CHAPTER 1

FIRST DAY

"Dianna... Veeler?"

"Veiler. Dianna Veiler", she sighed, used to the mispronunciation.

The cocky woman raised an eyebrow, "German?"

Dianna sighed again, thinking for a second what would be worse. She decided to be honest. "Austrian".

Of course the woman then proceeded to read all of her file once again, thinking that maybe she missed something, and Dianna was there to initiate a new world war from inside the base.

"Look… ma'am", Dianna began, still not sure what each insignia meant in the U.S. Navy, "I am a U.S. citizen, as you can see. And I've been vetted by a hundred people already. I don't think that you could find any links between me and nazis or terrorists by now".

The woman ignored her completely, and took a long and good look at her file.

"It says here you were born in Uruguay" she suddenly broke silence.

"Yes, yes I was".

"A lot of Nazis fled there after the end of WWII".

"Yes. They did."

"Green Card?" she raised a brow.

"Yes."

"Lottery?"

"No". Dianna could explain to her how it was by her own merit, but she didn't feel cocky that day.

"Your mother is American" she finally relaxed a bit.

"U-hum. She was. Cancer" she told, not even caring anymore about playing the victim card. Her mother would approve, under those circumstances.

"I'm so sorry" the military woman suddenly glanced at her. Dianna smiled, on the inside, of course. It worked. On the outside, she had a stern and sad face.

After another couple of minutes, the woman finally handed her papers to sign, where Dianna had to swear on her mother's grave that she wasn't a nazi, terrorist, crazy bitch, or bad person, in any way. Or a psycho. But for that, she had to consult with a psychiatrist, which she never did. But she was pretty sure that she wasn't a psycho. She cried every once in a while and really loved dogs. So, probably not a psycho. But she swore everything and signed the papers, receiving a badge in return. With her name spelled wrong. This time she insisted that the woman should print another badge, because she refused to spend the next years of her life with a badge with a wrong name. The woman promised that was temporary, but she didn't care. She wanted her badge spelled right, so she got one.

Dianna proudly walked to the first building she could find at the base. Obviously, it was the wrong one. She soon felt a bit uncomfortable being one of the only people there without a uniform, so she thought that maybe next time she could wear the olive green pants that she had in her closet, to blend in, but she couldn't wear t-shirts at the base, unfortunately, so the buttoned shirts would remain.

After getting directions, she made her way to the last building of the base, on the most distant corner of the place, hating the fact that she parked her old car so close to the gates.

She was finally walking up the ramp, then a group of tall, athletic and tanned military men passed by her, and some of them even checked her out. She smiled and loved it, because they were probably out of her league in the real world, but there she was a minority. In the base, there were like ten men to each woman. She was enjoying her new life already.

She asked for directions in the reception, then made her way to Lieutenant Lisa Davis, who would essentially be her boss during her work there.

She knocked on her door, cautious but confident. Dianna wouldn't be there if she wasn't confident. She heard the Lieutenant allow her to come in, so she did.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Davis. My name is Dianna Veiler. I'm the interrogator and translator assigned to assist you". She opened a semi-smile, because in the Navy almost nobody smiled, especially women, she noticed.

Davis got up and walked to her, extending a hand, very friendly, but very professional too. She opened a wide smile, which was a miracle and a sign of trust. Dianna noticed her a bit insecure when she gestured her to sit. Davis didn't seem comfortable with that situation, and Dianna wanted to find out why.

"Please, call me Davis. Leave the rank for official gatherings. Can I call you Dianna? Or do you prefer Ms. Veiler? Or Mrs?" Davis said, stuttering at the end, now obviously not used to that. Dianna immediately liked her.

"No, please, call me Dianna. I feel too old when someone call me Mrs. Or Miss", which was true. She only liked when someone called her 'ma'am'. But that was for obvious reasons.

"I have to say, your file really impressed us all. We're very fortunate to have you. And thank you for choosing to work with us and not the Army Rangers" Davis joked a bit, and Dianna liked her even more.

"Thank you. I still feel very fortunate. I really never expected to be able to work with you guys… people" she corrected herself. "You can only imagine how this was something that I never thought was possible".

Davis looked at her for a while, smiling. She then blinked and said "You know what, you're right. We do work hard and complain a lot, but for us, born here, all we have to do is to enlist, and raise our rank by our own merit. But you had to rely on a different talent and skill, besides the luck of someone actually finding out about you".

Dianna widely smiled. She felt exactly like that. "Yes, you're absolutely right, Davis. I honestly don't think I had much natural talent, no, but it is a skill that I had to study and develop. And when there's something that is out of our control, we have to count on luck too. But if I was born in the U.S. and enlisted, I'm pretty sure that I would never even made it through the physical exam. So I'd leave that to you" she joked, but only said the truth.

Davis laughed with her, remembering how hard the physical tests were, and even though Dianna seemed healthy and athletic, she was on the shorter stature, so she'd have to be a lot more muscular than she was to pass the exams. She liked that girl, then she suddenly realized that she wasn't a girl. "You're how old?" she asked, curious, not in the mood to open her file.

"I'm 33. Yes, I look younger, and trust me, I'd rather not" she laughed.

"Jesus. I thought you were like, I don't know, 23. 25 at most. But then you'd have to be a super-genious to do everything that you did. Or start at ten years old." Davis was very surprised by her age. Dianna was only a few years younger than her, but looked a lot younger. She needed to ask her for her skin routine.

"It's genetics" Dianna raised a brow, answering Davis' thoughts. "Sorry. I didn't even use sunscreen on a daily basis until two years ago. And moisturized like once a week. It's not my skin, it's the bless of my parents genetics. I have to marry someone who looks younger than he is, to have children who look like babies forever and continue the lineage". They both laughed, and Dianna added "If my parents didn't have the good genes of thinness, at least that, right". They both laughed again, but Davis glanced at her, she was actually very thin, not model thin, but healthy and athletic. She liked her a lot, and hoped she was good under pressure. So far, so good.

"I have to confess something" Davis relaxed, "You're the first person directly under my command who isn't a military. I was hoping to God you weren't a nerd or genius, that I wouldn't understand a word you said, or that would stutter when talking to anyone, crumbling under pressure" They both smiled, but Davis had a point.

"Well, I am quite normal. I hope I'm not the boring-normal kind, though. And I do well under pressure, maybe even better than in an easy environment. Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad one, but I chose a job that led me directly to the pressure, so here I am". She smiled, confident.

"Well, I hope you're right" Davis said, then glanced at her closed file, finally. It had been opened many times; the papers were folded at the corners, Dianna noticed. Probably passed through many hands, before sign-off and approval by the big leader of the Navy, whoever he was. She had a problem with memorizing names and ranks, sometimes. Her skills in other types of memorization and observation had the tendency of taking a big chunk of her brain. So she didn't care much, and hoped that others didn't as well.

"You're a polyglot" Davis stated, not really surprised. Dianna kept silent, she was reading her file, where it said everything, and not asking a question, so it would be cocky of her.

"Jesus, they made you interrogate these people when you were 18?" now Davis was surprised, and had a face of disgust. Which was completely understandable.

"Actually, I volunteered", Dianna added, since that information wasn't in her file. Davis looked stunned, so she explained her way of thinking, "Somebody had to do it. The other policemen were terrible at it. It was damaging the collect of valuable information for the cases".

Davis really was amazed, and had a feeling that the team would really like her. She picked her favorite one for Dianna to start.

"So, since most of the teams already have two interrogators assigned, there are a couple of them that only have one right now. And the Navy loved the fact that you're volunteering for most of the hours, although I still can't understand that" she raised a brow to Dianna, who just raised her shoulders, then she continued, "So the teams Echo and Bravo would share you. Echo is currently deployed, so for the next months you'll be briefing and accompanying Team Bravo, ok?"

"Ok. Great." Dianna sounded excited, and Davis waited for any question. There was none.

"Anything you'd like to ask me?" Davis offered.

"Anything you think I should know?" Dianna replied.

Davis noticed her great way with words. She asked that in a way that she would never make an idiot question. Well done.

"Not really. You'll meet the guys, the Commanding Officer, and then we'll see if you have any doubts. You'll get the hang of it", she stood up, and Dianna immediately stood up too.

"Usually the ops are very last minute and a bit unpredictable. This time, we have a scheduled briefing in about an hour and a half, that's why I asked you to start today at this hour. You could check out the building, I'll show you the main rooms and cafeteria. Then, we'll have the briefing at 1000 hours. You're familiar with the military time-clocking system?"

Dianna had to tease, "You do realize that pretty much 90% of the countries use that system, right? Like, civilians"

"Oh, sure" Davis correcter herself, forgetting she wasn't born in the U.S. Dianna barely had an accent.

So Davis guided her through the building, then showed her the briefing room and cafeteria. Then she excused herself and Dianna was left alone, to wander the halls.

Dianna was amazed by how nice the building was. In Uruguay, the government buildings usually were gloomy and sterile. But this building was quite charming, even thought the harsh lights apparently were a worldwide rule of government buildings. She had to have a chat with the lighting guys, she read somewhere that bright and cold lights made people nervous, and not more aware. It was hideous.

She got into the bathroom, and checked her outfit, hair and makeup. She barely used any makeup, but still, she put on some makeup so people didn't think she just got out of college. That was annoying. Her hair was loose and a bit more elegant than usual, because, again, she needed to look older, not only professional. Apparently, by Davis' reaction earlier, none of those changes worked too well. She still looked 25, at most.

She got out and made her way to the cafeteria, trying to decide if she'd drink something, maybe a soda. But she was a bit nervous, so decided to stick to a bottle of water, and sat there a bit, then went to the briefing room. She obbeyed all of the warnings to not use a cellphone and turned it off, then dropped it on the case, and made her way. She wanted to be the first there, so anyone arriving would have to face her, and not the other way around. She'd be comfortably seated on the best chair when people got in.

At 0950 hours, the military started to come in, and Davis was one of the first ones. Commanding Officer Eric Blackburn got in with her, and Dianna stood up to greet him, and chatted a bit. He was friendly but didn't ask much questions, looking at her up and down, not sure of her age and skills yet. She also was introduced to the CIA Agent who was the first interrogator, Mr. David Jefferson, a tall, tanned and very American guy with brown hair and blue eyes. He looked like a good boy in his mid 30's, probably her age, but the way he acted, he was sure she was way younger and more naive than him. Poor guy. But she respected the CIA agents, definitely they were in touch with a lot worse people than she was. Or maybe not. But terrorists usually were.

Dianna saw everyone sitting at a big long table, and she remained seated at her spot, on the side. She chose the right side because it was next to the wall, so she wouldn't be exposed so much.

A loud group of men was approaching the room, and she heard a delicious laughter on the outside. Whoever he was, she wanted to be friends with him. It was like a cartoon laughter, and very potent. The team got inside and ignored her completely, which was normal, considering that there were like ten different people sitting and standing around her, most of them involved with tech, and most of these were introvert nerds, so she stood silent and had a paper notepad and pen to write down things, important data that she'd be briefed along with the team.

"Good morning everyone, so, listen up" Blackburn energetically started, gesticulating, and Davis glanced at him quickly, so he stopped his speech. Dianna noticed that because, well, it was her job after all. Obviously she'd be introduced now and not later, as she thought. "We have a new interrogator and translator with us starting today, she'll be joining us for a few months. Ms. Dianna Veeler" he gesticulated, and she stood up, quickly, while all of the chairs turned to face her and check her out at once. "Dianna Veiler, sir" she corrected, trying to not sound cocky and consciously pronouncing it with a very Austrian accent, not afraid of it at all. If they were suspicious, she didn't really care. "Glad to be joining you", she willingly sounded unfazed, slightly smiling, to make sure they knew she wasn't nervous or intimidated by them. She was nervous, yes, as anyone would be on their first day on a new job, but she had many new jobs and she concluded that those first impressions usually never stick. She was never a person to make an amazing first impression on anyone; usually her skills and personality were a thing to be noticed after a while. She didn't care about that, she was a reserved person, although extrovert, so it fit her well.

"You're an intern?" the guy with a nice laughter asked her. Dianna tried to read his name from the distance, but she couldn't. He probably had a nickname, anyways, due to his funny laughter and casual manners.

"No" she willingly didn't call him 'sir', she knew he wasn't an officer, and he probably was the same age as her. But she tried to not sound cocky "It'd be hard, considering I finished college like more than a decade ago". She smiled and sat down, because she didn't feel like they'd need to get acquainted during the briefing, she could introduce herself later on.

But the funny guy quickly turned to her again, "Did you graduate at 15?" he joked, smiling, and she didn't get up to answer, looking into his eyes, and now smiling at him, friendly. "No. Normal. At 22" she casually mentioned. She looked directly at Davis because she knew what the guys' reaction would be, and she didn't want to make eye contact with them now. She heard someone whisper 'whaaat' next to her, though.

Davis took control of the conversation "Guys, believe me, she is more than qualified for this position", and when the guys didn't seem convinced, she added "the Rangers wanted her, but she picked us". Now the guys all looked at her, smiling. Maybe they weren't convinced that she was qualified yet, but at least they thought she was a person with excellent decision skills. She smiled with her lips closed, now they thought she was, at least, loyal to them.

Blackburn then proceeded to explain the reason of the briefing. The intel suggested that there was a new terrorist cell in Bogota, Colombia, who had joined the Hezbollah cell that they knew was already working in Paraguay and Venezuela, and they all hated Americans, as usual. Long story short, they needed to get there to kill or capture the leader, or at least one of the foot soldiers of the group and squeeze him for information leading to the leader. And then squeeze the leader to see if he blabbed something useful, but probably not. The leaders were pretty much all the same, never saying anything interesting, because they knew the group would die with them. Davis found out, through some information from CIA assets, that a meeting would take place in a favela in Bogota in two and a half days, whatever it meant. Americans always complicated stuff, she should have said the day of the week and time of the meeting. But they'd need to leave the next day, at 0900 hours.

They all stood up and Dianna did the same, she waited for everyone to get out and exit the room. She had logistics questions about the travel itself, like if she had to take all of clothes and toiletries or if the Navy provided something, because she truly didn't know. It was a valid question, and she didn't want to ask Jefferson, he was a bit too cocky already. She was going to Davis' office to ask her, but she realized that she waited to talk to her. She liked that. Davis then immediately told her anything she'd need to know, pointing out that, in fact, it was a very valid question. Just practical stuff. Dianna would never ask Davis anything about the interrogation itself, it was her job to study the terrorist cell and then think about good questions to ask. She'd ask a lot of idiot questions to confuse the terrorist, as you'd do with any other criminal, and see what was his personality. She hoped this first person she'd have to interrogate didn't have one of the worst personalities yet. They were very boring people to question, because they didn't care to talk to anyone. She sighed, remembering she would just assist Jefferson at first, and help him with some key subjects.

Dianna made her way out of the room, and a few of the Bravo guys were still outside the room, talking for a while; she took a few minutes with Davis so she thought they wouldn't be there anymore. But she wasn't going to introduce herself or ask their names if they didn't feel like it, because they were a closed group, so she silently took her phone off the plastic case and turned it on.

"Are you really not an intern?", the guy with the funny laughter stood in front of her, smiling, with his arms crossed, deciding if he'd try to tease her on intimidate her. He was taller than her, as usually happened, and since she liked his casual way, because she wasn't a military too, she smiled back at him, teasing. "I swear. But the payment is quite similar" she joked, but not really, because she gave up a lot of payed hours and benefits to work with the Navy. She wasn't ambitious, which was great, because she'd never be able to afford a new house, or a new car.

Funny guy thought her joke was hilarious, because he laughed like it was, and she smiled widely, she couldn't help it. "Sonny" he nodded at her, introducing himself.

"Nice to meet you" she nodded back, mimicking his arms crossed.

"You CIA?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny. But I can deny" she joked again, because she wished she was CIA. And she always wanted to say that. But unfortunately, the CIA wouldn't like to find out she pretended to be CIA. Sonny laughed again, and soon a couple more guys showed up next to him, trying to find out what was so funny.

"Hi, I'm Ray" another guy introduced himself, with a soft voice, and reached his hand for her to shake. "What was your name again?" he asked, apologizing, because her last name was weird.

"Please, call me Dianna" she asked, they didn't need to remember her last name yet.

"Nice to meet you. Welcome to Bravo" Ray gesticulated. "Where are you from?" he asked, truly interested. He noticed her slight accent, and couldn't pinpoint the origin.

"I was born in Uruguay" she started, not mentioning her town or state, because Americans would never remember that, "but my mother was American. I got a green card a couple of years ago".

"But do they give away green cards for foreigners with American parents?" Ray asked, confused. Dianna realized he was very intelligent.

"Nope. They offered me one. Because of my study and work. And I've lived here for years now".

"Really? What did you do?" Ray knew that it had to be great work to be granted a green card. It had to be an important contribution to the U.S. And now she was able to work handling classified information. Now all the other guys from the team were hovering around her. All with arms crossed. Tight group. A tall one came from the back and Sonny and Ray unconsciously opened the circle a bit, for him to stand closer. That one was obviously the leader.

Dianna continued with her arms crossed, to mimic the group, and fixed her posture a bit, so she didn't have to look up so much to look at them. They were all really tall.

"Well, I did a few. I came to the U.S. with a scholarship to research about ways to quantify crime rates based on criminology patterns and apply that in my hometown, and it worked, and the crimes decreased, a lot". She tried to explain in a simple way, but Sonny didn't seem to understand it really well, so she used even simpler words, "then I tested some ways of interrogation there, it worked, and had an internship here at a Police Station in DC, applied it here, it worked out too. So I continued doing these stuff and working here with a working visa, until they thought I was useful to the U.S., and confirmed that I wasn't a terrorist" the guys smiled from her light joke, "so they granted me the Green Card". She left out a big portion of 'stuff', but they wouldn't care much, so she shortened her curriculum, a lot.

"Jesus" Sonny said, teasing. "Is that all? I'm glad I'm an American, then, or else I'd never get one of those" he joked, and everyone laughed.

"Definitely not" the leader of the team teased Sonny, and reached his hand to her, smiling with his lips closed. "Nice to meet you. Jason". She shook his hand firmly, looking at him and smiling with her lips closed, "Dianna", she nodded, then glanced back at Ray. She knew the leader would be suspicious of her, so she didn't want to kiss his ass because he'd notice and be even more suspicious. Best way to get his trust was to earn it. So she would.

Once Jason introduced himself, the other guys did the same, mimicking him.

.