The Special Agents

Zara Hinsey

"Good morning, Maldonado. Hey, that has a nice ring to it."

"Sure does, Esther. What do you have for me at 7 in the morning?"

"An alive person."

"That's different."

"Zara Hinsey. Her father, Calvin, works for us. A security officer near the entrance, I guess. Zara is 15, and she found some newspaper clippings in her attic this morning before school. She needed something for a school project and ran across something she obviously wasn't meant to."

"And those newspaper clippings said?"

"She went missing 15 years ago."

"15?"

"And she is 15. I'm as confused as you. Apparently, she called another leader, who called me."

"Top of the food chain."

"You know it. I'll see you in half an hour. She's waiting at the building. Well, she's waiting in my office."

"Good to know. We'll all be there as soon as possible."

"Come up to my office when you get here."

"Will do."

---

I woke up this morning at 6:45, fifteen minutes before Esther called. I managed to grab coffee during that fifteen minutes. Kevin and Avi were still asleep, thankfully. When I did wake up, I was still in Avi's arms and we were still lying down on the couch.

Not that I minded, of course.

He's really cuddly and warm, and I didn't have anymore nightmares since I woke him up.

Except now he's going to want to talk about it.

He always does.

"Special Agents! Gotta be at the building in half an hour, no less. Direct orders from Koop!" I shout. Kevin probably doesn't need to be woken up, but I'm sure he has some kind of person to rip apart.

"What is it?" Avi asks, coming into the kitchen.

"Zara Hinsey. She's not dead. She's kidnapped."

"We got called in at 7:30 for a kidnapping? Shouldn't someone else handle that?"

"We know where she is. Problem is, who she belonged to before is a mystery."

"Well shit."

---

"Good morning, Kirstie," Esther smiles, handing me a coffee. "Mitch left this for you, I guess. He said you he knew you weren't going to stop in the offices to see them. He even brought me one."

"He's a literal angel. I don't know how I could get through a day without him," I laugh, gladly taking the coffee. "So, what all do I need to know about Zara?"

"I haven't really spoken with her, I figure you'll want to. I'll sit in the room with you two, but you can do all the talking. And she's here with Social Services considering she's under 18."

"And her parents?"

"Aren't aware she's here. She's supposed to be at school, and we've spoken with the school. If the parents did kidnap her or something, I don't think it's a good idea to tell them."

"Okay," I nod slowly, taking in all of the information she told me. "Let's go, then."

We walk in the room, Esther trailing behind me. She sit's down at her desk, while I sit down across from Zara at a table in the corner of the room.