‘Three pound fifty for that one governor?’ he said with a
smile and a tip of his hat.
The man paid no attention, he was far to engrossed to take
notice.
‘The lending library is in the next street but one squire,
should your lordship choose so otherwise at the risk of repeating myself, its 3
and fifty for that magazine and welcome to it you are, blimey never thought I’d
be rid of that one, had it pegged as a dust collector,’ he said and smiled as
the man handed over four pounds.
‘I’d have paid 3 times that, this is almost as good as
opening night of a Bond Film in Leicester Square. I’ve looked everywhere for this edition and
I’d almost given up hope of ever finding one and it even has the Billy Bremner
insert edition, my favourite player as a lad he was,’ the man said with a smile
and an adjustment of his glasses.
‘Well my lucky day isn’t then and here on a Sunday morn, who
says the Lord doesn’t work in mysterious ways, he plunks down, what could it
be, maybe the one and only Leeds Utd. supporter in all of London right at my
news stall, and one with money was well.’
‘I’m a Yorkshireman, born and bred and just here on
business, came a day earlier to prepare and lucky for you I did otherwise you’d
not have my 3 and 50 in your pocket, besides,’ he said looking up at the neatly
clipped row of football magazines.
‘We’ll both be long retired before you sell either of those two, so no
need to disparage my team when you have that hanging about, Sheffield Wednesday
and Shrewsbury Town, my god Utd. are pound sterling compared to that lot,’ he
smiled a victorious grin and turned to walk away when his hand suddenly caught
the edge of the stand.
‘Tube Station?’ the man said as his feet vibrated on the
cement for a fraction of a second and only just that before the newsstand man
had come out the back of the stall grabbed his hand and began running up the
street toward the corner.
‘Just run sir, trust me, fast as you can, up and around the
corner we go.’
Still clutching his magazine the man knew something was
happening behind him and just like Lot’s wife he had to have a look. With breaking stride with his new mate he
managed a quick turn of his head and was sorry he did, instantly he increased
his pace.
What had been a six storied building diagonally across the
street from the newsstand was in the process of collapsing straight down upon
itself in a silent cave in save the shaking ground he had first felt. That was frightening enough but advancing on
them faster than they were moving was a tsunami of white churning dust rising
higher and higher, billowing ever over itself and rushing out the base as it
lapped up the ground, then the noise exploded around them. Glass popped out of adjacent building windows
showering the streets in droplets if crystal rainfall. Then the mad straining cacophony of blasted
crumbling concrete mixed with twisted metal rebar, a mixing of nails of
blackboard and the wail of a Banshee mixed with car alarms from streets
away. Instinctively hands went up to
cover faces, the two men never breaking stride and all the while the advancing
storm wave barrelled up behind them.
Their lungs heated and then burned as they both desperately gulped down
air.
‘A few more breaths then hold it sir,’ the stall owner said
as he looked down at his feet then up at his partner who glanced downward.
The initial wave of smoke and fettered air licked about
their feet then closed about the ankles, knees, thighs, torso then neck as they
both took a final quaff of air before being swallowed up inside the monstrous
wave just as they found the corner and safety.
Both ran down the street several shops before clearing the air enough to
take in air, collapsing against a post box in exhaustion. After a bit of time each straightened up
looked at the other and reached out a hand to the others shoulder, an
acknowledgement of the help they had been to each other and that both were
safe, no words seemed to be needed except.
‘Guess your search for that magazine begins anew, eh?’ the
man said.
‘Some things are precious than life itself and worth
protecting at all costs,’ the other said as he pulled the periodical from under
his sweater a beaming smile on his face.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
‘Building has well planned terrorist attack one day,
building is evacuated and sealed for search by government officials who have to
wait until engineers give ok that structure is safe to enter no explanation
given as to why that procedure was not carried out right away, then said
building is imploded two days later on Sunday morning and here we are on Monday
with a pile of rubble, no explanation and thankfully no dead bodies to pull
from the wreckage, which by early accounts is going to find nothing bigger than
a peanut in one piece. Anyone, feel free
to jump in at this point,’ Sharon Sharpe said.
‘Serious government installation, no doubt or quasi
government with direct ties inside the Home Office or Defence Services. I’m thinking rather than risk a leak, what
with all the people who would have been involved in a search, they decided to
Red Card the entire operation,’ Rod Steel the Head of Men’s Ops at COIL said
looking at his counterpart.
‘I concur, but that opens more questions that it answers,’
Vera de la Fuente, Director of Intelligence for COIL said.
‘Such as,’ Sharon asked already having a series of questions
herself but wanting other input. Options
came at her from around the table.
‘DOOM front we didn’t know about, another government spy
organisation and why didn’t we know or were told about it,’ she said quickly.
‘Those thoughts rolled through my mind as well,’ Rod and
Sharon said in unison, both not meaning to do it, a smile crossing both their
mouths before Rod picked up the conversation.
I will work on my contacts to find out who and what was
going on inside the building, would it be worth our while to insert a few
agents into the civilian investigation teams, either power, roads or police to
gather further data,’ he asked?
‘A wise move Rod, Vera will see to it,’ Sharon said with a
nod to Vera who made a note. I don’t
like not knowing things and I’m not going to let this become the pebble in the
shoe scenario for COIL,’ she added.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
‘Its remarkable how tour new boardroom looks exactly like
the old one we used to occupy,’ the beautiful woman who was always well
tailored said from her spot at the table, he tome biting in its sarcasm as she
intended it to be.
‘Yes, even my chair feels the same as my old one,’ the small
round man added his dripping tone as well.
The stern looking tall thin man who sat at the head of table
ignored the comments as was his want most of the time. He did however allow himself the annoyance of
knowing that they represented interests that the organisation recognized were
needed as a whole, even if he didn’t agree.
They were a nuisance and to his mind not even a necessary one, but that
was a debate for another time, more pressing matters engaged his mind right now
and he brought that top of mind.
‘I already anticipate the answer to this but for the record
I’m compelled to ask. I know nothing of
a tangible nature was saved from the building, but what of the intangibles,
namely computer records and data backup files, I trust that was saved,’ she
said looking straight at the head of the table.
‘All the hard assets were lost, the data back up was
initiated but we encounter an error in the receiving of the data,’ the thin man
said the words having a distasteful note as he said them.
‘Miss Baxter does get around, you’d think one woman would
not be so hard to keep in check, after all you hard head of security are you
not,’ the older woman asked the thin man.
‘Let me be pointed about this,’ the beautiful woman said. ‘What exactly of the entire project do we
have left that is recoverable so we can start again?’
‘Nothing, all the records, data, schematics, hard and
software gone, all that is left are the two clones that we completed some time
ago,’ he said.
‘I will contact one of our subsidiaries right away to see if
we can come up with something to re-establish contact with our partners,’ said
the small man with the glasses with obvious relish as he liked to be busy and
important.
‘Well that is an excellent idea and I do encourage you to
proceed with such an endeavour I have already started to do that albeit along a
different but I feel more direct path,’ the tall man at the head of the table
said allowing a small crease to curl his lip, a look that gave more a picture
of predatorily distain with the group than pleasure.
‘I’ve seen that look before, it was not pleasant then and it
certainly has not changed is demeanour since then,’ the older woman said. ‘I can almost surmise what you have done, I
hope you haven’t, but knowing you,’ she finished while around the boardroom
table eyes flashed in realisation.
‘You need board approval for that!’ the small man shouter in
a much larger voice than he’d ever used before.
‘That would be the polite way of saying it and I certainly
have no intention of being that nice.
Not only has our operation base been destroyed and all data lost now you
have put in jeopardy one of the only assets we have left from this very
expensive operation, an asset I will remind you of we had already decided was
going to be used in a meticulously laid out plan that took over a year to
develop and refine,’ the beautiful woman said her voice icy enough to chill the
room.
One by one they all chimed in with vitriol while the tall
thin man simply crossed his legs interlaced his fingers and ignored them while
keeping an annoying smile on his face as he looked at each of them in turn
during their verbal barrage.
‘All your concerns are duly noted, but since I am the chair
of this group and given that my past actions and instincts have always proven
to be correct in spite of what some around this table consider a more learnered
opinion, namely their own, I have enacted this plan which will succeed and
which I will now explain to you so that you’ll understand as well.’
‘As we have discussed before COIL always appears to be in
our way, either inadvertently or by design, my guess has always been the
former, based simply on the fact they have never followed up on any of our
activities that they have come across. I
put that down to good camouflage on our part and incompetence on their part in
the beginning. However, starting with
the ouster of Richard De Roy from COIL, thanks to the persistence of Miss
Baxter and the two department heads for Women’s Ops, the late Catherine Wycliffe
and the present Sharon Sharpe. You will
remember if it hadn’t been for our intervention Lady Tara Ashton-White would
have discovered our secret a long time ago.
Our action coupled with our then inside connects at the Home Office we
would have been discovered a long time ago.
Unfortunately all good things come to an end and Miss Ashton-White
escaped and through a very cleaver ruse managed to make everyone thing she’d
gone rogue and started her own agency, small and largely inconsequential. We all know that turned out to be a just a
front for her a few loyal friends to work things out,’ he said.
‘Yes, Yes, we are all aware of this but how does this tie
into Miss Baxter,’ the older woman said.
‘Miss Baxter was mentored by two people. Her formal training took place under Sharon
Sharpe, but she was an avid student of the missions of Lady Tara, sort of a
hero worship. While it may be said the
Sharon gave Claire all the tenacity and skill sets she’d need to be a
successful agent Lady Tara, without ever meeting Claire during that time gave
her all the other nuanced skills that made her COIL’s best agent. She however still has the closest bond with
Sharon and woman she loves as a mother figure and really the only person we
know of she trusts totally and without question. I don’t think I need to go any farther in the
explanation at this point we’re all bright enough to see the path outlined so
far I trust?’ he asked looking about the faces.
‘Perhaps that so but I would like a few things qualified or at
least explained. What is the intention here with regard to Miss Baxter and how
can you be so sure regarding Miss Baxter given that her mission dossier is
spotty at best with regard to mission entries,’ the beautiful woman asked.
‘The intention is two fold, to start with the first
question. The first is a capture Miss
Baxter, we started this project with the intent of using the best of the best,
she is the best and quality always seemed to attract quality. In essence, once we get started again, Miss
Baxter will serve as the cornerstone of the project, beauty brains, drive and
determination. Her inclusion into our
circle will expand it exponentially and if I may use another metaphor it will
also act as a moth to a flame, she being the flame and other agents being the
moths, we can pick and choose the talent we want rather than trying to create
it and shape it, that part will be done for us.
Think of it we could have someone with Miss Baxter’s talents influencing
and training others from the start, the result, a better creation, with all the
knowledge of the first and all the knowledge they acquire along the way, then
the process repeats itself with another creation. I estimate with this plan we can speed up our
operational clock by half again as much.’
‘What makes you think Miss Baxter will go along with this,’
the older woman asked.
‘I’m not really interested in that, she will have no choice
and there are ways to ensure that, everyone can be broken and reformed, even
her,’ he answered flatly. ‘As to the
second part of your question regarding her mission dossier, it is thin due to
several events that occurred while on assignment. She went missing in the Philippines, was not
seen again for a long time, so was consequently out of action for that period
and as a result of COIL policy was placed on restrictive duty to ensure she had
not been compromised and turned into a double agent, that is were she remains
today. In fact I have reliable
intelligence that in fact she has been given the rather demeaning roll of being
house mother to COIL’s latest batch of recruits,’ he smiled.
‘That’s excellent but it doesn’t explain the rather sketchy
dossier before that. Given that the rate
of agent assignments had to increase during COIL’s shortage of viable female
agents before her accident in the Philippines,’ the older woman stated.
‘Actually it does,’ he stated and picked up a piece of
paper. ‘An internal COIL memo, recently
obtained from a friendly source. I will
pass it around so you can all verify as to its authenticity, as I’m sure you’ll
want to, but for brevity sake I will summarize.
‘It seems a decision was made during their agent shortage to transition
agents in training into active service ahead of schedule, in some cases more
than a year ahead. As you can most
likely imagine this resulted in a rather shocking high mortality rate, but was
deemed necessary to save the organisation as a whole. If COIL had used its more experienced agents
and over worked them the likelihood was that many of them would have ended up
dead, so they made a decision to survive as an entity they had to sacrifice a
generation of agents, but time then build again. That kind of cold blooded thinking is almost
worthy of a place at this table, so that is the answer as to why Miss Baxter et
el were held in reserve,’ he explained.
‘When can we expect acquisition of Miss Baxter,’ the small
man said.
None of the others said anything, the tall thin man smiled.
‘By Wednesday afternoon,’ he answered the smile growing
wider.
* *
* * * * * * * * * * *
Claire closed the
last door and walked down the hall toward the reception station and as always
an alert Wendy Schiller.
‘That was fast, don’t tell me their all exceptional students
and require nothing of imparted wisdom from you Claire or are they like all new
recruits and by now think they know it all, present company excepted on that
last part,’ Wendy smirked.
Claire took the ribbing as it was intended and enjoyed the
joke which was true to some extent, the part about the know it recruits at
least.
They are all really good listeners and the questions they do
have are mercifully short and to the point, I think that’s because their so
tired, I remember those days, so I can empathise with them. I think all they wanted to do was go to bed
or get me out of there, I don’t think I’m the wonderful mentor they thought I
was going to be,’ Claire smiled.
‘Extra assignments not found in the training manuals or
daily teachings, oh I remember those from my training days. I hated them then, but I was sure thankful I
had them when I became an agent, they saved my life more than a few times,’
Wendy said.
‘I’m going to get something to eat why don’t you come along
and tell me a few of those stories, your shift hasn’t quite ended but I’m won’t
tell if you won’t,’ Claire smiled.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
‘Don’t you two ever get tired of studying?’ Lana Duke said
to her two roommates Sita Ruperjee and Maria Sanchez.
‘No, its how you learn and besides sometimes you can
discover things about something you never set out to,’ Maria answered coolly.
It was no secret among the various trainee’s that tension
existed between Lana and her roommates, while others formed bonds, encouraged
each other and helped each other along, Lana did none of that with Sita and
Maria to the point where some in the class were beginning to give the three a
wide birth. Lana didn’t seem to mind it,
in fact she kind of enjoyed it, but Maria and Sita did not.
‘Then I’ll leave you two Petunia Protons to your excitement,
I have other things to do,’ Lana said dismissively.
‘Ah before you go we have a conundrum that we can’t figure
out, perhaps you can shed some light on the matter,’ Sita said standing up and
turning toward Lana who turned around at the question. ‘Perhaps you can explain why you would have
these two rather nasty items, I believe this is a rather lethal Stripstick and
this canister contains Glitter Powder.
Maria and I were just wondering how Strippers Guild weapons could end up
with a trainee,’ Sita said as she put down the items and smiled.
‘Well I can see my ruse is up and the cat’s out of the bag,
unfortunately for you two, this cat has claws and is not afraid to use
them. Pity I shall have to waste my
talents on you two, our plan was for several instructors to meet their ends,
now I will just have to settle for a light workout and two modesty trainees
before I make my escape,’ Lana said as she moved instantly to the attack.
Just as quickly Sita hand the scarf from her Lehenga off her
neck and with the most delicate snap the end revolved around Lana’s wrist and
cemented in place. Sita gathered up the
slack, tucked and rolled her body forward and under the swinging arm of Lana
popping up behind her where she tossed the free end of the scarf back to Maria
who promptly joined her end to Lana’s other wrist as Sita gathered in the slack
and pulled the trainees arms straight back where she wrapped a few loops of the
loose material around the wrists and bond them together.
‘Cha-sah!’ Maria said as she drove a raised knee into Lana’s
mound.
The Stripper wincing in pain from the first blow felt her
ankles being tied in the silk scarf.
Miss Baxter had you pegged from the start, she asked us to
keep a close eye on you,’ Maria said with a smile.
‘She can have the satisfaction of that all she wants and you
two can take whatever you want from this, but you waited to long for your
glorious moment,’ Lana said in triumph.
‘Oh yes all those reports you were sending out in coded
email,’ Sita said. ‘Funny thing about
that, but Maria is quite a math and computer whiz. You know you really should choose a better
password. All that knowledge ended up
going nowhere except of course you’re carelessness actually provide us with a
storehouse of intel on your organisation.’
‘And I never thought a nice Indian girl could correspond as
a stripper,’ Maria smiled.
‘I did enjoy our conversations Lana and all those IP
address, I’m sure we’ll make good use of them,’ Sita added.
Lana shook with fury and grunted in frustration. ‘COIL will never get me to talk,’ she spat.
‘I’m sure that’s true, but we never mentioned COIL only you
have and I think we’ve both heard more than enough from you,’ Sita said with a
nod to Maria who drove her knee into Lana’s mound once more while Sita kicked
out the back the Strippers legs crashing Lana to the floor prostrate on her
stomach.
Maria hooked the back of her heel into Lana’s bounds at her
ankles while Sita took care of her wrist.
They cartwheel toward
each other on opposite sides of the Strippers body pulling her up in a U shape
to a loud snap before disengaging their heels.
Maria picked up her phone and sent a text message.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
‘Anything the matter Claire?’ Wendy Schiller asked as Claire
looked at her cell.
‘No, everything is fine,’ she smiled and closed the
phone. ‘Now you where saying, The Fiji
Assignment and don’t leave out a detail.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
*
I thought this was the day Miss Baxter was to be delivered
into our hands?’ the beautiful woman asked sharply.
Before he could answer in his usual dismissive tone several
knocks landed on the boardroom door. All
staff knew never to interrupt their meetings.
He glanced about the room his face registering the resignation that as
chairman he was not getting up to answer the door for any underlings
knocks. Finally the small man scurried
out of his chair and over to the door where whispered voices exchanged a few
words and a box that he hurriedly brought to the tall thin man at the head of
the table.
‘It’s addressed to
you, I thought we agreed this location would be kept strictly within this
room!’ he said his voice angry and his face red, both very uncharacteristic.
The tall thin man
ignored the comment as he pulled a letter opener from the small drawer attached
underneath the table. He did however let
his eyes boring into the small round man for just long enough to watch him turn
tail and scurry back to his proper place.
‘What is it?’ the beautiful woman said, she not afraid to
speak up.
‘If you will be a little more patient we can all find out
together, but I suspect it is our answer from Miss Baxter,’ he said with a note
of confidence in his voice and hint of satisfied victory in his voice.
‘It would seem Miss Baxter wants to meet with me,’ he said
as he read the note that he kept concealed from the others.
‘What does the note say exactly and why did she send it in a
box, what else are you concealing from us,’ the older woman asked in an icy
tone.
‘A telephone number and a request for the two of us to meet,’
he said showing them for the first time the hidden message
‘Why is it printed on the back of a playing card?’ the small
round man asked.
He tossed the card on the down the middle of the table so
they could all see it.
‘The Queen of Hearts?’ several mentioned at once as they
looked up at him quizzically.
He pushed the box into the centre of table for all to see
the severed head of Sharon Sharpe.
* * * * * * * * * *
* * * * *
‘Pants Miss Baxter?’ he said in a questioning voice as a
woman stood before him, appearing as if out of nowhere. ‘That is somewhat out of character for you?’
‘You don’t deserve my legs,’ she answered and sat down next
to him.
‘I learned a long time ago that deserve has nothing to do
with anything. One gets what one wants
by will and force of nature, a nature one imposes on oneself and others
wouldn’t you agree?’
‘I prefer the Newtonian principle, for every action there is
an equal or opposite reaction. In other
words I see the world as a balanced scale you see it perpetually tipped in your
favour, or perhaps that view is changing given recent current events,’ Claire
stated as she watched little children play on the swings and other apparatus
across the park lawn.
‘No, yet here we are and the proof of my belief is that you
came when I called, you reacted to my action, hence I control you in some small
way. You Miss Baxter, you’re a reactor
to situations; you get sent to fix things once they break rather than before
they do. How much more harm are you put
in as a result of that and how much easier would it have been to do a little
preventative maintenance before hand.
No, you are told what to do and you do it and you do it again and again
until you’re one, dead or two, used up to the point of being no more use, then
you are discarded and the next young woman takes your place. And what have you accomplished for all that
work and danger, nothing really; the replacement agent merely confirms my
hypothesis. We offer a much more how
should I say holistic approach, one that eliminates the need for constant
intervention, although not all together nullifies it,’ he said with a toothy
smile.
‘Ah we come to the raison d’etere of this meeting, a job
offer. I’ve had them before from many
other people and organisations and the answer has always remained a constant
no,’ Claire answered.
‘I will admit that is the underlying reason for my being
here, but I don’t think a job offer, as you commonly put it, does what I am
about to offer you full voice,’ he answered, then continued. ‘This is merely a pay and positional
advancement; this is an opportunity to become a genuine person who shapes what
this planet will become. Governments do
what they do and will continue to do so, benignly following the path set by a
select few citizens who actually control the levers of power not just in one
country or a region of the planet but the entire earth. No more one against the other, a single
cohesive order moving things along and what I am offering you today a place
within that group. Think of it Miss
Baxter, you get the make the changes you only can hope to make at COIL, they
allow you to get close the prize before pulling it away, we offer you the
chance to catch, hold and distribute the prize,’ he explained clinically.
‘I am reminded of the saying regarding absolute power,’
Claire mused. ‘However, I will not lie
and say that thoughts and sometimes wishes likening such a situation have not
crossed my mind during my stay at COIL.
Tell me Mr. Finch, have you ever been to the Sahara for any period of
time?’ Claire asked looking sideways at his face and seeing in his eyes that he
hadn’t been.
‘I spent some time there on a mission travel with a several
Bedouin family groups, traders moving from place to place. One day a fierce sandstorm came up and we had
to stop. Do you know that if you don’t
take cover quickly, the winds drive the small granules of sand so fast that
they will actually strip the skin from any exposed body part and reduce
whatever covering you may be wearing to rags within minutes? We spent 4 days inside before the storm
ended; when we emerged the sand had completely shifted and changed the
landscape from what I remembered. I
asked one of the men how we would ever find our way now that the route we had
been following was gone? He answered by
telling me the route was still there it just goes in a different direction now,
but our destination remains the same, it has not moved. What you want to do is move the destination,
rather than change the way to get there, tell me which is easier?’ Claire said
again looking at the children.
‘Both have there challenges, but neither is impossible with
the right people,’ he answered.
‘It appears I’m one of those right people, but tell me how
long before I cease being one of those people and you’re opening a box
containing my head. Sorry I almost
forgot to ask, how did you like my present?’ Claire smiled and looked into his
grey eyes with ice cold blue sapphires of her own. ‘Clone or not she was a wealth of information
once persuaded to talk, names, addresses other bits of relevant information.’
‘It received the requisite shock value it intended,’ he
answered looking back at her but letting his eyes linger just a little too long
giving Claire the opportunity to discern what he didn’t ask.
‘She may have looked and sounded like Sharon, but that’s
simply nature over nurture and that’s where the entire enterprise
collapsed. She may have been able to
fool people who didn’t know her that well, but I trained with her, as I’m sure
you know from reading my dossier, and oh, just a note on that, that is the
abridged version of my dossier, in fact more is missing than is actually there
and that was always by design, not my design, but a friend of mine who changed
the files without anyone knowing, COIL and I suspect even you, would I be
correct in that assumption? Come on do
tell, we are sharing secrets here on this lovely day, don’t spoil such a
pleasant meeting with protocol,’ Claire’s smooth voice teased as only she could
do.
‘You are correct, we had a different theory as to why it
was, well I suppose spotty is as good a word as any,’ he answered.
‘Lady Tara is very good with computers, a hidden talent,
among many others, but then again she is an excellent spy, so one would suspect
hidden talents, uncovering them, now that’s the difficultly, even for me as she
had apparently being doing it all along to my dossier. I’m not even going to ask what hypothesis you
were working under it doesn’t matter now,’ she countered and watched a small
curl form on the left side of his mouth.
‘Meantime, Sharon, yes, well, where to begin, bad technique, poor
fighting skills, whoever trained her did a piss poor job, please excuse the
vulgar vernacular but above all she had no knowledge of us. I trained with the woman, she’s like my
mother, I love her as such and I could tell from the first hug, she wasn’t my
Sharon. After that a few simply causal
questions, then I put her on the spot, called her for what she was and took
care of her, then returned to sender. If
you have more like her they better be Sharon 2.0 because the Beta version
crashed and burned
‘She was our only adult model and as you say since we are
sharing secrets, the latest version, fully formed clones that emerge as
adults,’ he answered.
‘Progress is slow and costly on the road to building a
better mousetrap. Back to the drawing
board literally I suppose after that unfortunate gas explosion levered the
building and you not able to get out any of the machines and suffering the
doubly frustrating fate of not being able to transmit the data files. I guess its back to the Petrie dish,’ Claire
mused.
‘On the contrary, we, with the help of a certain party
by-passed that time consuming baby the child to adolescent to adult time
constraint with Sharon, she was the 2.0 version as you mockingly said. Mr. Finch raised and hand and then
continued. ‘That took time and effort to
get there, but like all experiments there was prototype along the way,’ he
answered.
Claire looked up to she a little girl, perhaps 5 or 6
running across the grass toward them, she was wearing a pink overalls, blue
runners and a white shirt with a Hello Kitty logo on it. Her hair as slightly past her shoulder and
clipped with a beret to hang down the back of her neck. With every step she took toward them Claire
took a step back in time toward her until the two meet face to face at the park
bench.
Harrow Finch please say hello to Claire Baxter,’ he said
with a bright smile.
‘Hello Miss Baxter, nice to meet you, could you come a push
me on the swing, I’m afraid I’m not very good at it by myself,’ she asked in a
small cheerful pipey voice.
‘I would love to dear, but can you give me several minutes
more with Mr. Finch and then I’ll be right over. In the meantime, site beside me for a second
and I’ll show you a trick for the swings,’ Claire said as the girl sat beside
her. ‘First thing you do is run back a
few steps as you sit on the swing, then raise your legs and fly forward keeping
your legs straight out as you go,’ Claire explained as she demonstrated by
raising her legs and getting Harrow to so the same. ‘The just as you’re about to go backward you
tuck your legs underneath like this and pull back on the chains just a little,
then your repeat the whole thing again as you go forward. Now you show me, forward,’ Claire said. ‘Now backward, now forward, back, forward,
wonderful, you know I bet by the time I get there you’ll be going so well, you
fly right over the top in a big circle.
And remember when you want to stop and get off, just hold your legs
straight out and you’ll slow down. Are
you ready to go try?’
The girl gave a nod and a familiar smile and was off running
toward the swings with all the sped and delight that only a child can convey.
‘It must be a strange feeling sitting beside oneself with
only the mirage of time separating you from yourself,’ he smiled evilly. ‘She is Claire 1.0, we thought so much of you
we used your DNA, that is before your destroyed the lab, to create, to use your
words our first prototype. Technically
is just turned 5, in reality she is only 2,’ he offered in a voice akin to
describing the age of a car.
Claire said nothing is was still trying to come to grips
with seeing the little girl, the little girl that was her in every genetic respect. She didn’t know how to react, so she didn’t,
she placed that aside, it served no purpose at the moment except to sidetrack
her, she needed to stay on point.
‘Do you want to
practice the Socratic Method here or do you just want to explain,’ Claire said
shaking her head.
‘Extraordinary, isn’t it.
When we first started out this was the best we could do, a toddler, then
with better equipment and more intensified effort we were able to produce
adults. That was the breakthrough we had
always strove for, no however, given the circumstances of your encounter with
our efforts I’m beginning to think, she may be best course of action, playing
the long hand, as the Chinese call it,’ he surmised. ‘You represent the best of COIL operatives
Miss Baxter, that’s why we used your DNA first, you should be honoured, but
think of the even greater honour you can have if you take all that you’ve
learned and impart that knowledge in her.
Tell Miss Baxter, how much better an agent would you be today if you had
started at say 8 or 9 to train. All the
advanced one on one education, the best the world could offer, could be that
child’s and you could be the one imparting it, to her and to others. In the strictest sense of the word you would
achieve immortality while helping us to achieve our goals,’ he offered.
‘She only looks like me, she is not me, nor should she ever
be me, she should be Harrow, not the child, toddler or her, use her name, she
is a person,’ Claire said.
‘A mother’s protective voice and instincts,’ he mused with
an even more menacing smile.
‘Let’s not quibbled over semantics, the bigger picture is
the important thing, I know you see it and something tells me deep inside that
you agree with what we do and would like to be a part of it. All you have to do is say yes,’ Finch said
extending his boney hand for her to shake.
‘You seem like an intelligent man, well that goes without
saying Mr. Finch. I think I can say I
understand you, your organisation, your offer and what would be my place within
it and you wouldn’t be here today and I wouldn’t have accepted your invitation if
you weren’t already confident of my answer, even with some of the revelations
I’ve told you about with regard to errors on your organisations behalf. Bringing along Harrow did nothing to sway me,
except it did reinforce your organisations resources, something COIL can’t
offer me and never will be able to do or have the willingness to do,’ Claire
explained.
‘We do see eye to eye after all,’ Finch triumphed a smile
creasing his face in victor
‘Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent,’
Claire smiled back, she let that sink in just to the point that the smile
disappeared from his face before she continued.
‘The empty vessel makes the loudest sound that is why you wanted to meet
me; I’m your last best hope Mr. Finch.
Organisations like yours begat evil deeds from evil thoughts and you
count on us to play by rules that you don’t acknowledge, every step forward for
you equates to two back for us, that’s how you play the game and now that’s how
I played the game, until I decided to play by your rules You don’t know me at all sir and in your lack
of understanding you have doomed not only yourself but the others of your like
who foolishly gave you license to pursue your ego towards me,’ Claire glanced
at her watch and smiled as a small low rumbling, like a thunder clap far off in
the distance filled the air.
‘Your office, the
second one, as of now just another pile of rubble, those gas leaks, London is
full of old pipes just waiting to break, at least that’s going to be official
explanation, a construction crew, just started this afternoon, seems they hit a
buried pipe not shown on any map.
Luckily they all escaped and well the building was levelled the
fatalities were remarkably small, I think in the order of four well five, you
being the fifth. Oh not to worry Mr.
Finch I’m not going to kill you, if I had wanted that I’d have killed you
already, but that would deprive me of taking Harrow by the hand and walking
away while you sit here and watch us go knowing your time is marked simply by
how long it takes others within your organisation to find and kill you. How do I know that will happen, easy sir,
it’s the nature of the beast you work for.
Harrow was a bonus, I had no idea about her, but your arrogance could
not let you keep any cards hidden, you had to show me and for that I’m
grateful, because I get to steal her away and give her a life you would deny
her. Its true what the Bard said, There
are no devils in hell, their here on earth, well in short order another devil
will be sent home,’ Claire toned.
‘Are you quite finished Miss Baxter?’ he said with just a
fraction of a note of worry in his voice.
‘That’s the first time during our conversation that you’ve
not sounded like yourself. Yes I am, I
could tell you all about your dealings with the aliens that you duped the
technology out of for the clones, they are a trusting race, always have been,
even back in 1947 in Roswell. I don’t
think I have time to explain that adventure of mine to you, but just so you
understand, they will not be speaking with you again. Now I think we’re done, I leave with more
than I came and you leave with nothing and in short order even that will be
taken away from you. Goodbye Mr. Finch
the pleasure was all mine,’ Claire said as she got up and walked toward the
swings.
‘Where is Mr. Finch?’ Harrow asked as Claire knelt beside
her.
‘He asked me if I could look after you for a while as he has
a business meeting to go to. I hope you
don’t mind?’ Claire smiled.
Harrow smiled back and Claire took the cue.
‘You look very hungry, you’ve be playing very hard, I know a
really fun place nearby if you’d like?’ the spy asked.
‘How did you know I was hungry?’ Harrow asked rubbing her
tummy.
When I was your age I was always hungry,’ Claire smiled at
her younger self as she offered her hand and the girl took it.
Would you like to play a game?’ Harrow said as they walked
out of the park.
‘What game do you want to play?’ Claire asked her voice
happy.
‘Do you know how to play I Spy?’ Harrow enthused.
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