Chapter 4
Elena stared at the card in her hand, completely lost in thought. 3 days had already gone by, and she was rapidly running out of time to make her decision. She had weighed up the arguments for both sides so many times now, yet she was still no closer to deciding. She really didn't want to say no to such a high-paying job, but then, she still didn't really now what the job was. It could be dangerous, and in Elena's opinion, they really weren't going the right way about persuading her to say yes; especially that Reno.
It was the address on the card that mainly bugged her. Trinity Gardens; it was next to that memorial park, just on the outskirts of the Sector 7 slums. It wasn't the same address she had gone to for the first or second test, she hoped she wasn't about to be tested again. But Tseng had said she would only complete one more test if she said yes. Elena shook her head and attempted to stop arguing with herself. There was only one way to find out a little more about this place she was going.
Elena stared at the buildings in front of her. This really did seem a random place to come with an answer. It was just houses; rows and rows of ordinary houses. She could see mothers with their children outside enjoying the warm summer sun. If they were going to test her here then these people really were sick in the head. Unless one of them lived here.
"That's a good start, coming to check the place out beforehand." A voice said behind her. Elena jumped around and thrust her hand around with her, smacking a familiar redhead in the face.
"What the...? There's no need for that!" he cried, his hand on his face.
"Sorry. Reflexes." Elena said, embarrassed.
"Ahh well. Can't do the job without 'em." He shrugged.
"What are you doing here, anyway?"
"Me? I live here babe." He said casually.
"So it's you?"
"That you have to give your answer to, yeah."
"I thought it might be something like that."
"You any closer to a decision?"
"Not really. I just don't know."
"Well, you still got 5 days to decide."
"Yeah, but I'm starting to think it's not enough. I can't decide on the information I've got. I need to know more."
"Ahh, sorry babe. No can do, only the Turks and SOLDIER are allowed to know stuff like that."
"The Turks? SOLDIER?"
"Ahh, crap. Perhaps I've said too much. I'll get goin' before I start goin' off on one…" at that he walked away from Elena, his hand raised in farwell.
What a strange guy, I hope this job wouldn't turn me like that!
Elena shook her head. She really had to stop judging people before she knew them properly. But this decision was getting harder and harder to make as time slipped away from her…only three days left now.
At the end of the day, what else was she going to do with her life? Sure, she had no idea what she was getting herself into, but you only lived once after all, and if she said no, she would be wondering for the rest of her life what would have happened if she'd have thought it through more carefully.
That was it, her mind was swaying to one side, but what was it that had really made her do so? Because the job certainly wasn't appealing to her at the moment. Was it him? He was certainly an interesting character, and she wouldn't say no to getting to know him a little better. In fact, they all seemed like decent people – well, the ones she had met the other day anyway.
Well, this is no good, Elena thought to herself. She had been sitting at home all day, and it was certainly not a nice place to think. She grabbed her jacket, in spite of the reasonably warm weather and headed outside.
She really had no idea where she was going, but she half-hoped she would run into the red-head again. She stopped outside a café, and headed inside.
"Coffee, please." Elena said politely to the woman behind the counter. She smiled and got busy on her coffee. Elena looked around the café, and someone caught her eye. A tall, big-built man with a bald head and sunglasses was sitting reading a magazine of some sort. Elena recognised the man from somewhere, but couldn't quite place where she had seen him before. The answer to her query came in the form of a tall redhead: Reno and … what was the other man's name? Rude, that was it. What were they doing here? Elena took her coffee from the woman and went to sit down at a table quite close to them. They didn't seem to have noticed her, so she listened quietly to their conversation.
"…Reno, don't be stupid. Tseng wouldn't be allowed to do that to her…" Rude said quietly.
"Well, that's what you said!"
"Reno, keep your voice down. You are such an idiot…I said…"
"Oh hey! Elena!" Reno said loudly, interrupting him. He waved over in Elena's direction. Elena looked at him, slightly shocked at Reno's sudden cry. Elena got up and went to sit by him and Rude.
"Made your decision?" Reno asked.
"I had. But now I'm not so sure…" Elena told him.
"Why?" asked Rude. He was quite sure of the reason why.
"Yeah, why? Oh wait…" Reno paused for a moment, "If it's 'cause of what I just said…"
"Ignore it." Rude interrupted. "It was Reno being a moron."
"Okay…" Still, Elena was quite uneasy.
The next three days flew by, and Elena found herself making her way over to Reno's house before she knew it. She had made her decision, and now she was going to tell Reno, before she could change her mind again.
She knocked on his door, wondering curiously if he was actually ever at work. He opened the door and grinned at Elena. Elena swallowed hard and stared at him. He folded his arms and looked at her expectantly.
"I…I'll do it. Yes." She said.