“I understand, sir. It’s just a mission.", she stated as she left her apartment that day.

The other day, she had happened upon the target’s nephew which was good news for her.

He appeared genteel, nervous and sported a clean, shaven face which was greatly appreciated by her. After spending years in the countryside surrounded by bearded Scottish men, his looks were definitely a welcome surprise.

However, she felt a surreal feeling looking back now on their ‘accidental’ meeting. Was it wrong for her to use him like this...like she would in the future? It would have been too cliché for them to bump into each other so she instead decided to ask him directions to the campus library.

She thought that she should not feel guilty at all about this. His relative happened to be the mastermind of the biggest criminal organization known to man and she just spotted the nephew meeting the target in the library to discuss a job opportunity.

Aila only knows this because she listened in on their conversation from a table hidden in the other side of the library lobby a few minutes ago.

Why would Aila need to breach their privacy? For the reason of international security, she would listen and record their conversation without their knowledge.

Aila was a spy.

Currently, her directive was to befriend the nephew for recovering information on his relative and find proof of his illegitimate operations.

His legitimate business was only a front, but since the financial sector right now was brewing with corruption, it would be extremely difficult to obtain evidence from his company’s headquarters without a warrant because all the other banks/financial corporations would protest over breach of privacy and intrusion on their civil rights even though it was that specific company accused of crimes.

“It’s gaein be awricht ance the pain has gane awa.’” The meaning of the phrase being once the pesky business is over (pain), it is going to be alright. Her father reminded her that right before she stated that it was just a mission. She would not let this mission become personal. There was too much at stake.

The fact that her father was her commanding officer was just frosting on the cake. She belonged to a family of spies that had a spy network all over the United Kingdom and operated under British intelligence. Loyalty to the crown was a must in their family so discussing the political idea that Scotland could ever be separated from Great Britain like Southern Ireland was a big no-no. Scotland could not survive independently was what her father and the rest of her family thought. She was not so sure, maybe in the future Scotland could become their own country as well.

It troubled her though the thought that her father had needed to say that phrase before she told him she would follow through with the mission. He used to say that to her growing up when she was uncertain about learning the ropes for being a spy and going on dangerous misadventures. Had he also sensed her doubt as well about the deceit in her dealing with the nephew?

It was certainly a dealing, not a relationship. There would never be a relationship if it concerned her and the nephew. Tomas, wasn’t it? A cute name, she thought to herself. With his looks and charm, he shall surely get fine beautiful woman doting on him, if they were not already. Who knows? If he escaped from this escapade squeaky clean, maybe...what? She would not date him or even consider going on a date with someone whose ‘uncle’ is a criminal. Didn’t crime families exist for a reason?

It was for the greater good that she would befriend Tomas as cute, bubbly Aila. She had used her real name because she planned to not inform him of her true intentions and retrieve the information from his apartment when he happened to bring work home. Then, something would happen and she would disappear from his life conveniently with a good excuse of needing to take care of family in Scotland.

After all, her family in Scotland needed her help, especially her uncle. Her uncle was a retired spy who had served in World War 2 and with his Alzheimer’s, he needed someone to tend to him plus clean his house from top to bottom that could handle an ancient who thinks he’s still in combat and has the skills to kill her if he believes her to be the enemy. Not that she was the enemy because she was working for the side of the good guys.

Lying to Tomas was for the greater good. His uncle masterminded terrorist attacks, was an avid warmonger and paid people to get rid of the competition for his business. Unfortunately, the last time they had his location and were gathering evidence on him, he left the UK and headed to America where MI6 could not go without permission.

That is where her family came in as they had good relations with American diplomats and even thought they had allegiance to the crown, they were not officially listed as part of the branches of British intelligence. If she was caught in this operation, Britain’s government was not held liable.

That meant she needed to be especially careful and not let some attractive accountant get in the way of mission success! Her father and the rest of her family were counting on her.

Poor Tomas, he must have been cursed to end up with a relative like that. However, it was her dumb luck that lead her to be top of her cousins at espionage school that she was assigned to this mission! It seemed she did not have it easy as she did not even know what type of evidence she could find if the nephew was also in on the evil operation. She hoped to God that she would not have to become his girlfriend.

That would be the worst case scenario.