Season 1, Episode 10:
Catch Her If You Can
Part 4 of 10
“You
think you could ride in a kangaroo’s pouch?” asked Nick, holding up a small,
stuffed kangaroo wearing a t-shirt that said AUSTRALIA. “I always thought that would be sweet.”
“I
think it’d be nasty, dawg,” Styx replied, wrinkling his nose. “That’s where the baby kangaroo develops –
it’d be like ridin’ around in a chick’s uterus!”
“Like
we haven’t all done that before,” Diamond said dryly, looking up from her phone
just long enough to roll her eyes at her two male companions.
“Well,
you know what I mean!” spluttered Styx.
“It’s probably all full of… fluids and goopy shit.”
“Ew.” Diamond made a face before turning back to
her phone. Nick turned back to the
touristy merchandise.
They
were killing time at a gift shop near their gate at the Melbourne Airport,
waiting to board their flight to Lima, Peru, to investigate the disappearance
of several antique books. Nick hoped
they would have better luck there than they had in Australia. They’d found no leads on the theft of the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, an
eighth-century text on loan from Cambridge, England. It appeared to have been stolen without a
trace from the State Library Victoria in Melbourne. The English were going to be as pissed as the
Aussies if their precious book wasn’t found and returned.
Hell, I would be too, thought Nick, his mind on the
President’s Book. All that information,
including – probably – details on HimTak itself, in the hands of a crook. How long would it take, he wondered, for the
secrets to start spilling?
He
was startled out of his thoughts by the familiar beep of his watch. Looking down, he pressed the button that raised
the miniature video screen, which showed Agent K sitting behind his desk. “Double-0s,” K began brusquely, as Diamond
and Styx looked in over each of Nick’s shoulders. “Our globetrotting book bandit has struck
again! This time, she’s ‘borrowed’ Beowulf from the British Library in
London. More specifically, she’s nabbed
the Nowell Codex, a book dating back to the first millennia, which contains the
unique manuscript of Beowulf, as well
as four other texts. Your mission,
Double-0s: bring Beowulf back to Britain, and catch the crook who took the book!”
Nick
cocked his head. “K, when did you start
speaking in rhyme?”
“Never
mind that, 008,” snapped K, stern as ever.
“Now fly to London and find that felon!”
“It’s
really more alliteration than rhyme, what he’s using,” said Diamond
thoughtfully, as the video screen descended back into Nick’s watch.
“Huh?”
“Never
mind. We’d better head to the airline
counter and tell them we need to fly to London, not Lima. I hope there’s not a fee for changing flight
plans this late.”
Nick
chuckled. “If there’s a fine, it’s on
K’s dime. And hey, guess what – that
almost rhymed!”
“You’re
like K: a poet, and you don’t know it,”
Diamond quipped with a smile.
“Oh,
trust me.” Nick winked. “I know it.”
± ± ±
“The
other team’s headed to London,” Jay told Leo and Opal, as they sat around their
newest hiding place, in a different hotel across town, logged in to their
laptops. “There was another theft there
yesterday.”
“Let
me guess: another priceless book?” droned
Leo.
“Priceless
and ancient,” replied Jay. “It contained the sole surviving manuscript
of Beowulf, and it’s wicked old, like
Biblical old.”
Opal
shook her head. “This is terrible!” she
moaned. “We have to put a stop to
this! If only I could figure out what
this clue means. Do you think it leads
to London?”
“If
it does, it won’t matter now; we’re too late.”
“I
still want to crack it. Maybe there’ll
be another clue left at the new crime scene.
I know it’s in another language; I just need to figure out which
one. It’s hard to figure out how the
letters were rearranged when I don’t know what language it was in
originally.” She sighed, sweeping back
her newly-blonde hair, as she looked at the clue on her computer screen. “It uses the Latin alphabet, but only
nineteen letters – of course, maybe the other seven just weren’t needed in the
message,” she murmured, thinking out loud.
“It uses grave accents, but no other diacritics, which rules out certain
languages. It doesn’t appear to be a
Germanic, Romance, or Indo-Iranian language, which means we need to think
outside the box…”
“Well,”
said Leo, listening in on her thoughts, “let’s think, then. The clue might lead to London, England. What languages do they speak in England?”
“Well,
English, of course,” said Opal. “There
will be immigrants who speak other languages, just as there are in the
States. But…”
“Let’s
go wider, then. Outside the box.” Leo grinned.
“How about the whole UK? What are
the main languages?”
A
slow smile started across Opal’s face, matching his, as she ticked the
possibilities off on her fingers. “Well,
there would be Welsh... Scots and Scottish Gaelic… Irish… Cornish…”
“Most
of those are pretty obscure, right?
Could it be one of those?”
“It
could…” Opal stared at her screen with
fresh eyes. The two men left her alone,
and it took her just half an hour to cry out, “I’ve got it!”
“What
is it?” Jay and Leo crowded around her
laptop.
“It’s
in Gaelic. Scottish Gaelic. It was encrypted using columnar
transposition, the same type of coding used on the Kryptos sculpture outside
the CIA headquarters. All I had to do
was find the right key, the number of column shifts.”
“Okay,
most of that was over my head, but continue,” said Jay, and they all laughed.
“I
started trying numbers, until I got a letter pattern with something
recognizable. The number thirteen gave
me this.” She motioned to the text now
displayed on her screen:
Harry
tionndadh air a' 'aite, le Griphook air a gualainn, saoil le uile a neirt air
a' Aodionach Boiteag, a' taigh-òsda sin a' doras do Trasda Caol-shràid. A' bòcan cum mar sin fhèin cuimir mar iad
imich a-steach do a' peinntealta dorchadas, agus dara air dheireadh Harry's
luighean bonn cabhsair agus e dreòsgach a suil air Charing A'Chrois Bealach.
To
Jay, it looked no different at first, but then he recognized a couple of
English words – names, rather. “Hey,” he
said, pointing, “it says ‘Harry.’ And
there, ‘Griphook.’ Is that a name, too?”
“Hard
to tell if it’s a proper noun, with everything in caps,” said Leo.
“Where
have I heard that word before? It sounds
familiar…” Jay stroked his goatee, his
eyes narrowed at the screen.
“Griphook? Sounds like a tool or a weapon. Or maybe a pirate name or something.”
“Ugh,
not pirates again,” Jay groaned. “I’ll
keep thinking on it. Can you translate
it into English?”
“I
can, but it will take some time. Gaelic
isn’t exactly a language I’m fluent in,” chuckled Opal.
“Me
neither, but maybe I can help,” Leo volunteered. “I’m good with languages.”
“Okay…”
As
they settled down to the tedious task of translating the clue, Jay continued to
muse over the word “Griphook.” “The name
Harry is used here twice, see?” he heard Leo murmur. “It must be important.”
Important… Harry…
Griphook… Harry…
All
of a sudden, it came to Jay. “I got it!”
he called out, leaping up from the bed.
“Griphook’s a goblin, not a pirate.
And Harry – wait for it – is Harry
Potter!”
Two
heads turned away from the computer screen at the same time, staring at him
with identical looks of skepticism. “You
think this clue she’s been working on for days somehow refers to Harry Potter?”
Leo said, his eyebrows raised.
“I
know it does. And listen, it makes
sense! Everywhere she goes, she’s
stealing books, right? Books. So why not have her clues refer to books,
too? Hell, I bet this clue is right out
of one of the Harry Potter books!”
“Which
you’ve read, apparently,” smirked Leo.
Apparently, this was all very amusing to him.
“Hell
yeah, I have. Who hasn’t?”
“Me?”
Jay
scoffed. “Well, you’re missing out,
then, buddy. The series is epic!”
“Okay,
okay, enough,” Opal cut in. “It helps
that we know what the clue comes from.
Now all we have to do is finish putting it in English, and we should be
able to figure out where it leads.”
“Hope
it’s not Hogwarts,” said Jay. “It’s
unplottable. Maybe King’s Cross Station…
Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters…”
Leo
burst out laughing. “Nerd.”
“Whatever,
dude. Like I said, you don’t know what
you’re missing. I wonder, is 4 Privet Drive
a real address?”
“There’s
no mention of a Privet Drive,” said Opal after awhile, “but there is a Diagon
Alley and a Charing Cross Road.
Look…” And she showed them the
English text.
“Harry turned on the spot,
with Griphook on his shoulders, concentrating with all his might on the Leaky
Cauldron, the inn that was the entrance to Diagon Alley. The goblin clung even tighter as they moved
into the compressing darkness, and seconds later Harry’s
feet found pavement and he opened his eyes on Charing Cross Road.”
“Diagon
Alley!” cried Jay. “Of course! All we need to do is find the Leaky
Cauldron. Of course, that’s easier said
than done, since Muggles can’t see it…
Neither of you is a witch or wizard, are you?”
“Dude,”
Leo chuckled. “Agent Jay, the rebel of
HimTak, really is a Harry Potter nerd.
You think the other agents know this?” he asked Opal, “or can we use it
for blackmail?”
“Hardy-har-har,”
retorted Jay good-naturedly. “If you
don’t watch it, I’ll make it required reading for Double-0s. How ‘bout that, Vitruvian?”
“How
‘bout Vitruvian stops razzing Jay long enough to book us a flight to London?”
suggested Opal with a smirk. “And don’t
worry about getting us seats together – at the rate you two are going, I think
I’d rather sit by myself. A few hours of
peace and quiet would be nice.”
The
two men were taken aback. “At your
service, Your Royal Odyssey,” said Leo finally, with an unctuous little bow and
a smirk to match. Then he went back to
his computer to look up the next flight to London.
± ± ±
The
British Library was a sprawling, red brick building, filled with books and
exhibits, collections and archives, and reading rooms that could accommodate
hundreds of visitors. Yet, on this
particular afternoon, the library was nearly deserted, unless you counted the
security guards and Scotland Yard officers that were canvassing the place.
“We’ve
been closed ever since the theft,” explained one of the library’s directors, as
she led Nick, Diamond, and Styx on a tour through the building. “We can’t bear to risk any other items
disappearing or any evidence being destroyed, so we’re being especially
stringent with who we allow into the building.”
“What’s
your security usually like?” asked Nick.
“Do you normally have an idea of who comes and goes?”
“Anyone
is welcome to enter the library, tour the building, or visit our exhibition
galleries. We require a reader pass for
those wishing to use any of our sixteen reading rooms, through which the
majority of our collections can be accessed.
Patrons have to be at least eighteen to apply for a reader pass and must
show proper identification and proof of residence. We generally discourage those who are not
students or researchers. Some hear the
word ‘library’ and assume we operate the same way as a public library, which
isn’t the case.”
“So
the person who stole the Codex… would they have had one of those reader
passes?” Diamond wondered hopefully.
“Likely,
yes, but the book that was stolen didn’t disappear from one of the reader
rooms. It was on display in one of our
galleries, which is open to the public.
We have security footage from that day, but it’s awfully grainy.”
“Wonder
who she was posing as this time?” muttered Diamond.
“Maybe
Pearl can clean it up,” Nick replied out of the side of his mouth. To the director, he said, “We’d like to see
the security tape, please.”
“Of
course, Mr. Carter. If you’ll just
follow me…”
± ± ±
“Well,
Agent Jay, we’ve followed you this far,” said Leo, spreading his arms
wide. “Now what.”
Jay
looked around. The three of them stood
at the intersection of Charing Cross Road and Oxford Street, in the West End of
London. After more than twelve straight
hours of travel, he was exhausted, and his brain felt fuzzy. He wished his thoughts were less muddled, but
the jetlag was quickly catching up to him.
Though the sun had not yet set in England, it was already the next
morning in China; they’d lost eight hours of time and a whole night’s sleep.
“Think,”
Jay muttered to himself. “Think… The
Leaky Cauldron… where would it be?”
Leo and Opal stood staring at him as he thought out loud, completely
helpless. “Let’s just start walking,”
Opal suggested finally, with an impatient shrug. “Maybe we’ll see something that will point us
in the right direction.”
Jay agreed,
and they set off up Charing Cross Road.
At least there was only one direction to go in; past Oxford Street,
Charing Cross became Tottenham Court Road, which wasn’t part of the clue. They were on the right path – literally. Now they just had to find the right place to
stop.
They
walked along, passing bars, boutiques, and bookstores. Jay looked longingly through open doors and
into store windows, tempted by the smell of liquor, the sight of animal-print
hats modeled by mannequins. Then he
remembered their purpose and suddenly grabbed Opal’s arm. “Bookstore!” he shouted, pointing. It was the second one they had passed.
“I
see…” said Opal cautiously, staring at him like there was something wrong with
him.
“Let’s
look it up! In Harry Potter!”
Before
the others could respond, Jay was already jogging into the book shop. He found the children’s section in a distant
corner, and it didn’t take him long to spot a colorful display of Harry Potter
books. By the time Opal and Leo joined
him, he had already snatched up a copy of Harry
Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and was rifling through its pages.
“Here!”
he cried suddenly. Opal and Leo leaned
in to read over his shoulders as he read out loud, “They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and
cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of
ordinary people. Could there really be
piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them?
Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks?”
He
skipped a few lines and read further down the page, “’This is it,’ said Hagrid, coming to a halt, ‘the Leaky Cauldron. It’s a famous place.’ It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn’t pointed it out, Harry
wouldn’t have noticed it was there. The
people hurrying by didn’t glance at it.
Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on
the other as if they couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling
that only he and Hagrid could see it.
Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.”
“So
you see,” Jay said when he was done, “all we need to look for is a book shop
that’s next to a record store. The clue
should be somewhere between them.”
Leo
looked skeptical, but Opal nodded and said, “That helps. Let’s try it.”
On
impulse, Jay paid for the book, rather than putting it back on the shelves, and
carried it with him as they set off up the road again. They moved at a quicker pace this time,
checking the signs over every door on each side of the street. As it turned out, there were lots of book shops on Charing Cross
Road, but only a few music stores. When
they found one next to a large, chain bookseller with a narrow alley in
between, Jay knew they’d reached the right place.
“This
is it,” he whispered, his heart hammering with excitement. He crept into the dim alleyway, feeling a
little like Nicolas Cage in National
Treasure. The alley was a dead end,
walled in with bricks at the back. That
was perfect. Jay opened his Harry Potter
book again, squinting to decipher the words in the shadowy light. At last, he read, “Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled
courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.” Here he stopped and looked around. The alley was not exactly a courtyard, but it
had walls and weeds and, look, there was the trash can.
“Hagrid, meanwhile, was
counting bricks in the wall above the trash can. ‘Three up… two across…’ he muttered. ‘Right, stand back, Harry.’ He tapped the wall three times with the point
of his umbrella. The brick he had
touched quivered – it wriggled – in the middle, a small hole appeared – it grew
wider and wider – a second later they were facing an archway large enough even
for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of
sight. ‘Welcome,’ said Hagrid, ‘to
Diagon Alley.’”
“Three
up… two across…” repeated Leo, and for the first time, he looked
enthusiastic. He reached towards the brick
wall, but Jay pushed his hand away.
“No
way, newbie. I figured out the clue; I
get the first look.”
Vitruvian
scowled, but backed up to let Jay move in on the wall. He counted three bricks up from the center of
the trash can lid, then hesitated. Two
across… but which way? He moved right,
one, two bricks.
The
last brick moved when he tapped it. It
was loose!
“Bingo,”
said Jay, as he wiggled it out of its mortar.
He handed the brick to Leo and shoved his hand into the space where it
had been. It was dark and gritty with
brick dust, but at last, his fingers brushed a new texture, something smooth,
like paper. He pulled out a small scroll
of rolled up parchment paper.
“You
found it!” exclaimed Opal, her eyes dancing in the dim light. “This is almost fun!”
Leo
shoved the brick back into place and turned to Jay. “What’s it say?”
Jay
was unrolling the scroll. His heart sank
when he saw what was on it, and immediately, he passed it to Opal, muttering,
“It’s another damn clue. Looks like
gibberish, if you ask me.”
T Ê' NAO SÈNEZÀEOSR VLEETR EE TN TEO
CUIS E ETGÉOEP ERLSSAEDXUUTTPÉDMORÀ,EOMV
R MA,BMOD ELTD UAPVDRRUEP EDR ZTES,SE BS ODTEE,S RMO DEBA,NSMDARNNOAU' NEITDARIEMMTA ED,NRARE NRLANSLHGN;OGPEUUNSSELNR
EUFLANIOLNAOO PLEÀNRMEDATTA LT
DCAENOUUXNTL ALMMÉSTLSOA SEP À.C;À .VUET
ÉE 'CU È E NE TRN, SR, RI'SEOEENESTSLSÉCC NIESEEJ,IUAESSBEIR
LLDMI VIEANMÇL-IMOS RPR TZ EIELDAANÉI CN
C OE H TEIFSLN,NNSLRO OCENU,UEEOÀOLSUHD ILO LQLM,ZIOEI ES;T DEOTQRDP
NEUDOEÉLS IEEMRLN NBA ÀMOF EOVEELMMS'URAEDREUAIUEE EMEAA
GIOUEPTEIIESERNPDIST DZJ OEGISÉÀL E PC A V ARODOEUUASA MVUESTL 'M U U EUNSO VRÔ B EEPC
ECECSSEIPDRULT NNC LMINNOUNE ST - N-EPU
CD UODÉ R NZ
“It
shouldn’t be as difficult to crack this one,” said Opal confidently. “We know what language and code she used on
the first one; if she follows a pattern, this will be cake.”
“If
she speaks Gaelic, she’s probably from Scotland, right?” added Leo. “Maybe this will even help track her. It’ll certainly narrow down our options.”
Jay
nodded, his heart lifting again. “We’re
on the right track.”
± ± ±
In
the library not far away, Nick said, “Great.
Meet you back at the hotel later.”
As the little screen descended into his watch once more, he turned to
Diamond and Styx. “Jay and the others
are in town now, too. They decoded their
clue, and it led them straight here.
Well, not here here, but to London, at least. They found another clue, and they’re off to
get a room in our hotel so they can rest up and start working on it.”
Diamond
frowned. “That’s good…” she said
thoughtfully, “but why would the clue lead them somewhere else in London? Why wasn’t another clue found here in the
library? Come to think of it, why
weren’t clues found at any of the
other crime scenes, except for the Library of Congress?”
Nick
considered this. They’d combed every
inch of the State Library Victoria in Melbourne and come up with nothing – no
solid evidence and certainly no clue like the one from the Library of Congress. He was sure Jay’s team would have done the
same in China.
“I
dunno,” he admitted finally. “That’s
weird. But at least it’s a lead to
follow, which is more than we’ve found.”
“Maybe
not,” spoke up Styx from the computer they’d been gathered around. “Check this out.”
Nick
and Diamond returned their attention to the task at hand. They’d captured a fuzzy image of the crook’s
face from the library’s security feed, which they’d sent to Pearl to digitally
enhance. The image she’d sent back
wasn’t crystal clear, but it was an improvement. They had spent the last hour
cross-referencing that picture with the library’s database of reader passes.
“This
look like the same chick?” Styx asked, pointing at the monitor. Nick’s and Diamond’s eyes moved between the
screenshot from the security video and the image he’d brought up on the
computer screen. They both hesitated,
looking back and forth, and then they nodded.
“It’s
her,” Diamond said confidently. “It’s
gotta be.”
Nick
read the name below the photo of a young, blonde woman on the reader pass. “Ms J Nelson.
Not much to go off of.”
“The
director said you have to apply for one of these reader passes. I’m sure they keep applications on file,”
said Diamond brightly.
Nick
couldn’t help but return her smile.
“Let’s find out.”
Finally,
it seemed they were making progress.
Within half an hour, they were pouring over the application of one Jess
Nelson, a university student living in London.
“We’ve got her name and address,” said Nick. “All we have to do now is track her down.”
“Which,
from the way she’s been jaunting around the globe, could be harder than you’d
think,” Diamond pointed out.
“Girl
gets around,” chuckled Styx.
Diamond
rolled her eyes. “Yeah, she’s a real
jetsetter.”
“So
here’s what we’ll do.” Nick had a
plan. “We’ll send Scotland Yard to this
address. Diamond, you go with them. Styx and I will head to the airport to see if
anyone under this name has made flight reservations. If she’s planning to flee the country or
already has, we’ll know.”
Diamond
nodded. “Sounds good. Call me if you find out anything.” She waved her precious phone in his face.
“Back
at ya,” Nick replied, shoving his watch in hers. “Let’s go, man,” he said to Styx.
“Damn,
weren’t we just here?” remarked Styx, as they arrived at the airport once
more. “Feels like we ain’t never left
the airport!”
Nick
groaned. “Tell me about it.” Between his fear of flying and his hatred of
boredom, he was not a fan of airports.
And Styx was right: they’d
certainly spent enough time in them lately. And that didn’t even compare to the number of
hours they’d spent in the air. Nick
couldn’t wait to finish this mission and set foot on home soil again. If only they could catch this criminal. Nick repeated her name in his head: Jess…
Jess Nelson…
They
asked to see the head of airport security, who was able to access a passenger
database. “There are several Jessica
Nelsons, but only one who registered as ‘Jess.’
The passenger in question boarded a flight from London to Munich,
Germany.”
Nick
and Styx exchanged glances, but before either of them could say a thing, Nick’s
watch beeped. Diamond’s pretty face
appeared on the screen, looking disheartened.
“She’s gone, Nick. The police
forced entry on her apartment, and it’s completely deserted. Any luck at the airport?”
“You’re
right; she left. But we think we know
where she went.”
“Yeah?” Diamond’s voice lifted, a hopeful smile
brightening her face. “Where?”
Nick
grinned. “All I can tell ya is, we
better learn how to say ‘Where is the library?’ auf Deutsch!”
± ± ±
“Wo is die Bibliothek, bitte?”
replied Leo
promptly, when Nick repeated this joke later.
Nick
rolled his eyes at the newest Double-0.
This guy was almost more annoying than Shazam. “Thanks, dude, but I was just kidding. Most Germans know English nowadays, don’t
they?”
“Well,
if not, I’m fluent,” Leo said, with a smug grin.
“Good
to know,” replied Nick curtly, not bothering to disguise the sarcastic tone in
his voice.
“You
know, Carter, I’m sick of your attitude.”
“Well,
Di-Crapio, we’re all sick of your face!”
“You’re
an overgrown toddler. How you became a
Double-0 to begin with…”
“Shut
it, both of you!” Jay called over, as he seemed to be conversing with K on his
Blackberry. K’s brows furrowed on the
screen, as Jay smiled good naturedly. “Kids.
So we need an update: how far have the Feds tracked us?”
“They
arrived in the UK earlier today,” Pearl’s voice was heard from off-screen. The soft sound of her fingers rapidly typing
along the keys followed suit. “I’d say
you have a night or so before they track you down. They’re checking with Interpol because of the
standard passport check they have when you check into hotels. But since you’re using our HimTak specials,
and they apparently mistook Leo for Nick back in China-”
“Mistook
him for me? How? I’m way better looking than that-“
“Yet
far dumber…”
“So
you admit I’m hotter!” Nick grinned at
the newer agent before high-fiving Styx, who was snickering as well.
“You’re
still a moron.”
“I
dunno…” Diamond said, as she sat on the desk of the hotel room, swinging one of
her sexy legs idly. “Nick did outsmart
you just now…” She casually texted away
on her phone after giving Nick one of trademark dazzling smiles.
“Kids,
don’t make me get Daddy K involved…” Jay called over, rolling his eyes to
himself before shooting Opal a smile.
She
was on the bed, pouring over the latest clue.
It had turned out not to be Gaelic, and not even the same coding
technique, which, of course, had set her all the way back at square one. Well, almost – at least she knew it was likely
to be in another language. She thought
about asking Leo to see what he could decipher from her various attempts at
decoding it, but didn’t feel like causing a fuss between the Blond Battle Royale
that seemed to be going on. As her mind
wandered, her ears tuned back in to what Jay and Pearl were discussing.
“Because
they spotted Leo, Nick’s now being charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive,
despite his own HimTak diplomatic immunity; it’ll never stick. Brian is being heavily investigated now… he’s
officially being charged,” K continued, after raising a brow at Jay for his
last remark.
Nick
snapped out of his Diamond-staring reverie, leaving Leo still lost within one. “What?”
K
could be seen nodding on the screen of the small device. “He’s not taking it too well, and the CIA is
pretty much infuriated at the Feds. Brian’s
currently on an extended leave till it’s all settled… and on house arrest, no
less, to prevent him from fleeing the way Opal did. The CIA is the only reason he hasn’t been
formally arrested yet.”
Nick
rolled his eyes. “No wonder CIA’s mad;
he’s one of the best. Eff that – if they
don’t want him, we should take him. And
how’s he talking to you anyway, K?”
The
golden-haired scientist’s head leaned over the screen, appearing next to K’s. “Duh, the iPod Touch I gave him communicates
directly to us, through an encrypted and untraceable line. Take that, FBI bitches!” Everyone chuckled. “…Anyways, they know you’re in the UK and
tailed you that far, but as Lancy booked several hotels under the same aliases,
they’re still checking each and every one out. I reverse-traced Opal’s cell phone when she
was almost caught in China, so we could track the trackers. As of right now…” More typing noises could be heard. “They’re in Manchester. You’ve got at least a night before they trace
you to London, and that’s if they don’t check out the place Lancy booked in
Bristol.”
K
sighed. “This is becoming more and more
problematic. Split up again, and find a
way around those damn agents. You’ll now
have the Feds following you every step of the way, Carter. Fix this.” And with that, the screen went black.
Nick
felt outraged. “What the hell! I wasn’t the one even spotted! Leo was!” K blamed him for everything. One of these days…
Leo
leaned against Diamond, rubbing his hand along her side as she giggled
seductively. “Those are the breaks,
Carter.”
“I’m
sorry, Nick…” Opal said softly, walking up to him. “That was my fault; I’d just stupidly
forgotten they’d be tracking the cell phone.”
“It’s
not your fault, Ash; they shouldn’t even be following you in the first place.” That was when it clicked. So suddenly, and so simply, an idea came to
him. It was fun, it was different, and
it was brilliant.
Agent
Jay caught the look on his most unique agent’s face and raised a brow as he
titled down the shades he loved to wear. “Alright, Nick, spill. You have an idea.”
He
nodded. “Indeed I do, Jay. Indeed I do.”
± ± ±
Jay
had to hand it to Carter. When he had an
idea, most of the time, it was ingenious.
In
the chair before him sat Opal, decked out so outrageously, he doubted even
Brian would recognize her. Gone was the
dyed blonde hair. Now he had cropped it
shorter, to just above her shoulders. It
had become a shocking, bubblegum pink and was spiked in every direction. Out came the lavender contacts, replaced by
bright blue. Fake piercings decked out
her nose and ears. Black lipstick and
heavy eyeliner were the only touches of make-up applied. Given one of Diamond’s wonder bras to give her
a bustier appearance, Opal wore over that a black and red Sex Pistols t-shirt,
ripped in strategic places, that hugged her slim build. Paired with that was a red and black plaid
mini-skirt, accessorized with a black, studded belt and tight, black leggings,
leading down to a worn-out pair of Converse sneakers. All in all, she looked nothing close to her
real self.
Nick
was on the other end of the room, attempting to console a wailing Diamond. The wavy, sun-kissed tresses she loved and
adored were now gone. They had been
replaced by straightened, raven black locks. The tight and skimpy clothing she wore to
impress and hypnotize the men around her were also gone. Instead, she donned one of Opal’s lawyer-esque
outfits that she’d been wearing for the earlier disguise: a long pencil skirt the color of charcoal, a
matching suit top, and a cream-colored blouse. “This isn’t me!”
Nick
sighed. “I know, but hey, you’re still
Di. You’re still…” His voice lowered to whisper things he didn’t
want anyone else knowing. No need for
everyone to learn about the details of their escapades, after all. “You’re perfect for this, and it keeps the
Feds away from Opal.”
The
plan had been so simple: make the FBI agents
believe Diamond was Opal, and that Opal was someone else entirely. He’d take Opal’s phone, since he was now
officially a suspect anyway, and call them. This way, Nick would lead them away from the
real Opal, as they assumed he was with her now and had been since she’d left
DC. He grinned; he was going to love
this assignment. The first call,
however, was going to be through Jay’s Blackberry, which, like Brian’s iPod
Touch, could not be traced, just to give them a little more time before they
had to bail.
Jay
tossed him the phone as he made his way over with a silent and sulky Diamond
Divine in tow. Nick sighed as he sat
next to Opal. “I’ll need your voice for
this. Since it won’t be from your phone,
I don’t want them thinking we split up.” He beamed at Jay. “I love this assignment.” He dialed the number Pearl had given them
once he’d shared his amazing idea.
“Agent
Tom.”
“Yeah…
who’s this?”
“You
don’t know who I am? Man, you should. I mean, what kind of agent are you that you
don’t even recognize our voices?” Nick nodded at Opal, as he handed her the
Blackberry.
“Hi,
Agent Tom! How’s Brian?” Nick smiled. Now that was a nice touch. He placed the phone back to his ear in time to
hear Tom muttering to Agent Hank.
“Trace the call… now!”
“So,
I hear I got upgraded to suspect! I
didn’t know the American Government could get any stupider! Are you guys even looking for the person who
is really behind this, or are you too busy trying to frame Ashavari? Do you know the enemy…?” Nick beamed, as
everyone else rolled their eyes; everyone at HimTak knew the signs of when a
sing-along with Nick was coming.
“You’ve
got a lot of nerve, Carter…”
“Hey,
you do know me! Awesome! But….” He
took in a deep breath. “Do you know the enemy…?
Do you know
your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy, ohaooh.
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy, ohaooh.
Insurgency will rise,
When the blood's been sacrificed.
Don't be blinded by the lies in your eyes.
Say!
Ohaooh
Ohaooh…”
By the end of his little song, he was head banging to full effect,
even though, sadly, the FBI agents couldn’t see him the way his colleagues
could. He laughed at his own mockery. “So, Agent Tom… do you know the enemy?”
“I know the enemy is off his rocker, and that he’ll be found now
that he’s been on the line long enough to be tracked!”
“Is that so?” Nick smirked.
“Where am I? Where is Ashavari? Just where are we, Agent Tom?”
Silence.
“I thought so. It’s okay;
I’ll make it easier on you next time to trace us. I’ll keep in touch. Toodles!”
He clicked the phone off and handed it back to Jay. He couldn’t stop grinning at everyone, even
Leo.
“I really, really, love this assignment.”
± ± ±