“I thought I clearly told her to stay put!” she said more to herself than to Ted. Ted wasn’t sure of what to say. He had never seen her that way. He raised his hands.
“Hey, you don’t have to be angry. And you don’t have to do everything on your own. We can help.”
“Oh, shut up! You can’t help. Give your help to someone that needs it.” She placed her face in her palms as she exhaled.
“Hey, we’re just trying to be nice. If you don’t want to join us, knock yourself out. It’s cool.”
Aaliyah rolled her eyes.
“You know what?” Ted continued. “I don’t want to judge you but it seems you’re exactly what people say you are - rude and snobbish - the very opposite of what I remember. I guess my memory must have mistaken you for someone else.”
“Do I look like someone who cares? Go hug a live wire or something. I have some hunting to do,” she said straight to his face before turning away and heading further into town. Ted stared after her wanting to have the last word but he restrained himself.
Aaliyah knew he was still standing where she left him. She wished he’d just go away. Not even thinking of where she was going, she took a turn so that she could clean the tears that ran down her cheeks without him seeing. She took a moment to breathe then she put herself together and walked on, trying to decide the next house to raid. She hadn’t gone too far when she saw two men and a woman. They were typing into white phones. Aaliyah didn’t recognize them from the camp and it was weird that they were using phones at such times. Even if their phones weren’t broken, there was obviously no mobile network available. The whole place was deserted. Being alone with them was spooky. She turned to go away.
“Hey, young lady,” the woman called. Aaliyah turned to face her.
“Yes?”
“Um, we’re having a problem finding our way to the migrant camp. Ours left just yesterday and we missed them. You’re the only person around here. Did you see them,” the woman said as she walked towards Aaliyah. Aaliyah shook her head.
“No. I don’t-“
She couldn’t speak anymore. The woman had brought out a perfume and sprayed it over her face. She immediately began to lose consciousness. Falling, she felt herself land in the woman’s arms.
The ground seemed to swim beneath her. She couldn’t get herself to be coordinated. She tried to shout but no words came out.
Though hazy, she heard the woman say;
“Nine. Today seems to be our lucky day.”
Chapter Three
“you need to follow instructions …"
10th October, 2006
12:16pm
Seattle, Washington D.C. USA.
Vivien sat on a bench in the park, waiting for the emissary from the bosses. She checked her wristwatch. The meeting was supposed to begin at noon on the dot. However, this emissary had succeeded in wasting sixteen minutes of her precious time. She wasn’t even supposed to be here. She could be sanctioned at work for negligence due to her leaving the job for no reason. She had been called the moment she got to work that morning. She didn’t want to go but Daan had shown up in her office by 11:30 am to ‘remind’ her of the meeting.
A black car stopped across the road. At first, she didn’t waste any special attention to it. When she noticed the person who got out of the car, her heart stopped. She stood up immediately, even before the man crossed the street and entered the park.
“Vivien, you look more beautiful than ever. The United States is taking good care of you,” he said to her in Russian.
“Thank you, sir. I’d say the same of you it’s just that you live in Russia.”
He laughed at her joke.
“You know you don’t have to call me ‘sir’. We’ve gone beyond that.” he said before kissing her gently on her lips. He trailed his fingers over her dark skin.
Vivien shook h
er head sadly.
“Adrik, we need to focus on the job. We can’t be doing that here,” she said in Russian accented English.