by Lee Sau Woon
nrpg : people, sorry for disappearing for a few weeks. I actually posted something at the end of the mission, but something is wrong with my .ini file resulting in all outgoing mails lost (in space). this posting is supposed to, among other things, explain why vanessa was affected by the cows...
rpg :
It was a typical off-mission day. Vanessa went to the office later than usual, since there was nothing much to do. She had finished whatever paperwork she was supposed to do, and intended to go to the office to tell Jordan that she would be out of Washington for the next few days. She saw, from the looks of his eyes, understanding and some sympathy.
"Yes, that will be no problem, Vanessa. I'll assume that you will be contactable by your handphone?"
"I will bring it along." She promised him. "I had already made a booking at a local hotel. Do you want the number just in case?"
Jordan looked down on his table for a few seconds, as if an answer was written there, before he looked up again.
"No, that will not be necessary. We do not have the habit of tracking our agents when they are off duty."
She thought that it was going to be an uneventful morning, until she overheard Leo asking Zenya out for a date. She took a glance at Jim, and saw him giving her a wink. He noticed it too.
Love is in the air, she thought.
With Zenya around, however, it was hard to tease Leo, and so the rest of the crew waited until Zenya went off for lunch, and then they crowded around poor Leo.
"So Leo, where are you gonna take her?" Jim asked, with a smile on his face.
Leo spun towards them in his chair and leaned back with his arms folded across his chest and a smile on his face. "Oh, I don't know. I was thinking maybe McDonalds and a movie...." he said, "whaddya think?"
Martin looked up thoughtfully and said, "I think that's where I took Emily on our first date. I forgot what we watched, thought."
Jim shook his head. "You can't take her to a burger joint for your first date, Leo." he said, seeing a slight look of relief cross Vanessa's face as he said it. "Now, Taco Bell, on the other hand...."
Vanessa stood there, shaking her head as Jim, Martin, and Leo chuckled at their attempts to shock her. "I'm surrounded by Neanderthals." she said, as she looked at each of them in turn.
"Actually, I have no idea where to take her." Leo said, "I'm open to any suggestions."
After a half hour's worth of debate and discussion, which was joined by Jordan who was taking a break from trying to explain how they had managed to destroy three rentals and a jet, Vanessa made reservations for them at a trendy restaurant that she and Christopher went to once. After that major group decision had been made, Jordan gave a sigh and looked at the papers on his desk.
"Next case, I'm leaving all of you here." he said with a smile. "You guys give me way too much paperwork after each case."
Everyone laughed as they all went back to their desks. After a moment of looking at the papers in front of him, Leo swung around towards Vanessa's desk once again.
"Hey Vanessa, do I have to dress up to eat at this restaurant?"
As the others laughed, Leo got his answer when a crumpled wad of paper hit him between the eyes.
Next morning, 0600 hours
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Vanessa looked out of the window, thousands of feet above ground, and saw nothing but clouds, and raindrops splattering on the window.
"Hey, its raining." A voice next to her said. Vanessa turned and looked at her best friend, her eyes narrowed into two slits as she saw 'rain' with a pair of extremely myoptic eyes without contact lenses.
"Yes, Nive, its raining. Its always raining when I come to visit Chris." She said.
Jennifer patted her hand. "Cheer up, Nessa. You don't want Chris to think that you are not living happily and resourcefully without him, do you?"
"Resource, yes. Happy? I don't know. I had a great time with ZULU. They are a great team. But ZULU is not everything. During missions, we are one, but after each mission, each of them had their own lives. You know something? Leo was trying to date Zenya in the office yesterday. I even had to help him find a venue for dinner. " She turned back to look out of the window as she recounted the conversation they had in the office the day before. "I wonder how is the date," she said to herself.
"Who is Leo and Zenya?" Jennifer asked, and Vanessa had to spend the next half an hour introducing each of the ZULU member to her friend again, for the third time since they boarded the plane.
"Another statistic to show that office romance do exist." She commented acidily after listening to Vanessa's explanation.
"You against office romance?"
"Not really, but I hated it when some women automatically think that just because she and a man worked in a office, he would automatically belonged to her."
On hearing that, Vanessa could not help but smile. "Did I hear some jealousy in there, Nive? Come on, tell me what happened."
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing... oh dammit. She's such a tart."
Vanessa had to smile again. The last time Nive used that word on a woman was when another college friend tried to date Rob, her boyfriend.
"Nessa, she worked in the Paris branch, and she just automatically think that just because Robby and her are colleagues, she had the right to monopolise him. Can you imagine my shock when I called him at his apartment and she got the guts to say that he is too busy to answer my phone?"
"Nive. You are jealous."
"I am not." She fumed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "And that Robby don't even have the dignity to refuse her when she started staying overnight at his place. "
"My place is undergoing renovation," she imitated the whinning voice of a female with a French accent. "Can you imagine that, Nessa?"
"So I have to assume that you are mad with Robby too?"
"I am not going to answer that question." Nive informed her as she stood up from her seat.
"Where are you going?"
"The ladies. I need to wear my lens before the plane landed."
Long Island, Starlings' burial plot
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When Jennifer and Vanessa arrived at the cemetry in a rented Taurus, it was no longer raining. The grass, however, was still wet, and the two of them carefully walked on the stone pavement to prevent their pants from getting wet. Both of them wore black trenchcoat, and sunglasses, and had a bouquet of flowers on each of their arms. Vanessa got sunflowers, while Jennifer chose forget-me-nots.
"Spooky," Jennifer commented, even though the sun was shining. She was right, however. Despite the sun and the birds and the flowers, the place had a atmosphere that could only be associated with the dead. The two of them stopped in front of Chris' tombstone, and simultanously put down the flowers. Vanessa noted that the grass around the stone was freshly cut.
"Hi Chris, Nive here. Robby is too busy with his work to come. He will be coming back next month, and he promised to visit then. That is, if he can tear himself from that tart. Sometimes, I questioned his taste. Oh well, guys will be guys. "
"How am I? I'm fine. Enjoying a half-single's life, since Robby seldom called. Which is fine with me. Oh boy, look at me, complaining about my life when I should be asking about yours. How rude of me."
"So how are you now, Chris? Used to this new environment? Not bad, but just abit dead. I know this great place just outside Washington, next to a school, so there will be lots of kids and lots of noise..you do like kids, don't you? If you are interested, informed me, and I will try to make arrangments for you. Don't say I never keep a lookout for you."
Washington, same time, place unknown
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All of the people had already, leaving a empty meeting room and a single female inside. She sat on the chair, alone, her shoulder slumped, as if defeated. Her name was Ching, and she was a Chinese lady in her late forties, though she could pass for someone in her mid-thirties.
"Hey, not leaving yet?" A voice came from the door.
Ching looked up, and saw a young man in his twenties standing there, a smile on his lips.
He ought to belong to the California beach, she thought, as she looked at him.
"I thought you had left." She told him.
"I did, but I decided to come back. "
"Why? To see me defeated. Majority wins. But you could have voted, Alex. You and those few other neutral votes. I thought you are on my side?"
Alex sat on the seat next to her, making himself comfortable.
"I am, that is why I came back."
"Why?"
"Ching, because I know you. I had known you since I was young. When you are just starting out. You know how I used to admire you? The way you stood up for yourself, a young, Chinese woman."
Ching gave a laugh, amused. "Oh yes, the way I let all of you use my body for experiments, the way I allowed all those needles to be inserted into me, blood drawn time and again. The way I allowed my baby to undergo the same experiments, the same torture. You ever saw my scars, Alex? All those scars all over my body?"
There was a few seconds of slience, before Alex spoke again.
"I was involved in something recently. A series of tests, in a small town. There is a group of FBI agents there, investigating. One of the agent is called Vanessa Lee."
Ching's eyes opened wide. "That girl...."
However, before she could say anymore, Alex patted her on her hands, and said.
"Don't worry. I'll go and have a talk with some of them. There will re-vote tomorrow. And you will win, and no one will ever harm your baby again. I promise."
With that, he walked out of the room, leaving Ching to wonder if he was her lucky star, or was he fulfiling his own agenda.
West Malaysia, same time
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Alice looked out of the car window. There is nothing on both sides of the road except for grass. Miles and miles of grass. She looked at the urn placed on the seat next to her.
"We'll be home soon, Keong," she spoke to it, as single tear dropped from her eye.
She would never answered it. They had only gotten married for two weeks, when Keong's company required him to go to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a meeting. He had decided against taking a plane, or coach, saying that he wanted to drive there, and enjoy the nature in the process. The authorities had only told her that he drove his car next to a cow farm, got out, poured his extra bottle of petrol on himself, and then lit himself on fire. No goodbye note, no warning whatsoever. The only witnesses to the death was a few dairy cows.
What made you do that? She asked.
Alice still remembered the first time they met. Both of them had been part of a RPG, and had been interacting over the computer for a few months, until one day when she walked into the computer lab and saw a young man staring at a computer screen with the familiar RPG non-GUI screen. She had stood there until he sensed a presence, and turned back to look at her. They had been together since.
That RPG. It was rumoured that the RPG was from DoD, USA, but they had laughed about it, joking that they were part of a experiment team for aliens, etc, etc. There was another girl, Alice remembered. A American born Chinese who was studying in Singapore. She too, had played the RPG for a few months until it was abruptly removed from the system. Alice heard that she had returned to USA not long after graduation. Vanessa. That was the name of that girl. Alice wondred how she is now.
Suddenly, out of a sudden, a cow appeared about ten metres in front of her car. Alice braked. A cow, from the middle of nowhere. How strange, she thought.
The cow looked at her, as if trying to send some telepathic messages. Unknowingly, she stepped on the accelerator again, but turned slightly right, so that the car drove pass the cow, and increasing the speed, she drove until she hit a big tree at the side of road. She did not even scream when the window shattered on her.