Agent Matt

Chapter 21: The Christmas Showdown

Matt sat on the bed in a small rectangle room with a wooden floor and a circular wool rug in the middle. The room was yellow with a green clothes cabinet; the bedcovers were pink with a wooden self just above. A small TV with a games console was sitting in the corner of the room, one of the stuffed toys was looking at him with its small black bead like eyes. Matt had been staring at it for a while, it looked strange, its small ears on top of its large round head, its gold body with white wings on the back and its small fluff like tail. To matt it was escape from a nervous state he was in because this was not his bedroom. This room was strange and foreign. This room was a girl's bedroom, but not just any girl; this was Sakura Avalon's bedroom. It had been this very morning when he was approached during his first gym class of being back in school for a long time. He was in his blue gym shorts and white shirt, stretching before doing gym when sakura and Madison came over to say hi who were both dressed in the same uniform.

"Oh hi sakura, Madison, how was school while I was out sick?" They both smiled a secret smile.

"It was...interesting." it was Madison who spoke first.

"Would you like to come over to my house?" Sakura asked. "We could fill you in on what happened." Matt nodded.

"Sure, I'd love to."

Now that he was here, he wasn't so sure. Suddenly the door opened and in walked sakura and Madison still dressed in their green sailor outfits with the schools emblem. Sakura was carrying a tea tray with a beautiful flower teapot and matching four cups and plates...four cups of tea and four plates of strawberry shortcake? Matt was confused and was about ask when sakura said to matt nervously.

"There's...something we need to tell you." She was shaking like a leaf, matt's first impression was that she was ill. "See... we know, we know where've you been and we know that your...a spy." Matt's eyes widened. He almost wanted to laugh and pretend he had no idea what they were talking, but he knew he couldn't hide anything from his friends. As he sighed he looked at them both and asked.

"How long have you know?"

"Madison learned from her mum who gave you the gadgets, and Madison told me on Friday during the broadcast of the V Tech launch." Sakura then looked on the wooden shelf, took a breath and suddenly said. "You can move now Kero." Before matt could even ask a small figure flew past straight to a plate of strawberry shortcake. It was the stuffed toy he was looking at earlier; he didn't know how to respond to that. "I have a lot of explaining to do, but we like to ask you something." She asked. Matt nodded his mouth was too dry to speak. He then took a sip of tea before it went cold. "Did you ever know your dad was a spy?" matt shook his head but then he remembered.

"Actually," he began. "I think there was one time." As he took a breath he then began explaining to both sakura and Madison about his dad. "My father, Mahon Ishida, always told me he worked as an overseas financial reporter. Why did I believe him? Financial Reporters don't usually spend weeks or even months away from home, then returning with strange scars and bruises that they are reluctant to explain. "They don't receive phone calls in the middle of the night and disappear at the drop of a hat. And how many of them are proficient in Thai boxing and karate; speak three languages and keep themselves in perfect physical shape?" Matt was talking about his dad. Mahon Ishida was a secret agent; a spy. From the day he left Tokyo University, he had worked for the Special Operations division of JIN 7. Just about everything he told matt and everyone he knew was a lie, but he believed him because, as a child from a broken family, matt had lived with him all his life. And, because when you're 8 years old you believe what adults say. But there was one occasion when he came very close to realising the truth. It happened one Christmas, at the ski resort of Showdown, Montana. Although he didn't know it at the time, this was going to be the last Christmas we would spend together.

By spring before his 15th birthday, Mahon would have been killed on a mission in Cornwall, investigating the V Techs being manufactured. That was just a few weeks before his 15th birthday, when his life span out of control and was eventually to become a spy himself.

Created in 1936 and originally called King's Hill Ski Area. It was in the centre of the state of Montana, and if you've ever skied in America you'll know the set-up. There was a central village with gas fires burning late into the night, mulled wine and toasted marshmallows, and shops with prices as high as the mountains around them. They booked into a hotel, the breck, which was on the edge of the village, about a five-minute walk to the main ski lift. The two of them shared a suite of rooms on the second floor. They each had their own bedroom, opening on to a shared living space with a balcony that ran round the side of the hotel. The breck was one of those brand-new places designed to look 100 years old, with big stone fireplaces, woven rugs and moose heads on the walls. He hoped they were fake, but they probably weren't. For the first couple of days they were on their own. The snow was excellent. There had been a heavy fall just before they arrived, but at the same time the weather was unusually warm, so they were talking powder and lifts with no queues. Soon they were racing each other down the dizzyingly steep runs high up over Showdown itself. It was on the third day that things changed. It began with two new arrivals that moved into the room next door: a father and his daughter who was just a couple of years older than matt. Her name was Gwendolyn but she preferred the name Gwen. Her dad lived and worked in Washington DC. She told me he was 'something in government', and I guessed she was being purposely vague. Her mother was a lawyer in New York. The two of them were divorced and Gwen had to share Christmases between them.

She was very pretty, with long black hair and blue eyes, only an inch taller than matt despite the age gap. She'd been skiing all her life, and she was fearless. Unlike matt, she had her own boots and skis. At the time his feet were growing too fast so, as usual, he'd had to rent. Gwen Sanders, a very pretty name. Her father was Charles Sanders, with silver hair, silver glasses and a laptop computer that hardly seemed to leave his side. He spent every afternoon in his room, working. Gwen didn't seem to mind. She was used to it, and anyway, now she had Mahon and Matt. Two more people arrived on the same day as Gwen. They were sharing a smaller room across the corridor. Matt noticed them pretty quickly because they rarely seemed to be far away, although they never spoke to him or Gwen, or anyone for that matter.

They were both men in their late 20s, smartly dressed and very fit. They could have graduated from the same college. One night in the hotel lounge Matt suggested they might be gay and Mahon laughed.

"I' don't think so, Matt. Try again"' He thought for a moment.

"Are they bodyguards?"
"Better. At a guess, I'd say they're American Secret Service." Matt blinked.

"How do you know?"
"Well, they're both carrying guns."
"Under their jackets?" Mahon shook his head.

"You could never draw a gun out of a ski jacket in time. They've got ankle holsters. Take a look the next time you see them."

He looked at me over his brandy. 'You have to notice these things, Matt. Whenever you meet someone, you have to check them out... all the details. People tell a story the moment they walk into a room. You can read them.'

He was always saying stuff like that to matt. He used to think he was just passing the time. It was only much later he realised that Mahon had been preparing him. Just like the skiing and the scuba lessons. He was quietly following a plan that had begun almost the day he was born.

"Are they here with Charles Sanders?" Matt asked.

"What do you think?" Matt nodded.

"They are always hanging around. And Gwen says her dad works in government."

"Then maybe he needs protection." Mahon smiled. "Let's see if you can find out their names by the end of the week," he said. "And tell me the make of their guns." But the next day Matt had forgotten the conversation. It had snowed again. There must have been 10 inches on the ground, and it was bulging out over the roofs of the hotel like over-stuffed duvets. Gwen and Matt switched to snowboards and spent about five hours on the chutes, bomb drops and powder stashes at the bowl area high up over Bear Creek. He never thought he'd be using these skills again. By half past three, with the sun already dipping behind the mountains, they decided to call it a day. They were both bruised, exhausted and soaked with sweat and melted snow. Gwen went off to meet her dad for a hot chocolate. Matt went back to the breck on his own. He had just dropped the board off at the rental shop and was slouching into the reception area when he saw his father, sitting on the corner of a sofa. He was about to call out to him - but then he stopped. Something didn't feel right; he knew at once that something was wrong. It wasn't easy to explain, but he had never looked like this before. He was completely silent and tense in a way that was almost animal. Mahon had dark brown eyes, but right now they were cold and colourless. He hadn't noticed matt had come in: his attention was focused on the reception desk and a man who was checking into the hotel. He didn't know it yet but Matt was about to be caught in the middle of one of the most dangerous mission his father has ever been on.