The metal door slid open as it read Lavin’s biometric access chip sitting just below the skin of his hand. Lavin lazily waved off the usual ‘come-join-us’ nod from Green and chose to retire to his quarters alone. The hallway began to echo of off duty talk as the tired team wandered towards the quiet pull of the cafeteria. A dismissive grunt excused his team from the debriefing room and ushered them into the dull grey concrete halls of Deus Ex. A multitude of reports written in the standard bureaucratic tripe, all of which would be read, censored, and filed, never again to see the light of day. The next few hours went by in a warm and familiar blur. His hand tightly gripping the broken arrow that sat on his lap. A silent sigh escaped the Commander’s lips as he once again looked out across the tinted night. Guiltily she flicked her eyes away, a stolen moment they would forever leave unacknowledged. Lavin erased the smile and met Green’s eyes. The moment was short lived as he noticed lieutenant Green watching him in the rear vision mirror. His eyes refocused on he window of the SUV and saw that his usual blank, expressionless face had slipped momentarily into a rare smile. It was true what they said about misery and its love of company, unfortunately for Lavin he tended to keep his own counsel. Times that he usually hid not only from the world but himself. He indulged in moments of past love, remembering faces, thoughts, and feelings. Like the car his mind raced through thoughts of happier moments, careful not to linger too long in one spot, lest the illusion was ruined.
Through the black SUV’s heavily tinted window the city whipped by him at speed as he let his mind wander. It was her he was thinking of the entire trip back to London HQ. Mostly they were memories of his ex-wife, Christina. However there were other aspects of his past that his mind held onto with a clenched fist, refusing to let go. Occasionally there were small reminders from those redacted times that bled into his new life but they were often short lived and could be dismissed with an annoyed grunt and a blank stare. The anonymity afforded by Deus Ex suited him though, he took it as an opportunity to leave the past where it was and move on. According to most reliable sources he didn’t exist, his entire life had been redacted from recorded history and replaced with the thick black bars of the censor. He himself had been subject to this process. There was a need for such things though, you didn’t get to his position in the organisation without realising the need for secrecy and spin doctors. To him the process of spinning stories and creating cover-ups was tiresome and trivial.
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