She had just finished dressing and was beginning to wonder what the routine would be when the cellphone rang. It was Tobias.
”Morning sunshine.”
”Good morning Tobias.”
”Sleep well?”
”With the exception of waking up and yesterday not having been a dream. Otherwise I had a good night’s sleep.”
”That’s ok,” Tobias chuckled, ”you won’t shake that feeling for a while. You will wake up with the hope that this was all the product of your over active imagination for quite a few mornings yet I am sure. It’s an easy thing to get into denial about.”
”It all seems real enough,” Helen sighed, ”so what is it this morning? Back to the office?”
”Yup, providing you are still on board with all this I believe the plan today will be that you join me on a minor assignment so you can see exactly what it is that we do in the field. So grab some breakfast, there should be stuff in your fridge, and meet me down in the atrium in thirty minutes. I trust that is enough time to get ready?”
”Only just,” Helen sighed again, she liked her morning more sedate and less rushed even if it meant getting out of bed that little bit earlier, ”I’ll be there.”
“Perfect, it shouldn't be too taxing a day but you can never be sure you'll have time for lunch when out on an assignment. Some days you have what seems like all the time in the world waiting around for something, other times it can be a rush so breakfast is usually a good idea.”
“I think it generally is anyway. My mother always insisted.”
“Isn't that what mothers have to do?” Tobias laughed, “not that I knew mine all that well, but I distinctly remember nagging. Anyway, I need to eat too, so I will see you downstairs in about half an hour? ”
“Yes, I'll be there, all breakfasted up.”
“Perfect, see you there.”
Helen flicked the phone shut and went to investigate the fridge and see whether the mysterious apartment filling department had done a good job there as well. They hadn't done a bad job at all with her clothes. She had been able to pick something out that she at least felt she was comfortable in. A loose brown t-shirt and what was a pretty close approximation of her favourite old worn denim jacket. This one wasn't as old as her one had been. It was the type of 'designer worn' that just looked like it was worn, with the wear and tear deliberately cut and shaved into it, rather than something that had actually be worn. The jeans were a perfect match for the pair she had bought on Oxford Street in a sale not two weeks before. She was fairly sure that this pair actually fit a little better too.
The fridge had indeed been well stocked with a selection of food and drink. Breakfast was quick and easy, a bowl of Corn Flakes with some orange juice. The juice was freshly squeezed as well, Helen hoped that they kept it that way too. If she was going to say yes to these people she was damn sure that they were going to look after her. If this whole show so far was just an act to get her to agree to work for them and didn't carry through into the actual job then she was going to be pissed. She wasn't exactly sure she would be able to do much about it, but she was fairly sure that she could give it a good try. One thing all her teachers and former bosses had been unanimous in was the opinion that she was good at causing disruption. Helen personally always felt that she was the perfectly reasonable one and wouldn't ever have been noticed if the world worked the way it was supposed to. People just didn't seem to care enough about when things weren't quite right, people compromised. Helene disliked compromising, she somehow thought of it as giving in. Her father had drilled that into her. Never give up; it was almost a family motto. Except for the fact her father would definitely have thought it too pretentious for a good working class family to have a family motto.
Today was most definitely going to be an interesting day.
She thought she was starting to wrap her head around what was happening pretty well now. It had all started to sink in at this stage and was stewing nicely in her thought processes. She was clearly not going to awake any moment and discover this was all a bad dream. That was just wishful thinking. So she would have to make the best of it. Today was going to be different. Today she was going to ask questions. Granted she had asked questions yesterday, but that was more out of confusion. More like the way you ask what happened when you wake up with a hangover, you already know what happened, but need to ask anyway. That was what she felt yesterday was like, a nasty, all too real hangover. Today however, today was going to be different. She was going to ask real, demanding questions about the situation and what these people, this company, was going to do for her.
If these people really were controlling the fate of the entire world, and relied on some form of cosmic happen-stance to recruit new 'operatives', as they called them, then it struck her that she was actually a valuable commodity. Valuable commodities like her she reasoned should then be in a good negotiating position. She wasn't going to let them bully her about. Not that she had anything to complain about yet. She had to admit they had been good to her so far. The perks seemed good, and the apartment was gorgeous, but still, it was a matter of principle. She wasn't going to just blindly accept their first offer. It was almost as if they were being slightly too nice.
Helen was a touch cynical by nature, she had come to accept that of herself some time ago, so she almost inherently distrusted a situation that seemed too good to be true. If it wasn't for the still present, and still inexplicable, feeling that she was supposed to be here, a strange feeling of belonging that she hadn't ever really experienced before, then she would have been almost certain that these people were out to con her in some way. She would at least have been very, very suspicious. For now she was going to settle for a state of mindful caution she had decided. 'Keep your eyes open and pay attention' she thought to herself.
Helen had already decided that it was probably best to keep these little reservations from Tobias for now. Not that he seemed like 'The Company Man' type anyway, but she didn't want to show her hand to him just in case she had misjudged him. Her mother had always maintained that her trust issues were precisely why Helen was still single a few months short of her thirtieth birthday. Helen for her part always insisted that a little caution was a good thing, and all she was doing was avoiding inevitable heartache all along. The Irishman was clearly a charmer, and he knew it all too well, so she couldn't be totally sure of these peoples motivations just yet. Maybe his apparently affable personality was just part of the recruitment process.
She doubted it for the same reason that she couldn't explain. There was some kind of almost immediate and implicit trust that she felt when he was around. For want of a better word he seemed genuine, and it struck Helen that genuine people were in short supply in this day and age. She almost felt slightly guilty about not wanting to share her worries with him, but she was willing to live with that for a while.
Helen was going to make sure these people didn't take advantage of her. If she had been the proverbial deer in the headlights yesterday the good news was that the car had swerved and she was still alive to tell the tale. Today was going to be different.
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