Operation London (3 page)

"Easy," Harry said, seeming a little let down.

"Easy is good Harry
. We don't want to work ourselves to the bone everyday," Ava smiled.

"I don't like it
. A man with so little ability and intelligence couldn't have been in charge of a drug empire like the one we're trying to demolish," Harry mused.

"I've never met a smart drug dealer," Ava pointed out.

"No, neither have I. Their very decisions leave them without a shred of real intellect. But the overseer of an operation of this magnitude, with this type of following and this many units....I guess I just hoped Hiroshi was a bigger fish than he wound up being," Harry sighed, running his fingers through his short graying brown hair in aggravation.

Ava put her arm around her friend
. "Harry, we'll find the guy and we'll get him. Remember, good guys always win."

Suddenly Ava noticed a woman standing near her, smiling brightly
. The dress she wore reeked of the formal party, an expensive Oscar de Laurenta  tight black number, but her professional perkiness had leaked through. A notepad in one hand and a tiny camera in the other, she seemed intent on getting something from Ava.

"Hello, I'm Amy Moroshi from Tokyo 5 news," she said with a bubblegum California accent
. "I was on the guest list for Mr. Hiroshi's party. I got pictures of the whole thing. Can I have a comment?"

Ava groaned out loud
. "Did you speak to Hiroshi just now?"

"Yes."

"Did he offer a comment?"

"Yes."

"What was it?"

"What is yours?"

Ava shook her head, gathering her silky hair at the back of her neck in agitation. "Crime doesn't pay?"

"Thanks, McGruff
. Very original," Amy Moroshi said sarcastically. "I'll tell you Hiroshi's, since his was so original as well."  Amy was already walking away. She turned on one conservative black heel. "Mr. Hiroshi said, 'I'll be contacting my attorney.'"

Ava was flabbergasted
. A few moments of sputtering and she turned to Harry, her gray eyes broiling like storm clouds.

"Even when I carted his ass in, he still couldn't respect me," she said, reaching absently into her bag for the stash of cigarettes she kept in the inner lining
. Putting the white stick to her mouth, she was stunned to feel it snatched from between her lips.

"Harry!"

"I thought you quit," he said, staring into her eyes with such obvious disappointment that Ava had to look away. She rubbed a hand over her sculpted face, looking down at the complicated gold and red pattern on the carpet. It was more than the cigarettes that were causing Harry to look at her with such sadness.

"He doesn't have any respect, Harry!"

"Ava, you need to be beyond this!  How many times have I told you that you can't take things to heart."  He put one finger under her chin, pulling her face up so their eyes were level.

"Kiddo, we're quiet
. We stalk. Division Lynx. Not Division Wild Boar. You make the headlines and we lose some of the protection that secrecy affords us."  Harry shook his head. "I knew it was a bad idea to let you go ahead."

"Harry, don't say that," Ava pleaded, grabbing at his hand
. "I goofed, I know it, but don't blame yourself."

"That's what we do," Harry said, shaking his hands free of hers gently
. "We accept the blame when its ours, Ava. We all have to do that."

Harry walked back to his car, leaving Ava alone, dressed to the nines and feeling miserable
. He had warned her, long before this night, long before she had ever begun to get herself into trouble. Listening to Harry point out the mistakes in her execution of justice over the past few years, Ava noticed the same phrases had come up over and over again.
You're not a vigilante. This is the law, it's not personal. You have to separate yourself emotionally. Sometimes you become the role you're assigned to. It's dangerous. You're going to get into trouble.

And here she was
. In trouble. She was too involved, and it was going to cost her. This time her saving grace was supposed to be the party. Now she had screwed up her salvation. If she had been afraid of meeting with Tess McQueen before, she was absolutely petrified now. Sighing she began to walk to the edge of the street. Her limo wouldn't be showing for almost an hour, and she didn't feel like waiting.

The night air was humid and warm
. Ava wished with her whole being that she was wearing different shoes. She walked carefully down the street, avoiding potholes and pitches in the sidewalk. Her silky hair lifted on the wind, blowing around her curvaceous body. Many men stopped to gawk at her as she traipsed by in her flame colored dress on her ridiculous heels. It made her consider how long it had been since she had gone on a real date. Thinking back, she found it difficult to pinpoint the last time she had just gone out to dinner, had a couple of beers, gone dancing or for a picnic. She felt a blush creep up her neck as she pulled at her mind, trying to find the last time she had been in bed with a man.

Sinclair Lewis, a very cute coworker, had been her last serious relationship
. She was shocked to realize that it had all ended between herself and Sinclair almost four years ago!  He had been nice enough and very good-looking. But even four years couldn't erase the general feeling of....she didn't know what it was exactly. Maybe it wasn't so much a feeling of something as a lack. Namely   lack of chemistry, which had been the contributing factor in the relationship's downfall, coupled with the fact that she doubted Sinclair had ever listened to a thing she said. She was merely an exotic ornament he wanted around to boost his self-esteem. Nothing more.

Feeling completely dejected Ava found a bench and parked herself on it
. Across the street she could smell the delicious aroma of piping hot beef from a food stand. She made her way over, feeling like she was floating towards the meal, especially since she realized an entire day had passed and she had not eaten a thing.

A petite girl smiled from behind the counter, her short hair dyed with streaks of bright red, a Kiss T-shirt covering her small frame
.

"Can I have the beef kebab and fried noodles
. And a water," Ava ordered, reaching into her purse. "Damn. Scratch that."

"No money?" the girl chuckled, enjoying the irony of a poor lady in Versace
. "Don't worry about it. We'll just throw it out if it doesn't sell by morning. I'll put it on your tab."  The girl smiled at her, then set up to prepare the food, glancing again at Ava's outfit. "Where did you go tonight?"

"Just a company party
. Nothing very fun," Ava said sheepishly, wondering if images of her cowboy act would be all over the news the next day.

"Awesome shoes!" the girl gushed suddenly, leaning over to get a better look
.

Ava smiled at the idea that surfaced immediately.

Ten minutes later Ava headed home with her hands full of hot, tasty food and comfortable flip-flops on her feet. She had just made an exchange that had to rank among the world's most lopsided. Some delicious beef, noodles, a bottle of water and a cheap pair of straw flip-flops for an extremely expensive pair of red silk Italian heels. Ava smiled as she surveyed her situation.

"Happy, well fed and amazingly comfortable," she sighed to herself, catching the last delicious noodle in her mouth with her chopsticks as she made her way up to her hotel room
. "At least I'm fortified to face Tess McQueen tomorrow," she thought, shuddering inwardly.

Ava London fidgeted nervously in the posh waiting room that connected to Tess McQueen's office
. The sweat on her smooth palms was starting to irritate her irrationally, and her temper only flamed up higher when she remembered too late that she was wearing camel suede pants, now complete with two damp streaks from her hands. Breathing slowly through her nose, she tried to ease her frustrations and keep herself calm. There was nothing to do but wait.

Harry had failed to return her early morning call, a sure sign that he wanted to ride this one out and see how Tess reacted before he put his two cents in
. That was fine for Harry, but right now Ava needed someone to comfort her before she ripped her hair out of her head.

Had she always been this angry, this inflamed at every silly mishap?  It seemed like she was becoming a wholly unrecognizable person, one who failed to smile and enjoy what there was to savor in life
. She brushed a strand of straight hair away from her brow and picked up a National Geographic to skim with half her brain.

Ten minutes later she looked up with a start realizing that she had begun to take a real interest in Scottish shearing practices and hadn't noticed the secretary calling her impatiently.

Ava hurried to follow the woman down a long corridor into a bright, light room overlooking Tokyo's downtown center. The sky outside was a calm, inviting azure and for a brief moment Ava considered what might happen if she just walked out of her meeting, walked into that big stretch of opportunity outside and never looked back.

"Something's pulling you?" Tess McQueen's full, rich voice brought Ava crashing back into the office
. One large hand indicated for Ava to take a seat near the enormous desk that Tess sat behind.

"No, ma'am," Ava answered briskly.

"This isn't the marines honey. There's no need to treat me like your general," Tess drawled, raising one dark eyebrow and turning her deep brown eyes on Ava. "Tell me about last night."

"You can probably see it all on Tokyo 5," Ava mumbled, her being full of self-pity.

"If I wanted to see it on that TV show, I'd switch it on. I said tell me about last night," Tess said sternly. Her cocoa colored hands were folded in front of her loosely, as if she had all the time in the world to wait for Ava's reply.

"Last night I went to I-Con and hacked into Hiroshi's file
. I got what I needed but my timing was off, so I called Harry for backup and made it just in time. Then I went to the party and tried to meld."

"You didn't meld?"

"I tried..."

"But you didn't."  Tess looked at Ava firmly, forbidding her from darting her eyes away.

"I didn't. I actually created a scene. Played the big shot, made Hiroshi look like a fool. Defended some ungrateful woman like I was her knight in shining armor," she muttered, feeling more like a badly behaved elementary school child than a professional agent.

"You understand the repercussions this type of behavior could have on a classified mission team?"

"Yes, I do."

Tess stood up slowly and looked straight at Ava, then paced calmly, looking out the window long and hard
. "I have to do what is best for an entire team of people, Ava London."

A lump rose in her throat and her gray eyes pricked with the hot onslaught of tears she wished would stay put.

"You are a valued agent. If I allow you to stay with your performance record as is, I am jeopardizing the lives of many. And I am losing the very qualities that give you the potential to be an amazing agent."

"I haven't proved myself?" Ava asked softly, looking down and to the side to avoid showing her glistening eyes to the powerhouse of a woman.

"Not yet. I won't lie to you. Another leader might tell you to hit the road permanently." 

Ava felt the air bite into her lungs as she breathed in fully and much too deeply.

"Are you letting me go?" she gasped quietly, losing all control over her voice.

"You aren't ready
. Go live a little." The command was abrupt, even condescending. Tess had already bent her head over papers on her desk, seeming to forget the woman in front of her in the blink of an eye. Ava had felt nervous, sad and disheartened, but she felt the heat rise back inside of her once Tess turned away from her.

She marched to Tess's desk and threw her hands down, leveling her face with the bold older woman's.

"I have given sweat and tears for this division. I have bled and fought and sacrificed for this division!  Is my work worth nothing?"  Ava demanded forcefully, accusingly.

Tess took her time looking up at the angry tigress before her
. The young woman's chest rose and fell with every excited breath and her hands shook and slid on the polished table top with the effort of her declaration. Tess couldn't deny her strength, her passion, her absolute energy.

"Listen here little girl
. An agent is a life. Full of love and hate, decisions and experience. You aren't an agent til you've had a little of each. When you've had a taste and that fills up your passions, you come back. Come back to Division Lynx with a cool head and I'll try you again. And you'll be better for it."  This time Tess grabbed Ava's hand in her papery, strong one and squeezed hard. "I'm rooting for you, Ava. Don't ruin your chances."

A secretary came in to usher Ava out
. There was a haze over her world, over the bright light of the sky and the bustle of the streets. For so long Division Lynx had been her family, her lover and her life. Now she had been pushed out of her home and found that she had no safety net. Life was buzzing on around her and she had no place in it.