The Heat

9. The Albino

Two agents were flashing badges back at them, pistols raised. One was a pushover-y looking guy wearing an inconspicuous green polo shirt, and the other was...

"Special agent Garret, FBI! Drop 'em!" shouted the Albino.

They slowly lowered their guns.

"Sorry, officer," Debbie said, "we thought you were assassins. Because of your...weapon."

"And because you look evil as shit," Lou muttered. Debbie shot her a glance full of venom, which she duly ignored.

"Oh, right, because I'm Albino, right?" Huffed the agent. "Yeah, well, I'm a special agent. Two months we've been sitting on that club, and then the two of you come in like a couple of amateurs and almost blow everything!"

Debbie pursed her lips, then forced them into what she hoped was an accommodating smile. "Okay, clearly you have no idea who you're speaking to. I'm special agent Debbie Ocean..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure your credentials are impressive enough, as is your...wardrobe choice," said the agent, raking his eyes over Debbie's suit. "Is that supposed to be an attempt at staying undercover, or are you planning to bore the assassin to death?"

"Oh, you're giving beauty tips? Do you own a fucking mirror?" Lou snapped. This time, Debbie couldn't help but look at her in surprise. This was the same woman who had given her no end of teasing about her outfits.

"Listen. This whole 'females in the workplace' thing, I'm cool with it," the albino went on. "But the problem, all due respect to you people, is that you get all excited...your hormones take over...and the next thing you know, you're flirting with the fucking bad guy on his couch at the back of the nightclub!"

"'All due respect'?" Lou scoffed. "Who's your wife? A five-pound bag of flour with a hole in it?"

"Lou, stop—" Debbie hissed, but Lou's eyes were narrowed, the tell-tale sign of either a fight or mischief.

"I only see one person getting emotional as hell, chalk balls, and it ain't either one of us ladies. We've got surveillance you don't even know about, so I'd recommend thinking twice before you hold a special agent" —she nodded to Debbie— "at gunpoint and insulting her. We're taking this Apert asshole down without your help, and you can cry your testosterone-filled balls out about it."

With that, she ducked back into the car and slammed the door. The albino and his protegee seemed at a loss for words, so Debbie decided it best to flip them the bird and follow suit.

"Hey," she said to Lou, back in the car, "that was pretty cool."

"I've had it with those misogynistic crybabies," Lou fumed. She toyed with the hilt of her gun, flipping the trigger around her middle finger. "If one more man tries to pull that 'female-in-the-workplace' line on me, he'll get his bollocks shot out."

"I get what you mean," Debbie said, putting the car in gear and pulling out of the street. "It's so hard to be a woman in this field."

Lou nodded.

They drove in silence for a stretch of time, then Lou said, "So what's the plan, boss?"

Debbie blinked. "I'm not your boss. I'm—we're—partners."

"Are we?" Lou turned to her with a smile.

Debbie felt herself reddening. "Professionally, I mean. Professional partners." She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "Listen, Miller—about earlier. I want to apologize. It was incredibly immature of me to walk out on you like that. I don't...I don't know why, but I've been slightly off-balance these days."

"Yeah, I got a sense of that." Lou smirked at her, to show her she was joking. "I'm sorry for being snappish too."

"If you're angry—if you don't want to be on this mission anymore with me—I'd understand."

"Ocean! Why would I be angry? Hey—stop the car a minute."

Debbie looked at her, confused, but did as Lou said.

"I would think it incredibly weird if you weren't this way," said Lou. "I think maybe you're being too hard on yourself, Debbie. This man killed your brother. You may not realize it, but it's really fucking loaded for you to be out on this mission right now, looking for him."

Debbie stared down at her hands and tried to laugh it off, but she found that she couldn't.

"We're front-line agents, Ocean. We were trained to be tough, to be able to take anything. But we're still human. And it's really important to be in touch with that, you know? Our humanness. Our emotions. It's all part of it. We're in this to protect people, yeah, but we're also in this to protect ourselves."

Debbie nodded. She couldn't trust herself to speak at that moment. Lou seemed to understand that her words had gone through, so she fell quiet and let the silence settle over them once more.

"You're right," Debbie said at last. "You're right about that, and you were right about everything before."

She looked into Lou's eyes. "About that hacker. Eight Ball?"

"Nine Ball," said Lou.

"Let's hire them." She started the engine. "We're gonna track down Yelnick."