Clandestine Operations

“Let’s get something straight, Blade,” Nellie said aggressively as she strode up to the booth and slid into the seat across from her rival. “I’m not here to play games. Tell me what I want to know or you won’t be walking out of here unharmed.”

The other agent maintained her cool, unruffled demeanour as Nellie entered. She sat leaning contemptuously against the wall of the booth, arms crossed and one leg casually folded over the other.

“Glad you could finally make it, Onyx,” she responded, flicking her dark eyes over to Nellie as she spoke. “Been waiting almost twenty minutes.”

A fresh coffee steamed in front of her, mockingly confirming her statement.

Nellie instinctively checked her watch but quickly snapped her arm down when the agent gave a disdainful chuckle.

“Don’t they teach you to be punctual in the PID?” she gracefully swiveled to face Nellie and rested an elbow on the table, propping up her cheek with her fist to cap off her patronizing condescension.

Nellie frowned, confused, then laughed scornfully. “Don’t they teach you to read your case files before a meeting? I’m from the BCO, and I was told you were from the PID but now I know that this is a set up, and you just blew your cover.”

After her proclamation Nellie tensed defensively, expecting Blade to lunge across the table and attack since her deceit had been revealed. Instead, the other agent looked just as confused as Nellie had a moment ago.

“You must either be one hell of a trickster or just very very dumb,” she retorted, trying to inject contempt into her voice to cover her uncertainty. “I can assure you quite confidently that I’m here to uncover the location of Project Q, a dangerous anti-intelligence machine being worked on at a secret base by your organization, the Party of Interagency Documentation. We’ve received intel that this contraption could wipe the records and uncover the identities of all the agents at the Sector. I’m here to make a deal. You tell me the location of your project, or we’ll reveal the identity of your mastermind to the world.”

Nellie grew more perplexed by the second as her rival agent shared the exact same details that Nellie’s superior had relayed to her before this meeting.

“Wait a minute,” she said after a moment. “So you’re from the Sector? The Sector of Service and Secrecy?”

Blade, frowning distrustfully, pulled a sleek black cardholder from an inner pocket of her jacket and retrieved a badge, which she held out to Nellie, her thumb covering the identification number and her real name. It confirmed her identity as an SSS agent.

“And I’m supposed to believe that you’re from the Bureau of Clandestine Operations?” she said, slipping the badge back into her pocket.

Nellie mutely removed her own badge from a zipped pocket on her combat jeans and showed it to Blade in the same manner.

Blade had regained control of her expression and her face remained impassive as she flicked her eyes over Nellie’s badge. Neither woman said anything for a moment until a plump, bouncy waiter trotted up to their table, smiling warmly.

“Enjoying the evening, ladies? Anything I can get for you?” he asked, readying a small notepad and pen.

Blade and Nellie hastily rearranged their combat-ready features into friendly-citizen faces and politely responded, “No, thank you,” in exact unison. Nellie tried not to grimace at the misstep. The waiter grinned.

“No problem. Let me know if you need anything. And, may I say,” he added, turning back slightly as he headed toward the kitchen, “you two look really cute together.”

And then something clicked. Nellie sighed deeply and slowly rested her forehead against her steepled fingers as the realization came to her.

Her supervisor avoiding equipping her with an earpiece because he “trusted her to say the right things”. Her coworkers in the briefing room who had all seemed rather too excited about this meeting. The fact that the meeting had been specifically scheduled on Valentine’s Day in a charming little café.

She knew she should never have let slip that she was single.

“God, I’m a really bad spy.” Nellie muttered to herself as the pieces clicked together.

“Did we….are we…” Blade appeared to have had a similar realization and was struggling to find the right words. Nellie opened her phone and showed Blade the email she had been sent containing the the case file for this meeting. The subject line read Project Q – PID.

“We’ve been set up.” Nellie confirmed. “But like, not in the spy way.”

Blade chuckled. “‘Not in the spy way’.” she repeated. “Very true.”

She had a very nice smile, Nellie noticed.

“Tell me something, Agent Blade,” Nellie said after a moment. “Have you ever been on a date with another spy before?”

“First time, honestly,” she replied. “I usually go for librarians, they’re sweet. And if you make sure to leave a few good books behind for them, they won’t even notice when you disappear for days at a time on missions and stuff.”

“Good tactic,” Nellie said approvingly. “My strategy is more of a one-night-stand then disappear off the face of the earth-type thing.”

Blade nodded. “Been there, too. It’s easier sometimes.”

An awkward silence fell. Both agents had been expertly trained in combat, negotiation, and stealth and had risked their lives fearlessly in the field countless times. But faced with the notion of an unexpected blind date, they both felt powerless and out of their depth.

After an agonizing minute or so, Blade broke the silence again, muttering “God, I hate this.”

Nellie was surprised to feel her heart sink a little at the other agent’s statement. “What do you mean?”

Blade avoided her gaze. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just no good at this sort of thing. I’ve actually only dated one librarian and we just talked about the books she liked the whole time. I don’t know what to say to people, I’m used to either threatening them or knocking them out.”

Nellie laughed. “You sure seem insecure for a spy.”

“Oh, please,” Blade scoffed. “We’re all insecure. We use codenames with some of our best friends, for god’s sake. We’re not exactly taught to develop stellar social skills except for when we’re pretending to be someone else.”

She had a point, Nellie had to admit.

“Well, clearly our coworkers thought we’d get along well. Since we’re probably not going to kill each other anymore, we could start by telling each other our real names.” she suggested.

“Yeah, right, so that you can scamper back to your Bureau and steal my identity?” Blade crossed her arms and fixed Nellie with an untrusting but oddly curious gaze.

“Okay, I can see how that sounds. But no, that’s not what I meant. Here, I’ll go first. I’m Nellie.” she returned Blade’s glance in what she hoped was a non-threatening way and offered her hand for a conciliatory handshake.

Blade remained still, her face set in a tough, impenetrable scowl that crinkled the dark skin around her nose in a very charming way. Nellie retracted her hand and began drumming her fingers gently on her arm, glancing around at the flowered wallpaper and small decorative lamps hanging from the ceiling while she waited for Blade’s response.

“Vanessa.” she grumbled finally. Nellie refocused on her companion and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Vanessa. Glad I don’t have to kill you.”

Vanessa let out a reluctant chuckle. “Glad I didn’t have to kill you first.”

“Well, since there’s no Project Q, I guess we don’t have any other business to get to. Do you want a refresh on your coffee or something?” Nellie indicated the now-cold cup of coffee Vanessa had ordered to mock her at the beginning of their meeting.

A small smile lifted one corner of Vanessa’s mouth. “Yeah, I’d like that.”