Mirage

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“Have you seen the news babe?” April my roommate said to me, raising her voice as she rushed to my side of the couch. It was supposed to be my off day, and technically, I could not be bothered if the moon was to go missing.

“No why?” I asked, feeling uninterested as I turned on the TV, increasing the volume to the news station just for information’s sake.

As I was about to get a hang of what's going on, my phone rang. It was the Source calling me.

“Hello Sandra, have you seen the news?” Was the first question thrown at me by the disguised voice.

“Why is everyone asking me that today,” I first muttered before responding, “No Supreme, I haven't seen the news”.

I continued: “if you had called probably 10 minutes later, I would have seen the news.”

“Well, we do not have the luxury of time because the President's wife has been abducted, and you are needed at the headquarters pronto!” The Source cuts in.

“Sir! Yes sir,” I stood at attention, throwing a salute.

“Can I at least change into my uniform?” I asked, realizing halfway out of the house that I'm not in it.

“You'll do that on the way.” A response I was hoping not to get, but I got it anyway.

Next was the deafening sound of a chopper, as my teammates urged me to come on board.

We got to the headquarters with me struggling to get my belt on, I approached the Mission chamber and at that point, my teammates were all made to wait for me outside.

I wasn't prepared for what greeted me in the chamber.

I had cut my twin off since we were teenagers, and she refused to give up her life of crime. Our parents raised us to be honest people and despite being without parents at a young age, I still felt she would have chosen a better path for herself like I did.

“What is she doing here?” I asked fuming!

“I wouldn't want to be in your presence neither Sist, get off your high horse” Cassandra snapped at me.

I wasn't going to indulge in her nonsense, so I walked up to the head of operations to know what's going on with them and Cassie, a name I had fondly called her when we were still cordial.

Before I could get on with my questions, I was given a handout containing instructions for the mission. Looking at the agent's column, I saw my name and Cassandra's name as the agents for the mission.

“First of all, Cassandra is not an agent but a petty thief and I would not work with anyone else but my team”. I said, putting my foot on the ground.

“You are in no position to be calling shots Sandra, remember we do not have the luxury of time. You have 72 hours to rescue the President 's wife and bring her back alive, or you lose your job and say bye bye to your promotion as Final agent. Your time starts now.” Miss Cherry head of promotion threatened.

I was going to revolt, but Miss Cherry's threat set me straight. Cassandra and I were escorted out and Cassandra seemed less interested in the mission, but then I wondered what she was promised, as she won't do anything for free. My teammates all went about their business as it was a no show for them.

Cassie and I barely said a word to each other as we walked to the car, getting set for the next phase of the mission. We listened and read some news report, or I listened as Cassandra was either dozing off or lazying about.

After various dead ends, Cassandra started taunting me, “For someone vying for final agent, you sure are sloppy.”

I practically ignored her, as I knew she was just trying to get on my nerve. We got another lead, but then it was another dead end, and the President wife's trail was gradually getting cold, and I got barely 48 hours to rescue her and save my job.

As I stood in the Coffee shop quite helpless, Cassie ran in, pushing me to the floor.

“Are you crazy!” I yelled.

“Cock your guns Sandie, it's going to get messy," she said as she ran for cover, urging me to do the same.

As I raised my head up a bit to see what's going on, I was met with a missed gunshot, and then I knew we must be close. I mean, no one would try to kill us if we weren't close on their track.

I took cover and waited patiently for the shooters to come in. Furthermore, I knew I could not fight them off alone, so I slide a gun to Cassie. Not only that, but I created a smoke screen with my invisible smoke invader and then Cassie and I protected our eyes from the smoke, putting us at an advantaged position.

As the men walked in, they were sitting ducks as we were able to subdue them, living one casualty to solve our puzzle piece. After several interrogations, we couldn't get anything out of him, but Cassandra could hack into his phone without damaging any information piece.

We got a location of where we suspected the President's wife was being held and sent out an intelligent report back to the headquarters.

But they reported back to us that the location we had sent was another dead end as there was nothing there.

Our Casualty laughed at us speaking in a foreign language, I was shocked Cassandra understood. In her raging moment, she punched on the casualty which made him pass out, we tied him up and left him to his faith in the abandoned warehouse.

Cassandra held on to me and told me she knows what to do and I should follow her lead. I wasn't going to start taking instructions from a petty thief now, was I? But then I was desperate and I needed to save my job.

Cassie and I dressed in seductive outfits as I asked her what the plan was, but she said to follow her lead.

“I have been in the street long enough to know how these plays out, we might not come back from this discovery”. She said to me.

I wasn't sure what she meant, but in split seconds Cassandra was able to pull up her resources and gotten us some tickets and a clean ride to an auction.

She said we should go on with the investigation off grid and I trusted her. Our tracker, plus all electronic devices were taken off grid.

We got to the auction and had two men escort us as our partners it was a mask event. I was quite nervous as I haven't been to such event before. “Chin up Sandie, these men can smell fear.” Cassandra said to me.

I cleared my throat and took my face off the ground as I held it up high like royalty. I do not know how Cassie did it, but we got a seat at the auction.

Few moments into the auctioning. I discovered the merchandise were actually humans, ranging from children to adults. People actually come to sell off people. I have heard of this but never witnessed it in all my years as a secret agent.

Cassandra and I were holding the buyer's tag while some were holding the merchandise card. It was almost midnight and close to the end of the show. Cassandra had warned me not to ask any questions, but I was itching to know what her plan was and where we headed.

Just as I was about to raise the question, an announcement was made for the last auction of the night and a masked man came in with another masked woman. As they paraded the woman, Cassandra tipped me to move in for bidding.

It was quite weird bidding off a woman. The prices kept coming in high, but Cassandra moved in with 10 million dollars. A price no one could beat, and I really was wondering what the hell was going on.

The auction was brought to a close, Cassandra did the transfers and the lady was released to us.

Imagine my shock when I discovered the masked lady was Indeed the President's wife. I had so many questions, and I was shocked how Cassandra was able to pull it off.

Cassie didn't want us to go the headquarters, so we went straight to the media with our shocking discovery and hell went loose, the Source was furious as to why we didn't follow protocol to come to them first but that was half of it.

Cassandra also presented valid evidence which exposed the Source as being organizers of the Auction and how they have been working with the President to sustain several illicit and inhumane projects.

The President's wife discovered the whole thing and threatened to expose her husband if he doesn't close down the operations and thus, her kidnapping was staged to get her out of the way.

While the appropriate authorities were dealing with the Source and the President. I discovered alot I was oblivious about.

Our parents were agents who died trying to unravel what Cassie and I just did. After their demise, Miss Cherry who happens to be my father's bestfriend took Cassie in, and groomed her secretly to be her private spy.

As Cassie wasn't earning enough to fend for the both of us, she and Miss Cherry pulled some strings to get me into the agency.

Here I was thinking my sister was just a petty thief. It was all a disguise and she would have been a final agent if her activities wasn't kept a secret.

But then in the end, she got something better. Herself, Miss Cherry and a third undisclosed party became the Source, while I got what I have always wanted by becoming a final agent.

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