You'll Be Caught

4. a little more than friendship?

We came out of the airplane first 'cause we had sat in the front row. Wayne checked the criminal's location and it was still in that same hotel in Marseille. We couldn't just stand in front of our gate like waiting that there would come out some criminals 'cause first; we wouldn't nor couldn't recognize them and if we could, we couldn't start a fight in so international place like we were in: airport. So, we went past the passport control and we headed to the McDonald's. It was full of people but we found a small circle table in the corner of the restaurant and sat there.

"So what's our plan? Or your plan, that you haven't told me...", I asked in a huffy way and gave a sharp gaze to the others. " I'm gonna get some coffee", Wayne said and exited from the situation. Magret leaned forward and said quietly, but surely: " We're gonna go to the hotel where the criminal is, and find out where he keeps that truck with the missiles. Then we make a trap to the criminal and to his group and transfer the missiles back to our storage. Shouldn't be impossible." I thought a while and asked: " What if he travels somewhere else?" "Then we just follow him and do the same plan somewhere else he goes", said Phill innocently and added," and if they have some plans, well, we have to figure out something else or edit our plan."

After a while Wayne came back with a tray full of four coffees. "There you go", he said. Magret looked at him cutely and thanked. We didn't have actually time for finishing our coffees 'cause Wayne noticed that the criminal's location started to move. We threw our coffees to a trash bin and we ran straight to the car rental place. Avis leaned us a nice Range Rover evoque (I didn't think we were going to bring it back).

It looked like the criminal was going to Genova so we headed to the highway and tried to catch him, or them. Wayne put the radio on and the music started to fill my ears. I felt the bass dropping in my chest. Magret was totally enjoying herself 'cause she screamed and moved and sang along the music. She sat in the front seat next to Wayne. I was just watching the views from my window in the backseat.

Phill was going through some papers about the criminal and he tried to find some clues and evidences. "Hold on!!!" Phill screamed suddenly. Magret screamed frightened and Wayne drove the car to the edge of the highway. "What's up man?" he asked a bit angrily. " I just found something", he said. We were all waiting to hear what he found, but it looked like he couldn't spit the words out right away. "I just found the radio station that might be the one that the criminal is using to communicate with his mates ", he spit out. "Great! Let's try!" Magret said happily. "Here are the numbers of the station: 78.657 Mhz", he named them. Magret put them to the radio and the music changed into some mumbling. After a while there started to hear some man's talk in some foreign language. We all listened a while and then Wayne said: "This can't be anything else than Italian." "Good. No one of us can understand it. Can you Freya?" Phill asked. "I can!" I recited, and it was true. I spoke Italian, but the man in the radio spoke very fast and he had a weird accent. "What's he saying?" Magret asked unpatiently. I focused and I tried to recognize some words. I didn't understand everything, but I heard some sentences. "They're going to Milan, not Genova", I started, " They're also planning to sell those sidewinder missiles to some Albanian dealers and receive a good money on them." "Everybody quiet", Phill sighed. He took his tablet and opened some application called "speaker". He took the tablet near the radio and chose Italian for the language that would be translated to English. The text started to appear on the tablet and we all read it. After a while there was a text: "Someone's listening us, god damn it!" Then the only voice that came from the radio was a strange vibration.

"So here we go! Let's drive to Milan!" Magret shouted. "Wait! They said they're gonna sell the sidewinders tomorrow!" Phill noted. "It's just half past six. We'll make it there today and we'll reserve a nice five-star hotel", Wayne tried to calm us down. "Okay!" I said and we kept driving to Milan, via Genova.

The trip had been long and boring, until Phill started to talk to me. He thanked me for translating the start from the criminal's talk. In that talk, the criminal, Victor Cross, had said that they would meet with his group in front of the Duomo di Milan at noon and they'd go somewhere from there to make they're business. Our plan was to figure out our plan later in our hotel, of course.

After a two-hour's drive we stopped at a gas station in Genova. Wayne and Magret waited outside filling the car's tank with fuel, while I and Phill went to the market for buying some snacks.

We walked through the doors. It was very dark there and the smell of the coffee reached me right away. I snuffed, and the scent reminded me of my normal mornings at home. The music that they were playing sounded Italian. We walked to the beverage department and we took a few Coca -Colas. I followed Phill to some other aisle, where we took some croissants and mini pizzas. Next we walked to the vegetable department and I took a bag of apples and oranges. Last Phill took us to the candies and he took a bag of gummy bears. "An excellent object to hide a tracking system in", Phill said and added,"I've had a course on tracking systems, if you wondered." I just nodded my head 'cause I thought he was acting a bit arrogantly. Then we headed to the cashier and we put our food to the item line. "Damn! I forgot my card", he said angrily. I moved near the cashier and used my card. Phill took two paper bags and put our food there. We thanked the shop assistant.
I took the other bag and we walked out of the market.

I was so shocked by the bright light outside that I was blind for a few seconds. During those seconds I had taken a few steps 'till I saw the piece of rock in front of me and I stumbled at it. I fell to the ground hitting my back thigh to that fucking rock. I also hit my head to the ground. And after all, my groceries fell to the street and started to roll to all directions. I saw some butterflies and I felt unbearable pain for a while. How could I be so sloppy! Agents don't fall like this! And what if I couldn't continue my mission because of some stupid fell? I looked up trying to see Phill but I couldn't. I couldn't get up either. What now? I was so desperate. Then I heard the market doors open and Phill came out. I tried to say something, but it happened so fast that I didn't have time for that. He slipped to my leg and also fell to the ground to his side. He grinned very badly and laid a moment on the ground, but pulled himself up with his arms. I had closed my eyes and I was suffering on the ground. "Ouch!", he recited. I didn't answer cause my head and leg were doing death that time. "It's probably stupid to ask are you okay", he said shyly. I think he noticed that I'm far from okay, cause he dragged himself closer to myself and took my hair away from my face. "I think I'm gonna die", I complained.
He saw that I was holding my leg and he turned me around. He grabbed the fabric of my leggings and tore it away under my back thigh. He took it and wrapped it around my leg, cause it was also bleeding and there was a huge bruise that was turning into violet all the time. "Ouch!" I screamed, but I didn't cry anymore. Phill dropped my leg carefully and dragged my upper body up to the sitting position. He reached his hands to my face and wiped away my tears with his thumbs. "It's okay", he said gently. I laughed a little and tried to ignore my pain. Luckily it had already faded a little. We stared at each other again and then I decided to make the move. I leaned forward and it felt like forever, 'till my lips met with his lips. It felt magical. He was very soft and gently, but strong enough. I wanted it to last forever, but after a while he leaned back and smiled at me. He stood up and helped me to get up too. Then he grabbed our groceries from the ground and took them to the car's truck. I leaned onto a rubbish bin and waited for him to come back, cause I couldn't step on my foot. He ran to me, gave a little kiss to my cheek and caught me to his lap holding me under my knees and under my back. It didn't seem like I would've been so heavy to him, cause he walked quite normally to the car. I liked the way he treated me. It was almost unbelievable even to imagine that I'd be with him. At leat we were good friends and partners but I thought that the kiss between us meant a little more than friendship. The car door on my side was open, so he put me to the seat very carefully.

"God! What happened to you?" Magret asked horrified. "Just a little slip on a rock. I hit my back thigh to it and it hurt very, very much, cause the rock was quite sharp too. It wripped my skin, but luckily Phill helped me", I said and looked thankfully to Phill. "Yeah, you have to check it later, Magret", Phill said and took a look at my leg. It was exposed until it came to my thigh. If I tried to think in a positive way I could say thanks to the rock for bringing me and Phill closer to each other. The fabric of my leggings had come a little wet and red. It would've been a little akward that Phill was stroking my bare leg but after what happened between us it felt very good. I kinda forgot my pain when I focused on Phill. Why didn't I earlier notice how perfect he was?