The lights flicked on illuminating the sterile looking room, a single light bulb swinging from the ceiling casting harsh shadows on the gray cement walls. I was led over to the cold metal chair that stood solitary behind the table which was bolted to the cement floor.

Pushed in the room and roughly told to sit, I slunk over to the chair alone and feeling beaten. The heavy door was slammed shut and the key turned in the lock leaving me on the wrong side of the door in a windowless room with only the humming of the light for company.

I looked around checking over my shoulder, they were watching, they were always watching. Even if I couldn’t see them they were there, always. They thought I was crazy, a lying crazy bitch, trying to cover my ass. That’s exactly what they wanted and I could never say how wrong they were I could never tell them anything, because the only rule was you couldn’t tell.

--

Standing up so fast my chair hit the floor with dull metallic thud on the hard concrete floor; I whirled around so that I was facing the back wall and began looking for any sign of them. Anything, hell even a fleck of red light from a camera would do but I couldn’t find a thing, not hide nor hair. “Great,” I shouted out to what everyone thought was an empty room, but I knew better, “just fucking great. What ever happened to protecting your own? Hunh? I know your there don’t you pretend you can’t hear me I know all of you are sitting in your comfy little rooms watching me drinking and laughing at my expense we’ll I hope every single one of you drops dead! Do you here me?”

Protecting their own. Ha funny, that’s what they said they would do as long as you didn’t tell and look where that had gotten me, a little cement room with all of the furnishings bolted to the floor, it was fabulous really 5 star resort material. I had been out and it had all been routine but somebody messed up. In this world you didn’t mess up there were no mistakes we planned everything out down to the last variable, the stakes were too high there was no room for error. So what happened?

I finished what I had started and headed back and there was no one there. My team had bailed. Something had gone very, very wrong, which could only mean one thing some one had broken the only rule. I was screwed.

--

The heavy metal door opened, banging into the wall with a hollow clang and I heard the click of heels on the floor, into my room, if you will, walked a tall woman, she might have been pretty once but this job had made her into a battle scared old woman with no life in her eyes. In a power suit with gray streaked black hair she stood slim and tall silhouetted in the door frame by the bright light the florescent bulbs gave off in the hallway.

Behind her came one of the men who had brought me into the room, he carried in a chair set it down opposite mine and walked out shutting and locking the door behind him.

“So,” she spoke her voice as cold as the steel table between us, “Where are they?”

I gapped taken aback, my mouth was opening and closing like that of a fish suddenly brought out of the water, “Everywhere,” I croaked out, “they are everywhere.”

“And where exactly is everywhere located, she said looking at me and arching her eyebrows.

“I’ve already broken the rule you want more? Sorry ain’t gunna happen.” I paused gauging her reaction, “mind if I smoke?”

“Go right ahead,” she clipped out sitting her slim frame down in the chair across from me, “What are you allowed to say then?”

“Nothing you want to know.”

“Are you so sure?” she challenged me, she knew there had to be away around the rule, so did I, but the question was, was I quite willing to pay the price the loop hole required.

The comforting sound of the flints striking to create the flame in my lighter rang out through the silent room, bringing the tip of the cigarette to the flame, I heard that tell tale sound of it catching and pulled the first drag into my lungs while waiting for the woman across from me to ask her question.

“When did they start?”

I considered the question for a moment; it didn’t fall into telling. She already knew they existed. It was a loop hole one that was fairly painless to use, and had the roles been reversed I would have expected them to use the same trick.

“1995”

“Where?” she leaned forward as she asked this question

“None for your fucking business,” I took a drag and let the smoke obscure my face so she couldn’t see the emotion there. Place. That was always against the rules your family they couldn’t know where you were, your friends; forget it you might as well have disappeared for all you could say to them, enemies; they looked like friends you started to wish you could tell somebody anybody where you were and what you were doing. These people were just more of the many nameless and numberless faces that would never be able to know.

She was thinking I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. She was trying to figure out what she could get an answer to with out me breaking my promise to people that she that she knew existed but probably didn’t believe how dangerous they really were. She wanted answers even if it meant humoring me. “When did you start?”

I was startled that we had already gotten to me. Resting my arm casually on the table leaning in and letting my cigarette had hang down at my side I laughed out right, “1995.”

“Is that why you ceased contact with your family?”

“No that was not when. I maintained some form of contact for a year or so.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Your right I didn’t.”

“So a year later when you lost contact were they the reason why?”

Blowing smoke out of my nose I spoke up again, “you know the most interesting things happen when no one can explain why you’re gone, they like to pretend that you never existed.”

“They called the FBI that’s hardly pretending you don’t exist.”

“How long did it take them?” I knew perfectly well how long it took my family to look into my whereabouts. I just wanted to hear her say it.

“Until the investigation of the organization you have information about was started.”

“So ruff estimation, how long?”

“If you lost contact in 1996?”

“Yeah sure.”

“10 years.”

“And I should help you why?”

“We’ve never had any of them stay anywhere long enough to even get a picture. You’ve stayed for a little chat. Either you think they’ll get you when you get back or you just don’t want to. To get out you need our protection and even then you know as well as I do you wouldn’t have any guarantees. If you want to go back I’m sure you can get out of here fast enough that I wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.”

She smiled in that cocky way that people do when they have everything figured out. She wasn’t right; O parts of it were close, very close, but not quite. She was right about getting out, but I didn’t really want out besides that’s not the way the organization works. It also told me what she thought, and because of that they know too.

Grinning like a mad man I decided to throw the dogs a bone, “My, My, My aren’t we a smart little agent, however let me clue you in on a thing or to, I’ve been there almost 12 years. Why would I let you buy my allegiance with not quite guaranteed safety? Think about that while I tell you that if you believe me when I say they are everywhere I am and yet you can’ t see them, you just told them everything you think you know, in which case I’m not safe nor would you be safe if I told you. In fact I guarantee neither of us would make it out of this room if that were the way we chose to go. I’ll give you a few minutes to think that over and then maybe we can start this questioning over on my terms.”

Smugly lighting my second cigarette, I was in my element, they sent me to do things like this all the time, as much as I lived for the other stuff this, inspiring fear in the hearts of others was the best. We had done it other places for other reasons and this was the panicle of what we aimed for. We would be legendary if we could pull this off.

Fear darted in and out of her cold eyes as I watched from across the table and laughter darted through my eyes. She was trapped and she knew it, if they set her up they weren’t about to let her leave with out getting what ever they wanted and if they didn’t like this situation she was as good as dead unless she walked out with their permeation. I for one found the irony they thought they were hunting us but really it was very much the other way around.

“You all play a very dangerous game.” I looked up surprised by her words I knew it was dangerous o yes, anything where the first and really only true rule was you couldn’t tell was bound to be, but if you could play it well and truly it provided great fun and usually profit.

“You all have an agent held hostage with out any outward signs in her own building. Dangerous and genius.”

“We’ve had a lot of practice.”

“So what are your terms?”

--