I Spy ... (Unfinished)

I was having a bad day at work.1

Now let’s take a long, hard look at that sentence.2

******3

5th May – 1530 hrs4

BLAM!!5

I jerked as the gunshot went off behind me; the bullet whizzing past my ear. 6

I dove to the right, and fell behind a cluster of steel containers. Bullets whanged sharply off the metal, and I flinched inwardly. My hair draped down over my forehead, and I wiped it irritably off. My hand came away sweaty and damp.7

Wiping it on my jeans, and I peered around the corner. 8

Nothing.9

I leant back and sighed. Oh man. What a day. 10

My gaze swept the area around me – and I locked onto a pair of loading bay doors – doors through which trucks entered and exited the depot. I glanced lower and saw the operating console. Perfect. There were two men lounging around near it. Not hostiles, but … potential annoyances. 11

Dang. The last thing I wanted to do was to take out civilians. I glanced at the shadows around me. They were there, sure as hell. And would have guessed my point of escape by now – they were just waiting for me to run out and make a dash for it. 12

What to do?13

******14

Earlier. 5th May – 0800 hrs.15

I sat at my desk, eyes fixed on the screen, bagel in one hand, and typing away with the other, blue-green eyes glittering with concentration.16

Life at the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) is not so high glamour – not like the movies at all. Nearly 60% of job applications at the CIA are for ‘normal’ jobs – systems analysts, data reconfiguration, economists, political analysts, intelligence analysts, computer technicians, and the like. Number crunchers and pencil pushers.17

Like me. Yours truly, Jade Hawkcroft. Level-3 Intelligence Analyst. Forget the impressive title – all we do is tell the suits whether their current target will sneeze, fart or die in the next twenty four hours. Pretty much. 18

I was bored. I called up the CIA database and entered the SAT-SURV network. This was a routine process – the SAT-SURV (Satellite Surveillance) network consisted of all the feeds from the various spy satellites the US Military and the DIA had up in orbit. Sometimes, you never knew, you could pick up interesting material from a snooped minute of radio chatter. 19

I logged on with my userID and passkey and sat back and waited for it to load. Slipping my headphone over my ears, I scanned the latest audio feed. 20

Scattered amounts of garbled radio chatter. I skipped through the ones that were not encrypted – usually radio hams – and caught some military chatter. Listening for a while told me that I was listening to a Marine battalion in the jungles of Peru, on exercise. I grinned as I heard a colonel berate a major over a radio link for his team’s loss. Sore loser.21

I clicked on the next feed – the status data informed me that it had just been detected ten minutes before. 22

Static, and then voices. 23

Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand a word. The transmissions were obviously encoded – to a high grade at that.24

I flicked some keys and got to work. My job might be that of an analyst, but I can mess around with computers some. Quite good for a chick, too, might I add for all you disbelieving guys out there. 25

The messages crackled into my headphones, understandable … 26

'–roger that, Team One, mission is go –'27

'–copy, Alpha leader –'28

'–guards taken down, Kowalski hit –'29

'–spread out, left and right flanks –'30

More static.31

What was that? I mused. Another training exercise? Possibly, I thought …32

'–23rd and Main clear –'33

'–roge. Choppers inbound. –'34

'–call in –'35

'–four hostiles KIA, two injured –'36

'–count ten kills, no casualties –'37

'–hold it .. –'38

Something sounding like gunfire came over the link. I winced.39

'–make that six KIAs and four injured. Team intact. –'40

'–package? –'41

'–secure and suppressed, Alpha –'42

'–heads up! Heads up! –'43

'–Fuck! Where did they come from?! –'44

'-All units, retreat! Eraser armed and detonation in ten-'45

'–Delta’s got the back door … taking hits –'46

'–chopper ETA ten-zero minutes –'47

'-not enough time, Alpha-'48

'–hostiles six and ten! –' 49

And nothing further. I left the link open for a while, but no more transmissions originated from that point.50

As I logged out and threw my bagel in the bin, I suddenly stopped short.51

23rd and Main.52

No way … 53

But I had just stumbled on something seriously wrong with this mission.54

It was taking place, apparently, in America.55

Ten blocks away.56

Shit.57

******58