It was midnight when their plane finally touched down in LAX, and by the time they were in Sunset Bay, the road was less busy and a few stragglers littered the sidewalks.

Elodie wanted to go straight to see Mace, but knew that wasn't possible. There was no way she was leading danger to him.

Finally, their car—a dark town car had been waiting outside the airport when they arrived—pulled to a curb on Ocean's salt; a part of the town mostly populated by fishermen and seafood restaurants.

Rocco gestured to her to get out, and Elodie did. Then, he led them over brick wall with heavy steel door, heavily covered with graffitis and torn gig flyers, that was barely visible halfway along an alley in Ocean's Salt, and walked into the cold, damp space.

A single caged bulb on the wall threw sallow light on a spiral staircase that twisted steeply into the depths of the earth.

"There are people waiting for you," Rocco said, not making any move to go inside.

"And the chip?"

"Leave that to us." Rocco handed her a Maglite flashlight. "Good luck."

When he left, the door clanged shut in Elodie's face, sealing her into the dank space. She shone the torchlight against the tiled wall, it's glazed cream surface obscured by a thick layer of grime and dirt, and found the top of the stairs.

She'd been rushed way from the LAX airport in the back of a blue delivery van and driven around streets she couldn't see, while people talked at her.

In the back of the van, Rocco had given her a banana, three chocolate bars, and a bottle of water—all she could stomach, at the time. Elodie had wished it was something with lots of sugar, like an energy drink, instead.

And because she was feeling so dizzy with fatigue, she wolfed down the bars, dropping the wrappers to the floor, while a geeky young woman and man gave her instructions while balancing their laptops on their knees.

"You're now Hana," said the guy.

"Hana's dead. That's insensitive," Elodie told him.

He sighed as though he was explaining something to a dim child, even though he barely looked legal enough not to get carded at bars.

"Once you're in Sunset Bay, you're Hana."

Elodie clapped a hand on her thighs. "But, they'll know I'm not Hana."

Again, an unexplainable violence took over her, and she almost wished she could slam her wrist into their faces.

In the last twenty four hours she'd almost been killed, discovered she'd been roped into a doomed mission by a corrupt agent, lost someone who had become important to her in the matter of days. All she wanted to do was go to Offshore, get Mace and fly him somewhere safe. She wasn't in the mood to be lectured by jailbaits.

"What are your names?" Elodie asked them.

"I am Lux." The young man narrowed his eyes. "My pronouns are they/them."

"And you?"

"Asami."

Elodie had stuffed her banana into her mouth. "Say it one more time. Slowly this time."

So, they started all over again as their van rolled through the dark streets. It still didn't make much sense to her muddled mind, and all the clackety-clacks of their laptops was giving her headache in the small, nosiy space.

She had to go underground, they said, and into a dead vault, which was archived deep beneath the headquarters of the BIA in Ocean's Salt, where classified data about forgotten intelligence missions, initiatives and strategies was stored. There was a hidden exit, which was kept a secret and didn't appear on any map, and she could get in through that.

Then she had to log onto a computer and attach a magic box to the drive that would crack the access credentials. To do that, she had to do this thing and that thing, but most definitely not the other thing, because if the computer system discovered an anomaly, it'll begin to hack them right back. Lux and Asami started talking over each other, both trying to explain—in what sounded like technical jargon—to her about attack path modeling, and Elodie felt as though her brain would explode.

She could barely manage to file her taxes online every year, let alone be expected to access a highly restricted governmental computer terminal.

Lux handed her a Smooth rectangular box, slightly bigger than a packet of cigarettes, with wire attached.

"What does this do again?"

Asami lifted her eyes from the screen. "Just plug it in and we'll talk you right through it."

"Just don't download anything," added Lux. "Do that and your ass is toast."

"Download what exactly?" Elodie must have missed that among you the thousand other instructions they'd given her. "Am I sticking the wire in the UBS port?"

"You do not download anything," said Asami urgently. "They just told you that."

"And how am I meant to remember what comes up on the screen?"

Lux gave her a small digital camera. "Old skool style. Take a Pic."

And then, they started to argue with Asami in low urgent tones about what and what not Elodie should do. It was very claustrophobic in the back of the van, with everyone's sharp knees and elbows clashing every time they turned a corner.

Elodie didn't just understand why they hadn't gone to a pizza palour to discuss it over food, especially since Vasily had clearly lied when he said she'd be meeting Angelo when she got to Sunset Bay. Instead, here she was, trying to break the law...no, breaking the law.

The earpiece she'd been given crackled in her right ear. "Rocco?" She asked, voice low. "Can you hear me?"

She started down the stairs, steps clanging as she went, aiming the torchlight into the black void, but only that now, as she descended, she could see just how slippery and endless the steps were.

Elodie hadn't slept, not to mention that they were once again on a different time zone. Fatigue weighed heavily on her tired bones, but even then, she tried to find an instinctive rhythm in her precarious descent, let muscle memory drop one leg in front of the other, let her foot connect to the next step, as she went round and round into the seemingly bottomless depth.

"We're here," said a voice in her ear.

"Lux?"

"Who else would it be?" He sounded a bit irritated. "We're right with you."

But they weren't physically beside her as she descended into the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city. They weren't likely to get hopelessly lost, dismembered by a train, or eaten by rats.

Even now the rattle of a Subway echoed on the walls around her as it shunted through the darkness somewhere below, taking home the last of the evening's bleary-eyed revellers.

While she knew that Sunset Bay had its own Subway, she had never got on it. Maybe because her jobs didn't require it, and also because it was expensive as hell.

Elodie finally saw the damp outline of a floor in the torchlight: she had reached the bottom. There was no light at all down here. She shone the beam along the sloping, slippery tunnels. Snaking bundles of wires and cables disappeared along the concave walls. Here and there, stalagmites lifted from the floor.

"I have no idea where I'm going."

 All she knew was that she was meant to access a so-called dead vault and, once inside, break into a computer that could provide the information they needed about why she was being targeted by Brooks.

The deep-level tunnels were supported by circular metal rings, protrusions like the ribs of some prehistoric beast. When Elodie took a step, her feet froze in ankle-deep water, which shone oily black in the torchlight. In their haste, nobody had thought to give her a pair of sturdy boots or waterproof jacket.

"Vasily established an undetected presence inside the BIA security system years ago, waiting for just this kind of eventuality," Rocco explained. "We planted a trapdoor in the system that will enable us to bypass all the usual access procedures. All we needed was an active security pass, and Hana's death gave us that."

 "Good old Hana," muttered Elodie.

So, Hana had been telling the truth about her working for Brooks. So, this either meant that she double-crossed the BIA or she was planted in the agency by the mafia.

 "Her death hasn't been brought to light yet, but it'll only be a matter of hours."

Elodie approached a metal hatch at the end of the tunnel. Her sneakers were soaked through, her feet already numb with cold.

"The dead vault had an emergency exit in case it somehow gets sealed off from the main building. Nobody's used it for years, maybe ever. Very few people even know it exists. The fake Hana pass will get you inside."

"But there'll be a camera, right?" Elodie pulled open the hatch, as heavy and solid as a door on a submarine, and its hinges screeched with cold. She still couldn't get her head around what they'd told her. "They're going to see me."

 "They won't see you," interjected Lux with a level of confidence that rubbed Elodie up the wrong way.

"Shut your face," Asami drolled. "And for fuck's sake, don't chew so loud!"

"Children, come on," Rocco's tone suggested that he wasn't in the mood for their bickering. That shut them up quick.

Shaking her head at their antics, Elodie moved down another circular tunnel. The floor was dry, at least. The torchlight jerked left and right in her hand, a thin beam tearing through the darkness, illuminating steel beams and ancient wiring that rippled above her head.

 "We've created a deepfake version of Hana, rendered from hundreds of hours of footage of her walking around the BIA building. The image will be mapped around your face and body in real time. The person the night-time security guard will see on the screen will look like Hana, will be dressed like Hana, and even walk like Hana – but it's you."

Elodie didn't know how she felt about stealing the appearance and biometric data of a woman who'd died only hours ago, even if that identity was solely filtered through the dispassionate eye of a security camera. But if it was the only way to get inside the dead vault, she had no choice.

Elodie came to another junction. Shone the torch along the intersecting tunnels, left then right. Something squeaked in the shaft of light and scurried into the darkness.

A shudder ran through her body, and not for the first time that night, she wondered just how in the world she got herself into this.

Just hours ago, although it's technically been a day—time zones and all that—she'd been embroiled in her pain/pleasure play with Angelo not realizing that shit was about to hit the fan, literally.

She'd gone from feeling ontop of the world to sinking down below its ugly, murky surface.

A/N:

Poor, Elodie.

If there are any confusions, let me clear this up really quick.

Remember Vasily told Elodie she was meeting Angelo in Sunset Bay, but, that was in fact a lie. Instead, she's taken into the BIA secret vault to steal data. Although she also doesn't know what's there beyond the fact that it would help reveal the reason why she's being targeted by Brooks.

Also, there's no proof just yet about Brooks involvement beyond what has been said and implied.

That said, I hope I was able to clear up some things.

Now, let's get to the question bits.

What do we think?

Are they telling Elodie the truth or is there something more afoot?

Who is targeting Elodie and why?

Do you think she'd be able to get out successfully?

Where's Angelo?

Lastly, what's your favorite Christmas movie?

Don't forget to vote, comment and share❤️