April 21, 1963. Dallas, Texas.

     The airplane landed with a slight impact on the ground. I clutched my hands into the seat holding myself in place, and when I felt the speed slow down, I relaxed and sat back waiting for the flight attendant's next instructions.

Overall, I felt stiff and suspicious. The smell that couldn't stop hunting me anywhere I go was so strong in this small space of airplane first class cabin, that I had to request a glass of Scotch to cope with my paranoia, somehow. During the flight, I went to the lavatory three times and sniffed the hell out of my clothes making sure that the smell wasn't coming off me. And it wasn't. That basically left me with one question swirling in my head: Where the hell it was coming from, then?

The men that sat across the room three seats away from me? Maybe. Maybe not.

Before to leave the plane, I made a mental note to watch them, because even my sleepy subconsciousness felt disturbed. Once to come across the smell is an accident, twice - is a coincidence, but thee times – is a consistent pattern. And of course, as I made my way out of the gates being on alert hyper aware of my surroundings, the smell vanished, and my sense of danger blurred up.

After arriving at the hotel, I went to the reception desk to check in. The meeting was set up at two in the afternoon, after what I planned to head to Louisiana to find Dwight and Georgia. My mind was only scarcely gliding by the subject of my principal business in Dallas. I wasn't even going to pause to take a break in between my missions.

When the receptionist gave me the key from my suit, a bellboy came and took my small luggage from me. The boy looked not more than fifteen, so I smiled kindly at him and started following him to the elevators. Once we crossed the lobby, a reek of rusty metal hit me hard. I glanced to my right and found a man in a smart suit sitting in the armchair filling something out. The man didn't look like one of those I noticed in the airplane, but my awareness returned as if my body just received a shock therapy. There was some kind of thing about that guy that made me wary. If the other time, I felt uncertainty and irritation that was tightly entwined into the paranoia of me being stalked, then, this time, I felt pure fear.

Snapping out of observing the man, I continued strolling by the hallway clutching tighter to the case in my hands. The bellboy pressed the button to call the elevator once glancing my way. I reached where he stood and sighed thinking about quitting this job. There were too many odd things going on around me for my liking, and my tolerance of a nagging feeling of being watched was from scratch. I inhaled deeply in taking a new portion of hotel air noticing that the reek lessened in this part of the hall. The elevator dinged announcing its arrival. The boy sent me a small smile, but as our eyes met, his gaze traveled somewhere past me that made me peek behind my shoulder as well.

The man in a smart suit that only a minute ago had been sitting in the lobby armchair was casually strolling our way. My heart froze and then started pounding fast as I watched him approaching us. His hair was dark and carefully combed that sharpened his facial features giving him a serious look. His eyes were the same shade of brown as of Mr. Palus, seeming bottomless and frightening. I gulped when noticed his lips stretching into a smile. His expression transformed to a welcoming and our glances fully connected.

"Ma'am," the voice came from my left. I turned my head to the sound and saw the bellboy gesturing me inside the elevator. I nodded and strode in, but once I turned around to face the front I met a smile of the stranger again.

"Good morning," he directed at me.

Involuntarily, I stepped to the wall wanting some space between us and forced a smile. "Good morning," I answered feeling the cage moving up.

"Lovely morning, isn't it?" He asked me.

"It is!" I chirped back taking a small breath calming my suddenly raised blood pressure. However, when I inhaled, I realized that the air didn't smell like metal and rust. The thought seemed to start calming me down. I smiled brighter at the stranger. "The weather is fantastic in Dallas," I commented and shifted again trying to relax.

A pause that I wouldn't describe as awkward hang in the air. From the corner of my eye, I could see, the doorman standing stiffly in the front corner and the boy that held my suitcase being uneasy. I, on the contrary, managed to pull myself together, but dropped my gaze to the floor, not wanting to say anything else.

The elevator stopped, and the bellboy stirred as if signaling me that it was time to move. The doorman pulled the gates open, and the stranger stepped away giving me a space to move. Answering him with a semi-grateful smile, I slipped through the narrow corridor he created to the hallway following the boy with my luggage, but as I was out of the cage, I glanced back at the stranger feeling a need to wish him a 'good day.' The stranger's gaze was trained on me, and his lips curled up in a direful grin showing his teeth. I shivered fighting back desire to stop and stare.

"Gd' day," I managed to choke and hurried to leave going after the bellboy.

"Good day," I heard him sending me before the doorman closed the elevator with a click.

And that's when for the first time I really wanted to drop everything and do one thing that I was advised on RUN.

The bellboy stopped in the middle of the corridor glancing back at me. "I say, ma'am. That man gave me itching feeling! Your husband should know better than to let you travel on your own with such a beautiful face."

I nodded finding the comment sweet. "Thank you. What's your name, boy?"

"Terrence, Ma'am," he replied and extended his hand gesturing in the direction of the room key in my fingers. I placed the key into his palm and watched him turning to the door with number 499 on it. He inserted the key into the keyhole and turned the lock.

"Thank you, Terrence," I moved the case under my arm reaching for my purse. I dived into the pocket and pulled some cash to tip the boy.

Once we stepped into the room, I withdrew a ten-dollar bill and held it ready. "Do you know where I can get a car and a road map for this afternoon. I'll pay handsomely to use it for one night."

"Why, yes, my Pa would lend you his truck unless you want something fancy, but for that, you need to ask the concierge," he replied casually.

"No, the truck is fine," I shoved the money into his hand.

"Why thank you, ma'am. It sure is generous of you," the boy grinned and headed to the exit. "At what time do you need a car? Do you want maybe my brother to drive you around? He is a good driver and knows the city like the back of his palm."

I considered it for a moment. "I'll pay him well. Let him come at three o'clock."

"You can sure count on that. Gd' day, ma'am." He said brightly and lurked behind the door.

Four hours later...

The place of my appointment was only in couple minutes away from my hotel. Gliding by Dallas' downtown as Miranda Richardson returned my confidence. A couple of men winked at me raising their cowboy hats, and I even giggled in return feeling the bliss of attention. So far I loved Dallas and its Texan charm.

Being only three steps away from the restaurant, I paused by a beautiful showcase of a department store. Gazing at the artfully prepared display brought an idea to buy some gifts since I was going to see Grace and Georgia tonight. I haven't seen them for the whole month and thinking about the moment of reunion formed a smile on my face. I couldn't help but think of them as my family.

Suddenly, I was pulled out of my reverie by a gust of the wind that rubbed my nose in a metal scent that left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. My paranoia increased and afraid to look around not to give away my suspiciousness, I shoved myself away from the showcase to the entrance of the restaurant. The smell as if on purpose vanished only to reappear later when I crossed the hall moving in the direction of the table with my client.

The woman who lifted her head to meet my gaze looked weird. Her eyes danced with excitement, but once I placed the case in front of her, the light in her eyes shifted into a blank state, and gruesome grimace appeared on her face. I flinched not expecting her to jump onto her feet and grab the case.

"Um..." I mumbled watching her fingers gliding by the pattern of the case to its lock. "Maybe you want to do it privately."

"No!" She exclaimed and with horror I witnessed her pressing her thumb to a lock button.

The top of the case bounced a fracture and not waiting any longer, she threw the top over revealing the content. My breathing started coming in short gasps. My instinct told me to flee and avoid knowing what's inside. It was like a click in my brain that set me in protective mode. And somewhere in the far dark corner of my comprehension, I knew what was there and what I might get for knowing it for sure.

Trying not to look, I redirected my gaze to the tablecloth. Not only I had to fight my natural curiosity, but also when my ears picked up the woman's mumbling my head just began rising forcing my eyes to look.

"Wealth for service...does it worth...can I leave...my mother will never know...I can make him come back..."

The woman held a scroll in her hands. The scroll looked like one of the ancient messages rolled on a thick handle. Its base was made of gold and its side disk decorated in the same pattern as the case it was in. I squeezed my eyes shut and raggedly started backing away still breathing unevenly. Before I could take another peep, I spun around and began swiftly walking towards the front of the restaurants.

Son of a twitch!

I cursed under my breath when spotted a man in the doorway the scent of who enveloped me in its nauseous metallic veil. His stance didn't give anything away, and when I passed by him muttering "excuse me" he didn't even step away giving me some room to walk.

Something was definitely off about the whole situation. And now I needed to find out in what kind of shit I got myself into when started working for Palus. And definitely, I needed to figure out how deep in it I was.

Run! I snorted to myself. It was a little too late to run.

From the door of the restaurant, I yanked the door of the department store that I wanted to visit earlier before the situation took that drastic turn. Always feeling eyes on the back of my head, made me paranoid once again. I propelled through the first floor of the store to the cosmetic department and then took the stairs to go to the second floor.

When I found what I was looking for, I grabbed several pieces of clothing articles and went to the dressing room. My head was spinning from the amount of thoughts that were passing through my mind. I closed the door of a small cubicle with a mirror and a chair by the wall and dropping the clothes on the floor placed myself on the chair. My head fell slowly into my hands and for a second I stopped thinking about anything giving my body a moment to take a small break.

Nothing fitted into the explanations that were randomly popping in my head. Not the idea of some top-secret devices that US government developed and I distributed among the clients that Tyr Palus picked. Not some illegal things that concept of which I couldn't even master. Not the idea of people going crazy around me like that man who burst into Tyr's office and began talking gibberish.

What now? What do I do now? What would Miranda do? I asked myself and looked at the clothes that were peacefully lying on the floor. And suddenly, I knew what to do. I grabbed first thing from the pile and examined it. It was a white jacket. I dived into the pile again and withdrew a pair of pants of blue color with a floral print. Swiftly, I put the ensemble on and pulled my scarf out of my purse and fixed it around my head the way to disguise my hair color.

Then, I called the shop assistant over and ask her to bring me a hat with a wide brim and run my purchases. Happily, she helped me with all my demands and before to leave the dressing room in my new attire, I applied a fresh layer of red lipstick and put my shades on to cover my eyes.

"Thank you for shopping with us..." the woman trailed off.

"Mrs. Tiffany Wilson," I grinned holding garment bags in my arms.

"Come back anytime, Mrs. Wilson," she grinned.

"So long, Michelle," I rotated and headed to the stairs.

A reek of already familiar mix of metal and rust reached me as soon as I began making my way downstairs. I purposely slowed my pace to look untroubled and decided to go one more round to the store to make sure I wasn't followed. At the jewelry stand, I picked several pairs of pearl earrings of different shape and adding more purchases to my shopping bag finally headed out.

My watches showed three o' five in the afternoon. Playing Mrs. Wilson in my little game that I started to sneak away from whoever followed me, I began walking along the street towards my hotel constantly sniffing the air.

Click, click. Sniff, sniff. Click, click. Sniff, sniff...

It was the only indication that gave away my stalkers. At least, I hoped that I got it right.

In five minutes I've reached my destination and thoroughly searched for any signs of me still being followed. The air smelled like a warm summer breeze with a mix of city odor. There was no metal scent in it. At the end of the street, I spied a guy in jeans and a cowboy hat leaning against a truck. His expression was bored watching pedestrians walking by. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up revealing his tanned skin. But by the way, he stood, I could tell he was a farm worker.

My ride was here.