The Price of Love

Sand

Writers Note: Feeling a little better. Are any of you interested in the history of espionage? Because I am, and I got the idea for Raven's character from the movie Red Sparrow which is based off of a real program. So many cool things have taken place through the shadows, not enough of that history is told. Anyway, finally getting some background on Raven's character. Excited to write her interactions with Farah and Alex here soon.

TW: Discussion of sexual coercion, manipulation and implied sexual assault. A tiny bit of religious trauma, just a tiny bit.

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"The Wolf? Are you sure?" Laswell asked. The satellite computer that captured Laswell's essence was tethered to another computer directly next to it. Jessica's computer, and the information that was on it was a gold mine.

Sensitive site exploitation teams were still tearing into the house that Gaz, Price and I had just cleared, finding loads of information, taking pictures of the dead for confirmation, disposing of multiple terrorist weapons like pipe bombs and illegal guns.

But the three of us stood around the two laptops, watching the little bar slowly fill on screen, transferring all the intel Kate could ever dream of to her CIA black database. "Yes, Kate," Price said.

He hadn't so much as looked at me since we had left the attic of the building, his only acknowledgement that I was there was the annoyed roll of his shoulders as I paced back and forth behind him. My operation, my investigation, all of my work was coming to a head, and it was being giving over to Kate.

"Are you seeing a location Kate?" Price questioned, leaning down over the computer screen.

She tapped on the keyboards in front of her, yet I watched that little bar fill more and more. My investigation, my information... I had just lost complete control of all of it to the CIA. My skin crawled.

With a nod, she answered, "yes, some of these emails are coming from Ramaza in Urzikstan."

"Al-Quatala again, they claimed responsibility for the attack in London," Kyle said from beside me. For all of the respect I had for him, the fact that he didn't have a problem with all of the work we had done the last three weeks with London's security forces being transferred to the CIA infuriated me. "There is a hospital there that has been on Commander Karim's radar for a while."

John's body twisted, standing up to stretch a kink in his back muscles, there was more than annoyance in the way he rolled his shoulders now. There was apprehension there, almost fear. Again, having the training to read into someone's body language was both a blessing and a curse. I had been able to see it in the way he completely bulked at my languid comment earlier, him opening his legs was just a switch up of his one judgements.

But it was the flush of red up his neck, the loss of eye contact, the way he... twitched. He was professional, he was behaved.

Doubt caused me to believe that he had never had a woman speak to him like that before. Curiosity, perhaps, made him intrigued enough by me that he allowed me along on these missions. But that curiosity had its limits it would seem.

There was something drawing the two of us together like a shoe lace folding the leather flaps of a sneaker together. Before I had believed it was simply attraction. His eyes skimming the flesh of my thighs, my eyes flowing up the curve of his back muscles.

Curiosity.

But his demeanor was both mischievous and loathing. Unfaltering, when it involved embarrassing me, you're far too young for me. He had said without all the confidence of a weapon ready to kill.