Argylle - The last chance

Chapter X

After the lunch, Alfie told the two agents to go to the control centre and as they had left, he showed Tam her room.
"Your room is next to mine and not theirs because... because," he grinned, and Tam shook her head with a slight smile. "I'm sure you want to join our conference, right?"
"Alfie, you are three people. I don't think conference is the right term."
He laughed, "I'll call it conference when I want to call it a conference, kid. Now come on, we gotta show these never dying motherfuckers that we're not the victim."
Minutes later, Tam found herself in a dark room with a big screen on the wall and a table in the middle of the room. It looked like an exact copy of Alfie's bureau in France, which she had seen only once. But one time was enough to be able to recognize a copy of the room.
"Okay, agents," Alfie began, "we all know that 'the Division' is back and that we're in great danger. But damn it, I don't care for the danger! Who do they think they are? They are officially destroyed, so how dare they come back and terrorize my people!"
"Do we know if anybody survived the explosion?" Rachel asked, but Alfie shook his head.
"The master key gave us the ability to find all agents of 'the Division' but honestly, Wylde, what would be the first thing you'd do in their situation?"
"Get the hell out of my identity and get a new one."
"Exactly!" Alfie exclaimed, "Ergo, we can't know if we really got all the bad guys. Also, some of them could have survived the explosion..."
"So, what do we do, then?" Tam, who was standing in the corner of the room, asked. Aidan and Rachel turned to her, confused, and Tam could almost hear her brother say that it was too dangerous for her to join their mission.
"Glad you're asking, kid," Alfie grinned, "We must go for the head. Finding all the agents will be as close to impossible- we can't do that. But if we find the new head of 'the Division' we can destroy them from top to bottom."
The three of them looked at the former CIA director as if he had lost his mind. Tamara was the first one to say something again.
"Okay, sounds like a plan," she shrugged.
"Hang in there for a minute," Aidan said, "Who said that you'd join the investigation?"
"Who said I wouldn't?" she snapped.
"I did!" he stated.
"That's not your decision, Aidan. You have no right to decide for me," she retorted.
"Absolutely not going to happen!"
"Aidan, let her help," Rachel suddenly joined the discussion. "She's about to turn eighteen this year, Alfie said she's a trained spy, just like us. She survived hell and is currently living in another; if not her, who else would be the right person for the job?"
"An adult... like us."
"Remember Elly? You took her on the mission even though she had never done something like that before. She had never been in a real danger."
"You are Elly, Rach," they could hear the despair in his voice, "I knew that your abilities must have been lying somewhere inside you. You can't compare these situations."
"I'm not comparing anything. I'm just reminding you. And besides, she's not just almost an adult and can decide for herself, she views things differently than us. And different opinions can lead to the best outcome. Of all the people, you know this best, Aidan. You saw her fight – did it look amateur to you?" Rachel said calmly and Aidan sighed.
"Alright. Join us, when you think it's right. And I will trust your judgment when you say you're trained enough for this."
Because she didn't want to show how happy this made her, she just nodded once and then looked to Alfie again.
"Good, now that we've decided this" he said, "we can finally make a plan."
"You had already decided, hadn't you?" Aidan suddenly asked and his voice sounded lower as he felt betrayed.
"Of course I had," Alfie said and seemed to be absolutely not sorry, "You can't just suddenly start wanting to protect her, Bud. That's not how it works."
Aidan opened his mouth to say something but closed it again without having said a word. He just nodded and looked straight forward. But judging from the look in his eyes, he was quite hurt by the behavior of his friends.
As she saw the look on his face, Tam felt something inside her ache, but she chose to ignore it. She was not ready to feel sorry for him. She was not ready to forgive him. So, she wouldn't.

They spent the rest of the day in the control center, working on a plan how to find 'the Division's head. It was not as easy as Tam expected, but finally they decided to go to the US to the former headquarters building. Alfie was almost convinced that they'd find a hint there.
"If not there, we won't find anything anywhere," he had said and with these words it was decided. The next day they would fly to Chicago and search for anything that would help to destroy their enemies.
After dinner, Tam excused herself to her room, saying that she was tired after the exhausting day, and nobody asked questions. Everybody understood that to her this all was a great adventure – whether it was a good or bad adventure, nobody dared to guess.
However, Tam wasn't tired at all, she just couldn't stand her brother's happiness. She found it extremely unfair that he seemed to be genuinely happy with his current situation, while she was again struggling to survive. It was almost as if, now that he was reunited with his girlfriend, he didn't worry about anything anymore. She wouldn't consider herself a very jealous person, yet now she was.
It was already dark outside, and Tam still was not asleep, when she understood that there was a balcony in front of her room. Since she didn't expect to fall asleep in the next couple of minutes, she rose from the bed and opened the door to the balcony, stepping outside and having a look around.
The air was cold but not too cold and she thought that it would do no harm to stay outside without a jacket or blanket. She sat down on the floor and just watched the peaceful sunflowers on the fields. At night it looked so different, yet so beautiful. All the mistakes were covered, the flowers looked the same. There was no detail that ruined the whole picture.
"Can't sleep?"
Tam turned around in panic, but it was only Rachel, who stood behind her. The woman wore a green pyjama and carried Alfie, the cat.
"Sorry, I didn't want to scare you," she said and smiled a bit. "May I stay, or do you want to be alone?"
"No, you can stay," Tam mumbled and turned around again, to continue staring at the sunflowers. She felt Rachel sitting down next to her, and some seconds later Alfie walked over to her and purred at her. Tam grinned and started patting the cat.
They were quiet for a while, both just staring at the sunflowers, but Tam felt obligated to say something.
"Thank you, for... earlier. That you convinced Aidan," she said, quietly.
"No need to thank me. I really think you could be a great help to us. And besides, Aidan seems to have hit his head somewhere. He's not thinking clearly, at the moment. Usually, he's not talking that much stupid things."
Tam grinned. It was a bit strange to hear something like that from Aidan's girlfriend, but it made her like her even more.
"Don't tell him, though," Rachel added.
"I won't," Tam promised, and they were quiet again.
"You know, Aidan is not a bad person..." Rachel suddenly said, "I don't know the story from your point of view, but maybe one day you'll tell me. But I can promise you, he's not as bad as you think of him."
Tamara scoffed. "Yeah, of course."
"No, really. I mean it."
"You're his girlfriend. It would be rather stupid if you thought of him as a bad person."
"That's true, but I got to know him when I was Elly. When I didn't think of him at all. And I'm telling you, I hated him for a while. He had thrown Alfie off a roof! Then, he had said something like that I need a bullet through my head, when he thought I hadn't heard him," she told, "I totally hated him for a while."
"Really?" Tam asked, honestly surprised. She thought they had always been head over heels in love.
"Yes. I mean, it was all a big misunderstanding and I ended up remembering him and falling in love with him all over again, but that is not the point."
They looked at each other and Tam had the sudden feeling that she could trust Rachel. That, even though she was Aidan's girlfriend, she would be fair towards her.
"The point is, I don't ask you to forgive him. From what he has told me, what he did to you was awful. I only ask you to trust me a little, so that we can help you, help us, help you."
For a moment, they just looked at each other, then Tam started to smile a little.
"Alright", she conceded, "I will do my very best."
"I know you will. And you will do an amazing job. I just know it."