Loveable Hate. [Napoleon Solo.]

the truth

I woke up, by the sound of alarming clock. I reached over the nightstand to turn it off. My hand fumbled to find it, it wasn't there. Confused, I sat up to see a bunch of men around my room pointing guns towards me. The man at the middle holding my alarm, switched it off.

   "Good morning, Ms. Oswald." The man smiled. "Where is he?"

   "Who?" I simply asked.

   "Solo." The man grinned.

I sat on the couch in shock as Jone (the man in the middle) dropped a photograph on the coffee table. I looked at it uncomfortably.

   "This one was from San Diego." Jone said. "She disappeared on a driving trip... Unfortunately."

Jone dropped another set of photos.

   "This one died in a parachuting accident. Only she wasn't wearing a parachute. And this one somehow fell off a moving train." Jone said.

   "I don't understand." I said, looking down at the photos.

   "The man you helped last night has been posing as a federal agent in order to lure innocent women into helping him pull off various national breaches." Jone said.

   "What sort of breaches are we talking about?" I questioned him, raising an eyebrow.

   "I can't go into it other than to say he usually targets women who are, shall we say, vulnerable." Jone said.

   "He gets a lot of women over the social media." One of the men said.

   "Well, I didn't do that." I said.

   "Miss Oswald. We need you to tell us where he is." Jone said.

   "I have no idea. I just met the guy last tonight." I said.

   "Then why did you take him to the hospital?" Jone asked.

   "The man fell on my car. What was I supposed to do, leave him there?" I rolled my eyes.

   "No, you were supposed to call the police, Clara." Jone said.

   "Ugh. Look, I have no idea who he is or where he is. But I'm pretty sure that you're not allowed to just barge into someone's house and--"

   "Wake up, Miss Oswald. This is America. I'm allowed to do whatever is allowed to protect its citizens. Now, did he say anything that was helpful?" Jone snapped.

   "We're gonna be dead for longer than we're gonna be alive?" I said.

The agents around me looked at each other, confused. I was confused too.

   "He also said that he was an undercover agent on a highly sensitive mission." I said.

   "And you believed that bullshit?" Jone questioned.

   "No, of course not." I said, feeling like a complete idiot.

   "Miss Oswald, you were targeted. That means he's not going to leave you alone. Which means you need protection." Jone said. "I think the best thing for us to do right now would be to hand you over to the local police, let them keep an eye on you."

It was already night, and I sat in the backseat. Braces drove along while Jone sits there with a small smile on his face. I looked out the window, shaking my head. I need Solo.

   "This is the first time we've gotten to a victim before he... you know." Jone said.

He let that hang. Thank you.