Forever Fighting | ✔️ | [previously Espionage: double-cross]

Chapter 6

"Hello Alex Pierce."

"Well hello yourself Julie. What brings you to my humble abode?"

Julie raised an eyebrow and looked at Alex, head tilted. "You know very well what."

Alex sighed dramatically. "Well okay then. I guess I'll conform to the societal expectation."

She moved her feet apart, took a deep breath, schooled her face into one of complete innocence and then...

"Oh my goodness gracious me! Is that Julie I see? By god it is! I would never in a million years have ever guessed that you worked for some secret agency! My mind is completely blown! The pieces of it are now scattered on my doorstep and front garden! I never expected this, that secret agents exist and that my coach would be one! What has the world come to?"

She relaxed then and turned towards Julie who was wearing an expression of amused indifference.

"Are you finished."

Alex held up a finger. "Not quite," she said before sinking into a low bow. "Thank you, thank you. Yes I know, my performance was superb!" She carried on accepting the fake flowers, blowing kisses to the audience. 

Then she looked up, face straight again. "Okay, now I'm finished."

Julie's face broke out into a wide smile while she chuckled lowly, shaking her head is exasperation. "You are one of the craziest people I happen to have the pleasure or displeasure of knowing."

"Thank you very much."

"Now, as much as I enjoy standing on the doorstep, outside where the pieces of your blown mind are scattered, maybe it would be best to invite me in?"

"Right you are," Alex replied, stepping away from the doorway, gesturing for Julie to walk inside. "Make yourself at homes, it's not like it's the first time you've been here. I think my dad even knows who you are by now."

Julie's eyes took on an amused tint, glazed with knowledge. "Yes, I'm sure he does." She walked off in the direction of the kitchen, most likely to make a cup of tea. 

Alex turned around to close the door when she saw a familiar figure walking down the pavement. It was a boy, or man really seen as he looked about 19 or twenty. For some reason, he was wearing all black with a batman-esque utility belt around his waist. He was walking too quickly for it to be a casual walk around the block and the way his eyes flickered over everything, never staying on any one thing too long was reminiscent of the way Alex was partial to doing. Either he was expecting something to happen or was looking for something.

Or rather someone. 

When his eyes latched onto her, Alex knew the latter to be true. 

His blue eyes stuck on her brown ones with such an intensity she knew for sure he was trying to communicate with her. Why he would need to talk to her, a complete stranger, was unknown to Alex. 

But the as she looked at him, she felt something stir in depths of her brain. Flashes of blood, red pools on the grey of the floor and the feeling of succumbing to darkness before sudden release swirled around her mind like a badly mixed cocktail. 

He saw the moment recognition flickered in her eyes, the moment her eyes narrowed in suspicion. But he was so caught up looking at her face he missed the phone brought out from the pocket, the camera pointed at his person and the faint sound of the click when the photo was taken. He only realised what had happened when Alex's eyes looked down at the screen and then back to him with a smirk written clearly in her eyes and on her face. 

Then with a parting wave, Alex closed the door on the 'boy's' surprised expression.

He watched the door close with thinly veiled shock. But then, after a few moments, his smile turned teasing. He reached for his own phone and stretching his fingers, cracking his knuckles and began typing while still standing outside of his target's house. 

Seconds had passed when he turned with a self-satisfied smile and walked away, confident he had done all he needed to do.

As soon as the door closed, Alex leant back against it, wondering what on earth she had done to warrant all of the suspicious activity that had started to surround her. But the surprise of that person's face made up for it and Alex felt a smile forming on her own lips. She reached for her phone then, quickly thumbing in the password and opening the photos app, full of anticipation. She clicked on her most recent photo, smile already in place to analyse this person further when it quickly dropped off her face, replaced by a confused scowl.

Instead of a photo with a person at the centre was a black image, a face winking in the corner. Written beneath it were the words:

Nice try. If you wanted a picture, all you had to do was ask. That way, it would've lasted longer. ;)

Alex practically growled. Bloody arrogant idiot. And who the hell needs two winky faces?

You probably guessed, she wasn't a fan of emojis.

Quickly pocketing the device, making a note to further encrypt all bluetooth and wifi in her house, she stomped off towards the kitchen where the sound of the kettle boiling was most prominent. 

It was there she found Julie, sitting quietly, nursing her second cup of lemon and ginger tea. She looked up when Alex entered, already pushing the plate of shortbread forwards to Alex's usual place at the table. 

Alex nodded her thanks and began munching on the buttery biscuits. 

Silence reigned for a few minutes, both parties gathering their thoughts and questions for what could only be a long and maybe difficult conversation. 

"So," it was Alex who broke the silence first. "Where do you want to start."

"I would start at the beginning but that would be too confusing and too informative."

"So why tell me that you're not going to tell me anything?" Julie was always confusing, speaking in riddles where every word had another meaning. 

"Because you need to understand that there's more that what I'll tell you but you cannot know, not yet. If you did find out, I have no doubt you'd go looking, something that would be dangerous so please, reign in your curiosity and believe that what I'm going to say, even though I'm not telling you the whole story, is for your safety."

Alex nodded. She hated Julie knew her so well, curiosity and all, which really put a but at the same time was filled with a warm fuzzy feeling, one she was unfamiliar with. 

"Fine, okay, I agree to the terms and conditions."

"Great but remember if you hear this, there's no going back, whatsoever."

"What would you do, wipe my memory?" Alex laughed at her movie reference, stopping when Julie didn't even crack a smile.

In fact, Julie said nothing in reply.

Now feeling a lot more nervous than before, Alex gulped and nodded, hesitantly at first then more surely. 

"I'm too intrigued to let it go now. Tell me everything."