O hello!

I heard some whispers here and there about Wednesday not arriving soon enough. 😉 I don’t know why ’cause it arrived here just fine about 4 hours ago! That means I can hit that publish button…

Hope you enjoy,

Sigrid

Louise wished she could lock the door behind her. It would raise too much suspicion, though. She pulled at the elastic band that was keeping her hair in a tight bun. She shook her hair loose.

She rested her back against the door and let her head fall against it with a soft thud. She looked at the ceiling before taking in the room. Apart from a closet, a table and the bags with their gear, there wasn’t much to see.

All of their stuff was there, ready for her to grab it and leave. Louise couldn’t do that until she had a plan, though. The problem was that she didn’t have a clue what to do. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

“Start with the facts,” she thought and pushed herself off of the door. Her arms and legs were feeling heavy. She found her terminal easily, got it out of its case and opened the file with the instructions.

“Rebel media reports death MB. Unverified. Corroborate network monitoring room theory further. Code 5b. Code 7b.”

Louise reread the last line.

“Code 5b. Code 7b.”

She had no idea what those codes meant. At first, she thought it was the stress playing tricks with her memory. After a few moments of going through everything she knew, she realized she just had never been briefed on this.

Louise put the terminal down on the small table against the wall. “Fuck,” she cursed under her breath. Hobbs really did know more than she did. He knew what to do after reading those codes after all. That much had been clear.

She started pacing around the tiny room. So Hobbs was in cahoots with Michelle. Was this why Louise hadn’t been allowed to bring her own team and was stuck with Hobbs instead? Why send her at all then?

Louise stopped pacing. Michelle had probably picked her specifically for this mission. Louise was an expert. Her word would have credibility. But Michelle still had power over her and she knew it.

Michelle had to be confident Louise would obey any orders and stay quiet. It made her want to throw up. She held on to the table to steady herself.

After a few nauseous seconds, she pinched the skin between her thumb and index finger. “Snap out of it,” she told herself. Michelle had made a big mistake. Louise wasn’t going to go down quickly.

Time. She had to buy time. That was her first goal. If she went to that inspection site and found evidence of recent renovations, Michelle and Hobbs would probably have what they needed to go ahead with whatever they had planned.

“What if I can’t make it to the inspection site today?” Louise thought. “I can’t take pictures or create fake ones if I’m not there.” She ran both of her hands through her hair. Sweat prickled on her forehead.

If there was no inspection today, there was no new evidence. Not even fake evidence. Hobbs was still in the hospital after all. It was the only thing she could come up with to cause a delay.

“Can I pretend to be sick?” she wondered. No, that wouldn’t be credible at all. “Break my arm or leg somehow?” No, too much of a coincidence after Hobbs already got hurt.

“The weather!” she said out loud. Could she say there was flooding? That was a credible reason to delay the inspection, right? She frowned. Except she would need several other people to lie. And there hadn’t been any rain tonight.

Louise groaned. She wasn’t getting anywhere. She was a lone wolf now and had never felt more isolated. Plus, she was completely powerless here. Very little was under her control.

She pursed her lips. There was one person with a lot of power in this building, though. Someone everyone would listen to. El! Louise bet El could make anything happen.

What if she asked El to cancel the inspection? Surely El could find a way to stop it from happening? Louise would just have to convince her there was no other way. Could she do it without revealing too much, though?

Louise was about to put the terminal back in its case but stopped. Something told her to keep it with her. “My spidey sense,” she thought. Louise tucked the terminal away, under her shirt and against her back.

It was a slim device and no one would notice, she hoped. She would find a better hiding place later. First, she had to find El and get her to talk to her in private. It was her only chance at stopping this inspection from happening.

Damn. It’s over already?! Hope Saturday arrives on time too…