The car slowly pulled up to a gate in the wire. Twenty soldiers, heavily armed, stood on either side of a gravel path leading into a large building. It was constructed with the same dark material as all of the other buildings, though it was something I could not identify. At the end of the path, a pair of double doors stood open, with an additional soldier on either side.
Each soldier had on a camouflage outfit and mask covering the entirety of their head. It had a jutting-out area for the mouth, peppered with holes to breathe and speak, as well as goggles over the eyes. Not a bit of skin was showing, their hands covered by padded gloves and their feet clad with large boots. And in their hands—some sort of large gun. It had layers of metal and seemed heavy. All I could surmise was that it would hurt like hell if your arms or legs got shot with one of those. And if you got shot anywhere from the stomach to the head, you wouldn't be alive to feel the pain.
I moved to stand, but was blocked by Sanchez. "Let Whiteford and Torres do their thing."
The two officers stepped out of the car, heading to the gravel path. Then, a crowd stepped from the doors. The group was led by two women in suits. The first had blonde hair and green eyes, with soft rosy cheeks. The second had dark skin and short hair. She had striking teal eyes. Behind them was a group of five people looking completely out of place. They looked uncomfortable in their suits and seemed like they wanted to be anywhere but here. Each one had cheesy visitor badges, saying: "Hi! I'm..." then their name and pronouns.
The one furthest to the right was a boy of maybe twenty, the oldest in the group. He had medium-toned skin and black hair. His eyes were a pale blue, and his pronouns were he/him, according to the badge. The label also identified him as "Les Gibbs."
Next to him was a girl, probably seventeen. She had long, light-brown hair. Her features were sharp, but she had a short nose. Her skin was rosy, but her expression was the opposite. Her badge read, "Hi! I am... Vivian Stokes (she/her)."
In the middle was a person, identified by their badge as. "Mel (They/them)." They had short, pale blonde hair and light skin. They had a slightly pointed jaw, a button nose, and rounded cheeks.
The fourth in the group's badge read, "Hi! I am... Naomi Marsh (Xe/Xem)." Xe had long, black hair and dark skin. Xyr eyes were gold, flecked with bits of silver. It was marvelous. I had never seen anything like it.
Last was a boy with pale skin. He had black hair, and his eyes were a color I had never seen before. A brilliant purple stared forward. Intelligence and experience of years glinted visually behind his eyes. He had a beautifully carved face and a neutral expression that burned into my brain. His label identified him as "Seph Valko." My heart pounded a little faster.
Stop, dammit! I yelled at my annoyingly quickly beating organ.
Officer Whiteford cleared her throat.
"Greetings. You all know why I'm here."
"Because you went to grab a lost cause, despite our input?" The black-haired one said. "Dammit, Whiteford. Just listen—Cade is the most dangerous out of all of them. He was the riskiest, and that's why we decided not to— She dropped her tone, and I barely managed to hear it. "-fucking grab him!"
Officer Whiteford looked back at her and sighed. "Jules—"
"Don't call me that."
"Officer Julia, then, just give him a chance. He isn't that bad up close, and if we're going by kill count, he's nothing close to Seph!"
Seph grinned slyly at the mention of his name.
Officer Julia leaned close to Officer Whiteford. "Seph is like a common gangster, small things, little kills." Seph frowned. "But Cade is the goddamn mafia leader. He has brought corporations to their knees, and had many begging for him to stop."
"Which just proves how good he is," Whiteford responded. She pushed past Julia and addressed the group of five behind them. The other officer in a suit had stepped back, seemingly unfazed by what had just happened. Meanwhile, the five who I supposed to be my new coworkers were looking uncomfortable as hell.
"And now, Xarnon agents..."
Ooh, I'm an agent!
"The last addition to your team: Cade!"
Sanchez stepped out, holding the door for me. I crouched and stepped onto the path. Each of the... Xarnon agents, I guess... met me with piercing stares. They looked me up and down, analyzing as any good criminal would do. Les was the first to speak, revealing his booming, deep voice. "Hello, Cade."
"Hey," I said, awkwardly waving.
I made eye contact with Seph—a fatal error. My palms instantly began to sweat, and I'm sure I blushed a little. Seph gave me a sly smile. Shit, did he notice?
"Greetings," Naomi said. It wasn't particularly unfriendly, no; xe was more... calculating.
Vivian looked at me and scoffed. How friendly. Mel just smiled sweetly. They seemed nice.
"Good, now that you're all acquainted, it's time to get settled." Whiteford said curtly. She walked directly into the doors without further elaboration. Officer Julia made a disgusted face, and the nice-looking officer whispered something into Julia's ear, causing them both to burst into giggles. The agents moved forward, and I joined them. The two officers joined behind, still whispering.
The building's interior was breathtaking. They had walked into some sort of sprawling atrium. People in suits walked around everywhere. Plant life was everywhere. At least three indoor waterfalls flowed together to create a river that streamed through the garden. Vines ran up the towering structure. Above, offices and bridges were plentiful. On the ground, there were many tunnels leading to other buildings and secure rooms alike. The marble floor was perfectly polished.
But there wasn't any time for sightseeing. Officer Whiteford immediately led them into one of the tunnels. It was dimmer here, but still sleek and polished. They walked in silence for two minutes before exiting the tunnel. It seemed as if they had entered a completely different room. Now, they were in a modern hotel, with branching halls off in many directions. The building was cozy, with a restaurant and a carpeted seating area by a fireplace.
Whiteford led us to a front desk. "Checking into their rooms," she muttered. Her tone was gruff, as if she was still fixated on the earlier argument.
"And these are...?"
"The Xarnon agents, idiot!" Whiteford spat.
The receptionist recoiled, and they hastily gave us a key. We left abruptly. Officer Julia and the other—I hadn't learned her name yet—followed. Whiteford turned, motioning for us to get behind her. The two officers looked up, startled. "You two are still following us?"
"Well, yes." Officer Julia growled. "Is there a fucking problem?"
The receptionist looked at their watch, turned a sign to say 'please wait, I'm busy,' and scurried off.
"No... not a problem..." Whiteford began with a smile. "Unless you count whores working for the CIA a problem."
The other officer began to protest. "Whiteford! You don't talk to yo-"
"MY WHAT, JANET?" Officer Whiteford yelled. Officer Janet stepped back. "MY 'EMPLOYEES' WHO DON'T DO SHIT AND BITCH AROUND ALL DAY, PLOTTING TO TAKE MY JOB?" She took a deep breath. "No, I'm going to give you two all the respect you deserve."
Without another word, Whiteford pushed past us and led deeper into the hallway, leaving Janet and Julia standing there, speechless.
"Here are your rooms. Get comfortable. Dinner will be served at six in the lobby, and you'll be up at five tomorrow to begin." Without another word, Officer Whiteford turned and stomped down the hall.
We stood there, glancing at each other for a full twenty seconds. My stomach turned. Just say something... I begged. Eventually, Les took one for the team. "So, let's see what we've got." He said cheerfully. Les led the way into the room. It was some sort of central sitting room. Our bags were laid out on a coffee table. On one wall was a TV, and opposite it were two large couches. There were eight doors. The six in the middle were each labeled with a gold plate featuring one of the agent's names. The other two doors, these open, showed a bathroom and a laundry room.
"Fancy..." Seph remarked, walking around. Mel quickly retreated into her room with her bag. Naomi sat down on the couch and grabbed the controller. Les sat as well. Seph pulled out his computer and entered his room as well. Vivian grabbed a book and started reading on the other couch. I saw my suit laying down on the table. I went into my room—a simple space with a desk, wardrobe, and bed—and then changed. I walked out and joined Naomi, Seph, Les, and Vivian on the couch. Vivian showed little interest in television.
Naomi filtered through channels a bit before finding some stand-up comedy show. I had never seen it before—but then again, I hadn't ever watched TV before. And it was amazing. Twice I almost fell off the couch from laughing. Especially when hearing a particularly dirty joke that had eternally burned itself into my memory from that moment on. Naomi was a little harder to get laughing, but xe was sent into a fit of giggles a few times.
Les was just yukking it up at every single joke. Had there not been a TV, you would have had to assume he was hysterical. Eventually it ended. Naomi switched off the TV, still laughing a little. I felt a little breathless. "How the hell have I missed out on this for so long?" I managed between breaths.
Naomi smiled. "It's all in finding the right channel."
Les glanced at the clock. "It's almost time for dinner." He stood and called out, "Mel! Seph!"
"Yes?" Mel responded softly, peeking out from her door.
"Dinner."
Mel stepped out, soon followed by Seph. The group headed out into the hallway, bound for the lobby. Naomi talked with Les about their favorite jokes. Vivian took up the front, leading us. Seph and Mel said nothing. I stepped back to join them.
"What's up?" I asked.
Seph looked up. "The sky."
Still fresh in a joking attitude, I laughed. He smiled, as if he had gotten a prize. I had gotten to talk to all of them, all but Mel. I turned to them. "Hey, Mel!"
"Hi." She said, simple and quiet. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
"How are you doing?" I asked.
They seemed to consider that for a moment. "Pretty good, as having your life completely uprooted goes."
Seph jumped in. "At least when we finally did get 'caught,' they treated us to dinner!"
A ghost of a laugh escaped Mel's lips. Progress, I thought. If I was really going to work here, I could not be completely unfamiliar with everyone. That would be one hell of an awkward time. And I would not want to be fighting what is probably World War Three in an awkward home situation.
We arrived at the lobby and entered a restaurant area. As not to split up, I took the lead and directed us to a six-person table. I took up the head, with Les and Naomi sitting to my left. At the other head was Vivian. Mel and Seph took up the side opposite Les and Naomi. This left me next to Naomi and Seph.
We talked lightly over dinner, nothing big. The restaurant served simple American food—burgers, salads, sandwiches, and pizza. I kept it safe and went with my favorite sub: ham, cheese, lettuce, pickles, and tomato. And mayo, always mayo. The food arrived after about four minutes of waiting.
I started by asking about hobbies, but we really had nothing except, of course, hacking. I didn't dare ask about home life, as who knew what kind of shitty childhood everyone had to have to end up in this current situation. Employed because of their hacking, their criminal skills. Memories threatened to rise up at the thought, but I pushed them through.
I learned a few things over the course of the dinner, however. Vivian talked not often but did mention that she was into creativity. My memory faintly connected her last name to the famous virus StokesKill. It slowly messed with the computer it was infected with before completely wiping it and adding its memories, files, and computing password to a cloud service called Stoked. At the end, all you could do was play some sort of custom-programmed horror game.
When I brought it up, she said that it was her "greatest accomplishment."
Seph wasn't really into the big grabs. He was more of a hit man, similar to me. They book the services, give him their request, a price, and some information. He does it and then never looks back. Les was a prankster... nothing serious, but it could be used as such. He gained remote access to computers and did goofy things. But his ability to seize control could be used in many other ways.
Naomi and Mel were both part of hacker groups. They were high in the ranks, but not high enough that they spent their entire life in bunkers. They had notably been behind data leaks, rigging online polls, and tweaking online articles.
After stuffing ourselves full of food, we retreated to our chambers. Once we had returned, Les spoke: "So, should we stay up and do something?"
"Not the best choice," Vivian interjected. "We've got a big day tomorrow and an ungodly wake-up time."
"I second that!" Mel said. "Five in the morning is just criminal."
"Well, we are criminals." Seph smirked and entered his room. We all did the same.
I changed into a provided robe and collapsed into bed.
Today was...
I began to reflect, but then realized I had no words for what had happened. I shrugged and closed my eyes, bracing for what would come tomorrow.