Gods and Monsters

III

Hotels R Us - Stratford, London

The lobby to the Hotels R Us that Jessica and Atlin were planning to stay in was of a slightly lower quality than what the Grand Stanton had been like the night before. Neither pair really seemed to mind as it was only chosen due to its locality to the Café Capricorn and the most important thing to both of them was that they were together.

After booking their room, they rushed to the elevator, both taking off their heels to ease their feet. Jessica was still the more relaxed of the two, casually leaning against the side of the metal box, her heels delicately balancing on the end of her fingertips. Atlin instead stood quite awkwardly in the centre of the elevator, clutching her heels under one arm, unsure of whether she should do or say anything, hoping that once they were in the room she'd feel a bit more relaxed.

The ding of the elevator went off and the doors opened signalling that they had arrived on their floor. Atlin shuffled slightly ahead as she had the key to the room whilst Jessica sauntered at a slower rate, checking her purse and ensuring the switchblade was close at hand. It had been a while since she'd been forced to use it and she honestly felt rather guilty that she'd have to use it on someone she had genuinely grown close to. Still, a job was a job and after everything that QT had done for her, she wasn't going to be one to question orders.

Jessica entered the room, shutting the door behind them but not before placing a 'Do not disturb' sign on the handle. Having a maid walk in unexpectedly would certainly be a little awkward.

As soon as the door was shut and locked, Jessica brought the switchblade out of her purse, but found it quickly roundhouse kicked out of her hand by Atlin who promptly charged her date for the evening back into the door. Jessica was stunned slightly, but fought back with two jabs to Atlin's cheek which separated the pair. Atlin's eyes were intimidating, focused on solely one thing: survival. She leapt towards the switchblade which was now on the floor between the two, but only connected with Jessica's bare foot as she threw a kick of her own before going for the knife. Just as Jessica placed her small, bloodied hand on the hilt she fell through the bathroom door as Atlin sunk her teeth into Jessica's ankle causing her to lose balance. Both women were bloodied and bruised as they picked themselves up with Atlin charging Jessica once again, both of them flying into the bathtub. Her head smacked against the porcelain tiles but the adrenaline was coursing through Atlin's veins as she grabbed the showerhead, wrapping the metal cord tightly around her girlfriends neck.

"Who sent you?!" She spat out between bloody teeth, loosening the cord just enough so Jessica could respond.

"You don't know who you've messed with, do you?" Jessica replied, her face turning purple as Atlin tightened the cord once again.

"I said, who sent you?"

"Quantum Technologies," Jessica said gasping for air, the shock of the answer having forced Atlin to release the cord further. "Your employers."

Both women sank back to opposite sides of the bathtub, exhausted and damaged. Atlin couldn't believe that she had been betrayed after her years of service as a field operative for QT. She hadn't even wanted this assignment to infiltrate the Deadbeat team, however after all that the company had done for her she wasn't really in a position to say no.

"Tell me everything you know." Atlin said as she watched Jessica wipe her wounds down with a nearby towel, the white fabric soon covered in crimson.

"I was called in for a meeting a few months ago and was informed that you had gone quiet regarding your investigation into the task force. QT feared you had been turned by one of our competitors and sent me undercover. My objective was to observe and get close to you and report back on any information I could get out of you. To your credit, you remained pretty tight lipped."

Atlin chuckled a little. "Well, you can tell your boss that I haven't turned. Although I owe QT a lot for how they helped me when I first moved here, Jack and the others treat me like a child. I'm forced to give weekly if not daily updates on how my operations are going whereas other agents can go months without reporting in. I knew they didn't trust me, but sending you to kill me...well, that's something else."

Jessica moved closer to Atlin, staring deep into her brown eyes as she dabbed the bloody towel around Atlin's face, cleaning up her girlfriends cuts. "Please don't think I did this willingly. Like you I owed QT too much to say no. Although getting close to you was an assignment, my feelings for you were - are - genuine."

Pulling herself out of the bath Atlin moved back into the bedroom with Jessica following shortly after. "I imagine if you were going to kill me, you would have done it by now. How are you going to explain this to QT as I can't imagine they'll take your failure too well."

"I haven't even thought about it yet. Are you going to report in now?"

"We'll see. I've got a lot to think about." She lay back on the bed, relatively relaxed despite the attack whilst Jessica moved herself into a chair, continuing to dab herself with the towel to clean up the cuts. The two had a lot to talk about now, but both were sure that things certainly wouldn't be the same again.  

Continued in Part 4...