Discovering My Secret Life
By: Paula Crofoot
Tags: Secrets, Travel, Passport, Fiction, Short Story

Discovering My Secret Life

I’m not who I thought I was

Photo by Luke Littlefield on Unsplash

Carina pulled out her passport from the file drawer where she kept her most important papers.

She couldn’t believe it was finally happening. She’d been wanting to travel Europe since she was a teen, had even had her passport for a few years now, but had never been able to afford it until now. But three days from now, she and her sister would be boarding a plane for England. She just needed to finish a few last details of packing, including her documents.

The passport slipped from her hands as she crossed her office and landed on the floor, open. She stooped to picked it up before freezing in surprise.

This wasn’t possible.

Her brows furrowed, she picked the passport up, taking care to leave it open on the pages. Why were there stamps from France and Germany when she had never left the United States.

She started flipping the pages to where her picture and information was, thinking she’d somehow gotten someone else’s passport. Though, how, she didn’t know. She’d checked the passport when she’d gotten it to ensure it was hers.

The book was filled with stamps from what looked to be every 1st, 2nd and even a few 3rd world countries.

She frowned, the documentation in the passport was hers but how were there these stamps?

Out of curiosity and confusion, she looked at the picture and information closer, wondering if perhaps this belonged to her doppelganger. There was no way she could travel to 30 countries and not remember any of it.

The picture was her, down to the brown eyes and blond hair, as was the birthdate, last name and SS number but this wasn’t her first name. Rather, it was the name of her imaginary friend when she was a child. She’d always liked the name Madeline, had planned to give her daughter that name if she ever had children.

She decided to call her sister, perhaps she would have an answer to why she had a well-traveled passport with all of her details under the name Madeline Mallory.

_________________________________________________________

Unfortunately, her sister Alexandra didn’t have any answers. But rather, she was even more concerned than Carina was.

“What if your identity has been stolen?”

“That’s not possible, Alex.”

“And why not?”

“IF my identity has been stolen, why do I have the passport? No, there’s something else happening. Something that appears to be worse.”

“What could be worse?”

“I’m not sure but I’m afraid it has to do with my memory. Why else would the passport be under a name that I’ve liked since I was a kid, yet I don’t remember receiving any of these stamps.”

“What’s your next step?”

“I’m going to call where I received my passport from. See if they could give me more information.”

Alexandra scoffed, “Good luck on that.”

“I know. It’s the government. But it’s the only idea I have.”

Carina hung up the phone and googled the number to call.

______________________________________________________

But before she could dial, her power went out. While the number was still on the screen of her laptop and her cellphone still had power, there was no reason for the power to just suddenly go out. She turned to face the door just as the power came back on.

She stumbled back at the sight of another woman filling the doorway. Before Carina realized what had happened, she reached into the drawer to the left of her laptop and pulled out a 9 MM and clicked the safety off, drawing it on the stranger.

She was completely confused how she knew the gun was there, how she knew how to use it or even why the gun was there in the first place.

The strange black-haired woman spoke, “I see you’re starting to remember off the job, Madeline.”

Carina responded, “I’m not Madeline.”

“Of course you are. You’re just beginning to realize that you’re Carina Mallory and Madeline Mallory.”

Keeping her calm and seeing an avenue to get her answers, “And just who is Madeline Mallory?”

“A secret agent.”

“Bull. I’d know if I was a secret agent.”

“Not if you were deep cover special ops where your memory is wiped after every mission.”

“If my memory was wiped, why would I have my passport out in the open where I’d see it.”

“You weren’t supposed to see it. You have two passports.”

At Carina’s suspicious look, the woman gestured, “Look in your file cabinet.”

Never turning her back on this stranger, Carina pulled open the drawer she’d taken the passport from. A closer look revealed a second file labeled passport and she discovered that there was indeed a second passport envelope within, this one with her birthname on it.

“If I didn’t know this passport existed, why did I grab it instead of the one I was going for?”

“Because the memory wipes only work so long. Receive enough of them and they begin to wear off and will eventually no longer work. I will admit, you’re remembering faster than most.”

“I suppose you’re one of the ones that have remembered? Or is this a mission for you?”

“I’m one of the lucky ones. There aren’t many of us in the first place. Then, when we discover a fellow agent has begun remembering, we’re supposed to report them so they can be removed from the program.”

A niggle of suspicion at the method of removal rose with her words as did a flash of memory of just who this was, or her codename at least.

“Jewel?”

She beamed, the apparent joy reaching her blue eyes, “That’s me, or rather Miranda Woods. Now that you’re clearly beginning to remember, what are you going to do? I can report as I should…”

Gun relaxed at her side but still on her guard in case someone had followed her partner, “Or?”

“Or you can go deeper undercover with the few of us that remember and haven’t been reported by one of the Black Raven lackeys.”

“You know I’m not a lackey, nor am I giving up our work.”

“Excellent. Then continue as if you don’t remember and we can continue building information against the unit.”

“This unit isn’t legal, is it?”

“It is, since even the CIA doesn’t know of it. We don’t know what part of the government knows of us, if anyone does. Yet, if they did, then no, it isn’t legal. Hell, purposeful amnesia isn’t supposed to even have been discovered yet. We’re working on figuring out just why we’re sent to do what we do. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to our missions.”

“Perhaps I’ll be able to figure it out. I’m one of the few that have deeper access to the computer system before my memory is wiped.”

“But be careful.”

“I will. For right now, I’m taking time off from my day job and heading on a trip with my sister, as if I know nothing.”

“Speaking of your sister and knowing nothing,”

Miranda handed her a black box.

“This is an Amnesia Box that was supposedly deactivated. You’ll need to remove memory of your conversation with her from your sister’s mind.”

Carina/Madeline took the box, “Consider it done.”