Carmen recognised her even from across the street, and that surprised her a little bit. Perhaps it was a habit acquired back when Julia had been an agent at ACME: to look for and recognise any possible threat or asset. Yeah, that must be it.

Like that time in Montecarlo, when she had spotted her in the midst of an enormous room full of posh people. Or that other time in Milan, when she even waited for Jules to "arrest her" before turning around and enrolling her. Carmen chuckled at the memory. That one had been fun.

Julia was sitting on the table in the corner of the cafe, reading a book with a slight frown of concentration that made Carmen smile. A change of career indeed.

Zipping up her black hoodie, she crossed the street and entered the small place. At mid-afternoon, several patrons occupied most of the tables, which suited her nicely.

As quietly as possible, she approached Julia's table, her heart suddenly and inexplicably beating faster than usual. Yes, she had missed meeting the former agent on the field, but was that reason enough to feel this… giddy? There was no time to find out, though.

"Is this seat taken?"

Julia almost jumped, and those big black eyes stared at Carmen through her glasses. For a long second she just blinked, her mouth slightly open, until she gave her head a little shake and then nodded.

"Take a seat," she added, and Carmen obliged.

For a moment they just stared at each other, Carmen suddenly fascinated at the array of emotions that seemed to cross the other woman's face.

"What brings you to Cambridge, Miss Sandiego?" Julia appeared to have settled in polite interest.

"Call me Carmen. It's really overdue."

"Old habits," Julia shrugged. "What brings you here, Carmen?"

She smiled, at the way the word rolled out of Julia's lips, with a hint of an accent, but somewhat naturally.

"Can't a girl say hi to her favourite agent?"

Julia blushed but managed to mutter, "former agent."

"So I heard."

"Devineaux?"

"Him. And some hacking into ACME files." Carmen said with a smile that Julia did not mirror.

"That," she said with a frown. "Part of your new MO, is it?"

Carmen blinked, taken aback by the sudden coldness in Julia's voice.

"Not really…" she said slowly. "It was just the only way of knowing for sure…"

"That's why you hacked us that first time? You were trying to know something for sure?" There was an anger in Julia's voice that seemed to be surfacing fast.

"As a matter of fact, I was," Carmen replied coolly. "What is it to you anyway?"

Julia's stare was long and hard. "You don't get it," she finally said.

"No, I don't," Carmen replied, now adding annoyance to her initial disconcert.

Julia looked around for a moment, and Carmen recognised the sharp eyes of somebody used to paying attention to details.

"Come with me," Julia finally said, with a commanding voice much more suited to her former employer than to the small delicate person now standing up and closing her book rather violently.

Carmen could've just gone away, left the entire thing, disappeared as she usually did, and especially forgot Julia. The thought never crossed her mind, though, and a moment later both women were walking down the windy streets of Cambridge in a silence that seemed to ring inside her ears.

They passed a small shopping street, and then entered a pedestrian alley. Some fifty metres ahead, Julia stopped in front of an old looking door. Not breaking the silence, she opened it and led the way through three flights of stairs, and then another door, and Carmen found herself in a small sitting room, full with bookshelves. An array of notebooks was spread on a small coffee table, and a mental image of Julia, sitting on the sofa and revising notes for a lecture, made her smile despite herself.

"This is nice," she said.

Julia turned around to finally face her, and Carmen was relieved to see that she wasn't frowning anymore.

"I happen to like it," she agreed, carefully closing the door behind them. "I never let you order back at the cafe. Would you like something?"

"Do you have coffee, by any chance?"

"I do. Give me a moment," and with that, she disappeared through a door, leaving Carmen wondering if it was also a way to give herself some time to calm down and order her thoughts. In their many encounters, Carmen had never really seen Julia lose her temper, and she guessed it was a rare occurrence, she was not really comfortable with.

While waiting, Carmen looked at the notebooks. In neat handwriting, there were notes on some stained glass panels, completed with some drawings. When Julia reappeared bringing two steaming cups, Carmen was engrossed in the descriptions.

"Sorry," she said, putting the notebook back on the table.

"It's all right," Julia said, placing both cups on the table and taking a seat at the opposite side of the sofa.

"Ok," Carmen started, suddenly tired of the preamble. "Why are you so mad?"

"Are you really asking that?" Julia asked, an eyebrow arched.

"I am," Carmen said, crossing her arms. But something in Julia's expression made her soften a little. "Listen, Jules… I am really not great with emotions or anything like that. I kind of need you to walk me through this one."

Julia sighed. "You messed it up when you met with the Chief and then hacked the system. You really messed it up."

"Your chief wasn't going to trust me! Remember Stockholm?" Suddenly Carmen felt a rage she hadn't felt in a long while. Rage and disappointment, as she looked at Julia's eyes, right before being lifted, half frozen, for Zack and Ivy to take care of her. "You guys betrayed me."

"I didn't!"

"Didn't you? Weren't we supposed to talk? And then your people ambushed me!"

"I thought you knew by now that I was just the bait! I didn't know about any of it."

Carmen felt the air abandon her, as a question he hadn't dared to ask, even to herself, was suddenly answered in the most satisfying way. "I wanted to believe that."

"I had no idea they were going to try to capture you like that," Julia said, her shoulders hunched, and Carmen felt a strange urge to get nearer and hug her. "I wish you'd believe me."

"I do," Carmen said. "Really."

Julia sighed. "Now I know why you hacked them… sweet revenge, huh? On them, on me…"

"What? No… no, it had nothing to do with them, or Stockholm… and most definitely nothing to do with you!"

"Well, that's where you're mistaken."

"What?"

"Don't you see? It had to do with me," Julia said with a small sad smile. "It always had," she added in a barely audible whisper.

"How come?" Carmen asked, genuinely confused.

"Do you want to know why I left ACME?"

"To pursue-" she replied, pointing at the notebooks.

"Not really. As I said to the Chief… my heart was not on it anymore," Julia looked at the notebooks. She seemed to be a little sad.

"I don't-"

"I got tired, you see? I got tired of trying to explain to the Chief over and over again that your motivations were not about stealing for personal gain." Julia stood up and started pacing the room. "And I had finally reached a point in which I almost had her convinced… that we could work with you, be allies, remember? She had so many doubts, but I was close to convincing her…" Julia stopped walking and looked at Carmen. "And then you had to hack their system, had you?"

Carmen blinked, taken aback. In all this time, she had never heard Julia so passionate about anything.

"Even after that, I still tried to convince them to work with you, even though I had no further proof of your motives… even though they started to think I was losing focus…"

"I didn't think it would affect-"

"That's exactly the point." Julia said, sounding tired. "It never occurred to you that I could've helped you retrieve that information you needed so badly. And I would've done it without you compromising the trust I had spent so many months trying to build," she sighed and sat on the sofa again. "It was not just the Chief trusting you, Carmen. You completely passed over me. You didn't trust me."

It felt like being punched in the guts. She had learned to expect her former classmates and friends to forget their shared past and attack her, and she had just assumed it as being on opposing sides in the same game. This feeling of emptiness, though, had nothing to do with that.

"I trust you," she managed to say, her eyes fixed on the cup of coffee.

"I don't know anymore. And without your trust… my heart just was not into it."

Carmen looked at her this time, and Julia held her gaze for a moment, before looking at her lap.

"I do trust you, Jules. I swear. Only, that time… it had nothing to do with VILE, or capers."

"Well, yes. That was disconcerting."

"You knew?"

"I don't know what you got from it," Julia said. "But the tech guys at ACME managed to track everything you downloaded from us. It was old files and cold cases… 20 years back, and even older."

"Yeah…"

"Why?"

Carmen sighed, and hugged her knees.

"This had nothing to do with you, Jules, or with ACME per se," she took a deep breath, scared of what she was about to reveal and, above it all, scared of how Julia would react to it. "I needed to confirm that it had been Tamara Fraser, aka the Chief, who had killed my father twenty years ago."

"What?"

"Turns out, my father was part of VILE's faculty. He was a thief. Rather talented at that. But then… we don't really know for sure, but he must've met my mother, and they had me… and that's when he planned quitting VILE. Shadowsan learned all this when he was sent to kill him. He decided not to, when he knew I existed… turns out, the Chief did it for him, minutes later. She shot my father dead, even though he was unarmed."

Julia's gaze felt like a solid weight on her, and Carmen risked meeting her eyes. She looked shocked, concerned…

"How do you know all this?"

"Shadowsan told me his side of the story. But I had to be sure. So I got it from ACME's own files."

Julia didn't speak, but moved closer and put her small hand on Carmen's back. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Me too. I should've told you all this before."

Julia shrugged. "There never seemed to be time for a chat while we both were on missions."

Carmen smiled. "That's true."

Apparently aware of this strange closeness, Julia moved back to the side of the sofa. Carmen missed the small warm weight on her back, but she didn't dare to say anything.

They stayed silent for a moment, sipping their coffee and apparently, lost in their own thoughts. It was Julia who broke the silence.

"We seemed to have cleared the air," she said matter-of-factly.

Carmen chuckled. "That's a way of putting it."

"But you haven't come all the way here just for this, am I right?"

"You are."

"Then?"

The former agent seemed to be back to her usual composed manners, and it made it easier for Carmen to pretend they were back on their former common element, preparing for a mission.

"Listen, Jules…," she started slowly. "I know you're off the field these days, and believe me, I am glad that you're safe…"

"But?"

"But I need to ask you to help us."

Julia frowned slightly, her eyes fixed on Carmen's "Us?"

"Me and my team. We want to enrol your help for a mission."