Chapter 54

Agent Daniels worked for the CIA.

Well, to be fair, he wasn’t really an agent. Not the ‘spy’ type of agent anyway, just the type of agent who could call himself an agent because he worked for an ‘agency.’

And he hated the CIA. He hated it with a passion. He wanted to leave it in the worst way...but why? The first reason was because of one man…a man who had made his life a living hell…

Agent Cody.

Not that he ever saw Cody every often since he was out on field work a lot of the time, but the few instances that he was face-to-face with him were never enjoyable. And what could Daniels do about it? It’s not like he could tell Cody to ‘fuck off’ or punch him out…after all, he worked in HR. He wasn’t tough.

Agent Cody was tough. He had accomplished some great things in his ambitious career, even though he was an asshole…and maybe even a little weird. There was talk amongst the other field agents that Cody was into some ‘supernatural’ stuff, but most everyone else thought he was just a bit on the superstitious side.

Regardless of all that, Agent Daniels and Agent Cody most certainly had a bitter feud going between them. And Cody seemed to be the clear winner at every turn so far.

Daniels sat on the tall stool, staring through the bottom of his empty beer mug, looking at the wood-grain of the bar top, magnified and distorted by the glass bottom of the mug. He was an average sized man in his late thirties, with black hair that was kept at a length of a few inches and brushed back with gel while allowing some of the bangs to hang around the sides of his forehead in thick, pointed strands. He wasn’t a bad looking man by any means…he kept himself well looked after and ate healthy, keeping himself in shape and dressing well. It is necessary to do so with his trophy wife…at least it was necessary, up until a year ago when she became the second reason he hated the CIA.

She was also an Agent there. About a year ago they had separated, her reasoning being that he just didn’t give her that spark of excitement anymore…and that she needed to move on. Then he found out later that she already had moved on…

He took a deep breath, looking up at the TV before holding the empty mug up and jiggling it at the bartender, who shook his head as he took it to refill it again from the tap.

“Don’t you have a place to live for cryin out loud?” the bartender asked irritably.

Daniels ignored the comment, looking back at the TV as he waited for his refill. Admittedly, he did spend too much time at this bar. He first started coming here after his wife left him to drink his pain away...only once or twice a week at first, but over time he started coming more and more frequently, until the last few months when he started spending every minute that he could here, sitting at the bar in endless pursuit of the bottom of that mug.

He looked around the bar as the sweaty mug was set in front of him one more time. It was the same as always…the same faces, with the same problems, presumably all seeking the same goal as him…to while away their remaining worthless years until they could have the luxury of retirement or an early death.

Then something caught his eye…the front entrance opened and someone walked in. Someone new...someone he’d never seen in there before.

She captivated him instantly with her big aqua-green eyes and untamed, wavy brunette hair. Her face was beautiful, but not without a sense of power and confidence...her skin was deeply toned and smooth, and her attire was quite alluring as well. She had on a leather jacket with orange chevrons on the upper sleeves, with a dark gray shirt that had a frilly hem than covered part of the dark red miniskirt she was wearing that topped off her tall, black boots.

She stopped and looked around the place, almost as if she was looking for someone. She set her sights on everyone there for a second or two before finally settling her gaze directly on him.

He looked back down at the bar top quickly, trying to avoid being accused of ogling some female stranger, even though she was looking back at him. Actually...to be fair, she looked at everyone else too. It was nothing for Daniels to get excited about. She wasn’t looking at him for any real reason.

He looked back at the TV, watching the highlights of a football game from earlier in the day, not really paying attention to it since he wasn’t much of a sports fan.

Just then he heard the bar stool skid on the floor beside him as it was pulled out, and he glanced over to see the brunette woman sitting down right next to him.

She glanced at him, giving him a friendly smile before turning to the bartender. “What’s on tap tonight?”

The bartender flatly rattled off the short list of beers available, none of which the brunette seemed to be very interested in.

“OK…” she mumbled, thinking for a second. “I‘ll just have a rum and Coke.”

The bartender nodded and went to work making her drink.

Daniels tried to ignore the woman, tipping back his mug and proceeding to down half of the latest refill.

“Rough day?” the woman asked him.

He stopped suddenly as he was bringing the mug down to set it on the bar, then turned his head towards her. She was looking right in his eyes.

He looked back down into the mug, shaking it so the golden beverage swirled around in a circle at the bottom. The finally decided to respond with a small nod and a short answer. “Rough year.”

She gave him a flirtatious look of disbelief, then folded her arms on the bar top. “Oh come on. It can’t be that bad.”

He raised his eyebrows briefly. “I guess you would know better than me…”

The brunette cocked an eyebrow at him. “Well, do you wanna drink your face off or do you wanna talk about it with a total stranger?”

He frowned. “That’s not much of a choice…”

“Well how about I make it for you?” she asked, reaching up suddenly and gently patting the back of his neck with her hand. “Come on. Let’s hear it.”

Daniels jumped at bit at the feeling of physical contact. He looked at her suddenly, about to tell her off, but the sour look on her face stopped him in his tracks. He watched her for a second as she slowly shook it off and brought the pretty smile back to her lips.

“So what’s bugging you? Work?” she asked. “Family? Health?”

He sighed, lifting the mug to hold it an inch from his lips. “Not health…” he said, before taking another swig.

Her eyebrows went up. “Work and family?? Wow, a double doosey, eh?”

He nodded as he swallowed his drink. “They’re kind of the same thing.”

“Oh? How do you mean?” she asked, leaning her chin on her hand as she looked at him intently.

He sighed, not really wanting to talk about it…but there was something about this girl that made him continue to indulge in the conversation with her. “My wife works with me…and we’re not together anymore.”

She cringed. “Ooh, that’s rough… what kind of work do you do?”

“I can’t really say…” he replied flatly.

She raised her eyebrows as she slowly looked down at the bar, watching her dark fizzy drink being set down in front of her. “Usually in this town when someone says that, it means they work for the government.”

He stared forward, hoping she wouldn’t be persistent about it, but his hopes went unnoticed by the powers that be.

“So, what are you, like CIA?” she asked quietly.

He looked at her, scowling a bit, starting to think he shouldn’t be talking about this with her while intoxicated…he was having a dilemma within himself for the past little while already about his drinking, which is something the CIA doesn’t take lightly in their members.

His expression obviously tipped her off.

“You are CIA!” she said excitedly.

“SHHHH!” he whispered sloppily. “I could get into trouble…”

She covered her mouth, ducking her head as she looked around the place. “Oops, sorry!” she replied with embarrassment. Then she looked at him again. “So your wife….er, sorry, ex-wife is CIA too?” she asked quietly.

Daniels looked around the place before nodding.

She took a sip of her drink, then set the glass down. “So why’d you guys break up?”

“She cheated on me.” he said flatly, surprising himself with how easily he blurted it out. “With someone else at work…someone I really don’t like.”

To his surprise, the brunette leaned over, putting her face very close to him. Then she smirked as she spoke quietly. “That someone you don’t like wouldn’t happen to be Agent Cody, would it?”

He leaned away from her, spinning his face to face hers in shock. “How…?”

“How did I know?” she asked, to which he nodded. She took another sip of the drinking before replying. “I’ve had my own little run-in with him…and I don’t really like him either.”

Daniels shook his head. “That don’t make it a small world. Cody's an asshole. Everyone knows it.”

The woman took something out of her pocket and set it on the bar in front of Daniels. His skin scrawled when he saw it…a pair of gold and blue aviators. He knew exactly who they belonged to.

“Where did you get those?” he asked, looking at her with narrow eyes.

Her tone was much darker now. “We found them near a friend’s house…a friend who Cody kidnapped. My friend.”

Daniels’ eyes got wider. “Cody kidnapped someone? Why?” he looked back up at her, noticing the seriousness in her face now.

“I want you to help me find him…” she said. “And I’ll make him disappear.”

Daniels was stunned by the sudden proposal. “Disappear? Is she serious?” He had to admit in his half-drunken stupor that no more Agent Cody would be a godsend. He looked at the nearby bartender, then back at her. “I could get into a lot of trouble for helping you…not to mention being an accessory to murder.” he said quietly.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

He clenched his jaw, looking down at his glass as he considered the offer. He finally took a deep breath and set the glass down. “I hate that piece of shit. I’ll hear you out, but we have to go somewhere else first.”

She smirked devilishly. “Good. Come with me.”

*****

Daniels had indulged in too much of the drink to be able to drive, which didn’t matter on most nights since his apartment was within walking distance of the bar. That was actually how he found this particular watering hole, because of its proximity to the place he had to move into once he and his wife separated.

The brunette, however, offered to take him to her motel, which was outside of DC in McLean, Virginia. After driving him there, she parked the white car in its designated parking spot, then got out and walked to the row of doors along the front of the building.

They finally stopped at one of the doors, and she pulled out a white door card and swiped it through the electronic lock on the door as Daniels turned and looked around the parking lot, paranoid about being followed by someone from the CIA, as if anyone could actually know that he was possibly planning something against them with this woman. As he looked around at the parked cars, he could hear her trying to open the door, rattling it back and forth against the latch with frustration.

“Come on, you FUCKIN THING…” she cursed.

Daniels looked back in time to see her swipe the card again, which made the LED on the lock turn green this time and she opened the door, stepping inside and holding it open for him to follow.

Once inside she closed the door, then took her jacket off and tossed it on the table next to the TV. Daniels stood by the door, looking at her bare shoulders now that the jacket was off. As it turned out, the dark gray shirt was actually a tank top, and she was quite attractive looking in it.

She sat on the bed farthest from the door, watching him as she stood there by the door, wondering what he was doing there.

She gestured towards the other bed with her hand. “Have a seat.”

Daniels glanced at the small bed, then walked around to sit down, facing the brunette. He took a deep breath. “So…in what way do you want me to help you?” he asked plainly.

She folded her arms. “I want you to take inside the CIA headquarters.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Hm…” he said as he stood up. “Welp, I’m gonna go now…”

The woman shook her head in frustration. “Sit down.” she said sternly.

He stopped to look at her in surprised of her tone.

“I said I would make it worth your while, didn’t I?” she reminded him. “At least hear me out.”

He stopped, wondering what her proposal would be, then he slowly made his way back to his seat. “Fine, I’ll listen.” He said. “But sneaking someone into HQ is a bad idea. I would get raked over the fucking coals if we got caught…and I don’t even know what would happen to you.”

“Nothing will happen to me.” she replied confidently. “Not in the long run, anyway.”

“How do you know that?” he asked.

“I just do. I can know anything I want.” she said. “Which is why I need in there. I need to find out what Cody did with my friend.”

“How are you going to do that?” Daniels asked, scratching his cheek.

“You don’t need to worry about that. That’s my department.” the brunette replied. “I just need to get into the place and look like I’m supposed to be there…maybe meet a few people, shake a few hands…”

He looked at her sideways. “You just want to get inside…to meet people?”

“Like I said, what I do once I’m inside is my business.” she said.

Daniels sighed, looking at the floor for a moment. Then he found himself letting his eyes drift up her long, smooth, yet toned legs. He finally chuckled, wondering what her ridiculous plan was. “So why do you think that I could get you in?”

“You and me walk in there together.” she said, very matter-of-factly.

He raised one eyebrow. “Together?” he laughed. “Listen honey, they don’t have ‘take our kids to work day’ at the CIA…”

The brunette reached back with her hands, leaning back on the bed while crossing her legs, almost giving him a brief view of what resided up that short skirt of hers. “I was thinking about a job…” she said in a sly tone.

He straightened up a bit, caught off guard by the statement. “A job?” he replied in confusion.

Just then, something changed in the woman…her face seemed to flush, her breathing changed, becoming deeper and a bit shaky.

Sunset felt it suddenly. She was making progress with Daniels. He was listening to her, and actually entertaining the idea of helping her break into the CIA. The old man, Whooves, was right. This guy had a major bone-to-pick with Cody, and playing that angle was paying off. She had found out his whole situation in the bar...about his wife, his job, about Cody. Sunset cringed at the thought of any woman wanting to sleep with that sleaze-ball, especially since this Daniels guys was much better looking, in Sunset’s opinion.

She felt bad for him, but his situation was actually a good thing because it meant that he was more likely to help her. He would do anything to get back at Cody, and she knew that he knew this was his chance. Daniels hated him with a passion. Cody was a condescending asshole to him whenever he saw him at headquarters, and he would gloat about taking his trophy wife away from him every chance he got. Sometimes, when Cody was in a really aggressive mood, he would even threaten Daniels physically when he had him cornered somewhere in the building with no one else around. And then there was Daniels’ knowledge of the fact that he had to surrender his home to his wife when they separated, as well as their daughter…and when Cody was in town he would stay there, at Daniels’ house, with Daniels’ kid, fucking Daniels’ wife in Daniels’ own bed.

Sunset saw it all when she read him in the bar while she patted him on the back of the neck. She witnessed Cody’s abuse firsthand through Daniels’ thoughts and memories, and it fuelled the brunette’s anger toward the spy who kidnapped Fluttershy even more.

This was it. This guy was going to help Sunset get inside the headquarters as long as she played her cards right. She was supposed to be alone with him here in our motel room so she could do her thing and talk him into it, and I was supposed to be gone out somewhere to avoid ‘distracting’ her…but just as she felt like she was making progress with him, she felt it.

The little spark between her legs, the warm tingle that started to spread through her body, causing her breaths to become shallow after becoming unaccustomed to the constant arousal while being away from me for a few hours.

“Fuck,” she thought, “he’s here…Golds is here! WHY?” Admittedly, she did say she was only going to be gone a couple of hours to accomplish this part of the mission. It should have been easy, go find Daniels, get his attention with the idea of getting rid of Cody, then bring him back here to formulate a plan to get into the CIA with him. Then figure out a deal to pay him back for his help.

The problem was that Whooves had given us the name of the wrong bar, so Sunset had actually spent closer to six hours roaming around the shitty parts of DC, going from one bar to another looking for Daniels while, getting ogled by a half dozen drunken douchebags in the process. It was quite late at night now, almost 1am, in fact…and we were lucky that Daniels was even out still.

I had promised to go out and let her work undistracted, but after so many hours I figured she must have been done by then so I came back to the motel room, tired of wandering around the town of Mclean with nothing to do but worry about being spotted by someone who may have known who I was, even though that scenario was highly unlikely.

I returned to the room to find it empty, wondering where she still could have been…maybe driving him back to DC still…or captured?

I was just wondering those very things when I heard them at the door and ran to find hiding spot. Daniels was CIA after all, and I didn’t want him see me, just in case...

Sunset took a deep breath, trying to relax as she felt the moisture building in the heat of her crease. She tried hard to remember what she had been talking about, then she noticed Daniels looking at her strangely.

“Fuck, where was I?” she thought for a moment, then remembered. “Oh! A job…”

Sunset sat up straight again, trying not to let herself relax too much to avoid becoming even more turned on. “Yeah, a job.” she said, trying to stall a bit as she collected her thoughts so she could get her plan back on track. “Originally, I was just going to apply for a job there, but the process was going to take too long.” she explained.

This was Daniels’ department. He knew all the ins-and-outs of getting a job at HQ. He shook his head in response to hearing her plan. “No, you don’t want to apply for a job…unless you want to get caught. They will investigate you when they receive your application, and judging by how you’re talking, you don’t want them doing that. PLUS, if they reply to you to have you come in, the first thing they do is have you take a polygraph…”

Sunset nodded, closing her eyes. “Yes, I know all that…that’s why I’m not doing it.” she explained. “That’s why I need your help.”

Daniels leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, listening to Sunset as she continued.

“Can you get me a security pass? Like, so I can get in as though I’ve applied and you’ve responded to me and are bringing me in for the next part of the hiring process?” she proposed.

He frowned, then shook his head slowly as he looked back up at her. “No, I can’t do that…but…” he thought for a moment, considering the options that he had available to him. Then he got an idea. ”There are thousands of applicants every week…most of which we don’t even respond to…I could use one of them to make you a security pass in their name, and you’ll have to pretend to be them while you’re there…”

Sunset rubbed her chin. “Don’t they have ways of confirming who I am? Like eye scanners or whatever…”

“Well, no…” he said. “You won’t have to worry about any of that stuff. Applicants are restricted to the main halls and the examination area. The high tech scanners are required to get into the high security areas, like the labs, and so on…so you don’t need to worry about that anyway because you won’t be allowed anywhere near anything that’s restricted.”

She frowned, biting her bottom lip.

Daniels saw her hesitation. “That’s how it is with all applicants.” he shrugged. “You’ll get a basic security pass to get in the doors, and you’ll have to be escorted by me the whole time. Obviously they don’t give applicants high level clearance, so the main halls are less heavily secured to make it possible to let them come in.”

The brunette frowned as she thought about how little movement she would be allowed to have in the building.

Daniels tipped his head, furrowing his brow in confusion. “But I still don’t get what you plan on doing when you get in…obviously you don’t want to take the polygraph…”

She shook her head, waving her hand at him. “No! No, that would be bad…” she replied. “Listen, I just need inside. Like I said, I’ll take care of the rest, but I need to be able to meet people. Can you introduce me to people…like casually?”

He chewed the inside of his cheek. “Maybe a few. You mean like saying: ‘hey, this is so-and-so, she's here for the intern position’ or something like that?”

“Yeah.” she nodded. “Can you do that?”

He took a deep breath, raising his eyebrows and shaking his head at the unlikelihood of her accomplishing anything with this plan. “I guess I could stall for a bit, and take you around the long way, but like I said, you’re basically limited to travelling the halls with me. I can’t take you anywhere restricted…so you’ve basically gotta hope you happen to see whoever you need to see in the main halls…”

She nodded. “That’s the best chance I’ve got so far. Hopefully I can learn what I need to, there’s really no other option for me at this point.”

Daniels pointed at her. “You’re only going to have a small window of time to do this…I can’t walk around the place with you all day…people will get suspicious.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah I know...but like I said, this is the best plan I have so far.”

“I still don’t get it,” he started saying as he rubbed the back of his neck. “What do you expect to do? You can’t just start asking them about your missing friend…”

Sunset sighed. She knew it would be easier to just tell him that she could read minds, but that was something she wasn’t willing to share with him, not yet anyway. “Look,” she said, trying to think of something to tell him to appease his curiosity. “I have ways of getting information…just…you’ll have to trust me on this.”

He sat for a moment, thinking about the plan. Finally, he looked her in the eyes. “You said you’d make it worth my while. How?”

She took a deep breath, hoping he wouldn’t notice her flushed chest and shoulders. “I can offer you fifty thousand dollars cash…if we pull it off.”

“IF?” he asked. “What if we fail?”

She shrugged. “Then it won’t matter.”

He suddenly sneered at the offer, catching Sunset off-guard. “I make more than that every year. I need more.”

She sighed. “OK. Seventy.” she said. “And I’ll give you twenty tonight, just for coming here and talking to me.”

Daniels sighed, rubbing his chin. Then he looked back at her. “No deal. It’s not worth it to me.”

“Fuck.” Sunset thought, wishing she could think clearer like before. “I wish I wasn’t so fucking turned on right now…where is Golds, anyway? I swear, I’m gonna kick his ass when I find him!”

Then Sunset got an idea. “Wait, my pussy's fucking soaked…I can use this.”

She looked back up at Daniels, lowering her eyelids. “No deal, eh?” she said, standing up slowly. “So when was the last time you got any action?”

His eyes suddenly widened as she approached him. “Uh…” he murmured. “Long t-time…”

She leaned down and put her hands on his shoulders, slowly pushing him down onto his back, then climbed overtop of him. “Maybe, I can add a little bonus on top of the cash…” she offered.

“Bonus?” he squeaked.

She rubbed her hands up and down his chest a few times, then leaned down and gently touched his lips with hers. They both closed their eyes as she let the kiss linger for a moment, then she pulled back and put her nose in against is neck and sniffed one long inhale up to his ear, making him shudder at the feeling of her face and hair drifting over him.

Sunset sat up suddenly, then reached down and hiked her skirt up a bit. She grabbed his hand and placed it against her inner thigh, then slowly ran it up to her crotch.

He could feel the intense heat between her legs on his hand before he was even close to touching it. She brought his hand right up to the top, then used his finger to pull her moist panties to one side.

Daniels gasped when she plunged his finger into her soaking wet crease. His own body responded very quickly, realizing that there was a beautiful woman right on top of him who was ready for action. “Oh baby, you are fucking wet…” he gasped.

“You like that?” she asked.

“Uh…uh huh…” he stammered.

“So…” Sunset said. “Seventy grand…twenty tonight…and if we pull it off, this is all yours.” she pushed his hand harder into her to get the point across. “Now do we have a deal?”

Daniels was unable to do anything but nod. “OK…” he said quietly. “I’ll do it.”

She suddenly stood up, letting go of his hand as she put her feet back onto the floor. “Good.” she said.

He laid there for another moment, staring at the ceiling. He lifted his hand, looking at his glistening finger, feeling the slick juice as it rapidly cooled in the climate-controlled air of the motel room.

“We’d better get you home.” she said, picking up her jacket to put it back on. “It’s late, and you’ve got a job to do tomorrow.” she stopped for a moment, looking at him as he continued to lay there, unsure of what to think. “Plus, you’re pitching a tent big time.” she smirked.

“Huh?” he mumbled quickly, lifting his head to look down at the bulge in his pants. “Shit…”

“Let’s go.” she said one more time.

Sunset and Daniels left the motel room and got into the car to begin driving back to DC. They drove in relative silence until they arrived in the parking lot of Daniels’ apartment and stopped near the front doors.

“Look in the glove box.” Sunset said.

Daniels complied, opening the compartment to find a brown paper bag. He pulled it out and looked inside, finding a few thick stacks of hundred-dollar bills. He took one out to inspect it as she spoke.

“Twenty up front.” she summarised yet again. She had stashed the money in the glove box ahead of time after rehearsing the deal in her head numerous times, figuring he might not take the first offer. She wasn’t keen on the idea of just pulling out the gym bag full of money in front of him to count out twenty grand, so she opted to set things up this way. “You get the other fifty when the job is done. I have it in a safe place, waiting for you.” she paused for a moment, then looked at him with a sensual smirk. “Plus you’ll get your bonus.” she said with a wink.

He nodded, blushing a little bit as he dropped the bundle of cash back into the bag and rolled it closed. “OK so, tomorrow I’ll go in and find an applicant that suits you, then I’ll make you a security pass so you can get in, and I’ll come back here tomorrow evening and let you know what the exact plan is.” he explained.

Sunset shook her head. “Tomorrow’s Friday.” she scowled. “Do you work weekends?”

He shook his head. “No…well I’m on call, but I don’t usually deal with applicants on weekends…it’ll look weird if I bring you in on a Saturday…”

“It has to be tomorrow then.” she said sternly. “I can’t wait until next week.”

“What??” he protested. “That’s not enough time. I can’t-“

“You find an applicant in the morning, make me an ID, then pick me up at my motel at noon. Can you do that?” Sunset ordered.

He shrugged. “I don’t know…I’m not even-“

She cut him off again. “Well if you can’t, then no money, and no pussy.”

Daniels scowled at her, then looked out the passenger window, rubbing his temple. He finally turned back to face her. “I don’t even care about that stuff. All I really want is to see Cody go down…and my ex-wife.”

Sunset shook her head. “I can’t promise to deliver on that.” she said. “I mean, Cody is going down for sure if we pull this off...you can count on that. But your wife…I don’t even know her. There just isn’t time for that.”

He sighed again. “Fine. If you can promise to deal with Cody, plus give me the money and the, uh…bonus, then I’ll see what I can do tomorrow.

“Good.” Sunset nodded. “I’ll be ready for you tomorrow at noon. At my room.”

Daniels opened the car door and put one foot out onto the ground, then he stopped for a moment. “Damn!” he cursed suddenly, leaning back into the seat again, staring at the headliner of the car.

Sunset frowned. “What? What’s the matter?”

He shook his head. “It won’t work…” he said, bringing his foot back inside the car and shutting the door.

Sunset’s heart jumped when she heard the news. “What?” she scowled. “Why not?”

“I forgot about the scanner at the door…” he said flatly as she stared at him. “When you go in the front doors, there’s a scanner that you pass through that looks for weapons, wires or transmitters, and…” he trailed off.

She leaned her face forward towards him. “And?” she forced.

He sighed. “There’s a face scan…to match the applicant to the image in the file that we built from the investigation after they apply.”

Sunset closed her eyes. “Fuck.” she swore, leaning her head on her hand with her elbow on the window sill. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” she asked, suddenly glaring back at him. “Were you just waiting until you got the money?...Don’t think I can’t just kick your ass and take it back…”

Daniels put his hands up, shaking his head. “No…I forgot about it, I swear.”

Sunset scoffed. “You forgot??”

“Sorry…” he defended. “I’ve got like, eight beers in me…”

She shook her head. “So what now? I can’t go in there under someone else’s identity if they’re gonna scan my face.”

Daniels tipped his head, pursing his lips a bit as he thought about it. “Well, it has been known to be wrong…from time-to-time.”

“From time-to-time?” she repeated. “How often?”

He squinted, holding his hand palm-down and waving it side -to-side. “Ehh…not too too often…but sometimes, because of age or weight changes, facial hair…small factors like that…it occasionally misidentifies people.”

She scowled at him sharply. “How often??” she impatiently asked again.

“Like maybe…four percent of the time…five tops.” he confessed.

Sunset sighed hopelessly. “Five percent…”

Daniels nodded quietly.

Sunset held her hand out. “Give me the money.” she said sternly.

He scowled back at her. “You said I get this just for talking to you!”

Sunset groaned, knowing he was right. She squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Just get the fuck out. No more money, and no pussy for you.”

Daniels shook his head, huffing as he reached for the door handle again.

“And have fun dealing with Cody until you retire…or die.” Sunset jabbed angrily.

This made Daniels pause. He stared out the windshield for a moment before looking back at her with fresh determination in his eyes. “Give me until noon tomorrow.” he said, making Sunset look back at him. “Let me try to figure out something. If I can’t, we’ll figure something out over the weekend…I know you don’t want to wait until Monday, but you might have to if I can’t think of another way to get you in tomorrow. I’ll be at your motel at noon tomorrow like we planned if I come up with something. OK?”

Sunset looked at him despondently. “Fine.” she said, looking down at her lap while shaking her head.

*****

After Sunset dropped him off at his apartment, twenty thousand dollars richer, she turned the car around and headed back out of the city to the motel room in McLean.

When she got back and finished parking the car, she walked hastily to the door of our room, swiped the card and opened the door effortlessly to find me laying on the far bed watching TV.

She shut the door quickly, took her jacket off and threw it onto the table again before turning to face me. “Where the fuck were you?”

I shifted my eyes off of the TV onto the angry brunette. “Under the bed.”

She slapped her hands on top of her head. “Under the-“ she started with a high toned voice. “Which one??”

“That one.” I replied, pointing to the other bed that Daniels had been sitting on. “The one you guys made-out on.”

She let her head droop, rubbing her brows with her fingertips in frustration. “We didn’t really make-out…that was your fault, by the way.”

I scowled at her. “My fault?”

“You weren’t supposed to be here…” she explained angrily.

“I was only here for like fifteen minutes when you guys showed up…I thought you would have been done by then.” I replied before shrugging my shoulders. “What the fuck took you so long anyway??”

She had started to head over to sit on the other bed, but suddenly turned and pointed at me. “The old man gave us the wrong bar.” she said. “I ended up going to like, six places before I found him.”

I groaned, rubbing the side of my face with my hand. “Fuckin old geezer…” I muttered, pausing for a second before looking at the brunette again. “So…are you actually gonna fuck him?”

She rolled her eyes as she sat on the bed. “Ugh…I don’t know.” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I did that…although I probably wouldn’t have if I wasn’t so FUCKING HORNY!” she yelled, glaring at me. “Why the fuck were you under the bed anyway?”

I put my hands behind my head and looked back at the TV. “It was the closest hiding spot I could find. I was right here when you rattled the door…” I said, before pointing at Sunset. “Good thinking by the way, pretending you couldn’t open the door to let me know you were here without having to say anything. Genius.”

She shrugged. “I only did that just in case…I didn’t think you’d actually be here. Then when I was just getting somewhere with him, I could to feel it starting…”

“Sorry.” I said, looking back at the TV.

“Sorry??” she snapped. “Do you know how hard it is to work like that?”

“Hey,” I shrugged. “You got the job done.” I said. “You did awesome, Sunny. Now tomorrow’s the big day, and I know you’re going to do awesome again.”

Sunset smirked at me. “You really think so?”

I nodded. “I know so. You always think you’re not going to be able to do it, but when you’re in the moment, you always rock it.”

She blushed a little bit, then shifted herself up on the bed, leaning her back on the headboard while stretching her legs out. “Well…actually,” she said, folding her arms. “The plan changed a bit after we left here…”

I turned my head to face her. “Huh?”

“Well,” she cringed a bit, not wanting to tell me. “He kind of forgot about the face recognition…”

I exhaled slowly as I stared up at the ceiling. “Wonderful.”

“Well, he did say he was going to try to think of something for tomorrow…and if he does, he’ll be here at noon to take me there.” she explained.

I shook my head. “He is SO not coming.” I said. “And he’s got my twenty grand. We’re wasting our time with this fucking clown, Sunny.”

She shook her head. “Well, either way, I’m going to be ready. Just in case he shows up…”

I shook my head in frustration.

Sunset shrugged. “Well, what then? You got any better ideas?”

I looked over at her, realizing she had a point. “Fine,” I said. “but if he pulls a no-show, I’m going to get my money back.”

“Fine.” Sunset agreed.

We laid in silence for a few moments, then I shrugged. ”Can we trust this guy not to fuck us over?”

She looked at me with a blank stare for a second, then looked down at her feet. “Right now?…yes. I made sure to sneak a read on him once more before he got out of the car. He’s not planning on screwing me over…I mean, he fucking hates Cody with a passion…” she said. “Hopefully he doesn’t change his mind between now and then.”

I nodded. “Hopefully.” I said as I looked over at her again. “This guy doesn’t know who you really are, right?”

She shook her head. “No, of course not.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“I never told him my name…and I don’t know how he’d find out.” she replied.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” I said. “They have their ways of learning things…”

She took a deep breath. “OK, how about this?” she asked. “Tomorrow, if he comes to pick me up, I’ll read him again to make sure he’s not gonna try anything. If he is, I’ll call it off.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I agreed. “As long as he doesn’t show up here with the fucking cavalry or something…”

Sunset stopped, then turned to look at me with wide eyes.

I looked back at her. “There’s a few different ways tomorrow could play out. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that it goes well.”