Secret Betrayals

The rain gently slid down the passenger side window. The movement of the windshield wipers had become hypnotic in the stillness and painful absence of conversation in the car. “Why is he still not saying anything?” Evelyn thought bitterly to herself as she gazed out the window. Evelyn took a deep breath as she unbuckled her seat belt. As she leaned forward, and placed her fingers on the door handle, James reached out his hand and placed it softly on Evelyn’s left shoulder, “Ev, wait...please.” he said desperately.

Evelyn turned her head sharply to look James directly in the eyes. Her green eyes pierced straight through him. “Wait for what James? For a legitimate reason why you don’t seem to have time for me anymore? For us? Or maybe just more of your excuses. You can’t say you didn’t know about the art gala. I’ve been planning it for months James, for months. You have time for your dreams, but not mine. You now have the freedom to solely focus on them, rather than us, because we are done.” Evelyn broke eye contact and quickly turned so he couldn’t see the tears welling up. She opened the door, and quickly stood up. “Enjoy your vigilante club, or whatever it is you do, James.” Evelyn said as she shut the door.

As Evelyn trotted away from the car, in an attempt to avoid the rain, James sat in stunned silence. How could he blame her for being so angry. She was right. James knew that since Evelyn was a little girl, she wanted to paint. She was so close to a breakthrough with her art, and she deserved it. He had known her art gala was tonight, but he wouldn’t be there. James contemplated chasing after Evelyn, but he knew that he couldn’t. He didn’t want to see Ev hurt anymore, but he made an oath to protect his country. Taking this job was the only way that he could guarantee that she would be safe. Besides, lying to her had begun to take its toll on him.

A pained sigh escaped James’ lips as he pulled away from the curb. He sat in silence as he drove home. He knew that the part of his life with Evelyn had to be finished. He couldn’t justify an intimate relationship, if he couldn’t be completely honest. James knew that he couldn’t risk being completely honest with Evelyn, because it would put her in danger. As he continued to brood, James glanced at the screen in the center of his consul. It was almost 7:00 P.M., which meant that the Gala had already opened their doors to usher in eager guests.

James, now distraught at the thought of missing Evelyn's big reveal, pulled his car into his garage. As the garage door began its descent, he sat for a moment working through all his thoughts. He realized it was going to take time to work through everything, and he had a lot of work to get done tonight, so self healing was going to have to wait. James finally exited his car and made his way to his home office. He flipped on the light, and groaned at the sight of his office, it was a mess in desperate need of organization. His desk was littered with files. Files filled with intel to make sure his assignments were successful. James sorted through the files, setting aside files associated with completed jobs. When he had time, he would file them away, but that wasn’t going to be tonight. He picked up the little black notebook the general had included with his most recent files. As he began flipping through it’s pages, he became increasingly uneasy. Many of the names listed within its pages were high profile people, from around the world.

James began pacing, contemplating what his next move should be. He decided to make his way to the bathroom attached to his office. He made his way to the sink, where He slightly bent his tall frame so that he could cup water into his hands. He adjusted the temperature of the water. He needed the crispness of cold water to help him think. He splashed the cool water over his face. As he placed his hands on the edge of the sink to steady himself, he looked in the mirror and studied his face. He wondered if he had done the right thing. His hazel eyes held a lot of pain. Sometimes his eyes showed as a bright green, but tonight they were a couple shades darker, seemingly to match his mood. They showed a dark honey brown, much like his mothers. The water cascaded down his sharp jawline. He watched it wind its way down his neck. He let out a large sigh. His mind drew back to his conversation with General Johnson, and the little black book. He was skeptical about this new assignment. He heard it in the general's voice. He wasn't getting the whole story.

His thoughts were interrupted by the jarring vibration of his phone. James quickly dried off his face and hands, and removed his phone from his pocket to see that his partner, Jeremiah, was calling him. James picked up the call, “Hello?” “Are you near a TV?” His partner asked, and sounded out of breath. “You need to turn the news on, right now James. They burned us.” James' stomach dropped. He ran over to his desk and frantically searched for the remote. James, finally locating the remote under a folder, switched on the tv that was hanging on the opposite wall from his desk. He flipped to the news. There was a breaking news story. Scenes from locations all over the world, each in its own form of chaos. Then names started scrolling across the screen. One by one James recognized them. They were the high profile names listed in the little black notebook. All of them had been killed.

His partner broke through the silence, “Did you get the deposit into your account too?” “What deposit?” James asked. “Why would I have received a deposit already. We haven’t even started the job yet.” James walked back to his desk and opened his laptop. He pulled up his online banking, to check if there had been any recent mysterious deposits. James laid his eyes on a $20,000 deposit, one he didn’t know the origin, or reason for, and knew he and his partner had been set up. All of a sudden there was commotion on the other end of the line. “J, is everything okay?” James asked, trying to refrain from allowing emotion into his voice. He heard a muffled response, and then the call cut off.

As James was trying to rationalize and process everything, to decide on what his next move was going to be, he heard sirens in the distance. James knew that he was out of time. He ran over to the painting on the wall behind his desk, and moved it aside to reveal his safe. The contents of the safe were imperative if he was going to survive long enough to expose the people responsible. James opened the safe quickly and removed a couple USB’s, new passports, and money. James then grabbed his laptop, the files he needed off his desk, including the little black book, and placed everything in his briefcase. He then grabbed his keys, and made his way back to the garage. He removed the plate at the back of his vehicle. He had a burner plate beneath it, which should aid in his escape. He hopped in his car, and keyed in the code on the center console screen, to change the color of the vehicle. This would hopefully aid in avoiding detection. James hit the open button for the garage, and reversed quickly. As he made his way down the street, away from his home, he saw flashing lights pull into the driveway in his rearview mirror. James knew he had a long road ahead of him, and if he had any hope of exposing what happened, he needed to get to Oracle as soon as possible. It was his only chance of uncovering the truth. James knew that uncovering the truth was a dangerous game, when the other players had a lot to lose.