OH NO! I am sosososo sorry to anyone who still has the patience to read this... I really don't want to admit this, but I think it's been over a month since I updated. Shoot. Sorry. I'm never attempting multiple chapters again.
Anyway, if you still want to read, here it is. I think there'll be two more chapters both fairly short.
Disclaimer: I don't own Annie, Auggie, or a pair of stiletto heels. This is un-beta'ed, and I got a bit tired of editing it after a while.
As it happened, Auggie caught Annie at the one time she ever turned her phone off: on a plane. She found the call when she landed in Philadelphia, but by then it was way too late in Eritrea and she was way too nervous about the hours ahead to even consider calling back. If all went according to plan, she would be able to call him back soon enough. Right. If.
The mission was a documents exchange that eerily recalled Annie's very first with the Agency. This time, though, they were going old-school: paper packages, stuffy code names, and even a decidedly miserable wait involving rain and a lamp post.
This was where Annie found herself standing five hours after her plane touched down. Its desperate glow did little to fend off the gloom of Philadelphia's atrocious weather. Annie glanced at her watch for about the hundredth time, and silently thanked the universe that she was at least holding an umbrella instead of wearing a great coat and top hat.
She kept reminding herself that everything from her contact's appearance to her return flight the next morning was coordinated to a tee; even that she was essentially redundant (as Joan had bluntly told her once). But, as with every mission, she found that her shoulders refused to relax. She wouldn't admit it – especially after Joan's warning a week ago – but the secured phone calls did nothing to calm her. It was always the wrong voice that picked up, and the clipped dialogue was sadly lacking in cheerful banter.
Annie's nerves were raw, then, as she stood under her appointed lamp post with a slightly soggy package of money. Shifting uneasily, she repositioned the umbrella so that more shadow fell on her face. It would do nothing to protect her from potential attackers, but for some instinctive reason she felt better with the gloom around her. Why were they ordered to meet in such an open location?
She saw him before he saw her. He emerged from around the corner on the far side of the street, hardly bothering to look before crossing over. His white sneakers glowed in the sheen of rain and orange streetlamp, and clashed mightily with the pinstriped suit that hung awkwardly off his furtive frame. Looking closely, Annie saw the flash of the reading glasses that were slipped into his breast pocket: her contact's appearance, at least, was fully intact.
He caught sight of her, and his shuffling steps sped up slightly. Annie winced internally at how obvious the man was. He may have supplied weapons to a Mexican drug lord for twenty years, but he certainly hadn't mastered subtlety or, apparently, discretion in all that time. Before he was even three feet from her, he pulled out a brown leather pocketbook from inside his jacket.
Annie nervously scanned the street again as he leaned on the lamp post next to her.
"Excuse me, señorita, could you give me directions to the nearest train station?"
Annie smiled politely. "No – I'm sorry. I'm just visiting myself, you see. I do have a map, that I don't need anymore though."
The man raised a bushy eyebrow. "If you got it from the city, I'll do without. I can never understand tourist maps."
"Actually, I brought this one with me from home," Annie replied, and held the envelope of money out slightly.
The scripted exchange done, the man visibly relaxed. He cracked a smile that flew from his face the moment he attempted it, and said that he was sure he hadn't been followed.
"Well then, Mr. Scania, I'm pleased to extend you the CIA's thanks along with some compensation for your troubles," said Annie, handing him the money as she shoved the brown notebook into her purse.
In a more urgent tone, she directed him back to his safe house along a different route than he had arrived from, and with one last reassuring smile, she turned down an alley that would take her directly to her hotel's entrance. Her frayed nerves twitched with every echoing footfall, and she ducked into a doorway twice – once for a stray cat and once for someone's discarded Doritos bag.
As her hotel door clicked shut behind her, Annie sank to the floor. She was surprised at the ease with which she had pulled off the swap, and she let out an amused groan at the irony. A straightforward assignment was not supposed to be surprising.
Still, even the powers that usually made her life difficult deserved a break once in a while. She guessed everyone did. Except her, of course.
It was only 8:30, but her six hours on high-alert had left Annie drained. She decided to secure her room and sleep for a few hours before calling Auggie back. She bolted the door, and stowed away every bit of luggage in the shower. (She figured it was the best hiding place the tiny hotel room had to offer.) Setting her alarm for eleven, she finally crawled into bed without bothering to undress.
Her head had only just hit the pillow when an annoying whining thing went off by her ear. Annie grunted something that would've been rude had she been more awake, and hit the annoying device as hard as her groggy brain allowed, hoping to silence it forever.
She would've fallen asleep again, but she remembered suddenly why she'd been so rudely awakened. She threw back the covers, and staggered as her feet hit solid ground. She had a very important phone call to make. Rolling her eyes, she reached for her dully glowing cell phone. Only for Auggie.
There was a knock on the door just as Annie pressed the call button. A few seconds later, the rattling started. So it's finally happened, Annie thought. The hiccup that plagued her every mission had made its appearance. Typical. Her reflexive reaction was actually more tired amusement than adrenaline. But then the rattling intensified, and Annie headed for the bathroom as quickly and quietly as she could.
Auggie picked up just as Annie closed the bathroom door. At his tinny Hello?, Annie jumped. She had almost forgotten that she was still holding her phone.
"Hello?" Auggie's voice tried again.
"Hey. Auggie. I was calling you back, but something's come up," Annie replied as quietly as possible, listening intently for the front door. She was screwed and she knew it, but her mind still raced through any escape routes that could possibly present themselves.
"Annie? What's going on? Why are you whispering?" Auggie's voice was tinged with anxiety.
There was a crash. They were in. "Aug, they're in. I'm trapped," Annie said, momentarily forgetting that Auggie had no idea what she was talking about. He was in an African village not at his desk trying his best to get her home alive.
"OK. Just relax. Tell me what's going on, and we can work this out together." Auggie seemed to react instinctively to her panic as his baritone automatically became firm and reassuring. Annie allowed herself half a second to melt into the calm she'd been missing for what seemed like forever before outlining the situation for him.
"Whoever it is is in the room now. I can hear him searching it, but he won't find anything." As she murmured into the phone, Annie slid the brown notebook out of her bag and into the waistband of her jeans. The last thing she wanted was to loose her intel so close to the end.
"Just one?"
Annie listened for another few seconds. "Yep. Definitely only one in the room, but there may be more outside. It's only gonna be another few seconds before he finds the bathroom, though, and there's not way out of here."
"Well then, Walker, I seriously hope all my bloody noses training you have been worth it."
Annie allowed herself a breath of laughter before she heard footsteps approaching the door that she so tensely crouched behind.
"He's coming, Aug. I'm gonna have to hang up now."
She could almost hear him tense on the other end of the line. "Don't let me down, Walker. I'm still waiting for a ride in your new car. I hear it's one of the best."
Annie would've replied, but she was already moving to stand by the door jamb, stiletto heel firmly in hand.
She didn't wait for the guy to fully open the door before wrenching it open with one bare foot and jamming the heel into what she hoped was a head. She'd taken whoever-it-was by surprise, but in the next second her makeshift weapon was being wrenched out of her hand and she was being forced backwards into the rounded edge of the sink. A kick, a punch, pain, flailing, soap, autopilot, and Annie had her attacker barely pinned to the edge of the tub.
She blindly ripped the shower curtain with one hand, hoping to bring down the pole. There was a clatter and a scuffling of the curtain and two sickening blows that jarred her arms.
Then there was stillness, and Annie stood panting rubbing sticky soap off her palms.
She didn't – couldn't – pause to regain her breath. She checked that the notebook was still in place, scooped her phone off the floor, and made for the exit fully prepared for another attack.
None came. So whoever-it-was had been operating alone. Another agent, then? For whom? Annie's mind was beginning to whirl again as the adrenaline-induced clarity began to wear off. She wished she'd paused long enough to at least see what the guy looked like.
All she knew now was that he was short, very stocky, and led with his left – hard enough to leave a nasty, nasty bruise. Annie winced.
She had the foresight to check out of the hotel, and just before leaving, she also called the police. She was too tired to deal with the unconscious guy herself.
It was too risky to go back to the hotel room now anyway. Her emergency contact was on the other side of the city, and no shoes meant that that option was closed for the time being. Maybe ever. Annie didn't really fancy a trip across Philly at night without a gun never mind other essentials. So what did she have? The notebook. Good. Money. Even better. Clothes. Always a great bonus. And her cell phone.
Annie grinned. She may be stranded in Philly at midnight in the rain with nothing but a brown notebook, but at least she had a friend on the other end of a trans-atlantic line waiting for her call. Before she set out in search shelter or food or even shoes, she sat down on a slippery wall to call Auggie back for the second time that night. As the rain soaked through her jeans, she realized that the only thing that had kept her going through the fight and the three block flight from it were Auggie's parting words.
She really hadn't wanted to die before letting him see (or rather feel) how fast her new car could go when it was taken off the risers he used to keep it on.
OK so it was kind of long, but that still doesn't make up for the wait. Can you find it in your heart to review still? If you catch any mistakes or awkward places, please tell me!