Darcy gritted her teeth against the pain regretting not packing pain killers that morning as she pierced her inner thigh with a piece of broken clay from the broken toilet she sat upon. She dropped the shard of clay and used her fingers to dig out the metal pill like chip that was used to track her. She leant against the cubical wall as she worked it out of the opening.
"Ah-ha!" Came her exclamation of achievement and pain. She held the chip between her teeth as she shrugged off her cardigan and used it as a make-shift bandage. She held it tighter to the wound keeping pressure on it and took big breaths through her gritted teeth. She slowly stretched out her leg testing to see if it could be used to its fullest.
"Gonna have to do." She hissed to herself. Darcy struggled to stand but once she got her footing she limped out of the cubical. She shuffled towards the women who lay dead on the tiled floor, trails of blood leaking from her nose. She dropped ungracefully to the floor, took the chip from between her teeth and shoved it into one of the women's pockets. Scooting back she winced as the movement irritated the wound. She couldn't let it bother her, her main priority know was to get out of the country in the next twenty-four hours. She heaved herself up off the ground, then bent at the knees again, grabbed the women under her armpits and dragged her over to the cubical she had recently vacated. Darcy swiped her messenger bag from the counter and headed out the door.
First stop, medic bay. Darcy took whatever she needed. Bandages, disinfectant, pain killers and rags. She wouldn't have time to stitch it up so it would most likely scar, her first one ever, that must have been a record or something.
Second stop, car park. Darcy shouldered her bag higher upon her shoulder blade. She confidently made her way over to the nearest beat up car. Covering her hand with then end of her sleeve she punched the glass. Darcy shook her fist out wincing. She grabbed the handle, reached into the car pushing down the lock button, and opened the door. She glanced around, after seeing no one she brushed the glass shards off of the black leather seat and got in closing the door. Her brows furrowed as she hotwired the car, her mind conjured a map and she dotted out the main marks, the safe place where she keeps her weapons, the bank safe that keeps her money and passports, the black market where she could get some supplies without anyone knowing and the nearest airport.
The synthetic lighting was dull, Darcy was struggling to read the newspaper in front of her with only her contacts in. She would have to pick up a new pair of specs when given the chance. Highlighters littered the bathroom counter, the newspaper graffiti on with fluoro pinks, yellows and red pen scribbled in the margins. Circle's littered the front page, inclosing the words government, Treadstone, spy network and any others like it.
"No wonder…" Darcy let the sentence drop remembering the horrific event that had led up to this point. They would be out to get her when they found the other woman dead. Darcy riffled around in her bag and pulled out a folder and her pencil case. Snatching out a pair of scissors she started to add to the clippings that were stacked and paper clipped to the grey folder. She shifted through the pile, her hands stilled over a photograph. Her fingers flittered over the man's face and the name printed on the bottom, Aaron Cross, but she had known him before that, when he was Kenneth from Reno. They had grown up in the same group home. She remembered those day clearly. No air-conditioner just paper fans and the stars. Stolen kisses and sweaty handholding. He was the reason for her career choice. He went away to war and she followed as closely as she could. She trained hard and made herself useful and it got her far. Darcy let her head drop into her hands. He would be gone now, dead like the other Operative Agents. She carefully placed the photo back into the folder. She would take Operation Outcome down by herself and at the end she would relieve herself of this eternal tiredness, this feeling of grief that would only be fulfilled by a dead man. She shoved the folder and pencil case back into her bag leaving out the scissors.
'Clip, clip…..' Darcy brushed the detached strands from his hair. She looked up and ran her fingers through her new fringe that rested just above her eyes. She shoved the scissors in the bin under the counter then made her way back out into the airports food court. Darcy made her way towards her gate.
"Manila, here I come."