The Black Rose

“So, how was your evening?” I toyed raising an eyebrow at Damien who just took his seat. “You get lucky?”

“Did you get it?” he gruffed, ignoring my witty interrogation.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” I scrunched my face in disdain.

“I’m not in the mood to play games, why are you so chipper?” His tone changing to one of concern mid-sentence.

“I can’t be happy to see my favorite boss?” I toyed, although my mind flashed to the real reason for my chipper attitude…

After the magical blue pill absorbed all of the light present in my body, I was left with a gaping pit of increased anxiety, sexual frustration, and loneliness. Unable to contain it, even with the meager supply of orange pills, I slipped out in the night and found a cheeky all-hours strip club. I had intended to just go in to have some fun with the ladies but little did I know I would have a ribbon wrapped present waiting for me.

“Hello?” Damien waved his hand in front of my face.

“Yes, I got access,” I sighed. I handed him a small chip with countless emails and texts I was able to pull from Zhang’s phone.

“So impatient,” I chided.

Damien pocketed the chip.

“And Li?” he inquired sipping his coffee with great thirst.

“I will be attending their meeting this weekend, it’s in the bag,” I shrugged, bored.

“And Semmens?” he pressed.

My throat hitched. “I will be meeting her here Tuesday for lunch.”

“Good work,” he nodded. “And?”

I pulled a second chip reluctantly from my pocket and handed it over. Part of me didn’t want to give this illegally obtained information to them, part of me wanted to protect Mia.

I slid the chip over the table slowly and Damien reached to grab it but I didn’t move my hand. “What will you do with this? They?” I uttered.

“Why are you all of a sudden curious?” Damien asked, his face moving closer to mine.

“I’m not a dog or a trained monkey,” I growled.

“This information is given to them. I don’t know what they do with it. They could jerk off to it for all I care,” he paused, assessing my face. “All I know is they want Dr. Semmens, and if you can’t deliver, they will find another way.”

I knew what that other way was, they would force her. They couldn’t kill her since she was too valuable. So, it was either I convince her to make this choice of her own free will, or she became enslaved to a top-secret society. Her life over. Her dreams squandered in the shadows, her friends gone, her unrequited love, Bob, would surely end his own life.

“Tisk, tisk, ” I waved a finger, “No faith, Damien, I’m disappointed.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he smirked and rose from his seat.

“Let me know how Tuesday goes.” He turned and walked towards the door, my eyes following him until he was out of sight.

I sat there with my espresso, staring at the table. My mind wandered back to last night...

My gift was a sweaty, handsy, rotund gentleman who irked me to no end. His morbid sense of humor coupled with stale notes of alcohol and cigarettes, the way he grabbed the ladies’ breasts inappropriately caused my body temperature to spike. It didn’t take me but an hour before I followed that prick out to the alley where he had lit up a cigarette. Within the confines of the dark, dank alley, I stalked behind him like a demon in the night. I pulled the knife from my boot, slinking behind him I tapped on his shoulder lightly.

As he turned, I stabbed once in the chest and then again, and again, until the man fell to the ground. I stabbed and stabbed, and stabbed until blood soaked my hands, spraying my neck and face. The adrenaline and mania had taken over. My pupils dilated, my eyes grew wide, dangerous, the monster escaping from every orifice. All I saw was black. When his body lay lifeless, a mess of blood and flesh, I reached into my pocket and took out a handful of petals. I opened his agape mouth wider and was about to shove them inside, but thought better of it. They couldn’t know this was me.

I glanced around, luckily no one had seen. I wiped the blade of the knife on my shirt and wedged it back in my boot. Satisfied, I pulled the hood over my head and stalked from the alley back to the dimly lit street. My heart rate and nerves calm. I felt tranquil, at peace.

While I didn’t dispose of the body, I was wise enough to wear a wig and disguise. No way an ordinary cop could identify me, but Shadow would know. I was microchipped like a dog. That blasted chip was inescapable, twenty-four-hour surveillance, but I didn’t care. I was valuable, which meant I could get away with certain things. Besides, who would miss that dirtbag anyway?

“Could I clear this plate?”

I shook my head, looking up at the waiter.

“Yes, thank you,” I muttered.

I whipped out my laptop and allowed it to load. This time Tuesday I would be having lunch with Mia. I pictured her quiet resolve, her wide, brilliant eyes. Having access to her phone was like having access to her intimate secrets, her world. I felt as if I was watching her world spin from the outside looking in.

Loaded, I drummed away on the keys, my fingers working feverishly. Since I was in a lull period with both Zhang and Mia, I decided to pursue Damien further. I made it a habit of gaining as much dirt on my handlers as I could, filing away the dirty laundry in case I ever needed it.

Damien was a bit of a loner, but thanks to the success of the new software installed onto his phone, plus the success of my jammer (that would be blocking the signal to Shadow), I could see everything, and what I had learned over the years, it was often the things you don’t see that, the silent, invisible truths that were most important. It’s not the cards or tricks that someone shows you, it’s what they were trying to hide that was most appealing.

I double tapped the app and navigated to the new access file that had yet to be labeled. My eyes flit back and forth across the screen as I navigated through his emails first. Most were spam or orders for protein powder or other incredibly mundane items. I moved to his texts in quiet antipathy. His message inbox was even sadder. Thumbing through the apps, I came across one I didn’t recognize. The purple box had a message icon in the center. I clicked it. There were two message chains. I clicked on Landon. I skimmed through their texts and the more I read, the more my mouth began to drop. My eyes widened, “Holy shit,” I whispered. I had found Pandora’s box.

Damien was gay and apparently, he was dating a guy named Landon. Holy Jackpot. I opened another tab and typed in “Landon + Biotech,” and hit enter. I scrolled through the images but got nothing. I tried Biotech’s site next, and sure enough, there was a Landon Daniels, Junior Research Scientist III. Well, hot damn.

I then typed in Landon Daniels and found his Instagram and Twitter pages. Landon seemed to be far into the gay scene in L.A., with many pictures of him traipsing around other muscled modelesque men most of which never wore shirts (and looked quite good without might I add). However, over the last year, he had rarely posted. There were also no pictures of Damien, which led me to believe they had been seeing one another for at least a year.

I wonder what Damien told Landon? He obviously couldn’t tell him what he did. I also wondered why Landon hadn’t been killed yet? Was he that good at hiding it? I was going to go with a no considering how easily I found out. Did Shadow not tail our phones or check in on us as much as I thought? I had always pictured some fat greasy bearded man with his smelly feet propped up on a desk covered in monitors just watching us twenty-four seven shoveling pizza and red bulls through his fat lips. If their leash was longer than I thought, I had a chance.

I moved to the other message chain, which presented no number. Strange. The last message was coordinates. I scrolled up. This was definitely who Damien answered to. Damien checked in with this person daily providing reports of my targets and my mental state. “What the…” I exhaled. It appeared he wasn’t sure if I could be trusted to procure Dr. Semmens. My lips pursed as the hatred only mounted for Damien. I couldn’t be trusted to produce? Had he not seen my record?

I clicked out of Damien’s file before I lost control and Mia’s caught my attention. Like a drug addict seeing cocaine sitting on the table, I couldn’t ignore it. Her texts were most intriguing. She texted Bob almost every day, or I should rephrase, he texted her almost every day. Bob worked at a competing research company called Synegen, and boy did he irk me. He was relentless. Bob would be meeting Mia for lunch at this very moment, as he tried to do every day. I rolled my eyes, what a sucker.

Finally, I moved on to Zhang. Zhang Chin was by far the most colorful of the phone’s I now had access to. He had files of nude pictures of beautiful women (of course I scrolled through every single one for research purposes), direct connections to other mafia men, his father, and his friends. Zhang seemed to have his hand in a little bit of everything. He was even conversing with the Mexican cartel, of which I believe his father had no knowledge.

I clicked on Xi, Zhang’s best friend. It appeared Zhang was boasting about his night Friday, and how I was some of the best sex he had ever had. I smirked. While I could give two shits if I rocked his world or not, I was remembering my own little drama. The drama of Mia and I. I could feel my heart accelerate as I imagined her hand caressing my bare skin. I swallowed, closing my eyes…

Her hand glided down each vertebra of my spine as I kissed the base of her neck, my teeth racking her skin to her collar bone. She moaned lightly, her neck veins exposed as her head cocked back. My lips moved lower and lower.

A jolt of pleasure caused my eyes to shoot open. I suddenly realized I was still in the coffee shop. I closed my laptop quickly and hightailed it to the exit. My feet moved, but I wasn’t paying attention, Mia’s naked body was the only vision before me. My lips caressed the light hairs of her stomach, my tongue traced the rim of her belly button. My vision clouded.

I quickened my pace even more as the steel door to my building came to view. I placed my clammy hand on the screen and it ignited green. I hurriedly waved to the front desk person, not even looking up to see who it was. In the elevator, it seemed as if it was taking a century to get to the top.

I watched as floor after floor number passed, my hands fidgeting, why was this taking so long? I immediately wondered why the most luxurious apartments were at the very top. Didn’t rich people hate waiting for anything? Wouldn’t they want to be at the bottom?

The door finally buzzed open and I practically ran to the door. Entering, I threw my bag on the couch and marched straight upstairs. My bed in view, I saw Mia lying on it. Her olive skin clashing with the white sheets. I stripped my clothes and my sanity, laying them bare to the floor. Now was no time for reality.