Interlude Five: Tamari

Wednesday – 22:30

"I am glad that Tobias failed again," Tamari told Teresa as they ate a late dinner. The cafeteria was closed, so they had to get something take out and ate on the benches outside the main building "He deserved it after his vulgar remark earlier."

"So you have been saying for the last hour," Teresa said. "You don't think he will suspect you after what happened? There is an obvious connection between what he said and what happened to him afterwards."

"He might be suspicious for a minute," Tamari said, "but not for long. Tobias overthinks everything, so he will quickly come to the conclusion that it wouldn't have made sense for me to have done it. Besides, there are much more likely suspects than myself."

"Are you sure you know that well?" Teresa asked.

"I have known him for my entire time at TRUCK-KUN," Tamari replied. "The first mission I was ever on was actually with him. It was a ride I would never forget."

* * *

Twenty Years Ago

Tamari got into the passenger seat of Tobias' truck and watched as he folded up the black stroller that he had brought along in the front seat area between them. It was a little inconvenient, but she didn't really mind. They were already on the road for a couple of minutes before he spoke with her.

"So, what are your impressions of Terry so far?" he asked.

"He appears to be very gentlemanly," she answered timidly.

"Ha!" Toby exclaimed with a laugh. "Just wait. You will revise that opinion of him shortly."

"Why is that?" Tamari asked, growing more confident in the conversation. "Is it because you have already corrupted him back when he was your mentor?"

"Absolutely," stated Tobias. "Though he had a rogue streak even before I showed up. I just brought out his full potential."

Tobias pulled up to a quick stop suddenly. For some reason, perhaps an accident, traffic had congealed on the road and was causing massive delays.

"Oh well," Tobias said. We will probably be too late to make it. Guess we should head back then."

"Don't!" Tamari shouted. "We can still make it. You have the larger vehicle, after all. Just intimidator the other drivers."

"How would I do that?" Tobias asked. "By waving a gun outside the truck and shooting in random directions?"

"Nothing so drastic," Tamari explained. "Like this." She outstretched her arm and slammed her hand into the horn.

HOOONNNNKKKKKK!

The loud sound continued as she left her hand pressed against the wheel. Within a minute, the cars in front made room for them in annoyance, and Tobias could inch forward bit by bit. It took a while, but they eventually reached the front of the traffic jam and cleared it.

"Hmmm, we should still be able to make it," Tobias said. "That was very impressive, I must say. Is your go-to response for everything to get horny?"

"What do you-" Tamari started asking before she cut off, realizing what he was implying. "That's absolutely crude. I sure am glad that I'm not your trainee. I would probably run you over with a truck instead of the target."

"You say that now," Tobias teased, "but you enjoy that kind of banter. I can tell."

"That isn't true in the slightest," Tamari argued.

"Hmmm, it appears the truck is running low on fuel." Tobias said.

"Of course it is," Tamari noted. "You keep passing gas."

Tobias smiled at what she realized was just bait. "I knew you had it in you. Not the attitude. The fart power, I mean. It must be you, since I never pass gas." He said that right as they passed a gas station. "Except for now, of course." They stopped at the next station, and he refueled quickly and bought a couple of drinks from inside.

Their banter lasted a while longer and only stopped once they got to the target location.

"Ok. This is what I need you to do," Tobias said. "You will walk with the stroller by the crosswalk, and pull up the hood completely so nobody can see that it's actually empty. When I give the signal, pretend to lose your step and push the stroller into the street. The boy will rush to save the stroller, assuming that there is a baby inside. That will then put him in the truck's path. All clear?"

"Completely," Tamari said. The mission went off just as planned. She got the stroller in place on the sidewalk, and Tobias gave the signal to begin once he saw that the target was close. Tamari pretended to slip and made it appear as if she accidentally pushed the stroller into the street. Tobias slammed on the gas and was about to run over the stroller. Suddenly, the target arrived and pushed the stroller out of harm's way, but at the same time, he put himself directly into the truck's path and got hit. The mission was a success. and Tamari had done her role to perfection.

"Good Job, Tammy," Tobias told her. "Keep it up and you will make R-rank in no time."

"My name is Tamari," she said.

"And my name is Toby," he replied. "Sometimes, you just have to learn to live being called something you don't like. Think of that as a life lesson, Tammy. Now let's go tell Terry the good news."

Tobias drove them back to base, and the entire ride was silent. Neither of them spoke. Tamari felt exhilaration during the mission, the likes of which she had never felt before. She attributed her emotions to the thrill of the task. What else could it have been? It wasn't as if she liked that rude T-rank agent Tobias.

Mind settled on that matter, she met up with Terry later with Tobias on her side, and they talked about the mission the entire night. It was the happiest she had been in a long while. While she had been on plenty of other missions since then, none of them came even close to reaching the rights of that first one. Tamari still never understood why that was. What she did know was that she desperately longed to experience that feeling again.

* * *

Wednesday – 22:45

Tamari was trust out of her daydream due to a sudden loud ringing from her phone. She saw it was from Tobias and answered. "Yes?"

Hey, Tamari," Tobias said. "I called to ask for a favor. Are you available?"

"I'm available," Tamari confirmed. She waited for his obligatory crude comment, but he didn't bite. It must have been a serious matter then.

"I need you to spy on the twins for me tomorrow. It will be at a restaurant and your meal will be on me. I will provide you the details shortly. Just make you have an eye on the twins at all times."

"Easy enough," Tamari said.

"And one more thing," Tobias said. "I need Teresa's number and I need you to make sure that she stays in the cafeteria for lunch Tell her to keep an eye out for anything suspicious and to check if the manager is there and to carefully observe him if he does show up."

"One second, Tobias," Tamari said. She double-checked with Teresa to make sure that she understood and then got back to him. "She is fine with it. I sent you her contact info."

"Thanks!" he said before hanging up the phone.

Something about the request didn't make sense to Tamari, but she didn't really care about the nagging voice in her head. After all, when she heard the mission that Tobias requested her to undertake, she had felt a slight thrill of exhilaration that she hadn't experienced in a very long time.

She would do anything to experience it again.