Kaidon
My body moved with a will of its own. I grabbed her wrist and backed her against the elevator wall. Pulling her arm around my neck, my free hand circled around her tiny waist. The smooth satin of her dress that loosely hung around her body felt soft to the touch, teasingly slipping from my grasp. The sound of the ding of the elevator died out in my ears as my eyes focussed on hers. Her rosy lips parted as she stared at me with a curious questioning glance while I leaned in closer.
How in the world did I end up in this situation?!
Twenty-four hours ago...
"You are saying this man worked for Rihanna's Dad until a few years ago?" Ariel asked as she stared at the picture of the man we were supposed to tail.
I picked up a bunch of documents from my table and checked for the details. Tossing it on the centre table in her direction, I recited, "Sylvestor Iredov. He joined The Order as a trainee about twenty-eight years ago but within a few months followed after Eldon Cross when he left the organisation. They went on to establish their own research lab primarily focused on developing Artificial Intelligence and its use cases for security. He separated from the lab when Eldon died and decided to monetise the research."
"Bellpoint series still remains one of their most successful AI security systems," my team's technical head Helen added. "White Bunny was one of the few people who were actually able to crack it and leave the site undetected."
Her comment made me recall that day, my first mission with Alice. I had highly underestimated her cognitive abilities. Had I trusted her more, could it have been...?
"White Bunny?"
"Alice Reed! Daughter of the Red Phoenix." Answered Damon in an excited tone. I had honestly never liked the sight of him ever since that Halloween night when he tried to hit on my girl and won the treasure hunt together with her. If I had known that I wouldn't get another chance to pair up with her again, I'd have asked...
asked...
asked... who? Who was the organiser that night?
"And what the hell are you doing here anyway, Damon? This ain't your team." Alex retorted as he attempted to shoo him away from the room.
Nevermind...
"That would be sir Damon for you, kid. I am a veteran in this field. Give me some respect!"
I rolled my eyes, and apparently, Alex shared my disgust as he scoffed and answered, "I will when... no... rather if you deserve it."
"You brat!" Damon lunged in his direction, but Alex stepped aside. Damon barely managed to maintain his balance but then turned on his heel and caught him into a headlock. Damon may not have been blessed with a filtered mouth, but he did have some of the best reflexes.
I facepalmed as their bickering unfolded before me, turning my already messy cabin into a chaos.
"Stop that, idiots!" Ariel, Helen and the junior programmers dragged them both away from each other while I slumped down on my chair.
"It's really a wonder of nature..." Damon muttered, his eyes fixated on her face. "You really do look so similar to her."
Ariel didn't look the slightest bit amused by that statement. In the few days I spent with her, I had learned that what she despised the most was getting compared to her look alike. Perhaps she suffered from an inferiority complex, or she was just scared that Sey's feelings for her were solely motivated by her similarity to his first love.
"Just get the hell out of here, both of you!" I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated and added, "You are not supposed to be here either, Alex. Go look after Rihanna."
"What the- I am not her babysitter! I-" The ringtone of his phone interrupted him. He glanced at the screen and immediately dashed out of the room.
Sure, not her babysitter, eh? Keep telling yourself that, kid.
Once the nuisances were out, we started discussing about the plan in detail. We were supposed to intercept a laptop containing the data of the AI prototype that Iredov was apparently going to sell to the CEO of Hashtag Inc., a gaming company. The idea was to dig into the development of the system and analyse the possible risks of it being exposed to the general public.
"Why all this effort? Why not just hack into their system?"
"Faith," I turned to the psychologist of the team, the person tasked with profiling the targets for us, and directed her to explain.
"This is the result of the secondary personality test we performed on Iredov. A C-type." She spoke as she handed us some documents with detailed profiles of the targets involved.
"Cautious type," Ariel mumbled.
"This is just a speculation, but we believe he has some data that has never been exposed to the internet, and it must be stored in a highly secure system which cannot be penetrated from the outside."
"Which is why we need to intercept it physically," Ariel mumbled.
"We need to tail him and keep an eye throughout the transaction. Knowing his cautious nature, we never know when he might have planned for the transaction. It might as well occur on his way to the airport." I added.
"Understood," Ariel replied in a curt voice, her gaze focussed on the data before her eyes, her teeth softly chewing on the back of the pencil. Her work mode reminded me of Alice when she used to get engrossed in puzzles. She may have been a lazy person, but her brain seemed to gain a sudden energy every time it encountered a complex problem. Having Ariel on the team was a good addition, especially when she kept questioning our plans, making us consider alternatives.
"Kaidon!" Ariel snapped her fingers before my face, dragging me back to reality.
"I am sorry, what did you say?"
"When are we leaving?"
"Right now."
***
"What's with that get-up?" I asked, amused, as I stared at her entire length. Ariel wore a loose knee-length dress and a straw hat. A large bump on her belly was what caught the most attention.
"Which section of the population do you think is the most harmless one?"
"Uh... babies?"
"It's pregnant women!" She narrowed her eyes at me, making me chuckle. "Of course, I can't disguise myself as a baby!"
Her words had a point. Expecting mothers, they'd never put themselves in harm's way. Their belly is what catches most attention and not their face; no wonder everyone tends to feel at ease around them. It's a perfect disguise for a covert mission.
"And what does that make me, the father?"
"Well, we don't exactly strike as a pair of siblings, do we?" She answered as she rolled her eyes and handed me the ID cards. "We are Mr and Mrs Carter."
"Jenna."
"Wow, you are getting used to calling me that!"
"No, Jenna, look." I nudged her towards the check-in counters. Iredov checked in to the flight of a different company headed for the same destination. His initial booking was supposed to make a brief stop, and we considered it one of the places where the exchange could happen.
"As expected of him. Ever so cautious. But how did we miss this booking of his?" She asked, and I worked my brain for the name of the airline. I had read that name elsewhere.
"Hashtag Inc. has a stake in that airline. This was probably a special last minute booking."
I turned around as I pulled on my earpiece and connected to Helen.
"Helen, we need to be on the same aircraft."
"I am on it already, but it looks difficult. Airlines don't allow eleventh-hour bookings, and any drama or attempts to tamper with their seating systems could alert them."
We knew he was a cautious person. His itinerary made us biased. We didn't consider this variable. I facepalmed and tsked. They did it on purpose to avoid getting tailed. An act like this makes them all the more suspicious.
I paced about, considering alternatives. Our plan B was to identify two passengers on the same flight and use my and Ariel's powers on them. Copying their looks would be a child's play. I asked Helen for the list of passengers and their live locations. My eyes started searching for Ariel, and I spotted her next to the booking counter, cheerfully talking to an employee. I watched in awe as they exchanged a few words, and moments later, she walked towards me with two boarding passes and a victorious grin on her face.
"You see the stuff this disguise can achieve!"
"You'd be surprised, Kaidon. How intriguing a woman's charisma is. At times, it can be stronger than a man's fists." My father's words echoed in my mind, and it almost made me laugh.
Perhaps it wasn't the worst decision after all.
***
Nice. So much for disguises.
I sighed as I adjusted my glasses and covered my face till the nose with an in-flight magazine. I gave a sideways glance at Iredov, the man we were supposed to tail, who sat there in the first-class compartment directly parallel to our seats, with a complete view to our faces. He sat there stiff as a robot, glancing left and right every five minutes. His laptop laid on his thighs, with his hands tightly clutching onto its edges.
"Do you think he suspects us?" Ariel suddenly whispered in my ears, and I shot her an annoyed-looking glance.
"Why are you whispering in my ear!" I whisper yelled.
"Couples do that all the time! Act natural!"
I had often been on missions where I had to seduce a woman to gain entry into the target's place, but most of them had been solo. I had never really had to "act" as a couple with my teammate before.
Well, except that one night with Seydon. I'd want that memory to be erased at all costs.
I once took Alice as my dancing partner, though. That night was the most memorable one for me. That was when I figured out my feelings for her. Hence it was never an act. For me, it was as real as it could get.
"Stop staring at him like that! You'll alert him!" She whispered in my ear again, and I jerked my head in her direction and retorted, "Can you stop doing that!"
"May I help you with something, sir?" I heard the air hostess' voice behind me.
"Play along." Ariel ordered in a muffled voice from between her teeth and went on to act, "I am... I am getting scared of heights. It didn't happen before. Maybe it's the baby."
"Ma'am, you can rest assured. We are safely going to land you at your destination. Can I get you something to eat?"
"Umm... ice cream?"
I facepalmed in my mind. What is wrong with this girl! Why is she making herself more conspicuous!
While the air hostess left to get her the ice cream, Jenna, my pretend pregnant wife turned to me and called me by my fake name, "Eren, do you mind exchanging seats with me?"
I looked at her in disbelief, and she glared at me as if her eyes were shouting, 'Act natural, will you?'
"Eren, don't force me to use my powers on you." She spoke in a low voice with a sinister smile spread across her face, and it somehow made me realise why the jokes about a dominant scary wife bullying her husband were popular. It actually happens!
"S-sure... honey," I hesitantly let those words out of my mouth and got up to help her switch seats and took the window side.
"Now all his focus goes onto to the harmless pregnant woman, and you can stare at him all you want, pretending to be caring about your wife," she whispered to me while I narrowed my eyes at her. Her words had logic, but for some reason, I felt like she was enjoying ordering me around.
"Now act how a normal husband would." She murmured.
I stared outside the tiny window at the floating white clouds. It felt like someone had spilled cotton candy all around. They were as still as a statue, spreading a sense of calmness within me. To me, they symbolised the life I had wished for. Calm, serene, still. I wouldn't particularly say that I loved it, but staring at the partly clouded blue sky was something I often did. On the other hand, rainy days constantly reminded me of the turmoil my reality had become.
My mind kept pondering over her words. I had zero clue what she meant by that. 'Normal' was not my cup of tea. I didn't exactly grow up in a regular environment not did I have an interest in mainstream media to learn what ordinary life meant. I had no reference. The only 'normal' that ever existed in my life began and ended with Alice.
As if reading my thoughts, she placed a soft hand on my shoulder, tugging on it gently as she mumbled, "Just for these few moments, picture your Alice in me and the life you could have had with her."
I glanced at her face, not sure if she was serious or just teasing me. If it was only a joke, it was a pathetic one.
She leaned forward and adjusted a few fringes on my forehead. Frustrated by her sudden sense of familiarity, I grabbed her wrist and glared, "What the hell do you think you are doing?"
She didn't mind my hold on her hand and continued, "Helping you pretend and learn 'normal'. If you want to catch her killers faster, you need to complete these other jobs and stay alive."
Rationally, her words had meaning to them. Considering her looks and my past with Alice, we could very easily pretend to be a couple and dupe a lot of our targets. But what killed me inside was the thought that if I started telling myself that she's her, I would come to believe that, and I didn't want to make another person immune to my powers because I was certain, if I started acknowledging Alice in her, I would fall in love again.
When night fell, I asked Ariel to go to sleep while I kept my eyes fixed on Iredov throughout. I had gotten used to his robotic movements. He stared in all four directions every five minutes, and I would pretend to adjust the blanket on Ariel whenever his watchful eyes landed on me.
As Ariel dozed off, I noticed that her head was reclining to the other side. It looked uncomfortable, and therefore my hand involuntarily reached out around her neck to support her head. I pulled her closer to my side and rested her head on my shoulder. It was only moments later did I realise what I had done. Perhaps a part of me was already viewing her as Alice.
Just as Alice... or are you viewing her as Ariel? For who she is...
***
"Let me help you with that, honey," I opened the overhead compartment to get her handbag out. As planned, she stood behind me and suddenly pretended to be in pain and lost her balance. Her hand landed on Iredov's laptop as she looked for support. He immediately turned it away from her and reached out with his arms instead to help her.
"Are you okay?" With a flustered look on my face, I helped her up and then shook hands with him for the help. I smiled at him and patted his back while he readjusted his glasses as we deboarded the plane.
"GPS chips are active and working, " Ariel used her phone to track the two chips we had planted. One on Iredov and another on his laptop.
Our team at the site picked us up, and we followed after him to the hotel he was staying at. We had managed to acquire the room right next to his in order to spy on him.
"Yes, Helen, we are connected," I answered on my earphone as I set up the live feed of Iredov's room on my screen.
"The backend team is helping Ariel create the phishing website."
I glanced at Ariel, who was busy instructing her own team on the earpiece and typing at an inhuman speed on her laptop.
"Tell me about this Hashtag guy again."
I heard Faith clear her throat as she went on, "Holden Pierce. CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Hashtag Inc. Hashtag is involved in developing a multitude of digital entertainment software and devices. Pierce rose to fame after the success of his first virtual reality game called Labyrinth. He has been an active investor since then, Iredov's company being one of the beneficiaries. On the personal front, he is a notorious philanderer, known for his affairs with multiple married women. Sources say he considers them "convenient"."
What a jerk.
"Well, it works to our advantage," Ariel mumbled from behind her laptop screen as she raised her left hand up for me to catch a glimpse at her shimmering platinum ring. "Helen, I will be sending you my pictures shortly. Please work with the design team on getting them photoshopped and uploaded on this website."
The plan was to wait for the transaction to happen and then get Pierce to connect the laptop to the internet and visit the website where our backend team could easily copy the data from his laptop. Pierce had a reservation at the Hotel restaurant in the evening, so that was when the mission would begin. Ariel was to play a significant role in this while my role was limited to security. If worst comes to worst, I was to barge in the scene to turn everyone immobile and get Ariel out of there safely.
"Kaidon! Look." I heard Ariel's voice over my thoughts, and I glanced up. Her hair had turned into golden curls, held back by a small clip. I wasn't sure if she was wearing a wig or had dyed her hair, but the style suited her tiny face. The blue of her eyes was what complimented her hair. Her eyelashes appeared longer, and her face looked thinner. Her cheekbones were more prominent, sharper. If I didn't know it was Ariel, I probably couldn't have recognised her at one glance. I didn't dare to say it to her face, but she looked stunning.
"You couldn't recognise me, could you?" she giggled in her childlike voice.
"You look... okay." Why did I pause? Why did I pause in the middle! I want to kill myself right now!
She made a funny face at me as she picked up her phone and hopped towards the glass window to capture some pictures.
I kept my focus intact on the live feed of Iredov's room, but my curious eyes kept glancing in her direction every other minute. She kept changing angles and posing to click pictures of herself. We needed to upload those on the phishing website. Ariel would be the one to approach him and get him to open it on the laptop.
Her lips joined together in disappointment. She was facing trouble getting good pictures.
"It's strange. Is there something wrong with my phone?"
"The phone's the same. The photographer is the unskilled one." I mumbled as I typed out some stuff for the mission report, my lips curving up in a slight grin.
"Oh, Mr Smarty Pants! Do you think you are better at this? Maybe we should get you to seduce Pierce."
My fingers froze, and I shot her a threatening glance and narrowed my eyes at her. I marched ahead, grabbed her phone, and then backed away.
"Smile now, " I commanded.
She did, and I adjusted some features and then tapped on the capture button. I looked at the picture, and satisfied with my work, I tossed the phone in her direction.
She caught it and then zoomed in on the image. Her lips curled up into a visible 'oh', making me internally smirk at my work of art.
"So, photography is your secret talent?"
I wouldn't exactly call it a talent. Alice was the only person I captured in pictures. But I took a lot of them, all of which now graced the walls of my house. Perhaps my desire to capture her best expressions nurtured this skill in me, and I was grateful for it. I at least had something of hers that I could cherish forever.
"Give me a side view now, " I instructed as I pulled out my phone and adjusted the settings.
I sent the pictures from my phone to Helen, who then began working with Ariel and the design team to get them edited and uploaded on the website.
The live stream was playing on the side while I kept deleting her pictures from my device. I didn't want anyone else's images besides Alice's to take up any space in my life. I kept pressing on the delete button one after the other, her stupid face inadvertently bringing a smile to my face, however, my finger froze on one snapshot. I zoomed in on it. It was the last picture we took where unexpectedly, she gave me a sad, distant expression. Her eyes were not on the camera. She was with me physically, and yet her mind was miles away from me at that moment.
It was my first time noticing that expression. I was curious. I wanted to ask her what she was thinking, who could possibly manage to carve out such melancholy on her face. What thought gave her that sorrowful smile?
Had Seydon ever seen it?
Hold on, why am I thinking like that?
I shook my head and stared up from my screen at her back. She gently tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear while busy talking on her earpiece, oblivious to my puzzled feelings.
I turned off my device and went back to drafting the report as I decided to save that one picture.