Forever Fighting | ✔️ | [previously Espionage: double-cross]

Chapter 42

"So, first thing I wanna know," Alex explained through a mouthful of burrito, "Is what's with the two versions of you? There's the cocky jerk and then this bumbling idiot." 

Alex could have sworn she saw a flicker of annoyance cross his face but then the goofy smile was back in place.

"It's simply much easier to get into an agency that has no junior agents when you don't act like the 16 year-old you are. It's amazing what confidence can do to change people's perspectives of you."

"So this," Alex gestured to the person in front of her now, "Is the real you? The goofy, 16 year-old moron, is you?"

"Yup," he said, popping the 'p'.

"Huh." Yes this person was annoying but there was something familiar about him that was oddly comforting. "So you change you're personality to appear older so you can work at Potentia? Seems like a lot of effort."

"It's hard not being who you want to be but desperate times call for desperate measures. At least around people my age I can just be me."

Alex nodded along. "Yeah, sure. You do you."

As much as she liked taking about James' personal issues, she needed to get them back on track.

"Why did you want to bring me back to HQ anyway? When you bumped into me at the park?"

"I thought it would be easier to talk to you if you were here, at the agency, which brings me back to what I wanted not talk to you about."

"Yeah, shoot."

"Your mum. You see, she did work here, at Potentia, but there is a rumour going round that she worked at Auxilium too. She was a double-agent, and no one really knew which side she actually worked for." Alex stared at him, uninterested. "What?" He asked.

"I've had it confirmed she was a double agent. Do you have any new information?"

The bubbly persona faded a second. "So why don't you just tell be what you know then, hmm?" Then he realised his mistake. "Haha, just to get our stories straight, you know."

Alex sighed. "I hacked into the system at Auxilium and it said that they killed her, the  organisation I was working for, the organisation I trusted. I can't believe they kept me in the dark about this."

"Ah."

"Ah what?"

"Well," he began, "I might not trust that info. It may be true, but it may not."

"Stop speaking in riddles and just spit it out."

"I'll start from the beginning." He chucked his burrito in the bin and got ready to tell his tale, clasping his hands together and making a face.

"I swear to god if you tell this story in a dramatic voice like you're narrating a fairy tale, I will slap you, hard, in the face." James put his hands up in surrender.

"Fine geez. You are probably the most violent girl I know, you know that?"

"Why thank you kind sir."

"So it all started after I was sent to recruit you. Auxilium got there first, as you already know. But then every agent started to talk about some virus they wanted to get rid of that was harming our resources. I was still pretty low down the ladder, like at the bottom, so I was told none of this directly. But every agent was working on something, something strange, and the name 'Pierce' started coming up a lot more." He paused and looked at her, expecting a reaction.

He didn't get one.

"Obviously it had something to do with you, or your mum. They kept talking about some 'key' that had some incriminating stuff that could harm the organisation, and the government seen as they are one in the same, and in the end, talk about, well you know," he ran his finger along his neck as he nodded towards her, "Which is why I didn't tell them when you saw me outside of HQ."