Rule 4: You'll never win against him

What do you think is the difference between a spy from an assassin? Assassins kill for whatever reason while spies obtain information. You’d think spies are more innocent, but let me tell you, there are dirty tricks behind the curtains. We lie, we fabricate stories, and we mislead people, manipulating them in our favor. We have tricks upon our sleeves while they go for the kill.

-Hira

                                                             ⟡ Hira ⟡ 

I woke up early and went to the training room after last night since it ended early. I focused on the dagger in my hand. I squinted my eyes as I calculate my distance and space to the board meters away from me, before throwing the dagger in my hand to the board. I smirked as it hit the bull’s eye. Still not contented, I got another pair of the dagger and throw them simultaneously, without looking at the board.  

I heard a clap in the background. "The menace to kill is on point, geez that was scary." I sighed and faced the door where the clapping is. It was Agent Bulb feigning a scared expression. "I'll never think of messing with you." I looked at his hair that he keeps on changing. Today he decided to go with yellow hair.  

“I told you guys, she’s either here in the training room, or in her room sleeping when she’s not in a mission!” He exclaimed to the others. 

"Great show you got there." Said Agent Ariel standing beside him. Ariel has her hair braided, her arms have a wing tattoo as she popped a gum in her mouth.

"Damn woman, that's why I like you." Amusement was on Agent Blue's face as he casually walked towards me and slung his hand on my shoulder. I glared and forcefully removed it, he grimaced in pain. "Easy woman, I'll die because of you before I get another mission." He has dyed blue hair, blue clothes, even he mentioned one time that his underwear is also blue! I always cringe at his style but he says that he wanted to stand out from everyone. Pretty dangerous for a spy where we have to blend in the crowd right?

“How was the party last night?” Blue asked. Incidents from last night filled me. Allister kissed me. I knew he was drunk when that happened, and I need to be professional about it. But I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t bug me. I’m a trained spy for goodness sake! That’s the last thing I should think of right now and I can’t accept it!  And with Wave of all people...I’m sure it will be awkward. Sure we’ve been teasing each other for years now but it didn’t reach the point where we kissed. He’s my superior and partner in missions after all!

"Why are you all here?" I asked back, clearing away my thoughts.

"You were back since the other day, why didn’t you say hello to us?” Sigreen, my roommate, asked me. 

I faced her, “ I was busy sleeping, what about you? You weren’t on the bed the other night…Busy with boys?” I teased.

 Her eyes widen as her cheeks flushed red. She put her naturally blonde hair up in a bun. Her blue eyes that turn green every time it hit the sun still amazes me. She has black-rimmed glasses. I once told her to wear contact lenses since they themselves invented high tec inventions but she refused, saying that her glasses have a sentimental value.

“Whatever. You just came from a mission and now you’re over-training yourself. Do you want to kill yourself?" Sigreen rolled her eyes. "Yes you are an agent but the food is important also."

“I’m not killing myself. I’m training to get stronger.” I replied.

"There you go again with getting stronger and shit." Agent Dollar spoke up, his tall and muscular body leaning on the wall. His blonde hair is longer now compared to the last time I saw him.

I averted my gaze. "I have my reason."

"Then what is it? You are Agent Nova already, in just a span of seven years overall, at the age of 23. Is that not enough?"

I breathed deeply. "Yes. It is not enough."

"Don't tell me you want to be a top agent?”

I just kept quiet. I can't tell them my plan...to revenge my dad. From the start, making friends here was not my plan. But I'm happy I could have them to temporarily make me forget the pain.

Dollar seemed to understand, so he just dropped the subject. "Fine. Don't tell us. Just please come with us to eat okay?"

I nodded my head. These fools won't stop if I won't agree. We all headed to the dining hall and ate. 

"So, how's everyone's mission?" I asked. I faced Agent Blue, visibly cringing at his sense of style.

"Let's talk about you, Agent Blue, and your obsession with the color blue. Please, for the sake of everyone's eyes, stop wearing that color every day. Gosh, my eyes hurt just looking at you.”

He reached to ruffle my hair. "I have to live up to my name, Agent Blue, of course."

I slapped his hand away, and he acted like he was hurt. 

"Yeah, and I'm wondering how you got so many blue things you own." Dollar said.

"I'm not like you who only think of dollars and money."

"Oh? Then what about Agent Bulb? Huh? Like who the hell would want to have a codename like that?"

"What's wrong with the name Bulb? I'm the light."  Bulb defended himself. "And you?" He raised his eyebrows at Agent Ariel.

Ariel raised his hands up. "Don't look at me like that. I love Princess Ariel from The Little Mermaid."

Sigreen just shook her head. "Making them my friends was the biggest regret of my life."

I patted her shoulder for comfort. Same, girl. Same.

My watch lightened up and the hologram face of Leonard or Mr. Martins appeared. “Agents, meeting room. Now.” I looked at my friends and see their faces hardened and turned serious upon receiving the message. Sigreen looked at me motioned for me to go. Standing up, we left her and went to the elevator and pressed the 13^th floor. We entered the meeting room and was greeted by Mr. Martins grim expression as he sat by the head chair by the rectangular table. The meeting room was quite large...large enough to accommodate 30 agents.

“Are we all set?” asked Mr. Martins, eyeing everyone. The five of us sat on the chairs as one by one our fellow agents coming in. I forgot their code names since each of us is busy with missions and they die and a new agent comes in to replace them so I lost track of them. If Sigreen and the gang didn’t befriend me, I would have also forgotten about them too.  

We just nodded in greeting as they sat on their respected seats. We are ten agents in the room now, excluding Mr. Martins and Mr. Warner. 

“Agents Rin and Rick are still in India, Mr. Martins.” said Mr. Warner, touching something in his tablet. “Agent Rook and Tris came to Poland for the information about the orb. It was fake.”

Mr. Martins took a deep breath, massaging his temples.  “I’m sure you are aware why I asked all of you here. I want you all to hurry and look for more information about the orb.”

The lights dimmed as the projector turned on. An image of a white stone flashed on the screen in front of us. Mr. Warner stood up to explain. “Let me review the details for you.”

A picture of an old man appeared.  “Garrett Norman is a chemist and has a factory called ‘oracle’, founded a new and rare metal called ‘oryx’ and crafted a weapon called the orb. Orb works like a nuclear bomb but is more compact, in the form of a diamond.”

 He paused. “It is powerful enough to kill an entire nation with a single strike. The government and every other illegal organization are after Garrett. We need to get it before anyone else.”

I furrowed my eyebrows at that. “I’m sorry Mr. Martins, but the K-9 group is still terrorizing our agents back in Rome. It won’t take long before Cypher Agency will turn to dust.” I spoke up. “I reported to you yesterday about our fallen five comrades. We need all our attention to the K-9 first.”

“Yeah, I am aware of that. But the government’s trust is getting thinner. They had been suspecting us to betray them.” Mr. Martins sighed. “Once they found out our illegal shipments of weapons and our alliance with some organization…we are done. We have to give them what they want.”

“Isn’t it ironic? We catch criminals and obey the government’s orders, seeking for their protection… only to hide our crimes behind their back.” Wave said, appearing from the door, clearly late in our meeting. I rolled my eyes, such a dramatic entrance, Wave. He sat on the seat across from me and looked at everyone until his eyes landed on me and he quickly looked away. I took a deep breath. I need to be professional.

“We are a non-government group after all.” Dollar agreed to Wave from beside me. “We give them information, they give us a budget. It’s a win-win situation.” 

“But it’s unfair.” Added Agent Blue to my right.  “We do all the dirty work, but the CIA has the credit…” I rolled my eyes at them. They had a point though. 

Mr. Martins gave them a look, to which they all shut up. He turned to Agent Cris from across us.  “How’re the shipments?”

“Everything is good, sir. Our alliance with the Pentagon is still strong. Russia approved to receive the shipments, along with Germany, Hongkong, and India.”

“That’s great.” Mr. Martins said. “I’ll assign you your missions and at the same time, gather information about the orb. We just need to have it and find K-9.” 

“Non corvus corvum trahere de in oculo alterius.” He said, dismissing us. 

We repeated what he said, and everyone stood up to leave the room. Ariel nudged my arm, “Let’s go.” 

“I’ll follow you later,” I replied, seeing Wave approaching me. Ariel just tsked at me and left with the guys. Wave was in front of me now, staring at me and said, “To the training room. Now,” before walking away.

I just took a deep breath and followed. 

“Why did you called me here, Wave?” I asked as I entered the training room, pretending to be not fazed by him. He was shirtless, his muscles on visible view. He wrapped bandages on his hands and I watch as sweat dripped on his abs, the veins on his hands were visible. I gulped, looking away.

I can sense him smirking. “What? Don’t you remember our usual sparring, little kitten?” He replied. Oh right. We have an agreement to have a spar every once in a while. I facepalmed myself, so careless Hira. I forgot about it since I just got distracted by him… This is so not me.

I wrapped my hands with the bandages too and replied, “Of course, I remember.”

”Shall we start then?”

I didn’t reply, but I launched first and punched him. He dodged it, without even an effort and not looking at me. I gritted my teeth, damn Wave. I launched another attack and he still dodged it. With full force, I attacked him from the back and this time, he didn't dodge. He grabbed my arm and pulled me close towards him, so close I could smell his breath. "Is that all you can do?" He flashed me a smirk and twisted my hand. I writhed in pain. I bit my lip, preventing myself from screaming from pain. Damn it!

I squirmed under his hold and he tightened it. Calming myself, I close my eyes and focused. And when I open my eyes, I kicked his groin. Hard.

He yelped and released me. I smirked and looked at him, he was not expecting that, I know. I launched forward and with full force, I kicked his stomach so hard a lot of times. And with a final kick, I released him and his body dropped on the floor. "I won!" I yelled in happiness.

"Not yet." I froze. Hands instantly grabbed my feet and pulled them making me drop face-first on the ground. I yelped in pain at the impact. Wave stood up and sat on my stomach, his hands locking my hands above my head, pinning me on the floor. "You still have a lot to learn, Hira."

He leaned closer to me, his breath fanning my face. Smirking, he whispered in my ears. "I won." 

I faked a smile at him, as I felt the blood dripping on my hands. “That would be the last time you’ll win then,” I retorted. 

I grimaced, feeling the scar I got from my recent mission reopening. Shit. I bit my lip to prevent myself from cursing. 

Wave seemed to notice it instantly and sighed, “Let’s get you healed.”