Life of a Street Fighter

Two in One

"Yeah, I'll do it. Sounds like a good plan" she said, growing excited.
"Great! I'll tell the two other people who're going with you. They'll brief you about it and then let you go pack" Thomas said, reaching for the phone on his desk.
"Wait, pack what?" she asked. She came here with only the clothes on her back.
"Oh, yeah. I'll get my desk assistant to get you some clothes before tommorrow" Thomas said, undeterred.
"You have a desk assistant? Who?" Scarlett asked in confusion.
"That would be me, sweethart" a female voice said from behind her.
Scarlett turned around to see a shortish woman that was dressed in skimpy desk clothes, looking like a model, all beauty and no brains. Against her will, Scarlett's mouth curled up into a sneer.
"Scarlett, meet Paige, my daughter and desk assistant" Thomas said from behind her.
Scarlett made a sound of non-impressment and turned back around to face Thomas who was now talking into his phone.
He raised an eyebrow at her but didn't comment on her lack of speech or welcome to Paige.
Just thinking about the name made Scarlett shiver. Who named their kid Paige? Even though she knew that she was basically insulting Thomas she didn't care. It was Paige who choose to portray the image she bore to Scarlett and she didn't think that Thomas had much say in it anyways.
Her attention returned to present as Thomas put down the phone and looked over at her. "Paige, you can go now" he said and Scarlett heard the door close behind her. "Ok, all you need to do now is go down to Communications and meet up with Luke and Gabe. They'll also be going to France to, but with a different mission than you. They'll tell you what to expect and how you're going to find your target, blah, blah, blah. 'K? Good, go down to the third floor to the room labeled 'Outgoing' They'll be in there" he said, waving her out the door.
Scarlett stood and suppressed from rolling her eyes because she knew it would hurt. She walked out of the room, ignoring the men at their desks and went down the stairwell to the third floor. Going down staircases easier than going up them.
Scarlett entered the third floor hallway, taking on the big rooms on either side that had glass walls from the ceiling to waist height. She looked back and forth between the rooms until she got to the doors. One said 'Outgoing' and the other said 'International Service Communication'
Scarlett paused in front of the door that said Outgoing for a few moments hesitating because she didn't know what they would think of her.
A man inside the room paused, looking at her then came over and pushed the door open. "You need something?" he asked curiously.
"Uh, yeah, I'm Scarlett Brooks here to see Luke and Gabe about going to France" she sais, stumbling a bit over her words.
"Oh, yeah, I'm Gabe. Come on in" he said, pushing the door open wider.
Scarlett came in and quickly took on the scenery around her. Men sat typing at their computers or yelling into microphones or at another person.
"Jesus" she breathed.
"Yeah, it's a bit busy" Gabe said from over her head. "Come on let's go meet up with Luke, he's the one who really knows all the info"
He gently pushed his hand against her back, steering her through the crowd of people and into the back former, where a man sat at a desk, his back to them.
"Luke!" Gabe said, stopping in front of the desk.
"Yeah?" he replied, without turning around or stopping the tick of the keyboard.
"Scarlett's here man. We need to go over the plan" Gabe said, sounding slightly annoyed.
After a few moments of typing away at the computer some more,Luke finally turned around and glanced between Scarlett and Gabe. "Yo, I'm Luke" he said to Scarlett.
Then he turned to Gabe and pulled out a folder from a drawer, taking its contents out and putting them on how desk. "Here's the plan. We get on the plane to France at 8 in the morning. The flight takes about hmm, 5 hours so we land in France at around 1 in the afternoon. Immediately after we get off the plane, we'll be meet by more CIA agents, which will take our bags and us to the hotel. There we go over the plan which I am about to tell you. Me and Gabe will be tracking down and killing a gang that's been getting into a lot of legal trouble bit have to many connections and evade the police. Scarlett will have gone to the man's hideout and will have kept an eye on him, it'll be her decision when and where to get him. Her decision on wether to bring her gun with her or have it set up so it overlooks the entrance to his hideout so she cam nail him when he walks out. We sleep in our room until 5 the next.morning, get up and head out. We'll meet back on the hotel room at 10 in the evening unless Scarlett finishes before then so she could go back anytime she wants. Got it? Good, we'll discuss in more detail in the hotel room" he said, going through the papers from the folder before selecting a few and handing them to Scarlett.
"What's this?" she asked, looking at the papers which consisted of two photos and a written paper.
"I was getting to that part" Luke said, flashing her an irritated glance. "There's a photo of the man and what his hideout looks like. The paper is the reason we have for killing him, what your alibi is in case anyone should ask you what your were doing when he was killed along with a fake name and other stuff"
"Ok" she said, looking down at the man's photo. It as obvious that he didn't stand still and smile for the camera but the detail as pretty good. He was a tall, shifty looking man who was glancing over his shoulder in the photo, holding a black briefcase in one hand while the edge of his jacket and flipped back revealing the edge of a gun.
The other photo was really four photos in one. The first we an arial view of a building, that was rectangular in shape that reminded Scarlett of a box of food. The picture next to it was a doorway against a brick wall, and she assumed it was the same building that was in the first picture. The one below the first was a picture of the building from the street Mr the last was a picture of it from the side.
She looked back up seeing that Luke had already turned back to the computer, as if to tell her that he was done talking and wanted her to go away.
She glanced over at Gabe who was staring at Luke with an annoyed almost angry look on his face. He look over at her and flashed her a guilty smile. "He's not always like that. Come on, I'll walk you to your office" he offered, getting off the desk that he was leaning on.
"Um, you don't have to so that. Really" she protested.
"Nah it's fine. I get to miss a bit of work and it wouldn't be proper" he added with a laugh.
"Um, ok" Scarlett murmered.
Gabe steered her back through the crowd of people and out into the hallway. "Jesus, Luke must have.something up his ass. He's not usually like this" he said once they were out in the hallway.
"It's ok, at least he went over the gist of the plan" Scarlett said, glancing at the papers in her hand.
"Yeah, I suppose we could still be sitting in the dark right now, wondering what we were going to do in France" Gabe said as they walked down the hallway to the stairwell.
"Yeah really. It woulda been a shot in the dark" she said following Gabe up the stairs.
"You ever been to France?" Gabe asked.
"Huh, no. I've never even been out of New York City" she sais, feeling a bit embarrassed by the fact.
"No way, what'd you do for a job then?" he asked.
"I didn't have a job. I fought on the streets for money" she said in a quiet voice.
"Really? That's so cool!" he replied, shocking her a bit with his reaction.
"I guess" she said, biting her bottom lip.
"It's not as cool ad it sounds?" he asked in an almost disappointed tone.
"No, not when your fighting for survival" she said, fixing her gaze on his back.
"Oh" he said, becoming quiet.
Street fighting....for survival. Don't we all do that in some way, shape or form? she wondered. The pounding fists and launching kicks seem like so long ago. Have I really changed so much that now I actually care how people see or think of me?
Scarlett was so lost in her thoughts and about second guessing herself that she didn't see Gabe had stopped on the landing until she bumped into his back. "Oof" she said ins surprise before springing backwards. "Uh, sorry" she said.
"Are you ok?" Gabe asked,looking into her eyes.
"Ye-yeah, totally fine" she stammered, taken back by his intensity of his gaze.
His green eyes blazed with a certain fire that made her wonder what his real personality was like, if he was quiet or loud and wether his personality now was just a facade. "Scarlett... I shouldn't be asking this but how'd you get your black eye?" he said rushing forwards as if he was a shy high school bit asking his crush on a date.
"Oh" she said, lifting her fingers towards her eye. "I put it to close to the scope of a rifle when I shot it" she said, wondering why he was asking her.
"Oh, I just thought that since.you fought on the streets that maybe you got it from...-you know what, forget I ever asked you that question" he said, turning round and pulling open the stairwell door.
"What? Did you think I got punched in the eye?" she asked, teasing him, liking his curious awkwardness.
He paused, halfways down the hall and Scarlett caught up with him. "Uh, yeah kinda" he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.
She smirked at him. "Wow" she said, shaking her head.
"Hey" he said, defending himself. "You havn't exactly told me anything about you, so am I only to assume?"
"Yeah, I guess" she said, staring at the office door in front of her. It suddenly flew open and both of them jumped back in surprise, their hands going towards their waist where they had their guns.
"Scarlett!" Thomas said in a loud voice, that wasn't exactly shooting but pretty damn close.
"I'm right here Tomas" Shea said in reply. "You don't have to yell"
"Sorry" he said, lowering hos voice some. "I just wanted to tell you that you should go start packing and check out your new apartment because you'll be leaving at eight in the morning tomorrow!"
"Yeah, I already know that but I don't exactly know where my apartment is though" Scarlett said hesitantly.
"Oh right, hang on, I'll be right back" he said closing the door forcefully in her face.
"Uh..." Gabe said, staring at the now closed door. "Is he always like that?"
"Not that I know but...Jesus what happened to him? Is he on drugs or something?" she asked, shaking her head.
Before Gabe could reply the door opened and Thomas handed Scarlett a piece of paper. "Here, Gabe can you show her the building? I gotta run; my wife's having her kid" he said, rushing off before either of them could reply.
"...Well, I guess we know why he's being all weird and shit" Gabe said, looking down the hallway that Thomas had just run down. "Excuse my language"
"I've heard worse, believe me. I just can't believe there's going to be another Paige around. Ugh" she said, with a not-so-fake shudder as sheglanced at the paper with a set of keys attached to it. "So are you going to show me my apartment?" she asked, glancing up at him.
"Sure" he said easily. "Follow the handsome man"
"I have to find him first" Scarlett said, jokingly.
"Ouch! You're so mean" he said, wincing as if she'd punched him. "But I suppose I'll have to do then right?" He said, winking at her teasingly.
Scarlett snorted but followed him down the hallway, her eye continuing to throw her off balance even though she strained to keep it open.
She followed him all the way down the stairs and out of the building. "So, where are we going?" she asked, shielding her eyes from the sun.
"Just a few blocks down. The CIA head wanted the building to be reasonably close to the actually office building" Gabe said in reply, walking with ease down the sidewalk even though there were multiple cracks and bumps on it.
"Yay" she muttered and Gabe laughed.
A few minutes later, they arrived in front of a tall building. "Welcome to your new home" Gabe said, sweeping an arm out in front of him.
"I really hope you don't mean the trash barrel" she said sarcastically, looking at the trash can which was overflowing and put out a putrid smell into the air.
"Nah, come on. Lets go inside" he said, pulling open the door and stepping into the dimmer interior.
It was air-conditioned inside and simply lit but not to dark which made the interior a few degrees cooler. "What number is your room?" Gabe asked, turning around to look at her. Scarlett glanced down at her silver keys.
"Um, 256" she said, flipping the key in the air once before catching it and closing her fist around it.
"All the way at the top huh?" he said grinning. "Stairs or elevator?"
"Elevator. I've had enough stairs already" she said, internally groaning at the thought if climbing more stairs.
"Wimp" he said but pushed the button for the elevator.
"Shut up. This is only my first day here" she said, protesting. "You've had what, 3 years of practice?"
"Try 4" he said grinning at her as the elevator arrived with a ding.
She stepped onto the elevator after Gabe. "So, I was only one year off" she countered.
"And?" he said, smirking at her and pushing his thumb against the 4th floor button and the doors closed.
Scarlett huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms, tapping her foot, waiting for the elevator to arrive, and trying to ignore the fact that Gabe was grinning like an idiot two feet away from her.
Moments later, the elevator doors opened smoothly with another ding and she stepped off into a carpeted hallway. "Cool" she said.
"Its more like a hotel than an apartment" Gabe said from beside her. "Come on. Lets go find your room"
They walked down the hallway, reading the door numbers until they got to the door labeled 256. Scarlett pulled out her key and stuck it in the lock about to twist it open but realized that the door was already swinging open on its own.
She exchanged glances with Gabe who shrugged and drew his gun.
Scarlett did the same and after taking the key from the doorknob pushed open the door farther and slipped inside, Gabe following close behind.
She gazed around the room, taking in the couch and TV among with the connected kitchen. No one moved in the room except for them but Scarlett could hear noises coming from the door that she guessed lead to the bedroom. Motioning Gabe forwards with her hand she slipped up to the wall and peered through the crack between the doorframe and the door.
She looked at Gabe and cocked her head towards the door, questioning him silently with her eyes.
He jerked his chin towards the door, indicating that she should push it open.
She took a deep breath then kicked it open and stepped around the corner, aimed her gun at the figure she saw UN the room, her finger tightening on her trigger. "Don't move!"

Hello, readers! If you have time could you possibly let me know how the book is so far? Emojis are welcome! Thxs for reading Life of a Street Fighter up until this point!