Atlas

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Atlas Page 3

by Alanna K Puzak


  As I walk down the stairs I hear so much music and talking. A very handsome gentleman with suspenders, a tilted hat, sharp glasses, a nicely buttoned white shirt, and a rag over his left shoulder, bows to me and hands me a glass of champagne. “This way my lady.”

  I started to blush, “Thank you, kind sir.” I handed my invitation to him and walked down the stairs escorted by him. Wow, this place really is top notch.

  This is the first time I have been out, just me, single, beautiful in years and if feels great!

  I start sipping the bubbly gold and looking around and I saw a gentleman at the bar. He looks just like the photo in his file. He is a very good looking gentleman wearing a nice white shirt rolled up to the elbows, with a black tie and black pants. He is drinking a Corona and talking with all the head honchos. Six-foot nicely built lean man, dirty dark blonde light brown hair, trimmed a little at the sides but longer and styled at the top, a scruffy 2 o’clock shadow, those piercing blue with a hint of grey eyes, that sun-kissed tan is really working for him, he looks at me. Imagine not being seen for years on purpose and then all of the sudden a man who looks like he could be Paul Walker’s doppelganger is just staring at you, you could say I got nervous for a second.

  I think they are telling combat stories as he is laughing and looking like he is punching and shouldering a ghost. That smile of his could light a room for miles. All the men are laughing and I gain a little bit of a smile. He keeps laughing, taking a sip, and looking at me. I have caught his attention, good.

  I keep walking in and the lights get just a little darker, making the walls diamond-like paint really start to sparkle. The black wooded bar with mirrors on the back looks like a fantastic place to sit. I sat on the nice plush bar stool made of velvet and ordered another drink.

  “Another one of these, please!” I enthusiastically say pointing to my champagne.

  The waiter hands me my drink with a sparkling blackberry in it this time and I swing my stool around. Leaning one elbow on the bar, sipping the champagne with one hand, people watching.

  I see every kind of person there. The shy girl and guy at the opposite ends of the dance floor not talking to anyone but consistently looking at their drink and their watch. I see the girl who wants to know everyone. I see the guy who has to be the star of the show. I see the lady always fixing her dress. The two who want to talk but never will. The girl who keeps moving around because she doesn’t know who to hang out with just yet. The guys who are always talking to anyone who will listen. The guy hanging out by the speakers as if they are his way out. And I see the people just getting down on the dance floor. But no matter what people are doing, everyone was getting along.

  I thought to myself, “I can really get used to this.”

  As the lights continue to hint the mood around me I polish that drink and turn around to ask for another. The bartender looks at me with a smirk on his face, “of course mam.” He shakes his head with an everlasting grin and hands me another.

  At the other end of the bar, I see him looking at me once again. He keeps leaning on to the bar and looking at me, taking a drink, biting his lip, the whole shebang. I flip my hair opening my shoulder closest to him to hopefully send him a sign that I am interested.

  My stomach is filled with butterflies and I am not sure of what to do. I have not been single for a long time and I am not sure how flirting works.

  Gerald would just kind of tell me what to do or what he wanted, and it happened. No real chemistry so I was not sure how to go about it. I quickly turned back around to watch people again. I was great at watching and reporting but so elementary at involving and reacting.

  The music was getting louder and everyone was still mingling.

  I get a tap on my shoulder as I am taking a sip, “Hey there! My name is Kate, who are you?”

  I look over and it is a slender tall woman, short buzzed hair, nose ring, dark eye makeup. Dressed in a bright silver dress and pink shoes. She kind of looked like a Barbie that got horribly played with, but in a cute way.

  I try to swallow my drink quickly and stuck my hand out to shake her hand, “I am Mel, nice to meet you.”

  “What brought you here?” She slides on to the stool next to me and starts to slip her drink through an ever so small straw while people watching.

  “Considering I just met you I will keep it short, I have been in the CIA Detroit for about 5 years and just broke it off with my fiancé, so decided to really concentrate on me and take the offer to join RED. What about you … um, Kate is it?”

  “Just got bored in the FBI Miami and CIA Dallas. Wanted more action. Heard about the opening here and some work to maybe be done out in the desert so decided why the hell not!” She says as she karate chops the air. I knew right then she was going to be a great friend.

  She was very friendly and great to get along with. Very honest and upfront but hey who doesn’t like that. We hung out for about an hour, her telling stories of her missions sounding like a real badass, and me just nodding and trying to pay attention to her and Atlas at the same time.

  Time was flying by. Laughing and mingling, trying to enjoy the night but also observe the target. I look out the corner of my eye he is still right there and talking to his men, shoving off any girl that came up. I am starting to get butterflies every time I look at him. And they just keep getting bigger and bigger. I had to keep telling myself it was because he was the first handsome guy I laid eyes on since Gerald, so it would go away, just stick to the main mission.

  I flip my hair once more and realize that Atlas is starting to mingle his way over to me. He came up to Kate, “Excuse me can I interrupt?”

  Kate looked at me with that go for it smirk on her face and hand gestured him to take her seat.

  “Hello there.” He leaned his right shoulder on the bar while sticking his left out for a firm handshake to introduce himself, like I should be super excited or something. “I am Atlas and I could not help notice you staring at me all night.”

  I thought to myself, “shit this is him, this is who I am supposed to learn about.” I reached back to the bartender and ordered two scotch on the rocks.

  “Excuse me sir, I think you were the one staring at me, like come on look at someone else.” I roll my eyes and take a sip of my drink trying not to look like what the hell did I just say! He kind of chuckled and started down at his drink.

  “I am Mel.”

  “Is that short for something, Ms. Mel?”

  “Nope. Just one of four. Guess mom and dad got too sick of long names.” I said smiling while turning around to grab our drinks and ever so slightly slip this pill into his. I leaned back to give the bartender a tip and knew in about thirty seconds later Atlas would be all mine.

  We talked for about thirty minutes. I needed to learn more about the honest him, so he could trust me. The catch with this pill is that since it was made mainly for government officials it does not wipe the memory like you would think it would. It makes you remember what you said and who you told it to, so you could never deny it.

  This got me thinking about the mission and realized this man would not trust me ever again if I just got it right out of him the first night. I am not sure why I did not think of this before and/or why my supervisors did not mention this before. He would report to whoever he is working for and then our cover would be blown. I had to create a trust with him and then get it out of him naturally.

  I had learned that he plays guitar, sings, and plays the piano. That we both love dancing. That we both are very still much in contact with our families. That we both cannot stand rum. That he had just ended his four-year marriage because he had never felt right with anyone and did not really know what being in love felt like. He said it was a spur of the moment marriage and just did not work for either of them.

  The more we drank the more emotional the talking got. Just some of the basic stuff you learn about someone at a bar who you drugged I guess. He was really opening up to me and not even noticing i
t. He did not say anything too personal about work, just his life. But he was answering honestly which is what I needed. I needed him to know he could trust this stranger.

  “You know what Mel? Can I tell you something that nobody else knows about me?”

  I took a big gulp of my drink hoping this is what I had been waiting for. I put my glass down, wiped my hands on my dress and looked right into his eyes.“What?”

  “One day I want to move to London. Give up this whole combat mission spy bullshit. Start a family. See my family. Be normal again. But only when I know I have done something great for the world.”

  “London, so that is your all-time dream?” I chuckled a little.

  “Yeah, why is that so funny?”

  “Oh, no reason. I just don’t ever really hear anyone who already has everything they want say that they want everything that they gave up. And on top of that tell a stranger on the first night upon meeting them.”

  “Well, you will see. One day I am giving this up. I will be in London.”

  I kept thinking to myself, this guy seems like a normal guy, well at least for an agent. Why in the world would they think he would have anything to do with Rio?

  As I took my last sip of scotch, I took out a cigarette and asked, “Well now that you know so much about me Mr. Atlas, can I ask you one thing?”

  “Go for it,” as he reached for the pack out of my purse to join me. He took a lighter out of his pocket and lit us up.

  As I inhaled a drag and blew it towards the bar I asked, “What made you join RED? You know why I did, but why you?”

  As he takes a sip of his scotch on the rocks and lifts his glass to ask for another, he then grabs my hand, “Well because I believe that the world is a good place filled with great people led the wrong way. I want to lead them back to the right. I want to rewrite history to guide them to good again.”

  Wow. I sat there and pondered to myself as taking another drag, this man just wants to do good in the world, just like the rest of us.

  While sipping on the scotch the bartender just handed him, right when I felt a heartwarming moment he tells me, “Unless they are assholes and won’t listen, then I will sock one to them and put them in their place.” We both started to laugh.

  A sarcastic moment for such a great man. I knew I was starting to like him. Such an upfront gentleman, very open about his life to a person who he just met, making me so open to someone I just met, completely carefree, of course, that could just be the drugs, but I loved it!

  “Sooooo Mr. A do anything fun in RED lately?”

  He started to mumble a little bit, “Well I have this great mission going on right now. It is totally top secret and I and only a couple others truly know its purpose.”

  Finally getting some real answers!

  “But the real purpose is …”

  He paused for a moment.

  What felt like hours of talking, drinking and smoking come to a sudden end when a great song came on.

  He leans in close to my ear, brushes my hair away from it, making my chandelier like earrings sparkle, “This is my favorite song to play on the piano you know.” I lean back and just grin into his drunken eyes. He is really something else.

  All of this making me think, “Damn, I almost had him. This would have been a one and done mission. Damn it!”

  What is going on with me? Did I almost just compromise the entire mission because of fun? By not forcing an answer I almost got it and now I am flirting. Who the hell am I? I just thought to myself, “oh well, I am training here for a while, I can get it out of him another night.”

  He grabbed my hand, put my cigarette out, dropped my drink along with his to the bar, and took me to the dance floor.

  “Oh no no, I don’t dance in public.”

  “What do you mean you do not dance, you just told me you love to? I do not think I have ever met a Mel who does not dance in public … Well, you are the first Mel I have met but still, M-E-L is how you spell dance so come out there with me.”

  His drunk ramblings made me blush. I just said what the hell. If I failed at the truth serum at least I am still gaining his trust and then maybe, just maybe, he will open up again, and soon.

  I went onto the dance floor with him. By this time I was just so lost in the moment it felt like we were the only people in the room. We start almost a slow salsa. This chemistry that I felt was something I only dreamed of. I mean I only saw this guy for the first time just a few hours ago and already feel this comfortable with him.

  He leans in and whispers again, “I have never been able to open up like this. I think we have something special here.” He pulls me in and kisses me slowly pulling me closer with his hand on my back. I felt something so great but frantically push him away.

  “I can’t do this, you’re drunk and I … I … I have a fiancé.” I say leaving like a rabbit who just saw a fox on the prowl.

  “So be it. Just wait.” He smirked as he slowly let his hand off my back and walked away.

  I did not understand but I left frantically. My heart beating so hard it felt like it was going to pop right out of my chest. I could not catch my breath. I felt something here.

  I got back up to my room and slammed the door melting to the floor. I unlaced my shoe string by string and threw them to my side into the kitchen. My legs sinking into the floor, the cold tile consuming them little by little. Covering my eyes and pulling my brows into my hairline, I could only think, “why?”

  Why was I feeling this way? Why did that kiss feel … right? Why was I here? Why would I ever let a man compromise my mission? Why did it feel so weird to finally be seen?

  These were all questions I wanted answers to but had none for.

  All the sudden my door locks, the shades go low, and my phone rings. It was him, Radinson to be exact.

  I slowly answered the phone thinking to myself how in the world is he controlling my room. That must be why they had it specifically set for me before I got here.

  “Well, Mel … how did it go?”

  I frantically looked everywhere for cameras and bugs, pulling cushions off, climbing up to pull things out of cupboards, throwing pillows and blankets everywhere. My place looked like a toddler had come through like a twister, but I see none, all I can think is thank goodness. I could not handle people spying on me all the time.

  “You see sir, I think I need to gain his trust before just making him bolt out with all of the information we need.”

  “That was not your decision to make …”

  “Excuse my interruption sir but the serum that we have does not wipe memory only makes you tell the truth. So how would he feel if I just plain up and got everything out of him in one night? He would know I was part of the CIA as we are the only ones who have this. He would then know the CIA is after him. He would most likely bolt and/or come after you. Do you really want that sir?”

  “Well ..”

  “Well, nothing sir. You know I am right. You did not hear the CIA going around telling the world about the first extra-terrestrial you all found many years ago or the fact that we are obtaining minerals from Jupiter, no because then NASA would never trust you ever again. You must pick and choose your battles. You have to know how to build the trust so they open on their own. I need to make this man trust me, then I will get it out of him. Promise.”

  “You better agent.”

  The phone clicks, everything starts opening again, and I am finally alone.

  With a thousand emotions running through my head, I set the security breach next to my door, put the phone next to the stove, slowly slip out of my dress leaving it on the floor in the living room, so the only thing I am wearing is my tattoo on my calf, and I walk towards the bath. I draw up a nice hot bath full of lavender relaxing bubbles, pour a glass of the finest wine I could find in my mini bar and sink into the water.

  What am I doing here? How am I going to make this work? This is going to take a long time, but I know I can do it. I am here for the good of
the world and that is exactly what I will do.

  I need this man to be on my side. I need to make him like me. I need to know why someone who worked for the CIA and now RED, who I can tell obviously loves doing the good for people, thinks that setting off an electronic nuke is the way to go. What is going through this man’s mind and how can I be in the shadows while being the one everyone has their eye on.

  CHAPTER FOUR: THE NEXT STEP

  L et’s jump ahead a little way down the road. After that night at the bar, I spent about three months in the RED investigation division to eventually be assigned as the understudy of Atlas. This was set up by James so I could stay observing his day to day routine.

  Atlas had been gone during my training down in Rio. He would come and go out of the office but nothing out of the now what I call ordinary. I would see him come in with bruises and blood covering him and the next he would be high class suited up doing desk work. Every day it just made me ponder more and more on what he was doing. He would check in with me to see how training was going but that was really it.

  Still no answer as to why I was still just observing and not taking the next step, still no more commands, just everything the same every day. Wake up, go to the office, do work, train for about an hour to learn the ropes of RED and more about Atlas, report the day to the CIA, sleep, and repeat.

  One day Atlas got back bloody as hell and invited me to lunch.

  He walked in, shirt ripped up, blood and dirt covering him like he just went to a bad rave and came to my desk. He sat on it reminding me of how Radinson had done it before. He looked at me and nodded his head up trying to look cute while dirty. “How you doing Mel?”

  “Great! Which is probably more than I can say for you.”

  “Oh this, this is nothing, just a typical weekend for me.”

  I started to giggle and continued to type in reports.

 

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