SpyCorp

S.: And then, one day, she told me some story. I could believe it or not. As I wish. She said it was my choice to believe it or not because a story was, no matter, an interesting one. Just she kinda tells me I better do not tell it some other people, at least as a true story. She tells me that there is some funny, unusual work she has on the side. There is some Agency that does not advertise its services too much. It is some kind of private entertainment company – a nice little company. And it helps people to diversify, to widen one’s sexual life. But actually, it is nothing like an escort agency. It is just different.

M.: But then, what did the Agency offer to customers?

S.: It offered some different things. It offered some sort of private entertainment. It was not necessary for someone from the Agency to make love to customer… That could be different. Me, I am not that conscious about prostitution. It is quite a regular thing in our society. Just me, myself, I am not sure I can do it for money. Of course, I like sex like anybody else, but it is a bit different [laughter]. But I don’t have anything against the sex workers. Sure. As Jane told me, the difference is that they try to give an adventure to a person. Some kind of sexy adventure, if you want. The major principle is that they organize it all only when they know well enough what the person really wants. Yes. That’s the thing. But the scenario should be somehow unexpected for her or for him. And yes, there is a scenario. It is an important part of it. I mean how they do it. There is the scenario, and it is prepared according to this person’s unrealized desires.

E.: So, do I understand it correctly? There is some kind of stage show?

S.: Well, no. It is not like a stage show. Maybe in something. A person is involved in some story, adventure. And the Agency makes this person feel good in the way.

M.: Person? – You mean a customer?

S.: No. Actually, not. This person is almost never the customer. I mean it is not the one placing the order. Services… are ordered by someone who knows this person well, who is close to him or her somehow. This one helps us to know about a person. In some exceptional cases this person – the Lead Hero…

M.: Lead Hero?

S.: That is how this person is called. The Lead Hero. It is just another specific term to make a long story short. So, this LH is almost never the one who contracts the Agency personally. It is this way only in some rare, exceptional cases. It is possible, but it is not a rule.

M.: All these things, did Jane tell about them all at once?

S.: No. I actually revealed it all after, in process. I mean, she told some general things. I was a bit intrigued by it. I did not know why she told it to me. Of course, she was always able to entertain me with her stories during a break and after hours, when we met in some cafe or at a nightclub.

M.: And what did happen next?

S.: She asked whether I wanted to fill the vacancy in the Agency.

M.: She did it the same day as she told you… the story?

S.: No. She did it after a couple of days. She said there would be nothing tricky, nothing I was not able to do. And she said for the first time I would not need to do something special. And also she said that they would teach me everything I needed to know when indeed there was not a lot of it. And also she said if I didn’t like it, I could quit at any moment. She said I was possibly a good fit for them. I didn’t know what to answer. Usually, if she took me somewhere to do something funny, I would agree immediately, because it is always a nice time with Jane. I mean she knows how to have fun. But in this case, I was not sure. For a couple of days, I was considering her proposition, and then I just decided to see what it was like. I mean, to see the place and what it was. I was not that sure I would agree. Though, Jane was always the most persuasive person. She easily can persuade anybody.

Nov, 5. Evening. Private Audio Diary of Elise. by Elise

When Martin said that there would be an interview this evening, I did not know who would be our guest. I only knew that her name was Susan. Martin asked me whether I could stay for one more hour at the studio. We supposed to record an interview with someone. When this someone arrived, I had a feeling that I probably saw her somewhere before. And then I understood that it was that blonde girl from a strange videotape. I mean… there was nothing strange about the videotape, but it was strange that the footage seemed so useless. I thought maybe then I would be able to understand at least a little what it all was about. And then when I saw a girl, at least I knew her looks clearly. But that isn’t much. I was actually unprepared for an interview. She entered the door and at first exposed some little indecisiveness when interrupting her way through the room. Then she laughed and tried to look really self-assured and made a few quick motions approaching a stool. As she was sitting there… At the first moment that made me think that she was probably infantile, maybe a little infantile, but not too much. Though maybe it was her looks that made me feel so. She is not very tall, and her face is a little childish you may say.

As I wasn’t prepared to take an active part in the interview, I thought maybe Martin would like me to be present just to have some kind of witness. Or something. Maybe he needed to have someone else there in the room to break a possible intimacy. I mean… to be not tet-а-tet with this girl. And most probably these both reasons applied for my presence. An interview isn’t anything like a date. So, when you happen to talk with a young blonde girl who likes to talk about sex, there should be some additional requirements. At least there should be someone else present. Better a woman. Despite the fact that I still can’t clearly understand what fun it can be in this matter for me, I became curious about some of the things. As Martin sometimes uses to say – and I would quote him not because he is a great philosopher, but only because this time the phrase really fits in – journalism is probably a kind of illness. On my side, I would add that it is an illness of brain and sometimes a strange one. And first of all, I became interested in what we will reveal in the next chapter of the Blondish Tale. Let’s call it that for a while. And also I am curious about what is the degree of stupidity – or probably, smartness – of our leading character. Just to practice my ability to recognize the human qualities. My intuition. Kinda. As Martin said, we will meet her again after a few days. I think I will have a chance to know. And also I remember how Martin asked her whether I could be present. And the blonde doll took a short pause, and her eyes widened a little. And then she permitted it, and she was looking at me in some way. Call me Sue. She said so after a pause still having this gaze. My intuition gave me a hint at the moment. What I think about it now is that the girl is definitely bisexual.

The fifth of November, end of a line.

Description of Video One. from Dictaphone Record. by Martin

I interviewed Susan for the first time. Despite the fact that I previously had plans for a couple of projects more, now I felt almost entirely engaged with this one. Let’s tell the world about Susan because Mr. Shadow wants it so much. And who am I? Am I more than an instrument in this matter? I ask myself again and again in recent days. But now I am too much interested in the truth, about the essence of this story. Who? Why? – are the two questions keeping to twist in my mind. And also the plot itself seems to be very intriguing. Quite spicy. In some way.

And then it was time to follow the next line from my personal instructions. And they told me that before interviewing Sue again, it was time to play another video. I got ready and launched a flash drive. Instructions prescribed that I can’t copy files provided to me on my computer and that I should disable any internet connection before watching them, in case I watch them on a device able for a web connection.

What did I see in this video? I don’t know. I mean I am not really able to tell precisely. Video had two parts. In the first one, a location was some apartment. In the beginning, two female figures appeared. I almost immediately supposed it was Sue and Jane. They were dressed differently for sure, but still could be quite recognizable in comparison to the office footage featuring them. They stood with their backs to a camera angle. And the camera was placed somewhere close to the ceiling as it seemed because a point of view was from above. For few instants, they stood rather close to each other and watched through window glass. Then as it seemed by her gesture, Jane asked Susan to come closer. Sue was still standing apart from her. And then she was watching her. Then Sue came closer. And Jane held out her hand and pointed to something across the street probably. Then they kept watching there. And they were talking a little. For a while. Then Jane disappeared from the view and reappeared again having something long and cylindrical in her hand. It was hard to tell what it exactly was, it could be some sort of bat or something else, but as she put a thinner end of it to her face, I understood that it was a spyglass or some sort of portable telescope removed from a tripod. She was looking at the other side of the street. And after a couple of seconds, she gave the tube to Susan. Sue took it slowly like being not sure about it. She cast a flashing glance at the internal side of the room. And then she also began looking through a spyglass at the other side of a street. For at least five minutes they kept watching this way, exchanging their observer instrument with each other. And after that, Susan looked at an internal side of the room for one more time. This time she did it more certainly. Her gaze was longer and was surely directed at some spot. It seemed that Jane somehow provoked it with some words she said because after a while she also looked in this direction. And only then I noticed that.

There was something else inside the room. And this something was hidden inside the dark spot of the shadow. And the angle of the camera also hid it as the camera was more focused on another side of room’s space. I tried to identify what it was. And it is more correct to say – who it was. All I could see. As it seemed to me… This video footage isn’t clear that much, I say again. Well, it was two legs. Appearing from the dark. Someone was sitting in the corner. And that was a woman as I supposed looking at forms of her legs and design of shoes on them. It was difficult to identify anything even about her shoes, but at least they seemed to be a female pair of shoes. With that little to be seen, this figure looked mysterious, powerful and challenging. What was her part in it? Was she the Lead Hero? How could I tell about it when I even didn’t know what was going on?! When you don’t know the play, you can’t say what role one of the actors has in it. Do I tell something that looks to be so evident? Next thing that happened was that Jane came closer to a mysterious figure comfortably sitting in the dark. At this moment Susan moved aside in the frame. And then she stood leaning against the wall in the right part of a picture. It was her figure that was visible clearly enough then, but not her face. But from her pose, as she touched the wall with the palms of her hands and bent her legs slowly moving down in softly sliding motion, that all looked rather sexy, even in the sight of the uncertain picture.

Then Jane gave a spyglass to a dark figure in the corner, and it looks like the woman used it to look at something that probably was still happening on the other side of the street. Jane sat down on the floor near the armchair in which a dark female figure was sitting. And then for the rest of time in this part of video nothing happened. All three stayed at their places, and as they were all in some distance from the center of the room’s space on which camera was focused, it all looked like some abandoned chess board with the last figures standing in the endgame. That was all in the first half, but there was the second one. And I am not able now to tell what connection is between them.