Identity Crisis

[Elflady]

Spoiler

Jessica sighed as she lifted out the last of her bags from the taxi, the day was sunny and the air crisp while still being moderately warm but a quick glance at the trees that were slowly shifting colour showed that summer was pretty much over. She was wearing worn, stone washed jeans and sneakers, a girl cut grey and black top and a brown leather jacket, it felt a little odd actually as she hadn't dressed casually for quite some time. Flipping her dark hair over her shoulder Jess grabbed her bags and lifted her single box before walking inside the building, balancing briefly to get the door open. "Great," she muttered under her breath as she noticed the only elevator available looked dangerously old and unreliable so despite her luggage Jess opted for the stairs, her new apartment was only on the second floor anyway.

It was hardly an impressive building, it was clean and so far she knew was not supposed to house any addicts of any kind but it was obvious the house was old and had not been touched upon for a long time. Releasing all her bags she dug through her worn messenger bag for her new keys and after some gentle force got it to work and she could finally get inside. It was a small apartment, a tiny kitchen with a small space for a dining area to the right as she entered, a bathroom was behind the second door on her right and opposite that was a wardrobe and the last room was a living room with an slightly elevated area in one end. It was nothing like her last apartment but hopefully this wouldn't take too long to get done and during that time this would be sufficient.

She had been lucky enough to find an apartment where some furniture was included so she wouldn't have to bother with getting a bed or table so she could concentrate on unpacking instead. During a few hours Jess cleaned, made her bed, emptied her suitcases and put away her clothes, placed a few personal trinkets on a bookcase with some books, she used to read a lot before but with her job she hadn't had much time, until now that is. Feeling relatively finished she placed her laptop on the table and poured a glass of water before opening a window to let in some fresh air, glad to see there was a sturdy looking fire escape outside that could function as a very small balcony.

Turning serious again Jess headed to her bed and picked out a phone, a simple pre paid phone to be used in case of emergencies, placing it in a plastic bag as protection she took a chair and pried open a ventilation grid and placed it there. Well on the floor again she was satisfied that it would not be seen. Taking a seat by her computer in the small kitchen Jess started planning out what she needed to do, firstly she needed to buy some groceries an perhaps some plants and curtains to liven up the place a bit then she needed to get started on her actual job.

She was admittedly nervous, many agents had been killed so far and now she was expected to survive long enough to be useful and preferably report back her findings. Sure, she could do that, hopefully, but how was she supposed to start? So little information was available, her superiors didn't even now how the person looked like, they only knew that the person must spend place in the area where Jess now lived seeing as many of the murders had been carried out there. Well that would have to wait until she was done with the more trivial things, empting her glass rose up and stuffed her laptop into her messenger bag, not daring to leave it in the apartment and took her keys before leaving.

 

[Vbx.n]

Richard woke up slowly to the sound of the cars outside and the light that was beeming inside his room. Taking a deep breath he streached his muscles and sat up in the bed looking around the room. He didn't know why he was expecting anything diffrent but thats what he did. Blinking his eyes a few times he was still in the mood to just fall back under the covers and not wake up until he was evening. Richard was never the morning person back when he was a kid and deffinitally not now. Once he was out of bed he did the ususal things he did. Heading into the bathroom he took a much relaxing shower. His muscles have been stressed from a fight he was in a few days ago. Damn agent. He thought as he dried off and then got dressed.

There was people looking for him yet they didn't know where to look. It was quite amusing to him in a thrilling way. He would just get the enjoyment out of walking past a whole group of agents out on the street, obvousily looking for the target and it was right next to them. Since nobody had a clue what he looked like it was almost as if chasing a dog blind. And sending out agents wasn't going to do any good. The agenst were giving him information that he needed by looking for him espcially since he haden't done anything wrong. After putting on his formal clothes he had a quick breakfast. He had a meeting with an important man later on in the apartment about some deals they had to catch up on.

Grabbing his jacket and then keys he locked his door and placed the keys in his pocket. Richard was supprised how content he was to living in the apartment. But it was alot better than living in a house in his way of thinking. Most of his close death experiences were in his old hom but now it was somewhat less encounters he had to face, especially since now. Quickly he felt down his pocket and then let out a relived sigh when he found his phone. Checking his messages he turned the corner and felt himelf stuble back. His phone slipped out of his hands and he felt his body going backwards but he stopped himslef and quickly pushed forward grabbing the woman he bumped. " Im so sorry, wasn't paying attention".

Walking over to where his phone was Richard ran his hands through his hair before turning tword the woman to make sure that she was okay. He had a habit of not looking up when he was texing and walking. Now he was making a note in his head to start looking up. When Richard saw her face he blinked. She was..beautiful to say the least but he had never seen her before. " Are you new around here?, I havent seen you around these halls before".

 

[Elflady]

Heading down the hall Jessica was caught up in her thoughts, a big mess of a grocery list, stuff she could get for her new home, her orders and what life here would be like. She wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings to say the least and when she turned a corner she bumped into a man who seemed equally lost in what he was doing. Stumbling backwards she was kept upright by the man grabbing her arm to steady her. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she apologized almost at the same time as the man, feeling rather stupid. What a great first impression, she thought to herself with an inwardly eye roll.

"Yeah, I moved in this morning actually," she said with a nod. The man seemed nice and he was rather handsome with dark, slightly curly hair and dark eyes, the part of her brain that was trained for details and suspicion wondered if he could be counted as a suspect but Jess soon abandoned that thought, for now. She felt like it would be too good almost to have such luck and find her target this quick besides she couldn't go around suspecting every person she saw, that would be both annoying and suspicious in the long run. But then again perhaps she would get so paranoid by the end of this that she would have trouble going shopping even, she had seen others return from under cover assignments and they were quite jumpy and guarded and had problems going back to duty.

She adjusted her bag across her shoulder and shifted her weight to the other leg before continuing. "I'm Jessica by the way, Jessica Barrows." She said with a smile, thankful for the relatively easy name she had been given and now she hoped she would be attentive enough to react to it as well and not zone out if she was called. That would be one of the biggest problems with this she suspected, behaviours could be changed, new habits made and you could gain new hobbies but the simple thing of learning to learn a new name and react to it was hard. It was instinct to react when hearing your name, she had learned that in school once when they had been three with the same name and all three had reacted when one was called. But it wouldn't do worrying, she would just have to be attentive and be careful in the beginning then she would probably get used to her new name.

 

[Vbx.n]

Richard always wondered why things seemed to happen to him. He nodded his head when she stated that she had just moved in. It figured, he knew almost everybody in the building except a few but it wasn't like he was knocking on everyone's door trying to be a nice person. He let his eyes trail down her body for only a split second. It was rude to stare but kinda hard not to when your talking to someone so breathtaking. " Jessica, well its a pleasure to meet you im Richard Jones". A smile formed on his lips and he ran his hands throguh his hair. In his mind he wanted to ask her if she wanted a tour around but he figured she had things to do.

Leaning his body against the wall for support he looked at her and then down at his phone. " Well i know you must be heading somewhere before i was careless and bumped into you so Ill see you around? It was nice meeting you Jessica". He gave her another smile before turning away and heading out one of the doors. Richard looked around before walking across the street. The man wanted to meet earlier than expected since he sensed someone was onto him. Slipping into an alley way he saw the man. Short, stocky and with the one thing he needed..That breifcase.

Richard meet the man halfway before handing him the case. Pulling out a small envelope he handed it to the man. " The breifcase has all the things you asked for, I cant stay long those damn agents have been tracking me ever since". Nodding his head he watched the man leave in a hurry. Richard didn't rush to open the breifcase. He knew that the man wasn't a trick. After making his way back to the apartment he opened the case and pulled out the papers and flash drive, and disk. The papers contained all the agents in the area but there was one that was unknown. Everyone had a name and picture except for one. Taking a deep breath he memorized the others and then inserted the disk.

A smile formed and he scrolled down looking at the information. The people that wanted him were gonna have to try slightly harder if they were planning on catching him. Richard stood and put on some more comfortable clothes. He figured he'd burn some energy by punching a few bags in the gym down stairs. Heading down he bought a bottle of cold water and then began his exercise.

 

[Elflady]

"Sure, you too," she said as he turned to leave, glad there was one nice person in the building she could bug for help when she got hopelessly lost in the city, she may be a special agent and had years of training but her sense of direction was still as bad as ever and never showed signs of improving. Jessica too left the building and as she stopped outside to gain some sort of bearing she noticed him disappearing in to an alley way, puzzled she frowned wondering why the heck he went there but dismissed it quickly, as with any city there were tons of short cuts if you just knew your way around and that may just be the best way to wherever he was heading. Looking around Jessica tried to remember what she had learned about this place before she came here, making a choice she headed down one street hoping it was the right way. It was a sad and embarrassing fact but she still had trouble with some places in her own home town, and that place wasn't even that big, for some reason she had such an easy time memorising some things but information about a city layout for instance just seemed to leave her head as soon as she tried to learn it.

Finding the store quite easily Jessica sped through it, never fond of shopping as a contrast to many of her female friends, she'd never enjoyed moving around in a crowd of people trying to grab what she wanted while barely avoiding screaming children with her cart. Grabbing some milk, cheese, bread, fruit and some tea she proceeded to pick out some easy food to cook like pasta, chicken and canned food she could finally leave the store. Not only didn't she enjoy shopping that much Jessica was far from a master chef, she had a set few meals that she was admittedly quite good at making but beyond that it was probably best eating junk food than hers. On the way out she had also seen some potted plants for sale and she had not been able to resist, she loved to have some green to light up a place, however long they would survive was a whole other question though.

Making her way home and only going the wrong way twice she finally made it back to the apartment building and once more chose the stairs before the elevator and put down her bags to fetch her keys before heaving it all inside onto the kitchen counter. Jessica put way all the food while listening to some music, everything boring always became much more interesting with music on, too bad she hadn't been able to bring her stereo as it was too big so she had to make do with her smart phone and some earplugs. Well done she placed the plants in a window to give them some sun before stopping to look out the window pondering over what to do, she was unsure of how to proceeded now, this man, or perhaps woman, was like a ghost unable to get caught and it would probably not be such an easy thing finding any traces. For sure there was other agents out there trying the same thing but as far as she knew she was the only one permanently placed here. Shrugging she decided that for now she would wait and see what rumours or in worst case killings that occurred that she could learn some things from for now though she had no interest in sitting holed up inside, not when the sun was shining.

Pulling on a worn t-shirt and exchanging her jeans for tights she took her keys and phone before heading out again, she had seen something about it being a gym in the building but often, like now she preferred running, plugging in her ear buds Jessica took off running, prepared to get to run extra miles in case she took a wrong turn. A bit winded but satisfied Jessica returned an hour later, proud of not taking a wrong turn, although it would have been hard as she had jogged down one street and then turned and ran back the same way to save herself trouble, skipping her stretching she headed inside eager for a shower and cool water to drink.

 

[Vbx.n]

Just before he was going to start his workout he noticed that he didn't have any headphones to blast music to. Whenever he was working out he always had some sorce of music with him. Exhaling a breath he walked out the qym and quickly took the stairs. Opening the door to his room he grabbed his headphones and then jogged back downstairs. Richard loved to stay in shape so he had no problem doing things that consisted of using a decent amount of energy and mostly because he new how to control how much energy he expended when he was excersing.

When he walked back into the gym and began his workout now listening to some music he was totally focused on what he was doing. His eyes regestired two men who walked into the room. They both had gym clothes on but they didn't seem focused on gym. It raised a bit of suspicion but since there were many other people in the room he figured he wasn't going to draw attention to himself. As he continued his workout one of the men approached another guy who had a weird look on his face. Richard tried to listen to the conversation but he got bits and peices of it.

After about fourty five minutes the two men left the gym. A bit of relif swept over him but he honeslty wanted to know what the guys had said to him. He hated being on edge and thinking that everyone was out after him but it was quite true. Nowadays Richard had a hard time trusting his so called friends. Once who snitched for some money and the other one well he attemped to snitch but wasn't looking where he was going and got hit by a car. He thought about the information the man gave him and the data of the agents. Why was there one person he couldn't get a proper image of? He knew what everyone else looked liked and the fact that he didn't know one was bugging him like crazy.

Just finishing up his workout he guzzled down the cold and refreshing water. Right now he needed to take a nice shower and then relax. He felt that he deserved it as much. Everythign was going the way things were planned. As he exited the gym he shoulder bumped someone but this time it was light and he turnned to see Jessica. She was wearing exercise clothes so he figured she went out for a run. Richard was having a hard time figuring out why he was happy to see her. " Hey there didn't tink we'd run into eachother so soon".

 

[Elflady]

Entering the building Jessica checked the wall of mailboxes, at home it was always a habit of hers to always check the box even though she may already have taken in the mail that day and she was already starting here as well. Searching she found her box and a quickly checked what she already knew, no important mail for her, no surprise really as she had just moved here and while her background was solid and well prepared she would have to wait awhile for mail to come. Closing the mail box again Jessica headed towards the stairs off in dreamland, an annoying habit of hers and also something she should not do as an agent, although she was technically not on duty and could act how she wanted.

Having had a tight working schedule these last years Jessica had done her best to work as much as possible to get more experience and earn her relatively new job, it had even surprised her at first when she was offered a place at SIB, Special Intelligence Bureau, as she was younger and less experienced than many others. But according to her new bosses they had started a program in which younger people were hired from varying agencies just because of their age. In some missions, be they normal cases or under cover as most at SIB were then middle aged agents might have a harder time blending in or gaining trust.

This was actually one of Jessica's bigger solo mission and it was no doubt pressure on her, although she was not alone on the case technically as there were many agents dispatched after the same killer although she, and some others, worked entirely alone. But there was also the risk that she would be the one to be found first and not the other way around, she doubted her chances of survival in that case judging by the killer's behaviour so far.

Walking past a door she was oblivious to it opening and for the second time today she bumped into someone, although this time not violently enough to tip anyone over. Looking up she recognized the man as Richard, he too seemed dressed for a work out and a glance behind him showed he'd been at the gym. "Me neither," she said as she pulled out her ear plugs and turning the music off. "Seems like we have similar schedules today. Since I'm new here I'm actually using running partly as an excuse to at least try and learn to find my way around here," she said with a chuckle. It was a tad embarrassing to be so bad with directions but at least she had the excuse that she was new here to ease her own pride when it came to her short comings.

 

[Vbx.n]

Richard was glad that this bump wasn't one that knocked him or her backwards. He was slightly sweatly from the exercise and now he knew he needed to get back to work. The files that he was given earlier were things that he had to look over, especially that paper with the unknown agent. Richard promised himself that he wouldn't let it bother him but know he found himself to be more stressed out than before. Did they know who he was? What he looked like? What he was planning to do? All these questions kept running through his mind. He'd have to call one of his contacts to get a run in things and a person to decode the scriptions that blocked the data from showing exactly everything that there was to know about the agency.

Being out on your own with a whole bunch of people that wanted to kill him for something they think happened and thought that he was apart of. Now it forced him into falling deeper and deeper to what he was doing and making them want to kill him even more, as if that wasn't enough. Out the corner of his eyes he spotted the two men at the front desk. They had no bags so he figured they were just asking questions but they were too suspicious and he'd have to keep and eye out for both of them.

" Yeah i quess we do since we keep bumping into eachother". When Jessica chuckled it caused him to smile. " Well if you ever need any help getting around you can always let me know, It's alot better than wandering around the hotel and then getting lost". Richard walked over to the vending machine and then got another cold bottle of water. He was strangley thirsty. Walking back over to where Jessica was he looked down at her. " Hey how about tommaorw I show you around? That is if your not busy?".

 

[Elflady]

Jessica looked over to the front disk as well when she noticed that Richard saw the men there, a good thing about her training was that she had learned to take in details of her surroundings all the time, it went so far that even off duty she had a tendency to take in details around her. The men didn't seem to fit in here, they didn't look like they lived here, more like they asked around for something or someone. Briefly she wondered if those men had something to do with the person she was out after or if they were agents of some kind, Jessica was relatively new at her job and didn't now everyone there, and certainly not people from other agencies. Or there was the possibility that the men were nothing of the sort and was just looking for directions.

"That would be great," she said with a grateful smile after snapping her attention back to Richard and his words as he came back with a water bottle. "I have flexible hours so I can free up a lot of hours during the day," she said. Another thing that was improved from her real job where free time wasn't exactly easy to come by depending on the work load, and as soon as she got used to it she would probably like it. "If you are free around this time we could meet here then?" Jess asked him. "Well, I need to get up and shower and change clothes but in that case I'll see you tomorrow," she added after his answer.

Heading up the stairs she unlocked her door and headed straight for the bathroom, stripping of her clothes she enjoyed a long shower before stepping out and went to the elevated part of the living room and dug out some comfortable clothes, letting her hair dry by itself. Seating her self in the sofa with a glass of water she booted up her laptop and started doing her real job and fake job at the same time. Her cover as a freelance journalist would let her investigate the killings and their motives without rising much suspicion, she hoped.

Spending a few hours on the internet Jessica searched the internet about every article about the killings, how, when and where they happened and every detail the police had released about their investigation. Writing up her notes in a note pad Jessica started to feel stiff sitting bent over the computer so she gave up for the day, rising up she stretched and on her way to the kitchen she switched on the old TV and listened absently to some program about nature catastrophes. Taking out a beer from the fridge and climbed out the window to sit on the fire escape, looking out over the city.

 

[Vbx.n]

Richard nodded his head when she agreed. His mind was still on the two guys that entered the gym though. Even though it seemed like nothing they stood out wich made them even more suspicious. They had on formal attire yet were pretending to be working out in the gym and eyeing everyone at the same time. It just didn't make anyn sense and he was starting to think that they were getting theirselves involved in something that they shouldn't. " That sounds great so i'll see you tommarow at this time then?". He watched as Jessica excused herself before glanced back at the two guys who were now at the front desk. Please dont let them check in.

After finishing up his water he stepped into the elevator which to his supprise, the two men stepped into. They spoke breifly in the elevator but they were a floor below him. Watching them get off, Richard was glad to walk into his own room. CLosing and locking the door behind him Richard opened up his labtop and read the two new messages that someone had sent him. None the less it was one of his helpers but he didn't respond. He was on edge more than ever and he needed to get his mind off the fact that he is a walking target to a whole damn company.

Richard headed into the bathroom and took a long shower. He closed his eyes and let the water fall onto his body. It was qa great way to relax his tense muscles from working out. After drying off and throwing on some sweats he headed into the bedroom and turnned on the tv. It was awhile since he had even glanced at a tv show since he was so busy all the time. After about fifteen minutes his eyes were heavy and he found himself falling asleep

The next morning Richard woke up and relutantly got out of bed. Streaching he walkeed into the bathroom and took a quick shower and then threw on his clothes. Heading into the kitchen he made some breakfast and turnned on the tv. There was another dissapearance and death. When they released the name of the man who dissapeard Richard almost choked on his food. The man he meet with the other day. The only person worth trusting was MIA. Shaking his head Richard grabbed his jacket and headed downstairs. He was supprised not to see the men but then again he honestly didn't give a damn. Richard figured he'd head over to the park just to clear his head and come u with another plan.

 

[Elflady]

Waking early the next morning out of habit Jessica stayed in bed, enjoying the small luxury of sleeping in for once. But eventually she felt almost bothered lying idle so she flipped off her covers and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. Pulling on a pair of jeans and a simple shirt with three quarter sleeves Jess set her sight on the small kitchen to fix some breakfast and a few cups of coffee to really wake her up. A thing she had gotten used to at work actually, Jess had never liked coffee no matter what was added to it, but on the job she had quite quickly gotten used to the taste and had started to like it.

Taking her last cup with her to the coffee table where her laptop still stood from last night Jess turned it on and continued where she stopped, searching through articles, trying to find deaths or accidents that could be related without any obvious clue. She came upon a new article, just a few days old, where a man had been hit by a car, the police had apparently seen it as a classic hit and run and thats what it looked like but Jess wrote in a note on it just in case. Together with all her other perhaps useless notes.

Taking a sip of the strong liquid Jess pulled a hand through her slightly damp hair letting out a sigh, granted she had only just started out here but it still felt overwhelming that she was supposed to figure all this out on her own, unless the agency found out before her. But judging by their luck so far Jessica wasn't so optimistic though.

Ending her search through newspapers and other sites Jess turned to the more illegal part of her plan, hacking into records and see the police files on newer crimes that she hadn't the chance to search for until now. She may not have skills enough to hack into pentagon or such but she could easily do what she needed for this to work. Especially since she couldn't get caught it was important she didn't leave any traces that could lead to her.

Finding some interesting details in some cases Jessica didn't find anything revolutionary and shut off her computer just as much in the dark as earlier. Emptying her the last of her cold coffee Jess grabbed her things and left the apartment, intent on taking a short walk before meeting Richard. Arriving back at the building a bit ahead of time for the single reason that she had walked in a pretty much straight line while studying her surroundings. Leaning against a wall she played with her new phone, learning the settings and the differences from her old one.

 

[Vbx.n]

Richard's mind was a complete mess. How was he going to recive important information that would help prove that he was innocent and had no park in past or recent killings of the agent? What if it was the two men from earlier who set him up? Or what if someone took him captive until they got the information that they wanted? Shaking his head Richard paced back and forth like he was a nut case, practially unaware of what he was doing.

The park was mostly empty except for two couples sitting on the bench, some dude walking his dog and some joggers. The breeze was nice and he knew that it was going to get hot in a few weeks top. Richard wasn't complaining since he'd be getting in a few swims in the pool. Then Richard began to think about the flashdrive that he had recived and the one name that wasn't avalible. Stress was starting to kick in and Richard stopped pacing.

Being that he was planning on seeing Jessica he was relived that he'd have someone who would make him forget about everything that he was going through. Walking out the back hr made his way over to the building. It only took a moment to look around when he found Jessica leaning against the wall on her cellphone. Walking over Richard smiled and then tapped her shoulder to get her attention.
" Well hey there, like the phone".
Richard looked around breifly before realizing that the place wasn't full and tecnically empty.

 

[Elflady]

Occupied as she was Jessica jumped slightly as she heard a voice next to her, perhaps part of it came with the nature she'd developed as an agent, to always be on guard and ready to act even when taken by surprise. Turning around she slipped her phone down into her pocket, "it's alright, I broke my old phone by dropping it down the stairs so I have to get used to the new one." She explained with a smile, while it was a white lie Jess found it both satisfying and slightly disturbing how easily she could fabricate stories. While she may not be a perfect person, really who is, lying had never been something she enjoyed or did if she could avoid it, preferring to stick with white lies and leaving out things instead.


"This place is a bit bigger than the place I come from, so we'll see how fast this gets stuck in my head." She said. "So what do you do?" Jess asked as she lifted her bag from the floor and swung it over her shoulder ready to follow him out. "Not everyone is so lucky to have a job with free time during the day."