Secret Service

chapter five (part 1)

chapter five (part 1)

• kieran •

"You're late."

I paused in my step and looked up from my conversation with Sybil to see Alice giving me a mildly pissed off look. She was leaning against the receptionist's counter in front of one of the applied science department's laboratories. Her rose-red lips pursed, close to a scowl, and one of those sharp eyebrows were raised.

Keeping my eyes on Alice, I touched Sybil's elbow and leaned down so I could whisper in her ear, "Lock the files in my desk drawer. Make sure no one sees them. I don't want anyone asking questions."

Sybil nodded quickly, glancing at Alice, whose gaze could've fried my shy assistant, and she scurried away to do what I said.

I straightened up, all the while maintaining eye-contact with Alice. Her face was uncharacteristically stony this morning. I continued walking towards the reception desk. "Alice," I said, her name rolling off my tongue, "I'm never late. You're just early."

She rolled her eyes at me and pushed herself off the desk when I came to stand in front of her. "Didn't know you could be so sassy. I think I like pissed-off-and-mysterious-Kieran better."

"You think I'm mysterious?" I asked nonchalantly, folding my arms across my chest. "And I think I like not-pissed-off-Alice better."

In response, Alice turned to the right and strolled towards the double set glass doors that led into the laboratory. I followed after her and she said over her shoulder, "And you'll get not-pissed-off-Alice if you're never late to anything again."

I glanced down at my Rolex and frowned at the back of her dark-auburn head. Her hair was up in high, swishing pony-tail today, like yesterday when she visited the kid hacker.

"We agreed to meet at four and- oh. My bad." It was four-fifteen already. But in my defense, I had things to take care of. Like my little sister's murder.

I had gotten an anonymous and untraceable text two nights ago, telling me that five months ago, my little sister hadn't been murdered by my psychotic traitor ex-girlfriend, Victoria Lockwood. Or, at least, Victoria hadn't killed my sister for her own reasons, as she had sworn to us in her interrogation. She was sent by someone, and I was determined to find out who.

Just thinking about it all made my head hurt and my teeth clench. Alice's voice brought me back to reality.

"Yes, your bad." she huffed. She reached the doors but instead of pulling them open, she whirled around to face me, blue eyes flashing warningly. "Now, promise me that you will respect our arranged meetings in the future."

"Yeah, okay, I promise," I said absentmindedly, reaching around her to pull open the doors. She stepped back to let me open the doors, then slipped inside.

The room was large, and filled with chrome-white counters and machines. I walked by a floating, transparent slab of... something. I paused in my step and walked backwards to give it a double-take. It wasn't transparent - it was invisible. Only at certain angles could I see the light catching the angles, showing that it was a flat rectangular shape.

"Cool, right?" a voice sounded from ahead. I looked up and saw Mr. Franklin, the head of the applied science department, grinning at me. His eyes glittered in wonder and crinkled at the corners.

"Yes it is," I agreed, turning back to gawk at it. Our cloaking devices required a power source, like an airplane. Our jets all had cloaking abilities, but it used up a lot of the power. I could only imagine how amazing it would be if our jets or gliders were made out of this new material, whatever it was. It was literally just a floating slab of invisible glory.