Chapter 3

Canada was freezing. Katniss tightly wove her scarf around her neck and rolled her luggage outside of the airport, a taxi was supposed to pick her up and take her to her new temporary apartment. When she arrived, she unpacked all of her things and took a burning hot shower. The place was cozy, definitely a one-person flat. The tea kettle squealed from the kitchen and the girl went to go pour herself a mug, she plopped herself on the couch and turned on the TV, it was time to unwind from all the traveling.

Eventually the sun disappeared behind the horizon and the moon took its place in the dark blue curtain of sky. Katniss tossed and turned, but eventually drifted off into one of those sleeps where you wake up every now and then.

Since she was now out of the country, there would be no FBI offices in Canada, however the agent found a local police station and asked some questions about her suspect. The officers laughed as they handed her a thick file containing all of the reports of Mason in Canada, she stuffed it in her bag with the other one and smiled.

"Good luck," they jeered as she strode out of the office. She chuckled at their lack of belief in her, but she didn't blame them for not knowing that she was simply one of the best agents there was. She made herself comfortable at a small table at Tim Horton's and poured over the new information while taking bites off of a maple-flavored donut. This perp was going to be hard to track down, she was too slippery for past investigators to snag, but Katniss had faith in herself. She thought of suspects as targets, and she was a bow and arrow, striking bullseye every time.

Days went by, which turned into weeks and still no leads on where the spy could be hiding. Dozens of calls from her fiancé filtered through her phone line, dozens of apologies and lies of returning home soon were uttered. She began losing sleep, bags developed under eyes and her once perfectly neat braid grew wild and frizzy. She was used to not catching a suspect right away, but with this one there was no new information coming in at all from anywhere. This went on for several more weeks, she was beginning to lose hope.

Katniss decided to try and forget about Mason for at least one day, give herself some time to clear her thoughts. She went out to get some firewood, the little apartment had a fireplace and the nights were growing colder as her pile of wooden logs grew thinner. She got in her rental and drove around the lonely winding roads through thick pine forests, she drove for hours until she happened upon a lumber yard. She pulled up and parked in the small gravel lot and walked down to the little building. Surrounding it were open fields where muscular men chopped blocks of wood in half, their sweat leaking through their clothes and onto the dirty snow.

"Hello," greeted the boy at the counter, "What are you looking for today?"

"Um just a bundle or two of firewood, I think."

"Alright, well why dontcha follow that man over there out into the yard and he can help you pick one out eh?"

"Sure," she grinned and followed a surly man out into the lumber yard. Stacked up against the back wall of the building were piles of chopped wood already sorted out into tied up bundles. She heard the grunts of the working lumberjacks and felt the bitterness of the brisk winter air biting at her cheeks.

"Doesn't it get too cold for these guys?" she asked.

"Oh no, they sure do work up a real sweat haha," the man laughed in his low-baritone voice.

She scanned the yard, observing the men and their hard work. Her eyes dancing along a field of movement and silver glimpses of the metal of their axes shining in the sun. Then she spotted someone different in the crowd, a woman.

"Who... is that?" she asked, motioning to the girl hacking her axe at the logs vigorously.

"Oh, that's our very own lady lumberjack," chuckled the man. "Our only one, too. But old Josephine is very good at her job."

"Josephine? Hey, um can I go talk to her?"

"I don't see why not, just be wary you don't startle her, she can be pretty jumpy with her axe there."

Katniss's boots crunched through the splinter-covered snow as she carefully walked over to the woman. She studied her, her muscled arms worked precisely with every piece of wood she chopped, her dark hair swung in her short choppy-ponytail, her eyes fixed on her work.

"Hello," said Katniss tentatively. The worker looked up and sneered, and the agent's heart stopped. That smile was all too familiar, her dark mysterious eyes, the way her lips curled around her teeth and her eyebrows turned down. This was no ordinary lumberjack, this was Johanna Mason. But she had to play it cool at first, this was nothing like one of her fantasies where she just yelled "freeze" and caught her target and everything was perfect. This girl was a espionage genius and one wrong move would lead in losing her capture and return to the States.

"Hello," her voice was high-pitched and breathed a hint of arrogance. "Can I help you with something?"

"I just want to buy a bundle of firewood."

"So then why didn't you just pick one up from over there and pay for it? Do I look like a cashier to you?"

"No... I'm sorry I just noticed you were the only-"

"Woman out here? Yeah, I have fantastic skills, I'm better than most of these boys."

"I can see that."

"Is there anything else you need because I have a lot of work to finish up here."

"Sorry, I just thought we could relate, I'm one of the only women in my field also."

"Oh are you? And what field is that?"

"I'm a banker," Katniss lied.

"Oh a banker, how exciting."

"I just know it can be pretty tough, a lot of people don't believe we can work just as good as the guys."

"Well, fuck that. And fuck anyone that has anything to do with it. Times are changing, finally it's our chance."

"Yes, definitely. I never got your name anyway?"

"Josephine Mersault."

"You're French-Canadian?"

"I'm... a little bit of everything. What's your name?"

"I'm Katherine Edmunds," she lied again. It would be too easy to track her down as a part of the FBI if she gave the perpetrator her real name. Aliases were just a normal part of her job. Lies were a normal part of her job.

"Alright, Ms. Edmunds. It was very nice talking to you. We should do it again sometime."

"Um, yes of course."

"Are you new around here or something?"

"Yeah, how can you tell?"

"You just seem so... American. I mean no offense of course."

"I am American, non-taken. You ever been there?"

"Naturally, I've spent my fair share of time in the US. Well, you'd better get back to buying yourself some wood and I'd better get back to my job if I don't want to get fired."

"Right, see you around."

"Bye."

Katniss purchased her kindling and got back into her car. She sat in the cold vehicle and started it up, but she just sat there for a moment before driving away. That was her target, she didn't look like a spy though, she didn't talk like one or act like one either. She seemed like a very straightforward person, she's good at faking it. She had to see her again, she needed more evidence and more trust before she could cuff her and ship her back to the States. She had to see her again...

She thought for days of how to go back, how to get closer to the lumberjack... why did she even choose to go undercover as a lumberjack for Christ's sake anyway? She was an enigma that girl. But somehow, she had to befriend her. Katniss strategized, contemplated and plotted, she thought about Mason nonstop for the next few days, struggling to come up with a plan to get closer. She tried looking her up in the phonebook, but she couldn't find anything under her real name or the fake one she gave Katniss.

She eventually just decided to start hanging out in the nearest town to the lumber yard, in a small rural place like this with only one town square for miles around, she had to turn up eventually.