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The night was cold, with a steady drizzle beating
down through the rising fog. The rain and the fog served to muffle the
sounds of the night. The woman standing alone on the pier felt as if she
were enveloped in a damp cocoon.
She stood in the shadows of a doorway, outside a shipping
warehouse. The warehouse was closed for the night, but the doorway kept
her dry. If it wasn't for the fog, she could have seen the entire pier
from there.
The woman looked left and right, nervously fingered her gold necklace with her
right hand. Then she leaned back against the wooden door, watching and
waiting.
The fog muffled the footsteps on the wooden pier,
and kept her from hearing the man approach. Instead, she glimpsed a
shadow out of the corner of her eye. She turned, and there he was,
standing under the circle of light projected by a nearby lamppost.
The man was short and thin, in both body and face.
He was wearing a light gray trench coat and a brown fedora, and his
cruel eyes were shifting from side to side. She saw that he was chewing
on the end of a toothpick.
This was the man she was supposed to meet.
The woman pulled her short black coat tight across
her body. She carefully positioned her beret to keep the rain out of her
eyes, and then emerged from the shadow of the doorway.
She strode purposefully across the pier, her high
heels making loud tapping sounds on the wet wooden planks. She stopped
when she reached the streetlight. Then she looked the thin man directly
in the eyes.
“Ze rain is beneficial for ze flowers,” she
said, with a heavy French accent.
“But the mockingbird doesn’t sing at midnight anymore,” he replied, returning her gaze.
Her lips formed a small smile.
“Agent LeBonde, Canadian Secret Service. You
picked a dreary night for thees exchange, Agent D.”
The thin man’s eyes were emotionless as he
appraised the attractive French Canadian secret agent. Agent LeBonde was
petite, no more than an inch over five feet. She had short red hair, a
roundish face, light green eyes, and a small upturned nose. She didn’t
look like the kind of woman who would be standing around a dilapidated
pier at midnight, in the rain.
“It had to be when it had to be, sweetheart,”
the thin man replied. “You have the package?”
Agent LeBonde nodded. Then she removed a small
Manila
envelope from the inside of her coat.
“Zees are ze floor plans of ze building,
including schematics of the security system. I also included a copy of
ze guards’ schedules. It should be everytheeng you need.”
Without saying a word, the thin man took the
envelope from the woman. He shoved it into the front right pocket of his
trench coat.
“My government regards ze disappearance of Dr.
Dreyfus with extreme seriousness,” Agent LeBonde continued. “We hope
that ze Agency can locate ze missing doctor and return him to hees
family, and to hees work.”
“If you say so,” the thin man replied. Then he
touched the brim of his fedora and backed away out of the light,
vanishing into the shadows of the pier.
Agent LeBonde shook her head and smiled.
Zees American agents, they act so peculiar,
she thought to herself.
She turned from the lamppost and started to
walk away.
The tapping of her high heels were the only sounds as she walked up the pier, towards the distant lights of the city.
She was surrounded by the fog, and it was cold enough that she could see
her breath. She walked from one
empty building to another, the raindrops making little circles in the puddles
along her way.
Every now and then Agent LeBonde thought she heard someone
walking behind her. Once she even stopped and looked back, but saw
nothing through the fog and the rain.
It is just my imagination playing tricks on me,
she thought.
Agent LeBonde shook her head. Then she turned back
around — and found herself staring directly into the cruel, thin face
of Agent D!
“What are you…” she started to say, but
suddenly realized that she was unable to breathe.
Agent D had his hands around her throat, and was
choking the breath out of her!
She struggled against the thin man, but his grip
was powerful. Her arms flailed against his sides and her right leg began
to kick, spasmodically. But still he kept strangling her, his hands
closing tighter and tighter. To Agent LeBonde, it seemed as if the fog
were closing in, wrapping her in its damp cocoon.
She gasped for air, and felt her world growing dark... |