Hush Hush & Deception: Stolen

Chapter 7

Joey and Phil joined the rest of them in the parking lot. Finn and Phil shared a glance, and Phil gave a small, nearly imperceptible nod. Finn closed his eyes, breathed in, and looked back at the others.
“Is everyone alright?” Finn surveyed his squad, making sure that everyone made it out.
“I got shot in the frickin’ arm, what do you think?” Veronica shouted. Alexis and Scarlet were knelt over her, attending to her wounds with a bit more detail.
Phil nodded blankly, “Good then, no serious losses.” Veronica shouted in protest, sparking more dry comments from Phil. Finn turned away from the group, pinching the bridge of his nose, until he gave a shout and kicked an empty soda can across the lot as hard a he could. The others silenced.
“This is so stupid!” Finn exclaimed, at his limit. “Things never go our way! We’re constantly caught with our pants down and all you can do is squabble like a flock of seagulls!” Phil and Veronica looked at the ground, different degrees of shame on their faces. “We have to take the high ground again, turn this around!”
Joey and Alexis shared a look. “There. . . may be a solution,” Joey muttered. Finn whirled to look at the two of them.
“We’ve gotten word that she is in town,” Alexis said gravely. Scarlet gasped, “You don’t mean. . .” Alexis nodded.
Finn clenched his fist, “I think you’ll have to be a little more specific than she.” His voice wavered with undisguised annoyance.
“Sasha Thornhill, leader of the crime gang Arachnophobia,” Joey said.
“What about her?”
Phil answered this time. “She’s a well known informant and arms dealer to multiple rival gangs without their knowing. She’s a professional. If anyone knows about this splinter group, it’s her.”
Finn looked back to Joey, “And she’s in town?” Joey nodded. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s pay her a visit.”
Sonya volunteered to find a new hotel and patch up Veronica there. The rest of them piled into the van. “Phil, when are you gonna take that thing off?” Joey gestured to the peacoat Phil had refused to take off.
“The day I die,” Phil replied as he slid the van doors shut. Finn was driving, with Alexis beside him and the rest in the back. Phil opened up his laptop. “Here’s what we can expect: The hideout, at a glance, a tea store. If you give them the key phrase then they let you in the back, where you meet with Thornhill.”
“And you know the phrase?”
Phil scoffed, “Of course I do.”

***

“Hello, my name is Phil, and I would like to purchase some narcotics from Miss Thornhill.”
The tea store clerk squinted at Phil for a moment, then hopped off her stool and led them to a shelf. She pulled out a book, Advanced Tea Brewing, and pressed a button that was behind it. The shelf swung open. “Have a seat in the waiting room. Miss Thornhill will be with you after her current clients.” There was a well lit room with a coffee table and couches. Magazines were spread across the room.
They stepped through and the shelf closed behind them. Phil strolled over to a couch and picked up a copy of Time. The others stared at him.
“Hi, I wanna buy some drugs? That’s your keyphrase?” Alexis gaped.
Phil looked up from his magazine. “I never said it was a secret password or anything, just that it was a key phrase.”
Finn laughed a bit, “Wonders never cease.” He sat down next to Phil and picked up a newspaper. The rest followed suit. They waited for about half an hour, reading magazines and occasionally making small talk before the door at the end of the room opened. The agents covered their faces with whatever they were holding as to not be recognized. Finn peaked out from his newspaper to catch a glimpse of Thornhill’s clients.
One was a large, yet mild looking man in a well-maintained suit and hat, like the gangsters of old. He had curly blond hair, glasses, and a mild expression. The other was much shorter, with short brown hair and a perky smile. She wore a grey sweater with a small scarf and a pencil skirt. In her hand was a violin case, yet Finn doubted she was much of a fiddler. It was the same case used to hide tommy guns. Finn got an unsettling feeling just looking at them.
Another man stepped into the room. He had longer, curly brown hair and stubble on his face. He was dressed in a suit, almost like a butler, but the outline of his gun was visible in his coat. “Mr. Phil? Miss Thornhill will see you now,” He said mildly.
As they stood to follow him, Phil muttered in Finn’s ear, “Thomas Umbridge. Her bodyguard.” Finn nodded with understanding.
The room they entered was extravagant. A fine, oriental rug covered the floor. Shimmering drapes adorned the walls. In the center of the room was a glass table with a curved couch on one side and a large grandfather chair on the other. On the table was a bottle of wine and multiple glasses. In the chair was a lovely woman in a black dress holding a wine glass.
“Thomas tells me you’re in the business of purchasing narcotics, but something tells me that’s not the case.” Her voice projected across the room. She smiled deviously at them, with black lipstick and dark blue eyeshadow.
“I’m afraid not.” Finn strode forward and sat in the couch. “We’re in the business of information.”
“They usually are.”
“My name is--”
“Finn Bemerick. Your brother and I were. . .close.”
Finn’s blood froze. “My brother didn’t associate with criminals.”
“Not that that’s a bad thing!” Phil interjected, trying to deescalate the situation. “This is a lovely place, by the way.”
Thornhill eyed him carefully, “Flattery will get you nowhere, Phil.”
Phil raised an eyebrow at his name, but kept grinning, “I disagree. Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Cute,” She said dryly. “As for the rest of you: Joey, Alexis, and Scarlet. . . No Sonya or Veronica?”
“Ok,” Scarlet interjected. “How do you know us?”
Thornhill swirled the wine in her glass. “Ever since the death of dear Harold, you seven have been giving Braunze, and now B.A.I.T., Hell.”
Finn clenched his fist at his brothers name, but otherwise kept his cool. “Who is B.A.I.T.?”
Phil answered. “One of Braunze’s rival gangs.”
Thornhill sipped her wine. “I believe you’ve met them. They were here just before you.” Finn thought back to the man and woman in the lobby and shuddered slightly. To think that they were now enemies. . .
“What have we done to them?” Alexis asked.
“Foiled the assassination of Lennie Kloshinini, murdered two of their agents, you name it,” Thornhill sipped her wine once more.
“Two of their agents. . .You mean. . . Magnus and that woman that attacked us at the hotel?” Joey put two and two together.
“Those would be the ones.”
“But that happened only about an hour ago! How--”
The woman looked at him dangerously, “I have my ways. Is that not what you can here for? My ways?” Joey shut his mouth.
“So, you’re saying that B.A.I.T. is responsible for the Braunze splinter group?” Phil leaned forward, fascinated.
“What do you think?”
Phil frowned. “Why are you telling us all this? What do you want in return?”
Thornhill chuckled softly. “Think of this as a free trial, because I was so close with this one’s,” she gestured to Finn, “brother. However, if you need my help again, and I expect you will, there will be a payment required. Your time is up, and I suggest you leave. I’d really hate to get blood on my new rug.”
Before anyone could ask what she meant, there was a knock at the door. Thomas moved to answer it. “Who--?” Finn started. Thornhill raised a hand to silence him.
“Someone sent to kill you.”
“What?”
“I’d hurry if I were you. I won’t bother stalling them.”
After a moment's hesitation, the five of them bolted out of the room through a door in the back. They closed it just as Thomas let in the newcomer. Phil took out some kind of listening device and placed it just behind the door. Then they made their way to the hotel Veronica and Sonya were waiting in.

***

The words [CONNECTION ESTABLISHED] flashed on Phil’s computer. They all leaned in, with the exception of Veronica, who was sitting nearby, her arm in a sling. The audio recording from Phil’s bug began playing:

*door shutting*
Voice: Hello Miss Thornhill.
Thornhill: Hello Miss Bell.
Voice: Please, we’ve known each other long enough, call me Susannah.
Thornhill: If you insist.
Susannah: I’m on a job.
Thornhill: I suspected as much. May I know who the target is?
Susannah: I believe you know them.
Thornhill: I do?
Susannah: In fact I believe they were here just before me.
Thornhill: Those agents? How unfortunate for them.
Susannah: You may stop playing dumb, Sasha.
Thornhill: Oh, alright, they just passed through. Hopefully you can still catch them.
Susannah: It doesn’t matter. My employer wishes me to let them continue to squander and bumble for a while before taking action. And even then, I am only to eliminate one at a time.
Thornhill: It doesn’t sound like you to take a job so. . .Sadistic.
Susannah: I don’t think it’s sadistic at all. Rather brilliant, actually.
Thornhill: Well, I’m sorry I couldn’t be of any more assistance. Do stop by more often.
Susannah: I don’t get that a lot.
*They both laugh. Sound of door opening and closing. A wine glass being set down. Footsteps. A door opening much closer to the device.*
Thornhill: I figured you’d leave something like this. Well, let it not be said that I do nothing for others.
*Crushing noise. Static.*

The room was silent other than the static from Phil’s computer.
“Oh my God, we’re going to die,” Joey said quietly.
Phil closed the software and opened up the database, “It’s ok, she’s not the first assassin sent for us.” His words were reassuring but his tone was not. “I’ll check our database.”
He typed the words [SUSANNAH BELL] into the database. After a second of loading, the words [NO DATA] flashed on the screen. “Ah. . .” Phil said, slowly closing the laptop, “Or not.”
“Let me get this straight,” They turned to see Veronica, who was speaking slowly, “We are being targeted by not only a globe-trotting terrorist and two rival crime gangs, but also an elite assassin who we have absolutely zero info on except that she’s going to kill us off slowly one by one?!”
The other agents in the room looked at the floor.
“And I got shot in the arm--that too.” Veronica muttered dryly and leaned back into her chair.
“Things do look pretty bleak,” Scarlet murmured.
Finn stood,“Let’s get back to the Agency. We’ll know what to do from there.” They all nodded and looked at him intently. With a jolt, Finn realized it was the same way they, himself included, looked at Harold. I guess I’m flying this ship now. He thought, biting his lip.
Great.