The Fall

Chapter Five

Peter frowned, perplexed. "W-wha..?"

Janet's hair was wet, like she'd recently taken a shower. She was dressed very casually in her pajamas with a thin robe over it, looking only a little fazed from the recent fight. She wasn't wearing even a smudge of makeup but still managed to look, well, stunning.

"Sit down, I'm sure we have a lot to discuss," Janet said as she quickly walked to the kitchen, throwing the knife in a drawer. Peter sat down slowly, a little suspicious. "How do you know my name?"

"I stole your ID," she said simply, walking to the coffee table. Peter noticed that she'd already poured two glasses of champagne. "Champagne?"

Peter shook his head. Janet shrugged and took both glasses. "Let's cut to the chase: what the heck do you want?"

Peter winced. "I- uh- I need to ask you a few things."

Janet flopped down on the other couch, getting comfortable. "Okay. Get to the asking part so I can kick you out."

Ouy of nowhere, a small cat jumped up onto her lap.

"Alright... when you were looking through that vault, did you see a code with the prefix EDLIST?"

Janet chuckled. "Yeah. That was one long boy."

Peter glanced over at her. "Do you remember it."

"Of course I do!"

Peter was about to ask for her to leave with him. "Will you-" the words got stuck, however.

Janet raised an eyebrow and looked over at him. "Well? Spit it out."

"... will you let me stay here? Just for a bit?"

Janet laughed. "What? No!"

Peter opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off (again).

"No way! Get out, if you're done!"

Peter stood up as she got up and tried to push him out the door. "Wait! I have nowhere to go!"

"What about your elephant friend?" Janet inquired, pushing Peter with surprising strength. It took Peter a moment before realizing that she was talking about Lance. "He-he left me here. He left town."

Janet stopped. Peter noticed for the first time that they were almost the same height, with him only a couple inches taller, if that.

"He left you?"

Peter nodded. "And with alk the triad people around here-"

"Alright." Janet let go of him and turned to walk back. "Here are the rules:
"My room is off limits,
"No hogging the bathroom,
"You're doing dishes while your here,
"And you're scooping my cat's litter."

As if on cue, the cat let out an adorable meow.

Peter drooped a little. "I- Chores?!"

Janet nodded, smirking, knowing that she was in charge here. "Chores. Now, there are dishes to do, and I am going to bed."

She turned on her heel and disapeared into the back room without so much as a goodnight. The cat jumped up and streaked after her.

Peter was left alone to do the dishes and try to get comfortable on the couch.

~

"How much coffee is it possible for you to drink?!" Travis complained as he returned from retrieving a fourth cup of the stuff for Rita.

Rita looked up from her computer and smiled at him, taking the coffee. "Let's find out."

Travis rolled his eyes and sat down next to her. The conouter was a on a black screen, lines of green code crisscrossing it. "Nothing yet?"

"Nothing? NOTHING?! Can't you see!" Rita scolded him. Travis sat back, putting his hands up in defense. "Well, tell me!"

Rita gave him a look then pointed at the screen. "Here, I think this is her."

The line of code was simply designated AG347 but had, in parentheses,  (MEMORY+++++).

"This means that Agent 347 has a flawless memory and is an impirtant asset," Rita explained. Travis nodded slowly. "Can you get this file optimized?"

"Yessir."

A few minutes later, the coding had been converted into a nice, clean dossier. 

A few images had been found. Janet's hair had been cut almost entirely off. A year later, it was closely maintained at ear length. Travis remebered the picture Peter had drawn, with her hair almost to her  shoulders.

"Look, Trav," Rita said, looking over the "accomplishments." Two years ago... she killed someone."

Travis looked at the section more closely. "Another criminal. She was probably ordered to do it."

"Travis..."

Travis ignored her, reading another section with stats on her memory. "A great asset to the triad and their missions-"

"Travis."

"Wow, and she's helped with burglaries-"

"Travis."

"What?"

"She- she killed civilians."

Travis's eyes looked to where Rita was reading and his blood went cold.

"She- you're right, 20 civilians. In-"

"In one day..."

It couldn't be true. Travis got up and backed away.

Janet... the girl he'd cared for, trained... she was a cold blooded killer. 

What had they done, sending Peter to her...

~

"I'm fine, Lance. Tell them no harm will come to me."

Peter's phone had rung, and he was sitting alone in the living room.

"... She's not hostile, I'm telling you! Why was he so paranoid?"

Travis had called Lance and told him to call Peter to make sure that he was okay.

"... didn't give a reason, huh? Well... bye then. I'll call you tomorrow."

Peter put his phone away and layed down to sleep, turning the lamp off.

He didn't notice Janet, peering through the crack in her door, as she listened to the conversation.