Airports are the best places to people watch. To silently sit by yourself and observe what is going on around you. People might be saying goodbye, with tight embraces, tear stained cheeks and final waves. Or they might be saying hello, with long hugs, tears spilling over their eyes while they laugh in happiness. Or perhaps, like I was that day, people are just waiting.
I wasn’t sure who I was waiting for, but somehow I knew that when he arrived, I would know. I would feel his presence in the air I breathed and see him as he wondered through the airport in his silent but deadly way. I knew I would see him before he saw me, too. I was better than he was. I knew he was coming.
Twenty minutes I had been sitting in the cold, metal chair next to the departures. Twenty minutes I had been searching the marble walkways for the first of sign of him. Twenty minutes was a long time for the butterflies in my stomach to fly around at their own consent. Twenty minutes was a long time for my palms to stay damp. Twenty minutes and then I saw him.
He was walking down the brightly lit, marble passageway just like any other normal person would. A small, black suitcase was gentle rolling behind him. A black suit jacket was in his free hand which was tugging at his collar. Beads of sweat were running down his neck, either from the humid air or the nervousness I knew he would have been feeling. I would have been nervous, too, if I knew what I was getting myself into.
Slowly and normally, I stood up and followed him. Of course, he was not going in the direction that everyone else was. He was going away from the planes. He was going to the door with the big red letters reading “Do Not Enter, Employees Only”. So that was where I was going too.
The man had started to walk slightly faster. However, he still managed to not catch the attention of oblivious people around him. He was simply a business man late for his flight, right? Wrong. He was a spy late for his duty.
He disappeared through a white door and I waited three seconds before following him inside. Pushing it open with a slight squeak, I looked around the dimply lit passageway for his dark hair and contrasting white shirt.
“What are you doing here, Marley?” he asked. I turned around to face the way I had come slowly. The man was facing me, his face red and the collar of his shirt damp. He was angry and that was enough to make me regret following him. His blue eyes were narrowed and piercing into mine.
“Why do you think I’m here?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. I would not let him see my fear.
“It seems like you’re here to try and stop me,” he said. I heard the deafening click of a gun and swallowed.
“Try is a word I avoid in my vocabulary,” I said slowly. “For you see, I always succeed.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure,” he said, stepping closer and holding the gun in front of him. I started to panic. Where was my backup?
“Oh, please,” I scoffed. “Did you really think you would make it this far?”
“I think when I pull this trigger, you’ll know the answer,” he said. The cold metal came into contact with my throat.
“Goodbye, Marley,” Labelle said, narrowing his crystal-like blue eyes.
I sat up with a gasp, the sound of the gun still echoing in my mind.
It was just a dream.
It was just a dream. I was alive.
“Marley, are you okay?” Ant mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
It was just a dream.
I was still in the plane, lying over the three seats Ant and I had been assigned. The roar of the engine along with the mumbles of other passengers soon made me come to my senses. I wasn’t chasing Labelle through the airport, I wasn’t about to be killed.
It was just a dream. Labelle is dead.
“I’m fine,” I said, nodding quickly. Ant smiled gently and took my hand in his.
“Did you have another bad dream?” he whispered, kissing my shaking hand softly.
“Yes,” I murmured, curling up into a ball beside him.
“Hey, everything is fine, okay?” Ant said, looking down at me with his beautiful blue eyes. I smiled, my heart swelling, and leaned up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“How far are we?” I asked as he rubbed a hand gently up and down my arm.
“We don’t have much longer,” he reported, looking at the screen in front of him. He didn’t need to, though, I knew he had been awake the whole flight, the hours ticking away in his mind. “About an hour.”
“Okay,” I said, releasing a yawn that had been crawling up my throat. Ant chuckled and squeezed me closer to him.
“You can go back to sleep, I’ll wake you up when we get there.”
I nodded and shut my eyes once more, trying to stop my mind drifting towards the destination ahead of us.
Our destination was Australia. To the rest of the passengers, we were simply two kids, either in high school or college, going on a holiday to the big island. We were carefree and young and were just looking for a good time. In reality, we were two graduates from the Blackwood Institute, a school founded for training spies, looking for the former head of the CIA who was working with the French assassin who had been trying to put a bullet through my head for the past year or so.
James Wilson and Emily Turner were the names written on our passports. We were from London, England, and were going on a two month holiday to Australia. Really, we were Anthony Carter and Marley Parker, an American couple, going on a mission.
“Marley,” Ant mumbled while he lightly shook my arm. “Wake up, we’re here!”
I sat up, suddenly wide awake. We were really there, in Australia. I looked out of the window and saw the first sign of Sydney; the sparkling city lights contrasting against a dark, empty ocean. I looked at Ant and smiled.
“So, where do we start?” I asked excitedly.
Labelle’s death (the French assassin) and my graduation just a week before had changed me in many ways, I realised then. Firstly, I lost the fear that had hung over me like a black cloud since I first knew about the Frenchman. I lost the nagging feeling at the pit of my stomach and the back of my head reminding me that there was someone trying to kill me.
I also felt more in control of what I was doing. I felt like there was no longer someone constantly in my ear telling me what to do. I felt more relaxed. No longer did I have to be on my guard; monitoring every move I made and everyone’s actions around me. I generally felt freer.
“We start by going to our hotel,” Ant yawned. “Not everyone can sleep for a whole flight like you.”
“So we’re not doing anything tonight?” I asked, trying to mask the disappointment in my voice.
Another thing that had changed about me was my optimism. Suddenly, all I wanted to do was run around the city looking for danger. Previously I would have wanted to go straight to the hotel and hide under my covers; afraid of anything and everything. I guess once you’ve lived through a two-against-seven attack on a train, your idea of fear changes.
“No,” said Ant, cupping my face with his soft, gentle hands. I had come to the theory that everyone in this business had to have two different physical features. There was no way these affectionate and tender hands had been the same ones that had pulled a trigger so many times and ended people’s lives. “We’re sleeping and eating, I thought that would make you happy.”
“It does,” I smiled. Ant knew me so well. “But I want to do something-”
I was cut off as Ant brushed his lips against mine for a second. Immediately, I lost my train of thought and felt a goofy grin mould onto my face. The plane jerked and looking beyond my boyfriend I saw the runway lights flashing past. He laughed and took my hands, explaining to me how we were going to get to our hotel and where it was in the city.
Of course, I already knew that. One of the projects I had been given before my graduation was on Sydney. I had to practically learn the place off by heart. Looking back, I thought of how sneaky it had been of my principle, Mr Grey.
“In case you’re forgetting, your dad made me study this city inside out,” I told him with a teasing smirk. Amusement reflected in his familiar blue eyes and a grin tugged at the corners of his lips.
“I haven’t forgotten,” he chuckled. “I just wanted to remind you.”
“Yeah, of course,” I teased.
The plane juddered to a stop and the overhead illuminated the interior of the machine once more. Still sleepy passengers rubbed their eyes and stretched their arms. A little child started crying. A couple started laughing. Everyone looked so normal.
The pilot welcomed us to Sydney and shortly after I was standing outside the airport with a heavy backpack on my back and an even heavier case standing by my side. The summer air was thick and heavy; the complete opposite to the winter we had been having in England. It was a pleasant night, despite the heat, and I
Ant was telling me who was picking us up to go and get our ammunition, but I was hardly listening. I was too busy watching a person on the other side of the road.
It was a woman with dark hair that fell on her shoulders. She was dressed in a fancy red coat and long black boots. I was surprised, it was summer and sweat had already started gathering beneath my grey jersey. As I watched her, she pulled out a phone from her pocket, glanced at the screen and lifted it to her ear. I saw her lips move and despite the week of lip reading lessons we had gotten in Communications class at Blackwood, her lips were unreadable.
I watched her nod, saw her dark red lips curl up in a sinister, small smile. She put the phone back in her pocket and pulled out a cigarette. She lit it with a lighter and then moved her eyes to catch mine. A bad feeling came over me, but I held my eye contact.
“Ant,” I murmured. Luckily, those Communications classes also included learning how to speak without moving your lips. “Look across the street.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw him move his head in a swift circle.
“Tell me you also think there’s something up with her,” I mumbled. Ant took a deep breath and I saw him nod.
“Ignore her,” he breathed. I risked tearing my eyes away from the lady to stare at Ant. His eyes were as they normally were when they came to missions; expressionless and unreadable.
“What? That’s the worst idea I’ve-”
“Marley, I said ignore her,” he said firmly. I crossed my arms stubbornly and scowled, looking back at the lady. However, she was no longer there.
Silently starting to panic, I turned around and saw she had crossed the road and was walking towards Ant and I, her boots clicking piercingly on the gravel. She dragged a tiny suitcase behind her which made a noise as it bumped over the uneven surface. As she neared, I drew in a breath. I still had a bad feeling about her.
I looked straight ahead, feeling rather than seeing her pass behind me. I heard the swish of air behind me and thrust my suitcase handle backwards. With a gasp the lady stumbled and Ant kicked his leg in a roundhouse kick. The sound of metal clanking against gravel caught my attention and I turned to see that her cigarette was actually a small dagger. She frowned and reached into her bright jacket pocket, revealing a shining silver gun. Ant kicked out again and I rushed forward to grab the gun from beside the lady. She breathing heavily, gripping her chest where Ant had kicked her. I pulled the back of the gun and shook it so that the round of bullets clinked to the ground. Then I threw the useless gun at the lady and smiled in satisfaction when I heard her whimper in pain.
“Who are you who are you working for?” Ant demanded. He leaned over her threateningly while she grinned. I moved closer to her, standing next to my boyfriend with my arms crossed.
“Me?” she laughed bitterly. “I’m just the distraction.”
I didn’t have time to bother placing her foreign accent or analyse what her words or search Ant’s face for a reaction before something solid and extremely hard hit me in the head and everything went black.