Mission Failed

Content warning: depictions of death, physical violence, and swearing.

   “Tell me who you work for,” the man growled, his voice muffled from behind the black mask that covered his face, “or I’ll shoot your friend.” 

            “No!” I blurted, resisting the urge to add, she’s not my friend! Alexis’ dark brown eyes narrowed. She was sending me a clear message: Don’t fuck this up. 

            My tied hands were slick with sweat, pressed against the hard back of the wooden chair. “We, ah, work for…oh, gosh,” I sucked air through my teeth. “The name has just slipped my mind. Gimme a second, I’ll think of it. Sorry about this.” I shrugged apologetically, trying for a charming smile for my captor.

            In my peripheral vision, I could see Alexis’ eyes rolling up towards the ceiling as she let out an exasperated sigh. 

            “Nice try,” our captor sneered. “Maybe a bullet through your friend’s head will help speed up your memory, huh?” The corners of his eyes crinkled into what I imagined was a sick, sick, smile, and he pulled on the trigger. 

            Bang! 

            The dark form of our captor crumpled to the ground. Behind him stood a person wrapped in a beige trenchcoat, their curly hair circling their face like a halo. 

            “Care to explain how you two got yourselves into this mess?” 

            I rubbed my raw wrists, stepping around the lifeless body of our captor. 

            “You’re lucky I came,” Skye said. “I knew that something was wrong when you had gone twenty-four hours without contact. But if I had hesitated for a second, convinced myself that you two were fine and I was being paranoid, Alexis would be dead.” 

            “I’m sorry. It was a mistake on Elliot’s part-,”

            “Not true,” I cut in. 

            “-that I tried to fix, but unfortunately it was too great. That’s how we ended up in this situation.” Alexis batted her eyes at Skye. God, what a suck-up. She’d fuck a monkey if it meant gaining Skye’s approval. 

            “There should’ve been no mistakes,” Skye said, gazing cooly at me. “This was a simple task, especially for my two best spies. None of your coworkers could compare to your skill, and yet this is the outcome that I receive?” They tsked. “Disappointing.” 

            I was used to this speech. It was no stranger to me and Alexis’ partnership, but Skye’s calm composure even though they must have been furious never failed to unnerve me. 

            Look, I was the best spy out of everyone working for Skye. I was a trained thief and assassin, cool under pressure, and quite charming, especially when it came to deceiving ladies. That was until Alexis came along. Because we both surpassed every other spy working for Skye in skill, they thought that we would have chemistry as partners. 

            Bad idea. 

            We’ve successfully completed one mission out of five assigned to us, and that was by a hair. We destroyed a museum in the process and almost revealed the entire organization. Skye was pissed, sure, but it only made them more determined to get us to work together. 

            “Look,” I said. “It wasn’t my fault that we ended up like this, despite what Alexis said.” Skye swung open the door to the storage locker, letting sharp light stream into the dim setting. Two guards sat slumped against the metal, blood darkening the fronts of their uniforms. 

            “Oh, really?” Skye held up a finger to stop Alexis from voicing the disagreement that she had built up. “Tell me how it really went, then.” 

            “We were behind one of these storage lockers, listening to a conversation that a couple of the guards were having. We were trying to figure out what locker our guy was in. Well, behind us, these guys were goofing around, and one shoots off his gun, right?” 

            Alexis was fuming. I imagined that if she was in a cartoon, smoke would be pouring out of her ears and her face would be splattered with bright tomato red. 

            “Yeah, well, it spooked Alexis. She made a loud sound, alerted the guards, and…we were no match for seven guys with guns. I did the best I could,” I shrugged. 

            “That is a complete and total lie!” Alexis burst out as we passed more guard corpses. “I actually admire your skill for storytelling, because that was made out of nothing except utter bullshit.” 

            Skye observed us, no emotion surfacing the calm ocean of their face. “Well, then, Alexis, want to tell me what really happened?” 

            Alexis smirked. “Yes. A guard spotted us by chance, and we would’ve eliminated the problem had Elliot not taken his gun and shot it, alerting all other guards of our position.” 

            “That’s…that’s a lie. C’mon, Skye, you gotta see that!” I pleaded, hoping that my heartbeat of hesitation had been lost to them. 

            “No, it’s not!” Alexis said. “Mine is the more realistic of the two, considering how much of an idiot Elliot is.” 

            “Stop fighting like second graders debating who gets the monkey bars,” Skye cut in, our bullshit clearly having bored them as quick as it had grabbed their attention. “Besides, there are more important matters to discuss: did you give away any information?” 

            Alexis pursed her lips, slowing her walk on the concrete sidewalk that we had now creached. “I mean…no, no of course not.” 

           “Don’t lie,” Skye responded calmly. “You’re terrible at it. Spit it out, now: what did you tell him?”

            “Ah, um…,” Alexis swallowed, looking at me for help. 

            “Well, uh, we uh…,” I glanced towards my partner. Bad idea to leave this in my hands. “Alexis revealed our identities to our captor.”

   “What?!” Skye and Alexis screeched at the same time. 

   “You did what now?” Skye demanded, their fists clenching and unclenching at their sides. Their calm demeanor had given way completely, a violent light now flashing in their eyes. “Do you know what this means? For our operation? For your jobs?” 

   Alexis shot a homicidal glare my way. If looks could kill, my lifeless body would be buried under the earth by now. “Elliot’s lying. It was his fault!”

            “That is not true!” I protested. “How do you think Alexis got that nasty black eye? It’s because our captor was beating her up until she spilled the beans!” The animal growl on Skye’s face that had been directed at me moments ago now turned to Alexis again. 

            “Yeah, he was beating me up, and you were too much of a pussy to deal with that, so you let the info slip.” 

            I opened my mouth to argue again but Skye beat me to it. “Both of you! Shut up! Both of your identities were revealed, so now it’s a shared problem for both of you.” 

            “What do you mean?” Skye had connections that could deal with this and cover it up. The responsibility wasn’t going to fall into our laps, right? I shot a nervous glance in Alexis’ direction. She mirrored nothing except a calm blankness that concealed her emotions. 

            “This isn’t your first failed mission together, and I don’t quite feel like dealing with a pair of spies who can’t even work with each other,” Skye had regained their composure, talking now with a certainty that made my blood freeze over. “If you want me to deal with your identity problem, then learn to get along. Until then, you two are on your own. Good luck.” 

            The shock stopped me in my tracks as I stared at Skye’s disappearing figure. Surely she didn’t mean that, right? Alexis stood besides me, her mouth gaping so wide that a family of birds could’ve settled in and made a nest there. 

            Skye turned a corner, their beige trenchcoat flapping behind them. The seconds ticking by felt like hours as I waited for them to come back, tell us they were just intimidating us, and leave us with a strict warning before sending us off on another mission (preferably with new partners). 

            And yet, as the rain started to splatter against the concrete sidewalk, me and Alexis started looking more and more like tiny, helpless kittens: abandoned by our guardian and left to fend for ourselves, wondering if they would ever come back.