5 days before the job

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"Have I ever mentioned my dislike for blazers?" Rey mutters next to me as we walk into the luncheon, towards the bar, the best vantage point of the hotel.

"Every. Fucking. Time," Cassandra sighs loudly.

"No need to be mean," Rey gives her a side eye.

She needs the blazer to look like an official here, or we will be kicked out if we stick out too much like a sore thumb.

Dharuna laughs and wraps her hand around Rey's shoulder, "You wanna take it off? I'll carry it around."

I shake my head, "Dhara we need your hands free, and Rey GET USED TO IT GOD DAMN IT!"

The bartender looks at me over his shoulder while he is serving another man.

I sit back on the stool, "Sorry, sorry."

I switch on my headset, "Alby, stats."

"I have my eyes on the target. He's approaching the bar. Observe him," She informs us, and I relay the message to everyone.

"Shift to a table nearby. We can't be too suspicious," Cassie whispers to me.

We shift to a table close by, covered in a silky white and golden table cover with shiny golden glasses laid upside down on it with a vase of white roses sitting atop of it.

Everyone is setting up their own headsets, as discreetly as possible. Cassie is pretending to fix her hair, Rey is using her own hair to cover up the device and her hands, and Dhara, sweet sweet Dhara, has already put it on.

"Okay Alby, I see the target," Cassandra speaks into her headset. I follow her vision to find a smartly dressed young man who making his way to the barstools. He looks to be in his early thirties, but that's all I can tell from this distance.

"Okay read him for me," Allie's voice comes through the headset.

"Rush over and order a Cosmopolitan. Preferably with lime," Cassie replies, and I hear her voice both in front of me and in my headset, "Quick! Order before he does."

"That was your first instruction?" I knit my eyebrows together.

"One of the best strategies is to order a drink similar to the target's preference. It catches their attention quicker than anything," Cassie informs me.

Alby sits down next to the gentleman and he immediately strikes up a conversation with her, "You have great taste," He says to her, at least it's what I hear through her headset.

I nod at Cassie, impressed.

***

"I was hired just a week ago," Alby replied to the CFO, "But who wouldn't recognise the CFO?"

Alby switched her stance and leaned a little, just the tiniest bit closer to the man in front of her. Her new project.

The CFO. An official. Some entitled to all hell. Flattery was always the way. But it can be extremely suspicious at times.

She had to be careful with this one. He was younger than the usual officials she had encountered. And without a beer belly. And unmarried.

At least that's what the absence of an engagement ring told her. She was very unfamiliar with the customs here at Dubai.

"Allie, he's about to get married," Cassie's urgent voice comes through the headset, "they do things different here in the Middle East."

This was going to be harder than Alby had thought.

"Can I be honest," She lowered his eyes and batted her eyelashes at him, and he smirked and nodded in return.

Good, good, it was good so far. Maybe the marriage was an arranged one.

"You seem pretty young to be a CFO, sir," She said slowly, pitching her voice, not too high, but not too low either.

He laughed, "Hardwork should be the choosing factor, not experience," He gave her the side-eye.

The side eye.

"Okay, seduction it is Allie, he gave the side eye," Cassie seemed to read her mind, "And don't go too slow, he seems the fast type."

Time for action.

Allie gave him a sideways smile, biting her lower lip, "Dedication is a very attractive quality."

She tucked a strand of her wig behind her ear, the one without the headset, then looked up at him through her lashes. Freddie had once told her that his heart fluttered when girls did that with him. His twelve year old mind was just so pure.

She was ashamed of using such innocence for such a job, but it was effective, and they didn't have time to run a slow con.

"It is," The guy's voice grew deep. 

It was working. It was working.

She felt bile rise up her throat. She always got uneasy in such situations. Everything around her started to get blurry as she continued to smile at the man in front of her.

"I've heard this place has secret rooms," She battled her eyelashes at him suggestively, "Seems like excellent places to uh be secretive."

She stuttered. This was great. Just great.

"Oh yes, I own one of them," The man in front of her replied proudly, and he rubbed the right of his bearded jaw with his finger.

"Alby, you'll be fine. If you can't do it, just give me the signal," Cassie's voice reassured her through the headset.

She closed her eyes for the tiniest moment then opened them up and smiled coyly, "I've never seen one. I've never had the privilege."

"How about... We make a quick visit?" There was a suggestive look in his eyes that Alby knew all too well.

"But the luncheon...?" She had learnt long before that a little resistance drives the purpose further.

He smiled lazily then grabbed her own hand in his, "No one will notice. Let's get the key, and make our way, miss," He glanced at her lapel, "Walter."

The asshole didn't even remember her name. But then again, wasn't she the one tricking him here?

"The key is not on the person Kai, you can't make the lift," Came Alicia's voice through the headset.

"Then Alby is gonna have to replace the key herself," Kai says urgently, and Alby couldn't help but glance at the corner of the room where Kai was sitting, looking at her carefully.

"Switch on your camera, and make sure you have the decoy," Came Minnie's instructions through the headset. Alby made a mental note, but knew better than to respond.

"If he makes a move, you're gonna have to remove the headset," Alicia warns. She had a solid point, Alby almost forgot about that.

She tried to walk graciously, a few paces behind the CFO, so as to not attract too much attention from the others. He was a relatively attractive man, and going to a different room with him was bound to attract negative attention.

They were finally out of the hall, away from prying eyes, and walked towards the corridors.

She increased her pace to match with his own and he not-so-subtly slipped his hand into hers. She felt chills creep up her spine but maintained the confident, seductive smile as they slowly made their way towards the dreaded room.

"The key went in his coat pocket. Make sure that item of clothing comes off. And we'll get you out as soon as we can," Came Alicia's voice again.

"Yeah I don't want her going in there in the first place, can't Kai make the lift?" Rey argues on the headset.

"No Rey they are already making their way there, if the room doesn't open don't you think they'll change the fucking lock?" Minnie counters.

Alby wished they would stop distracting her.

She looked everywhere, solely to get footage for Alicia. She had made it a habit. That had become a job of hers as well. Like Maria Costa in Chicago, or Rosalinda the friendly security guard in Philadelphia. Looking around, giving them every square inch of the pathway.

Now she was Julia Walter. The slutty office staff. Julia. She loved the name. Julia.

"You seem new to this place," Mohammed Al-Farouq suddenly decided to comment, making her jump. She had expected an accent, but he sounded like every New Yorker out there, crossing Times Square to go to work. Or the Cincinnati Bengals fans cheering at Paul Brown Stadium.

Fond memories flooded Alby's mind, as she remember the game she had taken Freddy to, for his eleventh birthday. The hot dogs he had devoured, the rotten pretzel that she had sat on.

A small involuntary smile spread on her face.

This little moment of lost focus left her flustered when he turned towards her with a quizzical look.

She closed her eyes for a moment, to collect her thoughts, "This hotel never fails to amaze me, that's all."

"Oh you have not been amazed yet," The man comments casually, and did he just wiggle his eyebrows at her?

"Oh this just made me gag," Minnie's voice filled her ear.

"Ditto," Alicia and Cassie agreed on their respective lines.

Alby felt comforted having them looking over her. She realised that they were watching through her glasses.

"Elara, Cass how are you guys doing, for getting Allie out?" Alicia spoke again.

"Allie use the button and give us about ten seconds to get you out," Cassie instructed. Alby adjusted her glasses, to signal that she understood.

"Remember what I taught you about swapping the keys," Kai decided to add on as well.

Alby adjusted her glasses again, and in the process, walked straight into Mohammed Al-Farouq's back.

His hand slipped around her waist as he steadied her, then smiled at her widely, "Careful, love."

This man would make a wonderful con artist. She almost fell for that smile. She had met dozens of such men, alluring women, making them think that they were the only one, when is reality, they would get dumped the next morning.

He let go of her, then pressed two fingers into a section of the wall, and simply slid the part of the wall over to reveal a keyhole.

Alby faced the glasses to examine the place closely. The key slid in, the wall, and door, swung behind to reveal a lavishly decorated room.

Magenta wallpapers, golden bed frames with enamel white covers and a matching sofa on the other side. And there's a redwood cupboard, whose contents Alby didn't have the desire to know.

"All the best sweetie," Was the last thing that Alby heard from Cassie before she quickly removed the headset and stuffed it in the pocket of her pants as the CFO was locking the door.

And then all her plans went down the drain as he took the key out and hung it on a hook attached to the door.

Okay Alby. Plan B.

Well she didn't have much time to think as she was pinned against the wall, with the guy towering over her, looking at her hungrily.

Oh dear Lord.

His lips were on her neck as he tried to take the clip holding the hair on her wig back. She let out a moan or two to egg him on as she focused on the key.

And judging by the urgency in this guy's eyes, she knew what to do.

She quickly took his blazer off then straightened herself and then placed her hands on either shoulder. Her hands trailed down from the shoulders to the chest.

And with his lips still on her cheek, she pushed him against the door, and it rattled a little behind him.

He couldn't see her take the keys.

She held his neck downwards towards herself with her left hand and as much as she hated to do it, kissed him roughly on the mouth. Her right hand reached out for the key.

She needed to reach a little higher, and as she did, he took it as a signal to take her sweater off. Which she had to comply. While his mouth moved with hers, all suction-y and sloppy.

This was starting to get a little out of hand and the feelings of discomfort surged through her body.

Focus Alby, it's work.

Thankfully she had a button up shirt underneath. As he continued to kiss her neck, she took the opportunity to press the button Mon installed on the buckle of her belt.

The buttons on her blouse had started to come off. She didn't give him a chance to make much progress as she started to slip his own blazer off. She just really didn't want to be naked with him.

Suddenly a banging sound came from the outside.

"Sir!" came a familiar voice, "You were not answering your phone, and this is urgent!"

Mohammed Al-Farouq sighed frustratedly, his forehead still touching her own, "What?"

"It's your...fiance sir. About the Middle East Tourism deal," Cassie shouted from the outside.

That made the CFO pull himself off immediately. Alby quietly slipped the fake key onto the hook as the guy went to pick his blazer up from the floor.

"Please, stay right here, I will be back very soon. I apologize for this sudden work," he said, before taking the key from the hook and walking out, leaving the door open.

Alby scrambled around for her glasses and took the headset out of her pocket.

"Allie? You good?" came Mon's voice from the other side.

Alby sighed a little while slipping on her sweater, "Just peachy."

"Come on, get out of there. We have the rest of it all planned out."

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First update of 2022 let's gooooo.

I'm so sorry i haven't been updating. College life is busier than i give it credit for.