Ronan and Jewel: Prologue

Ronan and Jewel

Prologue

I’d like to say it started when I met him, but that not exactly what happened. It actually started the summer before that. I was nineteen, and interning for a consulting company. They weren’t really a consulting company and I wasn’t simply interning for them. I was spying on them for C.O.D.A., Covert Operations Defending America.

It was the perfect cover. I worked, slept, and ate in their building. There was no family to check in on me and the three friends I’d kept up with after high schooled believed I was teaching English in a foreign country. After I finished working for them for the summer I would return to my hometown never to be seen by them again. It would have been perfect…

The Company had realized someone was leaking information to the government. They had only begun to track it to someone in my department that Monday. It was Friday I was scheduled to leave at the end of the day. That morning I got up just like any other workday, except I had everything packed to leave as soon as I got off work. As usual I went to the cafeteria at 7:00 am, ate breakfast, and then made the ten minute commute up the stairs to my work space. I arrived at 7:50, five minutes before any of the other half dozen interns. They arrived at 7:55. The boss would come at eight on the dot, steaming coffee from an outside bakery always in hand.

This morning when he walked in he was furious. He yelled at his secretary, “I want security to come to me when they think there’s a mole in MY department!”

“Yes, Mr. Hendricks, I’ll let them know,” shy Lauren’s voice quivered.

Mr. Hendricks then turned to us, the interns, “Security will be here shortly, they think we have mole in our department,” I noticed how he had changed his phrasing from, “my” to “our”, “I will have to ask every one of you to corporate.” Security, that’s great I thought. I probably could have talked my way out easily convincing them I was innocent. But I’d been there too long and had too much evidence to risk it.

C.O.D.A. had provided me with several tools and gadgets to help me get out of trouble. The best was a handler that was a computer expert, named John. I could get information on surveillance footage; he could also loop that footage so I could sneak around undetected. If there was a microphone around John could also get audio. It was our first mission together. Apparently he was a computer expert and had even been a field agent himself for a brief time. We could converse at any time thanks to a “hearing aid” planted deep within my ears. He was my eyes and ears.

I had to get out of the room but with so many people in the room I couldn’t sneak out, the “washroom” excuse would only stall for a short time. Mr. Hendricks would get suspicious if I get didn’t come back. Sitting at my desk I felt defeated and was about to panic. Then I remembered in my desk was roll of mints. I know that doesn’t seem significant, but when I first tried one I almost threw up, I guess it was a little too acidic for my stomach to handle. Two or three in a minute would surly make me throw up. I pocketed the USB drive I had sneaked in late last night to make; then popped four mints in my mouth for good measure. In three minutes, my stomach stated tumbling and thirty seconds I was curled up on the ground clutching my stomach. While my actions were over exaggerated, my stomach really did hurt.

Derek, a nice guy two desks down was the first to notice. “Joy!” he called as he ran over to me. “Are you okay?” he asked his hands helping me to my feet. I answered by throwing up. He jumped back just in time but never removed his hands from my shoulder, steadying me. “Mr. Hendricks! Joy is sick!”

“Okay take her to the infirmary, then come right back,” Mr. Hendricks demanded. Derek helped me out of the room. I made a beeline for the washroom with him close behind.

In the washroom I threw up into the toilet for a while before Derek called into the room. I didn’t answer and he called again. He ran into the washroom asking if I needed some help. My stomach was empty, so I turned around and kicked him in the stomach. When he was on the floor I knocked him out. “Sorry Derek, but I’m glad I didn’t have to kill you.” I left, locking him in the washroom.

In my dorm room I had two packs if I been able to leave the front door I would have taken my meager duffel bag with my clothes and toiletries; but as it was a risk coming back for the backpack with my gadgets and  stolen secrets in it. Putting the backpack on my back I spoke to the hearing aid, “You there, John?”

“Yep, I’m here,” a disguised male voice said.

“I need a way out.”

“I’m on it,” I could hear the clicking of keys as he pulled up something on him computer. “Okay, the front is too well guarded; there is a side exit, down the stairs. That’s pretty quiet.” I turned to leave the room. “Uh-oh, Jewel, Security is up stairs talking to Hendricks right now.”

“What? What’s happening? Tell me what you see.” I said. By the way my name is Jewel; Joy is simply my cover story.

            “Okay. Five guards, usual weapons and body armor. The one with the white arm band is talking to Hendricks,” he said. That made since. The different guards wore different colored arm bands, they showed a guard’s rank and white was one of the highest. “The rest are wearing purple or blue.” These were the entry level guys, John continued, “They’re going through the desks. Jewel, one just started look through your desk.”

            “Has security found anything?” I asked.

            “No, nothing incrementing, yet,” he said.

“I’m headed for the south stairwell.” I concluded. I walked out headed to the south stairwell, and half way down.

“Jewel, they’re sending more guards up. You have to get out. I count ten guards that just entered the stairway. They’re fully armed.”

“Okay, are there cameras in the vents?’ I asked, in response I could hear more clicking of computer keys.

“No.”

“Is there a vent opening large enough for me to crawl through in the stairs?” I asked. Although I was pretty sure I knew the answer. The stairwell was stuffy, not drafty.

“No, but you’re at level nine. There’s a vent just across the way outside the door on level 10.”

“Okay, I’m headed up,” I said. I climbed the stairs until I came to the door marked with a gigantic ten. I opened the door and bolted across the hall. The vent cover was on the ground with would make crawling into it easy but first I had to get the cover off. I took an old fashioned pocket knife out of my backpack’s front pocket. Opened the knife then used it to unscrew the screws. There was no point in recovering the vent because the security camera watched my entering it. “Okay I’m in.” I said, “Get me out of here.”

            “Well, where would you like to go? I see two exits on the ground, one in the basement and one in the parking garage.” John relayed.

            “No,” the word practically getting stuck in my throat, “Up,” I declared.

            “Up, alright, there’s an exit, I think you can crawl through, on the roof.”

            “That’s good, just direct me there.” I said. I climbed for a while, following John’s directions, never stopping to rest, knowing that a second of rest would give security a chance to catch up with me. As I neared the top I got nervous, I knew that the top few floors were inhabited by professional assassins.

I emerged from the ventilation system a few minutes later, surprisingly not fatigued. I was in perfect physical health and adrenaline was making up for any exhaustion I may have been feeling. John said, “I’m tapped in to the local traffic cameras. Bad news, there’s no fire escape for you to climb down. Jewel, are you sure this was a good idea?”

“Yes, I’m sure. The first places they’ll check are the ground exits.” I confidently stated. “Does a nearby building have a fire escape?”

“The one on the east side does, why?”

“How much lower is it than this building?”

“About, one story,” John said.

“Okay then I’ll try that one.”  I said running fast as I could for the edge on the roof. When I got there I simply kept running. Five feet away and eight feet lower I rolled as I hit the next door roof. At that instant a shot rang out from behind, missing me from by inches.

“Jewel, what happened?” John yelled.

“Call an ambulance!” I said glancing behind me, “there’s a man lying face down in the apartment behind me.”

“Are you sure you want me to that?”

“Yea, I am. If he’s alive they might be able to save him, if not, the extra confusion might help me get away,” I said as I continued running across the roof. Reaching the other side I lowered myself off the roof onto the fire escape. “Is the extraction team on the street out front?”

“Yes, it’s one building farther east. It’s the neon green cab.” John informed me.

I climbed down fourteen floors. Hidden from the other buildings line of sight I felt fairly safe. Just as I was reaching the second floor I heard the sirens of an ambulance I emerged form the alley exhausted, and looked for the neon cab. I walked purposefully to the cab. At the cab I asked the driver, “Do you drive downtown?” It was a really silly question in my opinion, but one that would unlikely be asked since we were already downtown.

The official looking driver responded, “If you have a discount card.” I handed him my discount cab card, which really did look like it was a card for a cab company but was really a C.O.D.A. agent card especially assigned for this mission.

“John, your wrong, the cab is a lime green color,” I teased; we’d become good friends over the summer, so I was perfectly fine teasing him. “I’ll hear you next mission, Eyes and Ears.”

“Well, see you next mission, Hands and Feet. Signing off now,” now he said.

“Bye,” I said to silence, since he’d already signed off.

It had been over a year since I’d been in my hometown. I felt at home seeing the city limits sign but besides that I haven’t had a home since my mother’s death when I was four. C.O.D.A. set me up with a cute condominium only a few miles from downtown where my office will be. It took me twenty minutes to unpack my two boxes. So while on a beautiful day I would have gone for a run, it was to wet and dreary to run. I grabbed the new spy romance, I’d picked up at store when I bought new toiletries, and headed to the little, family owned coffee shop down the street.

It was unusually crowded, although I hadn’t been to this shop in over a year so maybe they had simply gotten more popular. I purchased a hot vanilla latte, then, was fortunate to find an open table against the back wall. The table had seats for two; I sat on the booth side, leaving the chair opposite empty. Pulling out the spy novel I began to drink my drink.

I was almost finished with my latte when a handsome, casually dressed man with his iced tea asked, “Excuse me,” I looked up from my book at that, “is this seat taken?”

“No,” I said retuning to my book. Hoping this would end our conversation.

“I’m Ronan, just moved here recently,” he said using his hand to pull his leg under the table. That’s when I noticed he was holding a simple metal cane.

“No, I’ve lived here my whole life, except the year I studied abroad,” I said, a little surprised that a young man would have a cane.

“Uh, no, I just moved here.” He said, looking me over, “A Marie Vargas spy romance.”

“Yep,” I was still trying to end the conversation. I only had till the end of the week off before I’d have to return to work and intended to make the most of my time.

Persistently he added, “Grate writer, but terrible when it comes to realism.”

“What? How would you know?” I joked, finishing off my latte.

“Oh, come on there’s no way spying could be that glamorous or adventurous.” Ronan said, taking a sip of his tea. I got up to leave, picking up my book and trash.

“My name’s Sarah,” I said using my free hand to pull my golden hair behind my ear. Now was his turn to be surprised.

“Uh, okay” he fumbled for words.

“My gold colored hearing aids throw of a lot of men.” I finished, “I was born deaf.” With that I left hoping to never see him again because in the spy business overly friendly strangers are usually a danger.

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