No Tears | NR

Chapter 20

New York City, USA

Yara managed to retrieve her backpack with her documents from Melina's house in St. Petersburg. She had debated, whether she should go back to New York right away or whether she should go to Norway first. After taking some time to think it over properly, she had decided to return to Norway to get the things she had left behind. That was if they were even still there in the first place.

While she was in Sæbø, she wanted to confront the CEO about what she had found out, but ultimately decided to go about it differently. Instead, she broke into his office at night, which she wasn't very proud of, and hacked into Gunderson's computer. It took her a while, but after some digging around, she finally found some useful evidence that she could use to get the man into trouble with law enforcement. Yara wasn't entirely sure who would be responsible for this kind of thing, so she just tipped off the local police anonymously, also making sure that they got the package of evidence she had assembled earlier. She figured that they'd know what to do with it.

Then, she left the country, taking her things which she had managed to retrieve from the hotel, with her.

Now, she was lazily lying on her loveseat, listening to some slow, orchestral music and mentally preparing for what she was going to do next. She dreaded it and turned on the TV, procrastinating.

"...da Maximoff escaped from a maximum-security prison. They had previously violated the Sokovia Accords allegedly helping Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. The responsible authorities are on the lookout for them, but have, so far, not been successful..."

Yara smiled. Looks like Natasha had managed to get her friends out, then. Good for her.

The sound of a ringtone going off caught Yara's attention. She followed the sound hectically, looking for her phone. She always put it in the most random spots and was never able to find it when she needed it. But, as usual, she found it exactly where she had left it: on the kitchen counter. She scrambled to it and accepted the call just in time.

"Hi, this is Yara Krieger...", the brunette said in an almost questioning tone, wanting to know who had called her.

"Hello, Ms. Krieger. First of all, I want to say again that I am really sorry for your loss." The brunette recognized that voice. It was her boss.

"Thank you", she replied quietly.

"Are you back in town?"

"Ahm, yes", Yara replied hesitantly. It was now or never. "So..."

She got cut off by her boss. "That's good. Now, what happened in Norway? I heard that the CEO is gone..." He let the sentence hang in the air, obviously expecting an explanation from the woman.

"Yeah, right. That happened", she mumbled awkwardly. "Well, turns out that Gunderson was going to sell the AI that I was supposed to help with, on the Black Market." She had simplified her answer, not wanting to get into the details and figuring that this should suffice.

"Oh my God. That...no..." Her boss was at a loss for words. He was a good man, Yara thought to herself, feeling sorry for what she was going to say next.

"Yeah. Ahm. But there is something else that I have to tell you. There is really no nice way to say this...but...I quit." She shut up to let the man at the other end of the line process her words.

The silence that followed made Yara nervous. She started to fiddle the hem of her shirt with her fingers. As the silence stretched longer, she was worried that her boss had ended the call, until he finally spoke up.

"Are you sure that that is really what you want?" His voice was sincere. He genuinely wanted her to be sure.

"Yes, I'm really sorry", she answered quietly.