A sinking sun drained the last dredges of cotton candy pink and golden yellow tints from the sky, leaving navy blue as deep as the ocean floor in it’s wake. That’s the poetic way to describe it, Luciano thought to himself as he dragged his gaze away from the window of the plane. Picking up the manila envelope from his chair side table, he opened it, flipping through its’ pages with a curious quickness. He stopped at a passage that lay above the image of a woman, warm smile tempered by sharp brown eyes that betrayed the image of a simple shop owner.
“The former Italian intelligence’s director of cyber crime, Sofia de Luca, has been missing for 28 months. She and her daughter Chiara de Luca- Vargas...”
Here Luciano stopped reading and flipped a page, gazing at smiling woman (or was it a girl? Whatever). He eyed the older man on the other page, but flipped back to the passage.
“...disappeared from their home in Adelaide, Australia. Her husband, Cesare Vargas, also from the Italian cyber crime unit, went in search of the two with no luck.” So that’s who the man was. “It’s your mission to locate de Luca and her daughter and bring them back to Italy, alive. More than likely their kidnappers have not disposed of them.”
Luciano hummed to himself, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. He remembered that the senior MI-6 agents had been adamant about finding de Luca - they wanted to work with Italian intelligence in the future to take down the mafias in Italy, and Luciano was not to ruin this. The directors of MI-6 and II’s cyber crime had made sure to pull him aside before he departed to inform about another mission. Turning the page of the pamphlet, he stared at the face of his final mission: evaluate de Luca’s son for agent potential. He has his father’s aptitude for the computer, the director had said. While he’s still young and overall inexperienced, he could be a diamond in the rough, not unlike you. See what he brings to the table. If the young de Luca can assist in this mission, he might just have a place here.
Putting the pamphlet aside, the man leaned back in his seat, allowing his eyes to close. The next time he had a full night of sleep might not be for awhile.
So this was Palo Alto. Luci slipped his sunglasses on in an effort not to be blinded by the sun’s rays. It peeked out from behind the corner of a house, illuminating cars and shrubbery and yet had just enough reach to kiss his skin. Thankful that he insisted on leaving his suit jacket in the car, Luciano tugged open all the buttons of his shirt as he walked, exposing the tank top beneath. There wasn’t much time before he was supposed to be leaving. His cover, attending a photo shoot for some magazine ended the day after tomorrow, afterwards he was expected to be leaving the States. Didn’t leave much time to question Vargas or his son. And yet Luciano still found himself at the Vargas front door. Not Vargas, Marini, as he’d do well to remember. Raising one hand, Luciano rapped on the door with a ringed knuckle, before moving back.
