Ivy

I felt like a blender. My insides where in complete chaos. There was no way it was normal to be this sick, I had been in the bathroom for the past 2 hours because every time I tried to head back to my bedroom, my breakfast came back up. I felt terrible.

"It'll pass. According to Doctor Martin you have about four more weeks before the trimester passes.  You'll be fine." Celeste said as she pulled my hair from my face.

"Oh gosh, four more weeks of this! I can't do this anymore!" I whine.

Suddenly, her phone rings.
"Hey, no we are still at home." She says.

I know immediately its her boyfriend Marshall and I felt my heart constrict. He's FBI, odd combination as she's a CIA agent. She was a shrink before but some stuff happened and she decided to help take down bad guys.

I know I'm a terrible friend but I can't help the jealous. I don't have a thing for Marshall. Sure he's a great guy but he's not my guy. That guy disappeared without a trace. Both Marsh and Celeste couldn't find him though I believe they have a theory about what happened to him but nobody was telling me anything. They would sooner I believed he was dead than tell me the truth.
I know they were doing it for me. Stress wasn't good for the baby but I had to know. At least that way I'd get closure. She finally got off the phone.

"Marsh is coming over and he's bringing those vitamin thingies you need." She said. "Come on love, we better get you cleaned up. You need some fresh air, come on, up you go lazy butt."

"No, leave me alone, I want to sleep." I whined as I dragged myself to the bedroom after washing my face and brushing my teeth.

She was right. I needed fresh air but my pregnancy wasn't the only thing that was bothering me.

"Stop it, you're doing it again." She says with a disapproving look on her face.

"Doing what now?" I asked as I plopped myself onto the mattress.

"Thinking about him." She replied.

My best friend and her shrink tendencies. She may be CIA now but she could never lose that innate ability of hers to read people, that's why she made a great agent. Problem was, once she got into your head she would force you to talk about stuff you didn't want to.

My boyfriend Don had found it quite annoying but he had a soft spot for her. She was the baby sister he never had. Oh no! She was right, I was thinking about him!

"I don't know what you're talking about." I say defiantly.

"Ivy, you can't do this to yourself. Its not good for you and its definitely not good for the baby." She points out.

Did I mention she could be such a shrink at times?

"Les, please." I plead. I'm not up to arguing with her right now.
I fish out my laptop. I'm a classical dancer by profession but I had also done something else.

It had been my dad's idea that I should have something to fall back to should the dancing go not so well. Hence I had gotten a diploma with ACCA whilst I had secured a contract for my dance. Now that I was pregnant, well it was a different story.

He had been right in that corner. Right now whilst I was taking a break from the dancing I was work it as the Accountant for Green Glove Inc. Thankfully, nobody seemed to care if their accountant was a few weeks pregnant as long as she could get the job done.

James, my assistant, had sent me an email. This was quite odd  because I had specifically told him to only email when I request specific documents. Never the less, I downloaded the attachment as I went through the email.

"Evelyn, I have no one else to trust. You seem like a very objective and independent person.

I discovered some shady looking transfers as I was going through the August bank statements and following further investigation I identified several similar transfers over the last seven months.

Because I couldn't verify the use of these funds I traced them to the recipient bank account. I am now absolutely positive Green Glove sourced funds to Al Jeera." It read.

What the heck is this? I pick up my cell and dial his number but immediately hang up as I read the rest of the email.

"By the time you get this, I may already be dead. I'm being watched. I know certainly my phone is tapped. That is why I had to send an e-mail.
I'm sorry, I know I'm endangering you by divulging this information to you but, as I said, you're the only one I trust. The attachment I sent you has all the information you need to expose them.

Whatever you do, keep your head under and, once more, I'm sorry for bringing you into this."
I quickly browse the attached reports but it doesn't matter, my blood has frozen over. Al Jeera. The world's most ruthless terrorist organization. Who in their right mind would go after them? What had James been thinking?

Perhaps he hadn't initially realized the transfers were tied to them. So why did he keep the records when he figured it out? Why had he continued investigation when he had realized Al Jeera was involved?

Now here these records were like a hot potato that had been dropped onto my lap. Those guys obviously had guys everywhere, monitoring everything. For all I know they already know this information has been sent to me.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" I shriek.

Les rushes to the room.

"What's wrong?" She asks.

I can tell her. She'll know what to do. Yeah, great friend I am planning to get my friend killed along with me. Unfortunately, she catches a glimpse of the file before I can react.

"Ivy," she says when she adds two and two. "Did I just I just see Al Jeera?"

"I know! What was James thinking?" I say in panic.

"Okay. Let's calm down. I'm sure its nothing." She says.

"Sure. Otherwise I just got listed on their kill bill." I say whilst rubbing my temple.

Just then, the doorbell rings. I'm already jumpy but she assures me its nothing . Thankfully she's right - its Marsh.

"Please tell me you brought me some Oreos." I say to him.

The cookies are my comfort food. My extremely stressed out comfort food.

"Hold on, I think I managed to grab some." He says as he goes through the grocery bag.

After a few seconds, he tosses me a pack. I can't help myself as I stuff myself with Oreos. Hopefully, those documents will disappear from my iMac and I can go back to having a normal life.

I head to the fridge to pull out a carton of milk and as I remove the lid to get a full gulp something catches my eye. A little red dot on my shirt. I'm like a little kitty filled with curiosity as I pass my hand through the red dot. Wait a minute, red dot?
My brain slowly processes the next thirty seconds. Me, feet glued to my spot. Marsh jumping to knock me out of the way, Celeste taking cover.

Only when I'm flat on my back with Marsh yelling that we should get out quickly does my brain register what's happening. This was a hit. Someone was trying to kill me!

"Wait! Ivy grab the iMac!" Celeste yells.

"Are you crazy?" I yell back at her.

"Getting rid of it won't solve anything anymore. They already want you dead." She points out.

Fair point. I crawl my way discreetly to where I left it.

"What are you two talking about?"  Marsh asks. "We need to leave now before the shooter decides to come in here!" He says.

Shit. I hadn't thought of that. Heck, I hadn't thought of anything! Its not like I wake up every day waiting to be assassinated.

As soon as I grab the iMac, I make a dash for the door, barely avoiding an oncoming barrage of bullets. Did that SOB just use a machine gun on me? We rush to the parking lot, making sure to keep our heads down.

"Do either of you have anything to tell me?" Marsh asks as we drive off.

"This has something to do with Al Jeera." Celeste says.

"What? What do they want?" He asks in confusion. "Why are they trying to get her killed?"
He looks sideways at me curiously.

"A colleague of hers, more of a workmate, seems to have bumped into some transaction that involves their employer and Al Jeera." Celeste says before I can even say anything.

"This isn't a civilian case. Is he stupid?" He says in frustration.
"I don't think James meant to investigate them. He just happened to come across the documents. I think he may be in trouble because of it. We need to help him." I say in desperation.

"Ivy, they sent an assassin to take you out." Celeste points out. "My guess is they know that your workmate sent you the information.

From what I saw back there, you're only alive because of sheer luck. If he's coming after you it's best to assume that James is already dead."

"Dead?" I say.