Ten years ago.
.. I was eleven.
I was sitting on the floor of my room, having pulled all the books off my bookshelf. I was reorganizing them from scratch. There were way too many books, and after a while, I started to get bored.
I remember thinking, "I wish I could arrange these with just one move."
As I reached out to place the next book on the shelf, I saw a dark purple smoke swirling above my hand.
I dropped the book in fear and screamed as I backed away.
My dad knocked on the door, asking if something was wrong.
I told him to come in.
The purplish smoke was still there.
When I pointed it out to him, he didn't seem surprised at all.
In fact, he looked proud.
He knelt down to my level and told me not to worry. He started talking about special powers.
According to him, my mother—who passed away after giving birth to me and whom I never got to touch—also had this kind of ability.
He said I could use my power at home, but never outside.
And I must never tell anyone about it.
Otherwise, they'd use me as a test subject—whatever that meant, it sounded bad.
I was terrified.
No one knew about it except my dad.
Meanwhile, I kept developing my ability at home.
I learned how to turn it into a hand, or even a sword, whenever I wanted.
***
NOW
While sitting randomly on a bench in the park, flowers from the apple tree just behind me fluttered in the wind and finally landed either in my hair or my lap. Like a newborn baby, I watched the people walking by, the children playing hide-and-seek in the corner, and the two elderly women feeding pigeons a little further away—all with curiosity.Just as I was getting carried away by this gentle game, my phone rang. I looked at the screen. Of course, who else could it be but Dad? My finger was about to touch the red "decline" button, but I changed my mind—it might be important. I tapped the green button. Dad immediately told me to come right away—there was an urgent meeting.
I stood up from the bench, brushed the flowers out of my hair and off my lap. After making sure I was free of every last petal, I began walking toward the company. I was there in no time. A blue-painted, three-story building greeted me with the enormous INFINITY logo—just as always—as I stepped through the door.
INFINITY was the intelligence agency my father ran and where I was also a member. The agency everyone's heard of but no one's actually seen? Yep, that's us. As I gazed at the logo, I heard my dad yell from behind me:
"Miss Ursula, you're going to be late for the meeting. Head to the conference room quickly. I'm right behind you."
I rolled my eyes—hopefully he didn't see that—and dashed to the meeting room. Or rather, I flew there. I took a deep breath as I arrived, opened the glass door, and saw everyone already seated and talking. I quickly nodded to greet them and took my seat—just to the left of the head chair.
I had barely sat down when Dad entered the room. We all stood up, but after a nod from him—his usual "sit down" gesture—we returned to our seats. For a moment, it felt just like being in middle school again. He sat at the head of the table, scanned the room, cleared his throat, and began:
"According to our intel, a cruise ship will depart tomorrow evening at 8 PM, traveling from England to Turkey. On board will be famous businessmen and distinguished figures—you know who I mean. But there's a looming threat of a digital attack that could impact the entire world."
He paused and turned to me. Then continued:
"And Ursula, this is where you come in."
I nodded quickly.
"Alright, Dad—uh, I mean Boss. Sorry. So, what exactly will I be doing?"
Dad found my moment of hesitation amusing and smiled as he continued:
"Your mission is to locate and neutralize whatever device—be it a USB or something else—contains the attack code."
I nodded again and, carefully choosing my words, cleared my throat before replying:
"Understood, sir. I will carry out the mission successfully. You can count on me."
Even though I didn't call him "Dad" that time, he still smiled. Then his gaze turned to Beatrice, who had been listening attentively. The moment Dad looked at her, she sensed he had something in mind for her too.She looked back at him, wondering what he'd say. Without breaking eye contact, Dad said:
"Beatrice, you're going with Ursula."
She nodded:
"Understood, sir. I will carry out the mission with honor."
Her obedient tone toward my father made me chuckle inwardly. I shot her a subtle smile, which seemed to ease her tension just a bit—though she still looked on edge.
Once Dad announced the meeting was over, everyone relaxed and slowly began leaving the room.Meanwhile, my mind was already racing toward tomorrow's mission.
I came home. Under the warmth of a shower, I thought about what tomorrow might bring. After finishing my shower, I put on my pajamas and lay down in bed. Too lazy to dry my hair, I wrapped it in a towel. I lay down again. Though I felt anxious, the soothing effect of the hot shower and the weariness of the day lulled me to sleep...