Mission Impossible

Chapter 38~ No Going Back

HARRY'S POV

I walked into The Lucky Star and sat down, only needing to wait a minute before he slid into my booth with me. I smiled as I saw him.

"Sammy! It's been too long," I said, reaching across the table and giving him a little punch like we did when we were kids.

"I know! Thanks for inviting me out," he replied. He had grown into his ears, and his eyes weren't hiding behind glasses anymore. His smile was bigger and he just looked better all around. When he smiled you could barely see the small scar on his face that he got when he got punched as a kid before I stepped in and defended him with my anger issues and fists. That's how we became friends.

"I understand you want something," Sammy said more quietly, and we both leaned in slightly.

"I need you to look up some information on Meghan Hall," I told him, before he whipped out his laptop from his briefcase and opened it up, his fingers hacking away on the keyboard. Sammy would be a huge asset to the C.I.A., but he's too into hacking for the government's taste. I looked at him when his fingers finally stopped moving, and his face was one of confusion. "What?"

"Her life seemed pretty normal up until her boyfriend went missing. She went to school and had a job and everything but then something happened. He just vanished. And since then she's been exchanging phone calls and texts with primarily just one person. He even pays for her house...," Sammy said as he scrolled through the records he pulled up of her.

"Whose the guy?" I asked him. There was pause before he looked up and told me.

"Charles Murray", he told me. My head was churning as I processed this all, and as pieces were put together the puzzle just became bigger and bigger.

"Did she make a call to him about 20 minutes ago?" I asked him. Another short pause and then Sammy confirmed this. "What do you have on him?" I asked. Sammy did some more typing before looking up at me again.

"There's a large firewall blocking me from getting it, even past the government issued one," he told me.

"Can you crack it?" I asked.

"Are you asking me to break the law?" He asked me, a slight smile on his face.

"Yes," I bluntly responded.

"Great," he said before diving back into his laptop and going to work. Four minutes later and that confused look was back on his face. "This guys a ghost," he told me. "There are no records up until a few months ago. No birth certificate or diplomas, just some charges to his card like plane tickets and-".

"Plane tickets to where," I cut him off.

"Uh, here. From Los Angeles. He landed yesterday afternoon. No other tickets were purchased, but he brought a lot of baggage," Sammy told me. This was all getting too weird and moved past coincidences to a little game. It was a sick and twisted game, but if the prize was Clara, I'd play until the end.

CLARA'S POV

"I won't let you hurt them," I told him. Zayn smiled like he had won, but I wouldn't let him leave this completely satisfied. "You're right, you do know me better than anyone else. And you know I keep my promises. I promise to do what you ask as long as you stay away from Harry and his mom. And I promise that if you go near them, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth."

Zayn raised an eyebrow at my words, not phased by my threats.

"You already killed me once and it nearly broke you," he said as he stepped closer to me. "You couldn't bring yourself to do it again." I grabbed the knife from beside my head and spun it around in my hands.

"Don't test me," I growled at him. He just stood there smiling, and his calmness angered me even more.

"No, Clara; don't test me," he said. And his smile was replaced with an evil scowl, and his playfully dark eyes were now just dark. He walked towards me again, and it looked like he was going in for the kill. "I know you'll try to push the boundaries. I know you'll try to pull this shit again but know that if you do, lover boy's life is on the line", he told me, and as he stepped closer, I looked into his eyes and saw no signs of lying. "If you only believe one thing I tell you for the rest of your life, believe that," he spat, now standing right in front of me.

My jaw was shut tight and my fists were clenched, and it wasn't until I felt the cool metal that I remembered I was holding a knife. I let it fall out of my hands and clatter to the floor. Zayn smiled his evil smile when he heard it hit the wooden floor, as we both knew I had just submitted to him. Zayn pulled away from me when his phone rang, and he went off to the side to answer it. He got angry as the person on the other end spoke, and when he hung up he glared at me.

"We need to go," he spit.

"Why?" I asked.

"Lover boy's sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. Apparently he likes puzzles," Zayn growled. "I may have to just go and get rid of him now...," He trailed off, considering his options. He started to dial someone, and I got the sense he was calling in a hit.

"No! We'll just leave. We'll run. He can't chase us forever," I bargained. Zayn stopped dialing and looked up at me.

"How do I know you won't try and reach out to him?" Zayn asked.

"Do you trust me?" I asked him.

"Not at all," Zayn answered without hesitation. I grimaced and looked down at the ground for a split moment.

"Trust me when I say I won't reach out to him. He's just my partner not my boy-," I started before Zayn blew up.

"Do you think I'm stupid?! I know what you two were doing in that room before I came in, I know what you've done. He's more than your partner and I know you're too smitten to just let him go," Zayn yelled. He was furious and slightly jealous, and it was all just turning into a huge mess.

I don't know how I got to this decision or if it was even the right one to make, but I decided the only way to protect Harry and all the other people I cared about, was to just stop caring. It was like turning my emotions off. I had done it once before, after I killed Zayn, and my parents were dead, and everything was falling apart.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I opened them again.

"He was more than my partner. And I did feel something for him. But that's all in the past now. Leave him and his family alone, not because I care about them but because too much innocent blood is already on my hands," I said. Zayn stepped back some and observed my face. He apparently found no signs of lying, or really much of any emotion, because he began to look slightly worried. "You said I belonged to you, so here I am. Your move," I said. Zayn was more pleasantly surprised than worried and together we gathered some bags and left the house, on our way to God knows where, doing God knows what, and I just stared out the window. Suddenly I remembered the man in the basement.

"What about the agent?" I asked Zayn. He grinned before pulling out a little remote with a single button on it.

"I hate loose ends," he said before pushing it. I turned and saw the house blow into chunks behind me. I could hear the loud boom, and I was convinced I had even felt it a little. I watched as the pieces of the house fell down around where it used to sit, knowing some of the pieces were that man. He was an agent, he was one of us. But I didn't care. I just turned back around and looked out of the window, genuinely not feeling anything at all.

  I had flipped the switch on my emotions, and this time Harry wouldn't be there to turn them back on.