The Phoenix Project

Surprises

 "Lin. Lin. Lin! Wake up, or we will be late to he! And Captain William won't like that." My best friend Zia shakes me awake from a dream filled blissful sleep. "Ok I'm up, I'm up." I sit up and yawn. Zia doesn't have on her full uniform yet. She's a solider. "Good, I hear we are getting a surprise today." She says as she starts to leave.

A soon as she's gone, I walk over to my dresser. I have a section for every style. Dress wear for Phoenix dinners or parties go on the far right, what I call "basics" (clothes that average Alancicate citizens wear) go on the far left, and my work clothes go in the middle. They mostly are black and white. I pull out a pair of sleek black leather pants, a white camisole and black almost see-through top to go over it. I lace up my black combat boots that Zia gave me for my birthday last year.

I walk out into the hall of our apartment and to the bathroom. When I close the door behind me I look into the mirror. My bleach blonde hair is very messy and needs to be parted. I grab my brush and flip my hair over the right to revel the buzzed side of my head. I run the brush through it a few times in till it's nice and smooth. My hair is touches my shoulder and has a single red streak in it. I brush my teeth and smear on a light pink lip gloss that makes my pale skin and dark green eyes pop. I pick up my earring. It's a Phoenix earring that I chose to show I'm a rebel. Most people got arm bands and some even got tattoos. But I am a spy and I needed something smaller and easy to take off. I put the earring in the top of my left ear. Now I'm ready.

I walk to the door to find Zia in her full uniform. All black, a vest with bulky pockets for ammo, pants like mine with pockets all down the sides for knives. Her Asian eyes are heavily lined with eyeliner, and long black hair in a braid draped over her shoulder.

"Ready to go?" She asks me.

"Yeah, let's leave." I start out the door and Zia throws the keys at me. I catch them. I run to my black hummer.

We drive down the road past apartment buildings and offices. People roam around doing their daily jobs. The government has an order, you are assigned a job and a place to live. They decide whether you will be rich or poor and what opportunities people have. It's a corrupt government we live in, and becoming a part of the project is my act of rebellion. After driving for about ten minutes we reach a small building for offices. We pull into the parking garage and I park the car.

***

"Good morning boys." I say to the two men who work as security in the lobby. "Hello Lin, Officer Zia" they nod to us. We pass the secretary's desk were she sits on the computer. She looks up, "Officer Zia u are needed on level b3. Agent Lin on b6", she turns back to her computer. Me and Zia reach the elevators, "I guess I'll see u later, lunch at 1?" she asks.

"I don't know if I will even get to go out for lunch today." I say. Her expression changes from hopeful to disappoint.

"Oh"

The doors to our elevator open on Zia's floor, the Training and Defense floor. She steps out and gives me a half-hearted goodbye.

The doors close and the elevator groans down to level b6, the Spy Headquarters and Training area. The doors slide open once more, revealing a huge warehouse with people bustling around, others were one computers doing research. I look around for Captain Williams, who always gives me my missions. Apparently today we are getting a "surprise", I assume it's some new tech but nothing big.

I find Captain Williams- a man in his 30's with black hair- talking to a boy, who has his back turned to me. When Captain sees me he motions me over to them. Then the boy turns around. I almost gasped when saw him. He is tall, lean and muscular. His eyes are light blue, and his wavy hair is honey colored. He is beautiful.

Captain snaps me out of my trance, "Agent Lin, this is Agent Sky."

The beautiful boy gives me a smile. A bright, confident smile. I try to reply without stammering, "Nice to meet you. Welcome to the Phoenix Project.". He smiles at me again, and Captain goes on to explain that me and Sky, whose full name is Skylar Twining, are going on a mission together to get information about the new war plans and weapons our government plans to use in the war with Brazil.

Our Country, Alancicate, was once called The United States of America about 150 years ago. Then they took over Canada, Mexico and the top part of South America. We established a new government were things were going to be organized and perfect. Things may be organized, but it's far from perfect, people should have a choice about what they are going to do with their lives. The ruler of Alancicate is Emperor Lakeless. He rules with the help of the Elite, the families of the highest ranking military officers, and richest people. Everyone goes through school Intel their 16. They closely monitored, the government sees their grades, work ethic, and hobbies, then they assign them a trade. And basically decide if you're going to be rich, middle class, or poor. I finished school 6 months ago and they assigned me to Food Services. So I own a café. I do pretty good, a lot of people, mostly officers, come in and order coffee and something to eat. It looks okay on the outside but the inside is pure black.

***

When Captain tells us we are leaving tomorrow Sky looks at him with horror. "Um Captain," His voice is almost nervous, "I don't have enough training."

"Agent Lin will show u the rest of the things you need to know, Sky you are ready." Says Captain in reply. Sky nods and Captain Williams leaves us.