Hey hey!

I thought you wouldn’t mind an extra early excerpt after last week’s break 😉 Don’t forget to listen to Part 22 first, of course!

Have a fantastic Saturday,

Sigrid

Louise put down her cases with gear next to the old desk. She looked around. Everything seemed the same as it had yesterday. It had taken them longer to get to the transmission site by the ocean, though. It was almost 9PM. She switched on the desk lamp.

Behind her, El stood, shuffling her feet. Louise exhaled slowly, trying to keep a lid on her frustration. Things had gotten really uncomfortable between them the moment they had started the tour around the network facility.

Sure, they had spoken to each other but only when needed for the inspection. It was as if they had both decided to focus on the job at hand and put what had just happened between them in the freezer.

And it was killing Louise. She wanted to say something. Anything. That is, anything that would end the sadness in El’s eyes. The awkwardness between them seemed to be taking a toll on her too. “I need to do something,” Louise thought. “But what?”

“Okay, I’ll let you work. Just knock on my door when you’re ready to go,” El said.

“Wait,” Louise blurted out, spinning around. This was her chance. “Why don’t you stay?”

El pushed a bouncy curl back behind her ear.

Louise gestured at the other desk. “It’s just us. Seems a bit silly to be in different rooms, right?”

El glanced at the desk and tucked her hands in her pockets. “Yeah, okay, sure.”

Louise smiled to herself as she picked up one of the cases and took out her terminal. She heard a chair move and when she straightened up, El was sitting and staring out of the window. The orange light of the sunset gave her face a warm glow.

Louise studied her beautiful profile for a few moments, the butterflies in her stomach wide awake. But then El caught her staring.

“What?” she asked shyly.

Louise switched on her terminal, averting her gaze. “Nothing,” she said, blushing, pretending to be at work.

A few moments later, she had to stop herself from looking up at El again. Louise opened the software she would use to create the report instead.

Making this report seem like she had done a thorough inspection would be a challenge. She had been distracted all afternoon. Images of her and El on the desk had kept flashing through her mind.

She had done her best to look for evidence of recent renovations or other things that seemed out of place. There hadn’t been much to see, though. The location clearly had not been in active use recently.

Louise still had plenty to report on, of course. She had to tell the teams Hobbs was in the hospital at the presidential residence. That would certainly set off alarm bells. Louise would have to make it seem like she had everything under control.

She stretched her fingers a few times. Where to start? Hobbs’s accident. How to describe his encounter with Stucky? She pictured the scene and chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” El asked.

Louise looked up in surprise. Shit, had she laughed out loud?

“I was thinking about Hobbs.”

El’s eyebrows shot up. “That makes you laugh?!”

“Hardly,” Louise said, grinning. “I was thinking of Stucky attacking him.”

El crossed her legs. “It wasn’t an attack!” she said with a wide smile.

“I know, I know,” Louise replied. “He just wanted to play.”

El nodded. “Yeah.” She turned back to the window then.

“I’m glad he’s doing better,” Louise added quickly, trying to keep the conversation going.

El scratched her cheek absentmindedly. “Yeah, he does seem less upset.” She inclined her head. “And a lot wilder.”

“True,” Louise giggled. “He’ll definitely keep you entertained.”

El folded her hands in her lap, looking down at them. “Yes, I don’t know how my aunt kept up with him.”

Louise fidgeted with the power button of her terminal.

“How are you coping after her death?” she asked carefully.

El’s expression instantly became guarded. Louise forced herself to keep looking at her, waiting patiently. After a few moments, El visibly clenched her jaw and shifted in her seat.

Louise was about to give up and comment on the sunset, to change the subject, when El clicked her tongue softly as if making a decision.

“I’m heartbroken,” she admitted, her voice almost a whisper.

Louise’s mouth went dry.

El looked at her from under fragile eyelashes, cheeks flushed. “I miss her every second of every day.” She shrugged tiredly. “But I have to be strong. I don’t have time to be sad.”

Louise was up from her chair before she had given it any thought. Once she was standing in front of El, she wasn’t sure what to do, though. El met her gaze, her expression open, her eyes expectant.

Louise clumsily sat down on the floor. “Tell me about her,” she said, her hand running up and down El’s lower leg.

El wiped her cheeks with her sleeves, sniffling. “You tell me something about yourself first.”

“Eh, why?”

El shifted to the edge of her seat. “After our ‘job interview’,” she said, making air quotes with her fingers. “I realized you have told me almost nothing.”

Louise played with a loose thread at the bottom of El’s slacks. “I haven’t?”

“Nope,” El replied dryly. “I think you owe me some embarrassing stories or you know, just basic info.”

Louise nodded slowly. El was right, of course. Louise wasn’t one to share many details about herself. It didn’t come naturally to her.

“Okay,” she said. “Let me write my report and then you can ask me whatever you want.” Her stomach was queasy.

El slapped her knees. “Great! I think I’ll start with ex-girlfriends.”

The churning in Louise’s abdomen intensified. She tried to laugh but it didn’t sound all that convincing. There was no way she could ever tell El about Michelle. Just no way. Michelle would kill her if she found out.

And what would El say when she realized Louise had been in a relationship with the woman who is in charge of the effort to force the Fireblue rebels to their knees? That would not play out well, Louise guessed.

“Not much to report there,” she said, hurrying to get up and behind her desk. “I certainly wasn’t playing hide and seek in my bedroom at 15.”

El stuck out her tongue, laughed and turned to look out of the window again. Louise was off the hook. For now.

***

90 tense minutes later, Louise gave up on the report. She had done the best she could under the circumstances. It was dusk by now and the night sky would set in soon. She got up from the chair.

She gathered her terminal and the case with the portable satellite. “I need to go send this thing.”

“Want me to wait here?” El asked.

Louise considered the question. She could ask El to stay inside and be off the hook for a bit longer. But that didn’t feel right. Plus, she loved talking to her and didn’t want to go back to the awkward silence or distance between them.

“No, what if there is a bear?” she said in a serious tone.

El snickered. “A bear?”

Louise pointed at the door. “I heard there are still bears out here.”

El grimaced. “Not many.”

“Guess I won’t need your protection then,” Louise sighed dramatically.

“I don’t know,” El said, now playing along and frowning deeply, “There are other scary things out there.”

“Oh really,” Louise replied and headed for the door. “Better bring your secret weapons then.”

Alright, enough for now! If you enjoyed this excerpt, please do considering supporting the podcast so I can keep writing!