Stakeout is never like how they imagine it to be. It is about as exciting as sitting on a park bench for nine hours. Not exciting at all, huh? The only thing they ever get right is that if something is going to happen, it happens when you're taking a toilet break or you're finally getting something into your stomach.

I sit by the broken window with a sigh and look outside. I have a clear view of the road below where the meet-up will be happening any time now. "Andrew Wilson, all set here, copy," I bark through the radio.

"Copy that. We are dispatching him in five minutes. Stand by," the captain replies.

I pull a donut out of the paper bag before me and begin eating. As the sun sets at the end of the empty alley, I try not to poke holes in our plan and think of all the ways this could go wrong. The plan will work if we make it work, even if the nightmare marching this way is only too real.

"Prepare for countdown," Noah's voice makes me jump in my seat. Okay, I still have time for a visit to the bathroom. "One minute le—where the hell do you think you're going?" I frieze, holding a half-eaten donut in the air. Is he talking to me? "To the toilet? Goddamn it, Kai! Just hold it! We don't have time for your needs right now!" I sit down again. Maybe I'd better keep an eye outside, just in case. "And we are rolling!"

I look down to the street and, fair enough, I see Kai dragging his feet over the asphalt. His arm is no longer gauzed to avoid suspicion, while his clothes are deliberately wrinkly and dirty. He looks around, and when he sees nobody, he walks to the side of the road and leans against the wall of the abandoned bank across my window.

"Got the eye. All in position. Remain on standby," I order through the radio, and I can almost feel the tension in the air.

Minutes pass but no one shows up. Honestly, I'm growing tired of just watching Kai glaring at everyone who passes by. He might be handsome but after half an hour of looking at him, his perfect face isn't that appealing anymore. I'm about to get up and stretch my legs when a bald man suddenly appears around the corner. "Is it him?" I ask Kai, and he hums in confirmation.

Thank God! Now we're getting somewhere. As the man approaches Kai, I keep my eyes glued to the road below, being alert for any suspicious move. I reach out for the radio and turn up the volume.

"I expect everything to have turned out as we planned," the bald man says, less roughly than I would have expected.

"Yes," Kai nods and takes a step closer, turning his back at the window I am sitting by, so that his face is hidden from me. That fucker! If he is up to something, I swear I'm going to cut his head off. To hell with the mission and the precious months left until my death! "I did what you told me to do."

The man narrows his eyes at him, as if something is bothering him, but he quickly masks his expression before I can guess the reason. "Any evidence?"

Kai hands him a paper we had given him at the station. It is basically a fake document regarding fake top secret information.

The man inspects it and quickly shoves it in his coat. "Was there anybody there?"

"No one saw me if that's what you're asking. Get in quick, get out quicker, ain't I right?" I bury my face in my hands. That bastard and his big mouth. He's going to ruin us all.

The man just looks at him. "Yeah. Alright, I think we're done here," he takes out a small knife and lifts it up so that its tip nicks Kai's arm—the one that was gauzed a few hours ago. Blood drips down his arm, not much, but enough for red to bloom on his shirt.

Although I can't see his face, I can tell by the way he clenches his fists that he barely manages to hold back his pain. "Don't move! We won't compromise this mission for a scratch!" I say through the radio before our team even thinks about making a move.

"If I suspect that you are double-crossing us, I'll make sure you never see the light of day again. Am I understood?" the bald man digs the knife even deeper.

Kai stays silent, as if he has lost his voice.

"Answer him," I say with venom in my voice. Silence fills my radio. "Answer him, goddammit!"

"Understood," Kai finally says, and I release a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

The man nods and removes the knife from his arm. "Be here next Sunday. I assume you don't go to church, right?"

"I'll be here."

"Good boy," and with that, the man turns around and walks away, his footsteps echoing in the empty street.