First Day - Mysteries within Mysteries

Sub Agents Winken and Blinken had left
the "safe house"
located near Nassau Boulevard early that morning.

Though only forty three years old
between the two of them

The Company had deliberately sought them out
and then requited "additional training"
which could be obtained only at one place
in the nation.

{Quantico no longer offered these things}

But

having received an urgent communiqué
the night before
through the most unusual of channels
to suddenly and deliberately change their plans

the gals were understandably anxious...

Intent upon determining what had gone awry
they went over the details
as best they knew them

and tried

at first
in hushed tones

and
between themselves

to make sense of it all...?

Their pace seemed to quicken as they spoke:

    "Listen to me, girlfriend..." continued Sub Agent
         Blinken,

    "You have just got to trust that they know
        what they're doing."

Thousands of dollars had already been spent
on this project she reasoned

-being of a practical mind set-

and surely they are not going to throw it all away now?
Not with the goal so close at hand?

While her friend and room mate
Sub Agent Winken
had gone off to Manhattan last night
to fetch the communiqué from within
the passenger side glove compartment
of a 1968 Volkswagen Camper
parked on the north side of West 23rd Street
and Avenue of the Americas

Sub Agent Blinken had stayed home
and continued to work her way through:

Tantrum Yoga in the Digital Age.

Remembering something of what
she had read

she somehow at this moment

felt more confident than Sub Agent Winken

who had spent her evening
trying to open the side window of
a VW bus with a coat hanger.

Allowing for the differences in their temperaments
she continued:

    "Just tell me again..."

Sub Agent Winken shot back at her:

    "I've told you already!"
    "I've told you nine times!"
    "I'm sick of telling you."
    "Why do you keep asking me?"

Sub Agent Winken had not had her
tea this morning
and she was cranky.

    "All right. Again...! " began Sub Agent Winken.

    "Here's the skinny.
      I have to be at La Guido Airport and meet
      Abbot Nodd in two hours.

      We take a commercial flight into Dallas.

      We switch to a private twin engine aircraft
      at Dallas that takes us over the jungles of
      Guatemala. We open the cargo bay doors
      and push large packages out.

      The parachutes do the rest.

     ...I am afraid."

This was the first time during their
conversations this morning
Sub Agent Blinken had heard Sub Agent Winken
mention the word: fear.

She noticed a parked Security van
with it's engine running in the parking lot.

Sub Agent Blinken deliberately changed
the tone of her voice and carefully
prepared herself to query her room mate
on this point...

Knowing from her reading the night before
that one particular question always illicits
a plethora of responses, she asked:

      "Why?"

Walking up the three steps that led to
the entrance of Post Hall
the two friends finally paused at the door
and looked at each other.

Feeling alone and desperate
Sub Agent Winken finally poured out her heart.