Agent X

xx| 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢-𝚂𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 |xx

Twenty-four. Twenty-three. Twenty-two.

I stared at the glowing floor numbers in the elevator. We had returned to IIA headquarters late yesterday night. The adrenaline that had been pumping me forward stopped the moment I had entered my living quarters, and I fell asleep instantly. When I woke up at noon, Professor Nyryn told me that Director Rokmond wanted to meet with me.

I reached up to scratch my cheek, but was met with the stretchy mask Professor Nyryn had made me put on. Now that the real Xara was back, I couldn't be seen in public with my real face. The itch burned on my skin, but I ignored it, just like Xara would.

The elevator doors parted, and I walked to Team Summit's meeting room. Inside, Rokmond sat at the large, glass desk with Xara to his left, back in her usual spot.

He glanced up from an open file in front of him. He smiled, a rare sight to see.

"Ah, come in, Xara."

I sat on the other side of the table, across from the real Xara, and slid the mask off my face. My cheek still itched, but I laced my fingers in my lap.

Control, Xara. Stay calm and in control.

My gaze fell on Xara. Her blue eyes were glazed over as she stared into empty space. She was even smaller than I had realized back in the WAOIC prison. The sleeves of her black leather jacket hung loosely around her bony arms. Her back was slightly hunched forward, frozen like a statue.

The Director glanced at the clock on the other side of the wall, then picked up a plastic bag from the floor and placed it on the table.

"Xara, it's one o'clock. You need to eat again."

Xara's head turned to the Director, her blank face staring at him for a moment. Slowly, her hand reached into the bag and retrieved a granola bar. Her bony fingers pulled at the top of the wrapper, but merely slipped off the plastic. I opened my mouth to offer help, but shut it.

Xara wouldn't want help, especially from a clone.

Without a word, the Director took the granola bar from her hands, opened it, then gave it back. Xara blinked at it for a moment before nibbling the top.

"I have a few things to discuss with the two of you," Rokmond said. "This meeting is a CUD. You know what that means."

The information goes with you to the grave.

"First of all, it's too confusing to call you both Xara. So the real Xara will be returning to her usual agent number, Agent 24. Clone Xara will be known as Agent 24 sub one. Second, I've filled in the real Xara on all of the details on your mission in Belgium. However, what I need right is a briefing on this last mission. Agent 24 sub one, please tell me the highlights of your mission. We can get a detailed report later on."

For a moment, I didn't even know where to begin, or what the Director would consider a highlight. But I suddenly realized that he wanted to know.

"Well, we followed Agent Fox to WAOIC headquarters. You probably know of our first attempt, where we tunneled under the fence and tried to go in through the roof of the building."

I glanced at Xara. Her face was expressionless. I wasn't sure if she knew of our first attempt, or that Dawn was a traitor.

"Dawn set it up so that when we cut through the roof, we landed in a prison cell. Apparently, the whole meeting to retrieve the mission file was set up by WAOIC to kidnap Xara. The list of WAOIC agents and their locations was a trap to lead us to headquarters in order to capture us.

"After we, uh, didn't succeed in breaking into headquarters, we retreated to Gwinn, Michigan. Agents Smog, Fox, and Bone followed us there. We managed to knock them out, and I got the idea to dress up as them and enter WAOIC headquarters."