Nanowrimo 2015-11-21 B

We had a good time that evening.  Over sandwiches made with fresh meats, cheeses, and breads, my parents told embarrassing stories from when I was young and I pretended to be annoyed.  I don't think I pulled off my mock annoyance very well considering that I was smiling the entire time.  Jason smiled and laughed and asked questions.  He was especially interested in the time I brought a wounded bird in the house.

"It's such a clique story," he said, "but I can just see you actually doing that."

"I painted a picture of that bird, too," my mother said.

"It's one of my favorites," I said.

There was a pause and then my father asked, "What ever happened to that bird?"

"We set it free," my mother said.  "For all I know, it's still alive and well."

"Other than the fact that it was twenty years ago and it's lifespan probably isn't longer than five," I said.

My mother smiled.  "Such a downer," she teased.  Then she turned to Jason and said, "I'm confident that bird lived to the ripe old age of at least six or seven."

"Do you remember what I called it, Mom?" I asked.

"I think you called it twitters," she said.

I laughed.  "Yeah, twitters," I said.  I turned and looked at Jason.  "Wasn't there something called Twitter around in the time they sent you to?"

He laughed.  "Yeah," he admitted.  "But I didn't quite understand it."

"Probably because you were too far beyond it," my father said.  "In the future I mean.  That doesn't... well you know what I mean."

We all laughed.  It was nice to be home.  It was strange to think that tomorrow I'd be going right back into the lion's den, so to speak.

That thought of the danger that could potentially face me, and Jason, too, became a lot more real the next day.  There was a stark contrast between our last meal the night before and the last meal we shared together before the mission.  We were still sitting around the table, and still eating sandwiches, since even in the future, it's cheaper to buy things in bulk, but there was no laughter and really to conversation to speak of.  When we were all done, my mom gave me a big hug and said, "Good luck, Anna.  We love you."

I hugged my dad, too and then addressed both of them.  "Don't worry," I said, "We'll see each other again soon."  I was sure even my dad could see through my feeble confidence in that, but neither of them said anything.  They just stood outside the house and waved goodbye as we drove away.  I glanced back and did a long blink to snap a photo of them, a memory, of my mom and dad, scared but hopeful, wishing me luck as I returned to the place they had been training me for my entire life.

I realized as we drove that my parents thought they had been training me to be a part of this academy, but really, they had been training me to stop it from hurting people.  They had thought the academy was good, but we knew, or at least suspected, now that the academy was the danger and that it, or at least the woman running it, needed to be stopped.  My parents raised me to want to make a difference, to make the world a better place.  I had grown up thinking I could do that by using time travel.  Now, I was going to try to do it by stopping time travel.  Unless Maria had a damn good explanation for everything she had done to me and Jason, she was going down.

As we drew close to the warehouse, I gave Jason's hand a squeeze and said, more to myself than to him, "Don't worry, it will all be over soon."


We parked a few blocks away and put in our ear buds.  These would let Jason hear exactly what was going on inside.  He had wanted to go in with me originally, but our Plan B had always been for me to claim I had completed my mission in the past and that hadn't changed.  If we were lucky, Maria would believe me.  I had spent that entire morning preparing for what I would say to her.  We had considered me faking a limp or some other injury, but ultimately decided to just keep it simple.  I have Jason a reassuring nod, paused, and then kissed him square on the lips.  Then I was on my way to the warehouse.

I stormed in the front door and marched straight to Maria's office.  I made as much noise as I could, hoping to draw lots of attention, hoping that the eyes of others at the agency would help my case.  I threw open the door to the office and left it open as I flew in.  "Well!" I exclaimed loudly.  "It's done, and I hope you're happy."

Maria looked up from her desk with a pleasant smile that made me want to vomit.  "What's done, dear?" she asked.  I swear she batted her eyelashes at me.

"Connor," I said.  "He's dead."

Maria gave a childish little laugh.  It was practically a giggle.  "Oh, dear," she said, "we both know that's not true."  She glanced past me, must have noticed a couple of people looking into her office, then looked back at me and said, "Why don't you close the door and have a seat and we can talk about this like rational adults."

"Rational adults!" I exclaimed, doing neither of the things she requested.  "What's rational about asking me to murder another human being!"

Maria shook her head.  "If you really felt this way, you should have said something before I sent you back on the mission."

"How could I?" I asked.  "I was trained not to question orders."

Maria nodded.  "Yes you were," she said.  "And so was Jason, wasn't he?  It was this kind of insubordination that got him into trouble to begin with."

That made me take a stumbling step back.  I hadn't expected her to be so blunt and open about the thing I was trying to trap her into talking about.  He just smiled all the more as she stood up.  "You see?" she said.  "I knew he wasn't dead.  I knew you couldn't kill him.  And I'm proud of you.  Now why don't you sit down and we'll talk."

I froze.  I didn't know what to do.  Should I protest?  Should I run?  In the end, I just stood there, dumbfounded, as she walked behind me and closed the door.  As I heard it slam, I turned to face her.  I decided the gig was up and I might as well play it straight.  "How did you know I didn't kill him?" I asked.

"Oh honey," she said, shaking her head as if she was disappointed in me for not realizing this sooner.  "There's very little that I don't know.  How do you think I manage to run such a successful agency?"

"Successful?" I asked.  "I'm no longer sure I even know what we do here anymore."

"Why, we maintain order!" She exclaimed, placing her hand on her chest and pretending to be hurt that I would even question this.  Then a sly smile slide across her face and her hand slid down to her side as she approached me.  I suddenly felt very scared and considered trying to bolt around her to the door.  "And if we happen to find an opportunity for an interesting little side project, an experiment, if you will, why, of course we'll take it."  She sighed.  "Or at least I will."

I made a move to go around her but she grabbed me and was pulling me back to her desk.  She was stronger than I would have ever guessed.  I struggled and kicked but to no avail.  "Help!" I shouted.  "Help!"

"Oh sweetie," she whispered in my ear.  "No one can hear you."

I smiled, realizing that she didn't know everything after all, and then I felt something cold on the back of my neck and everything went dark.

When I woke up again, I was in what appeared to be an old fashioned prison cell, like what I had seen in some old movies.  It was dark, with just a little bit of light coming from a bulb outside the cell, and I was all alone.  I felt my head and then my ear, discovering the ear bud was gone.  I had a brief moment of panic that Mari had known it was there the whole time and had been trying to find me they already found Jason, but I pushed that possibility aside.  Jason was too clever for Maria.  He would get away.  He would make sure the fail-safe we had talked about activated.  He wouldn't rush in here all alone.  These were the things I kept telling myself.  I wished I could be more convincing.