October, 1991 — Stripe

They have separated all of the graduated Gallant trainees into teams that would operate in specific regions around the world. We are the team in North America, code name: Stripe.

There are five of us. I am the team's sniper and weapons coordinator. Hannah is still a great sniper, but she studied more espionage and hand to hand than I did, so she's our expert in those disciplines. The Frenchman Jacques is our tech and demo guy. There is a Saudi assassin named Dalia, who ironically is our medical tech. And Jeremiah, our handler and team lead. We don't know where he's from.

They put us up in a very nice penthouse in New York city.

We're allowed full reign in the city, and we await our first mission. They said we wouldn't have more than two missions a month barring emergencies and disasters. All that's expected from us in between missions is to stay fit, keep sharp and hide in plain sight.

So life is better now I guess. The world's strange though. We've been away so long we missed a lot. I've never been to a city this big. That alone is overwhelming. They're sending people to Venus in huge space ships, cause there's not enough food on the planet!

They're saying men who sleep with other men are being punished by God. That God is making them sick. Made me wonder what my old Pa and Ma would say if they knew about me and Hannah.

Okay that thought is getting me down.

Good things, good things. We have a lot of time and we're not being tortured everyday. And Hannah is here. We're in love and free in the world's greatest city. I couldn't ask for better actually.

Piper.