Chapitre 11: Television

Claire didn't seem to know how to respond to Six's answer to her question. He appeared to be as much of a mystery to her as she was to him.

After a long pause she said, "I finished that show already. If you liked that one, I can think of a few others you might like too."

Six could accept that. "Okay. Thank you."

"No problem."

They ended up starting a show she had already seen before from the beginning. It was about an exiled princess going on a hunt in search of legendary dragon warriors to help her reclaim her kingdom.

Six wasn't familiar with any of the concepts in this show aside from some of the fighting techniques but he found it interesting. The music was good too. This was fairly different from the shiny bubbles show but Claire had been right; he did like it.

The only televisions in headquarters were used for training purposes. Fiction was prohibited as a worthless distraction from reality but there were agents who lived on the outside who didn't follow that rule.

The only people living inside headquarters now that Six was gone were the rest of the numbered agents or agents-in-training and their direct trainers for supervision purposes. They had been abandoned children like him.

One and Two had died a long time ago but everyone else down through Eighteen still lived in headquarters. Eighteen was only a toddler but had already started martial arts training.

Now that Six was on the outside he couldn't help but wonder about the regular agents and the big brass. Did they have relatively normal lives outside of their work? Families? People who called them by their real names?

He had never wondered these things before because there were always people around headquarters when he was awake. Guards, trainers, other agents…he was never truly left alone though he felt nothing for any of them.

For the rest it may have been a job but for those raised inside headquarters it was a lifestyle. A lifestyle that had long since grown stale.

Claire's life intrigued Six because he had already been so bored with everything. If he hadn't been bored there was no way he would have paused long enough to even contemplate not killing her. She would be dead already.

Maybe if the big brass had given him things to do other than training or missions they wouldn't have lost their most valuable asset to the lure of the unknown. Even having a TV of his own would have been enough.

Well, it was too late now. He could watch all the TV he wanted from here on out.

The doorbell rang and Six jumped to his feet, immediately on the alert. Claire was less concerned. "It's probably the security people. They're right on time."

"Let me answer the door," he said swiftly, holding out an arm to stop her. "There is no guarantee an enemy isn't waiting for us. Agents occasionally pretend to be deliverymen or other people that are generally considered trustworthy."

Her face paled and she let him go ahead. Six didn't like that she looked scared again—she had been enjoying herself just a minute ago—but she had to be aware of the dangers. She was far too reckless.

"Stay behind me," he instructed before answering the door.

A man in a uniform stood on the doorstep with a smile. "Hi there! I'm looking for Claire Conway, is she here? My name is Hector and I'm here for a consultation."

"I'm Claire," she said as she waved and poked her head out cautiously from behind Six's back. "Don't mind my brother here; he's a bit overprotective. It's why we want the best security system you have."

Hector nodded. "I understand. It's a scary world we live in today so having peace of mind in your own home is important. Can I come in? We can go over your options and I can look around to see what would need to be installed where."

Six reluctantly accepted that he probably wasn't an agent and let him in but was sure to hover near Claire as much as possible during the consultation. When they got to the part about what features to include he finally jumped into the conversation because he knew a lot more about security systems than she did.

No system was perfect but at the very least if someone tried to disarm it remotely there was usually a brief blip on the radar. He would be sure that he was notified of any such blips so he could be ready. Having professional and personal monitoring might be the best way to go about this for now.

That reminded him…he should probably get a new phone. The one he had before got left at headquarters because he didn't want to be trackable. It was a burner used for nothing other than contact in case of emergencies.

Six had seen Claire's phone and it looked completely different. Phones on the outside were meant for entertainment more than functionality these days from what he had heard.

There were a lot of things he wanted to try now that he was on the outside. He would get the chance but first he needed to focus on making Claire's house safe and figuring out who exactly was trying to kill her.

If he was lucky, he might be able to experience a few new things with her along the way. He was already quite impressed by her cereal selection. It was far tastier than the kind they offered in the cafeteria at headquarters.

This morning he got to have Apple Jacks for the first time and they were absolutely delicious. He would definitely be eating those for breakfast for the foreseeable future.