A/N: Special shoutout and huge thanks to Guest for the review.


Chapter 19: Exhaustion: The Field Agents

They've been at it for hours. Running the simulation to safely extract a hostage from a building full of traps and with guards blocking every doorway.

In the first try, Stuart inadvertently tripped an alarm system. In another, Tiff, who's an expert markswoman, missed her shot. Another attempt had OA, with his towering height, wasn't able to escape the security camera which alerted the fake suspects to their presence. Even Maggie who's usually impeccable got distracted once. After the latest attempt, they decided to take a breather.

"Man, I don't know. Did someone broke a mirror or something?" Stuart spoke up. The other agents stared at him so he explained, "You know, because they say it's bad luck if you break a mirror."

Tiff snorted. "We know what it means, genius. So you're saying this is just bad luck?"

"No, we just got to focus, guys" Maggie insisted.

"Well, the tech team did warn us that this is a difficult operation. It was designed to test a team's limit," OA sighed.

"And that's why they got the best team to do it," Maggie said, trying to encourage her teammates.

Stuart groaned. "Sure, but I'm just too tired. We're all too tired. That's why we're making mistakes after mistakes."

"So we talk it out, come up with something," Tiff offered.

"That's right, we take all those mistakes and make adjustments to the plan. Then have a last try," Maggie said, looking at her teammates who nodded.


Now with Tiff's reminder, Stuart avoided the alarm. They had nimble Tiff scale the wall to avoid the cameras. Maggie and OA tackled the suspects one by one. The team slowly but surely corrected every mistake. Their reminders to each other also helped.

As they got the dummy-hostage out and finished the simulation, all the agents cheered and hugged each other.

"We did it!" Tiff shouted, pumping her fist in the air.

"And because of that, drinks on me," Stuart said.

Maggie grimaced, "I don't know, I'm just too tired."

OA agreed. "Yeah, let's do that tomorrow. But for now..."

"Sleep," they all chorused then laughed.


Notes:

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