Freeman shoved her hands in the bag looking for something. She quickly scanned the area and sighed in relief as she had found whatever she was scrabbling for. 30-year-old chomped down the protein bar in three bites, her mouth full, she wiped it with the back of her hands, and chugged the water to help her swallow. As the food reached her empty stomach, she felt relaxed and was able to pay attention to the eerily empty private airfield, where she had sat herself comfortably in the shadow of one of the big buildings.
"Officer Freeman."
Freeman jolted up as she was not expecting anyone soon. She coughed a few times as she almost choked.
"Lieutenant Jones, Unit 17." He showed her his ID.
"This is all, he pointed at the mini duffel bag lying on the chair next to her.
"Follow me, please." The man spoke with an accent that she hardly hears in real life, other than TV shows and movies, as her life revolves around her work and her tiny apartment.
"Yea-." She couldn't finish her sentence, as she saw the man had taken her bag and walked off, leaving her behind.
"Oh. Okay," She dashed after him.
~~~~~~~
"Wow..." Freeman opened her mouth for the first time after riding in a back of an SUV with 'Im not allowed to brief you' and gruesome silence after that, the duo who was supposedly taking her to the location did not utter a single word to each other the entire ride, looked at each other for the first time and nodded, got out and opened the door for her.
"I got it," She immediately took back the bag from the man, trying to have some control.
"Welcome to Chapel Burrow, Officer Freeman." The Lieutenant announced. "Please he gestured for her to walk ahead of him.
"Wow, this is beautiful. Freeman, who was in awe, walked to the entrance where two people stood on each side of the door, in uniforms. The mechanical entryway looked out of place for the intricate architecture of the castle."
"It's better through the main entrance." The man added.
"Wait, this is the back." Freeman, who hardly had this type of experience in real life, said.
"Oh, I apologize if you took offense to that, but since you came as a work acquaintance and not a diplomat, we had different procedures."
"No..no.."
"If you want, we can show you around later. For now, let me take you to the resting chambers."
Freeman looked around in amusement, from huge paintings on the wall to sophisticated interior design, this was like an oriental hotel in the movies for her. She slid on the marble floors with her sneakers, and she hopped back to the carpeted areas, as she feared skid marks. Her eyes fell on one devastating-looking painting.
"I read about this, about how the--"
The Lieutenant spoke over her.
"Please," he pointed to the elevator.
The steel guards of the inside were in contrast to the colourful palette of the castle, and the two stood in silence as the machine lifted to the upper floor.
The duo pauses for a bit, contemplating, as they hardly know each other.
"You can rest for now, Lord Howard himself has seen through this entire process under the guidance of his Highness." The man said his gaze was straight.
"Wait, the king of England," She followed the man who walked out as soon as the doors parted.
"No.. even though 'HIS MAJESTY the KING' is aware of the institution, he does not have jurisdiction here, as much as he has over the parliament."
"Oh, sorry, since you said, His highness, so I thought he was royal."
"Oh, he is royal, he is the distant relative of the current king."
"The side of the family that got assassinated because of their powers!"
"I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that." She immediately corrected her response.
The man stopped in his tracks and turned around to Freeman, "This is you." The man opened the door with a bleak expression on his face.
"Okay," Freeman, apologetic, pushed herself through the side.
She closed the door behind her and threw herself on the bed immediately.
*****Text message******
Guess where I'm at
The Palace..?
Close... The Chapel Burrow...
The slaughterhouse..
Yep...
Wow.. What's it like?
Welcoming, nice people, sexy accent.
(emoji) Guess I'll have to learn British now.
It's still English... (emoji)
(emoji).
******
She looked outside the window of the moving vehicle. Freeman tried to pull the window down to get a better view of the world outside the tinted glass.
"Please don't do that." The man who had been driving her for almost an hour spoke for the first time, his voice croaked with a thick accent and smoke.
"Sorry," She pressed the button as quickly as she could. Freeman, who sat in an airplane for almost 3 hours, was immediately picked up by car and was back to enjoying the beauty of the Balkans through the tinted window. But for someone who had a briefing before venturing on her first mission, she felt prepared and ready as the man drove to a location unknown to her.
She sighed in compliance, even though the only person with her won't utter a single word.
She fixed her posture to present herself better to the man whose facial expression was blank as a white cardboard; the reputation of her country was on her after all.
"Stay in the car," The man spoke for the second time, his voice stern with a hint of concern.
"We are here?" Freeman looked around at the shops on each side of the small street market through which the car was passing; she, who hadn't had time even to observe the culture or the people of the foreign nation, couldn't help but be excited.
The driver then abruptly stopped the car.
"Oh... okay." She uttered as she watched the man slam the door shut as he walked out.
The man crossed the road, walking towards the small brick house. He then opened the door to what looked like a small eatery.
Freeman had been in the car, fighting the urge to run out and grab something quick for the last 15 minutes. Even though she had strict orders, 5 minutes is not gonna change anything. Besides, when does one get to travel for free and see a new country? Just a souvenir and back, she thought.
She then saw a man flung open a door, the color of his face changed, and his eyes sunken. He threw his hands up and cursed whoever in his native tongue and furiously walked back to the car.
"Here, we go!" She prepared herself for the news, good or bad. Freeman pulled the glass down to speak to the man. "Ah-." Only for her to be cut off by the phone call from the person outside. "Okay, the news is bad, I suppose." She talked to herself.
Her eyes fell on the colourful head covering emerging behind the broad arms of a 6 ft man. Freeman immediately gestured to the man who was aggressively speaking on the phone in a language she didn't know.
The old woman was limping on her left leg. She stopped at the edge of the asphalt, refusing to cross to the other end. She turned her slightly and nodded to someone behind, the boy who, like in his late teens, came out. The young boy nervously fixed the backpack he was carrying and slowly walked up to the old lady.
The two people who were unwilling to let go of each other hugged, she pressed her forehead to his, and prayed in their native tongue. She then pushed the boy to the road.
"Hey..." the Freeman tried to stop the man who grabbed him by his shirt and threw him in the car.
The man pulled the temporary card from a dud phone, crashed it with his hands, and stepped on the phone before getting in the car.
**********
Three people drove silently on the road. Freeman moved her eyes to the mirror to watch the boy in the backseat, whose gaze was outside, hiding his wet eyes. The sunlight flickered through the gap of thick trees as the sun was going down for the day.
She rummaged in her pockets for whatever she could find and passed it to the boy.
"Here," she stretched her left arm. "It's okay," she gestured to the snack as he was hesitant.
She watched the boy chomp down on the snack, sniffling and wiping his red eyes, and smiled, also furrowing her brows at the man, trying to let him know they are at opposite ends, without saying anything; seemingly using his technique of passive aggression.
Her smile disappeared, she felt drops of liquid on the right side of her face, her gaze instantly averted to the driver, whom she now knew was dead; he had been shot. Freeman realised that with the man responsible for their safe transport hanging by a seatbelt, she had to take control of the situation.
She grabbed the occupied but unattended wheel. Which was going to be a problem, but she had a bigger issue; there was a person in the back, and her eyes quickly went to the boy. Who had caught up to the situation quicker than she thought, the car skidded around the road as the duo hung for their life.
Freeman set her gaze on the boy, trying to assure him that everything was going to be okay.
The young boy, whose eyes bulged like he had seen something, looked past her.
The person who looked like a woman had appeared in the middle of the straight road a mile ahead.
Freeman, knowing that the situation had turned dire, could only do what she was ordered to do. She grappled the wheel of the speeding vehicle with one hand and her neutralizer in the other.
She had a brief look at the person whose hands were now stretched ahead like she was asking them to stop, or rather trying to stop it herself. She could make out that it was a young woman, foreign to the land they were on. Her long hair, parted and braided, and adorned with traditional hair pieces, contrasts with the casual fit of jeans and sneakers, with a striped shirt and white tee under.
The speeding SUV slowed down on its own, and the exterior creaked like it was being crushed or pushed.
"Fucking TK," Freeman aim her device at the girl.
*******