Mist: I’ll meet you after work to discuss this further.
***
Cristal was standing outside the building waiting for him. He saw her through the glass doors when a gust of wind blew her long chestnut hair away from her oval face revealing her dainty nose and lips like pink rose petals. Her taupe silk dress hugged her curves. I have never been so jealous of silk before, he thought to himself.
When Harry invited Cristal to join the Truth Seekers, she gave up her scholarship at MIT and transferred to Global Nation University. Both of them had been fifteen years old and the youngest students in GN’s history to attend the university. Now at twenty-two, they still felt out of place being the youngest staff working at Global Nation.
“Coffee shop is too busy and we really need to focus,” he said.
“Okay, so where do you want to go?” Cristal looked briefly at her watch.
“Thought we could go to my place,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady.
She raised an eyebrow but then grinned, and said, “Yeah, sure. I’ll be the first Truth Seeker to get to see Zero Doubt’s new crib.”
He laughed. “Just don’t post that on the website, okay?”
“Too late, I already tweeted everyone, posted it on Facebook, and all the gaming blogs,” she said with her usual snappy retort.
A group of GN staff exited from the building and walked past them, chatting amongst themselves.
Cristal grabbed his arm and said, “Let’s go.” She pulled him towards the bus loop.
“Afraid to bump into Joanna? You really have something against her, don’t you?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Harry. Can we please not open that topic again? I have better things to think about right now. Like, why you want me to hack into Shelley Lionheart’s private folder on the GN cloud network?”
He turned away from her and sighed. “You know, I can’t tell you that. Your job is to complete your mission and not ask questions, right?”
“Yes, Mr. Doubt,” she said, her sarcasm seeping between the words. “So sorry…I forgot that you’re all work and no play.”
Now it was his turn to roll his eyes.
Later that evening, Cristal and Harry were sitting at his dining table with their laptops set up in front of them. Cristal was busy scribbling notes on her pad of paper.
“You have the best laptop money can buy and you’re writing on paper,” he said, shaking his head.
“Writing with pen and paper helps me brainstorm.” She frowned as she concentrated on her scribbles.
All Harry wanted to do was touch the strands of hair that fell seductively on her porcelain cheek. He watched as she snapped a barrette on the wavy locks against her face.
“Geez, my hair is driving me nuts. One day, I’ll lose my patience and shave it all off,” she mumbled under her breath.
Harry stared at her in disbelief. “You don’t mean that, right?” Doesn’t she realize how beautiful her hair is?
She made a face and said, “Long hair is just a pain to keep up. It would be much easier if I cropped it really short, like yours. Don’t you think?”
She put both her hands under her chin, gave him an innocent smile and blinked her eyes. Not only was she amazingly adorable, she had a great sense of humor. He chuckled to himself.
“What’s so funny, Harry? You don’t think I’d do it?” she teased.
She punched him on the arm playfully.
He turned his eyes away from her. “Why do I care if you cut off your hair or not?” he said, shrugging his shoulder.
“Oh, whatever, Harry. I can’t figure you out sometimes.”
From his peripheral view, he could see her sulking in her cute way, her lips in a pout and her eyebrows furrowed together.
Global Nation was behind the disappearance of his mother Bina Schwartz. A conglomerate non-profit organization with offices and universities all over the world, he had enough data to prove that GN hid behind its peace, educational and social activism initiatives to do experiments on innocent people. He needed more data to find out where his mother was and why GN kidnapped her.
Romance was not on his agenda. There were more pressing things at hand.
Focus on the mission, he scolded himself. He didn’t have time to be distracted by anyone. Not even Cristal.
***
Eight months earlier, Harry had put his first mission into motion: landing a job at Global Nation’s head office. It was simple plan and easy enough to pull off by himself. After all, getting his PhD before his twentieth birthday meant that all the biggest companies were lining up and offering him dream jobs with six-figure salaries.
It must have come as a surprise to them, when he applied for and accepted a low-paying job working as a middle manager at the GN central IT department.