Exposition - Ellen (21)

I hadn't practiced the script in front of a mirror. I hadn't needed to. I knew all about what we were doing, knew way more about it than these recruits did, and I knew exactly how serious it was. This part was not a game. To pretend it was one could be fatal.
Then I was rudely interrupted in the middle of my speech, and... well, maybe Scarlett got on my nerves a little too much, or maybe something about Ian sitting there trying to be brave got to me, or maybe Gillian just looked like she was actually thinking about what I said. Or maybe it was Greg. But I broke with the script.
It was a stupid thing to do. I would probably get in trouble for it. But I felt it was the right thing.
I wanted Gillian, Ian, and even Scarlett to know exactly what they were getting into. You're not supposed to want that. A recruiter is supposed to stick to the script. I certainly hadn't known it all when I signed that paper seven years ago. I don't know if it would have made it any better if I had. And it's impossible to know everything, anyway. But I did tell them the truth. I'm not sorry that I did that.
I didn't look at Greg's face. I imagine he was pretty surprised.
It didn't occur to me immediately that there was a reason for the script. Now I know. It's because with too much information, the questions might never end. Ian was the first.
"So... how does it work?"
"Seriously?" Well, I'd already left the script in the dust. What the hell. "I don't have any idea. We get this stuff from... later on."
"From the future, you mean." Ian again.
"Basically, yes."
Scarlett and Gillian raised their hands, like it was a press conference. This was the moment when I began to fear for my job, and Greg must have seen that look on my face, because he stepped in.
"You guys want to know the whole story?" he asked them, sitting coolly in his chair. "You're not going to get it. And Ellen can't answer any more of your questions, really, because if she does she'll get fired." He stood up. "But I'm going to tell you a little bit." The recruiters in the corners stepped toward him uncertainly, but he waved them back. "You see, I've been a part of this agency for seven years, but right now, they can't fire me. I'm just a recruit." At this point all I was thinking was Ohshitohshitohshit, what is he doing? On top of everything else, I didn't want Greg to suffer for my indiscretions. "The agency was founded way off at some point in the future when people started noticing the influence of other universes on our own. And at some point somebody realized that the only reason they hadn't been noticed before then was that someone had made it possible to... well, that someone had created an agency that..." Greg, despite whatever his intentions were, was running out of words. "An agency that did... what we do. This agency. So they went back and built it."
"So... this agency was created when someone realized that this agency had been created?" Gillian asked.
"Pretty much." Greg shrugged.
"So... what do we actually do?" Scarlett asked. "You haven't said what we're going to do."
"And why us?" Ian added.
Greg was about to answer, but I couldn't let him. This was my question to answer. There is a second script, for when somebody eventually realizes that the first script never answered those two questions. It always happens eventually, though usually not this soon. Seven years ago I was the one who asked it, on the second night of the mission. I was twenty-four years old then. This is what Jimmy answered, and what I said now:
"What do we do? We are guards. We patrol the edges of what we know. We push back the invaders. We keep the world we know safe from the worlds we don't. What we really do is, we make sure things happen. And not just any things. The right things. The things that have happened. At every major historical event, some of our agency have been there. At a lot of seemingly mundane events, too. We are just out of sight. We cause ripples. Little ripples that spread and shape our world. A job could be as simple as dropping a rock in the middle of the road, but it is that rock which will cause the horse to fall and kill the messenger who would have started the war. Or stopped it. We go back. Never forward, not unless it's absolutely necessary. We must always keep in mind what happened to those other worlds. But we know we can go back because we have already gone. We make sure things continue to have happened in the way that they have happened. And sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it's not easy. Sometimes we have to fight. There are those who want us to fail. But it's a job we have to do. We cannot change it. We are not seen. We are not rewarded. But we are the people who save the world every day." I paused. This time, it was just the right length of pause. No one spoke. I could see Greg was remembering, now, the night we'd heard all this. It had been too late to turn back, then. As if we could ever have turned back. "And why you? Because we need you, and you need us. You have what we need to do what we're doing, and once you've done it, you'll realize... what you should be doing from now on." I glanced at Greg. "That's the hope, anyway. The agency's been known to bungle things up occasionally." Now I looked at all of them. The script had ended two sentences ago, but I felt inclined to add just a bit more. "So. This is your last chance to back out. Really your last chance. I know you've already signed the papers, but I could very easily just tear them up and nobody'd be the wiser. Except, the thing is... you're not going to back out. Are you?" Nobody answered. "You see? We're very careful about the people we choose. So. Watch your backs and we might all get through this."
That was what I said. What I was thinking was, if you knew what I know... If you knew what I just heard about the other recruit... you would have had me tear these to shreds in a second. Because the other recruit was missing. And that was very, very worrying.
Maybe that's the reason recruiters have a script. If we told the recruits everything, there would be no recruits.
But Greg did know everything, I suddenly realized. So why was he still here?
No time to think about Greg's weirdness now. More talking to the recruits.
"The first thing we're doing is fairly easy. We're traveling in space, not time." I noticed Scarlett opening her mouth. "No, not outer space. Space as in geography." Scarlett shut her mouth. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're going abroad. So if you'll just follow me..." I stood, and they did follow me. At the door, I remembered.
"Oh! Code phrase." I smacked myself on the head, which I'm sure looked really impressive. "If you're ever unsure as to who is a friend and who is a foe, and you will be, just ask, 'What falls in the shadows?' The answer we're looking for is, 'Society's pants.' Just remember that. Society's pants." I giggled. "Clever, yes?" I proceeded out the door and onto Dunhill, stopping at my Mustang. "This is Sally. Two of you will be lucky enough to ride in her with me. The other two will go with Marcus. We meet at the airport in thirty minutes."