Unknown. Unseen. Untold. Edan.

‘All war is deception.’

Sun Tzu

Addie grinned at the bouncer, flashed her ID and waltzed inside. The club was lit with flashing lights and multi-coloured disco balls, The walls painted in swirls of colour, some black, others florescent yellow. Red leather booths clung to one wall, the entire club could have been at least three football fields long and one wide, it was huge, it was dark, and it was awesome.

Addie weaved her way to one of the three bars in the club, couples danced, singles flirted and people just made out in general. She waited for the bar tender to finish with the order of blue drinks he was mixing for a large group of thirty-something women. Addie grinned and went through the options,

-           Cougars

-           High school reunion

-           Never grew up

Any were possible, she thought. The bar tender finished and the women tried to strut away in their three inch heels, but were clearly too drunk to walk straight, and one ploughed into a group of young guys.  Addie giggled as the woman righted herself, pulled her bra back into place, tried – and failed – to saunter out of the group. Poor lady, thought Addie, she might try and help her, but chances are the woman wouldn’t remember anything in the morning. The bartender turned to Addie and smirked, he gave her the once over, and clearly liked what he saw. Addie didn’t blame him, she looked good, she had traded her beloved trackies and ugg boots for a tight black cocktail dress and a brown leather jacket, long black boots topped it off. Her honey brown hair was lightly tousled and hung past her shoulders, she grinned, ordered, then waltzed away to find something fun to do.

They hid in the farthest corner of the club under the strobing lights they held what seemed to be a meeting. Three bodyguards stood in semicircle formation, each built like a wall and wearing black down to their socks. Addie danced closer catching glimpses of their argument, the woman sat lounging in a black booth, smirking at the fuming man. He was the one she came for, he had short black greying hair in an army cut, his dress jacket hung off huge shoulders, white shirt half way unbuttoned as if he had been interrupted during something… He roared at the young woman with long snow white hair which hung to her shoulders, cutting a crisp line across her three quarter-sleeved jacket which matched her light blue top perfectly (it was from that small boutique down the road), Addie thought. The woman smiled and stood up, pushed the man back with a playful shove, gathered her bodyguards, and walked out. The man yelled in fury and shoved the table violently into the wall, he stalked off through a back door in the opposite direction. Addie smirked, now here was her fun.

I wove through the packed crowd as an arm casually slung itself across my shoulders, draping precariously close to the low top-edge of my dress. I looked up, and there was Flynn, and boy did he look good. Flynn was one of those people that took a while to bloom, he reminded me of myself in that way. He wore a polo top and dark jeans, his black hair hung just about his eyes. Flynn was bronzed year round and had straight, attractive features. We had dated in year 8; I knew even back then that he was going to turn out to be a looker, so I got my bet in early, left him hanging at a young and impressionable age, now we had history.

Thankyou past Addie.

I was always one to prepare for the worst (and the best).

Now little miss lovely Carrie Downs had her claws in him, her posts on Facebook referred to a girl who was ‘obviously jealous’ and should ‘tone it down, he’s not yours anymore’ anonymous of course, but I knew it was aimed at me.

Just tag me next time?

I don’t know what everyone thought of me and Flynn, yeah I suppose we flirted, a lot, but I have always been like that, growing up with a father like mine and a brother seriously addicted to football always came in handy and my interest had swayed as a child. Instead of dopey romantic comedies I now enjoyed action thrillers and sport games, I loved the buzz that came from a fast game and a win. I craved it. So boys loved my personality, I wasn’t the skinniest but I wasn’t ‘big’ I only exercised for the energy boost and had promised myself when I was fourteen never to diet unless it concerned my health. I had been genetically gifted ‘up top’ and adored my curves. I always bought clothes that benefited my assets.

If you’ve got it. Flaunt it.

So here I was, Flynn had a thin dancer knocking on his door and yet he still came back, Carrie didn’t concern me at all, if a boy wanted her I wasn’t going to stop him. After all, I don’t chase. I replace.

Flynn leaned in close to my head still guiding me towards the bar, obviously intoxicated he slurred a sentence into my ear about ‘forgetting’ another chance and started to complain about a ‘certain girl’ who was clingy and controlling. Ring a Ding Ding, welcome, Carrie. I was of course otherwise occupied; I anxiously watched the door swing shut after the man, my clue. Flynn leaned in further, and slowly pushed me up against the wall, he was nearly a foot taller, I closed the distance and our lips met, he was slow at first but I wanted this over with, my source was getting away. I grabbed the front of his shirt pulled him down to my level, moving closer you would have been lucky to slip a match between us. He was definitely better than year eight. His hand moved down to my hip, the other braced against the wall, I pulled away, wanting more but there were other things I had to take care of. A little dazed we both looked towards each other, I slipped my arms around his neck, gave him a quick kiss. My mouth at his ear i whispered despite the noise of the club, “love you too babe your still amazing, sorry again”. I winked as he watched me leave out the side door. I wasn’t one for commitment, and I didn’t get a lot of guys, but the few that I did stuck around. Yeah I still had the occasional hook up at a party but I had never really dated, it seemed too much for me, and way too much work.

It was still outside and slightly humid, typical November weather – rainy, hot and steamy. The alley was a few metres wide and a skip bin sat at the end, otherwise the moonlight filtered down above me, the alley was clear except for the man in a white dress shirt lighting a cigarette against a wall. With his back still to me I shut the door, he knew I was there and clearly wasn’t in the mood for company, too bad. I took off my jacket and slung it over my shoulder, fluffed my hair, righted my bra and walked drunkenly towards him.

“Hello, my name is Anna and your nice, I like your shirt” I trailed a finger down his back, giggling like I’d had a few too many shots. He turned slowly, a smirk creeping up his face as he took in my swaying figure, chest and age.

“Why hello to you to Senorita, do you have any friends with you tonight?” he puffed his cigarette lazily, doing a once over, sleaze. And was obviously not Spanish judging from the rest of his accent.

“Yeah but I dunno where are they” I tried to look confused at my own sentence, supposedly figuring out what was wrong I giggled. “Whoopsie! Wrong words”. He reached out and took my jacket while stamping out his smoke. Holding out a hand he gestured towards a sleek black car parked at the end of the alley, “shall we take a walk?”. My instincts screamed at me not too, and I always followed my gut feeling, so I stepped back and kicked him in the gut as hard as I possibly could. I let out a long whistle and Sam walked around the corner, with Garret, Len, Eve and Hale following.  Eve snap kicked the sleaze in the jaw and Sam quickly restrained the man. Garret ran his fingers through his black hair and dragged the unconscious and bound towards our truck.

I picked up my jacket, dusted it off and caught an approving glance from Eve as she removed all evidence. “Thanks” I whispered and she beamed at me, my old friend loved praise. “What do we do now?” I asked Sam who was straightening his black aviator jacket, he ran his brown eyes over my broken sunglasses dangling from my hand, they must have slipped from my pocket when I kicked that sleaze. “You go home, get some sleep wake up in the morning and go to school”, I raised an eyebrow at that. “Face it Addie, you have exams in a week, and I don’t care what family your born into or adopted by, how much you know or how many leather jackets you own, you have prior commitments”. I let out a laugh at the leather jacket part and stalked down the alley to help Garret, Sam just shook his head and smiled.

 I knew every time how this would work, it had been happening for over a year, I would wake up tomorrow in my own bed, get ready for school and wait – hope – for a call from Sam. We were his class, his jurisdiction, his only chance to regain a place in the council. We got the small jobs and the ones that required some finesse, fitness or looks. There weren’t many middle aged agents anymore, not after the 60 year job.

There were many groups of young people like us being trained all over the world, unknown to even the highest ranking government officials. We were the next wave of defence, we were Generation Edan.