Go Solo

“What are the empty missions?”

The whole group looks over at me in near-to-complete confusion and the room goes silent. Fuck me. This is gonna be a thing, isn’t it?

“Wha- Really?” I wrap my fingers around the edge of the table, trying to keep from lashing out and being unreasonable again and actually come up with some form of measured or reasonable response. Come on, you’re an adult. I partially lean over the table and make it a point to make eye contact with Benji. Regardless of my semi-confrontational nature, I keep my expression neutral-to-friendly; I’m trying to make a point, not enemies.

“I’ve been on the **** long enough, I think it’s about time I got a chance to go it alone on a mission. What’s the point of me even being here if I can’t do anything that someone else wasn’t already about to get done?” My response cuts off Ethan, who was probably rearing up to another ‘shut up, Benji.’ Benji, seemingly caught off guard, pauses for a moment, his right eyebrow raising slightly and his lips parting in near surprise. After a brief moment, he tilts his head in a sort of sideways nod, acknowledging my point.

“So, what are the unfilled missions,” I ask, straightening myself back up and turning my attention back to Ethan. Regardless of my attempt to be mature about the whole thing, I can’t keep the smirk off of my face at having practically stunned Benji into silence. Luckily for me, Ethan smiles back, his eyes starting to crinkle up with his grin.

“Alright,” he starts, amusement laced through his otherwise even tone. “We have to escort a Norwegian diplomat to the airport for a flight back to Norway from the secure location he’s been saying at. He-”

“Hold up,” I interrupt, confused by Ethan’s last statement. “How can that wait? Aren’t most flights pretty time sensitive?” He looks back at me, matching my confusion, before his eyes light up in understanding.

“Right. He’s booked on one of multiple flights over the next week and a half. The reson he needs our help and has been hiding in a cell of a safehouse for the past month is because he’s a major part of conversation with multiple other countries to crack down on international terrorism. Because of that, we can’t risk giving anyone solid information on when he’s leaving and what country he’s going to; that’s why he has several decoy tickets on flights to multiple other countries. The only thing set in stone is that we have to get him home and we can’t chose the first or last three flights to Norway.”

“Makes sense. Keep going.”

“Some time within the next week, we need someone to go scout out a hotel that some of those anti-terror bill talks are going to happen at; looking for bombs, bugs, or absolutely anything else that could pose a risk to anyone at the hotel. The rough thing about it is that no hotel staff is allowed to know that we’re doing this, incase they’re in on the plot, so we have to do it late at night or incredibly early in the morning. I’d probably wait for a better day for this one, or at least tack it onto the end of a different mission.

“We also need to intercept one of two letter drops in a chain of information exchange between a civilian informant and a representitive for an unknown, likely terrorist, organization. The first one’s today, between the informant and a third-party middleman, and the second in exactly one week between the middle man and the representative. We don’t have solid information on what’s in the files, but it more than likely has to do with large sums of money and plans for things like bombs and millitary like aircraft.

“We need someone to make contact with and set up a meeting between the IMF and MI6 within the next two weeks. This has to be a dedicated mission because they don’t have any open outlets for communication for any US agency other than the FBI, the CIA, and the Secret Service. Basically, someone has to go out in the field to identify and tail an MI6 agent and get them to pass a message on to their superiors.”

“So, spying on a spy,” I ask, raising one of my eyebrows. Ethan shakes his head at me before responding, a smile spreading across his face.

“Yes. Spying on a spy.”

“That’ll be fun.”

“I thought so.” Ethan starts trying to finish our conversation, when Luther chimes in with something. “We also have this one super classified thing that we can’t exactly give details about in front of

everyone.”

“Right, Luther. So, take your pick.”