Argylle - The last chance

Chapter XIV

For a moment the women just stared at Aidan, then Tam started to laugh.
"Okay, it's official now," she laughed, "You've lost your mind."
"No- hey, I haven't!" he exclaimed.
"Taking a hostage? Are you crazy? Have you spent just one second thinking of the risks?"
"Of course I have!"
"Doesn't seem like it to me!" Tam shook her head and looked around the empty building. Although she thought of taking hostages as a very stupid idea, she had no better option in mind.
"Oh, and who are you to tell me about the risks? Jane Bond?"
"No, but apparently you forgot everything you should've learned in training!"
"Well, go ahead, 007, tell me about your genius idea!"
"I never said I had a better plan!"
"Hey" Rachel interfered, "Will you two please stop fighting! It doesn't help at all and will only get us into big trouble!"
"Don't tell that to me," Aidan crossed his arms, "My sister seems to have eaten wisdom with spoons! But if you think about it, Bond, taking a hostage is the only thing we could really do. Do we know anyone who's currently working for 'the Division'? No. Do we know anything about the new head? Also no. Do we know anything but the fact that they want to take you as their hostage? No."
"Oh yes, and it has always been the best idea to do the same thing the bad guys want to do," Tam snapped.
"Not exactly the best idea, but sometimes it's the only possible thing to do."
"Who would you even want to take as a hostage? As you pointed out correctly, we don't know anyone who works for them!"
Not knowing what to answer to this, they just stared at each other and for several seconds the siblings did nothing but exchange mad looks.
"Great, if you two finished killing each other with your looks, we might start thinking of a plan," Rachel sighed. She opened her mouth to continue when Tam suddenly raised his hand.
"You hear that?" she asked, squinting her eyes. "Footsteps. There are people coming up."
Immediately the fight was forgotten, and the three agents looked around for either a way out or something to hide. But in the empty building there was neither the first nor the second thing.
"The storeroom, quick!" Rachel said and they ran down the hallway they were standing in. Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, and Tam was afraid that whoever was walking through the building would be able to track them down immediately. But as they hid in the storeroom, they had cracked just a couple of minutes before, no one seemed to find them.
"Can-" she wanted to ask quietly, but Aidan stopped her by putting a finger on his lips, "Shhhh"
After another couple of seconds later, they heard unknown voices discussing whether their mission was accomplished.
"Are they here? No. Have you seen a car in the parking lot? No."
"But the lock was cracked!"
"So what, anyone could've done that!"
"But the big boss ordered us to get the girl and kill the adults. And he said that they would be coming here this morning. And I wouldn't dare questioning his sources, would you?"
"Not in a dream! But still. No spies here."
"Actually, there's nothing here."
"Yeah, can you believe it? Just a couple of months ago, we were working here. The masterplan would've been amazing. We'd be rich men by now."
"One reason more to find these wannabe-agents."
Just as they were saying this, the two unknown men passed the room where the three agents were hiding in.
Tam didn't dare to breathe. She could feel her heart beating inside her chest and thought if it would beat any faster the men could hear it from where they were.
"Let's leave now," Rachel whispered. "As long as they're not in the hallway, we're able to sneak out."
"Are you sure?" Aidan didn't seem too convinced.
"Two voices equals, two men. We're three agents."
"Backup?" Tam interjected.
"I don't think they have a backup. They wouldn't be talking like this if they had."
"You're right. It's now or never, let's go," and without waiting for someone to say something else, Aidan took out his gun, carefully pushed the door open and sneaked into the hallway. The women followed him, and Tam promised if she'd survive this day, she'd never go on a mission without a weapon again.
They left the building without any complications but only as they reached the car Tam relaxed a bit. After driving for a bit, Rachel first said something again.
"Okay, moving on to the hostage idea," she demanded, "Tell us about it, Honey."
"Well, I thought they want to take a hostage so bad, probably to blackmail us or something," Aidan began to explain, "but since we have no other point of reference from which to investigate further, perhaps we should follow their lead and take a hostage."
"It's risky, of course," Rachel added, "We all know. And I don't like the idea either. But you're right about the no reference point..."
"And how are you planning to get a hostage?", Tam asked.
"That is the only point I haven't quite thought through, yet..." Aidan admitted.
She sighed. "I know something."
"Oh, suddenly you want to be of help and stop criticizing me for no reason?" Aidan asked.
"Zip it, Aidan, I wasn't talking to you," she snapped, "As we know they are searching for me really hard. So, we could give them what they want. Of course not for real. But I think we have a leak somewhere, and if we can fool them into thinking I'm alone, we could set up a trap."
"That actually is genius," Rachel said, and Aidan just mumbled something. "But how do we... stop the car!"
Her exclamation was so sudden, Aidan slammed on the brakes so hard that Tam crashed into the driver's seat and hit her head.
"What the hell?!" he shouted and looked at his girlfriend in shock, "Don't ever scream like that  for no valid reason when I'm driving!"
"But I have a valid reason."
"Which would be?"
"The telephone box right there. We need to call Alfie over a secured or untraceable connection. And a payphone is harder to trace than our usual phones."
Aidan sighed and parked the car next to the telephone box. Then the three of them squeezed into the box and called Alfie.
"Solomon?"
"Hello, Alfie. It's nice to hear your lovable voice," Aidan smiled sarcastically.
"Spare me from your words, Wylde, and use your charm on someone else. I'd rather have you telling me that you found something useful. And why are you calling from an unknown number? Are you in a telephone box?"
"The entire building was empty," Rachel said, "We searched every inch of it. Nothing. And we're calling from a payphone, because we believe that there's a leak in our connection somewhere."
She explained to him everything; from the two men in the building, to Aidan's idea and Tam's suggestion to why they were calling from a payphone.
"Well, it sounds like a plan to me," Alfie said, when she finished. "But you better plan it out three times before actually using Tam as a bait."
"Hang on, you're not saying it's irresponsible?" Tam asked, confused.
"It's the only option we really have, kid," Alfie answered, "And by the way, it was your idea."