Thursday, July 9, 2009

Agents (not completed)

“Agent Blondie! Get over here! I think we have a Code Red!” exclaimed Agent Ross. I hurried over to him. He was staring at a video camera. There was a man with a bomb. I laughed outright, although I shouldn’t have. Agent Ross was a new agent, and a man with a bomb was not Code Red at all. This was Code Green/Purple – one man with one bomb trying to blow up some place. I had defused plenty of bombs before, but I was on watch. I had to call two agents and get them on the job. Agent Ross frowned.
“I thought bombs were Code Red,” said Agent Ross. I patted him on the back and smiled kindly.

“No. Many, many bombs are Code Red with many, many people. You have a lot to learn, kiddo,” I told him. He shrugged, then handed me the phone. I called Agent Ruther and Agent Mickey. I told them that we had a Code Green/Purple with a known location – a store called Shelf a few blocks away. I was using a head piece to talk with them. I plugged it into the computer so that I could see them. Chips were on all of the agents so that we could always watch them. My job, at the moment, was to watch for terrorists and make sure the agents were doing their jobs. A few good agents have actually turned about to be bad – it usually puts them beyond suspicion. Agent Ruther flung her straight, long auburn hair and started putting on her safety gear. Agent Mickey sighed and ran his hands through his short, spiky black hair before putting on his own safety gear. Then the two were off. Then Agent Ross continued staring at the monitors. He pointed to a policeman in the shopping mall.

“It doesn’t say on my map that there should be a policeman in the shopping mall,” he said. I laughed at him for the second time that morning. Then I quickly made my face serious and straightened my shirt.

“Of course not. There are mall cops and policemen always at the mall, Agent Ross,” I explained. I ruffled his dark brown hair and smiled sweetly at him. I had been a little confused my first week on the job, but this was Agent Ross’s second week! He should not have been asking silly questions and mistaking one bomb for a Code Red! That is why Agent Ross went to a special school before coming to work as an agent – he had to learn everything. All agents had to go to this school. Many of them did not pass – Agent Ross barely did. I did with “flying colors”. That’s what Agent Surfee, my teacher, told me after the final exam at the end of my last year there.

“There are? Why?” questioned Agent Ross. I gave him a stern look and wanted to shout, “DUH!” in his face. But I stayed calm, patient, and professional.

“To keep shoppers safe, of course. And so no one steals or shoplifts. They even have some cops in stores that aren’t in malls to prevent that. Well, they’re more like security guards, not cops,” I told him. Then I took a deep breath. How had he passed that special school? He didn’t even know why there were cops and security guards in the mall!

“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” commented Agent Ross. I wanted to say, “You think so?” very sarcastically, but I just gritted my teeth and smiled a fake smile. I continued with my work.

When lunchtime came, Agent Ross and I were entitled to a break. Since I was Agent Ross’s boss, I got to decide where he ate lunch. If he was doing well, he could eat lunch with the rest of us. If not, he had to follow the Lunchtime Monitor around. The Lunchtime Monitor was a person who took over my job and Agent Ross’s during lunch. Agent Ross would have to follow the Lunchtime Monitor around, though. I never had to do that while I was training. My trainers had always said I was doing incredibly well. Ross, on the other hand, was not doing well at all. He looked at me expectantly.

“Agent Ross,” I began, “do you honestly think you are doing well? I did not ask if you are trying your best – I think you must be. But do you think that, compared to other agents, are you doing well?” He just stared at me and I put my hands on my hips.

“Well, I don’t know,” stuttered Agent Ross. He was surprised, shocked even, by my question. I bent my knee a little and held my pose.

“I don’t think I’m doing that well. I asked too many questions and I think I bothered you. I made a stupid mistake, too. I said we had a Code Red, but I was wrong. I messed up everything!” cried Agent Ross suddenly. I looked at him and I nearly smiled in sympathy. I liked Agent Ross. He was loose, funny even. He was much different from any agent I had ever trained before. But he didn’t care enough about his work and made way too many mistakes. By the second week, he was not supposed to make such silly mistakes or ask such stupid questions.

“Look, Ross, listen here. The thing is I like you a lot. You’re loose and funny. You’re much different than all the other agents, but there’s one problem,” I said. I paused for dramatic affect and he stared at me, his eyes boring in my forehead. “The problem is, you don’t exactly work hard enough. You don’t even know why there is a security guard in the mall. You messed up. I’m willing to let you come to lunch with me under one condition. You have to work much harder and if you make another mistake, you will have to stay with the Lunch Monitor for five days,” I told him. He nodded and I turned on my heel. I walked briskly to the lunchroomand he followed me. I grinned, but he couldn’t see it.

When we got to the lunchroom, the other agents greeted me like they always did:

“Hey! Agent Blondie. Good to see you! How was the morning?”

“How was your morning, Blondie?”

“How’s it going, Blondie? Hard work this morning?”

“This is Agent Ross. He’s the new guy. It’s his second week here. You may have heard about him,” I told them before answering their questions. They all stared curiously at Ross as he sat down at the table. I sat proudly at the head of the table and began to eat.

“Yeah, I heard about Ross,” commented Agent Mickey, who had just come back from defusing the bomb Ross had thought was Code Red. Agent Ruther smiled and nodded.

“Me too,” she said.

“What did you hear about him?” I asked them.

“Well, we were told that Ross made a big mistake. See, a couple of people had to watch him through his chip. Wanted to see how he was doing, you know. Sometimes they do that with new kids when they aren’t too sure about them,” Agent Mickey paused to take a bite of potatoes. He chewed for a moment.

“Anyway, we heard that you thought one bomb was Code Red. And then Blondie saved the day before he called it,” finished Agent Ruther. Everyone stared in awe at me, like I had completely saved the world. I pointed to Ross.

“I made a couple of mistakes my first week,” I told them.

“Ross is in his second week, Blondie,” reminded Agent Mickey rather rudely. I shot him a look. Then I smiled weirdly at Agent Ross and he shrugged.

“It’s okay, Blondie,” he said. “I know I messed up.” But Ross had made an even bigger mistake there. It never bothered me, but those who were below me were supposed to always call me, “Agent”. Those who were at the same level, or those who had been my friend for a long time, could simply call me Blondie. But not Ross. Not yet, anyway.

“Whoa! You don’t call her Blondie, kiddo,” said Mickey. He was usually a lot meaner about this if some new agent made that mistake. Agent Ross immediately apologized to me. I forgave him; I didn’t care enough to get angry about it.

“You’ll get the hang of things yet, Ross,” said kind Agent Lisacat. Agent Lisacat had a weird name, but she was shy, sweet, and never failed to make someone feel better. Her real name was Lisa. I decided that it was obvious that Lisa was her real name, so something had to be added to it. Agent Mickey had suggested “cat” be added to her name, and it stayed that way ever since.

“Thanks,” Ross said. “Sorry, what’s your name?”

“I’m Agent Lisacat,” Lisacat said softly. Ross smiled when he heard the strange name, then made his face serious as he cleared his throat. Mickey grinned, glad to tell someone the story of how Lisacat got her name. Ross listened intently as everyone else ate in silence. Mickey recounted the story as though he had a gift for storytelling. He didn’t, but he practiced telling the story in front of the mirror all the time – I caught him doing so once. Ross then realized he hadn’t eaten much in the past half an hour. Lunchtime was over. I sighed as I looked at my awesome black watch. With my watch, I could take pictures, videos, record things, and it was brighter than any flashlight. My watch was my friend. It had my alarm set and it also had a calculator. I don’t know what I would do without all my spy gear!

When we went back from lunch, Agent Ross took a deep breath and began to stare closely at the monitor. I smiled.

“Your face doesn’t have to be that close to the monitors, Ross. You won’t be able to see them all then and you’ll miss something,” I told him. He drew back sharply, not wanting to make a single mistake.

“Oh, right. Thanks Agent Blondie,” he said. I nodded seriously.

“Yes. Well, be careful. I’ve gotta go defuse a bomb,” I said. I was joking, but I wanted to see what Agent Ross would say. He would have been the person to tell me if there was a bomb to defuse.

“Defuse a bomb? What? I didn’t see any bombs?” cried Ross. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

“Keep looking. You missed it,” I teased. He had no clue that I was making fun of him. He gasped and stared, wide-eyed, at me and my blond hair.

“Oh! We’ve gotta call someone to get right on it! Good thing you were looking, Agent Blondie!” he exclaimed. I stopped him before he picked up the phone and bent over laughing.

“Don’t worry, Ross. I was teasing you!” I laughed. He scowled at me, but a little smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. I pushed him back towards the monitors, which were more like little TV screens. He talked to me while he was staring at them. I brought a chair over for him.

“You don’t have stand always, Ross. Agents need a break, often,” I smiled. I peeked over his shoulder to look at the monitors. He pointed to the mall monitor. A man was looking nervously around. He was wearing a black leather jacket and had a hair do like Elvis once did.

“That man looks a little suspicious,” he commented.

“Is he carrying anything?” I asked, pretending I hadn’t seen the man.

“No. But he looks weird,” replied Ross. I sighed and put my head in my hands.

“Ross! I need details, okay? What does the man look like? Press this button so the monitor takes a picture of it!” I said quickly. I pressed a blue button. Ross sighed loudly and described the man to me.

“Well, then maybe he’s going to meet someone,” I suggested. Ross smiled.

“You’re right! Maybe the other person has a bomb!” exclaimed Ross. I rolled my eyes deliberately so Ross would see. He gave me a questioning look.

“Not everyone is a terrorist, Ross! We are looking for shoplifters at the mall and stealers, too. That’s why a lot of these monitors have stores on them. Although stores have security cameras, often the people watching the security cameras don’t do a good job. They fall asleep or don’t look or don’t care,” I explained. Ross nodded.

“Right,” he said. “I have to think outside the box, Agent Blondie. Is that what you’re saying, Agent Blondie?” I shrugged.

“I guess so. Hey, check that screen out,” I told him. He looked at the mall screen. Someone was running out with something they had clearly not paid for. I sighed.

“Let me give the mall a ring. We don’t call any agents for this – technically it’s not our problem. We help keep the community safe, and the community include the mall,” I told Ross as I dialed. I talked to someone at the mall and explained the situation to a security guard once I was put through to them.

“Thanks for letting us know. Agent Blondie, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, you got it, Ryan,” I replied. I had worked with this nice security guard before. He had a gruff voice. I had only seen him a few times. He had a long beard, but a kind smile. Before he hung up, I heard him start talking in a code into a walkie talkie. I could hear a static-filled reply come back. Then he must have flipped his phone shut. I knew Ryan would get on the job.

“We should tell the agents about this! What if there’s another problem?” asked Agent Ross. “Wouldn’t they want the police on the job?”

“Most of us agents can do things better than policemen. Seriously. I have more training than any policeman that I know or have heard about. Ross, you have about the training of a policeman. In a few weeks, you should be like a Chief Policeman. The process is slow, but worth it. One day you’ll be in a high position,” I told him.
“High position? Like you, Agent Blondie?” He stared up at me, since I was much taller than him.

“I guess. But I’m about to move up. Someone has to take my place. Most likely Agent Mickey or Agent Ruther. I don’t do this all day, either. I’m only doing this because soon you will have to do this alone, but you have to be trained by me first. I am usually training people. I have to go with them. Well, they have to go with me, really. By Friday, you won’t need my help. Another new agent will be with you to make the calls that I have been making,” I explained. He nodded. I knew that Ross thought he was a failure already. But most new agents thought that, even I had originally thought the work was a little too hard for me. But I was wrong, and most new agents become experienced agents who love their work.All afternoon, Ross and I worked hard. We didn’t have much to do, though. Ross became bored and tired of his work.
“I’m bored,” Ross said, thinking aloud. Then he covered his mouth when he realized he had just said that out loud.
“Already? Okay, you’ve only been on this job for one day!” I exclaimed angrily. I was not exactly liking this Ross character anymore. He was saying bold things that a new agent should never say, he had made a very serious mistake, and he thought it was okay to just admit he was bored. BORED?
“Nobody cares if you’re bored, Ross. This is WORK, for crying out loud!” I shouted in his ear. He flinched.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” he apologized.
“I don’t care. I really don’t care if you didn’t mean to say it out loud. Our work is not boring. We are trying to save the community. Without us, someplace would already have been blown up today. We don’t normally get a bomb,” I told him. He shrugged.

“Sorry about that. I truly am sorry, Agent Blondie,” he told me. Then he tried a trick that made me want to rip his head off his neck. And at the beginning, he had made a pretty good first impression. I had thought he would be okay. Until this.

“Have I told you your hair looks great today?” he asked with a smile as he touched my hair gently with his hand. My face turned red with rage.

“Do not ever try that with me. NEVER,” I said through gritted teeth. It was a whispering kind of yelling – the words more effective than if I had yelled them. Ross knew I meant business. He was not trying to flirt with me or anything – he was trying to distract me. Or maybe he was flirting. I was beyond caring!

“I didn’t mean anything by it. Really, I didn’t,” he said, his eyes getting a dreamy look in them as he stared at me. I wanted to slap him; I really, really did. I took a deep breath.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I commanded, snapping my fingers and using my voice power to bring him out of his daze.

“What is your least favorite thing?” I asked.

“Gum,” he replied immediately.
“Gum?” That was the weirdest thing he could have said. So I took a pack of gum and stuffed six pieces in my mouth. He gave me a disgusted look as I chomped and chomped.

“Ross, you can relax for a little while. I’ll take over. You look tired,” I told him with a mischievous look and am evil plan boiling at the back of my mind. He smiled and gave me a sweet, grateful look. It was sweet, and I almost fell for it. I almost wasn’t going to perform that plan I had made up, but my mind was made up.

“Are you sure? I’m just gonna close my eyes if you’re sure. . .”

“Yeah. Go ahead. Take a little nap. You look exhausted, like you barely slept,” I cooed kindly. It was, of course, fake kindness.

“You know, Agent Blondie, you’re not bad. I really like you. You actually want me to learn the ropes, don’t you?” he said softly. I counted to ten before I replied. If I did not have such an awful plan, I would have screamed at him.

“Thanks, Ross. You ain’t so bad yourself,” I said. I tried out a Southern accent that made Ross grin. Then he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

After about fifteen minutes, I shouted something to see if Ross would stir. He did not move one bit.

“Ross?” I asked softly, close to his ear. Still no movement. I grinned. I took out some different flavors of gum – I always carried a ton of gum. I loved gum, and I usually ran out quickly, so I brought several packs. I unwrapped them and threw the wrappers in the old green garbage. Then I opened his mouth slowly. I stuffed a wad of different flavored gum into his mouth. I knew it would taste terrible, but frankly, I didn’t care one bit. Then I continued working like I hadn’t done anything. My face was innocent and sweet, more innocent than the face of an adorable puppy.

Soon, Ross woke up. I peeked at him and saw a disgusted look on his face. His face started twisting as if he was in pain.

“What’s in my mouth?” he said. There was so much gum in his mouth he couldn’t even talk right. I pretended to be shocked. Then I shrugged.

“I don’t know. That’s interesting. Some little girl came in here. She gave me some gum and threw out some wrappers. Then I turned around. She musta put it in there. She was cute. She was selling the gum. She gave some free to us because she was giving it to people who would help the community,” I lied slyly. It was easy to lie to Ross.

“Grr!” growled Ross. Then he gave me a sympathetic look that made me feel a little bad about what I had done.

“Gosh! I’ve been asleep for a really long time! I was dead tired, Agent Blondie, but you should have woken me up! You were doing my job for so long. I am so sorry, Agent Blondie. I’m a terrible new agent,” said Ross. I patted his back as if we were old friends.

“I suppose that’s alright. I felt sorry for you. I yelled at you too much. It was rather mean of me. Then this little girl came in – she really softened my spirits,” I lied again. I smiled as though a spell had overcome me. Ross put his arm around me. I shook off the temptation to slap him.

“Ross,” I began, “I don’t want to be distracted from my work by you.” I smiled sweetly and removed his arm from my shoulder a little harder than I had meant to. I was putting on a superb act. I just didn’t want him flirting with me!!! Then he grinned back and spit out wads of gum from his mouth into the garbage. He couldn’t get it all out. He stuck his fingers in his mouth and pulled out all these terrible wads of gum. I almost threw up. Gum had always been something I enjoyed, but all those flavors mixed together made it AWFUL. The gum had actually turned BLACK from all the different colors and flavors. He looked as though he was spitting out tobacco. I turned away quickly. He grinned at me weirdly and his teeth were BLACK.

“Hey, baby,” he said flirtatiously, “why don’t we do that after work tonight?”
WHOA! I gasped. He had just asked me on a DATE! Black teeth boy asked me on a DATE!!! I was putting on a fake act, but would I ever go that far? I wasn’t sure what to say. I shrugged.

“This is something I have to think about. I barely know you, Ross,” I said. He looked hurt. He was a few years YOUNGER than me and I made a point not to date younger guys – usually. And I didn’t have time to date – usually. Was cute Ross and exception? But he wasn’t cute. And he wasn’t sweet or romantic or hilarious or handsome.

“So never?” he said.

“Ross, I really like you so far. We’ll see. You might find another girl you like better anyway. I would like to know you better. Plus, it might take my mind off work,” I explained. I turned away from him when he placed his arms on my shoulders. Ross truly looked hurt and offended. I continued working, but nothing happened the whole rest of the work day.
The next day when I came to work, Ross was already there. He acted as though he had been drinking Coke all morning.
“Good morning, Energizer Bunny,” I greeted him.
“I had some Coke,” he explained as he bounced around the room.
“I can see that. At seven in the morning?”
“Actually, at 5:30 in the morning,” he told me. I gaped at him.
“You woke up at 5:30?” I questioned in shock.
“Of course not! That’s much too late, Agent Blondie! I wake up at 4:30 every morning, but I take a nap every afternoon,” he smiled. I smiled back, positive he had to be joking. But he said he was not joking because he knew the exact moment he got up. He was one weird Energizer Bunny. I called him that all morning. We did not have a busy morning. I didn’t make any calls at all, but there was a little suspicious activity at the mall.

“When isn’t there something going on at the mall?” sighed Ross. I shrugged.
“When it’s closed,” I joked. Ross laughed.

“Should we call it in, Agent Blondie?” he questioned. It was my turn to sigh.

“On Monday, you are going to have to do this job all yourself. It’s Thursday morning. You should know by now, Energizer Bunny!” I exclaimed. He shrugged and admitted that he wasn’t good at this. I wanted to scream at him and ask him what he was good at.

7 comments:

  1. Nice job Kimberly! I absoluetly love your character 'Agent Blondie', I can relate to her!Keep working as hard as you are!

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  2. Thanks so much Shelby! I have to finish it up - it isn't nearly done yet.

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  3. I just added a couple more pages to this . . .

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  4. It's really hard to read without paragraph breaks. Other than that, the name "Blondie" is corny, and nobody would actually walk around holding a bomb - it would be hidden. Good potentially, but you need to improve some things.
    Also, I would consider a bomb that could kills a hundred people code red.

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  5. Thanks Tristen I don't really have any clue about this stuff. But I'm keeping the name Blondie - it's a code name! I was thinking like an atomic bomb is definitely Code Red and a bomb that could kill a lot of people would be too.

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  6. Oh sorry TristAn I said Tristen

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  7. It's fine.
    Good job breaking up the paragraphs, and adding more detail to the bomb-plot

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