Chapter 2 – The FBI Elites Rendezvous

                I craned my neck around the place to look for a familiar face. Remembering her favorite place in the mall, I made my way to the ice cream shop and indeed found a redhead sitting gleefully on one corner, eating the strawberry ice cream in delight with not a care in the world. Scoffing at her childishness, I entered the shop and abruptly sat down in front of her. She curiously followed my every move while licking her ice cream, not bothering to pause and greet me at all. 

“You lose your manners when eating ice cream?” I raised a brow at her.        

She grinned and tore the cone away from her face after one more lick.

She beamed, “Hi, Hawk! I’m the first one to arrive here so I thought a little snack wouldn’t hurt.”

“For all I know, you wanted to come first so you can eat your ice cream. You can’t tell me otherwise, Leo,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest. She merely giggled and finished her cone. 

Her codename is the complete opposite of her personality. She would’ve been called kitten; and not accepted into our unit at all if not for her remarkable intelligence in the field. During missions, she’s our strategist with her tactical plans usually the key to our success. 

                I waited until Leo finished her cone, and she ordered another one just as we were about to leave, saying it’d be finished before we met up with the others. I only sighed.

                “Oh, right! I forgot to return your lipstick from the other night. I got wasted so bad, Hawk, that I lost your lipstick! You wouldn’t want to know how I ended up in—“

                “Yeah, you’re right. I wouldn’t want to know,” I cut her off before her tongue slips and mentions an awkward situation I definitely wouldn’t want to hear from her. I already knew where she ended up anyway. “And don’t worry about the lipstick if you’ve lost it. It wasn’t an expensive one anyway.” 

She smiled sheepishly and sighed with relief. “Phew! I thought you were gonna scold me for losing it!”

I have the lipstick. Agent Jaguar, Leo and I’s superior and also our unit captain, returned it to me yesterday.

He said Leo told him it was mine when she was mumbling in her sleep. How they were together that night when it was a girl’s night, I didn’t dare ask. Besides, it wasn’t the first time they were alone together at such a questionable time while off-duty. 

We went to the mall’s rooftop, a place allowed only for the staff, and found the others already waiting for us. Six individuals each emitting their distinct auras. My eyes first met Agent Jaguar who was already frowning when we neared. He looked down at his wristwatch. 

“You’re two minutes late, both of you.”

Leo quickly raised her palms in defense, then pointed to the closing elevator. “There were a lot of people leaving on every floor, slowing down the elevator!”

“I wasn’t asking for your excuses. Learn to accept your mistakes without blaming something else. How many times have I told you that?”

Jaguar is Leo’s polar opposite. Their codenames may have been from the same feline species, but their personalities are far from each other.

While Leo is kind and bubbly, Jaguar tends to be hotheaded and is always in a sour mood. But also because of them, I am a strong believer of the ‘opposites attract’ belief.  

Leo pouted and before she could say anything else that could irk Jaguar more, a bulky seven-footer man interfered – Agent Rhino. “We wouldn’t want to stay here for any longer than 30 minutes, if I may. Can we get to business already?”

His deep, guttural voice was formal and quiet. In contrast to his rather aggressive appearance, Rhino was the most refined out of all of us, thus his three-piece suit in the middle of summer. The others kept quiet and Jaguar cleared his throat. 

“Supporting Hawk’s solo mission, a mission was assigned to three of us. It’s mainly to infiltrate organizations that we believe have been working with Hawk’s target. Who would like to volunteer?”

Two raised their hands. Leo and Rhino.

Rhino spoke first, “I haven’t had a task in a month. It’s beginning to be quite the challenge to stay in the HQ recently.” 

Leo agreed with Rhino, her lower lips protruding. “I have another reason aside from getting bored at the HQ. Uh…I want to help Hawk in any way I can with her big mission.”

 From the corner of my eye, I saw Jaguar’s left eyebrow rise. I darted my eyes elsewhere. 

“Alright. Who else?” Jaguar looked around, but no more hands were raised. I understand. They were all busy with their current tasks or were still resting from their previous ones. “Fine. I’ll go.”

“You?” I asked, surprised. 

He turned to me, his black eyes questioning. “Would you prefer someone else?”

“N-No.” I shook my head. I was just surprised because Jaguar had never left the HQ for five months now, only doing the paperwork. I had thought he was done with the fieldwork after five years of intense missions.

“I was thinking you’d retired from fieldwork already.”

He shook his head. “No, there just weren’t any missions perking my interest at the late, until this one came. But the Director gave this mission to you specifically, so I’m fine doing the supporting tasks.”

I nodded. So he wanted this mission.

“We should go down now. We’ve been here for 26 minutes already. Would anyone care for a farewell dinner? It’s not mandatory.”

We were surprised to hear the captain’s invite. A farewell dinner? All eight of us? He must be joking.  

I shook my head, and so did everyone. “We’re too suspicious when together, Jaguar. Have you forgotten we have Rhino and Fox with us?”

Agent Panda, a 200-pound Asian, asked Jaguar. He motioned to Rhino, the seven-foot-tall giant, and Agent Fox, a teenager in a wheelchair. We were more like a group of oddballs than the FBI’s secret elite unit. 

Leo giggled. “You attract attention too, Panda.”

“Huh?!” He sneered down at her, nose flaring. “I do not!”

“And we’ll gather too much unnecessary attention,” I add. “Thanks for the thought of having a farewell dinner. But we’re shadow agents. We’re not supposed to be known by the world.” 

Jaguar merely shrugged. 

That rendezvous earlier would probably be my last one for this month and the months to follow. I’ll be gone for a good amount of time. I visited the HQ the next day, looking for Agent Fox. I found him dozing off in his wheelchair on one corner of the top floor, snoring softly. The other agents were uncomfortably watching me nearing one of the most dangerous men in the building. I lightly tapped his cheeks. 

“Fox…Fox…” I gently tug at him.

After a while, I got impatient and straightened my stance, smacking the back of his head. He jolted awake and within a second, a gun was cocked in my direction. I noticed how he instinctively pressed a button on the armrest of his wheelchair that was also his weapon, where a high-grade gun appeared on its left wheel and automatically locked on a target – me.

“Oh,” I scoffed. One side of my lips curled upward, impressed at his reaction time.

“You reacted quicker this time than twelve days ago.”

He frowned and quickly fixed his lopsided glasses trying to figure out who I was, though I think my sharp memory gave me away.

“Hawk?”

When he fixed his thick glasses and he finally saw me clearly, he grinned.

“Eh? Yours got slower. What if I fired? You’d be drenched in blood.”

“I gave myself away so I figured you’d recognize me before you even saw my face. I was right. And besides, I would’ve broken your little chair way before—“ I paused when I realized the floor had silenced, probably bothered by our conversation. Who wouldn’t be when they heard two people casually talk about killing each other as a way of greeting? Then again, they should be used to that.

We’re elites, we’re masters at the game. 

“I forgot we had an audience. Come with me, Fox.” I trod to the elevator, hearing wheels follow closely behind me. 

“I’m guessing you need all the information you can get before going there,” he spoke when the two of us entered the lift. “I can provide everything I find. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you. Is it free?”

“Of course not, stupid,” he said, snickering. Why this kid — “There’s a new movie out in two weeks. I need two tickets.”

I raised my brow in question. “Two?”

“Yes. Two weeks.”

“I meant the two tickets.” I turned to him, whose ears were starting to redden. “You have a girlfriend, Fox?”

This is surprising. Did he code a robot? How could he get a girlfriend when he never even leaves the HQ save for our meetings? And he’s only 17. 

“Stop questioning me. I’m attractive like Jaguar, don’t you see?” He huffed. “And she was amazed by my advanced wheelchair, entirely ignoring my missing legs.”

It was my turn to snicker. “You’re too young to be playing with girls.”

“I-I’m not!”

                That same day, I received a highly confidential e-mail that was deleted as soon as I finished reading and closed the message. I leaned back on my chair and heaved a deep sigh. This mafia has a lot of ties with a lot of dangerous people. This might be my hardest mission yet.

The thought pumped adrenaline into my veins as a smile crept up my face. How exciting.