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More "SpyEyez"
Current mood: Off Work
Category: Off Work Blogging
August 12, 2007--D.J.
The swaying made it feel like I was in a giant hammock. I sat up in bed and stretched. I looked at my clock. It was 8:20 AM. I had completely altered my sleep cycle two months ago. That's when I started driving the first shift for the Orange Cab company. The clock read 8:49 AM after I toked on my bong and finished as hot shower. By 9:00 AM, I was siting in my taxi.
I started the ignition. Then, I punched in my code to activate the GPS and fare system. A fare popped up on my screen immediately. I drove to Rok Soup Development Incorporated on NE 30th Street to pick up a passenger named Terrance. A man holding a to-go container and a spork approached my cab.
I rolled down my passenger side window and asked, "Are you Terrance?"
"Yes," he replied. "Do you mid if I sit up front?"
"No, it's cool. Come on in."
"Is eating permitted in your cab?"
"Yeah. Get your grub on."
"Thank you. Please be wary of the potholes. I'd hat to make a painful muss out of my chicken noodle soup."
"No worries. Where 'bout you headed."
"The airport will be our final destination, but we have to stop at Genesis Yachts on Brickell Ave. first."
"Okay."
The ride was silent. It urked me at first, but the feeling passed. Most rides this early before noon were quiet. Terrance was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man. He wore a plain back polo shirt mode of some synthetic material with khaki shorts and black leather loafers. The gold rimmed aviator sunglasses he wore made me fell less out of place with my big goofy shades. I noticed that Terrance had two gold caps in his top row of teeth. Then, a question popped into my head. Something seemed out of place, so I had to say something.
"Terrance, I know that Rok Soup doesn't open until ten o'clock. Do they sell and serve their soup earlier now?"
"They do not." He didn't even look up from his bowl.
"Well, how did you get it?"
"I made it myself. My early morning cravings for soup are hard to bare."
That was all I need to know about that. I guessed he was the owner or a key holder of that store, but there was still something on my mind.
"Are you going to check out a certain boat before you leave town?" I pried.
"No," Terrance responded calmly. "We will be picking up two more passengers."
There were two young women standing on the corner with luggage when I pulled up in front of Genesis Yachts. I pressed the trunk release button, and the ladies loaded it and closed it before I could be gentlemanly and help them with their baggage. They both sat in the back seat. I check them out in my rearview mirror. Upon recognition, I spun around erratically to face them.
"Lissette and Amber?" I was shocked.
"I knew you would recognize my colleagues, Yarnez," Terrance said.
"How do you know my middly name?" I asked because the driver-for-hire license hanging from my rearview only showed my middle initial.
"I know a lot about you," his statement made me paranoid, "but that's eronious now. I'm going to get right to the point. We are agents representing the Z Operative Organization aka the ZOO. The ZOO is the most elite espionage agency in the world, yet only a select few know of our existence. We operate as the private contractors of espionage."
"Shit! A set up. What have I done to deserve this? What have you got on me? Who snitched?" I knew years of drug trafficking would catch up with me eventually.
"Oh, were not here to arrest you, silly," Amber added.
"We're here to initiate you," Terrance explained as he handed me a small pamphlet. "I took the liberty of preparing this brochure for you."
I skimmed the little leaflet entitled What is the ZOO. Terrance took it from me when I finished, set it on fire with a Zippo lighter, and then threw it out the window.
"Terrance, Lissette, and Amber are merely fake aliases," Terrance stated. "We go by codenames. I am Viper, the head mofo in charge. Amber is Phoenix, and Lissette's codename is Oncilla. You, Dewaun, will be known and Bat."
"Bat? Wait I haven't agreed to Jack Squat. You're a fucking nut job," I lashed out.
"In that sense, we are one in the same," Viper remarked. "I've been keeping track of you since your expulsion from UNF for dealing drugs from your drom."
"How the hell?" I wonder aloud.
"I could rattle of plenty of random facts about your, Bat, but I don't want to waste time," Viper said. "The ZOO is the perfect opportunity of you. I know it, and you know. Plus, the DNA tests proved that the ZOO needs you."
"What are you talking about?" I was full of questions.
"I'm sure you did not notice with Oncilla plucked a strand of you hair six months ago," Viper revealed.
I looked over my shoulder at Oncilla. She nodded.
"I still haven't heard you say a word. Haven't you got your voice back yet?" I asked.
"No, Oncilla's a mute," Phoenix explained. "We have fun covering it up when we work."
"Let's stop chewing the fat," Viper interjected. "Bat, you were Baker Acted by your brother. Doctors at the Mental Health Resource Center of Jacksonville diagnosed you with a rare chemical imbalance of the brain. It is that imbalance that makes you compatible for a ZOO project far to complex to explain right now."
"You need to explain why the hell I should go along with this crazy shit," I swore.
"In the ZOO, you'll never worry about the monotony of other jobs, and you'll have a chance to help the world," Viper said.
"If this is a job, how would I get paid?" I inquired.
"The ZOO doesn't have an official payroll. We deal exclusively with cash," Viper responded. "For our simplest missions, we are compensated no less than 2.2 million dollars. When we deal with countries and their government funds, that price goes up exponentially." Oncilla handed Viper a back back, and he gave it to me. "This is your sign on bonus."
"I'm in," I said after I counted $932,000 worth of neatly wrapped one hundred dollar bills inside the bag. "What's next?"
"We're going to meet Bruin, the other member of our team, at the airport. Then, we will fly to Jacksonville where your training and physical therapy will begin after your surgery. Once your training is complete, we will have a mission already lined up for you there," Viper said.
"What surgery?" I asked.
"I already told you all I could about our special project," Viper answered. "Bruin is the expert on all that jazz. He'll have to fill you in."
When we arrived at the airport, I discovered that we were not catching a commercial flight.
"This is the ZOO's private jet," Phoenix said as we boarded the small plane.
A man close to Viper's age wearing dorky spectacles stepped out of the cockpit. He shook my hand.
"Hello, I'm Bruin," he introduced himself. "You must be Bat. I've head a lot about you and look forward to working with you."
"Cool, you're Bruin," I said. "You're supposed to tell me about some kinda surgery."
"Of course, the biological AI project," Bruin said. "I'll come back and tell you all about it after we get this jet in the air and on auto pilot."
"In the meantime, you all can talk among yourselves," Viper said.
Viper and Bruin retreated to the pilots' cabin. Oncilla, Phoenix, and I strapped ourselves in for takeoff.
"So how long have y'all been in this ZOO?" I asked them.
"I started nine months ago, and Oncilla has over a year under her belt," Phoenix answered.
"What can you tell me about the training?" I questioned.
"Not much. It's a personalized thing. Oncilla didn't require much training, and I know your training regimen will be completely different from mine since you will be equipped with a very advanced piece of equipment. Viper and Bruin will be our primary instructors, but me and Oncilla will be chipping in too. And of course, I'll try to teach you sign language so Oncilla can communicate with you."
"I already knew a little," I smiled. "If I act out of line in your class, Ms. Phoenix, I hop you will spank me with a ruler. Maybe Oncilla could help."
I made an ass-smacking gesture with my hands. Oncilla signed something to Phoenix.
"She said in your dreams," Phoenix translated.
"What about our magical moments in Miami six months ago?"
Oncilla signed something else to Phoenix.
"She said not to take it personal, but we were just acting, and doing our jobs. It wasn't much a stretch to pretend to be turned on by you, though," Phoenix clarified.
I laughed and nodded on the outside, but a piece of my heart broke on the inside.
"And you were just doing your job, too?" I asked Phoenix.
Maybe," she blushed, "but let's change the subject. We all need to get to know one another. Tell us a bit about yourself, Bat."
I gave them the condensed version of my life story, and when I finished, Phoenix empathized, "Wow, you've really been through a lot."
"I guess," I shrugged. "What's your story?"
"It is not as eventful as yours," Phoenix admitted. "I grew up in a small Missouri town as a typical all-American girl besides the pyromania….and the ecstasy. I was kind of a nerd in high school and graduated valedictorian. I used my intellect to gain advanced knowledge of explosives, which is the reason Viper recruited me."
"That's interesting," I said. "What about you, Oncilla?"
Oncilla nodded to give permission to tell her story.
"Oncilla if from Brazil," Phoenix started. "Her parents grew up in a poor village, but know her father is the biggest coffee baron in South America. Oncilla joined the Rio Cage Fighters' Club when she was eighteen. She had a dominant career until Viper and Bruin found her."
Bruin emerged from the cockpit. He sat across from me and cleared his throat.
The conversation was too long and multifaceted for me to recollect accurately. The basis of all he said was that I would have a computer chip implanted in my brain. That chip would power the mainframe of a supercomputer installed in a custom
designed LG VX9400 cell phone with Artificial Intelligence fueled by my brain's impulses.
"Bat, I know this is a lot to take in," Bruin observed when his explanation was complete. "Understand that the capabilities of this living prototype are infinite. After the basic things we can cover with you during your training, you'll have to pick everything else up as you go, but prototype will be learning as it updates itself too. You are a brilliant young man, Bat. That's why Viper recruited you."
I was rendered speechless. My mind was racing too fast for my lips to keep up. I hugged my backpack full of money and took a deep breath. What have I gotten myself into?
"We'll be touching down at Jacksonville International Airport soon," Bruin said. "Viper will drop us off at Shand's Hospital. Oncilla, Phoenix, and I will be in the OR first to have GPS chips linked to the prototype implanted in our thighs. Bat, will go in after our procedures to have your Z-chip implanted in your brain. Wiper will pick us up afterwards, and then we will check in to two rooms at the Relax in on Main Street. Your training will start the following morning, Bat. Viper wants you to report to Andrew Jackson Senior High at 6 AM sharp. It's only a few blocks away. Making it there wouldn't be too hard for you." Bruin gave us the entire itinerary.
"Am I supposed to walk?" I asked.
"No," Bruin answered.
"You're supposed to run," Viper said as he entered from the pilots' cabin. "I've instructed Oncilla and Phoenix not to let you leave the room until 5:56 AM. I expect you at Jackson High by 6 AM daily. The school is vacant for summer vacation. Arrive no later than 6 AM, or suffer the consequences."
"Okay," I understood.
"Your fist few days will be designated for physical therapy to be followed by training that will teach you how to operate the system as a whole. Then comes your sign language classes and hand to hand combat courses with Oncilla and Phoenix. There will also be a ballistics clinic. When they have completed their portion of training with you, I'll be sending Oncilla and Phoenix off on a special mission. Bruin and I will finish training you, Bat. After that, you'll be ready for your fist mission," Viper laid it out for me.
We all nodded in unison. We kicked back to relax for a bit. Just like Bruin said, we landed soon. Viper had a black Cadillac Escolade waiting for us at the Hertz rental car kiosk. We loaded up and were dropped of at Shands just like we planned. I sat in the waiting room watching ESPN for a while while Bruin, Phoenix, and Oncilla underwent their surgeries. I had never had surgery, so the prospect of brain surgery had my nerves shot to shit. After a couple of episodes of Sportscenter, they came limping out the OR. Bruin had crutches. Tiger and Spider used walking canes.
The doctor beaconed. I went to get prepped for the long procedure. I changed into some scrubs and was escorted to the operating room. I lied down on the table. The metal was cold on m bare ass. The doctor injected me with a sedative, and I was completely subdued in minutes. Out like a light.
12:26 PM
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