A storm coming from the East (1)
*Twelve hours before the storm*
The plane had just landed in Paris, and she was walking through the Charles de Gaulle airport. The agency sent her after their sensors had recorded anomalies in the energy waves in northern France.
She had to check what kind of event or creature it was and solve it before it turned into something dangerous.
Her missions weren't any more detailed, and she had to guess what their aim was most of the time. She hated the way the agency handled her cases, but that one would be the last. She was going to be free very, very soon.
«Case number one hundred, Vera,» she heard from the side.
Ethan Becket, the one handling the case, appeared out of nowhere.
«Why are you here?» she inquired.
He was in his early thirties and had been in the agency for a long while. Among his first cases, there was one with a young witch discovering her powers for the first time.
He had grown attached to her during the years, and he almost felt nostalgic when he thought she would leave soon.
«Your last case. You quickly finish this, and you're free.»
He beamed, thinking of all the things she could do with the check the agency had promised and her best years ahead. As a twenty-three-year-old woman, she must have had big dreams.
He didn't seem too bothered to answer her inquiries, however.
«I asked: what are you doing here.» She repeated herself.
«The agency sent me. Seems like a tough job. They haven't yet identified the threat. The energy is moving from the east to the west, carrying heavy storms. Not far from here, there have been some incidents with trees and street lights.»
«Not in Paris,» she said. How could she miss something dangerous so close to her?
«No, in Maux. It's a city forty kilometres from here.»
«To the east, right?» she said, tapping on her chin. «A storm, coming from the east... I think I know what it might be.»
«And?»
«We can't stop it,» she said. «I can't deal with a messenger of the gods. But it might be a good idea to hear what she has to say.»
She turned on her heels and reached the exit. Ethan trailed after her, shaking his head. Just like usual, that brat had no intention of sharing her information with him. Not yet, at least. In ten years, he had learned to wait for the right moment to ask.
She had her theory, and she needed to confirm it before telling him everything about the creature they had to catch that day.
«I've always wanted to come to Paris,» he said. «Too bad it's with a kid like you instead of a lady to share my time with...»
«You're ten years older than me, Ethan. Don't act so mature.»
«You could be my daughter!»
«I couldn't. You were eleven when I was born.»
«Well, true. But I feel like a father... A mentor, somehow. Don't you feel the same towards me?»
«Should I?» she asked. «I don't feel anything, Ethan. You're just one of those keeping me working for the agency. I'm grateful for the conditions you negotiated for me, I really am... But I wasn't supposed to get caught in the first place.»
«You would have grown up alone, Vera. Isn't it better like this?»
«I would have been just fine. Also, it's not like the agency did much for me. You forced me to attend schools far from home and help you with so many different cases... I can barely remember some of them. I haven't finished university yet, and I already have a hundred behind my back. I'm so relieved it's almost over. And I won't miss the agency, believe me!»
«What will you do?»
«I'll do absolutely nothing for a long time. Until my arms fall from boredom. I'll lie in bed for thirty days straight, and then I'll get out and live the life of any my colleague at school. I'll be a normal person, look for a job to survive in the expensive city you placed me into.»
«A job? Like what?»
«I don't know... Whatever suits me. It's not like I can pick. Ten years with the agency can't just be written in the CV. Everything I've done is a secret, after all.»
«You can sign another contract. A job offer, this time,» he tried.
«No.»
She didn't add anything else and opened the door of the closest taxi. She talked in English with the driver and, seeing he didn't understand, she sighed and turned to Italian. It was easier, and the driver seemed to understand a little more.
«What's wrong with you?» Ethan asked when he heard how she mangled some words.
«I'm trying to sound more French,» she said, shrugging.
«That's not how languages work.»
«You don't say,» she rebuked, sitting next to the driver and leaving the back seat for Ethan. She had the bad habit of sitting in the front seat when taking a taxi. «But we understand each other, Ethan. That's the whole point of having languages.»
She smiled at the driver, preparing a fifty euro banknote. Taxis in Paris were hella expensive. But, paying with cash, she could agree on a lower price. The taxi driver wouldn't declare the ride for taxes, and they both would spare some money.
«Do you realise who you are right now? You're on duty, Vera. You should protect the law, not help other people break it.»
«It's a fifty euros ride, Ethan. Relax. Also, it's not like it makes any sense for me to pay taxes. Those are where my salary comes from. It would be a circle if I paid them.»
Ethan sighed, dejected. If only she wasn't their best agent, he wouldn't be able to look through his fingers when she played such tricks.
*Let me know what you think of this story through the comments! Thanks!*