Love at First Bite, Chapter 2

Chapter 2  (Chapter 1 Edit: stopped at a motel, not hotel)

  The motel's mattress was covered in files. A pistol, maps, passwords, money, protocols, and enough other documents to make someone's head spin spilled from the mattress onto the floor. Agent Red looked over it again, piecing through the puzzle one last time, to make sure she had enough to move forward. White Rabbit Protocol was disorganized, unsophisticated, tedious, and worst of all, well documented. She hated that, it made it too easy to fall into the wrong hands, but she would have to bite her tongue. Today it just might have saved her life.

  She looked at the closed blinds. Only a little light was making it into the edges of the room. She glanced at the digital clock, and saw it was already 6pm. She wouldn't have time to sleep if she wanted to make it there tonight, and dusk would soon be coming. She'd driven the car until the gas sputtered out, though, and they might have it tagged from the base. She would have to hotwire a civilian vehicle if she wanted to get there tonight.

  "Great," She thought to herself. "One day without the base and I'm already going back to being a criminal. Maybe I should just take a cab... into the middle of nowhere... that wouldn't be the least bit suspicious," she stung herself with the sarcasm, but it hurt less than her past. She started putting the documents back in the briefcase, then the money on top of it, just like protocol required. She already had a pistol on her belt, but would keep the other ready. Never hurt to have a back-up plan. As the last of the five thousand dollars found their place in the briefcase, Agent Red looked to the window again. "Good. Sunset. Time to move out."

  ---

  She left the car a few miles up the road at a diner for truckers. When they realized it was abandoned, it wouldn't arouse too much suspicion that way. At least, it wouldn't cause as much suspicion as being abandoned near a man-made lake that had more than a few warning signs. This way if a search was done, it would be in the forest, they likely wouldn't think to check the lake.

  And so she walked, briefcase in hand, mile after mile after mile. The sounds of the owls accompanied her journey, the constant question of "Who?" digging into her subconscious. Was she still that little girl from decades ago? Was she just another street rat, plagued with thoughts no sane mind would have?
  "No. No," she said to herself, speaking out loud to drown out the query of the forest, and saw the shimmering lake come into view. "I am Agent Red, of Monochromatic Dawn. A light shines from the hilltop where our base once stood. I humbly request an audience with the Queen of Hearts." She set the briefcase down at the edge of the lake, knelt on it, placed her hands on the back of her head, and waited. And she waited. Her arms began to grow tired and she wondered if she had somehow ended up at the wrong lake. Her thoughts began to wander again, but then she noticed something was different. The owls were silent.

  The ground rumbled, and the lake water shifted. Two glass partitions had risen from the water, and now slid apart, revealing a stairwell beneath the beach of White Rabbit Lake. Agent Red stood, lifted the briefcase, and headed down. At the bottom was a small room, clearly intended as an interrogation room. She looked at her reflection in the glass and scowled, sitting down in the chair that sat facing away from the glass. She was breaking protocol, but this was one exception worth making.

  She looked around the room as the wall began to slide back, returning the lake upstairs to a serene, pristine scene. In the room there was the typical table in the middle, one chair on either side, and the lamp in the middle. A few panel lights in the ceiling, and plate glass along one wall for onlookers. She looked around the room again. One, two, three walls and the glass. There was no doorway in sight.

  "Agent Red, was it?"
  "Affirmative." A moment passed.
  "What is the status of Monochromatic Dawn, Agent Red?"

  "Dust and ash. They attacked during patrol," Agent Red answered. Her words hung in the air too long. Perhaps her inquisitor was having a moment of silence for the fallen, she thought.

  "Where is your partner, Agent Red?"

  "Agent Green broke protocol, attempting to enter a tainted zone. Only good it did was taking one landmine out of play." Again, silence was the first response.

  "It's rare for a red agent to grace our humble abode. We don't seem to have any of your files in the database. Please identify."

  It was her turn to take a moment of silence this time. Something was off. "By whom am I being interrogated?"

  "This is a conversation, not an interrogation."

  "I requested an audience with the Queen of Hearts. Identify." Again, silence. Longer than the others. They had her locked in a room without exits, but she didn't even know who they were. Clearly, though, not the right person to speak to.

  "I say again, I requested an audience with the Queen of Hearts. Until I am speaking with her, this conversation is over." She expected a pause this time, but it didn't come.

  "The Queen is indisposed."

  "This.  Takes.  Priority."

  "That is up to the Queen to decide."

  "Bullshit," said Agent Red, opening the briefcase. They money fanned across the table as she got the document regarding agent transition. She stood and slammed it against the glass, her eyes staring into the reflection of her scar. The glass gave less resistance than she'd expected, and she heard a small crack. "Now get me the Queen."