Chapter 9

It didn’t take long for the Black Squad to finish the recruitment mission and go back to England. Blaine, Kurt, and Jeff were the first ones who came back, having ‘scored’ two newbies. Finn, Sugar, and Santana came back the following day with only one newbie on their account. And finally, Mike, Tina, and Noah were the last ones as their hunt for the second soon-to-be agent took longer than expected.

Once they were all back, they decided to meet up in Kurt and Blaine’s apartment in the afternoon. What was supposed to be a serious discussions of techniques used in the mission and what could have been done differently, ended up being a get-together among friends, where they shared fun stories about their newbies.

“–lost my best friend,” Blaine finished telling about Jeff and Roger’s sudden friendship as everyone in the room laughed.

They already listened through so many amusing stories that everything made them laugh at that point.

“It’s not fair, he blinded me with his charm!” Jeff pouted.

Kurt rolled his eyes. “I didn’t find it charming when he started asking about my sex life…”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Noah shushed everyone. “Please, be silent, I’m listening here.”

“So mature,” Kurt shook his head and poured another glass of juice. “So who managed to recruit the next person?”

“Us,” Tina said proudly. She and the guys managed to convince their target to join the C.A.T. only two days after Roger agreed to join. “Her name is Janice.”

Sugar quickly swallowed the drink. she had in her mouth “Is she as annoying as that woman from ‘Friends’? Urgh, I used to hate her.”

“She is even more annoying,” Noah cut in but as everyone looked up at him, started to stutter. “Not that I watched ‘Friends’, what I meant is that this Janice is a pain in the ass. She is arrogant, full of herself, and–”

“–and she refused to sleep with Noah,” Mike finished for the man with a mohawk.

“Wait a second,” Finn’s eyes widened and the mood in the room instantly changed. “You tried to have sex with her?! Are you out of your mind?”

Noah shrugged. “She’s hot and I hadn’t had any action for a while. You all pair up and fuck your brains out all the time. Tina and Mike, Kurt and Blaine, Finn and Rachel, Sugar probably has phone sex with that Irish dude all the time. And then there is me, all lonely and aching.”

“It’s not an excuse to jeopardize a mission!” Blaine said, his voice coming out angrier than he had planned.

“Listen, they didn’t fuck so let’s forget this, okay?” Mike said feeling guilty for outing his friend’s mistake and quickly changed the topic. “Anyway, so we found this Janice and began to follow her around. You know, observing her daily life, the usual method. We figured she was on holiday because she didn’t go to work so everything was going fine. After a while we decided to make a move and talk to her.”

“So we sent Mike to flirt with her in a café where she was having coffee alone,” Tina interjected.

“Ouch,” Sugar hissed at the thought of seeing her own boyfriend flirting with someone else.

“And?” Santana asked Mike as the curiosity took over.

“I found out a very interesting thing…” the Asian man said and extended the silence on purpose. “Janice has a twin sister.”

There were two types of people in the room – half of them sat there stunned and the other half started laughing.

“Wait, so you had been following the wrong person the whole time?” Santana asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” Tina responded with a light blush on her face. “Apparently Janice was out of town and her sister was living in her apartment, looking after her dog. We were about to move onto another person on the list because we didn’t want to waste time but then the real Janice came back and we began the mission all over again.”

“And where does Noah’s attempt to seduce her fit into the story?” Kurt asked reaching for some chips.

“We soon found out that she was into clubbing so I went to dance with her because we needed to be sure that it was the right sister,” Noah explained. “And then I might have tried to hit on her… But it was all part of the plan! I would have talked her into joining that night!”

“Of course, a wonderful plan,” Tina rolled her eyes.

“Wow, it seems Jeff isn’t the only one who doesn’t like sharing his ideas with his teammates,” Blaine glared at the blonde man.

Jeff growled silently. “For the thousandth time, I’m sorry I had a brilliant idea that you wouldn’t have approved of. In the end we got Roger to join, didn’t we?”

“I guess luck was on our side during this mission,” Finn spoke up. “We got into some mess as well but it worked out just fine.”

“What happened?”

“Sorry, I need to use the bathroom,” Sugar excused herself and left the room.

“So, you know how it took us ages to get someone to join?” he asked and waited for everyone to nod.

It was true. Kurt’s team managed to recruit two people in a shorter time period than it took Finn’s team to attract one person. Kurt was secretly proud of himself for beating his experienced brother at this.

“Well, it wasn’t because we weren’t trying. In fact, we talked to four people and they all rejected us. After over a week we still had absolutely no progress. Until we reached number five – Brittany. We first approached her in a kickboxing class and she totally–”

“–kicked my ass,” Sugar said as she came back into the room. “It was awesome. She was fierce, her kicks were strong and well-aimed. Her technique could be improved but overall she did really well. And fun fact – it was only her sixth lesson and it was the first time she was learning any martial art.”

There was a silent murmur around the room as they either could not believe that this girl was that good or they anticipated seeing her in action. If she was really such a quick learner, they could expect a lot from her once her training was over.

“Please, tell me she joined the C.A.T.,” Mike asked hoping to have a training session with the girl.

“She did,” Santana began, “and that’s why the giant said that in the end everything worked out to be just fine. We were told ‘no’ four times but because of it we managed to find an awesome, strong, funny, smart girl, who is definitely going to do well in her training.”

Finn shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “I wouldn’t call her exceptionally smart, actually…”

Santana glared at him but before she could snap at the man, Sugar cut in. “She is smart in her own unique way. You can never get bored while talking to her. It’s… interesting.”

“I’m sure she is smart. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been on the list,” Blaine said and excused himself to the kitchen as they were running out of chips.

“I wouldn’t count on that. The second guy we chased after wasn’t the brightest,” Jeff admitted. “He thought that we were working for the C.I.A. I mean, puh-lease...”

“Wait a second, are you saying that you, wonder boys, didn’t get a perfect score?” Santana laughed.

“We kind of had a difficulty with him,” Kurt said sheepishly. “Basically he ended up in a hospital after we began talking to him.”

At that time Blaine came back with several bags of various chips and began to refill the bowls. While Kurt got distracted by a well-rounded view in front of him, Jeff took over the story.

“It’s not our fault he freaked out when we started talking to him. He thought we came after him because of some loan and then he thought we were C.I.A. and then started running away from us and then got hit by a car. That’s when we decided he wasn’t really C.A.T. material. So we called ambulance and crossed him out of the list.”

“Thankfully the next person on the list was basically born ready to become an agent,” Blaine said as he finished emptying the bags. “She grew up with four older brothers who all wanted the title of the best brother so they basically incorporated her in all of their activities. Football, boxing, dancing, singing, hiking, horse riding, a few other things. She said she hadn’t had a minute to herself while growing up. Overall, she is already trained in many things. I’m glad we could talk her into joining. I think she is going to be a great addition to the team.”

“What’s her name?” Sugar asked wanting to know what she could refer to the girl instead of the ‘overachiever’.

“Angela,” Jeff said. “Pretty name, reminds me of something…”

“Um, maybe angels?” Finn offered.

“No, not that…” Jeff said and pretended to think. “You know those things with wings that live in heaven?”

“Okay, moving on,” Tina said, successfully ending the blonde’s game. “We came back today with our second newbie. Apparently, Roger is one lucky guy because he is in a squad with four girls.”

“That’s because girls rule,” Santana grinned and high-fived Sugar.

“What is she like?” Kurt asked with a yawn as he was still fighting his jet lag.

“She, as in Norah, reminded me of how Tina used to be in the beginning,” Mike smiled fondly at his girlfriend. “Silent but observant, sweet but determined to prove that she is stronger than anyone thinks. She was reasonable and took her time to make a final decision about joining. It was really smart of her. I mean, others seemed to just make a spur of a moment decision.”

“From what I’ve heard they all have very different personalities and backgrounds,” Blaine concluded with a crease in his forehead.

“Do you think it’s a good thing?” Kurt asked him. In a way, it was easier to work in a team with similar people but on the other hand, you can learn a lot from people who are nothing like you.

“Honestly, I think we will get to see some harsh competition in the White Squad this year.”

“Unless we get sent on missions very often and for long times,” Noah reminded them. “I would say this mission went fine so we already proved that we can work as a team. Did Burt or Sarah mention the next mission to any of you?” he asked.

They all shook their heads. “But we are seeing them tomorrow in the morning, aren’t we?” Sugar asked to make sure she remembered correctly.

“Yeah, and we are supposed to make reports on the mission until then,” Noah whined.

“We are almost done,” Jeff beamed.

When the trio came back they went straight to writing up their report because Blaine insisted to get it over with. At first Jeff moaned about it but now he was happy because the others were just about to start while they were almost finished.

“We should probably get going then,” Tina sighed and stood up. “It was great catching up with you all but work is calling us.”

“How are we supposed to write that huge thing is such a short time?” Noah groaned as they all left the apartment.

Once the door closed, Kurt started to clean up the table while Blaine and Jeff went to continue their work.

<~*~>

Hours later when most people in the C.A.T. base were already asleep an ex-agent Wes wished he was sleeping and dreaming as his former leader sat in front of him with a gun pointing at him.

“Well, unfortunately for you, I’m not,” the man’s words rang in his head.

Wes wasn’t sure what to think of it. Tom was most definitely alive and he couldn’t understand why he was lied to.

“I was told you were dead,” he managed, trying to fight back the panic that was rising inside of him as he watched the gun in a steady hand in front of him.

“People believe what they want to believe,” Tom said and sat back more comfortably.

“What do you want from me?” Wes asked weighing his options. None of them seemed to be in his favour.

“Let’s say I have some unfinished business with a few friends of yours at the C.A.T. and you are going to help me with that,” Tom said with a smirk.

“And what if I say no?” Wes asked, aware of the answer but wishing to win some time.

“It’s not like you have a choice here,” the older man shrugged, tapping a finger on his gun.

Wes was silent for a few moments until he let out a short laugh. “When you say ‘friends’, who are you talking about? Because I surely don’t have any friends there.”

Tom eyed the young man in front of him and after what seemed like forever he lowered his gun. “Just a few… rats.”