He went to reach in his pocket for his
wallet and then realised the man was watching him. "Ok, I'll find you a
bill and show you that it matches the name on my driver's license? Would that
be alright for you?"
"How do I know you haven't stolen the
identity of the man who used to live here?"
The mime sighed. "You've been talking
to me a few minutes now, do I seem like the man you're looking for? What does
your gut tell you?"
"My gut tells me to be confused. I
still don't have you completely figured out. I know that Nicholas is not a man
to be taken lightly and most of his characteristics you seem to have, whether
you realise it or not, without any 'acting' involved."
"Like what, exactly?"
"You have some of his confidence, his
professionalism, you also hold yourself with some measure of pride. You're also
obviously highly intelligent."
"Well..."
"You also have a touch of the
psychotic there behind your eyes. I have seen it before. It characterizes
Nicholas's behaviour in every step, though not enough for him to slip up;
assuming that you are who you say you are."
"So what do you want to do?"
The man seemed to think for a second. He
placed the sheaf of printouts back into the cupboard with the printer. "I
think I will keep a close eye on you."
"Keep on keeping a close eye on me you
mean?"
"Yes, that is right. I will watch as
you play out this current job of yours and once I am satisfied you just won't
hear from me again."
"And what if you aren't?"
"Then we are back where we started.
Here. And I take you in."
"And then what happens?"
"That will be up to my employers. It
won't be pleasant, though. I can promise you that."
"Yes, I can imagine. Alright,
alright.... but what if your presence interferes with my job? I'm guessing my
life is on the line but my job and my professional integrity are on the line as
well, and they mean about as much to me. All there is to my life is my job, it
means an incredible amount to me."
"I will not interfere. No one will
know I am there."
"You don't understand, these geeks
online, they are naturally paranoid. Most of them will be actively looking for
some sort of operative tailing them, a mixture of paranoia and narcissism. They
will have read all the black ops handbooks as well. The ones available on file
sharing networks too."
"All of them?"
"No, but enough of them will
have."
The man took a step back and rolled up his
sleeve, revealing a small black and red tattoo on the underside of his forearm.
It showed a small black triangle within a larger red one. The smaller of the
triangles was pointing down towards his fingers and the larger up towards his
shoulder. "Have you seen this before?" he asked the mime.
The mime looked at it carefully. It jogged
something small in his memory but he wasn't sure what. It could have just been
because triangles were a familiar thing. "I'm not sure, I don't think
so."
"I'm not surprised. Though, I wouldn't
have been too shocked knowing what I think I do about you. This symbol
represents Portugal's secret service. I worked for it for fifteen years before
coming here."
"I've heard they're tough."
"You heard right. We would do our
training drills with live ammo. It was hard work. I try not to think about it.
You learn to be invisible though. I do not follow the book."
"I understand."
The man went back to the bench, this time
turning his back to the mime. The mime thought to himself< "That's weird,
if I wanted to I could just pull out a gun and shoot him." Then he noticed
his reflection in the toaster on the bench in the kitchen. It was blurry but it
would serve for showing any sudden moves. The guy definitely knew what he was
doing.
The man got to the bench, picked up his
smoothie again and this time completely drained the glass. He turned to the
sink and rinsed his cup then left it in the sink.
"I'll leave you now to study your
work. But remember; I'm watching you!" He pointed to the fold under his
eye for effect then marched smartly out the door and closed it behind him.
The mime ran to the window to see him come
out of the apartment block but no-one exited. He waited a good five minutes and
then finally the door opened, but it was only one of the couples on the second
floor. They came out gesticulating wildly at each other with hands flailing. He
guessed they were having another of their fights. The man was still nowhere to
be seen. It was like he disappeared into thin air. The mime hoped this was
actually the case. He had a feeling, however, that he would be seeing him again
before he had finished this assignment. Anything that delicate and that 'big'
in the grand sceme of things tended to not only cause but outright encourage a
wide range of mistakes. He had heard the stories, and read the reports, of all
the CIA and FBI investigations where someone was wanted dead "off the
record" and someone with a similar name, or the same set of gloves or even
similar taste in magazines had been killed instead by mistake and everything
was wrapped up, hushed up and the operation quietly closed down. This guy did
seem like a professional though... All the same, the mime really hoped that it
wasn't the CIA looking for Nicholas.
--
Menelaus got to Tina's apartment. He could
see soft lighting coming through her curtains. He could faintly see his
reflection in the window and shifted his hair around a bit. It was probably the
best it was going to look, he thought to himself. He sighed. Why did it always
have to fluff out at the sides like that? He tried licking his hand and
smoothing down the sides, it seemed to work for now but make him feel a little
stupid, like he was a 50s greaser or something. He straightened out his clothes
a bit and got the sleeve of his jacket caught in the zipper on the other side
of his jacket. He struggled with it, vigorously at first and then, realisiing
he might rip it, used his other hand to try and unhook the fabric. It was slow
going. After about thirty seconds he heard Tina's voice inside, "hey is
someone out there?"
"Uh, yeah, it's just me." The
porch light came on and Menelaus frantically struggled with the thread. He
heard the door knob turn and jerked his arms to his side. He heard a slight rip
sound come from the end of his sleeve and really hoped the damage wasn't too
bad.
The door opened and Tina stood there in
softer clothes than what she'd had on that night. She was in what looked like
yoga pants and a tank top with what looked like a soft white top with no
sleeves underneath. Menelaus concentrated on not looking at her cleavage, which
was really hard as the tank top and shirt under put it on display a bit. Tina
smiled, he noticed that her eyes were a little pink. From crying? Before he
could ask she jumped forward and gave him a hug. He put his arms around her and
closed his eyes.
"Hi Menelaus." She whispered into
his ear.
"Hi Tina" he said back and
started to feel the panic rise in him. Great. This happened whenever he would
be close to sexual contact with a girl. He had never been able to help it. He
tried to calm himself down. It'll be ok when she breaks the hug and walks off
to keep talking or make us tea or whatever, he thought to himself. Tina
loosened her grip on him. "Good" he thought, "not long now, I
can compose myself." Tina brought herself slightly away from Menelaus, but
kept contact with him, running her hands down his arms till her hands were in
his and they were face to face. She looked into his eyes and smiled. Then,
Menelaus saw her close her eyes and come in for a kiss. He closed his eyes too
and kissed her. The first kiss was soft and sweet, then she opened her mouth
slightly and poked her tongue into his mouth. He opened his mouth wider and let
her explore his mouth fully while they kept kissing, then he pushed his own
tongue past the opening of her mouth and felt the softness of her tongue with
his, grinding his lips against hers.
He felt his body begin to tremble. Shit! He
thought. No, stop. Tina stopped kissing him and pulled away. She had a look of concern
on her face, "are you ok? What's wrong?"
Menelaus felt his face start to burn,
"N..nothing's wrong. I'm just nervous, that's all."
"Aww nervous?" Tina came back
close to him and rested her head on his shoulder and hugged him tightly,
"there's nothing to be nervous about. Don't you like kissing me? Is this
too fast."
"No, not at all. I mean, of course I
like kissing you. I like you."
"I like you too, Menelaus" Tina
breathed into his ear, and kissed his throat. She kissed his neck again
slightly higher up, then kissed his earlobe and playfully tugged it with her
teeth. Menelaus felt his shakes calm down but his heart was still beating hard.
"Is that a bit better?" Tina asked.
"Yeah
I think so" Menelaus said and kissed Tina on the cheek, immediately
feeling stupid for doing so. Tina didn't say anything though, and kissed him on
the cheek in return, then brought her face back around to where she could kiss
him on the lips again, this time starting off with a deep, passionate kiss.
Their mouths seemed to meld together, Menelaus was briefly worried their teeth
would hit each other but it didn't seem to happen, the kiss was all warm skin, lips against lips, tongue against tongue, warm breath and saliva.
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