EPTHe sat at his computer angrily. Gary was 34 years old, 5'8, a healthy athletic 178 lbs, had dark-brown hair, blue eyes, and a normal-sized nose. He was wearing a suit, which was black. Not the shirt. The shirt was white, but everything else was black.
He sat in on aluminum chair with plastic arm-rests inside of a top-secret bunker working for the National Security Agency of the United States of America. On his desk, there lay a folder entitled "Classified - handle with care". As he thumbed through the contents, his computer made a -ping- noise. It was clear what had happened: he had received an email. With one fluid motion, he moved his arm from holding the folder over to a resting position on his mouse, and then proceeded to move it around, in order to control the on-screen cursor. He double-clicked the email. The email was titled, "Untitled".
It was from his boss, Liston. Liston was an unusual type of boss. He would hand out assignments for his subordinates to follow, and expected results. Gary opened the email promptly. It read:
"Did you get the documents? They were sent to your office over an hour ago.
- L"
Gary rolled his eyes so hard that he almost gave himself a headache. He replied back, "Yes, sir. I haven't looked over the documents just yet." then sent the email through the electronic mailing system that was used by the NSA to communicate.
"Why didn't I look at the documents?" Gary wondered, staring at the folder. Surely the information was time-sensitive, but Gary's mind was filled with many other thoughts. Suddenly, he lunged forward and grabbed the folder aggressively. Viciously, he ripped the pages open and many of them spilled onto the floor. It was the usual sort of rubbish that he had become accustomed to: pictures of hackers or possible pictures, along with names and addresses. Other personal information was added, such as their phone numbers, and even their favorite porn sites.
"This is a bunch of bullshit." Gary muttered, and threw the folder at the wall, leaving all the pages to flutter slowly down to the floor of the subterranean computer room.
Then, without warning, Gary received another email. The sender was president@whitehouse.gov. Was this real? It couldn't be. Gary's first thought was that cyber-terrorists had once again hacked into the President's state email address, and that they would need to be tracked and taken out by SEAL team 6. He opened the email cautiously. Some hackers, it was rumored, had developed a way to send the "email bomb", where opening the email would cause one's computer to detonate, sending shards of glass and metal into the user's face like artillery shrapnel. So Gary slowly opened the email.
He breathed a sigh of relief. It was just a message. The message read: "Hello Agent Oak. It is I, President Brenda Chung, in the flesh, first female and first Asian-American president of the United States of America. I heard you threw your latest folder of classified information at the wall from a very reliable source..."
"How the hell did she know?" Gary pondered, still perplexed by the message.
"It's simple." The email answered, as if it were sent from the future and was talking to Gary face-to-face, "Your boss works for the NSA too
. I like your style. I like you. And to be frank, I've been considering leaving my husband for some time. I'm just putting that out there. But this is an official White House communication, so we'll talk about that another time, hopefully . Anyhow, as you know, there is a crisis in the United Baltic Republic where a group of radical communist terrorists have intercepted a train car that was alleged to be carrying a nuclear warhead. I think they're going to use the warhead to blackmail the United States into withdrawing our troops from Yemen. I need you to go to Berlin and meet with an operative who goes by the name of 'The Wolf'. The Wolf will brief you on the situation in person, as these communications may be compromised.p.s. - I think I sent you two text messages. Call me!
Love, President Chung"
Gary picked up his cellphone to check his text messages. Sure enough, there were two texts from the President, but Gary decided to ignore them. "Fuck that." he muttered, deleting both messages without even looking at them.
Just then, the doors opened. They were like elevator doors, where they slide open sideways. It was Kate. She smiled slyly at Gary. "Fuck!" Gary said, leaping to his feet. "I thought... I thought that helicopter you were in on the way to Cairo got shot down. Kate... I..."
"Shhh." Kate replied, putting her finger up to his lips. She held her finger there softly and slowly ran it down to Gary's lower lip. She put it slowly into his mouth, and he began rhythmically sucking it, with his eyes closed. "How was your day?" She asked. "It was... hell... without you." Gary replied, letting go of her index finger. "I'm so glad. It's like you're back to life almost."
"Listen, Gary."
"Yes?"
"I know how you feel, but I'm married. You're married. I don't... I just don't think we should be doing this anymore."
"Kate, no! You mean everything to me. I admit that, yes, I am married but I got married too young. I don't even know who Belinda is anymore. She's been so distant ever since she got into competitive knitting. Everything in my life for the last 18 months with her has been quilts and winning. I can't do this. I can't go to Berlin without you."
"You don't have to. I'm coming with you."
"That's what she said."
"What?"
"Nothing!"
"I'm coming with you to Berlin, Gary. But strictly as a professional. We can't let our emotions get in the way of protecting our country. Besides, we don't know if we can trust The Wolf yet. Nobody knows anything about him."
"I don't know if I trust our President. She's flirting with me in official emails. Who am I gonna tell? The UN? Also, 90% of the hackers are from the United Asian Republic, and she's Asian as well."
"So? That's... kind of racist. I mean, I understand if she's sexually harassing you but..."
"It's not racist, per se."
"It is, Gary. There's no reason to suspect our President is involved with any hacker organization based out of Asia just because she's Asian. She was born in North Dakota, for Christ's sake."
"I thought she was born in North Carolina."
"Yeah, sure... one of those states that starts with 'north'. What matters now is we meet with The Wolf and stop these guys from blowing up the United Balkan Republic."
"Baltic Republic."
"Nooo... I'm pretty sure it's the United Balkan Republic."
"You know what? We'll figure it out when we get to Berlin and make contact with The Wolf. We know it's at least one of those united republics."
"Yeah. It's strange how countries that basically have almost nothing in common and value their national autonomy suddenly became united republics. That's like something I used to read about in bad espionage novels. Now it's real."
TO BE CONTINUED...................................................................
