From Agent to Average

Chapter 2

The traffic on every street is stopped so emergency vehicles can get to where our van exploded. It turns out that fire, smoke, alarms, and sirens are really good at keeping people's attention away from the two teenagers in full black body suits with helmets running on the sidewalk. It only takes four minutes to get to the parking garage. As we run up the ramp Alex starts to rummage through their bag. I hear a jingling sound a few seconds later.

"I found the keys. Who's driving?"

I turn to look at them and they starts laughing.

"I'm kidding. I know you're the better driver."

"If we weren't part of the agency, there's no way on earth you would've gotten a license. Speaking of which, I'll have to teach you to drive. Why do you have the keys anyway? You don't even know which bike is ours."

"I have the keys because I grabbed them before we shot our 'driver' or whatever you want to call him."

"How about we call him Dave because he definitely wasn't a driver."

"Sounds good to me. Dave the deadly driver."

Alex starts laughing even harder and I hear myself join. "How are you so good at joking in every situation?"

"It's how I work. You plan and attack, I distract and laugh."

"One of those is a lot more important in most situations, but if it helps, it helps." A flash of silver catches my eye and I double check the license plate. "That's our ride."

Alex's jaw drops as they see the vehicle I'm pointing to. "No way. I'm now very glad you're driving because I'd crash into every tree I could just to test how durable it is."

"You wouldn't be able to hit the trees. If you're aiming for the trees you'd probably be able to stay perfectly centered on the road."

They're quiet for a few seconds. "True. We should probably get going now. We still have people who're trying to kill us so getting out of here should probably be our first priority."

***

The engine was too loud for us to talk so we sat in silence until we got to the base.

"I'll go get our gear. You get the bags," they say before darting off.

I nod and we split up. My footsteps echo in the empty halls as I run. After navigating the maze of twists and turns, I reach the wall that has our stuff in it. Alex and I worked together to build a safe into the wall. The only way to get it open is to scan one of our bracelets.

There's a small beep and a section of the wall slides open revealing two black backpacks. I grab them and start to head back to the motorcycle where Alex should already be waiting.

There's one thing I want to do quickly just to make sure Opal knows we're okay. I flip open my knife and carve the words 'operation ghost is a go' into the smooth surface of the wall. The people who'll need to know what happened to us are the only ones who'll understand that.

Alex is already on the bike with their helmet on.

"What took you so long. It's not that hard to grab two backpacks."

I shrug off their and toss it to them. "I had to leave a message for them. We don't want them thinking we're dead now do we. Otherwise all our stuff would be gone when we return."

"Let's just go. I assume you know where the closest safe house is."

"Yep. It'll take a few hours to get there though so get comfortable."

***

By the time we get to the safe house it's almost 11 pm.

"Welcome to our new house. It's already all set up. Come on, I'll show you around."

When we walk through the door and turn the light on Alex's face lights up as they take it all in.

"It's really open. The kitchen and living room are downstairs. Our rooms and the bathroom are upstairs."

"This is amazing. Did you design all of this?" Alex starts walking over to some of the fake plants on the wall above the couch.

"Yep. Wait until you see upstairs." They follow me up the stairs and immediately runs to their room. "What do you think?"

It takes a second for them to start saying coherent sentences. "It's amazing. There's so much art and plants."

"I was trying to create something that would make us as comfortable as possible and still be safe. There's a hidden place for a gun every 10 feet all throughout the house so you'll always be close to a weapon. There's also a small vault for our stuff in the bookcases. How about we get some sleep? We're probably going to have to enroll at a local school. We'd stand out otherwise so we have to do our senior year in an actual high school."

"I've always wanted to attend a normal school." That caught me off guard. Alex always seemed to like the government classes because they went at a faster pace.

"Why? They teach the same thing that we learned, it just takes longer and they don't get as many in depth lessons." They look out the window for a few seconds before answering.

"Haven't you ever been a little jealous of everyone else? They get to have friends, talk to people, and they don't have to live their lives looking over their shoulders. They also don't have to worry about losing the people they call family every second. They just seem so happy and free. Haven't you ever wanted that?"

I never knew Alex felt like that. Everyone else from our program disappearing hit them a lot more than I realized. I knew Alex missed them but I didn't know they were this affected by it.

"I've never really thought about it. I just tried to do the job required of me to the best of my ability. I don't spend my time thinking about what life could be like because I'm too busy living the life I can. It's not like we can abandon the organization."

"We could. We have everything we need. We could just not go back and be free."

"We have to go back eventually, they need us."

"And I need you to stop destroying yourself. You've been through way more than me and almost everyone else I know combined. Eventually you're not going to be able to keep going and repressing the memories you don't like. If you keep doing this you're going to break and I don't know if I'd be able to fix you again." Again?

"I'm fine now and I'll be fine. We should just get some sleep. I'll try and enroll us in a school tomorrow." I walk over to my bed and lay down. "Goodnight."

I can barely hear Alex as they whisper something but it sounded like goodnight. Hopefully tomorrow we can settle in better and I can ask about what they said about not being able to fix me again.