Agent 34

Chapter 3

Everly's POV

Nobody paid me any attention as I walked through the hallways of agency headquarters toward Zero's office. Not that I excepted them to. Anywhere else, any other job, people would stare if you were walking through the building covered in blood and bruises, but here? It was completely normal.

I hadn't had a chance to change out of my current clothing because Zero had given direct orders to bring me back to the agency immediately. So, I was currently strolling through the agency in a white tank top smudged in dirt, tan cargo pants that were basically completely covered in mud from the knees down, and a pair of combat boots whose color couldn't even be identified. My hair was pulled up in a high ponytail with several strands falling around my face. Not my outfit of choice. Usually, I preferred all black. Didn't have to worry too much about washing out the bloodstains.

Not that I was a sight a behold. I had a few bruises, some cuts and scrapes, and a smear of blood on the thigh of my pant leg. Not mine of course. I wasn't anything out of the ordinary to look at. Hell, if Lily could walk through here in a white dress and heels soaked in blood after she cut off someone's head and not draw any attention, I figured I never would.

Of course, nearly every agent that had ever walked through here had bruises, cuts, maybe a bullet wound or two, and blood on their clothes at least ten times. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

I pushed open the door to a lounge set up outside Zero's office. Really, it felt like the waiting room outside the principal's office. With a secretary and everything. She looked up from behind her desk. Her face paling slightly when she saw me. Though I knew it had nothing to do with my appearance. She didn't particularly like me. I didn't listen, I often spouted death threats at Zero and more times than I care to count, I'd ended up leaving a knife embedded in the wall.

I didn't have anything against her, but she was always, unfortunately, in my way whenever I was pissed at Zero and wanting to break a few of his bones. So, she'd had to deal with a lot of my anger in the past and since I had just come back from a suicide mission Zero had sent me on, she probably figured I'd be making trouble. I figured she was hoping I'd be gone longer.

I ignored her and walked past to the closed door next to her desk.

"You can't go in there," She said immediately, rising from her desk quickly, trying to intercept me. She'd fail. "He's with another agent."

I turned to her, my face a blank mask. My eyes daring her to stop me. She faltered in her steps and said nothing more.

I didn't bother knocking and just threw open the door. Zero, didn't even look up from whatever was holding his attention on his computer screen. My intrusion didn't even phase him. He knew that no one else in the agency just simply barged in without knocking, except for me. Even Devin knocked first before barging in.

The agent he was meeting with, however, turned to glare at me. "He's busy," He snapped at me from his seat in front of Zero's desk. His ice-blue eyes boring into mine.

I stared down at him blankly and then ignored him. "What do you want?" I asked Zero bluntly.

"Always a pleasure to deal you with you too, Agent Thirteen," Zero said, his gaze never leaving his computer screen.

"This is Agent Thirteen?" The man sitting across from Zero questioned in disbelief. He looked me up and down before scowling and turning back to Zero.

"Stand down, Thirteen," Zero said just seconds before a threat spilled from my mouth. I snapped my mouth shut and glared at Zero.

"What do you want?" I repeated at the same time the other agent said, "I'm not working with her."

I raised my eyebrows at him before turning back to Zero. "Working with who now?" I questioned.

Zero, still didn't even look at me. "Agent Thirteen meet Agent Ninety-eight. You'll be joining his team for a mission."

"Like hell she will," Agent Ninety-eight growled. "We don't need her help."

Well, this felt familiar.

I ignored him in favor of getting answers from Zero. "What mess are you making me clean up now?"

"We don't need your help," Agent Ninety-eight interjected before Zero could answer. I could feel him trying to burn a hole through my head with his glare. He was beginning to piss me off. And if the fact that Zero took his gaze away from the computer screen long enough to glare at me was any indication, he realized it too.

"Hey," I said, turning to Agent Ninety-eight. "Zip it alright?" I snapped. "The adults are talking."

Zero pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and let out a long sigh.

Agent Ninety-eight's face turned dark and furious and he stood abruptly, his chair falling back onto the floor as he got in my face, towering over me. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, fury radiating off him in waves.

I calmly looked from Zero to him, locking eyes with him, refusing to back down. "You can try all you want to intimidate me," I told him. My voice emotionless and cold. "but it's not going to work. And should you be stupid enough to throw a hit at me, you'll end up with your face smashed into the desk."

"Agent Thirteen," Zero's voice was firm and a warning not to do anything further.

I turned to him. "Oh please," I said. "I'm being civil and you damn well know it. Normally I'd have already stabbed him by now."

I watched Zero put his head in his hands and let out another exasperated sigh. He was done dealing with me and resigned to the fact that he could not control me.

"Agent Ninety-eight, sit down," Zero ordered.

"I'm good," He said, still glaring at me.

"It wasn't a question," Zero said.

With one last glare to me, Agent Ninety-eight righted his chair and sat back down. Zero gestured for me to take the empty seat next to him.

I crossed my arms over my chest and spread my stance so my feet were shoulder length apart and stood tall, making it clear that I wasn't moving.

Zero took the hint. He gestured to Ninety-eight. "Agent Ninety-eight and his team, Gamma Twelve, were completing a mission when Agent Thirty-four vanished."

I frowned. "What do you mean vanished?" I questioned.

"She was just gone," Agent Ninety-eight said. "We infiltrated this building, got what we came there for, and she just never came back to the van." He was staring at the floor, a muscle in his jaw ticking in frustration. "I sent Agent Nineteen back to find her, but she wasn't there. Her backpack, tablet, everything she'd been carrying was gone too. Like she'd never been there."

I turned back to Zero. "And we aren't assuming she's the type to just up and run off because . . . ?"

"Because Melanie wouldn't do that," Ninety-eight snapped angrily.

Zero held up his hand. "Agent Thirty-four is not that kind of agent," He said. "She'd have informed Ninety-eight if she had some reason to leave. She disappeared from a very busy building. None of the security cameras caught her leaving and she didn't come back out the way she'd gone in."

"And her comms cut out," Ninety-eight interjected.

"What do you mean her comms cut out?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "We tried tracking her earpiece. The computer said that the earpiece was still on, still functioning, but we couldn't track it. Like it wasn't anywhere on the planet. It didn't make sense."

Zero reached across his desk, handing me a file. "This is everything we have on Agent Thirty-four, as well as all the details about her disappearing." He looked at Ninety-eight. "You're dismissed. Wait outside. I need to discuss somethings with Agent Thirteen in private."

Ninety-eight let out a huff of frustration, glared at me as if this were somehow all my fault and then got up from his seat and started toward the door.

"Shut the door on your way out," I told him.

I heard him stop in his tracks and I was pretty sure he wanted to strangle me.

"Agent Ninety-eight," Zero said, his tone holding warning. I moment later I heard Ninety-eight's footsteps resume and the door open and close behind me.

"He's a charmer," I said sarcastically. I held out my hand to Zero.

He handed over the rest of the files I knew he wasn't going to give me while Agent Ninety-eight was in the room.

I flipped open the first one. "Ian Meier, Agent Ninety-eight. Team leader. Noelle-"

"You can read that later," Zero said. I looked up from the files for my temporary new team.

I let out a long sigh. "You're forcing me to work with them and I'm telling you now that I can't do it."

"You've worked with teams before," Zero reminded me.

"Yeah," I agreed. "but none with a jackass in charge."

It was Zero's turn to sigh. He rubbed his hands down his face and then turned his full attention back to me. His face was serious and tense. His hands clasped together on in front of him on his desk.

"What I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room. Officially, your mission is to find Agent Thirty-four," He said quietly. "Unofficially, that's not your only mission." He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me. A flash drive.

I looked at him questioningly. "What's this for?"

"That," He said. "is everything I have on the missing agents."

I raised my eyebrows. "Agents?" I questioned. "As in plural?"

He nodded solemnly. "I have been keeping this quiet," He said. "I don't need panic spread through this agency, but Agent Thirty-four was not the first nor do I believe she will be the last."

I stared at him blankly for a moment. "If we were a greeting card company and employees were disappearing then I could understand keeping it quiet to keep people from panic," I said. "But we're highly skilled and trained agents. The only thing that telling them what's going is going to do, is put their already paranoid selves on high alert."

Zero shook his head. "No," He said. "this would cause panic." He pulled a file from one of the drawers in his desk and slid it across the desk to me, flipping it open. There were pictures inside. Pictures of an agent found floating in a lake. Skin pale, lips blue, eyes sightless and staring straight up at the sky. Dead.

"Some of the agents have been found," Zero said, his tone soft and I could almost believe he actually cared. "But not alive. It's been becoming a pattern. An agent disappears, shows up days or weeks later dead." He shook his head again. "Too many agents are missing and too many are being found dead. The only consistency with the disappearances is that they always disappear right in the middle of a mission and when they're found it's always in a body of water." He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I've been sending out fewer and fewer teams on missions but I need this solved. Now."

I watched him carefully. "If agents have been disappearing, why are you just now doing something?"

"I have been doing something. I have been personally looking for them but I also, as I said, have been trying to keep this quiet."

"And yet here you are," I said. "Cluing me in. Why didn't you do it sooner? Why didn't you avoid all of this sooner? Were you hoping it would all just stop and you wouldn't have to actually deal with it?"

His fists clenched and pushed himself up from his desk, glaring at me. "Find the missing agents," He said. "You're my best agent, I'm putting you on it."

"And why didn't you put me on it sooner?" I asked as I took a couple steps closer to the desk, my hard gaze locked on his.

"That isn't your concern," He said harshly. "You are to find the missing agents before any more disappear. Before any more turn up dead. You are dismissed."

I just stood there and stared at him, eyes narrowed. He was hiding something. There was something about this mission he wasn't telling me. Unfortunately, I also knew the chances of getting anything out of him were as good as him getting anything out of me. Not a chance in hell.

"I said, You. Are. Dismissed." He pointed to the door. "Now get out."

I picked up the files I'd set down on his desk. "I'll find the agents," I said as I opened the door. "And I'll also find whatever you're hiding."