Now We Are Free - Chapter Four

The Mission

    The next thing she knew was Tav shaking her awake and gently reminding her of her mission. As if she had forgotten. She was rather cross with him, though he had no clue why.

    She clamored off the top bunk, and Tav kindly inquired, as was his custom, “Did you sleep alright last night?”

    “What do you think?” she snapped at him. “It was only my last night as an agent of any standing!”

    “Dez, you don’t know that. I bet you’ll do great.”

    “Yeah, sure.” She wrestled into her dark, tight fitting field uniform. “No need to to be polite, we both know you can’t wait for me to be gone. One less thing to bother about.”

    “Dez! Why would you say something like that? What did I do to make you think that?”

    She clenched her jaw tighter. “If you’re so supportive all of a sudden, then where were you last night? Not so much as an ounce of support then!”

    “Is that why you’re so angry at me? I’ll have you know that my time was spent attempting to dissuade the committee from sending you back to the bottom! If I had known that you were dragging me through the mud during your pity party, maybe I wouldn’t have tried so hard! What do you think friends are for, goosey?”

    Dez couldn’t take it. She broke down into a ball of tears, and Tav gently folded her into a hug against his shoulder. Between tears Dez sobbed her apologies.

    Tav pressed her closer and spoke softly, “It’s alright. No harm done. How could I have expected you assume I was still on your side, when I was nowhere in sight in your greatest hour of need? Dez, you’re going to do great.” He held her out at arms length and brushed away some tears, “Now, dry those. You’ve got to be strong and unfeeling if you’re going to pass this thing. And don’t worry, help won’t be far away.”

    Feeling a little better, Dez wiped away the remaining traces of tears. She set her jaw, squared her shouldered, and tried to look as prepared and ready as possible.

    Tav looked reassuringly at her and said, “Come on, they’ll be waiting to send you off.” He got close and whispered, “Remember, help will not be far.”

    Within a few minutes, Dez was out the door and leaving her familiar surroundings behind. The life of an agent was the only thing she knew. Leaving it would be ridiculous, starting from the bottom again made more sense than leaving completely. But she was tired of being told to do something and not being sure if it was right or not; she just had to do it. But as an agent one must put personal moral aside and leave the directors to choose what was the right thing to do. Which meant she had to trust them and she didn’t.

    But who was she to decide what was right or wrong? She had never known anything beyond the life of being told what to do, what to think, not why you do it, nor thinking for yourself. That wasn’t encouraged. They said that’s what causes rebellions, and that was the last thing the committee wanted on their hands.

    Then an appalling thought struck her. If she was going back to the academy would they wipe her memory like everyone else? They had done it before. Something told her they wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. No, she definitely had to pass this thing. Or get out now before she had nothing left of her twenty-eight years.

    Okay, Dez, you’ve got to make a choice. Try to finish this mission, or leave while you have the chance. Well, she would give it a shot, and if she failed, or opportunity arose, she would try to get away. Great, with that resolved, now she could think of other things.

    On second thoughts, she should get there before she had the chance to change her mind again.

✧ ✧ ✧

The foreign exchange center wasn’t hard to find. She knew exactly where to go. But somehow (far be it from her to say how) her feet directed her through the most roundabout course to get there. But finally, Dez was on the roof of the tall foreign exchange building. She took a few calming breaths. This was going to be easy. She even knew which room the lady was going to be in. A note in her suit had informed her.

    Get the handbag. Get out. Simple.

    But there were so many options! She could shadow the lady and wait for her to enter the restroom, then spring. Or she could just wait for her to put it down an she could swipe it. Or she could try to old bump into method and hope the lady wouldn’t notice. This would all work, if only she could hang around without being totally conspicuous. She needed a dress, or slacks and a blouse. Where could she get these? They hadn’t given her a time limit, so she could take as long as she needed. There was a nice lady on the other side of town who always had a spare set of clothing around. Whether you needed a clown suit or a mail carrier uniform, she had it. Not without a price though.

    Yes, Mayla would do. She had been reliable before.

    Now all she needed was a way in. She would have to borrow someone’s ID badge...

    Momentarily, Dez was down on the streets again. She had gotten rid of her face mask and gloves, tussled her hair a bit, and grabbed an empty coffee cup from the nearest garbage. Sitting down on a bench near the entrance, Dez waited for her victim to arrive, sipping from the empty coffee and appearing to talk on her “phone” which was really her radio for communicating with other agents. Not a few minutes later, an attractive blonde in a dress suit came walking down the sidewalk. Ahh! Perfect.

    Dez stood up and started walking to the street. Their paths would cross perpendicularly at the perfect moment. Dez scowled, leaning her head down on her radio. “No!” she said angrily, and seeming not to pay attention. “You know I can’t do that! I have yoga lessons that night, and I have to take Jim to practice!” She paused for a second. “I don’t care if he’s expecting me, you’ll have to go instead, unless you want to take care of— Oh yeah? What’s more important to you, your business or your kid— Oh my goodness!”

    They collided. The blonde looked nervously at her light blue blazer and shimmering white blouse beneath. Both started apologizing. “I’m so sorry! Did I get your blouse with my coffee? Oh thank goodness it’s almost empty. I’m terribly sorry!”

    The blonde smiled and nodded, obviously not missing her badge, “No, it’s alright, no harm done.”

    Dez sent an apologizing smile as she walked the other way, resuming her phone call, “No! I wasn’t talking to you! I bumped into someone.” —pause— “Why do you always think that? Again, no! I can’t!” she was across the street now. “Look, I’ll talk to you later, okay? Bye.”

    She had better get out of here, it wouldn’t be long before the blonde would miss her way into work.

    Before the hour was up, Dez was back on that same street, this time dressed in black slacks with a full cream blouse, a black handbag that was hopefully big enough to stash the required one, and nice polished dress flats.

    Hopefully she could pull this off.

    She walked up to the large official looking doors and put a hand to the badge clipped smartly on her blouse.

    There was a security guard and a doorman. She flashed her badge and placed a hand on the door. But the doorman intervened.

    “Excuse me miss, may I see you ID?”

    Dez brushed him off lightly, figuring this would happen. “Of course.”

    He carefully inspected the badge... a little too carefully for Dez’s liking. “Hmm, a Miss Kelly Breeson has already passed through here. And she didn’t have her badge. I’ll have to report this.” He gave a quick motion to the security guard.