Part Three

"Hello Miss Curlly. Please have a seat. I am Jerome Tackett." Curlly shook his hand and grinned pleasantly at the air a foot in front of his face.

"Thank you for letting me have a seat. Well not to keep. I do know that. I mean what would I do with just one design of a chair? But then most men wouldn’t let a lady stand while he sat. Then again most women aren’t ladies, but it is still bad manners. The way people act not large houses," answered Curlly wide eyed.

Jerome looked a little nonplused, but his welcoming smile didn’t waver. Much. "So Miss Curlly, how do you plan on going about this job in a successful manner?" He noticed that as she started to speak that her eyes sharpened briefly but by the time she finished her eyes were as vapid as usual.

"I understand that the food you prefer are rather bland to assist in finding anything toxin that might find it’s way in. Not that they put themselves in one’s food. Only people do that! Well maybe a dog could but only if it is trained very well. The dog not the poison."

Now the look on Jerome’s face was astonishment. Curlly could hear Jason, Brenna, and Nikita cracking up over her comm unit. She continued, "So I would require a list of all ingredients and how they are prepared. Even temperatures used and what kind of heat. Well heat is heat, but I mean the source of it. That is very important for smell and taste. Then I’ll be fairly certain if there is anything wrong with the food."

"And how would you know if it was tainted?" asked Tackett. He saw her take a deep breath to answer his question and he hurriedly said, "That’s okay. Why don’t you come back for dinner and I’ll have the information you asked for. Then you can tell me which dishes are tainted."

Curlly stood and shook his hand again. "That will be fine. Well not fine if I don’t notice the toxins. But I’ve never been dead before. I wonder what’s it like. Well only time will tell! See you later Mr. Tackett."

Curlly drove back to a Section substation in an erratic manner losing her tail without causing suspicion. Jason, Nikita and Brenna were all waiting. The moment the women looked at one another they all burst out laughing.

Once they all calmed down Jason gave Curlly the antidotes Section had provided. The other girls then helped her plant different equipment among her luggage. They had packed it as absentmindedly as Curlly tried to appear. They finished just in time to leave for dinner.

Part Four

Curlly passed the test with flying colors. If it was one thing she knew, that was food. She was personally rather startled at the amount of money Jerome was willing to pay her. But a little nest egg wouldn’t hurt.

Tackett was about 50 and looked as bland as a fresh painted wall. The perfect appearance for a hit man. Curlly’s adopted manner made him treat her like a child to be patted on the head and sent on her way. All of his staff treated her that way. She never left the house. She did have all kinds of things ship to her though on a daily basis. Many of them were useless, frivolous stuff to amuse herself with. Well other shipments contained hardware for her to place about Tackett’s compound. Nikita was the UPS "man" and Brenna was the FedEx "guy".

Whenever Tackett or one of his men asked Curlly anything personal she would launch into such a disjointed, long, and mostly unrelated explanation that they just stopped asking. And she made Jerome and his men all kinds of fluffy, craftsy little things that they couldn’t possibly need or use. The men then (in private) boasted about what

they were given to those that didn’t have one.

In the month Curlly had been there Nikita would sneak in every day usually to administer a shot and check her readings. On a few rare occasions when Curlly had to do it herself, she would wait until the last possible moment before giving herself the dreaded shot. But on the bright side she had stopped throwing up every morning but still noticing side effects.

Curlly was able to give Brenna and Nikita all the tactical Intel they needed to get in and out of Tackett’s compound. Finally when Curlly thought she couldn’t take being such an airhead any longer they gave her the go ahead to eliminate Jerome. Section had processed all the data they needed.

She felt a little bad about doing it, if it wasn’t for the fact that Curlly knew just how horrific Jerome’s actions really were. Earlier that day Jason had sent in the middle of a book the engineered poison. It was a small clear capsule that Curlly could break in her mouth when she tasted the beverage Jerome was to take with his meal.

Curlly had been surprised to find that some one had been slowly poisoning Tackett. She never found out whom. She had only told him a couple days after taking up residence and he apparently dealt with the problem.

In a way this worked to her advantage. When he dripped dead they’d think it was the previous toxin taking effect. The only catch to the situation was to get herself out of the compound and back to the substation to make sure the drug hadn’t harmed her. She had already taken the antidote (which had tasted awful!) when she sat down for dinner. For what that was worth.

She was seated at Jerome’s left and any dish that was being eaten by him was presented to her first. She then took random bites out of whatever it was before giving it to her boss.

As Curlly took a sip of the juice poured into Jerome’s glass she pulled the pill out from her tongue and bit it open. It didn’t even taste that bad and Curlly tried not to swallow any liquid but look like she was doing so. Then she allowed the toxic juice to slide back into the glass. Confirming no one was paying her the slightest attention she placed the juice at Jerome’s elbow.

Jerome and those seated with them were discussing the resent destruction of a Red Cell substation and what organization could have done it. Curlly knew that organization was Section One. After all she had feed them the location after a Red Cell op had come to hire out Tackett. Brenna and Nikita had followed the operative to confirm the location Curlly had overheard. A few days later Section sent in a team to neutralize the substation. And this was what they were talking about.

The drug made Jerome irritable and the "talk" became heated. Jerome collapsed in a fit. Everyone looked to Curlly for directions only to realize whom they were expecting to take charge. Jerome’s second in command gave orders for Tackett to be carried to his room and the doctor found.

Curlly tut tutted with concern and said rather longwindedly that she would be in her room if her assistance was required. Well not her room, for it didn’t belong to her, but the room she was sleeping in and contained her things.

That was the last time anyone saw Curlly in the compound. By the time she had completed her egress to the mission van picking her up, the camera she’d hidden in Jerome’s room confirmed his death.