Jynx walked over and tapped Karma on the knee. With an instant reaction Karma woke up. He instinctively reached for his pistol and half pulled it out of the holster. But he stopped when Jynx stepped back. She looked horrified as she said, "I am so sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. But there is something going on at the building." Karma took his hand off his gun and stood up. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes as he walked over to the telescope.
Looking through the scope he saw a man and a woman talking in front of the building. Karma studied them for a few seconds and said, "You recognize them or something?"
"No, it was just really odd that they were standing there for so long." Jynx walked over and stood nearby.
"Agents don't talk outside for this long. They talk in enclosed spaces, hidden from sight." Karma stretched his back. Sleeping in that chair did a number on him. Then he said, "Did you take their picture?"
"Oh, yeah. Several times." Jynx said with conviction.
"Then don't worry about it. The guy is probably asking for her phone number or if she is busy this weekend." Karma stepped away from the telescope and yawned. Then he looked at his watch. It was about 5:40 p.m. Good enough. He walked over to the office door and asked, "Anyone walk by yet? Like security or anything?"
Jynx shook her head, "No one. I don't think anyone walks around on this whole floor." Karma nodded and walked down the hallway to the bathroom. He turned the light on and washed his face in the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror. How many times had he slept in a chair? Could this be the last time? Hopefully. Karma dried his face and returned to the office. Jynx was still there watching the telescope. He said, "Okay, it's my turn to watch the building. Are you ready for a break?" Jynx nodded and stepped away from the scope as Karma approached.
Jynx walked over and sat on the desk. She apologized again, "Sorry I woke you up like that. The way you acted I thought you were going to shoot me."
Karma peered into the telescope and said, "It's okay, I am just not used to people waking me up in a friendly way."
Jynx sat on the desk and started kicking her feet. She had only been sitting there for a few minutes and she was bored already. She laid down on the desk with her hands supporting her head. Her kicking the desk was making a tapping noise. Karma shot a glare at her. Jynx did not stop for a few seconds until she saw his face. Then she sat there silently for a few minutes. Finally, she asked, "What time is it?"
Karma glanced at his watch and said, "It is almost 6pm. Lots of businesses will be closing soon. People will be arriving and leaving the building soon. Why? You got a hot date?"
Jynx rolled her eyes, "No, I am just… wondering when something interesting will happen. I'm not trying to break rule number one or anything but there has to be something interesting going on. Maybe the building will have a shootout, or some enemy agents will show up."
Karma suddenly gasped and said, "Oh shit, you are not going to believe this."
Jynx's attention was captured, she asked, "What? Who is it?"
Karma adjusted the telescope and said, "It's an agent. No wait… it's me. It's an exact copy of me. He is going into the "No One Cares" Building. There he goes. Oh, he's gone. Sorry, I should have gotten a picture for you."
Jynx's excitement was quickly swept away. Karma smiled at her. She did not return the smile. Jynx said, "Three days of this? Ugh, this is almost painful." She looked around for something to do. She grabbed her personal bag and pulled out some candy bars. "Dove bars are called Galaxy bars here. That is so weird. How come no one is talking about this?"
"Because it is not that interesting. Did you waste all the money I gave you on potato chips and candy bars?" Karma said without looking away from the telescope.
"No," Jynx reached into her bag and pulled out a jar. Then she said, "I bought a jar of pickles too. You like pickles?"
Karma didn't say anything. He just stared at her. After a few seconds he slowly reached over and took a picture of a man entering the building. The camera shutter clicked twice. Jynx continued to dig through her bag, eventually dumping out the contents all over the desk. She organized her spare clothes, soap, make-up, massive collection of candy bars, and a jar of pickles. She opened the pickle jar and ate a few of them. Then she asked, "Want one?"
Karma said, "Thanks, but no thanks. I am perfectly happy starving to death. I still can't wrap my head around the extreme number of candy bars you bought. Is that how you have survived all these years?"
"No of course not, but you said food that will last a few days. I couldn't buy a steak or anything. What was I supposed to buy?"
Karma retorted, "How about a loaf of bread? Maybe some peanut butter? Bottled water? You could have gone way out of the way and bought some plates too. Maybe some plastic knives so we could eat like civilized people."
Jynx was silent for a moment then she said, "How do you know I am not allergic to peanut butter? Huh? That would be very insensitive of you."
Karma's face was beginning to show some frustration but then quickly flushed to calmness as he said, "I doubt you have ever seen a Norwegian winter. There the winter lasts for 10 months. The wind cuts to the bone and all the lakes and rivers are frozen four feet thick. Back in 84 when I was lost in Norway. I was desperate to keep myself warm, so I killed my sensitive side and threw him on the fire. As you can see, it worked. But at what price…"
Jynx stopped eating pickles for a second and said, "You think you're funny, don't you?"
Once again, Karma didn't say anything. He returned to the telescope and watched the building. Jynx eventually finished organizing her stuff and put it all back into her bag. Once she was done, she said, "You know for a half second there I thought you were going to tell me an amazing spy story. Maybe something where you shot a bad guy, found the assassination plot, and saved the day. Do you have any of those stories?"
"Nope, sorry." Karma looked away from the telescope for a minute then said, "Why do you want to hear a story so bad?"
"Well, if we don't have anything to do at least we can talk. Or better yet we can play a game. I got it! I am going to guess your backstory." Jynx adjusted herself on the desk and focused on Karma. Then she pointed at him and said, "You are from some nowhere town in the States. You had terrible grades in high school, not because you were stupid but because you were the bad boy. Always in trouble for something. Your grades prevented you from getting into the college of your choice, but it didn't matter because you were drafted into Vietnam. While at war you killed a record number of Charlies and got a bunch of metals and stuff. When the war was over you got recruited by your friend Freeman for this job. How close am I?"
"Very close." Karma took his eye off the telescope to adjust his neck. Then he said, "You left out the part about Norway."
Jynx smiled, "Seriously, how close was I? I can read people. It's my hidden skill."
"You can read people. Okay, how about my turn." Karma returned to the telescope. Without looking at her he said, "You were born on a military base. Your mother was British while your father was American or vice versa. When his tour was over, he moved your whole family to the States. He taught you to shoot, and when you were old enough you joined the military to follow in your father's footsteps. However, things didn't go as you planned. You joined a difficult MOS. Your test scores were too high, or too low. You almost got sent home with your tail between your legs but before any of that worked out, some asshat recruiter approached you to be a soldier in a different way. You instantly jumped at the chance and signed the dotted line. That landed at HQ where you teamed up with me. How accurate was that?"
Jynx was shocked for a second. Then she said, "Did you read my file or something?"
Karma shook his head, "Nope, seriously, how accurate was I?"
"That was… A little bit off but still scary accurate." Jynx thought about it for a second then repeated, "You had to have read my file. How did you know all that stuff?"
"That is MY hidden skill." Karma clicked another picture and said, "I recognized your half British accent, some of your pronunciations are a bit wonky as they say. I knew you had to be British or at least you knew someone that was British. However, you have never heard of the Walker potato chip brand. You also mentioned shooting guns when you were 4 years old. Guns are illegal to own in the British Isles. So, clearly you were raised in the states. It sounds very much like a military family."
Jynx looked at him with a scornful look and said, "Well, you didn't get everything right. I also got recruited for my high marksmanship."
"That makes sense. What did you shoot at the range?"
"40 out of 40."
Karma raised an eyebrow at that. Then he said, "Impressive, was that with paper targets or pop-up targets?"
"Both."
Karma raised this other eyebrow, "I see. That is why they recruited you. Did you qualify with pistols or just rifles?"
"Just rifles. I wanted to try pistols, but they said that was reserved for officers. It's a shame because my dad had me shooting handguns when I was 6. I could have set a new standard in basic training. Instead, I am here sitting on a desk, eating pickles, talking to you."
"Living the dream." Karma stood up and looked at the door. Then looked back into the telescope. He said, "No action for a while. Time for some more training." He walked over to his bag and started digging around in it.
Jynx was shocked, "Training? For me? I really don't feel like reading a map for hours." Karma grabbed his lockpicking kit and pointed to the door. Jynx did not understand what he meant. Karma walked over to Jynx and grabbed her by the hand. He walked her out of the room and into the hallway. He let go of her hand and walked back into the room. Jynx was a little confused, she asked, "What training is this?"
In one swift motion, Karma slammed the door in her face. The sound echoed down the hallways and back. Jynx just stood there confused. After a few seconds she reached for the door. It was locked. She knocked. Karma did not answer. She stepped back away from the door and leaned against the wall. Oddly enough, the wall was very uneven. Jynx turned around to look at it. But the wall was perfectly flat. The wall was not uneven, she was. Jynx noticed Karma's lockpicking kit was in her back pocket. How did he do that?
Inside the room Karma was looking through the telescope. At least he had a few minutes of peace. He stood up from the telescope and walked over to her personal bag. He unzipped it and started picking through the candy bars. He opened and ate a few of them. It was not the most nutritious food, but it was better than starving. After a few minutes he heard the doorknob start to jiggle. She found the lockpicking kit. Karma returned to the telescope and watched the building.
Outside the door, Jynx was hard at work on the doorknob. She knew the basic concept of lockpicking. More or less. After a few minutes of failure, she switched out the tools. Karma made this look so easy. She was puzzled how she couldn't figure it out.
After 30 minutes of trying the doorknob finally turned and the door slowly opened. Karma looked up from the telescope to see Jynx on her knees in front of the open door. He said, "Congratulations. You have completed level one of lockpicking, how do you feel?"
"Tired." Jynx stood up and stretched her back. She had been sitting there for a hot minute. Then she said, "That was a lot of work."
Karma agreed, "That it is. Are you ready for level two?"
"Yeah, I think so." Jynx said as Karma walked towards her. With a swift kick he shut the door in her face again. The wind from the door blew her hair back. Before Jynx could reach the doorknob, she heard a click. She knew exactly what he had done. Jynx got back down on her knees and pulled out the lock picking kit.
Inside, Karma was still at the telescope. He looked at his watch and made a mental note of the time. A few minutes later the door opened again. Karma looked up from the telescope to see Jynx standing in the doorway, then to his watch. He smiled and said, "4 minutes. Not bad. Seems like you are getting good at this. Ready for level three?"
Jynx said, "Yep, what is it?"
Karma pointed to the door. Then he said, "Lock the door. Shut the door. When the door shuts, you have one minute." Jynx reached around the door and pressed the lock button. Then quickly shut the door. Karma took note of the time. Within seconds the doorknob started to jiggle. Karma waited while watching the time. At the 50 second mark the door opened. Jynx had gotten so good at lockpicking that she unlocked the door in under a minute. Karma congratulated her, "Good job. That door is no problem now."
Jynx felt proud of herself for a moment, and said, "Piece of cake. I am ready for level three. Are we up to level four now?"
Karma walked away from the telescope and said, "Yes, we are up to level four. He walked out into the hallway and pointed at the door all the way to the end of the hall. "You see these doors?" Jynx walked out to the hallway and looked at the doors. She nodded, knowing what he was going to say next. Karma said, "All of these doors need to be opened. This is level four. Get started."
Karma walked back into the office and back to the telescope. Jynx followed him back to the office and asked, "That is a lot of doors. There are at least 20 or 30 doors down to the end of the hallway. Opening them all is going to take hours. Isn't there some other training we can do?"
Karma nodded and agreed, "Yeah totally. We can train up our ninja skills. Level one is we sit here for an entire hour without making a noise. No words, no sounds, just pure silence. Then we take it up a notch and go for 3 straight hours. Want to try that?"
Jynx looked in the hallway and then back to Karma. Then she squinted her eyes at him and said, "The doors are clearly the lesser of two evils. Why do I get the feeling that this "TRAINING" is actually busy work that you are just making up?" Karma did not respond. After a few seconds, Jynx returned to the hallway and started picking doorknobs.
20 minutes later Jynx returned. She said, "Come here." Karma looked at her. What exactly does she want? He walked over to her and looked down the hallway. All the doors were open. She opened them all, and in record time. He looked at her, she had a great big smile on her face. Then she said, "How about that?"
Karma nodded. With a serious face he said, "Let me see the lockpicking kit." Jynx handed the kit to him. He looked it over, made sure all of the pieces were there, and handed it back to her. "Here you go. You have earned it."
Jynx was surprised, "Wait, what? You want me to take your kit?"
"No, I brought two of them from HQ. This one is now yours. It is a graduation gift." He closed his eyes and bowed his head like he was handing over the holy grail. Jynx took the kit and put it in her back pocket. Karma watched as a sense of accomplishment washed over her face.
Returning to the office he looked through the telescope. No activity. He peeked through the shades to see it was dark. The whole building was shutting down. Jynx walked over and attempted to put the kit in Karma's back pocket. He turned and shot her a glance and said, "What are you doing?"
Jynx pulled the lockpicking kit away. She gave him a shy look and said, "Well, when we first started the whole training lockpicking thing you put the kit in my back pocket without me even noticing. How did you do that?"
"Deception." Karma continued to watch the build as he explained, "When you bump up against someone or touch them it draws their attention away from the items you are taking or stuffing in their pockets. When I did it, I grabbed your hand as a distraction. The kit was already in your pocket before you even got to the hallway."
"Interesting." Jynx pretended to slide the kit into her own pocket several times. Then she said, "How did I not notice?"
Karma simply said, "Deception." He was still looking at the building. All the lights are out now. That's not good. A bad feeling welled up inside of him as he looked at Jynx and said, "The business day has come to an end. No lights on. Not even the bottom floor."
"What does that mean?"
Karma took the telescope off the tripod and took it over to the luggage. "It means we have been wasting our time. This lead is a dead end."
"Okay, slow down for us recruits." Jynx followed him over to the desk and asked, "What, I mean, how did you come to that conclusion?"
Karma pointed to the blinds and said, "Take a look. If there was a security crew then at least some of the lights would be on right now. They would be drinking coffee so they could stay up all night. They would be planning routes. But there are no lights on. The building is completely dark. They locked up the building, and everyone went home."
"Well, maybe they have a security system?"
Karma shook his head, "No, imagine if Fort Knox was guarded during the day but at night, they just locked the doors and left the security system on? If your business is a front for a Secret Government Organization, then you have something to hide. Money, files, something to protect. Right? And if you have something to protect, then you have security guards and a night shift."
Jynx looked at the building across the street and said, "No secrets, no security needed."
Karma walked back to the camera and took a few pictures of the outside of the building. Then he grabbed the camera and put away the tripods. He looked at Jynx and said, "Pack it up. We are leaving." Karma grabbed his personal bag and luggage and walked out the door. Jynx was right behind him. After all, she was ready to go anyways.
Before they got to the stairwell she asked, "What will we do now? Return to HQ?"
Karma opened the door to the stairwell and said, "No, we will wing it." He held the door so Jynx could go first. They walked down the stairs and made it to the bottom floor. There were less people in the building at this time of night. No one even gave them a second glance. They walked out the backdoor and to the car. As they were loading up their gear, Karma spotted a phone booth on another street. He left Jynx to load the car while he walked over to the phone.
He opened the phone booth and dialed the number. Freeman's number was toll free. Karma looked back at Jynx as the phone rang. Jynx had loaded the gear in the car and was waiting for him.
The call finally went through. Someone picked up on the other end without saying a word. Karma said, "Kilo bravo one niner."
The line remained blank for a second then Freeman's voice could be heard, "What is the good NEWS Karma?"
Karma filled him in, "No good NEWS, this location is a bust. No lights on at 7:30pm. No lights, no security. No security, no secrets. I am pretty sure this building isn't used by the KGB or Exstrusis anymore."
"What?" Freeman sounded more confused than ever, "That was a good location less than six months ago. What an absolute mess. Return to HQ and we will find you something else."
Karma responded, "Copy that HQ. See you in a few hours."
"Okay, hey wait a goddamn second," Freeman's voice shifted to anger. "What is the big idea of undermining my orders? After I assigned you Opal as a recruit, you turned around and took Jynx instead? What kind of bullshit are you playing here?!"
Karma answered, "What? Are you telling me that Opal is too much for you to handle? Trust me, Opal is a big brain, she would never make it in the field. I will explain it later. See you in a few hours."
Karma hung up the phone and walked back to Jynx and the car. She asked, "Who did you call?"
Karma shook his head at her and said, "Get in. We don't talk about it in the streets." Karma and Jynx both got in the car. Karma started the engine and said, "Freeman has no leads for us. His orders were to RTB."
"What is RTB?"
"Return to base. Base is HQ. It's our own business lingo." Karma backed the car out of the alleyway and drove down to the nearest intersection. "Sorry, your first mission was so boring. Most of the time you don't get to pick the locations."
Jynx replied, "It's alright. It was a good example of how to do a surveillance job. I am just sad we didn't get to say shaken, not stirred, or beat anyone up."
Karma thought about it for a second. Beat someone up. Beat? Someone? Up? Then he said, "Your right. Let's go beat someone up."
Jynx shook her head, "No, I wasn't serious. I was just breaking rule number one again."
Karma explained, "You just reminded me of an asset that lives nearby. Tobias Wagner. He is a real shithead. He kicked my ass in Salzburg a few years back to prove that he was a badass. He worked for the KGB back in 76, then he was an informant for us." Karma turned the car around and headed toward Tobias's house.
Jynx asked, "What makes you think he will talk to us?"
"That is the best part." Karma turned the corner and drove down the next street as he said, "Tobias is a ladies' man. He always has at least one or two girls on his arm."
Jynx was clearly unimpressed, "Sounds like a classy guy."
Karma replied, "Not really, but you are female. He just might be willing to talk to you. If you know what I mean?"
Jynx was not happy about this at all, she said, "To be honest it sounds like you are trading me for information. I would like to think that we waited until the second or third mission to sell me into prostitution."
"Nobody is selling anybody." Karma explained, "We just need to encourage him to talk. You can do that right?"
Karma stopped and made some phone calls. Then he returned to the car. Karma explained everything. "I called Tobias's house and his mother answered the phone. My German isn't the best, but I am pretty sure she said he was at his nightclub. She didn't say the club. Or at a club. Apparently, he is at HIS night club."
Jynx replied, "So you think he owns a club now?"
Karma started the car and drove off as he said, "I am not denying the possibility. Yes."
A few minutes later, Karma and Jynx parked their car outside of Tobias's Night Club. It was 9 p.m. The club was in full swing. A line of people waited to get in the front door. Jynx got out of the car and saw the giant neon glowing sign that read, "Gluhend Hieb". She looked at Karma and said, "What does that mean?"
Karma walked around the car and stood next to Jynx as he answered her, "Gluhend Hieb? It means red hot. Sounds like a night club name. If we go in the front door we will be standing in line for a while. I say we go in the back."
Jynx put her hand on Karma's shoulder and said, "Oh, don't be like that. I got this." Jynx opened the backseat of the car and grabbed her personal bag. "Dumbing out all the candy bars she pulled out some clothes and said, "Tobias is a ladies' man, right? Well, this is my chance to shine." Karma watched as she pieced together an outfit with her limited clothing supply.
Karma looked back at the club. All the women going inside were wearing miniskirts and little black dresses. Then he said, "I find it hard to imagine you have a clubbing outfit in that bag." Jynx did not listen to him. She was determined to make it work.
Jynx handed him a pair of her jeans and said, "Can you make these cut offs? Like shorts?" Karma looked at her like she was nuts. But before he could say anything, she said, "Come on, be a team player." Karma took the shorts back to the trunk and opened them up. He didn't have any tools for this kind of job. He used whatever little items he had to cut a hole in the jeans and then ripped the legs off. They were now very short shorts. Possibly too short.
He returned to the Jynx who was still in the back seat and handed the shorts to her. Then he said, "Not sure if this is worth destroying your clothes over."
"Don't worry about it." Jynx started to take her pants off but then stopped to say, "What are you doing? Turn around please." Karma turned around so Jynx could change. With a clapping shut she closed the car door. Karma listened as she unzipped the jean shorts and put them on. Then Jynx said, "Wow, you really cut these short."
Karma, who was still facing away from the car said, "Sorry, I will tell the seamstress to aim lower next time." After a minute of waiting, Karma heard the car door open and shut as Jynx got out of the car. Karma turned around to see she was wearing a yellow tank top and short jean shorts. He had never seen her without her baggy jogging pants on. The jean shorts really exposed her long legs. Runner's legs. After a second of gawking, Karma refocused and said, "Looks pretty good."
Jynx looked down at the outfit. Then she said, "It's alright. Can you rip my shirt up a little bit?" Karma gave her a confused look, but she continued, "The ripped fashion is a heavy metal thing. Grunge fashion. Just put some holes in it. Karma was reluctant but walked over and used the car keys to make a small hole in her shirt. Then, with a few solid pulls, he ripped a large hole in the shirt. She turned around and said, "Do the back too. Just a few spots." Once again Karma ripped a few holes in her tank top.
Karma eventually stepped away as she inspected the damage. Her shirt was all torn up. Then he said, "It's a waste of a perfectly good shirt."
Jynx pulled out the make-up kit and used the car mirror to apply some lipstick. When she was done, she tossed the make-up in the backseat and took her hair out of the ponytail. After letting her hair down, she said, "Ready for the club."
Karma looked at the club then went back to Jynx and said, "I don't like this. Extreme numbers of people and tight spaces. If you get in, I won't be able to help you out of a bad situation. We should just wait until closing time. Then we can deal with this."
"Oh no, for the first time ever you are in a spy like scenario, and you want out?" Jynx poked Karma on the nose and said, "Trust me spymaster, this will be fun."
Karma looked at his watch. It was 9:15 p.m. She had one chance to get in. If not, he was going to do it his way. Karma watched as Jynx walked around the line of people waiting to get inside the club. He had a bad feeling this was going to go horribly wrong. However, this would be a great learning experience for Jynx. He watched as she walked over to the doorman and said something to him. The club was loud. It was hard to make out conversations. But after only a few words the doorman let her in. Impressive. This is the power of female persuasion.
Karma took his baseball cap off and left it in the car. This was the only modification he needed for his outfit. The bomber jacket fits every situation. He walked over to the front of the club. With a quick glance he analyzed the doorman. This guy was well over 200lbs, muscular with maybe 10% body fat. He was also very tall, 6ft or more tall. Taller than Karma was. Black shirt, black pants. There were also two more black outfit gentlemen nearby. Probably back up if the doorman needed help getting rid of someone. In a fight this would be a challenge. His cover would be blown, and Tobias wouldn't be interested in talking. Time to be civilized. Karma approached the doorman and said in German, "Excuse me, I am a friend of Tobias. He is expecting me."
The doorman looked at the clipboard and said, "Name?"
Karma pulled a $100 bill out of his pocket and held it to his bomber jacket, then he said, "I'm Franklin."
The doorman looked at the list then looked at Karma and saw the money. Then he said, "Ah, Mister Franklin!" He looked back at the clipboard and said, "Yes, here you are. Step forward." Karma walked toward the doorman and shook his hand, exchanging the money at the same time. Karma nodded to the other security men as he walked by them as well. It is always interesting how a few dollars can change the outcome of a situation.