Agent 34 (Book 1)

13. I feel we might have gotten a little off-topic . . .

Everly's POV

I understood now, why Ian said that Noelle kept the team members of Gamma team 12 from killing each other.

Two hours in and I wanted to kill them.

The headache forming behind my temple was killing me, and only getting worse as Ryan and Eric bickered back and forth. Ian questioned everything I said. Noelle was too busy trying to keep Tessa from stabbing Ian, and the only one who was remotely minding their own business was Alejandra who sat at the table in the conference room with the rest of us, looking over the files.

As Eric began picking a fight with Noelle, to the point that Ian stepped in and the entire room was filled with raised voices, I rubbed at my head and closed my eyes.

I turned to Alejandra who was sitting at my side. "You have your gun?" I asked her.

She looked at me blankly but nodded.

"Fire off a round at the ceiling," I told her. As the voices got louder, I winced. "Or pick one and put us all out of this misery."

Alejandra pulled her gun and fired off three shots at the ceiling.

All shouting immediately ceased as soon as the first shot went off. They all jumped apart, whirling around to figure out the source of the shots. Ian, Tessa, and Noelle even pulled their guns. Eric looked ready for a fight and Ryan had covered his ears. They all looked at Alejandra in annoyance as she lowered the gun and set it on the table.

"Thank you," I told her to which I got another nod in response.

"I'm confused," I said as I looked between all of them. "I was under the impression that you were actually looking to find Agent Thirty-four alive. If that's no longer the case, then I think I'd just fare better on my own."

"Well it was your brilliant idea to sit here on our asses and look through files," Tessa said coldly. "We should be out there looking for her."

"And where do you suggest we start?" I asked her. "I'd like to hear some of your brilliant ideas."

Tessa's eyes narrowed. "I've got an idea for you, how about I take that gun and-"

"Don't finish that sentence, Tessa," Noelle interrupted.

Ryan glared at Tessa. "It's not as if we're studying blueprints for a bakery," He said. "We're actually going through files relevant to these mercenaries."

"Yeah," Tessa scoffed. "Mercenaries that we don't even know for sure are behind this. Which also brings up a better question, who the hell hired them? Do your little files tell you that?"

"Garrett hired them the first time we dealt with them," I told her. "but there's no way he hired them this time around."

"How do you know that?" She asked. "Have you asked him?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "I make a point not to go visit Garrett in the agency prison."

"Oh, that's bullshit," Tessa exclaimed.

"Tessa," Noelle said.

"Oh, come on," Tessa said. "You don't really believe her, do you?" Tessa leaned back in her chair and studied me with an expression that basically said she thought she had me backed into a corner.

"I've seen the security footage of you standing outside his cell." Tessa raised her eyebrows at me. "Coincidentally, the audio wasn't working for that cell. Care to explain that?"

Ryan frowned before turning to look at me. "Ev?" He questioned.

I glared at him for using my name, not that it was unusual for him to use it, seeing as we were related and all. I shook my head. "I don't need to explain anything and if you look at the dates on that footage, you'll see that the last time I went and visited Garrett was a year ago. I was getting information for Zero, not socializing over tea and biscuits."