Amazing Part 8

Annie separated herself from Auggie and waved to the girls as she opened the clue. Sure enough those red domes covered holes in the ground, there were 200 of them and only 10 had ceramic gnomes in them, you had to retrieve a gnome and bring him to the check point in Munich.

Annie charted the field in her mind and tried to figure out the most efficient way to tackle the challenge as Danielle headed out randomly. There was a good distance between each dome making the task physical as well as logical.

"You two are cute together," Danielle mentioned as they passed one another.

Annie smiled and went to her next dome where she found the little ceramic gnome. Sure enough Danielle fund one by the time Annie was back to the car. Annie took out the map and made a point to seem like she was unsure where Munich was and Danielle and Kendall left ahead of them.

"You letting them win this leg?" Auggie asked.

"Yeah, you said it yourself, we shouldn't win them all and I like them. Danielle said we were cute together," she kissed his cheek and refolded the map.

"Are we?" Auggie asked genuinely curious.

"What?"

"Cute together? What do we look like together?"

"Like we were made for each other," Annie replied sincerely and started the powerful engine.

***555***

"You two look happy considering you lost your lead today," Gwen grinned at the pair as Annie and Auggie arrived 10 minutes after Danielle and Kendall.

"We had fun today," Annie shrugged one shoulder as if that was a good enough reason for being second.

"Well I have good news, tonight you get to sleep in a real bed. Hotel tonight here in Munich. Here is your packet, dinner will be together at 7:00, relax and enjoy a real shower until then," Gwen handed over a hotel keycard folder with a sheet of paper folded into it.

"Excellent," Annie grinned as she accepted the key packet, "see you for dinner!"

"If I had known we were going to have a real bed tonight I would have waited to jump you?" Auggie mentioned off-handedly.

Annie just glared at him with a quirked eyebrow.

"OK, probably not," he admitted feeling her scrutiny.

***555***

Annie turned their hotel room into a laundry facility, washing their used clothes in the bathtub and hanging them around the room to dry, she then rinsed the bathtub thoroughly and refilled it with warm water and the small bottle of bubble bath from the vanity. That is where Auggie found her when he woke up from a quick nap.

"What time is it?" she asked as her sleepy boyfriend shuffled in to the bathroom.

"5:00, still a couple hours until dinner. I was thinking we should call in to the office," Auggie suggested as he leaned back against the bathroom counter.

"Good idea, we can use the litho toll free line, Barber will know it is us," Annie agreed.

"Yeah, and anyone looking at the phone records will just see a toll free call," Auggie agreed having had the same thought.

Annie slipped below the surface of the water one last time rinsing her hair thoroughly and then stood reaching for a towel.

"Litho, type-setting and proof desk," Barber answered the unsecure line in Tech Ops.

"I'd like to speak with my service rep please," Annie repeated her protocol response.

"One moment," Barber replied and went to work back tracing the security of the hotel line.

"We're good," he said a few seconds later.

"Just checking in," Annie said vaguely.

"Any problems so far?"

"Not a one, we are all good."

"Have they made you eat bugs yet?" Hollman, who must have been listening in, asked.

"No," Annie shuddered at the thought.

"Any movement on the objective?" Barber brought them back to the point.

"Nothing solid, just biding time, making inroads. Wanted to make sure there was nothing new?" Annie replied.

"Nope, everything is static on this end."

"Cool, let Joan know we are fine," Annie finished and hung up.

"We're going to have to eat bugs?" Auggie asked disgusted.

"I sure hope not…."

***555***

Annie was relieved to see dinner did not involve anything with 6 legs. She was starving and was making her way through a huge plate of food when Gloria and Marion sat down across from her.

"How you doing, Hon?" Gloria asked as she broke open a warm pretzel roll.

"Just fine, how are you ladies doing?" Annie took a sip of beer.

"We are having a blast," Gloria beamed.

"Yeah?"

"This is so much more fun than we ever imagined. We aren't breaking any speed records, but we have been able to do everything so far and everyone has been so nice," Gloria smiled and Marion nodded in agreement.

Annie saw Auggie making his way across the room with a beer and his cane, but stood to guide him to his chair.

"Gloria and Marion are telling me how much fun they are having," Annie explained so Auggie was aware who was at the table.

"That's great ladies," he said with his charming grin.

Soon they were joined by Gwen and Ed and Molly.

"So Gwen, how long have you been doing this?" Annie asked as she started in on her schnitzel.

"Five years, I went on the race when I was 22 and pursued a job with them from the day I finished. I started in support services and was promoted to Operations Manager 2 years ago," she explained.

"It must be so fun to travel the world constantly," Molly mentioned.

"It can have its challenges, but mostly it is amazing, I have made friends locally in almost every country we visit," Auggie slipped his hand to Annie's thigh and squeezed at the admission of Joan's suspicions, this woman would be a huge asset for the CIA.

***555***

A wake up call roused Annie and Auggie from their slumber the next day. Annie stretched her body along Auggie's, the clean sheets and soft pillows so tempting. Finally she cracked open her eyes and rolled over to find a clue had been slipped under their door.

"Morning," Auggie mumbled as he tried to keep her from getting out of bed.

"Morning," she returned the greeting, kissed him softly and then extracted herself to retrieve the clue.

"Please tell me it says we have the day off to enjoy our accommodations," Auggie raised his eyebrows hopefully.

"Nice try Cassanova, but we are headed to Palermo, flight is in 3 hours," she calculated as she looked at the clock on the bedside table.

"Three hours is plenty of time, come back to bed," he used the voice that almost never failed to make her melt.

"We lost time yesterday for this," she said vaguely as she straddled his lap to illustrate.

"I'm glad we are doing this together. I'm not losing sight of our goal, but I am glad we get to take this journey together," Auggie spoke as he trailed his fingers down Annie's arms to find her hands.

"Me too, now let's get dressed and get to Sicily," she kissed him soundly to make sure he knew she appreciated his comment and slid from the bed to gather their dried laundry.

TBC…