Under the Radar

Screwing Up an Easy Mission

Being stuck with a flirting Mercury and Jasmine was not fun. But I needed to spread out my strength equally and Myron, Mercury and Jasmine were inexperienced. That meant pairing Lorna with someone inexperienced, me with two, and Dakota with Gretchen because otherwise Gretchen would get herself killed.

We camped out on rooftops around the area where Henderson told us Grater was. The area seemed to be some sort of shopping district. "Does anyone have eyes on him yet?" I asked through my ear-com.

"Nada. That is a negatory on the Grater watch," Gretchen replied.

"Same thing here," Lorna reported.

So we continued waiting. And waiting. My job can be action packed and tense and everything that you see in spy movies. But sometimes it sucks and is super boring.

"Where's all the cool explosions and guns and all the actually action? I thought you people were supposed to be spies," Mercury complained.

"We are. Get your head out of a movie, Steel. This is what a lot of spy work looks like. Waiting for the enemy to make a move."

"I wish they would make their move faster," he grumbled.

We waited for about three hours, with absolutely no success. By that point I was bored out of my mind and Jasmine and Mercury had fallen asleep on each other. I tuned back into my ear-com. "I don't know about you guys but I'm just about ready to call quits for the day. Any objections?"

"Nope. I'm bored out of my mind," Dakota agreed.

"I don't know guys," Gretchen said. She sounded kind of uneasy. "Maybe we should stay a bit longer."

"But Clue, I'm so bored!" Lorna complained.

"How about we compromise?" Jasmine suggested. I hadn't even noticed she had woken up. She had caught on right away to what I was doing and tuned into her com as well. Mercury, however, was staring at us like we were insane. Neither of the boys had our equipment.

"Who are you guys talking to?"

We ignored him.

"What kind of compromise?" Gretchen asked.

"Well, we split up. Some of us stay and some of us go back to the motel."

"I'm not sure if splitting up is a great idea," I said.

"I like it. We can get some rest and keep an eye out for other places Grater might be," Dakota said. "I'm going back."

"Ugh, same here. And I think Ilman agrees with me. He starting complaining about being bored ten minutes after we starting lookout," Lorna grumbled.

"Well I'm going to trust Clue's instinct here and stay on lookout." I couldn't see her, obviously, but I was fairly certain Gretchen was smiling at that. I have to make her feel good about herself sometimes. Not very often, but you know.

"I'll stay here too. Might as well. Anywhere beats that crappy old motel," Jasmine shrugged. "Steel will come with us too."

"Wait, where am I going?"

We ignored him again.

"So, is it a plan?" Dakota asked.

"It's a plan," I clarified.

"Alright. Try to stay out of trouble, you guys," Lorna said.

"Sounds good. How about we all meet on mine and Scorpion's roof? Then we can split into our groups."

We all agreed and made our way over to the roof where Dakota and Gretchen were keeping watch.

"Try not to stay out here for very long," Dakota said once we had all arrived. She gave me a strong nudge which I hadn't been expecting. I bumped into Gretchen and grabbed her shoulder to steady myself.