Emily is a trained secret agent and she has been hired by top government secret service MI5. It is her first break into the profession, and she doesn't want to mess it up. She is introduced to the force and thrown in at the deep end with dangerous missions, fast cars and raging relationships.
Emily was a complex character. She liked many things in life, which ranged from racing motorbikes at breakneck speed, to sitting curled up in an armchair with a good Jane Austen Novel. It just depended on what type of mood she was in and what events had occurred throughout the day. As it happens, today, Emily wanted to do something to push herself to the limit. She looked down over the edge of the craggy surface of the cliff she was currently stood on, and took a deep breath. She could already feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she inhaled the crisp, sea air. She tried to repress the rising fear, tearing at her lungs like a silent monster. She slowly stripped out of the loose shirt she was wearing over her wetsuit and dropped it on the floor next to her. With a brief glance around herself and another deep breath, she hurled herself off the edge of the cliff and dived into an unknown oblivion.
The numbing cold hit her before she could register anything else. It felt like she was being stabbed by thousands of icy needles. As she penetrated deeper and deeper into the ocean, she felt the pressure building in her ears and beneath her eyes. Despite all this, she shivered with the pleasure of the endorphins exploding through her bloodstream and the serotonin accumulating in her brain. She would never tire of the sensation. It was one of her secret pleasures, the serenity of just her, and the silent depths of the sea. When her lungs started to strain from lack of oxygen, she smoothly contorted her body underwater and kicked her powerful legs underneath her to make her way to the surface.
When her head broke the surface she let out an exuberant cry. She had just broken her personal record of cliff diving and had succeeded at achieving a 150ft dive. Extreme sports had always been her calling; it was what motivated her to become a secret agent in the first place. Extreme sports were the entry point into an extreme life, and that suited Emily Fitch just fine.
She swam her way over to the beach and rested on the outcrop of rocks for a while, a moment for reflection. It was 5.00am in the morning and it was barely light, dawn was just breaking in fact. Emily had taken a huge risk diving alone, but that just all adds to the excitement. In her mind, the human body was a work of art and a tool at the same time. It was art in the sense that you can sculpt it and alter it to the extent that you can become entirely happy with it, whether that be countless hours at the gym getting the perfect biceps or the perfect thighs, or whether you take a trip to the surgeon and go under the knife to just smooth out those wrinkles that have started to appear. The human body was also a powerful tool, it is designed to cope with great amounts of stress, and adapt to the most awkward situations. It is a tool to help you actually live your life to the maximum, and not for you to waste away on a sofa in front of the television. One thing Emily couldn't stand were people who took their bodies for granted, the people who were bone idle and let themselves deteriorate to the extent where they became unhealthily obese, or drank themselves to death, or smoked, and injected themselves with the latest drugs.
According to her background health check, Emily was in top condition. Apart from the odd bruise from where she had miscalculated a kick in her martial arts class, there was nothing physically, mentally or socially wrong with her. She was the vision of perfect health. That is one of the good things about having a gym owner as a Dad; he drilled it into her that exercise is one of the most important things in the daily routine. 'A scare a day keeps the doctor away' was her motto. It had worked for her well so far, she was 21 years old and aside from the chicken pox, she had never been ill in her life.
She stood up from her spot on the rocks and wiped off the loose gravel from her wetsuit. The sun was starting to rise properly now and Emily had to be at Head Quarters by 7.00am sharp. Lateness was simply not tolerated, especially on her first day on the job. She stretched and set off at a steady jog along the beach, towards the winding, rocky trail that led her all the way back up to the top of the cliff. She estimated it was about 5 miles of uphill stretch to get back, but she just smiled to herself and welcomed the challenge as she started climbing at the base of the hill. Another of Emily's secret pleasures was exercise; she found it as refreshing as a cold shower on a hot sticky day. Every morning without fail, Emily would religiously find new and exciting ways to test herself and see if she could excel. Long, uphill, mountainous treks were a treat to her.
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The metallic sliding elevator doors pinged open and revealed the interior of the Head Quarters. Emily stepped through the threshold and looked up at the large clock which dominated the atrium just in time to see it change to 7.00am. She couldn't help but smile at her perfect punctuality as she saw Doug, the Chief Head of this HQ location walking towards me with his hand outstretched.
"Ah Emily" He took my hand and shook it. "Right on time, please follow me."
Doug was essentially the boss of this place, though he did have a few superiors situated in other parts of the country, but they rarely visited. Emily had heard rumours of the dreaded Harriet, head of MI5 and a fearsome thing to behold.
When Emily had come to be interviewed for the position of secret agent, Doug had been the one who had met her, briefed her, interviewed her and hired her. When thinking of the word 'interview' the first thing that springs to mind is an office meeting with a few questions asked and maybe an hour or two of practical demonstration. At MI5 it consisted of a gruelling fitness test, which was a 10 mile long assault course and a 3 day hike through the Himalayas with nothing but a tent, powdered food provisions and a compass. The job also required you to have a thorough knowledge of the arts, which included the ability to play a musical instrument and to be a believable actress, just in case you need it for undercover work. You also need knowledge in cultural issues and fluency in English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese. It was also required that you are skilled in the martial arts and have previous experience with handling a gun. Emily had passed the fitness tests with flying colours, but was penalised for coming back with minor frost bit. As for the other things, she had the gift of being extremely intelligent, and had the ability to be able to learn and memorise languages extremely well. From the age of 6 years old Emily had been having lessons in martial arts and had far excelled the grade of black belt. She had clear cut focus and could fend off an attack from at least 4 people. This, along with a flourishing talent in music, dancing and acting had made her a very strong candidate for the job, though Doug had admitted that he had 'fallen in love with her charming personality'.
"Now the Emily, we need to get you quickly equipped and briefed about the current investigation we are working on. I am going to gather you and the other agents in the Star Chamber in about an hour." He was walking briskly in towards the heart of the building and Emily found she had to increase her pace to keep up with him.
"What's the Star Chamber?" She asked.
"It's the place where I give everybody their briefings. It's only called that because it has stars on the ceiling, Henry VII of England had his very own star chamber to handle his finances and he found that..." He stopped himself and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry I appear to have gone off on a tangent."
Emily liked Doug. He was so warm and friendly for somebody who was supposed to be a hardened government official. His welsh accent gave him character and seemed to suit him. He ran his hands through his ginger hair and came to an abrupt halt in front of a set of steel reinforced doors; Emily almost collided with him and quickly dodged around him to avoid that from happening.
"This is the gadgets room" he said, indicating to the doors.
Emily looked in disbelief. "I thought gadget rooms in the secret service were just stereotypes" She stated.
Doug laughed and leaned forward to put his hand into a special fingerprint sensor. He then lowered his head so it could scan his iris. It seemed to Emily that the HQ of MI5 was exactly as it was portrayed on the James Bond movies. The metallic doors slid open silently and smoothly to allow them access. Beyond the doors was a network of steely, artificial tunnels leading further downwards underground. The HQ was in an underground secret location in London, much like the ministry of magic in Harry Potter. Above ground, it posed as a regular post office in an insignificant side street of London. If somebody came by and wanted some letters posting, by all means they would be posted, but little did they know those letters would be posted by official government employees that are trained to keep the location and existence of MI5 secret.
Emily and Doug had walked quite a distance through the eerie corridors when eventually the mild blasphemy of a man could be heard echoing through the corridors.
"Bobbins... oh Shitification!"
We turned a corner to see a large clearing area filled with the clutter of all sorts of wonderful gadgets and objects. Old car parts were scattered around along with springs, scrap bits of metal, guns, gun holsters, knives, socks, clocks and numerous other random objects.
"Emily, this is JJ. JJ, this is Emily our newest member to the team." Doug introduced us.
JJ popped up seemingly from a pile of rubble with a screw driver in one hand and a toaster in the other. "Emily! Jeremiah Jones at your service, pleased to meet you." He threw the screw driver down and extended a hand for Emily to shake, which she did.
"Pleasure" She replied with a genuine smile. She noticed that JJ was wearing a watch on each of his wrists.
"JJ I want you to show Emily the weapons I asked you to put together for her a few weeks ago." Doug asked.
"Of course Doug, anything you say." JJ replied.
"Right then" Doug nodded and rolled backwards and forwards on the balls of his feet like he wanted to say something else. "I shall leave you two to it; I need to get back up there and round everybody up. I shall see you both in the Star Chamber in precisely an hour at 8.10am."
"Sounds good Doug" Emily said. Doug smiled at her and then turned and made his way back through to tunnels back to HQ.
"Would you like to follow me?" JJ had bent into a bow and waved his arms in the direction he wished Emily to go. Emily smiled at chivalry.
"Why thank you my good sir" She joked. JJ just blinked at her in confusion and walked unconfidently a step behind her.
"I hope you approve of the things I have prepared for you, statistically speaking if somebody makes something as a gift, then 68% of the time it is not well received, and 14% of the time the person acts like they like it but they actually don't just in an effort not to appear rude to their peers..." JJ trailed off in mid sentence.
"JJ I am lucky to have whatever you have made for me, so I have no doubt that I will love it" Emily smiled at him warmly to emphasise my point. It seemed to break some of the ice, as he sped up and started walking to match her pace; making eye contact for the first time and giving his first genuine smile that reached his eyes.
"Ah here we are." He said, as we reached a table with a variety of different objects on it.
"Wow it looks interesting!" Emily said enthusiastically.
He just laughed modestly. "First of all I need you allocate you a gun. I myself am not a fan of any firearms but I suppose it is a necessity out in the field so..." He led her over to a wall that is covered with all sorts of pistols and revolvers.
This is the part of the session that Emily had been looking forward to the most.
"Can I just take my pick?" She asked.
JJ looked hesitant."Well I suggest you weigh them up to test the weight and see which one best fits in your grip. Maybe you should test fire one at the target over there." JJ pointed at a target on the other side of a sheet of bullet proof glass.
Emily inspected the wall of guns, and selected one. It was a 'Ruger SP101' and was a small gun which had a black handle and a silver shaft. It is like the smart car equivalent of a gun. Emily made sure that the safety catch was on before she wrapped her hand around it and shut her eye as she aimed it at something. It didn't feel quite right. The base of the gun felt a little but chunky and she felt that if turned a bit too quickly with it in her hand, then it was bound to slip out of her grasp.
"This one doesn't feel right" Emily stated and placed it back on the wall.
She picked up another gun that she liked the look of. It was a Desert Eagle. This gun looked a lot more modern and high tech. Though when Emily picked it up it felt a little too heavy in her grasp. There was no way that she would be able to aim accurately with a gun like that. So she put it back on its hook with an unsatisfied shake of the head.
She repeated this process with a number of different guns of all shapes and sizes, but none of them seemed to take her fancy. It was starting to get rather frustrating.
"Getting anywhere?" JJ piped up.
"No" Emily replied, still surveying the guns.
"May I suggest this one" JJ went over to his desk and pulled out a drawer. He pulled out a steel box and lifted the lid to show Emily. "It is a 9mm Beretta, I have just perfected it" He continued.
Emily walked over to where he was stood and picked up the gun. It was beautiful. It is ironic that a life-taking death contraption had the ability to take you breath away as it glistened in the light. As Emily picked up the gun she felt something click and it wasn't the safety catch of the gun. Her hand wrapped perfectly around the handle of the gun and it weighed perfectly in proportion to her arms. It felt like an extension of her hand.
"May I?" Emily asked.
"By all means" JJ replied nervously.
Emily walked over to the shooting booths and lifted her shooting arm up; she took aim and locked the target in her vision. As she pulled the trigger it felt right, the force of the gunshot jolted her slightly but not to the extent where she was thrown off balance. She hit the target at the very centre, and she smiled in triumph.
"I'll take it" She said.
JJ set her up with the gun, a holster and all of its attachments. She was given a silencer for it and also a cleaner to clean up gun powder residue. JJ also provided her with a knife to strap to the inside of her thigh in case of emergencies.
"Thanks JJ" Emily said when she had strapped all of her weapons to her body.
"Don't mention it" He replied. "Now for the fun stuff!"
Emily looked at him in confusion as he led her over to yet another table. He held up a couple of hair clips in front of her face.
"These hairclips are something I quickly put together for you. They are made of indestructible steel and when in the open position, they are as sharp as knives. They could be useful if you find yourself in any sticky situation unarmed." He handed them over.
"Wow that is clever" Emily commented, impressed.
JJ held up some shoelaces. "These shoelaces have cheese wire inside of them, so I would not want to find myself being deliberately tripped up by these anytime soon, at least if I want to keep my foot." He winked at handed them over, which Emily accepted gratefully.
"Oh and here is some smoke bomb deodorant, for a quick getaway" He said.
"Wow JJ, thanks!" Emily was shocked by his cleverness.
"You haven't seen the best thing yet." He said excitedly, and led her over to a door. He opened the door and revealed to Emily a glorious sight. Her very own Aston Martin.
"Fuck me!" Emily exclaimed.
JJ looked down at his feet with an uncomfortable look on his face. "That would be..." He didn't get a chance to finish what he was going to say because Emily ran towards it letting out a little scream of excitement.
"Imagine how fast this beast can go!" She exclaimed with a dreamy look in her eyes.
"191 miles per hour to be precise" JJ replied with a smile.
"Fucking hell! This takes the privileges of a company car to a whole new level!" She said in awe, rubbing her hand over the body work lovingly.
"As much as I would love to show you all the gadgets within the car, it is 8.06am and I believe we are expected at the Star Chamber at 8.10am." JJ said.
"Shit" Emily replied, grabbing her gadgets and heading to the door. Everybody knows Doug doesn't tolerate lateness.
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Emily and JJ made it to the Star Chamber at 8.08 am. "A record time if I say so myself" JJ commented breathlessly, still pink in the cheeks. Emily's heart rate had not even increased.
As they waited outside of Chamber they saw some sort of training room where two people were involved in a heated karate match. One of the contestants was a sandy haired man, with an evidently muscular frame, though skinny at the same time. His contestant was a tall woman with long blonde hair roughly pulled back into a ponytail. As Emily watched them fight she couldn't help but feel herself become mesmerised by their fluid movements. The blonde held a look of complete concentration as she ducked a kick thrown at her by the man. The man had a cocky grin on his face as if he wasn't even trying. He went for a low punch at the blonde, but she smoothly blocked the attack, roll over his back and jab an elbow into his ribs from the other side. It was all happening so quickly Emily could barely register what was going on.
As the man took the blow to the ribs I saw he had become winded. "Ah, fuckin' hell Blondie lay off me a bit yeh?" He collapsed on the mat breathing heavily. The blonde woman just smirked at him and put her hands on her hips in a confident matter.
"Cook, you're shit anyway, if I lay off you anymore I may as well sit down and tie my hands behind my back!" she replied.
"Just 'cause you're unbeaten don't mean you're invincible babe." The man named Cook was sitting up now and had his back against the wall.
"I'm never going to up my standard if nobody in this fucking place can give me a challenge." She scowled to herself.
Emily watched the whole exchange with great interest and wondered if she would be able to give the blonde a run in or her money. It was obvious just from watching her that she was a master at the sport. Her complete balance and composure went with her undivided focus, to make her almost unstoppable. Emily replayed the blonde's graceful movements in her head and couldn't help but feel in awe of her.
"Right guys I want you in the Star Chamber for a brief right now, Cook get up of the floor." Doug had appeared from the other end of the arena.
They all got seated in the room within 5 minutes. There was a big table at the centre of the room, and a chair at the head for Doug. There was also a large projector hanging above them on the ceiling, projecting onto a white screen behind Doug's head. Emily was seated to Doug's right, and the blonde fighter was sat opposite. To Emily's right sat a black man who was large in stature and very muscular.
"Right everyone first thing is first, this is Emily Fitch and she is our newest secret agent to MI5." Doug introduced. There was a murmur of "Hi's" and "Hello's" around the room. Emily noticed that the blonde girl didn't say anything.
Doug introduced all of the other secret agents to Emily by name. There was JJ, who she had already met. The blonde fighter was called Naomi, a pretty name in Emily's opinion. The black man sat next to her was called Thomas, he had turned and given Emily the biggest smile and said: "I am so pleased to meet you". The sandy haired man's full name was James Cook, and he was sat next to a blonde quirky girl named Pandora. Emily was surprised when she randomly said "Whizzer!" when her name was called. Opposite Pandora was a quiet and mysterious girl called Effy, she just smiled in greeting. Next to Effy was a tall, skinny man called Freddie. He had smiled and said "How are you doing?"
Once all of the introductions had been made, Doug got straight down to business.
"It has come to my attention that some seriously suspicious activities have been taking place in the city of Madrid. A man named Al Paulino has been known to be involved in some dodgy dealings in the imports of Spain. We suspect that he has been setting up multiple drugs rackets throughout the city. We have allocated 4 people to fly over to Madrid under a new identity to try and integrate with the drug dealers and get inside information. It is a relatively small and almost insignificant operation, but we are obligated to investigate every single case that comes our way. Any questions?"
Naomi lifted her head and raised her hand, her electric blue eyes connecting with Emily's briefly before turning to Doug. "Why do England care what this Al Paulino guy is doing?"
"Because when the drugs are harboured and packaged at these rackets, they are then imported into England via and unknown source." Doug replied.
"How do you know that?" Freddie chipped in.
"Because police reports show that discovery of drugs are more concentrated near the Dover area where most imports are received."
There was silence around the table until Pandora asked "Who gets to go to Spain then?" She asked really enthusiastically, Emily couldn't help but smile. She noticed out the corner of her eye that Naomi was watching her with interest.
Doug sighed "It is not a holiday Pandora, it is an investigation, it is not who gets to go it is who has to go"
"Who is going then?" Emily asked, her voice coming out quite husky because she hadn't used it in a while.
"Let me see" Doug looked at a list that was sat in front of him. "Emily, Effy, Freddie and Naomi." Doug concluded.
There was a murmur around the room as everyone processed this information. Emily looked at Naomi's reaction to the news and saw that her face was expressionless, she wasn't giving anything away.
The meeting continued on for a couple of hours going through all of the details on the mission with a fine toothed comb. Emily and the 3 other agents that were going had act the part of the person they had been allocated. Emily was given the name of Maria Sanchino and was given a thick file of her background and entire life for her to learn overnight. It was inevitable that this job was not going to be easy.
When Doug had finished the meeting, he gave Naomi and Effy instructions to take Emily to the room which she would be staying. Just before Emily was about the thank Doug and say goodbye, her grabbed her arm and took her to one side.
"What is it Doug?" She asked, concerned.
"Just a quick warning about the mission. You are most likely going to be spending a lot of time with agent Naomi." He said in a whispered tone, conscious that she as only a few feet away from them in deep conversation with Thomas.
"What about her?" Emily asked.
"It is just she takes a while to warm to strangers, so don't be offended if she doesn't take to you straight away." Doug had a worried look on his face.
Emily straightened up and looked over to Naomi who was looking at her with an expressionless face again. "Don't worry Doug" Emily replied. "I think I can handle it."
So here I am with a fresh new story, I hope I don't disappoint!