park
“Delicious.” Agatha barely noticed Rio’s voice come from the front of the cabin, taking a champagne flute from a cabin crew member.
“More champagne, ma’am?”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t.”
Next thing she knew, Rio was walking toward her with two glasses of champagne. “Nice plane, right?”
Agatha had no idea. She couldn’t focus on anything. All she had noticed before panicking again were the muted colors around her. She trembled in her seat, rocking back and forth slowly. “I’ve never been on a plane before.”
“Hell of a way to pop that cherry, then.” Rio settled into a seat in front of her. “You know what I mean?” The P.A. system chimed. Agatha vaguely heard a voice.
“This is your captain speaking. Please fasten your belts for takeoff.” She briefly wondered at the formality when it was a private aircraft, but then glanced at the window and tensed up again.
Rio held up the loose buckle end of her seatbelt, laughing. “Yeah, like this is gonna help us if we crash.”
Agatha’s eyes widened further, breathing deeply as she tried to calm herself down. Her mind was spinning; her thoughts scrambled as her heart raced. Her vision blurred as her breaths came in short gasps.
“Sweetheart? You okay?” Rio raised an eyebrow,
Agatha didn’t reply, fingers shaking as she jumped in her seat when the plane began to accelerate. “Oh god,” she gasped.
“Ever try alcohol?” Rio held out a glass of champagne. “It helps.”
Agatha managed to shake her head. Tears were flowing down her cheeks now, lips pressed into a firm line in an attempt to keep her stress at bay, which was clearly failing.
“Hey, look at me.” Rio’s voice turned softer. “Look, up here.” Agatha looked up from her lap, biting the inside of her cheek. “One of my first Division ops, I’m in Brazil, cornered at a refugee camp.” Agatha furrowed her brows, confused on why Rio had randomly decided to launch into a story that would clearly end with her being heroic. “I had to scale a mountain, but I’m no professional, so I know any minute I’m gonna free-fall a few hundred feet per second. Burst like a water balloon on impact.” Her voice got quieter. “So what did I do?” Agatha rolled her eyes. Of course she’s going to be motivational right now. “I stopped worrying about the 10,000-foot rock face above me, and I worked the three-foot space in front of me.” Agatha let out a deep exhale, almost about to laugh. “So when you feel that fear, remember to focus on the only thing that’s real. What’s right in front of you.” As Rio ended the anecdote with a flourish, Agatha realized her vision had cleared and her breathing had steadied. She still had a weight of sorts pressing on her chest, but the more she rolled her eyes at Rio, the lighter it got.
She couldn’t explain the sudden change. Rio starts a random story, clearly in a stupid attempt to distract Agatha, and it works. It wasn’t the fastest she’d calmed down, but it was pretty up there. As she admired the city view below them, she realized she owed some credit to Rio for that shitty speech.
Not that she’d ever verbally say that to her, though.
As they flew over the ocean, Agatha found herself thinking about what Rio had said to her. How soft her voice had gotten. She’d never expected the sarcastic edge in her voice to fade, especially that quickly. It was as if someone had flicked a switch in her, triggering her softer side. She didn’t expect Rio to act like that again, but it made some of her dislike for Rio subside. So she did take some things seriously, Agatha mused. She glanced over at Rio, her head resting against the airplane wall as she slept, arms crossed over her chest. How did she manage to look threatening in her sleep? Agatha realized then it was just her body language. Her face, however, was serene, a small smile faintly present. Agatha had to quint to see it.
Agatha’s eyes trailed back down to Rio’s arms, muscles flexed, and she thought about her climbing that mountain in Brazil. It was hot in Brazil, so she must have been in shorts. It took strength to climb a mountain, strength that Rio clearly had, and Agatha found herself imagining how Rio looked, heaving herself up rock after rock, panting.
Agatha jolted as she pushed those intrusive thoughts out of her mind. Rio was conventionally attractive, and Agatha had found herself appreciating that. So what? She shook her head at herself. Yes, she was attracted to women, and yes, Rio was pretty attractive, but that didn’t add up to Agatha being attracted to Rio. She simply didn’t catch feelings that way. She shoved a fleeting thought about something her mother had said about that a few weeks ago to the back of her mind, deciding instead to actually get some sleep. She rolled her shoulders back, getting comfortable, and closed her eyelids, which were getting heavier by the minute.
She dreamt of rock climbing, flights to Brazil, and chipmunks.
***
When they’d gotten off the plane, Agatha had muttered a soft “Thank you” to Rio. Agatha was expecting a snarky comment, but Rio pleasantly surprised her with a cute smile.
“Anytime.” She had almost whispered.
Did she actually mean anytime? How long did Rio expect to stay with Agatha for? What happened to her usual annoying, weird chuckle?
Agatha wasn’t used to Rio being like this, even if they’d only spent a total of about 24 hours together. Something in her told her Rio seemed to care a little more than she let on, and it was driving Agatha fucking insane.
***
As they walked up to the Albert Memorial, Agatha realized that just 36 hours ago, she would’ve had no idea what was going on. Here she was, running from a covert intel organization, getting on planes, and hanging out with (and trusting) a random spy who wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes. They were moving way too fast. She didn’t even know why they were there; she knew Rio had something important to show her.
Rio led her to a path right in front of the memorial. “I showed up right on time. Right over here. Billy never called.” Agatha hummed, indicating for her to go on. “The question is, what happened?”
‘It’s a good question. What happened?’
“It’s not a rhetorical question,” Rio replied. She stepped closer to Agatha. “What happened?”
Agatha sighed, slouching. “I can’t just—poof—come up with the answer.” She gestured with her hands wildly.
“Sure you can.” Rio shrugged. “End of Book five, Agnes was on her way to meet a hacker in London, right? Agatha nodded. “So just write one more chapter and tell me what happens next.”
“No.” Agatha was becoming increasingly done with every second that passed by. “This is not my process. It takes time, Rio.”
Rio did that tongue thing again, pushing it up against the side of her cheek. “We’re in a public park, being pursued by assassins hunting on you on behalf of the most dangerous spy organization on Earth, babe, so unless you have a better idea, perhaps you could compromise.”
Agatha ignored the way her stomach flipped at Rio calling her babe and chose to roll her eyes instead. She had a point. Not writing the chapter wasn’t going to get them anywhere. “Okay, let’s find a seat.”
***
The Witch was ominously facing a painting, hands gripping the counter she was leaning against in true evil villain fashion. An agent’s voice came from behind her. “Sir, we’ve found them.” The Witch looked back at him before following him out of the room. “They’re at the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park,” the agent explained, jogging down the stairs. “This is live right now.” The Witch walked into the room to see Agatha Harkness’s face plastered across a big screen. “One of her fans is live-streaming her.” A distant camera picked up on two teens huddled together, whispering.
“It’s totally Agatha Harkness,” the girl whispered, discreetly holding her phone up to record her.
“I can’t believe it.” The boy responded, navigating to his Instagram Live as well and propping his phone up.
The Witch smiled, clapping her hands together. “Ralph.”
"Yes, ma’am,” Ralph stood in front of her seconds later, hands clasped behind his back. “Deploy a local team. I want all UK assets repositioned and fixed on them now.” With another wave of her hand, she got another agent to get the audio from the feed. “I want to hear this.”
Within seconds, the agent activated digital lip-read and close hearing. Rio Vidal’s voice was heard throughout the room. “How are we doing there, boss?”
“Don’t rush me,” Agatha swatted at her, settling at one of the picnic tables with her MacBook open. “I have to think properly.”
The Witch smirked. “She’s getting her to write the next chapter.”
***
“It’s not ‘War and Peace’, you know." The edge of Rio’s mouth quirked up into a small smile. “We just need a chapter. Maybe a couple of pages.” She rested her head in one palm, across from Agatha at the picnic table. Agatha took a deep breath, ignoring the nagging agent. She began to write.
‘As Agnes arrived at the rendezvous point...’
***
Agnes, after waiting for a while, strolled along a street nearby. She paused at a black van parked on the curb, lightly tapping on the glass. The doors unlocked, and she swung into the backseat.
“So this guy’s a no-show?” William asked, still typing on his computer.
Agnes was thinking too hard to reply. “Why would he give me the phone not to call? Unless…” Agatha studied the old phone lying carelessly on her lap. “...unless the phone is the message.” She pried open the back panel of the phone. William took it from her, fishing out a small chip with a pair of what looked like tweezers.
He held it up against the light, observing. “Why put a $2,200 encryption chip in a $20 disposable phone?”
Agnes sat up straighter. “He’s trying to tell us how to...”
***
“...find him,” Agatha realized. She blinked once, then twice, trying to find meaning in her words. “Could I see the phone?”
“You mean the flip phone? The burner?” Agatha nodded.
“We need to open it up. If I’m right, Billy could have fitted it with an encryption CPU.”
Rio nodded wisely, not understanding a word. “Sure.”
“Where is it?”
“Threw it out.”
“You don’thave it? You threw it out?” Rio nodded shamelessly. “That was a clue.”
“It ran out of juice. It’s a burner.”
“What kind of spy are you?” Agatha mumbled. “Clearly, I’m not working with Agent Agnes O’Connor here. ” She resumed her thought process, fingers poised over the keyboard, ready to type.
***
“With this chip, in theory, could you make end-to-end encrypted calls?”
“In theory,” William echoed. “But the person on the other end would have to have a matching DiSEqC satellite dish.”
***
Agatha sat up quickly. “That’s it.”
Rio eyed her with a look that Agatha couldn’t describe.
***
Meanwhile, The Witch had someone look up the DiSEqC database.
***
“He picked the chip to lead us to his satellite. We find the satellite, we find Billy. The question is, how do we find a list of operational DiSEqC satellites in the UK?” Agatha tilted her head, lips pursed in thought. Rio tried not to stare.
Rio smiled as she cracked her knuckles, turning Agatha’s computer around. “Don’t worry about that too hard, love.”
“You know how to do that?” An impressed laugh escaped Agatha before she could think better of it.
Rio nodded, eyes still focused on the screen. “I picked up a thing or two from a friend.” She glanced at Agatha. “Every satellite they sell would have to be registered with them.” She furrowed her brows, rethinking the code before deleting a few lines and hitting enter. “Here you go, m’lady.” She turned the computer back to Agatha. “Like to see Agnes O’Connor try doing that.” She muttered under her breath.
“So how many satellite locations are there?”
“A lot. That's... that’s ninety-six to be precise.” Rio replied as the whole database loaded in.
“Shit.” Agatha whispered, and Rio decided she liked the sound of Agatha swearing. “But he must have picked this memorial to meet up at for a reason.” Agatha sighed, seeming to rack her brain for ideas. Rio watched attentively as she drummed her fingers along the table and worked her jaw back and forth. Then she froze. “What’s the closest one to here?”
Rio glanced at the map on the screen. “This one,”
“And this is the absolute closest one to this memorial?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Agatha pursed her lips. “Coburg Street,” she repeated. Then her jaw dropped in realization. She turned back to the memorial, where Prince Albert was visible for the whole park to see. “As in Prince Albert Saxe Coburg. I think we’ve found our guy.” She turned back to Rio with a grin.
That’s when Rio decided that she also liked watching Agatha while all of the pieces fell into place for her.
***
Till then, The Witch’s people had put two and two together as well. “I want a team sent out there immediately.”