Chapter 14: Ending Battles
Ali closed the door to the Camaro and glanced at Danny. He was wearing a suit and sporting a red tie.
"Nice tie," Ali remarked to which Danny smiled.
"Thank you, I picked it out myself," he bragged as he put the car in 'D' and began to drive.
Ali then looked at her own outfit, a form fitting, short black dress, and realized she felt a little uncomfortable. She preferred dresses that guaranteed coverage, but she brushed it away. It wasn't as if she were going to a family event. She was going undercover as a girl who had wealth and wanted to spend it on drugs that she couldn't come by legally.
"You okay?" Danny questioned.
"Yep," she replied.
"How exactly are you going to approach the guy?" he asked as he made a turn.
"I'm going in as Victoria Lorent, if he seems attracted to me, that can be one way," she explained. "If not, then I'll approach as a potential business partner."
Danny nodded his head, "Seems like you've figured this out."
Ali then began to say, "Let's hope so, if he doesn't believe I'm Victoria we'll have a problem."
"Yeah, well, you're a spy and he's a gangster," Danny pointed out. "I don't think you'll have trouble."
Ali thanked him then looked out her window. She was thinking of Declan… how he ran in to headquarters extremely distressed. He tried telling her something, but then her phone rang and she had to answer it. What had he wanted to tell her? She hadn't seen him that afraid since they worked a mission in the Philippines. Their lives had been in danger because they had been compromised by their arms dealer.
"Hey, uh, your friend from the CIA," Danny brought up. "She called me Kono."
Ali gave him a skeptical look, "She probably made a mistake."
"It was weird, she froze up afterwards a little and said there were too many names to remember," he explained.
Ali found this odd, but she reasoned that people made mistakes, even ridiculous ones like calling Danny, Kono.
"I'm sure it was nothing, Danny," Ali assured, going back to looking out the window.
The sun was now a shade of a deep orange and was low in the sky. In about an hour the sky would be dark, allowing people to see the star-filled skies. They drove along the shore of a rocky beach and Ali opened her window to hear the rush of the waves.
"You like the sound of the waves?" Danny asked.
"Yeah, I'm not one of those people that gets real deep with nature, but it's calming," she clarified. "Why? Don't you like the beach?"
"No. Not these beaches at least."
"I'm guessing you had some sort of mishap when you were a kid," she teased. "You were promised a trip to Hawaii as a child and it never happened."
"Something along those lines," Danny answered as he turned onto the street which the club was located on. "You need a gun?"
"No," she responded. "Kono and Chin will be there as backup, I'll be fine."
"Okay," he said as he stopped the car in front of the club.
Ali's eyes scanned the scene. Club Kiwi had a long line of people dressed similar to her, waiting to enter. There was a bouncer holding a clipboard who looked as if he would prefer to be tortured rather than stand in front of the club. Ali sympathized with the bouncer; clubs were not on her list of favorite places. The reason behind it was that she had a terrible ordeal occur while in a club. She saw Steve kiss Catherine and from that point she never really enjoyed the club scene, but she never told anybody that. She always said that she simply preferred to sit on the beach and listen to the waves.
"Oh, here's an earpiece," Danny handed her a button sized earpiece.
She quickly put it in her ear and said, "Everyone hear me?"
"Yes," she heard Steve say.
"Loud and clear," Chin's voice came over the piece.
"Of course," Kono replied as if she were speaking with someone in the club. Some guy must have been talking to Kono and she couldn't actually speak with the team.
Danny came around and opened the door for Ali. As she exited the Camaro she caught the bouncer's eye and she smiled the flashiest smile she was able to muster.
"Victoria Lorent," she said when he tapped his clipboard.
He let her through and she heard the people in line grunt out of displeasure.
"Just cause she's rich!" she heard an annoyed woman shout, making Ali internally laugh. She was nowhere near rich in reality, but her cover was working… so far.
Ali sat at the bar, sipping on a Shirley temple (she wasn't supposed to drink on the job) and scanning the floor for a man with a similar look to the description of Andrew Jackson's. The club was filled with mostly native and local people, so Ali knew finding him was going to be easy since he was from Eastern Europe . Her eyes briefly met with Kono's, who was on the dance floor, but Ali didn't even acknowledge her. She looked down at her drink and took a small sip.
"Shirley Temple?" the bartender interrupted her.
She turned around and saw that he was tall and appeared to be of Japanese descent. His facial features were kind and his eyes were welcoming.
"Victoria Lorent, actually," she winked. "Pleased to meet you."
"Lauren?" he repeated.
"You in trouble?" Chin asked over the earpiece.
"No," she replied to Chin, but to make it sound as if she were talking to the bartender, she quickly added. "Lorent."
The bartender shook his head and jokingly said, "Like from Twilight, the one guy who wants to kill Bella."
"Really?" she asked mockingly. "I don't really read books."
"Jackson's here, went upstairs to VIP," Kono informed.
"Listen," Ali began before he could respond. "I really have to go find my friend, who I've been waiting on for quite some time, I'll drop by later for another –"
"Shirley Temple?" he supplied.
"Is that what this is?" she asked as a part of her act and then stood up to leave.
"Slick," Steve commented.
"That's how it's done, sailor boy," she jested.
"Oh, really?" Steve inquired.
"Would you two," she heard Danny sigh. "Just stop flirting and find this guy."
Ali smiled at that statement. All she wanted to do was to find this guy, find Francois and finish the case, so that she could flirt with Steve.
"Jackson's still upstairs," Chin notified and Ali could hear him chuckle. She didn't know if this was at the exchange between Danny and Steve or at something else.
She began the walk up the stairs, contemplating on how to make her way past the guard standing at the top of the flight. She had to assume that hitting on him wouldn't get her through, but distracting him could work. She turned around, walked downstairs and into a bathroom that was near the bottom of the stairs.
"Kono and Chin," she said after locking herself in a stall, so that she could have a little privacy.
"Yeah?" they replied simultaneously.
"Your job is to do something crazy that would make the guard on the stairs leave his post," Ali instructed.
"What? Why?" Danny chimed in.
"So that she can get upstairs, Daniel," Steve explained.
"Shoot the guard or something," Ali proposed.
"Don't shoot the guard," Danny interjected.
"Wasn't going to," Kono finally answered.
"Okay, don't shoot the guard, but you have to harass him," Ali explained. "He'll press his little button beneath the countertop that summons the guard and I can get upstairs."
Ali left the stall, strolled over to the sinks to wash her hands and stepped outside of the restroom. She listened in on Chin pretending to be drunk and trying to pick a fight with the bartender. It took less than five minutes for the guard to rush down and for Ali to run up the stairs.
"Chin you may want to get out of there before he beats your head in," Ali repressed a laugh at his drunk act.
The upstairs of the club was similar to the downstairs because of the darkness, but that was the only detail the two floors had in common. There were tables with small chairs and there were sofas to sit on for those lucky enough to make VIP; there was also a separate bar, with drinks that looked way more expensive than the ones they had downstairs. Ali began to search for the suspect; he was supposed to have short, light hair, pale skin and be of a medium stature.
"I say to her, you spend your entire life…" Ali heard a loud, strong, Eastern European accented voice from the corner of the VIP. Sure enough, it was a man with short, light hair and pale skin.
She smiled as she headed towards Mr. Jackson.
"You know, I've heard about you," she flirted when she sat down across from him.
"Really?" Jackson asked skeptically, looking at Ali as if she set off a bomb. The man he was talking to arched a brow.
"I've heard things," she replied, trying to say it more sensually.
Andrew Jackson slightly smiled as he stared at Ali and let out a nervous laugh.
"Why don't you go get yourself some vodka?" Jackson ordered his friend to leave as Ali smiled seductively.
She was in control; whatever she suggested, he would follow.
Little do you know, you're ending a battle, she thought as Jackson stood up and offered his arm.
I know, this chapter is kind of boring and short, but it is leading up to something, so bear with me please! The next one will have more excitement, I promise!