MISSION 1
Magpie
"You must find the chip. It contains-"
"It contains very valuable information, yeah yeah, we get it." Zack mocked, and I laughed. The countess gasped loudly.
"Do not act so flippant with me, Driver!" Zack rolled his eyes. I have sent all the information you will need to Magpie. This is your first mission, you will not disappoint me." The screen on the dashboard of the car blipped off as Zack pulled into the parking space. We clambered out of the car, our legs asleep from the long ride. The humid air made me start sweating immediately and I had to hoist my dress up to keep it from dragging through puddles of unknown liquids.
"Jeez, you'd thing such a nice casino would clean the parking garage!" Zack joked, stepping over a pile of discarded food containers. "So who we looking for?" I pulled the phone out of my purse and scrolled through the file Countess Cleo had sent.
"Her name is Rosalind Blythe, she is the founder of a prominent tech company and owns millions worth of stock in oil." We reached the elevator bay and zack pressed the button, then wiped his hands on his pants. "She's in her mid forties with black hair, olive complexion, and and a mole on her left nostril. She will be wearing a- wow, that is an ugly dress. Its pale yellow with brown flowers on it. Yikes." We hopped into an elevator and took a second to check our earpieces and fix out clothes. When the silver doors slid open, we were hit with a wall of loud music and bright flashing lights.
Shit.
Zack slid his hand into mine reassuringly, and we dove into the fray.
We scanned the crowd, and Zack quickly spotted Rosalind. She was standing in the middle of a group of people and Zack groaned. "God damn it. We're gonna have to wait."
"I mean, that's not so bad." I said. Zack looked at me quizzically, but grinned when he saw where I was pointing. We made a beeline straight for the food table and filled our plates. "Alright, how about we split up and wander, but keep an eye on Rosalind. Tell me if you see her on the move." Zack nodded and wandered in the direction of a group of fat men in suits guffawing about something or other. I started to wander in circles around the ballroom, but the space behind my eyes was starting to throb. After maybe 10 minutes of nothing, I decided to find somewhere quiet to sit. There was a back hallway that was completely empty and almost silent. The far wall was lined with floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city and I was entranced. Growing up on VILE Island, I had never really traveled, so city views like this floored me.
But I was shocked out of my reverie when my phone buzzed. I answered, and put it to my ear.
"MAGGIE!" Ivy, Zack's sister screamed at me. "Why won't Zack answer his phone? What's going on?"
"Hey,calm down, he's fine." I look through one of the windows in the doors to see Zack surrounded by a group of old men, all of whom were laughing at something he was saying. He looked so happy.
"Fine." Ivy grumbled. And she hung up. She had never liked me much, but her attitude had been getting worse since we were assigned as partners. I pocketed the phone and walked back into the ballroom. Zack saw me and excused himself from the conversation, dodging party goers and quickly making his way over to me.
"Maggie! Where did you go, you were gone for a while?" I smiled.
"Just needed a break. Your sister called." Zack's smile fell. He and Ivy had been arguing a lot, and I could tell he was worried about how Ivy was treating me. "Its ok, she just said you weren't answering your phone and was worried. " That didn't seem to make Zack feel any better. But when the iconic opening of David Bowie's Let's Dance started to blast from the speakers, a grin spread across his face that made my stomach flutter.
"Oh my god! This is our song!" He grabbed my hands and dragged me to the dance floor. We started to dance, and the flashing lights and pounding in my head faded to the background, all that was left was our song, and Zack dancing to it beside me.
Neither of us knew how to dance, we just flopped our arms and hoped we didn't look too crazy. We both knew this song note for note and Zack was belting the lyrics with the biggest grin I've ever seen on his face. But sadly the song came to a close and we hobbled off the dance floor, still laughing. I took a second to fix Zack's hair, which was no longer slicked back but falling into his eyes. I pushed it back, and our eyes met for a little longer than they should have. Zack cleared his throat, and I averted my gaze. My eyes flitted across the crowd, and my heart fell.
"Zack? Where's Rosalind?" I asked, and Zack muttered some expletives. We nodded and split up, searching for her in the throng of well dressed people. I pulled my glasses out of my bag and slid them on, hoping that the little computers inside would help me find her, but all that amounted to was a return of my headache. But as I took them off, my earpiece crackled to life.
"Maggie, she's heading for the bathrooms!" I casually strolled in that direction, but sped up a little when I saw the back of her dress flit around a corner.
The bathrooms were nice, large mirrors covered the wall of a sitting room which led to the stalls, and I could see Rosalind's brown heels under one of them. I decided to take the time to primp in the mirror and fix my hair, but when I heard the toilet flush, my heart began to race. This was my first mission? What if I fuck it up. But there was no time to think about it as she walked to the sink next to me to wash her hands. I smiled.
"Lovely party, isn't it?" I prayed that she could see how sweaty I was. But she just nodded and smiled.
"Indeed." I finished up and strolled past her, reaching into her bag and pulling out a chip. Weird. I thought. That chip was the only thing in there. But I couldt thing about it any more because i felt a sharp toed heel collide with my ribs.
I rolled across the waiting room, colliding with some furniture. I couldn't breathe, but I knew the chip was the priority, so I pocketed it and jumped to my feet.
Turns out that ugly dress had it's advantages. It had high slits up the sides and fell right below her knees, perfect for combat. Mine however, was not. It was heavy and slim, with only a small slit up to my knee.
God damn it, Cleo. How many times do I need to tell her function over form?!
Rosalind charged, pulling a small knife out of her pocket and lunging, but I dodged and sent my elbow right into the back of her neck. Che collapsed, but not before slashing a large cut ino the side of my calf. I cried out, and Zack burst in, clearly he had been waiting outside just in case. Thank god.
He kicked Rosalind's hand, sending the knife flying across the room, then grabbed my hand, dragging me away from Rosalind.
"We need to get out of here, the guards are getting wise." We turned the corner into the ballroom and saw at least two dozen guards heading right in our direction. Zack sprinted for the door, but I was falling behind, my leg was throbbing and I started to get light headed. But we reached the doors and barrelled through, followed closely behind by a group of angry guards. We reached the elevator bay right when an old couple was getting off, so we hopped on as Zack spammed the close door button. At the last second, a guard managed to get in, barely avoiding the rapidly closing doors. He lunged at me, but Zack jumped in front and punched him right in the chin. The fight didn't last long, the guard did not know to protect his face. He fell to the floor, the entire elevator shaking. Zack was out of breath and his hair had fallen back in his face during the fight. He looked back at me and smiled. Then the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, revealing five angry and heavily armed guards. Before Zack could do anything stupid, I grabbed a stun gun from my bag and shot three of them in quick succession, and used the lipstick taser in my pocket to get the fourth, stabbing him right in the neck. But the fifth grabbed my arms and flung me into the garage, narrowly missing a passing car. I heard Zack scream something incoherent, followed by a wet snap. The guard howled and Zack scoped me up and carried me to the car, dumping me into the back seat and hopping into the front. He peeled out and raced through the city streets to the nearby harbor. He climbed out and opened the door to the back, but I was light headed and not entirely coherent. He gently carried me onto the boat, but I lost consciousness before I got to the med bay.
When I woke up, it was dark and I could feel the boat rocking. Zack was sitting on the couch next to me, asleep. His right eye was swollen and there was a melted ice back on the seat next to him, along with his now very torn jacket. He was snoring gently and he had unstyled his hair so now it was standing in all directions around his head. I wanted to reach over and ruffle it, but the door slammed open and the lights came on, momentarily blinding me.
We had gotten home, and a doctor helped me out of bed and onto some crutches. Zack and I shuffled down the halls and onto the dock, and were greeted by a livid Countess Cleo.
"You two made a mess! Everybody knows about this! The fiasco was on the NEWS!" She started to rant, but Zack pulled the chip out of his pocket and tossed it to the countess. She stopped talking and huffed. "At least you didn't fail." Then she turned and marched down the dock. Zack and I turned to each other and laughed.
"Wonder what we need to do next."
