Making Contact (Patreon)

Laylana, in this PicStory (2 pictures) is in the D.C. area with Mason. They are attempting to make contact with Eva, who they hope will help clear their confusion about what’s going on.

Laylana looked across the table at Mason, then down at her burger. Mason seemed to be scanning the room—as was the habit of agents in the field—for dangers.

"Beyond The Banks" is a part of the Secrets Of The World storyline.

Laylana wanted for him to finish sweeping the room before she said anything. “Mason…”

Mason looked over at her and waited on her to continue.

“Do you think I can, by any means possible, actually eat this whole thing?”

Mason smiled a little sheepishly. “I didn’t exactly read the menu… completely. Turns out, that one’s supposed to be shared… among friends.”

“Well, Friend, you better get a knife!” Mason had a basket of chicken fingers that seemed to be of a reasonable portion.

Mason smiled again. “I’ll be happy to share. More so happy you think I’m your friend now.”

Laylana smiled and cut into the enormous cheeseburger.

The passing of days had erased the lines between handler—boss—and agent. Laylana had completely distanced herself from thinking of him as being higher rank than she was. And it had blurred her thoughts about him as a colleague. She could not deny that a part of her was incubating fond feelings for him. She was also more and more sure that his feelings for her had always been more than collegial , but that he had quashed them for the sake of duty and agency integrity.

They had stopped off for an early lunch on their way back to DC for the third day in a row hoping to meet with Eva.

One of the Deputy Assistant Directors, Cal Davis, had told Mason that they needed to go to a certain place in DC and wait at noon. Eva would find them and they believed she’d have useful information for them.

Mason was digging into the chicken fingers, but he kept looking at Laylana’s go-bag. In it was the 9mm FPC, a folding carbine rifle. Mason had practice for hours retrieving the gun from the bag, unfolding it, and bringing it into a low-ready position. The gun dealer had equipped it with a red dot and said it was sighted in at 75 yards. At greater distances, aiming a little high would compensate. Inside 75 yards, the difference would be fairly negligible.

Mason would be, once more, 50 meters away from the rendezvous location ready to intervene in case DAD Davis had been part of the problem and was setting Laylana up for trouble. That seemed unlikely because Eva had, for all practical purposes, rescued Layalana from being picked up. If Eva was in on getting rid of Laylana, then she would have just let the captures take place.

“Unless,” Mason had said, “there are two groups of bad guys, and she saved you from one of them so that her group can get to you.”

It was obvious that “her group” was in some way connected to DAD Davis, so if she were one of the bad guys, then he was too—or… It just got too crazy at that point.

Mason looked back from the go-bag. “Oh… did you want some fries? I got a double order so we could share.”

Laylana looked at the burger, then at Mason, then at the fries. “Hmm… I will share the fries and that means even less of the burger gets eaten!”

She reached for a fry thinking it was in some way intimate. He could have gotten two orders of fries. Instead, he got a double order to share. Laylana laughed inside a little. I’m making way too much out of nothing. I’m really letting my feelings run away with me.

They finished their early lunch, then headed out. They arrived at the park well before noon, and Laylana made her way to the bench where she had first met Eva.

Twice before, Laylana had sat there for what seemed an awkwardly long time before giving up. She half expected that Eva wouldn’t show up again, but just after noon, she arrived and unceremoniously sat down beside Laylana.

“Glad you made it,” Eva said. “Mason got the word to you, I see.”

“He did,” Laylana replied.

“I’m really sorry all this has come down this way. We had no idea they would believe you actually were in the embassy.”

Laylana didn’t say anything. She thought it was often better to just keep her mouth closed, so she did.

Eva went on. “We got in on completely faked credentials. We figured using your face ID would just confuse them, but… turns out they weren’t taking any chances.”

“Who is the ‘they’ you keep mentioning?”

Eva nodded. “Let me just say we had good evidence that someone in the agency was involved, and it turns out it must be someone pretty high up. I don’t want to say a whole lot more until all parties can safely meet together. We need you to come to Baltimore. Day after tomorrow.”

She handed Laylana a slip of paper with an address on it. “It’s a parking garage. Drive up no more than the 5th floor. Take the stairs to the 7th. Of course, bring Mason. He’s part of this now… another victim of collateral damage.”

“So we are meeting today just to plan a meeting?”

Eva nodded.

“And we’re going to do this in a parking garage? Isn’t that a bit cliche?”

Eva shrugged. “Easy ingress, easy egress. You’ll see that when you get there.”

Laylana shook her head. “I’ll be two floors away from my egress, if I walk up.”

Eva took a deep breath. “The garage is closed above the 5th floor. We’ll secure the 6th floor, and meet on the 7th.”

Laylana still objected to the claim for easy egress, but she held her opinion. “Okay, so anything else?”

Eva stood up and shook her head. “Stay off the grid. Stay off ledger, or course.”

Laylana watched her walk away until she was out of sight, then she made her way back to where Mason had parked the car. He showed up a little later, just as they had worked out.

Once they were rolling away from the park, Mason asked, “Quick overview?”

“Meeting day after tomorrow in Baltimore. We gotta spend two more nights before we get anywhere.”

“You tired of being with me?” Mason said with a slight smile.

“No, but I was thinking that we’re about out of money and we might need to go with that camping out scenario.”

Mason nodded. “Okay, I can see that. We’ll pack up, head toward Baltimore, and find a place to camp out.”