As an agent of Spiral, I spend most of my week on call. Always a location, date and time. Never the same place. It's a job that requires discretion enforced by leaden threat, we know to keep our mouths shut as you would in any criminal organisation. 

Even so, Spiral commits what you could call... perfect crimes. There's no evidence because there can't be, our hits are sent here from a distant future in which time travel has been invented but is still poorly regulated. The gig is simple enough, the subject is sent back into a world they've yet to be born into and us agents hypnotise them into a perfect product to be sold. There's no missing persons report in the past and so nobody ever goes looking, a perfect crime. 

With heavy eyes from the rough night before, I check my burner for the details of today's job and wonder if this'll be the one. This job pays unlike any other but that taste of high living comes at a cost, one day our services will no longer be required. Upon termination we have the next 25 years to enjoy our stacks of cash as best we can until the organisation's black bags cover our heads at long last to close the loop... it's all in our contract, signed and agreed to with a smile. 

I don't regret signing the paper and selling myself like this, nor do I feel much of anything for the subjects I handle. It's as though I've already paid the price of that, even if the scales don't really balance out. Let's be honest, if I wanted to do good work for shit pay I wouldn't have entered a life of crime, when you live alone as I do you find these internal justifications all too frequent. Replacing the nagging girlfriend I lost the moment she saw behind my mask. It wasn't going to last, I'd seen her face 25 years older already, so I knew as much. 

Rocking up to the job and leaning against my motorcycle, I light up one final smoke before today's unlucky sap is set to appear on the X marked in tape by recon. This place is fucking freezing at this time of day, I zip up my brown leather jacket and bring my hands up to lit cigarette. 

It really is an easy, in and out job, so I never have to worry. The subject appears in a blink already bound, kneeling like they've already learned their place. They're sent here from a place that doesn't currently exist, Nakami City, where their high tech implants have already been hacked in advance. With our makeshift gadgets I couldn't pretend to understand, we can rewire them safely after they've crossed over into our time. Initially they wanted to just send back finished products but something in the transfer turned them into vegetables. They really are poor saps, though I should say we.

Well, here she comes. It's usually always a she, I guess not much has changed in the future. I can always seem to sense when they're about to appear, but this time I sense something stronger and crack wry smile. Is it that time already? 

In a flash, the kneeling figure appears, bag still fastened over their head. They're usually hyperventilating at this stage but I'm proud of this one for holding steady, of course I am. With slow, drawn out steps I walk close and expect a fight that never comes. They say pride comes before the fall, but it seems somewhat paradoxical in the current context. "You're... finally here?" I break the cold silence, this morning brisk and unkind to the both of us. When no response comes I realise they must have gagged her and laugh, pulling the hood away from her and confirming my suspicion. Familiar eyes stare up at me indignantly as I cut the gag with my pocketknife, tracing the cool metal over her jaw. "What? You asked for this, remember?"

My other self sneers. "We could have been someone in that city, it's fucked beyond belief you know? This operation's not going to last, though I guess it'll last forever in a way." The woman looks good for her age, they actually make sure to pick agents who can sell well when sent back. The city they operate from, Nakami, has illegitimate access to all of that future's cutting edge technology... from time travel to anti aging, they can even make you a new person entirely. Even if this version of me returns she won't be recognised, not that anybody will look for us agents the way our other hits might launch investigation. I'm done, I know this. Both of me know it, reflecting that resignation in identical eyes. 

"Yeah... any last words?" I press the esoteric device against my mirror's forehead and click the safety off. These things pull no punches to their neurals, scrambling those implants until compromised red irises change to pleasant pink. Our employers running this side of the operation wear the same implants and so we have a safety lock, even if it's harmless to my current self. Idly, I wonder if my future self chose to get those implants, if it's a requirement in society or if the organisation forces them onto all who don't already have them... the latter is most concerning, but also the least probable option. 

"Go fuck yourself... enjoy pissing away the next 25 years alone." When the woman spits on my boot I almost see fit to strike her, but feel I'll probably come to regret that action somewhere down the line. With a slightly derisive smirk I tighten my firm grip and open my mouth to loose pointless retort. Are we simply stalling?

"I could if I wanted, don't tempt me. It's a little chilly for that right now, though, so on to business." Without giving myselves another chance to delay, I pull the trigger and watch those implants begin to malfunction as I fill her mind with malware that makes her malleable and subservient. That dim red in her eye turns bright pink and the ugly scowl curls into a blissful smile. It never feels natural, but I've gotten so used to this process that doing it to myself unnerves me far less than I'd imagined. It's almost anticlimactic when the deed is done, the bitter woman now happily drooling onto my leather jacket as I haul her up for transport with a numb look in my eyes. "Go make someone happy, I guess it's about fucking time." I drive the woman to the drop off point that reaches my burner once I've confirmed the hit, sitting her down and giving her my jacket when I catch her shivering. 

I'll get it back eventually.