A Gray Llove

A Woman's Weapon

"That's a woman's weapon," Suzanne observed, eyeing the automatic rifle in Sasha's hands with approval as they descended the long stairs inside the palace. "I knew I liked you."

As yells, explosions, and gunfire continued to fill the air not far away, Sasha walked diligently behind the commanding officer on her mission – as Suzanne had claimed she was – and did her best to roll with things professionally. She was a bit preoccupied with something odd that was happening with her hands – the gun in her grasp swayed beneath her eyes, almost as if it were rocked by a weave in her spine. Try as she might, Sasha couldn't straighten out her aim. "Thank you, ma'am."

"I expect you're waiting for your orders?" Suzanne didn't look at Sasha as they continued to descend, adjusting a black communications bug in her left ear.

"Yes, ma'am," Sasha answered shortly, her mind still on the kidnapping situation upstairs. If a little girl and an older man had been taken by some sociopath kidnapper, things sounded pretty serious. "Though doesn't Six need support...?"

"Your mission is more important." Suzanne abruptly stopped mid-march and pivoted to look up at Sasha directly. "You have been assigned to take out Lloyd Hansen."

Much as Sasha prided herself on being professional, she couldn't keep herself from physically startling back at Suzanne's order. Her mouth opened but she couldn't find the words to ask for a minute – then she gasped, "Why? He's my partner. He's CIA."

"I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, Lewellyn," Suzanne said smoothly, "but your partner has gone rogue. He's the one who kidnapped Claire and Donald Fitzroy. We need to take him out."

Sasha clutched her gun harder and leaned forward urgently. "Don't you mean bring him in?" The difference in phrasing, as she well knew, was the difference between a hit mission and a retrieval mission. Sasha hoped that her commanding officer had just misspoke.

Suzanne didn't answer, instead turning and continuing down the stairs without another look at Sasha. Her heels sounded on each marble step, making a clonking noise behind the sound of her nine-millimeter, operative-issue pistol loading. Sasha was bound by her post to follow her all the way down the stairs and out the front doors of the palace.

She was struck by an odd sense as she cleared the threshold – a wave of muscle memory from walking this same route a million times as a child visiting her grandparents in the summer. Sasha still wasn't sure why her latest CIA mission was taking place at her family home, but at least she knew her way around. She seemed to be having some trouble remembering other critical things about her mission, especially the twist where she had been the one sent to take out – or hopefully just bring in – her own mission partner. A man she thought she loved.

Sasha couldn't resist a look backwards at the familiar building as Suzanne strode out onto the grounds. Instead of the idyllic home of her childhood, she was met with a nightmarish palace streaming fire from its bottom corner and little sparks of gunfire hitting the upper parapets. She stopped dead in her tracks for the second time again at the sight and couldn't make herself move another step. This was a place she loved. To see it burn rocked her from the inside and made her feel...untethered.

Suzanne spoke from directly behind Sasha, jolting her out of her shock. "Agent Lewellyn. Are you still with me?"

Sasha gritted her teeth and turned her back on the burning palace. She had her job to do – and if two kidnapped people were involved, she knew she had better do it fast. Her home just had to remain in flames while she focused on more important things. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good." Suzanne pointed at a line of parked armored cars near the eastern gravel lot in front of the palace grounds. "Take one of those and get to work."

Sasha followed Suzanne another five steps, then a masculine yell rang across the yard. Sasha instinctively stepped toward the sound and raised her gun, covering Suzanne as she had been trained to do. But in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but fear that the noise had come from Lloyd, somewhere out there. She didn't want to know where he was, even if she was supposed to be hunting him down. Could it be true that he had really kidnapped people and was holding them hostage? It wasn't anything like what she remembered about Lloyd...he had changed from what he had been...she could trust him now...

A muffled message suddenly came in through Suzanne's earpiece – Sasha could only barely hear a human voice behind electronic fuzz – and whatever it said made her squawk, "What?" Sasha waited at the ready as Suzanne nodded tersely a few times, listening. "Shit," she muttered, releasing her finger from her comms bud. She refocused on Sasha a moment later. "The maze," she said in a clipped way that made Sasha think she was very much aggravated. "Does Lloyd know it well?"

Sasha's jaw set. Shadows of memories teased her, vanishing like dreams. Nothing...seemed clear in her head. She knew she had been in the maze daily as a child – it had been one of her favorite places to play. It had ceased to be the puzzle for her that it was for others long ago. Had she ever brought Lloyd there? How else would he know it? It was almost as if she did have a memory somewhere of walking slowly around these grounds and through the green walls of the maze with Lloyd, but she couldn't bring it up. All Sasha could offer Suzanne was a shake of her head. "I do. Not sure about him."

"That'll have to be good enough." Suzanne pointed with two fingers off to their right, towards the maze itself in the distance. "Let's go."

This time, Sasha dug in her heels and didn't follow her commanding officer. Something just didn't feel right about her mission now. "Why does it matter whether he knows the maze, Suzanne?"

With a cool look her way, Suzanne retorted, "Because you're going to track him down in there." Stepping closer and narrowing her eyes as if she could sense Sasha's hesitation, Suzanne spat, "Apparently Lloyd was last seen hauling Claire Fitzroy through the gateway to the maze. We have also received a report of Donald Fitzroy's body being discovered on the palace rooftop." Moving even closer, Suzanne shook her hand at the maze and hissed, "This is Lloyd. He did this. We need to take him down."

Slowly, Sasha nodded. In light of the facts, she couldn't defend any of what her mission partner had done. But that didn't change the fact that something about this mission still felt wrong -- she felt wrong. Her weaving stance and sprained ankle were just two examples. There was this negative space in her head, too, that trickled through from time to time and made Sasha feel disoriented, as if she was out of touch with the things she knew. She could feel Suzanne still watching her closely. In a different, perhaps friendlier, voice, her commanding officer offered, "Come on. There are some other things you might like to know...might make this a bit easier for you."

And then, as the two women jogged in the direction of the palace maze, Suzanne told Sasha everything.