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Jane Tennant reviewed the printouts, pensive as she thumbed through the pages until she found the blueprints; her tactical mind whirring through the ominous portent of the report. The layout of the area posed specific logistical challenges for her already stretched resources. The size of the venue necessitated a 4-person team at a minimum, with tactical support being provided from the surveillance van due to isolated beach-side location. Timing-wise she couldn’t justify reading Alan into the Op, she had a keen awareness that a large cohort of field agents were taking Sam’s training course, stretching her resources to her team and anyone she could rustle up on short notice. This fact solidified the makeshift plan forming in her mind, reaching for her phone she dialled ASAC Curtis.
* * * * * * * *
Kate frowned at her phone, Tennant was tasking her as extra manpower for a NCIS recon mission, her boss’s summary was maddeningly vague, proving his unshakeable and annoyingly unquestionable faith in the NCIS SAC. Lucy had spoken about a taskforce hunting a party-pill ring, this morning over breakfast. She had retained the broad strokes of the case, some dodgy drug dealers who seemed to be responsible for two dead petty officers already and according to the latest threat assessment that Tennant had relayed to the FBI, the bodycount would only continue to grow as the height of summer and shore leave was nearly upon them.
Kate looked down critically at her current ensemble, she doubted that wherever they were heading to tonight would have sensible businesswear as the dress code, she thought about the mild teasing at the last time she went on recon op with Lucy’s team, but Jane Tennant had assured her she had costumes and cover stories covered, she prayed that she wouldn't be asked to clean houses again, at least this time she wouldn't be flying solo.
She drove straight to Pearl, trying to tamp down on her nervous feelings. She found Jane Tennant’s team in the war-room, bickering in a familial manner. She felt a momentary awkward pause when they acknowledged her presence, only for the goodnatured argument to recommence in full gusto. The crux of the problem, seemed to revolve around who would be posing as a lifeguard versus who would be joining the waitstaff. Kate smiled confidently knowing that she would surely bag the cushy number as the lifeguard. She had spent several college summers lifeguarding, she had the paperwork to prove it, she had committed the lifeguard manual to heart and she was a board-certified first responder. She eased a smile in her girlfriend’s direction as she felt safe in the knowledge she was supremely qualified to help with the Op.
Jane quelled the hubbub, raising her hands as if she was breaking up a fight. “Lucy, seriously you don’t even like swimming… Waitstaff. Kai you have catering experience that means waitstaff for you too, alternate with Lucy for the widest possible sweeps, we have a lot of ground to cover so comms are crucial”. Jane marshalled her troops efficiently, handing out the undercover outfits as if to put a full-stop after each decreed assignment.
“Jesse you can cover the lifeguard spot, Ernie has backfilled your credentials. Try to get one of the central chairs for the best vantage point. Keep it discrete. You’ll need to get on-site early, Ernie has the signal repeaters for the CCTV, I’ll need a sitrep once you finish your initial assessment”. Jesse caught the bright cap tossed in his direction, smiling at the embossed word, before making a hasty but swaggered exit, knowing his NCIS colleagues would be stewing in their jealousy.
Jane continued undaunted, ignoring the unenthused faces of her remaining team members. “Obviously Ernie and I will run comms from the van…”. Kate waited for her lifeguarding assignment, wondering if Jane had belatedly reassessed her operational needs, as her hands were now empty and Jesse had taken leave of the meeting. “Whistler you’ll need to go in as a partygoer…” .
Kate didn’t catch the rest of the sentence as she mentally implored the ground to open up and swallow her whole, she disliked the thought of embarrassing herself or letting down Lucy. She knew how to lifeguard, she could have read a book about how to bus tables, she had no clue how she would pass as a partygoer. She searched out the comfort of Lucy’s brown eyes, Lucy liked ‘cool bars’, she’d know what to do, but before she could have that side-bar conversation Jane gestured for Kate to follow her.
“Kate, come with me we’ll catch you up on the case. You too, Lucy I’ll need your help”.
* * * * * * * *
Jane looked at the pristine organisation of Kate Whistler’s closet, she had never seen such a physical manifestation of systematised tidiness. She had seen Lucy furtively heft some of her familiar t-shirts into an already overstuffed dresser, the only break in the otherwise scrupulously clean bedroom. Kate still had the same dazed and perplexed expression from their mostly silent car-ride.
“Someone is going to need to explain this party-thing to me again”.
Kate was beginning to feel like she was Jane and Lucy’s dress-up doll. Jane had vetoed all her casual clothes, insisting that a bathing suit was the only suitable attire for a beach party, when the show-of-hands were tallied, her bikini won a plurality of votes, with the NCIS agents voting en bloc.
Kate was stewing in the discomfort of attending this beach party especially as Lucy was ominously discussing options for dying her hair with rainbow streaks, until her boss pointed out the time constraints suggesting UV body paint would hopefully complete the clubbing vibe. This is how Kate found herself, sitting in front of her dresser being transformed under the ministrations of the two over eager NCIS agents. Lucy curling her hair, artfully tousling it for a bedhead quality, hiding the comms link skilfully, while Jane applied layers of makeup on the worried FBI agent’s face. Kate’s hands were out of action thanks to the garish red nail varnish drying on her fingernails, a match to the same colour brightening her toes. She was very much a captive audience, she knew this time she was the diametric opposite of overdressed for crowd-recon, as Jane continued her rundown of the mission.
Kate looked at her reflection in the mirror, watching as Jane finished applying lipstick before she added more glittery eye shadow at Lucy’s behest to ‘vamp it up’. Kate let her antipathy to this be known, but some how her Whistler-death-stare lost its power and ‘vamping it down’ didn’t seem to be a direction that either of the more experienced field agents were interested in attempting.
Lucy cast a soft look at her girlfriend, watching her chew her ruby red lips nervously, as she played with the colourful sarong, her hands ghosting towards where her badge and gun would ordinarily be holstered. Lucy accepted two dry jackets from her boss, grateful that Jane gave a portent-full nod, wordlessly indicating that she’d give the couple a moment of privacy and see them in the surveillance van later.
Lucy donned the shorts and polo shirt combo that would be her uniform, she could see her girlfriend eying her jealously. “Sorry babe we’ve got to get moving, I’ll do the body paint when we are there” she found the pair of strappy wedges located on the far side of the shoe rack (sensible shoes which had a matching belt got the most preferential placement in Kate’s organisation system). “Ernie will show you how to livestream on his spy phone, just remember mix and mingle with the other party goers, be on the look out for for the pill pushers, but no need to get too close, you don’t have to play super secret agent here”. Lucy paused waiting for her girlfriend’s attention to return to the present “You’ll crush it, don’t worry”.
* * * * * * * *
Kate was thankful that Ernie made no comment on her ridiculous appearance, he was absorbed with showing her the ’spy’ phone. Front and back cameras would be recording continuously, all she needed to do was walk around and pretend to be livestreaming, capturing footage of the party and hopefully the pill pushers in the places the CCTV couldn’t reach. In typical Tennant fashion all bases were covered, hopefully tonight they could catch a lucky break and bag a new lead. Kate studied the camera angles on her phone’s live-feed, it felt otherworldly seeing ‘cool-party-goer’ Kate smile nervously back at her. Ernie showed her the emergency shortcut to call the cavalry if events got dicy. Kate fiddled with the strange phone trying to acclimatise herself with it and project an air of confidence, knowing that in reality she was only succeeding in making herself second-guess the whole excursion.
Lucy approached her semi-apologetically with a pair of wedged sandals. “Sorry more height, better surveillance angles and it completes the party vibe.” Kate was conflicted about the pleasurable feeling of Lucy pulling off her beaten Uggs and replacing them with the high footwear, she wondered if her girlfriend felt it too, as her soft fingers lingered fractionally longer than they needed to, on her calf. “Are you ready for the paint”. Kate looked awkwardly down, as the heels made her twice her girlfriend’s height, she could only manage a noncommittal shrug. It would have felt churlish to complain when there were some drug dealers on the loose, but she felt she was being coaxed further and further from her comfort zone. A tickling brush added squiggly symbols to her face and torso, she wished it felt like war paint, but the rainbow markings only made her look like a naive partying tourist. Lucy whispered a gentle “I believe in you”, before giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
* * * * * * * *
Kate watched from the van, as Kai and Lucy entered through the employee entrance. A smattering of drunken revellers had congregated at the security checkpoint. Kate frowned at the lax security that Jesse had flagged on his earlier sitrep, it didn’t seem like it had improved in the meantime. In the low light it seemed inconceivable to her that the burly bouncers weren’t verifying IDs or checking bags in a organised manner, it didn’t bode well for what contraband had already been snuck into the party. The lights and the music seemed to be attracting a steady crowd, Kate studied the revellers, a mix of drunken partygoers, mirthful college students and young sailors on shore-leave. It seemed hard to keep Lucy’s advice to just relax in the forefront of her mind, she didn’t want to be the weak-link.
Kate watched the red-dots representing Lucy and Kai, bounce pell-mell on the bottom corner of the computer rendered map. Jesse’s dot remained affixed to its current spot, but Kate knew he would be doing a sweep of the waterfront shortly. Ernie helpfully zoomed into to the area that Jane wanted her to cover, an ominously large area between bar and beach, that Ernie said was the dance floor . She could see Kai had made a foray into this middle ground, a small circuit that led him back to the bar, while Lucy made a matching trip in the opposite direction, it was almost hypnotic. It made her forget that the final stationary dot that represented her had not yet joined the fray.
“Whistler, not long now, I expect it is getting pretty busy, just remember phone and only accept drinks from Kai or Lucy, they’ll make sure you are only getting water. Smoke$how22 is Ernie’s handle, all other interactions on your channel are bot-generated, if we lose comms or you can’t hear us, look out for Ernie’s directions”. Jane could see the FBI agent was hanging on her every word, nodding her head as if she was replaying all the earlier advise on repeat in her head.
“Kate, relax you’ve got this…” The interjection of Jesse’s scouting report, interrupted the rest of the pep talk, between the pounding DJ set that rumbled in the background, the beach party was near capacity, Kate knew that she would need to make her move. Kate took a deep breath, trying to expel her awkwardness on the exhale and channel the cool insouciance of Lucy Tara with every inhale.
* * * * * * * *
Lucy scanned the throng of partygoers for her girlfriend, wishing she had Carla Chase’s sixth sense. She didn’t have to look too hard or too far, when she saw the crowd part as the undercover agent sauntered past the bar. Lucy smiled, from a distance Kate looked the quintessential dumb blonde, nonthreatening tottering in high-heels that a casual observer would categorise as tipsy gait. One of life’s immutable facts is that Jane Tennant is invariable right, Kate was perfect for this job, she could see some rowdy frat-bros ask her for a selfie, Lucy could tell her girlfriend was oblivious to the flirting as she moved through the crowd, chatting animatedly to her phone, tackling the CCTV blackspot in turn.
Lucy grimaced as the throbbing music made it virtually impossible to hear her comms, she wished she could hear Kate’s monologue. She shovelled ice into her pitchers using the idle task to scan the crowd for her girlfriend again, grateful that the heels gave her a target with supermodel height. This time the FBI agent, was deep in conversation with some stereotypical sorority types, Lucy wondered if Kate had cracked the case, as a tall brunette fumbled with her designer backpack, giggling inanely to her confederates. Lucy stewed on the fact that the brunette’s friend was giving rather overt come-hither glances to her unaware girlfriend.
Lucy wasn’t sure how she navigated herself through the dance floor so quickly, but she could clearly see the brunette conversing with Kate had only smuggled in alcohol, the contraband was a silver flask reflecting in the moonlight. Lucy leaned back into her wait-staff role, handing out pitchers to a nearby gaggle of college students, risking a brief stab of eye contact in her girlfriend’s direction. Their eyes met in what Ernie has coined as ‘heart-eyes’, as Lucy sees the undercover agent blush slightly as she fiddled with her phone, chewing nervously on her bottom lips.
That moment of inattention meant the NCIS agent was surprised by the hot breath of one particularly sozzled frat boy as he encroached into her personal space. The interlocutor letched forward calling her ‘sweet cheeks’ as he drunkenly groped her chest, for the briefest of milliseconds Lucy readied her tray to grievously-bodily harm her attacker. Before she could deck the creep with her makeshift weapon, there was a blur of rainbow motion behind her. In Lucy’s stupor she could never recall if her rescuer had let out her customary battle cry, but Kate had felled the cretinous partygoer with one charging head-butt. The crowd of students shrunk away as protective-Whister harangued her defeated opponent, placing herself strategically between the fallen man and her stunned partner.
Lucy watched in mute fascination as a phalanx of security guards approached in confusion to quell the disturbance only to find an incongruous waif figure who had felled a party-bro twice her size. Lucy thought Kate could have brazened out the situation if it weren’t for her bloody nose, identifying the FBI agent as the guilty assailant. The truth was pretty unassailable as the nearest revellers gave the blonde wary looks. Kate looked regal, for the first time all night she looked supremely untroubled, the thin red rivulet trickling from her nose, was borne like a badge of honour. Lucy thought her girlfriend might tackle the closest security man but instead she allowed herself be escorted out to from the party towards the office behind the main security checkpoint.
Lucy looked to shadow her girlfriend’s unwanted security detail, casting scant thought to her would-be attacker as he received some first aid from a lifeguard, she stopped only to warn the first responder she was dealing with a handsy idiot. Lucy had no mind for the original mission, she wanted to talk to her girlfriend, now disappeared into the small onsite office. “Boss, I think we should regroup…”. In the cursory beat that Lucy had allotted to wait for a reply over her comms, she was instead dumbstruck at the sight of Tennant approaching the security office; with her gun out; her arms raised issuing tactical directives to Ernie and giving Lucy a tilted eyebrow acknowledgment, gesturing for her to flank the NCIS technical specialist.
* * * * * * * *
Lucy shepherded her girlfriend into the privacy of NCIS van. The past 5 minutes had been both too fast and too slow for her adrenalised mind. HPD had started to process the crimescene, festooning the security office with yellow tape, adding an external cue of the initial successful breach. In her peripheral vision she could see Jane liaising with her police counterpart, as Ernie’s eagle eyes supervised the handling of the evidence, as forensics brought out plastic bags filled with drugs. She assumed that Kai and Jesse were escorting the arrested security guards (who had been caught on video redhanded with their illicit wares) to the local precinct for questioning.
Lucy enveloped her girlfriend in the dry robe, manoeuvring the federal agent to sit on a low chair so she could properly fuss over her heroic partner. Kate insisted she was okay, but Lucy had turned selectively deaf as she rummaged through the first aid kit. Lucy found the medicated wipes, smiling weakly as she cradled her girlfriend’s chin, angling her head so she could clean dried blood off her pale skin. She swept back loose tendrils of blonde hair, trying to gauge for any symptoms of concussion, before pressing an ice-pack into the FBI agent’s hand, guiding them gently back to bruised face to counteract any swelling.
“My warrior lady girlfriend, cracked the case wide open”. Kate rolled her eyes, a guilty admission of “not on purpose”, was not dignified with a response as Lucy swapped out the uncomfortable heels for a tatty pair of Uggs. “Hush now, I won’t hear any self-deprication. You did so good and you protected my honour… I’ll have to find away to thank you properly when we are home”. Lucy beamed her mischievous smile to her flummoxed girlfriend, undercover missions were always her favourite.