Blow Your Mind Pt. 05

Thanks everyone for enjoying this story so far. I have had some feedback about certain things in the story and I appreciate it both for the advice and comments, but also in being polite. Hope you continue to enjoy.

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PART V

TWO MONTHS LATER

Brandi finished reading the file and slid it back over the table to her boss. She glanced around and made sure she was blocking her mouth with the menu when she spoke.

"So you want me to neutralize her by removing her skill set and memories. I can do that, but this is an odd first job."

Mr. Case smiled that grim smile of his that Brandi had learned to be wary of. "I suppose, but it serves several purposes. One, you should consider it "training", Brenda is a first-class spy and has a lot of training, experience, and skill under her belt. She started working for me when she was in college and was my top spy for a while. Two, you get to see what happens to people who double-cross me or think they are smarter than me. And three, you remove a top rival in the ranks. I don't encourage infighting, but I am fully aware that my company has some as certain people vie for the top jobs that pay the most."

Brandi nodded. "Still it seems a bit off that my first target is one of your own spies. This information is excellent and it's a good profile, but what exactly did she do to warrant my attention? I'd like to know before I jump in."

Mr. Case smiled again. "Excellent question, filling in the blanks from what you have gotten, and being wary of what the holes are. There may be times when the answer is simply "Do not ask" and you will have to either walk away or go on only knowing what you know. But you can always ask, don't forget that. In Brenda's case, she has "branched out" and has done some independent work on the side. I do not necessarily mind that, but I do require knowledge of it as she may be causing problems for people I may have agreements with or people I do not want to do business with. Brenda has gotten rather full of herself and her abilities and thought she could get away with it. But she made a couple of stupid mistakes and I was on to her."

"What mistakes?"

Mr. Case gave her an appraising eye. "Just curious or thinking ahead?"

Brandi kept her face still. "Learning from the boss. If this tripped one of your best spies up, I had better learn about it."

Mr. Case nodded. "Brandi, I know that at some point you will wonder about going off on your own and doing this as a freelancer. Everyone does. I would ask you that when that time comes you tell me and let me show you the parts that I am shielding you from. There are a lot of very dirty people and dirty things that this job deals with and causes, and I would like to shield you from some of that. If you end up able to handle it, well, we can talk about it then."

Mr. Case took a sip of water and then continued. "As for what tripped her up, a couple of simple mistakes. One, she started living beyond what she could afford. And by that I mean, she was living beyond what I knew she was making working for me, which was saying something considering. I don't begrudge people enjoying the fruits of their labors, but she certainly couldn't afford 7 houses in elite locations all over the world, not when they are all multi-million-dollar homes and she paid cash. That cost, along with how much she was working and making was enough for me to notice. She also used the help desk for several things that had nothing to do with any of my assignments. She got lazy on that. You for instance used Frankie for your support instead of using my help desk. Sloppy and lazy will get you caught. Brenda has been getting more of both lately and has not shaped up when given the chance. And this is the key thing to remember my Dear, EVERYONE can be replaced. Brenda has forgotten that and so will pay the price."

Brandi kept her face very still and Mr. Case looked at her for a moment. "You have a very good poker face Brandi, but I know this is probably making you wonder what you have gotten into and wondering just how valuable you think you are. Well, you have gotten into the spy game, and all the excitement and fun aside, its for keeps. Never forget that. As for how valuable you are? Very valuable, but in the end if you test that you will find out that you too can be written off. I really hope you never test me on this, you and I have a lot to lose if you do."

Brandi nodded. "Mr. Case, this was something I never dreamed of doing, but I am loving it so far. The money is great sure, but this whole thing is amazing! With my hungers and urges, this might be the only business FOR me anymore. Having to always pay attention, having to always remember a thousand and one things, it is keeping me sane because of how much attention and focus is required in order to do the jobs right. If I wasn't doing this I would likely be stalking people on the streets by now to feed."

Brandi sipped her water and smiled. "I get it. I can't trust anyone, not even you. But you are up front with me, you pay me very well and on time, and like you said, you handle the part of the business that I very likely would not like to deal with. You were certainly NOT Dr. Caines when you realized what I could do. I can't promise you I will stay with you for my entire career, but I do promise you that when the day comes I will talk with you about it."

Mr. Case smiled and nodded. "That really is the best you can hope for. Now then, for Brenda. She is a highly skilled agent. She has been doing this for 15 years and knows a lot of stuff. Stuff I want you to have. She has been briefed that you are a newbie and that she is supposed to provide you some training and make some social introductions. She is going to introduce you around Miami, get you into the clubs, set you up socially. This is part of your fake persona, you will rarely do any business here in Miami or Florida if I can help it. My firm has a completely legit side and you will be part of that. But she is being retired whether she likes it or not. I can't afford to have her out there free-lancing. If she had just quit it would be one thing, but since she is dealing behind my back and is in money-trouble she is a risk. The temptation to sell me out to others will be too much eventually unless she gets her act together and I have no faith that she can."

Mr. Case leaned in a bit. "When I mean retire her, I mean it. You rip out her skills, all of them. Don't copy them, rip them out, along with any memory of my organization and her time with it. Do not touch her money, or anything that is hers. She can get out from this hole if she sells some of her property and stops some of her rather expensive habits and live well on what she has left over. But she is to have no ability to get back in this game, and no ability to threaten this organization. Understood?"

Brandi looked at the picture and smiled. "Absolutely."

The next day Brandi met Brenda for a coffee in the afternoon in a trendy little coffee shop on the beach. Brandi was dressed nicely, and she blended right in with the crowd of other young couples, hotties showing off and young men on the prowl. She saw Brenda and walked over to her.

"Hi there. You must be Brenda, I'm Brandi." She said extending her hand.

Brenda smiled at her as she stood up. Brandi noted the smile never touched her eyes, which had a bit of a cold and hard look to them. She took her hand and said "Good morning Brandi, so pleased to meet you. I was more than happy to meet you after the boss called me."

"Like hell you were, you lying bitch." Brandi thought to herself while she gave her "Gosh, this is so cool!" smile.

Brandi sat down and moved way into the booth so her back was against the wall a bit. She noted that Brenda slightly arched her eyebrow at that. "Not such the newbie, huh? Well, you ain't seen nothing yet." Brandi thought.

Brandi gave Brenda a very careful look over. Brenda was a Chinese-Korean mix woman, fluent in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, Harvard graduate, and had a Masters in International Relations from UVA. She had gotten into spying early, in college, where she had done some work for some unnamed people getting some blackmail information. Mr. Case had noticed her work and signed her on. She was about 5 foot 6 inches, jet black hair, dark eyes, and a nice figure with a set of tits that was just a bit bigger than what her body should have.

She was excellent at safe cracking and seduction and had a very good ability to get into private computers and laptops via using exploitable weaknesses or by finding or guessing the owner's passwords after profiling them and then pillow talking them a bit. Her favorite method was to seduce them, fuck them unconscious and then get on their laptop or cellphone and get the needed data. But she was also a very good cat burglar and if seduction failed, she was very adapt at breaking in, disabling alarms, locating and opening safes and copying what was needed with the mark never knowing or framing it as something else like a jewelry heist.

But as Mr. Case said, her personal habits had gotten her in a bit of trouble. She liked to spend a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single shopping spree in Las Vegas or in Paris over a weekend whim. Since she was a bit of an excitement junkie (which Brandi could completely understand), she was beginning to develop a gambling habit. Nothing bad yet, but she was always at the track and when she went to Vegas she could spend hours on the craps table. She liked to have fun, and she liked to have it on her terms which meant that boyfriends never lasted long as she either was way too expensive for them or they couldn't deal with her "my way or fuck off" mentality. She had blown through millions, and while she was not in real trouble yet, Brandi could easily see where she was headed. And, in Brandi's opinion, the worst thing was that she always thought she was the smartest person in the room.

In short, she was a pretty spoiled little princess who had never yet run into a real problem, and now that she was beginning to see that was in one, was having some issues dealing with it. Brandi had seen how that worked in the sorority when one of the sisters who had never had any problems before hit that one class head on. They either folded under the pressure (dropping out or changing majors), or they dug deep and worked through it. Brandi could tell Brenda didn't have the ability to dig deep.

"So, Mr. Case wants me to show you around the town and get you signed up for some clubs and memberships. In our line of work, this is pretty important. Lots of potential contacts and important people come here to relax, or work, or just to hang out for a bit. Being able to drop a name here and there is a big help."

"I understand. That makes sense. But tell me, how much of this is really us being just another hot chick in a large crowd of pretty faces versus linking up and making contacts?

Brenda smiled and Brandi could see she was giving her a bit more of an appraisal. "Good question. Mr. Case said you were quick on the uptake. It's a balance. Most of the time, we are just another face in the crowd, just there to see who else is there so we can name drop later if needed. You will shake a lot of hands, and you need to try and remember who you met so you can drop the comment "Oh we meet at the regatta in Miami, so good to see you again" to someone later. They most likely won't remember you but will be too polite to say so to your face so they will make small talk with you a bit to cover. But sometimes you will get someone who is your target or a likely target and you will want to chat them up a bit more. Not a huge amount and don't try to seduce them, not here, not ever here as this is the "official" site of our "company". But if you are going to need to meet with the mark later, then you need to at least make enough of an impression on them to remember you by. All sorts of tricks for that, from a joke to having the same drink or knowing about a type of cigar. We have a social cocktail hour this afternoon after the driving tour and getting you registered. It's a "after work" social group, lots of younger adults who are the up and comers here in Miami, the mid to upper mid-managers, Junior VPs, stuff like that. Good to know locals."

"What if they are, interested, in me?"

"Dating is allowed by the boss. But it's hard to manage believe me. You can be gone for months on end or be in the middle of a long weekend in the Keys and then get a call and you have to be on a plane in 2 hours. Hard to keep a boyfriend like that. I recommend you date some so people know you are social but keep things simple."

Brandi nodded and sipped her coffee. "Got it. Well, I was never much of a coffee drinker, so if you are ready, let's get going."

Brenda nodded and they headed out. Brenda led her to a Lamborghini and zipped off. Brandi noted that it was red and Brenda drove like she owned the road. "Cripes, she sticks out like a sore thumb. She's an upper-level manager on paper, but she drives a car that is worth more than her yearly salary, not smart." Brandi mentally noted.

Brenda took her to several clubs and got her signed up for memberships via the Case Consulting business account; the Country Club, several nice private dining and dance clubs, the Yacht Club, the Race Club, and some others. She got a membership at very upscale fitness gym with numerous locations in Florida. Brenda then showed her "some girl stuff", some good shopping spots with the trendy stores. That nearly got them late because Brenda got caught up on a whim and spent a couple grand on some stuff.

Aside from Brenda nearly getting them there too late, Brandi was noting that Brenda was really being a snide little cunt. She didn't use her name much, usually saying "Kid" or "Girl" instead, even after Brandi asked her to use her name. A couple things she had to dig out of her because she had said "A newbie like you wouldn't understand that yet." And in terms of professional advise (which Mr. Case had said would be part of the conversation) Brenda was completely mute. When Brandi had pressed for some tips, Brenda had responded with "Sometimes the only way to know is to just do. You need to figure that part out kid."

They made the cocktail party only 15 minutes late, just enough to be barely fashionably late and Brandi quickly noted how Brenda's behavior continued.

Brenda was definitely keeping tabs on a lot of people. She introduced Brandi to a whole bunch of folks, all whom Brandi was able to remember without difficulty. But Brandi quickly figured out that some folks Brenda seemed to be making an effort to NOT introduce her to. Brenda was also making some comments that Brandi saw as an effort to make sure she was not taken as seriously as she should be.

"This is the new kid.", "Brandi is fresh from college, wide-eyed in the big city.", "This is Brandi's first real job, isn't that cute?" and so on. Brandi played along a bit, and then broke away to use the bathroom. When she came back, rather than link back with Brenda, she sought out a couple of people Brenda had been keen to keep her away from.

Brandi was pretty annoyed as her suspicion was proven correct. One of the guys was the COO of a major international investment company, another was the heir apparent of a large international shipping company, one of the women was a major political player and local party boss. Brenda had been trying to fob her off on the lesser players.

"Well, one good turn deserves another." Brandi thought and turned on her charm. With her skills from Lucinda and Dylan, she was able to make very good impressions on all three of them. Not seduction level, but certainly enough to make them remember her and in a good way.

Brenda found her talking to the COO and Brandi nearly burst out laughing at Brenda's reaction when he said "Hey Bree, thanks so much for bringing your new friend to the party. She's sharp, it was real fun to talk with her."

"It's Brenda." Brenda had said with a frozen smile. Brandi's heightened senses made it easy to see the slight flush of anger, the very slight twitch of her hand, and the almost invisible tweak of her eye when the COO got her name wrong.

"Oh, right. God I'd forget my own head if it wasn't attached. Well Brandi, so nice to meet you and I hope you can be here next week." He said as he handed her his card.

"The pleasure is all mine." Brandi said with a smile.

Back in the car Brenda was silent as they drove a bit. She didn't say much on the ride home and just peeled out when she dropped Brandi off. The next day Brandi had to go into the office. There she got the tour and a short brief from the office manager who gave her a business phone, account and so on. He took her into a private backroom and proceeded to sweep it for bugs. Once done he had her sit down and he pulled out a file.

"So, now you have seen the front. This is your portfolio. This explains your front, meaning your job, your accounts, background, what you do, and so on. You need to memorize it and be able to answer any questions on it. This is your business account. Once a day you will get an encrypted file with a timer on it. Once you click on the file, you have 1 hour to read it, then it deletes completely. The code is in your file, you need to reset it daily after one use, no patterns. This gives you a run-down of "your work-day" meaning what you supposedly worked on. It's a mix of fake stuff and some real-world work tossed in that was done by someone else and coopted into your work. Anyone who asks you about what you worked on you have something that can be verified. If you are on a real-world mission where you can't check stuff in, your work will reflect it by saying "out in the field" or some such. You don't ever have to worry about anything other than checking that file. Mr. Case will notify me when you are out on a job. After today, I don't ever expect to see you here again except when Mr. Case is fronting for something."

"Got it. What else?"

"Inside your file you will find a company credit card. Use it for business-related stuff, buying ink for the printer at home, meals while in Miami, spend at least a grand a month on it. A list of things you can use it for is included. When you are out of town, leave this card at home. We will put some fake transactions on it to match the cover story. This is your front 401K, insurance, and bank account. Use it only while in Miami. You are responsible for your own money affairs on the other stuff. There is also a medical card in there, it's a plain white card with a red edge. It has a website address and a phone number. It's the medical plan you will use for while working. Using that number or website will get you in touch with certain medical professionals who take cash and won't talk if you follow. There is a number for your "account" on the back, use it when signing in."

The man then pulled out a couple small devices. "This is a white noise generator, and this is an EMP pulser. Use them as you see fit, they look like power packs for your cellphone, but that is just for looks. This here is a bug sweeper, like what I just used, but smaller. Your place has one hidden behind your bathroom mirror, use it daily. Once you move into another place of your own, you can take it with you. If you need a new one call the help desk. And here is your first burn phone and alert number."

Brandi nodded and packed away the various things. "By the way, I'm Mr. Jones. Last thing, do you have a weapon?"

"I have a Colt .25 automatic pistol and I have a small stiletto knife with a leg holster."

The man got a humored look. "Everyone always gets one of those knives when they start. I recommend you get a Gerber multitool, might not be as easy to get the knife out, but is a hell of lot more useful. Can you shoot the gun well?"