“And Priscilla,” added River. They all smiled at him, nodding.
“It’s good to hear you say that,” grinned Jak. He looked out the windows, seeing her walking with a herd of ghosts behind her and laughed. “I think she’s already fitting in.”
“I’m younger than most of you but I’ve seen my fair share of shit in this world. I have my nightmares. I’ve killed when it was the only way. But there is not one damn thing about any of this that makes sense to me.”
“River, let’s back up for a few minutes. Start when Celine, or Natalia invited you to dinner.” He nodded, recalling the events of that afternoon.
“I went into Greene’s office for just a quick wrap up. He invited me to join the team and stick around but I told him the teams is where I belonged. That’s when I mentioned that I came from a long line of SEALs. He already knew that because he mentioned that Dad or Grandpa punched him in the nose.”
“It was a solid punch, too,” smirked Wes. The men chuckled, nodding.
“He wished me good luck and I walked out. When I passed by Priscilla’s desk, I smiled at her and nodded. My intention was to gather my things and then ask her out. Instead, Cel-, Natalia stopped me. She asked if I was leaving and if I was no longer with the bureau. I told her I was never with the bureau.
“She said ‘good’ and then said now that we weren’t working together would I like to have dinner. I knew what she was doing. I’d seen her in action with other guys. She was definitely a user. The first thing that came to mind was I was going to get my dinner with Priscilla one way or another.”
“What did she do?” asked Ham.
“I could tell she was pissed when I invited Priscilla. She was steaming and then said ‘of course’. Then she said she was leaving early to get dinner started. It was the end of the day, so I took the opportunity to convince Priscilla to have coffee with me and we would drive together to Natalia’s house.”
“Someone may have seen the two of you together,” said Christopher. “You might not have known it. Hiro? Can we bring up the camera footage from the coffee shop?”
“Of course we can,” he frowned.
“Jesus, you guys are annoying. Bring up the damn footage.”
Hiro smirked at him knowing that it annoyed them when the tech boys said that. It took him only a few seconds to find the footage for the day and time in question.
“Alright,” he said tapping a few keys so it appeared on the screen. “We see Romeo wooing Juliette with coffee. Strange choice but we’ll go with it. She’s smiling, he’s smiling really big, so all is good.”
“Hiro,” frowned River.
“Yeah, yeah. Alright, as we pan out the tables are full. People sitting, leaving, sitting, leaving, all except our friend in the corner,” said Hiro focusing in on the face. He snapped several shots of the close-up, then froze it for all to see.
“Anyone recognize this person?” asked Ham.
People shook their heads, unsure of what to think about the man. He appeared to be in his early to mid-forties, dark hair, average build, nothing remarkable which was probably why River and Priscilla ignored him.
“I have no clue who he is,” said River.
The others shrugged with the same confused expression. They heard the soft knock on the door frame and turned to see a smiling Priscilla.
“Sorry to bother you all. I’m done with my walk and tour now. Very enlightening,” she grinned.
“No problem, babe. Come on in,” said River.
“Why do you have a conspiracy theory, shock jock on the screen?”
“A shock jock?” frowned Ham.
“Yeah. That’s Leopold Bold. Not his real name obviously. His real name is Leopold Gunther.”
“Babe, do you remember seeing him at the coffee shop?” asked River.
“Yes. He’s in the coffee shop often. It’s just across the street from the bureau, as you saw. Most people don’t bug him because they think he’s a total asshole always looking to find some conspiracy theory with the government. I don’t think he’s an asshole, I just think he’s trying to get people to listen to him.”
“Priscilla, he was watching the two of you,” said Ham. “Watch the live feed action.”
She sat down, watching the video footage and noticing what they’d seen. Leopold was taking notes, watching Priscilla and River interact. But why?
