Six Word Story | Percy & Peggy
This is it.
Those three words Percy had said to herself before, but now, she felt like maybe - just maybe - she actually meant them.
This is the last job I'm taking before littlest princess is born.
Because while normally the tiny lady enjoyed the chance to challenge herself and crawl through all kinds of impossible spaces to impossible places (a task she had never quite had the strength to do... before) doing so while in the second trimester of pregnancy really was getting old.
"Alright, Cato, I'm in the north-east line and about to - " she groaned as she twisted herself around to grip the maintenance ladder and haul herself up " - head up to the source of the break. ETA four minutes."
"Roger that. Tracking is live and systems are on standby."
"Make sure they stay that way, alright? I really would rather avoid poaching like a breakfast egg if it's all the same to you." Her voice was clipped with the effort of climbing one-handed while she checked the device in her hand every few seconds, but there was something light to the dry 'BBC' tone that made this morning's handler laugh into the line.
"I'll do my best, boss-lady. Cato out."
Percy snorted and shook her head, but managed to climb through and clear another two levels before she had anything to report. "Thompson calling Central." Silence. "Cato - stop flirting and answer your damn comm." She waited in silence for approximately another six seconds before a sheepish voice clicked back online. "I'm on Level Delta and the signal is returning quick enough that I think our break is on this level, I - "
She cut herself off mid-sentence as an alert flashed green and amber across the device in her hand. "Cato, we received client confirmation that all personnel had been cleared from this area, correct?"
"Affirmative, ma'am. All areas clear as of 0500."
Three hours ago.
"Understood, Cato. I believe we've found our rat."
Holstering her device, Percy reached a little further back and pulled a heavy black pistol out to her side. The safety was flicked off and she stepped off the ladder at the Delta landing, back pressed against the wall next to the door.
"Going silent. If you do not hear my stand-down code within thirty seconds after the cessation of any weapons' discharges, you will activate the Rampant protocol and secure exits until reinforcements relieve you of command."
"But - "
"That was an order, Cato. Thompson out."
A single press of her thumb against the small relay unit on her box cut her feed but not her GPS tracker. For all intents and purposes, she was on her own. Perhaps the smart thing to do would be to call in backup on her own and wait until they had neutralized the threat...
Percy opened the door and stepped into the empty hallway instead.
She really didn't like it when people messed with her babies.
