Life is a lot different than what I thought it was going to be when I left the orphanage five years ago. I thought I would be traveling the world all at the expense of my new job. Special Agent of the CIA. I was a fresh recruit. My "skills" were wanted and needed. I am five years in and now I am part of MI6. No longer with my "home country". They changed my identity as was needed. Not the CIA and not MI6, someone much worse.
I pulled up the collar of my leather duster and pulled my scarf tighter, as I walked the lonely streets of the East End. By my guess I was wondering the same streets the Jack the Ripper plagued a life time ago. I was meeting with an old contact of mine. I quickly looked behind me before ducking down to the old tube station. I heard my footsteps echo though the long dilapidated hallway of this old stop. My head was ducked down low, trying to blend in with the other addicts that frequented this stop and mesh my footsteps with the rodents that call this home. Suddenly a gust a wind blew my coat in the wind and caused my collar to fall. The train. I quickly checked my watch and just as I thought: 12:00. That was the last train of the night heading back to Westminster.
"Addie. Look at you. So menacing with the hauntings of your past. Oh well that is me isn't." I smiled to that sweet voice, that wouldn't make anyone think she was anything but a sweet British mom. Luckily, I knew that it was fake.
"Oh, what are you going buy now? Marge? No wait wait. Mary. How is the civilian life? Boring as I thought?" I turned to face the voice that I knew so well. I could picture her without even looking. She taught me everything. She was the only family that I have ever known. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?" I bellowed out when I realized that this wasn't the woman that I left behind only three years earlier. She blonde hair cut short, and a belly that was bigger than planet. I ran over to her, forgetting all my years of training. Not to trust unless you are sure. For all I knew she called just to shut down the last memory of her past.
"Addie. I got married. And I am having a girl." I looked up into her eyes with tears in my own. She made it. She made it out. "Now enough about me. I called you here for a reason." I backed away and gained back my composure. " I have known you since day one. The CIA, to MI6, the freelance. I have always been there. I know you and I know you want out. Let me help you." I took one unsteady step backwards. There isn't away out. I learned that too late. I scanned the woman in front of me. The woman who never lied, at least to me. The woman who was basically my only family. I traced my eyes over her and tried to find some sign that she was lying to me. She was now married to a doctor. A girl, maybe twins. She's happy. There is still something that is keeping her on edge. The kind of edge that she is to familiar with. She is still working. In a different way but it is still there. Happiness. That is the overpowering thing. She is happy no matter what else she might be doing.
"A-Mary. You got out. I am not dragging you back in. You can lie and say that you have missed it, that you are board, but you know that you can't lie to me. Not me." I shook my head. No one could.
"Addison. I am the only one that knows your real name and you are the only one who knows mine. You are family, and you don't leave family behind." I pulled my coat tighter around me to with more of the cold off.
"How? Do you know who I have looking for me? The Russians. The Assassins. The Americans. And God the worst of them all, M- "
"No, sweetheart the worst of them all are dead. Both of them, brains splattered about England. You other enemies will be nothing to worry about. Come with me. Come start a new life. You might want to pick a new name though, welcome to your old one. But you can be who ever you want. You are safe." I fell into her arms as I broke down in tears. I couldn't care less if she was lying to me at this point. I needed this hope, and if it was a lie, then death was the only way out.
I sat in a chair facing a fireplace. I had composed myself and showed no signs of my earlier breakdown. To my right was a tall, and lanky man who leaned back in this chair with his hands folded in to a prayer fashion with only the tips of his fingers to his lips. I knew that he wasn't praying but to the untrained eye he could be. His eyes were focused on me. He was scanning me. Trying to figure me out, and by the vein in his temple pulsing he couldn't. I was blank, just as he was to me. I couldn't get a read on him either. To my left was a short blonde man, he was focused that of a solider and waiting for the other man to talk first. I had in my open palms a flash drive, that held my entire life. Unlike Mary, I wasn't going to let it be thrown away. I needed others to know. If I was going to have a life with these people they needed. To know. I was done with secrets.
"Okay boys say something. You are just as obnoxious silent as you are when you are talking. So start talking."
"Wait Mary. I want them to read these files first. I am not like you. I need someone to know. If they are willing to help me then they need to know who they are helping. This is my life, and I can't let is disappear. It has made me who I am today. And it'll keep them safe. If something happens they can give me up and they won't be harmed. But if they say they know nothing, then who ever has come after me will think they are lying and they will be killed…or worse. So read this. Study it. And," I stood up and left the flash drive on my chair with a blank card with a phone number on it. "call me if you still think you want to help me." I started for the door when Mary grabbed my wrist. "Mary. I am not forcing strangers to help me. They loved you before they knew. I am nothing. Call me…or don't." I started down the stairs. "Mary, I am happy for you. I am glad you got out." I gave her a kiss on the cheek good bye and left the flat. Out on the street I turned to look at the building I left. 221B Baker Street.