The young woman played with the stem of her drink glass,
watching the liquid move around the glass as she did so. Her eyes drifted towards the door as she felt
a quick breeze. Disappointed that the
person she expected did not walk through the door, the young woman sighed and
glanced at her watch. She had been
sitting here, alone, for over an hour and was beginning to believe that she had
been stood up. There were plenty of guys
who were salivating at the possibility that she would give them half a chance. Her dark brown hair was swept up, with a few
curled tendrils framing her face. The
lights in the bar dimmed, alerting the patrons inside that they had now entered
the evening hours.
This
is it; I’m leaving, the young woman decided to herself
and pulled out her cash to pay her bill.
She was already beginning to stand and straighten out her sleek, black
dress when she heard another set of footsteps stop in front of her table. She swore to herself if it was another drunk
trying to pick her up, she was going to use some of her newly-acquired training
to tell them she wasn’t interested.
“You aren’t leaving already? Are you? ” a male voice startled her. She looked up into the eyes of the person
she’d been waiting for.
“You’re late,” she said with a slight growl to her
voice. Nonetheless, she sat back down,
indicating that the man who had finally joined her should do the same.
“Aw, c’mon, you know how hard it is for me to get
away. Demanding job and all.” He smirked at the woman, pulled out a chair
opposite her, and sat down. The waiter
came by and took his drink order; the woman indicated that she wanted another
of her own as well.
The couple sat in awkward silence, staring at their own
hands or glancing around the bar watching everyone else. When their drinks arrived, the man ordered
another for himself and downed his first one in a few gulps.
“Stressed?” she asked, taking note of how fast he drank his
beer.
“Tomorrow we start out on a new… mission,” he replied.
“One of those top secret missions that even I, your own
sister, am not allowed to know about, I suppose.” There was a slight haughty tone to her voice.
“This one, sis, even you woulda joined in on back in the
day, and it is gonna be so much fun.”
The man let out an almost-girlish giggle, but caught himself quickly when
the server dropped off his second beer.
The woman looked around at the people at the other tables
around her. Every table appeared to have
eyes looking at the two of them sharing a drink together. “I can’t believe I agreed to meet with you
here, of all places. What if someone
sees us together?”
“You are too uptight; you need to learn to relax. A night out could only do you good. You work too hard.” The man across from her downed his second
beer and began to eye her drink, plotting when would be a good time to steal
her beverage and have it for his very own.
Shoving her drink towards her brother, she continued, “I
would feel better if you weren’t involved with that organization you hold in
such high regard. I don’t understand why
you feel the need to be involved with these people. What is it that they do for you? It seems to me that they only are using you.”
“You’re my kid sister; you shouldn’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing, what I’m getting
into. I am a big boy and don’t need you looking
out for me. Let me be the one looking
out for you.” He finished her drink,
offering her the cherries from the bottom of the glass, eating them before she
could accept.
Sensing that she was still feeling uneasy, he felt,
perhaps, he could trust his sister with the plan so she wouldn’t have to worry
as much as she was. “Well, I shouldn’t
be telling you this, but since you worry so…”
The young man leaned in closer to his sister and commenced telling her
about the latest plot, the plan he was more than excited to be involved
with. He spun his tale quietly, but with
exuberant hand gestures so that she would get the entire picture of what it was
he was involved in next. “…Anyway, it
will happen in the Bermuda Triangle, so who will believe anyone about what
happens there?” He cackled with glee,
savoring in the stares that he was receiving from the other bar patrons.
She shook her head and hid her face with her hand out of
embarrassment when he finished informing her of the latest plot he was involving
himself in. “I don’t understand why you
just told me that. I’m a police trainee…
what if I turned you in?”
Stunned she had even said that, it took him a few minutes
to pull out his wallet and throw down his money for his drinks on the
table. “I told you so you wouldn’t worry
about me like you are so fond of doing.
I can’t believe you are going through with this police training. What about family? Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” Shoving back his chair, he stood quickly and
turned to storm out. “Besides,” he
turned back, adding, “you are my little sister.
You would never do anything to harm your older brother. Both you and I know that you don’t have the
guts to turn me in, else people dig deeper into your past and discover the
monsters in your closet.”
She watched as he made his way out the door, conflicted
over whether she should ignore what she had just heard or do something about
it. She rummaged through her purse and
found her cell phone. Flipping it open,
she began to scroll through the phone numbers listed. Finding the one she wanted, she quickly hit
the send button.
“Hey, beautiful lady,” came a slurred voice drenched in the
smell of alcohol. “How about you and
me…” He was unable to finish the
statement, as her hand flew to his groin and squeezed tightly.
“I am on the phone.
Go hit on someone else,” she informed him, before releasing him to find
some other unfortunate girl to hit on.
“Hello, Nick. It’s
me, Aly...”
± ± ±
“Hey,
you. To what do I owe this honor?” Nick chuckled.
“You
know why I’m calling; I just met with my brother, and…”
“Oh
yeah? How’d that go?”
“Well,
I’d tell you if you’d let me talk…”
“Huh? Oh yeah, sorry about that. Just so glad to hear from my favorite girl
and all,” Nick said softly, trying not to laugh.
“Your
favorite girl, huh? Whatever, anyway…”
“Aww,
c’mon, you don’t like being my favorite girl?” Nick pouted, feigning hurt.
“Shut
up, Carter, I’ve got something important to tell you!”
“Well,
sooorrry!”
“Anyway,
my brother told me about this plot that he’s going to be working on next. Something about this sub that’s going to be
designed as a Kraken so they can take over cruise ships to get money.”
“Isn’t
that a little… I dunno, old fashioned? I
mean, seriously. Then again, there are
some cruise ships that are worth a lot, and… actually, that’s not a bad idea.”
“Nick,
shut up and let me finish! I swear, I
don’t know why I even bother.”
“What?! I was just joking… go on,” Nick sighed.
“Okay,
so they’re going to be dressing up as pirates, so that way, no one can explain
it, and get this: it’s all going to take
place in the Bermuda Triangle. Ya know,
because of the myths and everything.
They figure if anyone tries to explain it, everyone will think they’re
crazy, ya know? I mean, that is, if
anyone were to survive.”
“I
can see that; it would be kinda crazy…”
“And
stupid! I mean, these are people that
are going to use some kind of… mist machine to make it look foggy, and…”
“Oooh,
I love that misty, foggy effect! That’s gonna
look sweet! I’ve always wanted to be in
a movie where I come out of the mist dressed in this really great tux, looking
all smooth, and I have this martini glass in my hand with an olive on a
toothpick, and…”
“Nick…
can we focus, please? Hmm?”
“Sorry…” He cleared his throat. “Sorry, go ahead.”
“As I
was saying, this is what’s going to happen.”
“So
this is all about money?”
“Basically. Isn’t that what everything is about?”
“I
guess. Do you think they could pull this
off? Well, I mean, if we weren’t going
to stop them?”
“I
dunno, Nick. I can see where they’re
going with it, but it’s just crazy.”
“And
besides, stuff like that never works in the movies; there’s always one fatal
mistake, and then it’s over. We’re going
to be that fatal mistake!” Nick cackled.
“I
swear, Nick, you’re such a loser.”
“Thanks! I have to say, I kinda feel sorry for your
brother.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“’Cause
I’d hate it if I had a sister who was a snitch,” he laughed.
There
was silence on the other end.
Nick frowned. “Hey, I was just kidding. I didn’t mean it.”
He
felt like an ass. It couldn’t have been
an easy thing to do, to pass along information that could possibly get a family
member hurt, or even worse, killed. Nick could relate in some sense, maybe not
in the family sense, but still.
He
remembered when he’d first met Aly Mendez, on a past mission. He’d visited a local nightclub for a drink
and a little entertainment, and he’d seen her.
She’d been just as beautiful then as she was now, and an amazing
singer. He’d stayed through her entire
set and had made sure to meet her after.
They’d
talked for awhile, and he’d tried his best moves, and all of them had
failed. Still, he’d found himself drawn
to her, and when he’d found out she was going to be a cop, but sang to bring in
extra money, he’d become even more intrigued, if not impressed. She was slight, but strong, her body lithe,
yet feminine.
He’d
had many a dream about her thereafter.
He’d been sure to get her phone number before leaving that night, and he
had the distinct impression that she hadn’t expected him to ever call, but he
had, and it wasn’t for romantic purposes, much to his dismay. No, he’d needed her help with the mission
that he’d been on at the time, and he was surprised that she’d helped him. Granted, it had been no easy task convincing
her to do so, but eventually she had, and his mission had been a great success.
“Carter?! Hellooo?”
“What? Sorry, I’m still here, just thinking.”
“Really?”
she said, amused.
“Shut
up!”
Theirs
was a love/hate relationship.
± ± ±
Nick
had been blessed with a vivid imagination, a way of conceiving things in his
head and then bringing them to life on paper.
Sketches, lyrics… he might have been an artist instead of an agent. He had the talent, but not the
temperament. At least, not anymore. His angst would have suited an artist’s craft
well, but the anger… the anger was what had driven him deep into this world of
espionage and secret agents.
He was
known only by the latter here at HimTak:
an agent who was slightly bumbling, but talented nonetheless. It was widely known that 00Carter couldn’t
walk without tripping over his own two, large feet, but just the same, he could
jump back up and fire a gun with dead-on accuracy. And he possessed more subtle skills as
well. He could read people, and he could
charm people, and those two, innate abilities aided him even more than his
hand-eye coordination did. They were
evidence of a depth that few of his peers at the agency saw in him, which was
probably his own fault. He was the one
who had groomed his persona as a prankster and a womanizer, charismatic and
fun-loving, but rarely serious.
He
kept his serious side to himself, his artistic endeavors a private
pastime. Those at the agency knew he had
musical talent, thanks to the Global Idol debacle, but they didn’t know how he
liked to make up words to the random melodies flowing through his head, or that
when he was alone in his room, he drew in a large sketchbook he stashed beneath
his mattress.
It
was in this sketchbook that Nick doodled while he listened to Aly’s voice on
the phone, picturing her face in his mind’s eye and scrawling the lines of it
by memory. It was a hastily done
portrait, certainly not his best work, but, looking down at it as she shared
her woes over her brother’s latest crime scheme, he thought he had effectively
captured the melancholy look of her angular features. He would just have to go back and fill in the
color of her eyes. They were what made
her striking, the blue she’d inherited from her white mother contrasting with
the black hair of her Latino father.
Sapphire
Siren… that was his secret name for her.
She wasn’t a part of the agency like the others, but he’d gotten so
acclimated to the gemstone names for the women of HimTak that it seemed the
only natural choice for her, the enigmatic singer whose life was as conflicted
as her biracial features. She spent her
days training for the police academy, her evenings singing on the LA club
circuit, and her nights turning the other cheek, while her brother continued
her father’s legacy of drug-smuggling, theft, and god knew what else. Nick knew it hadn’t been an easy decision for
her to pass on information about his latest conspiracy.
“Please,”
she begged, “I’m only telling you because I know you can take care of it
without getting the authorities involved.
You know I can’t turn my own brother in to the cops or the government. You can stop this whole scheme without getting
him hurt or incarcerated, like my dad.
Can’t you?” At once, her strong
voice was uncertain, almost little-girlish.
“I’ll
see what I can do,” Nick vowed. “I can’t
promise anything, but I’ll-”
The
beeping of his phone stopped him mid-sentence.
“Hold up a sec,” he interrupted himself, lowering the phone to glance at
the screen. It was another incoming
call, from “Grandma.” Nick groaned. “Hey, I gotta go. Got another call from the big boss man. I’ll call ya later if I can, ‘kay?”
“It’s
cool. Catch ya later. Oh, and thanks.”
“Yup.” With the push of a button, Nick switched over
to the other call. “K?”
“Where
are you, 008? Did you not get the memo
about the staff meeting that was supposed to start five minutes ago? We’re waiting on you,” growled Agent K in his
ear.
Nick’s
eyes flashed down to his watch, but of course, he couldn’t get the time from
that. “Oh shit, is that now? Sorry, K, I’m comin’.” He flipped the phone shut before K could
begin a lecture and shoved his sketchbook back under his mattress before
scrambling out into the hall. He could
say it was Pearl’s fault he couldn’t keep track of the time – how could he,
with a watch that didn’t either?
When
he reached the conference room across the hall from K’s office, they were already
assembled – all of the Double-0 agents, from K down to Diamond, and a few
others as well. He noticed Lancybassy
perched next to Diamond, his legs crossed, and wondered with annoyance why his
secretary hadn’t reminded him of this meeting on his way to it.
“Nice
of you to join us, 008,” K said, with a sarcastic cock of the brow.
“00Carter,”
Nick corrected automatically, taking the empty seat in between Diamond and
Agent 007. “Hey Jim,” he greeted the
latter out of the corner of his mouth, smirking when he saw the man’s posture
stiffen. He knew the stuffy British
import detested nicknames, which was why he thought it funny to call him by
one. A sudden thought struck him: was that why K insisted on calling him 008 instead of 00Carter? He considered this, effectively tuning out
the start of the meeting.
“As
you know,” K said, “it’s been nearly three months since we lost Agent Chasez,
which has left us short one Double-0.”
Instantly,
Nick’s attention was snapped back to the present, as an uncomfortable regret
gnawed at his stomach. He didn’t feel
any guilt over JC’s death. It wasn’t
like Drums’s accident – he hadn’t been there, hadn’t caused it any more than he
could have stopped it. It was Drums who
had thrown Shazam to his death, Drums and Drums alone. It was actually his lack of remorse that made
Nick feel guilty. JC was dead, and Nick
couldn’t say he missed him.
It
was no secret that he’d thought Shazam was a prick. The two had been rivals, never friends. Not that Nick had ever wished death on him;
no, he felt bad that JC had died, had been murdered so ruthlessly at the hands
of a former friend. But he hadn’t
exactly mourned for him either, and that made him feel worse. He should have felt something more than what
he had, but the truth was, life had gone on at Himitsu Takana. Crime didn’t take time off for grief, and so,
missions had continued without 006. Nick
had been getting more assignments himself, now that there was one less agent to
send into the field, and he couldn’t say he felt bad about that either.
“I’ve
taken the liberty of choosing a replacement from our secondary agent force,” K
went on, “and now that he’s had time to complete the necessary training, I’m
happy to announce that Agent DiCaprio, code name Vitruvian, has achieved the
rank of Double-0.”
All
eyes shifted to a lanky man in the corner of the room, who stood, an awkward
smile on his face, and gave a little wave of acknowledgment. Nick knew him as the former Agent 010,
Leonardo DiCaprio. He was a couple of
inches shorter than Nick, his hair a shade darker, but Nick felt suddenly
intimidated by the way he noticed both Diamond and Lancy staring at him.
“Know
why they call him ‘Vitruvian’?” Lancy whispered to Diamond. “’Cause he’s a fab-u-lous work of art!”
Nick
instantly frowned, surveying DiCaprio again.
He wasn’t that
good-looking. He wasn’t even that
toned. What did Lancy see in him? Wait,
he thought suddenly, his frown deepening, I’m
mad because Lancy’s finally hitting on someone besides me?? He shook his head, chuckling to himself.
A
feminine giggle matched his own, and to his chagrin, Nick turned to see Diamond
nodding, emphatic in her agreement with Lancy, seeming to undress DiCaprio with
her sparkling eyes. Nick glared at her
too.
“As
the newest Double-0 agent, procedure dictates that Vitruvian should take the
rank of 009. As follows, all other
Double-0 agents will be promoted one rank, until-”
“Ahem.”
Everyone
except Diamond and Lancy looked now to the dark-haired man on the other side of
Nick, who had cleared his throat and raised a hand to protest. “Pardon me, Agent K, but I do believe I’ve
already shared with you my objections in the matter of changing ranks. Might I remind you, I’ve held this number
since my days in the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, which, I might add, was
decades before you took control of this organization.”
“Decades?”
Diamond murmured to Nick, her attention finally dragged away from
DiCaprio. “How old is he, anyway? He doesn’t look much older than K…”
“I’m
telling you, the guy never ages; it’s creepy…” Nick whispered back, out of the
other corner of his mouth.
K
held up a hand in surrender, nodding.
“My mistake. I stand
corrected: Agent 007 prefers to keep his
rank, rather than change numbers. That
means, 008, you’ll take the rank of 006, and Diamond, you’ll be the new Agent
008.”
“Whoa,
hold up a minute!” Nick jumped to his
feet, rising to K’s height. “How come he
gets to keep his rank, but not anybody else?
I don’t want JC’s number! I wanna
keep my own too.”
“I
thought you hated to be called 008,” replied K, looking back at him
levelly. There was a tiny hint of
sarcasm behind his cool stare that seemed to confirm Nick’s earlier suspicions about
K.
“I
do, but… but it’s still my number!” Nick spluttered. “I’m not being 006.”
“Fine. Desiree, do you have a problem changing
numbers?”
Diamond
shrugged. “I’ve only been 009 since
Drums left… I’m not exactly attached.
I’ll switch to 006,” she said cheerfully, adding, as an afterthought,
“Six is the degrees of separation between all celebrities, you know… mostly
notably Kevin Bacon…”
“Ooh,
I love that game!” Lancy squealed.
“Here’s one: Brad Pitt was in
‘Troy’ – all bronze, buff, and battered, yum – with Orlando Bloom, who was in
‘Pirates’ with Johnny Depp – Captain Jack Sparrow, squee! – who was in “What’s
Eating Gilbert Grape” with… oh, what’s the name of that one kid who played the
retarded brother? Oh poo… well, okay…
Johnny dated Winona Ryder – ‘Winona Forever!’ – who was in ‘Mermaids’ with the
one and only Cher, who was in ‘The Witches of Eastwick’ with Jack Nicholson,
who was fabulously fierce in ‘A Few Good Men’ with none other than… ta-da! Kevin Bacon!”
“…
and plus, then I’ll outrank Nick!”
Diamond beamed. “By the way,
Lancy, Brad was in ‘Sleepers’ with Kevin Bacon, so I can do that one in one degree!”
Lancy
pouted. “Show-off.”
“Hey,
wait!” Nick whined, catching what Diamond had said a few seconds earlier. “Diamond can’t out-”
“She
can, and she will,” K cut him off before he could finish, shooting Nick his
infamous no-nonsense look. “You passed
on moving up the ranks, 008, so you’ll keep your number, and Diamond will be
promoted to 006. That leaves Vitruvian
to take on her rank of 009.”
Nick
huffed, avoiding Diamond’s gloating smile.
Well, at least he’d still outrank the other blonde Double-0.
Diamond
stood up from her seat, giving Leo a wink as she offered him the chair. “You’re totally entitled to it, hon.” Her lips curved into a smile. Nick felt a tinge of jealousy as Leo smiled
back. Diamond’s flirting smile was even
worse than her gloating one. He felt his
face twitch a little and smacked himself in the head so it would subside.
Only
Lancy let out a little chuckle. Nick
gave him a small glare before turning back to Diamond, who was theatrically
moving to her new seat.
She
gracefully lowered into the seat between Emerald and 007. She gave both a large smile before she pulled
out her phone and began furiously texting.
Emerald
leaned over Diamond’s shoulder curiously.
“Lancy, I’ll miss you at the
slacker end of the table. Don’t faint
from how hot it is over there now. Semi-colon,
parenthesis…” Emerald shook her head before taking
Diamond’s phone out of her hands. “Don’t
worry, you and your Blackberry Storm have officially spread the slack down the
table.”
Diamond
grabbed for the phone and whined a little, “I didn’t send the message…”
“I
read it out loud. And he’s probably too busy
suffering from heatstroke anyway.”
Lancy
let out a girlish giggle, causing Leo to blush and Nick’s face to tense up once
more.
Grasshopper
leaned over to Emerald with a smile. “It
is the young, after all, who replenish the earth like spring rain.”
Nick
felt his face tingle as it twitched slightly.
He hit himself in the forehead one more time before slamming his fist on
the table. “If we could all stop fussing
about Leonardo Di-Crapio for just two seconds, I have some important
information!”
Lancy
and Diamond turned to him abruptly.
“Shoe sale at the mall?!”
“What?” Nick stopped dead in his train of
thought. “I don’t buy shoes…. How many pairs of shoes do you guys need?”
Emerald
shook her head. “Why do our staff
meetings always turn into stories about mall escapades?”
Jay
gave her a smirk and shrugged. “A man’s
gotta buy shoes.”
“True. A man cannot live until he has walked a mile
in his shoes.” Grasshopper nodded in
agreement.
“I
thought it was, ‘You don’t know someone until you walk a mile in their shoes’…,” Leo puzzled.
Nick
shook his head. “Information… about
disturbances in the Bermuda Triangle…”
“Like
‘Gilligan’s Island’?!” Diamond squealed.
Nick
smirked slightly, pleased that he had distracted her attention away from
Di-Crapio and back on himself.
“That’s
in the Pacific Ocean.” Lancy shook his
head. “Pop culture, Di.”
K
raised his hand. “Enough. What sort of disturbances, Nick?”
“There’s
a sub designed to look like a Kraken. On
board are people dressed as pirates who are taking money and valuables from
people on cruise ships.”
“What’s
a Kraken?” Diamond puzzled.
“It’s
a mythical sea monster,” Leo explained, at the same time as Nick replied, “It’s
like a giant squid.”
Nick
gave Leo a short glare before continuing, “Anyway, they figure that since it’s
in the Bermuda Triangle, then everyone will think the survivors are crazy.”
“And
giant squids don’t usually come to the surface.” Leo smiled.
“They
can.”
“But
they don’t usually.”
“But—”
“Enough.” K raised his hand once more. “Nick, where did you get this tip from?”
Nick
lowered his head slightly. “A contact.”
K
gave Nick a quick once-over, followed by a meaningful glance at Jay. K then returned Nick a disapproving look.
Nick
lowered his head a little more. That was
definitely an “I don’t approve of you hanging around club singers with
dangerous pasts” look.
“Pirates?” Emerald rolled her eyes. “We’re supposed to be world agents, not
pirate police.”
“But
pirates are outside of any country’s jurisdiction!” Nick jumped from his seat, knocking his chair
back in the process.
“In
the Bermuda Triangle...” Jay paused and
turned to K.
Nick
rustled his hand through his hair as Jay and K exchanged another silent
glance. It said a million words, but he
immediately caught the main topic of their conversation. FANS…
Nick
slammed his hand on the table. “We
definitely have to go!”
“008…”
K started as he laced his fingers and placed his chin on them.
“A
man’s hunch…” Grasshopper began.
K let
out a sigh. “What do you propose, 008?”
“We
should pose as pirates and get on that ship.”
“And
who’s ‘we’?” Jay mused.
“Well,
you sort of look like a pirate… and I have the tip, so I have insider
information…” A small smirk formed on
his lips. “And Di would look great as a
pirate wench.”
Diamond
let out a laugh as she typed on her screen.
“I would look good as anything.”
“You’re
picking agents based on appearances and not on skill?” 007 shook his head slightly. “You need more training, 008.”
“We’re
all skilled!” Nick crossed his
arms. He really just wanted to get
Diamond away from Di-Crapio and back on missions with him, where she belonged.
K
glared at Nick. “Sit down.”
Nick
picked his chair up from the ground and sat back in it.
“I
think it would be best to send 003, 005, and 008,” K finally responded.
“But—”
Nick started to protest.
K
stood from his chair. “Leave as soon as
you can. Meeting adjourned.”
Nick
clenched his hand into a fist. “Well, this
is really irritating…”
“Don’t
worry.” Leo gave him a smile. “I’ll keep Di-Di entertained for you.” Nick gave Leo a glare as he watched him turn
to Diamond. “Hey, Di-Di, want to
celebrate my promotion with drinks?”
“You
know I’m always up for a good drink.”
Diamond smiled.
Nick
gave Leo another glare. Preying on Di’s
hobbies like that…
Leo
smiled. “Meet you downstairs in an hour
and a half?”
“How’d
you know?” she giggled.
Leo
left the room, and Diamond put her hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Sorry about the mission, Nick. We’ll go out when you get back, okay?”
“Fine…”
Diamond
gave him a kiss on the forehead before running over to Lancy and linking arms
with him. “Let’s plan the perfect
outfit, Lancy!”
“You’ll
be a more fab-u-lous work of art than Vitruvian!”
“I
can be his Mona Lisa,” Diamond giggled.
Nick
grumbled to himself. “Fuck this shit.”
± ± ±