ADA

"Well, it's confirmed," Zaza said, tossing a file to Jay who barely managed to catch it. "I officially can't kill this man."

"Don't sound too upset about it," Carter mumbled, flicking through the pages. "Or I might think you don't like me."

"We're really siblings?" I hastily cut in before Zaza could go back on her statement.

"Seems so." She shrugged and rocked on the balls of her feet. "What's the plan now?"

"We find Ezra," I said immediately. "We keep digging, try to find evidence of Keen's wrongdoings. Then we go back and prove our innocence to the Agency."

"I was afraid you'd say that." Jay sighed and tossed a piece of scrunched up paper into the bin. "There goes the Maldives plan."

"What else can we do? Remember the kill order placed on our heads?" I placed my hands on my hips and began pacing. Against everyone's advice, I'd discharged myself from the bed. I'd gotten changed into fresh clothes and then immediately started planning our next moves.

"Yes, but we don't even know where Ezra is!" Jay spread out his hands. "All you've told us is that he might have visited that place and he might still be alive!"

"That's all I need." I grinned and leaned on the table, dragging the laptop towards me. Feeling the familiar keys under my fingers sent a jolt of excitement through me.

I dived into the world of information, my mind numbed and absorbed the numbers and snippets of information. Fortunately, my name hadn't been taken off the Agency register- probably courtesy of Aliana- so I was still able to wade through the red tape and access certain places.

There were no security cameras available in the building, they'd all probably melted, but there might have been some on the perimeter. Knowing Keres, he probably put some up to make sure none of us could escape.

"Hey." Jay gently placed a hand on my shoulder and I flinched. Ever since we'd found out about my identity, he'd avoided calling me by my name. "You need to take your medicine."

I nodded, my brain still in a slight fog as I swallowed the small pills and chased them down with a glass of water. I dove straight back into the work. It was a lot harder since I was very far away from the cameras, but Zaza's technology was state of the art.

"Okay!" I clapped my hands and drew back from the hauntingly beautiful screen. "I've done it! I have a plan."

Jay stared at me. "What?"

"I have a plan," I repeated slowly, wondering if the sleep deprivation was rotting his brain.

"So quickly? Surely you must have missed something?" he protested weakly.

I shrugged, a little concerned now. "No, I'm quite sure I didn't. Yeah... Anyways, step one of the plan is to find Ezra. We will break his step down into smaller parts. First of all, I got security footage of him entering that place. Why was he there?"

"According to the mission report," Jay said slowly, inching his chair towards the table. "Ezra was looking for Samuel Diaushin. He must have some connection to that place."

"Samual Diaushin?" Ryder thoughtfully chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Where have I heard that name before?"

"He's a criminal," I explained. "So you might have heard his name in the networks or on the news."

"No," Ryder shook his head, rolling his bottom lip between his teeth, and looked at Zaza, "I'm sure that's not it."

"Anyways," I continued on. "I managed to dig up the old files on Diaushin. I got the ones from his first capture, and the ones the Analyst made before they- before they died."

My chest clenched at that. I knew the Analyst in charge of the case- the one I was accused of murdering- and, while we weren't particularly close, it still saddened me to think of his death.

Jay reached over and gave a succession of quick and awkward pats on my back. "There, there."

"You still suck at this comforting thing." But my lips twitched upwards in a smile.

"You still suck in general," Carter mumbled childishly, flopping back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"Definitely siblings," Zaza whispered, twirling a knife between her fingers.

"I remember now!" Ryder snapped his fingers and pointed at me excitedly. "Diaushin! He came to ask for information about two months ago!"

"He did?" Zaza's brows were pinched together and she tilted her head slightly. "I don't remember."

"That's because you have a terrible memory," I said bluntly.

"I do not!"

"You do." Ryder nodded and we exchanged dark looks. Many terrible things had resulted from Zaza's bad memory. "But I remember because he was turned away almost immediately."

"What did he ask for?" I asked.

"Information on you."

Well shit.

It's never a good thing to be on the radar of one of the most wanted and feared criminals in the world.

"Why would he want information on me?" My voice squeaked on the last word.

"Didn't you say that Diaushin was involved in trafficking?" Jay queried. "And that place we were in right now... wasn't that also a trafficking ring?"

"What are you saying?"

"Well," Jay pulled a piece of paper towards him and started sketching a little diagram as he talked. "There are currently four main players in this mission–" he drew four stick figures, "–Ada, that place, Diaushin and Ezra."

"Why does that stick figure have a large head?" I asked.

"That's Ezra."

"Ah, okay I get it."

"So." Jay wrote down the names of each figure and drew a wonky line between Diaushin and that place. "The link between these two is the trafficking, right? And you." He hesitated, but drew another line connecting the three figures together.

"There's also a link between Ezra and Diaushin, and now one between me and Diaushin," I said, watching the lines connect.

"And one between Ez and that place, and between the two of you." Carter drew these connections and placed his pen down. "From this, I think we can conclude that Ada is the common factor in all of this."

(Diagram for visual learners! I have used different colours to show that there are different links between the figures)

"But what does this mean?" Ryder gave a quizzical look, staring at the paper like it was an equation he just couldn't crack.

"It means that Ada is two things. One," Jay held up his index finger, "she is the scapegoat. Once the Agency does some more digging, they will discover these connections and I'm sure there's another paper trail leading straight to Ada being a criminal. Two–" he held up his middle finger as well. "–it shows that Ada is the link between everything happening."

"That's quite a stretch to say," I disagreed, even though I was secretly impressed with how Carter broke down the mission. Definitely got the makings of an Analyst.

"Maybe," he admitted. "But it's pretty much the only logical explanation for everything that's happened so far. Also why Keen chose you to try and kill in that alleyway- dead people find it much harder to defend themselves."

"That's true, but it still doesn't make complete sense."

"Well, we don't have all the information. I'm sure that once–" Jay was cut off by the buzzing of his phone. Puzzled, he looked at the screen. His jaw slackened and his eyes went wide.

"What is it?" My heart drummed an unsteady beat in my chest and the hairs rose on the back of my neck.

"I got a text from Nathan. The Agency has been hijacked." 

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I hope you guys liked it! 

Stay safe and thanks for reading :)