Single Lady Spy 01 - The End of Me

alone.
    “Suffer?”
    I nodded again.
    He sighed, “I take you and Servario met?”
    “Yup.” I missed him already.
    “He’s a strange kid too. I like that one though. He came to me when he was twenty-two and asked my permission to date you. I kick myself now for telling him no. I told him the secret was more important. I think he liked you because you were so good at all of this, but telling him no, seemed to make him obsess about you. Well, fat lot of good that did me. Look at where you are. You’ve met him anyway,” he chuckled and I understood something new about Servario. His infatuation with me had been genuine from the beginning, and the challenge of being told no by my father, had only made things worse.
    I decided to save that one for later and looked around, changing the subject, “What is this place?”
    He glanced around in awe, “This place is perfect for our purpose. It’s a Japanese temple that’s dedicated to a Goddess. There are 123 temple shrines here. This particular one is forbidden access for regular visitors. No one may enter, and then there’s the fact they renovate every twenty years. Anyway, the legend is that a daughter of some guy wandered the woods for twenty years, trying to find the perfect place to worship this goddess. She ended up here in Ise. It’s all rebuilt, every twenty years, to maintain the respect of the order of things. The natural decay cycles. So we can be here, moving in amongst the shrines, staying hidden.”
    I shook my head, “Why would the Japanese ever agree to this? They hate Americans, rightfully so.”
    He looked down on me intensely, “The Fat Man and The Little Boy. After the Second World War they were dedicated to the preservation of the world. Few cultures care about nature and balance like the Japanese do. Once we dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese royals were in. They wanted the immediate control of the weapons that ruined so much of their country. They gave us their most sacred temple as a show of their dedication to the Burrow. They don’t hate Americans, they hate disrespect.”
    I looked around at the people walking past us. They were multicultural. “So everyone here is a threat to the world in some way?”
    He nodded.
    “Wow.”
    He nudged me, “You have no idea. You guys coming here is a huge mess. I’ll be lucky to get out alive.”
    I looked around, “I can imagine. What have you told the kids?”
    He laughed, “That they’re in Thailand, going to an ashram for meditation. They’re pretty mad at you for picking this as a vacation. I told them it was James’ idea.”
    I laughed.
    I looked up to see my mom walking down the road. I started to cry again. I ran to her. She wrapped around me, “My baby.”
    My sister was close behind. She wrapped around mom and me.
    “Sissy.”
    She shook when she hugged me. I knew she would be in the dark. She wouldn’t know and wouldn’t want to. She was a typical hippie from a typical commune on the West Coast.
    “Are you in some kind of shit,” Sissy whispered.
    Mom gave her a look, “No swearing in the temple.”
    Sis scowled at me, “How did this happen? We’re prisoner here and Dad’s alive? What the heck?”
    I shrugged, “I got nothing.”
    She laughed, “I see.” She grabbed dad, “You—old man, are in trouble. You broke my heart.”
    He sighed, “It was all for you girls. I needed to keep you safe.” He looked at me, “Speaking of which, you have a date with some people.”
    I held my robe to my body and nodded, “I figured something would come of it.”
    He put a hand out for me. I took it and smiled at my mom and sister, “Be back in a bit.”
    Mom smirked.
    We walked up the road, I smelled the blossoming trees and looked around at the beauty of it all.
    “They will make you clean this up or die. That’s the only option.”
    I looked up, “What?”
    He nodded, and the grim look I saw on his face when he first saw me, was back.
    “Dad!”
    He shook his head, “My hands are tied. James screwed you hard kid. He put you a pickle, I’m not positive you’ll get out of.”
    I started to panic but he grabbed both my arms, “But I do know, if anyone is going to get out of it, it’s you.”
    I looked at him, “You think so?” My faith in my survival was dwindling.
    He nodded, “One hundred percent. If anyone can, it’s you. That Coop kid is intense but I really like him. He reminds me of me I think. Luce seems reliable, and Jack is a