Classified

Classified Part 7 The Importance of Dressing Warmly

      Their next stop was in a small meadow in the middle of a copse of trees.
      "We're going to walk from here." Alex told her, pulling his gun. "And probably crawl a bit too."

      They made their way out of the trees cautiously, and then into a field of shrubs and long grass. It was slow going, especially when they needed to crawl through the shorter vegetation. Before long Thalia's back was aching from bending so much. She was glad Alex had switched out her gun, because the bigger one would have been even more annoying. Crawling was almost a relief, although it took much longer.

      "How much further?" She asked after what seemed like ages. She couldn't even see the building they were looking for.
      "See that ridge over there?" Alex asked, pointing to a small band of rocks about four feet across a hundred feet away.

      Thalia looked and sure enough, just beyond the rocks sat a small squat building nearly invisible among the trees. Alex snapped the string holding the green fabric together and carefully spread it over them while they were hidden by the rocks. 

      "We're going to wait behind those rocks and hopefully hear the meeting." Alex told her quietly. Thalia nodded and they made their way to the rocks.

      Up close, the rocks only stood about eight inches high, appearing to be all that was left of an old well. The building was still about thirty yards away, but it still seemed too close for Thalia's comfort.
      Alex didn't say anything as he set up the equipment. Thalia copied him as he put a small earpiece in his ear and they sat listening behind the rocks.

      "The meeting hasn't started." Alex muttered to himself as he adjusted his equipment.
      Thalia could hardly understand the voices she was hearing. Her Russian had definitely improved, but between the static and the multiple voices overlapping she had trouble keeping track of what was said. She could tell from the way Alex was concentrating that he was getting valuable information, so she felt bad for not being able to help.

      Keeping her hood up, and the green fabric over her body, Thalia inched her way to the left of the rocks, peering at the building. It appeared to have several rooms along this side, but only one of them had a light on inside. She forced herself to pick out the individual voices and figured there were three men in the room. Or at least there were only three men talking on this side of the building. They were arguing about something.

      "That is not soon enough, Miroslav." A gruff voiced man said in heavy Russian. "We need to do this one first."
      "No." Disagreed a man with a very thick accent. "They aren't ready to place it yet."
      "That is their fault." An angry man broke in. "They've had plenty of time, Miro. We need to make our statement now."

      "Our statement will be fine, Ivahn." Insisted the first man. "But we need to make our move within the next ten days or they won't tie the attacks together."
      "They need time to do things right." The man with the thick accent argued. Thalia tried to place his accent. It wasn't Russian but it was hard to tell what it was. She wasn't familiar enough with Russian to know what it sounded like being spoken with different accents, but it sounded different to her ears.

      "No, they need to do their jobs right the first time." Barked the angry man, Ivahn, by the sounds of it. "Stupid fucking Bulgarians don't know what they are doing."
      "We know what we are doing." Miro said, his tone respectful. "We've just had some unfortunate setbacks."

      "Get it done, Miro." Ivahn's tone was icy. "Or you will be done." Thalia could hear papers being shuffled and a drawer being slammed. Through the small, high window Thalia could see the light disappear. A moment later a door shut and then there was only the very distant sound of voices and Thalia couldn't make anything out.

      "Fuck." Alex fiddled with the amplifier. "I can't hear them very well. They've moved to the far side of the building." He got the noise up a little bit, but the quality was terrible. "They were supposed to have their meeting in the conference room next door. The other side of the building just has offices."

      Thalia looked at him, seeing his frustration. "What can we do?"
      Alex sighed. "There's not much we can do. It's too late to move to the other side of the building. We'll just have to listen and try to pick up whatever information we can." He shook his head. "I think the papers they were shuffling must be maps or plans for their attacks." He turned his green eyes on Thalia. "Notice how they never mentioned what attack there were talking about, but they all knew what they meant."

      Thalia nodded, her brain working. "What if we could get those plans?" She asked, peeking around the rocks.
      Alex laughed a frustrated, humourless laugh. "Well, yeah, that would be awesome, but we can't get them." He shook his head. "Even though we could only make out three distinct voices, that doesn't mean there aren't others in there. Those are thick walls. There could be dozens of men in there and we wouldn't even know." He frowned. "We can't take them all out."

      Thalia paused. "Yeah, but what if we could get the plans out of the building?"
      Alex shook his head, looking at her with a perplexed look on his face. "How would we do that?" He asked finally.

      "I think I can get into the office." Thalia spoke quickly before her nerves got the better of her. "The grass on the far right is long enough that I'm sure I could hide in it, and that window looks big enough for me."

      Alex smiled, amused. "Thalia, I appreciate the suggestion, but that's way too dangerous. We'll get the information some other way."
      Thalia shook her head. "You heard them. They want to start the attacks soon." When he hesitated, Thalia sighed. "Come on, Alex. This will work. I'm your secret weapon, remember?"

      Alex smiled as he thought about it, listening to the crackling voices over the sound system. "Okay. But you need to keep low, and get in and out as quickly as you can. And keep your earpiece in." He told her. "Call me immediately if you need me. I'll let you know if they're coming back."

      "It'll be fine." She promised, pulling out the amplified earpiece and replacing it with her mp3 earpiece. "If I need you, I'll give you the signal and you'll come in, guns blazing, and kill them all." Thalia smiled.

      "Just that easy, huh?" Alex asked, smiling at her enthusiasm.
      Thalia shrugged. "What's a couple of bullet holes to a superhero like you?"

      Alex laughed. "Probably the difference between life and death, but why split hairs?" They peered around the right-hand side of the rocks. "You're right. If you look down here along the right, the grass is slightly longer and there are a few shrubs along the way. That's your best bet." He paused, his face inches from hers. "If anyone comes in, shoot. Don't even hesitate. Shoot them and get out."

      Thalia nodded. "I will." She said, hoping it wouldn't come down to that.
      "Aim for the chest." Alex advised. "It's the biggest target. You're most likely to get a good shot that way. None of this, shooting them in the knee stuff. Aim to kill."
      Thalia nodded. "Actually, I'm a pretty good shot." She admitted.

      Alex smiled. "Why am I not surprised at that?" His face turned serious. "Be safe, Thalie. I'll be watching and listening."
      Thalia nodded and took a deep breath. It was one thing to suggest a plan, and another to actually do it, but she was already committed, and too proud to back down.

      It took longer to get to the building than she'd planned, and by the time she arrived her arms and legs felt like they'd been dragged behind a car. The shrubs had grown roughly half a dozen feet apart in uneven lines along the hill. They were able to conceal her small frame for almost her entire crawl to the building. He faded green sweater and brown pants blended well with the ground cover.

      It wasn't as fast paced as the car chase, but her heart was beating just as quickly. As Thalia made it to the building she looked back to where Alex was, but she couldn't see him. The rocks and green fabric concealed him well.

      Up against the building, Thalia stood cautiously. A bushy tree blocked her for the most part, but she still felt as if at any moment, a bullet would cut her down. Her hands were scratched beyond belief, and her pants were covered in grass stains, but she was intact.

      She turned to the window, which was open several inches, and stood about five feet off the ground, about level with the top of her head. She pushed it open as far as she could reach and stared up at it.

      How am I going to do this? She wondered, realizing she hadn't thought about this part of the plan. The window was probably just big enough for her to fit through, but how was she going to get up there?