Operation: Agent Parks

2: Assignment-Memory Wiped

I have my interview right after lunch, which wasn't a smart idea. I was close to throwing up just the grilled cheese that I had eaten.

"So, Miss Parks, I assume?" Agent Stinsan asked, folding her perfectly manicured hands in front of her.

I nodded, slipping my usual grin into place, even though it was, for the most part, forced.

"I have in front of me," she slid a folder from a stack to her right, "a folder containing all your information." She flipped it open and started paging through it. "Such an mischief-making person you are, what with all these detentions you've got. Oh, and I see you've got a mentor now though, more for punishment than for the progress up in the system." She closed it and stared at me. "Agent Philips is your mentor, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am. I was assigned him a little less than a month ago."

"Are you aware that this also is his punishment, Miss Parks?"

I frowned. "No, I wasn't."

"Philips was assigned a case that he failed in, causing the death of many civilians. Mentoring you was the easiest punishment he could get, other than death and having his memory wiped of the entire C.A.P.H.U.T organization."

"Why...." I hesitated. This seemed more like a gossip session than an interview. "How did he fail in that mission?"

"Well," Stinsan leaned forward like she was going to tell me a secret, "it's rumored that he has an ulterior motive for everything he does for this organization."

I snorted in disbelief. "You agents are sneaky and liars, but not that secretive. Agent Philips can't turn against kaput like that."

She stared at me. "What did you just say?" 

"I just said that Agent Philips can't turn against kaput, sorry, C.A.P.H.U.T. like that. You really should clean out your ears. I say stuff strangely, you just need to translate it." I shrugged, trying my best to avoid screaming of boredom and running out of the room.

"Learn how to talk like a normal person." She glared at me. "You haven't heard or been told anything about something called Spydar?"

My grin became a tad bit more forced. "I'm afraid I haven't, ma'am."

Agent Stinsan huffed in annoyance. "Leave, then, if you have nothing good to say."

Taking the chance, I took it, and all but sprinted to the other small conference room where Philips and I ran over situational scenarios and wise words of the Level-Six.

"What took you so long, Parks?" He asked as I slipped into the seat across from him. He took in my slightly flushed face. "And why were you running? You know we have another session during supper hours, right?"

I squirmed in my seat under his concerned gaze. "I had an interview with Stinsan--" he gave me a stern look, "--sorry, Agent Stinsan, and she just makes me uncomfortable. I was glad to get out of there."

Philips frowned. "Agent Stinsan is a kind agent, and is a very relaxed person. She doesn't have anyone in the agency who doesn't like her."

"Except for me." I grumbled. He gave me a strange look, but started on the lesson for that day: Strategics, Part 26.

%**%

I was called into Director Shraedar's office the next morning. At 5 am in the morning. Two guards escorted me there, grumbling and moaning as I tripped over my feet and feebly attempted to straightened my backwards shirt.

"Miss Parks, please have a seat."

I plopped down, scowling. "You'd better have a good darn reason for this."

"Please remember your formalities, Sierra." Agent Stinsan reprimanded me. I flinched when she said my name.

"Miss Parks, we found the infiltrator last night, and I am terribly sorry."

I frowned, finally shaking the sleep from my eyes and taking a proper look around the room. Shraedar, Stinsan, a few other agents, probably as witnesses, and Agent Philips. Wait, why was....oh no. Please, no. "No. You can't be serious."

Shraedar nodded to the guards who had escorted me here, and they went to restrain Philips, who started in surprise, but kept his mouth shut, unlike me.

"What? Agent Philips is NOT the infiltrator! What in the world made you think that was even an idea?"

"Miss Parks, I will remind you to keep your mouth under control, or you will face expulsion from training." Stinsan coolly ordered. I glared at her, and smirked internally when she blinked in surprise.

"I don't give a *beep*. What proof do you have?" 

Shraedar held up a screen. "That." It was security footage, and at about 1:15:37, Philips was shown meeting a man in an unfamiliar suit, with a strange logo plastered on both shoulders, looking sorta like a wagon wheel. They exchanged a few words, Philips handed him a flash drive, and they parted. My scowl deepened. That was not what they thought it was, as my gut instinct was shouting silently at the accusers.

"I think you're mistaken." I claimed.

Stinsan stiffened indignantly. "What would anything a three-month trainee have to day compared to the many experienced agents in this room? This evidence clearly finds Agent Philips guilty of treason against C.A.P.H.U.T. He will be executed at noon."

I gritted my teeth at the unfairness of all of it. My thoughts were racing too fast for this early in the morning, and I saw no hope for my mentor. Unless....

"No. You will not kill Agent Philips. He's not guilty." I took a deep breath. "I am."

My mentor stared at me in shock. Director Shraedar frowned while Agent Stinsan looked like Christmas had come early. "Are you confessing?" He asked.

I straightened. "Yes. I am. I convinced Agent Three to let me in as a trainee when really I was assigned to sneak around to gather any information that could overthrow C.A.P.H.U.T. That's why I set all those pranks, to distract everyone from what I really was doing, and how I disabled that tracking device in three days."

"But what about the footage?" The director asked.

"I threatened Agent Philips to turn in my stolen research so that I wasn't discovered, because I figured he would not like it if his brother suddenly disappeared in a fire." I sent what I thought was a warning look to my mentor, who stared at me with a rather funny flabbergasted look. It was taking all of my willpower not to laugh. I had to keep this charade up so that my mentor wouldn't get killed.

"Miss Parks, if this is your confession, then you will be memory-wiped immediately and sent out to the world without any knowledge to what and who C.A.P.H.U.T. ever was." Shraedar pulled out a syringe with a blue-tinged liquid sloshing around it and approached me. "If Spydar was ever to find you again, they will not gain any knowledge about our inner workings." He plunged the needle in my arm and already the drug was working its way through my system as I began to feel dizzy.

Philips ripped his arms out of the guards' grip. "Sierra! Get your head out of the gutter and stop this ridiculous prank!"

I sent him a loopy smile as the guards dragged my limp body out the door. "I'm fine, Phil. I think I'm invincible anyway. Bye-bye, everybody!" I gave one last floppy wave, and then my world went black.