Agent Crew

Hospital atmosphere

LB's office, Hitch had always thought, was very cleverly designed. It was all white, which to most people would be seen as a calming environment, but somehow here it felt more like the sterile white of a hospital. There was a sense of constantly waiting for bad news. A shocking diagnosis. A critical patient. A death.

In her matching colour palette, LB complemented the room perfectly, seemingly oblivious to its hospital atmosphere. It was an office that put the owner at ease, and the agents on guard.

The person now occupying LB's polished desk was certainly putting Hitch on guard, but not for quite the same reason.

Agent Singh did not belong in LB's office, and it showed. Her black hair was curled in an elaborate bun on her head, and her eyes were outlined in a violent blue. Her suit somehow managed to be the most un-suit-like thing Hitch had ever seen. The trousers were lilac and floaty, the blouse was white with blue flowers all over it, and the jacket was also lilac - with blue bows on the pockets.

And she was wearing shoes.

Blue ballet pumps to be precise. Possibly more practical than bare feet, but it felt wrong nonetheless. Hitch just didn't feel the same natural fear of authority.

"Hitch," he said, holding out a hand and keeping his face carefully blank.

"Ebeneza," replied the woman, making no move to shake his hand. After an awkward pause, Hitch lowered his arm back to his side. "Please call me Neza."

"You wanted to see me?"

A cheerful smile spread across Neza's face and she nodded enthusiastically, her bun bobbing up and down as she did so.

"Yes indeed," she said. "I've heard that you're the man to speak to if I want to know about codes."

Hitch couldn't help the slight crease that appeared above his nose at that statement. He was not, and never had been, a code expert. He left those to Blacker - and, increasingly, to Ruby.

"I think you have the wrong -" he started, only to by cut off by a wave of Neza's arm.

"Nonsense," he said. "You are in charge of Agent Redfort, yes?"

Hitch would not have described his relationship with Ruby as 'in charge', but he nodded anyway.

"Is she waiting outside?" Neza continued, craning her neck as if she might somehow see through the office door to the corridor beyond. "I did ask for both of you, didn't I?"

Ridiculously nervous, Hitch swallowed a painful lump in his throat. "The kid's not here," he managed.

Finally focussing her attention back on Hitch, Neza frowned.

"I asked for both of you," she repeated. Her face looked wrong without a smile, Hitch decided. Then wondered why he was even thinking about that.

"She wasn't at home this morning," Hitch explained. "Or at school. I think," he closed his eyes briefly in order to prepare himself for the inevitable assault on his competence, "I think she's been taken."

"Taken?" repeated Neza, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Don't be so melodramatic, Hitch. We are not in some poorly plotted Bond novel. No, we are in the real world. And in the real world, teenagers sometimes do not take things seriously enough."

Not this teenager, Hitch almost said, but he managed to restrain himself. There were many things Ruby did not take seriously: school, Mrs Drisco, rules. But Spectrum was certainly not one of them.

"With respect," he said instead, "Ruby is a highly competent agent." With a knack for getting into serious trouble.

With another wave of her hand, Neza brushed away Ruby's competence like a fly. (Ironic, Ruby's voice said in his head.)

"She is a teenager," Neza emphasised. "One who had been reprimanded more times than the rest of Spectrum 8 combined."

This, Hitch could not argue with.

"Anyway, that is not what I asked you here to discuss."

Hitch had to bite down the urge to remind her that she had been the one to bring up Ruby in the first place.

"If you want a code solved, why not hand it over to Blacker's team?" he asked.

"I don't want a code solved," Neza said, sounding slightly surprised at the suggestion. "I want a code created."

This was so completely not what Hitch had been expecting, that he had nothing to say.

"I have looked over Redfort's file," Neza continued. "She seems perfectly capable of such a task. That is," her frown deepened, "she would be, if she were here."

"When I've found her, I'll let you know," Hitch promised, eager to get this meeting over and done with. He still had no idea what this woman was doing in LB's office - or where LB herself was, for that matter - but the longer he spend discussing Ruby, the less time he was spending actually searching for her.

"Found her?" Neza's constant repeating was starting to grate on Hitch's nerves. "For the last time Hitch, agents simply do not get taken in this day and age."

"It's happened before," Hitch argued.

"Yes, well," Neza's argument drifted off into silence, and Hitch thought she was about to concede, when she started to speak again.

"I'm sorry, Hitch," she said. "But I need you here."

"I thought you wanted Ruby?" he said, mentally reviewing their conversation for anything he might have missed in his impatience to leave.

"I do," agreed Neza. "But I also need you. Agent Froghorn has been working on a smuggling case for a while now, and finally tracked it back to inside the City Council. He needs an agent to join him on stakeout, and he asked for you personally."

Darn it, Froghorn, Hitch cursed internally. (Potatohead, whispered Ruby in his mind.)

"Surely you can find someone else?" asked Hitch. "I'm in the best place to search for the kid, and any agent could help Froghorn on his case."

Lies, he thought. You're too close to this.

"Nonsense," said Neza, in the closest she had come yet to a stern tone. "The kid will come back when she's ready to take her job seriously. Froghorn needs you now."

"It might be worth me checking out the kid's stuff, though," Hitch pressed. "Just to be on the safe side."

"You live there, be my guest," said Neza, shrugging. "But do it in your own time. I do not want any agency resources diverted to your 'missing child' case, is that understood?"

For the first time, Hitch felt his composure slip.

"What authority do you have to demand that?" he asked, voice raised slightly higher than his usual nonchalant volume.

"Didn't Dent tell you?" asked Neza, eyebrows raised in surprise, the blue making her wide eyes seem almost deranged. "I'm the new head of Spectrum 8."