Agent Gray, Red with Love

Something Drastic Happens

  It was taking all of Carmen's effort not to scream, or faint, or do something that showed major panic. When Graham had discussed being ambushed near her base, it felt like the entire planet was crashing down. Did V.I.L.E. know where she was? Were they going to attack? Only Zack and Ivy were home while she was in Ethiopia with Shadowsan stopping a caper, so she really shouldn't be blaming herself for what had happened. But to call it alarming was a major understatement , as this incident was a major security concern. 

  And then to find that Coach Brunt herself had visited across the bridge and preformed a caper personally... She couldn't help but think she should have been there.

  Player said that there was zero V.I.L.E. chatter indicating any hits in San Diego, or any plans they  could've found in the stolen hard drive regarding the Taft Chairs. He hypothesized that similar to when Brunt showed up in Vera Cruz, Mexico, that the whole caper was very sudden and wasn't planned. He said that Brunt likely got impatient with playing nice trying to re-recruit him, and opted to do it herself as well as grab the chairs as a side-project if all went well.

  Carmen knew that he was trying to help, especially considering that if she didn't stop Le Chèvre and El Topo from stealing confidential information from the African Union, there could have been a series of major feuds on the continent that could've turned deadly. Still, this was personal now. Not only because of what had happened, but also because of the fact that she hadn't known about it, she hadn't stopped it, and now the product of which was sitting across from her. 

  A fully healed, Graham Hawkins.

  She should have been happy. Wait, scratch that. She was happy. Gray was back, and he was trying to prove her innocence to ACME. They were finally going to be able to patch up what had happened between them as much as they could, and maybe be able to put it behind them. But she could see it in his eyes that he still didn't know what to make of her.  A little sister? A best friend? An enemy? An ally? Something else? She couldn't blame him for his confusion, she'd been battling the question in the back of her mind sense the Auckland Caper, but it was never prioritized. Now, she didn't have a choice but to pay more attention to it.

  "Anyway," Gray said, as he took a dainty sip from his coffee, having finished telling the story of his ambush in San Diego, "My turn to ask questions now."

  Carmen shrugged, "Guess so."

  "Since when are you working with Shadowsan?" He asked.

  "You see, that's a bit of a tough question," She admitted, "Officially, we started fixing our relationship when I found out he was in my corner the entire time I was at V.I.L.E.. He failed me trying to convince me to quit the criminal ways."

  He chuckled, "It seems that worked a little too well."

  "Right?" She agreed, "He saved me from Coach Brunt when I was rescuing Devineaux after he was tortured by Coach Brunt—" 

  "And Shadowsan," he reminded her.

  "What?" She asked, confused.

  "It's why I'm asking this, Carmen. Part of what ACME holds against you is that we got ol' professor Shadowsan convicted of torturing an agent. They see you two working together as conspiring with an aggressor," Gray explained.

  Carmen shook her head. "It was never his intention. Shadowsan went into that caper trying to find me and give me that one major V.I.L.E. hard drive. He wanted to go solo, but Brunt tagged along so he had no choice but to play the game. Devineaux's situation was just a major, horrible, misunderstanding." 

  Graham could just hear Devineaux whoop and go into a victory spiel, as Zari rolled her eyes and pretended that she hadn't been dismissing his theories of a misunderstandings for their entire partnership. Across the street Felix looked like he was watching an epic crime documentary, his face both stunned and satisfied at the same time. He flicked a thumbs up.