Preface
Day: June 28th, 2018.
Time: 2:00 A.M.
Destination: Headquarters, New York, New York.
~~ Karter ~~
My superior, Max Nichols or Director Nichols as we agents called him, called me at one thirty in the morning to meet in his office. I sighed and went to meet. As an FBI agent I was used to getting very little sleep and working odd hours, I didn't exactly have a desk job. And Director Nichols reminded me of this as he set me on a new case.
"SA (special agent) Harland, I'm sorry to call you in at this time but we have a sensitive case and, to be honest you're my most reliable agent and you're who I want on this." I was honored to hear his words. Director Nichols had been with the FBI as long as I've been alive. He was a very important man and very honored. He never said a word he didn't mean.
"Thank you director." I gave a polite smile and nod. There was no time to stand on ceremony, he said this case was sensitive. So in other words it was probably dangerous. "What's my assignment?" He smiled, he likes that it was always business with me.
"Mathias Deimos. I'm sure you've heard of him, you worked the force for a few years before transferring here. He's ... Quite popular with law enforcement." Director Nichols chuckled and I have a smile to acknowledge his joke.
"I have, Mafia member. Young for his involvement with the family if I remember correctly." Director Nichols nodded and handed me a rather thick folder on Deimos.
"He's been upgraded to Boss. Even more notorious than his father. He's ruthless and we have him as the main suspect on more than a handful of murders and other crimes. He is young to be a boss, thirty. They want him taken down." When Director Nichols says 'they' he means his bosses, the head of the FBI. People who's names I'm not even cleared to know.
"Time?" I asked as I flipped through the pages of the folder he gave me.
"Five." Was all he said and I looked up at him like he was insane. Five years? They wanted me, a sole agent, to take down a Mafia Boss in five years? I blinked and slammed the folder shut laying it on his desk.
"I can't do that Director. I'm one woman. And if I dedicate five years to Deimos that would be more than half my FBI career, I've not been here a full three years as it is." When I was eighteen I worked my ass off in academy and graduated early to join the police force at nineteen. I worked as a civilian cop for two years before being moved to swat. I worked swat not even a year before transferring to the FBI. Now at twenty four I have been with the FBI for a little more than two years. I started at the bottom like anyone else. A regular agent. I became a special agent after a particularly risky mission, all special agents had been deployed and I had been there on accident. I saved the lives of four agents and shielded a civilian taking a bullet in the back. After that I was given a medal for my bravery, jumping into action when I was on civilian time with no armor and for saving five lives. I've been thanked so many times by so many people for that day, but all I could see was the first responder that got shot in the head because I was too slow. The woman that tried to escape and was stabbed to death...
"Sir, I know I get sent on a lot of tricky missions after that day, but I don't think I'm the woman for this." Director Nichols nodded and smiled.
"Agent Harland, they told me they wanted Agent Marks on the case. And I respectfully declined to assign him. In favor of you. You may not think that you're the agent for the case, but I know you are. You've put your life on the line many times since joining the civilian force to save strangers. And I know this is different than your usual case, you've never been assigned to anything long term. But I think, if you take this case, you'll figure everything out. About the target, and about your job and yourself. Long term cases ravage many agents. And some go dark, some go native. But I think I can rely on you to stay true to the FBI, and to bring this case home." He looked me in the eyes and handed me the folder back. I thought for a minute before taking it.
"I won't let you down sir." He simply nodded and I went home to look over the file. Deimos, if I was going to catch him, I needed to get into his mind. I wasn't going to get him thinking like myself.
~~ Time Jump ~~
Twelve months. Three hundred sixty five days. One year. That's how long I had been chasing Deimos. A fifth of the time I was given to take him down gone and I had no contact. I groaned falling on my couch.
"Well you certainly aren't going to find Deimos laying there." My best friend and fellow agent Derek Marks commented as he stood in the door of my apartment. I sat up to glare at him. He laughed. He was originally supposed to be on the Deimos vase and not me. At first he seemed butter but over the past year as I worked my ass off and got nowhere he seemed to realise he wouldn't have wanted this case anyways.
"You need to take your mind off of Deimos. So I set you up on a blind date. His name is Noah and... You have to be at the restaurant in oh... An hour." He smiled and I bolted up right. And threw a pillow at him.
"Why Derek?" I pouted and stood up starting to strip off my clothing to go get ready. I had already showered and changed into PJs. Derek was... Less than interested in my naked body so I felt comfortable with him. And I knew I had a pretty good body. Athletically toned from work with decent assets. And a light brown skin from my natively Hawaiian rather and mixed mother. My parents met when my mom was on vacation to Hawaii. They told me it was love first site and when they found out my mom was pregnant less than a year later, they immediately got married. Before my mom had me my dad got a job offer here in New York. He accepted and I was born a month early the day they arrived in the state. My dad said it was a sign that they were meant to be here. My black hair was long and curly but I had deep blue eyes my mom told me looked like the oceans around Hawaii, my dad always would say 'The water wishes it could shine so beautiful'.
"Because you've been obsessing with Deimos for a year. You need to ... Take a step back. Breath and look at the case in like a day or two with fresh eyes." He encouraged me to take a little me time following me into my bedroom and looking at my clothes. "Ugh, you dress like such an old maid. You've got an amazing body, any straight guy would love to pounce, I can't believe the showiest thing you have is this green dress." He pouted and pulled it out for me to wear. That dress he considered too conservative was a plunge next that went down to the navel with a diamond encrusted neckline. It was a mermaid tail meaning it clung to my body all the way down to my calves where it poofed out like mermaid fins.
"Honey, if I had anything showier than this I'd be almost naked." I rolled my eyes but slipped into it anyways.
"I'm sure you'd find Deimos then." He winked and I threw a shoe at his head. He caught it and tossed it.
"This is totally the wrong color for that dress." He shook his head in disapproval and I burst out laughing.
