Out of the darkness, the phone rang. James answered it on the second ring. "What?" he asked, irritable to be woken so early in the day.
"Sir," a nervous voice said at the end of the line, "there is a woman here with the symptoms that you described."
James sat up a little farther in bed and said, "tell me more. What does she look like?"
The voice replied, "she is young sir, no older than twenty, she has long black hair, brown eyes, and light skin. She is an Agent of medium rank."
"You will be rewarded for your services," James assured the man, and he heard him breath a slight sigh of relief. "is she still with you?"
"Yes sir."
"Then go back to her and tell her that nothing in wrong. Nothing at all," James commanded, a slight smile on his face.
"Yes sir, of course sir." The line went dead. The man on the other end had hung up. Smiling, James hung up as well.
Things are falling perfectly into place, he thought, this is going to be easier than I thought! James rolled off the bed and began to dress. "Maddox," he yelled.
The door opened and a large man entered, "yes?"
"Maddox, our plan is in motion, assemble our men. We move this night." He said this as he pulled on his shirt. "We are finally going to reap the profit of all our hard work. Now go!"
Maddox bowed and exited. James smiled demonically, and checked his appearance in the mirror, to be sure that he looked suitable to disturb his master's slumber, so that he may tell him that the campaign was coming to an end. It would soon be over and the real work would begin.
The doctor hastily reentered the room just as the scanning gel turned a pretty shade of fuchsia. "Hmm," he said, as he slid into his seat at the computer, and waited for the results of the scan to print. "Ah, here we go!" he exclaimed, as a sheet of paper slid into the print slot and was ejected with writing all over it. He scrutinized it for a moment or two and turned to Jaden, cleared his throat and said, "there is nothing the matter here Agent. I'm guessing that the pain you feel is an aftereffect of what that Faithful did, which I presume is merely punching your arm." He shrugged and got to his feet, handing Jaden a towel to wipe off the sticky scanning gel.
"Well thank you sir," Jaden said, accepting the towel, "I guess it's better to know its nothing than to go on and believe that it is something. Thank you for your time, doctor." She shook his hand, and exited from the examination room, but not too quickly to hear a sigh, possibly of relief, come from the doctor. She wondered what could have made the doctor act so. But then again, it was Jaden's nature to be paranoid, so she put the notion that she ever heard the doctor from her mind.
Jaden made it back to her apartment at about 10:00 in the morning. She decided that she would sleep a bit, and then ask Kay, the Day Agent who lived next door, if she would like to go eat some dinner. Jaden and Kay had been friends in the Academy together, and had remained so, even if they hardly saw each other. They did kind things for each other, such as laundry, and buying the other breakfast on occasion. But Kay wouldn't be off for hours, and Jaden hadn't slept for nearly 18 hours, so she decided that nothing needed her attention more than her pillow.
She stripped off her uniform and pulled on blue sweatpants and an Academy T-shirt, climbed under the covers, and tried to ignore the pain lacing her arm so that she might fall asleep. Sleep came, slowly, and lightly. She awoke many times during the day, as her arm jabbed with pain.
