Planning Some Moves
Chapter 49 : Planning Some Moves
Song : Indigo Home by Roo Panes
Clarke lightly knocked on the door, waiting for Raven to open it. The Brunette didn’t make her wait too much.
“Hey, Clarke” Raven warmly said, hugging the Blonde.
Clarke returned the embrace, but was a bit surprised with Raven’s behaviour. “Are you ok, Rae?” Clarke gently asked, running her hand on Raven’s back.
“Yeah, yeah” Raven sighed, pulling away. “It’s just... Anya and I, we...” She trailed off.
“Anya and I, hm?” Clarke smirked, bringing a tiny smile on Raven’s face.
“Yeah, well, some things are weird” Raven waved off, “But it’s not your problem. So, what did you want to talk...”
“Rae” Clarke interrupted her, “What’s happening with you, how you are feeling, whether you’re ok or not, is my problem” Clarke said, taking Raven’s hand. “You’re one of my best friend, Raven. I will always make your problems my problems. OK? ”.
“Alright” Raven nodded, offering a smile to Clarke. Clarke nodded back, happy to see that Raven wouldn’t hide her problems from her.
“So, anyways...?” Raven trailed off, waiting for Clarke to talk.
“Anyways” Clarke wiggled her eyes-brows, “You are going to tell me everything you know about Skaikru”.
Raven gulped. “Clarke, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hide things from you, but...”
“It’s ok Rae, I understand” Clarke said, smiling at her friend. “You wanted to protect me. I can understand that”.
Raven smiled back, and motioned for Clarke to follow her.
They went into Monty and Harper’s loft, where Monty and Raven had built a little “secret tech lab”.
“So, I found some interesting stuff while snooping around in Trikru” Raven started, turning the computers on, moving the screens hanging on the walls so Clarke could see.
“This is a list of every Skaikru person known to Azgeda” Raven explained. She knew she wouldn’t have to explain everything again, because Lexa had filled Clarke in about it.
“The list Trikru stole a few years ago” Clarke asked.
“Yes” Raven nodded. “A red name means a dead person...”
“Like Wells” Clarke hummed.
“Yeah” Raven sighed, “A blue name means someone known as still alive, and a yellow name...”
“Means someone they lost track of” Clarke ended Raven’s sentence, figuring it on her own.
“Exactly” Raven confirmed. “But this list is from years ago”.
“And it’s probably wrong” Clarke stated, “I met Nia White, I’m not a yellow name anymore”.
“No you’re not” Raven nodded, “And she probably put spies everywhere to watch us 24/7”.
Clarke sighed, and took a seat next to Raven.
“What can we do?” Clarke asked. “We have to do something. I don’t know what she’s planning, but it can’t be good. There’s a high chance she wants to take us all down”.
“Yeah, I know that” Raven said, “But she doesn’t know who she’s fighting against” A smirk appeared on the Brunette’s face as she was typing on the keyboard.
Clarke smiled; she was glad she was having the chance to see Raven like this again; the strong-headed genius woman, fighting crimes behind her computers.
“I could enter Azgeda’s servers, find out what they have on us” Raven suggested, not taking her eyes out of the screens, “Dig a bit”.
“What do you expect to find?” Clarke asked.
“I don’t know, really” Raven shrugged, “But I could see if they still have that list or not. Plus, Nia White is smart. She has to keep records of her plans somewhere”.
Clarke thought for a second. “You could access Azgeda servers?”
“Yeah, well...” Raven massaged her neck, “I mean, I can, but, hum...”
“What is it, Raven?” Clarke raised a brow at her friend.
“Anya kind of forbid me to” Raven confessed.
Clarke frowned. Anya was working for a highly secret organisation, and surely they had done things out of the books, using non-conventional ways. Why would she be opposed to Raven infiltrating Azgeda system?
“What did you find out about Skaikru Company?” Clarke asked instead.
“Well, everything Anya and Lexa told us is true; it’s maybe the oldest secret Company ever created, and was supposed to join Lexa’s Coalition when she had just become CEO; but members started dying and disappearing, so there was no one left to take care of it. The company crashed, the army and the government covered every tracks about everything; it was like nothing ever existed” Raven explained, showing Clarke old archive pictures of the locals.
“Your mother was in the council, as Nia White and Lexa said” Raven added. “Each of our parents had a part to play. Well, maybe not mine” Raven shrugged.
Clarke squeezed Raven’s shoulders, knowing it was still a bit difficult for the girl to talk about her parents.
“Clarke, we could bring this company back to life, if we wanted” Raven said, showing Clarke another document. “This thing is Skaikru’s actions. They are at our names! The company is ours”.
Clarke’s eyes widened, reading the paper. Indeed, their names were at the end of the text, stating that they were the heirs of Skaikru Company.
“Impossible...” Clarke whispered.
“And look!” Raven exclaimed, zooming on the file. “The date! It’s from ten years ago!”
“The company wasn’t even down yet...!” Clarke murmured, data rushing through her brain.
“No it was not” Raven confirmed, “But surely they knew something was up! It’s like they knew they would lose and they did this to protect the Company” Raven suggested.
“I think you’re right” Clarke nodded. “To access Azgeda servers, what do you need?”
“I can’t do that from here” Raven sighed, “Our systems are not powerful enough.”
“But you can’t do it from your post in Trikru’s bunker, either” Clarke deduced.
“Nope” Raven nodded.
Clarke thought about it. They didn’t have a lot of solutions. But suddenly, Clarke got an idea.
“Rae, every Company’s building must have enough power to do it, yes?”
“Well, yes” Raven shrugged, “But it’s not like....” Raven stopped, watching Clarke’s expression. “No, Clarke. Whatever is on your mind, that’s probably a very bad idea”.
“We don’t have much choice” Clarke protested, “I can have access to Lexa’s building. If you could write a program which could search for data on its own, maybe I could...”
“No, Clarke” Raven waved her head, “That’s too risky. That’s using Lexa for our purposes.”
“So tell me something we can do!” Clarke shouted, frustrated.
Raven got up, and put her hand on top of Clarke. “C, listen to me. I know it’s hard for you, to see a potential threat and not be able to do something to protect us” Raven gently said. “But we have to be smart about this, way smarter than every time before. We will find a way. A way which will not cost Lexa’s trust in you”.
Clarke sadly smiled. “What about Anya’s trust in you, Rae?”
Raven shrugged. “That’s different. Lexa to you, she’s...”
“No, it’s not different” Clarke said, “You have the right to be happy, too”.
Raven offered her friend a tiny smile. “Okay. So now, we have to find a way which doesn’t involve breaking anyone’s trust”.
“Let’s get to work!” Clarke said, taking a keyboard.
At the police station, Bellamy was busy checking for mistakes in the last files they had received. He didn’t see nor heard Echo knocking at his door.
“Agent Blake?” Echo asked after a while, seeing Bellamy hadn’t noticed her.
He finally looked up. “Yes, Snow?”
“Something came in” Echo said, getting close to him to hand him the file she had in her hands. “They suspect a drug transfer near Sandkru border. They want us to go check it out”.
“Alright” Bellamy nodded, getting up. “Let’s get moving”.
He grabbed his weapon and his badge, putting them on his belt. Echo followed him to the garage, over to the police car Bellamy had. It wasn’t really his personal car of course, but one he had to his disposal when he was at work.
They got onto the car, and Bellamy started driving.
“Where do you say we have to go?” Bellamy asked again.
“Sandkru neighbourhood” Echo answered, “Near the old school”.
Bellamy chuckled. “That must be some old school indeed”.
Echo smiled at that. That was funny, because Sandkru neighbourhood wasn’t known for its education. Then, she internally scolded herself; she couldn’t afford to think Bellamy Blake was funny. Bellamy Blake was the target, the enemy. Not a friend. He couldn’t be.
They drove silently after that, eyes focused on around them, trying to spot anything suspicious. Then, Bellamy stopped the car, parking somewhere where the police car was a bit hidden.
“We’re going to go there?” Echo raised her brows, pointing at the disaffected building.
“How else would you want to check for drug business?” Bellamy raised his brows back, getting out of the car.
Echo sighed. She had been a cop, yes. Had been. It’s not that Echo was afraid of danger; it was more like she didn’t consider herself clean enough to be a law figure. Who was she, to handcuff people, probably only trying to survive, doing what they could?
And Echo had a few secrets, too. Some she didn’t want anyone to know. But of course, she was pretty sure Nia knew all about it already.
She got out of the car and followed Bellamy, her hand close to the gun she held on her belt. They were walking slowly, not to raise any suspicions. Which was quite hilarious, as they were dressed as cops.
Echo was analysing everything around her, trying to look for weird face expressions – she was the best at noticing if someone had something to hide or not – but suddenly, Bellamy pushed her to the side, sending them bang into a iron barrel, as gun shots were piercing the air.
“The fuck?!” Echo asked, not having seen anything.
“Drug business it seems!” Bellamy grunted, detaching his gun from his hip and shooting warning shots.
“Stop shooting!” Bellamy shouted, “Police!”
But of course no one was listening to him, and Bellamy threw a iron plaque over their heads to protect themselves.
“There’s no way we can escape this” He grunted again under the weight of the heavy plaque.
But then, the shots ended. Bellamy carefully lowered the iron shield, slowly raising his head to see if the gangsters had left.
“No one seems to be there” He whispered to Echo, “You take left, I’ll take right”.
Echo nodded, and they parted ways, making sure to say behind colons or walls, or anything which could make a barrier between their fragile bodies and the piercing bullets.
Bellamy got around the building, eyes wide open and gun secured in his hand, ready to shoot. Being a cop wasn’t Bellamy’s dream job; but it was the best job to learn how to protect his friends. That was making him feel better, to know he could enforce the law when needed, and use his job as an advantage for when things needed to be done off the books.
Suddenly, he spotted a guy running towards a car, a heavy bag on his shoulder.
“Freeze!” He shouted, “Police!”
The man didn’t listen, and threw himself behind a car, disappearing from his sight. Bellamy was ready to shoot at him to keep him from running away, but then he heard a scream. Echo.
He quickly got up, and ran towards the sound. No one was here, except for Echo, lying on the ground, a hand against her shoulder.
“Echo! Are you ok? What happened?” Bellamy asked, rushing to her side, and tearing his shirt so he could apply pressure on the bullet wound.
“I’m ok” Echo said through gritted tears, “It just ricocheted”.
Bellamy nodded, taking Echo’s bulletproof vest off, and bandaging her shoulder like he could.
“Come on, we have to go back to the police station” He said, “To get you checked out”.
He helped Echo on her feet, and started the car as soon as she had her seatbelt on.
At the police station, he called for the medic working with them, ordering him to check Echo, even if she had told him a dozen times she was ok. Bellamy insisted, and now she was sitting on a medical bed, waiting for the doctor to finish stitching her shoulder.
Echo couldn’t help but notice how caring the boy was. She had seen how he was there in a few seconds, after she had screamed. How he forgot everything else to protect her, to get her to safety, and Echo couldn’t help but wondering if it was in his nature; if he had always been like this, towards his family and friends.
Her trail of thoughts were broken when the medic announced he was done. Echo thanked him, put her shirt back on and went back to her office.
“Echo!” Bellamy called her when she passed in front of his desk.
“Yeah?”
“You’re ok?” He asked, and Echo could see the sincerity in his eyes.
“Yeah, thank you. Just a scratch” Echo answered with a warm smile. A warm smile? Echo wake up, she told herself, you’re supposed to charm him, not the other way around.
Bellamy nodded, smiling back, and then he got up, an expression on his face Echo couldn’t figure.
“I was wondering... I was wondering if you would consider coming to eat with my family?” Bellamy asked. “You’re going to be my partner, so, it’s only fair they know you”.
Echo was left speechless for a few seconds, but quickly recovered. She had to think about her mission.
“Yeah, of course! With pleasure” She answered.
“Great” Bellamy smiled, “Meet me here at 6?”
“Copy” Echo nodded back, before going back to her office.
Bellamy grinned, and took his phone out to tell his friends to add an extra-plate for dinner.
Back in Monty’s apartment, Clarke and Raven were pacing, trying to find a solution.
“Ok, so what are our options?” Clarke asked.
“We don’t have options” Raven retorted, “Our hands are completely tied right now”.
Clarke sighed, seeing how Raven was getting frustrated. The Blonde was frustrated too of course; they felt like fighting a villain they could not see.
“Well, maybe you could talk to Anya?” Clarke suggested, “She’s Trikru, she has to know that there’s no other option here”.
“Yeah, maybe” Raven sighed, “But she still thinks she can find another way”.
“There is no other way” Clarke said again. “We have to know what Nia White is planning”.
“I know!” Raven huffed again, “I know, alright? I’ll see what I can do”.
Clarke nodded, and got ready to leave. She needed to go buy some pizzas for lunch.
“Hey, Raven?” Clarke asked, just before closing the door behind her.
“Yeah?”
“Without you, we wouldn’t have survived all those years. Don’t take the blame on your shoulders” Clarke gently said to her friend.
Raven sadly smiled to her. Both of them, they knew it wasn’t that simple. “Don’t take it either” She murmured back.
Clarke nodded, smiled, and closed the door.