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Morrow wasn't kidding about the tight security. Sady expected Amanda to protest, but to her surprise Amanda didn't say a word during the entry process. Once inside the embassy, they eyed the hoi polloi of Washington society. Daria spotted her target immediately, ignoring everyone and everything except what was necessary for the job. After a few minutes of observation, she motioned Sady and Amanda to his vicinity.
Daria frowned when she spotted a drunk congressman pestering Sady. Sady couldn't shake him without making a scene, so Daria stepped in for the assist. "Here, let me help you to your seat," she offered, grabbing his arm as he gasped for breath. He didn't know who'd thrown the elbow, but it took his breath away. He wheezed as Daria shoved him onto a sofa and left him.
When she turned back, she saw that Amanda had dragged a bodyguard to the dance floor. How she managed that was beyond Daria's scope of imagination. The man's boss didn't look thrilled but the guard was having a good time. Daria watched as her target eyed Sady and asked her for a dance. What was up with that? Daria's brow furrowed as she surveyed the dance floor.
When the dance finished, Amanda traded dance partners with Sady before anyone could protest. Daria laughed at the astounded look on the face of Amanda's partner- their target. Apparently, he wasn't used to getting 'felt up' on the dance floor. Daria watched him pat his chest once the dance finished, a look of relief on his face. She smiled and said a silent thanks to Amanda and her roving hands. Now Daria wouldn't have to explore all the hiding places in the man's suit.
A short while later, Daria headed toward her target. She remembered Sady's lessons and smiled. She must have done it right because she caught his eye and he asked her to dance. By the end of the dance she had the flash drive secured in her bra and was ready to make a fast move to the exit.
She thanked him for the dance and tried to exit the dance floor quickly. When he yelled, she knew why. His bodyguard surrounded her and they tried to move her away from the dance floor and the crowd.
Sady and Amanda watched and decided it was time to provide a distraction. Amanda pulled out her phone and turned up "Love Shack" by the B-52's. She and Sady pushed their way to the dance floor, grabbing guests by the hand onto the dance floor. Amanda strong armed two bodyguards with her chest, bouncing them to the floor and ignoring their looks of stupefied fascination.
Morrow would have been shocked by the dance moves on the floor, led by Amanda and Sady. Sady shimmied over to the boss, hoping Daria would use the opportunity to run. The boss left one guard on Daria and joined the wild frenzy on the dance floor.
Everything went good until Amanda bounced one too many times during a "BANG BANG" portion of the song, and the flash drive flew out the top of her dress. The guard she danced with yelled, attracting his boss' attention. Dancers inadvertently kicked it around the floor. A couple guards crawled after it.
Daria poked her bra to check. What the hell? How could the drive be out there on the floor when she had it in her bra? Worse, one guard took Amanda's arm, and the boss had Sady's in a firm grip. He handed her off to a security guard while he dove for the drive. Dancers on the floor looked like they'd been through a game of Twister tornado. Bodies were piling up, and one guard got his face slapped by a senator's wife when he reached under her for the drive.
Daria mouth opened slightly when Sady she fingered the top of her dress and flipped her eyes meaningfully at the dance floor. Those two had fingered the original drive and slipped in a decoy! She'd decide later who'd pay for not letting her know. That mistake put them all in a bad position. She felt a gun barrel in her side and let the guard lead her down a hall. Just ahead of her, Security escorted Sady and Amanda to a room.
In the room they were tossed into chairs where they waited. The boss finally entered the room. He shook his head and upbraided them for being foolish. He was a little man with issues, Sady decided. He got in their faces and screamed at them. Sady saw Daria scoping the room. Two guards and the boss? She knew Daria was good for taking out at least two, but she wasn't sure she and Amanda could subdue one with a gun.
A second later it was out of her control. The boss yanked her hair... hard. The one and only thing guaranteed to send Sandy-Sue Morrow into a blind rage was having her hair pulled... hard. Instinctively, she stood and slammed her fist into his throat. He squeaked and went down in surprise. Daria, always alert, took out her guard and used his gun on the third man in the room. He went down with a scream, holding the area of his leg that once contained his knee cap.
Daria moved to the boss and stomped on his hand. He glared, and she snapped, "Open your hand." He refused to do so, which made Sady mad. Her scalp still hurt, so she used the spike heel of her shoe and drove it into his hand.
"I've got one more, and it's aimed at your groin," Sady threatened. He opened his hand and Daria grabbed the drive. Daria motioned Amanda out of the room, then Sady followed. Daria sent the boss out for a nap, just before she exited and locked the door from the outside.
Guards rushed from the private part of the building, so the women ran toward the party. After the melee on the dance floor, the party continued out of control and no one noticed the women getting chased. They nearly made it to the front door when one guard grabbed Sady by the arm. She called out and Daria looked back at her.
Amanda stopped as well. "Get out of here," Daria told Amanda. She rushed out the door and through the front gate while Daria faced off with the guard that held Sady.
"Let's trade," she offered the guard. He gave a mocking laugh until she fished the thumb drive out of her bra and waved it.
"You're not getting out of here without paying a forfeit," he laughed. "And this pretty distraction is the forfeit."
Daria threw the drive into the air, and yelled, "Catch!" He loosened his grip on Sady slightly, distracted by the drive. It clattered to the floor and slid, stopping in front of another guard who reached down with a smile to pick it up. Sady's guard laughed, and she dropped him with the move Daria taught her.
Then she and Daria hiked their dresses and ran. At the gate the guards were blocking the exit, looking toward the embassy. One of the embassy guards waved in a manner that indicated Don't bother as he held up the drive. The gate guards let them pass with a rude remark.
Morrow's waiting limousine stopped briefly to pick up the women, then left in a hurry. It wouldn't be long before the men at the embassy realized they had a substitute drive. On the way to the hotel the women looked at the drive, wondering what it contained. Amanda elbowed Daria and pointed to a laptop at the other end of the limo. Daria looked at Sady and said, "I don't think you want to know what's on here."
Amanda had the laptop and said, "We'll never know unless we look." She grabbed the drive and shoved it into the slot on the laptop. "Let's see what we've got here."
After a few minutes of checking files Sady asked, "Are you sure this is the right one? You didn't give them the real one by accident, did you?"
"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," Daria said as she studied the screen.
"We risked our lives for some porn videos?" Sady asked.
"And bad porn, at that!" Amanda said emphatically. "That old guy should have had both sets of cheeks tightened. You could bounce a quarter off his face. Try that on his butt and it's like a slot machine... bye-bye quarter. Who's the old guy with the boobs? And that one has a spare tire big enough for a tractor. Is this an ad for men's E.D.? Like they need more Niagara Falls pills? What's so funny?"
Daria was laughing. "You're focusing on the wrong parts, Amanda. Look at the faces and tell me if they look familiar."
"Hey, I saw that face on the news the other night. He was being interviewed about his current campaign," Sady said. "Isn't he the one who blows his horn about full disclosure?"
"Oh, lord! That's too much full disclosure, if you ask me," Amanda harrumphed. "Turn it off before I recognize... no! I know that other guy, too. I think I shook his hand once when I worked at the university. I hope I washed!"
"Oh, hell! That one should keep his robe on, for the sake of the human race!"
The door of the limousine flew open, and Morrow gave them a stern look. They crawled out of the limo, one by one.
"God, don't ever mention this episode to me," Daria said.
"I'm gonna need therapy for my nightmares," Amanda complained.
"Don't worry. No one wants to see that again," Sady assured him with a kiss on his cheek. He scowled, then smiled as he watched his three unlikely heroes enter the hotel, mission accomplished.
***
"I refuse to work with them again," Daria said. "They cheated!"
"We improvised," Amanda corrected her.
"There's no need to have hurt feelings," John told Daria. "The job's done, and that's all that matters, right?"
"Have you been taking happy lessons from Miss Let's All Smile?" she griped. "Because I'm questioning your sudden support of team spirit. Since when has not following the rules become acceptable to you? If I'd jumped the rails like that, you'd kick me back to boot camp. What's up?"
John looked nervous, and Daria narrowed her eyes. "You planned it this way, didn't you? Am I not capable of doing a simple job any more? You call in the amateurs to make sure it's done right?"
He sighed, knowing he wouldn't get out of this easily. "After you got grabbed in Detroit, I couldn't risk letting you be the one to carry out the job. They were expecting you to make a move. They weren't expecting the tag team of Amanda and Sady pulling the job."
Daria looked to them and asked, "How did you get it past security?"
"You girls aren't the only ones who wear under-wires," Amanda said with a sniff. "I just happen to require bigger wires, and no security guard gets to frisk the girls long enough to figure out how big that wire is."
"So, Sady fingered the original drive during the dance, and you replaced it with the spare during the next dance. Don't you think I should have been in on the game? Look what happened because no one told me," Daria scolded. "I wasted my time lifting a drive that had no value."
"Did you get to shoot anyone? Or knock out a man twice your size?" Morrow asked.
"So, it wasn't a complete waste of time," she grudgingly admitted. "But that doesn't mean I'm ever working with them again."
"Daria, if you knew Sady and Amanda took the drive how hard would you have tried with your guy? He'd have known something was up. This way, all eyes were on you," John continued.
"Until Amanda lost the drive," Matt said. "Hey, Amanda, would you like to explain how that happened? I missed it the first time."
"My wire snapped," she replied. "Cheap bra, anyway!"
"Snapped wire, my eye," he scoffed. "You probably exceeded the maximum restraint limit with your floor show. I saw you in Vegas, remember?"
Harry nudged him and warned, "The women aren't looking happy, Meadows. You might want to wind it back a couple inches."
"I taught them how to weaponize an under-wire," Daria told Matt. "And two of us are still intact."
"Well, I'm just glad you weren't wearing a girdle, Amanda, or the damage would have been catastrophic in a blow ut. Mangled bodies, shattered glass, demolished walls. That wouldn't have looked good for you and your cronies, Morrow." Matt seemed determined to push Amanda's buttons. Sady knew why when Amanda took a deep breath and grabbed her uncle's arm.
"Uncle Sam, I'm not gonna sit here and take this abuse. I just provided a valuable service, so it looks like you're taking me out on the town to show some appreciation. Besides, if I stay here I'm gonna kill Meadows." She pulled John to the door, and he gave Matt a dirty look over his shoulder. "Don't wait up," Amanda yelled as the door slammed.
"Well, that should be a fun evening," Daria laughed. "I guess I'll enjoy my revenge vicariously, knowing John is sweating buckets with that woman plastered to his side. Now, I have plans that don't include anyone in this room." She followed John and Amanda out the door.
"Well, aren't you leaving as well?" Matt asked CJ and Harry.
"Why? We have the whole suite to ourselves- or almost," Harry said. "We're ordering room service and..." CJ elbowed him and they both grinned.
"I'm changing into something comfortable," Sady said. At Matt's hopeful look she continued, "Not that comfortable! Order a pizza, will you? We didn't get to eat at the embassy."
He lowered his voice and said, "I'll order pizza if you tell me what's on that drive."
"What makes you think I know?" she asked.
"Three nosy women and a mysterious computer file? I'm surprised you didn't get busted using a computer at the embassy to take a look. And don't try telling me you didn't look. I'm not taken in by that innocent face anymore."
"So does that mean you believe me when I say the cop was a good kisser, or you don't believe me when I say he was he was a bad kisser?" she teased.
"He better not have been either, Sassafras," he replied, pulling her into his arms. "That's my job," he nuzzled into her neck, before proving himself a good worker.
"You have potential," Sady told him several minutes later. "Maybe you should see if Uncle John has a position for you."
"I like my position just fine as it," he smiled. "Now, I'll order the pizza and you can tell me what's on the drive."
"You'd better make it two pizzas," Harry grumbled. "CJ heard, and now she wants the details too."
The door opened and Amanda stepped through with a huff. "You had better be planning a seriously fine night on the town, Uncle Sam," she complained as John pushed her through the door.
"What the hell?" Matt asked, and John waved the drive.
"There are no national security matters on here," John explained. "Just some good old-fashioned blackmail. And a man in my position can't pass up an opportunity like this. You never know when it might come in useful."
"Ooh, I'm proud of you, Uncle Sam," Amanda said. "Sharing the blackmail? You better hope you're not on this!"
"Better make it three pizzas," Sady snickered, giving Matt a quick hug.
"Well, why are you all staring?" Daria demanded as she stepped into the room. "Let's get this show rolling. With information like this, I might quit my job as a field agent and apply for a job as your assistant, Director Morrow!"