It's a Girls Job

Playing for the Right Side

                                                                              Eric

I watch Jaelle get smaller and smaller through the side mirror.  She has a concerned look on her face.  “Don’t worry about her,” I think to myself.  “She has nothing to do with this, and she won’t if you can keep it that way.”

I can remember the moment I knew I was in love with her.  It was the day her dad disappeared.  The Underground played it off as a three car pileup.  Her mother was devastated, and so was she.  Jaelle of course knew that wasn’t the truth, she was always smarter than she let on.  She ran to my apartment, and kicked at the door needlessly before I opened it up. She would have kicked  it down if I had  waited just a few seconds longer. When I saw her, her face was tear stained and puffy. 

She stood in the doorway shaking, her fists clenched as she tried to hold it together, “You know what happened don’t you?”

Honestly, I had no idea what she was talking about and I told her as much.  She started screaming at me, “You know something Eric. I know you do! Tell me! Tell me what happened to my dad!” 

She assumed that just because I had a good foot in the door that I knew all the happenings.  But I didn’t. Her dad and I had completely different jobs -- he was an operations officer a field agent, I was just an analyst.  We weren’t even ever in the same department.  She ran at me throwing punches as if it would help.  I held on to her and let her hit me until she just collapsed in my arms, crying. In that instant I knew I would do anything to protect her.  I would do anything to never see her hurt again.... But wouldn't this hurt her eventually?

Jaelle had always been so strong, so tough, and fierce.  She acted like nothing hurt her, like she was bulletproof.  That night when she came crying to me, she showed me a part of her that I am sure she had never shown to anyone before.  Not even Althea.  She always wore this mask and carried a dark look in her eyes, to warn everyone off. Deep down I know it’s for the best that she is this way. Better not to trust anyone, especially me. 

“Long time no see.” the driver says to me snapping me out of my reverie.

“Yeah, well I’ve been busy, you know doing myjob.” 

He rolls his eyes and goes back to looking at the rode. 

I’ve known these guys for a little over a year now, and they still give me the creeps.  We’re on the same side, but... 

The van is dead silent, I try to c***k a few jokes, no one laughs, they don’t even smile. “Tough crowd, “Tough crowd.” 

I lean back in the seat, and let out a long sigh.  The guy behind me leans forward making the hairs on the back of my neck stick up.  “You know what you’re supposed to do right?”

I feign hurt, “It’s like you have no faith in me. I’ve been trained by the same guys you have.  And I’ve been here longer, need I remind you.”

“Sure we just don’t need you messing it up.  Not like last time.”

“You know that wasn’t my fault, I did my job.” They are talking of course about the incident, that happened last month. Things did not go perfectly according to plan. I had everything in place, but the agent that was supposed to have taken the bait was smarter than I had thought. He’s working on something, and it’s my job to figure out what it is.  

I have been following this guy for the past couple of weeks, if I am unable to nail him, everything I have trained for could go down the drain. If I am successful, the Underground will finally discover that they have a traitor in their midst.

The van pulls up to a vacant building, that’s my cue. I step out of the  van and stand in the hot, bright, sun, gauging my surroundings -- looking for a quick escape if things should go amiss.  But all I see are miles and miles of weeds and an open dirt road off to the left where the van is slowly driving away.  Of course this is where she wanted to meet, it’s in the middle of nowhere and completely disgusting.  I can see a rotting tire standing by the half collapsed door as I walk up I nearly gag, choking on the smell of sulfur. Pushing through the door I am blinded instantly.  It is dark, I can’t even make out the outline of my hand just a few inches from my face.  Across the room is a probably a window that is covered up with a board, but there is some light shining through the tiny cracks.  I walk a few feet forward and feel a hand tap on my shoulder but before I can fully comprehend what I’m doing I grab the hand and thrust the body over my shoulder.  I look down into the smiling face of Leda. Leda is young, only a few years older than me with features that never seem to age.  She has dark brown hair, blue-gray eyes and a scar running down the left side of her face from a knife fight she got caught up in against an arms dealer in Egypt. Half of her front tooth is chipped thanks to a building exploding only 500 feet in front of her in Singapore last fall.  She laughs as I reach down to help her up.  She shrugs me off and gets up by herself. Always elusively late and she likes to joke that she never gets anywhere on time because if she was on time the day of the explosion in Singapore she would have more than a chipped tooth.  Leda is the daughter of an Iraqi diplomat.  She helps us from time to time, when she can. 

“How are you my friend?”  she asks as she brushes herself off, her accent is thick but her English is still good. 

“Cut the small talk” I say.  “Do you have the file?”

“You underestimate me, of course I have the file. Have I ever let you down before?”

I almost pointed out that yes, she has let me down before on several occasions but now is not the time.  This information is vital to the success of the agency and unfortunately Leda was the only woman who could do this particular job. She is an explosives specialist and a hacker which is a rare combination. Not to mention she is a master of a least three martial arts techniques.  She is wicked smart, and underestimated far too often. I’d go as far as to call her ruthless for that reason I’m glad she is on our side.   

I snatch the file out of her hands as she dangles it in front of my face.  If only we could have used someone else.  Someone less...irritating. I pinch the bridge of my nose as I say the next part. “I have another job for you.”

She grins -- a wide, evil kind of grin.  I hand her a yellow envelope that contains plans to a highly secure mission -- only a handful of people know about it. She opens it, scans its contents and then her smile grows, if possible, even wider.