No Man's Land

15- Reoccurring Arguments and Headaches

From this point on I'm going to post random good music up on the header, just for fun.

Parker Magdalen

*****

Chestine swore. "Jana, don't you think that's a little bit dramatic?"

"Quite frankly no. I didn't even know he was alive two minutes ago, and now we know he has a piece in this. He learned my name before he supposedly died-he could burn me, Chestine. I could never be able to do this work again! I think I'm allowed to be worried."

"Du er ute av kø, Jana," Chestine hissed. It sounded European- the language they were repeatedly speaking. I would've guessed something Scandinavian.

"No, I'm not out of line. This matter concerns me. You're my cohorts, so it also concerns you. We're all stranded on this god forsaken island, therefore it concerns everyone here. Not to sound like a narcissist, but Yavuz would do a lot to get to me. He doesn't let people spite him because they're usually dead before they can."

"It could be intimidation, just synthesized voice. There's no way he survived."

"The Urhaven Compound, right? We heard about the drone strike. He was supposedly there, correct?" I asked.

"We had visual confirmation." Chestine muttered. Jana sighed, pressing her back against the back wall of the cockpit. She looked stressed, but more than that, she looked frustrated.

"Look, Ches, we've made plenty of mistakes before. I would love to believe this is just for pressure, but I can't. His speaking patterns, his accent- hell, even that arrogant lilt! It's all there, and right now we don't have any analysts to rely on so we have to play this by ear. We both heard the same thing, you can't deny it." Chestine's expression softened temporarily- she seemed to use the nickname to sway him, unintentionally. I'd never heard anyone refer to him with that in the short period of time we had been here. Carrie sighed, glancing at the audio device.

"We heard the same thing but we're hearing it differently. You assume worst case scenario so that you'll be prepared no matter what, but that's not what's happening here. Think practically, Jana."

"Et tu, Brute?" Jana muttered. I cleared my throat and leaned against the console.

"Look, let's leave this question blank for the moment- we're not making progress. Let's focus on the fact that the saboteur is among us, unless they bailed which seems highly unlikely. Couldn't have been recorded because the person spoke like they were on a time crunch."

"I'd recognize Yavuz, so his voice must have been pre-recorded. He's not here," Jana added.

"The first person obviously was using a physical vocal distorter, since it didn't affect Yavuz's audio. We're not going to be able to match voice to person." Michael noted, every few seconds glancing over at Jana. It was difficult to decipher what exactly the intent was behind those few looks. Frustratingly difficult.

"How about speaking patterns?" Maxine suggested.

"Educated. Familiar with the language. Word order and sentence structure was a bit off."

"The person gives off just a bit of an omnipotence complex. Probably likes control, believes in predictability." Carrie suggested. The room, if you could call it that, fell into silence. "I don't think we're going to get much more out of this for the moment. Magdalen, why don't you go tell the rest of them what we've got, and we can think it over in more detail later." I nodded, setting down my pad of paper as I stepped out of the cockpit, turning towards the rest of the agents who were sprawled throughout the front half of the plane. Our progress could be summed up in a couple of sentences- not a reassuring fact. After everyone was filled in, we wordlessly piled out of the cabin and made the short walk back to the grounds.

Jana's hand lingered at her thigh as she walked, where it had been becoming increasingly obvious she had a knife sheathed. Out of the corner of my eye I watched her clench her jaw suddenly, massaging her temples with her fingers. "I can tell you're staring, Parker. Subtlety is not your strong suit."

"Headache?"

"You could call it that."

"It'll get better as time passes."

"How would you know? No, wait, let me guess- you have a harrowing story of overcoming drug addiction, getting yourself clean so that you could join the FBI."

"Yeah, I crashed pretty hard after saving a puppy from a busy street whilst fighting off militia members with one hand."

"Okay I get it, that wasn't a good response," Jana snorted.

"Mhm."

"So what's your deal? You seem pretty high up in the rank ladder for being 26."

"You seem pretty high up for 22."

"Touche. Answer the question, Magdalen." Here we were again, exchanging blows and pressing each other for information. It felt like we had fallen into an endless cycle, almost. But, better to not hold back so that she might trust me than to be equally guarded.

"Mom's a cop in my home town, Dad's a doctor. She loves the job, but makes nowhere near as much as she should. I started off just wanting to follow her footsteps and stay local, but my dad wanted higher education. Got a partial ride to U. Penn, attended Quantico the year after I graduated. Started off as an analyst, but it just wasn't for me so I transferred. Going on four years in a couple months. I was able to work my way up because of a lucky spree on my first few assignments. Now I've told you that, this time are you willing to tell me a bit more?" She seemed to contemplate for a few moments, before she let out a sigh.

"Graduated from high school early. My mom's Lebanese, so I knew some Arabic and I took French pretty seriously in high school so the agency was pretty quick to pick me up after I applied during college. Joined PTP, and that's it." Once again, so vague on details. Obviously she was still holding back, but I had to remind myself that she wasn't a suspect. There's no function in interrogating an ally, unless you want to estrange them.

"And you also seem to speak- what is it, Swedish? Polish?" Jana raised her eyebrows, and nodded hesitantly.

"Something like that," she deflected again. "So your mother's your reason for joining, hm?"

"Yeah, I guess. Does there really have to be a reason though?"

"I've been told that everyone has there reasons. Reasons run the world." Touche.

"And you're still not going to tell me your reason?" We came to a halt at the site of the camp, ready to part ways. Jana rolled her shoulders back, looking over her shoulder as she started to turn away.

"Nope."

Ok ok ok yeah this is a filler chapter sorry T_T. Also here's some *fun* info incase ya'll want to fact check.

Age requirement for FBI application is 23-37 at time of application. Age requirement for CIA application is 18 at minimum. The two main programs are the Professional Trainee (PT) Program, applicants averaging 21-25, and the Clandestine Services Program (CST) for those with previous military experience, applicants averaging 26-35. However, recruiters are sometimes present amongst college campuses. Yeah my search history on my computer is fu- I mean fricked.

On another note, THANK YOU FOR 200 READS! I'm honestly so excited because last update, we weren't even at 200 and now we're already at 270-something. Next week we'll be celebrating 300? Maybe?

K that's it luv ya bye

-K