On the day of the mission, Ludmila finds out that the chances of her dying are pretty high.
Sure, practice went well. She did grenade throwing, knife throwing, and a lot of other throwing. She also continued to practice at the shooting area, allured but the thought of guns and the mission and Federico. They had little contests, where they would try to outshoot each other, all the while playfully dissing the other. Ludmila was pretty sure that she would make it out of the mission, but she still had her doubts. Then, Fabio showed her a picture of how armed the rivals were.
"Crap," she curses. "I'm supposed to get through that?"
"Sure," he says, looking sort of smug, "you said you were up for the job, right?"
Ludmila thinks for a moment about how to reply.
"Yeah." Fantastic choice of words.
"You'll find a way." He pauses for a moment, then with a sly smirk, "Just don't try seducing the rival again. That definitely did not work out the way you wanted it to."
Her face flushes when she thinks about when that happened. "I'm this close to judo flipping you out of the window."
"All I'm saying is that you should do fine," he amends, neatly stacking some papers. "You should go; you have a disk to destroy."
---------------
When she is dressed and prepped with an earpiece and two pistols, an intercom calls her into the flight room. Buzzing with adrenaline, she wonders if she's really coming back. How would she die, anyways? A grenade? A landmine? A bullet to the head? She tells herself to stop worrying and focus on what is ahead.
But the thing is, the risks were huge. She'd never faced chances of dying so prominent, and then there was Federico. A hot, incredibly accomplished agent, who could probably plow through the mission himself. Still, she worried. The risks were sky-high, and this time, she would have another life to feel responsible over.
She reaches the room. Federico stands a little ways off, hands shoved deep in his pockets, and the sides of his lips quirk up with he sees her. She gives him a nervous smile in return, heart thumping at an irregular speed. The pilot shouts for them to get into the plane, and Ludmila can't help but think cynically that there's no turning back.
Federico's being there with her makes her loosen up a little, but not much. This is her most dangerous mission yet.
During the plane ride, the suspense almost kills her. When they land, the two of them immediately barrel into place behind some bushes. The army from headquarters shouts to get the enemy's attention, and they launch into battle. Federico and Ludmila scurry along behind the bushes, and Ludmila can hear Federico grunt every time a stick pokes his face. She ends up being comfortable enough to manage laughter.
After a while of crawling, they're in the clear. Federico quickly stretches and tells her, "I could hear you laughing, you know."
