It’s the morning after Ann’s - encounter - with Elizabeth Fischer, and her mind is still reeling from it. She’s hardly slept for more than two hours when her alarm clock rings, indicating that it’s time for her to go to work.
Annabel moves out to the kitchen to see Roslyn sprawled and snoring on her pull-out couch and decides to just stop by a breakfast place on the way to work, rather than wake her younger sister up. Mabel lets out a tiny mew from beside her, and Ann walks over to sit at the edge of the couch-bed, picking her up and giving her a little kiss and snuggle before setting her down beside Roslyn again. She places a hand lightly on the side of Rosie’s face, a small smile on her face, and slowly moves up to grab some coffee, get dressed, and leave in silence. Ann will text Rose later.
She can’t decide what kept her up last night - thoughts of Elizabeth Fischer, or thoughts of Elizabeth Fischer. Ann decides that the former is the professional, agent thing to be thinking, so she goes with that. She doesn’t think of what it was like to kiss her, what it was like to push her up against the wall and grasp at the buttons of her shirt. None of that.
(She does, but no one has to know)
When she gets to the base, Vegh is the first one on her ass.
Connolly follows close behind. “Did you film it?”
“Shut up, Connolly,” she says, not bothering to look behind her. “Colonel Vegh, if you wouldn’t mind stepping into my office.”
She sits at her desk, and Vegh closes the door behind him, sitting across from her.
Vegh leans back against his seat. “Give me more information.”
“I can’t, not right now. But I can guarantee that capturing Elizabeth Fischer will be one of the easiest assignments I’ve ever completed. Just give me a few more weeks.”
Vegh scratches at the stubble on his chin. Nods. “I also heard about your work in Boise two weeks ago. A fine job.
Annabel nods. Boise. Another instance of her taking down three rather large men to save the asses of the coordinators in the mission. There are too many of these occasions for her to be able to count, and she’s well aware that Vegh is only now acknowledging this because of her work with Fischer, but the acknowledgement is appreciated nonetheless.
Vegh stands. “I think it’s high time that you received that promotion.”
Ann follows, rising from her seat. “Sir?”
“How does Major Annabel Marie Duke of the London ISA sound to you?”
“Rolls off the tongue nicely, sir.”
“You can finally get on Connolly’s ass for being a dickwad, with authority.”
“Prove your worth of that title by bringing me Fischer. Understood?”
Annabel salutes her general. “Understood.”
Vegh starts to leave the room. “I’ll have your new title instated in the program within the next hour. Announced at the end of the day. Major.”
Once he leaves, Ann remains standing, staring at the door that he has just closed. She needs to check up on everything Elizabeth Fischer said to her. Call the bluff. Could Colonel Vegh be involved with all of this? No. Vegh has always been abrasive, but he’s smart, and he’s loyal to his country. This agency. Annabel shouldn’t be doing this.
She is a Major, after all.
Annabel makes her way over to the IT department, where George Farrell, one of the coordinators, owes her a favour or two. Once she gets there, she moves to his desk. He doesn’t look up from his typing, and instead quirks an eyebrow. Annabel immediately has a flash to Elizabeth Fischer doing a similar eyebrow quirk, and a rush of heat moves down her body as she thinks of last night again, kissing her, straddling her -
George speaks. “Agent Duke.”
“Major Duke now, actually.” Ann says, snapping out of her brief daze, a hint of pride in her voice. George looks up, surprise in his eyes.
“Well, congratulations, Major. What can I do for you?”
“I need to look into a few things. Files, case reports.”
“You know I’m not authorized to give you -”
“And you know that you owe me.”
George sighs, leans back in his seat. “Okay. I’m going to go on my lunch break now. You’re going to sit at this desk, and look up whatever the fuck it is you need to look up. If anyone asks me how you got here, I’m saying you snuck on while I was on my lunch break.”
“No one’s going to ask you how I got here.”
“Whatever.” George rises from his seat, grabbing the coat slung around the back. “Just so you know, even I haven’t read any of those files. I just organize them. All my debts to you are repaid after this.”
“Okay. Everything’s logged in?”
“Yes. Send me a text if you need help with anything.” George walks away, and Ann sits at his desk, glancing around the room - everyone else seems far too immersed in their own work to even notice their exchange. Concerning, but convenient, in this case.
Annabel begins to look through the case files - she’s a little lost at first, but she finds her way soon enough. She maneuvers her way into the confidential folders, almost fifteen minutes later. George is one of the higher-ups in the IT department, and it only makes sense that his account is authorized to look at these.
There, she finds everything Elizabeth Fischer had. Blacked out documents, reports of executions, shady deals and transactions, bribery - none of it has explicit information of the ISA itself being completely involved, but the pieces finally and fully click together.
And that is all Annabel needs to see before standing up straight from her seat and staring at the screen.
George reappears around five minutes after that, sandwich in hand.
“Everything alright? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost, yeah?”
“All good,” Ann chokes out. “I - I need to copy some of this down into a flashdrive, do you have any extras?”
“To your left, in the black box. Though, I wouldn’t advise making copies, if that falls into the wrong hands -”
Annabel quickly plugs the flashdrive into the computer, copies it all down, and removes the flashdrive, pocketing it and exiting out of the screen. “Thanks, George. All debts repaid.”
As Annabel leaves, she only has one thing on her mind.
Elizabeth Fischer was right. She needs to go see her again.
