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Chapter 2 - That's an Order

1 month prior to the rescue; 12 years and 3 months after the meadow

New Orleans, LA - Hale Pharmaceuticals (or so it says)

Monday, 8:18am CT

BPOV

My heels clicked on the tile as I crossed the posh lobby of Hale Pharmaceuticals. To anyone who looked at me, they would see a successful business woman in a sleek navy blue suit, complete with a fitted blazer, pencil skirt, white silk blouse and matching white heels and purse. What they didn't see was the .38 special in my purse, the throwing knives strapped to my thigh, or the tracking device implanted behind my left ear. Granted the last one was only turned on during missions.

I walked up to the reception desk and smiled at Gianna. The pretty green-eyed brunette looked like a regular secretary, but her job was to make sure that no one without proper clearance got into the elevator behind her.

"Hey Gianna," I said. "They haven't started without me, have they?"

"No you still have about 10 minutes."

"Thanks, have a good one."

"You too, Bella."

I walked past the desk to the elevator and pushed the button. The door opened to reveal a rather stoic appearing Felix sitting in a chair in the corner of the elevator.

"Still stuck with the shit work, huh Felix," I said sympathetically.

He glanced up at me a smiled slightly. "It's not my fault I took a bullet to the shoulder. At least being stuck at a desk lets me talk to people for more than two minutes at a time."

"When are they gonna clear you for active duty?"

"Doc says about 5 more weeks."

The elevator dinged and the door opened. "Well, here's to hoping that someone tries to break in through the elevator and you get a bit of action."

That got the intended result and Felix laughed out loud. "Thanks Bella, I appreciate the thought."

The door shut and I turned around.

Gone was the classy materialistic office upstairs. Now it was all buzzing electronics and sleek technology. This wasn't some branch of a drug company. This was the USTSC; The United States Top Secret Coalition.

We weren't soldiers. If the government was ever questioned about us they would deny our existence. We worked outside of the law and got the job done. We had more training than anyone outside of special ops, but never looked or acted the part. We were the government's dirty little secret but one that was depended on to keep this country safe.

When the sanctioned government sponsored soldiers couldn't move due to red tape, we were called in. If caught, we were on our own. The great old U.S. of A. couldn't come in after us without alerting the public to our existence.

I had been recruited by the USTSC right after college. My 4.0 in military history and politics; along with my placement on the women's kick boxing team, had sent up the red flag with my name on it. After nearly two years of training, my system status was activated. Now, five years later, I was one of the USTSC's best agents. I was rather proud of that fact. Gone was the weak, insecure girl I was at 16. Now, I was a strong, confident, 29 year old woman.

They only reason I had even studied those things in college was because I wanted to know more about what Edward was doing. I still hadn't seen or heard from him in nearly 12 years, but he was never far from my mind.

I had been so fucking stupid then. How could I let him just walk away like that? The reasons seemed so damn stupid now. Because I didn't think I was pretty enough, because I thought he was too good for me, because I didn't want to get in his way, jeeze!

If I could go back, I would have kissed him with everything I had and told him that I loved him too. I ran my hand over the arms of my blazer, right above the thin white scar that always connected me to him.

I had tried dating over the years, even had a few boyfriends, but they never lasted. None of them had Edward's bronze hair, or his green eyes, or his beautiful laugh. None of them sent electricity buzzing through my veins with just a simple touch. None of them were Edward Cullen.

Suddenly, I was pulled out of my thoughts by a hand waving in front of my face. I blinked to see Rosalie Hale standing in front of me. "Come on," she said. "We have a meeting to attend. We'll talk about your little space out later at the gym."

I smiled and nodded like an idiot, but followed her to the war room none the less.

Rosalie Hale, now she was the ultimate winner in the game of making people eat their words. When it was first announced that she was coming here, people were skeptical to say the least. Rose's father, Marcus Hale, was well known for his huge pharmaceutical company, as well as being one of the men who contributed to our little organization and provided us with our cover. A lot of people speculated that Marcus had paid her way in.

When she first walked through the door, even more people turned to that way of thinking. Here was this tall, leggy, blue-eyed blonde, who looked like she just stepped off the lasted issue of Maxim. But I saw something in her that I saw in myself, raw determination. It didn't take long for Rose to prove herself as more than competent, and I was glad to have her as my best friend and partner. Together, we made the assholes of our past eat their words. Even if we couldn't say exactly why we were so bad-ass.

We finally entered the war room and a quick glance around showed me that this was a mission briefing. Adrenaline flooded my veins as I took in the other occupants of the room that would make up my team.

First up was Mike Newton. With his pretty boy face, complete with blonde hair and baby blue eyes, along with his ladies man attitude, he seemed harmless enough. I knew better. He was our weapons and explosives expert, and the guy was good. As long as he could go five minutes without trying to look down my top, we would get along just fine.

Next was our medic, Eric Yorkie. He had been picked up out of Princeton Medical two years ago. This would only be his second mission, but he showed a lot of promise in going far.

Then there were two communications experts. One would go with us and one would stay here. Coming along for the ride was Alice Brandon. At only 4'10" she might not be great with the hand to hand combat, but Alice was a hell of a shot and mean as a snake if you rubbed her the wrong way. She had hung out with Rose and I enough times to give me a healthy dose of respect for the pint sized-pixie.

Working on this end was Seth Clearwater. He and his stepbrother Jake had entered about the same time. They were both Native American and quite attractive with their long black hair and russet skin tones. Seth was the shorter and quieter of the two. Both communications experts were very competent and I was confident in their skills.

Last but not least was the aforementioned, Jacob Black. He would be working navigation to make sure our asses were where they were supposed to be and we didn't get ourselves lost. Good thing, because my sense of direction left something to be desired.

That left me as the team leader with Rosalie as my second in command. I was confident that this team could handle whatever mission we were about to be sent on.

Rosalie sat down next to Seth and I took my seat at the end of the table across for the director of the USTSC, Caius Demarco. Caius was not the man you wanted to piss off, but if you did your job and didn't fuck it up, he would stand by you to the end. That's not to say he would bust your ass every time you made an error, but he didn't tolerate stupid mistakes. Or ones that could cost a life. All in all, I had a great deal of respect for the man and I was fairly certain that that respect flowed both ways.

With everyone settled, Caius began to speak. "In case any of you were dumb enough not to be able to figure this one out on your own, you are all going on a mission. Well, most of you, Seth will be staying on a mission."

Quiets chuckles were heard with the director's dry humor. "Now for the briefing, pay attention as I don't want anyone getting dead."

The room instantly silenced and all attention turned to the man at the front of the room. Caius dimmed the lights and picked up the control for the projector. Pushing the button for the first slide, he brought up a picture of two of our most sought after targets. I felt a fresh wave of adrenaline wash through me.

"As most of you know, this is Jane and Alec Angelis. These two have been running a Blood Diamond business for the better part of the last decade. Don't be fooled by their youth. Even at just 24, they are dangerous. These twins grew up in the business and took over at only 15 years old when there father was killed. They employ plenty of mercenaries and aren't afraid to use them."

Caius took a sip from his coffee before continuing. "We have information that may lead us to their location. Intel puts them in the Congo in two weeks time. This is a kill mission people, we don't have enough on them to make it through all the bureaucratic bullshit, so it's on us. Find and confirm their location, and them take them out. Take out the mercenaries if you wish, but watch out for collateral damage. Most of the people with them will be slaves, they are innocent. So, watch who you kill and watch each others back. I leave you with Miss Swan and Miss Hale to work out the details. You leave one week from today."

I rose up from my seat and met the director at the door. "Thank you, Sir. Trusting me with this mission means a lot to me."

Caius smiled at me and put his hand on my shoulder. "It has nothing to do with what it would mean to you, Miss Swan. It has to do with the fact that you have proven to be a good agent time and again. I know you can handle it."

I was about to thank him again but decided better of it.

I turned back to the room and six pairs of eyes were looking at me and waiting. "All right people," I said. "We ship out in a week. Let's plan this shit out."

USTMC gym locker room

Monday, 7:32pm CT

"So are you going to tell me what it was you were thinking so hard about this morning. I called your name like five times before I started waving around in front of your face."

I looked over at Rosalie and cursed whatever deity it was that allowed her to remember that.

I tossed my hair tie into my locker and plopped down on the bench. "Can't we talk about this later, Rose. I just want to shower and go home."

Alice came up and sat down next to me. "What's wrong, Bella?"

I looked over at Alice and give her a tight smile. "Nothing's wrong," I said. I looked back up at Rose who was leaning against the locker with a look that said bullshit in about 14 different languages. "I was thinking about Edward."

Rosalie's stood straight up from her position and to my shock, started yelling at me. "For fucking sake Bella! You work at a secret government organization! Get on a damn computer and look his ass up!"

I looked from Rose to Alice and she had an expression that clearly said she agreed with her. "I think you need to do something," she said.

I jumped to my feet and walked halfway to the showers before I turned around. "I will not go snooping around in Edward's life. It's been 12 years. I'm sure he's long forgotten the mousy little girl from high school and is now married with 2.3 kids, a house, a dog, and a goddamn picket fence."

I turned back around, took three more steps, and spun back. "We have a mission to do. From here on out there will be no mention of Edward Cullen. I need to focus and so do you. That's an order."

I stormed off to the shower, leaving Alice and Rose staring after me with shocked faces.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Thanks to SparklingTwilight for editing and for dealing with my idea rampage that probably only made limited sense. Hehe. So, anyways, if you enjoyed it please send me some love. If you didn't feel free to review, but please don't make me cry.