If they weren't in the middle of a stakeout where the element of surprise was key, Samantha might have laughed. Not because what he'd said she actually found funny, more ironic then anything else. The idea that either of the two of them were capable of being at all optimistic was outrageous, let alone the people in their heads riding shot gun.
Maybe she wasn't being fair. A lot had changed for her in the last five years, it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that a lot had changed for him too. Clearly, Nick had been through some big changes, considering the annoyingly intimate connection they shared now between past lives. Samantha was trying really hard not to think about it.
Whatever, James or no James, Samantha wasn't prepared to drop her guard enough to find out just how much had changed for him.
"I, mozhet byt', ya prezident Soyedinennykh Shtatov," Samantha spoke in a low voice and mostly to herself, distracted enough that she'd momentarily forgotten the man in Nick's head was also familiar with the Russian language, even if Nick wasn't. Before Natasha, Samantha wouldn't have been able to speak it let alone read a word of it. Things changed.
Another pair of headlights flashed down the alleyway and this time, the car actually turned. Samantha's body immediately keyed to act the moment someone was out of the car and producing the proof they needed to take the operation down. But for now, she stayed put, crouching over the roof top's edge to observe how things unfolded as the first vehicle came to a slow stop, just as a U-Haul sized truck turned down the alley to join it
Maybe the night was finally about to get a little bit interesting.