The Creature and the Spy

The Assignment

*Officer Hansel Juno*

The current NBI director is not the most pleasant person you'll ever meet, so I have been warned by my batchmates. He's a young lad, tacky and tackless, and is told to have eaten people alive. It was just a metaphor, but lord did that scare me. My father, the former NBI director, was said to have moved down from position to personally attend a mission nobody else can take in Switzerland.

Of all the countries, it has to be Switzerland.

The current director is a young-looking man with firm features and a resting bitch-face. According to reports, he's 37 years old, but he's here, looking like my age, which is saying a lot because I'm just 25 years old. Whatever this man's products are, I want to know them. Not that he would tell, of course. His face is the perfect presentation of "Serious Business."

We're in his erie office with the air conditioner as the only humming sound. He's looking at me intently, like instead of being a detective, I am a suspect.

"You're way more normal than I have expected." He started.

Thanks.

His voice sounds so young, too, but it carries the firmness and irritability of a grumpy old man.

I would have been very intimidated, if only he's not too tiny.

Like, 5'2" tiny.

He's tinier than me.

I did not reply to him. I don't know what to say when I'm complimented like that. Note the sarcasm.

"Well." He continued. "I've seen your records and I believe you are a genius detective."

"Thank you sir?" I stated in question, suddenly feeling suspicious.

He laid his back on the baronial ergonomic chair. "I am aware that you know about the existence of the Creatures of the Woods. It was a mission that you accidentally got in."

I froze. It has been a year... When it all started and ended.

And since then, I've been trying to forget about the Woods.

"Ow? Not a good memory?" He asked, putting his hands under his jaw. Well now, regardless of how cute and small he is, he seems to be a bit heartless and insensitive, the poster-child of 'Serious Business'. 

I did not reply again.

"I don't care, though. I need you to swallow those feeling because I have an assignment for you."

He opened the monitor camouflaging on his engineered glass table. This is a sign that I should pick up my phone since he's going to project his files on my screen through wireless HDMI thing.

(reminder: This is 2031)

"This is Ilalim, I assume you know. But do you know about their history?" He started, showing me a picture of Ilalim castle, King Dimito's castle.

"All I know is that their artificial sun was stolen so almost all their citizens moved to other underworld countries. And that once, they lived with humans."

"Yeah. Basic."

"Well, I apologize. It's not like I studied about this at college." I defended.

He sighed. "The stealing of the artificial sun was unexpected, and it was completely on the humans' side. But us, the humans, have another concern about them."

He scrolled the monitor to the next page. On that page, I saw all the pictures pertaining to the recent scandals and events around the world. The sudden stock market crash, the great crisis in Saudi Arabia, the terrorist attacks, the feud between European countries, and the coconut crisis in the Philippines.

Wow, my country, the Philippines, has the greatest crisis of all.

We do always consider the coconuts.

"But what is this for?" I asked. "I'm not an international agent, just to remind you."

"Yeah, you're not, but your father is. That's why he's sent to Switzerland to further investigate. All these crises are said to be orchestrated by non-humans who wants to get rid of us. To live on the land again."

"Including the Coconut crisis?" I questioned in humor.

 "Laugh all you want, but that specific crisis is our only key to the main perpetrator of these economic attacks." He explained.

"How?"

"That all these attacks are made by one of our main deities. The god of coconuts or farming or something else. And also, we must include the enchanted beings we know, the citizens of Ilalim country." He said in a serious voice.

"That sounds silly. None of that makes sense."

He just rolled his eyes. "You think I agree with this shit? No. But I know they exist."

He paused after some irritated mutters.

He again swiped his monitor. That also triggered my phone to be swiped and show a picture of a familiar person.

King Dimito.
The next picture shows him.

Araki Magsim.
The man who used my emotions for his own gain.

"That is the King of Ilalim country. "

"And the man beside him?" I asked. Of course, I know who he is, but I want to know what the NBI knows about this wanker.

"One of his agents. Araki Magsim."

And that's all they know of him. An agent. Not a doctor, not tree-owner. 

I glared at his picture. He looks good in this picture. Tall, grey, and handsome as always. But he's a dick, so I hate him. He used a love potion to manipulate my feelings so that I could find their artificial sun.

The director continued. "I want you to get close to him as much as possible, and see if he knows about this."

"In short..."

"We're checking if the theories of our informants are right."

"And if we prove it?"

"Then we declare war."