CHAPTER 3
I was just concluding my lesson as I walked towards my desk slowly.
"Okay I want you to take a good look at your phones this weekend. Find something unique about it and present it to the class during our next meeting," I said and turned to my students, "and please don't present porn. It's not unique"
Everyone laughed.
"Class dismissed" I said and heard several feet shuffling out of the auditorium. I turned around to pack my laptop in my bag.
After successfully packing up, someone called me from behind. I recognized the voice.
"What's up?" I asked as I turned to face Amy Summers who is one of my students. She was light skinned, had green eyes and blonde hair that was tied into a neat bun. I never paid much attention to her clothes.
"Mind if I call you Jake?" she said while biting her lower lip
"Yeah I very much do mind," I said flatly. I knew what she was trying to do. She's been trying it like three times now.
"Well I need your help with understanding rectifier diodes," she said while loosening the top buttons of her blouse to expose part of her chest.
"Ask your friends," I strapped my bag across my shoulder and quickly exited the room to pop up into the hallway.
Luckily Nelson was passing through.
"You leaving?" I asked in a hurry.
"Yeah. Why'd you_"
I grabbed his arm and pulled him through the corridor.
When we were at the parking lot I let him go.
"Okay what's going on?" he asked
"Just wanted to get you that beer," I chuckled. I'm obviously lying
"Okay now I know you're lying" he said as we approached his blue Renault.
"Okay fine" I admitted before telling him, "It's Amy"
"God don't tell me she's seducing you," he laughed
"She's tried it three times now. I don't even know why she likes me," I complained
"Maybe it's the haircut." We reached his car. He went towards the driver's side I went the opposite side.
"That can't be it," I replied while checking my reflection in the wing mirror on my side. I had just recently started shaving my hair in the sides and mildly trimming the hair at the top of my head the way Jamie Foxx appeared in most of the movies he shot.
"Well take her out and find out," Nelson Fox suggested.
My eyes widened. "No! You'd fire me"
"No I wouldn't." He unlocked the car and I slid into the front passenger seat. "I'd only fire you if someone else told me," he said as he settled into his seat.
"That's encouraging," I said sarcastically as he started the car.
He laughed and drove off.
We drove in silence as we approached my house. He parked on the pavement that was directly beside my house.
"Time for a relaxing beer," I said as we got out of the car. We walked on the concrete pathway that was surrounded by green grass on either side. It led directly to my front porch which strangely had the doorknob of my front door lying on the ground.
"Shit," I whispered, "Nelson I need you to guard the front door while I go round the back, got that"
He nodded and I made my way around the house. Whoever was inside wouldn't expect anyone to get in through the back door that led into my kitchen. Right beside the door was a window through which I peeped through to notice a woman cooking.
She was wearing my apron and had the microwave on, the dish washer running and even the stove. She was using way too much electricity. I mean I'm goanna have to pay for that, I thought as I slowly twisted the doorknob and squeezed myself through the door as quietly as possible. It worked, the woman's back was facing me which is ironic because the back has no face. I smiled at my lame joke.
*
Aubrey, Dash and Rick were in the toilet. Harriet told them to be in there for a little while until she explained everything to the owner of the house. They were all watching Harriet cook from Aubrey's laptop. Somehow Aubrey managed to install a micro-camera that could capture both visual and audio.
"Is she cooking?" Dash asked
"Yeah," Rick replied when he suddenly saw the door behind Harriet open slowly as a black man entered cautiously, obviously knowing what he was doing. He realized the man was sneaking up to Harriet without her noticing.
That's when Rick panicked when Harriet could be in possible danger.
*
I was sneaking up to her undetected. I had the upper hand well that was until I moved my foot forward to accidentally kick an empty soda can that unfortunately took its sweet times rolling across the floor with a loud noise.
Dammit! Why didn't pick it up in the morning, I thought as the woman quickly dipped her hand into the apron, a point at which I rushed forward to close the distance between us.
She turned around pointing a gun at me but I quickly snatched the gun from her. I turned the gun barrel to point at.....
"Harriet?" I said in confusion, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Making dinner," she replied
"Making dinner? We haven't talked for five months and suddenly you come over and you cook!" I said while raising my hands in the air.
"Yeah I guess." She crossed her arms over her chest.
Unbelievable, I thought before putting the gun down.
*
"Whoa did you see that?" Dash said, "He just yanked Harriet's gun away.
"Who is this guy?" Rick asked and Aubrey started pushing keys on his laptop. In no time a profile of the man appeared on the screen except in the picture he had short black hair.
"Jake Harper, Ex CIA, 30 successful missions. One of the few people to come back from one of CHIEF's Special covert missions. Resigned five months ago due to trauma" Aubrey read through the profile.
"Anything else?" Rick asked
"No"
*
"Can I ask you something?" I said to Harriet who seemed to be taken off guard
"Yeah sure," she replied
"Did you just seriously pull a gun under the apron?" I asked with a chuckle. She just groaned and rolled her blue eyes at me.
"I'm an agent Jake"
"It's still weird" I muttered out loud
"Well says the guy who had the apron in the first place," she gave a satisfactory smile before she gave her attention to the stove.
"It makes me feel comfy when cooking," I said innocently.
"I'm gonna hate doing this," I said after realizing that I was probably going to have to chase my best friend away. This had better be worth it.
"Doing what?" she looked at me curiously
"Chasing my best friend away" I said in a very annoyed manner as I moved past her to emerge in the living room which had a black leather couch, a glass coffee table in front of it and a 12 inch plasma.
I beelined straight out of my broken front door as I pushed myself onto the porch a shoe came flying my way. I quickly ducked and shouted, "Hey! What the hell!" I found myself yelling at Nelson who smiled apologetically. I simply shook my head in amusement.
If an intruder were to make a run for it he would have totally tasted Nelson's shoe.
I picked up the shoe and headed for Nelson. I honestly didn't feel good about having to send my friend away for reasons I didn't know and probably wasn't allowed to talk to him about. A frown was on my face but I didn't realize it until Nelson's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "You okay?" Nelson asked obviously noticing my expression as I got closer to him. I gave him brief smile before handing him his shoe and replying, "Yeah it's just that I have to call off that beer so that I can fix the door"
"Right," he said, "next week Friday then"
"Yeah I guess so"
He simply nodded obviously feeling bummed out. I couldn't blame him though because we all looked forward to it and now having me call it off was real shitty of me. I sighed when he got into his car and drove off. Damn I hated having to let him down like that I sighed before turning to my house when I noticed light coming from my bathroom window. I assumed Harriet was relieving herself but when I got into the kitchen I was surprised she was there still apparently cooking which was odd to me since she hated cooking. I looked at the floor and I noticed a smugged boot print that went up the wooden stairs that were stationed between the kitchen and the living room.
Was Harriet with someone else in this house? Or was she unaware of the intruder?
"Hey are you alright?" Harriet's question brought me back to reality and I instantly shot my head up to look at her. She had her hands on the sides of her hips, her brunette hair was pushed over to the side exposing her beautiful blue eyes which were glaring at me and oddly I found that attractive.
"Um... Earth to Jake" she mocked
I realized I had zoned out and obviously didn't grasp whatever she was talking about.
"Huh you look good in that apron" I said absently
"What?" Harriet's cheek turned slightly red
"Nothing," I replied quickly, "you were saying"
"Alright dinner's ready" she said as she got her thoughts straight
"Good I'm starving" I said quickly while heading to the kitchen. My nose hit with a delicious smell I was familiar with; Omelets, spaghetti, meatballs and broccoli...yes I love the vegetable.
I couldn't help but smile when I saw two plates filled with the delicacies set on the table across from each other and without hesitation I sat down in front of one of the plates.
Ten minutes passed after we started eating. There was silence, awkward silence which I didn't mind because I was too focused on my food.
Unfortunately, Harriet didn't feel the same.
"So how have you been these past months?" she asked breaking the silence.
"Well as you can see I've gone by well actually and I found passion in something else" I grinned widely.
"Oh! Really? And what might that be?" she smiled at me
"I'm a child trafficker"
"What?" her eyes widened with shock
*
"He's kidding right?" Rick asked Aubrey with a concerned expression on his face
"Relax man" Aubrey waved him off, "he's just joking around"
"You sure?" Rick had a hard expression on his face that suggested he was getting angry.
"Yes. He's actually a lecturer at Hunter College"
*
I laughed at Harriet's expression. Her eyes looked like they would pop out of their sockets. "I'm kidding," I laughed so hard that I felt breathless for a while.
"Asshole," she muttered as she picked at her food with her folk
We fell in an awkward silence for a while before I got too uncomfortable that I had to break it.
"So when um...did you arrive?" I asked
"About five hours ago," she replied before looking at me curiously.
"So what have you been up to so far?" she asked
"I'm now a lecturer," she looked at me strangely if not surprised, "I know it's probably not as exciting as being surrounded the by flying bullets or jumping from a high cliff when you're absolutely afraid of heights"
We both laughed probably remembering about our first escape from Aziz's men. Yes I was afraid of heights and I still am...either way if you saw how high it was you probably wouldn't be laughing at me right now.
"So what have you been up to?" I asked trying to get a reason why she was here with me in my house as of this moment.
I watched as the colour drained from her features which instantly told me something was wrong.
"Big problems huh?" I asked concern filling my voice. She just looked at me and said, "It's classified"
"What!" I exclaimed, "you're seriously doing this to me"
"It's not like I have a choice okay?" she defended.
Was she seriously not going to tell me what was going on? The thought of that actually pissed me off to the point that I actually raised my voice at her.
"What do you mean it's classified!" I yelled ,"So why'd you come all the way here instead of just going to one the CIA's safe houses huh?"
I'll be honest I was extremely hurt that she didn't want to actually tell me exactly what was going on.
"Because the agency's compromised," she finally replied
"That doesn't make any sense," I said
"How?" Harriet now had her arms crossed over her chest and she looked confused. Couldn't blame her though, to any other person it would have been more than enough. But to me it just wouldn't because…
"The CIA's always compromised but never to that point…,"I paused ,"So why don't you just tell me already?"
That's when I saw it. The hurt in Harriet's eyes which was something I rarely saw.
She finally let out a sigh before standing up and walking toward the sink her back was turned to me as she onto the sink with her fists clenched. She was obviously trying hard not to lose her composure and I was starting to feel bad for pushing her too far