Chapter Text
“Just down the hall, tenth door on the right.”
I nodded and began my walk.
Why was this place so crowded? People everywhere, running to and fro. Frantic. Panicked, even. I guess my first day was bad luck or something. I definitely had come in the middle of some crisis. Some crisis I didn’t have to worry about, though, because what could a rookie possibly do to help? I was definitely not cut out for field work this early on. I was probably here to do paperwork or something. I was ready for a chill first day.
I reached the room that I was assigned to by the hostess. I entered and was face to face with some important looking woman, only a little older than me. Her deep red hair flowed down to her shoulders and her green eyes gave a sense of friendliness. She motioned to a chair at the desk. The desk with my name on it. Paperwork it was, then. I sat down.
“Oh, hey! You must be one of the recruits. I do need you to confirm your name please, as there was a mishap with the system after training and I don’t have your name on the register.”
“Leo Winslow. Nice to meet you.” She jotted it down on a clipboard and walked to the door. She reached out and handed the clipboard off to a random passerby.
“I’m terribly sorry about that. Welcome! My name is Daisy Thornfield, and I am your designated mentor. I’m sure you’ll be right at home. Now that you’ve completed your training, you’ve been selected to be apart of our organization. You will certainly be a valuable asset, and-“
Her clearly rehearsed speech was interrupted by someone running into the door, yelling sorry, and scrambling off. Her professionalism dissolved.
“Ugh, I am so sorry about the state of things today. There’s a bit of a…situation. I don’t mean to rush off, but there’s some papers in the top left drawer. Paperwork for you to do. Sorry if that disappoints you, I mean, all this training for paperwork? I can try to get you some field work, cause I know you’re a capable kid, but I’m not sure what I can do now…” Her voice trailed off.
“You don’t have to apologize, I get it. I’m a rookie, the new kid, not much I can do ‘til I’m established. In the meantime…” in an effort to be somewhat funny, I grabbed the papers and stamp from the drawer, as well as a pen, and, without breaking eye contact, signed and stamped several. She giggled.
“I think you’ll be just fine around here.” She turned to leave the room, when another person came barreling down the hallway. All I heard of the out of breath comment was something about some big bad guy that the agency’s been fighting against for years, all hands on deck, yes even the new recruits, blah blah blah. Wait. What about the new recruits?
“Hey new kid! Looks like I’m getting you field work after all.”
So much for a chill first day.
It looked like the other new recruits were just as confused as me. We all thought we were in for paperwork and more training, maybe even meetings if we were lucky. I knew it took a long time for people to get their footing in a place like this.
We were all dropped off in different rooms. These corresponded to the skills we showed we were proficient in during training. A few went to the weapons room. A couple more entered the vehicle garage. One even went into the big important planning room. I was the only one sent to the computer room. There were only about ten people inside. I was sat down and told to put on the headset and follow the instructions given. I did so, and the screen lit up with a little “welcome” message. So I guess this was my personal computer, for the rare occasions I participated in this type of work.
Then I started receiving instructions from the headset, from an extremely familiar voice. It was Daisy, my mentor! She was in charge of computers? Maybe I could make my first friend here…we hadn’t been allowed to talk to others during training, as we would not all be selected and any information about us could be used against the agency.
My screen told me I was to interact only as a last resort when all agents were needed. Since I was a rookie, I was to sit back and observe. Sounds good to me. The computer displayed live feeds from all the other computers, and I could pick which one to watch. I watched a few, and learned what we were doing. Each one of us controlled a drone to gather intel, like weak spots in the enemy line, to send to the field agents.
But I was bored. I had been sitting here, collecting valuable info to use against the enemy, without a way to use it. It was my first day, I shouldn’t make a bad impression. But…who cares. I got to work.
I don’t even really remember what happened. That’s kinda the thing, my hands take over and my head can’t do anything about it. But the next thing I knew I had partially hacked an empty vehicle in the garage. One with a big gun. I was about to attempt to drive it into the field, but my screen flashed. Then in the headset I heard “all hands on deck.” My screen switched over to the drone camera and my drone was released. I was to fly (as covertly as possible) over the enemy line and score some information that could be used to our advantage.
Obviously, us staying super shallow in enemy territory wouldn’t get us anywhere. Several drones had been shot down already. I had to go bigger. I flew completely around the battle and approached the city from the back. There was a skyscraper that was right where the battle was taking place. There was a convenient open window. I flew in. It was an empty room, but there was an even more convenient open door. I flew down the hallway, checked a few rooms, stayed close to the ceiling to avoid being seen. Finally I found a room of use. I had landed myself right in their computer room. Whether or not it belonged to the enemy or some random company was a gamble. A gamble I decided to take. I had noticed there was a nice little USB drive feature in the drone. After some snooping, I found the port. I was about to discover some sweet info when someone came in.
He was an unsettling man. The kind of guy you don’t want to bump into on the street. He looked somewhat prim and proper, though. This guy has to be a bad guy, right? He noticed me instantly. Unfortunately, I couldn’t snap a photo or insert the USB in time. He walked over and snapped the drone in half. My screen filled with static and then a “no signal” message. I watched as the other screens, one by one, received the same message. Our last hope was one last drone, who had given up getting info and was simply watching the whole scene. We all watched in horror as the field agents began to retreat, and the drone was shot down. We had been defeated.