Chapter Two
"Darling, could you fix my chin please? It feels like it's falling off my face," Jack asked from the driver's seat.
I nodded while carefully reshaping my nose and looking in my compact mirror. "Yes, right after I reshape my damn nose," I mumbled while trying to smooth out the fingerprints on the bridge. Once that was done I looked over and made sure Jack's fake chin looked good. "I just need to fix this little spot and then you're perfect."
We were driving down the road towards the party where an SSR agent posing as a valet would take the car and take it around to Martinez and Brown who would watch it and bring it around when needed.
Jack and I were going in as Mr. and Mrs. Watson, two members of British high society. Not very heard of in the United States, but very popular in our hometown of London. We are on our 15th anniversary trip to New York and decided to see what American society life is like.
Peggy and Daniel were the newly Mr. and Mrs. Guzman, pronounced with an 'oo'. They were from the South, Tennessee specifically, and honeymooning in New York for a week before going up to Canada for another week. They were also wearing some prosthetics, but nothing as awful as what Jack and I were wearing.
Us couples didn't know each other, but we knew each other's stories just in case. We were all also wired as discreetly as can be in case anything were to happen.
Of course, Martinez and the other two agents new to the world of Dottie Underwood were very confused with all of this. They thought it would be easy to capture a young woman. But they didn't know Dottie like the rest of us- part of me hoped she would introduce herself to them so they could get the idea.
Our car pulled up right outside the swanky venue and a man opened my door for me while Jack got out to hand the keys to a valet. "Thank you, sir," I said in a low, British accent.
Peggy and I sat for nearly an hour while I tried to get the accent right with Jack. She had a lot of fun at first, making fun of our attempts, but we got the accent down quickly enough. There's a high possibility of me using it in the future just to annoy her now that I had it down.
The man nodded and stepped away as Jack came to my side and took my arm. "Let's go enjoy a party, shall we?" he asked me, and we started to walk inside. After giving our name to the bouncer, we walked into the lavish space.
"We're here," I said, mainly for the ones in my ear, but I turned to Jack to make it less weird.
"Copy, let us know the second you see the target with the code word 'ginger'." I didn't react to the code word Stephens told me. Instead, I walked further inside the room with my arm still looped through Jack's.
He leaned over to me and whispered in his British accent, "You look quite lovely tonight, darling." A light blush powdered my cheeks and I just smiled at him. Both, his comment and my smile, were genuine.
A few minutes later, we hear Peggy and Daniel announce their arrival in our ears. They had high energy and had the great appearance of a small town couple getting into the high life. It was cute, I thought, seeing them like this together. But I made no comments and continued to 'socialize' with other guests.
None of us had spotted Dottie, yet. Either the intel was wrong, she was late, or she is very good at staying hidden. My bet was on the last two, or at least the last option.
We made our way through the crowd, introducing ourselves and making polite conversation. At one point, I saw a man across the floor that looked very familiar, but I didn't know how I knew him. He was looking at me in a way that made me think I should know him.
He was a medium height man, with a stockier build. His hair was on the cusp of being black, but it was just brown enough, and he had darker eyes, most likely brown like his hair.
"Everything all right, dear?" Jack asked me.
I looked away from the man to Jack and nodded. "Yes, darling, just observing." When I looked back at where the man was, he had disappeared. I simply decided I had seen him on the street before and decided to move on.
Shrugging it off, I continued the facade with Jack. It was painful and I was silently thanking myself for leaving this lifestyle when I did. Pretending to be interested in other people's boring lives was never a good skill of mine.
Jack and I were at the edge of the dance floor and I saw Peg and Daniel up at the bar, laughing about something random. Peg was looking out over the audience when her eyes stopped on something and then she looked over to Daniel.
"Hun, do you think they've got any drinks with ginger garnish?" she asked him- her southern accent causing me to stifle a laugh. But, there was the code word, so I could only assume that Dottie was here and had been spotted.
"Where?" Jack asked under his breath, smiling at me to appear more natural. "We'll get ready to extract."
There was a pause, and then, "She's coming to where you are now, be cautious." Daniel's warning had me carefully looking over Jack's shoulder and him over mine.
Jack carefully grabbed my arm and pushed me to my left, confusing me, until someone ran into my side. Then I knew exactly what was going on. I quickly turned toward them and got my apologies ready.
"Oh dear, I am so sorry I didn't realize someone was coming up right behind me," I told Dottie, the fakest smile on my face. My accent didn't waver once, and I hoped the disguise was working well enough.
Jack shook his head. "No, darling, that would be my fault. And- oh dear! Got your drink all over you," he said.
It was true, the glass of some clear liquid had gotten on the skirt of Dottie's dress. She finally looked up at us and gave a smile. "Oh no, you're fine. I should be looking where I'm going," she said. I noticed she had more of a southern drawl since the last time we saw her.
"Why I don't I accompany you to the loo and help you clean up as best as we can," I offered. She kept on the polite facade and nodded. We linked arms and walked away and I could feel Jack staring at my back. He was most likely going to follow us discreetly.
"Again, I am so very sorry about that. My first American society party and I spill a drink on someone," I mutter. She just gives a tight laugh. "I'm Mrs. Anna Watson, pleasure to meet you."
She smiled and we walked into the women's restroom. "Elise Crawford, and I was the same at my first party. Luckily I've gotten myself together enough to only step on a few toes through the night."
We laughed politely at each other and got to the sinks. I was getting ready to pull the handcuffs from the strap on my leg when she spoke again. "I'm sorry, I stepped on your toes as well," she said suddenly.
My eyebrows furrowed. "Pardon? I don't quite..."
"Oh, let me rephrase that: I'm sorry that I will be stepping on your toes."
She caught on to who I was. "Shit," I said, and dodged her attempt at stomping on my feet.
Countering, I grabbed her arm and tried to pin her so I could get the handcuffs and at least restrain her arms. But she pushed me off and I went back into the door of the restroom. The impact made the air rush out of my lungs and I had to take a couple deep breaths while running back up to her.
She tried to swipe her foot under my leg but I jumped and punched her across the face. She fell to the side and I was able to grab one of her wrists.
"It is hard to fight in an evening gown so could you please just work with me? I like this one a lot, too," I asked exasperated, the accent gone since it was no use anymore.
There was a moment of stillness where she hummed to herself. "How about... no." She elbowed me in the gut and pushed me off of her. I wasn't down on the ground, but I was far enough out of her way that she was able to sprint out of the bathroom.
"Incoming!" I called in the earpiece. I came out of the bathroom as well, and saw Jack on the ground with his hand on his jaw. "Dammit, Peg? Daniel?"
"We're heading that way, but I don't think we can make it," Daniel answered.
Jack stood up and looked at me. "Are you okay?" he asked, looking me over for injuries.
I nodded and noticed the worst injury he had was a slightly bruised jaw. "Her mission has nothing to do with us, so she isn't going to waste energy getting rid of us- we just need to be out of her way as she goes about her other objective."
We heard some noise in our ears over the radio and hurried outside; that's where we believed it to be. Going out a discreet side door, we found where Stephens, Brown and Martinez were camping out.
We also saw that they were all laying on the ground in pain. Peggy and Daniel came out seconds after us, so they got to enjoy the view, too.
"So, I see you all met Dottie. What'd you think?"
A/n: And here's chapter two! I'm thinking about posting every week, up until I run out of ready to go chapters.
Unfortunately, Dottie will not be a huge player in this section of the book, but I wanted to show that she was still an objective for the SSR.
Happy reading!
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