Getting his way

Chapter 6

When Chris woke up, he was confused for a second. Why was he awake? It had been nice. He didn't often think back on that night, or other days in general. And sleeping until he actually woke up was a luxury he was, frankly, unused to.

As he rubbed the trace amounts of sleep out of his eyes, he sat up and stretched before letting his arms fall down to his sides. A quick glance around the room stirred up the feelings of restlessness again. Maybe I should get some art for the walls? His train of thought was derailed when his phone buzzed. Did I put it on silent? he thought, picking up the phone. His brow furrowed as he studied the message. Big mission, that. Nice offer. he thought, as he got a notification from Kate.

He smiled slightly. Why wouldn't the offer still stand? Surely, it hadn't been that long- except it had. He'd slept for all of three hours already. Jumping out of bed, he quickly answered her text.

C: //Of course! When are you home?//

She didn't answer right away, which either meant that she was still at school (though the hour was probably unreasonable), or on her way home. He hoped it was the latter. Any minute not spent with her was a moment wasted.

As he walked out into the kitchen, he realized to his horror that he still hadn't cleaned out the sink. The food in his stomach twisted as he stared at the gloop, and he quickly had to look away. Blood, guts, broken bones - all those things he could handle. Food, though? Not so much.

 "Nice going, jerkhead." he cussed at himself, in the same way Kate would if she had been there. Except actually meant in a mean way. He sighed. If he had just taken care of it right away, maybe he wouldn't be in this position right now.

Turning his back and walking into the living room instead, he made a call. Silence awaited on the other end as he presented himself flatly. "B-4, Chris. I need to call in a couple of favours." A smooth, male voice on the other end replied: "And what favours do you need?" Chris smiled. "Oh, hi Jacob." The voice didn't answer. "Jacob, your silence speaks volumes. Besides, don't think I can't hear when it's my favourite operator." The voice didn't answer, but Chris could've sworn he heard a smile crack. He continued.

"So, I need a reservation to all the places in the city. Please block me off for the next three hours; I'm not sure when we'll leave or when we'll be there." A small ding was heard. "Also, I need someone to come over with some art. I'm thinking some abstract, monochromatic or duochromatic. You know, black or white stuff. Nothing too wild; it's just for my bedroom. Also, dunno, maybe some plants? Get someone to think about it." Another ding was heard.

"Lastly, I need someone to come clean up a little mess." The line stayed quiet. "It's very small." Still no answer. "Uh, I need someone to clean my kitchen sink." At this, Jacob finally couldn't hold his tongue. "You really need someone to come clean your sink? You were on clean up for months!" he said, a smidgen of laughter in his voice. Chris clenched his jaw. "Yes. Don't give a s**t. Get someone to come wipe it." The ding rang again.

"And that will be all from me, today. Thank you." Jacobs voice broke the silence, just before Chris was about to hang up. "You have gotten a mission statement. Will you accept?" Chris hesitated. "I have not had the chance to collect my thoughts about it. "This is time sensitive. Will you accept?" Chris grit his teeth. He disliked even contemplating taking a mission without talking to Kate about it first.

"Yes."

Soon as he'd said the magic word, the line was interrupted by another smooth, robot-like voice. This one was completely androgynous, however. "The Organization thanks you for accepting this mission. More mission details to follow. Please keep an eye out for more details." Chris rolled his eyes. He hated wearing the information lens, but with that specific wording he knew he would have to. Suddenly, Jacobs voice came back, almost startling him.

"Will that be all the favours called in?" Chris thought about it for a second. "Yes, that will be all." he answered, finally hanging up and throwing his phone on the couch. He could still faintly smell the milk, but if Kate was about to come home, he didn't want to get caught in the shower.

He still headed into the bathroom, but foregoing the shower he washed his hands and instead put in the lens; it looked exactly like any other contact lens, but as soon as he put the second one in cyan text flashed before his eyes. He didn't need to actually read it to know what it said. It began with "CONFIRMING IDENTITY". Then it went through the different confirmations.

"DNA. Confirmed. Retina. Confirmed. Please look into mirror." He took a quick glance into the  mirror, studying his own features, before being directed to look directly into his eyes. "Iris. Confirmed. Please look at hands." He sighed as he did so, taking them all the way up before his eyes while the lens did its thing. "Fingerprints. Confirmed."

Within a few minutes he'd run through the seven different authentications, finally getting a blinking check mark that disappeared when he moved his hand in front of his face, as if swatting away a fly.

He sat down on the closed toilet lid, slowly letting his body and mind get used to the lens. All kinds of dumb information flashed before his eyes. Make and model of the stuff in his room, ingredients of his soap and even nutrition info of his f*****g toothpaste. The lines of information was frankly overwhelming, but he knew that it'd pass in a few minutes. He had barely gotten used to it, when big, bold red letter flashed with: "INTRUDER ALERT."