.The Eraser.

cinq

                                                                         -5- 

'Which one is it? Turn left or turn right?''

Atara shouted over the music, some pop song was on the radio at high volume. It was Copper's choice ofcourse, to switch the car's radio volume to almost full. They were just arriving at an intersection and Atara quickly glanced at Copper with anticipation.

''Right. Turn right!"

Copper responded exasperately with her hands waving in the air to emphasise her annoyance and Atara quickly swivelled the car to the right. They had been gruelling eachother on which directions to take as they only had a printed map for directions. Unfortunately the car they were in had no GPS system installed. 

''You want us to die."

Is what Copper said. It was no question as her head hit the window with some force due to Atara's sharp turn to the right. They were now on a road called 'Alfred drive' in a nice middle class neighbourhood with medium sized houses and they were heading to the house they were supposed to stay at during their little operation at the college. Atara hoped that staying with Copper would be short and this whole 'find a lead' thing with the ZED would be easy, but she knew it wouldn't be. The ZED were smart. No lose ends ever showed up where ever the ZED had been.

They had been given a car aswell. Louisse said that it would seem more normal if they had a car like normal teenagers. But they were far from normal. They were raised to be assasins and not to go to school like regular kids.

The car was nothing fancy, a silver coloured 2005 BMW 320D. Atara wasn't sure if the car was new or not. It definately did not smell new. Must have been a second hand car or something along those lines.  

The sun was setting now, just at the line of the horizon and some orange and yellow light streamed into the inside of the car as they observed the houses on either side. Some lush vegetation and cars decorating the front lawns. They had left the base at past 4pm and now it was almost six pm. Atara checked the time on the dashboard and then darted her eyes back on the road.

It was their first time to visit this neighbourhood they would soon call home for just a short time. Atara looked outside her driver's window at her right and saw a little shopping centre with a grocery shop, a coffee shop and one or two retail stores. The place probably served the people around this area and sure enough they were some cars and people about.

They neared another intersection and Atara slowed down, pressing down slowly on the brake, waiting for Copper to stop her ridiculous squinting at the map and to just say whether they should turn or to proceed forward. She was becoming impatient with the map reader. They had map reading lessons just a few weeks ago. It was one of the things that Louisse had stressed for everyone working under the Erasers to know. 

'' Turn left."

Copper commanded and moved her head to her window for closer inspection of the street name signs. Her head moved back to rest against her seat and some of her brown bangs fell to her face. She smiled, clearly proud of herself; but unsurprisingly Atara wasn't impressed. 

''Yap. This is Martin Luther King street", she said with triump and Atara proceeded left. The street was quieter than the previous one and the other streets they had to pass through, but there were still the same type of houses. Simple but eye catching. 

They kept on driving slowly looking for a specific house number. It was a long street and at last after seven minutes Atara spotted it first. She spoke over the music, "This is house number 502 and therefore our house must be the one after this one". Copper followed her gaze to the right side and looked outside as they passed house 503.