Showers on April Street
One might imagine the main base of a spy agency to be a magnificent place; perhaps a large building with a big metal logo on the side, or a network of tunnels deep in a mountain cave. But the location of the Central Investigation Base was rather small, and not exciting in the least. Sometimes Patina wondered why they hadn’t moved.
Not long after she had stepped out of the school building, Patina was completely soaked. Her hair was plastered to the sides of her face, her shoes sodden and heavy, and her field of vision reduced to the sidewalk below her. The only part of her that was dry was her shirt underneath her raincoat. Had she remembered to put the hood up in time, her hair might have also survived.
Wonderful, she thought. She had walked home in the rain before. Her house was only two blocks from the school, but the rain made the distance stretch out and feel much farther. Usually, her path through the main streets was straightforward: an L-shape where she only had to cross the street once. But that day, Patina was certain there was a shorter way. Instead of walking straight down the sidewalk from her school, she crossed the intersection. A green street sign on the other side pointed towards an empty street that curved off to the left. April Street. Patina was positive it would lead to her house and she quickly started down it.
After a while, the rain started to slow down and Patina was able to see where she was. The near-empty road was a contrast to the busy intersection by her school. Stone steps led up to the big front doors of the old buildings she passed, and flower boxes and droplets of rain decorated the windows. A lamp held a dim glow inside one of them. Aside from raindrops splattering on her jacket, it was quiet. Even the sounds of cars on the main streets had faded into the background. She started to question her decision. Why didn’t she just take her normal route home?
Tall trees with wavy branches lined the sidewalk, which was becoming wider with every house she passed. Little rivers of water flowed through the cracks in the bark. It had to have been an old tree – the bark of the baby trees on some of the other streets was smooth. The buildings, she thought, are probably as old as this tree. They certainly looked like it. But not quite as old as that subway station. The sign is completely rusted and bent over halfway!
Patina stopped. She was certain the rain was not obstructing her vision, a subway station was clearly there, in the middle of the sidewalk. Or what was left of it. There were no doors or walls, just an overhang over a stairway into the ground. The concrete steps were cracked, and pieces were missing. Water dripped off the rusty metal railings.
A piece of yellow tape attached to the railing fluttered in the wind, about six inches long. She walked closer and looked down the steps. It seemed rather dark down there, but hopefully dry. If she just went down a couple steps she would be under the overhang, shielded from the rain.
Carefully, she placed her foot on the first crumbling step. It didn’t collapse. She descended about halfway down the steps until she was safely under the roof. Finally, the rain ceased to fall on her.
I’ll just wait here for a few minutes, to get out of the rain. Her thoughts echoed around the vacant stairwell as the smell of mildew filled the air. She stood there for a moment, her weight shifting from one foot to the other. Looking down, she saw that her sneakers were soaked through and muddy on the edges. Her grandmother had gone to the store with Patina and bought them not long ago. She must be wondering where I am now, Patina thought. She wished even more that she had just taken her normal route. Every time, she followed her curiosity. And every time, she wished she had turned back.
Patina looked outside. Still raining hard. A map would be very helpful, and there could be one inside.
She crept down the stairs. From her new angle she could see a gate and a card scanner, past that an empty platform lined with dark channels on either side.
It was both lucky and unlucky that she could see that far in the dark.
The stillness of the station made Patina’s next step careful and quiet. There were no other sounds besides the steady splash of water dripping from the ceiling into a puddle below, and the air around her was still and cold. She reached the card scanner gate, about ten feet away from the entrance. A little red light was glowing on the top. She looked up and counted at least five tiny blinking red lights on the walls and the ceiling.
Patina stopped walking.
There shouldn’t even be electricity still running in here, she thought. The silence and musty air pressed against her. A shiver went through her body - down her back, out to her fingertips and through to her feet, sending her walking as quickly as she could to the stairs. She didn’t see any maps anyway. The steady hum of the rain persisted as her heartbeat rang in her ears. Her eyes were wide open now, her ears ready to pick up every sound.
Which was why she saw the faint glow on the wall as she walked past.
At first she wondered why she hadn’t noticed it on the way in, but the answer quickly became clear - it was a door, slightly ajar, with the hinges facing the stairs. It was the same gray as the cement wall, and had it been closed, Patina would have walked right past it. She almost wished she did. The door was open just enough for Patina to see a polished wood floor and newly painted walls. That fact, compared with the rest of the station, was what made Patina stop walking to more closely observe the door.
Carefully, she reached out and opened the door wider. It did not creak, in fact, it opened so silently Patina wondered if she had been listening properly. But that didn’t make sense. She would have picked up the sound.
Immediately, she was hit with the smell of wet paint. This paint was red, and it lined a short, narrow hallway to another door, closed. A roll of blue painter’s tape lay next to a box fan on the ground, blowing silently. Just above, a small sign was posted on the wall. LOBBY, it read. Holding the door open behind her, she slowly stepped up onto the wood floors - which like the door, did not creak. As she held the first door open she could see that it also had a sign - EXIT.
Patina was in the middle of questioning why there would be a lobby in a subway station when the door opened. A girl who looked to be about 18 or 19 stepped out. She had dark skin and wavy hair that fell to her shoulders. A striped blue cardigan on tall shoulders fell over her cream shirt and black pants. In her hand, she held a flashlight.
Patina froze, her hand still on the door behind her. I’m not supposed to be here, she thought. What do I do?
The girl noticed Patina. A spark of alarm went through her eyes, but quickly disappeared. “Are you lost?” she asked.
Should I just run? Or actually, I am lost.
“Yes, and I was just leaving. I was actually looking for a map, but anyways, I’m leaving. Sorry to bother you,” she said quickly, and stepped towards the stairs.
“Oh! Well, don’t go that way,” the girl said behind her. Patina stopped and turned around. If she had just moved faster, she would have been up the stairs and out of there. Or if she had never gone down the stairs in the first place, or taken this street at all.
The girl was already opening the other door, next to the sign that said LOBBY. Patina was surprised to find there were many people moving in the room beyond. Some walked by, others stood in groups.
“If you went that way, you’d trip over something in the dark. I always have to bring a flashlight when I check the cameras, cause there’s no lights. And of course, someone might see you walking out,” she went on.
“Oh,” was all Patina could say, still trying to understand exactly what she was talking about. She also felt a little like she was being scolded.
The girl saw Patina’s face. “Oh, don’t worry about it! Everything looks the same here anyway. I’ll show you to the exit.” She walked through the door, and Patina hesitantly followed.
The LOBBY was an interesting place. Tables and chairs were set out, and people worked at computers, often eating lunch while doing so. Just around the corner there was a small kitchen. A large TV sat within one of the walls, an extensive chart on its screen. Patina noticed the things in a few of the columns: people’s names, and different places. In the very last column, there was a colored square: green, yellow, or red.
But perhaps the most intriguing thing was the back wall. It was painted a bright strawberry red and large silver letters read across the top. CENTRAL INVESTIGATION BASE.
This topped everything that Patina had found strange that afternoon and gave her a prickly feeling that said she was definitely not supposed to be here.
They walked across the room. Directly ahead of them was a hallway with doors on either side. There was another hallway to the left that led to a stairwell going up. EXIT.
“Is this an office or something?” Patina asked.
A weird look passed over the girl’s face. “No, this is just like the main area. The lobby.” She stopped walking. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Patina.” Those letters on the wall. “What’s your name?” And the blinking red dots - they’re cameras.
“I’m Amalia. This way,” she said and took a hard right through an open door in the hallway in front of them. Patina glanced at the stairs to her left but followed. How far away was this mystery exit?
The room she walked into was definitely not an exit. An entire wall was covered in little screens showing what was apparently every room in the building, if you could call it that. Some appeared to show the inside of a safe. Each screen had a little lightbulb at the top. Only one was glowing red. Patina looked closely at the screen. It was of the very room they were in. Three people were in the room, including Amalia, and all of them, she now realized, had a watch on their wrists. Red lights on every watch pulsed in sync.
Amalia turned to face Patina. Her cheerful demeanor had slipped off her face. It was now replaced with a look of suspicion. And fear.
“Do you know where you are?” she asked. Her watch continued to silently blink, piercing Patina’s vision.
Patina slowly shook her head, the prickly feeling rising in her chest. She whipped around to the door and threw it open, ready to bolt. But she was stopped once again.
A middle-aged man wearing a business suit filled the doorway. If Amalia was tall, this man was a giant. He had pale skin and ice gray eyes that flickered as he saw Patina.
“What is going on here?” he asked. His voice was narrow and sharp.
Amalia straightened. “Patina here seems to have wandered into the entrance to the base. And I let her in. But that was before…” She took a breath. “I didn’t know she was an outsider.”
“An outsider,” the man said to himself. “That explains all the alarms.” He walked over to the control panel next to the wall of computer screens and flipped a switch. The red lights blinked off. He turned to Patina.
“Well, since you found our base, would you like to become a member?” he asked.
“A member?” Patina repeated. Thoughts swam like puzzle pieces through her mind, and she flashed back to the silver letters. CENTRAL INVESTIGATION BASE. It made sense. A hidden underground base, accessible only by the abandoned entrance to a subway station, and wherever the other exit was. But why would they want Patina to join?
“An agent, rather,” the man continued. “But you’d have to go through training, of course.”
“We haven’t run through the security test yet,” Amalia said slowly.
A secret spy base. I found a secret spy base. And they want me to join. Has it been here all this time? Patina looked up, and saw everyone in the room looking at her, waiting for an answer.
“How about this,” the man said, ignoring Amalia. “If you decide to join, come back here at 2:30 PM tomorrow. If not, take care not to mention us to anyone, if you can. You have shown great ability in discovering our base that we have kept hidden here for years, and it is only rational for you to become a secret agent here.”
“You’re just letting her go?”
“It’s been great meeting you,” the man cut in.
Patina didn’t wait any longer. Without saying anything, she ran out the door, into the hallway, and up the stairs marked EXIT. Voices traveled up the stairs after her.
“She did find the base,” the man said.
“How do we know she’s trustworthy?”
“She’s trustworthy. And tomorrow afternoon, when she returns, you will be the one to train her. Now. I must be getting back to more important things. I will see you tomorrow.” Footsteps echoed and faded.
At the top of three flights of stairs, Patina pushed open what appeared to be a rotating piece of the wall about three feet wide. She stepped out into the living room of an apartment, complete with a couch, a chair, and a TV. The only light on was the lamp next to the window, where sun was finally starting to come through. The rainstorm was over. Patina hurried out of the apartment, down the stairs, and out of the building. She walked briskly down April Street until it intersected with her own street and let out a breath.
Back at the base, Amalia stood in the hallway, thinking back. The flash that went through Boss’s eyes when he saw Patina, she now knew what it was. Recognition.
