The days spent working two jobs and taking care of Ilona were tiring. Despite this, she somehow felt better than she ever had in the past year. Her progress to freedom had been slowed. Perhaps as much as three years had been added to the time needed to resolve her financial situation. Yet she still felt fulfilled. She gave Ilonas hand a firm squeeze and there was a sad smile on her face. What am I going to do with you? This can’t last forever. Can it? Is it all right if it does? The little thoughts and doubts were pricking at her mind, but the small pricks were obscured by the warmth she felt inside her for the first time in months if not longer.

Margit had decided after a couple of days to change her employment at Maclearware to part time. It became more about keeping appearances than earning money. Flora’s missions had already been the majority of her income for a while. That was the reason she was able to afford all her new expenditures and still keep afloat. As strange as it was to perform tasks for a more or less unknown person and which were almost never legal, Margit found herself getting used to it all. The small easy tasks had become nothing more than routine. Be that as it may, I would have run away from it all if I had no need for the money. It may have been a routine, but a scorned one. The contradictory feelings came to her mind from time to time. Even if she disliked Flora and working for her, she was still able to live in relative peace and tranquillity. She knew she should have expected that things would turn for the worse sooner or later.

The call came in the afternoon. It was just like all the others that had come before. One difference was that it came somewhat soon after the previous mission. Another difference was the fact that for some of the easier jobs she no longer had to meet with Flora and her people. Margit was used to having a day or a couple of rest after she completed a job for Flora. Of course a job could be something that she could do the same afternoon after receiving it, or it could take a week or more of tailing her targets, planting bugs and eavesdropping. She felt something big was about to happen and bit her lip with unease.

She still had no idea where Flora’s office was even located. Still no trust after everything I have done for these people. It was a bitter taste in her mouth even though she had little trust in them as well. And of course they would get no useful information from me if I were to be captured and interrogated.

Her wandering thoughts were interrupted as the hood was removed from her head. She blinked to get accustomed to the light and saw Flora staring at her. She was used to her having different expressions. Most common ones were her snide amusement, mild annoyance or cold indifference. What she had never seen before was the tense perturbation she saw now. She knew something was wrong. Without meaning to, she sat straighter and held her breath in anticipation. She saw veins in Flora’s eyes.

Flora sighed. “There is no easy way for me to say this,” she began and let the words hang in the air for a moment. “On his mission, Gabor has been taken.”

Margit gasped. “Wait. Is he?” She stammered, the words wouldn’t come out. She felt her heart being wrung. It was a good thing she was already sitting.

“We believe he is still alive, but his time is running out fast. If we want to do something about it, it has to be done within the next 48 hours,” Flora began explaining before Margit finished her question.

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“We have to,” Margit jumped back in.

“Yes, there is no doubt about that,” Flora said.

“No, I don’t care, I will go myself if I have … Wait. Do you really mean it?” Margit didn’t even register what Flora had said. So far she had never exhibited any care for any single person, friend or foe.

“Yes, as I’ve already said, we need to extract him. He holds some vital information, that cannot be leaked to our enemies,” Flora said.

“And you want me?”

“Yes, I believe you have become experienced enough to pull something like this off and the motivation must also be substantial for you. Though to be perfectly honest we don’t have much choice since all other agents are away on their assignments,” Flora said and cleared her throat. “No matter. As I’ve said time is of the essence. Gabor is being held in a hospital.”

Margit raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound too bad. How do you know where he is?”

“We know because we have access to some security feeds, but that doesn’t matter right now. A normal hospital might not be too bad. What makes this one worse is the fact that it also runs various illegal operations and is controlled by a Cerb,” she gave Margit a stern look, that suppressed any response. “One of those operations is memory extraction, which is what we believe is what awaits Gabor if don’t save him. Thankfully the preparation takes a while, so we need to act fast.”

Every detail bore new pain into Margit’s insides. Gabor would die in less than two days if she didn’t do something. “All right, I’ll do it. How will we pull this off?”

“Good. Despite the gravity of the situation, the plan can be rather simple. You might be able to simply walk into the hospital, but you would never get into the restricted parts of the building. This is why we will make use of your various recent injuries,” Flora said and looked Margit up and down. “We will need to reopen some of those, maybe add some more just to make it more convicing.

Margit opened her mouth, ready to protest, but was silenced before she could express her misgivings.

“Settle down girl. We only need to make it look bad enough to get you inside. It will be just surface level stuff. We will put you to sleep and stage an accident. One of our people at the scene will make sure that you are marked to be taken into the surgical clinic. We will make sure you will be left alone for at least half of an hour. You will find all the gear you need when you wake up.” Flora kept talking without a break. She had never been this energetic about a job before.

Margit wasn’t able to quite get into the mood like her. The prospect of what lay in front of her filled her with cold dread. Gabor, please be safe. I never should have let you join this group. Flora and her lackeys explained the rest of the plan. She would have to get past some security or better yet neutralise them. This time she would have a weapon capable of stunning people. She would get to Gabor, wake him up with an injection of a stimulant and escape with him. If need be she would be able to blow a hole through a wall to get outside, where Flora’s men would wait for them and take them away.

This time she would not go home and contemplate the plan. If they were going to be successful, they had to act at once.

“That concludes the meeting. You must get him out Margit,” said Flora. She didn’t use her name often, so it caught her off guard.

Despite her mistrust in Flora, Margit found herself moved. I’m sure she’s only doing this because it serves her purposes, but perhaps somewhere deep down she does care. The room was feeling too hot and stuffy for her all of a sudden. She tried to regain her composure and fanned herself with her shirt. “I’m ready.”

“Good, let’s put you to sleep right away.”