I'd like to take this moment to say that you may or may not have noticed that all my chapters are named after songs from Les Miserables. God I love that musical. Lol, enough of my jabbering and I do hope you enjoy this chapter!
ABC Café
Nina's Sacrifice
Nina paced in front of the ABC Café, her brain a jumble of disjointed thoughts. Some urged her to enter the Café, while others told her to run. Another small thought flew through her mind, demanding coffee. She breathed deeply, and decided that for the moment she could pretend that she was just getting some coffee. She felt like martini, but she knew a coffee would be better at this point of time.
So she entered the Café, the bell ringing as the door swung open, signalling a customer. A thin waitress tottered over to her, caught in the middle of a balancing act.
"There is a free table over there, miss." She said, smiling hurriedly to disguise a frown, as she nearly dropped a stack of plates.
Nina nodded courteously, and began over to the table. She smoothed her skirt, both preparing herself and checking that her gun was still securely strapped to her thigh, as she could not openly carry her other gun.
As she arrived at the table, she scrutinised it, checking for any discrepancies. Out of old habit, she took the chair facing the window, as she didn't like to be seated with her back to the world.
She waited, drumming her sharp fingernails on the table, her eyes darting to and fro. After a while, the same thin waitress hastily weaved her way towards her,
"Is there anything you would like to order?"
"Yes, Coffee –white please- with four sugars." Nina responded, distinctly noticing the waitress raise her eyebrows at Nina's order, people were always surprised at how many sugars she liked to have. The waitress scribbled down the order and hurried off.
Nina hated waiting, but when she was waiting, with no coffee or martini to be seen, for someone that was late, she loathed it. She rolled her eyes, exasperated, and continued watching the brightly lit street.
Finally she saw a familiar figure promenading down the street, and she shifted in her stiff seat. She examined the figure beside Lei, and speculated. The figure was male, muscular and slightly taller than Lei. She lost sight of them for a moment, but as soon as she heard the bells ringing from the door, her head snapped to them. As soon as she saw who was walking into the Café with Lei, she felt unmeasured horror.
They saw her immediately, and walked over, taking the seats opposite her.
She glared at Lei, her eyes flashing ominously,
"I would say 'you've got to be kidding', but you know that if you were I would kill you right now in front of all these people."
Lei licked his lips nervously, and the man beside him leant forward, across the table. As he did this, Nina pushed her seat away from the table, the chair scraping harshly on the ground.
The man grinned lecherously as his eyes travelled up and down her body,
"Well Nina, that ain't the way to greet an old friend."
Nina merely scrunched her nose up in disgust. He emitted a low whistle, admiring her low cut top,
"You look as lustful as ever."
Nina didn't bother with being self-conscious and retorted,
"You look as vile as ever. And, we didn't exactly part good friends, Bryan."
Bryan smiled at her barb, and answered,
"I wasn't always 'vile' to you, remember? I forget, why aren't we still as good friends as we were before?"
Nina raised her eyebrows at him warningly, and refuted,
"You still pretending you're not a police officer?"
Bryan chuckled with amusement,
"You still pretending you're not a murderer?
Nina sneered back at him,
"Touche. Why are you here?"
He smirked, leaning back into his seat,
"I'm your new partner."
Nina turned her attention to Lei, who sat silently observing the exchange between them. She just looked at him, and finally he felt uncomfortable with the silence and spoke,
"He volunteered for it, and was accepted."
Nina scowled at Bryan,
"The truth at last. Why did you volunteer?"
Bryan smiled, his eyes not revealing a thing,
"I wanted to."
Nina didn't let him get away with that,
"Wanted to what?"
Bryan stalled for a moment, then answered, mirth dancing on his face,
"I wanted to see you."
Nina laughed, sarcasm laced in her words,
"That's lovely. How nice of you."
Lei leant his elbows on the table, and interrupted them,
"Do I need to stay for this? Can I trust you to play nice?"
Nina smiled, her mouth twisting wryly,
"Oh, don't worry, I always play nice."
Bryan nodded agreement, and Lei moved to get up, but a last thought entered his mind,
"Nina, I can't stay now, but ring me tonight and inform me."
Nina paused for a moment, before tilting her head in acknowledgment, a smug look flitting across her face.
Lei nodded curtly to Bryan and trudged over to the door, turning briefly to give a small wave to them and he then disappeared in to the throng of people on the street.
Nina then refocused her attention on Bryan, who stared back her. For a moment they just looked at each other, then Nina pulled some sheets from her handbag, placing them on the table.
She wrote some things down, and filled in a few pages. Her head pounded, and she muttered,
"Damn it, I still haven't got my coffee."
"They always did have crappy service." Bryan sniggered, then signalled to the waitress, "Hey miss! Can we have the coffee soon please?"
Nina looked up from her papers,
"That was unusually kind of you."
Bryan shrugged, and the waitress walked over to them, placing the coffee on the table. Nina breathed in the scent, before gulping down the sweet coffee.
She smiled guardedly, wary of him,
"Thanks anyway."
Bryan nodded, and motioned to the papers,
"So, what's all this then?"
Nina rubbed her hands together,
"The plan."
"That's the plan?" Bryan repeated, examining the stack of pages with amazement.
Nina rolled her eyes,
"Don't worry, most of it is for me. I'll just explain the plan to you if you have that much trouble reading."
Bryan curled his lips, attempting to look innocent, but failing miserably. Nina stretched her fingers, and began speaking,
"I've had it organised that two position are simultaneously open at Geneticks. One a secretary, the other a Militia and Weapons expert. Unfortunately, Geneticks is known for it's sexist attitude, so I'm going to have to go for the secretary position, and I somehow doubt you have the organisational skills to satisfactorily handle a job such as this. Plus, I'm fairly sure that you candle handle yourself around a gun."
Bryan nodded, following her words carefully, and Nina continued,
"So, once we get these jobs, we are in positions that are often given sensitive information to pass on or work with. It sounds incredibly simple, but eventually we will find something, and if we can't find anything, I always have a back-up plan."
Bryan cut in for a moment, questioning her,
"What if we don't get the jobs? What the back-up plan?"
Nina smiled,
"I know exactly what they look for in employees. They like smart weapon people, so you'll have to act as smart as you can, if it won't take to much effort. I also know that they like their secretaries scantily-clad and well, pretty. So I'll just go in and be as seductive as I can be, and you have to go in and be as, well, nerdy as you can be."
Bryan snorted, leaning on to the table,
"That doesn't sound so bad. So partner, when do we have our job interviews?"
Nina sighed in contempt, not fond of him referring to them as partners, as we.
"Tomorrow we have our first attack."
Bryan responded by raising his eyebrows,
"Well, could you give me my papers? I need to do some last minute studying."
Nina sorted the papers, passing the papers he would need to him. As she did so, he grasped her cool hand in his slightly sweaty palm,
"Still so cold?"
Nina snatched her hand from his grasp, and gathered her papers. She rose from her seat, her eyes glinting severely
"Still so constant?"
With that, she turned, and flounced towards the door. She didn't turn, but kept walking, leaving both Bryan and her coffee.
As she walked down the street, getting further and further away from the Café, her mind raced.
She was going to have to sacrifice her pride to work with him.
So, there we have it! The next chappie will be up soon! I want some speculation! What is Bryan and Nina's history? How the hell is Bryan going to act smart? What will happen to them at Geneticks? All coming up soon! Please review!
Happy Days
BreeLady