The Cartel

Chapter II

The next day Agent Yampa called in what information Carly had given him. The CIA bought a ticket for him. Somewhere along the line, Yampa "forgot" to inform them on Carly. He strongly believed the agency would not allow a citizen (even a former agent) in on the mission. She was forced to buy her own ticket and to pretend she was not associated with the agent what-so-ever. She was just taking a vacation. To an island in Fiji. Where The Cartel was located.

At the airport, with cameras watching and Agent Yampa rather paranoid, the two were complete and utter strangers. Yampa had an urge to help Carly carry her luggage. She was technically traveling with him, and he could not even offer up his help.

On the first flight to The Cartel's base location, they didn't even sit next to each other. Though they both sat in business class, Yampa sat towards the back whereas Carly was much closer to the front row seats.

Carly had a strong dislike for planes, and so she slept the first flight. Yampa, feeling as indifferent towards them as the next person, read to pass the time. He did not read a collection of peoms or a novel, but instead the case files. He read them on an I-Pad and used his arms to obstruct anyone's view. To any other passenger, Agent Yampa looked like a man reading a book on his I-Pad, which he happened to be rather overprotective of. Unsurprisingly, he earned a few curious stares from children, but the adults were as uninterested in him as they were irritated by the crying baby in one of the front rows.

Then the second flight came around. The flight that would take them to Fiji. Now Carly and Yampa sat next to each other. Yampa had traded seats with a middle aged woman, who sat in Yampa's seat just a couple rows forward. If the CIA found out and questioned him about it, Carly would just be a pretty face that could undo his boredom. 

Sitting next to his "partner"-something she was to him but not to the CIA-made the agent relax a lot more, but it had the opposite effect on Carly, only making her more tense. The agent wanted to talk, and she did not. She hated planes, flying, heights, anything of the sort. She just wanted to sleep it away.

"So, it's a private island," Agent Yampa said with a sigh. "The island of Taruke. You know, I've been to [1]Narara, and it looks an awful lot like this Taruke. Plenty of green, except Taruke is larger and has much more buildings-the main building for The Cartel buisness, hotel-styled apartments, and even some stores. They have golf carts and bicycles for transportation. It's practically a resort." 

Yampa wasn't quite as bothered by the case after he'd read the files, for the reasons above. He tried to sound buisness-like as he feed Carly some information on the island, but inside he was so glad The Cartel was one of the biggest.

With it being so successful, Yampa could bask in its riches when he went undercover, plus earn the bragging right when he finally decapitated the correct head of the Hydra. With the perfect head down, the rest would crumble. So many other illegal organizations would crumble. 

But Carly's thoughts were elsewhere. 

"Yes, yes," Carly responded, barely listening as she had her face in her hands and eyes shut. "I'm sure." She did not want to admit her flaw to the agent, and so pretended to be tired, yawning.

"It looks like they bought it themselves," he muttered, ignoring her artificial yawn. "And it wasn't cheap."

"Of course it wasn't," Calry snapped. "It's a private island in Fiji."

"Okay, I'll drop the case," he murmured, misunderstanding the doctor. "What about you? Why a doctor?"

"The salary." It was a half lie, but Carly just wanted to be left alone. Plus, she wasn't real keen on telling Agent Yampa-or any other agent-about herself.

Taking it as a fact, Agent Yampa was slightly surprised. He pictured Carly doing something she liked. She seemed like the type. Then again, she had been an ASIS agent. Maybe that had been her passion. And then she disappeared. Had the ASIS job been ripped from her for some reason?

"Did you quit?" he inquired.

"What?" She groaned.

"Did you quit your job as an agent?" he clarified.

"Oh." Carly snuck a glance of him, and he saw anger in her brilliant brown eyes. "Sort of. It's complicated-classified." 

Agent Yampa snorted. "Isn't everything?" he muttered under his breath. Then he returned to his normal deep voice. "Fine, if you're not going to tell me anything, I'm going to talk about myself."

I'm sure you're great at doing that, Carly thought, and couldn't help letting the corners of her mouth twitch. Still, she also knew how much the agent must have trusted her-or just how desperate he was for her information-in order for him to tell her personal events.

What kind of an agent did that? A reckless, stupidly dauntless one. No, not even. One at the very end of his rope. Carly could not help furrowing her brow.

And yet, he had once been the best, she thought. The higher you go, the harder you fall.

"My mom, Joanna, was the only constant thing in my life," the agent said, laying it out in the open. "We moved a lot, mainly because she had trouble paying. She had a lot of various jobs. We struggled for a good while as I grew up. I was an only child, and my dad was probably some drunk bastard. I never knew my dad. It bothered me as a kid, but it was my life. Now, I can't imagine a life with him. My mom and I never lived in the best parts of town-which ever town we were living in at the time-and so I witnessed a lot of nasty shit as a child. The things I saw, I could never forget them. They're the reason I became a...detective." 

They were in public. Both the current and the former agents weren't keen on admitting what they were.

Carly processed what he had said. In a strange way, his background only made him more intriguing, more attractive. But she wasn't one to get caught up in her emotions.

Too bad, she thought jokingly. Maybe the trip could have been more...fun.

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked. "Why so open?"

"I want you to know that you can trust me, Carly," he told her. There was no flirtatious hint in his voice. Yampa was being sincere, mature, and solemn. "If our hands are in each other's lives, I want you to know that, and I hope you'll have my back." 

Carly nodded. "Of course."

With his grave little euolgy over now, Yampa lightened up. "So, you going to tell me about yourself?"

Carly shook her head. "That's classified."

"No, seriously," Yampa replied while laughing.

Carly smiled. "No, seriously. I'm not telling you."

"Not ever? I just told you all that...crap! For what in return? Nothing. Where's my compensation?" he argued lightheartedly.

"I'm not telling you for now," she asserted. "How's that?" 

"All right, but I'm going to ask sooner or later, and I'll expect an answer if you haven't told me by then," was Yampa's response.

Carly only frowned. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap."

"You don't like flying."

Carly's eyes opened wide. "Excuse me? Why would you think that?"

"You're body language," Yampa stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "It's quite obvious, nothing to hide. I was just stating a fact."

Carly grumbled under her breath something Yampa could not catch. Seeing that it was a touchy subject, like her personal life, the agent dropped it. And the doctor dozzed off. 

* [1] The island of Narara is a real private island in Fiji for sale, but Taruke is neither for sale nor real. There is also a photo of Narara Island to the right. *