Agent finds a Warrior

by Guy Stanton III

  She was smiling as she said, “You just made all that up.”

  “Sure.” I said smiling easily.

  With a sparkle to her eyes Maria asked, “So what happened to the incestuous group of five siblings?”

  “They were marooned on a desert island that had giants living on it.”

  Maria looked at me uncertain as to what that meant so I elaborated, “They got eaten.”

  Maria’s eyes widened as she said, “You didn’t make the story up did you.”

  I didn’t say anything but I could see her mind racing with the possibilities.

  “How long ago was this?” She asked casually.

  I just smiled at her and she guessed that was all the answer that she would get so she settled for asking another question, “Did the story end well for the young king and his pirate queen?”

  I sighed and looked down at the table, “It did, but fifty short years after they were gone their grandchildren and the people of the kingdom were sacrificing their children to a moon goddess.”

  Silence lengthened for a moment and I broke it by grabbing the bill and getting up. What more was there to be said of such a story?

  I’d been trying to cheer her up and I had depressed myself with memories of the past.

  I stepped up to the cash register and glancing around I found a box of chocolate bars. I threw two of them down with the bill and then moments later I walked out the door to where Maria was waiting on the street.

  I tossed her one of the chocolate bars and she caught it with a surprised look.

  “You like chocolate don’t you?”

  The look on her face was answer enough to that.

  “Behold your desert. Now shall we return to the scene of our crime and see if the ant colony has calmed down yet?”

  Maria did something then I’d never heard her do before, she giggled. It was a lovely sound.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Maria lay awake in her bed by the window. She knew Elon was still awake.

  “What part did you play in the story?” She asked softly into the soft gloom of the room.

  There was a long pause, with the AC being the only noise within the room, before Elon responded, “I helped convince the pirate queen not to kill the son and I helped advise the old king early on in his reign.”

  Maria glanced over in the dark towards Elon, “Good night Elon.”

  “Good night Maria.”

  Time passed and Maria heard Elon’s breathing even out into sleep. Sleep was far from her though. She turned over on her side to face the window.

  Her mind filtered back over the evening and what a wild turn of events her life had taken. It didn’t promise to get any less exciting anytime soon either. She had her life back and a heavenly purpose to go with it, if she chose to accept it.

  It seemed so strange, even carnally simple, what God was asking of her, but who was she to judge God’s motives? That point had been made very clear to her this evening and she was never ever going to make that mistake again.

  A tear slipped down her face as the last of her will was surrendered. Softly she said, “Okay God. It’s Your show. I’ll do whatever You ask of me in concern to this man. I’ll pray for him and I’ll give myself to him if that’s what You want.”

  Instead of tension over what she had just promised, peace overwhelmed her beyond any comprehension and her head sank into the pillow and all of a sudden she felt very sleepy. Her mind already foggy with tiredness she asked, “He doesn’t want a relationship with me. He fights against his desire for me?”

  “He won’t be able to resist you. He will have to give his fears to Me as they come between us and obstruct the deepness of our relationship.”

  Maria’s eyes opened for a moment, “Elon has fears?” She asked surprised.

  “Many.”

  “Why do You talk with me? I’m so unworthy of it!”

  “I choose whomever I will to fulfill My will and I long for deep relationship with those of My own creation.”

  Maria had a question, but she held it back.

  “Speak.”

  Hesitantly Maria asked, “If I hadn’t agreed to do Your will would You have found another?”

  “I would have.”

  Maria swallowed hard, as an intense emotion welled up inside of her at the thought of Elon with another woman. Shocked deeply by the emotion Maria had no choice, but to accept that somehow she’d already welcomed a relationship with Elon before she had even known it.

  How was it possible not to like a man who helped clean up your puke and save face the way he had for her. He hadn’t had to do any of that for her, but he did. She knew so little about him and yet she knew so much. What would tomorrow bring?

  Chapter Four

  Kinks of the Trade

  I watched her sipping her coffee, as we sat at the outdoor café in the busy downtown section of the city. She seemed somehow more at peace today, even relaxed and of course she was always ever beautiful.

  She glanced over at me and smiled, “So what’s next boss?”

  She had a direct way about her that spoke of confidence. This was the Maria I was more used to.

  I gestured to the busy street scene going on all around us, “What do you see?”

  She looked away from me and surveyed the scene of a busy city coming to life, as the morning sun rose in the sky sending filtered rays of light through the scattered high-rises to touch the steaming pavement below. She took her time in her assessment, but eventually her eyes came back to me and she said, “The normal hustle and bustle of a city that one would expect to see at 9 o’clock in the morning on a weekday. Why? What am I missing?”

  I reached my hand across the table and left it open before her, “I want you to see what I not only see, but also perceive going on all around us.”

  She looked at my outstretched hand for a moment and then reached hers out toward it.

  “Put the coffee cup down.” I said softly.

  Her gaze came up to mine and she complied, even as her outstretched hand hesitantly fitted into mine. She jerked and her eyes flared wide, as she glanced all around us.

  “What do you feel?” I asked calmly.

  Her panicked eyes turned back to me, “Everything! I see…… feel everything!”

  I shook my head no, “Right now it may feel like that, but it’s not. All you’re seeing is the momentary flashes of thought of some individuals in the crowd around us.”

  “You’re seeing more than this?” Maria asked incredulously, as she put a hand to her forehead as if she had a sudden headache.

  “Yes, but my mind is screening a lot of it out. What you are seeing is my interpretation of that which is most important in terms of either negative or positive action.”

  Maria was shaking her head as her eyes rapidly blinked, “How do you stay sane? This is overwhelming!”

  I squeezed her hand and her eyes came back to mine, “This isn’t the part that will drive you crazy Maria. What will drive you crazy is if you can see what you are right now and do nothing about it.”

  Maria’s head jerked around and she started to rise, but I pulled her back down.

  “That man across the street he just stole that old woman’s purse!” Maria exclaimed in frustration with me, as she tugged at my grip on her hand.

  “Focus on me for a moment Maria.”

  Reluctantly her eyes pulled away from the man escaping down the street with the purse, as the old woman having realized for herself of the theft was screeching for help from nearby passerby’s.

  “Just as it will drive you crazy to not do anything so will it if you try to fix all the wrongs of the world. You are only human Maria. You’re not God. Pick your battles and try to do the most good that you can with the limited resources available to you.”

  Maria nodded shaking slightly, as she tried to ignore all the little terrible things that were happening all around us that so few in the crowd were even noticing.

  A married man s
lipping his wedding ring off before saying hello in a charming fashion to a younger woman he was offering to share his taxi with.

  A man with a clipboard, who under the guise of having a tourist look at what he was offering clipped to the clipboard in the form of a coupon of some sort, was meanwhile slitting the tourist’s fanny pack with a box cutter and stealing both their identity and vacation money.

  The passerby stopping to pick up the $20 bill that fell from the person ahead of him before hurriedly stuffing it into his own pocket, with a furtive glance around to see if he’d been noticed.

  A tear slipped down Maria’s cheek and I could sense through my shared conscious link with her that she was panicking.

  “I don’t like this!” Maria said her words almost sounding out as if they were one long groan of angst caused by the turmoil that she felt all around her.

  “I don’t like it either Maria, but……”

  Maria vaulted out of her chair and shoved through the people on the packed sidewalk to dive into the street and scoop up a little boy that had wandered away from his distracted tourist parents. She dodged out of the way of a fast-moving taxi that would’ve ran over the little boy, even as a slower moving taxi came to a screeching halt in front of Maria.

  With the taxis’ horn blaring loudly Maria quickly stepped from the street and delivered the boy back to his horrified parents. Maria waived away their copious ‘ Thank You’s ’ and started backing away into the crowd that had gathered, until she pressed up against me.

  I leaned forward enough to whisper into her ear, “but……… how does saving that little boy’s life make you feel now? Worth risking some sanity for?”

  “Yes!” She breathed out.

  I took her hand then and led her out through the crowd that already begun to break up.

  “What I do is a sacrifice Maria. It’s not easy and I’d rather not do it most times. Moments like this can make it worth it, but it’s still not easy. In fact it can be downright tormenting! Are you sure you want this, because it’s not too late to back out yet.”

  She seemed to have reached a calm level of assurity and she responded back strongly, “I am fully committed to doing what God has in store for me. I’m going to be around for the long haul so stop trying to scare me off.”

  Some part of me rejoiced at her words, while some part groaned. It was a tossup as to which was the stronger of the two emotions.

  “Okay then.” I said resignedly.

  She was watching me and a smile had started to come out on her face.

  “What?” I asked defensively.

  She shook her head in refusal to answer me, which I didn’t like. Oh well there were a lot of things I didn’t like about this working relationship, but I was stuck with it now.

  I dug a credit card out and handed it to her, “Use this to buy yourself some clothes and whatever items you may need, but no more than what fits in a pack that you don’t mind carrying the weight of. I recommend you get something comfortable to walk in as I do quite a lot of walking at times. I’ll meet you back at the café in a few hours and then we’ll leave the city.”

  I turned to go attend to my own needs when she called out to me, “Elon?”

  I turned back.

  Maria looked as if she had something she wanted to say, which she hesitantly put words to, “This work we’re going to be doing is going to be dangerous no doubt. I imagine that you also have some rather extreme enemies.”

  Maria paused for a moment and then patted her side, “I have a 9mm, but that’s all I’ve got. You must have twenty knives and assorted other devices stashed all over your body. That silky shirt you’re wearing is some kind of light body armor and I’d be willing to bet that your leather coat would stop a high-powered rifle bullet. The point is I feel both underdressed and under-armed for the fight. I’d like to armor up some more, if it’s not too much trouble?”

  She had a valid point I had to admit.

  “On Robert Avenue off of 75th St. there is a store called ‘Kinks of the Trade’. Tell the store owner my name and she’ll get you anything you want.”

  Maria looked at me a little oddly before starting out in the direction that I had indicated. I grinned, as she disappeared from view, if she only knew what kind of store I had just sent her off to. Appearances could be so deceiving.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Maria stood outside the store embarrassed to even be seen near it. Elon couldn’t be serious, but the store’s name read ‘Kinks of the Trade’, only the name was spelled out in leather whips. It was an Adult store.

  Elon had to be playing some kind of practical joke on her, right?

  She looked either way along the sidewalk to see if she would be observed entering the store. The coast was clear so she ducked into the store.

  Oh how she wished that this was a practical joke of some kind!

  Why would Elon send her to such a place? As bad as she wanted to believe that this was a practical joke she also knew that Elon wasn’t the practical joke kind of person.

  Her olive skin darkened under the heat of the blush that suffused her face as her wondering eyes fell across the specific items that were arrayed throughout the store as she made her way towards the sales counter at the back of the store. The middle-aged woman standing behind it looked surprisingly normal given the nature of the shop.

  She wore a wry smile and as Maria got closer she said, “Honey if your man ain’t satisfied with what nature sure enough done give you already in bountiful supply, then you best get yourself another man, because Lord knows you don’t belong within a hundred miles of half the stuff in this hell depot!”

  Maria did her best to meet the woman’s eyes as she stopped at the counter, “I didn’t come for any of this…… stuff. A man said you could help me.”

  “And what man would that be honey?” The shop owner asked suspiciously.

  “Elon Gideon.”

  The black woman’s features sharpened and her eyes got hard with all the friendliness disappearing from them, “And what relation to him would you be missy?”

  Now that was a good question. Maria answered as honestly as she could think to do so, “I’m his woman.” The admission of saying that added to the heated blush of being in this place that already had her face feeling like it was on fire.

  The sharpness left the shop owner’s eyes who eyed her up all over again, while she shook her head doing it, “I always says to myself, ‘Elsie, that Elon Gideon is a man of style he is. He sure enough picked himself out a purty princess!”

  Maria’s sense of acute embarrassment only deepened. She abruptly flinched, as she heard the locks of the shop click closed behind her.

  She turned to see the neon sign in the window go from reading “Open” to flash “Closed”. She turned back to the shop owner in time to see a wall pull apart revealing a hidden space that lay behind the sales counter.

  “Follow me deary. We’ze got to get you outfitted. What’s your size honey?”

  Maria told her and the older woman giggled with exuberance, “I’ze got just the thing for you! We’ze gonna load you down with surprises for Mr. Gideon!”

  Maria hurriedly stuttered out, “I…… I don’t want lingerie….…”

  “Lingerie!” The shop owner screeched out indignantly. She picked up an automatic pistol laying on a nearby workbench and emptied the entire clip into some of her creations within the secret room.

  Turning with smoking gun in hand the black woman jerked a thumb over her shoulder, “Now honey, any of your lingerie ever do that before for ya?”

  Maria peered around the woman at the evidence that was plain to be seen and stated softly, “I can’t say that it has.”

  The shop owner went on as if she hadn’t heard Maria, “This ain’t lingerie! It’s art!”

  Maria stepped past her and picked something up, “Do you have this in my size?”

  “The older woman smiled richly, “You bet I do honey! Wait till you see what else
I got in your size!”

  “What does this do?”

  “Oh no honey! You don’t want to touch it like that! You’d get an awful nasty surprise. See what I mean?”

  “I see what you mean!” Maria affirmed, as Elsie demonstrated the working effectiveness of the object in question.

  “You make sure you tell Mr. Gideon about that before he takes it off of you! Wouldn’t be wanting him to get no such surprise when he’s unwrapping your goodies. My land’s child you sure do blush a lot! How long you say you two been together?”

  “Two days.”

  The shop owner guffawed into another fit of laughter, “You got a lot more to experience of Mr. Gideon then just two days will get ya! You hang on to him for life honey, if you know what’s good for you!”

  “What did he do for you?”

  “Somebody done stole my son from off school property and Mr. Gideon was the only one who knew where to look. He helped give me back my soul, when he saved my son. Then he set me up with this store so I could support myself. I sell the stuff out front to the freaky people who want to go whaling away at each other for no good reason, while I get to practice away with my art in here and sell it on the side to people recommended by Mr. Gideon. Sure enough set me up for life he did! That was ten years ago now. Funny thing about it is Mr. Gideon just ain’t never aged. I sure has though!”