The Arena: The Awakening (1) (12 page)

By 7am Mia was sitting in a diner at the corner of Madison Place and Vermont Avenue sipping a cup of coffee. The clothes and wig she had bought the day before were serving her well. She looked classy as she sat there, watching both entrances to the Arena building. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses that were in her field kit. They had a digital screen on the inside that magnified and showed the range of objects in the distance. With those, she could see everyone coming and going clearly. As 8am rolled around and after her third cup of coffee, she saw a large black BMW Seven Series pull up outside the building. It was Cooper! He had arrived. Mia downed her drink and headed out into the street. Due to the proximity of the White House, there were Police and Secret Service all over the place. She could see that Cooper had parked his car in a reserved space underneath a security camera outside the building. Mia took out the phone from her case and, after tapping on a few keys, set off the alarm on the bank building across the road from where she was standing. That drew the attention of the police in the area who all seemed to become occupied and distracted with the noise. Then, from her handbag, she took out a small device that looked like a car key remote control. It was a device for temporarily disabling all security cameras in a two hundred yard radius. Once she pressed the button, she looked up at the camera outside the diner and saw the red light on the front turn off. With that, she knew she was good to go.

She casually walked across the street towards the car. As she did, she could see the commotion outside the bank where the alarm was going off and knew that she wouldn’t be disturbed by Police or Secret Service Agents. In her hand, she held the micro GPS transmitter that she needed to attach to the car. The device was extremely small, no bigger than a dime. As she got to the car, she stopped and looked up at the parking restriction sign. As she did, without even directly looking at it, she tucked the tracker into the rear wheel arch of the car. The bonding agent on the device was extremely strong and it wouldn’t come off without serious leverage. Happy that no one had noticed her, Mia casually walked off towards the Foggy Bottom area where her car was parked. When she was a block away, she clicked the button on her security camera device and turned all the cameras back on. It was time to wait.

The GPS device was linked to the LCD display she had retrieved from her changing room and would alert her to any movement of the car, so she took her time walking through the quiet streets of the city. To the casual observer, she looked like she didn’t have a care in the world, but inside she was still tormented from not having her full memory back yet. She had all of her motor functions under control, but still not the memories. She wondered if she would ever get it all back. With that, her mind wandered to thinking about Hank and what their relationship was really like. It didn’t take long though for these thoughts to turn to rage. Something which she imagined to be quite wonderful, had been taken from her without her knowing. Her stride increased from the leisurely walk to a rush to get to her car as if to hide herself away from the public. Ten minutes later, she was sitting behind the steering wheel in the car park looking at the LCD display almost willing it to show the car moving. After a couple of hours of inactivity Mia decided that, as the tracking device was in place, she had time to go and clean out her hotel room. After today, she didn’t have any intention of needing the room anymore.

By the time she loaded her stuff into the car and settled her bill at reception, it was nearly 2pm. Her timing couldn’t have been any more perfect. As she slammed the trunk shut, she heard a beep from the LCD display in the front seat. Cooper's car was finally moving. She knew that it was about to turn into a long day so she didn’t rush to follow the car. She could see that it was heading out of town onto Route 301 so she headed in that direction and stopped off at the first gas station she could find for something to eat. She sat in the window of the small dining area and ate a large sandwich and fries. She stared into space wondering about the future and about what she was about to undertake with Cooper. Her mind had wandered that far that she almost didn’t hear the waitress ask her if there was anything else she needed. After about thirty minutes, she settled her bill and headed off again in search of Cooper's car. She could see that it had pulled into the district of Annapolis and parked outside an address in St John’s Street opposite St John’s College. This was it. When night fell, this would be where Mia would get her answers from.

Chapter 19

A Frank Discussion

It was time. The sun had gone down and the streets were quiet. Mia made her move quickly and without any noise. She broke into Cooper’s house with silent malice. She was on a mission, probably her most important.

As she entered the living room of Cooper’s house, she could see him sitting in an armchair, asleep, in front of an open log fire which was smouldering away in the background. Next to him was a small wooden table with a half drunk glass of Scotch. She had already looked around the house and was sure there was no one else there. There were no photographs of family or children anywhere. Just medical qualification certificates in frames. It looked like he had led a solitary life, but finding out about his life wasn’t what Mia was there for.

The first Cooper knew she was in the house was when Mia tapped him on the side of his head with her gun. The gun she had taken from her changing room was quite distinctive. It was a .45 calibre Magnum Research 1911. Being roused in this way and staring down its barrel, it had the desired effect of making him instantly awake and be terrified.

“Mia!” uttered a startled Cooper. “What are you doing here? How are you standing upright? You’re not on a mission for us” he blurted out as she stood in front of him.

“It doesn’t matter how I got here,” she replied. “If I was you, I would be more worried about
why
I’m here.” She sat down in the chair opposite him but kept the gun pointing in his direction. “We are about to have a conversation where you
really
need to be accurate and truthful about your answers Dr Cooper. I know quite a lot already and the
minute
I think you’re lying to me,
weeeell
, let your imagination guide you towards what’s going to happen.” Mia was calm in her tone but it had an edge to it. She was fully in control of the situation. Cooper leaned over, picked up his glass of Scotch and sipped from it as best he could. He was violently shaking in fear of what he had woken up to. The extent of the shaking caused him to spill some of the Scotch down his chin as he tried to drink.

“We’ve got some quiet time at the moment so why don’t you start at the beginning. Who am I and why am I doing this for you?”

As he swallowed his mouthful of Scotch, it didn’t take long for him to realise that he had to do as he was told. He held the glass close to his chest, took a deep breath, and started to tell her what she wanted to know.

“You were the perfect candidate for our experiment in using sleeper assassins. Don’t get me wrong Mia, we didn’t have anything to do with your initial accident, we just cleaned you up afterwards.” There was a slight quiver in Cooper’s voice as he spoke about her accident which Mia noted, but didn’t react to. “The serum we developed was perfect. If you made a mistake, there was no way any court in the land would convict someone in a wheelchair with no motor functions. That’s why we kept you like that. It was for your own protection.” Mia thought about it for a moment and understood what he was saying although it didn’t make it right.

“Tell me about my life before all of this” she demanded.

“I really don’t know much about you before you were brought to us Mia. I know about your history with the Agency and that you were married, but other than that I really can’t tell you anything. What you’re asking for is something I can’t help with”.
Click!
Mia clicked off the safety catch of the gun in her hand.

“I told you to be careful about what you said as I know more than you think I do.”

“I really can’t help you Mia,” he blurted out.

“Where is the reversal serum you developed?” she demanded. Coopers face dropped.

“How do you know about that Mia? Did Kyle tell you about that?”

“Yes, just before he died he told me,” said Mia.

“Well, I can see that your intention is for only one of us to walk away after this conversation Mia so, if you assure me you won’t kill me, I’ll tell you where it’s located.”

Mia clicked the safety catch back on and said “OK, I’ll let you live”.

“Come with me,” he said getting up from his chair. He walked to the hallway in the house and pulled back the rug on the floor. There was a hatch which led to the basement of the house.

It was poorly lit down there but Mia followed him without fear. Cooper opened a large cupboard which was the frontage of what looked like a very secure safe. He placed his hand on the screen on the front and then typed in a combination code. As if it was gasping for air, the door of the safe opened ever so slightly releasing what looked like steam. It was actually cold air escaping as the safe was partially refrigerated. He reached in and pulled out a fancy looking storage box about the size of a pack of cigarettes. He opened it and Mia could see that inside there was a syringe and a glass vial filled with a blue-coloured liquid.

Cooper said “Here you go Mia. This is what you wanted,” as he handed her the open box.

As Mia took it from him, she closed the lid over and looked at the safe behind him.

“What’s in there?” pointing to the section to the right of the safe.

There was another locked door. Cooper didn’t reply.

“Open it! Open it now!” she demanded.

Her tone had changed and she was almost shouting at him.

“Ok Mia. Please calm down.”

“Just open the door Cooper!” she replied.

He turned around and opened the door using a key he had in his pocket.

“Step away” Mia ordered.

As he stood aside, Mia pulled the box that was behind the door out onto the floor. The label on the front read Project M.I.A.

“Is this it?” Mia asked. “Is this the story in here? Is this who I was before?”

“Yes Mia, that’s everything. I was going to..........”
BANG!

Mia shot Cooper in the forehead before he could finish his sentence. He fell to the floor with a large thump, lifeless.

Without missing a beat, Mia lifted the box onto the workbench next to her and opened it. It was everything she had been looking for. History files, service records and photographs.

Just as she was about to leave, she noticed another cabinet behind the one she had taken the box from. She reached in and pulled another box forward. It was really heavy! When she opened it, her eyes lit up. It was full of money! She did a rough count on what she could see and was certain that there was over five
million
dollars in there.

She looked over at Cooper’s body lying on the floor and said “I told you not to lie to me! Consider this as payment for services rendered.”

As Mia turned to take the boxes upstairs, she turned and looked at Cooper’s lifeless body on the floor and said “Oh, and by the way my name’s Laura!”

Mia took both boxes upstairs and left them in the hallway as she went to get her car. The one with the money in it was extremely heavy. They were too heavy to carry all that distance and, since it was a quiet neighbourhood, there wasn’t an issue in returning in the car to pick them up. Once the car was loaded, she needed to go somewhere quiet and read what she had found. She knew that when he didn’t show up for work in the morning, all hell would break loose.

She put her foot down and headed north. She didn’t really know where she was going but she drove all night, stopping only for the occasional fill up of gas and a coffee to keep her awake. By mid-morning, she was in Chicago. The inbuilt GPS showed a 5 star hotel nearby, so she pulled up outside and checked in. She asked for the penthouse suite which was free and the bellboys carried all of her stuff up to the room for her. She left everything where it was and opened the cartridge with the serum Cooper had given her. She looked at it for a minute before injecting herself with it. Before long, she had fallen asleep on the super king-sized bed in the room. For the first time in a week, Laura had a peaceful deep sleep. It was as if a weight had been lifted.

Chapter 20

A New Life?

When she woke the next morning, it would be the start of her new life. The first thing Laura did when she got up was run a hot bath. She soaked in it for almost an hour, relaxing her whole body and mulling over the thoughts and memories she now had. The serum appeared to have worked! Although there were still a few gaps, she remembered everything about her past. The most prominent memories were of her husband; they were the happiest times of her life
and the Arena had taken them away.

She sat there crying to herself in the tub. She had very mixed emotions. Some happy, some sad. The ones that really stood out were the ones of anger. For the first in a long time, it took Laura quite a while to get herself together and regain control of herself. She got out of the bath and started to get dressed. She knew she would be in that room for some time reading the files so she just wrapped herself in one of the complimentary dressing gowns the hotel had provided and went into the main room of the suite. Before her bath, she had called for room service for some breakfast. It was waiting for her along with a full cafetière of fresh coffee. She poured herself a cup and sat down at the table and started to read all about herself. More to the point, she needed to know about project M.I.A. and whether Cooper was the main person involved.
“Were there others and, if so, who?”