All's Fair [ A Harry Styles AU ]

five

warning: this story will contain stalking, physical violence, and a character death.

When Priya gets notified that the agency was able to capture some of Evans' co-conspirators a week later, she's both optimistic and nervous. She's out of breath when she gets out of the lift  in the interrogation wing (because she had to make an excuse to Anna and Liam and then run to the furthest end of their wing to use the old lift). She pauses for a second, inhaling to calm her nerves. It's only for a second though, because there are people rushing out of the lift  behind her and in every other direction. The language department is spacious enough to feel like people aren't breathing down your neck, but the interrogation wing is the complete opposite.

The corridors are narrow  and people have to turn their bodies to move past one another. The flow of agents, officers, and directors is practiced and well oiled. It reminds Priya of rush hour at the tube station, those who don't use it often are looking around with wide eyes and confusion. That's how she feels now, like a newbie. She spots a gap in the sea of people heading towards the interrogation rooms and jumps in, following the flow as best as she can while keeping an eye out for the room she was supposed to be in 10 minutes ago.

Finally, she stumbles upon it. She pauses to fiddle with her shoes, moving off to the side. Shooting a quick glance around to make sure nobody is watching, she slips inside the room. While she's never been inside an interrogation room, it looks a lot like what she sees on the late night crime shows she watches when she doesn't want to fall asleep. There's two rooms: the one where she, Director Tomlinson, and Director Malik are and the one beyond the one-way mirror where Harry, the two co-conspirators, and a security guard are. The room she's standing in has a blackboard that stretches across one wall, filled with scribblings from what's been going on so far.

"Sorry," Priya says, sliding in  next to her directors. "I had to get away and I got a little lost."

Director Tomlinson takes a sip of the coffee he's drinking and then chuckles, "Malik, I think you need to show your agents the other parts of the building more often."

Director Malik rolls his eyes and hands Priya a file. "Here's what we have on them. We've had surveillance teams on Evans' hot spots for a while now. Most of them have gone dead, but these two wandered into one of their previous warehouses early this morning."

Priya flips open the file and quickly scans what the agency has gathered. One of the men has previous convictions for drug possession and human trafficking. The other one has a spot free record, aside from a petty shoplifting charge and the recent addition from last night's booking: assisted espionage through means of digital coding.

Priya tries to focus on specifics of both of the individuals, looking for anything that can help her. She glances up through the glass, squinting at the men. The ex-convict has glasses and the other has a blooming bruise forming on his cheek. Just like Evans, both of them seem like normal people. She notices their lips moving and she pauses, glancing at the back of Harry's head as it looks down at the table in defeat, "Have they been cooperating?"