June 27, 2014. Friday.
Sally sneaked through the field. For her, staying and doing nothing for more than two hours was worse than death. She glimpsed back at the hill behind her and approached the mansion.
George was never going to find out, but there was a reason why she was chosen to save the world and not one of her more experienced colleagues (even if there was no one beside her available at the time).
She had achieved the highest score in physical exercises and socialization. There was no situation she would consider to be dangerous, no obstacle she would perceive as unbeatable. Motivation and optimism were the weapons of mass destruction she wielded.
During the simulated missions, using her unorthodox ways, she always kept civilian casualties at a minimum. Once, she kidnaped the children of the terrorists who kidnaped the world leaders and asked them 'kindly' to give up after showing videos of hard spanking. Other time she brought a bomb to a space station, strapped saboteurs to poles and threatened to bomb them if they did not reveal the locations of their hidden bombs. She even had exploded the White House to explode a nuke inside it before it could explode.
In the cover of tall grass she whispered to herself as she got closer and closer to the wall, So, Alfonso, you sneaky slime, what are you up to? Thugs guarding the large house, scrap metal turned into weapons. Been there, seen it all. No surprise to Sally, no surprise at all.
After reaching the tall wall, through the gaps where bricks were missing she observed what went on inside the garden, then tapped a few barely visible buttons on her left hand.
So lucky I got you. She stroked her suit after its color turned to a mixture of different shades of green, making her blend into the surroundings. Have outwitted you once, you scum,— Her eyes narrowed and focused on the men in suits marching the perimeter,—will outwit you again if needed be.
Sally climbed over the fence and lay down face forward to the house. Figuring that due to the awesome camouflage the uniform provided, she was close to invisible, she bravely crawled through the garden. There was something natural about her movement as she wiggled her way forward no slower and less gracefully than a snake.
At first, she chose to check a wide tent the size of a small house erected in the front yard. There, men in white coats were connecting a long complex chain of wires, and dirty workers welded junk brought from the scrapyard into a round frame going upwards. A smell of melting metal coming from inside the tent filled her nostrils.
The bushes nearby proved to be a perfect hiding place and she used it to get some rest from all the intense crawling.
During the pause, she observed the house in detail: it was decorated with various ornaments of sculpted waves, white fancy columns rammed the second floor and the roof in every possible place, gypsum branches surrounded window frames. The mansion was three stories tall. Vines climbed onto a wide front balcony and stretched round the building covering at least a third of it.
All windows but one on the middle floor had their curtains closed. Sally figured it must be the place where the current owner of the mansion, Alfonso, spent his days. All the guards marched the perimeter at the same pace. One guard passed the same point in around seven minutes and a half. She saw two men on the top of the house circling its roof, pausing to chat whenever one passed another. There were cameras directed to the house entrance and the drive in, there were cameras watching the tent, the scrapyard.
Keeping her distance from the mansion, she crawled to its back, grinning at the guards that passed her tens of meters away and did not notice her presence.
He, he, I'm the invisible woman, she thought. Then, out of nowhere, the colors of her suit turned to the pallet of a rainbow, starting violet at her toes, ending red at her neck. It took some time before she noticed, and when she did, she jumped up and like a bullet dashed no less than twenty meters in two seconds toward the closest cover. As she stopped dashing, the momentum carried her into a bush. After rolling over it, she found herself lying in a circle of bushes, similar to those in which she had hidden before. She pushed a couple of spots on the suit, and slowly its color returned to gray.
But there was something different and unsettling about this place. These bushes were trimmed in the strangest and most grotesque ways. The closest bush was shaped as a pyramid, on the next one was a green face of a person Sally had never seen in her life, other bushes varied between deformed animal figures and shapes resembling clouds. She could hear someone whistle and awkward tune that was as far from music as child's cry was far from a symphony. It dangerously got louder and louder.
"Ha, who do we have here?" A vague male voice spoke from above.
"Please sir, don't rat me out." Sally lifted her eyes up and saw a not so pretty stranger. She sat down and wrapped her hands around the bent legs, giving the most innocent look she could forcing out a tear.
The man standing in front of her was a little shorter than her, and even though it was a hot summer, his skin was pale. His hair was overly curly and bushy, forming a shape of a ball. There was a claw mark on his face. The man differentiated from other people in the garden by not wearing a uniform. Instead, he was dressed in pink shorts and pink summer T-shirt, both decorated with a pattern of palm trees and coconuts. He held massive scissors in his hand.
Now the man spoke softly and gently, squealing a little when pronouncing vowels "So pretty..."
After she noticed that the stranger was daydreaming with frozen eyes stuck on her, instead of using her fighting skills, she tried to use her female charm. It was the skill she never excelled at. With the most innocent face expression she could manage, yet amateurish and poorly done, she said, "Please don't hurt me. An evil man named George Bottlemore made me do this."
The man stared at her in awe for a long while. He said, "I believe you, you poor pretty thing. I do."
"Really?"
"Yes. I heard of the savage ways and trickeries of that man from my guards. My name is July Sunny and I welcome you to my master's place." Even though he tried to appear charming, he failed in all possible ways. He squealed when saying his name. He winked his eye too often. He squeezed Sally's hand too hard when shaking it.
The truth was that July had never had a one-to-one conversation with an attractive woman in his life before and found himself in the unexplored territory.
"Your master. Who is he and what's he doing here?" Sally asked.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that. I could if you'd stay, but my master wouldn't allow you to. He's very concerned about the success of our mission and would treat you very badly. He's quite a nice person, but not very sensitive to people who he thinks want to interrupt him achieving his amazing goals." July gave an awful smile, his teeth shining through. "We don't have much time you pretty thing." He overlooked the garden. "I'll let you go with one condition. If we meet some place elsewhere. I want you to let me treat you with a cup of tea and listen to my jokes."
For Sally, it appeared to be one of the activities she would prefer not to endure. She crossed fingers behind her back. "Of course I will, oh merciful July. But please, tell me, just a little tip on what plans your master has."
The compliment melted July. He did not resist. "Alfonso wants to do something with the thing called armagedong. He is building a rocket and is going to load it with powerful explosives that could erase a planet. I really don't know specifics. My role is only that of a helping friend."
He rhymed the end. The scene felt very awkward.
"It'll all be fine you'll see
And when we're done
I'll get you a cup of tea.
But now please go,
To safety, go."
Before walking away, July added, "Let me make a small diversion before you do."
An alarm of the house sounded. All the guards rushed toward its entrance. Sally used this moment to get to the wall and escape to safety. Once outside, she crawled back toward the hill George was waiting on.
July took the radio out of his pocket and spoke into it, "Sorry, people, was only a miss-click. Good reaction. Now back to your positions."
"Damn it, Sir, there are only two buttons on that thing, Sir," an angry anonymous voice replied from another end.
———
Watching through the binoculars at the mansion, George spoke, "What were you thinking, Sally? I felt my heart sink when you jumped over that wall. I think I clearly instructed you to—"
"George, please, sometimes you're such a bore. Everything went well, just as I told you."
"I don't feel like believing you."
"Cheer up." She extended her hand and tickled George's neck.
Shocked from this unexpected act, he jumped away. It did not make him feel better least one bit. After extending his palm to cover Sally's face from his view, he explained, "I'm cooling down. Just need a bit more time ok?"
"Fine. Care to hear what I saw while you cool?"
After a long paused, George said, "Ok," picked up his binoculars and turned his attention to the mansion.
"I saw the room where Alfonso is stationed and a tent swarming with scientists and technicians. He wants to build a rocket, just like he said on the google."
"And....?"
"He will load it with explosives powerful enough to explode a planet. I'm so worried, George. We can't let him destroy our world!"
"We kind of knew that part, didn't we? About the rocket, about his probable plan... Not much, is it? For all that trouble, you went through, eh?"
"Better than nothing," Sally shot back vigorously, and after a somewhat long uncomfortable moment of silence asked, "Now tell me, what did you see yourself, mister wise guy, with your four-eyes?"
With brows knitted, eyes on the mansion, George explained, indicating different objects in the garden with the free hand, "You see that wreckage over there. It's two jet planes. They are stripping their parts off, the engines, the cockpits. They are very peculiar in their work. There, standing beside a tent, an old man with a cane is managing the process. That only confirms our theories about Alfonso saying the truth on the net. He's building the base of the rocket inside the tent. It will be a big one. The guards at the entrance are often absorbed in other activities than being thorough with incoming and outgoing vehicles. They rarely check the ID's. Although the two guards on the roof can see everything, they rarely look elsewhere than to the clouds or the horizon.
"From what I have figured out, I'd say that our plan should work. Oh, and I found the room of Alfonso myself it's the only one with curtains open."
"So smart, aren't you?" There was no mockery in her voice. She sounded honest.
George found it annoying since at the moment he was in the mood to argue, let a part of his accumulated negative emotions out, but Sally once again managed to twist the situation with her weirdness. Eyes stuck on the mansion, he said, "We will infiltrate them on Sunday's night."
"Ok then, what do you want me to do while we wait? You can't make me sit here and watch that stupid place and do nothing."
George spoke his following words a bit too hastily, "Whatever you feel like. Just be at the motel tomorrow afternoon." But there was no way to put them back into his mouth and he could only add, "Just don't get into trouble. Oh, and I keep your guns till Sunday morning."
He added, "You know Sally, if by chance Alfonso wears no belt, we can always use the one the king of little people gave me and—" George turned around, but no one was listening to him.
After Sally left, George could not help but commend himself for writing the address of the motel on Sally's hand with an indelible pen before they had left it.
I'm so lucky that George has it all figured out, Sally thought walking down the hill. Two days, Sally, two days to explore this amazing world. There are so many things to do, so many things to see.
She took paper dollars out of her pocket and counted them to forty. I could buy a souvenir or spend it on entertaining myself. Or better, I could go sightseeing. Yeah, sightseeing... So many opportunities so little time.
There was so much energy inside her that she ran towards the motel, and then she ran even more, towards the city outskirts, and when she felt a little tired, she walked.
A man from a dark alley whispered to her as she passed it, "Hey, girl, you aren't local are you? Want me to show you the city?" His words were followed by a dramatic evil laugh.
Sally stepped back and inspected the person ramming a wall of an alley, holding a cigarette in his hand. His long face was decorated with rings, there was one in the nose, a few more in his ears. Tattooed snakes climbed out of his white sleeveless shirt onto his neck, looking almost alive.
She replied, "I'm so lucky to meet you. Just the person I was looking for, but I got only forty dollars, will that be enough?"
One of the stranger's teeth shone in the darkness. He said, "Yes, more than enough," and threw the fag-end of the cigarette. Walking at a slow pace deeper into the alley, he added, "Follow me," then covered his mouth with a hand to hide the evil snickering.
After a long way through a maze of alleys, they ended up in a gloomy yard of an abandoned five-story building. There was a giant picture of a horned man painted on the house in black. He had a menacing grin with a long, split tongue sticking out. Large pentagon encircled Sally and the snake man, its lines extending, forming a large star; the corners of the star were connected by a circle. The only sound heard in the vicinity was that of a small whirlwind lifting light trash from the ground, spinning it upwards.
"Mister," Sally asked, "what is this place?"
"This is the end of our way." The man gazed at her, his eyes wide and spooky. "I want you to tell me your name."
"Sally."
"Ok, Sally, now repeat my words."
"Huh?"
"I Sally..."
"I Sally."
"...a spoiled father's girl living in the material world..."
"A spoiled father's girl living in the material world."
"...accept to participate in the darkest and most evil ritual and sacrifice my life to..."
"Accept to participate... Wow, hey, just wait a little." Sally stepped back. "I don't know what you mean by 'sacrifice' here, but I'm not interested."
"Just think about it. You would get to wear our special sacrifice costume. And we use painkillers during the process that make you feel dizzy and funny. It shouldn't hurt. "
"No, no, no." Sally was about to walk away, but her path was blocked by people of different size, ranging from small kids to humped elders. They all wore animal masks and black cloaks, a few of them had knives in their hands, others wielded long pieces of broken glass.
The crowd hummed, "Stay, stay, stay..."
The snake man said, "It's not like you're going to do something important in your life. Why not use it to make ours better?"
"Sir, you're very wrong. The world needs me. Its fate depends on me. I can't help you, not now," Sally said and dashed towards the crowd. People, young and old alike, flew to the sides when she slammed into and penetrated the living wall.
As she ran off she could hear words echoing behind her back, "You will never escape us, you wrench."
Many blocks away she returned back to her normal pace. Whenever she turned around, she saw empty streets. But there was this uneasy feeling that someone was constantly staring at her back, watching her every move.
"Hey, girl, want me to show you the city?" said an old tired voice coming out of another dark alley and encouraged her to increase the pace.