Chapter 2: Zim Versus John Casey

Zim felt himself starting to wake up, but he didn't want to open his eyes. He felt uncomfortable on the hard floor, but he really didn't get enough sleep. He'd only gotten fifteen hours last night. It was better to just go back to sleep.

Someone growled. Then: "He doesn't look like much."

"Neither did Chuck, once upon a time," a feminine voice said. She sounded hot. Zim had a sudden interest in being wide awake.

His eyes opened, and he saw her. She was certainly hot. One of the hottest women he'd seen in a long time. Hotter than Elizabeth Keen.

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty's up."

Zim turned to see a very big man wearing . . . a green Buy More shirt? He held both of his hands in front of him like he was holding a gun, but he wasn't. He saw the gun holstered on his belt. He hoped this guy wasn't boning the hot chick. He hated this guy already. Zim quickly turned his attention to the woman. "Hey. I'm Cris Zim."

"We know," the woman said. She held up his wallet, still thick with cash. He hoped she liked that. He wanted more than anything to be a sugar daddy. Then he remembered what that Nerd Herd guy said. What were those names? He didn't remember. He probably hadn't listened in the first place.

"I'm John Casey, NSA," the man said. "This is Agent Walker, CIA."

"Got a first name, ma'am?" Zim asked. He hoped the gentleman card would work.

She seemed unimpressed. "Sarah Walker. You can call me Agent Walker."

"You can call me Cris."

"All right, Zim," John Casey said. "Get up." He offered a hand, and Zim took it. This man was ridiculously strong. Zim didn't bother to help him with the weight. He might as well have been a corpse. Yet this guy yanked him up to his feet like he was a scarecrow.

"Where am I?" Zim asked. He directed the question to Sarah.

"You're in our underground headquarters," Casey said. "We call it Castle. Do you remember what happened?"

Zim gave a tremendous sigh. "These two guys killed each other, but the Nerd Herd guy stuck this weird thing on my head. A bunch of stuff flashed through my head, but I don't remember anything after that."

"So Chuck managed to hand off the Intersect after all," Casey said. "Congratulations, Zim. You're our new Chuck."

Sarah turned away, and Zim thought he'd seen a tear in the corner of her eyes. Oh God. Chuck had to be banging her. Did he want a dead guy's sloppy seconds?

He nodded. Yes. Yes, he did. He moved in to offer a reassuring hug, to maybe help comfort her.

She grabbed one of his wrists and flipped him over her back, yanking an arm behind him so far that he thought it might break.

"Yeah, I don't advise doing something like that," Casey said. "Agent Walker will break you."

Sarah let up and walked away. She didn't look back, and she offered no apology. Casey didn't bother to help Zim up this time.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Zim said.

"You have something called the Intersect in your head," Casey said. "It's a top secret government database, except it's not kept on equipment. It's designed to be stored in the human brain. Cutting edge stuff. It's also tech that just about everyone in the espionage field wants for themselves."

"What's on it?"

"You said that you Flashed. All those images. Documents. Things. Every bit of information that our government holds dear. You don't always have access to it, but if you concentrate on it enough, it will Flash you the vital information you'll need in any given situation."

"Cool," Zim said. "So, like, I know kung fu?"

Casey gritted his teeth and growled.

"Whoa," Zim said. He expected a lot more credit for his reference than he got.

"For now . . ." Casey said. He threw a green shirt at Zim. It had the Buy More logo on it.

"Uh, no," Zim said. "I don't work retail."

"You do now. Put it on. Welcome to the sales associate team at the Burbank Buy More."

"FUCK."

Once he had the shirt on, Casey led them up to the secret entry, which turned out to be a bank of lockers in the back room of the retail giant. Casey pointed one locker out. "That was Chuck's. It's now yours. Now come on."

They went to the break room, where there were two guys sitting at a table eating Subway sandwiches. One of them looked oddly familiar. Not in looks. Just in the eyes. He had the same gaze that Bruni had when he was Future Booze Jesus. This guy was clearly an alcoholic.

"Guys," Casey said. "This is our new hire, Cris Zim. Zim, these guys are Jeff and Lester. And if they ever mention something called Jeffster, you need to get as far away as possible from them."

Zim waved. "You can call me Cris."

"Hey Zim," Jeffster said.

Zim let out a tremendous sigh.

"Look after him, guys," Casey said. "Show him the ropes." He looked like he was about to clap Zim on the shoulder, but at the last second he seemed to think better of it.

Lester held up his phone. "You like creep shots?"

"No." But he did. He really did. He once got in trouble for trying to take an up-skirt back in Lisle.

Jeff produced a bottle of vodka from his back pocket and took a couple of gulps. "Your thoughts on Bennigan's? We like to go to the one across the street and pick up loose women."

Maybe he wouldn't be so out-of-place here after all. "That sounds cool."

Jeffster gave him the penny tour, and when they got to the repair cage, Zim rushed over to one of the computers. "You can get Final Fantasy on this?"

"Hell yeah!" Lester said. "Here." He logged in and before long Zim finally, after getting stuck doing stupid adventures—Reddington had called them the Zimventures, which sounded kind of cool now that he thought about it—he sat himself down in front of Final Fantasy.

Yeah, he was going to like being around here. He didn't get his way often, but now he actually liked where he was.

Casey burst into the repair cage. "All right, Zim. We need to go back to Castle."

"Castle?" Zim asked.

"Yeah. You know." Casey nodded toward where the locker room was located.

"Oh. No thanks. I'm gonna play some Final Fantasy."

"Yeah, you can't take a man from Final Fantasy," Jeff said. "That's, like, taking a man's . . . White Castle. Or something."

Casey grabbed Zim by the scruff of his neck and picked him up like he was a cat. He dragged Zim to the locker room and down into the bowels of Castle. He threw Zim into a chair in front of a screen. Sarah was already there, and she'd changed into some kind of workout outfit. It suited her very well, and he couldn't help but stare at her tits.

Casey grabbed him by the head and turned it. "Eyes forward, Captain Pervert."

The screen turned on, and he saw a woman wearing some kind of military getup. She felt like a general. He couldn't describe it any other way. He thought like she could probably reach through the screen and throttle him.

"What is this?" Zim asked. This time he actually talked to Casey.

"It's time for our first mission," Casey said. He grinned, and Zim had a bad feeling about this.

"FUCK," he said.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .