Disclaimer: All credit is given where credit is due. Un-original characters belong to those who created them and not to me. Thanks!
** For my Husband, and my hero. I love you with all that I am and miss you so much. Thank you for fighting for us**
Prologue
Los Angeles, California.
The sun was just setting over his building as he flipped through the papers, annoyed, as usual, to be degraded into doing this part of the job. It was the part that took the longest, and the most patience, as he read through every extensive file and scrutinized even the most minute detail. In this profession, life and death were in the details.
Bach played quietly in the background of the dimly lit room as he crumpled yet another piece of paper and threw it on the ground. Frustration wouldn't even begin to describe it. He had been at it for days and still couldn't seem to find one file that would be the right fit. In the past, he might not have given so much thought to it. But this time would be different because this file would be his, exclusively, to manage. The company was putting him back in the game.
He glanced across the mahogany desk at the other stack of perfectly aligned file folders, the pile he had desperately been avoiding. But time was running out and he was getting nervous. They would be expecting an answer by morning
He picked up the first file under the tab he had labeled " Female" and read the name . " Sarah James. Twenty two years old, graduate student of Infectious Disease at UCLA. He continued to read noting the extensive background in biochemical warfare and bioterrorism tactics. He scanned the rest of the paper as his interest peaked only to be let down after skimming the personal section and discovering she had living family. He tried to keep his anger in check as he threw yet another piece of paper onto the now growing pile on the floor. He didn't understand while files such as those even made it to his desk. With family present in a recruit's life there would be too much of a mess to clean up, too many questions asked.
He briefly considered telling the company he wouldn't be working at all until they found him an acceptable file but his eyes roamed onto the next file and locked onto one sentence. " Orphaned at 17". He quickly reviewed the rest of the paper and became more intrigued as he read the resume which had been unknowingly prepared for her. It seemed she was in the same graduate program as Miss James but was slightly superior in her in grades. She was exactly what he had been looking for. Quiet, exceedingly studious and always excelled high above the curve. She had no family, no boyfriend… no one to miss her when she inevitably disappeared.
He turned the paper over and looked at her picture. She was beautiful to say the least, but that didn't matter. He was a professional and had a job to complete. His eyes sought the name as he exhaled in relief. Christine Darcy. He had found his recruit.