espionage [h.s.]

THIRTY

A.N. currently unedited, but I wanted to update before I went to bed, hope you enjoy! Remember to be an active reader, and vote & comment

HARRY

Anton sits at his large mahogany desk, leant back in his leather chair, a cigarette dangling between his fingers. His dark eyes flit between Rochelle and I as we stand in front of his desk, several feet apart as I had deliberately made sure to distance myself from her. The room is silent apart from the ticking of the clock on the wall and the hum of the air vent in the corner of the room, which Anton only installed so he could smoke in his office without it getting too smoggy.

The silence is so heavy and intense that I almost jump when Anton suddenly speaks, his sharp accent cutting through the quiet. "I apologise for taking you from your training, Miss Costello," he begins, glancing over at Rochelle who shoots him a small smile as if to reassure him it's fine. "And you, Harry, from your training duties." He turns to me this time, and I give him a small nod. "I just wanted to have a little talk with the both of you, and now seemed like the most appropriate time to do it."

I swallow hard, feeling uncharacteristically nervous as I await Anton's next words, or his exact reason for calling us to his office. When Elias first said that Anton wanted to see both Rochelle and I, admittedly the thought of him knowing about our night together did cross my mind, but I dismissed it almost immediately. Like I said to Rochelle when she mentioned it, there's no way Anton could even know about it. But as I stand here now, in this silent office with a trainee I slept with and the head of the institute, not to mention my boss, I'm starting to worry a little.

However, that worry disappears almost immediately a few seconds later when Anton suddenly pulls open a drawer and then tosses a red folder onto his desk. "I have a job for you both," he announces. I try not to make my relief too evident, letting out a small breath before grabbing the folder after Anton gestures for me to take it. "An assassination."

My eyebrows raise in surprise as I flick through the pages of the folder. I haven't been assigned an assassination mission for a long time, so it's quite unusual that I'm being given one now without any knowledge of it beforehand. Not to mention that Rochelle is here too, which Anton still hasn't completely explained the reasons for yet. "Who's Damien Rodriquez?" I ask as I flick to the page containing his profile.

"Damien Rodriquez is a former CIA agent who was found to be in illegal personal possession of secure information collected by US intelligence," Anton tells us both. "He was immediately fired from the agency, but he still has access to some of these documents due to sharing them with close associates before his dismissal from the agency. And as most disgruntled ex-employees do, he's planning to get his revenge by.....distributing some of this information."

"What kind of information does he have?" Rochelle asks curiously.

Anton pauses, taking one last drag of his cigarette before stubbing it out on the ashtray and leaning forward, elbows resting on the desk. "He has a list which contains names of many intelligence agents, many of whom are secret and working undercover," he tells us, causing both Rochelle and I to widen our eyes. "As I'm sure you two are aware, it'd be very dangerous, and detrimental, if that kind of delicate information was released into the wrong hands."