Ruby Red Marionette

thirtysix | paradigm

Everything was different.

Every single assignment was different from the last. The first thing they made me do was, after getting a package at the headquarters, go to some apartment building. I told the building super who sent me and he took me to the mail room, opened all of the mail boxes, and allowed me to put the package in someone's mailbox.

After that, I had to steal someone's iPhone, run to someone's house, and slip it through that person's doggy door. The owner of the iPhone would track the phone to that location, and who knew what would happen when they got to the house? Who knew why I led them there or who was inside and if they were in on it? I certainly didn't.

Next, I snuck into a popular pastry and told the head chef who sent me. He allowed me into the kitchen, where I used a bottle of some liquid they told me they'd placed under the sink to poison someone's birthday cake.

This was my last assignment of the day. They always gave me three per day, it seemed. I went to clock out at the HQ and went home to find Yvette in the house. She was sitting on the bed with nachos, sharing them with Isaiah.

"Oh, hey Geneva." Yvette smiled. I opened my mouth to let out all of the disgust and irritation that her perky little grin always gave me, but Isaiah gave me one of his looks.

I sighed. "Don't spill any cheese on my side of the bed."

I pulled my sheets from under her, went on the couch, and went to sleep.

This repeated the next day. I got another three assignments. They were longer, more difficult, than the first six I got. I had to sneak into a news broadcasting room in the city (nobody inside was in on it, so I had to do everything myself) and turn off all the power in the building for three minutes. I had to stay in the building and turn it back on, since only I had the device that could fix it. Then I had to go to a daycare right at the end of their school day. I lured one of the kids out of the daycare and into a car that was waiting nearby the school, all by using a remote-control toy truck. I stood far away from the car, watching him. I locked the doors with a remote they gave me at the HQ.

Then, at ten at night (by this time the boy's parents and police officers were searching for him) I used the remote to unlock the doors and he escaped.

That left me with only two hours to complete my last assignment, which was to go into a health clinic and change the results on someone's STD test.

I got back to the HQ and clocked out just one minute before the deadline.

I reached the house by 1 AM, nearly too tired to keep my eyes open. Isaiah was lying down on the couch. He didn't acknowledge me when I walked in.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah. I just got a little tired from waiting for you." He said.

"Why were you waiting?"

He pointed in front of him. "To watch with me."

I hadn't even noticed it when I walked in: he got the television back. I stood there in the hallway, trying to find the words to say to him. I wanted to tell him that I'd gone on another walk or I met up with and old friend, but none of it came out. None of it was true. I was too tired to lie to him.

I made myself some hot chocolate and went to bed.

The day afterward, the card in the mail said not to report to base until three in the afternoon. That was good news; running around so much was making me tired. It was taking a toll on me. I got to stay with Isaiah for the first half of the day.

We watched movies on the new TV and made two red velvet cakes. I showed him how to hack his own computer (something I learned when I turned off all the power in the newsroom), and then we spent a long time trying to figure out how to get it back to normal. By the time that was done, I wanted to eat the cake.