Espionage and Eggs - Part 4

“Yah, but how did she find us in all that mess and pitch black conditions?  She picked us off as if we were standing in the middle of an open field at noon.  I couldn't even read that she was anywhere around,” Bobby vigorously rubbed shampoo into his matted hair, “Could you read her?”

“Genetic freak, that’s what she is,” the only other man on the mission made his comment as he got into the showers.  The training mission had included just the four of them, Jan had been set up as the one they had to capture and bring in.  One woman had bested all of them, and egos were now hurting, all except for Ward’s.

“We’re all genetic freaks if you want to get down to the nitty gritty and no, had no clue she was even around,” he wished he could have said the last part with more conviction.  Since the first time he had seen her in the office, he had never stopped feeling her when she was around him.  

Jan threw her mud-encrusted clothes into a pile with a little more force than she needed.  She had lost her mission and she was agitated, to say the least, about it.  Never had she ever let her emotions control what she had done before, but this time, this time it had been different.  Walking into the shower she turned the water on and let it warm before walking under the spray and letting it coat her completely.  As the warm water washed over her she thought about what had happened, and why it was getting to her.  She had retrieved the envelope, which had been the training mission, and this win was what she should have been focused on.  But it had never been her mission. 

Jan was on leave from her job, or mission, in Central America.  It had been a deep cover operation for the last month and a half with Rob, her handler, being her contact.  She had collected enough information to shut the operation down, but they had needed time to set up the team that was going in for the takedown.  What she needed was to be away from the womanizing gunrunner for a bit.  Making the excuse that she needed to go shopping for some very nice unmentionables for their special night, she had gotten out of his control and back to the states.  It had been a bit harder throwing the tail for this training operation, but she had.  It was the only chance she would get to meet up with the legendary Agent Ward Lowe for the next month or so, so she had risked her cover to come on this training mission, but how could she not. 

So like all good agents, she had doctored her file so that it looked as if she would be in town for longer and Ward had taken the bait.  Ward had arranged the session and Jan had accepted without Rob knowing.  He was going to be pissed.  Correction was pissed.  By now he knew where she was and what she was doing.  Handlers were never very far away from their readers unless she was undercover and even then they weren’t far away.  He probably even knew that she had lost.  She laughed at herself.  He had no idea if she had won or lost, or even why she had taken this training operation, but he would figure it out quickly.  He would also figure out that she had a thing for Ward as well.  That long and tension filled discussion would have to be had later, most likely when they were on the plane back to Central America.

Circling back to the same thoughts she had had before she climbed into the shower she swallowed the fact that she had lost.  Halfway through the mission she realized it had nothing to do with the envelope.  It was more of a competition between the two of them.  He wanted to get to know her and vice versa.  Ward had even planted himself by the shed so that he would be the last one standing.  Jan had planned to engage him a bit more before taking him out, but when he had called her babe she couldn’t help herself.  She had taken Malone’s weapon just as a prop, and she had used it well until he goaded her.  And he had done it on purpose.  Raising her hands she rubbed the soap into her hair.  Voices drifted into her head.  Now for a mind reader that wasn’t strange, but this time she wasn’t reading their minds.  Laughing quietly she realized that the guys had forgotten the plumbing could and would carry their voices right to her ears.    Smiling she realized that she might not have lost at all.