"Zero," the familiar voice came from the other side. Having confirmed her identity, he finally spoke.
"Yes, sir," she replied instinctively.
"Your mission is over. You are to take care of all records related to Anna Dunn and evacuate the location. ASAP."
"Understood, sir."
The call ended without ceremony and she stared into the darkness for a second.
It looked like the search had given enough information to the prosecutors and higher-ups to make a conviction and pull out all related members.
She still carried this flip phone. Convenient to use. Difficult to track. Especially with her burner sim cards.
She bowed over the table and placed it inside the drawer once again. With a quick sigh, she returned to bed and tried to sleep.
It evaded her. Through the window, the light of the morning streamed in, notifying her that it was okay to roam around the apartment.
She didn't know why she felt restless.
- - - - -
That evening, she was sitting in Ladislas' office, talking to him as usual. Only today, she was out of sorts. The aroma of coffee assaulted her senses but it came with a stabbing pain at the back of her head. Ladislas was obviously immersed in the conversation, unaware of how she stared at him from time to time and missed a beat to respond.
Anna shook her head when she saw him get up for another cup of coffee. She quickly realized that she was getting addicted to the taste of this coffee. Ladislas downed his cup in one go all the time. And she was quickly following in his footsteps.
Suddenly he thought of her and took the time to brew another cup for her.
Anna was at her wits' end. Why was Ladislas like this?
Now as she drank the coffee he prepared, she realized the foreign feeling she couldn't dispel.
For the first time in her life, she felt it.
Regret.
What a powerful feeling it was, churning the heart she didn't even know she had.
That evening, she couldn't bring herself to through away the paper cups. She picked up both of theirs and slid them into her bag.
When she came back to the apartment, she surrendered herself to the comfort of the body. She stared at her discarded back for a long time and wondered where these emotions had come from.
Maybe she would find the answer when she saw Ladislas again the next day.
- - - - -
The sound of keystrokes as she manipulated video after video was melody to Anna's ears. She particularly enjoyed doing this after a long mission, to make sure nothing remained of her identity. Sure, people would remember a classmate or student called Anna, but over time they would forget how she looked exactly. The thought of disappearing into the crowd without anyone to keep her back was an experience not everyone had.
And she went through the steps with practiced ease.
This was been her bread and butter for so many ears that she didn't attract much attention anywhere she went. But she did her due diligence.
The reason why Anna was manipulating all the videos was simple. She needed time to think… to think why she was doing things she had never done over the decades. To think why she felt stupid. To wonder why she couldn't leave. Why had she changed so suddenly?
She needed something familiar to make her remember what she was and what her life was like.
Spending several hours after meeting Ladislas and deleting her own existence did nothing for her. After the feeling of regret wore off, she was left confused with the unfamiliarity in her chest.
Ladislas hijacked her thoughts. The way she liked arguing with him… the intelligence in his eyes and the words he spewed. Those little remarks replayed in her head over and over again and when she snapped out of it, she noticed that she had skipped a video.
It was past midnight and her lights were off. She relied on the light of the computer to move around the room. The phone in the drawer vibrated again.
She took it out and read the message that had come to her every day for ten days.
[ETA]
She threw the phone on the bed and stared at the illuminated screen. It was a call for her to disappear. She was supposed to leave the night before. But she delayed. She carelessly tossed away every opportunity she got.
She laid on her bed that night with a deeper revelation, one that she chose to ignore even if it was already screaming in her face.
- - - - -
While Anna contemplated life, Ladislas spent every living moment without Anna looking for the same excitement. He took it upon himself to head out to a bar on Saturday. It had been a while since he had enticed, manipulated, or threatened somebody. Instead of thinking of Anna or going to look for her in her apartment, he decided to shake off his frustration the best way he could.
Good, old-fashioned flirting with evil people.
It was easy enough to be distracted, accepting drinks from a man in the supreme court judge's office, a blonde woman aiding a congressman. The aide managed to sideline the rest with her sharp tongue and evil eyes but he found her boring the moment she invited him to her home.
By Monday, Ladislas was tired from meeting people but he was pleasantly settled. He was no longer frustrated about the days he hadn't seen Anna.
It was only when Penelope came home on Monday evening his irritation flared once again.
"Master, you're in an extraordinary mood!" she commented.
He looked at her sharply. "Is that so?"
Penelope nodded. "You've been glum this weekend despite going out. I was wondering if I should start looking for other places for you to go." She shrugged, leaving him absent-minded.
Yes. Monday was ordinary.