Sixty Seconds

Chapter Six

Carter.

I drove into HQ, Jessica was sulking beside me. Once we got back I had made her dump the coco-pops and leave, she wasn't happy about not getting to eat them. Actually she had thrown her slipper at me, it hadn't hurt but had surprised me. She had good aim. That little fact annoyed me, basically everything about her annoyed me. I cruised into a parking space.

“Out” I told her, turning the engine off, pulling the keys out as I undid my seatbelt. “Now”

She sighed and undid her belt, opening the door, she shot me a stormy look. She was in the same type of clothes as me, black t-shirt, trousers and combat boots. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail. She slammed the door shut, hard. I frowned at her and bit back a remark. Locking the car, I followed her stomping figure up to the underground stairs. I checked the car park for Harper's car. I spotted it in between two black cars similar to my own, the red paint reflecting of the darkness of the cars.

I continued up the stairs, Jessica lagging behind me, taking everything in. We entered the main room, where around fifteen people were wandering about from computer to computer, while others typed orders on keyboards. It was complete organised chaos, everyone knew exactly what they were doing, that's why they were picked for the jobs they did. I nodded to one of my men walking down the gangway, he nodded back and walked calmly on.

“Already done a runner, Jessica?” A light female voice called. I turned to see Harper in a light blue suit, looking amused at my tired eyes and her furious ones.

Jessica grunted beside me as Harper reached us. “I'm picky with cereal” she said looking at her feet.

Harper smiled at her. “I noticed”

Jessica smiled back slightly and I rolled my eyes. “Can we just get on with this?” I asked impatient. If she failed this then we could send her back to where she came from and I didn't have to worry about her any more. A proper soldier could do the job.

“Of course” Harper said, walking with us down another corridor, there was no one around, I could hear the buzz of the main room in the distance as well as mine and Jessica's soft footsteps and Harpers heels clicking down the corridor. We stopped in front of a locked door with a card scanner.

Harper turned to Jessica. “This door can only be unlocked with a card, so you're going to have to find another way in, got it?”

Jessica nodded, looking at the lock, the light was off, meaning a card wasn't inserted. An alarm would sound if anyone tried to force the lock, or if an invalid card was scanned. I couldn't wait to see her giving up, as I had helped design the security system for this room.

“So basically, you have to find another way in” Harper told her. We began to turn away. “We'll meet you in the main room soon,”

We began to walk down the corridor, I heard Jessica running behind us. “Wait!” She called.

I stopped and she ran into my back. I turned round.

“What?”

She rubbed her nose. “You have a hard back” She told me.

“Really? I thought my spine was made of rubber” I said sarcastically.

“Stop it, Carter” Harper turned to Jessica. “What is it?”

“How will you know I've actually gotten in?” She asked, hands in pockets.

“Just bring us any document in there, we know everything in there.” Harper smiled at her and Jessica turned away. I turned to Harper.

“There's no way she'll be able to do this.” I scoffed. We entered the main room, Harper sat down at her desk and began typing.

“I have faith in her.” She told me as I sat on the edge of her desk. She closed an email down and opened another. I surveyed the room, looking for any oddities. There were none, the usual people were here. I saw another of my men walking about, doing the same as me, checking for anything suspicious.

“Here” A voice said from behind. Jessica dumped some papers on Harpers desk. Harper looked up at her surprised. I stared at her, frowning.

“How did you-?” I asked, still frowning at her composed face. It had taken her minutes to break into a high security document storage room.

“I took your card, Idiot” She told me, flashing my card in front of my face. I stuck my hands into my pocket, my card wasn't there.

“Give me that” I said, snatching my card out of her hand. I shoved it into my pockets and scowled at her.

Harper laughed at us. “Well done, Jessica. You successfully outwitted our head of security.”

“She stole my pass” I insisted.

“Aren't they the same thing?” Jessica asked, looking at me.

“No” I said gruffly.

“Don't worry, Jessica. He's just annoyed that you're the person who did that to him” Harper said, smiling.

“She did not outwit me!” I almost shouted. I was furious with her and myself, mostly her. How could I have fallen for the oldest trick in the book? She had bumped into me, stolen my pass then shoved her hands in her pockets to hide it.

They just laughed at me. I could feel myself getting more and more pissed off. “I'm going to combat training” I said, turning towards the exit.

“Maybe you should check your pockets more often.” Jessica called after me, I nearly went back and punched her. Instead I balled my hands into fists and continued. Seeing one of my men, I called to him.

“Joshua? Want some combat practice?”

Joshua nodded. “Sure.”