Past

I woke in the hotel room, the bed around me cold and my target gone. That was probably for the best. I don't know what happened to me. All I could do was stare at the ceiling as every decision I made last night started sprinting through my brain.

My gut was telling me that all of this was a bad idea.

My dick, however...

"Shit." I swore as I ran my hands over my face. The Director would expect me to return today with some kind of information, but I had none. Hell, the target hadn't even given me her name before she left. Not that I needed her to tell me, I already knew, but it was still odd for her to have left without saying it. Or maybe it was odd that I hadn't asked her for it. She had asked for mine... and me being too caught up in everything, forgot I was supposed to give an alias. That I had a whole character to play.

Maybe the Director was right, I should have stuck to working behind my computer, following orders and being out in the open. Being undercover wasn't my strong suit, but I knew I had to try when the Director gave me this case.

There was nothing to see about Queen and her Court from the outside. I knew I would have to infiltrate, and I knew they had given me this case because I worked the hard cases. I worked the cases that had gone cold. I worked the cases that had no funding left and I always had to pull something out of my ass to solve them. I had to do everything I could to get Queen into prison.

That meant planning to entwine myself with who I could only assume was her second. That meant getting Sierra 'Max' Hyde attached to me, so she would be an unrestrained tap of information.

I sat up as I realised the one thing I hadn't really considered; that me being physically attracted to her could pose an issue for me instead of being something that would be useful.

I got out of the bed and took a quick shower before getting dressed in the clothes I wore last night. The worst part of all of this? Would be Ciara not letting me live any of it down in the foreseeable future.

Getting to work took time, not necessarily because of the traffic, but because I needed to gather my thoughts. The Director needed to hear a story. I had to use something I found out to my advantage and prove that I could pursue this case.

I had to think about last night without feeling my dick fighting against my pants.

She was observant, extremely so. She could read me easily, which meant I would have to get better at acting to be around her more. She had been as desperate for the contact as I had been, which meant she didn't have a relationship with anyone inside of the Court. My plan could work.

"I'll take anything..."

She had been extremely desperate, and I had let my shock show when she had spoken those words. How could someone as captivating and stunning as her be that desperate for someone to give to her?

She had a tattoo of a crown on her left wrist. It could be a mark, a branding of the Court. Her back... the crash from years ago, it had created damage that it affected her feeling below the scars. Queen could keep Hyde in the Court by providing medical care for her. And she kept her cards close, it's why she didn't tell me her name. While my plan could work, it would also take longer than I had intended.

I arrived at headquarters and was immediately summoned into the Director's office where I gave my summary of the paltry amount of information I had and the assumptions I made. As I walked to my office, I kept my eyes down, moving quickly so no one could stop me from figuring out what my next move would be.

I hadn't even sat down for a minute when Ciara let herself into my office and closed the door behind her.

"My god, Esmond, you are glowing. What did you do last night? It looks like you actually slept well for once in your life." Ciara said as her greeting.

"Is that supposed to make me feel good?" I asked her. She sat down across the desk from me and her honey-brown eyes stared into mine.

"Oh. You didn't sleep well because you had a good night. You had a good fuck, didn't you? Tell me I'm wrong and I will drop the topic." She said.

"Shouldn't you be working?"

"You did get laid, for the first time in what... two years? Who was it?"

"Ciara, drop it."

"It was your target for that undercover op, wasn't it? That was the plan, right? Sleep with them to get them attached to you?"

"Ci..."

"Ah, you don't feel great about it, do you? Understandable, you are lying to someone and creating a false bond to get information from them and use them."

"Don't you have more important things to be doing than interrogating me? Like maybe doing your job?" I asked, and I watched the usual beaming smile on her face disappear.

"I had to take a break..." She trailed off. Shit.

"What do they have you working on?" I asked. She shook her head.

"I became a chemist, and a fucking good one at that, to help reverse-engineer drugs and bio-weapons and cure diseases, not..." She paused, and I let her take a second. She obviously needed it. "There's been rumours that a crime lord is in the market for a bio-weapon, one that could destroy society as we know it. They have people in the field trying to figure out who is searching for it and who could create it. The Director asked me to research if it was even possible to create something on that level of destruction. For three weeks, I have been figuring out ways to kill humanity through a man-made virus."

"Fuck, that's..." I didn't know what to say to help her feel better. She was the most kind-hearted person I knew, and for her to be forced into doing this must kill her inside.

"The worst part is that I've already found two theoretical ways, and they want me to keep pursuing it. Like what I've already theorised isn't terrifying enough..." Fuck. I got out of my seat and pulled her up out of hers and into a hug. She was crying. I felt her body shaking in my arms as hers wrapped around my torso and gripped onto me with a strength I didn't realise her frame possessed.

"At least you haven't figured out how to start a zombie apocalypse..." I trailed off. She didn't laugh. "Right?" I had to confirm.

"I might need to, to get MI6 off my back." She said. I pulled away from her and stared into her eyes. "They got me onto this because I'm the best. If I show them how far I can go, then maybe they'll realise what is possible and what they'll need to prepare for. I mean, what is more terrifying than the idea of a real zombie virus?" She made a point.

"Absolutely nothing."