Chapter One: Donut Crumbs 1.2

The sweet smell of donuts mingled with the sterile smell of the BMW, as James opened the donut box. Again.

Verena glanced down at it, dark lashes shading her pale eyelids. inspecting the box," You're getting crumbs in the car."

James started down at the floor, cheeks bulging, and muttered an "oops" as best he could.

Verena flicked a few crumbs off the dark leather seat, and turned her attention back to the bulky pair infrared of binoculars she held." How come you buy a box of donuts every time we go on a stake out?"

James brushed his hands together. The toasty crumbs just barley visible on his warm skin, "Why would I not waste company money while being paid to sit and wait?"

Verena’s periwinkle eyes peered into a window, only half invested in James' response,"Alright, fair."

James nodded, a light brown strand of hair falling into his forehead. He brushed it back, happy with the response, and held out a donut to her,"and yet you never have one?"

"Do I ever?"

A pause. They both knew the answer.

"No...But there's a first time for everything?"

"Sugar will mess with my focus" She ignored James’s pout,"Somethings not right," she sighed, lowering the binoculars and staring intently at the mansion. It was an imposing structure. Built of ivory coloured stone, and accented with dark granite, in an almost articutrial greek style.

James focused his deep green eyes on the back of her head. It was adorned with her dark midlentgh hair, braid and coied up on her head. She’d been studying the same set of windows for the past hour and almost nothing seemed to be changing. At this point he was sure she’d memorized every line of stone and sculpted trim on the building.

They’d been sent on a small stake out mission for a local politician, during one of his many, many campaign parties. Something about possible foul play. Not that the Cooperation really cared, they just wanted him alive. Even if other parties were trying to sabotage that.

"You say that a lot." He was left holding a donut in mid air between them. It hovered there for a moment, before he violently stuffed it into his mouth.

"Maybe I do, Maybe I don’t. Either way it's true. It's like the same shadows have been going back and forth."

James inspected another donut, this one was rather fluffy looking, covered in a layer of slick chocolate icing,"it's a bunch of old men in suits and their trophy wives. I don't know if their bones are strong enough to do more than stand."

He got a grunt in response. One of her favorite responses. He’d heard them enough to categorize the different types. This one was,”I agree, but I'm too focused to say so right now.”

James shrugged, stuffed the first donut in his mouth and shut the box on the other. Patting it lovingly.

Verena lowered the binoculars, "I'm gonna do a round."

"Ooooh can I come!" James jumped in his seat like an excited puppy. While he wasn't trained as an agent, how hard could sneaking around be? He did it all the time when he stole donuts from the community room pastry table.

Verena snorted, her thin lips twisting into a smirk,"and repeat what happened in Russia? I think not."

"See this is why I eat donuts on steak outs! So I don't get distracted by pastries later! Logic!," he tapped his temple,"can I please at least help you with the grapple?"

Verena was crawling into the cleanly stripped back of the vehicle. "I need you to stay here and keep a lookout. You're my getaway driver, to be a getaway driver."

Letting out a far longer than need be sigh, James agreed,"Fine."

Resting his chin beside the seats headrest, he watched Verena pull out a collection of various techy looking items. All organized in various built in bins and compartments in the converted luxury vehicle. It was true, he was the getaway driver, although in his contract it said something fancier sounding than that. But a getaway driver was the simplest way to put it. He'd considered Guy-In-The-Chair, but he wasn't nearly that techy, and he did far more driving than computer work. Unless he had to fill out paperwork for missions. His most dreaded task.

Verena was trained to scale walls and creep around like a fly on the wall. Granted, that was exactly what her lean, muscular build was made for. Still, he had to admit she looked pretty cool doing it. Even if he was usually the only one who saw her doing it. Maybe that's why he wanted to join in somehow. Not that he had any idea of what the various gadgets now strapped or clipped descritey to her body did.

Verena slid a pair of black night vision goggles over her eyes,fitting the strap around her braids, "keep the chatter limited please." Various buckles clicking into place and clasps being pushed followed her order.

James nodded and tapped his earpiece," you look like a frogman. Woman? Frog, woman? Frog woman.”

"Those are divers James," her deadpan tone was almost lost in the thick bulletproof interior.

He shrugged, not fully convinced,”still."

Verena slinked out of the backdoor, waving her hand pale in dismissal when James whispered,"don't die frogwoman," at her disappearing figure.

"Your nick-name is frogwoman now." he said, no one hearing but the nearly empty suv.

Once his partner vanished in the darkness, James snatched the last donut, "shotgun!" he muttered. Then nestled himself comfortably in Verena's vacant driver's seat.

James had just about mastered the ability to comfortably curl himself up in a way that avoids detection. Yet didn't leave his muscles infinitely cramped. Of course, it helped that he wasn't quite as muscular as the male agents. Or, glorified gym bros, as was his nickname for them. He kept himself in enough shape to balance out the amount of pure sitting he did. Which usually came in the form of running after Verena in one way or another.

"And now. We wait." He looked down at the last donut in his hand," it's just you and me. Probably just me soon. Because only one of us is editable, at least ideally that is."

After an hour of ducking down as distant headlights flashed by. His final donut had long disappeared, and James started to get tired of staring at the stagnant looking mansion. He'd memorized the way the extravagantly carved stone framed the doors and windows, the neatly kept gardens that seemed to form an intricate maze around it. Making him wonder if there was a hidden maze that could spring out from under it.

He squinted at his glow-in-the-dark-watch. A techy advancement designed as an old analog bronze watch, with bright numbers clearly shining up at him,"How big of a mansion is it?" It looked big, it couldn't be as big inside. With all the hallways and walls. Could it? He mused the possibility of hidden rooms.

A cold dark pale hand reached around from behind the seat and pressed his head into it, covering his mouth." Not that big actually, I’m just thorough," a familiar testing voice tickled his ear.

James let out a very muffled scream, then tugged the hand down, and twisted in his seat to better face his assailant,"Frogwoman! You've got to stop doing that!"

Verena placed her elbows on the center console, holding her chin in her hands like a schoolgirl and smiling mischievously,"I will when you become more aware of your surroundings."

James studied her cheeky smile,"uh huh, sure you will."

He was fairly sure her hobby was sneaking up on him. She knew he would never sneak up on her. He was sure that one day he could, but that day was a long time coming. He sighed, at least she had a hobby, something other than her addiction to her work. Although one day it might actually give him a heart attack.He let out a long sigh and settled back into his seat.

Verena pulled out a tiny circular device and pressed a button. Inviting a light in the middle which caused a small holographic blueprint to light up the vehicle,"I traced a basic layout of the mansion.I'm going to go investigate more thoroughly. You can track my movements through this."

James leaned in so close his head almost disrupted the holograph,"Cool. What are these?" He pointed at, or rather stuck his finger into two small red dots beside each other."

"That",Verena pulled her goggles back down with one hand," is the Prime minister and his bodyguard," I'll appear as a green dot when I’m in there."

James gingerly lifted the device out of her other hand, "alrighty then."

He looked back up at Verena, or rather the blank space in the car where her head had been,"frog-Verena?"

He twisted around in his seat, balancing the hologram in one hand," aw man, how does she do that.”

When he’d first been paired with her, he’d gone through a phase of wondering if she was simply a figment of his imagination and he was going crazy. Given the way she seemed to vanish and appear with no giveaway whatsoever. Until he realized that, one, others knew of her, and two, he was just really bad at being quiet.

He focused back on the hologram, and set it on the console, staring at it,"guess i'll just watch you through here."

James curled knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around his legs, tapping his fingers to a silent beat on his biceps,"any minute now."

As he glanced back towards the mansion a flash of red caught his eye, and he leaned back into the hologram,"There you are!" he studied the wholly plain green dot that hovered on the far west wide of the mansion,"why isn't it moving?"

As if in response to his question, the dot inched along what seemed to be the wall of the mansion. James measured the distance between the green dot and the two red dots with his finger, then held his finger up to the full size mansion that lay a few meters away from him.

”I wonder what scale this is in." he turned back to the hologram, concern creeping into his mind as he watched Verena creep around the mansion.

James fingers tapped a faster and faster beat as the distance between the dots grew smaller and smaller. Soon his teeth joined in the melody. If anyone else had happened to peek in the vehicle window they would have thought he was crazy. But he had found the only way he could sit in suspense, was to play the notes in his mind as discreetly as possible.

The heavy vehicle creaked, settling in the dirt road. Plastic and metal cooling. Interrupting his quiet orchestra every few moments.

The engine had been turned off for at least an hour. But the car had held warmth while Verena had been in it. Now it felt cold, Lonely and slightly creepy.

He hugged his knees closer. Feeling the cold seeping in the vents, creeping up along the floor and up the seats.

His frenzied percussion froze as the dots suddenly encountered. His breath caught as if he’d just reached the plot twist of a novel. Pooling in front of him in a frosty cloud.

"I sure hope you're above them, and not in front of them," James wrinkled his brow, trying to render some idea of a picture of that specific room in his brain. Instead he came up with some strange looking picture of a typical mansion ballroom. Chandeliers on the ceiling, marble flooring, and some sort of 1800s style decor. Maybe an orchestra playing on a little stage in the corner. All rendered in a slightly pixelated video game style picture.

The dots stood still for what felt like an eternity. Frozen in a stalemate. James started to wonder if the hologram was lagging.

He nudged it gingerly. The dots still held their station. Staring back at him brightly until his eyes burned and he blinked away spots.

James tilted his head towards the mansion, darted his eyes towards the hologram, and then studied the mansion's brightly lit windows inch by inch.

The same shadows swayed back and forth. Haunting the window shades in a ghostly repetitive dance.

The same shadows.

James thought back to Verenas comments on said shadows.

He tapped his fingers furiously on the driver's side door. His job was to stay here, to be ready no matter what, or however long Verena knew how to handle herself. Heck she was the most highly trained agent in the corporation. But things happen. Sometimes fate pushed its way in and the only thing you could do was hope.

James nearly hit his head on the window when the hologram beeped behind him. The projection faded, sinking into the device. He scrambled to turn back to it. The dots sparked, than vanished, leaving a haunting empty blueprint.

James pressed his finger to his earpiece,"Verena?" tapped it again,"VERENA?"

He tapped the ear comm so hard and with such frequency, he almost heard the IT unit getting mad at him. But he had bigger problems then wrecking tech. The only response his earpiece gave him was fizz. James grunted, frustrated, and swiveled back to the hologram. It was still dark. He scooped it up, flipping it around and scanning for any other buttons he could press.

he started at the mansion,mumbling,"she-knows-what-shes-doing-she-knows-what-shes-doing."

A rolling shudder bubble up from the wheels and shimmed into the body of the car. Rattling equipment in the back seats. At least, he thought it ratteled

He couldn't tell what was real and what was a figment of his adrenaline pumped mind.

The car shuttered again, hit by some silent pressure sent barreling through the air. The hologram toppled off the center conceal and onto the passenger seat

Black sky gave way to searing light, knocking James back in his perched position on the seat.

The windows of the manion now held hot, forceful flames, in place of warm inviting light.

James started at it. His faint reflection in the tinted windows of the SUV revealing the flames reflected his horrified green eyes

If he swore, he would have. Instead, he bit the inside of his cheek, contemplating the possibilities in his head.

Possibilities be shot and thrown out the window.

James all but kicked the door open, the need for stealth lost in the chaos of destruction.

What use was a getaway driver if you couldn't get to the getaway driver. He almost made it to the nearest window before the heat stopped him. He stared at it. Feeling the invisible waves of heat lapping at his exposed skin. Where had Verena been before the dots vanished? He knew the target had been in the room visible from the car. Which should be on the other side of the window he stood in front of.

Question was, how did one get past that window. He took another step forward, the ground crunching beneath him. Glinting slivers peeked out from under his shoes. Some of the windows had been blown out.

Well, he could climb through then. He’d climbed his fair share of trees as a kid, fallen out of almost just as many. How was this any different? It was hard, creviced, stone instead of a ladder of naturally sprawled branches. Not really that different. If you didn't think about it too much.

He hopped back a few steps, and ran, launching himself towards the stone wall under the window. Heavy boots flung glass into the air as he landed a few feet up the wall. He clung to the few crevices and bumps that decorated the building. James peered up, the window sat about two feet above him.

His right hand crept upward, fingers feeling out the next crack he could stick his fingers in. Finding one he hoisted himself up a few inches. Then reached his left arm out.

Finally he wrapped a hand around the window sill, heat searing his hands. He remembered the heavy pair of gloves sitting neatly on the dash. Always there when he needed them, except he never did. Until now.

James started to reach his other arm up, but paused, fingers clinging to a crevice halfway to the window. Something was burning into his back. James felt his breath tick and pick up panic triggering. He carefully turned his head to the side, trying to see what was behind him.

A stern man stood a few feet below him, clothed in some strange cross between a black tie suit and combat gear. A barely visible red beam shone beside the man, coming from somewhere far back in the woods. He took an educated guess that it ended in his back. James sunk his head into the wall and closed his eyes,"Aw come on."

His dire attempt and breach of protocol couldnt end like this. Clinging to a wall so close to his objective. Of course. He was breaching protocol. His position and potentially his job was in jeopardy. But all he cared about was the safety of his best friend.

The man lifted a finger and tapped his earpiece, James heard his fizzle," Operative Jameson, you've overstepped your position. Drop.”

Well that was on heck of a command. James pressed his ear against his shoulder, activating his earpiece again,"I know. I'm already up here, let me find her. I know I’m breaking protocol. Fire me if you want, just let me go in there.”

"Agent Laufy needs no finding. Drop," the command was repeated. The red beam remained. A viable threat.

"If I said please, would it make a difference?"

'"Drop. That's an order and your final warning."

James breathed in the smell of smoke wafting from the window, and flung himself upward. His grasp slipped on the sill as a whisper flew through the air behind him. A small point dug into his back, and shocked his nervous system into near heaven.

"Guess I'm dropping" he watched the window fade away.