• Infiltration

    tab I had never owned a gun before, though I had fired a few. I just knew that it was necessary, and that I wasn’t going in over my head unprepared. I had not told Richard about his phase of the plan, I thought he might disapprove. The man at the counter looked quizzically at me. Trying, I’m sure, to figure what I needed a gun for. Maybe he thought I had a crazy ex-boyfriend.
    tab “Can I see an I.D. ma’am?” he asked politely. It was then that I noticed the sign on the counter stating that you had to be twenty-one to purchase a gun. I hesitantly took my wallet out, not sure what age it said, removing my new driver’s license and handing it to the man at the counter, he eyed it suspiciously before handing it back. I saw then that my date of birth placed me at barely twenty-one, thank goodness.
    tab “What kind of gun are you looking for,” he asked, showing rows of yellow teeth as he spat a wad of colored liquid into a cup.
    “Um, yes. Well you see, I need a pistol or revolver of some sort. There’s a lot of gang activity where I live and I want to be able to defend myself. Do you have anything that’s good for that sort of thing?” I asked looking around at the glass covered shelves. There certainly were quite a few guns here, each as lethal as the next.
    tab I saw the man nod as he looked around for the right kind of gun for me. He began walking towards the back of the store, and showed me to a small section of revolvers.
    tab “Here, any of these would be fine, they’re easy to fire and don’t have much of a kick. They are not very lethal, unless you get the head or chest. Should work fine for you,” he said, wandering off to the ammo section. I grabbed the first one I saw, not wanting to linger in the story any longer than I had too. I hurriedly bought the gun and ammo, getting another shady look from the man when I paid with cash and headed towards the police station.
    tab I found the police station easily. It had a large sign outside of it that said police station. This was it, I couldn’t go back. I was already breaking a hundred rules and now I was going right to the people who could shut me away forever. Governments don’t like it when you mess with their conspiracies. People get hurt. Well, at least they did in the movies. I stepped into the doors of the police station, my faked resume with the name Kathrin Gale on the top in hand. I took a deep breath as I headed towards the secretary. I gave her a gigantic smile. I was Kathrin Gale after all, and I had nothing to fear.
    tab “Hi, I’m Kathrin Gale, I called yesterday about applying for a job, and I brought my resume and everything they had asked for. Where do I take it?” I said, playing cute. She returned the smile and pointed down the hall, telling me to ask for George Henry. I thanked her very politely and headed in the direction she pointed. Before I knew what I was doing, I had found Mr. Henry’s office and my heart froze solid. I knew it was over. There was no way I was getting out of this.


    George Henry

    tab George Henry was the man in black. He was facing the door as I walked by and noticed that I had stopped and was looking expectantly at me. Don’t give anything away, I told myself. Look him straight in the eye, remember you’re not Jessica Riddle. You’re Kathrin Gale.
    tab “Hi, are you George Henry?” I asked, keeping my voice in line so that it wouldn’t shake too much.
    tab “Yes, I am, and you are?” he asked in the same deep voice reaching his hand out to shake mine. I did my best to shake his hand firmly and tell him who I was. It was then I realized that my palms were sweaty. I hope that escaped his notice. It didn’t.
    “That’s right, I remember some one telling me you had called looking for a job, you look nervous enough,” he said, laughing and play punching my shoulder. This man was so much different here than he was when I was Jessica Riddle. The only thing that convinced me that he was the same man was the scar that still ran across his face.
    tab “Yes, a job would be nice. I brought my résumé if you would like to take a look, I am open for any good jobs available, preferably secretarial,” I said, taking out the piece of paper that was in my bag and held it towards him. He took it and examined it for quite some time before looking up.
    tab “Quite impressive I must say. Top grades in college, never been fired though you’ve had a number of jobs, lots of community service. Very nice looking résumé. Fortunately for you, I just had an opening on a job for secretary. I’m a terrible organizer, and I need all the help I can get. How bout it? Now run along back to the lady at the front, she’ll get you set up. I want to see you at my office at 8 a.m. sharp tomorrow morning, got that kid?” he asked. I nodded and almost ran to the door. It was easier than I thought. I just had to keep my cool and try to remember that I was in no trouble.
    tab I made my way up to the front yet again and found the kind lady there. I told here that Mr. Henry had hired me. She began gathering her things together, and handed me a clip board.
    tab “Here you go sweet heart, we’ll have your desk ready for you in the morning,” she said, “I have to give you a few papers to sign right quick. It will only take a few moments. You can fill them out right over here,” she said pointing to a line of chairs across from her desk. I sat down with the clip board. There wasn’t a pen on it so I reached down to grab a pen from a purse, except that it wasn’t there. I hadn’t even realized I had left it in the office but I guess I did. Could this day get any worse? I placed the clipboard down and was about to get up when the dreaded voice sounded in front of me.
    tab “I think you forgot this. Don’t want to be leaving these kinds of things around, some one might steal your identity,” he said, holding my purse out to me. Thank goodness I had bought a new one when out shopping, I’m sure he would have remembered something like that. As I grabbed for the bag I realized it was open and some of the left over cash was clearly visible. It was as if the hundreds were waving a big sign and doing a jig.
    tab “Quite a bit of money you got there. Going to the bank or something?” he asked, he face full of polite curiosity. Oh no. I had always been awful at making things up on the spot. But here goes trying.
    tab “It’s for my grandmother,” I said, saying the first thing that came to mind. I could see shock on his face. Maybe he thought my grandmother was a drug dealer or something. I didn’t know either of my grandparents so lying was easy. “She’s really old and doesn’t like to use technology, so she uses cash for everything. Shopping is the only thing that gives her real delight any more, so when she runs low on money, she tells me to go to the bank and get her some because she hates banks, she thinks somebody is going to rob her there,” I said. I could see he believed me as he nodded. He said goodbye and headed to his office. I began to relax until what I dreaded most happened.
    tab “Hey George, we got a runaway on one of the suspects. It appears that Jessica Riddle is gone,” I couldn’t move. My joints couldn’t take much more of this. George went over to the desk and read the memo that the woman gave him. I grabbed my clip board and looked down, trying to obscure my face. Good thing I put on a lot of makeup and my hair had bangs now, unlike before. I listened in as George sighed heavily.
    tab “I knew that one would be trouble. I’ll go investigate her house. Call me if you get any leads on surveillance cameras, I want to know the minute you find anything new,” he said as he grabbed his jacket, “oh yeah, and I want all her assets and bank accounts closed, I don’t want any money getting out,” he said his hand on the knob.
    tab “Oh, it says here she emptied it earlier today at around noon. Cleaned it out,” the woman said. The man cursed under his breath and banged the table.
    tab “Dang, she probably got a plane ticket out or something, crap, get all units on alert, don’t let her leave this state,” he said running out. The woman looked at him angrily as if it was all his fault she had so much to do and picked up the phone.
    tab I took my time deliberately, I barely even noticed what I was signing, trying to put plenty of time in between that discussion and her getting an up close look at my face. I caught her on the phone so I silently handed her the clipboard. She smiled and waved, mouthing I’ll see you tomorrow. I nodded and waved back. I headed out and made my way to my hotel room, looking behind my shoulder the whole way there.



    Investigating

    tab I made my way shakily to the police station through the cloudy day. It felt like I hadn’t seen the sun in years, which was not particularly refreshing. Once I entered the office, a large, blown up picture of me was hanging on the notice board. It was by far the largest picture on there. It was a tad bit old, but it still struck a striking resemblance.
    tab “Oh there you are Miss Gale. George has been asking for you all morning. You can go ahead and meet him in his office please,” she said, shuffling papers. I nodded, my voice hiding in fear from the picture. I had no trouble finding his office and he was indeed waiting for me.
    tab “Ah, Miss Gale, please come in! I have a ton of things for you to do. I’ve been putting this off for quite some time and it would be a great start for you. These are all my case files. And they are all mixed up. I know where to find everything, but the people I work with don’t and they have been complaining a lot lately, so that would be great if you could organize them please, thanks. I’ve got some boxes for you here. Now your office is not quite ready yet, we were using it for storage and there was quite a bit of stuff in there so you’ll just have to use my desk for now, I won’t be using it much today, not with that Jessica Riddle ordeal so going on. Now remember, these files are top secret. I probably don’t need to remind you seeing as you signed the stuff yesterday, but your life is depending on it kid, no pressure,” he said giving me a huge smile and patting me on the back. I nodded and took the seat he offered me. My heart gave a jolt as I realized that the paper on top of the massive stack in the box was a complete description of me. Everything from height, hair and eye color to the way I walked and talked. I audibly gulped. Thankfully George took it otherwise.
    tab “Oh don’t worry, this has been backed up for quite some time. Once you get that organize, it should be a piece of cake. You’ll have hardly anything to do. Don’t sweat about it kid,” he said while leaving the room. I hated being called kid, but I didn’t want to draw more attention to myself. I set the papers down on the desk, starting a Jessica Riddle pile, trying as best as I could to obscure the picture on the page. This was good. They were basically giving me everything I needed to investigate, I might not even need to use the gun after all.
    tab A few hours later, having looked through and organized the entire box, there was nothing. No clues, no reasons, and no evidence. Nothing except descriptions. I wanted to ask George some questions but I was afraid that the more I talked the easier it would be for him to identify me. I placed all the papers into files, shocked at how large mine was; it described not only me, but my family and those who disappeared around me. I had more people disappear around me than the others.
    tab The only thing I found that alarmed me more than anything I had read about myself, was that a great majority of these people committed suicide. On top of each description of a person who committed suicide was stapled a thin sheet of paper that described their death and the circumstances surrounding it. It was one of the most depressing things I had ever read. There were pages and pages describing in full detail the way they had mutilated their bodies. What was the point of all the detail? Surely it had little relevance to the disappearances? I kept the questions to myself as George came in to borrow the tape.