Phoenix on Fire Episode 1

Phoenix on Fire Episode 1

Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.

The alarm clock rang shrilly in the bedroom. Andromeda Hunter groaned as she snoozed it and went back to sleep.

“Andy! Andy, wake up!” shouted a voice.

“Mom, please!” she groaned, as her mother pulled away her Afghan. Regardless, she slept on, huddling up against herself as a protective measure from the chill. Somebody (to be more precise, her mother) had turned off the heater.

After a few minutes of fitful half-sleep, Andromeda Hunter woke to ice-cold water splashing on her face.

“Oy, Sleeping Beauty! Do you think that the plane will wait for you? Wake up now!”

Her mother stalked off from the room.  Andromeda made a face and slowly stood up, almost tripping over her own feet. Her cottony comfort Tee had been ruined, thanks to her mother’s chilled water treatment.

She dazedly made her way to the bathroom. When she emerged after half-an-hour, she looked sparkly clean.

She put on a camouflage jacket over a black tank top and pulled on a pair of brown trousers. Her small elfin face looked pale, as she pulled her short brown-black hair into a ponytail. She touched the ring which had a red-and-gold Phoenix engraved on it, for reassurance that everything will be alright. She put on her leather hunting boots, and walked out to the hall.

Her mother, Robin Hunter, was setting up breakfast on the kitchen island. She was an elegant brunette, with sea-green eyes and delicate features. She was everything that Andromeda wasn’t.

“Morning, mom!” grumbled Andromeda.

“Good Morning, Andy!” called back Robin, “Are you packed?”

“Yup!” replied Andy. She settled herself on the small dining table, and started eating strawberries directly from the bowl which was labeled ‘Robin’.

Robin walked over to the table with a huge tray laden with pancakes, French toasts, sandwiches, bacons, sandwiches and three different varieties of jams and spreads.

She narrowed her eyes at Andy, who guiltily stopped mid-process of chewing strawberries. “Sorry!” she tried to tell contritely, with her mouth full of strawberries. Robin rolled her eyes and settled down on the table.

Andy reached forward to read the letter which she had read oh-so-many-times. The white-gold letterhead was an acceptance letter from The Hahnemann School of Homeopathy.

A dark shadow crossed Robin’s stunning face, when her eyes landed on the letter. Andy noticed that.

“Mom, are you still not happy that I’m leaving?” she asked Robin.

Robin shook her head unconvincingly.

“Then fine. I won’t leave,” declared Andy.

Robin looked up at her daughter, surprised. “No, Andy. It’s not that. You could have joined a school in New York, if you wanted to. Why go to Hanover? Why go so far away from me?”

“Mom, mom! We will be living in the same East Coast! What are you worried about? It’s not that I don’t love our Spinster Pad. I love this place. I love New York. After all, which New Yorker doesn’t? I just want to get a life, mom! That’s all!” she said.

“I can’t convince you, can I?” asked Robin, sounding defeated.

“Nope! But you can force me if you want to,” offered Andy.

“I don’t want to do that,” protested Robin, “Remember, baby, that I love you and I will miss you!”

“Me too, mom,” replied Andy, reaching forward to squeeze her mother’s hand. Her mother smiled back and started serving breakfast.

Andy rubbed her hands, smiling contagiously, and murmured, “Bon Appétit!” 

Robin took out two glasses and poured Diet Coke in both of them.

“To Hanover!” toasted Andy, giddy with excitement.

“To Hanover,” agreed Robin, smiling reluctantly.

“To New Hampshire!”

“To New Hampshire.”

“To a new life!”

“To a new…life.”

Among the thousands of people in the LaGuardia Airport, a young man can easily mingle without much suspicion.

He was dressed completely in black, his favorite color. His hand was playing with the chain around his neck—this seems to turn into a dangerous addiction for him. This Assignment was extremely special for him, since this is the first time he will be using his real name, albeit with fake bio-data.

This would probably send a signal to his father that this will be the last time he will work undercover. He knew that this was more or less like holding a neon sign on top of his head, saying that he is going to quit CIA.

He was especially nervous when he accepted to continue in the Assignment, but he managed to hide it in front of his father. In his father’s eyes, a man who’s afraid is equal to a corpse. The last time he had gone undercover on this very mission, it was disastrous. Thinking about it made his hands tighten on the chain around his neck.

The ear-piece, which was silent until then, suddenly buzzed with sound. He flinched, “Ouch!”

“Target has arrived in the airport. She has just left her mother,” said a flat digitally-altered voice.

He made a face. He simply hated having to put on the ear-piece. It caught him unaware whenever the voice started to speak.

“Operation Phoenix will resume once the Target will reach you. She will reach you in approximately 3 minutes.”

He scoffed sardonically when he heard the name after all this time. Operation Phoenix. If he was right, he knew that the name must have been coined by his father. Only his father’s got such hare-brained ideas for names.

He put on the fancy info-glasses which were provided by his father especially for this Assignment. And he hated gadgets.

“Hey X, is this thing working?” he murmured. He hated X more than anybody else—counting his father out.

“It is. It will scan people and will alert you when you spot the Target. I advise you to tint it first,” replied the voice.

He pressed a small button to the side of the frame, and immediately the lens turned black, into (more or less) sunglasses. He waited for the thing to do its work.

“Target will reach you in 1 minute,” said the voice, giving him the count-down.

He drained his latte, and stood up, preparing himself. “Target will reach you in 30 seconds.”

Suddenly, he heard a crash behind him. He turned, ever alert. A small crowd had gathered. He walked slowly and cautiously. The ear-piece was silent.

He made his way through the people, and then he saw her. The glasses circled her face with a green-colored band, and letters shone beside the band—Target located.

She had accidentally dashed into a promotional board, and fell hard. She kept apologizing—to anybody who will listen—about the board.

X’s mechanical voice warned him, “Operation Phoenix has begun.”

His lips shaped into a crooked smile when he saw her petite face, and he muttered the first word that came to his mind—

“Bingo!”

Comments:

Sorry for the brief hiatus, guys! Had a lot of work to do. And for additional information purpose, this drama/novel is being written by Auctor. And we have decided to publish only one episode per week, every Saturday. Thank you for reading.