Operation: M.I.A

VII // Base

Light was no longer coming in from the window of the arcade, which told us that it was evening now. We had burgers here at the arcade a couple of hours ago, but I was getting hungry again. Zander was still going steady with the games. I loved arcades. I used to spend lots of time with my dad at them back when I was normal.

Normal. I used to be normal.

Zander releases the last basketball before the buzzer sounds. He flashes a smile at me. Tickets pour out the machine. "That was successful!" I commend him.

He nods dramatically. "You done here?"

"Yeah, actually. But we should see what you can cash in for those tix!"

We head to the counter with all of the prizes. He had a lot of tickets. "What would you like, Deck?"

I look at him with a fake-shocked face. "Deck? That is way worse than Brekkie." He just shrugs.

"Your name is really hard to shorten, give me a break."

He ends up getting a pair of pretend night vision goggles. Ironic, because I had a real pair in my pack. Which reminds me... "Are you ready for tonight?"

"Yeah, let's go," he doesn't grab my hand this time, but nonetheless leads the way out of the arcade and into the dark.

I stare at his back as we make our way out of the door. I wish I could peer into his mind as easily as I can look at him. What was "normal" like for him? I can't help but wonder who his family was and where he came from before he was associated with BOSS... before he was the best spy I know.

The streets are no longer busy and a cold breeze seems to clean the streets of any evidence that people populated the area during the day. Candy wrappers and fast-food garbage pieces were blowing in the wind. We are cold, and finally make our way to our Nissan, right across from our target. The British headquarters of BOSS.

"We seriously need to ditch this thing," I say as I get in the passenger side of the car.

"I agree, but not now," he responds as seats himself beside me.

We both know what we are doing. I reach into the back seat and find my infared goggles. I pass them to him. I go back to my pack to find my suit. The break-in was coming.

"There's people in there," he shares quietly.

"Really?" I question skeptically.

"Yeah, quite a few." He turns the car on. "I think we should back into that alley. And keep the car running, because I'm freaking freezing." I chuckle and nod my head to agree. Once the car heats up a bit, and Zander is consumed in his spying, I figure it's safe to change into my suit.

I climb into the back seat. "I'm gonna change, so... obviously don't look, okay?"

He flips around to look into the back seat. "You have enough space?" It was a pretty small back seat, but I could manage. Better to strip down in the heat, than in the freezing cold air outside.

"Yeah, I had a mission once where I had to change costumes in a heat duct," I laugh.

"Hmph. Impressive." He turns back to the people he sees through the infrared goggles. "...and I'm not looking."

Once I'm satisfied that he's not going to look, I strip down to my underwear and slip my black suit on. I love this thing. It's super tight and my male partners have said I look smoking in it. That's nice, I gotta admit. I crawl back into the front seat. Zander takes a look at me, but doesn't say anything. It's dark enough that he can't see what I look like, but he knows. But I'm not sure he would ever say a remark like my previous partners have. I get the feeling he is just not like that.