Monroe was the one who had decided to shadow me. He had been convinced all along that I had been in tow with Vince, so early this morning, he had put together a SWAT team and set out to surveil me. Obviously, his hard work had been fruitful.

The sounds they had recorded and misunderstood was of Vince masturbating and me groaning over him in my bed. Over a listening device, the noises all sounded the same, as if they were coming from the same room. That meant, as far as the CIA knew, we had had sex that morning and probably had so before as well, and then based on the conversation we had outside my building, we were indeed lovers who were conspiring against the government.

"For the millionth time, Vince and I are not a couple," I said as I sat in the interrogation room, looking up at Howard who paced the floor and Monroe who sat in the metal chair in front of me, looking like he was getting a blowjob. The satisfied smirk on his lips made me physically sick. I wanted nothing more than to punch him right in his fucking face. "The only reason why he was in my apartment was because he showed up out of nowhere. As you said so yourself last night, Howard, Vince could've taken Zac, so I patched him up so he wouldn't bleed out, because if he did, we would never get to the bottom of this Zac thing! Not to mention the USB!"

"He claims he doesn't have it anymore," Howard said, glancing at me with a disappointment. He couldn't put it into context that I had actually done this – betrayed him, our government. The irony was hilarious. "He won't tell us where he left it, and after a search of your apartment, we're confident he didn't leave it there."

I concealed my surprise with a flat face, but I was shocked. If they had searched my apartment, they should've found not only the USB, but also the files Vince had in that suitcase. Why hadn't they? Unless... were they bluffing? Were they trying to make me slip up somehow?

Change of strategy then. "Then why are you still keeping me here? I've explained everything to you, he was there because he was injured—"

"But why did he come to you?" Howard interrupted, clenching his jaw. "You must realize how it looks, Rya. A national enemy you've been boasting loudly about killing shows up at your doorstep, whereafter you take him in and bandage him up. And the recordings we got on you afterwards..."

"Howard, please," I begged him. "Believe me, I know how it sounds, but you know me, I'm telling the truth—"

"People lie, evidence doesn't," Monroe snapped, cutting me off. "He conveniently knew about your tattoo that time in the extraction room, then he kissed you because the fucker just couldn't control himself, then you had your fun in the champagne room at the Trojan Horse club, and now this," Monroe said, pressing the recorder on the table so it played the five seconds of Vince's grunting in the shower and my groaning before he stopped it again. "We've got recordings of you two in the street as well. You're done for, Rya, just fucking confess."

"You're such a fucking idiot," I said, glaring flatly at Monroe. "All you want is my goddamn office, why don't you confess to that. You've wanted me gone ever since I beat you in that shooting contest."

"You didn't beat me, you distracted me—"

"Enough, you two," Howard sternly broke through. He gave us both a glance. "Whatever rivalry that's going on between you, I order you to put it aside. We have a national threat at our hands." When me and Monroe just glanced viciously at each other, he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, Rya. Vince is down in the extraction room again. Given the injuries he had already obtained before he arrived, he's likely to crack under soon. If you really care for him, then give yourself up and just tell us everything. Spare him the pain he's going through."

I pressed my lips tightly together and looked between Monroe and Howard again. I couldn't confess. With Zac gone, Vince captured, and my boss now doubting me, I didn't know who to trust. If the mole was in here, behind these walls... then I couldn't tell them about the information Vince had shared with me. They had truly been above my paygrade, and I knew they were above Howard's as well, so he didn't know anything about it. Unless he was the mole, of course.

"I'm sorry," I said. "But I can't confess. I'm not guilty of anything but trying to find our missing tech guy. I might have made some mistakes along the way, but my best interests in this country has never changed. And they never will."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Monroe sighed. He pushed his chair out and stood up, then turned to Howard who shook his head mournfully. "She's not talking. We've got no other choice. Want me to call the guys to bring her downstairs?"

Downstairs. The extraction room. To make me talk, too. I had expected this.

Howard eyed me out, despair in his eyes. "You leave us no choice, Rya. I take no pleasure in this, I really don't." He took off his glasses and rubbed his face. "I can't write the order, Monroe. Get Perri to do it. I just... can't."

Howard stepped out silently. It pained him that I was in this position, pained him that I was putting him in this position. I had been like a daughter to him, his protégé, and this... this was hard for him to deal with. He couldn't be the one to sign the papers that said to bring me downstairs to get tortured. I understood that and therefore didn't say a word as he left without another glance at me.

"Very well," Monroe said, smirking as Howard vacated the room. He then glanced at me, cockily. "I'm thinking delft blue for the color of my new office, what do you think?"

"I think it'll match the color of your balls," I retorted, finding some amusement when his face turned into a growl before he angrily stalked out, slamming the door behind him. I heard the electronic locks activate, leaving me in a piercing silence.

I hated this. I had finally gotten my hands on the USB, gotten to know what was on in it, had even begun working up a plan in my head, but now... now Vince was captured, and I... well, I was locked in this place. 

What had happened to the USB? It appeared they really didn't have it. If they did, they would've questioned me about the content, but they hadn't, so where was it? And where were the files? They couldn't just disappear. Had the mole been a part of the search team that had searched my apartment and had he taken the evidence for himself?

Something else bugged me, too; The recordings they had on me. They only recorded five seconds of us supposedly having sex. Why didn't they keep recording? Was it because someone on the team knew that if they had kept recording, the evidence might have revealed we weren't in fact romantically involved? Or maybe it was that someone had been scared that the stuff on the USB might've been revealed to someone whom they didn't want knowing?

In any case, it seemed odd. To record only five seconds, then stop. Surely they didn't stop just because they thought we were having sex. No. Someone had ordered them to stop recording, and since Monroe had been the leader of the surveillance... that meant he had to be the mole.

But then that also meant that Zac had lied, I realized, pressing my lips tightly together as I stood up in the interrogation room, now unable to sit still with all these thoughts swirling around in my head. I begun pacing the floor.

Why would Zac lie? He said Monroe was clean, but he had to be the one who obstructed the surveillance. So did that mean... Zac was in on it? Was he working with Monroe? It would make sense; It would explain why Monroe had acted so damn superficial about the whole 'Zac-has-gone-missing' situation – not that he hadn't always acted superficial. This was just... too suspicious.

Suddenly the lock on the door clicked and I waited for Monroe to step in again, flanked by two other guys who was going to bring me downstairs, but no one came through. That made me frown and walk up to the door. Confused, I pulled at it, and to my utter surprise, it opened.

I blinked. What was going on? Why did they let me out? Who let me out? Did they even, or was it a malfunction? If not, then did they do it so see what I would do? Would I run down and free Vince and then escape with him, or just save myself?

So many questions, so little time to decide. I stepped out into the hall, finding it deserted. Where the hell were people?

And then I heard it. An alarm going off in the distance. We had several alarm sounds in here, all different staccatos, so I knew what this was stood for; security breech, foreign intruder. But who?

I couldn't busy myself with that concern. Right now I knew I just had to—yes, I was going to regret this—run.

I begun bolting down the hall, going for the elevator. I heard voices as I closed in, coming from around the corner. I would have to fight my way out, no doubt.

Spinning around the corner, I saw two heavily armed guards in Kevlar with semi-automatics. As soon as they laid eyes on me, they jolted alive and started firing, alerting over the mic that there was a criminal trying to escape.

Criminal. Me. How did I get there?

I reacted quickly as they fired their weapons at me; I jumped behind the corner of the wall again, then waited as they ran up to me, only to jump out and tackle the first one. The other fired his weapon and got my arm as I swung it around the first guard's throat to suffocate him until he passed out. In the meantime, he was also the perfect human shield.

As the guard grew limp and the second one kept firing, trying to nick me where I was available, I heard more footsteps approaching and knew I had to hurry. I had no idea how I was even going to get out, the elevator couldn't get summoned unless I had card and a code. Perhaps these guard's had a—

The second guard suddenly screeched and dropped his gun as he clutched his ear, his earpiece apparently messing up. I imagined he heard a loud squeak not unlike the one I had heard in the champagne room with Vince – only back then it had been caused by a frequency jammer. What was the cause this time?

Again, I couldn't concern myself with that. The guard's momentary slip of attention was all I needed to let the first guard drop the ground and then pounce at the second. It took some maneuvering and some strategically un-harmful beating, but eventually I got him on the ground and suffocated him as well, just so that he lost consciousness like his buddy.

I then grabbed his small gun in his holster, hissing when I now felt how well he had hit my arm. Blood was streaming out and I could feel the bullet imbedded in there, hurting each time I used my muscle. It had definitely struck something.

I armed myself with some clips and then the guards' Glocks, stuffing them down at the back of my pants. I still had no idea how I was going to circumvent the elevator, I would have to check and see if the guards had—

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, but nobody walked out. It was as if the elevator had summed itself, as if it knew I needed it. Or someone knew that I did.

Whoever unlocked my door before had to be the same who did this now. They were helping me out, but why? And how?

Third time; No time to think, just get out.

And that's exactly what I did. I didn't know who was helping me, but they opened every locked door on my way and probably turned off all the CCTV in the halls. They led me up, not down to Vince, which meant they didn't want me to go get him.

I didn't know if Vince had let himself get caught this time, too. It didn't seem like it. If so, I had to believe that whoever was helping me wanted him here for some reason unknown. In any case, I felt a guilty pinch in my stomach for leaving him down there, getting tortured.

But then again, Vince was tough. He was going to make it somehow.

~~~

I groaned and clutched my bullet wound, panting for my breath. As I leaned up against the wall of the alley I had managed to stuff myself into, I winced when all my sore muscles and bones protested.

Escaping from the CIA had not been a piece of cake. Vince had made it look easier back when he tried and succeeded to break in. How he had managed to get out and with unconscious me on tow became even more impressive now that I knew how hard it was.

Wincing as I tried regaining some strength, I took a moment to actually think about how I managed to escape. I couldn't quite believe it. By now I had realized that whoever was controlling all those locks and doors had started that security breech alarm as well and used it as a distraction to avert as many guards from my path as possible. That had been why I had been able to escape; Only limited guards to fight.

Now as I sat in the alley of the slum-parts of town, I breathed tiredly as the night begun settling. I was exhausted, but I knew I couldn't stay here. I also couldn't go home. Where could I go?

Just then, I heard a ring. A telephone ring. And not just any; A payphone.

Glancing to my side, I looked down at the empty street of the alley and then at the old, rusty payphone that surprisingly still worked. I frowned. That wasn't sketchy at all.

The phone rang out and I leaned back again, closing my eyes, only to snap them open a second later when the payphone rang again.

"Fuck it," I whispered and hissed as I got to my feet, limping to the payphone, and then hesitantly picked up the phone. It wasn't like I had better things to do. Pressing it to my ear, I cautiously spoke, "Hello?"

"Rya... it's Zac."

My eyes widened. "Zac! What the fuck, where are you?! What happened to you?!"

"I'll tell you everything, I promise, but I can't do it over the phone, it's not safe. Meet me at my favorite place. You know where it is. I'll have a first aid kit waiting for you."

"Wait-wait-wait," I said and looking around, confused. "How do you know I'm..." It clicked inside my head. "You were the one who paved the way for me inside the CIA."

"Yeah, it was. I needed you outta there so we could talk. Please, will you just meet up with me?"

"I..." I had so many questions. Would he be able to answer any of them? Could I even trust him? Was this another trap? "Why should I trust you?"

"Because I know about the program. I've seen the files on the USB."

My mouth fell open. "You're working with Vince?"

"Rya, we can't discuss this over the phone. Please, will you just meet up with me? Please?"

I closed my eyes for a moment. I had to trust him. I had no other choice at this point. What else could I do? "Alright. I'll meet up with you."

"Thank you! I'll see you when you get there. Make sure you're not followed."

"Yeah... see you then."

"Stay safe!"

We hung up, me rather baffled. I couldn't even fathom this day.

~~~

Walking into the old, abandoned arcade, I looked around at the place Zac once told me he loved coming to when he was little because he used to tinker with the old machines and learn about... well, tech. Apparently, he hadn't had an easy childhood or something.

As I limped my way inside, I watched for any sign of movement. It was dark, the night had long ago fallen, and the temperature was falling as well.

"Rya."

I wheeled around and found Zac stepping out from behind a wall, wearing his usual baggy shirt. I had never noticed how tall he was before now. He was usually always sitting down in a chair, hunched over a computer. "Zac! Are you alone?"

He nodded and stepped out into the sparse light. "I am. You're sure you weren't followed?"

I nodded, but then froze. There was something different about him, but I couldn't place it, until... until I noticed his eyes; They were blue. Zac had always had brown eyes. Had they been contacts? It was messing with my head, but there were bigger things to worry about than colored contacts. "I wasn't followed. Zac, I need answers. I don't get any of this. Why did you disappear? Who is the mole? And how do you know about the program? It just doesn't make any sense, I—"

"Rya," He said and took another step forward, and then to my huge surprise, pulled off his beanie, his glasses, and what turned out to be a brown wig. "We need to talk."

I gasped; It was Abercrombie.

• • •

Hello-hello again.