Meet the Raven

"Was wirst du trinken müssen?" asked the bartender.

"Gin Tonic," replied Ava with her best German accent. She looked around the bar. It was packed with financial advisors recently off work and those who wanted to get close with them. Ava had never been to Zurich, or Switzerland for that matter. Although what better place to meet a potential defector than a country known for it's history of "non-interference" towards conflict.

"Gin Tonic Fräulein," the bartender returned, setting down the clear beverage in front of Ava. She pulled out her clutch and retrieved 15 Francs for the bartender. She could her him say "danke" as she took a sip of her drink and looked around. The drink was strong, but not overpowering. Hopefully she could say the same about Crawford, if it had to come to that.

Ava scanned the faces in the room. She had gotten there early so that her seat at the bar had a view of the entrance in front of her and the entire lounge area to her left. The GDF was able to send an encrypted message to the Raven that his contact would be a beautiful pale woman with red hair, blue eyes, and in a navy backless halter cocktail dress with twist back straps. While there were many young women in cocktail dresses in the bar, she didn't see anyone she'd be confused with.

Ava took another sip of her drink as she suddenly felt a presence behind her.

"Do you know where the Raven will land?" Ava heard a soft male voice oozing with charm and a bit of an Scottish accent behind her. Part of her wanted to jump as she wasn't expecting it. The other part of her melted. She could tell he was very close as she could now smell a hint of expensive cologne that wasn't there before.

"Depends on which way the wind is blowing," replied Ava, making sure she got the words perfect for the rendezvous passphrase. She felt a light graze of a warm hand across her back as Ian Crawford took the bar seat next to her.

"Ah, the Banshee," Crawford exclaimed, locking eyes with her.

"The Raven, we finally meet," replied Ava, adding a slight bit of matter-of-fact in her voice to avoid any sign of intimidation.

"I've heard a lot about you. I'm very flattered that the GDF would roll out the red carpet for me this way having sent you," stated the Raven, as the bartender slowly inched forward a dirty martini in front of him. Ava noticed the beads of sweat on the bartender's forehead after carefully placing the drink. She initially thought Ian was a regular when she noticed his eyes give a look of slight confusion. "...I didn't order a drink," quietly announced Crawford.

Suddenly sounds of yells and breaking glass could be heard from the entrance and the back door of the lounge. Fuck, thought Ava, that didn't take long.

"Well Miss Hope," Crawford spoke as he took a long sip of the martini, even after he knew it was the signal to whoever was crashing their party, "can't wait to see the Banshee in action."