by Sara Schoen
“I see why you sedated her,” he said with amusement lacing his tone. “Take her back to my office and keep her there. We have a lot of explaining to do,” the man said as he handed me back to Damon, who looked at me carefully as if to determine if I would run again.
“Don't worry, Sara, I'm not going to hurt you,” Damon said as he took hold of me, and lead me through a hidden door in the hallway. No wonder I hadn't been able to escape them, they had hidden passages between rooms, that's not fair. I hung my head in defeat, and let Damon take me back to the office I had just escaped from. Mark was right in saying that I wouldn’t have been able to get out when they were the one’s chasing me, but it was worth a shot. Now I just had to figure out why they dragged me here.
We walked through countless hallways and back through passages. I could see how they had managed to beat me to every turn. There was no pain as Damon had promised, he never purposefully hurt me before, but he also hadn’t terrified me as he had done today. He should have known how I would react and gone a different route. Maybe then we wouldn’t be in dark corridors and dimly lit passages that turned to pitch black tunnels between the re-entrances to hallways. I was scared as the darkness surrounded us, because it seemed as if there was just nothing around us and we could fall any second. I was so scared that I had latched onto Damon with so much force he would have to pry me off. I had wrapped my hands around his arm and refused to let go. Mostly because I hadn't opened my eyes to see where we were and if it was safe to let go.
“Sara, please let go. We are safe and back in the director's office. When he comes back he will explain why we brought you here,” he said as he tried to pull my hands off of his arm. “My arm is losing circulation, let go,” Damon said through a strained voice as he attempted to shove my hands off of him.
“I'm sorry.” I released my grip abruptly and let my arms fall to my sides as I opened my eyes. Damon was right, we were back in that office I had originally awakened in, but I didn't want to be here. Now that I wasn’t disorientated, I could take notice the awards and plaques that decorated the walls, even the cozy looking furniture that surrounded the large table. It reminded me more of a conference room then an office, but as I took a closer look at the photos, of friends I assumed, it was clear that someone took the time to make this feel homey.
“Damon, why am I here and why can't I leave?” I cried out once I realized we were alone and believed that he would give me an answer after terrifying me so much. We had made it back first, and the thought to run again crossed my mind, but I thought better of it after my last escape attempt failed miserably.
“I believe I can answer that, Miss Night,” the older man—who I assumed to be the director Damon referred to—said as he walked into the room.
Now that I wasn’t running away from him, I was able to notice the casual clothing he wore, jeans and a plain button up shirt. He was the head of this whole building, according to his title, yet he dressed as if he was a college guy going on a date. I had expected a business suit from someone so high up on the ladder.
“I am sorry it was under these conditions, but we require someone with your skill set for a mission. You see, we seem to need a thief for our agency to make a team complete, and your skills would make you a superb one with training. I'm certain of that now more than ever after the little trip you just had us go through. It was much appreciated.”
“I didn't appreciate it,” Mark said in an angry huff as he came through the door and glared at between Damon and I. “I don't even think she should be here. She is more of a danger than she is an asset!”
“Well thanks, Mark,” I said sarcastically as he walked past me toward the other man.
“You requested a thief and I found you one,” Damon said as he took a stand next to me and looked at Mark with deep set anger in his eyes.
“I said we needed a thief, I didn't say we needed her!”
“Both of you stop! Whiplash, you both work together and I told Demon I wanted her,” he said which effectively silenced them both. Even though they continued to glare at each other as if the fight wasn't over yet.
“Why did you want me?” I asked, trying to ignore the names he had called Mark and Damon.
“We have been watching you, like I said your skills are superb. That's why these two still go to school because this agency needs talent for our work. You have amazing abilities that would make a great addition to the team. They are needed for a mission, for which you'll train a few days and then go with Whiplash and Demon to recover some information—if you accept the mission?”
I stood still, stunned at what I was hearing. “You've been watching me? You want me to do what?”
“We need a thief to infiltrate a cartel's drug operation and acquire information so that we can make a larger move against them. They have a few key people in or around the building at all times, but someone with your stature and skills should easily be able to get in and get out without getting into trouble. What do you say?” the director asked nonchalantly as if he wanted me to go out and pick up ice cream from down the street.
“A cartel, like a mafia from Italy? That's dangerous! No, I'm not going to do that,” I said as I turned to my two friends and looked at them in total bewilderment. Why had they bothered to bring me here? They had to know that I wouldn’t accept this mission. That it was crazy to consider me accepting at all; they had wasted my time and theirs
“Sara, this is what you wanted. You wanted a chance to change your life. What were you going to do after high school?” Damon asked rhetorically. He didn't even give me enough time to answer before he continued, “Nothing, and you know it. You can put on a mask for everyone else, but I have always been able to read you. I know that you were finishing high school for the Rickers. It's not time for you to die, and this is the chance you wanted.”
Damon's voice had a pleading tone lining his words, as if I wasn't seeing the picture clearly, but I don't think he was seeing it like I was. “I didn't want to die in a mafia raid! I wanted my life to mean something, not die in a suicide mission!”
“Which is better, killing yourself or dying for something that matters!” Mark yelled in frustration as he lifted my arm and showed me the long scar on my forearm. When I didn't answer he shook his head and sighed angrily. “She couldn't do it if she tried, I told you so, and now we have to wipe her memory. We went through all this trouble for nothing.”
“I didn't ask you to do this for me!”
“You asked me for help. You're repeating your senior year of high school because you tried and failed to commit suicide. You have no idea where you want to go in life, and don't have a plan for after school. Your GPA is shot, and you know you have very little chance of getting into college. What other options do you have?” Damon pointed out the harsh facts of my life to get me to understand his way of thinking, but I still didn't want to die for no reason.
“What are you trying to say, Damon?”
“Stop scaring her and stop talking,” the director's booming voice ordered, interrupting before Damon could tell me more about how my future was nonexistent. “Sara, train for a day, ask questions and talk to other people. Then consider the options and make your choice,” he added in a softer voice. “Now get out, I have to start a search for another thief. I will be in contact with you both when I find another option that's as promising as she was.”
Both Mark and Damon turned to leave, but I didn't. They were already going to replace me, as if I was disposable. If I held such high promise why wouldn't they work to keep me? I wanted answers before I agreed to anything; how did they know I was just going to say no after his offer to let me figure out why I was chosen? I wanted answers and the director was just the man to give them to me. I heard the door open, but at that moment Mark and Demon must have realized I didn't follow them and stopped. When the door didn't shut the director looked back up to see me standing in front of his desk.
“What is it, Sara?”
“You said to t
alk to other people,” I said as I sat down at the chair across from his desk. “I want to talk to you, Director.” I waited for Damon and Mark to leave before I started asking questions, but they had another idea. I heard Damon's voice start to form a word, but the director interrupted before he could say anything.
“Fair enough, you have three questions, Miss Night, but please call me Sharp Shooter. After you ask those questions, you must leave; I have to start a search for a new thief.”
“What if I decided to do it, the job I mean?”
“Then you would become a member of the agency, work with other agents toward peace in the world and see a few new places while you were at it. You'd have a new family here, as you wouldn’t be able to remain in contact with people you knew before being recruited, and you could never leave unless under special circumstances or for a mission. There would be missions, but we would equip you for each of them and train you in between each. You would become a beacon of hope for some and a ray of terror for those against you. It all depends on how you hold yourself in the line of duty.”
“What's this agency called?” I asked skeptically as I looked into his green eyes. Why were they so familiar? He said he had been watching me, I thought back to the graveyard and the hospital after my accident. I remembered a man with jade green eyes visiting me while I was in the hospital. He never said a word to me, but he came to see me often. They were also the same eyes that I saw earlier today in the cemetery, he had been watching me there with Alex too.
“We are a specialized branch of the CIA, but you can't know exactly unless you join. No one here calls it by the official name anyway. To most people, it’s home because they choose to be here and if at any time they choose to go back to their old life they can. But their mind will have to be cleared of everything they ever did here, in order to keep our secrets safe. Until then, this is their home and where their family is. What's your last question?”
There was a moment that shocked even me, this whole thing, the agency, the kidnapping and the idea of being an agent finally hit me. This was a chance to change my life, and for the better. Damon had been right, I wanted a way out, and at the time my suicide attempt was the answer, but now—now I had something worth living for. I finally had a way out of the darkness inside me that didn’t involve a bleak ending.
“Where do I sign up?” I asked, shocking myself and everyone in the room with me at my split decision. I thought Sharp Shooter knew he had me once he told me what I would become while working with the agents, but the way his eyebrows shot up told me he didn't.
Sharp Shooter looked taken aback by my question before a smile stretched across his face, “You just did. Welcome home, Miss Night. As you know I'm the director, but please call me Sharp Shooter. I'm the boss around here and you now take orders from me. You'll be on a team, which will have a leader. Follow their orders, because their orders come from me. Also, you start training today. Good luck,” Sharp Shooter said with a handshake before I got up to leave. I turned around and walked to Mark and Damon, who were standing with their jaws dropped and eyes wide in pure shock.
“I don't even get to call him by his code name,” Mark said as I walked by.
“I guess you aren't his favorite then,” I said with a smirk, as I playfully pushed past Mark and Damon, leaving three stunned men in the room while they tried to process what had happened. I don't think they realized that when they told me I could change my life, and make it better for others that they had won me over, but maybe they did and were excellent actors. Either way, I had a new life and I was going to make something of it.
Chapter 5
“Do you still live with your families?” I asked as Damon and Mark led me through the building on the way to start my training. They said that they needed me to start right away so I could hit the ground running in under seventy-two hours. If I didn't start as soon as possible there was no chance the mission would go as needed. Sharp Shooter said that I had to be prepared for anything, because this cartel was vicious and methodical in their planning and security, but I didn't have enough time to be fully prepared. I only had three days before I'd been leaving to go on my first mission.
Then I'd be fighting for survival.
“We do for now, and on weekends and weekdays we have lies to keep us out of the house and training. We go camping almost every weekend and say we have clubs that we really have no interest in being in, but it works. Then after graduation, we will each disappear and move in here permanently,” Damon said as he dropped back from Mark's side and came into step with me so we could talk.
“What do you mean disappear?”
“I am going to be in a house fire,” Mark said as he added air quotes around 'house fire' to let me know that he wasn't actually going to die. “The house will be destroyed, and they will find a burnt body, but it won't be mine.”
“What about dental records?” I asked curiously, remembering the crime shows I watched almost every day with Alex.
“Look, you're not in the cover story department, so it's best you don't ask a lot of questions,” Mark said with a cold tone.
“Mine will be a lot less dramatic.” Damon chimed in with a smile. “Boating accident, everyone on board was lost. I tried to get Mark in on it, since we are doing it with multiple other recruits, but he turned it down because it didn't have flair.” Damon must have seen the distraught expression on my face and mistaken it for fear of how I was going to go missing so he added, “But don't worry, you don't have to do that if you don't want to. A pretty thing like you would probably be kidnapped and eventually the case would go cold, you'd never be found. It would be traumatizing, but no one would ever look for you again.”
“That's awful, everyone will think you're dead!” I cried out. I couldn't help but feel insulted that they had been planning to do this after graduation and they weren't going to tell me. I would have been traumatized if my friends died and I never got an answer why. It would be as bad as losing my family all over again.
“That's the point,” they answered in unison.
“You were going to let me think you were dead?”
“It's not all about you, Sara.” Mark sneered, facing forward to effectively end his involvement in our discussion. I guess he figured I was going to ask about Charlotte next.
“I know it's hurtful, Sara, but we couldn't tell anyone. You know I would have told you if I could, but there wasn't a way. I've been here for you since before the accident, and am giving you a way out now so you don't have to go through that again. I wouldn't dream of having you in that much pain again,” Damon said with a smile as he held out his hand for me to take so that I could jump down the last few steps.
I looked at him for a moment, fearful of the pain that would shoot through my feet at the landing. He offered a gentle smile as encouragement to try, knowing that I had been careful even years after the accident because my feet would still hurt, which most considered ghost pains, permanently scarred from the accident. I gave him a worried glance before taking a timid leap and landing on the flats of my feet. I had been braced for a sharp pain once I landed, but there was only a dull ache, a reminder of my injuries. Damon smiled proudly at me before he hugged me and shared in my wondrous moment. There was very little pain compared to what it had been over the years, and it wasn't crippling as it had once been; I was healing in more ways than one.
“I won't tolerate dating on my team,” Mark said abruptly, ending my thrilling moment with his words. Damon scoffed, taking me by the hand to follow after Mark as he continued to lead down hallway after hallway.
“It's our team Mark, you were taken off as leader after the mishap last time.” Damon growled at his partner.
I could see the anger in Mark's cool gray stare as he stopped to turn and face Damon. His eyes were tight slits, his hands balled into fists, and his jaw clenched tight. He didn't seem to want to have this discussion now, or ever for that matter.
“What happened? What was the mishap?” I quest
ioned out of curiosity. I couldn't help myself, no matter how hard I tried to control my mouth. I almost always failed to think before I spoke and it usually ended up with someone getting angry at my blunt reply or question. That's the response I got this time too, both men gave a negative response from glares to growls, but it got them talking.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened, and if it did it wasn't on my orders,” Mark said forcefully as he flung the doors open to reveal a large practically empty room. He started to walk into the room when he added, “It wasn't my fault anyway.”
“It was your orders that led to their deaths!” Damon yelled suddenly, causing me to shrink back slightly to avoid being screamed at. “You're lucky that your record kept you alive here and in the field or we would be restarting from scratch!” Damon yelled as Mark tried to walk away, but Damon grabbed hold of him. Mark stopped dead in his tracks and then after a moment turned around to glare daggers at Damon. If looks could kill Damon would be dead.
“Where were you exactly? If I recall you were already gone. You could have gotten them out with your smokescreen or your shadow voodoo, whatever you want to call it! You were gone, and they were trapped. We had no way to get them out, so if I am to blame it's not all my fault because you weren't there to help either and you could have saved them!” Mark yelled as he shoved past Damon and brushed past me as he walked out of the room fuming. The doors slammed shut behind him with so much force that they popped open again slightly before closing and coming to a rest.
“I guess I'm training you alone today.” Damon sighed after a few moments as he walked through the room toward a wall with a keypad on it. He pushed a few buttons, and I noticed that there was a bigger panel to call for exactly what you needed. He tapped the equipment button and pressed a few more keys to call for the equipment we needed before I got the courage to ask my next question.
