Agent Matt: Academy of Shadows
Chapter 5: In the shadow of the night
Matt and Mrs. Jensen were in the elevator going down to the reception room. They both stood in awkward silence. Matt glanced briefly in her direction and then back in front of him. He had so many things to ask, but didn't how to say them. As if reading his mind Mrs. Jensen said.
"Don't worry matt, the person you're going to see is sweet and experienced, she won't harm you... or do anything drastic." Matt's eyes softened and the silence was once again broken by the ping of the lift stopping on the ground floor. As matt walked out his eyes were feared with terror as he turned corner. A face scowling at him, the fiery red hair and the angry eyes staring at him, matt suddenly wanted to retreat back into the elevator but it was too late. The doors closed and he was stuck there, he smiled nervously at the angry face, his house keeper and legal guardian...Julie Landers.
"Hi Julie how are-"
"What were you thinking!" she yelled at him. Her voice was louder than usual; it must have been the white marble floor and the open reception area that amplified her voice. As Mrs Jensen went to make a call, Julie approached him and, held him in a tight embrace. "Don't ever scare me like that again!" she said while trying to hide her tears. Matt felt ashamed. What he did with the whole crane situation, would be known as an extreme case of rebellion, but how was that possible? When he had someone who was so caring. Matt held her tightly; he didn't mean to cause trouble. As Mrs. Jensen came back from her brief phone call Julie looked at her and released matt from the embrace. "Thank you for what you did." Julie said with thankful eyes, but her words almost sounded forced. "I'll be taking matt home now."
"I'm afraid he won't be going home for a while." Mrs Jensen replied. Julie stopped dead in her tracks; she feared that this might happen. When JIN 7 did anything, it was only for their own benefit. She turned and said like she had expected this to happen.
"I knew it; the second they told me matt was already release. I knew where he would be and why." Her voice was rasping now, but as she breathed steadily she calmed down and asked. "So where's he going this time? China? Italy? North Pole?"
"He's going to school."
"So why can't he come home?"
"It's a boarding school in France, but only for the rich." Julie didn't know what to say, on one hand she could just drag matt home, but the look in matt's eyes said otherwise. He had already accepted and there was no changing his mind. Like father like son. "Okay, just promise you'll comeback, in one piece." He nodded. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and walked with him to the limo that was waiting for him outside, matt wanted to ask Mrs Jensen if Julie could come with him to at least drop her off on the way to this person with experience in disguises, but Julie was already waving down a taxi. As both doors slammed shut they both travelled down the road until they turned off, taxi going left and the limo going right. Inside the limo the leather seats were very comfortable, he couldn't even feel the V8 engine rumbling and the mini fridge was just by his feet. It was silent on the journey Matt was worried about this person he was seeing, all he knew was that this person was experienced in disguises and undercover work, also this person was a she. So it was a woman, but she could have been anything. She might've gotten her experience from dealing with fashion models or on a set for a horror film. The limo turned left and suddenly matt saw it, an amazing place for the amazingly rich. Wrought iron gates at least twenty feet tall, that opened electronically as soon as the limo pulled up. As they swung open slowly matt took in the sights. The long driveway had a row of edges on each side and in between each hedge was a white statue of a woman or some Greek warrior. The limo stopped in front of the white marble steps leading to the mansion. Before matt unbuckled his seat belt, the door opened.
As he looked out he saw standing beside it was a woman in a dark suit, beige shirt and a black tie. Her hair was brown and long, hanging over her left shoulder. The sunglasses she was wearing were black, obliterating any chance of seeing her eye colour. As he unbuckled he climbed out, feeling increasingly nervous about all this. The woman seemed intimidating but she was friendly when she spoke.
"Right this way, Mr. Ishida." She gestured up the stairs past two more women in the same outfit. Mrs Jensen was being lead in by the woman with grey hair, that made a total of four bodyguards so far, how many more were inside. As matt trailed closely behind her, the other three body guards marched to another part of the mansion, he guessed he and Mrs. Jensen weren't a serious threat for all four to be around them, but one still remained. They approached the large wooden doors, they were white same as the steps. As they walked through the door they entered a large foyer. The floors were coved in a blue carpet and a rug made of wool, woven into patterns was lying in front of him. He took off his brown shoes and left them in the shoe rack on the side and slid on a pair of Uwabaki slippers.
As he felt the soft carpet underneath him who saw Mrs. Jensen sank a few inches as she removed her high heels. The bodyguard had disappeared and a maid appeared dressed in a white apron and blue overalls underneath. She had black hair and brown eyes, slim build and red lips. "Excuse me." He asked "Where did the bodyguard go?"
"She's looking for Ms. Taylor, she'll be here shortly." She replied with a smile, matt was stunned. The name Taylor reminded him of school and his gadget designer. Just then his eyes sparked and his jaw almost dropped as Madison Taylor walked down the stairs. She looked amazing, in her white dress and white shoes. She wore a pink bow in her dark blue hair; on her it looked amazing on anyone else he wasn't so sure.
"Matt!" she exclaimed happily as she came down the stairs. Her feet were quick coming down the stairs, matt sure she was going to fall. As she reached the bottom of the stairs she quickly grabbed his hands gently and said excitedly. "I'm so glad your okay, after the news reports on a crane incident I couldn't help but think of you." Matt smiled nervously.
"A crane incident makes you think of me, that's comforting." The faint smell of her perfume hit matt's nostrils, it smelled sweet. Madison was already pulling at matt's hands to drag him upstairs. Mrs. Jensen saw her herself out, she knew Matt was in safe hands. As she reached outside, the doors of the limo were opened by the bodyguards. As she climbed in and seat belted up she looked at them and said.
"Keep up the good work and report back to me on the situation." They nodded. As the door closed the limo pulled away and headed for the gates. Meanwhile upstairs, Madison was showing matt her bedroom; it was large and rectangular with wooden floors and green sofas. She had tons of materials and equipment lying around on a three foot high dark oak coffee table. Matt was stunned. Her whole room was yellow walled and huge.
"Wow, Madison." Matt exclaimed. "Your room's incredible. The place where me and my dad use to live could fit in here easy." Madison felt some unease, she felt guilty about showing matt her room, where matt grew up with almost nothing she grew up with everything. But matt didn't seem to care, he was happy...for now anyway. Matt was looking around her room when he noticed a jewellery box. It was small and wooden, carvings on it were beautiful, but it seemed familiar. "What's this?" matt asked.
"It's my mothers, it holds something precious inside."
"Didn't you tell me that the shield card was protecting it?" Madison nodded. It was still strange having matt know the secret that sakura and Madison shared withSyaoranand Meilin.
"I might need your help later with something." She tried to change the subject. Matt looked up.
"Sure Madison, I'll help you whatever way I can."
"That's good." She smiled "Because it's a surprise for you."
"For me?" Matt was startled by the fact Madison was making him something, but for what? His mission or was it a gift of friendship. But a dark thought in the back of his mind made matt think that Madison was doing this because she felt pity towards him. Matt shook his head, trying to toss out that thought like the rotten fish it was.
"Are you ok?" she asked concerned about him.
"Yeah I'm fine." He smiled. Just then a knock came at the door.
"Come in." Madison replied. All of a sudden the door swung open furiously, the person opening it almost took it off its hinges. A woman came in breathless; her brown hair had a fringe that went to one side with a bowl cut around the top of her head. She had beautiful blue eyes like Madison's. Her face was slim and beautiful and her nose was perfectly centred. Her lips were red and slim to match her physique. She had two small pearl like earrings attached to her ears. She was dressed and looked like a fashion model. She wore a silk scarf tied in a bow to one side and a light blue top underneath. "Hi, mum. Your back early." Madison replied to her mother. As Samantha walked over to them matt politely said to her.
"It's good to see you again, Mrs. Taylor." As she stood above, she knelt down to his level in her mauve skirt and held his hands gently and said to him with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Hello Matthew."
"Thanks for having me here." He smiled at her.
"I hope that Ooishi didn't give you too much trouble, he can be a little... bothersome sometimes."
"Well, he didn't give me too much grief, but then again it wouldn't be Ooishi if he didn't." He joked. Samantha giggled, all proud and ladylike. As she stood up she suggested to them.
"Why don't we have our tea outside? I bought some cake this morning." She must've known matt was coming and prepared herself for his arrival.
"Ok. Sounds great." He smiled at her. As she ushered them out by placing her hands on both of their shoulders a maid walked in carrying a tray, with fancy porcelain cups for three. It was the one who waited downstairs with Matt before Madison turned up.
"Can you bring our tea and cake to the garden." she asked the maid.
"Yes Ms Taylor." The maid responded. The maid was young but very professional.
The sun was shining brightly as it reflected of the lake and the windows at the back of the house. The lake was teeming with plant life and they looked so beautiful, to think it was only April. In the middle lake was a wooden board walk connected to all sides. A beautifully decorated table lay in the middle, this was really fancy, matt wasn't used to this but he knew this was more than just a simple tea with his friend and her mother. This was something more; they were helping him adjust to the new lifestyle he'll be facing. The rich outside tea gatherings, cake and tea served by maids and delightful talks about classic arts and what not. But that was matt's general idea of people who were born wealthy would act, however here at the Taylors, his perspective changed. The maids and laid their tea but Samantha was cutting the cake herself. It was a beautiful double layer strawberry shortcake. It's white creamy coating and the strawberries on top held by cream, looked delicious and beautiful. As she cut it into pieces she looked at matt with soft eyes and said.
"Do you like strawberries matt?"
"I sure do." He answered. As Samantha placed two pink porcelain plates in front of matt and Madison, she sat down and closed her eyes.
"Your mother loved strawberries. She would eat anything with strawberries in them, but her biggest weakness was strawberry shortcake." She said as she remembered her as if it was only yesterday. That took matt by surprise. Mrs Taylor knew his mother? How? Almost as if reading his thoughts Madison replied.
"She and my mum use to go to Tokyo University together." Samantha nodded.
"We were good friends." She said almost sadly that matt's mother was gone. She hid her emotions well and smiled at them. As she looked at them she said to them. "Well, let's dig in."
"Thank you." Matt replied as he picked up his fork. It gleaming silver must've been polished extensively. Matt cut the cake using the side of the fork and put the bit of cake in his mouth. Samantha was watching him with soft eyes. Madison said the cake was delicious, Samantha nodded in agreement. Her focus was on matt's opinion. Matt never tasted something so sweet he could do a lot of things, cooking sweet things, not so much. He smiled happily.
"How's it taste?" she asked matt sweetly.
"It's great. You have an excellent taste in cakes Mrs. Taylor." Her eyes sparkled at matt's reply, and then she smiled softly. Later on after matt finished a maid came and cleaned up the plates. Matt had only just realised that Samantha was gazing at him the whole time. Her face blushed and she had the gaze of wonderment in her eyes. As she rested her head on her right hand she sighed and said.
"You sure look like your mother, matt."
"Really, I do?" matt replied, surprisingly he thought he was more like his dad. Samantha nodded.
"Oh yes, she was a beautiful person, all the boys at Tokyo university instantly fell in love with her. But I think you get your athletic ability from your father." As she looked at him she said "Your mother and father were the kindest people I've ever met, it was thanks to your father that I got job of designing gadgets and then eventually help set up my own business." Suddenly she looked serious and then asked him. "Matt may I be so bold and ask you something?"
"Sure Mrs. Taylor." Matt was thrown back by the suddenness of the question.
"Do you like, being a spy? Just like your father." Matt looked down and said.
"To tell you the truth, I don't but I have no choice."
"Why's that?"
"Because there's someone important to me I want to keep around, so if a dangerous assignment is all it takes to keep this person around, I'll do it no matter how much I want to go against it." She smiled, she could tell matt was serious and kind. Samantha sat up straight.
"I think your parents would be proud of you, it sad not having them around anymore but something tells me you're going to be just like them." She then winked and gave him a secret smile. Matt couldn't help but blush. "Your parents would be proud, I know I am. But enough about JIN 7. Would you like some more tea?" She asked
"Yes please." Matt smiled. The tea was sweet.
"Would you like some more cake, too?" before matt could answer he saw that her face had changed what had once been a kind face to a startled look. As matt looked behind him he saw a maid approaching, clutching something close to her chest. As she stood next to matt, feet together she spoke the words Samantha hated the most.
"Urgent call from the office." Samantha stood up, she wasn't happy; her tone of voice gave it away when she spoke.
"Oh no, not today." As she walked over to the maid and spoke into the phone her who attitude started to change. "Hello, Ms Taylor." She answered. Matt wished he could hear down the other end to find out what caused Ms Taylor attitude to change from polite to nearly snapping at the person. "No, No. They not ready yet, I'll give them to matt when they ready, tell Ooishi that." As she hanged up she returned to her calm self and said apologetic to matt. "I'm sorry you had to hear that matt, but I have to go and see on your new gadgets." As Madison stood up she said to her mother.
"In the meantime I'll take matt back to my room and start on his makeover." Samantha smiled and nodded.
"Ok. I promise I'll be back before dinner." As matt stood up he said to Samantha.
"Thank you for the tea and cake, Ms Taylor." Samantha smiled and waved goodbye. As he turned the corner up to Madison's room, she wiped a tear from her eye with a handkerchief that was in her skirt pocket. In her heart she promised matt she wouldn't give him any gadgets until they were tested, 100 times.
As madison and matt climbed the stairs matt looked around at the walls, they were all bare. Blue walls with nothing on them, yet matt could see faint outlines of paintings or pictures that use to hang there. It was an eerie silence "Your mum is very nice."
"Thanks, that means a lot." Madison said strangely. Matt wanted to ask more about her mum but he dropped the subject fearing it might be too personal; after all he was a guest at Madison's home. As Madison opened the door she asked matt to stand over by the table where her sewing kit was. As he did what she asked, she took out a long white tape measure; she was taking measurements of his leg, inner leg, waist, and chest and wrote them all down. As she came to measure his neck she got the faint smell of matt's musk, it smelled wonderful, she couldn't help but inhale deeply and lose her train of thought. She was only snapped out of this trance when matt said.
"Umm, Madison, could you loosen the tape measure." She blinked repeatedly and said stammering.
"Yes, of course...s...sorry about that." As she put down her tape measure and his last measurement, she was impressed by his size, well built, athletic, and now spy. As she smiled and turned to "Right now that's all done, let's begin." she said to matt. Matt sat down on a chair and closed his eyes; Madison said it was going to be a surprise. Hours later Samantha returned from her meeting with the board of designers. She had just walked into Madison's room when she saw Matt's transformation she couldn't help but scream. Matt's appearance was frightening but very convincing, the rich rebel son that nobody would be proud of. After a few minutes she calmed down.
"I'm sorry for that scream matt," she said apologetic "It's just your look is very…. convincing." Matt nodded,
"Did the trick." He said at first, he sighed and then asked Madison. "Is this really how boys who rebel speak?" Madison was holding a teen magazine looking at the article with big bold letters at the top reading.
Understanding Rebel Speak
"Yes matt, it says here," she said as she quoted from the article "Rebels like to keep conversations short and use as fewer words as possible." "These words include "yeah" for most replies. "Suppose" for maybe replies and "what ev's" for avoiding a conversation they don't want to hear." He smiled; Madison was helping him as much as she can. Samantha then told them dinner will be in an hour, it would be enough time for matt to change back to his normal self, matt agreed. An hour later he walked down the stairs to the main dining room. As he sat in the large hall were dinner was already served with Samantha and Madison sitting at the end of a long dark wooden mahogany table, he was amazed on how big the actual table was. Thankfully there were only three of them and he sat down next to them. They talked and laughed and matt explained why he did what he did with the crane, Madison was taking this all in, her mother just stared at matt with wonder and knew she was right, he did look like his mum but acted so much like his dad. The rest of the night was a blur filled with run by scenarios and music. For the last hour before bed, matt and Madison were sitting in white chairs on the Terrance looking up at the stars. "Your progress is coming along well matt." Madison suddenly spoke. It was the first she spoke since sitting out here, matt was caught off guard and then replied.
"Yeah, suppose." Madison and matt laughed, it was matt's only response his mind didn't have time to respond by Madison's sudden praise. Just then a maid called out from the French doors.
"Ms. Taylor." as Madison turned round the maid looked sweet and kind but very professional. "Your mother has instructed me to tell you, bedtime is in five minutes."
"Thank you." Madison smiled back. The maid didn't show it but she was worried about this boy, who was he and why was he here. But it was not her place to ask questions but her job to serve. As Madison and matt stood up she smiled at him hiding the fact she was worried of losing him on this mission. "Well we better get to bed, you got a long day tomorrow and so have I." She turned to leave but matt suddenly grabbed her hand gently and said to her.
"Madison there's something I want to tell you."
"What is it?" she asked curious by matt's blushing face and his eyes avoiding her gaze. Matt stepped closer.
"I don't know if I can say it aloud."
"Then whisper it." She said as she faced him and held his hands. Her eyes sparkled in the stars, matt's hands were beginning to sweat and he was getting hotter as he learnt closer to her, he then said in a low hush tone.
"Okay, you see. I'm..." he then whispered something her ear. Madison's eyes widened, she couldn't believe what she just heard. As she released herself from matt's hands, she stood back and said surprised.
"R...really?"
"Yeah."
"How long have you felt this way?"
"Since the first day we met. I just didn't have the courage to say it; do you think I'm an idiot?"
"No." She shook her head. "Actually I've known for a while."
"What! When? How? Why?" all the obvious questions came tumbling out. Which one did he pick to ask first? Madison just smiled and said.
"All you need to know is that I know. Thank you." Matt just smiled. After that whole ordeal they went straight to bed tomorrow would be the day where everything began. The next morning came all too quickly, the grey light breaking over the high marble walls and wrought iron gates. Matt was waiting on the steps with Samantha, Madison and the whole house staff. It was some goodbye. Saluted by the seven body guards, bowed by the maids and hugged tightly by Madison and her mother. The limo at the bottom did not belong to Madison; in fact it wasn't even from Tomoeda. It was driven by an unsmiling chauffer who came from the Hiroku household.
"Be careful." Madison whispered.
"You too." Matt replied. "Funny thing happened to me last night." Madison looked surprised. "I could have sworn someone kissed me on my forehead, at least twice." Madison blushed brightly, but calmed herself down before looking in matt's eyes.
"Maybe it was a dream."
"Maybe or..." he went to say the normal response when Madison said in unison with him.
"Suppose!" they both laughed, like brother and sister. Matt walked down the stairs smiling. As he climbed in the chauffer shut the door behind him and drove at quick speeds away from the Taylor mansion. As the limo disappeared Madison wiped a tear from her eye with a handkerchief, soft and white but in the corner stood a red mark, not blood. But red lipstick. She didn't want to admit it but she was the one who kissed sometime in the night but only the once, where the second came from she didn't know but like most things, everything will be shrouded in mystery and the shadows.