When the rains may come (Science Fiction)

27. The Promise

Clint and Marie spent the past five weeks in the manor library, learning all that Gemma had to teach them. And Gemma had a lot to teach.

"When you will be out there on the field, you can't be yourself." She had said.

"Wait but didn't you say we were supposed to be ourselves?" Marie asked.

Gemma shook her head. "I did say that. But don't take it for the face value. You will have to pretend to be yourself." She said. "You can't really be yourselves. You are going to be performing roles you are comfortable performing, but you can't give away things about yourself that can be traced back to you."

"It is easier said than done." Clint said.

"It is." Gemma nodded. "Most spies hardly ever fail in the main objective of their mission. Where they fail is to keep their cover. Some tiny little detail that always makes its way past them."

"How are we supposed to keep ourselves from revealing those details then?" Marie frowned.

Gemma looked at them both gravely. "Simple, you always keep your cover. Even when nobody is watching. Especially when you feel like nobody is watching." She said.

And then Gemma had pushed a pile of books towards the couple. Books on psychology, conversational skills, and basics of acting.

And so they'd spent poring over all these books. Clint was especially thorough, burning all the midnight oil to internalise all that he could in those five weeks. It was like preparing for med-school all over again.

For Marie, it was all about getting the role right. She remembered the days when she had taken acting classes in college. Back when her peers and her mom had convinced her that her looks could get her to stardom or at least a decent modelling gig. She had never had much interest in being in movies rather than watching them. But the theatre club had been a good hobby. And she was glad now it was coming to good use.

She remembered what her drama teacher had said. "The best actors aren't the ones who stick to the script. The best ones are the ones who can improvise and stay in character."

Stay in character, that's all that matters. That's what Gemma had meant as well. Just stay in character, all day everyday. She would repeat it to herself like a mantra every night before going to bed.

The couple had figured out their roles, more or less. The next difficulty was...Zack.

"His role is the easiest one." Gemma had shrugged at them. "He is a kid who acts his age. Just tell him the things he isn't supposed to say to anyone and tell him to stay away from strangers and it's all good." She said.

"No...we were wondering if..." Marie said, scratching the back of her head nervously, "what if we...left him here with you guys?"

"No." Gemma had said. And she'd kept going before they could even argue. "He is safer with you two out there than being alone with us here. And wasn't this more about letting him see what a normal life is? Isn't that why you two agreed to this thing in the first place?"

"Um, we thought it would be a bit more of a...permanent arrangement." Marie had said.

Gemma's look had turned severe. "Do you really want it all just handed to you, Marie?"

Marie went pale. "N-No–"

"I know life sucks, Marie. You'd rather just have things the way they were before this stupid war began." She said. "Trust me, so do I. And I can have that life much easier than you, Marie. All the money that my father made can last me and my future generations a lifetime. I could've just flown off to another continent with Erik. Away from all this non-sense. Yet we decided to stay. Why do you think we did that?"