“Want to go to lunch?” He asked as turning my computer screen off.
“Well since my work is apparently done, why not.”
Atlas and I went back to his place for lunch so he could clean up and check on how my training was going. He was on level 30, a little higher up than me but oh man those floors made all the difference with the view.
His place looked a lot like mine. I guess they wanted to make it easy with designing. But that was fine because I loved the way all of it looked. Made it easy to feel comfortable in.
As he walked back into the kitchen to grab us some drinks I started looking around. He had pictures of his old squad, his family, and him lying around. Some old books you could tell he liked but got too bored with to finish. Some maps of South America and some old notebooks filled with a language I did not recognize. I take a glimpse into his room and saw a map of pictures, documents, and red x’s covering his wall. Wait, is that my photo? As I am starting to look harder, he comes in and shuts the door and hands me a drink.
I walk back over to where the other photos were, “Miss home much?” I whispered while picking up a photo of him and his family on what looked like their vineyard out in California. Him with his arm around his mom and sister and his dad and brother to the side laughing and all smiling and looking like they were the definition of happiness.
“Yeah sometimes. One day I will be able to put this all behind me and move on.”
“Oh really?” I pondered while taking a sip.
“Yeah. Like I told you before I want to be normal again. Once I know my good for the world is done I will hang up the suit and go my own way.”
We raised our glasses and started giggling.
“I have done so much with my life already all I want to do is make sure I have protected the people I love with everything I can, then I can move on.”
He continued, “people always think of me as the man who goes out when you need someone’s ass kicked. But I just volunteer to do that when I want to get answers. I want to know that the world can handle itself without me, so I can enjoy myself.”
He sat on the couch and pondered into his drink.
I sat down next to him putting my drink on a nice cork coaster on his glass table. Reaching one arm around to his right shoulder and putting my left and on his left bicep. “I really respect that.” I kissed him.
He backed up for a moment as we had not had any physical contact since the bar. He put his drink down and gave me a slight kiss and then pulled back again.
“I am sorry, was that too upfront.” I quickly state while pulling myself back on the couch.
“Of course not. I really like you Mel, but with our line of work, I do not know if we could make it work. I have too much on my mind right now to get into anything too deep. I need to focus on my mission and then maybe we can talk.”
I stepped away to refill his drink, “I understand.” Thinking to myself well shit that is a good thing. I could have just compromised this whole mission because of an urge of lust towards this man.
As he leaned back into the couch “I just can’t sit here and let the world in front of me crumble while I know I am the one who can stop it.”
“Can I ask you a question Atlas?”
“Go for it.”
“If you want to be out so bad why are you still here? What is keeping you here?”
He choked on a sip of his drink and wiped his lips. “Well agent, I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.” He gets a smirk on his face, grabs my emptied glass, and we head out to finish some desk work before the day is over.
At the end of that day I was getting sick of it all and confused on why my photo was on his wall, so I decided to ask James why Atlas. I had gained his trust, he has been training me now, he knows a lot about me and me about him. I could not see this man being the threat to the world as they say he is. Something was not adding up and I was not getting any answers.
I decided to call James and ask what was going on. The shades closed, and everything dimmed as before.
“Come on pick up asshole.” I whispered to myself while franticly bending my knees shaking up and down in my black suit like an agent who got lost and really had to pee in the line at a carnival.
“What do you want Mel, I am kind of busy.” I can hear Victor in the back telling him to get off the phone. He finally put it on speaker, so I could talk to the both of them.
“Sir I want to know what is going on with Atlas. Why him? Why do you think he is the one who is the bad guy in all of this? I need more intel if I am going to keep this mission.”
“Mel, I cannot talk about this right now.”
“Sir I believe you can. I need to know what is going on. My photo is on his wall and I am starting to wonder if I have been compromised. If I am going to continue I need more answers.”
I kept asking but they could not give me a legit answer. Told me it was above my pay grade to know. I told them I was finally done training in the office part of the job and I wanted to move to the combat division and if they could not give me a honest answer about Atlas I was going to go my own way.
They told me to just give it more time and they would have more answers. It felt like a bad relationship when you keep asking if you can go public or be official and they keep asking for more time. Annoying, degrading, and pointless.
This worried me. I was slowly starting to feel things for him I had never felt before. Things I was scared for. I could not grasp the thought of putting my heart in front of my job. I could not tell if it was just because he was the only person I really spent time with there or if it was something real.
I could not wait anymore for answers, I needed them now. This mission was not going anywhere. I was being seen and upfront but not being told what was next, just reporting day after day and it was getting old.
That same conversation I told the CIA I needed to make my way from the office to the combat division of RED, after all, that is where Atlas was, and I thought maybe if he could see me even more than he was already, I could get even more out of him. I wanted to stick to my mission.
“You see my thought is if I move to the combat division and graduate fast enough maybe you could set it up for me to become his partner or something. This way I could be the one up close with everything going on.” I mumbled faster than a little kid trying to tell you about their day.
They agreed and set it up for me to start training that following day.
I woke up tired as ever from my mind pondering all night. Threw on some old workout gear and made my way to the elevator to go to the top floor where the training would take place. As I pushed the button to go up I saw a flyer holding for dear life by one string of tape for the new combat division training.
I ripped it off the wood walls and came to find out not only was Atlas a part of the combat division, as I had already known, but he had been asked to become the trainer for all of the Reconnaissance Emissary Division physical combat training. “I wonder who the hell set that up,” I mumbled to myself, rolling my eyes knowing that James and most likely Victor had something to do with this. He really can set shit up fast.
Right then my phone starts buzzing. I stumble off to the side to answer staring out the window to a blank city. It was Victor.
“Yes …”
“Ok Mel, here is the next step. I need you to become a love interest of Atlas’.”
“Excuse me, sir.”
“Yes, I need him to trust you not just as a colleague but as someone he could possibly love. I know you have a thing for him so it should be easy. And you must keep it a secret Mel. Nobody can know you are trying to date. This has to stay between you, him, James, and me.”
My stomach dropped. I wanted to be a thing with Atlas but not for work reasons. Shit, I fucking kissed him yesterday and he pulled back because of work. How was I going to make this happen? But that was my heart messing with my mind again. I swilled my heart, my feelings and told him ok.
I we
nt back up to the elevator holding the flyer, pressed the button looking up as if someone was going to help me. I clutched that piece of paper so tight it crumbled. I took a deep breath and knew what I had to do.
I had seen Atlas only once this week. They wanted him to be my main go-to guy for RED and he was the one now showing me the way. But when I got to this part of training he was different. He was kind of a jerk. Granted the first night we met I did drug him so maybe it is just karma getting me back a little bit.
CHAPTER FIVE: THE START OF SOMETHING
I walked into the combat gym that day knowing I was on my way to becoming the combat agent I always wanted to be, and this training was going to make me and not break me.
There were about 40 who started in his training course, and only 10 of us graduated it. It was your basic training; you know the shit you see in the movies, Hollywood is not too off the real world believe it or not.
The gym was at the top of the building that we all lived in. Kind of the penthouse of things. I know they just wanted to keep an eye on everyone all the time. Odd enough, the elevators were the only place that did not have cameras, well minus our apartments. I guess that is how they “respected our privacy.”
As I was going up the elevator I reached into my gym bag to grab my headphones. I turned the Bluetooth on, turned on the phone and turned on a remix of the song that Atlas and I first danced to, and stuck my phone in my hoodie. As I went up each floor, we kept stopping to get more and more people. When people get into an elevator I couldn’t help but watch.
I saw one girl chewing gum and talking like a totally awesome girl, then another lady walked in, giving me the stink eye for being in black legging yoga pants, a black hoodie, hair up, no makeup on, and a bright pink baggy t back tank, while she was in all designer gear with all her jewelry on. The last one that I cared to watch was an older gentleman who looked like he lived in the gym shaking his drink so hard it was like he was pissed it was not in him yet. I was just ready to get out of this and get started. We finally hit the top floor and were able to get out. I whispered, “thank God!”
I open the doors to find a room that was nothing but glass windows for walls, like everything in any government building apparently, seriously could they not think of anything else? It all led to a full floor of training heaven. I had never seen anything like it and was ready to get my swing on. It had an archery room, shooting range, body bags, knives, weights, treadmills, concrete walls to run up, a list of whistle calls that the division used in case of a hesitant situation, and a full floor full of weights and equipment that you can find anywhere in any situation you could imagine, and an entire ring for us practice fighting each other and our gymnastic skills apparently.
As I put my stuff away I start to stretch, checking out the people, just as I was on the elevator, shadow lesson number one, always know your surroundings and know how to take everyone down by weakness if need be.
Some pretty cool, some snotty as hell, some ok I guess. But I wasn’t there to pay attention to the brunette with short shorts trying to get every guy’s attention, or the guy who was too shy to talk to anyone so he was standing by the window pretending to look out but constantly looking over his shoulder, or the older fellow who had his headphone blasted so no one would bother him, no I was there to learn, train, and finish my old life and start my new journey.
As I finish stretching and people watching, I saw him, he was there. He is a six-foot nicely built lean man, dirty blonde light brown hair still styled, and always working that scruffy 2 o’clock shadow, those piercing blue with a hint of grey eyes, he then walks in.
He is in a dark blue short-sleeve workout hoodie, made so tight to fit his skin so you see nothing but muscle, and he was wearing basketball shorts because, let’s face it, it was getting super-hot in there. All I could think was, “holy shit, I can’t believe what I have to do. I have to pretend to love this man when I think I am actually falling for him. What the hell am I getting myself into?” My stomach dropped, I wonder if he would even notice I was here or if our life from the investigation division was over.
He crosses his arms across his chest and yells, “Hello “agents” if that is what you truly think you are,” Atlas continued, “Today is your first day of hell. Today is the day you will find out if you can make it through training and if you are truly able to become a part of the Red Eye Combat Division. Or RECD (wrecked) as we like to call it.” “Do not question my ways, just do as I say and we will see if you can make it.”
I was in the next step. Going from desk junkie to combat. I finally was feeling a sense of completion, like I was right where I was supposed to be.
We started off in the shooting range. An accordion of guns lying in front of each person’s booth. All dismantled and wrecked. Our job was to learn our resources.
“You have `15 seconds to put together all of these weapons agents, and 60 seconds after that to shoot one bullet from each into bullseye.”
I took a deep breath. He took his stop watch and yelled, “Go!”
One by one I took each magazine and connected it with the missing puzzle piece. Shooting one bullet after each gun was assembled. Looking over in what felt like stopped time I see my fellow agents next to me having trouble with the pressure. I finish my last round and hit the red button to my right to indicate I am done.
Atlas pulls my target back to us, “Well done Mel.”
He walks off and starts yelling at everyone individually. He walks us to the room next door covered with concrete walls and bullet holes.
The next training segment of that day was the range room. We did something similar to this in the CIA. It is a giant room that is made to be like the top of a building. Little space to hide and plenty of fake victims and targets to pop out at you. Many weapons around but no guns. Things you would see on day to day basis.
There were only a few of us in there at a time, “your time starts … NOW.” Atlas yelled as the lights dimmed and strobes came on to throw us off.
One by one targets and victims started appearing. And one by one I started taking them down with everyday items you would find on any roof in New York City.
That day finished hard and strong. We finished with some typical krav maga, making all of us exhausted and beaten to a pulp. Atlas stayed back to finish cleaning when the announcement that we could take a free night out came about.
“I know a place!” One of the girls yelled.
We all looked and each other and decided to go to Beat Down, a little old country bar in the city. We all decided to meet up at 9 at the bar and go from there.
Walking down to the bar I remember seeing what the city was really like. Fast cars, dirty roads, every type of person on the streets. You could easily point out the bachelorette parties, from the drug addicts to the students, to the businessmen. Nobody on this street was afraid to flaunt who they were. If you cannot tell by now I love to know what I am around and specifically who I am around.
I finally saw the huge neon sign flashing Beat Down in red and white lights. I walked into the bar full of country music, boot stomping, tobacco and whiskey smelling heaven. The old rotting wooden floors creaked as I walked to where I was being waved.
We all sat down in a torn leather booth for some dinner and drinks. Me in my shorts, ankle boots, and t back tank top. Atlas in his jeans, nice shoes, and a short sleeve hoodie shirt that was great and so fitting. Kate was there in her crazy as ever black and blue jumpsuit outfit. And a few other people whose names I cannot remember to this day.
Everyone was having a good time, drinking, dancing, smoking, just enjoying being a “person” for a night.
Of course, Atlas was trying to be the main point of the night. Seeming like he just wanted my attention. Girls were all over him all night. He would talk to them only when I was looking and then push them away the second I turned over.
What did this man want from me! Does he want me or does he not? Every day I spend with this man the feelings just
get stronger and so does the missions purpose. I know he is a mission but why am I falling for him. He is the first man, no person; I have ever really opened up to. I am breaking every law we have in my line of work, but I feel like my heart wants him too much.
I snap back out of the drunk cloud of lust to remember I am on a mission. If that mission requires love then maybe I should just go for it.
I make my way over to the bartender and think to myself, “What better way to start love than with alcohol.”
I look at everyone and invite them over to join me, “This round is on me guys!”
We all get the first shot of tequila together and put that lime on to our lips as if we cannot handle it. This was going to be a great night. Time to just let loose.
We started all doing more shots of tequila. And that is when things started opening up. I made the vast decision that I was off duty tonight. I would just report that night and say nothing interesting happened. I just wanted to find out more about Atlas for me, nobody else. I wanted to see if my gut was right telling me that he really was not the bad guy.
“I meant to ask you yesterday during lunch, where is your ring miss I have a fiancé?”
“Oh yeah about that … we broke it off. Did you just notice that I did not have that on?”
“Ooooh really,” Atlas smirking his upper lip to me. “Was it really ever on? And no … maybe I noticed it a long time ago and just never said anything. I would never want to ruin the “business” environment.”
I laughed a little bit and quickly downed another shot and went off onto the dance floor to ignore the question that no person would want to answer.
I decided after about thirty minutes of line dancing and no contact with him that I was done for the night.
On my way out, Atlas finally pulled me to the bar. He was trying to learn more about me and I did not know how much I should open up to him. I kept the conversation short and sweet and kept trying to drive it back to him but it was not working.
He was all over the place all night, talking to friends, again shoving off girls, not dancing, just observing. I came to the conclusion that I could not get close to Atlas tonight, so I just wanted to leave.
Atlas Page 4