Spider's Game ((Book One) #Wattys2016 Winner!)

Chapter 1- Six Months Later

The Agency as it was called being too powerful to need any other moniker, was stationed primarily on an exquisite spacecraft. Anchored in the galaxy it orbited a moon and waited, shields always up. Invisible to any who entered the quadrant.

Allison wondered as she stared at words in a book, how long the blue metal edifice had served her as home. Hundreds of years? Thousands? Like most of the Agency's operatives, she spent a great deal of time in stasis. To avoid time-madness as the owners claimed? Or do they just not want us to make bonds with each other?

It was a useless train of thought. She belonged as completely to the Agency as any slave. She'd signed over her life to be their agent and in return, they'd given her a surgery that ensured she would never age. Her body and mind never degrade.

The cost of such a thing was staggering.When she was new, she could not have repaid the debt. Now, perhaps she could but where in the seventeen worlds could she go? Everyone she knew and loved was either dead or also a member of the Agency. And as long as she performed well and obeyed their rules she could have anything she wanted.

No point at all in thinking about freedom.

But she did.

Lifting her eyes from the unread text on the screen, she gazed at her chamber. Scarlet, crimson, and burgundy covered everything from walls to floor. From the ceiling, hung a red crystal chandelier that sent claret beems darting about. Only Allison was a splash of white against the fiery madness.

Uncurling her long limbs, pale as cream, she pressed one red tipped toenail to the floor. As if called by her disquiet, the door opened, and Mr. Red entered.

Mr. Red was a handsome man. He appeared to be in his late thirties, though since he'd been with the Agency longer than she he must have seen countless years. Only in his amber eyes did this age make any appearance, there was no youth there. He was hard and emotionless. His blond hair slicked back away his face and lent his aquiline features a stern, meticulous cast.

The one asset the company valued above its agents. Their trainer. And the one reason she couldn't forget the call of freedom. To be able to speak to him, to put words the aching longing inside her when she saw his hand resting on a table and was unable to reach out.

"Red," she said. Her voice was soft and breathy like the fluttering of a butterfly's wing. Could she use an utterance against him as she did in the field and bend him to her will? No. That's why he was their trainer because the agents couldn't manipulate him with beauty and wiles. Still, at some moments she was tempted to try. That was strictly forbidden.

Instead, she stood and extended her arms to him.

"Agent," Mr. Red walked over to her and took her small hands. Mr. Red looked at her fingers curled over his. "I heard the other owners revoked the decision to put you back in stasis. No word yet on an assignment. Did you request this?"

Allison moved a step closer to him. She did not lower her pale lilac eyes but stared fearlessly into his face. "I appreciate you thinking of me, Red."

He jerked his eyes away from hers and looked around the room. A sneer came to his mouth. "What have you done to your chamber?"

"Don't laugh at me." She took her hands from his and turned her back to him. Her silk dress fell against her tiny waist and the slight swell of her hips. The flawless white skin of her back burned brightly against the red of her gown. It was her job to be constantly aware of these things, of her own beauty.

"What is this Allison? Your way of sleeping with me?" A trace of mockery threaded his tone. From the corner of her eye, she caught his motion to her red bed as she moved away from him. She flinched at his voice.

Was that an act, like the skills he teaches us?

"Don't be cruel." She glanced over her shoulder at him and he lowered his eyes away from her.

"The others wouldn't approve."

His voice had softened. If he hadn't been so well trained she might even have heard fear in it. At least she supposed so.

"No," Allison said.

There were words she couldn't say, sighs she couldn't sigh. Restrictions would be tighter for him. If he ever felt anything behind those robotic eyes, he never showed any sign. One of the Agency's few rules for its agents was that the operatives never engage socially with other staff members. Agents were too dangerous and any attempt to fraternize was taken as a betrayal of the company, punished by death.

He walked over to the bed and touched the velvet hangings. Did she imagine his eyes stayed longer than they ought? "You looked prettier amid all the blue."

"I didn't request a stay. Isn't there a new girl?" Allison went back to her chair without a word and sat down.

"Yes, I recommended Tatania to ease her into the life."

"Perhaps they decided I would be better," Allison shrugged. "I'm the best, Red. The best you've got."

"Don't get cocky."

"Did you come here to lecture me?"

"No. Get rid of this display. You look like a petulant child."

Mr. Red had her best interests at heart. He always did. There was a constant tug of war between him and the other board members, and if she watched closely enough she could sometimes catch the steps. What she gathered was that he genuinely cared about all of the agents under his care. He was their advocate

"It's a color, not a display."

"You think you and I are the only ones capable of reading between these not so subtle lines? Get rid of your little outburst. Immediately."

"As you say." Allison pursed her lips, not bothering to hide her discontent.

"Allison." Mr. Red looked at her and for all the power in the universe, she wished she could read his eyes.

"I'll do as you say."

"Thank you."

The door let out a little puff of air as it closed and resealed.

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