Athena
I walked across the boulevard, my long legs hitting the pavement as I tried to balance my coffee and a stack of papers. The sun was shining brightly, casting a warm glow on the bustling street, and the sound of honking cars and chattering people filled my ears. But I wasn’t in the mood to enjoy the weather.
I needed to speak to Frederick, it might be time to speed up our operations. With Damian’s interference, we were running out of time.
I had spent half of the night thinking about Damian. The guy had balls, I had to give him that, attempting an assassination right under our noses. It was bold and dangerous.
Call me orthodox, but I didn’t always like “bold and dangerous”. He was a wild card, or more appropriately, like a wildfire. Not too much of a problem when you know about it and can control it, a nightmare when it’s out of your control. I didn’t want to divide my attention between getting Luciano and making sure Damian didn’t do something stupid enough to put it all in jeopardy.
Plus, I knew nothing about this guy, which was a big red flag. I hated going into anything blind.
Walking into my office and shutting the door, I dialed up Frederick.
He answered on the first ring. “WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?”
I smiled, “And a good afternoon to you too, Dad.”
I heard him scoff, “Spare me the bullshit, I have been trying to reach you throughout yesterday.”
I settled on my seat, running a hand over my hair, “Well I am reaching out to you now, the way I see it, that’s just me making your job a few steps easier wouldn’t you agree?”
“Cut the crap, Athena, what the fuck happened last night?”
I took a sip of the coffee, feeling it burn down my throat satisfactorily, “What do you know?”
“I ask the questions here, young lady.”
“Yes, but I provide the answers, and if you want full disclosure, I gotta get something,” I replied, smiling.
He paused a little, as though mulling over my words, then I heard him chuckle. “You know kid, maybe I taught you a bit too well.”
“I am a good student.”
He sighed, “Okay, reports of a gunshot at the ball you were at with lover boy last night. Cops aren’t sharing much, they think we Feds should fuck right off but from what we gathered, it was from across the street. The shooter set up shop on the roof of the old Municipal court building and fired one single round. They found nothing to trace when they got there, apparently, this guy is a professional.”
I nodded, “Anything else?”
“Not much, they are bogged down.” I heard him let out a deep breath as he continued, “We tried to get them to share some intel, got a feeling they are hiding something but they didn’t budge.”
“Well, good thing you have me then,” I smirked.
I could almost see him sit up from his chair, “You have more?”
“Way more. What the cops don’t know or didn’t want to tell you is that I tracked him down.”
“YOU WHAT? HOW?”
“A simple case of chasing him down before he could completely escape the crime scene.”
“WHAT?!!!”
I rolled my eyes, knowing what was coming. “Please make sure your jaw isn’t hanging wide open, I’d hate for some poor intern to walk in and see his boss looking like he had just seen a ghost.”
“Athena? Are you crazy?”
I nodded, “Most reasonable people would think so, yes.”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
I shrugged, “A crime was attempted, I tried to stop the potential murder.”
“You could have gotten killed!”
“Interesting,” I said, placing a hand on my lip, “That’s what lover boy said last night.”
“I am serious Athena, you could have blown your cover, gotten seriously hurt, or worse, murdered.”
“Relax, Dad, I can take care of myself fine enough.”
“Athena…”
“Do you want to hear what I found out or not?!” I snapped, losing my patience. He was starting to fret like I was a weak little girl again, and I absolutely hated when he did that. Because contrary to whatever he thought, it did make me feel weak, I did not enjoy feeling weak.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “Okay, what did you find?”
“Thank you,” I replied. “The shooter is a man, young, white.”
“This young white man have a name?”
“Yeah, he calls himself Damian, D for short, although I am not very sure it’s his real name, might be using an alias for all we know.”
“What else do you know about this guy? Physical appearance? Deformities? Anything we can use to identify him?”
I leaned back on my seat, trying to recall his face. It was dark, I hadn’t seen much. “Not much, he had blond hair and very blue eyes, almost electric.”
“You are sure they are blue? He wasn’t wearing contact lenses?”
“Well, I didn’t have time to politely ask, given the fact I was fighting for my life, you know?” I retorted. “Plus he had just tried to snipe a man at night, I don’t think he would have wanted anything impairing his vision.”
I heard Frederick scribbling away at his always present notepad, it felt more like a debrief than me exchanging intelligence with him, but I didn’t care.
The Bureau had the most powerful database in the country, perhaps even the world, rivaled only by the NSA and CIA. The more information I gave him, the more likely he would turn up with something concrete about this Damian character.
“You still there?” He asked.
“Yeah, yeah, fire away.”
“I need you to take your time and think through the next answer, Athena, are you with me?”
I knew his next question, and I knew it was the most crucial in the investigation. I steadied myself, trying to remember as much as I could.
“I am here Frederick.”
“What is your personal assessment of the man?”
I took a deep breath and answered quickly. “He is strong, resourceful, from the way he made his quick escape from the rooftop almost undetected. He is also careful, not risking taking a second shot when he missed the first, he is very well-trained in martial arts, I barely even hit him. He is a bit arrogant, judging from the conversation we had, I am unsure of his motives, whether he has a personal vendetta or if he is just being paid to do this, but either way, he is very good at his job”
Frederick chuckled, “Wow, I am impressed. You got all that off a little encounter in a dark alley that lasted too quick for anyone to get you two?”
I smirked, “Like I said, I am a good student.”
“I must admit, you are. How is lover boy taking all of this?”
“Quite well, I think this isn’t his first rodeo.” I finished the coffee and tossed the empty styrofoam in the trash, “He is a Mafia kingpin, he must have gotten used to things like this happening.”
“You are right, nice job kid, I am really proud of you.”
My heart warmed up, he wasn’t really the one to give out compliments, “Thanks, Frederick.”
“Listen, I think it’s time you back out.” He said almost immediately.
I was shocked, “Excuse me?”
“Athena, please listen. Shit has gone to hell, okay? The presence of another player in the game switches everything up. We don’t know who this guy is or what he wants, and until we do we cannot be sure of your safety. Please disappear for a while, don’t let Luciano or anyone there know.”
I shook my head, totally blindsided. “No.”
“Athena-”
“It’s your turn to listen, Frederick, this shit is personal to me, okay? And I have come this far. I am not backing off now just because some jerk who thinks he is Ethan Hunt wants Luciano as gone as I do. Not after all that has happened, don’t waste your time trying to convince me okay?”
He sighed. “Okay. What’s your plan now?”
“Damian wants to meet and talk tonight to see if we can align our goals.”
“Kid, that seems dangerous.”
“You wanted Intel on him, right? Well, this is our chance. You can look up all of Luciano’s known associates to see who might want him dead, long list, I know. And I will talk to this Damian, see what I can glean from him, between the both of us, we should get a clearer picture of what the hell is going on.”
“Well, I can’t seem to convince you otherwise.” He clucked his tongue, “Okay, be careful please, I will call you tomorrow, see how your little date went.”
“Of course.”
“Be careful, I mean it!”
“Good day Fred,” I groaned, dropping the receiver and collapsing on my chair.
Tonight was going to be… interesting.