer bottle to Roger's men. "Sorry, blokes! My bad. Party's over there!"

Kate grabbed his arm and steered him towards the property line. She didn't look back. Once they were out of earshot and eyeshot, she jerked him around to face her.

"What in the hell are you trying to do?" she demanded. For she could clearly see that this man was not drunk.

He put his hand over hers, prying off her fingers that were practically leaving holes in the skin. She caught sight of a tattoo on his inner arm. A raven and a skull with the word "Expendable" over it like a banner.

"Got lost," he answered.

"I highly doubt that," she retorted.

"Thanks for the assist, but I'll be on my way," he said. She watched him walk away, feeling angry. She hated that they were on an island. People could show up in your backyard unannounced at any time.

"Who was that?" Reggie asked when she got to the door.

"I have no idea," Kate answered, adjusting her coat with a tight jerk before going inside.

If he wrecked the progress she had made, she might just take him out herself.

30 Minutes Earlier

Barney Ross did not usually do surveillance. It was not his forte, but Drummer was desperate, and Barney took this opportunity to make some good dough and maybe have some down time. After all, surveillance required you to pretend you weren't working, and he could use a "sort of" vacation right now. It was almost two years since Stonebanks tried to kill them all. They'd done nonstop work ever since. It was time to start slowing things down and do some self-care, like Toll's therapist suggested.

The job was watching Roger Hastings, who was a notorious arms dealer...among other things. He was believed to be involved in drug trafficking and terrorism. Rumor had it that he was looking to start blowing things up. Drummer wanted it taken care of but discreetly. Barney pointed out that having his team around would make Roger very suspicious, so Drummer had kindly gotten a hold of two cottages for them to stay in. One was on the island with Roger, and the other was on the mainland right across from them. Barney, Lee, and Toll had taken the island cottage. Caesar, Gunner, and Doc had taken the one on the mainland.

Now, Lee was looking at photographs on the table along with bios on Roger and his men while sipping a beer.

"How does a guy like that have three girlfriends when I can't even have one?" Lee asked, annoyed. He slid the photos around. Roger's women didn't know of each other, which wasn't surprising.

"He's better looking," Barney answered without looking up. Lee shot a dagger eyed look at his friend and noticed the smirk on Barney's face. Toll snorted from his chair by the window. He was looking out the window with his binoculars.

"So how are we going to even get close enough to figure out how much muscle he's got over there?" Lee asked, moving on.

"I think the play of 'I'm Drunk' oughta do it," Barney replied.

"Not it!" Toll called immediately.

"Come on," Lee groaned.

"You're better at it," Toll insisted.

"He's right," Barney agreed, finally looking at Lee now. "You make a very convincing drunk while sober."

"I hate both of you," Lee growled.

"What are we gonna do about the others on this island?" Toll asked. He had gone out in the canoe earlier to see who all was there. Since it was the end of August, it wasn't as busy as Barney had worried it would be.

"Just stay low and pray that they don't notice us," Barney answered.

"There's that family of five," Toll went on. "And a couple right next to Hastings on the other side. The other was a single woman. I don't know how observant any of them are."

"Hopefully not very," Barney said absently.

"Why do I have to be the drunk guy?" Lee asked, still stuck on that. "You do it better than me, contrary to what you think."

"Because I said so," Barney countered. "Now get."

Lee growled again before heading to the door.

"I'm gonna pay for that later, aren't I?" Toll asked Barney once he was gone.

"Probably."

He watched Lee walk down the hill and out of sight.

Present

Lee still felt the woman's fingers on his arm as he made his way through the connecting trail back to his place. He found Toll barbecuing out back.

"Well?" he asked in a low voice.

"Got lost," Lee answered, in case anyone was listening to him. He shot Toll a "don't be stupid" look and went inside.

"How many?" Barney asked.

"Five," Lee answered. "And I barely had my toe over the property line before they were on me."

Barney made note of this.

"I think there's a fed watching him," Lee added, making Barney snap his head up to look at him.

"What?"

"The cottage right next to him on the other side. Pretty sure she's a fed, and if I can tell, then it's guaranteed Hastings knows too."

"How do you know this?"

"The woman came to 'rescue' me," Lee explained. "Nearly broke my arm from her grip and was particularly nasty with me afterwards. Why would she even care unless she wasn't watching Hastings too?"

"I wonder if Drummer knows this," Barney mused.

"If he does, I'll be pissed. That would have been helpful to know."

"I'll call him."

"Do that," Lee said a bit sharply. He went to put away his now empty beer bottle. His mind went back to thinking about the woman. It was her eyes. There was something about them that he just couldn't put his finger on, but they were there in his mind.

...

It was driving Kate mad not knowing who the Brit was. She had tried googling the word Expendable with the description of the tattoo and came up with nothing. She had searched her database and also came up with nothing. She knew he was a professional of some kind, and it bothered her that his target was also her target.

"Kate," Reggie said, looking over her shoulder. "You gotta eat."

"I'm working," she replied.

"That's all you do..."

"And it's all I need to be doing right now," she cut him off. "The faster we get this done, the faster we get to go home."

"I'm kind of enjoying it here," Reggie said truthfully. Who wouldn't enjoy being on an island?

Kate said nothing. After everything that had happened about eight months ago, she was feeling herself hardening into a person she didn't want to be. She could thank Alejandro Gillick and Matt Graver for that. After being used as bait and made to sign off on their less than legal activities, she had major trust issues with new people in her life. She still worked kidnapping cases, and her latest victim, a fellow FBI agent named Macy Holt, had been traced back to Roger Hastings. Macy had been working his case, so it seemed too coincidental that she disappeared after getting more evidence against him. The FBI wanted Hastings taken down already for other reasons, and this added to his already massive rap sheet of criminal activity. The lead agent on the case, Joe Brown, was beyond furious that one of their own had been taken, and he had asked Kate to do this surveillance because he knew she was the best at her job on the kidnapping taskforce. If they could connect Hastings to everything, they'd be able to put him away for good. It wasn't clear if Hastings had really taken Macy, but he was known to associate with other human traffickers, so Kate didn't put it past him to be a part of that organization too. If he had taken Macy, she was probably already trafficked, and that made Kate feel very sick inside. She didn't know Macy that well, but no one deserved that kind of life.

Reggie set down the plate of food next to her elbow and gave her a meaningful look before going to sit out on the deck to eat his. Kate knew he was just looking out for her, but she wished he could understand that sometimes she just couldn't stomach food. They called what she suffered from PTSD, and she knew after almost getting strangled to death that she had it. She just refused to acknowledge it because if she did accept it, then she was broken in a way she didn't think could be fixed, and she didn't want to be broken. No one wanted you when you were broken. She learned that with her ex-husband, Evan. It's why she was so tough on the outside now.

Eventually, she picked up the fork and ate. Then it was back to work.