DRIVE WEST

FIFTEEN - Scared of a Girl?

Monday stood there staring at Gideon's door with big eyes and a twitching leg as she knew he answered an important phone call. The look on her face lay comfortably somewhere between I want to set this building on fire and watch it burn down and I want to go home. Greaving is already burden enough, but greaving in secret is twice the death.

Monday lowered her head as her phone vibrated and looked at the screen as it lit up,

Feyre: Babe, just to give you a head's up I heard Gideon thinks you're too close to this case. Apparently he's been saying you're no longer fit to work for the bureau. I'm so sorry minnie, i thought you should know

Monday's jaw clenched as she quietly read the message and looked back up at her boss, who finally wrapped up the call.

Gideon slammed the phone and looked at her, "The finger isn't his."

The sigh of relief that left her mouth came with a harmony, and the adrenaline in her body settled down to the point where if her muscles relaxed anymore her body would fall apart into pieces like a lego character over his mahogany table.

But the relief didn't last long.

"We have a list of  32 names for possible leaders." He handed her a crisp white paper with the names on it. "Feyre and Elliot found most of them in Edwin Dorsell's inner circle and phone and e-mail suspicious activity."

She scanned the list carefully, "I'll go over it immediately."

He hung his head and licked his lips, "Does he have the pen?"

Monday's eyes darted at him and her eyebrows tensed. "Are you fucking with me right now?" She paused and just stared in outrage. 'The pen' was a device created by CIA to contain poison instead of ink, that way if an undercover agent was caught in enemy lines, he could consume the poison instead of being tortured and possibly endangering the mission and his colleagues, "You know he would never talk."

"That's not what I asked."

She stood up and in a fist she banged her hand on the table violently, "That wasn't the right question."

He jumped to his feet and pointed at her, "Raise your voice at me again and you're fired."

She paused for a second, thinking before she spoke. She looked at Gideon and remembered how for so long he had been a father figure to her. She bowed her head, "No need. Consider this my two-weeks notice. After this case, Gideon, I'm done."

Gideon recoiled and his face glitched for a second, in shock. Then, he drew in a long breath and licked his teeth in a subtle attempt to maintain his posture, "You know what's funny?"

She didn't want to hear him, but her body trembled at the new realization that she had lost everything, so she stayed to listen.

"You were the one that showed the most promise. Your father was an example to the Bureau, Monday. Before he died I told him I'd look after you." Her eyes watered at the mention of her father, and her body shrinked but she tried masking it by raising her chin, "You were focused. No weaknesses." He gave a bitter laugh, mocking, "Now I can't tell if you fell in love for the stupid jock or your own mark, who turned out to be a con-artist. I should've seen this coming from a girl." He bit his lower lip, hurting it, "The best part of all of this is that I don't have to feel guilty about letting you go." Monday could feel her vision blurry and her breath quicken at the expectation of what he would say next, "Because if your father was alive and he looked at you right now, he'd wish he was dead."