Paranoia
"We're being set up!" Malia yelled "I don't know what Blink&Clean is gaining by killing their best agents, but they're not working with the Caltagirones, they're working with the Argents! They sent Th-"
"ENOUGH!" Donovan yelled in her face, lips crisped and dark eyes burning with fury "You're under my command and you'll do as I say, Malia! Enough talking about your crush over Raeken, enough with your paranoia!"
"I'm not being paranoid! I saw the name Raeken on Desert Wolf's screen, with neutralized written over it! I saw, Donovan!" Malia scoffed, pushing him by the chest "They sent four agents to death, including Theo! And we're next!"
"You're letting your feelings cloud your judgment, Malia" Donovan grabbed her wrist and he threw her on the couch across the room with such force that Malia felt blood ringing on her ears "Whatever happened between you and Raeken, will not interfere in our job. I knew the previous three agents sent to help the Caltagirones. They weren't neutralized, they were murdered. Like you will be if you don't put your head in place."
"Donovan, please-"
"While you were too busy snooping in Camden's private life, we tracked down the same pattern of attacks to London and France. Some of us are doing our jobs, Malia, and if you don't start to behave like an agent, you'll get all of us killed."
"I'm trying to save you!"
"Like you tried to save Theo? You wanna know what I think, Malia? I think he's dead because of you. I think Desert Wolf wasn't happy about what he had with you. Not the weekend away with him in the middle of nowhere, not the fights in the hallway, not how his records all dropped since you stepped in his life. And I think he was killed because of you, because you wrecked him. Because you spent an entire weekend trying to convince him he could be better than an agent, that he could live the white fences life. We're agents, Malia. We don't have time for fairytale or to worry about others."
"Dono-"
"And if you don't shut the fuck up about your paranoia, I'll get you neutralized myself." He glared "We're leaving in the morning."
He slammed the door shut behind him and Malia felt all of her beliefs crumble down. He was right. She had told him, she had been convinced Theo could be so much more than an agent. Perhaps she was the reason he was dead, after all.
Wide eyed, Hayden pulled her by the hand down the cold streets of Paris. Malia was freezing, despite being wrapped in a thick parka and layers underneath her leggings. She had been freezing since Donovan had put the gun on her hand, the threat very clear in his cold glare "I'll get you neutralized myself" "You'll get the rest of us killed too".
Malia hadn't mentioned the talk to anyone else. There was no need to worry Hayden, to make Corey unable to do his own job. No need to make Josh look at her with even more annoyance than he normally held.
Camden had come to say goodbye and Malia didn't miss how he avoided her gaze, how his eyes had dark circles underneath and the fresh, bloody, hickeys on his nape. She had frowned, but Donovan dragged them to the helicopter before she could mention it.
"Are you listening to me?" Hayden poked her.
Malia blinked and turned to look at her "Yea- just looking at Paris, you know? It's pretty"
"It's covered in grey snow" Hayden scoffed, rolling eyes "Help me, would you?"
They were tracking one of the many gun dealers of France. If the flash disk was tied directly to the Argents, the best way to find it, was finding the Argents.
"Okay, uhm- Donovan said he should be here, right?" Malia looked around the large street and felt a wave of despair overcome her. The Château Rouge avenue was long and Malia had no idea of how they were supposed to find the man on the printed paper she held between sweaty fingers.
"Yeah- okay, I'm going to call him, you take some euros out and try to bribe anyone looking like the guy."
It sounded like an awful plan, but they did eventually come across a small lady who glared at the notes Malia held and grabbed it with violence "Just take a turn around the corner, he should be in the Chinese place." She said with a thick French accent that made Malia frown to understand her.
Ennis was a chill looking guy. Bald, with big brown eyes, part of the common crowd. He wasn't sketchy, his clothes were middle class.
"He's the head of the traffic mouth here?" Hayden whispered by her side.
Malia was clutching the small gun inside her oversized coat's pocket and she shrugged "I guess. Mr-"
"Ennis" he rolled eyes and stirred his cappuccino "So, what are the pretty ladies in search for? Heroin? Ex boyfriend won't let up and you girls need some protection? I have some guns in the ba-"
"We just want information" Hayden promptly sat down and put a note between them.
"Oh-" he pocketed it "About?"
"The Argents"
"What would I know about them? They're big fish, they don't have dinner with people like me"
"You know where they are?"
"Nope" he rolled eyes.
Hayden let out a sigh and put another note between them "You know anything about the men killed with wounds on their napes?"
"I- no" his voice wavered just a little and Malia put another note on the table.
"Do you?"
"Look, there has been a spike in the murders lately, some Italian dude bought freaking corpses from one of my dudes. I don't know anything else."
"What about the guns?" Malia emptied their wallet "Anything weird happened in the gun marketing?"
"Well, one of my guys sold a machine gun the other day. And let me tell you, that shit isn't cheap"
"Who did you sell it for?"
"Whoa, girls, I'm an honest man, I don't out my clients just like this" Ennis scoffed "And it looks like you've ran out of bribery, so maybe you should take your pretty little asses home, this is a dangerous neighborhood and it's getting dark."
"We can take care of ourselves" Malia glared, but Hayden let out a sigh.
"Thank you" she smiled "I think we should go, Lia"
"Hayden, wh-"
Her friend pulled her up and turned for Ennis, pointing his disposable cup "You're done with this?"
"Yes, thank you, darling" he handed her the cup and winked "It was a pleasure to talk with you, girls"
Malia was fuming when they walked out of the horrible dinner "Really, Hayden? Dude fools us and you act like a maid on top of that?"
"Malia, shut up" Hayden rolled eyes, putting the dirty cup inside of a sack and then inside her purse "We got what we needed here".
"So, how are things?" Malia asked anxiously, leaning over Corey's shoulder and scanning the screen. She had only understood Hayden's action when the girl handed the cup to Corey and asked him to access Ennis face pattern through his DNA. Now the guy was being tracked by every camera in the city. Whenever he showed his face around, one of the cameras recognized his face and the team could watch this every move.
"He's selling guns, what else do you expect?" Corey rolled eyes "He's a dealer, duh"
"Corey" Malia glared and shoved him out of his seat "He's selling a machine gun"
"So?"
"So, he said himself this is rare as fuck" Malia rolled eyes "Where's this happening? Right now?"
"Uh- three streets down the Champs-Élysées" Corey pouted, rubbing the sore spot in his elbow.
"HAYDEN, WE'RE LEAVING"
He was a tall man, with big blue eyes and grey-turning hair.
Malia watched as the guy pocketed the receipts and handed Ennis a paper, before walking away. He appeared to be in his late forties, early fifties. The man stopped at the floriculture. Rough voice speaking French like an American would.
Then he gutted her. Walking in a cemetery and dropping to his knees before a grave, flowers falling to the humid grass.
"I miss you so much, baby. So much" he whispered.
Malia turned around and crossed arms, stared at the grave she was faking to be observing and felt a shiver run up her spine. Weirdly, she didn't think this man was mourning his wife.
"Here" Malia dropped the photos on a table before Donovan "You recognize him?"
"Where did-"
"He was buying the machine guns. I followed him to a mansion in the northern side of Paris. Mansion du Gévaudan. I never saw so many guards on a place before." Malia sighed "You know him?"
"Yes" Donovan answered softly "Yes, of course I do. He's Chris Argent…"
Malia nodded and sat before him, scanning the leader's face. "He's got the flash disk, doesn't he? The one Theo died protecting?"
"Probably" Donovan looked up from the pictures "But we can't break into the mansion. You said yourself the place is safer than the fucking Buckingham Palace."
"I'll find a way. If- If I can get in, is there any way I can find the disk?"
"Once Theo told me you could track anything from Blink&Clean" Hayden said from the doorway. It was past midnight and she was in boy shorts and a lose tank top, looking sleepless and exhausted.
"What if I wanted to track a Flash Drive?" Malia perked up.
"I don't know, Malia… Maybe" Donovan turned to Hayden "What do you think, Hayden?"
"Yeah… If it was made using our technology, I think we could track the signature." She yawned.
"But it would be need to plugged on a computer" Donovan interrupted.
"No." Hayden shook her head and crossed the room, opening her laptop, starting to type "We could track it turned off too, but… It would be heavy technology, we would need Desert Wolf's approval to use it…"
"And?" Malia stood up from her chair, interested.
"And, I don't know, it would be extremely flawed."
"Ok. But think with me. If I get in the mansion and track this, what would happen?"
"If we get Desert Wolf's approval, you get invited in the mansion and the Flash Drive was made by a Blink&Clean's technology… If all this things are in your favor, we could track the disk using a low range tracker. But you would have to be close to the disk for that to work and once you triggered the device, it would alert the security of the building."
"You're telling me that once I saw the Flash Drive and used the device to recognize it, I'd set myself on fire?"
"Yes"
"Then I guess we have a plan, after all."
N/A: Hey, guys! New chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it. Also, before the update forks start to point at me, next chapter is already written ;)
Review, please :D