Chapter Text
“We sure about this, yo?” Inhale, exhale. The glow of Reno’s cigarette flares and fades, a solitary firefly flirting ribbons of smoke.
Elena clutches her phone tighter in her hand, her finger hovering over the speed-dial. Her pallor cannot be entirely attributed to the pale blue light from her phone screen. “You heard Tseng. We’re all out of options.”
Rude shifts in his shoes and says nothing because there is nothing more to say. They have already rehashed this discussion in detail several times, each time arriving at the same uneasy conclusion. He understands that this well-worn double-, triple-checking is a perfunctory exercise, a soothing ritual to the paranoid in helplessness.
Inhale. “You trust her?”
“Yes.” This answer comes without hesitation.
Exhale. Rude adjusts his sunglasses on his nose. Reno flicks the dying ember of his cigarette expertly into the mouth of a nearby garbage can.
The Turks dilly-dally there in the darkened alley for a dilated eternity, a strange trinity standing vigil over the luminescent screen of Elena’s phone. In the soft quiet, it’s easy to believe that the stillness can stretch on forever.
Reno’s sigh lifts the spell. “Make the call.”
…
“Hey! It’s Elena—I hope I’m not calling at a bad time. Yeah, it’s been a second, hasn’t it? I’ve been great. Listen, I was wondering…”