Zavaya
Super-Earth
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2021
Alexandra had just parked the car in the garage underneath the ultra modern tower block she rented an apartment in when her phone buzzed. It wasn't a call but a message and judging by the sound of the message, she already knew who had messaged her. She didn't open the message straight away and instead looked at her girlfriend sitting next to her. They had just had a lovely dinner at friends and with her girlfriend having had quite a bit of wine, Alex knew she would probably have sex tonight. The message on her phone, even though she knew what it meant, wouldn't change that.
She got out of the car, led her girlfriend to the elevator and as the small box zoomed up the floors with a surprising speed, Alex pulled her phone out and opened the message. The message wasn't more than a word. Olive. It was her code name and when she clicked on the word, a special app opened which asked for her finger print. After doing it twice, hiding it from her girlfriend, the app then asked for an iris scan. Alex held the phone up so it could scan her eye and was just done when her girlfriend leaned in to steal a kiss.
"I had a great evening Ally.."
Alex smiled and agreed they had a fun evening, knowing that she soon had to leave again. The app buzzed a little and then showed another message that let Alex know another message had been sent.
Once in their apartment, Alex told her girlfriend she had to quickly check something for work and disappeared into a small room she had dedicated to an office and sat behind her laptop. It booted up quickly and she had to go through the same iris and fingerprint scanners again and then finally was able to read the message that had been sent to her. It was a short message with a date and a time. Tomorrow morning. She knew the location.
"Godverdomme..."
She swore, slammed the laptop shut and took a deep breath. Now she had to lie again to the woman she loved so much and wanted to get old with. In fact, just two hours ago she had hinted to their friends she would propose to her soon. Of course, nobody knew her real job. Nobody would believe it either so to all her friends she was some liaison person for oil and gas companies. It gave her the perfect reason to go away on long trips often and don't have phone service. After all, in the deep regions of Russia, Central Asia or Africa, phone signals wouldn't work. Because she was fluent in so many languages, it was a perfectly plausible cover that nobody ever asked. It even explained why she was able to afford a luxury apartment and a nice car and the ability to shower her girlfriend in gifts.
But each time Alex left, there was a risk she wouldn't come home. The missions were usually well planned out by her boss and often, the risks of her death were insignificant but in a real world scenario, dealing with humans, often violent and criminal ones, plans often changed and she had to rely on her own wits, ingenuity and the agency to help her out.
She spent the night with her girlfriend, watching some silly show on Netflix and then, after she'd had a few drinks as well, went to bed. The sex quickly followed and when both of them lay naked, panting and gasping on the sheets, Alex turned to her girlfriend.
"That message I got earlier? They need me again Steph... I have to leave first thing in the morning."
Her girlfriend looked sad, asked the same question she always asked and Alex gave her the same answer she always gave. She didn't know when she'd be back. It was the truth. She hated it but it was.
The next morning she was up early. She had taught herself not to think about the missions too much. Everything would be speculation only anyway. Alex took a quick shower, knowing it could be the last one for a while. After the shower she got dressed in a pair of simple jeans, a white t-shirt and burgundy blouse, finished off with a band in her hair to keep the ponytail up and a pair of black and white Converse on her feet. She snuck her still sleeping girlfriend a kiss, left her a note and got in her car. The drive to the remote operation center was about an hour from her house in Rotterdam and when she arrived it was still morning. After parking the car in the garage, she got in the elevator, used a code to unlock access to the basement of the building and waited for the elevator to open.
She stepped into a small operation center, manned by a handful of people she knew well. They were her lifeline in case things went south. And then there was an older man, well dressed, well spoken. Upon seeing her he hung up the phone and took her to a small briefing room. Alex greeted him and sat down.
"Tell me... What's the deal?"