Adventures of Ishani

The office was quiet. But then again, it was 03:27 in the morning so there was no reason why it wouldn’t be. From where she sat in the square leather armchair, she had full visibility over Hoss quietly pacing up and down the hallway outside. They would have enough warning in case something went sideways; thank god for modern office design and their obsession with glass-everything.

Ishani looked over at the man behind the desk working his quick fingers across the keyboard. “Milo, how long?”

“Shouldn’t be too long now,” he replied absentmindedly, his eyes rapidly following whatever was on the screen.

“We don’t have much time left, hurry up,” she prompted.

“I know, I know, I’m almost done. We’re lucky we got access to his private emails, otherwise this would not have been possible.”

Ishani let out a short sigh and let the man carry on with what he was doing. Her hand instinctively went towards her katana leaning against the leather chair. There was something soothing about tracing the wrap of the handle with her fingers. And Milo was right; now was not the time to get impatient. They had spent months planning this operation, staking out the target, family, friends, and colleagues around him. They knew everything about his private life, and it was all so they could find out what he was hiding behind the big corporate name.

When their employer had reached out to her about the case, she hadn't believed it at first. She had quite literally laughed in their face about it. Not only that they had contacted her, but what they had suggested was ridiculous! That is, until they had laid out the facts. And then suddenly it didn't seem so ridiculous anymore. The information had to be kept within a small circle, so she reached out to the handful of people she knew she could trust to get the job done. If they succeeded, if the information was correct, they would have to deal with repercussions that would change the world as they knew it. If they failed, a lot of people's lives would be at risk. Ishani wasn’t sure yet which outcome she preferred.

“Oh shit.”

Her eyes shot towards Milo. “What do you mean ‘oh shit’?”

“The file… it-, I mean it’s there but it triggered-...” his eyes met hers and she saw panic. “They know we’re here.”

Fuck.

Ishani stood up from the chair and walked over to him, he couldn't lose focus now.

“Milo, do you have access to the files?”

“N-not yet. I see them, I know what I need to do, I just… I need a bit more time.”

The comms piece everyone had in their ears buzzed alive with Renner's voice. “Guys, I don’t know what you did but we have movement. You need to get out of there.”

An alarm started to shout in the distance.

"Milo, look at me."

Placing her hands firmly on the desk opposite of him, she demanded his frightened stare.

"Think. We need this information, anything you can salvage. I know you know what to do."

His chest was rising heavily with each breath. "I might be able to remove the drive… I don't know what it will do to the data, but I don't know what else to do."

She looked up behind her at Hoss who was still in the hallway. He took the safety off his rifle and positioned himself closer to the office door. Two, maybe three minutes tops, and then they’d be here. She stepped away from the desk and reached for her katana. The sound of her unsheathing the sharp blade rang through the office.

“Take the drive, Milo. We’re leaving.”