TWISTED ꜜ LOUIS PARTRIDGE

⟾ 23 | THE MISSION

LOUIS🗡

Wednesday, 8:41am

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MUCH LIKE ANY plan I've encountered on this Hell-of-a journey, I like to do things in steps.

Normally there's a time limit, where I countdown the seconds towards impertinent doom, but surprisingly I seem to have enough time to go free-reign on this. It makes it easier, I suppose, but I do still have to keep track of the order of things.

So, let's begin with Step One:

Get Into The Building.

What building? You may ask. I'm talking about my (ex) second-home, my (ex) employment, and the (ex) building that had a pavement littered with the memory of snogging someone I loved for a decent while. I tried not to think about the latter as I lingered by the building, staring up at the glass structure of the S.I.S.

But here's the issue.

I know William Franklyn-Traitor is probably dancing around inside, and while he's the person I need to see, getting to him is the difficult part. I'm a framed criminal, remember? I can't fake my ID and stride in like anyone else, because everyone knows who I am and what I look like.

Maybe being a 'Miracle-Rookie' wasn't the best thing considering my situation.

However, I knew the entire building like the back of my hand, and Ash and I didn't (questionably) scrounge up a plan for me to get nervous and give up. I knew what I had to do, and that was the wonderful task of...

Flirtation.

Remember that woman I told you about at the very beginning? Linda? Who worked in IT? Yeah, she fancied me to a very obsessive extent, so I'm going to have to use that to my advantage to get inside. Is it a terrible thing to do? Yes, but it's necessary—there's no other way in.

And I don't have to worry about flirting with other women, because the one woman I want doesn't want me.

Amazing!

Sarcasm, again.

I knew where Linda's office was, because she'd constantly invited me down to talk to her almost on the regular (which I politely declined), so all I had to do was circle to the back of the Headquarters and find the window her office sat behind.

I recognized that flaming red hair even through the tinted windows.

She was sitting at her desk, eyes trained on her computer screen, where she was invested in a game of solitaire. I wondered if this was her lunch break, even though it was far too early, or if she just dozed off on the job.

Nevertheless, I knocked on the glass, suppressing my amusement when she screamed and fell out of her chair.

Heh.

"Linda," I said, shoving my hands into the pockets of my trousers, "miss me, darling?"

I couldn't tell whether the pale expression on her face was in fear or utter astonishment, because her eyes were wide open and her mouth was agape. Using the desk to help her stand, she held up her hands, shaking her head and motioning for me to stay exactly where I was.

I flashed her a grin, and waited.

Her short figure came running round the corner and into the alley nearly five minutes later. But I'd have to hand it to her, she was no small-minded woman. As she stalked towards me, I took noticed of the limp in her step (showing she had some sort of weapon tucked in the seam of her skirt) but the wistful expression in her eyes (showing that she did not tell anyone I was here, because she still held me in high regard no matter how dangerous I was supposed to be).