Black And White Ops

“But I’ll get you out of this mess,” he concluded. “I promise. The extraction team is supposed to be ready tomorrow and they won’t give me hard time about bringing another person home.”

Monique had her face turned away from him in the bed and she felt drowsy. It was all so much to have to endure in one day. She felt his strong hands massage her back and she started to drift into sleep. She wanted to feel more of him on her, but now was not the time. Monique felt his arms wrap around her and give comfort. She sensed the day-old stubble of his unshaved face nuzzled against her neck and she was finally at peace. For the first time in years she had a man in bed with her and it had to be under these circumstances. Right now she would have been happy if he would rip off the robe she wore and do things to her. Maybe later, if they both survived what was coming up. And then Monique drifted off into the land of nod.

“I think it’s safe to get up and go out,” she heard a voice say into her ear hours later. It was Rick. The nightmare was real. She was in bed with an American agent in the middle of St. Petersburg who had just set off a bomb in a nearby building. A man the police knew about and who was suspect in the bombing. With her, an ordinary English teacher at a respectful school. Could things get much worse?

She looked up to see his tight, bare ass slide into a set of boxer shorts as he put his clothes back on. It wasn’t the worse thing to wake up to, Monique had to admit. The worse time was years ago while in college where she had come to in the middle of a frat house naked with three unclothed frat boys, two white and one black, piled on top of her. That had been some party; she’d spent years trying to forget it and what she’d done with those men the night before.

“We need to get moving,” Rick said to her, “if both of us are going to get back to the USA. Grab your money, passport and anything you can carry in a purse. There is a good chance we might not be coming back here.”

Monique moved out of bed and put her clothes on. She chose a suit she could wear for several days if she had to. The money and passport was still in her closet and she stuffed them all down her purse. She couldn’t think what to carry on short notice, so she grabbed a photo album of her students. She stuffed some extra underwear down her purse and put on a coat. Rick was already standing by the door in his coat and gloves. She had no idea what he had in mind, but she would have to trust him.

“They will be watching the building,” he told her. “We’re going to act like we’re going out to get breakfast. We’ll walk down the street and get into the car I’ve rented. Do you have a Russian driver’s license?”

“Yes I do,” she told him, “but I haven’t had to drive a car in months.”

“No problem,” he continued. “I want you to drive. I’ll tell you where to go. They’ll be following us closely, but I have a few tricks they don’t know about. I just hope it’s the local cops we’re dealing with and not the SVR. Let’s go!”

Monique opened the door and went out first. No one was in the hall. Rick followed her and shut the door behind him. Monique turned and locked it. She might never return, but she had to act as if she would.

They took the stairs to the city street. The air was freezing outside, which both of them had suspected. Rick put his arm around Monique and tried to act like they were going to breakfast after a night of hot s*x. It had been a long time for Monique, but she remembered how the “walk of shame” felt from college and it all came back to her.

“Oh Christ,” Rick told her. “Those men across the street are watching us.” She turned to look and saw two men in coats staring at them. “Don’t look at them! Just keep walking forward.”

“We don’t need to give them a reason to follow us,” he said to her. “And they already are…” He put one hand to his ear and acted like he was scratching something. “Good, it’s the local police. The SVR haven’t been summoned yet. They’ll be here soon enough.”

“How can you be so sure?” Monique asked him. “They’re not exactly wearing badges.”

“I’ve got an earpiece in,” he told her. “I’m listening in to all the background chatter on the police and security frequencies. This time of the morning they’re pretty quiet. And the only suspects the cops are following around here happen to be us.”

They stopped at a small blue car which was parked off the street in an alley. Rick quickly unlocked it and had Monique get inside while he went around to the passenger side. She started the car’s engine up with a key he had given her. While she waited for the engine to warm, rick reached under the seat and placed a box in the back passenger seat.

“Okay,” he told her. “Start driving. At the third intersection make a right and head down the alley. When you get half-way down it, slow the car, I’m going to get out.”

Another car was slowly coming down the street; it had to be with the police.

“Won’t they see you get out?” she asked.

“Not if we’re fast enough and they’ll still think I’m in the car.”

“How is that supposed to work?” Monique asked him. She was moving down the alley, but she could see the car coming up behind her.

“Just give me fifteen minutes,” he instructed her. “It’s all I need to reach the dead drop. Circle back and pick me up.”

Deciding he knew more about this operation than her, Monique followed his directions and went down the main street. She waited till the last minute and made a quick turn down his alley. She slowed the car at the half-way point as instructed. A second before Rick opened the door to jump out; he reached back to the box and touched a switch. A spring was triggered and a perfect scarecrow of him popped up in the window from out of the box. Rick jumped out of the car, shut the door behind him and quickly ran to hide behind a pile of trash. The scarecrow would fool the unmarked police cruiser into thinking he was still in the car with Monique.

Mindful of the time, she circled around in the car, acting as if she was looking for an address. Monique slowed her car several times and sped back up as soon as the car following her came too close. Fifteen minutes later she was heading down the alley again with the tail still following at a distance. She saw Rick standing at one side of the building and slowed just long enough to let him in the car without the pursuit car seeing him. He pushed the scarecrow back into the box as he sat down. It made a click when it closed.

“Did you find your dead drop?” she asked him.

“I found it,” he told her. “But so did someone else. The super drive was stolen.”

“How can you be sure?” she asked him. “Maybe the cops found it.”

“No,” he spat out. “It had a cheap lock on it. The cops wouldn’t have had any trouble unlocking it if they found it. The lock was busted open. I had the cheap lock on it to discourage anyone from getting into it who didn’t know what it was. Looks like it had the opposite effect.”