Babysitting The Special Agents

30: Shovels And The Power Of No

-LACONNI-

I never thought, back when this whole thing started, that I'd be guiding an army of 'retired' citizens who were actually the most secret secret agents round the city of [REDACTED] 56 miles from [REDACTED] (my home town) in search of a series of old hotels that the family of the man who recruited me used to own.

I check my list again, there were five hotels in [REDACTED]. There are two left unchecked. One is on the east most side of the city and the other is on the west most side. If we go to one and it's the wrong one we've wasted too much time. The agents could die.

"What do we do?" I ask Granny Veda, looking to someone older and wiser to tell me what I don't know. She stays quiet and  I keep talking, "we can't teleport because there's not any ports close enough and traffic is too bad to go in a hover."

"We wait, child." Says Veda, walking to sit on a bench, her stick tapping the ground.

"Wait?"

"Your agents will let us know where they are, it's what protocol tells them to do when they've been forcibly moved off the map. Make their presence known." Granda B tells me, filling in for Veda's lack of information as he sits next to her.

I don't know if I can sit still, energy pulses through me, I look up to the skies in desperation. It's strange, not five minutes ago the weather was still, heavy clouds hung over the blue, as they often do in Olohidso and the air was windless... Until it wasn't. A sudden gust of wind seemed to clear the skies as the clouds idled away to reveal the bright blue behind.

Granda B and Granny Veda shared a funny look when the weather turned, they whispered something that sounded like, "here she comes."

Another gust of wind blows a grey cloud towards us. The longer I look the less it looks like a cloud. It's too low, too dark, it's not a cloud at all.

"Smoke." Veda smiles, "from the east."

I'm on my feet in an instant, deciding that running through the streets will get me there fastest through the lunch rush hour. I turn to the junior agents.

"You run ahead," Granda B smiles, "we'll catch up. We want to get some reinforcements anyway."

"Thank you." I nod in respect before hunting out my speed enhancing charm and racing after my agents.

My thoughts move almost as fast as my legs as I run in the direction of the east hotel. Are they ok? Are they all together? Are they alive? Why has this happened?

All the junior agents knew was that mole in Sal was Carsile. They knew this because he had met Lizal for a coffee in a cafe on the same street as an old folks home, they saw the two of them leave together and after that Lizal was only ever heard from on videos that Carsile handed out.

Once they figured this out the information was passed through all the junior agent ranks and they worked together to gain all the background information they could on him—where they found out about the several hundred abandoned hotels across Olohidso that he had access to.

When my team was disbanded and we all disappeared they knew they had to do something. The Grandmama issued a Junior Agents Only amber alert for me and they immediately started looking for me, she'd already instructed them all to keep an eye out for me.

Now all I had to do was find them and get them out. We could get evidence against him some other way, all I know is that I can't leave them there. It'd ruin me.

I slow down as I approach the hotels street, deactivating the charm on my bracelet and moving towards the crowd of people in front of the building.

Even if it wasn't for the crowd craning their necks up at the smoke, or the smoke itself, I'd know which building was the hotel. It's at least double the size of the other houses on the street, tall and grand with a dramatic staircase and towering pillars and a glass lobby. I can imagine how it would've looked once, before the bankruptcy.