Chapter Text
Veracruz, Mexico, infiltrated in a villa.
“Riley at your six !”, announced Matty into coms, from the war room.
Mac climbs the stairs and approached the target, sneaking between all the people who were here enjoying the party. All criminals. They weren't his goal, unfortunately.
He was with Riley, in this crazy party, at a rich man's house, called Bryan Jolt.
If you ask Mac, this man had no legitimacy. He has only twenty one years old and all his money was provided by the family business, which was working before even his birth and he has no merit for it. And yet, this man was performing in the middle of the room as if he was at the head of the biggest company in the world. This kind of person disgusted Mac.
Never-mind, he refocuses on the mission, this man still had one quality, or almost. He had big criminals as friends without even knowing it. The worst criminals were interesting of his money to finance terrorism and he didn't even know it.
Suddenly, Mac had pity for him, before it rapidly transformed in half angriness, half weariness while the main interested, started to proclaim himself king of the world.
He was hopeless, definitely irrecoverable and Mac was jaded.
He found Riley with his eyes at the opposite of the room and gave her a face which said : “seriously, he disgust me !”, Riley looked at him smiling and shrugged to say: “I know, but ,what can we do against human stupidity ?”. He smiled at her.
Mac and Riley were in the huge house, three stages and 1435 square yards, for an hour now and the mood: too loud music added to criminals and morons, started playing with his nerves.
Riley was in, as Britany Mashtof: an eccentric woman who's known to be the best in huge misappropriation of funds: several hundred million each time. Mac as Theodore Ligrog a billionaire who's known to be one of the most important arms dealers.
The real ones obviously being in the cells at the Phoenix foundation.
They came separately, pretended they didn't know each other. To be capable of passing the entry detectors and not arouse suspicion, Mac had created a com's system to be able to received Matty's Intel and hear each other without emit wave. The only trouble was that they couldn't talk with Matty and neither with each other.
Riley was watching the first floor and Mac the ground floor.
They had a specific target : Roman Porces known as the most dangerous terrorist who planned to carry out an attack against the greatest world powers.
The mission was simple : infiltrate the party, forget that it was filled with the most monstrous criminals and focus only on Roman Porces. Arrest him and, finally, entrust him to recognized authorities, who will proceed as they wished to extract information from him.
Now that they had located the target on the first floor, it would be great to plan his exfiltration or like Bozer preferred say : kidnaping.
They had reinforcements outside ready to carry him and Mac and Riley would exit the party by the main entrance to not draw attention. Yes, in this kind of party, it's better to exit this way, in front of the whole guests, rather than by the window or the fireplace or whichever the way you chose to escape after a kidnaping.
“Guys, I lost the visual, the satellite is too far away from the house, I can't help you anymore. We had planned it, it's up to you now. Good luck !”, informed Matty on their coms.
Yes, it was planned that Matty could help for the first fifty minute and not longer. She had helped to find quickly the target among all of the people in the house. They were alone now.
Riley, avoided the fifteenth man / criminal / monster / worst bad guy ever, who tried to offer her a drink and looked discreetly at Mac. He was walking along the wall to circled Roman Porces. Without even being capable to speak to him, she understood what has been his plan with just a glance. They were good together.
Roman was arguing with a tall, dark-hair man with impressive build and hands that, in Riley opinion, would be able to rip your head off in less that half a minute.
For the first time, since a while, Mac saw fear in Riley eyes. Mac was tented to forget that Riley was a young woman unaccustomed to this kind of place and that for her, it must be complicated to not run away or tremble in fear in the middle of all these criminals.
In defense of Mac, he had never seen Riley tremble in front of any situations. She had been worried at times but she had never let her emotions overcome her.
Concerning Roman, it would be more prudent to wait until he's alone, to approach him. He leaned against the wall to make Riley understand to stay in standby.
A lot of people were around so they had to do something. Mac located near from him a little group of bad guy which he knew enough, only by their criminal record and Intel let's be clear, to be capable to join the conversation safely.
Riley hadn't anything to do, she recognized nobody in her perimeter and Matty couldn't help. She found herself alone with the need to melt into the crowd. The irony of the situation made her wince.
A man she had sent packing away gently, at the beginning of the evening, who introduced himself to her as Patrick Hault, was coming on her way.
Fortunately, she had to be cautious when she had refused, spending time with them, because she was perfectly aware that they were all armed and dangerous, so she had been nice but stringent. Now, she could use one of them to keep her cover.
“I brought you the drink you deserve. You can't refuse it”. He said, offering her the glass.
Mac was keeping an eye on her, she was sure of that. Well, she hoped when she accepted the drink.
“Thanks”, she said quietly, taking the glass.
“You were less cordial earlier”. He had noticed.
“Yes, I am sorry, I needed to see someone, you know, work stuff.”
“Yes, by the way, I sell a magnificent boat for an attractive price, eight hundred million dollars. Would you like to see it ? I can show it to you tomorrow night.”
At the announcement of the price, she felt the liquid pass hardly in her throat, but kept steady.
Mac who was taking an eye on her from the other side of the room could see that she had been surprised and shocked by something the man told her, Mac noticed that the man had his hand on Riley waist. He hated seeing her surroundings by these assholes. He knew that, if something went wrong, he couldn't protect her. He couldn't even protect himself. He rested his attention on what a reputed bomb maker, on the evil side was saying.
Riley didn't dare look Mac for fear of being spotted.
“With pleasure, I was looking for a jet, but a boat could be nice, I have some free time in the Caribbean”, she played her role perfectly.
“Yeah, I can imagine, you are really good according to the people you helped ”. He was referring to her “job”, she entered into his game.
“Yes, some million are really simple for me, I was thinking about playing in the premier league but I feel secure and out of the radars in my little position.”
“I can understand that.” he smiled at her viciously and toasted.
After this, they discussed several other minutes until she saw Mac signal her that the way was clear.
She got rid of the arrogant man with whom she had absolutely nothing in common. Nothing surprising. She put her glass on a table and followed Mac in the hallway. She felt a little nauseous and had some dizziness while she turned her head to be sure no one was paying attention to her.
She blinked several times to clear her vision. It was weird. She was walking in the hallway, when something pulled her into a room at her right. Her anxiety level exploded for a second, before she crashed on Mac. He caught her, spending his arms around her back and waist, protectively:
“Wow ! Riles are you okay ? Can you keep your balanced ?”, Mac asked worry in his voice.
“Yeah, I think so, I dunno, I feel sick”, she answered, grabbing his suit jacket. If it had been his tie, she probably would have strangled him.
“Okay, can you handle it until we get out ?”, he inquired.
“Yes, sure. What's the plan”, she tries to reassure him, he had to be focused on the mission, not on her. She harshly straightened.
She wasn't convincing.
Mac took her pulse. It was pretty normal.
Okay, they could take care of her after Roman's exfiltration. He keeps a hand on her back:
“The plan, you go talk to him and I'll come behind him and push him. He gonna pass through the window and land in Phoenix hands. Is it okay for you ?”
“Yes, simple. Thanks for using simple words.”, she teased him.
He smiled at that passing a hand on her cheek. She had a fever, it wasn't good, but she looked at him, her pupils were normal. They had no choice anyways.
She got out of the room first, and find Roman in a game room, he was with another man. They, she hadn't time to wait again.
“Oh, I'm sorry”, she said entering in the room. “Mr. Porces, could we talk ?” She asked him with sweet voice.
“Yes of course.”, he said, dismissing his friend.
She approached him. He seemed interested in her and she could engage the conversation easily.
She turned around him to place him in front of her, with the window in her back.
She saw Mac arrive behind the men, but at the same time, her stomach lifted and she nearly vomited.
Mac had just the time to push the target out, through the window, that she was running to the restroom.
Mac saw her running away, he wanted to go after her, be sure she will be okay. But he couldn't.
He had to finish the mission.