Even if she knows who's on the other side of the door, Riley double checks her gun's safety as Will would. Will, who is not at the safe house and on blockers at the moment, so he would not be able to help her even if he wanted. Riley peers through the peephole to make sure it's safe and exhales deeply when her eyes confirm who's on the other side. She puts the safety back on and places the gun in the back of her pants.
When she opens the door, a big smile blooms on her face.
"Nomi. Amanita." Amanita briefly looks her way, then looks to both sides, as if looking for someone. "Come in."
Both women come into the narrow hallway and Riley deadbolts the lock once again, knowing Will will come in through the side. They climb the stairs to the third floor where Will and Riley have been staying and finally stand in front of one another.
Amanita looks around the place with barely disguised distrust, just as Nomi lets go of her bags and hugs Riley tight.
"I can't believe we're really here," she says.
Riley hugs her back as she says, "we were gonna meet face to face at some point. I didn't expect it to be under these circumstances, but—"
"I know."
They squeeze each other once more before letting go and Riley turns to Amanita. "I've been dying to meet you since the beginning."
"You have?" Amanita asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Nomi feels very strongly about you. I was curious," she says.
"You don't say," Amanita smiles, looking at her now fiance. "Can you feel what she does? Like right now?"
Visiting briefly next to her, Nomi says "come on, Riley, please."
Riley doesn't react in the slightest, she just says "well, she's excited about London."
"More like scared," Nomi says out loud.
"If we had time, I'd show you the most incredible places," Riley says.
Entering the room behind them, Will adds "you'll have all the time in the world to show them London once this is over."
Riley feels her smile widen as she turns to Will. They kiss as if they've been apart for ages —in a way, it feels like that— and while every kiss with Will is something to be treasured, she feels the loss of connection brought by the blockers he's currently on.
"Missed you," she says against his lips.
"I missed you too," he replies instantly.
Will pulls back, not without a last peck on the lips, then turns to Nomi and Amanita.
"I hope you're okay with our current accommodation."
"What? The Hyatt wasn't available as a safe house for a high stakes heist?" Amanita says.
"Not this time of the year, sorry."
Will crosses the distance between them and hugs Nomi. They don't say anything for the longest time, but Riley knows what they're both thinking about: the first time they shared to help Nomi escape the hospital where they almost lost her.
When they finally pull away, Nomi's eyes are glistening with unshed tears. Finally, all Nomi says is "thank you."
"I hope we're never in that position again, but whenever you need me. Whatever you need me for," Will says.
After a moment, Amanita lets her bag fall to the floor and wraps her arms around Will mumbling thank yous that ring louder than the train passing outside the building in the sparsely furnished room.
"Have you heard from the others?" Amanita asks.
Riley takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, feeling for the threads that connect her to the rest of her cluster, following them with ease.
"Lito is boarding his flight," Riley informs them. "No issues past security for either of them. Capheus is on the way already, but he has a layover in Frankfurt, so I think he'll be here after them. I'm not sure."
"What about Kala? Did she make it out?" Will asks.
"Yeah, she was able to change her flight," Nomi says. She takes a moment to follow the same connection to their cluster. "She's still flying."
"Sun?" Will asks next.
"In Doha right now. She has a 7 hour layover."
"Can we shave some hours off of that?" Will turns to Nomi. "Can you get her on a plane sooner? We don't have any connections around there. If anything happens we might have a hard time getting her free."
"Show me an outlet and a cup of coffee and I'll get her the next available direct flight," Nomi says.
Riley's heart warms up. The circumstances are terrible and each passing moment Whispers gets closer to finding them, but seeing her cluster show up for Wolfgang without hesitation sends a jolt of hope through her. Glancing at Will, she knows, even without a direct line to his brain, that he feels the same.
Capheus arrives with dinner somewhere past 6 pm.
Riley opens the door for him and they hug for a long time before going up to meet the rest of the cluster.
"How was your flight?" she asks when they pull apart.
"Amazing. Who knew you could see so much of the world in so little time?"
Riley's smile gets bigger as she ushers him down the corridor, helping him with some of the takeout bags. "What about London? Was it too hard to get here?"
"Not at all. You and Nomi are excellent guides," Capheus says. "Is Will still on blockers?"
"Yeah, he will be until we put the plan in motion."
Capheus' bright smile doesn't reach his eyes as he asks "and Wolfgang?"
"No news on that front." They go up the stairs mostly in silence, then Riley adds, "he's been in and out of it but they're not torturing him at the moment, so that's good."
They reach the third floor then and everyone turns to look at them.
"Who wants Chinese?" Capheus asks with his characteristic good humor.
Will takes a moment to embrace Capheus and thank him for coming before taking the bags from him. "I'm sure you're tired. Sit down and make yourself comfortable, we still have a long wait ahead."
As they eat, Amanita leans closer to Nomi to ask "where will we sleep?"
Riley pretends not to see Nomi's shrug, hiding her smile by taking a bite of her chicken.
"There's no way in hell we're sharing a bed with six people, Noms," she whispers.
"Eight. Lito is bringing Hernando and Dani," Nomi replies, raising her voice above a whisper.
"Nom!"
"It's a reasonable question. Especially since you guys are probably jetlagged," Will intervenes in between bites.
After a lengthy silence, Amanita says "well?"
Riley decides to field the question then. "We'll split up. "It's too dangerous to stay in one place right now. I know some people in Camden and I've been working on getting us a place."
"But if you need to rest now, feel free to use the bed," Will adds.
"Why can't we go to that other place yet?"
Nomi swallows before saying "we're waiting for Sun. Will is worried that if we get caught, we won't have any support to get us out."
"Aren't you all able to go ninja mode when needed?" Amanita asks, her hair falling in front of her face as she goes for another bite of her noodles. "I didn't think being together was needed for that."
"It doesn't hurt to have a good fighter with each group," Nomi replies with a shrug.
"Where's Sun now?"
"Three hours into a seven-hour flight."
Amanita's eyes widen. "I'm just gonna rest my eyes for a few minutes."
She pushes her container to the side and stands up from the floor, stretching as she does so. Without further ado, Amanita throws herself on the bed with a sigh. She's asleep in minutes.
Riley times her departure from the hideout to arrive at the train station at the same time as Lito and his partners. When Lito spots her, a smile break across his face and he opens up his arms to hug Riley in greeting. Riley hugs him back, but pulls away quickly and gestures at them to follow her.
"What's wrong?" Lito asks.
"Nothing's wrong. We're too close to the hideout to make a scene, that's all," Riley reassures him with a smile.
"At some point, we're gonna need a better explanation," Dani says, giving her the side eye.
Riley looks both ways before crossing the street and turning left. Lito picks up on her next action before she even thinks about it, but his partners scramble to follow behind them. "What did Lito explain already?"
"Not enough," Hernando chips in. "Could we get the long story that Lito has vaguely alluded to the whole trip?"
"Not here," Lito says.
"Then when, Lito? You're supposed to be making arrangements for your stay in L.A., not traveling to London to do what exactly?"
"We need to get Wolfgang back," Lito's voice wavers when he adds, "I owe him that much."
"Remind me again why aren't we calling the police?" Hernando tries to reason.
"We can't. I told you they're most likely on their side."
"So you said," Dani says. "Yet we haven't seen any sign that points to you being on any watchlist."
Riley glances at them briefly, then turns right on a narrow street and then turns again on a badly lit back alley. Lito stops, turns to his partners and says "we're almost there. I can explain this better when I have some proof."
"And that proof is in a suspect back alley somewhere in London?"Dani asks.
Riley knocks three times on the side entrance. After a minute, Will opens the door, his gun casually resting against his thigh, barely concealed by the shadows. "Come on in while the food's still warm," he says.
Lito goes in first, giving Will a quick one-armed hug and slipping past him into the dark. Riley quickly kisses Will's cheek and turns to look at Hernando and Dani wearing similarly stunned expressions.
"Come on, we don't bite," she says.
Hernando pushes his glasses up his nose, then shakes his head and steps inside. Dani takes another moment before going in, but seems to accept the strangeness of the situation with practiced practicality.
Once they reach the third floor, they catch Lito and Capheus hugging enthusiastically. Both of Lito's partners seem taken aback by Lito's familiarity with the cluster and Riley makes a mental note to talk to them after they've had some time to adjust to this new reality.
From the bed, Amanita turns and mumbles "is that Sun?"
When no one replies, she turns away and goes back to sleep.
It's almost midnight when Kala's plane lands. Sun's will land less than twenty minutes later, and Kala decides to wait for her so they can get together to the hideout. She visits to tell them of her decision and everyone in the cluster turns to her.
"I will be safer with Sun anyway," she says.
Riley relays this information to Will who's the only one who can't see her. He nods in agreement. "It's a sound plan." He turns in the general direction the whole cluster is looking at and adds "if anything seems remotely out of place—"
"We'll let you know," Kala says.
Riley takes Will's hand. "They know."
Hernando's voice cuts through the silence. "What just happened?"
Lito's head turns to look at him immediately. "Kala was visiting."
"Kala?"
"She just got to London," Lito explains. "She'll wait for Sun before heading here."
Dani, who's sitting on the edge of the bed typing on her phone, says "yippee. More people in this already crowded space."
"You didn't have to come," Will says, a harsh look on his face. Riley wishes she could tease him about it, but he's right. "In fact, I'm sure it would've been safer if you didn't."
"We're not leaving Lito," Hernando says at the same time Dani says "as if I'd let him out of my sight after he drops a bomb like this one."
"Family, you have to understand this is important to me," Lito intervenes. "I wish things weren't as complicated. But these guys? They're my family as well. I can't abandon Wolfgang now."
Hernando and Dani exchange a glance. With a sigh, Dani says "I used to know some people in London. Friends from college. I can make some calls so we don't have to stay in this dump."
Riley puts a hand on Will's arm to stop him from interrupting. "We'll need to vet them first. We can't risk anyone knowing you're here unless it's absolutely necessary."
Dani quirks an eyebrow at that. "And how would you do that?"
Nomi sits down in front of her computer, cracks her knuckles and says "alright, who's first on that list?"
By the time Kala and Sun arrive, Hernando has fallen asleep curled up in bed, while Amanita snores softly in the background. There are hugs and thank yous shared all around the cluster.
Riley feels slightly overwhelmed by the amount of people she's seen today after months sharing her daily life with no one but Will, so she goes out to the terrace and sits by the side of the window with her vape enjoying a bit of silence until Kala and Sun come to stand outside as well.
Sun puts her hand out to Riley and she stares at it for a second before realizing she wants the vape. She's reminded of one of their first interactions, here in London when Sun was scared about going to prison. She passes her the vape and Sun takes a big inhale before passing it to Kala.
"I don't smoke," Kala says automatically.
Riley laughs softly. "We all smoke if one of us does."
"It's a terrible habit," she insists.
"You can quit when Wolfgang is back," Sun says, offering the vape again.
Kala takes it and looks at it from all angles. "Is this tobacco?"
"Hash," Riley replies. "It's like pot, but better."
Kala sighs and takes a hit. She coughs violently almost immediately. Sun laughs openly and Riley smiles at her. It's good to see the Korean woman smiling, especially after everything she's been through. Kala passes the vape back to Riley and leans on the stairs leading to the building next door.
"What are we gonna do if we don't find him?" Kala asks, concern lacing her words.
"We will," Riley reassures her.
"And if we can't get him out?"
"Don't count Wolfgang out just yet," Sun says. "If anyone can be an absolute nightmare for BPO, it's him."
Riley takes a hit of the vape and passes it back to Sun, who inhales a mouthful before blowing out a huge smoke cloud. Then she adds, "besides, we're together. We have stopped gangsters in Nairobi, saved Riley from BPO in Iceland, and helped me escape prison. If there's anything we can certainly do, it's get Wolfgang back and kill Whispers."
Kala grabs the vape from Sun and takes a big hit. This time, her eyes water when she coughs afterwards. Still, she feels slightly less nervous and Riley can feel it through the bond they shared.
"I sure hope so."
Secretly, Riley feels the same apprehension as Kala does, but if she has faith in anything, it is in their ability to finish this fight. One way or another, they will get Wolfgang back and end this.
Even if it is the last thing any of them does.