Part 1. Olaf Mann
Elsa looked at the door she was standing at for the past few minutes. "H. Schröder" a golden sign on a black tablet said. She couldn't bring herself to knock, she couldn't tell why. Elsa thought it over and over: what she was going to say, what Hans might say. She wanted to go back to her office and just lock herself in there for the rest of the day. But she couldn't. She needed to say it, to get it out of her chest.
Knock-knock-knock!
"Come in!" A muffled voice answered from the other side.
"Hans? Do you have a moment?" Elsa came in his office, closing the door behind herself.
"Ah, Elsa! Sure. Come, take a seat." He smiled at her, looking from his papers. "What can I do for you?" The blonde went closer, stopping right in front of him.
"I want you to remove me from the status of Anna Summerfield's partner." She said in her best emotionless voice but her heart was hammering wildly in her chest. She wondered if Hans could hear it.
"Why?"
I knew he would ask it!
"I can't work with her."
"Tell me why."
"I just can't!"
Damn it, Hans! Can't you just do it without asking any questions?!
"Elsa, that's not an answer! I need you to give specific reasons! Why. Can't. You. Work. With Anna?"
"She's… She's just… Just… Argh!"
Two days earlier.
Elsa entered the building in surprisingly a good mood. She had her black jacket in one hand, a cup of coffee from the Starbucks from around the corner in another, and a bag with the laptop over her left shoulder. She sipped a bit of her vanilla cappuccino and went to the elevator. She took a deep breath looking down at her watch. Ten twenty three. She took another sip. Elsa almost chocked and dropped her cup when a hand came in contact with her rear.
"Hey there, Snowden." The blonde turned around, her face red as tomato. She glared at the woman before her.
"What do you think you're doing, Summerfield?" She gritted through her teeth. Anna only smiled in response and looked at her innocently.
"What do you expect from me? Not my fault you have such a nice — and now I can also add firm — ass." She winked and stepped into the elevator. Elsa was really busy dealing with her wild heart beat to notice its arrival. She really thought about taking the stairs at that moment. But still, something made her enter that damn cabin. She pushed a "L2" button till it shined red and then buttons "1", "3", "5", "8". The doors close and the cabin went down.
"When I came here yesterday the guy that showed me the way entered another code."
"We change it every day." Elsa said matter of factly. She leaned on the wall opposite from Anna and looked her over. The same long red dress, high heels but instead of fur coat she had a long dark red velvet coat. Elsa took another sip. Anna's hair was flowing around her shoulders.
"And what plans do we have for today?" Could you please stop talking in that voice?
"We — and by we I mean you — are going to meet our head of science team, our weaponry specialist and you're going to get to know Kristoff better if we three are going to work together." Elsa looked down at her watch again. Ten twenty seven. It's going to be a long day…
Their first stop was by the lab. Elsa slid her pass through a panel that was by the door. Anna also saw her pushing some buttons, looking at a small screen. After looking at it for a few moments the turned the screen off and opened the door. They entered. Making a few steps Elsa grabbed Anna's shoulder before the woman stepped on a glass jar. The redhead looked down. There were a lot of jars on the floor.
"What the-"
"Olaf? Olaf, are you in here?!" Elsa called out. She showed Anna to stay at place with her hand, carefully stepping over things that were lying all around the floor. There were not only jars but also papers, folders, and other small stuff. "Olaf?!"
"Elsa!" A cheerful high man's voice came from somewhere ahead. In the next moment a tall skinny man ran out to them. He was somewhere in his forties with short dark brown curly hair, big brown eyes, thin lips, and aquiline nose. He was wearing big glasses, old blue jeans, shirt and tie, long white gown and… bear-like slippers. "Elsa, I'm so glad to- Whoah!" He slipped on a sheet of paper and crashed down on the floor.
"Oh God, Olaf, are you okay?" The blonde went over to him, helping the man up.
"Yeah-yeah-yeah! Don't worry." He smiled brightly at her. He tried to fix his tie but only made in worse. Elsa sighed and fixed it for him.
"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." He said in the speed that seemed impossibly fast for a human. But Anna really doubted that he was an ordinary human. "Oh, my! Who's this beauty?" He went over to Anna tripping on the stuff on the floor once in a while.
"Her name's Anna," Elsa followed him, making more careful steps, "and she is-"
"Your girlfriend? She's your girlfriend, right?" He smiled even wider, looking between the two of them.
"No!"
"Yes!"
The women said in unison, looking at each other. Anna looked smug and proud of herself while Elsa looked like she was ready to sink through the ground. Her eyes were wide and her face was red. She cleared her throat.
"Olaf, no, she's not my gi-"
"Don't listen to her." The redhead smiled charmingly at the man. "We're totally girlf-"
"Summerfield!" Elsa took a deep breath, calming herself down. She eased her tie and took of her glasses. "Anna, this is Olaf Mann, our head scientist and ex field surgeon. Olaf, this is Anna Summerfield the spy that was hired to investigate the case with the leak of information."
"A-a-ah! Very glad. Very glad." Olaf shook Anna's hand then looked back at Elsa. "So she's not y-"
"For God's sake, Olaf, no!" She put her hand over her eyes, trying to forget everything that happened for the past few minutes. "And, what happened here?" She looked around the place. "Have Sven broke in here again?"
"No! No. No. No." He smiled and went back deep in the lab. "Just some unsuccessful experiment." He lifted a tablet from the floor and looked through the notes. "Ah, yes. Yes. Yes." He went to a coffee machine that was there on one of the tables. "Those ten gram of silicon were excess." He muttered to himself pushing buttons on the coffee machine blindly.
"Don't worry, he's pretty harmless." Elsa said in half voice to Anna when she saw the woman looking suspiciously at the man.
"Pretty harmless?" She whispered back to Elsa. "Snowden, this guy is scaring the Hell out of me."
He's way too friendly. His appearance is a bit awkward and… childish. He smiles most of the time. Probably went through PTSD. His behavior is a defensive mechanism.
"Yeah, speaking about that," the blonde took a handkerchief out of her jacket pocket and wiped her glasses, "there is a panel near the door soplease check it every time before entering the lab," she put the glasses on, "we had some… accidents. Nothing lethal. But I bet that you don't want to itch for a week or so."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Just check the panel before entering the lab and you'll be fine. You have questions to Olaf?"
"Yes. Why the Hell he's wearing those slippers." The blonde chuckled.
"That's the question we never ask him." Elsa looked at the man, who at that moment was already drinking coffee from a mug with CIA's logo on it and looking through the same notes. "Better never ask him questions about his past."
"Why?" Anna looked up at her (though she had a few guesses why). She got even more confused when she saw the blonde looking at the crazy (she doubted that it was the right word to describe him) scientist with sad gaze.
"He went through a lot." Elsa breathed out. Knew it. "Olaf!" The man looked up at them immediately. "We have some more stops, so I guess we'll go. Do you need help here?"
"No-no-no! You can go! It was mice to meet you, Anna! If you'll need something or you up for a mug," he lifted his up, "you're always welcomed here!" The man waved his tablet at them.
"Thank you. And it was nice to meet you to, Mister Mann."
"Just Olaf, please!" He smiled his cheerful smile and turned back around, walking deep in the laboratory.
"Good luck!" Elsa called after him. The two went to the exit.
"So," Anna started when the door went close behind them, "about 'girlfriends' thing-"
"Just forget it and never bring it up ever again." The blonde gritted not even looking at the redhead but her cheeks noticeably grew redder.
She's so cute when she blushes!
"What's our next stop?"
"Weaponry."