Something Reminisced

            Ian looked at the date and remembered something, something he didn’t really like to dwell on. Though both he and Ed were asked to help her, neither of them liked the idea and Ian always feared what might happen if the secret was discovered.

            He turned his attention back to the multitude of open windows on the screen and started his search once more. It was at this point that Jacks entered the library.

  “What are you looking for?” he asked as he saw the windows.

  “Money, strangely enough,” said Ian.

  “Don’t tell me I’m going to be paid late?” asked Jacks jokingly, they both knew full well that none of them had received an actual pay check in years, nor did they need to. “So why are you on the money trail?”

  “CNet brought it to my attention that the Agency has a cash flow issue, and he’s right. All the slush funds from before the Fall are either dry or closed with the money stolen or taken by the government,”

  “Who filed those slush funds?”

  “The governments. The money went to charity as far as anyone was concerned, and some of it did. Most, however, stayed there for the Agency’s benefit. There are three accounts somewhere with enough money in each to solve the issue,”

  “Is it really that bad?”

  “What? No. As long as we don’t need to buy a new VTOL or suits we’ll be fine,”

  “But we want to buy a new VTOL and combat suits,”

  “We might in the near future, yes,”

  “Why not do what you always thought of doing, hack into a bank and ‘make’ the money appear in the account,”

  “How do you think these three accounts got all the money?” asked Ian turning to the young agent. “That’s why I need them, or at the very least one of them. It takes years to propagate the money without raising red flags every other second,” Ian finished just as his phone rang. “I’ve gotta take this,”

  “Sure,” said Jacks and headed to one of the bookcases to find what he was looking for.

  “De Beer,” Ian said, still seated behind his laptop.

  “They’ll meet with you tomorrow, I’ll email the location of the headquarters in Sandton,”

  “Thanks, I owe you one,”

  “You owe me a hell of a lot more than one,” said De Beer before hanging up.

  “What did my father in law say?” asked Jacks with a smug smile.

  “The Others will meet with me tomorrow,”

  “That’s good,”

  “Yeah. But I need to find this money before then,”

  “You reckon you’ve got enough to pay them off?”

  “Ha, no, but if something happens the Agency will need the money more than ever,” Ian said and stared once more at the date in the bottom right of the screen. “I’m going out for a bit,”

  “Cool, see you later,”

  “When reception said you were at the front desk I nearly fell off my chair and out the window,” said Hugo as he got up from behind his desk to greet Ian. “These days it seems that whenever the two of you contact me it’s because you want something,” he said to which Ian just smiled. “Oh, you do want something,”

  “Yeah, but mostly it was an excuse to come see you, hear how it’s going,”

  “You could have phoned” he said, gesturing Ian to sit.

  “I could have, yes, but I noticed the date,”

  “Ah,” said Hugo, suddenly sombre.

  “She was taken from us, from you, too soon,”

  “Yeah, she was,”

  “I’m sorry, I actually shouldn’t have brought it up, you’ve got a family now, a wife and little girl-”

  “It’s fine, dude. Some things are hard to forget, and some things should be remembered. I can’t believe it’s been this long though, feels like just yesterday,”

  “Yeah, it does. A lot of it does,”

  “I hear congratulations are in order, we haven’t actually seen each other so I haven’t been able to congratulate you on the engagement,”

  “Thanks, dude. Yeah I was lucky to find the girl of my dreams,”

  “Yeah, and more lucky still that she’s alive to this day. Seems Ed and I had bad luck with the women of our dreams,”

            Ian smiled but only to hide the truth. Hugo had no idea what they really did, suspicions he probably had a goodly amount of but no concrete clue. As a result he was also never told of the summer fling Ian and Sarah shared. Sarah was dead, but Hugo’s first love was still very much alive.

  “What would you say to her?” asked Ian.

  “What I say to her grave every year,” said Hugo, “I love her, I miss her. Every day I wake up and she’s the first thing to come to my mind. Every night I go to sleep and she’s the last thing to see me off to my dreams. I know it’s not healthy, not since I’ve got a wife and daughter, but I can’t help it,”

  “She’s what anchors you,” said Ian.

  “Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I love my wife,”

  “But you don’t forget the first one, especially not when they’re no longer around,”

  “Sound almost as if you know what I went through,”

  “I’ve had practice with Ed,” Ian lied. Some part of him wanted to tell Hugo the truth, but resounding logic kept his mouth shut.

  “So what was it you wanted me to help with?”

  “I’ve got three accounts I want the access records traced on for the last ten years or so,”

  “That sound like something you could do yourself,”

  “I would, normally, but I don’t really have the time.” Said Ian “Wedding to plan and all that,” he added as explanation.

  “Of course. When do you want this done by?”

  “Yesterday,” Ian said with a smile.

  “That’s the most reasonable request I’ve had all year,” said Hugo jokingly, “All my other clients say last month,”

            Ian stayed a little while longer after that before greeting his old friend. As he walked back to his car a vision of the past came to him.

  “Please” she pleaded, tears rolling down her cheeks, “Hugo can never know,”

  “This will kill him,” said Ian.

  “No, he’ll live if he thinks I’m dead. But if he knew the truth…that would kill him,”

  “We’ll help you,” said Ed, on the verge of tears.

  “What?” said Ian, outraged, “Have you thought this through, Ed. If Hugo ever found out about this, he would kill us. And I’m not kidding, he would kill us,”

  “And who’s gonna tell him?” asked Ed, “I’m sure as hell not, and she needs to pretend to be dead, so it won’t be her. Which leaves you, are you going to tell him, Ian?”

            He clenched his jaw, much like he did that night. He never gave Ed and answer but Ed knew him way too well to think he would say anything to Hugo.

  “Some secrets are best kept to the grave and beyond,” he said to himself as he got into his car.

  “You killed two of our agents,” said the FBI agent with the happiness devouring eyes.

  “They should have identified themselves,” said Devon.

  “You also killed a man we’ve been after for some time,”

  “Not my fault if I’m more efficient,”

            Devon was in an interrogation room with the agent sitting across from him and a one-way window behind.

  “My superiors want to make this problem disappear and by that I mean they want to give you a lifelong holiday in Guantam, which we both know is no picnic,” said the FBI agent and leaned back in his steel chair, “I, however, think you can be of some use to us. You demonstrated quite a bit of skill at the party, you got rid of a big weapons dealer and I would personally have given you a medal. But, like I said, superiors.

  “They have, however, agreed to give you a pardon if you do one little job for us. You are currently unemployed right?” Devon gave no answer, “I see here it says you worked as a network administrator for a year or so,” said the man as he opened a document on his iPad, “So what have you been up to the last couple of years? Sitting at home on the little you had saved up? Somehow I don’t think so, but whatever agency you worked for they were good at hiding their tracks. Definitely not CIA,”

  “So,” the agent continued when Devon still remained silent, “This little mission involves a satellite uplink that needs to be infiltrated and hacked. I’ll be coming along with you, as well as three other agents,”

            The agent continued to prattle on but the dream was dissolving and before he knew it, Devon was lying in the room they were being housed in in the Area 51 compound. A woman jumped onto him, at first he thought it was Evelyn then he realised it was Melisa.

            She kissed him, first on the lips, then on the chest, the she started to undo his belt.

            It was at this point that Devon awoke and found Evelyn undoing his belt.

  “What the fuck!” he shouted, kicked her off of him.

  “I’m just having some fun,” she said, getting up from the ground, “and it looks like someone else was having some fun as well,” she added, gesturing at the bulge in his pants.

  “The fuck’s your problem,” he said, fastening his belt.

  “I don’t have a problem,”

  “Like fuck you don’t, you just tried to rape me,”

  “Well excuse me if I thought you might enjoy a little head,”

  “Get out. Out!” he shouted.

            She obliged, grudgingly, muttering a few choice curses under her breath as she left. Devon tried to relax once more, he closed his eyes trying to forget about his dream and Evelyn.

            Devon found himself getting up from the cold hard ground. His ears were ringing and his vision blurred. Each breath hurt and even the slightest movement nearly sent him to his knees.

            He looked around and saw the satellite uplink crumbling to pieces as flames engulfed the building. Nearby he could hear a helicopter, so he started walking in that direction. Before long he was inside the troop chopper and made his way to the cockpit.

  “Take off,” said Devon.

  “Like hell,” said the pilot and Devon shoved a gun in his face, “where to?”

  “Home,” said Devon, exhausted.

  “I love her, I miss her. Every day I wake up and she’s the first thing to come to my mind”

  “That’s Hugo,” said Ed as he entered the study.

  “Yeah,” said Ian as he stopped the recording.

  “What are you doing with a recording of him?”

  “Sending it to an old friend of yours,”

  “You’re not talking about who I think you are?”

  “I am,”

  “It’s a shit idea,”

  “No, what we did that day was a shit idea,”

  “Ian, it won’t change anything, she’s supposed to be dead,”

  “I know, but Hugo isn’t the only one that needs to suffer for it,”

  “We had no choice,”

  “Of course we had a choice,” said Ian, “We could have told Hugo,”

  “Yes, told him who she was and while we were at it, told him who we really are and worked for. Great plan,”

            Ian didn’t answer him, but both of them knew that Ed was right. That’s what bothered Ian the most, not Ed being right, but what he was right about; they had had no choice.

  “So, what next?” asked Ed after a while.

  “Bed,”

  “I know I’m attractive, but-” started Ed jokingly.

  “Don’t flatter yourself dude, you’re not exactly my type,” said Ian, also jokingly. “You’re too flat up top and too pointy down below,”

            Both of them laughed at that. Ian got up from the chair as CNet entered the room.

  “Good night, Ed,” said Ian as he walked past him and CNet.

  “Commander, I want to ask you something,”

  “Good night, CNet,”

  “Good night, Commander Erasmus,” he said and turned back to Ed, “Commander Swardt, I want to ask you something,”

  “Sure, shoot,”

  “As you know I’ve been dating a human woman for a while now, and things are progressing quite well. I however need to be prepared for any situation and as such I’m looking to do an external upgrade to my platform. My question is this, what size should I make my genitals,”

            Ed blankly stared at him.