Agent M: Testament (The Agent M Series Book 2) (27 page)

This virus was very determined to talk to something or someone at that location. Though it was small, this was the only lead they had right now. All things considering, it was perfect. An address was just the thing the S.A.C. needed. Now he could search Logan’s address book to see just what kind of person that paranoid billionaire would trust with all of this data.

March 25th, 2013 7:34PM

Washington, D.C.

The robust smell of spices inside of the tiny restaurant was inescapably abundant. All of the hand-made sauces permeated the air and blanketed each table with the warm aroma of their massive flavor. Meryl felt like she had stepped through time and was sitting back in her old dorm room. A warm bowl of kimchi jigae sat in front of her. Its fiery red broth was a proof of the awesome and spicy power held within. Tiny cuts of vegetables floated to at the surface with larger chunks of pork and tofu swimming about. Meryl dove her spoon inside and took one massive heaping slurp.

“Oh my God!” She cried with food still marinating in her mouth. With one big gulp it went on its happy trail down her stomach. “This is incredible.”

The spices were amazingly potent. A lesser tongue would have been burned clean off but living in Los Angeles with a world renowned pension for bringing the heat has built up Meryl’s tolerance for spicy food.

“See? Would I ever steer you wrong? Mandu is the best!” Shelly replied taking an equally sized bite of her own soup.

“I promise never to doubt you again sensei,” she teased. “Not that I ever doubted you to begin with.”

They shared a laugh and continued to talk in-between bites. This would prove to be more of a challenge than Meryl anticipated. It took all of the willpower she had to stop her from diving into the bowl head first only to come up for breaths of air.

This was a welcomed break from day worth of training and studying. The job itself wasn’t difficult but mentally draining. It was nice to talk to her fellow agents outside of an office setting.

“How’d you find out about this place?”

“My fiancé was the one who took me here on our first date. He was really shy and bashful but desperate to impress. Poor guy was mortified when he found out I wasn’t Korean.”

Meryl couldn’t hold back her laughter after that.

“Really? You didn’t hold that against him?”

“Are you kidding? This place is great. I almost wanted to lie to him by saying I was half-Italian to see where he’d take me next.”

They both giggled. Meryl was really starting to love Shelly’s sense of humor.

“How long have you two been together?” Was the next obvious question Meryl posed.

“Four years last month. Wow, time just flies by,” Shelly reminisced over another scoop of stew.

“That’s a long time to be with someone,” said Meryl.

Time really does fly by when you’re with someone you care about. Before her mind could drift elsewhere, Meryl continued her line of questioning.

“How did you guys meet?”

“Actually at a car dealership just across the river. My father was getting his car serviced and needed me to drive him down to pick him up. He was being his usual grumpy self but the salesman never lost that smile on his face. I don’t think I could have been more attracted to a man that could take my father’s crap and still call it ice cream. So I interrupted the two, looked the man dead in the eyes, told him he was cute and he should call me sometime while slipping him my number.”

“You asked him out in front of your own father?”

“Yep,” she smiled. “I thought it was in spite of at first but that old man must have known something was up. He constantly states his disapproval of my relationship but never does anything beyond words. It’s like he knew it would just drive him further into his arms. I think he must really like him. Almost as much as me.”

Parents can be incredibly clever when they want to be. Meryl knew that all too well. The only tragedy she had was realizing it a little too late. That didn’t stop her from following her heart. It just made the process that much more painful.

“So what made you decide to join the Bureau?” Meryl asked after finishing another big spoon of delicious broth.

Changing subjects would be good to sway the mood back to a more positive tone.

“With your education and experience, you could be making ten times what you are now.”

“Thanks,” Shelly smiled. “I worked a few jobs in the private sector out of college but they were so boring. All I was really doing was mitigating deals between businesses. It wasn’t earth-shattering stuff to say the least. Here I feel like I can make an actual difference on the world. I know it may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things but I always wanted to save lives. That’s a lot easier to do behind the Bureau’s desk than it is in a cushy, forty story high window office. Plus it drives my father nuts so that’s another added bonus.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Meryl chuckled.

All too well it would seem. Normally talking about parents was kind of a taboo subject for her but here in this setting, it just seemed to come out naturally. She decided to err on the side of caution.

“How’d he take it when you told him?”

“Stereotypical Chinese father response.”

Shelly began to summon the best impression of her father possible.

“You are squandering your gifts and doing this family a great dishonor. Yeesh,” she sighed reverting back to her normal accent, “Parents just don’t understand sometimes.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Meryl whispered to herself.

Shelly had been doing all of the talking here it seems like. Time to turn the tables on her Californian guest.

“And yourself? What made you decide to swear the oath?” She laughed.

Meryl could think of many little things but there was definitely one big reason that she could attribute to her desire to join the FBI. There was no use trying to hide it. Meryl felt like she could trust Shelly. There weren’t a lot of people on that list either, especially females.

“Actually, I kind of followed an old friend of mine. We used to be partners in the L.A.P.D.”

“Really?” Shelly replied with genuine surprise in her tone. “Who?”

This was a lot harder to say that Meryl thought. It’s not that she was embarrassed to admit it. Far from it. The circumstances of the whole situation were still fresh in her mind and she didn’t know if she was ready to go back to that place just yet.

“Michael Madison.”

“You knew Agent Madison before you joined the Bureau?!” Shelly exclaimed.

Her eyes widened and focused deep into Meryl’s.

“Wow, that’s amazing. I have so many questions. First, I promised the guys back at the office that I would ask but, what’s it like to work with
the
Michael Madison?”

“Michael?” Her thoughts drifted away for a few moments. “He’s that famous around here?”

“Are you kidding? The man’s a legend! After he took down the list of our Most Wanted felons by himself, we were quite here for months. After it went public we had guys turning themselves in after they were added to the list. Many of said it would just make things easier. Apparently the horror stories started to spread about the way Agent Madison holds interrogations outside of the office if you know what I mean.”

Meryl did and she didn’t. Ever since Michael and her started working together again, she’d neglected to ask about their time spent apart. It didn’t really seem to matter after they got back into the swing of things. Though some things have definitely changed in their relationship, the way they did business didn’t and it was much easier for her to ease into the changes working for the FBI with him by her side.

“He’s very calm but serious. I’ve never seen him more passionate about anything other than work. Michael is incredibly strong willed. Has been for as long as I’ve known him. No one’s ever given so much for this job as he has. He’ll do whatever it takes to complete an assignment and make sure everyone goes home without a scratch even if it means stepping in front of a few himself.”

Meryl stopped to think about the time just last year, back on her very first day in the FBI. When Michael ran up and tackled her, using his own body to protect her from the explosion, Meryl had never seen that look on his face before. That moment, above all else, stuck with her that day. Not because he potentially saved her life but for a brief second, she caught a glimpse of the old Michael Madison. Even though it was over in a flash, Meryl carried it deep inside her heart hoping one day she would begin so see more of it come to the surface.

Before getting too lost on her trip down memory lane, Meryl continued.

“He doesn’t talk much anymore but when he does it’s direct and focused. I thought it was odd at first but he chooses his words carefully. When he talks, you never misunderstand what he says. He’s actually very thoughtful in that respect. He always knows exactly what to say in any situation. Though I kind of miss the way we used to talk, Michael’s still the same guy underneath.”

“You sound like he was a different person before he left the L.A.P.D.,” Shelly commented. She was a really good listener. “What was he like back then?”

“Almost the polar opposite of how he is now,” Meryl joked. “He was incredibly witty and talkative. Everyone in the precinct loved him. Well, except for our superiors. We got into our own fair share of trouble back then. Myself more so than him but they called him an enabler. We would always do everything together so he never let me take all of the blame even if it was all my fault,” she laughed.

“But still, Michael has changed. Some, like our old friend Lt. Perkins would say, for the better. He’s definitely a lot more mature now than he ever was but I kind of miss the way things used to be between us.”

Meryl stopped herself again and allowed herself to think back to the good old days. Michael really was a different guy in those years. Seeing a smile on his face used to be standard. Now it was like his mouth didn’t even bend in that way anymore.

“So,” the obvious must be asked before it drove Shelly crazy, “What happened?”

Meryl immediately bit her lower lip. It was always her instinctual reaction whenever she was faced with a question she did not know or wanted to answer. That was easier to hide before in front of her direct superior but she’d been so relaxed with Agent Yuan that Meryl let her guard down.

Memories soon started to flood in. That day would be forever known as the incident and still played out in her mind as if it were yesterday. They were just on a routine patrol. She would have never guessed her life would change so much in just a single moment. She chased after one guy and Michael took the other. Imagining what life would be like if they switched continues to drive Meryl crazy. The sound of the gunshot that day was forever etched into her brain. She could never forget the horrifying image that awaited her once she entered that house.

“Meryl,” Shelly gently said. “Are you alright?”

One blink was all it took to send that idle tear streaming down her check. She immediately rubbed it away and banished those thoughts from every coming into her memory today. Meryl needed to come up with a quick defense or be forced to explain herself and relive that day once more.

“Yea. I’m fine,” she replied pushing out a smile. “Looks like this stuff was spicier than I thought.”

A laugh followed, painfully forced but hopefully enough to sway Shelly’s scent off the trail.

Agent Yuan could easily see the pain in Meryl’s eyes and decided to drop it. Though they had only just met, Shelly had become very fond of Meryl. She could see a friendship blooming and didn’t want to do anything to ruin that. Whatever demons Meryl hid behind weren’t going to be revealed on this night. Shelly wanted to respect her privacy.

“And here I thought you could handle your spices,” Shelly quipped.

Dropping the subject was easy. Meryl was quick to jump onto a new avenue of interest. They could easily spend the whole night talking to each other. A thought both of them much looked forward too.

Yelling within the restaurant quickly interrupted any pleasant thoughts the two FBI agents had. Meryl looked up and caught an unusual character screaming into the kitchen from just outside the door. He didn’t look like an employee or even a customer. Someone must have pulled this guy straight out of a foreign mafia film. A few noticeable tattoos around his face and neck practically begged him to be stereotyped but his tone of speaking illustrated that he meant business regardless of how ridiculous he appeared to look.

“What’s going on over there?” Meryl leaned in and whispered.

Shelly turned her head slightly to catch an eye of the situation. Her ears were more valuable here than anything else. The man had been yelling for a good minute using Korean gutter slang.

“Apparently the owner owes that guy a lot of money for his protection services,” Shelly whispered back.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Meryl sighed.

There better be someone standing around holding a camera and script because this was just too cheesy to be real life.

“Does that sort of thing happen often around here?”

“Not sure. He looks like new blood. Probably trying to win favor with the gangs around here by collecting.”