Chapter 3- The Glory and the Scum
The carpet in her nice hotel room would likely come out ruined if Leah paced anymore, but she couldn't help it. Logic dictated that she should go stake out the garage where this "Scorpion" was located, but there were too many unknown variables.
This wasn't how she worked.
Her phone rang, startling her. Leah stopped pacing and pulled it out of her suit pocket, knowing exactly who it was. People didn't call her. She had no friends and the only contacts she had were other hired guns. They generally didn't call.
"Hello Andrew," Leah answered, annoyed at the man on the other end.
"Andrew, hmm? Why are you so mad at me?" the man on the other end asked.
"If you have to ask, then you're too dumb to be in this business."
Andy chuckled. "Ok, I take it the job is going swimmingly then."
"Please don't check up on me. You know I don't like it."
"I just want it done, Hudson. The sooner the better."
"If you know anything about this business, then you know I can't rush it. If I rush it I get caught. And if I get caught, I will take you down because I don't like you and I didn't want to do this."
"And yet there you are. Just get it done, Hudson. I got more work for you." He hung up without saying goodbye, an unfortunate trait.
Leah tossed her phone on her bed and stared at the wall, trying to decide what to do.
Agent Gallo had an impressive record from what she saw. He was a Marine, then joined the FBI, and was now at Homeland. No doubt, even at 58, he could easily take her down if she didn't do this right.
So, scouting the location it was.
First, Leah changed into jeans, a plain blue t-shirt, and a faux leather crop jacket. No weapons, just your average tourist. This was recon, not the final job.
After driving around the block in a taxi, Leah then rented a car and drove back herself. She wasn't good at science, but she had perfected the art of getting a flat tire years ago. It could be dangerous, but it also afforded her the opportunity to scope out a place while having a legitimate reason.
Timing was crucial for this to work. She needed to be close to the garage, but not right on top. Don't be too obvious. Leah had no idea what kind of camera's they had around the garage. Did they have just in front of the building on camera? The whole block? If it was a Homeland Security thing, they might have an entire block or more under surveillance.
She had to be careful.
Driving around the neighborhood, without driving near the garage, Leah waited for her tire to blow. It took longer than she would have liked, but thankfully LA was big. Finally, her tire blew. She kept driving and turned onto the street where the garage was.
Rolling to a stop a few feet away from the entrance, Leah put the car in park.
"Oh man," she whined. It was always the time to fake. No telling when they would be watching her and she had no idea what she was really up against, so she had to be on all of the time.
She slammed her hands on the steering wheel, the turned off the car and got out. Pretending to be unsure of what was wrong, Leah went around the whole car before she found the rear right wheel was punctured. She did her best to look frustrated and upset. After staring at the wheel for a second, she began checking her surroundings.
The garage was pretty nondescript. No signs of what it housed. Just a garage. A black SUV, obviously government issue, was out front. A few other, much cheaper and older, cars were up and down the street.
Another quick glance told her there didn't appear to be any cameras outside the building, but she continued to act under the assumption that someone was watching. Better safe than sorry.
Better safe than attempting to kill a Homeland Security Agent, she snarked to herself.
With a deep sigh, Leah set about to change her tire. She had rented a Nissan Versa Note, a car which she had never driven before. She had no car in New York. There was no fucking point in owning a car when you lived so close to the city center. She had learned to love cabs, and now Uber. Plus, walking and biking was good.
Unlocking the car, Leah pulled open the trunk. She flipped open the hidden compartment and stopped.
"Son of a bitch," she cursed.
There was no spare tire. How was that possible?
"You need some help, little lady?" a voice from her right said, startling her.
Leah jumped back a foot, her hands up in front of her. She looked over the guy. White, late 20s, and he fit in perfectly with the aesthetic around this part of town.
"Do I look like I need help?" she snapped, her voice cracking. She'd like to think she was pretending, but the guy had startled her.
"Your tire is flat, yeah, it looks like you need help."
Leah grimaced at him. "I'm not dumb. I can change a tire."
"Going to be hard without a spare. Unless it's somewhere else," the guy said in a low voice.
Leah cocked her head, watching him. He had a knife under shirt and right hand that seemed to be slowly going towards it.
"We got a problem out here?" a deep, gravelly voice said from behind her.
The man in front of her shifted, his hand pulling away from the knife at his waist. Leah smirked. She dropped her hands.
"Just got a flat tire," she said, keeping her eyes on the first guy.
"Well, I guess you've got help now," the first guy said. He backed up a couple of feet and then began heading up the sidewalk.
Leah kept watching him, feeling something was off. With a shrug, she turned.
And came face to face with Agent Cabe Gallo. His photo didn't do him justice. A little heavyset, wrinkled, and certainly in his 50s, it was his eyes that drew her in. Leah had seen a lot of blue eyes in her life. She was always surprised by how varying eye color could be. But his blue eyes were the most intense, gorgeous shade of baby blue.
"You need help with that?" he asked, pointing to her car. He stared into her eyes, talking to her.
"I uh-I'm going to have to, going to have to call someone," she stumbled over her words, still lost in his eyes. "Like what is it, triple A or something? I don't know." Leah shook her head.
Get a grip, lady, she internally yelled at herself. You're an assassin, not a teenage girl.
Leah motioned to her trunk, noticing the confused look on Gallo's face. "They didn't put a spare in the damn trunk," she said, sort of laughing.
He looked at the trunk and then at her, his eyes calculating. He didn't trust her. "Not your car?" he asked.
"Hah, no. I'm from Michigan. Just visiting. It's a rental," she explained. "I guess I should have checked before I left Enterprise, but I suppose I was too trusting that they wouldn't give out a car with no spare." Leah shrugged again.
Gallo's hand twitched towards his gun and Leah almost took a step back. He was suspicious. She couldn't completely blame him, but damn.
"I just need to call somewhere to get a tire. Or a tow. Ugh," she said. Leah turned back to her car and began going over her options. She could probably kill him here and just run, but she had no weapon and he certainly was packing heat. She might be able to rush him before he pulled out his gun, but there were too many witnesses.
She was never supposed to talk to him.
This was bad.
"I've got a mechanic. We can help," he finally said.
Leah turned as he pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Yeah, Happy? The woman out front has a flat tire. She needs a tire. Can you get one?" He paused, still watching Leah carefully. "Great." He ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket. "Happy will take care of it. It'll be a few minutes." He eyed her. "Would you like to come inside?"
No, no, no, no.
"Are you kidding? I've seen horror movies that start out like this. I can wait here," she said, closing her trunk.
Gallo chuckled. "I work for Homeland. This isn't a horror movie, darling."
Glancing back at him over her shoulder, she pretended to contemplate it. She could absolutely not, under any circumstances, go in that building. She shouldn't even be talking to him. She was breaking rule #3. Don't talk to the mark if at all possible.
"It won't be long, I promise," he said.
Leah looked back through the window of the trunk. She couldn't be doing this.
"I'm Agent Cabe Gallo, badge number 2835. You can look me up, if you want to."
Leah sighed. Turning, her shoulders dropped. "Yeah, alright. I'll come in."
