Chapter 56

It was now Friday, September 30th, in McLean, Virginia.

Sunset Shimmer was looking at herself in the mirror of our motel bathroom. She had gotten herself ready in case of the unlikely event that Agent Daniels would actually show up with a plan of some sort.

Her brunette hair was done up in a loose bun like Rarity had shown her. She had on the dark gray business suit jacket with the silky white blouse underneath and the short, dark pencil skirt finishing it off. She looked like she belonged at the CIA. She gave herself a little nod of approval, trying not to let on to me that she was nervous about what she might be about to undertake if Daniels actually came up with a plan and came to pick her up.

That is, if he didn’t end up screwing us over instead.

I was in the main room, watching out the window, waiting to see if Daniels was actually going to show up. I glanced over at the clock radio next to the bed to check the time. “12:27.” I shook my head. “I knew this guy was going to be a dead end.”

Just as I was thinking that, a dark gray car pulled into the parking lot. I watched it closely as it parked and sat for a moment, then finally a dark-haired man in a suit got out and started heading towards our room.

“Well suck my dick and call me happy…” I said in disbelief. “He actually showed.” I turned around and headed for the bathroom to tell Sunset. “Hey Sunny, you’re not gonna believe this, but he’s here.”

“WHAT??” she cried, coming out of the bathroom one step to look at me with her eyes peeled wide open. After becoming used to the idea of him not showing up, she was now very nervous about what his plan might be, and what he might have her doing.

“It’s OK,” I reassured her, “This is good…”

She huffed frantically and went back into the bathroom to check her appearance once more.

I stepped up behind her, looking at her in the mirror, brushing a bit of lint off her shoulders. “You look good, Sunny. You’re gonna rock it today, I know it.”

She looked at me in the mirror with her beautiful aqua eyes, forcing a smile as she let out a shaky exhale. “I hope so. I’ll do my best.” she said softly. “For Flutters.”

I nodded and smiled back at her. Admittedly, I was nervous for her. I was, after all, sending her into the lion’s den…a place I desperately wanted to go with her to, but I just couldn’t. If someone recognised me, the whole thing would be blown.

Just then, were heard a knock at the door.

I turned to the brunette spy. “OK Sunny, you’re up. Good luck.” I said, giving her a small hug.

She smiled back, then nervously went to the door to answer it while I closed myself in the bathroom.

She opened the door, revealing Daniels standing there, looking pretty much the same as he did the night before.

She frowned a bit, looking at him sideways. “You good?”

He nodded. “Yup. We’re a go. If you have a cell phone, leave it here.” he said, turning quickly to head back to his car as she took her phone from her pocket and tossed it on the bed. He moved away so quickly she didn’t get a chance to touch him to see if he was planning a betrayal, and now she was walking behind him, trying to catch up. He was still walking too fast, and Sunset would have to actually run to be able to get close enough to reach out and touch him, which she knew would have looked suspicious, so she decided she would have to wait until they were in the car.

Once inside, he gave her a quick glance, then a little smirk.

She sat in the passenger seat of his car and closed the door, looking back at him, waiting for him to speak. “So?” she asked, wondering what he was thinking.

“I got something.” he said, looking a bit smug.

She nodded. “OK. Good. Let’s hear it.”

He reached into a leather case full of documents in the middle seat between them and started sifting through it. “I looked through a few files early this morning and I found one that was pretty interesting…”

“Oh?” she listened.

“Oh yes, Miss Sunset Shimmer.” he said, glancing up at her.

Sunset’s entire body seized up. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and her heart started thumping like a hammer in her chest. “Oh fuck…I am SO busted…how did they know about me? Did Cody spy on me??”

Without taking her eyes off of Daniels, she slowly reached for the door handle to try and make her escape as he spoke again.

“At least, that’s what we’re calling you for today.” he said. “So you’ll have to get used to it.”

She stopped, her brows furrowed in confusion.

He continued rummaging through the case of files as he spoke. “She applied about a month ago, we weren’t going to consider her because she’s still quite young, and we generally like to see people with more experience, but her resume is quite impressive. Graduated high school with honors, valedictorian of her class…some post secondary education…” he continued. “She has a pilot’s license, spent a few years with the US Air Force working with new recruits, training, counselling…she seems to display a very high level of aptitude in everything that she does…it’s a shame that she didn’t have more experience, like I said.”

Sunset was staring at him, not knowing what to think, or who he was talking about.

“But,” he continued. “You wouldn’t believe how similar she looks to you. It’s almost scary.” He finally found the file he was looking for, pulled it out and opened it. He flipped through a few pages, then paused when he found what he was after. “Ah.” he said, lifting up the sheet of paper to show it to her.

Sunset thought her head was going to explode when she saw the photo of the applicant. She instinctively lifted her hand to cover her mouth, but stopped herself so as not to give away to Daniels that she was so shocked, which was proving to be difficult with her eyes bugging out of her head the way they were.

The woman in the picture was very pretty, like Sunset. With big, aqua coloured eyes, and long wavy hair tied up in a bun, coloured in bright red with streaks of yellow all through it.

“Holy sweet mother-fucking Celestia…” she thought. “She’s ME…er, the other me…you have GOT to be kidding…”

Daniels smiled as he turned the photo to look at it himself again. “She literally looks exactly like you, except her hair is a different colour than yours…” he said. “But that’s no big deal…hair dye is a common thing these days.”

Sunset reached up absentmindedly, gently touching her hair with her palm. “Oh, yeah…hair dye…” she repeated in a daze.

He continued. “The next part is up to you, if you want to take the chance…”

She snapped out of her zombie state to focus on the agent again. “Uh, what chance?”

“The facial scan…” he replied. “I know I said it’s only wrong about four or five percent of the time, but I think you have a pretty good chance of beating it with this face on file…but I’ll let you make that decision.”

“Yes!” she shouted more enthusiastically than she meant to, then backed down a bit, not wanting to look so sure of herself and risking him figuring out that she was a perfect double of this girl, or possibly thinking she was her and was pulling some kind of trick on him...

Sunset knew that the plan would work now. Daniels hadn’t learned who she was, it was her human counterpart who applied and Daniels had unknowingly chosen her to take her own place. What were the odds of such a thing? Now she was legitimately going in as herself…almost.

“Are you sure?” he confirmed. “If it doesn’t work, you’re gonna be up shit creek without a paddle in there…”

“I’ll take the chance.” she said, getting her thoughts back in order again. “Shit…I need to read him to be sure this is the real deal…” she thought. “Did you make me an ID?” she asked him.

“Oh,” he replied, closing the file and slipping it back into his bag. “Yeah…right here.” He took out a name tag with a clip on it. “This has your temporary code key in it. You clip it on your jacket and wear it as a name tag. Nice suit by the way.”

He held it out to her. Sunset looked it over as she slowly reached her hand out to take it. It had her name on it, with a couple smaller numbers underneath that she didn’t know the meaning of, and there was a small photo on the left side, showing her with the brown hair.

“I modified the photo we have on file so the hair is the same colour as yours, so no one who sees you today will ask questions about it.” he explained. “The image in the system still has her red hair, but it won’t matter as long as the facial scan passes.”

Sunset nodded, taking the tag from him, making sure her fingers touched his briefly as he passed it to her. She felt a wave of relief wash over her when she saw his thoughts and realized the entire thing was legitimate. They were going in, she was going as herself, and there was almost no way she could be discovered as someone she wasn't claiming to be.

She clipped it on the lapel of her jacket as he handed her a piece of paper with a number on it.

“Memorize that number.” he instructed. “That’s her social security number. You’ll need it to know it.”

She nodded. “Got it.”

They drove from McLean to the headquarters, taking the left turn from the highway onto the road leading up to the main building. They had to stop at a small building about two-thirds of the way along, where a guard came to the window and looked over their IDs.

“Afternoon, Daniels…” the guard said. “Who do you have with you today?” he asked, looking at Sunset.

“Uh, this is Sunset Shimmer…” Daniels replied. “She applied for the internship, I’m just taking her in to do her exams and getting her security clearance done up.”

“Social security number please, ma'am?” the guard asked, looking at Sunset.

Sunset recited the number she had just learned to him, and he turned to face the screen at his work station.

The guard nodded, then looked at Sunset. “Excellent. Thank you. We’re always looking for good people. Hopefully we’ll be seeing you around on a more permanent basis.”

“Absolutely.” Sunset nodded with a confident smile.

“OK. You’re clear to go ahead.“ the guard said, waving them along. “Have a good afternoon, guys.”

“You too.” Daniels nodded as he drove away towards the main parking lot.

Sunset slowly exhaled as she watched the huge building come into view after Daniels made a left turn to go find a parking spot. They found a space in the middle of the ocean of shiny cars and got out to start walking towards the main building. The property was huge, almost the size of McLean itself and therefore took a very long time to walk to the front of the building. Sunset was focused on the front entrance as they walked towards the building along the brick path with other paths intersecting it, surrounded by grass and flower beds. There was a huge white archway perched atop the two large, square pillars that were erected on either side of the wide, multi-door entrance with a grid of tall, bluish-coloured windows above, filling up the archway.

She was instinctively starting head towards the doors, following along the path surrounded by flower gardens when Daniels spoke up.

“Not there.” he said in a low tone. ”We’ll go around to the old entrance, take the long way so we can cross paths with as many people as we can for you to meet. That’s what you wanted, right?”

Sunset nodded. “OK, yeah. Good idea.”

They turned right, following along the sidewalk along to the south side of the building. The place was huge, and it seemed to take an eternity to walk around it. As they passed the piece of the Berlin Wall, which was kept in the yard on the south side of the building, they finally crossed paths with someone.

Daniels nodded to the man. “Casey, how’s it going?”

“Afternoon Daniels, I’m good.” he replied.

“Uh, this is Sunset Shimmer…” Daniels said somewhat hastily. “She’s here for the intern position.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Shimmer. Welcome aboard.” Casey said as he walked past them.

Sunset smiled, then looked awkwardly at Daniels once Casey was out of sight.

“How was that? Is that what you’re after?” Daniels asked, looking at her, wondering why she was looking at him weird.

Sunset shook her head. “No, no…that’s no good. I have to touch them…”

Daniels cocked his eyebrows. “What? Why?”

Sunset rubbed her temples. “Look, I can’t do what I need to do unless I can touch them…even something as small as a handshake will do.”

He shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

“Just…listen, Daniels.” she said, rolling her eyes. “This is what I need to do…to find out what I need to know.”

He looked at her sideways. “Is it some sort of device that you’re using?”

She paused, then looked at him. “Yeah…it gathers information for me…” she lied while nodding slowly.

Daniels shook his head. “The scanners will pick it up…you didn’t tell me you were going to sneak some kind of device in here. We might have to call this off….”

Sunset shook her head frantically. “No! It’s been, uhh…extensively tested…it’s undetectable by every scanning technology we…I mean, I tried…” she explained, knowing full well that no such device would be detected since she was actually using her magic.

Daniels looked uneasy. “Are you sure?”

Sunset closed her eyes. “Just…please. Do you really think I would have come this far if I wasn’t sure? It’s going to be fine. OK?”

He paused for a moment, then shook his head. “OK. But if shit starts going down, you’re on your own.”

She nodded. “It’ll be fine.” she said as they started walking again.

“You don’t plan on broadcasting anything from inside do you?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. Why?”

“Because every door and window in that place is electromagnetically shielded,” he replied, “which is meant to prevent internal communications from being intercepted from the outside, but that also means that anything you try to send out will be kept inside. That’s why I told you to leave your phone at the motel…not to mention they can hack it while it’s still in your pocket once you’re inside, so you really don’t want it in there if you have anything on it that you don’t want anyone to see.”

“OK. Fair enough.” Sunset answered.

They rounded the final corner to the front of the original building, which looked much more dated by comparison. The front was a dull yellowish colour, rectangular shaped in the higher section of floors, with straight rows of windows along the entire length of it.

The only compelling part of the structure was the large T-shaped canopy in front of the main doors, which was held up by tapered pillars, and the angular shape of it gave it somewhat of a geometric, yet efficient quality. As they headed under the structure into the shade, they saw another man leaning on one of the pillars holding a coffee in a paper cup.

Daniels veered them towards the man. “Felix, how’s it going?”

The man, who had light gray skin and dark, charcoal gray hair with brown eyes, wearing a shirt and tie with black pants looked back at the pair, then smiled half-heartedly.

“Not bad, Daniels. TGIF, am I right?” he replied.

Daniels nodded in agreement before looking at Sunset. “Uh, this is Sunset Shimmer…she’s here for the intern position in HR.”

“Hi, nice to meet you.” Sunset greeted, holding out her hand for a shake. “It’s so exciting to be here finally!”

Felix switched the coffee to his other hand so he could shake hers. She could feel the heat from the coffee in his grip as she read his thoughts, but was disappointed to find nothing useful about Cody or Fluttershy.

“So what kind of work were you into before?” Felix asked.

“Uh, US Air Force.” Sunset replied. “I was a pilot-slash-instructor, trainer…you know…”

His eyebrows went up as he took a sip of his coffee. He nodded, then swallowed the drink. “Oh, good. You’ll do well here. Military folks always fit in well.”

Sunset nodded as Daniels spoke.

“She’ll do great here.” he said, turning to Sunset. “We’d better get on with it. See ya, Felix.”

The man with the coffee nodded to them both as they continued heading for the door.

“How was that?” Daniels asked quietly.

“Perfect.” Sunset replied. “That guy didn’t have what I needed though. But that was good. We’ll find what I’m looking for if we keep going like that.”

Daniels furrowed his brows. “So…you don’t know who you’re looking for? You’re just shooting in the dark?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” the brunette replied, reaching back to adjust her hair, still unaccustomed to wearing it up in a bun like this.

The agent shook his head as they approached the front doors of the original headquarters entrance. He held the door for her as she stepped inside the front lobby of the building, where she paused and drew in a deep breath of awe at her new surroundings.

She was greeted by a shiny white and dark gray lobby, with two rows of square pillars on either side of the hall with white sides facing inwards and dark gray sides facing towards them. There were rows of bright lights in the ceiling, which reflected on the nearly mirror-like finish of the marble floor. The floor itself had a large white and dark gray checkered pattern to it, and there was a dark statue of a human figure along each of the outer walls with American flags standing next to them.

The hair on the back of Sunset’s neck stood up as she looked down at the large, circular CIA seal, which was embedded in the floor just a few feet inside the door. It was a large, sixteen foot wide dark granite circle with the words ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ around the top, and ‘United States of America’ around the bottom. In the middle was a large white shield, with a sixteen-point compass star in the middle and the left-facing head of an Eagle sticking out of the top.

She looked down at the symbol as she walked across it alongside Daniels, the heels of her boots clopping along, echoing around the large room as she stepped. “Holy shit!” she thought to herself with her eyes open wide as the reality of where she was dawned on her. "Sunset Shimmer, you did it…you are inside the CIA! This is so fucking intense…”

She realized she must have been making a face when Daniels leaned over to her and spoke quietly. “You might want to try to look like you’re supposed to be here…”

She cleared her throat and nodded. “Right…sorry.”

They walked a little further until they approached a row of gates, similar to what you find in a subway station, with three bars protruding out the side of each pillar. At the right hand side of the room, there was a desk with a man seated behind it, who nodded at Daniels as he approached.

Daniels held out his right arm, on which he was wearing a white wristband, which had his code key embedded in it, as well as a watch, small computer, communicator, etc. He swiped it over the little window on the gate pillar, prompting it to beep, allowing him to push through the gate, letting the bars rotate in a circle around him as he walked through.

Sunset was right on his tail, assuming she was free to follow, but was stopped short when she ran into the locked bars with her hips.

The sound of her grunting caused Daniels to take notice and turn around to face her.

She looked up at him, caught off guard by the fact that she was being stopped.

He calmly pointed to the lapel of his jacket.

Sunset looked down at the tag that Daniels had given her, which was clipped on her own jacket. She took it off, realizing she had to swipe it to get through the gate, which she did…prompting the gate to beep and allow her to proceed, the bars rotating around her now as she pushed through and stepped forward to join Daniels. Her face was red with embarrassment as she clipped the tag back to the lapel of her jacket while Daniels chuckled at the man behind the desk.

“First day…” he said with a shrug.

Sunset glanced over at the man, who was smirking as he looked back down at what he was doing behind the desk.

“Let’s go.” Daniels said quietly as he started walking again, going up a wide set of stairs, then taking a left down a large hallway as Sunset followed.

Daniels leaned over to speak quietly to her. “Looks like luck is on your side.”

She glanced back at him with her eyebrow raised. “Huh?”

“Those gates…” he said. “You just got scanned six ways from Sunday when you went through them.”

“Really?” she asked, surprised. “They just look like old-school gates.”

He nodded. “That’s the trick of it…”

She shook her head, realizing how secure this place really was. She knew her and I never would have stood a chance getting in on our own. “So it worked? The face thing?”

He nodded. “Yup. And your other little thing made it through too. You were right about it.”

This was no surprise to the brunette since she knew there really was no device on her.

Someone was coming towards them now, walking in a bit of a rush. “Hi Fredrickson, how are-“

“Hey Daniels.” the man said quickly in return without stopping, causing a breeze to hit Sunset and Daniels as he walked by hastily.

Daniels sighed, looking at Sunset. “Sorry…some people around here are always in a rush like that.”

Sunset shook her head. “It’s OK…we’ll get lots of chances I’m sure.”

He nodded in reply. “Yeah, there’s a lot of ground to cover between here and my department, so we’ll see lots of people. That’s why we came this way.” he turned to continue walking, looking back at her as he went. “Just try to realize it’s Friday afternoon and people are going into weekend mode, so they’re just trying to get the fuck out of here. The weeks here are long…eighty hours is not uncommon.”

Sunset shook her head. “Jeez…”

They continued on, walking through the hallways, making turns to the left and to the right, causing Sunset to quickly get disoriented in the maze that made up the CIA headquarters. The twisty-turny nature of the hall layout was not done by mistake, it is a trick they call ‘the wave’, which is designed to choke off radio frequencies while allowing people and ventilation to move around freely.

They met a few people on the way, some just gave a quick greeting as they passed while others stopped to have a short chat similar to Felix, the man outside with the coffee. Sunset was able to shake hands with several people, reading their thoughts and learning more about the inner workings of the CIA than she was originally prepared for, but nothing about Fluttershy’s whereabouts...or Cody’s, for that matter.

She was starting to get a hopeless feeling in her chest as she got the sense that they were closing in on Daniels’ work area. She could tell when they left the old building and entered the new section, the architecture was vastly different, as well as the more modern décor and finish. On the bright side, it did seem to be a little more densely populated, giving them extra chances to meet people and shake more hands, but still to no avail. Sunset had yet to learn a single thing about where Fluttershy was…no one here seemed to know that she even existed.

Sunset’s heart was starting to sink, knowing that her chances of finding the right person were starting to run dry as she followed Daniels down the hallway. There was an entrance to another hall on their left, just past a set of washroom doors. Daniels started to make the turn to walk down that hall when he was stopped in his tracks by another agent just past the corner.

“Daniels! There you are...” he said quickly. “I need to talk to you.”

Daniels nodded in reply. “Sure, what’s up, Marx?” he said, then he turned to Sunset. “Oh, uh…this is Sunset Shimmer.” he began introducing her, trying to get her another handshake. “She’s here for the internsh-“

“Yeah yeah, that’s great.” the man cut in abruptly. “Listen Daniels, I’ve got a problem with the new guy they put me with…”

Sunset sighed, rolling her eyes as Marx rattled off a whole story about not being able to get along with his new co-worker. Daniels was in human resources after all, so he was obligated to do his job while she stood there and waited. “Fuck…this plan sucked…” she thought to herself. “I’m just not finding the right people…the ones who know about Flutters are probably high level, or field agents…neither of whom probably roam the halls very much…”

Daniels and Marx were just a few feet down the new hall, which ended where it met the hall they just left, creating a T-shaped space where she was standing. She could see in all three directions down the halls, watching people moving to and from different rooms as they went about their business. Sunset folded her arms, listening to the background murmur of Daniels and Marx’s voices when she turned to the left and saw a blonde woman approaching her position. She was wearing thick-framed glasses and had on a business suit like Sunset’s, except it was a lighter brown colour with a pink blouse, and she was wearing high heel shoes instead of boots.

Sunset was the only one who could see her with Daniels further down the other hall, listening to Marx drone on about his problems. She watched as the woman turned at the last second to enter the ladies washroom that they had just passed before turning the corner.

“I don’t know how long Daniels is going to be with this guy…maybe I should go in there and try to read this lady…” Sunset thought to herself. She stepped over to Daniels, timidly tapping his arm.

He turned his head to face her as the other guy paused.

“Sorry to interrupt…” she said. “I’m just gonna use the washroom right there.” she said, pointing to the door around the corner a few feet away.

Daniels looked at her for a second, then nodded. “Sure. I’ll be right here.” he replied, turning back to Marx. “Sorry, go on…”

As Marx continued to talk, Sunset walked around the corner, approaching the washroom door. She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath as she prepared to go in without her escort. Her heart rate elevated slightly as she placed her forearm on the door and pushed it open.

She entered the washroom, which was very clean and brightly lit. Upon entering the door, she could see the main room was around the corner to the left. There was a long marble countertop along the right side with a row of sinks in it, with automatic, motion-detect faucets and soap dispensers installed at each sink. There was also a huge mirror on the wall that ran the entire length of the counter for checking one’s appearance before they returned to work.

Beyond the countertop was a row of stalls, painted a light blue with the typical locking doors on each one. The left wall was mostly just painted brick, save for a couple of blow dryers mounted on the wall.

The blonde woman was out of sight, most likely in a stall, so Sunset decided to approach the sink and check herself out to see how she was looking. She stared at her own aqua-green eyes in the mirror, wondering how she had ever found herself in this place…and how she ended up looking like this. She let her eyes drift down over her reflection, taking in the details of the stiff-looking suit that Rarity had given her to wear, and her alien-looking dark brown hair that was tied up in that loose bun...

Sunset barely recognised herself. “What the fuck am I doing here, looking like this?” she thought to herself. “I’m not even from this world…”

She then heard the private noise of the blonde woman in the far stall, relieving herself as Sunset listened at the counter, preparing herself for what she would say when the woman came out of the stall.

“You can do this, Sunset.” she coached herself, steadying herself in the mirror.

The sound of the toilet flushing followed next, then after a moment the door clicked open and the blonde woman emerged from the stall.

Sunset busied herself, adjusting her hair as she looked at herself in the mirror, waiting for the woman to come into view.

She could hear the clopping of high heels getting louder, followed by the woman’s figure emerging from behind the last stall as she approached the sink. She glanced at Sunset through her glasses for a moment, not realizing that anyone was in there until she saw her at the counter fixing her hair.

“Oh, hi.” the blonde greeted in a friendly tone.

“Hey.” Sunset replied.

The woman looked at Sunset for another moment. “I don’t recognise you, are you new here?”

“Uh, yeah.” Sunset said, turning to her. “I’m Sunset Shimmer, I applied here for an intern position…they brought me in today to get my security clearance and all that good stuff.” As Sunset introduced herself, she held her hand out to offer a handshake.

The blonde stared at her hand blankly for a moment, then walked past her to approach the sink.

Sunset pulled her hand back. “Ah, right…better wash up first, eh?” she said, trying to recover from the faux-pas. “Nice one, Sunset…way to try shaking her hand right after she pissed…”

“Why are you in here by yourself?” the woman asked suddenly.

Sunset froze. “Uh, well I just needed to freshen up a bit…the guy who’s helping me is out in the hall…” she chuckled. “He can’t very well come into the ladies washroom, can he?”

The woman smirked. “No, I guess not.” she said flatly. “So…” she continued as she reached under the faucet, waiting for the water to turn on. “Did you hear somebody finally solved the fourth message on Kryptos?”

Sunset wasn’t sure what she was talking about, so all she could do was just play along and try to generalize her response. “Oh yeah, I heard about that…that’s so amazing…”

The woman had a blank look on her face as she glared at the sink, letting the water finally wash over hands after it began to run from the faucet.

Sunset felt a twinge of uneasiness when she saw the woman’s reaction to her answer. Her heart rate went up as she tried to think of what to do, then she spotted the soap dispenser. “I gotta read her before I get in too deep over my head…”

The blonde spoke again, to Sunset’s surprise. “So…Miss Shimmer, is it?” she asked. “What was your previous job?”

“Oh…” Sunset replied, shrugging as she reached under the faucet in the adjacent sink to wet her own hands. “I was US Air Force…you know…pilot… all that good stuff.”

The blonde nodded. “Oh yeah? Good for you…” She turned her head to look at Sunset. “What do you think of those new Apaches? I think the rotor design is much more efficient, but the turbines are slightly underpowered…have you flown one yet? What do you think of the new navigation design in them?”

Sunset stared into the sink, unsure of how to respond. “Fuck, I’m screwed!” she panicked. “I don’t even know what an Apache is…is that some kind of aircraft?” Her eyes were wide as her heart rate increased even more, and her face was starting to heat up as she looked down at the woman’s hands just in time to see her reach for the soap.

Sunset made her move.

She quickly, but casually reached for the same soap dispenser, letting her hand ‘accidently’ bump into the blonde woman’s hand, instantly downloading her thoughts.

The woman recoiled a bit, looking awkwardly at Sunset, unaware that she’d just given away more information than she could possibly imagine.

“Oops, sorry!” Sunset said, pulling her hand back. “Go ahead.”

After a short pause and a glare, the blonde reached again for the soap as Sunset turned her head to face the other way with her eyes wide in shock at what she had just seen in the woman’s mind.

“FUCK! She’s onto me…” Sunset thought, chewing her bottom lip. “That Kryptos thing was a trap…no one has solved the fourth encryption…that bitch tricked me! And the questions about the helicopter were more tricks to draw me out…”

Kryptos is a sculpture in the courtyard of the new building, which was created by artist Jim Sanborn. It consists of a vertical stone, standing upright with a large sheet of copper bent into and S-shape coming out of the side of it, resembling a sheet of paper coming out of a printer. There are letters punched through the copper sheet which almost cover the entire surface. There were four messages hidden in the seemingly random array of letters, put there by the artist for people to try to solve...which still carry much allure to many cryptanalysts around the country to this day. So far, only three of the encryptions have been solved, and the fourth still remains a mystery. This was an unknown fact to Sunset just a minute ago when she said she did indeed hear that someone had solved the fourth message, exposing herself to the blonde as a liar.

Sunset was no longer worried about answering the questions about the helicopter. Now that she knew the woman was already highly suspicious of her being an intruder, she had bigger problems to worry about. She looked around the room towards the ceiling, confirming for herself what she saw in the blonde woman’s mind, which was that there were no security cameras installed in this particular washroom, which was why the female agent didn’t like Sunset being in there alone. She turned back to face the woman, who was rinsing the soap from her hands while giving Sunset a sharp look.

The blonde moved her hands out of the stream, flicked the excess water off into the sink, then stood to face Sunset, who's jaw was clenching up in anger towards the woman…partly for tricking her, but also for the other things she saw in her thoughts…things that involved Fluttershy.

The two women stood facing each other...blonde versus brunette...each waiting for the other to make the next move. The blonde looked nervous, even through her attempt at portraying an air of confidence…while Sunset was starting to scowl openly at her, clenching her fists at her sides as her old bullying tendencies started to come out again.

The blonde agent finally raised her hand, attempting to put her white wrist communicator to her mouth to call for security. Sunset, who knew the woman’s plan, quickly reached up and grabbed her arm, stopping the call. She skillfully used her thumb to unclasp the wristband and yanked it off, sliding it over the woman’s slender hand, then tossed it to the side, where it landed and slid across the counter to the far end, next to the stalls.

“I wouldn’t do that…” Sunset threatened.

The woman took a small step back, sizing up Sunset as she looked at her sideways. She was slightly smaller than the brunette, but not by much…maybe a bit taller that Rarity, but being trained by the CIA assured her that she could hold her own in a fight against the intruder, who surely didn’t have the same level of training…

“You’ll never make it out of here…” the woman said. “Whoever you are.”

“Oh yes I will.” Sunset replied. “You’re gonna let me out…unless you want your superiors to know that you’ve been stealing equipment from this place…”

The blonde agent froze. “What? That’s ridiculous…”

Sunset shook her head. “No, it isn’t. You took a surveillance bug from the equipment lab…one that broadcasts audio and cell phone data…and you gave it to someone, didn’t you?”

The woman shook her head. “No…you don’t know what you’re talking about…”

Sunset stepped towards her. “Do you know where that bug ended up?” she asked sternly. “In MY friend’s house…where one of your spies used it to make her life a living hell…”

The woman stood her ground, albeit nervously, glaring back at her adversary. “You can’t possibly know all this…” she replied dubiously.

“There’s something you need to know…about my friends.” Sunset informed her. She leaned in close, putting her nose only inches from the blonde woman’s face. “You fuck with my friends, you fuck with ME.”

The agent held her breath, her eyes wide as she slowly backed up a step…then paused again before making her move. She quickly swung her fist at the brunette, who leaned to the left to dodge the punch. Sunset reached up, grabbing the blonde by the wrist, then twisted her arm down, applying painful tension to her shoulder.

“Too slow, bitch.” Sunset uttered, then leaned forward, head-butting the blonde in the forehead, sending a dull clunk echoing through the bathroom after the skull-on-skull impact.

The agent staggered back, disoriented by the attack as her glasses slid down low on her nose. Sunset closed in on her, delivering a quick left jab to her mouth, followed by a hard right hook, snapping her head to the side, her glasses flying off as she was sent sprawling over the counter. The blonde shook her head and turned back to see Sunset coming at her, grabbing her by the lapels of her brown jacket, then pulling her up and swinging her around so hard her feet came up off the floor. She was thrown against the brick wall across from the counter, where she hit with her shoulder and slid down to her knees.

The blonde agent looked up to see the brunette coming at her again, appearing blurry with her glasses now missing. She knew it was time to fight back against the intruder and she leapt up, charging towards Sunset, spearing her in the stomach with her shoulder. She expected to catch the brunette off guard and knock her back, but the attack barely slowed Sunset down as she dug her heels into the floor to push back against the blonde’s attack. It was almost as though the brunette had anticipated it…

The agent backed out again quickly, then stepped forward to swing her fist at Sunset’s face, who put her hand up to effortlessly catch the blonde woman’s punch against her palm, wrapping her fingers around the agent’s little fist as she downloaded even more thoughts from her.

Sunset snickered at the woman, who was now staring back at her in terror. “Weak.” she said bluntly as she drove her knee into the blonde’s stomach causing her to bend over, gasping for air. The brunette then put her hand on top of the blonde’s head and shoved her back against the wall again.

“Pathetic.” Sunset taunted, throwing another punch at the woman’s face, snapping her head back, bouncing it off the brick wall with a thud.

The blonde, who was turning out to be tougher than she looked, squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the pain ring through her skull, then she made another valiant attempt to fight back, swinging a left hook at Sunset, who leaned back to miss it.

“Missed me again, you whore-house clown…” Sunset growled as she hammered her fist into the side of the woman’s ribs.

The blonde grunted, bending down as she tried to catch her breath. There was blood in her mouth now, her lips split open by Sunset’s knuckles as they were smashed against her own teeth. There was a cut on the bridge of her nose as well, plus a bruise already starting on her cheekbone.

Sunset reached out with her hand and grabbed the blonde by the throat, squeezing hard on her windpipe as she dragged her over to the second toilet stall then shoved her through the door, where she fell into a seated position onto the toilet.

Sunset grabbed her by the shoulders, picked her back up and put her hand on the side of her blonde head and drove it to the right, smashing her skull into the side of the stall with a crash. As the agent bounced back, she held her hand to the side of her head, squinting her eyes shut in pain.

This didn’t slow Sunset down one bit. She wound up and delivered the biggest right hook she could muster, connecting it to the cheek of the blonde agent, whose head flew to the left and bounced off the other side of the stall with a second sharp crash…and she finally crumpled up on the floor in an unconscious heap.

“Sweet dreams, you filthy bitch.” Sunset muttered as she picked the blonde up and set her on the toilet, propping her up so it half-assed appeared from the outside of the stall that she was using the toilet.

The brunette exited the stall, bringing a few squares of toilet paper with her as she went to the mirror to straighten out her hair and check her suit for any rips or tears. She paused for a moment to marvel at herself…even after striving to be a good person for so many years, she still had the natural ability to be quite a nasty bully when she lost her temper, although she certainly never expected to be tough enough to lay down a beating like that on a trained government agent, especially while being inside the CIA headquarters…she suddenly snapped out of her trance when she remembered where she was, and she knew she needed to distance herself from this situation very quickly.

Sunset picked up the agent’s glasses with the toilet paper and took them into the stall to slip them into the blonde’s front suit pocket. Then she went back out and grabbed the wristband communicator with the toilet paper, wiping it off and tossing it in the garbage can on the way to the door, which she opened with the toilet paper wrapped around her hand. Sunset had a degree in forensic science after all, so she knew a thing or two about not leaving fingerprints…

She re-entered the hall, looking around for cameras, quickly seeing that there were at least two that had caught her entering the washroom after the other woman. She then met up with Daniels in the hall, who was just wrapping up his conversation with Marx.

“OK. Thanks, Daniels. I owe you one.” the man said as he turned to walk away.

“No problem.” Daniels replied as he turned to Sunset, intending to apologise for the hold-up, but he was cut off before he could speak.

“We need to go.” Sunset said quickly.

Daniels paused, stunned by what he thought was her impatience. “Sorry about that…it took a little longer than I mea-“

She cut him off again. “No no, you don’t understand. I need to get the fuck out of this building.” she whispered loudly. “Right now!”

Daniels looked at her, then glanced at the washroom door. “What happened?” he whispered, leaning in closer to her.

“I’ll explain on the way.” Sunset informed. “But right now, we have to go.”

Daniels nodded. “OK. We’ll leave through the front of the new building. Follow me.”

They started walking hastily to make their escape.

“So Daniels…” she said as they walked.

“Yeah?” he answered, looking around for anyone watching him as he led her.

“You said you wanted to get back at your wife?” she asked.

“Yeah…why?” he replied.

“Well…I just met her in the bathroom…”

Daniels looked back at her with surprise as he kept walking.

Sunset continued. “There’s something you might want to know about her…”

*****

I was laying on the far bed in the motel room watching Family Feud on TV, thinking about how my friend was busy breaking into the CIA headquarters.

I watched as the host had two contestants at the podium, asking the question again. “What is something you bring to the beach?”

The two contestants hit their buzzers, and the one who was faster got to answer. “iPad?”

I winced, shaking my head in frustration. “Seriously…” I groaned in disgust. “You…WHAT? How fucking stupid can you be??”

The host looked across the crowd in shock, getting a few laughs and groans before turning to the board. “OK…we asked a hundred people: what is one thing you bring to the beach…you said ‘iPad’. Survey says?”

The TV screen showed the board with a few things already listed, like a towel and sunscreen…things that actually made sense. There were suddenly three big red letter X’s flashing across the screen, accompanied by a loud buzzer.

The next thing it showed was the contestant shrugging in disbelief as they wandered back to the podium with their family, who were clapping in support, although it was obvious that they were not impressed.

“Yeah, you lost. No shit…you fuckin idiot…” I cursed to myself, shaking my head at the TV.

Just then, I heard footsteps outside the door, followed by the swipe of the card and the lock beeping. The door swung open and Sunset barged in.

I almost didn’t recognise her at first. I’d forgotten about how she put her hair up and dressed in that business skirt and jacket for the mission.

I watched as she slammed the door shut, then leaned on it with her back as if she was holding it shut against the wind. Her eyes were wide as they darted around the room frantically.

“Hey Sunny…” I greeted. “How’d it go?”

She glared at me suddenly. “Uh…”

“Calm down.” I said. “Come over here.”

She walked quickly between the beds, standing over me as she spoke. “That was…crazy! That place is so fucking intense…” she babbled.

“Did you find out where Flutters is?” I asked.

Sunset didn’t listen. “It’s huge…there’s so many cameras, scanners, things you gotta swipe your card into…tons of people…like, TONS of people…”

“You OK?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Then there was…the washroom…” she mumbled, slowing down a bit as she stared at the wall. “I beat that bitch senseless…”

My eyes got wide as I sat up on the bed.”WHOA! You did what?”

She shook her head frantically. “She knew…she was-“

Sunset froze suddenly, staring at me for a moment…then she looked down at herself. “Oh damn…not this now…” she muttered, slowly looking back up at me with lust in her eyes as her mandatory arousal lit a fire between her legs. “Aw fuck it!” she panted, shaking her head.

Sunset dove on top of me, breathing on my face as she searched for my mouth with her lips. She pressed her body against me, rubbing herself up and down until her mouth found its target. She connected her wet lips with mine, digging through my barrier with her tongue and sliding it deep into my mouth, bringing a payload of her sweet saliva in with it. She kept her hands planted on the mattress on either side of me as she pressed her hips down on mine, grinding herself against me with unrestrained aggression.

I was caught off guard by the sudden barrage of sexual contact from the brunette, who still had her business suit on and her hair up as she slithered around on top of me. I put my hands up around either side of her, intending to protest her actions against me…but her aggressively passionate, yet loving advances intoxicated me like some kind of potent venom.

I eventually put my hands on the small of Sunset’s back, pulling her closer to me as I returned her kisses, fighting her tongue with mine for domination, drawing a low moan out of her that resonated down my throat.

Sunset suddenly pulled back, breaking the kiss with a loud, wet smack sound as she sat up on me, letting the weight of her body sit on the erection still enclosed inside my pants. She unbuttoned the suit jacket and tossed it to the side, then frantically peeled the silky blouse up over her head, exposing her skin-toned bra underneath.

She came back down to me, kissing my cheek, nibbling my ear, then running her lips and tongue down my neck, sucking gently on my collarbone as I reached around her back and unhooked her bra. She exhaled excitedly against my throat when she felt me commit to exposing her body and sat up again to yank the bra from her shoulders and throw it to the side.

Sunset’s breasts were freed, jiggling around as she threw the garment away. I reached up quickly to place my hands over them, feeling their warm softness against my palms as I squeezed them gently, the contrasting hardness of her nipples tickling my palms as I gently massaged the fleshy mounds.

Her eyes were closed, her head tipping back as she breathed heavily from her mouth, rocking her hips as she ground the heat between her legs against me. I shifted my hands to the sides of her breasts, gently pinching and rolling her nipples between my thumbs and forefingers as I watched her reach up and undo the clip that was holding her hair in place, letting her wavy brunette locks fall free. She shook her head wildly, whipping her hair outwards, bringing it back to its usual untamed, rebellious style.

Oh, how I missed her fiery coloured locks…those insanity-inducing reds and yellows that I always found so alluring…

Sunset came down to me again, planting her soft, wet lips against mine as we traded tongues and saliva once again. Her frantic breathing was blowing against my face through her nose, her soft breasts squeezing against my chest, their warmth soaking through my t-shirt.

Then she crawled upwards over me, letting her breasts dangle over my face as she straddled my midsection so the heat from under her skirt was blasting against my stomach now. I put my hands on her waist as I took one of her nipples in my mouth, sucking it gently while flicking it with my tongue, listening to her moans of satisfaction as I stimulated her into a frenzy. I squeezed the other breast while I played with her nipple, moistening it with my tongue, pinching it gently between my lips, tasting her smooth skin…

I switched sides next, giving the same attention to her other nipple, her breath drawing inwards sharply at the fresh sensation, followed by a low moan from deep in her throat. I swirled my tongue around the firm bud, keeping a light suction on it while at the same time I gently tweaked her other nipple, letting it slide between my fingers with the moisture from my mouth.

I heard the sound of a zipper next, followed by Sunset sitting up again, allowing me to see her undoing the side of the skirt. She climbed off the bed, standing on the floor as she let the garment fall down around her legs to her feet, revealing a skimpy pair of red panties to me, drawing my eyes to the dark spot in the crotch where her undoubtedly fully-aroused womanhood had soaked them with her juices.

Sunset stood in front of me, naked except for the tiny red thong that barely covered what was left to my imagination. She swung her hips to one side, groping her own breasts, staring seductively at me with her aqua eyes as she bit her bottom lip…

She then came back onto the bed, crawling past me to the far side and laying face-down, crossing her arms in front of her and resting her head on her forearms. Her bare back was visible to me now, along with her bare ass-cheeks with only the thin red string of the thong threaded between them.

I could see the red crotch of her panties, soaked in warm, slick fluid, peeking out from between her thighs when I sat up to look down at her. I reached down in between her cheeks with my hand, rubbing my fingertips over the moist material nestled between her heated thighs, prompting her to arch her back, sticking her ass up into the air to give me better access.

I rubbed her soft, full lips through the wet material a few times with my fingers, feeling the intense heat radiating from inside her before cupping my hand over one of her ass-cheeks, slapping it gently to see it jiggle, then squeezing it firmly a second time.

“Holy fuck, Sunny has a nice ass…”

I leaned down and planted my lips on her ass, kissing one side, then the other. I then ran my mouth down to the little crease where her cheek transitioned into her thigh, running my tongue towards her moist core as the earthy, metallic scent of her arousal hit my nostrils, causing my jaw to quiver a bit.

She gasped and giggled at the tickle of my mouth on her rarely-explored parts when I nibbled on the inner bottom edge of her cheek with my teeth, taking in the scent of her arousal with my nose practically buried in her crotch from behind, then I ran my tongue upwards along her ass, tracing a wet line just beside her crack, then past the underwear, up the small of her back. She trembled at the sensation...the tickle of my tongue running along her skin, followed by the cooling sensation as the air hit the trail of moisture that I left in my wake.

I sat back up and pulled on her hip with my hand so she would turn over onto her back. She complied, turning herself over and laying down with her beasts and toned belly exposed, as well as her smooth shapely thighs, showing me the small triangle of red material between them at the top.

She groped her breast with one hand while resting the back of her other hand on her forehead. I squeezed her free breast, then ran my hand down her belly to the top of the red garment, lifting it with my fingertips to slide my hand inside them.

What I found beyond was a warm, slick mess of juice as my fingers practically splashed between the soft lips into her super-heated crease. It soaked my hand, completely coating my fingers, creating webs between them when I pulled them apart as I stroked her sensitive flesh, studying her soft, delicate folds with my fingertips. She arched her back up, gasping sharply as she finally got some stimulation from the person she desired so badly.

“Holy fuck, Sunny…” I chuckled. “You’ve got a swimming pool going on down there.”

She bit her lip, opening her eyes to look at me for a moment to speak. “You can take a dip in me anytime…”

I slid two fingers inside her, plunging them deep into the hot flood at her core, feeling her tight, yet delicate flesh as I stoked in and out of her slowly, drawing a loud moan from her mouth as she tilted her head back and arched her body up.

I laid down on my side next to her as I continued to work my fingers inside her, sending waves of intensity through her quivering body. She took her hand from her forehead and reached down to grab a handful of the bedspread, squeezing it tightly as she gritted her teeth, letting her breath hiss out of her mouth, feeling the pleasure from between her legs bring her closer to explosion.

I leaned in and kissed Sunset, surprising her with the feel of my lips against hers, causing her to let go of her breast and slide her arm around my shoulders, keeping her hand over my shirt as she kissed me back. Her tongue returned to my mouth, flailing around wildly as my fingers drove her closer to the edge.

It finally hit her like a lightning bolt. Her body quivered, her back arching up off the bed, causing her breasts to jiggle with her convulsions as her rock-hard nipples pointed straight up at the ceiling. She squealed into my mouth uncontrollably, furrowing her brows as the sensation exploded from her delicate flesh while my fingers continued sending jolts of tingling delight through every nerve in her body.

Her thighs suddenly slammed together, pinning my hand in place in an attempt to get me to ease up my stimulation of her delicacy. I slowed down a little to give her a break, letting just my fingertips continue to give her insides gentle strokes as she slowly came down from the orgasm…her body settling slowly, but twitching hard every five seconds or so, causing her eyes to roll back in her head whenever she convulsed. Her breath was heavy, but steadily leveling out, save for the sharp gasps every time she quivered against my hand.

I leaned down again, pressing my lips to hers for another soft kiss, then we separated to look into each other’s eyes for a moment. I ran my fingers through her wavy brown hair, watching her satisfied face as she breathed softly between her lips.

She held her breath suddenly, her eyes opening wide as she realized what we were doing. Both of us looked down at my hand, still nestled inside her red panties, my fingers still buried inside her body.

Sunset let go of the sheets and put her hand on her forehead, closing her eyes as she spoke. “Damn, Golds...what are we doing?” she breathed.

I swallowed. “Um…I don’t know, Sunny…”

She laid for a moment, continuing to pant as she stared blankly at the ceiling. “We’re supposed to be here for Flutters…” she finally said, leaning up on her elbows.

I withdrew my hand from her underpants, rubbing my thumb back and forth across my fingertips, feeling the slick wetness that she had soaked into my skin. “Yeah…” I said slowly, turning my head to look at her, taking in the sight of her topless body next to mine. “Sorry…I mean, you can’t help it, but I have no excuse...”

She shook her head. “Don’t be sorry to me…I’m really sorry about this whole thing. I really should send a message to the Princess when I get home…maybe she knows a way to break this arousal curse.”

“Curse?” I asked, somewhat put off by the choice of words.

Sunset shook her head. “No…sorry, I didn’t mean it like that…it’s just…Rare and Flutters…”

I sighed, then nodded my head, staring at the wall.

“You OK?” she asked, looking at me.

I looked back at her. “Yeah. You?”

Sunset nodded. She looked down at her naked self, then slowly got up of off the bed. “I’m gonna shower…” she said in a daze, heading around the corner to the right past the beds. I watched the muscle tone on her bare back as she walked away…her smooth, round ass with the red thong strung between her cheeks, swaying with each alluring step. When she rounded the corner, I could see the side of her right breast, jiggling as she stepped, just before she disappeared behind the wall out of my sight.

I let my head flop back onto the pillow and closed my eyes. “Dang…”

*****

Sunset emerged from the bathroom over an hour later, wrapped in a towel and running a brush through her hair. I watched her set the brush down and open her travel bag, pulling out a fresh pair of underwear and a bra. I was expecting her to pull the panties up inside the towel to avoid me seeing her nude, but surprisingly, she just let the towel drop to the floor and turned to face me.

As I sat on the bed, leaning my back against the headboard, I couldn’t help but let my eyes dance all over her. Her breasts were beautiful, nicely sized with a cute roundness to them…sort of a contrast to the rest of her powerful-looking body. She had a nice figure, not quite as narrow as Fluttershy, more of a solid build while still maintaining a lovely feminine quality. My eyes fell to her hips where her thighs transitioned into her body, where the small slit was nestled front and center, hairless and perfect.

I blinked a couple of times, then finally looked back at her green eyes. “Hey Sunny…you’re naked.”

“Thanks for the FYI, Einstein.” she said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes as she bent down to slide the underwear up her legs.

“So…” I said, changing the subject to ask about her mission. “Obviously he found a way to get you in?

“Yeah.” she said, her breasts jiggling as she adjusted her panties to fit her rear-end just right. “We actually went back to the original plan…using another applicant for me to go in as.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Really? What about the face scan thing?”

“Uhh…” she said, her eyes darting around the room. “He found someone who looked a lot like me…”

“That much like you??” I asked in surprise.

She nodded, pursing her lips. “Yeah…”

I got the distinct feeling that there was something she was keeping from me, but I decided not to persist because it seemed like she was pretty overwhelmed with everything that had happened already. I decided to move onto the next question. “So what happened in there, anyway?”

She looked at me for a moment as she put her bra on. “Well…I read quite a few people, but no one seemed to know anything about Flutters.”

“Right…” I said with a sigh.

“But…” she paused. “There was a woman in the washroom, who I read…and…”

“Yeah?” I urged.

“She knew about Flutters…” she said before she paused, seemingly reluctant to finish.

“Sunny…? What aren’t you telling me?” I asked, looking her sideways.

“Um…”she pursed her lips, standing there now wearing a black bra and panties. “She’s not at the CIA…she’s at the other place. Cody too.”

I shrugged. “OK. So where is it?”

Sunset stared at me blankly.

“What?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I have no idea.”

My eyebrows went up. “You…what?? What do you mean, you have no idea?”

“I don’t know where it is. Neither did the woman that I read. I don’t think anyone there knows where it is unless they’re getting recruited…like Cody.” she said.

I put my hands on top of my head. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Sunset shook her head. “I’m sorry…”

I let out a loud exhale, then chewed the corner of my mouth as I thought to myself. “Who was this woman that you read?”

Sunset slid a pair of dark blue tights on as she spoke. “She was Daniels’ ex-wife. She cheated on him with Cody, and she’s the one who stole the bug for him that he used in Fluttershy’s house back in the spring.”

I shook my head. “No shit…wow.”

“She knew about the school shooting and that Cody was going back to look for you and that he got Flutters instead…but now she’s kind of pissed at him cuz he got into that other agency and he’s not allowed to talk to her, or anyone else anymore for that matter. It runs under total anonymity…as far as society is concerned, Cody doesn’t exist anymore…and neither does Flutters.” Sunset explained.

I sighed as I processed the new information.

“And I…kind of…beat the living shit out of her in the bathroom…” she said, cringing a bit, worried that I would be upset at her for pulling such a stunt inside the CIA headquarters. “It’s just…I was so pissed at her for helping Cody fuck over Flutters…plus…she slept with Cody. I saw it…you know what that’s like?” she said, grimacing at the memory she’d received from the blonde. “I could see it…and feel it…”

I scrunched my nose at her. “Ew, gross…”

Sunset shook her head to try to wipe the memory from her brain. “So…after I left her in the bathroom, I told Daniels to get me out of there, and I told him about his wife stealing the bug…I don’t know what he’s going to do about it, but he’s supposed to come back here after he’s done there today…to get his money, and…” she stopped, then covered her face with her hands.

I remembered her deal with him right then. “Oh yeah…you’re supposed to bang him. That’s…cool…” I said slowly. I was admittedly feeling a bit put off about it.

“Yeah…” she nodded slowly, slipping a black t-shirt on over her head. “I don’t really want to though…even though I’m getting turned on again already.”

I sighed, then shrugged. “Well, might as well use it, I guess.”

She scowled. “He smelled like beer when I kissed him…it’s gonna be gross.”

“Plus I’m supposed to pay him fifty grand…” I sighed. “All this and we still don’t know where Flutters is. We’re pretty much back to square one.”

Sunset nodded slowly. She took a step forward towards me, then paused again. “Can I sit with you?” she asked in an uncharacteristically timid tone.

I glanced at her in surprise for a moment, then nodded. “Of course you can, Sunny.”

She came over to the bed and sat beside me, curling her legs up and resting her head on my shoulder, folding her arms to keep her hands hidden from me as she sighed hopelessly. “I’m sorry, Golds. I don’t know what to do.”

“Same here.” I replied, letting my cheek rest on the top of her head.

*****

We waited for the rest of the afternoon for Agent Daniels to show up to collect his compensation for getting us inside the headquarters. It was tempting to just leave town and stiff him on the deal, especially since we were really no further ahead in our search for the shy girl. Plus I knew Sunset wasn’t keen on having to sleep with him, even though she was viciously aroused again after spending the afternoon in the motel room alone with me. The problem with stiffing him on the deal was that he works for the CIA…and he could cause us trouble if he was pissed at Sunset.

Not only that, but she was worried about the fact that they had her on camera following Daniels’ wife into the washroom, and they were sure to find the battered woman on the toilet sooner or later.

The afternoon passed us by, and it was now evening. The sky was dark, and Sunset and I were starting to wonder what was going on with our insider.

Sunset was now pacing around the room, nervously hooking her fingers together and pulling them apart as she kept looking at the door, wondering what was going to happen. “Ugh! Where the fuck is he??” she groaned impatiently.

“Just relax, Sunny.” I said, sitting on the edge of one of the beds.

She stopped and looked at me with worried eyes. “My stunt in the washroom may have fucked us over huge…do you think he might have gotten caught for sneaking me in??”

I tilted my head and shrugged. “I don’t know, but if he did, we should probably get the fuck out of Dodge in case he gives you up…I don’t wanna have to kill a bunch CIA people if they show up here.”

She chewed her lip, continuing to pace around in front of me. “I don’t know if he’d give me up…”

“How do you know?” I asked.

She stopped pacing to glare at me impatiently. “I can read minds…?”

I looked down at the floor, remembering that Daniels couldn’t possibly plan on betraying Sunset without her knowing…at least up until the last time she saw him. “Fair enough.” I said. “But things might have changed since you got here…you haven’t seen him since then…”

She nodded. “Yeah…I know.”

We both waited there for a few minutes, staring around the room, wondering what was in store for us. It would have been very unfortunate if we’d stirred up a hornet’s nest at the CIA after sneaking in there, especially since the two people we were looking for weren’t even there. Having the CIA come after us was an extra aggravation that we certainly didn’t need.

Sunset sighed. “You know…” she started, making me look up at her. “Most of the people I met in there today were actually…pretty cool.”

I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Most of them just wanna do their jobs and keep the country safe…” she continued. “No one in there was thinking about you…I think Cody was the only one who was like that…”

I rubbed my hands together as I thought for a minute, looking at the floor.

Sunset spoke again. “I kind of think that if Cody is gone from the CIA, then you really don’t need to worry about them anymore. If fact, after what I learned in there today, I bet you could walk in there and tell them who you are, and they would actually be excited to meet you.”

I frowned as I looked up at her. “Yeah…let’s not and say we did. How about that?”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’m just sayin…”

There was a loud, rapid knock at the door.

Sunset and I both turned to look at the door, then at each other.

I nodded to her, letting her know she should answer.

She went to the door, putting her head close so she could hear. “Who is it?”

“It’s Daniels.” the agent’s muffled voice came back.

She paused, looking back at me.

“Sorry I’m late…a lot has happened since you left there today…” he said.

I started heading towards the bathroom to hide.

“Where are you going?” Sunset whispered frantically. “What if it’s a trap?”

I shook my head. “Let him in. If he’s got the cavalry out there, just give me a shout and I’ll come out and fuck ‘em up.”

I went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Sunset took a deep breath, then turned back to the door. She opened it slowly, looking out to see Daniels standing there by himself. She couldn’t see anyone else around, although it was dark out.

He suddenly stepped forward, pushing the door open as he came into the room. This put Sunset on edge, who looked around outside one more time to check for anyone else who might be watching, then she slowly shut the door.

When Sunset turned to face Daniels again, she was perplexed by the sight of him pacing around the room with a slight bounce in his step. He was different than the night before, he seemed…excited?

“Oh my god…” he whispered, turning around again to pace back the other way.

Sunset cocked her eyebrow at him. “What’s going on?”

He stopped suddenly to look at her. His eyes were wide as he spoke. “I can’t believe this is happening…this is amazing!”

“What’s amazing?” Sunset asked, unsure of what to think of his newfound lightheartedness.

“You…you were right…” he said. “How did you know?”

She shook her head. “Know what?”

“About my wife...stealing that transmitter.” he explained. “You were right. When I went back to HQ this afternoon after bringing you back here, I consulted the inventory history with the guys in the lab…and we found a miscount claim filed back in May…so I talked to the guys in security and we looked at the camera footage from around the same date, and we found it…”

“Found what?” Sunset asked slowly, looking at him sideways.

“You can see her take it…” he replied. “She was very quick about it…very smooth, and if you’re not looking for it, you’d never catch it…but we saw it today because we knew what to look for.”

Sunset nodded. “Oh, yeah. She made an inventory correction to cover up the fact that one was missing.” She smirked a bit at Daniels. “So you found proof of it, eh?”

He nodded excitedly. “And it was me who brought it to their attention…because you brought it to my attention.”

“So what’s gonna happen to her?” Sunset asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t know, but it won’t be good…” he said before pausing to look at the brunette with a bit of strange look. “They found her, by the way.”

Sunset looked up at him suddenly. “In the bathroom?”

He nodded. “She looked like she was in a train wreck. What the hell did you do to her?”

“Oh…” she said, looking at the floor and shrugging a little. “I used to box…”

Daniels chuckled a bit. “Man…you worked her over pretty good…”

Sunset chewed the inside of her cheek. “Are they looking for me now? I’m sure they caught me on camera going in there after her…”

He rubbed his forehead with his index knuckle. “Well…kind of. They want to ask you questions about it.”

Sunset frowned in confusion. “Questions?”

“Well, I...kind of…embellished the truth for you.” he said. “I told them that you were there for the intern position and you went in to use the washroom while I waited in the hall, and she threatened you.”

Sunset stared at him, blinking a couple times. “Threatened me?”

He nodded. “And that she attacked you, so you had to defend yourself.”

She shook her head. “So…wait, they believed you?”

“Of course they did…” he replied. “We had already caught her red-handed on film stealing the transmitter by then. They knew she was untrustworthy…so why wouldn’t they believe me? Didn’t you say she swung at you first anyway?”

Sunset nodded.

Daniels shrugged. “Then it’s not a lie, is it?”

“I guess not.” she replied with a smirk.

“It was lucky for you that you were in one of the few washrooms without a camera…” he said with a chuckle. “That HR wing is pretty low security because of all the applicants that have to be allowed in, but I’m sure after today there will be a camera installed to watch the sink area at the very least.”

Sunset agreed. “Yeah...”

“But anyway, back on topic.” he continued. “They saw you on camera when you asked to leave in a hurry, and I told them you were upset about what happened in the washroom…cuz that’s what it looked like, you were really flustered and wanted to go…”

“Hm…” she mumbled, rubbing her chin.

“But they want to talk to you about what happened, so if I were you I would get out of town…and maybe change your appearance.” he instructed.

“Are they gonna be after me?” she asked in a worried tone.

“I don’t think they want to have you arrested or anything, in fact I think they feel somewhat apologetic for what happened…but you were in there pretending to be someone else, so it’s probably not a good idea to go back to talk to them about it…if they figured out that you were actually an imposter, it would be bad for both of us.” he explained. “Just get out of town. They’ll have a hard time finding you since they’ll be looking for that Shimmer person, that'll keep them confused for a bit. I’ll make sure to keep them tied up dealing with that to buy you lots of time to get out.”

Sunset nodded. “OK. I’ll leave town tonight.

Daniels paused for a moment, then me smirked a bit. “You didn’t think you could do it, but you did.”

“Do what?” she asked.

“Help me get back at my wife. You did it though…you have no idea what this means to me.” he replied.

Sunset shrugged, looking away from him. “Glad I could help.” she said as she turned, intending to go get his money, but he stopped her again.

“No…you don’t understand.” he said. “They’re gonna give me a commendation…and a promotion…”

Sunset’s eyes went wide at the news. “Oh...wow, that’s great…good for you, Daniels.”

“It was because of you…” he said. “I don’t know who you really are, but you’ve changed my life.”

She paused, smiling awkwardly for a moment, then was surprised when he suddenly approached her and wrapped her up in a tight hug.

“Thank you.” he said quietly.

Sunset stared at the wall over his shoulder, realizing what this must have meant to him. She slowly brought her hands up and placed them gently on his back, returning the embrace.

“I uh…have your money…” she said, bracing herself to keep the rest of her end of the bargain. “And your bonus…”

He shook his head against hers. “I don’t want the money… you’ve already done enough for me.”

She furrowed her brows in surprise. “Really?”

He nodded. “And I don’t want the bonus…”

She pulled her head back. “You don’t?” she asked, feeling instant relief.

He broke the hug to stand back and look at her…”Well, I mean…it’s not like…I mean, you are very beautiful, but I don’t want it like this…I can’t treat you like that after what you’ve done for me.”

Sunset smiled as a blush crept across her face.

“I’ll even give the twenty grand back…” he offered.

Sunset shook her head, waving her hands at him. “No! No, I don’t want it back…you earned it.”

He paused, then nodded when he realized she wasn’t going to accept the refund. “I don’t know who you are,” he said, “but you’ve given me a reason to try again…I might even get my daughter back, depending on what happens with my wife. Is there something I can call you? Even a nickname at least?”

Sunset smiled, then took a deep breath. “Just call me…” she paused as she thought of a name. “Trixie.”

He smiled. “Trixie…” he repeated, patting her on the shoulder. “Well Trixie, you’ve made a friend and ally in the CIA today. If there’s anything you need, you contact me and I’ll help you any way I can.”

She stared blankly at the floor. “Well actually…” she said. “The whole reason I needed in there today was to find out where my friend is…and I didn’t find what I was looking for.”

His expression dropped. “Damn…sorry about that. I wish there was something I could do to help...”

She shook her head. “Not unless you happen to know where the super-secret organisation that Agent Cody took her to is…”

He cocked his eyebrow. “The super-secret what now?”

She chuckled while folding her arms. “Didn’t think so…”

“It doesn’t sound real…” he said. “Like something out of a movie, or some kind of fanfiction…”

She nodded. “It’s real. Trust me.”

He sighed, staring off into space for a moment as if he was deep in thought. Then he suddenly perked up. “Hey wait…” he said, looking at her again. “I might actually know someone you could talk to…if he’s still alive, that is.”

Author's Notes:

https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/headquarters-tour
Pretty cool website, check it out!