The After Show

Vega turns to look at me and that nervousness from earlier is completely gone.

“Sure, I could go for some dessert. What do you say, Altair?”

Oho, feeling confident are we? Well I’m not backing down that easily. I agree without any hesitation. We both make our orders, a simple ice cream sundae for me and a chocolate cake for Vega. Ace happily jots down our orders before he skips on back to the kitchen. And when I say skip, I mean he literally skips.

Once again left to our own devices, I get ready to barrage Vega with a series of questions, but this time she beats me to the punch.

“So Altair, what kind of work do you do?”

Oh how the tables have turned. But it’s fine, I already have a perfectly rehearsed response at the ready. This isn’t my first rodeo, after all.

“I work in marketing. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds since I get to travel a lot, but it also means that I can’t be with my family as often as I’d like.”

“Your family, huh? Do you have any other siblings besides your brother?”

“Just one other sibling. A younger sister.”

Vega’s eyes brighten with interest. “Oh! What’s she like? Precocious, like your brother?”

I shake my head. “She’s a sweet kid, but she’s the type of girl that always has her head in the clouds. Also, I’m pretty sure she’s LARPing as a magical girl.”

Vega laughs. “Ha ha! That’s fine, kids will be kids, y’know?”

“She’s fifteen.”

“Oh.”

I stop before I can say anything more, belatedly realizing that this might be cause for embarrassment for Agila, even if she never meets Vega (which I dearly hope will be the case). Alright, no more dilly-dallying. I need to take back control of the conversation.

“What about you?” I ask, “You mentioned before that you have a lot of siblings too, right?”

At this point, I already know that she was lying about that aspect of her life. Her “big family” was actually her evil organization all along, and her so-called siblings were really just her lackeys. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ace was one of them, what with the familiar rapport they have with each other.

Vega starts displaying her usual nervous ticks again, but a quick glance at some of the staff that aren’t so subtly trying to look like they’re listening in seems to give her enough confidence to press on.

“Uh, yeah. I have a ton of them. They’re a real handful.”

“Oh, really? How many siblings do you have?”

“Uh, five? Yeah, it’s a lot.”

“Yeah, that is a lot. How old are they?”

“A mix, y’know? Some in elementary school, some in middle school, some in— oh, look! Our desserts are here!”

This time, Ace doesn’t stick around after he sets our food down and is quick to leave us on our own. A little too quick, if you ask me. He even dropped his fake Texan accent a couple of times. That’s suspicious.

The rest of the staff remaining start to slowly filter out as well. Just what is going on here? What is Vega planning? Could it be? Did someone clue her in to my identity? My hand idly hovers close to my jacket's inner left breast pocket where I’ve kept my hand gun concealed.

Vega abruptly stands up just as my hand reaches for the safety. She has a look of fierce determination on her face, and for a moment, I think she’s going to attack me right then and there. She reaches for something insider her own suit’s breast pocket. A gun?! No, it’s—

A microphone.

“I-if it’s okay, I’m going to sing to you now!”

“What?”

Without any further explanations, true to her word, she sings. And unlike Ace, she actually knows how to carry a tune. The song is an old cheesy love song, but Vega’s rendition of it gives it a refreshing charm. I find my self so engrossed by her performance that I completely forget about my sundae, which has started to slowly melt away.

The song is also familiar, somehow. I feel like I’ve heard it many times in the distant past, and yet I can’t quite put my finger on the song’s title.

When she’s done, I can’t help but applaud her performance. Vega blushes and smiles shyly before sitting back down. The rest of the night goes surprisingly well as the discussion shifts to Vega’s musical talents. The rest of the night goes smoothly as we ease into a comfortable rhythm in our conversation. Reluctantly, we say our farewells before the night can shift to morning.

It’s as I’m making my way home that I realize that I should have gathered more information while I could.

And I may have enjoyed that date more than I should have. Just a little bit.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Aquino!” I yell as I slam open the doors to my mentor's office. “You said that this wouldn’t be a honeypot mission!”

Aquino, for her part, looks completely unperturbed by my sudden outburst. She sets her tea cup down carefully. “Hm, now I don’t recall saying that. But I do remember saying that I wouldn’t make you do something you’re not comfortable with.”

I bristle. “Yeah, well this mission is making me very uncomfortable!”

“Is that so? My, how quickly you kids move these days. So, what happened? Did you kiss?”

“Well, no—“

“Oh, okay. Then did you hug? Hold hands?”

“No, we didn’t.”

No kissing, no hugging, no holding hands…So what did you kids do, then?”

“…We just ate and talked.”

Aquino tilts her head quizzically to the side. “So which part of that made you uncomfortable? The eating part or the talking part?”

“It’s not those parts! It’s the whole pretending to be in love thing! I know who she is, but she has no clue who I am!”

“Come now, you’ve been in that situation many times before, and it didn’t bother you then. Why is it bothering you now? Unless…you’ve developed romantic feelings for the target?”

“Of course not!” I exclaim, indignant.

Aquino smiles. “Good. From what our mole told me, it sounds like you managed to get some useful information out of her while you were there, too.”

“Mole?” I ask, “Did you send someone to babysit me?”

“No, not babysit. I just sent him there in case you were ever in need of an extra pair of hands.”

It’s not even noon yet, and this conversation alone is already tiring me out. I finally take a seat.

“Please tell me it wasn’t Cobalt.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you. He can tell you himself.”

And as if summoned from thin air, the man in question bursts through door, because he can never just enter a room like a normal person.

“Agent Cobalt White reporting for duty!”