A Mission Remembered

by Tanner Froreich

  The man saluted and left with his squad of men. I turned to Mr. Phillips to thank him, but instead, I received a smack in the back of the head so hard I fell forward. He caught me and said, “That’s for the camera.”

  “What camera?”

  His eyes gestured to a camera in the corner. “The one on the door you busted earlier.” I understood that he wasn’t talking about the door, but the fact that our every move and word were monitored. “Wallace, you can’t simply go where you want. There are places you don’t have clearance for, like outside. Being out there can compromise the location of this base. Please check with me if you need to get out of the base. We have ways to allow you to explore without exposing everything. Lots of agents get cabin fever here, so you could say we schedule ‘field trips’.”

  I nodded. “This base is starting to seem more like a prison than a base.”

  Mr. Phillips chuckled. “They all say that.” He approached the door and added, “Now come on, you are thirty minutes late for breakfast.”

  It was comforting to have a friend in that dreary place. I didn’t like IODINE at all, and I was starting to think that I was never really an agent. Could Mr. Phillips still be keeping secrets from me? I wouldn’t blame him, because I could only imagine the consequences of breaking protocol. “Mr. Phillips, what would have happened if you hadn’t intervened?”

  “You would have spent a week in the Think-tank.”

  “The what?”

  “It’s like solitary confinement. We put agents who forget their place there. It gives them time to ‘think’ about their dedication to the Cause.”

  This was the first time I heard that term. “The Cause?”

  He nodded. “Yes, the Cause is to maintain peace for all America and beyond, no matter the cost.”

  It sounded nice, but from what I could see, IODINE was trying to achieve their goal the wrong way. Keeping their agent’s captive was wrong. “What if they no longer believe in the Cause?”

  Even though Mr. Phillips didn’t turn his head, I could almost see him wince at the question. “I’m sorry Wallace, that is above your clearance level.”

  I was level three and didn’t know anything, so I couldn’t imagine being level one. Mr. Phillips led me into a large room that roared with the sound of men and women talking. For the first time, I could see the size of IODINE. I never thought of it, but since my room number was 1028 and my room held four people, that meant IODINE had at least 4000 agents if my math was correct. As Mr. Phillips walked by, the table became silent, either out of respect or fear.

  I whispered to him, “Why are they scared of you?”

  He shook his head. “It’s not me they are scared of. I have Jeff’s trust. It’s what they think Jeff will do if I am displeased with their attitudes.”

  We approached a table where I recognized the people from my room. Rufus looked up from taking a sip of water. When he saw Mr. Phillips, he accidentally spewed water and egg pieces across the table into Ethan's face, who was sitting with his back towards us. Ethan shot up as he also spewed some words I won’t repeat. He glanced back and saw us. He sat back down and said sheepishly, “Sorry sir, temper got the better of me, sir.”

  He said, “It’s fine Mr. Welsh, but you know how I feel about that kind of language.” Turning to me, he said, “Sorry about all the misunderstandings Wallace; enjoy your breakfast. I’ll meet with you later. You should expect a file in your room. I cannot discuss the contents here. Though I advised against the idea, the Director had other plans.”

  I confusingly thanked him and sat down to eggs, toast, and bacon. Before I started to eat I bowed my head in a quick prayer, which turned out to be longer than expected. In the middle of my prayer, Ethan socked my arm. “Hey Wallace! None of that stuff here!”

  I finished my prayer and started eating. The food didn’t taste the greatest, but I was thankful. I hadn’t thought about it, but this was my first meal, so really how could I have known if it was a ‘good’ meal. While I ate, Ms. Spike asked, “So, how do you know the Mr. Level 9?”

  I shrugged. “He was the one who brought me here.”

  Rufus interjected. “You mean he recruited you?”

  I shook my head. “No, Jeff Bordeaux was the man who rescued me from Mindsweeper’s hideout, and Mr. Phillips brought me here and has been helping me settle in.”

  The three of them exchanged shocked expressions. Ms. Spike asked, “So you have #2’s and #3’s special attention. Why is that? Who is this Mindsweeper? We were only told that you lost your memory.”

  Realizing that they didn’t know the details of my imprisonment, I decided to not answer her questions. “Sorry, that’s above your clearance level,” I said, trying to avoid sounding sarcastic.

  Folding her arms, she showed she wasn't happy with my response, but a word didn’t escape her mouth. She knew how the clearance level thing worked better than I did. Ethan wiped the egg off his face. “So where were you this morning?”

  I popped a small piece of bacon into my mouth. “I went outside to watch the sunrise. I couldn’t remember a sunrise. I can’t describe it, but I just had to see it. I also needed… um... to get away and pray.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes. “I just told you we don’t do that around here! If you don’t stop it, I’m going to report you!”

  I wiped my mouth. I wasn’t going to be swayed by his threat. “You know Ethan, I really don’t like that attitude. God is the only one I could remember after Mindsweeper hit me, so why shouldn’t I remember Him?”

  “Because God doesn’t exist! It’s all just religious mumbo-jumbo,” he stated a little too loudly.

  Ms. Spike intervened. “Both of you get ahold of yourselves. It doesn’t matter whether God is real or not. This is inappropriate for both of you; you should be ashamed.”

  I finished my meal and got up. I almost left, but turned around and added, “‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes,’ Romans 1:16. I’ll be in the room.”

  Before I walked away, Rufus said, “You can’t remember from last night, but you can only leave when your section is excused. We still have another fifteen minutes.”

  I sighed and sat back down. “That’s annoying.” There was nothing like a communist society to put a damper on your day.

  Ethan took another bite of toast and added, “Sorry Bible bum, this is a well-run agency, not a summer camp.”

  So instead of getting back to the room to rest, I was stuck with these three unsavory characters. They continued a conversation that they had been having prior to my arrival. They talked about past missions, which could all be summarized like this: “I went to a classified location to do a classified action.” I was so bored that I didn’t notice how tired I had become.

  I must have drifted off to sleep because I found myself dreaming. I was locked in a dark room with just a single light-bulb hanging from the ceiling. In a moment, the room filled with light from the bulb, illuminating the walls, which were covered with engraved scriptures. I ran my hand over the lettering. I knew their teachings and their meanings, but I didn’t have the application. No life to put them to. No history to learn from. I knew who I was in the light of God’s word, but I didn’t know Who I am. All I could remember was that the first sound of my name was “Arr”. Was it the first sound of my first or last name? What were “Arr’s” fears and dreams? “Who am I!” I cried.

  From behind me, I heard a voice crying but something muffled the sound. I spun around, yet there was no one there. There was now a door on the other side of the room. I ran up to it and the voice, which was the voice of a young woman, was weeping for some reason.

  “Hello!” I called in desperation.

  She cried, “Don’t forget me!”

  I knew that voice, I couldn’t remember who it was, but I could remember the voice. I called back through the door, “Who are you! Why can’t I remember!”

  The voice, soft and calm, replied, “Oh please
you have to remember me and open the door.” I looked the entire door over, but there was no knob.

  I tried to remember. I tried and tried until my head hurt, but I couldn’t. I hit the door, but it refused to budge. “I can’t open it.”

  The voice’s tone became more urgent, “You have to remember. She’s dying!”

  She’s dying! I thought. Who was this person? Who was dying? I had to get through this door, so I beat and beat on it, but could barely scratch the paint. I had to remember! A hand grasped my shoulder and pulled me out of my dream. I looked around, and the agents around us were all leaving their tables.

  Ethan pulled me to my feet. “Come-on Bible punk, we’re heading back to our room.” He paused as he saw the cold sweat that covered my forehead and face. “Are you okay Wallace?”

  Still breathing like I had run a mile I replied, “Um...yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  He looked at me in disbelief. “Okay. If something is bothering you, let me know. I know we don’t see eye to eye, but we’re still both agents, so I got your back.”

  I was surprised at this sudden gesture of good faith, but it was a comfort to see that there was enough of God’s mercy here that some people were still capable of good acts.

  I got up and followed them back to the apartment. Once there, Rufus plopped onto the couch and turned the T.V. on, Ethan went back to his room to clean, and Ms. Spike pulled four folders off of the computer desk. She looked at each without opening them and tossed one to Rufus, took one to Ethan, and handed me mine. I went to my room to look it over.

  However, I didn’t look over it immediately. I closed the door and knelt by my bed. “God…” I wasn’t sure what I should pray. There was so much I knew I needed to pray for, and even more that I couldn’t remember to pray for. I yearned for scripture, like a deer I thirsted for the cool waters found in those blessed pages. It was nice to remember verses, but to read them would be better. My dream brought up more questions I couldn’t handle. Who was that voice? Who was the she who was dying?

  “God, help me remember. I know you are able, and I know you can. I need my memory back. The questions tear at my soul! Lord Jesus please, help whoever is dying, I know she is in your hand. Please fill me with your spirit in this dark place. Save me from this trial you have me in, but if you see fit to have me pass through this fire, I will not fear. I will trust you, knowing that the flame will not hurt me and that you have purposed it to refine me.”

  I continued praying for a while, and when I had finished, I finally opened my file. It was a mission assignment and I would have to report to briefing room 23 at 5:00 pm that day. After reading that, I had more to pray about.

  Chapter 10

  The Prisoner

  I must have dozed off again because I awoke with my face buried in my bed. I looked at the clock, 4:56 pm. I had slept most of the day! Considering I had been awake for the whole night, that didn’t worry me too much. I walked out into the living room, where Rufus was still watching TV. When he saw me, he said, “There you are. You missed lunch. Luckily Ms. Spike vouched for you. She convinced her superiors that since you’d had a very long night, you had earned the right to sleep.”

  I wiped the sleep from my eyes. “I’ll have to thank her, where is she?”

  “At some briefing that started at 4 o'clock,” he said as he tossed some snack food in his mouth. “Now shhh, this is my favorite part.”

  I remembered that I was also supposed to be at a briefing at 5:00. When I looked at the clock, it read 4:58. I had to hurry, but I didn’t even know where the room was. Using my speed, I zipped through the seemingly endless halls until I finally found it – briefing room 23.

  As I came around the corner and slowed down to a normal pace, I saw there were about four other agents there, one of which was Ethan. No one was talking; they were all just standing there. Ethan, one other man, two women, and I made five. I smiled as I approached, but none of them returned the pleasantry. The door of the room opened and a man began scanning our ID cards. Once we all were scanned in, we entered the darkened room.

  An older man in the front of the room greeted us as we were seated in pre-labeled areas. On the table in front of me was a file. I reached to open it, but Ethan looked at me and discouraged me from doing so. The man began the briefing without even introducing himself. He didn’t refer to any of us by name, only by number; I was number four. The details were boring, but essentially we were going to be bodyguards for a U.S. Senator while he had diplomatic business in North Korea. Apparently there had been a threat of war that needed to be resolved. We would be disguised as basic secret service agents. As far as I was told, we would simply be there to make sure nothing happened to this Senator. Agents one and two were linguists, three and I were the main bodyguards, combat experts they called us, and number five, Ethan, was the head of the operation. The only special instructions were given to me. I wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the outfit. Instead, I would watch from the shadows, just in case things went south.

  During the briefing, we were served a quick dinner because it overlapped the community dinner time. We spent easily two hours going over the customs of North Korea and what we should and shouldn’t do. I was appalled when the man mentioned the Christian persecution that was going on and told us to do nothing about it. In my zeal, I stood up and said, “But sir, if we are to witness such treatment of anyone, shouldn’t we do something?”

  He sighed. “Number four, I wish you could, but that is beyond the purpose of your mission.”

  Ethan added, “Even though I agree that injustice of any kind, including this religious discrimination, is wrong, your mission will be to protect the Senator and only that.”

  I sat back and held my tongue. It may have been beyond IODINE’s mission to help these Christians, but my mission as the Blue Blur would take priority over any IODINE had. After the briefing we were escorted to a place where we were fitted with gear for our mission, which we were leaving for at 6:00 am two days from now. For a spy agency, IODINE tech seemed simplistic, just guns and ammo for most of the team. I was given a special suit for the mission, since whoever assigned me this mission knew that I would need something to handle my speed.

  The black suit was perfectly designed for high friction movement: strong, flexible and thin. The arms and legs were covered in small black scale-like plates, and the torso was armored by two pieces of a strange material they called “snakeskin.” They said it was bulletproof and wouldn’t compress when struck by a projectile. The top piece of snakeskin covered my chest and was triangular shaped, and the bottom piece covered my gut. A single plate of snakeskin covered my back. I was also given a mask that they said would form fit itself to my head once I put it on. It was also supposed to be incredibly breathable. The eye-pieces had a reddish tint from the outside which gave them a sinister look. I wanted to have my old suit back.

  As I stepped into a changing room to try on the new suit, I found a piece of paper inside it. It read, be near Garage Entrance Five at 8:30 pm. Someone you once knew is coming. Security password: Calcium.

  I didn’t understand exactly what the note meant, but I was certain Mr. Phillips had planted it in the suit. I silently praised God that He, through Mr. Phillips, was slowly helping me rebuild parts of my memory. I slid the note into the pocket of my pants and folded up the new suit. Once we were given one last briefing about where we would meet to leave, we were dismissed to our rooms.

  We were supposed to return to them and stay there, but I had orders to leave again. I left my new suit in my bed-room and ignored Rufus’s questions. Ethan grabbed me by the arm as I tried to leave.

  “Where are you going?”

  I shrugged. “Orders Ethan - from Derek Phillips.”

  At the mention of the name, Ethan released his grip. He maintained a skeptical attitude and said, “Ok, but I don’t want to hear anything about you on the mountain, ok?”

  I nodded and walked down the hallway. Wondering what time it was, I glance
at the clock on the wall 8:27. I had to get to the Garage Entrance. All this rushing around was making me tired. Stepping out of view of the apartment, I sped off.

  I ran to the last door into the garage I had visited. It was still in need of repairs and there were two guards stationed by it. By moving fast enough, I must have seemed to appear out of thin air. I tried to remember the password I had been given by Mr. Phillip’s in his note, but I had left it in my room. It was some kind of element. The two guards drew their weapons and one asked, “Hold it, Agent, what’s the password.”

  “Potassium, I think,” I stated as confidently as I could.

  The two of them looked at each other, and I knew I had got it wrong. One reached for his radio, but I stated, “No, wait, Calcium. Sorry, never been good with those ‘ums’.”

  He pulled his hand away from the radio and they both lowered their guns. Entering the garage, I wandered around trying to find entrance five. I wondered who I was going to meet - an old friend, trainer, or someone else? I had hoped that seeing someone from my past would reignite some old memories. Having so much of my history just out of reach was so irritating. No, that’s the wrong word, it’s infuriating.

  My irritation was only inflamed when I started considering my dream from earlier. Who did the voice belong to? I asked myself. I felt like I should’ve known the voice; like it was a voice I should’ve never forgotten. I was tempted to let my annoyance turn to anger towards Mindsweeper, the man that did this to me. Something inside, however, restrained the rage within me. I couldn’t let my anger control me, so I continued walking through the garage as I prayed for a peaceful spirit.

  I was so lost in thought, that I didn’t even notice I had walked in front of a large tunnel entrance. As I heard a loud horn I turned and barely saw the glowing headlights before my reflexes threw me out of the way of the semi-truck's path. I dove into the shadows and, partially out of embarrassment, decided to stay in them. This could’ve been the thing Mr. Phillips had intended me to see because an entire squad of smaller cars had followed the semi into the cavern. I glanced near the opening and confirmed my suspicions: a large 5 was on the wall above the tunnel opening.