"Isabella, I would like to talk to you about your training." I stood in front of Black, as in president of Black Corporation; he was a ruthless man, a man who did not let anything stand in the way of his legacy. To the public, Black Corporation was a successful, as in billionaire status stock broker company. But on the inside, we all knew the true reason for the presence of Black Corporation. We were a group that harbored secrets; secrets that if leaked out would wreak havoc across the public, the governments, and international community.
These were secrets that were buried beneath our complex government, deep within the infrastructure. For lack of better of words, Black Corporation was a group that produced the countries' best spies and assassins; it was a group that built the countries' best code crackers and hackers. We were simply the best of the best. However, to become the best of the best, it required a lot of training. For the last 2 years of my life, I had been stuck in the underground complexes of the Black Corporation headquarters in New York City. I haven't seen natural light in 2 years, nor have I heard the normal sound of traffic honks, and people chattering in 2 years. For the last 2 years I have been stuck with thirty other recruits. Training, studying, working with those same thirty recruits. However, we all knew that we weren't friends; we were all trained to never trust anyone but ourselves.
Black clasped his hands in front of him on his neat dark mahogany oak desk. His high tech office was clean and pristine, completely un hackable and un breakable. The door alone had a fingerprint scan and a retina scan. Like I said…I a trained agent would have an excruciatingly difficult time trying to break in.
"Isabella I would like to discuss with you, your future plan."
I honestly had no idea what to expect after training, they had kept that from us. Not one of the thirty recruits knew exactly what was going to happen after training, granted there were many different theories floating around. However, it still remained unclear as to where we would go after training. Most times, when someone "graduated" from recruit status they were never seen again.
I nodded my head at Black, beckoning him to continue.
He sighed, and frowned. "Isabella, we often times have graduation projects for our recruits, typically it is a kill or a mission of some sort, however we are pressed for time once again."
Black pinched his nose, and once again frowned in concentration. He continued "Therefore, I want to speed up your graduation process."
I swallowed thickly, the mystery of what was coming pressed heavily on my consciousness, "Sir, what does that entail?"
Black nodded, and then continued, "First I need to know that you are completely devoted to our mission, and that you will honor the creed and honor of our nation and live to protect our nation and harbor its secrets."
I looked him straight in the eyes and said "My drive for my mission has increased ten folds over the past year, I am ready to take on the challenge of being a guardian for our nation." He looked at me for a full 2 minutes, his gaze unwavering. We, recruits, all have heard at how intimidating Black could be, and it wasn't until this minute that I fully understood the things that Black was capable of.
"Ok, Isabella, I will send you along to Jacob for your final briefing and then he will brief about your life as an agent for Black Corporation."
Black then stood up and walked across the room, and I took that as my sign to leave. I let myself out of his office, and walked down the corridor.
Everything in the training center was a shade of either gray or white, or something in between. Color was rare; the recruiters claimed it was because color was a distraction.
I continued walking down the corridor until I neared Jacob's door. Jacob was the main recruiter here at Black Corporation. His job was to stake out the nation's most talented youth. He staked them out in many different locations, occasionally from prestigious schools, but it seemed to be that most of his recruits were "people who wouldn't be missed." People like me, who had no connection in the outer world, who wouldn't be missed if they were to one day...suddenly disappear off the face of the planet. Which was what happened to me. I was a normal teenager girl living in a small town 2 hours west of Seattle, then one day my parents were mugged. It was the kind of thing where they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, last thing I know, they were dead and I was an orphan. I was thirteen when that happened, ever since then I moved around, hopping from foster home to foster home.
Never had a friend never created relationships. I didn't need relationships, I didn't need friends I was perfectly comfortable living my own life in peace.
I reached stood in front of the metal door of Jacobs office, and raised my knuckles, posed to rap on the door, when suddenly it swung open, revealing the 6'2" tan body of Jacob. His stern face appraised me and he then said "I was wondering when you were going to come in."
I wasn't surprised that Jacob knew that I was standing outside his doors, the Black Corporation facilities were covered inch by inch with microphones, camera, motion sensors, you name it. It had everything.
Jacob swung the heavy metal door, gesturing for me to walk in.
He walked past the metal chair sitting in front of his dark mahogany desk, and then sat behind the plush leather seat behind his desk. I walked up to the desk, and sat down in the uncomfortable metal chair.
Jacob opened up a file on his desk and shuffled through numerous different papers, and then he cleared his throat.
He folded his hands once again on the desk, almost a mirror image of what Black was doing only moments before.
"Isabella, I am sure that you are aware of our situation. We are pressed for time, and we need agents fast; therefore, we will not be able to give you the normal long process of recruit to agent transition." I looked at him, my gaze unwavering, not letting in emotions out. On the outside I may have seemed like a cool collected agent, but on the inside I was jumping at joy, for finally being able to move on to the next part of my life.
Jacob then continued "Isabella, here at Black corporations there are many different pathways that one can take. I am offering you currently the pathway of an agent."
I looked at him and said "I understand" I nodded at him to continue his speech and he continued,
"The life of an agent is complex. You must always be on your toes. You will be living the front of a normal civilian. You will robotically do the actions that are expected from a normal civilian, you will make friends, you will make relationships, but this is all in the effort of keeping up your image. Your real job is to complete the assignments we give you. On a monthly basis I will check in on you to make sure you are doing your job. Now, Isabella I need you to understand, we show no mercy for agents who turn against us. You must always remember your duty, and not let the façade of your life get in the way of your reality. "Jacob then stood up and led me over to the platinum flat screen T.V. mounted on his wall. He grabbed a sleek black remote and turned on the T.V.
The first picture that showed up was the picture of a bustling street in a city that I did not recognize, upon noticing my expression Jacob continued to talk.
He gestured at the screen and said, "This is 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle." He then clicked the remote control once again, and this time it showed an image of a coffee shop with the lifestyle brand name Starbucks emblazed on the store front window. "This, is your work place, you are using your normal identity of Isabella Swan, however to the outside world you are Isabella Swan, the girl who is a barista at the Starbucks at 3rd and Pine Street and a student at University of Washington," he then clicked the remote once again, and I saw the front of a magnificent gothic like building. I gasped, and upon noticing my expression he turned to me, he looked at me sternly and said "remember this is your façade, lesson number one of being an agent is never get too attached."
He then clicked the remote one final time, and this turned the screen to the black color it once was. Jacob turned on his heels and walked back to his large mahogany desk and sat down in the leather chair. He looked at me and then continued to talk, and while doing so handing me a file. "Isabella your goal for the first few weeks will be to implement yourself in normal society; you are to learn how to function in a normal society. You are to learn to never draw unnecessary attention to yourself. As of now you have exactly three weeks until school at the University of Washington will start up for you. "He looked at me one final time and said "any questions?"
I cleared my throat and asked "When do I leave?" He looked at me and said "Tomorrow, there will be a guard in front of your door at precisely 5:00 AM, you are expected to be ready, do not take anything with you, everything will be provided for you in your new life." I nodded, thumbing my way through the thick file he had given me, it included everything from a driver licenses to bills to transcripts. He noticed me doing so and then said "Study that file, it includes everything that has happened in the last 21 years of your life." I nodded and stood up; Jacob stood up as well and walked with me the several yards that led to the metal door. He opened the door and I walked out, before closing the door Jacob cleared his throat, and I turned to him expectantly, "Remember Isabella that you are out there for a mission. " I nodded and turned my back to him. I sighed and thought about how ironic it was that I was going back to school.