CIA Tip #1: Don't just assume, go and actually do some research.
His fingers tapped steadily while looking at my passport, as if searching for any suspicions in the thin navy blue book. He picked up a gray stamp and flipped over to an empty page with an opaque picture of the Vietnamese president. A click sound followed after the press of the stamp. He handed it back to me, a bright red stamp on the pale blue page.
"Here you go miss. Thank you and have a good night," he said. The tone in his voice was neither warming nor cold.
"Thank you," I answered, putting my passport back into my maroon-colored messenger bag.
I entered into the vast baggage claim area. The area was empty except for one or two families waiting there, their voices chattering quietly in Vietnamese. I recognized the families immediately; they were from my flight. A harsh loud beep interrupted the soft chatter among the families. Time to go pick up my luggage.
"So how was the flight Liên?" Agent Alfred Jones asked. I was staying at Alfred's house during my cover as the student Tong Xie (謝彤), along with his younger sister Amelia.
"Ah, it wasn't too bad. The food was okay, I mean at least you can stomach it. No babies on board, so I slept quite well on the airplane. By the way, thanks for picking me up," I said.
"No problem! Where do you want to go eat?" Alfred asked, his turquoise eyes twinkling in the night. It was seven thirty, which passed my dinner time. Although I ate before landing, I could have a simple meal.
I took out my tour guide, which I bought from a bookstore in Saigon. "Let me see, restaurants and cafes…" My finger traced down the Table of Contents page, but it was hard to see because it was dark. Pale yellow lights kept on coming and going, which didn't help much either.
Alfred laughed at me. "Hey! Don't you remember? I've been to New York so many times I know everything about it from Grand Central Park to the best dry cleaners! Do you want to eat McDonalds? Pho? Italian food?"
"I don't really care. I think I'll have Italian food." I read in tour guide that New York has a lot of Italians. Might as well try some authentic Italian food.
"Alright! Italian food it is!" Alfred exclaimed. "By the way, can you call Amelia? Tell her we're eating at Scalini Fedeli." He fished out his phone from the back of his pocket.
While handing me his phone, a yellow light flashed into my eyes. The light was coming from a blue Chevy. The Chevy began to switch lanes, even though it was close to us. Weird.
However, my weird thoughts melted away as soon as the blue Chevy steered towards our car, and proceeded to crash into us.
"Alfred look out!" I screamed. He steered to the right, the car missing us by an inch.
"The heck was that for?" Alfred swore at the car, which already disappeared by the time we recovered.
"I don't know. Maybe it was a drunk driver or something," I said. Calm down Liên Thi Nguyen, it's just a crazy driver.