The Lost Angel

I crouched in the dark as the sky took on a rose-colored hue toward the horizon. I watched the sky change as I wondered about my past. I couldn’t help feeling like a child. Although I’m in my late twenties, we think, I don’t remember anything of my life before three or four years ago. It’s almost like I was born the day John found me. A lock of my black hair fell into my eyes, I tucked it behind my ear as I tried to enjoy the sunrise. “Angel!” I looked around to find one of my crew running toward me. “Jake, what’s going on?” So much for watching the sunrise. “We have a problem.” “So, what else is new,” there was always some sort of problem that I had to attend to. It was becoming very taxing. “Well, Sara says we need to get out NOW!” “And why’s that?” “Why else would we need to get to a safe house, someone ratted on us to the fuzz.” I slowly rose from my crouching position on the balcony and surveyed the street below. The neighborhood that we were in now was a quiet one. There were about twenty houses and all of them looked the same to me. This was one of the only houses with a balcony that over looked the street below. It was the only house on the quiet little street that had the forest, or what was supposed to be a forest, across from it. Due to housing development most of the once beautiful forest was gone. “Wow, that’s faster than last time.” I wondered how much time we had before the police would get here. We could get away of course, but it was always a pain to actually deal with them. They always wanted to know why we were at the scene of a crime and sometimes covered in the victim’s blood. It always took about an hour or so to get away from them and back to the safe house. Just to get away we would have to play the “I’m a high-ranking officer with the government and it’s classified” card, I hated using that. “We need to go. Have Sara call the cleaners and tell them not to bother with coming over here. Damn slowpokes.” The cleaners were getting later and later these days. By now the scene would normally be wiped clean and no sign of life or death could be found. “You got it Angel. Are you going to meet me at the car?” “No, I think I’ll take the long way.” “Of course, you will. Be careful and I’ll see you there.” “You too Jake.” He rushed off towards the back door of the house. As he reached out to open it, I heard him mumble, “Don’t be too long.” With that he was gone. I decided to jump down from the second story balcony and take off through the streets. I needed some time to think and be alone. I hadn’t gotten any blood on me this time so no one should notice me. Although, there aren’t many women out for a stroll this early in the morning wearing leather pants and a corset. I could hear the sirens now; their song beckoned me to hurry. Going back into the living room, a quick scan let me know nothing could be found to connect us to this body. I knew I had everything but sometimes I was paranoid. I really made a mess this time. It’s a wonder that I wasn’t covered head to toe in the crimson paint that now covered these walls and floors. The blood was dripping onto the floor from the ceiling in an uneven beat. How’d it get up there? It almost sounded like a rap song and I could almost hear the words. I retrieved my bag off the balcony and slung it over my shoulder. Time to go. I started to jump over the railing, when something caught my eye. Standing a few houses down was an elderly lady standing in the light from her open door on what looked like a cordless home phone. Well, damn it all to hell. She had to be the one to call the cops. Why couldn’t they leave things be? She couldn’t know what I looked like, not yet, not in the dark and five houses down. I took advantage of what darkness was left for me before the sun graced us with her presence and jumped off the balcony. As I landed on my feet in the grass below, I saw the old woman look behind her. It was the police; they had just turned onto the street. And that was my cue to jet. I took off running across the street and into the trees. Hopefully they would protect me from prying eyes. When I was about halfway into the forest, I changed course. I took a sharp left and pulled out my cell phone. I was going to need transport and fast. My only hope was that Jake hadn’t made it too far yet. The man drove as if Hell was following him. After the first ring Jake answered, “What’s wrong?!” “Someone spotted me.” “s**t! Are you being followed?” “Not yet. Although she might have gotten the license plate on the Beamer you’re driving. I took off through the woods. Meet me on Hofweg and Schonberger, we need to get back fast.” “Two minutes.” With that the call disconnected. I shoved the phone back in my cleavage and poured on the speed. It would take me three minutes from here to get to the car at my normal speeds. I knew it would take Jake two minutes to get there and about thirty seconds to change the license plate on the car. I needed to hurry. As I ran, I was glad I had taken the time to scout the forest before our mission. We normally didn’t because we haven’t had to use them yet. The seconds ticked by like hours, as I weaved in and out of trees and vaulted over other obstacles in my way. As I finally approached the edge of the woods, I slowed down. I knew Jake would be waiting on me, but I was erring on the side caution. If something happened, I didn’t want to come bursting through the trees, right into a pair of cuffs. Luck was on my side because when I emerged from the woods, Jake had just finished replacing the old plate with the new one. He had the trunk of the car open and was throwing the old plate and tools inside. As he shut the trunk, he turned to me with a smile plastered on his face. “Well, did you have a nice stroll through the trees?” “Can it Jake. Let’s get outta here.” I was aggravated and breathing hard. “As you wish. Get your ass in the car.” As I slid into the passenger seat, Jake clicked his seat belt into place. “Buckle up woman.” “Just get us out of here and step on it.” “Always in a hurry.” “Jake!” “Ok, I’m goin’. I guess you should have left with me in the first place.” Jake stepped on the gas and spun the car around. Finally! We needed to get out of here before the cops started looking for the mysterious woman that ran or the car that took off before her. It’s a good thing I didn’t leave with him. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have known that someone saw us so we could change our plates. I decided that it was best to keep that comment to myself. We were a good twenty minutes from the safe house and I just wanted to get back without an argument. I needed a hot shower and something to eat. “Well, I guess we better call Sara and tell her what happened.” I didn’t say a word. Wasn’t I the leader of this crew? I know I made her the liaison to headquarters but this was becoming a trend. When we got back to base, I was going to have to call a meeting and remind everyone who was in charge. So much for a shower and a good meal. Sara must have picked up because Jake’s voice changed. Was he flirting with her? So that’s why she didn’t like me. She was jealous. I always took him on my missions because I didn’t fully trust the others yet. About four months ago Blaine, John’s son and second in command, had decided that instead of working in pairs, we should work in teams. Since I was their top agent, I received a larger team. That’s how I got saddled with her. It went from Jake and me to my crew and me. I now had to worry about five other people instead of just one. And I had just been informed that two more were on their way. How big of a team did they want me to have! I decided to ignore Jake for now. It was sickening listening to his pathetic attempts at flirting. As I stared off into space, I started to think back to the day that John found me. It was a gorgeous day at the beach in Aruba. The sun was just starting to say goodnight to the world. The ocean had been working overtime earlier that day and was winding down. John had decided to take a walk on the beach and had walked about a half a mile down from his cottage. He looked toward the water and saw what looked like a pile of driftwood and seaweed. Anyone that knows John knows he loves collecting different kinds of driftwood. Anytime I have a mission near water I try to bring him back some. As he approached the pile, he noticed that it wasn’t seaweed draped over the driftwood but hair. I had been washed up on the beach in what should have been a bathing suit. The black and white suit had been ripped and torn so that there were only pieces clinging to my unconscious figure. My hair, which was black with blond and red highlights, was matted to my face and neck with some of it tangled around a piece of wood. The first thing he did was check my pulse and breathing. Luckily, I had both, albeit both were very weak and labored. He knew I needed help, so he called for a medical team. The medical team was able to bring me back from the brink of death, although they had to shave most of my hair off to free me from the driftwood. John has the piece of driftwood with the hair still attached, it’s funny that he decided to keep it. After they stabilized me, I was in a coma for about twelve hours. John hadn’t left my side the entire time. He was there when I opened my eyes and didn’t remember who I was or anything about myself. I asked him, after about a year, why he stayed with me during my coma and took me in afterward. He smiled and put his arm around my shoulders, “you reminded me of my daughter.” I didn’t find out until a few months later that his daughter had passed on. She had never made it to her teens and I wouldn’t or couldn’t bring myself to ask John why. I could tell he loved his daughter. Grace was her name and sometimes he would slip and call me her name. I never corrected him because he was kind of like my father. “Sara said we need to get back as soon as we can, but not to bring the cops with us.” His words brought me back from some of my first memories after the accident. I shot him a look of pure venom and turned to face out the window. “Did I do something wrong Angel?” “When we get back to base you need to tell everyone to meet me in the training room. We need to have a talk.” I ignored his question completely because now was neither the time nor place. “You might want to slow down.” “Why?” “Rearview.” A patrol car had decided to tail us. Jake started to slow down the car enough so they wouldn’t pull us over. “If they follow us after the next turn, take the long way.” “You don’t think they know it’s this car that they have an APB out on, do you?” “Probably not but just to be sure, take the next turn.” As I looked in the side mirror, I noticed that I hadn’t taken out the contacts yet. My normal pale blue eyes were brown. They told me that I was less noticeable this way. A woman with pale blue eyes and raven black hair right below her shoulder blades kind of stood out. My figure didn’t help either. I was roughly about five foot seven with curves to spare. I had high cheeks bones, with a dazzling smile. At least that’s what John said. My skin was pale, which next to my hair and eyes, made me stand out even more. And of course, my double D breasts, which everyone seemed to stare at, were always hard to hide. I guess you could say I was attractive but I really wouldn’t know. Some people told me I was an unforgettable beauty, I always told them they were full of it. “I almost thought they were going to follow us.” Jake had taken the next left down an unmarked street but the cops didn’t follow. The police were always a pain in every city but here in Germany they were worse. Jake sounded nervous, but I knew he wasn’t nervous because of the cops. I knew Jake better than anyone. It happens after you spend two years together, you understand what makes a person tick. Jake and I were like family, brother and sister. We would never be anything less or more than that. “We’re almost there Jake. Just take a deep breath and do the speed limit. Where there’s one cop there are always more.” Damn cockroaches. We were about five minutes away from the safe house now. I couldn’t wait to get back home in the states, where we could take a well-deserved break from all the moving around. It seemed as if I would fall asleep and after I awoke, we would be in a new city and place. After this mission we had a month off to relax and just have a little fun. We had been stuck here for about three months now and all of us were getting cabin fever. John promised me that we could take a break to get our heads right. After a while this job took its toll. A person wasn’t meant to see this much death unless they were the grim reaper himself. Although everyone called me the Angel of Death, I couldn’t handle it either. It was a nickname I had picked up after my first year with the Agency. When John had found me, they didn’t know who I was or even where I came from. I was labeled as a Jane Doe and since I didn’t remember anything from my past, I couldn’t tell them different. Everyone called me Jane until Scott had bestowed the nickname on me. Scott had told me before he died that it was a fitting because I looked like an angel, the sweet and innocent girl next-door. That was my advantage, I looked safe, until I put a knife in your heart with a smile playing on my lips. That’s what assassins do, we gain your trust and then use it to our advantage. That’s what they taught me to do and I was good at it. At least that’s what Scott told me. “Finally.” Jake sounded relieved and nervous at the same time. He should be, this was not going to end well. Before we got out of the car Jake grab my wrist. “Angel? Whatever’s bothering you, can we talk about it?” I knew he meant we as in him and I. “We will once everybody’s in the training room.” “We might be able to…” “Jake. I don’t want to repeat myself.” He let go of my wrist and opened his door. “Jake. Whatever happens don’t interfere. You may hate me for it but this needs to be done.” I opened my door and got out of the car. We were in an abandon warehouse in the industrial district. All of our safe houses were the same, an abandon warehouse or run-down old house. The great thing about the warehouse was we could pull in and not be seen. As I looked around, I saw all the other vehicles that we used on our missions here. There were three other cars and five motorcycles. The Beamer was the odd one out. All the other vehicles were Hondas. “I’ll round everyone up for you.” He was at the door leading into the main part of our safe house. “Angel?” “Yes” “Whatever happens, please don’t kill any of them.” I looked at Jake and I could tell that he had grown fond of them. Poor Jake, he always tried to make friends with everybody. In our line of work that was just dangerous. You never knew whom you could trust. Jake was the only one that I trusted but even then, it wasn’t complete trust. He turned to go through the door leading out of our make shift garage and he hesitated. I knew he wanted to say more but whatever the reason he wouldn’t. I retrieved my bag from the floorboard of the car and followed him into the main area. As I walked through the door the temperature dropped several degrees. The garage was the warmest room because the cars and bikes would cool off in there instead of outside. It was always hot in the late summer here, so we liked to keep the place cooler. The training room, which was basically a gym for us to workout and practice, was the coolest room. We kept it that way because it helped when you spent several hours honing your skills. I had learned the hard way that the heat was not your friend when you were sweaty and focused for several hours. It had cost me a week in the hospital wing back at HQ. The room that I was in now was our control room. We could listen to all the chatter coming through the airwaves and some that wasn’t. Against the far wall were about twenty computers, all running of course, and three chairs. Jake must have told everyone to hurry because no one sat in the seats. To my left there were a set of double doors that lead to the infirmary. Everything that someone would need to perform major surgery was located behind those doors. I was thankful that we hadn’t had to use any of it so far. We were all trained to play doctor if the need arose, but I hated those rooms. The walls, floors, and ceilings were an off-white color just like any hospital I’ve been in. And it always smelled sterile, like someone had cleaned with too much bleach. At least our control room wasn’t like that. Sure, it was dingy and smelled like smoke but I liked it. The walls were cinder block behind the dry wall that had been painted a dark gray. The floor was just concrete, but the ceiling was my favorite part. It was the old warehouse ceiling with the rafters and all. Even though most of the room in the rafters was filled in to make it sound proof, I never felt claustrophobic here. I almost felt free. I turned to my right to head into the living quarters, which took me past the kitchen and dining room and into the game room. I was never in this room much; I suppose it was relaxing to shoot a game of pool or play one of the videos games the boys like. It seemed like I never had the time for that, maybe when we got a break, I would try it. This time I took a left towards the bedrooms, well the crew’s bedrooms. My bedroom was on the second floor above the others. As I walked down the hall I passed six doors, all which led to a mini suite. Each of the bedrooms were a different style and all of them had an attached bathroom with a walk-in closet. I had never entered the main floor bedrooms. The doors were always shut and sometimes locked. Every time we came to a new safe house, we choose rooms and used the keys hanging by the doors to get in. I always took the highest floor; it made me rest easier. It was something about being off the ground that made me feel safe, well as safe as I can be.