Christmas Calling

Technology

Ned's feet, clad in thick white socks, were propped up on the kitchen table. The shades were drawn, and blue glow of his computer screen was the only light in the room. Manalis switched on the light and he flinched. 

"You're up already?" he observed. "That's a first." 

Manalis crossed the room and pushed his feet off the table. "At least I'm dressed."  

"Why? We're not going anywhere." Ned was wearing blue pajama pants. 

"You're not going anywhere," Manalis retorted. 

"Okay, sorry." Ned put his hands up. "You have a date or something?" 

Manalis resented the fact that she and Ned were always a we, though they were hardly friends. They were workmates and shared an apartment, but it was only out of necessity to their job. She took an apple from the fridge and glanced through the dirty window above the sink. It was snowing and the streets were shiny with ice. "Actually, I was planning to go do our job. You know, so we can pay rent." 

Ned pushed the computer towards her. "What do you think I'm doing?" 

The screen showed a travel website advertising the cheapest rates for a trip by boat to the North Pole.  

Manalis struggled to keep from knocking his computer to the floor. "What are you doing?" she demanded. 

Ned's eyebrows shot up. 

"The North Pole." Manalis shook her head. "You are ridiculous." 

Still shaking her head, she strode out of the kitchen. 

"What do you mean?" Ned called. "Isn't that our next target? Santa, right?" 

He truly believed that they were being sent to the North Pole to assassinate Santa. Ned was a detached, logical genius, and usually, he would have been the last person to fall for an idea so blatantly unbelievable. Obviously, "Santa" was a code name for someone else. Even Manalis knew that. Assassinations in real life weren't like the assassinations in movies, but they had one thing in common, and that was the use of code words. 

Manalis and Ned followed a system. He made the plans and she carried them out, because he was an undeniable genius and had never once erred in his career. He was the one who had come up with, among countless other innovations, the idea for Christmas-themed assassinations. Ned was brilliant. He knew it, and he was getting more arrogant every day.  

Now, for once, he was completely and obviously wrong about something.  

It could have been an elaborate joke, or Ned could finally be going completely crazy. Either way, Manalis decided to play along. Ned thought he always knew what was best. Now was the time to put that belief into action.  

Besides, what better place to go on Christmas Eve than the North Pole? 

Manalis turned around. "Sorry. Keep searching." 

Ned grumbled something. "It's always me. I'm always the one planning and getting everything ready. I don't know what you'd do without me - "

RED ALERT. RED ALERT. 

Lev clicked on the flashing message in the corner of the screen and a grainy picture popped up. It appeared to be a picture from a mall's security camera, and two faces in the crowd were outlined in red. 

Lev clicked on the woman's face and typed a command into his keyboard. A list of profiles came up - a businesswoman in Lebanon, a college student in Ecuador. 

"Where's the picture from?" Lev called down the row of desks, where his colleagues were studying their computer screens intently. Several alarms were blaring, and he shouted his request again, louder. 

In lieu of a vocal response, the location showed up on the picture. He narrowed the search for the woman and highlighted the man's face, putting the same location restrictions on his search. The database was unresponsive for a few seconds, but eventually, it came up with two matches, which he zoomed in on. The faces matched, from what he could see on the grainy picture. The names were fake, surely, but they were the names currently in use by the two people, and that was all that mattered. The database was always reliable. 

Lev chuckled inwardly. Found you. 

Painted on the gray wall behind Lev in red-and-green letters were the words NORTH POLE SECURITY.