Kiara's mind goes blank.
There is only one door and no place to hide. No way to escape without having to bypass Berte. Her heart beats three times its normal rate and she contains her breath to not make a sound. Will's hand gently squeezes hers, and they wait frighteningly for the door to open.
Not even past my first task and I already screwed up.
Berte's body fills up the doorway as he places his hand on the doorknob. Just as he turns the handle, the phone starts to ring. With a few colorful words and a dramatic sigh, he releases the doorknob and returns to his desk. This time he answers the other phone.
Kiara relaxes a fraction as Berte moves away and lessens her grip on Will's hand, realizing she was crushing it.
"What?" Berte says vehemently when the speaker is on.
"One of the machines stopped working." Adrien replies.
"Then call the technician."
"She's already here."
"Then. What. Is. The. Problem?" Berte is barely containing his anger at this point.
"She needs you to sign some papers and authorizations." Adrien asks more than states. His voice sounds a little afraid, clearly knowing his boss is angry.
"I'll be there in a minute." Berte hangs up, extinguishes his cigarette and leaves the room mumbling to himself.
Kiara breaths for the first time since the conversation started and pauses the recording. She looks at Will's outline and her stomach makes a little flip.
"That was close." Will whispers.
"Yeah... sorry about your hand." Kiara croaks and then clears her throat.
"I probably strangled yours as well". Will chuckles.
The sound makes Kiara feel warm and tingly. After a pause where neither one of them moves an inch, Will clears his throat.
"We should better leave before he returns," he says.
"Right"
They shuffle awkwardly from one side to another until Kiara has enough space to slowly open the door and step outside. She avoids looking at Will, afraid he will see her blush and surveys the room again, hoping they didn't miss anything important.
"Agent McGreevy, what's your position?" Will asks as he exit the office behind Kiara.
Kiara quickly heads to the secondary stairs, going down a few steps before stopping when they're both out of view from the hallway. She waits expectantly for Sasha to answer.
"...I thought grapes were stomped"
Kiara hears someone speak through the earpiece. Sasha must have broadcast her surroundings, so that they could hear.
"That's how it was done before. Nowadays, after the harvest is picked by hand and sorted into bunches, these machines destem the grapes and crush them..."
Kiara couldn't hear the rest of the explanation. Sasha must have cut the audio, but it isn't necessary. She recalls the place's blueprints and pinpoints where the tour is. She continues downward and stops before the stairs finish, making a hand signal to Will.
She peeks around the corner and spots her group farther inside the production area. They are facing the other way, so catching up to them unnoticed shouldn't be a problem. She glances the other way and sees an unfamiliar person walking by.
She quickly ducks back out of sight. Will pats her shoulder, getting her attention. When she turns to him, he points to her face. Kiara doesn't understand at first but then he mimics taking off glasses and points back to her.
Kiara nods and removes the glasses. She takes another look and makes the follow-me sign to Will. Rounding the corner, Kiara speed walks forward trying to catch up with the tour group. She silently integrates to the back and scans the crowd for her friends. When she sees Zoey, she gently squeezes Will's arm signaling to him where she's moving. She reaches Zoey.
"I finally find one of you!" Zoey whispers.
Seems like Kiara wasn't the only one to separate from her group.
"Yeah, me too" Kiara plays along. She looks around the group again without finding her other friends. "I bet Ney sneaked into one of the other groups."
"Wouldn't surprise me" They both silently laugh at their friend's habits. "But where's Jessy? I haven't seen her in a while."
"Did you last saw her with Ney?" Kiara asks.
"Yeah... I think."
"Then, Ney probably dragged her with her." Kiara says not worried.
Though, for the rest of the tour, she keeps an eye open for her friends. She eventually sees them in the Australian group chatting away, bringing her relief. She also spots Will back in the British group with his friends. Or at least that's what Kiara assume they are after watching them together a couple of times.
Kiara feels someone watching her and she tenses for a second before realizing it's Sasha. She meets her stare and Sasha glares at her before turning around. Kiara lifts her eyebrow in question but doesn't dwell on trying to figure her out.
They continue with the tour for another hour. At the beginning, Kiara tenses when she sees security guards or staff members, sure they'll figure out she sneaked into Berte's office.
As the hour passes, nothing happens though which makes her nerves seem ridiculous. She consciously must relax her posture, stop her fidgeting hands, act normal to not draw attention to herself and be patient. She wants to discuss with her teammates and Agent Carville what they found in the office and the overheard conversation.
Luckily, Zoey manages to distract her and, she doesn't have to try so hard to enjoy the tour. When at last they leave the vineyard, Kiara does breathe a little easier, knowing that they will leave this place behind, and that she can finally study the recording and the files Will downloaded.
As the bus takes them to a place to eat lunch, she receives a text from an unknown number.
MEETING AFTER DINNER IN HQ
She immediately knows that it's from ISS, so after reading it one more time she deletes it and continues with her day.
YOU ARE READING
Teen Spy: The Observer
Aktuelle LiteraturA few months ago, Kiara Starling started feeling that someone was following her, watching her. Despite it being downplayed by her family and friends, her intuition is proven right when, on her seventeenth birthday, she is kidnapped, and it leads to...
