Rrinkers

Chapter 6

With her leg bouncing on the floor, Zoe sat in an empty seat at her own coffee shop. She checked her watch for the millionth time: 9:52am. In a few more minutes, someone from the FBI was going to be parked at the end of the street, where she was supposed to walk and enter the car. The instructions they gave her were stricter than her mom's.

Zoe told Evelyn that she was leaving for an "appointment", but of course she didn't tell her what the appointment was for. Gabe, the college student that worked in the shop part-time, was also coming in to help Evelyn. That is not what worried her. She knew Evelyn and Gabe could handle the shop. What she was really worried about was the fact that she was part of an investigation for the freaking FBI. A serious investigation. It felt like she was on an episode of the Blacklist, but she was the character that would get shot in the opening scene.

Get it together, Zoe! She scolded herself. You have been far through worse than meeting some old white men with guns and badges!

Checking her watch again, she saw that it was 9:55am. The time that they told her to walk out of her coffee shop and down the street towards the other shops and all the way to the end where she would see a black van. Lo and behold, when she started walking down the street, she could see a black car parked at the end of the road. It was really black. All the windows were black.

I'm getting kidnapped. I'm getting killed. I'm getting slaughtered. Those were all the thoughts that went through her head as she held tighter to her crossbody purse and just kept walking. It took her a few minutes to reach the car, but it felt like an eternity to her.

Once she reached it, she tucked at the door handle of the back seat and quickly got inside.

"Hello! You must be Zoe." The person that spoke was the driver. It was a man in his fifties with white hair and a matching beard. He looked American but he had an accent that she could not recognize. Maybe German?

"Hello," Zoe replied, catching a glimpse of San who was sitting in the passenger seat.

"Welcome, Zoe," San said. "I hope we don't take too much time out of your day."

Zoe was angry that this ordeal had been brought upon her, but she couldn't be upset right now; San and the driver were super nice, and she couldn't find herself to be annoyed at them because they were only doing their jobs.

"Thank you, San." She smiled.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, sir."

Her response caused San and the driver to chuckle before putting the car in drive and steering the way to the Carlow FBI office. There was some small talk but not a whole lot. To be honest, Zoe was too nervous and shy to be saying anything. She still felt like a peasant in the presence of the FBI who probably knew everything about her by hearing her talking to herself through her phone. They're always listening.

While on their way, they passed by places that Zoe had never been to, even though she was born and raised in Carlow and lived there her entire life. The scenery was beautiful. She couldn't believe that she'd never seen the large hills as they sat triumphantly in the background and the grass pastures that were so open and...free. It didn't feel like they were on the road for long but Zoe checked her watch and saw that it had been over thirty minutes.

She was in the middle of her thoughts when the driver said, "We have arrived." Turning her view from the left side of the road to the right side of the road, Zoe saw a beautiful building, hidden in plain sight by the number of tall trees. The building looked only about three stories tall, but its infrastructure was something she had never seen before. It was all glass, tinted so well, you would think it was a black mirror. The landscaping looked like someone maintained it everyday. In the middle of the building was a dome-like structure where three flags were raised high: the American flag, the New York State Flag, and the FBI flag.