No Tears | NR

Chapter 25

Darmstadt, Germany

Yara bit into a chocolate croissant while she listened to Natasha.

The Avenger had gotten some breakfast before Yara had woken up and was now trying to explain what she had found about the base. But Yara was making it difficult for her because she was a little too distracted by her food. She felt unusually energetic after some proper sleep and hadn't had a good chocolate croissant for months.

Natasha was getting increasingly annoyed. While she was glad to see that the brunette looked a little better than she had before, this was pulling at her patience. She also suspected that Yara was using her food as an excuse not to listen, because she still didn't like the idea of fighting Griebel and his people.

"The building is - hey, Yara, come on. I'm just trying to help you. Can you at least pretend like you're paying attention?"

Yara felt a little bad for her behavior. It was true; Natasha was only doing this to help her. The least she should do was to listen to her. She straightened her back, placed the now empty paper bag on the floor next to her bed, and trained her eyes on Natasha, signaling her that she was ready to pay attention.

They went over the information that the Avenger had found, which included an old blueprint that was over twenty years old. Then they prepared some equipment for their next stakeout and got on their way to the base.

It was about noon when they arrived. Since it wasn't dark, they had to be even more careful than before to avoid being spotted by the guards. They split up again and hid in two different spots, using the trees as cover.

Nothing special happened for the first hour or so. But then, a few people exited the building and lined up in front of the entrance as if they were waiting for something. Not a minute later, a black car approached the front gate of the base and stopped in front of it. The window on the driver's side was lowered and something was handed to one of the guards. It looked like an ID card or something like that. The guard stared at it for a few seconds, before he returned it to the driver and gave the other guard a signal. The second guard pushed a button, which caused the gate to slide open. Then, the car pulled up in front of the line of people in front of the building's entrance. One of the back doors opened and a man stepped out. He was tall, had short, black hair, and wore a suit.

"Is that Griebel?", Natasha's voice spoke through her earpiece into Yara's ear.

"I don't know", the brunette replied.

"You don't know? What do you mean you don't know?" Natasha did not sound happy.

"Well, I've never met the man. Back when they were - back when they had me, someone else was leading them. Griebel is new. I don't know what he looks like", Yara defended herself.

"Great. And you couldn't have told me sooner?"

"Ahm." Yara didn't really know how to reply to that so she didn't.

The group of people disappeared inside, leaving the five guards alone. Nothing new happened for hours until the front door opened and a group of people stepped outside. They were the same people from earlier and the man who was probably Griebel, was with them. He looked agitated and was having a furious conversation with a woman from the group. When he reached the black car which was still parked right where it had been left, he finished his conversation abruptly and got in. Then the car sped up. It stopped for a short spell when it reached the gate and accelerated again once it had been let through.

Yara didn't have time to process what she was doing when she got down from the tree and sprinted towards the road as quietly as she could while hiding behind tree trunks and hedges. The car was about to pass her when she reached the road, taking cover behind a hedge.