Agent 024

IN THE TIMES OF EXAMS

"Namasthe.", I said as I greeted my invigilators.

"Namasthe.", one of the invilgators smiled and gestured me to sit. Judging by his accent and his promptness in replying to my greeting, I figured he was the native Kannada.

"Let's start, shall we?"

"Yeah.", I nodded confidently as I sat straight up.

The interview lasted a good thirty minutes. I greeted the invigilators as I stepped outside and they told me to instruct the next candidate to wait for two minutes before going in.

"Hey, Srinivas.", I said as I came out of the room and found Srininvas waiting at the entrance.

"How'd it go?", he asked.

"Grueling. Couldn't answer a couple of Gujarati questions did fairly good on the Kannada part. But you'll do good. I mean you speak Tamil how difficult can Kannada be-", I said.

"Yeah, they're somewhat similar. I'm still shit scared though.", he said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"Relax. You'll do good. Just wait for another two minutes before you go in.", I said.

"Yeah.", he said and nodded.

I gave him a reassuring smile before I went off to meat the team at the restaurant. Since none of us felt particularly hungry before the test, we had just decided to meet for food after the test. Aradhya and Aviral had already completed the test before me. Their roll numbers had been included in the first slot. 

"How'd it go?", I asked as I sat down across Aradhya and Aviral.

"Okayish. The Gujarati part was good not so sure about Kannada. I'm pretty sure the guy stifled a laugh when I answered his fourth question.", Aviral shrugged.

"About same. Screwed Gujarati, did good in Kannada. What about you?", Aradhya asked.

"Good, pretty good. Kannada was actually good though.  And Gujarati toh majama.", I said, as I grabbed a bite of idli from my my plate.

"Okay, art of deception next what's the plan?", Aviral asked.

"If one of us screws up, don't follow them.", I said, remembering our major fallacy in the preparatory test.

"Roger that.", Aviral said.

"I liked your surprise and get them to speak their original tongue approach. We should do that.", Aradhya said, pointing at me.

"Oh yeah that one I was just screwing with him but since it worked sure let's do it again.", I said, as I drank my lassi.

"Okay.", Aviral said as he shook his head, "And we should have a code word or something so we can identify each other.

"Yeah that would work. Just slip the word chicken in the conversation. If it's one of the team, the response will be dinner.", I said.

"You've started playing PubG?", Aviral asked.

"Might as well do, you never know when it gets banned.", I shrugged.

"Why would it though?", Aradhya asked.

"Common man. That game was made in China and with the stunts it keeps pulling at the border, the government might ban its products and apps. Like what happened in the US-China trade war. Raising tariffs on each others' products.", I said. If not an agent, I would be a journalist. Politics and news spoke to me on another level.

"Right, the two power economies engage in a trade - war and the rest of the world suffers the repercussions.", Aviral said.

"What's up guys?", Roger said as he walked into the exam with a wide smile on his face.

"I take it the paper went well?", Aradhya asked as he sat down.

"Na. Screwed it up like shit. But you know what Shakespeare said, in sooth i not why i am happy. You don't need a reason to be-"

"Hold up, it's the first line of The Merchant Of Venice. Antonio says in sooth I not why I am sad-", I corrected Roger. No one not even my team had the right to screw Shakespeare.

"Yeah he was a weird guy, I change the dialogues to fit my mood. May I-", he asked.

I shrugged and waved my hand gesturing him to continue.

"So as I was saying I have decided to be happy no matter what.", he said, sitting down.

"Bet 100 rupees it won't last longer than than today.", I said, raising my glass at Aviral.

"Two hours tops.", Aviral said, shaking my hand and confirming the bet.

"You guys.", Roger said, shaking his head.

Aradhya began telling Roger the plan we had made for the test while Aviral and I continued chatting about random topics. Talking to Aviral felt natural now, there was no pressure to continue the conversation. We could just sit there in silence and it would be completely familiar to us. It would normally take me months to have such a connection with someone. But I was glad college was changing me, helping me open up.

"Everyone done?", Aradhya asked as Roger took the last bite of his food.

"Yeah, let's go.", Aviral said, getting up.

We walked towards the classroom. 

"Welcome cadets. Now there's no fun in doing the same task again so how about we add a little twist for your final assignment?", Agent Abad said. welcoming us into the hall.

"Oh no, I'm good with boring. Boring it great. Who wants interesting anyways?", I said.

Aradhya stifled a laugh.

"You have the freedom to dress up as whoever and whatever you want, be a human at the end that's my only criteria.", she said and sat down.

"That's it?", Aviral said, looking around in confusion.

"See you, gentlemen and lady.", I said, taking a small bow as I went into the dressing rooms.

"Woah.", I said, as I looked  at the walk-in closet I had just entered. The Academy must have a huge budget to arrange 50 such makeshift closets.

Expensive silks, rag clothes, saree, shirts, pans, jeans, crop tops, lingerie - you name it and the clothing piece would be available here.

"This is going to be fun.", I said, as  walked further into the closet and felt the clothes.

"Cross-dressing was the perfect mode of disguise. I selected a white crisp shirt, a black tie, black pants, a matching black coat. I dug in the drawers and took out a clean white pair of socks, and bent down and took out a pair of black shoes. I opened the lid of the polish and sat to work. I kept rubbing the polish on the shoes till they shone.

As I stood up, and looked at myself dressed in a black and white suit, I realised I could almost pass as a male if not for my face. I took out a pair of black aviators, put on a black hat. I had done an okay job with the tie. I had done a Windsor knot, it was quite easy to make it. It was as the first thing I had learnt successfully in the Deception class. The knot suited the official presentable look  I was targeting and it projected confidence so it seemed the best choice for the job. I put on a light beard and mustache and pressed it against my face evenly. I look at myself and smiled a how easily I fit in the masculine look. I took a deep breath and stepped out.