Chapter 2: And So It Begins…
"Okay, stop," James said loudly. "You have to listen to me now."
"You said you wanted to talk about the plan, I'm giving you the plan," Lily said bossily. She had been spouting off contacts and names of operatives that help LRT for the last ten minutes.
"That's not your job. I give you the plan."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't know what your problem is with me, maybe it's because I'm a woman, or you just don't like my attitude and I am sorry about that. I appreciate what you're doing, even though I think you're a little young to be doing it, but there is only one way we are going to take these guys down, and that's my way. I promise you, I will hand you, in record time, the remains of the terrorist group that used to be the Alliance."
"Record time?" James said incredulously.
"Three months, tops, then I am out, I want no more of this spy crap that's why I came to you in the first place."
James looked at her, then slid a piece of parchment and a quill over to her.
From the outside, they were sitting in the back of a delivery truck. But in reality, the inside was a spacious office, with a table and chairs.
"Draw me a map. A map of LRT. All of its contacts, how far you think it reaches."
Lily was really beginning to get aggravated. "Do I look like I'm twelve years old? Do you see braces on my teeth or spots erupting on my face—" she shouted.
"JUST DO IT!"
Lily pursed her lips and yanked the parchment towards her. She began to draw; a large circle, with others coming out of it, it looked like a spider web. After a minute, she put the quill down, and threw the paper back at James.
He picked it up and looked at it for a few seconds, then put it down and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He sighed, then stood up and opened a cabinet over his head and brought out a long piece of paper rolled up.
He set it on the table, and unrolled it, revealing a huge map; LRT was in the middle with thousands of branches leading out of it. Lily's eyes widened.
"If this was just about taking down the London cell, we would have raided that office two years ago. This is what your dealing with, Lily. This isn't about cutting off an arm of the monster…this is about killing the monster. And the work you're going to do, the work your father's been doing, its complicated, it's political, and it is long term."
Lily looked as though she were about to cry. She folded the parchment over so she wouldn't have to look at it. James almost felt sorry for her.
"Okay, now tomorrow is your first day back, and nothing should really change," James said. "You will get your mission outline, then detail it on the back of a brown paper bag," he said holding up a brown lunch bag. "Then you will dead drop the information at any one of these secret locations," he said handing Lily a map of a part of London. "They are disguised as trash bins, all you have to do is throw the bag in there, and the information will be received at the ops center.
"Now, do you have a telephone?" James asked.
"Yeah, why?
"That's how we will be contacting you for a meet. We will review your outline, and then come up with a counter mission. Someone will call you, posing as someone looking for Gino's Pizza. You tell them it's a wrong number, then report to one of these places," James handed her another map. "Each corresponds to the bin that you threw the bag in, and they rotate weekly, so if you're being monitored, they won't pick up anything unusual. Any questions?"
"Yeah, can you show me what a bag looks like again?"
James gave her a don't-waste-my-time look. "We're done for today."
"Thanks," Lily said, and got up and left.
"Did I ever tell you I absolutely despise moving?" Lily said, as she carried what seemed like the fiftieth box into her living room.
"Did I ever tell you I absolutely despise helping?" Carrie said from behind the kitchen counter, where she was piling dishes into the cabinets. Lily turned around and stuck out her tongue childishly.
Carrie Wainwright was a tall black girl, with big brown eyes, and an even bigger smile. She and Lily had been best friends ever since their first day at Hogwarts, and remained so even after they graduated.
"What ever happened to Ian helping?" Lily grunted as she lifted a huge box and set it over in a corner.
"He had to rewrite an article for the third time," Carrie said. "Supposedly. I still think he just wanted to get out of helping."
Just as she said this, the door opened, and the tall, thin, scruffy blonde man walked through the door, a large paper bag in his arms.
"God, its about time," Carrie said, giving him the evil-eye.
"Yeah, yeah. It's not my fault, Lowman just hates me."
"Ian, you used to say the same thing about McGonagall too," Carrie said.
"Whatever. But, to make up for my lateness, I have brought sustenance," he said, handing a carton to Carrie and bowing.
"Ooo, yay," Carrie said, and snatched the carton away from him.
"Where's Lils?"
"Uh…." Carrie said staring around, a piece of moo shu pork halfway to her mouth. "Bedroom?"
Ian picked up two more food cartons and carried them back through the hallway to Lily's bedroom, where she was busy loading her wardrobe with clothes.
"You, uh, want some food?" he said holding out the white carton.
"Yes, I'm starving," she said, taking a pile of jeans and setting them in a drawer. "I just want to get my room done so I feel like I live here."
"Here," Ian said, taking a stack of sweaters from the box, but then returning them and sighing. "Okay, I can't take this," he said.
"Oh, come on, not this again!" Lily exclaimed.
"You took Amy's passport—"
"I know—"
"You took her credit card—"
"I know what happened, Ian!"
"Look, Bryan must have been in some kind of trouble—"
"Stop it," Lily said coldly. Ian quieted. "I am trying to move on here, and you're only making it harder," she said quietly.
"Lily, you can't expect for me to let this go," Ian said exasperatedly.
"Well, you're going to have to," Lily snapped. "You know what I used to see whenever I walked into the bathroom? Do you?" Ian looked at the floor. "I saw him. I saw him covered in blood, his eyes blank—" Lily was cut off as a sob choked her. "I need you to let this go," she said tiredly. She then took her food from the bare bed and went out to join Carrie in the kitchen, and left Ian standing and feeling ashamed.
"You're going to Thailand," Loque said the next morning. "Specifically, Bangkok. An old friend of ours, Kanya Oakpao," he explained, and a picture of a very pretty Asian woman smiling evilly came up.
Lily rolled her eyes. "What did she do now?"
"Nothing, yet," Loque said, and leaned forward, his weight on his palms. "And you two are going to make sure it stays that way," he said nodding to Lily and Mason. "We've received intel that Oakpao is planning on taking over the late Domovoi Buchanen's arms business," he explained as a picture of a large Eurasian man came up on the wall, "Oakpao and Buchanen were close, but not that close. Oakpao wants his clients, but she doesn't know who they are. Your mission is to break into Buchanen's Bangkok estate and retrieve his client list before Kanya does. Agent Mason you will be on coms for this, Evans you will be on point. Go, Desmond," Loque finished, handing the conversation over to Desmond, who stood up.
"Okay, now we don't know exactly where Buchanen will have his client list, but logically we can assume that it will be somewhere in his private office. Thanks to the Bangkok city records, we have detailed blueprints of Buchanen's estate," Desmond said, and pointed his wand at the screen, and a floor plan of the third floor came up. "Now, we're only guessing here, but Buchanen liked to do things old school, so he will probably have his files hidden in some type of safe, but we don't have any intel yet on what kind of model," he said. "I'll get back to you on that."
"You will leave from here at six o'clock this evening, putting you in Thailand at around one o'clock in the morning their time. The guards reduce for the night shift around 2 A.M. That will be your window. You get your op-tech from Desmond before you leave. That's all, you can go," Loque said, dismissing them. Lily and Mason made to stand up when Loque spoke again. "Lily, could you come with me for a second, there is something I need to show you."
"Sure," Lily said, puzzled. "I'll see you tonight," she said to Mason. Mason left behind Desmond, and Lily followed Loque to his office.
He pushed the door open. "I'll leave you two alone," was all he said, and then he left.
Jack Evans was standing in front of Lily. "What the hell are you doing here?" she said.
"To tell you what I told you before. That I work for LRT."
"Why?"
"Because it will facilitate what we're doing, if they know that you know," Jack said quietly.
Lily looked up at him, with a hard look on her face. "Since I've known the truth about you, I can't stop asking myself questions. But there's one that I have to ask you now," Lily said. "Was Mum's accident, just that…an accident? Or did you tell her what you were doing, like I told Bryan?"
"You're mother knew I was a wizard, and she knew I was MSA, it was no secret between us," he said.
"What about Petunia?"
"No. She doesn't know." Jack looked at his watch. "Lily, I have to go I'm late for a meeting. And it wouldn't hurt you to look surprised after you left the office," he said, and left.
LRT is sending me to Bangkok. A Thai thief, named Kanya Oakpao, is now trying to take over the late Domovoi Buchanen's arms dealings. My mission is to break into Buchanen's estate in Bangkok and steal his client list, and delivery it to LRT. We're leaving tonight at 6 P.M. What's my countermission?
Lily stood up from her position on the park bench and then deposited the paper bag she had been writing on in a bin, and walked off down the street.
Lily was in her bedroom, piling dark clothes into her suitcase. As she was adding a pair of black trainers to her bag, a shrill ringing sounded through the flat, causing her elf owl to let out a loud screech. Lily walked over to her beside table and picked up the telephone.
"Hello?"
"Gino's Pizza?"
Lily's heart slammed into her ribcage. "W-wrong number," she said and hung up.
"It's me," Lily said thirty minutes later, as she arrived at a magazine stand on the street.
"Pretty simple countermission, this one," James said as he picked up a magazine and pretended to look at it. "We believe that since LRT is after Buchanen's client list, they are trying to expand their weapons dealings. All you have to do is when you get into Buchanen's office and find the file, switch it with this," he whispered, sliding something into Lily's jacket pocket. "And deliver the real list to us. When you get back, you'll dead drop in one of the trash cans designated for your mission outlines."
"That's it?" Lily asked.
"That's it," James said. "Good luck."
Lily looked down at the magazine she was holding. "Thanks."
BANGKOK, THAILAND
"Rocket, I'm in position," Lily whispered into her earpiece.
"Copy that, Lancer. The guard nearest to you is moving away…you're clear to the building," Mason answered back. He was station in a utility van parked outside of the Buchanen estate.
Lily quickly and quietly ran to the enormous building, and hid in the dark shadows it cast. "Rocket, I'm at stage one."
"Copy. You're clear to enter," Mason's voice told her.
Lily whipped around the corner, drawing her wand at the same time. She whispered something and pointed her wand at the door, which glowed a bright green around the edges. Lily turned the handle and stepped inside, sticking to the shadows along the walls. "I'm in," she breathed.
"Can you get up to the third floor?"
Lily spotted a grand staircase in the darkness. "Yes. Guards?"
"I don't see anything," Mason replied. "But keep your eyes peeled."
"Copy that," she said, and quickly padded up the stairs to the third floor.
"Buchanen's office is the fourth on the left," Mason said.
Lily again pointed her wand at the door handle, and again the outer edge glowed a fluorescent green. She opened the door to reveal a large office. There was a large mahogany desk off to the right, and large floor to ceiling windows covering the far wall. Lily entered the room, and brought out a rectangular silver box, and held it up, and circled around. Once she passed over the desk, a rapid beeping emitted from the box. She walked behind the desk, and examined the bookshelves behind it. She passed her hands along the books on the shelves, hoping to find a false front, but she came up with nothing. Just then she spotted a crack running along the panels of the bookcase, and grabbed the inside of the shelf and pulled. The entire panel of shelving came away from the wall, and swung to the left on a hinge, giving Lily access to a hidden closet, in which there was a large black safe.
From her bag, she brought out another of Desmond's gadgets. It was a hollow cone, which she fastened over the dial, and a small screen attached to it with a thin cable. Lily hit a button on the screen, and the dial began spinning, the device deciphering the code. In less than thirty seconds the safe lay open in front of her.
It was cluttered with files of papers, a few sacks of gold, and various other objects. Finally Lily found what she was looking for. She brought out a long, thin, red box and set it on the desk. She knew that she would never be able to open the box with a spell, so from her pack she took a long thin knife, and stuck it into the slot at the opening of the box. With a faint hiss, the box opened in front of her. Inside was a mini-rolodex, a list of names and contacts of people that Domovoi Buchanen had done business with.
"Rocket, I found the safe," Lily said, delaying her actions to allow herself extra time. Meanwhile, she brought out the piece of parchment that James had given her with the fake clients names. She pointed her wand at the box, and then did a complicated wave and then pointed it at the piece of parchment, performing a switching spell. The real clients names were now on the piece of parchment, and the false names were now in the box she would give to Loque.
Lily smiled silently to herself and hastily shoved the piece of parchment back into her pack, when the door banged open.
"Expelliarmus!"
Lily's wand flew from her grasp, as a beautiful Asian woman entered the room.
"Evans," she said, giving Lily an evil smile.
"Kanya," Lily said coldly.
"I must thank you for saving me the trouble of finding dear Domovoi's safe," she said in a lilting accent. "As we all know the man was notoriously suspicious, and usually managed to keep things hidden quite well," she said sweetly, then spied the red box on the desk. "Ah! And you even saved me the trouble of cracking the safe, I thank you again Agent Evans," she said, smiling her bittersweet smile again. "I think I'll just take that—"
As Kanya reached across the table for the box, Lily lashed out and struck her in the jaw. Kanya reeled back and pointed her wand at Lily, but by that time, Lily was on the floor diving for her own.
"No!" Kanya yelled, and kicked out, catching Lily in the chin and throwing her backwards.
"Stupe—"
But Lily had already jumped up and grabbed Kanya by the arm, and swung her into the wall, causing her to drop her wand. But, she kicked back, barely missing Lily. She turned around and Lily delivered a hard kick that caught her in her side. She threw a few punches at Lily, which she easily dodged. Lily kicked up again, but this time Kanya anticipated it, and dove sideways towards her fallen wand. By the time she realized what was happening, Kanya was pointing her wand at Lily, and a blue jet of sparks grazed her upper arm, leaving a deep cut. Lily dove sideway towards her wand and pointed it at Kanya.
"Stupefy!" she yelled, but her red sparks connected with Kanya's blue ones, and they both ricocheted into nothing. "Stupefy!" Lily yelled again, and this time the red light caught Kanya in her ribs, knocking her backwards, where she fell through a glass coffee table, unconscious.
"Rocket, I've got the list," Lily panted, and ran from the room.
LONDON, ENGLAND
Two days later, Lily was sitting in Diagon Alley at a restaurant table with Carrie and Ian, when her purse started beeping.
Lily groaned quietly, and reached down to retrieve her beeper. LOQUE-ASAP. "I'm sorry, but I have to go," Lily said, and sounded as though she really did regret it.
"You know you could just quit," Carrie said. "It wouldn't be hard for you to find another job."
"Carrie…I like what I do," Lily said. "But I hate the fact that they always call at the worst times," she grumbled, pulling on her jacket. "I'll see you tonight."
Lily entered the LRT offices, and headed towards the conference room, where Loque, Desmond, and Mason were all waiting.
"Sorry I'm late," she said and took her seat.
"Okay," Loque said, standing ready to begin the briefing. "Silvio Roscale. Explosives specialist. We've received intel that he has set up a meeting in Cairo with Arno Navoure."
"I thought Navoure was in a Spanish prison for murdering an Auror," Mason said.
"He was. Until a week ago. He was released eight months early, obviously he has ties to Spanish law enforcement," Loque stated.
"So why is an explosives specialist meeting with Navoure?" Lily asked.
"We don't know, and that's what you're going to find out," Loque said. "Their meeting is set for tomorrow afternoon, the in-country contact will tell you more about the meeting. Desmond," Loque finished.
"Yeah," Desmond said, hopping up. "Well, I only got one cool gadget for you Miss Evans today, but I have definitely outdone myself on this one," he said rummaging in his pockets. "Here we go," he said, taking out a large ring. "This is actually a parabolic microphone, it will hear anything you point it at. Now, you're just going to tape the meeting, and you could be a half a mile away, and just have this pointed in their direction, and you could hear their heartbeats if you really wanted to," Desmond explained. "Oh, and I also added a filter to filter out any ambient noise."
"Thanks," Lily said, taking the ring from him.
"You leave tomorrow morning," Loque said. "Good luck."
"All you have to do for this one is to relay any information back to us," James said a few hours later. He and Lily were facing opposite sides of the aisle in a convenience store, James making himself a slushie, and Lily was examining a box of instant oatmeal. "Once we know more, we'll be able to know better what our next move is."
"I'll see you when I get back," Lily said, putting the oatmeal down.
"Actually, no you won't," James said, putting the lid on his slushie. "I'm being replaced by a senior officer. Apparently, I wasn't experienced enough to be your handler," he said, with a slight bitterness. "But it was really nice working with you, good luck in Egypt," he said, paid for his slushie, and left the store.
"This is a load of dung," James said later that day. He was pacing around his office, and Sirius was sitting behind James' desk. "Do you know who's replacing me? Do you?" James roared, his voice rising.
"Yes, Bales," Sirius said tiredly. He had been listening to James rant for a half an hour.
"Bales, BALES! I mean he may be a senior officer, but the man has the intelligence of a caveman," he ranted.
"Can I say something here? I think you're starting to get a little too emotional about this," Sirius said wisely.
"That's b--"
"Look, your obviously attached to this woman, and maybe it is a good thing they took you off the case."
"Thanks for all the help, Padfoot," James replied sarcastically, then sighed. "Get off my chair."
A shrill ring sounded through Lily's apartment late that night.
"Hello?" came the muffled voice of Lily, who was still buried under covers.
"Gino's Pizza?"
Lily's eye's jerked open in surprise. She had already received her counter mission from Potter, so why were they calling her again?
"Uh, wrong number," came the hoarse reply, and Lily hung up the phone.
A half an hour later, Lily was dressed in jeans, an old t-shirt, and flip flops as she climbed into the back of a delivery truck.
Instead of James Potter, sitting in the truck, Lily looked warily at the middle aged man sitting in front of her.
"Agent Evans," he said in an oily voice, "I'm Thomas Bales, I'll be your new case officer," he said, sticking out his hand.
Lily took it, but instead of shaking it, Bales raised it to his mouth and kissed it. Lily frowned at him, and yanked her hand away, immediately disliking the man.
"Mr. Bales, it is 1:30 in the morning," Lily said brusquely. "Is there a reason I'm here?"
"I just wanted to get a little face time with my girl," he said, smiling in a sick way. "And I just wanted to make sure you didn't have any questions or queries," he said.
"I've got a query," Lily said coldly. "Are you mad? Calling me in for 'a little face time?' 'You're girl' is risking her life, and you yours every time we see each other, so do me a favor. Don't be so friendly."
"I just love your spirit," he said, this time, somewhat awkwardly.
"That's lovely. If there's nothing else?"
"Actually, your counter mission has been revised," he said, taking something from his folder. "We want you to tag Navoure, that way we can track him to his base of operations."
"Wait, wait, wait," Lily said quickly. "Whose idea was this?"
"This is my op Miss Evans," Bales, said, finally getting agitated. "I don't want to pull rank, but time is a factor."
"You know what? It is. You know how much time. Five years," Lily snapped. "That's how long I worked for LRT before I found out who they really were, and you know what else? My days of blindly following orders are over. You tell Director Kendall that if Agent Potter is not here when I get back, the MSA gets nothing."
"Potter is a junior officer," Bales drawled.
"Then promote him," Lily commanded. "We're done here."
CAIRO, EGYPT
"How've you been, Malik?" Mason asked their contact.
"It's been a while, its nice to see you," Lily said, kissing Malik on each cheek.
"Yes it has," he said smiling.
"Any word on the meet?"
"Yes, we've received word that they're meeting this afternoon at a local marketplace, I've got a good spot for us," he said. "We should go."
"Can you hear me?" Lily said two hours later. Her hair was now waist length and blonde, in two braids on either side of her head. She was wearing the ring that Desmond had made for her, which went perfectly with her new Bohemian outfit.
"Loud and clear," Mason's reply came.
"Let's get some," Lily said, and headed down into the market place from their makeshift watchtower.
She walked along, looking casually at the merchants wares, but really keeping an eye out for Roscale or Navoure.
"I've spotted Roscale, Navoure hasn't arrived yet," Lily whispered. "Wait, there he is, he just got here," she said as a large black man joined the short gray haired one at the table. Lily repositioned her right hand so the ring was pointing at the two.
"If we're going to use Belfast as the delivery, I'll need the piece by Friday," Navoure said in a South African accent.
"As long as the financial arrangements can be made, that shouldn't be a problem," Roscale replied.
Lily looked up, to see Roscale's body guard looking directly at her. Unfortunately he looked familiar.
"Oh god," Lily breathed. "The little guy's bodyguard, I know him."
"What?"
"From Berlin three years ago…the son of a bitch broke my hand," Lily said, quickly walking away in the other direction. Lily looked back to see the bodyguard looking up into the loft where Mason and Malik were monitoring the meeting. He then whispered something into his collar, then came after Lily who was quickly striding away from him, but the crowd was getting thicker, and he eventually caught up with her.
He grabbed her arm. "You, I know you," he said.
"I'm sorry are you talking to me?" she said.
"I think you know me too," he said, and threw her into an alcove where she fell to the floor.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know you," she said, acting innocent and scared.
"This time, I'll do more than just break your hand," he said, drawing a long and unusually thick wand from his jacket pocket, but Lily reacted faster.
"Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, and he fell to the ground, stiff as a board. Lily didn't waste any time, and ran up the stairs to the loft.
"Mason! Mason do you copy!" she yelled, but there was no answer.
When she finally got to the top of the stairs, she saw Mason in an intense fight with a huge man. Out of another room a man came out and came after Lily which she tried to stun but he knocked her wand away with a chop of his arm. Lily grabbed his shoulders and threw him into the wall, cracking his head on the stone, then saw that Mason was still having trouble. She picked up a large vase from a stand in the hallway and brought it crashing on the man's head, knocking him out.
"You okay?" she panted.
"I'm fine," Mason said, wiping the blood from his lip. "We've got to get out of here.
Lily scooped up her wand, and grabbed two large cases. "Where's Malik?"
"In there, they chased him in there," Mason said pointing to the room that Lily's attacker came from. She ran inside only to see Malik lying in a pool of blood.
"Oh, please, no," she said, but she didn't feel a pulse.
"Lily! We— Oh, no," he said seeing Malik. He took a deep breath. "We've got to get out of here," he said grabbing Lily's arm, pulling her from her kneeling position on the floor. "Let's go."
LONDON
"Thank god it's you and not Bales," Lily said the next day where she walked into a self-storage facility, where James was waiting behind a rolling fence.
He opened it for her, then closed it. "Thanks for the promotion," he said, and smiled.
"Sure," Lily said. "That bloke was the biggest slime ball I have ever met," she announced. "There was no way in hell I was going to work with him."
"No kidding, I couldn't believe they were going to stick you with him," James said. "Now, anything to report from the meeting?"
"Something that they're going to use Belfast as a delivery," Lily said. "Now for what, I haven't got a clue. But Navoure said he'd need the device by Friday if they were going to use that location."
"Nothing else?"
"No, they were very vague," Lily said. "That and the fact that Roscale's bodyguard recognized me," Lily muttered. "We had to make a fast split."
"I'm glad you're okay," James said.
"Thanks. I'll make contact if LRT comes up with anything else," Lily replied. "I'll see you."
Lily was just finishing her report for Loque later that day at LRT headquarters. She looked up, only to see her father exiting the offices. Lily got up and caught up with him as he entered the hallway.
"Dad?"
Jack Evans turned around. His green eyes were dark. Lily could remember a time when her father's eyes sparkled with happiness, but she had barely seen him smile at all since her mother died, almost twenty years ago.
"Lily," he said.
"You have a meeting with Loque?" she asked.
"Lazarey, actually," Jack replied, referring to the neuro-technician at LRT.
"Psyche evaluation?"
"Routine," he said. "Nothing I look forward to but, that's the job."
Lily gave him a small smile, and he turned to leave. "Dad, wait."
Jack stopped and turned around.
"Could we have dinner? How about tonight?" Jack looked slightly startled. "Do you have plans?"
"Tonight, dinner. That'll be fine," he said.
"Have you two spoken about her mother?" Loque asked Jack that afternoon.
"Yes. She asked me about her death."
"And did you tell her the truth?"
"No…not yet."
"Hey Carrie," Lily said, coming into the kitchen where Carrie had just let herself in.
"Where are you going?" Carrie asked, seeing Lily dressed in a pink print dress.
"To have dinner with my father," Lily mumbled.
Carrie pulled a face. "Have fun with that," she said sarcastically.
Lily yawned widely. "I'm so tired," she said, leaning her forehead against the wall.
"Where were you yesterday?"
"Hong Kong," Lily lied. "That was the most boring six hour seminar ever."
"Six hours!"
"Unfortunately. Do you think this looks okay?" she asked, pulling at the dress.
"Where are you going for dinner?"
"Mitchell's…so its kind of dressy, kind of not," Lily said. "Is this okay?"
"Yeah, just throw on a red cardigan and sandals and you'll look fine," Carrie said.
"Good, because I'm too tired to coordinate."
Carrie laughed. "Just try not to get too mad at him," she joked. "And try to have a good time."
"Would you like to order, love?" the waitress asked Lily.
"I'll wait, thanks," Lily replied. "I'm meeting someone," she explained.
Her father was a half an hour late, which was not like him. He was a very punctual man, and got angry if you were five minutes late. Lily said there for another fifteen minutes, feeling like a fool, when the maitre'd came up to her.
"Miss? You have a telephone call," he said.
Lily got up and followed the maitre'd to a telephone at the reservations desk.
"Hello?"
"Lily," Jack's brusque voice came through the receiver. "I apologize, but I'm going to have to cancel for tonight.
"
"No, its alright," Lily said.
"Work….its…I can't get away. You understand."
"Of course, don't worry about it. I'll see you…I'll just see you."
"Okay. Bye," and Jack hung up the phone.
"I'm sorry to call you on this, its just I have no one else to talk to about this," Lily said later that evening. She and James were standing on a pier at the river, tears pouring down Lily's face.
"My father and I were supposed to have dinner tonight, for the first time since I was little, I can't even remember the last time," she sobbed. "And he just didn't show," she said miserably. "He said he had work, and he didn't have work…" and a new wave of hard sobs came over her.
"This isn't just about my father….that man who died in Egypt was a friend of mine. And he was a good man, he thought he was working for the right side, that he was working for the MSA, he was lied t-to, and now he's d-dead. I had his blood on my hand--" and Lily stopped, because she couldn't continue talking for her crying.
"Lily—"
"I feel like I'm going mad! Like I don't even know who I am anymore, or what I'm doing, or why I'm doing it—" Suddenly, Lily's pager started beeping, and she ripped it out of her purse and heaved it into the river. There was a short pause until—
"You just threw your beeper in the Thames," James said.
Lily let out a bark that was half sob, half laugh. "I know," she said, trying to calm herself.
"Okay, come on. When you first walked into my office two weeks ago, with that stupid, crazy hair. I though you were insane. I seriously thought you were mad. But I watched, and read your statement. I've seen…I've seen how you think, I've seen how you work…I've seen who you are. In this business, you see the worst in people. But you can't let that dampen your spirit. The missions change, and the enemies have a thousand faces…but you can't let your anger, and your resentment darken you," he said. "But, I want you to know, that when you're at your lowest, you can always talk to me," James finished.
Lily reached out for his hand which was resting on the railing. "Thank you."
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Yay! Chapter two….let me know what you think…and just to let you know…you people suck at reviewing…I checked stats yesterday….i had two bloody reviews and 40 views. I mean come on! But thank you to the whole two people who reviewed…REVIEW! Its just plain rude not to!