11 May 2012
So I consider myself to be one of those people who don't think that just because someone is drop dead gorgeous they can do no wrong. But still, I totally did not see it coming.
I was doing the grocery shopping with my mum and we were on the frozen goods isle (yes I do wonder why my memory chooses to remember those weird little details) and my mum pointed behind me.
'Kat.' she said, 'Have you seen that bloke?!'
I turned and saw the most freakin' beautiful guy I had ever laid eyes on. He was better looking than Alex Pettyfer. Yes. It's possible. He had dark hair in a buzz cut and faint stubble across his jaw. He had rippling muscles beneath his all black attire.
I'm pretty sure everyone had turned to gawk at him (even the guys) but as he strode towards me (????) everyone seemed to be frozen. As I looked round in confusion I was suddenly slammed against the refrigerator.
I gaped at him in shock, my mouth flapping open like a fish. He had his forearm pressed against my neck. His smouldering grey eyes stared intently into mine.
'W-what the-?' I managed to choke out.
'They won't remember anything.' Is it possible to have an attractive voice? It appears so. While I was thinking this (no I didn't think about what he'd said) he got out a hanky and clamped it over my mouth. Everything went dark.
************************************ I woke up coughing in a draughty warehouse type place.
'Chloroform, right?'
He laughed. Something about him stirred my memory. He grinned (soooooo fit) as he said,
'I love it when a newbie knows something.'
Newbie? What? At least it didn't sound like they were keeping me hostage. Oh, god. I'd been kidnapped. Mr Pengaleng was watching so I'd better say something.
'Newbie? To what?'
Ok that wasn't what I was intending to say but at least I got it out of the way.
'We've been monitoring you for a while-' ohmigod he's been stalking me (no I don't know how I felt about that) '- and you have what we need. So we recruited you' Recruit? Was this some kind of army? Oh god. I recognised him.
'You're Alexander Stanley. You're a terrorist.'
Was he some kind of warlord? I can't remember what it said on the news. Only that he was the world's most wanted man. What had I gotten into?
************************************ 'Katherine Betterin. 16. Born April the 9th 1995.'
I didn't know whether the woman wanted an answer but I told her yes anyway. I'd been given all black clothing to change into. Just like Alex Stanley had been wearing and just like she was wearing. It all fit perfectly and was surprisingly comfy.
'You'll be starting combat first. Follow me'
She led me into a spacious room that was filled with five or six people of around my own age, all wearing the same clothes as me. A girl with vivid blue hair walked up to us.
'Hey Katherine! I'm Electra and I'll be your mentor. I'm here to get you settled in and to help you with the basics.' she was incredibly chirpy and stood looking rather out of place with her bright hair and sunny smile in contrast with the dreary warehouse and uniform.
'Hi. You can call me Kat.'
The woman had walked away. Electra smiled again and said,
'Well, let's get you started. Basic sparring I reckon first.'
************************************All that work had made my muscles ache and all my other thoughts had been driven from my mind. I slumped down on a bench next to Electra.
'I know what it's like you know. You don't need to bottle it up. Alex isn't bad. He makes sure we're all cared for and none of us have ever died. Not even the live agents.' she noticed the look on my face and hurried on 'but we won't be doing that for years. Hey.' I hadn't even noticed that I had started to cry but Electra had wrapped me in her arms. It all started to hit me.I'd been taken from my family. I'd never see my friends again. I had no idea what was going on. All I could do was hug Electra and deal.
************************************ I was lying on a mattress next to Electra, cocooned in a duvet. She had already fallen asleep but I was trying to process what had happened. She'd told me that Alex was running an anti-government terrorist organisation. Apparently the government were running some operation which involved killing a load of Ukrainian immigrants. Or something like that. Everything was so surreal. Surely this couldn't really be happening?
************************************ The next day at breakfast I saw Alex walking down the corridor so I decided to see if I could have a word with him seeing as Electra had assured me he wasn't evil.
'Er, A- er, Mr Stanley?' Well I didn't know what to call him. He turned and smiled. If he didn't stop looking at me like that then I was going to develop a serious case of Stockholm syndrome.
'Yes Kat?'
Ok, the way that he used my nickname freaked me out but I was determined not to show it.
'Well I was wondering why I'm here. What's the whole point of this?'
'You're new Kat. What you need to do is train. Don't worry about that yet'
'But what am I training for?' I might be swimming into deep waters here but his patronising tone irritated me.
'Did Electra not tell you?'
'Electra was vague. I don't think she really knows.'
'You'll find out once you get into the field.'
'Once I get into the field?!' I was shrieking now 'so you'll have me training, risking my life for a cause I don't know?! I'm sorry but I won't do that. You tell me now or I-' well I didn't know what I'd do. Somehow he was still calm, he was even smirking.
'I like your attitude Kat Betterin. You're new and you're already making an impression. You'll go far. Be careful though. That sort of outburst could hurt you.' he started to turn away when he said 'oh, you can call me Alex by the way.'
He walked away and it was a minute until I realised he hadn't answered my question.
************************************I spent hours everyday training after that. Training for something I didn't know about. Tactical, combat, even acting, though that was called deception. It was just like school except for, well, it was for terrorists. And people there were a whole lot nicer than normal schools. It was all routine. Well, up untill, a month or two in, all the Tony drama happened.
We were going into town to see a movie (yes. Terrorists in training get to go to the cinema) when we heard a group of kids sniggering about Electra's hair and how 'it matched that fit bruise on her face'. This seriously got to Declan (he fancied Electra) so he marched up to the guy who'd said it and grabbed the front of his collar.
'You wanna say that to her face?' the guy looked intimidated so his beefier friend stepped in.
'Oh I don't know if her, er, delicate face could take it' he said, shooting a sideways glance at her. Things looked like they were starting to heat up so we hurried over to diffuse the tension or at least provide a bit of backup incase it was needed. We were beginning to attract some worried looks. A large group of testosterone-y teens? The public are quivering in their boots.
Then (as if we needed it) a tall blonde came running up, screaming about assaulting her boyfriend when her eyes fell on Tony.
'Tony?' We all looked at Tony quizzically. There was some kind of technology that Alex had that was supposed to stop people from your old life remembering you. Tony was looking worried. Luckily, Tony's head was working quicker than the rest of our's and he said,
'Who? My name isn't Tony.' Granted it isn't the most original but he wasn't going all headless chicken like I would have been. Sadly it appears that Alex's technology needs an update because she wasn't convinced.
'It is you isn't it? Tony where have you been?' she enveloped him in an exuberant hug while we all watched, gobsmacked. Her boyfriend and his friend obviously didn't get what was going on either. In fact, boyfriend wasn't looking too happy about the whole exchange at all.
It was pretty obvious that we urgently needed to evacuate. So I dragged Electra away to call Louise, the leader for our age group. She didn't ask any questions and I knew she would be off straight away to get Blondie's memory fixed (wiped). I pretended to look at my texts then I ran over to the guys in tears (deception classes payed off) Electra following uncertainly behind me. When I reached them I wailed, 'Oh g-god Jed. Gr-an's in hospital. S-she h-had a st-r-r-oke.'
Tony and Declan instantly got it, as did Electra.
'Where are we being picked up?' Declan asked.
'By the cinema.' Electra answered. And with that we hurried off, leaving the very confused trio of teens in our dust.
************************************It turns out that the Blonde was Tony's ex. All that ordinary drama already seemed foreign to me. It felt like I'd grown up. And that was the scariest thing I 'd ever felt in my life. The thought terrified me more than Alex had when I saw him that day in the supermarket.
Well, anyway, Alex seemed to think we'd grown up enough to be promoted to mild fieldwork. Not proper, infiltrating the government or anything. But serious enough to find out what was really going on.
It turned out it had nothing to do with Ukrainian immigrants at all but that the government were detaining anyone who had no job (but mainly homeless people) and experimenting on them. What for, we don't know but the aim of our terrorist organisation was to de-seat (is that a word?) the people running this operation. I would have asked how we knew what we did but a strange atmosphere had settled over the room. I didn't think it was something I wanted to know.
************************************So basically our job was to cover for the main people. And somehow that entailed dressing like a goth (temporary hair dye too) and busking really loudly (apparently our amp was modified specially). Basically we (me, Electra and Declan) were a distraction. Tony and Dean were badass gangster type people who were meant to get into a fight sometime. I don't know whether they did. We were in a huge shopping centre wher
Falling For A Terrorist • Opuss № I