Chapter 2: Chapter Two – Karma
Karma left Freeman's office. He took a moment to look at his watch. It was 12:28 a.m. July 10th. Most people are sleeping right now. Karma walked away to get a look at the headquarters building. Looking up into the rafters of the building he saw a lot of unused space. You could hide a lot of stuff in this building, he thought. If you put some floor panels up there you could create 3 or 4 safe houses.
Karma walked into the main hallway. There Sidewinder was waiting for him. He smiled, "You just got back from Boston, seeing the family? I bet that arm was hard to explain. What did you do? Did you tell them that you broke your arm skiing?"
"My call sign just changed. I am Karma now. Who the hell told you was in Boston?" Karma asked.
"Freeman did." Sidewinder nodded, "It's all good, man. I won't tell anyone about your private business. It's all about the business." Sidewinder winked hard at Karma, then said, "But in truth you were pulling down all the ladies while you were there. I know you got the moves. We can keep that info between us. Freeman doesn't need to know."
"That's not me, you are the only professional ladies' man I know. Right?" Karma quickly changed the subject as he asked, "Real quick, where is the Armory at? I need to get hooked up before someone decides to put a bullet in me."
Sidewinder pointed down the hall and to the left. "That way, my friend. Turn left when you smell regret. It's great having you back man! I am pumped!"
"Regret?"
"Yeah, the new Armory girl is a firecracker. You'll see for yourself." With that said, Sidewinder walked away.
Karma smiled and nodded as he walked down the hallway. The bunks were on the right. Inside there were at least 4 people laying on their racks. Karma did the math really quickly in his head. 4 people, plus himself, Sidewinder and Freeman. 7 operatives in HQ? We have a full house at the beginning of a new operation. Meaning either some of them were sleeping elsewhere or things were worse off than he had thought.
The hallway was dark, but Karma could tell the light was on in the Armory. Maybe they never turn the light off? First, he passed by the Intel room. That was his goal for now. He needed to study up on the information he had missed while he was gone. Two months' worth of data. He continued walking down the hallway. He looked to the right seeing several blacked-out windows. This was standard practice for HQ. You don't want people looking into your hideout from the outside.
As he approached the Armory, he could hear music playing. Someone was listening to a foreigner. Oh, the irony, a bunch of foreigners listening to Foreigner, in a foreign country. It was enough to make even Karma smile a bit. Just then he turned into the Armory and was temporarily blinded by the light. Karma's eyes quickly adjusted. He could not see at first, but he could clearly see a woman sitting on a table cleaning a rifle. She was singing along with the music, "This mountain I must climb, feels like the world is on my shoulders…" The woman's singing trailed off as she looked at Karma. She put down her cleaning tools then turned the radio down. She asked, "What do you need?"
Karma took note of her appearance. Female, mid 20s, dirty blonde hair, bare feet, baggy jogging pants, and a simple red shirt. This girl is either a recruit or a homeless person they hired to take care of the armory. Finally, Karma said the only thing he could think of, "Guns, of course. Do you work here?"
The girl said sarcastically, "No, not me! Of course not. I am the animal they caught and threw in here to clean weapons. Seriously, I have been here for almost a week, and now it looks like I am not going anywhere. Freeman gave my job to someone else. I mean I have been cleaning weapons and organizing boxes for like 5 straight days. Look at my freakin hands." She held out her hand so Karma could see them. Her fingers were black, covered with dirt from cleaning rifles. She continued, "I signed up to travel the world and see great and wonderful things. But here I am slaving away in some shit hole warehouse…"
Karma took note of her accent and her outfit. Her language was vulgar… maybe out of frustration. He deduced that she was probably British with a military background. That would make sense considering her knowledge of weapons. Even Karma would have a hard time disassembling and reassembling some of these weapons. He asked, "I am just here for my weapon. Do you have the key to the lock up?"
She leaned to the side and pulled a key out of her pocket, then tossed it to him. She returned to cleaning her rifle again as she said, "Help yourself. Just don't take anything important. I won't stop you, but Freeman will get all bent out of shape." Karma thought to himself, what a wonderful recruit. Maybe there was a reason for her bad attitude. Doesn't matter, he walked over to the cabinet and unlocked them. Sure enough, there were a ton of cases in there. But there was only one he was looking for. He reached up and pulled the S&W case. He shut the cabinet doors and placed the case on the table.
Out of the corner of her eye the woman watched him. Karma noticed. Opening the case, Karma saw a thing of beauty. A brand-new Smith and Wesson Model 59 with two spare mags, a leather holster, and a suppressor ready to go. He picked up the gun and attached the suppressor. The girl raised an eyebrow and said, "You must be crazy to carry around that gun. Nowadays, most police units are switching out the 45 calibers for the 9mm pistols. But all the cops I talked to hate 9mm because it lacks stopping power."
Karma retorted, "Sound like you know a thing or two about guns."
"I do. Probably more than you."
"Hard to imagine."
She put down her cleaning tools and said, "Really? Hard to imagine someone like me knowing a thing or two about guns? You think because I am a girl that I should know more about fashion and make up? You are just like everyone else around here…" Karma toned her out as he loaded up his pistol. He removed his bomber jacket and put on the pistol holster. Out of the corner of his eye he could see she was still talking. Sidewinder was right, she was a firecracker. He holstered his weapon and put his jacket back on. Now all he had to do was get away from her. She could tell he was not listening to her anymore, so she paused then said, "Sorry, I am just really frustrated by the organization here. Or lack of organization. This isn't what I thought it would be." She took a breath then said, "Let's start over. What is your name?" She held out her hand to shake his.
Karma shook her hand and said, "It's alright. The organization can be a mess at times. I am Karma. Yesterday I was Baker, but now I am Karma."
"Oh," her voice dropped. She pulled her hand away. An angry expression flooded over her face. "Oh… Baker… You're THAT guy." Karma was confused by her shift in attitude. She went from neutral to angry, to calm, and came back angry in about 3 minutes. She stood up face to face with him. Karma was a solid 5ft 11in tall. This angry weapon cleaner was about 6 inches shorter than him. He thought, was she going to throw a punch at him? With an angry expression she said, "You took my job."
Karma was even more confused, he defended himself, "I doubt that. I don't even have an assigned job yet."
She flew off the handle, and she shouted, "You are taking the job I was supposed to get! Freeman told me everything."
At this point Karma had heard enough. He put his hands up like an invisible wall blocking her speech. Then he said, "Okay okay okay, calm down. People are sleeping in the other room. I don't assign jobs around here." This certainly didn't slow her down,' she continued, ranting at him. Somehow, he had accidentally set her off like a time bomb. While listening to her rant, Karma slowly walked around her toward the door. He looked at the exit then looked at the angry girl shouting at him. He needed an exit strategy. What do you say to casually get out of this situation?
Karma cut her off mid-sentence and said, "I feel sorry for the asshole that gets you as a recruit. Anyways. great talk, keep up the good work." Karma gave her a thumbs up and left. The expression on her face was priceless. A combination of rage and shock. Karma left the room with a smile on his face. Such a charming young lady. He probably wasn't welcome in the Armory anymore. On the positive side, now that he had his weapon and ammo, he didn't need to go there.
Karma looked at his watch. It was close to 1 a.m. Unlike all the sleeping people here in HQ, he was ready to get started now. He just slept through a 12-hour plane ride. Thanks to the jetlag he was full of energy. It was time to act. Karma walked down the hall until he got back to the Intel Room. This place was scattered with photos, documents, satellite images, a map of the world, and everything you could imagine. On the wall was a cork board with pictures and names written on them. On one side was a list of our Agents. "Indigo and Leo", "Sidewinder and Encore", "Apex and Raptor", and of course "Baker and Opal". That must be his recruit, Opal. Karma took the paper and rewrote it to say, "Karma and Opal".
As he looked down at the table, Karma noticed there was another name that someone had taken off the cork board. It said, "Virgo and Jynx". Ouch. Karma once again felt the sting of losing Virgo. She was the only female agent that made it past the 6-year mark. Karma counted the years in his head. No, she passed the 8-year mark. If you want to count years of experience… Karma has 10 years under his belt, Freeman had 9, Virgo had 8. Technically, she was 3rd on the list of seniority. Karma has watched a lot of agents come and go over the years. He knew Virgo from the very start back in 1980. She was so green. Then again, they were all green at some point. Karma needed to make it right. He needed to work extra hard to bring down Exstrusis. If not for himself, then for her.
Karma refocused on the cork board and the enemy names. Each operation brought back new intel on enemy names and movements. The list went on to include the names of Gorbachev, the KGB, the Exstrusis Program and Agent Keys. Then there was the most important name, Agent Death. It was the only name written on the cork board without a picture to go with it. And for good reason. No one has ever seen the Agent known only as Death, but everyone has heard the name. Some people even said he was a ghost. They said the Soviets made him up to throw people off their trail. Karma didn't agree. If Death was a real person, Karma was going to bring him down, just like the rest of Exstrusis.
Karma thought about it as he flipped through the papers. Was it possible for an agent to be so good and so talented that he left no paper trail? Could he evade every camera pointed his way? Maybe he wore a mask to hide his face? That was possible. But if so, we would have pictures of a masked man, we don't even have that. Countless pages of conversation between the Exstrusis Agents, the KGB, and Gorbachev. Karma had read them all before. Instead, he was looking for the ones that listed Agent Death. Finally, he found the one he was looking for. Karma sat down and read the letter slowly absorbing all the details. It was a KGB letter written to an unknown party. The page read…
Operational Report:
Agent Death informed us of [BLACKED OUT SECTION] this coming Friday. Operatives confirmed in the area. Typical [BLACKED OUT SECTION] does anyone know what is in it? Who is it for? Is Death involved in this? [BLACKED OUT SECTION] Send a team to deal with this ASAP.
This was a KGB operational report sent to the higher ups in the Soviet Union. The KGB acknowledged Agent Death in their letters. Hard to imagine he was a ghost. Karma started going through the files. Informants' intel. Photos of Soviet leaders outside of buildings. Leaked documents stolen from enemy hands. He found a letter from British intelligence stating that Agent Death was part of the Exstrusis Program. That was common knowledge. Karma continued to search for the files. He needed everything. Every ounce of knowledge he could get his hands on. Soon enough he found new intel, something he had not seen before. It read...
ANALYSIS:
Following up on Death's reported operation at [BLACKED OUT SECTION] at 0933 enemy agents entered the warehouse. [BLACKED OUT SECTION] manifest was a forgery. Unidentified agents appear to be of CIA or MI6 origin. [LARGE BLACKED OUT SECTION] disappeared at the airport. We have reason to suspect they operate out of eastern Europe.
Before Karma had gone on vacation, he had only seen one document on Agent Death. Now there are two. This second file seemed like the Exstrusis Program was trying to follow someone to the new HQ location. It is possible that Agent Death is another Exstrusis Agent just renamed. More importantly, where was he getting all his information? Karma only had a few hours. Hours he needed. He had to catch up on all the information he missed out on for the last 2 months. He poured over the documents. Eventually the light in the Armory went out. The firecracker must have gone to sleep. Karma noticed but did not stop his research.
After hours, Karma noticed a knot forming in his neck. He looked at his watch. It was almost 6 a.m. He stood up and walked to the kitchen. It was dark but he made it there without making too much noise. Turning on the light switch he found the coffee pot. He looked at the pitcher. It was gross. No one had cleaned it in ages. Who lets a coffee pot fall into this condition? He took the pitcher out and washed it in the sink. Suddenly a female voice said, "Did you bring my 100 dollars?" Karma turned around to see Indigo standing in the doorway. She was wearing a warm sweatshirt and pants. She clearly just woke up.
"Good to see you too, Hera. And who says I owe you 100 dollars?" Karma said to turn back to the coffee pot and start scrubbing.
She rubbed her eyes and said, "My name isn't Hera anymore. I am Indigo now. Seriously, you took my pistol 75B and dropped it in the river in Vienna. Or did you forget that while you were on vacation?"
"Vacation?! I am starting to hate that word. And just so you know, your beloved 75B was going to land us in jail. If that police officer had caught us with it, we all would have ended up in jail and the mission would have been scrapped." Karma said while still cleaning the coffee pot. Then he added, "Plus, we have at least 3 of them in lock up."
Indigo stood there silently for a few seconds. Then she wistfully said, "Well, I guess I can forgive the debt this time." She walked closer to him and touched his back. Then she asked, "How is your shoulder?"
Karma stopped cleaning. He turned around and said quietly, "It hurts. Not because of the pain, but from the memories." Karma remembered the night of Operation Bagman. 2 months ago, Indigo was there. Of the 4 agents there, she was the only one that walked away uninjured. Karma was shot in the shoulder. Quartermaster and Piper were killed. What a complete disaster. His bullet wound was a reminder of their failure.
Indigo wiped a tear from her eye and gave him a hug. Then she said, "I am sorry. They were good friends. We all lost on that day." Indigo cleared her throat and said, "Have you showed yourself around?"
Karma pulled away from her hug. Then he said, "Yeah, I got my weapon and looked at the Intel Room. Freeman gave me a new call sign. I am Karma now. I didn't meet any of the new recruits except for the monster in the Armory. She is really something."
Indigo smiled, "You mean Jynx? Yeah, I heard that. Last night, you really fired her up."
"Is there a reason for her anger?" Karma shook his head.
"It's a long story," Indigo replied, "To sum it up, Jynx was supposed to be Virgo's recruit. She got here 5 or 6 days ago. They meet. They left to go to Rome. Then Jynx's passport got rejected at the airport. Something about the date got screwed up or something, I don't know. It's really not important. What is important is that Virgo went on to Rome and Jynx had to stay behind. Then Virgo was shot down."
"Oh," Karma instantly understood.
Indigo continued, "She got back to HQ, Freeman had to give her a new ID and passport. Before he got it completed. BOOM. Virgo's plane crashed. I was in Baku. But I saw it on the NEWS. Freeman was devastated. Sidewinder said she jinxed us. Freeman thought it was accurate, paperwork was signed, and boom, Jynx… AKA bad luck was born."
Karma shook his head. "It wasn't her fault. She didn't screw up her own paperwork."
"I know that. Freeman had set her and Virgo up for the Graz surveillance job when she got back. Since Virgo won't be joining us," Indigo cleared her throat, Karma could tell Indigo was having trouble talking about Virgo. Despite this, she continued, "It's nothing to get all worked up about. Jynx will get handed over to someone else… eventually. We just do our job. Understand?"
Karma looked down at the floor and said, "Virgo would have been a great trainer for her. Now I feel bad for both of them."
Indigo nodded and patted him on the back, then said, "Coffee pot not up to your standards?"
Karma said, "No actually. Sorry to say, I have been gone for two months and I think I was the last person to clean this thing out." He finished washing out the coffee pot and put it back in its place on the counter. Then he said, "When is Freeman's briefing?"
"0700, bright and early as always." Indigo walked over to the other door as she left, and she said, "I will see you there." She left but then poked her head back in for the last words, "It is good to have you back, KARMA." Then Indigo left the room. She put a lot of emphasis on his name. Maybe she liked it.
Karma drank his coffee and returned to the intel room. He looked at his watch. It was almost 6:44 a.m. Freeman was already there setting up for the briefing. "Need a hand?" Karma said as he pushed a few chairs into position.
"Yeah, it's going to be a crowd. We have agents all over the world. So naturally a handful of people are going to hear it another day." Freeman said as he organized some papers. Then he looked at Karma and asked, "Did you sleep at all?"
"No, I slept on the 12-hour plane ride." Karma cleared his throat, then he said, "I saw my recruit is Opal. Do you mind if I make a suggestion?"
"Yeah, but before you do…" Freeman pulled a black bag out of the nearby desk. Freeman put it on the table and turned around so Karma could see it. Then he said, "I wanted to show you this before we place the order. Behold! The latest and greatest technology that money can buy." Freeman opened the black bag revealing a phone.
Karma walked over and looked at the phone. He smirked, "It looks like a car phone."
Freeman smiled as he said, "Better than a car phone my friend. This is a portable phone. Not linked to a car. You can take this bag anywhere you go and when you dial a number it links you to a connecting satellite to place your call. The best part is that no wires mean the calls are un-tappable, untraceable, and no one can listen in on your conversation. The future is here!"
Karma was impressed, "Not bad, do we all get one or is this a prototype?"
"This is the only one we have right now, as you can imagine they are fucking expensive." Freeman closed the bag and put it back on the desk. "Plus, it cost 5 dollars a minute to use. So, don't expect to be using one anytime soon."
Karma was frustrated at this point, "So the CIA provides us with state-of-the-art technology just to charge us to use it? Who would agree to that? An even better question is, when is the civilian model coming out?"
"This is the civilian model. Technically we are civilians, so we don't get the good stuff." Freeman noticed the rest of the crew was awake and moving around so he shouted at them, "Briefing is in here, guys. Let's not put this off any longer."
Karma didn't get to make his subjection. That's fine, it could wait until later.
Karma sat down and waited for the rest of the crew to show up. One by one they walked in. Indigo, Apex, Sidewinder, Jynx from the Armory, 3 unknown people, and eventually Cindy. The girl is from the airport. Karma was not surprised but he shot her a smile when she walked in. Cindy's eyes bulged as she saw him. She quickly sat down on the far side of the room.
Once everyone was seated, Freeman started the briefing. "New recruits and old friends. If I have not introduced myself to you yet, I apologize. It has been a busy week. My name is Freeman. I am your handler. You come to with your information and problems. I will handle both."
"Let's touch on the basics. This building is Mirage HQ. We are entirely funded by the United States government. Mirage is a branch of the CIA therefore we follow their lead. This is the only time you will ever hear me say CIA, from this point on they will be referred to as "Brass". If Brass wants us to find red taco shaped chickens on the beach of Honduras, we do it. If they want us to sit on our hands and count to a million. We'll do it. Now, you might be asking yourself, why would Brass pay us to do this job when they could do it themselves? The easy answer is that we are a civilian based organization. The United States government must follow the rules of the Geneva convention. It is a requirement by the UN. We don't. We are a privately owned organization. That means, theft, torture, murder, and anything else you can think of."
"On the upside Mirage employees can circumvent the rules of the Geneva Convention. On the downside, all the positive things we accomplish will never be credited to us. This is not a job for a glory hound. If you find a cure for cancer you will never get credit for it. If you are killed in the line of duty, your entire existence will be disavowed by all parties. Because technically you never existed to begin with." This left the room silent. It was the harsh truth about the espionage business. Freeman was not going to sugar coat any of it. After a moment of silence Freeman continued, "So, with that said, welcome to Mirage. Everyone here has been handpicked by Brass and me. The new recruits have already been paired with their senior agents, so let me go around the room."
Freeman walked over to Cindy and said, "This is Agent Opal, she just got here 30 minutes ago…" Freeman looked at Karma then went back to Opal and said, "We will come back to you in a minute." He then pointed to Sidewinder and said, "Agent Sidewinder and his recruit Encore. They have been together for a few months already." Next, he pointed to Apex and said, "Agent Apex, and the man next to him is his new recruit, Raptor."
Freeman walked over to Jynx and said, "This is Jynx, our Armory specialist." Jynx rolled her eyes at this but didn't say anything.
Freeman moved to Indigo and said, "Agent Indigo and her recruit Leo. Leo spent an entire year at the training school. Bravo for that."
Freeman looked at Karma and walked back to the front of the room. He pointed to Karma and said, "And finally, Agent Baker, who is now renamed Agent Karma. He has just returned and is fully recovered. Welcome back." Indigo started clapping but no one else did, so she stopped. Awkward.
Freeman pointed at the cork board and said, "Karma, if you didn't know, Opal is your recruit." Karma was going to give him a look of disapproval but changed his mind. Freeman pointed at the top and said, "This is Soviet Premier Gorbachev. Since the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the people of the Soviet Union have begun seeing cracks in the Communist state. They are pushing for Gorbachev to leave office. This is what the CIA wants. Therefore, it is what we want."
Freeman moved his hand to the next picture on the cork board and said, "The list only gets long from here. After that we have the KGB and the Exstrusis Program. If you thought the KGB was bad, then you should look at some of the nightmarish things Exstrusis pumps out on a daily basis. The program that deals with the assassination of political and military officials. Their weapons of choice are hit squads, explosives, and psychological manipulation. Countless numbers of people have disappeared as a result of the Exstrusis Program, including our own agents. Long story short, they are the monsters that go bump in the night."
Freeman looked back at the board and pointed to the last part. "We estimate the number of Exstrusis Agents to be between 30 and 50 agents worldwide. We will try to keep track of them. Agent Keys. Agent Gold… just to name a few." Freeman pointed to the nametape of Agent Death. "There is an Exstrusis Agent known only as Death. Said to be the worst of the worst. No one has ever seen him, but he is out there and wants only to see us fail. He is number one on our most hit list. Keep your eyes peeled for him."
Raptor raised his hand and said, "Umm, you don't have a picture of him. How are we supposed to watch out for him if we don't know what he looks like?"
Freeman gave a half smile then he said, "Everyone is nameless and faceless in this business. It is our job to line up the names, pictures, and faces. To expose our enemies' true faces to the world. If you bring me the pictures and the documentation, I will link Agent Death with a face that we can punch. Got it?"
"This brings me to our current operation. The reason you are here is Operation Umbra. Our order is to leak information about the Exstrusis Program to the public with the intent to discredit Gorbachev. Eliminate or expose all KGB and Exstrusis Agents under his command. Any questions?"
Once again, the room fell silent. Either because they understood the mission or because they were too scared to ask a question. Apex broke the silence when he asked, "Does this mean we are finally looking into the Psych10 shipments?"
"Yes," Freeman agreed with Apex, then turned to the cork board, pointing at a picture of cardboard boxes. "A few months ago, we got a tip from a Chinese pharmaceutical company about a shipment. The informant gave us an address to a warehouse. The boxes were marked Ginseng. However, the shipment was being transported by an armed escort of Soviet police. Either the Soviet police are big fans of Ginseng, or it was a chemical called Psych10 being transported to the Exstrusis Facility. We had a team ready to storm the airport to steal the truck. Unfortunately, that operation was foiled by Soviet Police before it even started. In your notes, it is referred to as…" Freeman looked over the paperwork trying to remember the name.
"Operation Bagman." Karma finished the sentence for him.
"Yes, thank you." Freeman continued. Karma noticed that Freeman left out the brutal details of Operation Bagman. 4 agents were involved. 2 dead, 1 injured. An absolute failure from all sides. The operation gained absolutely nothing. Karma didn't like the fact that Freeman sugar coated the whole thing, but I guess there was no need to bring up spilt milk.
"Okay, all the missions I am handing out are intelligence gathering. So, Let's not freak out too much here." Freeman grabbed some files and put them in order. Then he said, "Sidewinder, you are going to question an informant in Brussels, Belgium. Louis Maes. His brother Jules was a KGB informant. Now he claims Jules was abducted by Exstrusis Agents.'' Freeman handed them the file. Sidewinder showed it to Encore. Then after a few seconds, they both got up and left the room.
Freeman walked over to Apex and handed him a folder. Then he said, "Apex, you are going to question an informant in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is the kind you need to soften up first. So, of course, this is right up your alley." Apex didn't look at the file at all. He just got up and left, leaving Raptor behind. Raptor was confused for a second, until Freeman pointed to Apex and said, "Raptor, he is getting away." Raptor immediately got up and ran after Apex.
Freeman smiled then walked over to Indigo. "Oh, bad news, you got the worst job. Indigo, you are fishing for information from a company called MoBile Air. It is supposedly a rental airline company, but our man on the inside said a man that looked a lot like Agent Gold booked a flight with them. It is entirely possible for Exstrusis Agents to rent planes for their organization."
Indigo took the file and gave Freeman a dirty look. Then she said, "Why do you do this to me?" You know, my research skills are shit."
Indigo looked through the file as Freeman explained, "I didn't organize it this way to spite you. The company in question is Italian. Leo is fluent in that language. I figured it would be a great bonding experience for you both."
Indigo rolled her eyes, "Sure, whatever. Let's go minion." With that she got up and walked out of the room. Leo just smiled and followed her.
Freeman finally turned to Karma and handed him the last folder. But before Karma could open it Freeman said, "Karma, you and Opal are going to Graz, Austria..."
Karma interrupted him right there, "She literally just got here two minutes ago."
"Trust me on this one, Karma. I organized the teams to perfection. Opal is the least experienced recruit, and YOU are the most experienced Agent. You two will cancel each other's flaws to form perfect harmony. By the time she returns, your skills will have rubbed off on her and she will be a much better agent."
Karma did not say anything about this. He saw Jynx stand up and walk back to the Armory. Then he looked at Opal. Opal had just arrived to learn that the scary man from the plane ride was her trainer. Freeman thought she was ready for this kind of job. She barely made the plane ride here from the States. Karma formulated a solution in his head and with a blink of an eye he looked at Freeman and said, "You know best, you're the boss."
In the distance, a phone started to ring. It was ringing in his office. Freeman smiled and said, "Trust me, it will all work out in the end you will see." Freeman walked out the door to go answer the phone. This left Karma and Opal alone. He wanted to gage her capabilities. Time for some questioning.
Opal was very confused by this. She asked, "Hello again. We are a pair, aren't we?"
Karma nodded, "Yes, we are a pair. However, Freeman didn't give me any information on you at all. Background, training, any of that. So, let's touch on that right now."
"I don't have any."
"None, you have NO training?"
"No, sorry."
"Do you have a military background?"
"No."
"Did you go to CIA training?"
"No."
"Okay, how did you get this job without any training?"
Opal smiled and said, "I was one of the candidates that was selected for M.I.T. training. Afterward I was approached by a man who claimed he could get me a better job if I signed up for his organization."
Karma finally saw the light. She was a M.I.T. student. Very smart. Karma responded, "Oh, I see. You went to M.I.T."
Opal corrected him, "No, I was a candidate to get into M.I.T. I didn't actually make it to M.I.T."
The happiness on Karma's face faded. The only look he had left was frustration. How did Freeman expect this to work? Karma was about to lose his temper, but he backed down. Instead, he said, "I should tell you that I have a special skill, Opal. I can see the best in a bad situation. Regardless of how bleak or terrible something is I can see the positives in it. Do you know what I see in you?" Opal shook her head no. Karma continued, "You are smart. Very smart. I would even say, too smart to be a field agent. I have a feeling that if I were to take you out to do boring surveillance jobs, we wouldn't be using you to your fullest potential."
Opal was shocked by this, "Really?"
"Yes, absolutely." Karma pointed to the wall. This is the Intel Room, all the knowledge we have gathered for years is right here. And this is where you are going to shine Opal. Your brain is going to piece together the broken information each agent has brought back to the table. Are you ready for your first mission?" Opal nodded and smiled. She was pumped up. "I want you to absorb ALL of this information. Read every file and memorize every location. Take two or three looks at each item here. Over-think everything on this board. Find the links. Solve the riddle. Do you think you can do this?"
"Yes, I can. I will. What is the riddle again?"
Hearing her ask that question, Karma almost died on the inside. However, he maintained his serious face as he said, "Find anyone involved in the Exstrusis Program. Find an Exstrusis facility. If you have any questions, you can take them up with me or Freeman. Whomever is available. Got it?"
"I will." Opal agreed and picked up one of the files. Then she said, "I won't disappoint you." With that she began her research.
Karma picked up his personal bag, turned, and left the room. He had his own project to work on.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone