CROSS WALKS

Chapter 1

Point of Dilema


An alarm went off in the room, the tone is for the third time ringing so am already late somewhere. It's the final year of my training and i am summoned to the captain of the YORK PD. The rumor is, a select few cadets from our academy will be going undercover in Bathom. A country drowned in notorious gangs of narcotics and illegal arms deal. It's no secret, YORK is a neighborhood city to Bathom by the boarder. So YORK city and it's joints are terrorized by the cartels and gangs from Bathom. Ever since the fall of the military regime in Bathom, every Lord wannabe was hell bent into either narcotics or ammunitions. First it was just Bathom and it's joints, but now everyone neighboring the country suffers the same ordeal. This makes it necessary to infiltrate the very centre of it all. Seven of us were summoned to the YORK PD central by the captain the letter reads. I know that we were two women and five guys. I could say, Isabella Mollina must have been selected for her marksmanship, the girl hits bulls eye on the first time she held a fire arm, and never missed a mark ever since. Rumor is her family is all military and that she learned shooting before she learned to read. As for the other guys, they were in detective classes, which begs the question as to why i was there in the first place, it's obvious i had no talent, not in the firing range nor in hand to hand combat. I was listed "crude" in the academy notice board, ARIANDA NORRIS, everyone says if I do not drop out today, i risk an expulsion tomorrow. I am always late somewhere or missed something. But i did my best. I just made sure I did not dropout or get expelled.

The invitation letter wrote that i am to be in the city hall by 10 in the morning and it was 9 when my third alarm went off. But i will make it. Plus maybe am not the only one trailing late as a show of confidence. As i put on my coat, i heard a knock on the door. It was Isabella, "oh hi there Isabella, fancy seeing you here" she rolled her eyes looked me up and down and mattered "don't flatter yourself Norris, you are late as usual. And don't call me by my first name please. The deans wants to have a word in the square before we depart for YORK city, and try to be sharp please some of us are trying to make a name for ourselves out here" she slammed the door and walked away. And even though I admired the talent in her, the attitude made me think, "what a bitch!!.. i mean who is not trying to make a name out here? I hope she doesn't mean me!!" i walked towards the square for the word with the deans of the academy.

Four deans of faculties were there, the detective school , the sniper faculty, ant-drug school and the intelligence academy. Everyone was looking so sharp i even felt a little out of place with my hair allover the place. Isabella and the other guys looked so up for the task! I felt jealous and out of place for a moment. Walked across the room my shoes making all sorts of noises, found a chair and sat down. The Vice councilor came in late she entered the room with a good morning to you all,

"is everyone here already? Is Ms Norris here already, or is she late? Because by Gods the future of intel and ant-drugs depends on how sharp she will be" everyone laughed and looked at me, so she sighed "ooh on time i see, thats a first one" i sat there thinking, this is a new one, first, why does the Councilor know my name? and second what does she mean by the future depending on how sharp i be? This dazzled me a bit so I forgot to pay attention so she called out, "Ms Norris listen up please. Will everyone pay attention here! The cancer of narcotics, ammunition and gang battles has reached our country, and the path and routes are here in YORK CITY, the country has sought out the best and called upon our academy to the task at hand. If you all look at the screen, we are to infiltrate, associate, learn and disrupt the entire Bathom Cartel. This will cause a fall out of all other cartels and gangs. So hopefully also the end of this filthy mess corroding the morality of our country. Four faculty heads are here to witness you going out even before graduation because you are the best of your classes among a few other things" looking at me, everyone laughed at that note. She went on adding, "remember that the task is undercover, on that note we hope to your discretion and we hold plausible deniability should your cover be blown. Three guys from the detective school who mastered linguistics will act oversight and as your handlers, four of you will be undercover field operatives. Lets just hope Ms Norris is paying attention because by Gods i can see myself in a court hearing about this in the future, that being said, on your way out pic your envelope here which contains your cover packages. Thank you all and all the best". So she took four envelopes from her bag and placed them on a table in front of her, waving us to collect them and heard out. So I noticed, out of seven only four of us got envelopes, the three guys who didn't get envelopes were to be oversight in Bathom. Frankly it was all vague to me at this point. I even was scared of the point where if i blew cover, the department had plausible deniability. We entered a police van which was right outside the square, i opened my envelope as i sat down, In it was a letter with a seal label CONFIDENTIAL. This caught my eye immediately.

The CONFIDENTIAL seal belonged to the interior minister of home affairs. This means that not only does the councilor know me, but also the interior minister wrote to me. I was bewildered by the sight of the official seal on the envelope enclosing the letter. The four of us were all thrilled by the letters, I could tell by the look in peoples' eyes and the silence in the van. This seals we see today, we only read about them in orientation classes at the academy. So here it was, right in my arms and addressed directly to me. The feeling in me i must admit was overwhelmingly glorious. Even the cold hearted Isabella Molina was melted away by the sight of the ministry's official seal. She finally looked at me and smiled with a grin of satisfaction. The driver of the ministry was an officer in the interior ministry and the department of home affairs. He looked at his drivers mirror and said, " we have a tail, now everyone secure your packages and i will try and loose these goons" after saying that he made a hard right off the highway and a black sedan passes right by us. We were all shocked and Isabella went on by asking, "who was that?" The driver was silent for a minutes or two were he made another hard right and a left onto a one way street, then steadily slowed down. He reached out to his pocked and waved a shield to us. Apparently he was special ant-drug trafficking agent under the interior ministry. He said, ". I am special agent Mohamed Fayaz with the ant-drug trafficking bureau, the goons we just lost were the Bathon cartel lieutenants here in YORK CITY, apparently there is a leak of this operation so that tail was supposed to identify you guys. So stay low because even YORK PD central downtown is not safe" after that he pulled over in front of a black gate and drove into the garage. He stopped the engine and said, "we will camp here. Everybody get into the house and settle down, familiarize yourself with your cover or duties you are to partake" he handed over three briefcases to the guys with oversight duties, they were labeled "SURVEILLANCE PACKAGE". I took my envelope and headed into one of the rooms. I sat on the chair by the bedside to catch a breath. I could hear the other doors slamming shut. Which means everyone was settling in.


Chapter 2


The Cover


The oozing silence in my room was even annoying than the noise i was used to back at the Academy. So i went over the dresser and put on the stereo for some music. I sat down on a chair by the bed and began going through my package. Firstly was the letter, it was so formal that i felt somewhat important, it read, Ms Arianda Norris, greetings from the interior ministry on behalf of the mayor of York. Your mission is highly sensitive, undercover and entails the cores to infiltrate, learn, report and disrupt the entire Bathom Cartel network by any means necessary . This whole process is highly classified and the items contained here in are therefore top secret, opening them will only mean that you have read and understood the terms of your mission should you choose to accept it. The ministry without plausible deniability should your cover be blown. On behalf of the mayor, the ministry wishes you and your team all the best. IMRAN SONAWANE, secretary of the interior ministry.

Everything was cool except the plausible deniability part of the letter. It echoes in my head from when the councilor said it this morning. It means if my cover is blown, they deny ever knowing me or that i am their operator in a foreign country. I began to open the parcel. There were a lot of toys that I started wondering where am i to put all this shit if we are undercover? A side arm, a nine millimeter browning from Czech with two mags of thirteen rounds each. A nozzle silencer and a pair of gloves all in one little box. At least they got my taste right this once. I love the nine mill, ever since I first stepped into the firing range, this girl caught my eyes and we be besties ever since. So i kept digging into the package. And my eyes landed on an envelope labeled " "THE COVER" " and i went, what the heck!!Isn't all this a cover already? I started thinking to myself that this is definitely a detective cadets' job, i mean i was in the customs school, destined to be a customs officer, nothing other than checking peoples passports and visa's before and after entering the airport. And now all this shit feels violent. I even think there will be lots of death and gun blazing here and there. And so i came to a conclusion that, i was selected for this program not for my talent or anything but my face. I hate to admit it but, damn am a babe. You should see my Instagram. I sometimes take a selfie even before i shower and the likes are like eleven thousand. The beauty without brains they say. It never bothered me, the part of "without brains" up until now. Damn i need brains, this shit is real and i have to be smart about it or i die, or even worse i end up in some foreign country prison cell. Holly shit this could be it!! I could feel my blood rushing as I stared at the envelope labeled the cover. Opening the envelope, my mind was still pondering on wether i needed brains or my good looks will get me through every obstacle! The envelope was finally open.

Inside was a dossier detailed about my cover. I am to be Mia Blanka. A low life towner who rose to power by seduction, Mia is 29, born 7th October 1971 in Westchest York. She was clever enough to be selected for Standaline College at 13, but never attended. She lost both parents at 12, she has been moving from one foster care to another until she was 18. From there her beauty got her bills paid and her table laid. She was a sadistic egocentric gold digger who bounces from one crime lord to another. According to the dossier, Mia finds life in York to be tough and so she is moving to Bathom to try her cards with the big boys. As i read this I realized how clever my superiors are, Mia Blanka is real! Well better yet was real. She was electrecuted to death at one of the government's black site while interrogating her. And it was kept under wraps. No one really knows how Mia looks like. She dyes her hair so often to avoid detection such that even the most top ranked official do not know wether she is white or Arab. Now since everyone thinks Mia went into hiding because the YORK pd kept a lot of pressure on King pins in the city, hunting and killing almost all of Mia's associates. The dossier went on, Mia is to smuggle herself into Bathom through human trafficking gangs and associates. She will enter Bathom undetected by both York border patrol and Bathom immigration officers. Once she is successfully into the City she will blend in and assume cover while waiting for protocol from her handlers. The content of this cover package are scribed of all identifiers within and here after, the bills, credit cards passports and the safe houses, are to be used for mission purposes and for missions purposes alone. Once your cover is blown, you are forfeited from the use of all the resources here in and after. The following are the covers of your colleagues to avoid interference. Your co female operative ISABELLA MOLINA will be coded VIVIAN ANTON a gun for hire to the highest bidder, we have commissioned a record of over 38 confirmed kills with 21 head shots at over 100 yards away. This places her at the top of the marksmanship job offers within Bathom and everywhere else. So your bound to meet at one point or another. Vivian Anton will be in Bathom ahead of you all, she will cross the border under another alias later today. This gives her a two days start ahead of you all. Once in Bathom she will setup at a prominent hotel known to house cartel variety. After two days from now, your cover commences. Your handlers will be working for a cargo company. They will be manning a truck cross country between Bathom and York, this way they can freely pass info to us while supplying you with essential and protocols from us.

NOTE 1. Should you at any point in the mission feel unsafe or have enough reason and evidence that you have lost cover, the following protocol will get you out.

Within your package there are four burner phones and one government issued blackberry. If and only if the conditions above are met, activate your government issued blackberry and text the phrase "SPARROW" to a number in the address book with the name "LOTUS" then remain at close proximity to the blackberry. This will activate an asset retrieval protocol in the ministry and we will take it from there. A four man black hawk helicopter is standing by on a warship off the gulf specifically for this purpose.

NOTE 2. If mission ends in a manner that, all heads of the Bathom Cartel (VICTOR , WILLIAM and FELICITY) and their top lieutenants are all in one identifiable location, and that your handlers are satisfied with ending the mission in this manner, activate the following protocol.

The same blackberry used for getting you out is very essential to ending the mission. Activate your government issued blackberry and from it text the phrase "EVEREST" to a number in the address book with the name "NEWTON" this will activate a demolition protocol and automatically activate an F18 stinger to bomb a 40 yards radius around the blackberry's location. If this protocol is activated, keep clear of your blackberry to over 100 yards within 20 minutes of activating the protocol. If we confirm the destruction of the entire Cartel structure, you will activate the asset retrieval protocol and be done with.

NOTE 3. Your handlers serve both as data analysts and handlers, due to information passed to and fro, their analysis may see fit for any of the two protocols above. Should they relay to you activation of either of the two protocols from their end is imminent, it is imperative that you follow the instructions as per protocol given here in. Any delays may render fatal results of which the ministry still holds plausible deniability for the later.The relay of information between your handlers and you, will follow a swift protocol of parcels delivered and the occasional use of your government issued blackberry.

If Bathom law enforcement agencies pose risks and (or) hinder your operations, report this to your handlers immediately, they will make it smooth to you through our embassy attaché there in Bathom.

Your have two days starting now, and mission will be 'a go' get familiar with your gear and rest well. As of now the ministry has activated ghost protocol.

Oh My Goodness!! This is it. Ghost protocol means the ministry doesn't recognize any of us as of now. Am on my own.

TO BE CONTINUED!!