5. Five
5
FIVE
ELIANA RICHARDS
CIA Headquarter, July 2022
“ A nd these are your new teammates. Eliana, say hi to…”
“You got to be fucking kidding me,” slipped out of my mouth.
This couldn’t be the truth. This was a fucking joke. I worked for months to get into this task force, harder than ever before, just to work with him ? Karma, whatever I did wrong, I’m sorry. Please don’t do this to me. I couldn’t work with him .
No fucking way.
“Excuse me?” My new team leader turned around, looking at me with shock written all over his face. Fantastic, my professional masks fell within the first hour of working in the new agency. That was faster than I expected.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled under my breath, trying to save whatever was savable from the situation.
At least he looked as shocked and unpleasant as I felt. So I’m not the only one being surprised by the new constellation of the task force. Which is unexpected—I thought their team leader would have given them information about me, maybe even my entire background check. But apparently he hadn’t, so at least I’m not at a disadvantage here.
“Eliana.” His voice wasn’t more than a huff, dripping of hate, but I could also hear the confusion out of it. He might be able to hide it in front of McGreen, but I knew him my entire life. He was not the confident agent he probably faked to be.
“Peter,” I responded, not even showing him the respect of a nod. My gaze bored into his and I couldn’t ignore how shiny the green of his eyes were. Like emeralds were planted into his skull instead of eyes. Fucking shiny emeralds.
None of us dared to blink.
Marvelous, I was having a staring battle with my biggest enemy on my first day at the CIA. Who cares about professionalism, anyway?
His eyes narrowed a little, showing me that he was close to blinking, and even when my own eyelines started to water in a desperate attempt of my body to keep my eyes healthy, I didn’t give in to the urge to blink.
This was the first of many competitions Peter Davis and I would have while being at this Agency and I was not losing this. It would set the tone for every other competition to come. Would I start this new job as a winner or a loser?
Winner or loser.
What do you want to be, Eliana?
And then he blinked and I followed immediately.
But after him. He blinked first. I won this.
The entire time we had the childish staring contest, McGreen had observed us with a smirk on his face. His eyes were jumping back and forth between us, but he didn’t interrupt us.
I finally ripped my eyes off Peter asshole Davis and looked around the small office like room. Despite being stuffed with multiple desks, I didn’t see anybody else than Peter.
That can’t be right.
McGreen and the Deputy Director were talking about a team that I would meet. A team is more than just one guy that I hated my entire life.
Where are the others?
“All right, it seems like you already know each other. Great,” McGreen commented with his brow so high that it looked almost comical.
“Yes, sir. We were at the farm together,” I answered, my gaze shifting to McGreen while I tried to regain the professionalism that gained me the position in the task force in the first place. I’m sure he didn’t buy it, but at least I tried.
“As you can see, the team is a little thinned out at the moment, that’s why we were looking for support. Next to you and Peter, the former Navy SEAL, Nate Sheppard, is also part of our team, but he’s currently having some time off. You’ll meet him soon,” Oliver explained.
“A Navy SEAL ending up at the CIA? Is that a condition to make it into this task force?” I joked, shooting Peter another judging side-eye. He only tried to become a SEAL, he never managed it. My team leader didn’t smile, his eyes narrowing slightly as if I had hit a nerve.
“Agent Sheppard and I served together for many years. We operated on more missions together than anyone else. There’s no one else I would trust my life more with than this guy. So no, it’s not a condition to join the team, but it helps to understand the level of comradeship I expect from this task force.”
I nodded in response, a bit confused about the intense reaction to my joke. Even Peter averted my gaze when I carefully looked at him for answers.
There was definitely something up with Sheppard that no one was talking about. But I was sure I would get to know it sooner or later.
“As you two know each other already, Peter, would you mind showing her the communal kitchen and med-bay? We’ve already gone through the shooting area and gym on our way up here.”
“Of course,” Peter answered, but I heard the annoyance out of his voice. He might be able to hide it well, but not in front of me. McGreen differed his eyes between us a couple of times and I wished I’d be able to read minds, because I’d give everything to know what was going on in his head right now. He must have known that we were at the same high school plus visited the academy at the same time, he did a detailed background check.
Then, after what felt like forever, McGreen shot me a, “See you later, Agent Richards,” and stepped out of the room.
Taking one deep breath, I turned around to Peter and gave him an annoyed look.
“Of all the people that I didn’t like to see one more time in my life, of course it must be you that I actually work with. I feel like you’re haunting me.”
“You hear that? That’s the familiar sound of no one caring. Also, sorry for being such bad company.” He rolled his eyes at me. The audacity.
“I should have known that you’re in this task force, because after failing the SEALs, this was the only goal that would restore at least a bit of your reputation.”
“Oh shut it, Eliana. Changing agencies like their vows doesn’t mean anything to you and doesn't really give you a good reputation yourself. Should I ask some friends at the FBI why you really left or are you telling me?”
“You know nothing, Davis.”
“Did you tell Oliver the truth or did you lie to him, as well? Because believe me, I will get to know why you really left. Were they all mean to you? Didn’t understand you? Same behavior as you always accused me whenever you had the chance to?”
I huffed in response. He was always mean to me. That didn’t even need words, his sheer existence was aggregating me.
Did he ever do anything particular to make me hate him?
If always battling me for better grades and celebrating his wins a little too much counts, then yes. Peter Davis just had this aura around him for as long as I’ve know him that made my hair rise and my heart beat faster in anger.
He wasn’t the classical bully. Not at all. He’s been polite to all our teachers and other students. His smile could melt ice and I hate to admit it, but it made me watch him more often than once with the absolute wrong intentions. Peter was popular in high school ever since he joined the football team, but he didn’t have many friends at the academy. A couple, but not much. Not really sure why, but maybe more people were annoyed by him constantly being an over-achieving teacher’s pet. In our first year together, he didn’t even try to go for the football team again, because he wanted to focus on the academic side of college.
I always wondered if he was terrified that he wouldn’t live up to his own high standards. Which was ridiculous. Ever since I knew Peter, his family was absolutely supportive. His mom was the nicest woman I ever met and she reminded me a lot of my own .
She was around for every football game, bringing snacks and drinks for all of Peter’s friends who were not in the same team. Mrs. Davis was the supportive mom everyone wished for and I don’t see any evidence that she could ever be disappointed by her son.
Meaning Peter’s standards were self-made, which made him way less likable.
“Listen, Eliana,” he started and I shifted my attention back from my memories and towards the present where he was standing right in front of me.
“I’m listening.”
“We don’t need to be friends, but we need to get along if we want to work in the same task force. Oliver hasn’t lied when he talked about comradeship. He and Nate are former SEALs and they’ve been through hell together. They need to trust you with their lives and you need to earn that.”
“Should I jump in front of a bullet for them or what?”
“This is not a joke."
I didn’t mean it as a joke. Comradeship was a topic everyone was talking about, even back at the CIA and the FBI academy. But how can I give my life in the hands of people who are all selfish idiots? Because I saw a lot of those in both academies. The concept of blindly trusting someone with your life always felt odd to me, but maybe that was one of the reasons I never wanted to become a military.
“Okay. Professional freedom,” I answered and reached out my hand towards him. He halted a moment, looking me in the eyes, before he moved his own hand. But before our hands met, I exclaimed a loud, “But,” that made him groan and retreat.
“Elianaaaaaa.”
I liked the way he exaggerated the last vowel in my name and it made me chuckle.
“But professional freedom does include that I can shoot you a comment here and there. Because if not, I’ll go insane. You’re a walking meme, Peter.”
The loud exhale of him was enough to make me grin in amusement, but, to my big surprise, he didn’t back off or shoot me a statement back. He just extended his hand to grab mine and shake it.
“Deal,” he mumbled.
Oh, Peter Davis, you have no idea what you got yourself into with this deal. You practically gave me approval to mock you whenever I want to. This job might be even better than expected, and if we manage to work together despite the shared history, I might have fun for the first time in my life.
“And this is the room they prepared for you. Did the CIA already get your stuff?” Peter asked while we made a halt in front of a closed door. The tour around headquarters was short, but I got to know everything I needed to and we managed to not kill each other on my first day. That’s a good thing.
“Not yet. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a room at headquarters or keep my apartment in town. They left it open for me to decide within the first month.”
“Oh okay. Not many agents actually live here, most of them only for a certain period of time. The ones living here permanently mainly do it because it’s handy and they’re needed more often. Like the doctor, Lynn Summers.”
“Are you living at headquarters?” I asked him, honestly curious. His answer might affect my own.
“I wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago when Nate went down. Now Oliver needs me more than before and I’m doing a lot of overtime.”
“What happened to Sheppard?”
“He got hurt in the gym. Nothing spectacular, but he had a surgery and is out of service since. He was doing some desk work until the task force had another mission gone wrong and he's been completely on sick leave since.”
I raised my brows.
Another mission gone wrong.
And again, Sheppard was involved. There were things going on here that nobody was talking about. So much for comradeship and trusting each other with our lives. Great when they start with keeping secrets about my future team from me .
“It’s his story to tell, not mine,” Peter added when seeing the look on my face.
“Okay, I respect that,” I answered honestly.
“Do me one favor, Eliana.” His face changed and he almost looked like he was pleading. Wow, that was a new thing.
“I don’t make promises.”
“Eliana.”
“Okay. Okay.”
“You can shoot me comments as much as you want to, but please don’t joke around Nate and Oliver. The two have a protectiveness for each other that you’ll never understand, and if you don’t want your life to be miserable, don’t touch that unwritten rule. No jokes about Nate Sheppard. Understood?”
“Weird, but yes. You know that whatever you’re telling me right now only makes me more curious about the fuss around Sheppard, right?”
“You haven’t been a SEAL. You don’t know what it means to go onto every mission expecting it to be your last.”
“You've never been a SEAL, either.”
I couldn’t swallow that comment. He gave me the perfect assist.
“But I understood the humbleness of fighting for the greater good together. Something I’m not sure you ever will.”
And with that, he turned around and had his dramatic walk along the hallway. A bit over-dramatic in my opinion, but who am I to judge ?
I know exactly what it means to fight for a happy ending. Peter Davis has no idea about the intense fight I’m in since mom died. But I didn’t need to prove myself to him. All I wanted to do was do a good job in this task force and maybe even make the world a better place.
And damn, was I curious about what the hell was all the mystery around Nate Sheppard.