Not what I thought

Bravo

I didn't really notice how nice Alastair's car is. He's got a really sleek white Porsche 4WD. Goals AF if you ask me.

Alastair told me he has a job he needs help with. I find it funny that a guy that's high up in the AFP ranks is asking a random blonde teen to help him with something. Don't take that out of context. That sounds wrong.

"I haven't had anytime to talk to you for ages, I'm sorry about that."

"It's alright. But I should say thanks. Thanks for keeping me safe and for trying to find the guys that did it."

"That's part of the reason you're with me today. I figure that saying indoors for over a month probably drive you pretty insane. We have a task force that we've put together to try and apprehend anyone with intel. I'll tell you the rest at the briefing but you are an incredibly crucial part of this plan."

"No pressure, huh?"

"Only thought about this for a straight week now. Just thinking about how dangerous this is and all the ways it could go wrong. Nah. No pressure."

Alastair is good at talking and understanding. He knows I'm going crazy indoors and he knows I'm terrified of what could happen and he taps into that. He's gets casual about it rather than being so cynical about the whole situation.

We pull up to the building he showed me before and drives around the back. We park and ride the elevator up. You have no idea how busy this building is. I have never been so crammed in an elevator before.

As people get in and out they greet Alastair like royalty; bows, handshakes, compliments. I feel incredibly dumb just standing here. I'm so out of place.

The doors finally open out into a bustling floor. People rush around. Papers everywhere. Phones ringing. It's chaos. It's noisy, busy and I still don't really know what's going on. I follow Alastair as four other men start to walk along side him too. They all start pointing at tablets and papers. I wish I knew what the fuck they were talking about.

Everything seems so rushed and fast and busy. I almost lose track of Alastair as we walk between the rows of desks. The other guys finally leave Alastair and he opens a large glass door and how me in. It's instantly quieter. His office is bright, tidy, simple, modern and incredibly nice.

"How do you work here? It's so noisy and so busy."

"You get used to it."

All I can do is stare back out the glass to everyone running around. Everyone looks stressed. No one looks like they have nothing to do. This is what I imagine Black Friday sales to look like.

"Ok so I should probably have said I'm sorry for how crazy everything is. It's going to get worse and better throughout the day. The office has multiple leads on multiple cases right now."

He stares out the side of his office with his hands in his hips.

"Well we have a briefing in five minutes so let's go get ready."

I follow him again through the mad rush of people. We head to the opposite side of the floor and into a big conference room type thingy.

"I have to do the talking this morning. I'll explain everything to everyone and after it's all over if you have any following questions I'll answer them for you."

Chairs are lined in long, even rows with a big screen at the front of the room. Alastair stands staring at his tablet on the stage.

"Uhh, where am I meant to be?"

"Right there."

He points to the chair directly behind me. People are now staring to file in and sit in the empty room.

"Alright. Everyone quiet, we will get started now. Firstly, good morning. Secondly, we have a lot to talk about this morning. Here we go."

Alastair starts by talking about cases, busts and intel. Some of it is quite interesting. Half of it makes a bit of sense but the other half may have been said in Russian. I had no idea what he was on about. He's a good speaker. Obviously not nervous, but then again I guess you can't get nervous in this type of job. I notice that no matter the context, the person or the amount of people he is good at making you feel comfortable when speaking and being spoken to.

I zone out for a little bit but are snapped back to reality when I hear my surname being thrown around.

"Now, the Gallagher case. If you aren't on the task force you can leave, thank you for your attention this morning. Have a good day."

He looks over to me and signals to go to him. A lot of people in the room have left but there are still at least 30 people in here.

"This is Charlotte Gallagher, daughter of Anthony and Olivia Gallagher."

I take a very deep breath and stand nervously next to Alastair.

"We have all been over the plan, multiple times. Remembering that our target is TANGO, Charlotte is our BRAVO. She's the one doing all the hard work. I will be fully briefing and prepping her for our takedown on Monday. My suggestion, work hard today, have a nice easy weekend, be right ready for and early start on Monday. That's basically all for now. If anything changes I'll let you know. Thanks for your attention. Have a good day."

I turn to Alastair.

"Ok so I know my phonetic alphabet. I hate to boast but I think I got it down.
I just have one teensy tiny question. Is it a coincidence that BRAVO and bait just happen to both start with the same letter?"

"No. Not a coincidence. You know you are a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. Can you see where this is all going?"

"I'm bait for the bad guys and everyone else is just look out and protection?"

"Close. Pretty much it in fact."

Marvellous. Great. Fucking amazing. I'm going to stand out in the open as bait and a bunch of other guys are just going to stand around and watch what happens. Yeah this isn't goals AF.

"Alright well. We have to get your stuff ready for Monday so let's go and give the supply guys a drop by."

I just want to flop on something and groan about this for a bit.

"Right behind you."