Special Agent | ✓

Twenty-Six

(a/n: double update, both chapter 25 + 26! make sure to read in order. enjoy!)

TWENTY-SIX

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Gavin had listened to Kent and Davidson speak for the better part of an hour, though they'd occasionally toss him glances as if to make sure he wasn't going to make a break for it. Not that he would, really — he was stuck staring at the two of them, still in shock over Kent's sudden reappearance.

He had questions. A few of them — no, more than a bloody few. The most important one was how Lorber had ended up dead in Paris, at the exact location of Kent's beacon. It sure as bloody hell could not have been O'Reilly, though Gavin supposed that if one wanted to make that hypothetical argument one could argue she'd hired someone to do it.

From the time he'd spent with Quinn, he knew she had more than a few hidden layers on her. Hypatia and her skills with guns had been one — and he knew those were rooted in her past, but he didn't know what other experiences she'd gotten while spending time with Hypatia in Paris. He didn't know where she'd gotten her training outside of Hypatia, didn't know anything about that gap of time between her ending up at Hypatia and her finally landing at the Agency.

For once, Gavin would have liked to be analytical enough to work it out, much like the corporate drones back at The Agency.

Ironic, isn't it, that you and O'Reilly switched places? You're here thinking, analyzing, while she's in the field now.

"Locke, you awake?"

Finger snapped in front of Locke's face. He scowled, looked up at Davidson's sunny smile. The man had been sour for the better part of the night, but now that the sun had come out he seemed to have switched attitudes. That, or his call to Chief Sanders, which had seemingly left him happy as a clam.

"Awake enough to realize you're annoying me." Gavin swatted his hands away, instead choosing to voice the question which had been grating on his nerves, "What are we doing here, still?"

Davidson quirked a brow, "What do you mean?"

"Here. In Venice. The mission's over, as far as I can see." Gavin inclined his head to where Kent was standing, typing intensely on her phone, " — why not return at once?"

"I guess Cam's scared," Davidson said, finger tapping the side of his thigh as he watched the third Special Agent in the room, " — of what Quinn might do to her, should she know she's alive."

Gavin schooled his features into absolute neutrality, "What, go after her again on a specialized mission to retrieve her at all costs?"

Davidson's finger stopped its rhythm as he aimed a deadpan look at Gavin.

"You haven't had enough time to speak to Kent, let her tell her side of the story. I believe in her, and I think you will, too."

Gavin, feeling his suspicion rising higher for each passing minute he spoke to Davidson, chose to steer the topic away from the discussion they'd been having. If he didn't, he was afraid he'd implode.

Yes, Davidson had been pushing Cam's side of it, the absolute truth he believed she spoke.

But what about Quinn's side? That was the exact type of dangerous question which Gavin wished to avoid, and one he'd almost walked right into.

"What'd HQ say? About the kill order?"

Gavin broke away from the wall he'd been leaning on, letting his legs stretch as Davidson answered his question.