✏️ The Littlest Spy

8. Loose Ends

There were a lot of things to say. So many documents to go through before Isadora and Brock could properly understand the characters they were playing. But the more the evening wore on, the more Isadora started to wonder about the Operative in front of her. Maybe he was just asking about Estelle; about how she interpreted the character. But there were still questions that sounded too personal until she viewed them through that lens. Was he prying into her personal life, or encouraging her to develop the more private side of her character? She had no idea, but it contrasted sharply with his reluctance to talk about himself. Every question she asked, even if it could have been about Brock, was answered by Klein. And the more he answered, the more he seemed comfortable in the role – although Isadora had to wonder how many of the details he actually remembered, while he just skimmed most of the documents and picked out only a couple that caught his eye.

Not long after the wine bottle was empty, her curiosity was too strong. She wanted to see an answer from Dashiel Brock, not the character he was playing. And there was one question she knew would elicit that.

"So why did you join the Agency?" she asked, aware that the words would be a big departure from their conversation so far. "Sorry, I know that's pretty personal, but I can't help wondering..."

"Don't worry about it," he said with a smile. "With all my legends, I get quite enough of secrets and lies. I don't want to be hiding stuff when I'm off-duty as well. My life is an open book." He hesitated a little while, before qualifying that: "Mostly. But signing up? I don't really know. I guess I always knew it was what I wanted to do. I mean, I did mechanical engineering in school. Woodwork, metalwork, all those things. And I decided to be a locksmith. And from there, a lock picker. Wanted to know how to use my skills for good."

"That doesn't sound like the Dash Brock all the legends are about. I thought you were like a head hitter?"

"Tales grow in the telling," he said with a shrug. "I started out as a Monitor. Locks, looking up blueprints at city hall, that kind of research. Went to be a field operative, and discovered some talents I would never have expected. Turns out that fighting comes naturally, and it took very little effort for my hands to become lethal weapons. But then, when everything became computerised, most of the stuff I'd learned in school was no longer helpful. I could have gone in for retraining, I'm sure I could have picked it up, but I didn't want to go back to the classroom. So we switched roles, and I became a full Operative."

"And your partner?" Isadora asked. That was the one thing she wanted to know more than anything. Why was someone as experienced and decorated as Brock looking for a new partner? Maybe he was hard to work with; that was entirely possible, especially if his partner had been a woman. But then, the way he said swapping roles made it sound like he'd been with the same partner for a long time. "I mean, have I got big shoes to fill? Did you decide you need a younger model or something?"

"I said almost anything," Brock snapped. "Don't talk about Ghost, okay? You don't know anything." There was real anger in his eyes now, like a mask in front of a confused tangle of emotions that he didn't want to unpack or to share. Isadora knew that she had touched a nerve, but she didn't have the first clue why. The resentment between Brock and his previous partner ran deeper than she would have expected for a guy like him.

"Okay," she said quickly, eager to turn the conversation back to a more comfortable place. "So what are you into? Like, hobbies or something?"

"You know, the usual," Brock answered curtly. "Work out, read, catch up on sleep. Not a lot of room for hobbies in this line of work. But I guess I like learning new things. Taking up a new sport or whatever. I've done rock climbing, martial arts, badminton, skeet shooting, making soap, watercolours... Even learned to play the clarinet a bit. My legends all have new hobbies, so I can learn something in enough depth to be an unskilled enthusiast. Helps to sell the role, you know, to throw a lot of time into something trivial that I'm not so good at. And to get better."