Chapter 11: Musings of the Secret Spy

He was devastated, and pissed all at the same time. Devastated because he knew it was over between him and Lori. How could it not be? She was so hurt by him and so angry. She slapped him!! If only she would have let him explain, if only he had not gotten himself into this mess to begin with. What's that saying, coulda shoulda woulda? Yeah, exactly.

He was pissed that Latnock had pulled him into this, into their web of deceit. Lori was right, no matter how much he tried to glorify Latnock, they were responsible for all the things that Kyle had gone through. He stopped walking; he wanted to throw up. Then he thought about how smug Declan looked when Mark had been ousted by Lori. He was so happy that Mark had been caught. Right now Declan was probably consoling Lori in her room, and that consolation would turn into…no…he couldn't even fathom that. He wanted to throw up again.

Earlier this night he was the happiest he had ever been in this world, he had lost his virginity to a girl, no, girl wouldn't even do her justice, a woman who he was completely in love with. But his stupidity cost him everything. Now, he was alone and angry and he knew exactly who he wanted to take his anger out on.

About twenty minutes later he was at her apartment, banging down her door. She came to the door in her robe, her long blonde hair unwashed and yet, still beautiful. She inched her eyebrow when she saw him.

"Well, if I would have known you were coming I'd have baked a cake."

"Shut up, Adeline." She chuckled.

"You look…different. Less…pure maybe?" Mark looked confused, and then understood.

"You have been watching me?"

"Honey, everyone has been watching you. But nice work. It only took you what, two months to get her into bed?" She moved closer to him, and whispered into his ear, "If you wanted someone so easy, why not come to me?" He pushed her away.

"They know." Adeline rolled her eyes and sat down on the couch.

"Tell me something I don't know." Mark threw his hands up in disgust.

"How fast does news travel in this place?" Adeline laughed.

"You really are naïve aren't you? Well, I should have realized that the first time we met but honestly, how long did you think you could keep this up?" Mark paced back and forth.

"I don't know, I….I just feel so used. Adeline, I have never felt this way before. I don't know what to do." He put his head in his hands as Adeline strolled over to him and kissed him. "What the hell are you doing? I didn't come here for that!"

"Then what did you come for? Moral support? Come on Mark, I'm not like your guitar-strumming girlfriend. If you wanted to talk to someone who would hold your hand and say "oh, poor baby," then guess what? You came to the wrong damn place. So either come with me to bed, or get out." Adeline was right, he was naïve. He turned to the door and walked out thinking about the first time he met Adeline and, Latnock…..

"Hey there," said a voice. Mark looked up from his DJ booth at the bar and saw this beautiful, blonde bombshell. Was she talking to him?

"Uh…hey. Can I help you with anything?" She laughed, took one hand, put her blonde hair behind her ears, and then took the other, and put it on top of Mark's.

"Actually, you could help me with a lot. You're Mark, right?" He nodded. "Do you think you could get away from this for a while? I want to take you some place." He didn't know what exactly she wanted to show him but at this point, he was willing to go anywhere with her. She motioned for him to come with her into her car and it seemed as though they drove for miles. Finally, they reached a building, an abandoned building and she stopped the car. Before getting out, she turned to him and stuck out her hand; "By the way, I'm Adeline." He shook her hand and then followed her out of the car.

The inside of the building looked nothing like the outside; that was for sure. It had dozens of computers and paintings. Adeline walked up the stairs and Mark followed. She brought him into a room with a long, round table, with ten men sitting there.

"Gentlemen, this is the guy I was telling you about." One of the men, a young-looking guy, couldn't be more than 30, came over to him and shook his hand.

"Mark, my name is Michael Cassidy. But you can just call me Cassidy. We've heard a lot of good things about you and we're quite impressed." He got a piece of paper and began to read some stuff off of it; "Graduated high school at 15 with a 4.0 GPA and a 1600 SAT score. Not to mention a double-major in computer science and applied mathematics? You're just the person we are looking for to join our…establishment." Mark was nervous.

"Um, I'm flattered, really, but what exactly is this? Who are you?" Cassidy laughed.

"You'll find out soon enough. But let's just say that we are going to change your life in a way that you could never imagine."

Two years later, Mark realized….Cassidy had been right all along.