Weekend Briefing by Jes Drew

Weekend Briefing

Jes Drew

Welcome back, agents. Today we have with us Agent Felicity-

Agent Felicity: Hi.

Me again: Who is here with the memory reminder, used with Mind Probing settings-

Agent Felicity (leaning forward and loudly whispering): I’m crazy.

Me: With which we have loaded a never before recorded memory and special POV from the agents of Castaways-

Agent Felicity (still leaning forward): I’m also really smart.

Me (muttering under my breath): I’m beginning to see why Agent Clark can’t stand you.

Agent Felicity (pursing her lips now and holding up a device like a phonograph connected to a screen): Let’s start with the memory. I chose Agent Rogers as the subject, just a normal moment from her life.

The screen:

I stuff my hands into the pockets of my hoodie and hurry across the street to the library. I shouldn’t have spent so much time at Rodrigo’s- well, the whole football team, really- practice. I don’t even like football, just Rodrigo. And that paper is due tomorrow.

Nodding at the elderly gentleman holding open the library door for me, I step into the building that sometimes feels like my home away from home. Good thing I know it so well, since I’m in a time crunch.

The books I need are easy to find and I slide into my usual spot with a pencil and paper ready. I will do this thing- I have to. If I were to make a mental list of all the times I was late on a paper, it would be zero, and I’d rather like to keep it that way.

Plus, if I hurry, I might be able to scribble down the poem that’s due next week. I already know it’s got to be about growing up, so that’ll be easy enough once I decide on a meter.

Somehow, when I start writing I fall under the spell I always seem to when I’m holding a pencil, a decent draft appears on my paper almost effortlessly. Smiling, I check the watch.

The time knocks the smile back off my face and I throw my stuff into my backpack. I can write my poem later, but I have to get home. It’s already after dark…

Me: That’s enough. We already know what happens next.

Agent Felicity: But it was just starting to get interesting-

Me: Enough. We have the POV still to do.

Agent Felicity (pouting before grinning and changing the scenes on the screen): Okay. I love getting into boys’ heads, don’t you?

Me: Um…

Agent Felicity: You know you do. Now, this particular scene is what’s going on in Agent Golden Boy-

Me: Williams

Agent Felicity: Head during a very late getting-to-know- you conversation between him and Agent Rogers.

Screen:

I turn to Emily, and frown at the dismay written all over her face. “You’re okay with this, right?”

“We don’t exactly have a choice in the matter. We need to do this.” She sighs and picks at the skin of the coconut I fetched for our midday meal. “That’s the worst part of this island, I think. Not having much choice anymore. Just survival.”               

For a moment, I just stare at her. I can’t stand to see her upset like this. There’s enough to worry about without adding our not having any tools to build a raft to the problem. I can make tools. I can fix this. I can cheer her up.

Picking up another slice of fruit, I hand it to her. “We can still choose what we do with this. Our survival can be an opportunity to get to know each other better.” She is, after all, the best enigma I’ve ever come across. She’s so intelligent, yet so shy. And so, so easily flustered like she doesn’t know she could get away with anything with that sweet charm of hers…

She glances up and for a moment I see fear flit past her face. Of what? Of me?

But then that fear is gone and she’s studying me with that look of hers, like she’s reading my soul.

“Yeah!” young Mary-Ann cries, her face lighting up like I just gave her the best present ever. “My favorite color is pink.”

I keep my amusement at the obviousness of her question to myself so not to offend her.

Her brother, however, has no such qualms. “I already knew that.”

She sticks her tongue out at him.

And Emily shakes her head at them and smiles before turning that smile to me.

I can’t tear my gaze from her. “My favorite color is blue.”

She blinks at me, like I’ve surprised her. Then she tells me the answer to the question that suddenly becomes most pressing to me. “Mine is green.”

I feel a corner of my mouth turn slightly upwards. Something about her makes me smile more than anything else. “Like your eyes?”

“Look who’s talking.”

Agent Felicity (sighing): Young love. Reminds me of me and Kristian.

Me: I’m sure it gives him no such memories. We’ll leave them there for now while you delete the 

data you gathered before Agent Williams and Rogers realize we’ve been testing new Mind Probing techniques without their consent.

Our spotlight:

Castaways

Emily Rogers thought nothing could be worse than her family moving across the ocean. When the unthinkable happens and the ship goes down, she learns just how wrong she is. Now she’s stranded on a deserted island with her two young cousins and Christopher Williams, the boy who refused to leave until all the women and children were safe.

But the island hides many secrets and holds many dangers. And as they fight to survive and hold onto hope, one unsettling question rises above the others. Is the island really deserted?

Thank you, Agent Felicity, for taking some time from your own story:

Kristian Clark and the Agency Trap, Book One: The Bachelor Missions

The good-guys, the bad-guys, and the wild card- it's the ultimate game of cloak and dagger...

Kristian Clark, private eye, thought his days as a special agent were behind him, but when he's drafted into action, he finds himself reunited with his old team- and painful memories of why they broke up in the first place. But as he plunges into mission after mission- from a 'holy heist' to babysitting a young hacker to going undercover in a cult- Kristian find that everything he tried to leave behind is coming back to haunt him with a vengeance, and then some.

First there's the mysterious woman who knows more about Kristian- and his past- than makes sense while using science fiction weapons that don't make sense period. Then there are the shady powers-that-be who are responsible for drafting him back into this world to satisfy their own nefarious agendas. It's all Kristian can do to keep from being pulled into their games as he tries to figure out who to trust and what to fight for, even as the trap put in place to destroy him is set with a ticking clock.

When did espionage get so complicated?

Join us next week, agents, for the special agent test and giveaway! Until then, avoid doing anything that might get you brain-wiped. Ciao!