About two years earlier...
Lena's life had been a whirlwind. She lived in a constant state of exhausting motion. Just last week she'd flown to Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Grand Cayman, then back to her home base of New York, all in time to make her Friday night waitressing shift at the Rare Grill. Now it was late Sunday night and she sat at an all night coffee shop poured over a laptop trying to finish her work. All around her the other customers were chatting with their friends but Lena was completely ignoring the man who sat opposite of her at the table. Luke was used to it, he would have done the same if it was he who had been behind schedule.
Ever since she had been officially promoted to field agent two months ago she'd been busier than any 21 year old should be. Although, Lena would never describe herself as naïve, she had naively thought that once she was promoted to agent her life would fall into some kind of routine. She couldn't have been more wrong. She was still required to attend martial arts training three times a week, continue with her Arabic and Korean tutors, and attend a weekly weapons and explosives tutorial all as part of her "continuing education." But she wasn't slumped over her laptop working on homework for any of these classes tonight. This evening she was working on the latest update for Jeffry's security system for a South African diamond client.
Jeffry was the only father Lena clearly remembered. To the outside world Jeffry and his wife Charlotte appeared to be a normal couple. Jeffry was a man in his mid fifties, who went to work each day at nine in the morning and returned at dinner time. He was successful and the family appeared well off, though the neighbors were never quite sure what Jeffry did for a living. Something with computers they would guess. Charlotte looked the part of a trophy wife as she was at least fifteen years Jeffry's junior. She worked from home part time for an insurance company. The couple always kept to themselves but were friendly when the neighbors met them on the sidewalk. Charlotte and Jeffry had one daughter, a girl named Lena who attended a boarding school.
The truth about Jeffry, Charlotte, and their daughter Lena was quite different from how any of their neighbors would describe them. Lena for starters had only played the part of their daughter since she was ten.
Jeffry and Charlotte offered her very few explanations of her life before them. Lena had few, if any, memories of her previous family. She didn't own a photograph, and the only tangible objects she had to remind herself that she had a birth family were a set of house keys with a ratty White Sox key chain attached and a ticket stub to the Shedd aquarium from 1997. She stopped trying to remember this family years ago, she knew it was easier to forget. Lately thoughts of her previous family had been creeping into her day dreams. She wondered what life would have been like with them. She went through periods of fantasies about her family, they came and went, but she knew her family was gone, dead, and no amount of hope, prayers, or daydreaming fantasies could bring them back.
Although they were not her birth parents Jeffry and Charlotte had treated her with kindness, respect, and love, but they didn't raise her as an adopted daughter. They raised her to be an Alliance spy first and foremost and a security consultant for Jeffry's private business on the side. Instead of elementary school she attended schools that taught much more than basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. What the neighbors believed were boarding schools were actually training facilities. Lena remembered being an exceptional student. She'd always been smart and excelled in the academic portions of the curiculum. Tactically she was superior to many of the other trainees. She was placed on the track to become an agent when she was fourteen. The only thing she had ever remembered being reprimanded for was the occasional attitude adjustment and those demerits were never too severe.
She finished the updates to the encryption key and closed the window on her laptop. She gazed at her watch, she was one of the only people in the world who still wore a watch, Jeffry and Charlotte's plane from Amsterdam had arrived almost two hours ago. They would be settled in the hotel by now.
"Finished?" Luke asked putting his own iphone down.
Lena nodded "Sorry, I wasn't much company tonight."
"Its alright I needed to get out of that apartment Mark's driving me insane."
Lena smiled; Luke was one of her oldest friends. He worked for the Alliance too, he worked as a counterfeiter. Being a counterfeiter allowed him to do almost all of his work in New York and much of it from the apartment. Because he was around so much he was always the first to get annoyed with the new roommates. In addition to Luke and Mark, Lena lived with another woman, Rose. Rose was trained as a medic and was now in medical school at Mount Sinai Medical School. In a few years Rose would be called upon to stitch up the spys, thugs, mafia, and lowlifes of the world.
"Want to go get a drink?" Luke asked
"Nah, I shouldn't Jeffry wants to see the spec's tomorrow at breakfast." She replied
"Come on one drink? Its only midnight, that's plenty of time."
"It's never one drink with you. Another time,"
"Is Rose working tonight?"
"Yep,"
"Dam. I guess I'm on my own then. I really thought you'd come along once you were done."
"Sorry, I'm lame I guess."
"Yea Lena, you're the most boring person I know." He joked then stood up from the table. "Shall I walk you home my dear?"
Lena stashed her laptop in a bag and rolled her eyes at Luke. "I think I'll be alright."
Outside the coffee shop Luke planted a quick peck on Lena's cheek. "You coming home tonight?" She questioned.
"God, I hope not!" He answered with a bright smile across his face. "but if I need bail I'm calling you!" He walked off in the opposite direction.
Lena walked the three blocks back to their apartment and took the elevator to the ninth floor. Their apartment was a simple three bedroom appartment, too small to comfortably house four people but huge by New York standards. The place was quiet tonight. Mark was either asleep or in his own room. She went to the bedroom she shared with Rose. It was the largest bedroom in the appartment and it had an attached bathroom that the women didn't need to share with the men. She slid the laptop bag under her dresser and slipped her thumb drive under a loose floor board. Some of the classic hiding places were still the best in her opinion.
She woke the next morning to find Luke asleep on the couch. She'd heard him come in a couple hours earlier but had managed to fall back asleep after she heard him deadbolt the door and realarm the apartment's security system. One of the curses of her job was that she was an incredibly light sleeper.
She made her way to a hotel about 5 blocks from her apartment, spoke briefly to the front desk attendant and slipped up to her parent's suite.
"My Lena!" Charlotte gasped as she opened the door. "Oh, I've missed you!" she said excitedly as she pulled her into a hug.
"Hi, Mum." Lena answered
"Hello Sweetheart," Jeffry greeted her with more controlled excitement than Charlotte had, but he still pulled her into a strong one armed hug careful not to spill the coffee in his other hand.
"You look wonderful!" her mother exclaimed eying her dress up and down. "Is the dress new?"
"Yea," She answered dropping her bag lightly on the sofa. "But don't gush it's just from the Gap."
"I have nothing against the Gap," Charlotte answered. "And if they can get you into a dress then maybe we should shop there more often."
Lena rolled her eyes, her affinity for casual clothing drove her mother crazy. Lena was happiest in the fall when she could throw on jeans, knee high boots, and her favorite North Face or leather jacket and call it a day. Charlotte hardly ever wore an outfit more than two times and only owned one pair of jeans. Lena had made her mother buy those jeans before a trip to Breckenridge where Lena insisted it was not appropriate to wear a dress around town in the middle of January.
"Is that the Burberry bag I bought you?" Charlotte's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the bag.
"What?" Lena asked exasperated, it was too soon for her mother to start criticizing.
"Well dear its really more of a vacation or beach bag. Maybe if you were going up to the Hamptons or Cape Cod. It's not really a city bag."
"Alright, One, I don't go up to the Hamptons or Cape Cod and two, it fits my laptop and that's what I needed today."
"I don't think the designer ever envisioned that bag as a laptop bag, dear."
"Charlotte, lay off the girl." Jeffry finally said, not wanting his ladies to get in an argument. "Let's have breakfast then we can get some work done."
Lena spent the rest of her day finalizing the updates to the South African security system with Jeffry. He was pleased with her work but always had some suggestions of his own. The key to Jeffry's security systems was that they were always customized. While there were patterns and similarities between all the systems each held unique attributes which made them extremely difficult to compromise. Lena alone was privy to all the configurations and she spent hours going over and over plans, attempting to find the weaknesses. Every system had a fragile point. Lena's job was to determine if it was possible to exploit that weakness. By dinner time Jeffry was satisfied and began making plans for them to fly to South Africa on Thursday.
"We should go." Charlotte said "Our reservations are in twenty minutes."
As three set out from the hotel room Jeffry's phone rang. "I need to take this, I'll meet you at the restaurant." He said glancing at the caller id.
They had a pleasant dinner, just the four of them, Lena, Charlotte, Luke, and Rose. Jeffry never joined them. When Charlotte and Lena returned to the hotel Jeffry was frantically packing a bag.
"Where's the fire?" Lena asked
"Chicago." Jeffry answered shortly. "Our system's being hacked. The leak is slow but its sophisticated and I can't fix it from here."
Lena sat down on the bed. "Maybe I'll stay here tonight. It's a lot nicer than my apartment." She was used to Jeffry dropping everything and jetting off to one of his clients in their hour of need.
"I'd like that." Answered Charlotte
"No, she's coming with me." Jeffry said as he finished zipping his carryon bag and turned to pack his laptop.
"To Chicago?" Lena questioned.
"Jeffry! A word." Charlotte snapped suddenly very firm as she beckoned him to the adjoining room. Jeffry slouched but knew better than to argue with her. Charlotte shut the door behind her and immediately turned on the TV in the next room to drown out their voices.
Lena had never been allowed to go to Chicago on work and she was fairly certain that if she bought a plane ticket on her own to Chicago she would be in trouble with the Alliance. Jeffry had never allowed her to work closely with this client. She'd helped design the latest system, updated 7 months ago, and she was familiar with the organization of the company and the building where they would be working but she'd always been on a "need to know" basis with this company.
After a few minutes her parents reappeared, both looking visibly distraught. Charlotte looked enraged but she stayed silent.
There was no explanation, "Let's go." Jeffry said as he scooped up his laptop bag and carry on. "You need to pack quickly."
A short time later she was unlocking the door to her apartment and leading her parents inside. She slipped into her bedroom to pack closely followed by her mother. Lena started to pack a carry-on bag and her mother sat down on the edge of her bed.
"Lena, do you trust me?" She asked, it was the first sentence she had spoken to her since her talk with Jeffry at the hotel.
"Of course I do. Can you get me an ID?"
"If you have any questions; I want you to come to me. Promise me you will come to me." Her mother walked across the room as she spoke, opened the top drawer of her desk, slid her hand under the drawer and removed an envelope.
"What are you talking about mom? The new ID is in the bottom drawer."
"I want you to know you can trust me. Whatever you say to me, won't go to the Alliance, or anyone else."
"I know that." Lena replied as she took the envelope from her mother and dumped the contents on the bed. She removed all the cards from her wallet and replaced them with the papers from the envelope. Her drivers license, credit cards, insurance information, and starbucks card, were all replaced with information of another fictional alias.
"My loyalty is to my husband and to you. Above any organization."
"Mom, is there something you need to tell me?"
"I love you Lena, have a good trip." She stood up and kissed Lena on the forehead just as Jeffry opened the door.
"Are you ready?"
Explanations for those not familiar with the setting of my story: The White Sox are one of two baseball teams in Chicago (the other is the Cubs), and the Shedd Aquarium is a large aquarium in Chicago right on Lake Michigan and is a popular tourist spot. Breckenridge one of my favorite ski resorts in Colorado, casual dress is the norm. I know Burberry isn't the type of bag designer to do a beach bag, but they had a really beautiful bag for summer one year and I saw it featured in a bunch of Magazines. Kinda wish I had that bag, but its worth about as much as my car so that's not exactly a possibility.
Yes, I know I borrowed the name of the espionage organization (the Alliance) from the TV show Alias, sorry, I am just not that creative. No, this is not a crossover, I only borrowed the name because I'm lazy.