Callback

I spend the rest of the day in a daze, trying my best to gather my bearings. I keep waiting to hear back from Cobalt, hoping for some kind of confirmation about my discoveries. But I don’t hear back until the next morning.

I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet but I take the call nonetheless, with my curiosity quickly overtaking my drowsiness.

“I’ve had this hunch for a while, but I think that Vega—“

“Is our old childhood friend from elementary school,” I say in a rush, not even waiting for Cobalt to finish.

“Okaaay. So you already knew, huh?”

“I actually just figured it out yesterday. My parents were looking through old photo albums and I saw this one picture from sports day and I just—“ I pause, trying to find the right words to say. I don’t.

“It’s crazy, right?” Cobalt asks, immediately getting what I’m trying to say. “We just completely forget about her, then boom, suddenly she’s a big time villain.”

“And we’re secret agents on opposing sides. Just like she predicted.”

We both share a laugh, because really, what are the odds?

“You know,” Cobalt begins, “from the moment I started working with her, I kept having this nagging feeling like I’d met her somewhere before. Everything about her seemed familiar. The way she laughed, her sense of humor, her messy hair.”

It’s quiet for a moment. Then, in a soft voice, I find myself asking, “Do you think she remembers us?”

Cobalt hesitates before continuing. “Yeah, I think so. Which makes me feel even more guilty that we’d almost completely forgotten about her.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Do you remember your date night? That musical number she sang out of nowhere?”

“Yeah, it was this cheesy old romance song.”

“Mm-hmm. It was really popular in our class, especially among the girls. They practically begged our teacher to choose it for our annual music recital. Now, who got that coveted solo part again?”

I let out a soft gasp. “Mary.”

I think back to how she sounded when she sang that old song.v Her voice may have changed a bit with age, but the way she moved, the cadence in her voice, it was all the same. I let out a disgruntled sigh.

“I’m supposed to be a spy, how did I not put two and two together sooner?”

“If it helps, I’ve been working with her for a while now and I didn’t put two and two together until now.”

“How could we have forgotten about her? She was one of our best friends.”

“That was over a decade ago, Altair. And we stopped keeping in touch with her. It happens. I don’t remember over half of the people I went to high school with.”

“I get it. It’s just…We’re spies. Shouldn’t we be, I dunno, more on top of things like this?”

“That’s only in fiction. Not everyone can be James Bond.”

I lean back against my bed’s headrest. “Maybe I should have applied to be a chaplain like Pastor Micah instead.”

“Don’t pastors have to take a vow of celibacy or something? You’d never get married.”

“You’re thinking of priests, Cobalt. Pastor Micah’s married.”

“Wait, what. To who?!”

“Lapis. You met her at the company picnic last year.”

“Oh, right. She’s so quiet I almost completely forgot about her. But, hey, let’s focus back. What are you gonna do about Mary— I mean, Vega, now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…She’s expecting you to take her out on a second date, right?”

Oh…right.

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

There’s no use lying to him. I let out a pathetic whine, unable to formulate a proper response.

“I don’t wanna gooooo.”

Cobalt lets out a low whistle. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you like this. Or, well, heard in this case. You want me to come over? We can try to come up with a plan or something. I doubt Aquino will just let you up and quit this job—“

“Aquino!”

“What?! What about her?!”

“She knew! She knew, that’s why she assigned us to this mission!”

“Oh!” A beat. “Yeah, I guess she would know. So what are you gonna do about it? Confronting her isn't gonna yield any results, you should know from experience by now.”

“She has a grandson, right? Maybe I could—“

“Dude, now you sound like a villain.”

“I was gonna say take him out to WcDonald’s…and not bring him home until Aquino meets my demands.”

“Dude.”

“Alright, alright. Yeah, I guess confronting her about it is a no-go. Man, why did I agree to work for that woman in the first place? Past me was a tool.”

Cobalt lets out a laugh and I can already hear him getting ready from the other end. “That makes both of us. But Aquino’s not so bad, y’know? A bit of a troll, sure, but she’s fair, for the most part.”

I let out a grumble but make no attempt to rebuttle.

“Alright, I’m on my way. I should get there in about twenty minutes.”

“Okay. Do you want my mom to set a plate for you for breakfast?”

“Oh, yes please! What’s she cooking up today?”

I sniff at the air. “Smells like tapa and chorizo with scrambled eggs.”

“Nice! Tita’s cooking is something else! Welp, I’ll see you in a bit!”

“Okay, see you.”

We hang up and, with nothing better to do, I decide to get changed and head on down for breakfast.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I hear a lot of chit chat as I make my way downstairs. Is Cobalt here already? No, that can’t be. One of the neighbors, maybe? Who else would come over this early in the morning? And it sounds like multiple voices. Mom and Dad’s voices are the only ones I recognize.

I peek my head into the kitchen and my eyes widen at the sight before me.

My Dad’s sitting at the breakfast nook sipping coffee and my Mom’s setting out freshly cooked food (tapa, chorizo, and scrambled eggs, as predicted). That’s not unusual. What is unusual are the three weirdly dressed strangers sitting next to my Dad at the breakfast nook.

Wait, upon closer inspection, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them before.

At the cafe where I had my date with Vega. The kitchen staff. Her lackeys.

There’s a chubby, black-haired woman of short stature that looks a few years older than my parents, a young man about my age with auburn hair and freckles, and another woman with blonde hair tied neatly in a bun. They’re all wearing matching black uniforms with the words “Team Vega” plastered across their chests.

Yeah, no. It’s too early for this. I turn to leave, but then I accidentally lock eyes with the lone male lackey. He calls out to me, effectively drawing the attention of everyone in the room towards me.

Well this is just great.