The Story of Emily Goode
Prologue
"I have to go now, baby. Mommy has to go do her job." Emily said this to 7-year-old Zach as she hugged him tightly. She didn't want to leave her baby, but she had no choice.
"Don't go, Mamma. You can't leave me. I don't want you to go." Zach had been saying stuff like this for the past three hours. Emily looked at her watch over Zach's shoulder. 11:02 P.M. She had to be at the office at 11:30 sharp.
"Zachary, look at me." He looked up at her, his tear-stained face blotchy and red. "I will never leave you, baby, never. No matter what happens, I'll always be with you," she touched his heart, "right here."
Zach's green eyes grew wide as he looked into his mothers beautiful face and saw a tear slide now her cheek. He had never seen Emily cry before, not ever. He reached out a small finger and brushed the tear off Emily's cheek, making her laugh and smile. She hugged her baby once more before slowly getting up from her crouched position. Emily asked, "Will you be okay here for about ten minutes until Grant comes?"
Zach nodded his head vigorously. "I can take care of myself, Mamma. I'm not six anymore."
"Okay, baby. Whatever you say." Emily walked to the door and put her hand on the doorknob. As she opened the door, she turned around. "Oh, and Zach?"
Zach had turned on the T.V. and was watching cartoons. He turned around. "Yeah, Mamma?"
"I will come back, baby. I promise." Zach smiled and turned back around without saying anything. As Emily closed and locked the door, she took out her cell phone and made a call. On the second ring, someone picked up. "Sarah Newman speaking."
"Sar? It's Emily."
"Oh, hey, Em. Me and Grant are, like, 4 minutes away. Um, three minutes, 17 seconds to be exact." Emily smiled. It was just like Sarah to know the exact amount of time it took to get to Emily's house. She'd always had a knack for that.
"Okay, he's watching cartoons right now, and I'm in my driveway. I gotta be at the office by 11:30, and it's already…" Emily tried to read her watch in the dark.
"11:17," Sarah supplied.
"Right."
"Okay, Em, just call me when you're done with the mission. Oh, and say hi to Chris for me."
"I will, Sarah. Love you."
"Love you, too, Em." With that, the line went dead. Emily and Sarah never said goodbye to eachother because, when you're a spy, you never want to make the risk of dying seem even more real than it already is.
It took exactly four minutes, 23 seconds for Emily to get to the office. She walked in, put in the code to shut off the laser beam, said her name, waited as the tracer read her handprint and her eyes, and proceeded into the director's waiting room. As she walked in, everyone's heads went up and stared at her. To Emily, though, only one person in that room mattered. She went and sat next to him. Staring blankly ahead, she said, "Long time, no see, Chris."
"Hi, Emily."
"How've you been?"
"Good." After an awkward silence, he said, "I have a daughter, you know. She's seven." He took out a picture of her from his pocket and showed it to Emily.
Emily studied the picture for a while. "She's adorable, Chris. And she has your eyes. What's her name?"
"Cameron Ann. Everyone just calls her Cammie, though."
"Cute name. I have a boy who's seven, too." She pulled out her phone to show Chris Zach's picture. "His name's Zach."
Chris looked at the picture. "He has your smile," he said. Then he looked at Emily. "He's pretty handsome looking for a seven-year-old." Chris said jokingly. "You better keep him away from my daughter."
Emily laughed. "Please, the chances of them meeting would be one in a million. Probably larger if your wife has anything to do with it." Emily had meant to say it jokingly, but somehow she couldn't keep a small hint of bitterness from her voice when she said that last part about his wife.
Of course he picked up on it. "Emily, I-"
"Stop, Chris. It doesn't matter. That was a long time ago."
"Still," he said. "I'm sorry how that all went down. I didn't want to end it like that."
Emily smiled at him. "That's okay," she said. "The look on Rachel's face when you told her I was your partner for this mission would've been enough."
Chris's face turned a slight shade of pink. "Well, actually…"
"YOU DIDN'T TELL HER?" Emily whispered yelled. She punched him lightly on the arm. "That just takes all the fun out of it."
His face still red, Chris said, "Yeah, well I didn't what her to be mad or do anything rash, so-"
Just then, a message played from the intercom above the director's door. "Emily Goode and Christopher Morgan, the director will see you now."
The two got up and entered the office. They received their assignments and left the office together. They talked about old times and old friends, new adventures, and new commitments. It was while they were talking about Cammie and Zach that Emily realized something about the promise she had made to Zach. She had said that she would come back because she was trying to assure him. Now Emily realized that she was really trying to assure herself.
But nine months and 23 days later, as she cradled Christopher Morgan's cold, lifeless body in her arms, locked in a small room in some foreign country with no chance of escaping, Emily Goode could not even convince herself that she would ever see her baby again.
