She Was a Pretty Girl: A spy story

by S G Read

  ‘Have you cameras?’ John asked.

  ‘Yes sir.’ The man answered.

  ‘Check each room out without alerting those inside and I will decide the best way forward when you report.’

  He followed them downstairs to the cellar and the teams moved silently to the first room. They used the miniature camera to peer in the room without anyone seeing it. They could see a woman on the bed but there was no one else in the room. They moved on to the next room and looked again, there was a man in the next room lying on a bed, and he was also alone. The next room was a lot bigger and took a lot of searching. There was a woman working in there at a bench and one man sitting in a chair in the corner. The man searching the room indicated for John to look and he saw that it was Marion and she was doing what she did in the main building in this pokey little room. He smiled and looked at the man. He was armed and that signed his death warrant. He was obviously there to make sure she did as Winfield wanted under threat of death and the man had to die, to make sure Marion remained alive.

  The door was heavy and the lock old. The man inside would hear any attempt to pick the lock and he would see anyone trying to see if it was unlocked by turning the handle. It was a problem and the man whispered in John’s ear. John nodded and moved away. The camera remained looking at the man and they slid in a tube to make it possible to knock them both out with a quick acting gas.

  Everyone outside donned gas masks in readiness for the order, then the man in the room stood up. He walked to the desk and pushed a button.

  ‘When do I get relieved, my arse is asleep?’ He complained.

  ‘Hasn’t Tom sorted that out yet?’ A voice answered. ‘I’ll come down. I bet he has some bimbo in there with him and is screwing her again.’

  The man moved back to the chair and sat down after liberally rubbing his behind. They removed the camera and pulled out the gas tube. The man was annoyed as it had not been easy getting the tube in there in the first place. The men outside the room disappeared, as they did not know where this man was going to appear from.

  The wall at the end of the corridor moved and a door opened to allow a man to come out. He pulled a wall light to shut the door and walked to where he expected to find the man who was supposed to relieve the man watching Marion. He expected the man to be humping a girl but found him dead. Before he could react, he found himself on the floor twitching as a Taser rendered him unable to do anything.

  ‘Any point in asking him to tell us if there is a special signal?’ The man who had Tasered the fallen man asked.

  ‘No.’ John answered. ‘He would only lie I reckon. Leave it to me.’

  John walked up to the door the man was sitting behind and hammered on it.

  ‘Come on you bastard. Couldn’t you have waited just five more minutes? I was so close to finishing it!’ He shouted through the door, disguising his voice to make the man unsure who it was.

  He knew the man wanted to be relieved and waited with baited breath. He heard the chair scrape the floor as the man slid off it. Footsteps approached the door and the lock clicked.

  ‘Winfield will have your head if you don’t stick to protocol.’ The man announced as he opened the door. ‘If you don’t use the signals…’

  The Taser sent him quivering into a heap. John pushed the door open but could not see Marion. He knew just what she was capable of and did not go in.

  ‘Before you hit me over the head with something or spray me with something nasty, I would rather you didn’t Marion, it is me John Fairchild. It is time you went home.’ He said quietly.

  Marion’s head appeared round the door and he heard something heavy drop onto the floor, before the rest of her appeared. She threw her arms round him.

  ‘You took your time.’ She complained.

  ‘I had no idea you were still alive but then if you were still alive, it was for a reason and he was not likely to kill you unless he had to!’ John declared.

  ‘Well I am glad you are here now: What about Winfield?’

  ‘Technically he is undone and on the run.’ John answered carefully.

  ‘And in reality?’

  ‘Let us just say you don’t have to worry about him turning up to bother you.’ John answered.

  ‘Unless he is part of your tuna sandwich!’ The man with the Taser quipped.

  Marion smiled.

  ‘I need a long hot bath.’ She declared.

  ‘After you have been debriefed you can go and do what you want old girl but first we have two more prisoners to release.’ John answered. ‘I think we can do it the easy way though.’

  They picked the two locks, one after the other. The first door open was the one with the man lying on the bed.

  ‘You must be Bill the postie.’ John asked.

  ‘I am and what is going on?’ Bill answered.

  ‘Some criminals trying to make money out of kidnapping you Bill but they have been arrested and we will run you home, after you have given your statement.’ John explained as they led him away.

  The woman in the next cell was pacing up and down, she stopped when John walked in.

  ‘Who are you?’ She asked.

  ‘John Fairchild, you must be Lana?’

  ‘I am, did Lorna send you?’

  John thought for a second, she obviously did not know that her sister was dead.

  ‘No she didn’t I’m afraid. I have some bad news for you, Lorna was killed, probably on the day they kidnapped you.’ He answered.

  Lana burst into tears and John, not sure whether him comforting her or not was a good idea, put his arms round her. She did not resist or complain but cried on his shoulder for some time. When the tears stopped flowing, she took a step back and John held out his handkerchief. Lana took it and wiped her eyes before blowing her nose.

  ‘We do need to ask some questions before you go home.’ John said quietly.

  ‘I thought they might have hurt Lorna, why else would they make me tell them what I knew?’ Lana said sadly. ‘I probably have no home to go to. All my things are in here with me and as my flat was rented, the landlord will have re-let it by now.’

  ‘You can stay in Lorna’s house until it is all sorted, or your aunt’s house.’ John replied.

  ‘I suppose you no longer need it, if the man behind all this is in prison?’ Lana asked. ‘I think I would rather go there than Lorna’s house, at the moment.’

  She started crying again.

  ‘I won’t have a job either.’ She said through her tears.

  ‘You are a secretary aren’t you?’ John asked.

  ‘Yes.’ Lana answered.

  ‘We will take you to your aunt’s house and stop for some groceries on the way. When you are ready to start work you can come into the office and take over from Lorna, if that is not too much?’ John replied.

  She did not answer. They took her to the office where a specially trained interrogator debriefed her. After that, they took her to her aunt's house via a supermarket. John sent Bill home as soon as he had been debriefed and had signed the Official Secrets Act. Lana had to do the same before she left.

  When it was all over John sat in his office and started on his report, it was going to be a long report and he wanted it on the PM’s desk as soon as possible. He picked up the phone and phoned Winfield’s official office. As Spearforth had not been present in the pub, he might be there and John knew that he was anti Winfield, even though he worked for him.

  ‘Office seven,’ Spearforth answered, ‘what can I do for you Mr. Fairchild?’

  ‘Still one step ahead then Spearforth?’ John asked in return.

  ‘I am supposed to be but I have no idea what you want at this time.’ Spearforth answered.

  ‘The cat is well and truly out of the bag, the pub has been raided and the prisoners released. Winfield is on the run and I soon will be putting my report in front of the PM and I just wondered if you were going to help or hinder the investigation.’

  ‘What’s in it for me?’ Spearf
orth asked.

  ‘Well for a start, you will be temporarily the boss of that side of things, until the inquiry decides what should happen. It is a good reason to score as many brownie points as possibly.’ John answered.

  ‘Hang on.’ There was a click as Spearforth turned off the recorder. ‘So how can I do that?’

  ‘If you download any files which would paint a clear picture of what went on up to present, it would help. Do you have any files?’

  ‘I have back up files of everything. Alex Winfield thought he was clever but I partitioned the hard drive and stored anything in there that I wanted to keep. It will make interesting reading.’

  ‘Bring it across Spearforth, better to do that than emailing it.’ John suggested.

  ‘I will do that but I will make sure the files are still in the partition, just in case anything happens to me.’

  ‘Can’t be too many left to stop you, only Larry the Lamb and his sidekick.’ John replied.

  ‘Yes, one is on the desk and he always insists on frisking me. I think he gets a kick out of it.’

  ‘Once I have the files, if they are as damning as they sound you can go back and sack him.’ John replied.

  ‘Oh no, I don’t think I’ll do that. He does a good job and when I am the boss, he will have to take notice of me. That will hurt his pride.’

  John laughed.

  ‘I will see you when you get here then. How do you propose to get the files out?’

  ‘The same way I always take out what I want to take out but I’m not telling you, in case I end up working for you!’ Spearforth answered.

  John carried on writing up his long and detailed report. It was all in his memory but there was little proof of involvement in some things, especially Lorna’s death. He hoped the files would shed some light on that.

  Spearforth walked into the toilet and stood on the chair in there. All the windows were sealed shut but the toilet had a fan in it, the fan came on with the light. It merely blew the smelly air outside. He pulled the fan from the wall and slid the flash drive into the opening. He pushed it across until it protruded though the grill the other side.

  With the fan back in place and nothing looking out of place Spearforth walked into the outer office. He was subjected to the usual, thorough search, before he was allowed out. Once he was outside, he walked to the stairs but instead of going down, he went up. On the next landing the window was not sealed and he opened it, reached across, balancing precariously on the windowsill to pluck the memory stick from the grill. So much for security. Spearforth wondered if they would have searched him if they knew Winfield was no longer in charge. He hailed a taxi as he did not drive and arrived at John’s office twenty minutes later. George stopped him at the door. He phoned John.

  ‘See him up George, he has something for me.’ John answered when asked if he should send the man up.

  George locked the door and escorted Spearforth to John’s office, John came out to meet him.

  ‘I’ll let you know when he is off George.’

  ‘Thank you sir.’ George answered and closed the door on his way out.

  ‘So what can you do to help me and yourself Spearforth?’ John asked.

  Spearforth held up the memory stick and John pushed it into the computer socket.

  ‘Type in ‘open sesame’.’ Spearforth added with a smile.

  ‘Very cloak and dagger.’ John declared sarcastically.

  ‘They know how good I am with computers, so I assume they would try to crack the code with code breakers. If they did, they would get a donkey moving a stone door in and out.’

  ‘That is just what I got.’ John answered.

  ‘Open a script on the door and type in ‘Knock knock’.’

  John did that and it revealed file after file. John sat there reading while Spearforth sat and waited.

  ‘If he does show his face anywhere I have him by the balls.’ John commented.

  ‘Does that mean I get to head up the section on a temporary basis, I was merely following orders and you know what would happen if I argued about anything. I would end up swimming with heavy weights round my feet and my hands tied!’

  ‘Quite so Spearforth.’

  ‘It is Derek.’

  ‘Quite so Derek. I will go to the PM with this later and you should know what is happening tonight. I should go back there were I you and practice being in charge.’

  ‘Thank you Mr. Fairchild.’

  ‘It is John, Derek.’

  ‘Thank you John.’

  ‘George, Derek is leaving now but I’ll walk him down, he has saved me a lot of time.’ John said into the intercom and escorted Spearforth to the door.

  An hour later John was sitting in the PM’s office while the PM read his report.

  ‘My God, I knew he was out of control but he was rabid!’ The PM cried in anguish. ‘What should I do?’

  ‘Let me appoint Derek Spearforth as head of the section and let him deal with the men remaining there. He has advised me who we should arrest and who he wants working for him. Until it is all sorted PM, he is the best man to be in charge over there and he will be answerable to me.’

  ‘What about Winfield? Will he cause trouble?’

  ‘He is unlikely to re-appear and cause trouble.’ John answered.

  The PM looked at John’s inscrutable face.

  ‘Do I have your word on that John?’

  John looked up at the PM who was still standing there with the file in his hand.

  ‘You have my word on that Prime Minister.’

  ‘Then lose this file somewhere, somewhere I will never have to see it again.’

  ‘What file Prime Minister?’

  ‘Quite so.’ The PM answered and gave John the closed file.

  Back in his office, John put the file in his store, his just in case store and went home. He spent an evening listening to music and went to bed when he woke up.

  The following morning he was going through the post when George showed Lana into his office.

  ‘Good morning Lana, are you sure you are up to this?’ John asked as he closed the door behind her.

  ‘I am Mr. Fairchild. Working for you will be like being close to Lorna.’

  ‘Call me John, Lana.’ John replied. ‘This will be your desk.’

  Lana walked over and sat at Lorna’s desk, John collected the mail and placed it in front of her.

  ‘If you need to know anything just ask.’

  ‘I will John.’

  During the day, she learned about Lorna’s filing system and started to adapt it to how she wanted it. Sitting at her desk was one thing but using her filing system was another. John watched her work now and then and sighed. She was a pretty girl, what a waste. With the weekend approaching and with his workload a lot lighter for a while, he phoned Devon to arrange a visit. He could report on what had gone down and he could also scratch another itch while he was there. He heard the phone in Lana’s office crash down and walked out.

  ‘Someone annoy you?’ He asked.

  ‘Men annoy me I think!’ Lana answered. ‘I have been missing for a few weeks but is he worried about me, no he shacks up with another girl!’ Lana fumed.

  ‘The little minx!’ John declared.

  ‘Who is?’ Lana asked.

  ‘I know it is not good karma to talk ill of the dead but your sister was a little minx!’ John answered and walked back into his office.

  Lana followed.

  ‘So what did she say about me?’ She asked bluntly.

  ‘She intimated with words that you were only interested in your own sex!’ John answered.

  ‘She would not let you hump her and was making sure you didn’t hump me?’ Lana exclaimed, and then started to laugh.

  ‘You might laugh Lana, but part of my thinking was based on the fact that you were a lesbian. That is the only reason why I suspected that the woman who took your place was an imposter!’ John explained.

  ‘Why, did you hump her?’

&nb
sp; ‘Once or twice.’

  ‘A night?’ Lana asked.

  ‘Yup, when she was in.’

  ‘Well she had that about right then,’ Lana replied and walked out, ‘although you are a bit old.’ She added when she was outside.

  ‘My charm will grow on you!’ John called after her and smiled.