Now We Are Free - Chapter Eight

Mister Master

    Under two hours later, Tav was effortlessly picking the lock to Mayla’s front door. She had just stepped out and opened the window for Dez and Tav to get outfitted. It wasn’t before long that Dez had picked out various out fits, from her business slacks and dress shirt to T-shirts and jeans with plaid flannels to go over them. Tav had picked out some average civilian clothing. Both had chosen some ragged dirty articles as well. They were in and out in thirty minutes, leaving their agent uniforms hanging in the closet. They left everything from the agency, right down to their boots, in case of tracking devices. Well, everything except their agency identity cards. They needed the pictures off them for their new aliases.

    They were off to get new identities when trouble started. They began to see shadow agents around them, following, checking up on them. Tav took to leading them, trying to shake some of them. They knew they had to separate sooner rather than later, they muttered their meeting point before Dez pealed off from him and got on a bus. She still needed to get their papers in order. That thought pressed itself into her brain as most important.

    She got off a few blocks later, and noticed a shadow following her. She hurried onto the street and ducked around a corner into another street and into a high class store. The stiff salesman targeted her and began his approach. The shadow passed the store in pursuit of Dez. When she saw it was clear, Dez walked out the front door and headed of in the opposite direction the shadow went. She had forgotten to drop a comment about being at the wrong store and left the salesman to wonder.

    Six blocks and multiple turns later, Dez landed herself somewhere in the neighborhood of 59th Street. Or so it began to look. This was where “Mister Master” lived. Yet again that was not his real name, but he was considerably less well off than Mayla. He barely scraped by on his dishonest living. A combination of age and circumstances had left him a rather shady looking, and acting, character whom Dez hardly trusted. But he was good at what he did. Passports, drivers licenses, birth certificates, employee badges, you name it, he could do it.

    Mustering up some courage, Dez knocked on his door. Her knock was answered by a grating voice yelling for her to enter at her own risk. She creaked the door open an inch or two and called, “Mister Master? Is that you? I’ve got some business material for you.”

    The crackling voice bid her enter on friendlier terms, provided she had funds to support his lowly state of affairs. They struck a bargain at once, three different drivers licenses and passports each. One set of male another female. Any names would do, different birth places and days, different and random addresses. And different countries for the passports.

    He would be done in an hour or so, come back then.

    Dez tried to impose upon his hospitality, but only received hostility. She left, bound to return in an hour.

    Great. How to spend an hour while being tracked down by the best agents without getting caught. It’s at times like these when she had to remind herself that she was one of the greatest agents too. Aversion and hiding had always been her strong points. Instinct for hiding had shown through in Basic, it was like something she had grown up doing. Not that she would know. She often wondered what her family had been like. Where they were, if they missed her, if they were looking for her. She dared not entertain the idea that they might meet someday. With her luck, she had probably killed one of her siblings or her parents while on a mission. They could have passed each other in the streets countless times, and she wouldn’t have known the difference. Someday, she would ask Tav if her remembered his family.

    But till then, she was in a pinch and needed to get out of the streets. She repositioned her backpack, and headed farther into the slums of the city. She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt (compliments of Mayla’s well stocked closet) over her face in an effort to blend in. She took to aimless wanderings, then she tried her hand at panhandling and got a few coins out of the deal.

    She wondered what time it was, where Tav was, how Mister Master was doing at his handy work... Her thoughts roamed as much as her eyes did for tag-a-longs.

    More time slipped by and she expected that it had nearly been an hour. Hopefully.

    Dez wound her way back to Mister Master’s residence. He had completed his work and she was presented with six passports, and an equal number of drivers licenses. They were still warm from the press. She thanked him with the previously agreed upon amount of money. Both departed feeling rather cheated out of their time and money. But it worked, and the only thing left was to find Tav. Where could he have run off to?

    Wait! There was that girl! She looked familiar, was she... Yes, she was the same younger looking girl who was down town, in the slums. A shady hoodie shielded her face, and the same loose lock of deep brown peeked out from under it. She looked normal. But then again, so did herself.

    Dez did a visual sweep of the street. It intersected with another street a little ways down. Oh no! Here comes Tav!

    He rounded the corner with a cloth grocery bag over his arm and his backpack still in it’s place. Later, Dez realized that he looked awfully like a cute college kid, just starting his first term with freshman energy. But she wasn’t thinking about that in the moment.

    Should she approach him? Should they meet? What if that brunette was a shadow agent? Their cover would be blown high into the galaxy. No, they shouldn’t meet up yet. Too risky.

    Oh drat! Here he comes! Dez’s face contorted into an anxious mess. But Tav didn’t pick up any of her cues. He marched right over, gave a fake, mushy smile, muttered something about picking up the groceries, and linked her arm in his free one. Dez immediately got the act and leaned her head against his shoulder affectionately. She even produced a girly giggle, which made Tav grin for real. Tav moved closer and reached in for a light peck on her forehead. Dez made a loving pleased sound in response, and they giggled arm and arm down the street like two love struck college kids.

    To be honest, they both rather enjoyed it, though neither would have admitted it then. Once Tav made the first move, the rest of it was almost easy and natural. The only hard part was Dez trying to force girly laughs. She was out of practice, as she explained later.

    Before rounding the corner, Tav stole a furtive glance behind them. Dez noticed and sent him a quick questioning glance. It only lasted a second but Dez saw the definite disappointment of no success.

    The girl was still following them. In fact she was more brazen than before. She quickened her pace which sent Tav and Dez nearly cantering into an off-branching alley. Once they rounded the corner, they broke apart, Tav dropping his cloth bag, and ran as fast as they could.