Crystal Clear (2 page)

Cindy trained right next to her best friend Lucy Montgomery, but hadn’t been assigned anything but tech work and interrogations since leaving the academy.  She longed to be in the thick of
things
with her best friend.  There weren’t many people who could d
o what she did with a computer.
F.I.U.W.
took advantage of the
fact.

Always stuck in the damn van!  Well, not anymore!
  She turned to p
op herself of
f
the edge of the desk,
and then
noticed the agent still there watching her
. She
immediately smothered her grin.

“That’s all, be safe.” The director instructed.

“Oh, I will.”  Cindy hung up the receiver.  With a bounce in her step she headed down the hall.  This would be her first field mission as point. 
Cindy s
low
ed her
stride
and
tried to contain herself. 

She w
ant
ed to tell everyone. Cindy
grimaced as she reminded
her brain
she had to keep things secret. 
She
tried to focus.  First thing
, she needed
to figure out what to pack. 

Agent Lucy Montgomery stood outside Cindy’s door holding a large manila envelope with a sau
cy, secretive smile on her face.
“So, off on your own this time, huh?”

“Hell yes!  I’m so excited.  It’s an easy one too,” Cindy burst with
enthusiasm
. 

Sweet,
I do
n’t have to hide this from Lucy!
Cindy p
lac
ed her hand on the wall and
leaned into it
,
unable to contain her joy near
her friend
. 

Montgomery
mimicked her movements and
grinned as if it was the most natural thing for her to be standing the
re holding the mission
file
.
“So I hear,”
she
turned
the envelope over in her hands. 

Cindy
raised an eyebrow
.
  "
Wait a minute, how did you find out so quickly?” 
She c
ock
ed
her head to the side
and
a piece of auburn hair fell in her face. 
Montgomery
always
knew information before most
,
and Cindy couldn’t figure out how. 

Lucy Montgomery was the undercover agent
who
helped bring about the downfall of Ignacio Rivera.  It seemed, after interrogating Rivera, he was heavily involved in art theft and smuggling
. T
hey suspected
he
sup
pl
ied
part of the funds
for
Jaguar. F.I.U.W. just had
n’t been able to prove
their ties,
yet.  Funds went to a secure off-shore account. 

Montgomery
’s
cover had been blown.  Cindy
secretly
suspected a mole in the department.  When Montgomery had shown up at Rivera’s estate in Colombia, the man already
had inside information
she
worked as
an undercover agent, resulting in some bad trouble not only for Montgomery, but the team as well.

“Killroy has asked
for me to
act as your mentor during this mission.  You’ll be reporting to me. Plus, Chase is your backup
.
”

Cindy understood, she’d trained with
Montgomery
, but her friend had way more field experience than she did. Her
backup might be an issue though.
Chase was Montgomery’s
twin
b
rother
,
and Cindy’s ex-boyfriend.
“Isn’t he still injured?”

“I
ts low profile
, they'
re letting him back in the field.”  Montgomery shrugged her shoulder in a characteristic move.

“Are you sure?  He was beaten up pretty bad when Jaguar got a hold of him.” 

Not even three weeks ago, Chase had been
kidnapped
by Jag.  He had research
ed
their movements and prepar
ed
to take out some key players in their plan.  They
’d
discovered him, taken him captive, and tortured him. 

Montgomery
, with a team of other
operatives, caught up with them.
They
rescued Chase
,
and took down Rivera’s crime syndicate in Colombia. 

When they took out Rivera’s operation,
the bust
had
sliced
a serious dent into operations for Jaguar, if in fact they were being funded by the drug lord.  Cindy hoped that Jaguar
felt
the cut. 

Chase was black and blue from his injuries the last time Cindy had seen him. 
The
man had a lot of healing to do before he took the field
again.  He was stubborn though
.

“Killroy says
he’s ready
,
and
Chase is chomping at the bit to be
back on the job
.  Besides he can’t stand
the fact
that he
was rescued by his sister.” 
Montgomery
’s
mocking laugher made Cind
y raise her
eyebrow
again
. 

Cindy
was aware
the
Montgomery
twins
had an ongoing competit
ion to best one another.  A
ll in good ‘sibling rivalry’ fun,
of course,
but sometim
es it got dangerous. 

She
had to agree with her friend, “Now, that I can see, he never wants to be held down for long.”  She paused
and
lean
ed
fully against the wall, “from the sound of things I won’t have to have help with this mission.  It seems pretty straight forward.”

Montgomery
lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug, “Just make sure you call in and report on a regular basis.  You never
can tell
when you might need backup.  It’s always good to have just in case.”

The nerve endings in her fists tingled. She would handle this case without help. It was her chance to prove herself.
Cindy tried not to sound defensive, “Chase can remain in
New York
.
H
e doesn’t have to play hero al
l the time.”  Her eyes narrowed.
“As far as I am concerned, he truly needed a reality check.  And he got one.”  Cindy watched
Montgomery
for a reaction. 

Chase was a thrill seeker.  Cindy firmly believed he needed to learn to work with the team, for safety if nothing else. 

Montgomery
tugged at a piece of her long strawberry blond hair
.  “We compete,
it's what
we do.  I thought you two
got
along.” 

Chase Montgomery was a nice agent and a
great
guy, but he just didn’t do it for Cindy.  In fact, she never met a man who had.  It wasn’t that she didn’t like men, but
no one
she had me
t gave off that spark, the
feeling of, well--
she
couldn't quite figure out how to describe it. S
he just knew she wanted it
,
and wasn’t getting it.  She and Chase had an on again-off again relationship that spoke more of convenience than true love.  The sex was nice, but
had
no real combustion.

“It’s okay between us right now, but I need a man who doesn’t have to have a gun in his hand to
be
whole.”  Cindy rubbed her hands along her jeans.  She didn’t like talking about her relationships with men, even if it was with her best friend.  It made her feel uncomfortable.  She thought it was strange she wasn’t really attracted to anyone. 
Maybe the issue lay with her?
  She didn’t want to admit that to anyone though, so she tended to avoid the subject.

“That may be a little hard to do being in the Agency.”

Cindy tried not to fidget. 
Montgomery
was right. 

Being in a relationship outside of the Agency
would
be difficult with anyone.  Cindy hadn’t wanted many people to
have knowledge
about her relationship with Chase, in case it didn’t work out.  She didn’t appreciate messes, and it would be messy if she were to break up with her best friend’s brother.

Best lai
d plans often don’t work though. T
heir relationship became apparent to everyone during the last mission, but no one really knew to what extent they were involved. 
Montgomery
would love it of course if Cindy decided to take
things
further with her brother, but Cindy just couldn’t really picture the two of them together. 

They were drastically different
,
and as Cindy had already stated, she didn’t want a man who needed to have danger to make him feel whole.  Chase was definitely a danger sort of man. Cindy firmly believed she
would
have to look outside the Agency to find a man she would find acceptable.  Chase
would
take it hard when he realized Cindy was not the one for him, but he would deal.

“I can always dream.”  Cindy stated with an exaggerated sigh.  She didn’t usually get much time off, and the only social time was usually in a van.  One wasn’t likely to hook-up with Mr. Right in those circles. 

Cindy flipped her hair ag
ain, and gestured into her room.
“So, want to help me pack?  I’m preparing for the Northwestern wilderness.”

“Sure, you have a waterproof backpack?” 
Montgomery
asked. 

Cindy looked at
her
with a sideways glance.  Why in the world would she need a waterproof backpack?  She wasn’t going into the rainforest.
  She
raised an eyebrow, “No, are you kidding?  I’m usually the one stuck doing the tech research in the office.”  She had been chosen for the assignment because
she
had the skills needed.  She also knew how to fly her own plane, and that would save questions at terminals and airplane shipping lines.  It was harder to track the flight path of privately owned aircraft, especially when one forgot to log their flight plan. 

“Follow me, we’ll get you all hooked up.” 
Montgomery
repeated into the voice recognition prog
ram that was in the elevator, “a
ll hooked up.” 

Montgomery
took Cindy to an area of the complex she had never entered before.  Cindy didn’t usually need things from this particular
spot
, having everything she normally required on her state of the art laptop.  People usually brought her the other things necessary for her job preferring her to stay focused on retrieval of information. 

They came to security for the equipment division.  Cindy and Montgomery both looked into the retinal scanner for identity confirmation. 

“This is so cool.” Cindy stood on the pad for the x-ray that detected any arms or hazardous material they might be carrying.  The heavy steel doors on the end of the corridor slowly slid open without a sound.  “You haven’t answered though, why do I need a waterproof backpack?”

“Because you are going to the Northwest,” she handed Cin
dy the envelope she carried.
“The
Northwest
ern
United States
is notorious for its rainfall.  Think of it as if you were going somewhere dreary, and the rain never stops pouring.” 

Cindy cringed, entered the equipment division and looked around at all the high tech gear.  Her eyes nearly popped out with glee.

“No, Cindy, no drooling on the equipment.” 

Cindy let out a giggle, as
Montgomery
teased her. 
Montgomery
knew her so well.  She and Cindy went way back, having attended academy at F.I.U.W. together.  Cindy saved
Montgomery
’s backside as many times as
Montgomery
had saved hers.