Pandora's Box

Chapter 16

  Spring, 2014
Willis Tower, Main Office for CIASF
Chicago

"Where are we headed this time?"

Pandora bounded over to Rhys the moment he exited Howard's office, case brief in hand. Since their return from Ibiza, it had been 2 months of mundane cases, until that morning when Howard had summoned Rhys in, saying there was a new case in nearby Wisconsin. Briefly, he updated the alert blonde with the case details. "Leader's Summit in New York 2 months ago filmed a diplomat from Mexico pocketing several handheld devices. Usually, devices like these are banned at such a Summit. The CIA has managed to investigate the case, and our target is Juarez Garcia. He has shady money entering his accounts, and Benedict would like us to unearth enough information about Garcia to put him and his family away, or at least deport them out of the States."

"You still haven't answered my question." she retorted with a grin. Rhys rolled his eyes, and levelled her a good-natured glare.

"Just because we're dating doesn't mean I'm not your superior." he retorted, grinning when she stuck a tongue out at him. "Wisconsin." he finally addressed her question, continuing when she gave him a questioning look. "His wife and son stays there, and Garcia has an upcoming meeting with the governor. Benedict got us in as security for that meeting. We need to somehow find a way to sneak into Garcia's network and see what we can find out."

---

  Spring, 2014
Wisconsin State Capitol
Wisconsin

They had spent 3 hours on the road yesterday from Chicago to Wisconsin in a CIASF, unmarked car, arriving close to midnight to their rented AirBnB room near the State Capitol, where Juarez Garcia was expected to arrive for his meeting with the Wisconsin governor, Dean Tanner.

"If you had let me sleep early last night, Rhys, I wouldn't need this third cup of coffee." she muttered, shooting a glare at her boyfriend as she downed the paper cup of black liquid, and dumped it in the trash. Rhys grinned at her apologetically, but did not say a word. While he was sorry Pandora had the eyebags under her beautiful eyes, he couldn't say he was sorry for how the night went down, and would've done it all over again.

"Focus." she hissed, pulling his thoughts away from how they had spent the night tangled up in the sheets. "Look, is that him? Matches the profile Howard gave us."

Following the direction in which Pandora had nudged, sure enough, he saw the tall, solid man with a receding hairline and a firm grip as he entered the building and was greeted by the governor's secretary. Rhys knew he wasn't supposed to judge based on first look, yet something about the strict, pinched looking man had his heart in knots, as he looked down at the small one by his side, all dressed up in formal wear in their cover today.

"Stay by my side, alright Dora?" he couldn't help but murmur, worry intensifying when she looked up at him and gave a grin.

"Stop worrying Rhys, I'll be fine. I beat you in combat, remember?" she winked.

Rhys had always had a gut feel on his cases, but he made it his motto to ignore it and do the best he could. Yet as he turned his eye back to Juarez Garcia, he made a mental note to keep his eyes peeled on Pandora. To hell with not letting his personal feelings get in the way, he couldn't risk losing the blonde he finally found.

---

  Spring, 2014
Apartment Building 2901, Madison
Wisconsin

"Gads, he has a hell of a lot of protection on his wired internet, doesn't he?" he heard Pandora complain, as they lay sprawled out across the bed, both facing their own laptops, each with their own device hooked up to the laptops. Over the duration of the three hour meeting in which the two of them had remained within the room, somehow Rhys had managed to get a bug on to Garcia's phone, while Pandora managed to get one on his working tablet. Now, long after the sun had set, they got to work on cracking the multiple firewalls and protection around the information.