The package

Thirty minutes later Victoria calls me into her office. She sits proudly, her jacket now hanging over the back of her chair, still radiating an aura militant authority. The three-quarter sleeves of her black shirt expose her delicate wrists. She extends her arm and flexes one wrist downward as her fingertips pin down something on her desk. She slides it to the edge of the desk nearest me. I feel like a scout being given a mission. My orders take the form of a business card.

The hard stare she is giving me sends a shiver up my spine. “Your job today is to pick up a package being held under my name from this business, have it gift wrapped, then deliver it to the address written on the back of the card.”

That is a clear mission, and it couldn’t go to a more dedicated and loyal soldier. “I’m on it.” I take the card and turn to leave.

“Oh! One more thing.” She digs into her laptop bag, pulling out a set of keys. She disconnects a fob and hands it to me. “Deliver it with the envelope that is in my car.”

“Got it.” I turn and leave the room.

I am a soldier with a mission. I am also a spy with subterfuge to enact. I’m infiltrating a single person’s life, to undermine and confuse them until they are destroyed by a landslide of their own circumstances...

I am so excited that by the time I get into the elevator that my eyes are bugging out.