Chicago

Elena glances at the piece of paper pensively as she stands in front of ****-Donna, dossiers firmly in hand. Her lips tremble. She’d been used to Donna as a mentor, even lover. But more than ever this dreary summer morning, she struck the intern as nothing more than a headmistress or one of those people in middle management.

It’s all she can do not to blanch.

“So what’ll it be?” ****-Donna interrupts her thoughts.

“Chic…Chicago.”

“Really? I always figured you for a Parisian or Londoner. But never mind. Chicago it is.”

She hands the file over to Elena and quickly disappears, leaving her to digest it within the confines of her upgraded studio apartment. The beauty plops into a nearby loveseat and glances at the contents.

     Target: Ralph May

     Age: 18

     Occupation: student, University of Chicago 

     Major: Information Security

     Minor: Music Theory

     Memberships: CHAOS, HackerNet, Burning Man

    Brief: In winter 2009 representatives from a west coast consortium contacted Invisible Hand concerning certain of the subject’s activities. Emphasis was put on his illegal distribution of visual and audio media via peer to peer networks on the Internet. Representatives made note of certain compromising photographs of the subject and several females at a festival in Nevada, and expressed a desire that ‘this problem of theirs’ be executed as quickly as possible.

  On 14 February 2010 a female operative of the Chicago branch made contact with the subject at a bar in Hyde Park. An attempt to seduce him was successfully made. An attempt was made to relay her findings to headquarters, but she disappeared shortly thereafter, presumed dead. Orders are to reestablish contact with subject, and if possible ascertain the whereabouts of the missing operative...

Elena nearly dies in laughter.

“What’s this, a spy novel?”

She picks up the phone and dials an extension. Within minutes ****-Donna arrives, looking anything but pleased.

“I was this close from getting a facial this morning.” She gestures with her thumb and forefinger. “What’s the beef?”

“What the fuck is this? It’s like the bastard children of John Le Carré and Ian Fleming got together and wrote this pile of crap. What, are you guys nuts or what?”

“That’s not crap. That’s your assignment.”

“So I guess that makes me James Bond?”

****-Donna is unmoved.

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

Elena stops in mid-speech.

“You’re serious?”

****-Donna nods.

“There’s a lot you have to learn, kiddo.” She grabs her mentee’s forearm. “C’mon, I got a limo waiting outside. Your plane leaves at noon. We can get you fixed and ready to go by then.”

Elena huffs.

“I’m not going.”

“Oh really?”

“You people are crazy. Leave me alone!”

****-Donna sighs.

“So you’re going to pretend that the last few days were just a mirage?”

“Something like that.”

“Look, I wasn’t thrilled either. But Mistress thinks highly of you, and I’d hate for
Mistress to be disappointed, for both our sakes.”

“I’d rather eat shit and die.”

“Do you really feel that way?”

Elena shrugs.

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Think about it for a moment. How many people get to be a part of history? To make history? Look at what’s happening. Government regulations are run amok. Corporation’s backs are to the wall. The Western concept of rule of law is threatened…The whole world’s a sanitarium and the lunatics are running the asylum. Do you call that progress, Elena?”

The intern shakes her head.

“Then come with me.”

Elena glances at the receiver.

“I’ll go, but only on one condition.”

“What?”

“Let me make a few phone calls first.”