The following post is part of a continuing story using @mariannewest 's 5 minute freewrite prompts, but it is not completely written in the spirit of the freewrite limitations. I try to write in one sitting with very limited edits, but I take longer, sometimes much longer than the 5 minutes.
Here are links to the previous entries
Part #1 Prompt: "It's what I do at 2:30 in the morning when I can't sleep"
Part #2 Prompt: "Ooze"
Part #3 Prompt: "great-grandpa's nose"
Part #4 Prompt: "a special occasion"
Part #5 Prompts: "scream" and "I put tulips under all the pillows, and then I set fire to the house"
Part #6 "Hair"
Part #7 "Big Wave"
... While the techies were working to duplicate the hard drive the rest of the staff, a secretary and a young intern named Pete who served mainly as the office gofer, helped me get ready for the next part of the mission. We had Pete going everywhere looking for items that would provide me with a decent cover and a nonthreatening look for when I walked into that train station. There was no telling who would be there watching and the lobby had some crude surveillance equipment that was being monitored by a government party member somewhere in the building. Pete was able to find me an old grey tweed suit and hat, something a much older man might have worn. He also came up with a cane typical of what a blind or partially blind person might use, as well as a pair of cheap dark sunglasses to finish the look. While he was doing that the secretary was applying makeup, including a little bees wax to make my nose look bigger and more bulbous. Someone came up with a fake mustache from god knows where and I hoped that it was at least somewhat sanitary because there was no time to wash it myself. The secretary left for a few minutes and came back with some hair stuck onto the glue side of a piece of shipping tape and shaped into a small but efficient looking goatee. I didn't even want to ask where that hair had come from as she deftly applied it to my chin covering my significant cleft, which certainly might have given me away. The slight smile of satisfaction on her face when the job was complete was good enough for me. The work on the hard drive was completed, time to get to the station and be ready to put things in motion.
Being informed that Jenna was on her way to the station I took a position where I could see her when she entered. Intel had checked her out and determined what I already suspected, she was MI-6 working undercover and was not to be molested or deterred in any way. Another failure of our mission planning team, I should have been informed that there was a possibility that I might cross paths with an ally agent. Now I was sure that I understood what was happening, she needed that hard drive to keep her cover story in place and throw off any suspicion. That was the reason behind the mickey that she given me at the safe house, she had to make it look like she had been my captive and that she had escaped. She probably knew that there was not enough gas in the car and used that angle to help complete her cover story. Could she have known what I would do? Is that why she left the safety latch off of her motel room door and took such a long hot shower? What would she have done if I had just walked into that bathroom on impulse and confronted her? She would probably have kicked my butt that's what, the mind behind those deep blue eyes had been way ahead of me the entire time!
I watched her walk in and the memory of the first time that I saw her struck a bittersweet cord that caused that same twinge in my gut from earlier to envelope me once more. This would be it, after today I would never again look into those eyes, but I would always remember them and that faint fragrance of perfume like some mysterious wild flower growing on a mountain peak just out of my reach. The simple wood slat benches in the station were positioned back to back, after Jenna got her ticket and sat down I walked slowly to a place on the opposite bench such that we were sitting back to back. Did you check your bag I said in a low wisper? Why, Lieutenant Lawless what are you doing here she spoke softly. Neither of us turned and no one could here our voices, I chuckled at her demureness, she was expecting me. Can I have my hard drive back she said innocently? I pulled it out of my pocket partially covered by a handkerchief, and poked it through the slats until it just touched her back. She leaned forward as if to dislodge a pebble from her shoe with her right hand while her left accepted the drive minus the handkerchief, which I immediately brought up to gingerly pat my nose being careful not to damage my disguise. Slipping the real drive under her purse on the bench as she sat back up, she said, better to dispose of your drive after I get on the train don't you think? Government property was my reply, we'll bill you for it. The call to board came over the loudspeaker and she started to rise, but as she stood up she said "My number is in the phone book, give me a call in about six months" and then she was gone.
Phone book? What phone book? Then I remembered someone saying that she had made a couple of calls from a pay phone, I had to smile, this part of the report I was keeping all to myself. Suddenly this mission didn't seem like such a bust after all, and man was I going to be all praises for the boys upstairs and all that great Intel that they had provided!
This will be the last chapter of this story and I'll now go back to what more closely resembles a 5 minute freewrite again.
Photo By rabbit57i on flickr
Prompt: bittersweet
Set your timer for 5 minutes.
Start writing
Use the hashtag #freewrite
Publish your piece (include a link to this post if you wish)
Copy and paste your URL into the comment section of the prompt post.
Or, if you don't want to publish your freewrite, just copy and paste as a comment under the prompt post.
If you don't know what a freewrite is, here is a link to the introduction post.
Thank you @mariannewest