Evenfall (39 page)

Smirking, Sin relaxed somewhat. "I suppose staying won't be too bad. This area isn't as cramped. And those girls would like to know what conditioner you use, I think."

Boyd shook his head to himself, although there was a hint of a smile on his lips. "I'll never tell."

"Maybe you should. You may even get a date out of it."

With a quiet scoff, Boyd turned to the nearest rack. He used his free hand to absently push aside a pair of jeans that looked twenty years old. "I hardly think that will happen."

Sin raised an eyebrow. "So little faith in yourself?"

Boyd gave Sin a sidelong look, his eyes narrowing faintly and lips pursing subtly. After a moment he returned his attention to the clothing. "No. I'm uninterested in them."

The comment caused Sin to give the girls another assessing look. By now they seemed aware of the attention they were getting and to his irritation, one of them smiled at him encouragingly. His eyes narrowed into a glare and the girl, a petite red haired little thing, instantly dropped her bold gaze.

"Well. I can't say they exactly strike my fancy either. But then again, I'm not looking to add pedophilia to my list of crimes."

Boyd shook his head to himself but didn't comment further on the girls. He continued flipping through the clothing, at times moving aside three or more pants at once. The rest of their little shopping expedition went uneventfully. Boyd took the liberty of grabbing a couple of other items that he deemed to be essentials and Sin went to stand in the abysmally long line.

To Sin's dismay, the group of girls managed to stand right behind him. They stared openly and murmured to each other. One of them wondered if the two of them were gay. The question surprised Sin so much that he turned around completely and leveled them with a steady glare. They instantly shut up, obviously thinking they'd gone too far, and didn't talk again.

Irritated, Sin shook his head and turned away. He glanced at Boyd but his partner had wandered off at some point and was out of ear shot.

The comment hadn't particularly offended him. When he thought about it, he supposed long-haired, blond Boyd with his androgynous face and thin build was likely assumed to be gay based on appearance alone. Pair that with the two of them shopping together while Boyd nagged him about things he needed and it could be a possibility.

What surprised him most was that his automatic response hadn't been to think that he wasn't gay at all. He hadn't thought anything other than that they needed to shut the fuck up already and quit talking about them. That being said, Sin was pretty sure he wasn't gay himself. Harry's fondling hadn't exactly gotten him excited but neither had Lydia's.

But then again, the idea of intimacy in any way was so far removed from the reality of his life that he couldn't picture himself having sex with anyone at all.  It wasn't even something he'd ever bothered to think about. He'd had no reason to. The only people he'd regularly been in contact with since childhood were the people of the compound and they all thought he was subhuman.

The only person who had ever overtly expressed attraction to him had been Thierry, and that had likely been more of an attempt at expressing control over a situation than anything else. And while Sin found himself capable of noting whether or not a person was attractive, it never went very far beyond that.

Irritation turning to idle curiosity, Sin moved up in line and looked over to where Boyd was standing. He took the time to study the teenager's face closely. He had good features-- a wide mouth with full lips, golden brown eyes, and what would likely be a nice, lean build if he ever put weight on. Sin tried to figure out if he really was attracted to Boyd or just capable of noting that he was good-looking.

It was impossible to tell, so he gave up on the endeavor and instead focused on what Boyd was doing. He was picking through a stack of charcoal-colored thermal shirts. He was on a real keep-Sin-warm kick. He apparently thought that Sin was destined to die of frostbite because of the way he dressed.

The line moved up again and Boyd came back to stand beside him. The proximity made the idle curiosity return and Sin tried in vain to figure it out. The three girls behind him were too ridiculous to even count as possibilities for women and they were closer in age to him than any other female in the room. A quick inventory of the other male customers told him that Boyd was by far the most attractive, although that was more of a fact than anything else.

It was bordering on the pathetic side of sad that his abnormality extended this far. He wondered what Boyd would think of the girls' comments. There were certain people on the compound who joked about Boyd being gay much for the same reason that the girls had likely assumed it, but Sin had no idea if it was true. He couldn't really imagine Boyd being sexual with anyone. He barely had an expression half the time.

The thought sparked interesting mental images in his head and Sin smirked, shaking his head and pushing it aside.

Boyd looked over, drawn out of reverie by Sin's amusement. His eyebrows furrowed as he gave Sin an odd look. "What?"

"Nothing," Sin said, declining to explain.

Chapter 12

A few weeks passed without incident before their next call for a mission appeared. It was a relatively low-key, simple mission. Although many of their missions seemed to involve Janus on some level, this one did not.

They were to collect data on Di Zhi, a China-based faction that allegedly rivaled Janus in strength. The Agency's goal for this mission was primarily reconnaissance. Boyd and Sin were to infiltrate a cell that had moved to the United States a few months earlier. They were to steal information from their computers to determine what to expect from Di Zhi on American soil in the future.
The two agents were sent to infiltrate the base, fifty miles out of Carson. The town was deserted and had been since the last wave of bombs had moved through, decimating part of the town and leaving the rest of the people with no livelihood. Eventually, everyone had moved away and, years later, Di Zhi had moved in.

Boyd and Sin had set up their base of operations in a small building that was in the vicinity of Di Zhi's base. It gave them a good viewpoint to overlook the innocuous building without being seen. Sin hadn't shown much interest in the planning of the mission but Boyd had thrown himself into it as soon as they'd shut the door. He'd pulled up maps and blueprints on a laptop and had spent the first two hours in silence, staring intently at the screen as his fingers moved across the keyboard. When he was ready, he set the laptop on a coffee table and moved it so Sin could see it as well.

"The exits are here," Boyd said, pointing to four places on the main blueprint. "But the main database room is here." His finger moved to one of many rooms in the basement. "Although it would be best to enter the building via the nearest exit and go downstairs, that won't be possible. The building is set up so the only way to access the basement is by special doors near these two exits." He pointed to two exits that were furthest from the database room as well as being on the other side of the base from the building they currently sat in. "They've concentrated their highest security in those points."

His eyes flicked up to Sin. "Realistically, there's no way to disguise ourselves in order to infiltrate so we'll have to enter undetected. Owen's sources have given us a good idea of the timing for changing of the guards and rotations. We should easily be able to avoid confrontation or discovery by taking that into account."

He flipped screens on the laptop and showed Sin a simple simulation he'd generated of the mission using the blueprints for the layout. The simulation ran as he spoke, illustrating his plan in quick detail and showing the locations of the different areas he mentioned on the blueprints themselves.

"At 0800 hours they switch guards on the eastern entrance, and the same at 0810 on the northeastern. Since we don't know which way will be quicker and we don't want to garner attention, we should enter separately. You can take the eastern and I'll take northeastern. There are utility closets about fifty feet in on each of those corridors. That should provide an initial hiding place if necessary. The rotation will continue with a full sweep of the building until 0825 hours. These corridors seem to be the least convenient so they'll most likely receive less attention. If we hide there until the sweep is past, we will be able to proceed back through the areas that have already been checked."

The simulation continued to run while Boyd pointed at the screen to two different areas.

"Access to the basement is through here and here. I'll bring the decoder with me which should allow us to breach the security on the database room. We'll have a ten minute time window before the next group of guards moves through so we'll have to be quick. Egress will be back the way we came, behind the sweep. We'll split up at this intersection and leave through the doors we originally entered. Once outside, we'll have to avoid the scouts so I suggest leaving through this alley to the north and doubling back here. Provided there are no unforeseen difficulties, we should be done and leaving here by 0900 at the latest."

Sin stared at the maps without much interest from where he lay stretched out on the floor. His head was propped up on his hand and his face was the picture of boredom. "Sounds thrilling."

Boyd watched Sin for a moment and then flipped the laptop closed. "We have to leave in a few hours so I'm going to get ready soon. I suggest you do the same."

Sin scoffed and shook his head, laying down entirely on the floor. "I'll be sure to do that."
Boyd's eyebrow raised and he looked down at Sin. The senior agent's nonchalance caused a moment of displeasure within Boyd but ultimately he ignored it. Sin's reaction didn't really matter as long as he was ready when it was time for the mission.

Boyd brought the laptop with him and spent some of the preparation time before the mission on going over the blueprints once again. He studied them until he had them memorized, looking at all the levels so he would know what routes to take if certain ones were cut off.

When it was time for them to head out, he was ready. He dressed in a dark long-sleeved shirt and sweater, dark pants and his usual combat boots. His long blond hair was pulled into a ponytail and shoved under a black cap so it didn't stand out as much.

When it came time for the mission, everything started out as planned. The intelligence they'd gathered proved to be accurate. Boyd was able to slip in the building when the guards were distracted with shift change. He found the utility closet to be unlocked when he needed to duck in there to escape view from one of the Di Zhi rebels walking past.

The rotations and guard sweeps came as planned and Boyd found the corridors he'd pointed out to Sin to be largely unoccupied. He had to duck out of the way when a hostile unexpectedly turned the corner, but there was an empty room nearby that gave Boyd cover. He couldn't help wondering whether Sin was finding it as easy as he was, or whether he'd run into any snags. He hadn't heard any commotion so he could only assume Sin hadn't been caught yet.

As Boyd moved further into the building, he kept his attention on his surroundings. He couldn't help noting that if they hadn't had the information they'd been given ahead of time, this would be much more difficult. Although he wasn't running into any major problems, it was because he moved quickly, to pre-designated spots, on a precise time schedule. It was giving him the opportunity to avoid the majority of the occupants of the building. If they hadn't known any of this, there were already over a dozen instances where he could have easily been caught.

When he reached the destination, he turned the corner and found Sin standing outside the door to the main database room. He gave the impression of having been there for a long time. Since Sin was scheduled to have entered the building ten minutes after Boyd, and Boyd had been moving quickly and hadn't had any issues, he'd expected to get there first and have to hide while he awaited his partner's arrival.

Boyd made sure no one was in the vicinity before he approached Sin. "That was fast," he observed, keeping his voice quiet so it wouldn't carry. "How did you get here before me?"

"Took a different route."

Boyd paused as he pulled out the decoder. He looked over at Sin with slightly narrowed eyes. "What? Why would you do that? With the timing, that should have been the best route."

"Yeah, according to you." Sin pushed himself away from the wall. "My route was easier and faster."

Boyd's eyes narrowed further. He felt a flash of irritation, although whether it was at Sin's attitude or the fact that he couldn't deny that Sin had gotten there first, he didn't know. He'd spent all that time concocting the plan and studying the
Intel
; that should have been the most efficient route. So how had Sin managed to beat him? Why did he constantly have to one up Boyd on everything they did? It was so frustrating.

Pulling the decoder out, he set it to work on the lock. "Yeah?" he asked, unable to keep the challenge from his tone. "And exactly what route was it? Or did you just charge in without thinking as usual?"

Sin's eyebrows rose at that and there was a beat of silence before he said flatly, "I can't figure out if it's funny or embarrassing that you actually think you have superior knowledge of how a mission is carried out."

"There's a reason we're part of a unit, Sin." Boyd said stiffly. "No one person knows best which is why we all work together, including using the
Intel
we receive from the others. My plan was based on that
Intel
. If you had a problem with it or saw a flaw, why the hell didn't you say so before we started?"

"Apparently you got it into your head that you're team leader and didn't bother to ask what I thought. I guess since I apparently charge in without thinking and don't know how to do a job I've been doing for over a decade, it wouldn't have occurred to you." Giving him a scathing look, Sin then turned his attention to the stairwell and corridor.

"What, so now the great Sin Vega is too afraid to speak up to someone half his size?" Boyd scoffed. "Don't blame me for not saying anything when you had the chance. You could have told me the plan was terrible after I pitched it to you. Nothing stopped you but your own apathy."

"You sound like an idiot. If this is how you're going to act when I don't follow your orders, I'll go back to waiting in the van. Too bad you waited to put your bitch hat back on or I never would have bothered to cooperate at all."

The decoder flashed to signify it was finished. Boyd pulled it off the lock and then opened the door with sharp movements. "This has nothing to do with whose plan it is; it's about sticking to the plan itself. What's the point of being your partner when I never know what to expect from you? Or when you won't even tell me your opinion? I may as well go it alone like I used to."

Sin gave him a disgusted look. "Nice job trying to back track. Next time you have something to say, maybe you should keep your fucking mouth shut and think before you start insulting me. I should have known your whole friendly routine for the past few weeks was bullshit."

Boyd opened his mouth to angrily retort because his main aggravation really was that Sin hadn't followed the plan, no matter
who’s
it was. But it was true he'd started out being annoyed that Sin had somehow come up with something more efficient despite all the time he'd spent on the plan. Still, if Sin had said something in the first place none of this would have happened.

The fact that now Sin was attacking the rest of their time together as a lie only served to anger him further.

Frustrated, he turned his back on Sin and stalked across the room. He started the download of the information with curt movements, his back thrumming with tension. "Don't start making assumptions about the past few weeks."

"As far as I'm concerned, this conversation is over."

Boyd scoffed, shaking his head to himself. He wanted to argue the point; to say it wasn't over just because Sin said it was. He couldn't help feeling furious and insulted and a mess of other reactions, which made him realize even at that point that he didn't know what else he'd say to Sin anyway. He wanted to yell at him at the same time as he wanted to walk away and ignore his existence entirely.

With the tension nearly palpable in the room, the downloading of the information seemed to take forever. Even as Boyd kept his back turned toward Sin, he couldn't help running through the mission in the back of his mind. He kept track of the time while he paid just enough attention to Sin to note that he kept an eye on the corridor and door.

When the download was complete, Boyd erased any indication that they'd been there and pocketed the flash drive with the information on it.

The two of them barely looked at each other as they fled the base. Since they weren't in pursuit and hadn't been discovered, they ended up leaving together. Boyd had initially planned for them to flee separately, thinking it would draw less attention. He didn't know if it was because he'd been right about that, at which point he felt vindicated on some level, or if it was coincidence-- but as they fled together, despite their quick and quiet movements they were discovered passing up to the main floor.

Three men were there, looking startled to see them although it quickly became anger. They yelled something in Chinese and two of them reached for their guns. They didn't stand a match for Sin's speed, though. The first one had barely moved his arm before Sin knocked him out. The second one had only curled his fingers around the stock when Sin was at his side.

They got into an altercation that Boyd ran right past, his narrowed eyes zeroed in on the third man who was reaching for a communication device. The man's eyes turned to slits when he saw Boyd approach and he had to jerk his hand away from the radio to block a strike. They got into a brief fight, Boyd's hits and blocks a little harsher than normal with the aggression pent up inside him. He was able to overcome the man and knock him out with a strike to his head.

He caught the man before his limp form could make a resounding noise when he fell. Once the man was unconscious on the floor, Boyd looked over to see Sin already finished and keeping an eye out for anyone else. When he noticed Boyd was ready, they set out again. Luckily, they didn't run into anyone else.

The deserted streets flashed by them as they ran, navigating the ghost town to reach their designated point. The plain black Agency van was parked where they'd left it, shining dully in the muted light. Boyd headed toward it immediately when he saw it.