When I saw him, I could only
laugh. He looked at me exactly in the opposing way, making his eyes turn around
as if he had just witnessed the most annoying thing happening right in front of
him. That was the kind of relationship we had the moment we started working
together. For some reason, our boss had decided our skills complimented each
other’s, so he appointed us to missions together very often. I have forgotten
how many times I pretended to be his brother, his friends and even his
boyfriend or even husband.
It all depended on the places we
had to go and the things we had to do. Sometimes, the mission would be a very
relaxing cruise through the Caribbean on an enormous boat that would float
peacefully for over a week, carrying carefree tourists around. People that just
wanted to get a tan and swim and maybe walk the massive ship, enjoying
everything the place had to offer. Yes, I have to confess I loved those kinds
of missions but we got assigned to them because they were specifically for
rookies in this business.
I remember one time; only about a
year after we got to know each other properly, when we were sent to the Bahamas
pretending to be a married gay couple going on an exclusively gay cruise. We
had to steal some very important papers out of the office of a very important
businessman who happened to be frolicking in the boat with his lover, unknown
to his wife. It was a hilarious place and situation to be in, and of course
stealing the plans was the easiest part of the whole thing. We did it the first
night.
For the other eight days, we had
to hold hands pretending to love each other to death, when in reality we had
almost hate for one another. Well, it wasn’t really hated but we certainly
didn’t see eye to eye. He was the kind of guy that loves to focus on the job
and is obsessed by doing everything by the book, like a little boy scout
trapped in an adult man’s body. That to me annoyed me so much that I would
often just go rogue for a couple of hours and that would, of course, made him
go insane, a result I always loved.
In the bedrooms, we agreed on
sleeping on the same bed but avoiding anything weird during the night. No
touching each other’s private space, especially not each other’s bodies. The
first one to wake up would be the first one into the shower and so on. After a
few months, we had a great system that avoided, almost always, any unpleasant
moments during our missions. And as they would often take long periods of time
to get over with, we just had to find a way to live with one another. It was
almost a sacrifice for both of them and we did it because it was our job.
However, those were our first
missions, years one and two. By the third one, they sent us to shorter missions
that required a greater deal of commitment from our part. In not so many words,
that means that we had to risk our lives during those assignments. Sometimes,
we wouldn’t even see each other but once, in critical moments. Besides those,
we would often fly solo and assume unrelated identities. I have to confess it
was kind of fun at first, playing to be so many different types of men, so many
times.
But after a while, it got
annoying and the stakes started looking at me in the face. On my first mission,
I got fired several times and they had to pull me out of a dumpster with a
bullet on my thigh and several cuts all over my body. It was a weird
experience, which was better than what my former partner was going through. I
say former, because sometime after we started that decisive year, the bosses
decided we wouldn’t be working together as often as we had done in the past.
They said it was the right thing to do.
However, I heard a drug lord
almost killed him, after his disguise as a dealer was blown by some snitch. The
snitch got killed right in front of him and the drug lord ordered his people to
tie my former partner to a pipe and beat him up in every way they wanted. I
have no idea of the details, but some people say he could have been killed if
it hadn’t been for his security bracelet, which was a secret piece of equipment
we all wear that activates itself if we fail to report to it at least once a
day.
You see, the drug lord took all
of his clothes away and let him in a cold basement for at least four days. So
the bracelet activated itself, called for back up to that specific location and
the agent was saved. I was in a mission during that time, so I just heard it
all from others. I was tempted to visit him in the hospital, the moment I was
able to go back home, but I decided against it. Actually, I realized I was
caring for someone I had never cared before, and that confused me enough to do
nothing and go back to my life.
It was almost a year later when
they assigned us to a mission together. This time, it was a classic spy stunt:
we had no covers, nothing sleek or sexy or nice. We just had to get our hands
on a witness, extract him from a certain country, and go back home with that
person alive. It was a nightmarish place to be, a horrible experience to be
having. But, between all of it, I have to admit I was comforted when I saw his
face in the airport the day we left for our mission. I wanted to tell him
something but had no idea what to say. So, again, I decided to stay quiet and
focus on the mission at hand.
As predicted, the situation was
dire. We had guns and a contact, but that was all blown to hell the second day
of our stay in that dreadful hellhole. A group of guys attempted to blow us up
in a crappy hotel. It was just luck that the cleaning lady had gone in before
us. I know, that sounds insensitive but you kind of lose that part of yourself
in such a job. We just started running and killing them all to get the fuck out
of there. And in that moment, we were the best team anyone could have ever
hoped for.
It was as if our minds were
connected, as well as our bodies. We didn’t even have to look at each other to
work in unison; it was almost like a dance that has all the perfect moves to be
the best anyone has ever seen. At the same time, I realized we weren’t the same
people that had enjoyed those cruises and nice hotels at the start of this
whole thing. We were two entirely different men and it showed. I saw it in his
eyes the moment we started running away and I had felt it in myself for a long
time before that. It just had been confirmed.
He surprised me with his knowledge
of the underworld of that city. Maybe he had been there before or maybe he had
just changed that much. I had heard that after his traumatic experience, he had
stayed on his post, taking many other risky assignments. He had a nice fiancé
at the start but eventually she left him and no one could point at the exact
thing that had caused that rift. However, the job was not one where you could
see a lot of happy endings. So I understood if that had been the reason why he
had decided to be left alone.
In time, we got our witness and
got her out of that place. It was by the skin of our teeth, as I was shot in
the shoulder moments before our party rescued us on the border. The thing was,
he had stepped in front of me and blocked most bullets by using a metal door as
a shield. Only that one bullet had been able to reach me. Making me lose a lot
of blood. I fainted in the helicopter that was carrying us and woke up many
days later, back home, in a hospital bed. I was very dizzy, so what I saw
seemed very unreal.
It was him. He was fast asleep in
the only furniture in the room other than my hospital bed, a very old sofa that
seemed to have seen better days. When the nurse came in, she told me he had
been there for over two days, never leaving for his home, never going anywhere.
He just stayed there.
After she left, I watched him
sleep for a while. And as I did that, I tried to understand the whole
situation. It was confusing for me and I know it must be the same for him. So I
just decided to think it through another day. What was important was that I
felt safe now, and I could finally rest properly for a few days.
