Phantom Spy

Chapter Two

“Phoenix…didn’t think I’d be hearing from you so soon.” Said a gruff voice of a man from the other side of the line into Kate’s ear. “its not phoenix” she replied still not sure how to talk like an agent. She decided to be bold with the man and be straight forward. “can you confirm your identity before I say anything else.” She spoke remembering her mother’s words of making sure it was Stanley she talked to. “ I’m Mr Nobody former agent Carbon, code Charlie-32-Alpha-carbon-6790…but since you probably don’t know me and also your uhh….parents would have told you my name…I’m Stanley Duncan Stevens and now who are you miss.” Stanley’s hesitation when he mentioned her parents did not go unnoticed to Kate. “I’m Project 001…agent hawk and phoenix are…mom said I should also tell you that the target has been compromised.”

As soon as she finished talking she heard Stanley cursing and there was movement like someone pushing furniture violently. “shit!...shit!...okay I’ll be over there in a jiffy I assume she had already told you not to communicate with anyone other than me.” He said it in a more of a statement not a question tone and Kate only managed to breath out a light ‘yes’ and the line went dead. After the call she went up to her father’s study, the whole ‘we’re not your real parents thing hadn’t sunk in and she doubted that it was ever going to. She got in and saw his father lying in his pool of blood with a gun in his hand. He was also wearing similar clothes to her mother’s. black t-shirt, black jeans, combat boots and an accessories waist belt. When she got closer what she saw would have made any other girl scream and probably puke on the whole study flow but she didn’t do any of those she just stood and looked without movement. Her father had been shot directly on the forehead and it seemed he had more bullet holes on his chest.

Besides all this pain, hurt and sadness the other strong emotion Kate felt was anger towards the people who had done this to her parents. She remembered her mother’s other instruction and she ran out and went to the laundry room and grabbed two white sheets and went to cover her father first and then mother. She then went and grabbed a chair and looked behind the tv mounted on the wall at first she didn’t she anything and she thought her mother had been mistaken but something told her to look again until she saw a small tiny ren button on the wall behind the plasma tv set. She stretched her fingers and pressed it and then a small compartment opened and a flash drive slid out from the tv, she grabbed it and put it in her jean pockets as she knew she didn’t have time before Stanley arrived and she felt that it was safer with the information being known by her self only…and…Her.

A few minutes later as she sat staring blankly at the sheet covering the corpse of her mother a man cleared his throat by the lounge entrance and she turned to look at him. She knew at first glance that it was Stanley and she relaxed again. “who did this?” she asked him quietly after having turned back to look at her mother’s corpse again with her arms crossed above her knees on her chest and her chin resting on them. She felt so lost, so drained, she felt like strangling the people who did it at the same time she wanted to scream out all the pain but she couldn’t and somehow her tears couldn’t leave the tear ducts.

To someone who looked from the outside, they would have thought she wasn’t feeling any pain but even Stanley knew that she was being ripped in two from the inside and screaming and crying wouldn’t do much to help her…she was not your typical normal teenage girl. She was Project 001. Stanley soon realized that all the information of the day hadn’t sunk in to Kate’s head because the death of her parents was taking it’s toll on her. He knew it would be hours before she started wanting answers if not even a day or two. So she did what he could do to help at the  moment and that was to call the organisation’s forensics team and coroner to come and take care of everything else.

“Are you ready to leave Katarina?” he asked her and she seemed to come out of her daydream and realized that the body had been removed and everything around her was back to its normal old look, no bloodstained floor, no stained carpet, no smashed furniture and also no dead corpse of her dead mother and father. She wished she could look at the door and see her mother walking in with a smile and giving her, her famous hugs that were warm and motherly. She wished her father would walk in with his smile which was always so warm and comforting but she knew none of her wishes would come true and that broke her to the core.

“Can I stay here today Stan I don’t wanna leave just yet.” She said with a vice she herself didn’t recognise. And didn’t bother to look to Stanley who had felt a tug at his heart for two reasons, first was the way Kate had just called her Stan like she had been told by Theresa that it was how she called him. Second the girl broken in front of her who had just had her world turned upside down just as the people she knew as her parents died and to top it all off, they were secret agents.

“Id have to leave some security detail here with you you’re not going to be safe alone.” He said to her with his gruff voice that reminded her of Liv’s grandad when they’d gone to visit him one time in his hometown in Italy, they’d had a good time then. “I don’t mind the detail I probably won’t even go out for the night anyways.” She said to the man who looked to be in his fifties with the stress of work having aged him even more. Stanley nodded and walked out to go organise the security detail for Kate.
*******

The way the house was so quiet made Kate feel like she was about to lose her mind. She had gone to her room after talking to the head of her security detail, Rick. With all the exhaustion for the day she had tried to sleep it off, but sleep had abandoned her and left her with her thoughts that still hadn’t stayed in one place. She had questions but a few answers and she knew that most of the answers, she didn’t want but were important if she was going to have to apprehend her parent’s killer or killers. After having pondered for a few minutes, she finally decided to call the only person left that she could talk to and that was Liv.

She picked up her phone and dialled her best friend’s number who answered with a cheerful voice. “Katie!...what’s up giiirl!” Katrina just took a deep breath and Liv detected that something was wrong with her friend. “Liv…I don’t know what to do…they are both gone.” Liv answered with a confused tone. “wait, whose gone and what do you mean they’re gone…what’s going on Kate?” Kate felt the lump growing in her throat and she tried to calm herself down so that she could reply her friend. “I mean my parents…they’re dead Liv…dead…” she trailed off and stared blankly at her ceiling. For the first time since they became friends Liv had nothing to say as she tried to imagine what her friend was going through. After a few minutes she finally spoke, “ w-what…how…when…Kate” that is all she could say before she decided to jump of the bed and run out telling her mom she was going to sleep at her friend’s and her mom didn’t worry her with the questions as she saw that something was wrong with her daughter’s friend. “I’ll be there in a few minutes Liv” she said and hung up the call.