Worth It

Twenty Six

"Suit up." Steve places a file in front of me.

"What's this?" I ask, flipping through it.

"A mission." I look up at him with wide eyes.

"Really?" I ask excitedly.

"Yeah, the quinjet leaves in twenty minutes so be ready."

I squeal with excitement and grab my suit. Once my suit is on, I look at myself in the mirror. The royal blue fabric with silver metal trim clinging to my figure.

I go up to the quinjet and see Steve, Nat, and Loki waiting for me. I sit next to Loki.

"It looks like we have our first mission together." Loki comments.

"And it shall be a marvelous mission indeed." We grin mischievously at each other and high five.

"Does it ever freak you out how those two are besties?" Nat asks Steve.

"Every damn day." Steve says.

"Steve, that was a bad language word." I say to him and Nat laughs.

"You guys are still doing that?" he asks, clearly sick of it.

"Never stopped." Nat smiles as she sits in the pilots seat.

The mission is fairly simple. There's a human trafficking ring in Kathmandu, Nepal that we're instructed to infiltrate and dismantle. Nat and I will pose as mother and daughter.

"I still don't know why you had me bring the suit if I'm posing as a tourist." I said as I changed into street clothes.

"Just in case." Nat replied, having already changed.

We wait until nightfall to go out. We wander around the location known for being a popular spot for them to snatch up tourists.

"What are we supposed to do?" I whisper to Nat.

"Look clueless." She pulls out a map and starts squinting at it. I see a man walking over to us and I cast an illusion to make my face slightly different, bone structure, eye color, etc.

"के तपाई हराउनु भयो?" Are you lost? The man asks Nat in Nepali.

"Oh! I only speak English." She lies.

"I speak English too. Are you lost?"

"Yes! We seem to have gotten all turned around and I have no clue where we are."

"Come with me, I can help." Nat plasters on a fake smile and motions for me to follow.

We follow the man to an old warehouse, acting oblivious the whole way there and thanking him for his 'kindness'.

Before we can say anything else, both of us are hit over the head with something hard. Nat was incapacitated and I pretended to be.

We were dragged to a small, grimy room with about six other women. I wait until the man leaves to sit up, my head still pounding.

"Hey," I slap Nat. "Get up. We got work to do."

She moans and I slap her again.

"Just give me a minute, not all of us can be freaks of nature."

I let her lay down for another minute while I talk to some of the other women there.

"How many of you speak English?" Four of them raise their hands. "We're here to rescue you. Stay calm and don't blow our cover." They nod and translate for the two who don't speak English.

I pull an earpiece from my pocket and put it in.

"Can you guys hear me?" I ask.

"Yep. How are you two doing?" Steve asks over the comms.