Taking One for the Team

“What are we going to do about Ames?” Chance asked. “She nearly blew it this time.”

“I have a few suggestions,” Guerrero said, with a smile that chilled Ilsa to the bone, “totally untraceable back to us, of course. In fact I still have access to that wood-chipper…”

“Get a grip Guerrero,” Winston frowned, “we don’t need to make her disappear. As tempting as that is, I don’t think that’s what Chance has in mind.”

“What do you have in mind, Mr Chance?” Ilsa enquired.

“To be honest, I really don’t know,” Chance admitted, leaning back and folding his arms, “but if Ames doesn’t get her head in the game soon I don’t see any choice but to kick her off the team. Her actions today left the client exposed and it nearly got him killed. She can’t just decide to wander off and do her own thing in the middle of a job. It doesn’t just put the client at risk, it endangers the safety of the whole team.”

“What the hell was she playing at anyway?” Winston asked. “All she had to do was make sure the client took cover and stayed out of the line of fire until the smoke cleared.”

“I don’t know, dude,” Guerrero said, “One minute everything is going to plan for once, and the next thing I know she’s right behind me trying to take on a guy with an AK-47 with a two-by-four. She’s lucky I didn’t take her head off.”

Ilsa looked at the three men in her office and sighed. Despite the fact that they were all intelligent men and each had a keen head for tactics, they could be remarkably unobservant sometimes, especially when it came down to basic human nature. .

“So I take it none of you have noticed a pattern to Ames’ behaviour then?” Ilsa asked.

“Not really,” Winston said, “other than the fact that she seems to pick the worst possible moments to go off and do her own thing.”

“Well, let me enlighten you,” Ilsa smiled. “I had my suspicions, but today confirmed it. Ames only abandons her set task when things get a bit hairy, like today when there were more gunmen in the building than we’d been expecting. Agreed?”

“Yes,” Winston said, “but that’s what makes the….”

“Where did she go?” Ilsa interrupted, “Who did she try and help?”

Winston and Chance looked at Guerrero.

“Hey, I didn’t ask for her help,” Guerrero said. “And I certainly didn’t need it. In fact it would have made my job a lot easier if I didn’t have her getting under my feet the whole time.”

“Ah, there’s the rub, Mr Guerrero,” Ilsa smiled, “Ames always gravitates towards you.”

Guerrero looked blank for a moment as Ilsa’s words sank in.

“You think I’m the reason Ames keeps abandoning her post? You think she’s trying to protect me?”

“It does kind of fit,” Chance said, “but why would she think that Guerrero, of all people, would need her help?”

“Oh, I think I know where this is going,” Winston said, widening his eyes and breaking out in to a grin as the penny dropped. “Maybe Ames can’t help it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Guerrero demanded.

“I think what Ilsa is getting at is that Ames has a bit of a crush on you, Guerrero. When things start to get a bit messy she runs off to find you so she can see that you’re okay and maybe earn a few brownie points by helping you out!”

“Seriously?” Chance asked. “She’s putting all of us in danger because she has a thing for Guerrero?”

Guerrero sat and glared at nothing in particular as Winston and Chance enjoyed a laugh at his expense.

“I’m guessing maybe you had some idea as to what was going on?” Ilsa asked Guerrero gently.

“I knew the kid had a bit of a crush on me,” Guerrero admitted reluctantly, “but I didn’t know that was the reason she’s been screwing up recently.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any chance you…?” Ilsa’s question faded away under the intensity of Guerrero’s withering look. “No, I suppose not.”

“You shouldn’t have opened that bar tab for her!” Chance grinned.

“You opened her a bar tab?” Ilsa asked, her eyebrows shooting up. “Why on earth did you do that?”

“Because,” Guerrero groaned, “I figured she’d go there without me or Chance and get humiliated. I thought it would be funny if she went there on her own or with her punk ass friends and got kicked out.”

“I don’t think Ames quite saw it that way.” Ilsa smiled.

“That’s it, I’ve had it with her!” Guerrero snapped, “She’s going in the wood-chipper!”

“Mr Guerrero!” Ilsa snapped. “I will pretend that was just a joke!”

“Pretend all you like, they’ll never find the body.”

“Sorry, Guerrero, but I’m backing Ilsa up on this one,” Chance said. “We can’t let you kill her just because she young and annoying.”

“Not to mention in lurve!” Winston added with a chuckle.

As Chance jumped in front of Winston to prevent Guerrero from hitting him, Ilsa realised that she would need to speak to Guerrero alone about a solution to the Ames problem. The simplest solution would be just to dismiss Ames but Ilsa wasn’t ready to give up on Ames just yet. Ames was a resourceful young woman but she had an obvious lack of good judgement; the mess she got in to with her foster brother was a prime example. Ilsa would have been quite happy to be rid of her after that incident, but in the months since then she’d got to know the girl. Quite apart from the fact that Ames provided some much needed female company around the office, Ilsa had grown quite fond of her and was reluctant to send her back to her old life.

“I’d like to speak to Mr Guerrero alone please.” Ilsa said loudly, cutting through the taunts and insults that were beings tossed back and forth between Winston and Guerrero, with Chance laughing in the middle.

“Come on big guy,” Chance said shoving Winston towards the door, “Ilsa needs to give Guerrero The Talk.”

Guerrero glared at them as they left Ilsa’s office, then sat down on one of the chairs facing away from the door and rested his feet on the desk, disturbing a pile of paper work. Ilsa frowned but decided to let it go. It was going to be difficult enough to deal with Guerrero as it was, without lecturing him on his manners.

“Mr Guerrero, am I right in saying that you were aware that Ames has feelings for you?”

Guerrero shrugged, as if it was none of his business what Ames felt about him.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Ilsa sighed. “But I take it that you definitely don’t return those feelings?”

Guerrero glared for a minute then laughed. “She’s not my type Ilsa. Besides, I don’t shit where I eat. Know what I mean?”

“Yes, if by that you mean you don’t like to engage in personal relationships in the workplace, I suppose I do.”

Ilsa studied Guerrero carefully. He did seem to be genuinely amused by the idea that anyone would think he was even remotely interested in Ames but Ilsa knew him well enough to know that she would only see what he wanted her to see. On balance though, if Ilsa had to put money on it, she bet on Guerrero telling the truth in this particular instance.

“So, lets be absolutely clear on the matter, you are in no way attracted to Ames.”

Guerrero rolled his eyes.

“No I’m not attracted to her. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly the kind of guy who’s into relationships, and if I’d decided to hit that, don’t you think I’d have done it by now?”

“Quite.” Ilsa said, drumming her fingers on her desk.

“Look, I’m not the one with the problem here.” He sighed. “It’s Ames you need to be talking to.”

“Don’t think I haven’t tried that already, Mr Guerrero. She denied it at first, of course, but when I persisted she admit that she was attracted to you. “

“Well, that’s her problem, not mine.”

“I think today’s events proved it is a problem for the whole team.”

Again, Guerrero shrugged.

“If I simply fire Ames there is a good chance she’ll get herself in trouble again and we won’t be there to sort it out for her. She almost certainly would have gotten herself killed in that whole business over the diamonds if Chance hadn’t stepped in.”

Ilsa paused but all she got from Guerrero was a bored look.

“I feel we have a certain duty of care towards Ames and, as dismissing her would irresponsible, we must find a way to keep her on the team that won’t put everyone at risk.”

“I can think of a few ways that would keep her out of my way,” Guerrero said, smiling. “Permanently.”

Ilsa had an uncomfortable feeling that he wasn’t joking, which settled the matter of Guerrero’s feelings about Ames once and for all. She also felt deeply uncomfortable about the solution she was about to propose but at the moment it was the best she could come up with. She really had no idea if Guerrero would go for it or not, but at least it didn’t involve poor Ames disappearing ‘permanently’.

“Let me tell you about something that happened to a friend of mine whilst we were at university.”

Guerrero groaned. “I’m listening but make it quick. I’ve got places to be you know.”

“This friend was a gifted student and received the top grades in all of her classes but one. It wasn’t even a difficult class and she understood the topic well enough, but she couldn’t seem to focus in class. Do you know why that was?”

“No and I don’t really care,” Guerrero said.

“It was because she had a huge crush on the teacher of that class, Mr Guerrero. She simply couldn’t focus on her studies when he was around. He was much older than her and he wasn’t even extraordinarily good looking or charismatic but he had… a way about him. He taught with such authority and he was so very knowledgeable, not only in his own field of literature but about philosophy, science and life in general. It was a heady mix and one that made my friend quite weak at the knees. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to sleep with him or be adopted by him!”

Judging from Ilsa’s slightly misty-eyed look, Guerrero had a good idea about who this ‘friend’ of Ilsa’s really was but he decided to play along.

“So what did this ‘friend’ of yours do?”

“She slept with him,” Ilsa said. From the faint blush that had crept on to Ilsa’s cheeks, Guerrero knew he was right about the identity of the ‘friend’. “She seduced him at a faculty mixer, went home him and had her wicked little way. After that he lost a great deal of his allure and she found she had no longer had any trouble concentrating in his class. Once she had got it out of her system, she was no longer preoccupied by idea.”

Guerrero narrowed his eyes and fixed Ilsa with a cold stare.

“I hope you’re not suggesting I seduce Ames.”

“No, of course not Mr Guerrero,” Ilsa said with a bright smile. “That would only give her the false hope that you somehow returned her feelings. What I am suggesting is that you allow Ames to seduce you.”

“You’ve cracked, Ilsa,” Guerrero said, shaking his head and rising to his feet. “You’ve seriously cracked.”

“Give it some thought, Mr Guerrero,” she said as he walked out.

For once in his life Guerrero was actually shocked. Of all the things Ilsa could have suggested as a possible solution, sleeping with Ames wasn’t even on his mental list. His first instinct was to dismiss the whole thing as a joke, but Ilsa’s little anecdote about sleeping with her college tutor to get over her crush threw him. He could read Isla like a book and he knew from the way she told the story that it was true, and that Ilsa herself was the ‘friend’ in question. She was serious about the idea, she had to be. There was no way she would have told him about such an intimate event in her life, even under the guise of it happening to ‘a friend’, for just a joke.

Guerrero climbed the stairs to the mezzanine floor where Chance was easing out the kinks of the day’s job with some tai chi. He sat and watched as his friend finished his routine. He considered, not for the first time, whether he too should take up tai chi. Chance’s measured movements were soothing to watch and they certainly seemed to give the man some measure of peace from his troubled conscience.

When he had finished, Chance flopped down on the couch next to a suspiciously thoughtful Guerrero.

“So?” He asked. “What did Ilsa say?”

“Dude, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad an idea!”

“You knew about Ames? And what Ilsa was going to suggest?” Guerrero asked, although the look on his face suggested that he already knew the answer.

“You don’t think Ilsa would come to you with a crazy ass plan like that without running it by me first did you?” Chance said smiling at his fuming friend. “She wanted to make sure you didn’t shoot her for suggesting it.”

“Yeah, well the thought did cross my mind.” Guerrero said darkly.

“So, are you gonna do it? You gonna take one for the team?” Chance’s grin was seriously starting to get on Guerrero’s nerves. “Ames isn’t bad looking. Surely it’s not that much of a hardship?”

“No, she’s kinda hot if you go for that whole doe-eyed waif look. You know I don’t have a problem with recreational sex, even with chicks that aren’t my type, but it seems kinda counter-productive to sleep with her. Won’t that just encourage her?”

Chance nodded, “That was my first thought too, but Ilsa explained that half the problem is that you’re unattainable and that’s part of your appeal. Maybe if she’s faced with the reality of the situation she won’t find the fantasy version so distracting.”

“Dude, that is such chick logic.” Guerrero said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, but Ames is a chick so maybe it would work.” Chance said with a shrug. “I’m sure you’d have no problem in convincing her it was a one-time thing. In fact it might be better to hold off that information until after the deed is done. Hurt her feelings a little. Make sure she knows there’s no chance of a repeat performance.”

Guerrero gave it some thought. Once he got his head round Chance’s deception and the shock of the suggestion coming from Ilsa, of all people, he could see it might be a workable way to deal with Ames’ crush. And Chance was right, Ames wasn’t that bad looking, even if she was a bit young for his tastes and scrawny to boot.

“For Ilsa’s idea to work, Ames has to come on to me.” Guerrero said, trying to keep his tone neutral, as if he hadn’t made up his mind one way or another. “If I come on to her she might get the wrong message and think I’m into her.”

Chance fought to keep a straight face as he realised that Guerrero was going to go for the idea.

“So, take her to Drakes. Make up some story about meeting a contact there and when he doesn’t show have a few drinks with her and wait for her to make her move.”

“What if she doesn’t?” Guerrero asked. “I’ll end up with a drunk kid on my hands.”

“I don’t know!” Chance said a bit impatiently. “Tie her up and leave her in the trunk of the Eldo, scare her into thinking no one will ever find her body. It doesn’t matter, she’ll make her move when she’s had a bit of Dutch courage.”

“If it weren’t for the risk that Ames would throw up in the trunk, I think I’d try plan B first.” Guerrero said.

“It’s up to you Guerrero, but whatever you decide this thing needs to be sorted out and soon.”