Compartmentalization (Part 10.5)

Part 10.5 Gwen at the Ball

Gwen didn’t usually like espionage missions, but she saw this as an opportunity to get out of the house and look fancy for once. The one thing she hated were the heels. The black shoes went with her red dress, but walking in them made her feel not at ease. Though, she wasn’t sure if it was just the heels, or getting out of the limousine to all those people. She considered herself a social person, perhaps a little short of words at times, but going into assassin territory in shoes she couldn’t run in didn’t make her feel safe at all.

“If dad could see me now,” Gwen thought to herself. He did his best to try and raise her by himself, but she often thought she was teaching him more things than he was teaching her. In retrospect, he may have been just patronizing her. Dad didn’t seem to really care about anything but farming, and teaching her how to be social was very low on his priorities. Teaching her how to fend for herself was his top priority, and Gwen always appreciated that effort.

Gwen took a breath and stepped out of the limo. She wasn’t sure how Maxwell was able to afford the transportation (the House of Maxwell hasn’t been doing well lately, which is why they are doing this special mission in the first place), but it is a nice reminder of all the technology she has been missing hanging out in a trailer park in the desert. Things like interactive holograms, automatic AI driven cars, and individual seat climate settings made her feel like it was actually the future and not just the same world, just older. As she stepped on the pavement, she was afraid that she was going to stumble and fall, but with every step she took, she gained more and more confidence. Soon she was walking with a stride into the entrance of the mansion.

It was a big mansion, cream colored, maybe 3 stories tall, and there was a black carpet leading into the entrance. She didn’t get to see too many other details since it was night and the spotlights on the carpet blurred most other details. The crowd that was gathering outside was loud, but once inside, the noise was almost electric. There was an excitement in the air. The carpet lead to a hallway with a coat check. Gwen was impressed at the sort of wooden, old-fashion-ness that the hallway had. Once she passed that, the carpet ended at a large marble room, with enough room for a dance floor, around 50 tables, a balcony, and various artworks covering all the walls. It looked like the eating area of a large, fancy museum.

Gwen could hear live music playing on a stage near by. It was a string quartet playing something calm. Gwen wasn’t a huge fan of classical music, then again, she wasn’t a big fan of music in general. She thought it just drowned out the sounds of the environment around her, but she could understand music in this busier environment. Gwen was feeling cool and brisk now, and she decided to go to the bathroom and check if everything is in order before sitting down. She went to the bathroom and locked herself in a stall. Gwen made sure the hidden microphone stayed that way, and she had to setup the video camera there in a way that wouldn’t be too obtrusive. She decided to hide it through her left arm sleeve, and she was thankful she decided to put on the long sleeved dress. Gwen was all set to go, and took one last look in the mirror, and she saw that the “cool briskness” she was feeling was actually just her sweat, and all her makeup was out of place. She didn’t know if this was normal for makeup or not, because she never usually wore makeup, and the last time she did was in college. Back then, she felt like she could pretty much get away with not learning whether she was doing makeup correctly or not (something she still wonders if that was mistake or not), but on a espionage mission, she needed to at least look like . Gwen thought that she could blame her father again for the genes that make her sweat, but perhaps she was actually more nervous than she thought.

Gwen exited the bathroom and used a mirror she brought along to try and salvage her makeup, when she ran into someone.

“Can I help you?” a man in a black suit and black tie said. She noticed the trademark Smoker cigar cuff-link, and shifted into gear.

“No, no, I’m fine. Just fixing up my makeup,” she tried to say casually but perhaps came off as too cold.

“Well, I think you look great, I wouldn’t worry about it if I was you,” the man said and Gwen noticed he had short brown hair. He sort of fits the description of the target, but ‘white man with short brown hair’ describes about a quarter of the people in here. She thought it was odd that they didn’t have a photo of him, but supposedly the Smokers have done their best to eliminate all photos as a measure of defense against the UWG.

“Thank you, my name is Gwen, what’s yours?” Gwen said as a gambit, she already had a story to cover her if he was someone she probably should know.

“Uh, Jordan. Don’t meet many people who don’t know my face right away, it is kind of refreshing actually. I have been trying to escape people all day and it looks like I finally found an oasis! So what do you do?”

“I’m a model. Not really sure what this is really for. Don’t follow politics much.”

“Really? Well, I guess that is sort of par for the course. Glad you see this as ‘politics’ though, most people think we are just crazy,”

“Well, Smokers are assassins right? I don’t care, but that seems like you all are pretty crazy,” Gwen said provocatively. She knew that she shouldn’t play it too safe, that would be too suspicious, but she was also feeling a bit competitive as well. Gwen wanted to see how a Smoker would react.

“Hahaha! Sure, we may be crazy, but that’s because we are right. Every revolutionary seems crazy, right?”

“Killing people is revolutionary?”

“No, killing isn’t revolutionary, having a reason to kill in order to free ourselves is a part of almost every revolution.

“Oh? And what’s the reason?”

“My goodness,” he looks at his watch,”you are just going to have to wait for the speech now, aren’t you?” he gives Gwen a wink and runs towards the big stair case.

Gwen wasn’t impressed by him. Granted, she didn’t feel like she gave her best either, but considering the circumstances, she felt like she did alright. Better than him anyway. He seemed pretty confident, but he’s not the man who strikes hearts in the fear of both assassin and anti-assassin alike.

Gwen found a seat at a table and positioned her head in her left hand to both position the camera in a not suspicious manner, and look naturally bored (mostly because it fit her character, but also to calm her nerves). A grey haired man then approached the balcony near the stairs, and as the short brown haired man she talked to before ran up the stairs, the grey haired man spoke,

“Thank you all for coming tonight. We just want to remind everybody that when you are giving donations, please include the stub of your ticket. We understand that people want to give anonymously, but it is much easier for accounting purposes if you do that, so please, remember to put your stub in. I hope everybody is enjoying themselves, and remember no smoking!” a smattering of laughs here and there occurred, “Now, I am proud to present, Mr. J. Smoker!” a large applause follows, and that same short, brown haired man speaks,

“Good evening everyone! I am glad that you all could be here. It has been a long road for us all. Today marks the 21st anniversary of the Catastrophe, the day when humanity gave over to fear and we gave our freedom away for security. It was a tragic choice, but it was an understandable choice. Even I enlisted to protect this new world order, the United World Government. Though, as time went on, we saw that this new world order was corrupt, the secrecy and the lies they told the people began to pile up, and even with the strongest and smartest minds in the world, they couldn’t cover it all up. I am here, friends, I am here to tell you that through years of searching and searching, we have finally found the kink in the armor, the kink in the armor that Mr. U. Smoker came up here and spoke about 10 years ago. Our plan has been set in motion, and we are mere months, perhaps even days, away from finally breaking the chain that has been oppressing humanity! Once we break this chain, it will unravel, and then the people will look to us, the purveyors of truth! We are ones that people around the world would slander and libel, but once we gain access to the UWG’s secrets, we will be seen as liberators! The Smokers will clear this fog of lies and we will show the people to a NEW world order!” he pauses, there is a second of silence, but then there is rapturous applause, Gwen supposes this may be why she is here, and also, why everybody else is here, “And remember!” he continued, “the most dangerous part isn’t the fire, it’s the smoke!”

The applause continued as Mr. Jordan Smoker walks off the stage. Gwen presses a button on her cell phone, and prepares to leave. She will stay for another half an hour and then sort of wander away, in order not to seem too suspicious.

Thinking back on the speech, she was beginning not to like Mr. Smoker so much. The impression she got of him during their conversation and his outrageous speech was one of somebody who is hiding something. Gwen thought maybe she should stay to maybe find out what Smoker had on the UWG that would ‘break the chain of oppression,’ but she had the feeling that if she found out, then it might become much harder to get out of there. Gwen decided there was enough sweating for one night, and began to wander away.