Day 308

Writing exercise

By the time I learned what she was saying, it was too late.

…

It was difficult to remember when the first signs of our relationship, if it could be called that, had started to disintegrate.

Thinking about it, there was no clear point, just a series of random events that most people would simply write off as ‘well, it just wasn’t going to work’.

Which was odd because until that indefinable moment in time, it had.

Perhaps it was the impossible odds.

Perhaps it was the way we met.

Perhaps the randomness wasn’t random at all.

Because when you switched perspectives and took the view that the whole thing had been a set-up from start to finish, it all made sense.

In a very disturbing way.

…

The insistent knocking on my door was not the best start to the day.  It had been a late night, and little too much to eat and drink and in a semi intoxicated state, it was hard to resist the temptation of letting Marianne stay.

Protocol dictated that it could not happen.

It was a long story, but having the secrets I had, even with the impregnable safe, no one was allowed to stay beyond a certain hour of the night.

Any other night when I didn’t have classified documents, not a problem.

I groaned, rolled over, and then it started again.

I climbed out and shook off the drowsiness, and headed for the door.  A look at the screen showed it was Marianne back, and agitated.

It was a state I’d never seen her in before.

Warning bells on the back of my head were going off.  Training told me that this could be a problem and that she had been compromised simply by being associated with me.

Some people knew who I really was, what my work was, and if that was the case, this was a level one problem

I put the code into my phone and sent it.

Just in case.

Then I opened the door.  “Marianne.”

“Phillip.  I need to see you?”

“You saw me last night and early this morning.  I’m neither up nor presentable.”

“Seriously?”

“We have had this discussion.  There are times when I am on call and I cannot have other people in the place.”

I had given her the standards spiel on the nature of my work and the confidentiality that surrounded it, and she had always understood.

Except this was beginning to be one of those instances of her subtly changing.

“Confidential information.  Yes.  But you are not in conversation with anyone.”

“I could be at any minute.  I can’t be seen shooing you out.  I would be severely reprimanded, even fired if it came to that.  Can it wait another hour or two?  I’m sorry.  I have to follow protocol.”

“Even at the possible expense of your relationships with others?”

I’d explained this too.  There was no choice, no matter what I felt.  I’d made a commitment.

“At this point in time, unfortunately, yes.”

I didn’t want to go down this path, but it seemed like the culmination of drifting apart.

She shrugged.  “I’m sorry then.”

I felt rather than heard a movement behind me, and then nothing. 

…

When I woke head hurt. 

Very badly.

While the details were fuzzy, I knew I had been hit from behind, that Marianne had diverted my attention while an accomplice had gained entry to my flat from the rear.

It was the building’s one weak spot.

Now I was in a dark space, smelling of damp and age, and I was lying on a bed of stacked newspapers, unbound.  Neither did I have a gag, so it was somewhere no one would ever hear me yell for help.

It didn’t stop me, but all there was in response was an echo.

If my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, then they could be working or not.  There was always light coming from somewhere, but not right at the moment.

That being the case, I had no idea how big the room was or whether anyone else was in it with me.  Or who it was that had put me, other than one unassailable fact; Marianne had helped them.

One fact of what could be many that I had overlooked, something that all people in the first throes of a relationship tended to do, unless of course you were suspicious of everyone and everything.

I should have been, but I naively wanted to believe in her.  Echoing in my head were those fateful words, If it’s too good to be true, it generally isn’t.

I cast my mind back to when I first met Marianne and realised it was too good to be true.  The chances of us being in the same place at the same time…

And then, cursing myself for being a creature of habit, for ignoring basic rules, and I had only myself to blame.

Was anything we had real?

…

“I’m sorry.” 

Marianne’s words ran over and over in my head.

Why would she say that?  It was certainly in a contrite tone, like she had meant it, which was odd if she was part of the kidnap team.

I opened my eyes and found that there was a crack in the ceiling where light was trying to get through, and that it was turning the inky blackness into an opaque blur.

There were no distinguishable objects, but it whiled away the time trying to identify them.  A sofa, a table, a chair, and what looked like a person, though it could be a mannequin.

It could be anything.

Until it moved slightly, or was that just my imagination?

Until there was a groan, and the figure rolled sideways and looked up. 

Marianne.

Perhaps it was wrong.

“I’m sorry.  I tried to warn you.  You obviously didn’t get the subtext.”

Of course, it had been in the back of my mind, amongst all the other jumbled and mixed messages I’d received and ignored.  She had tried to warn me in some peculiar manner that took too long for me to understand.

“Not that clever, I’m afraid.  It’s the bane of people who are clever in their field of study and totally stupid when it comes to people.”

“Maybe, maybe not.  Did you send the level one protocol?”

Who was she?  How did she know about that?

“Yes.  Pounding on the door like that, and ignoring my request…”

“Good.  It won’t be long now.”

“What?”

“Rest.  No more talking.”

Who was this person?  How did she know so much about me and or anything to do with me?  I thought everything about me and the project I was working on was top secret.

I had questions, but she seemed insistent.

…

I dozed off, waking to the sound of three explosions, or perhaps something else.  There were muffled voices overhead, indistinct.

Marianne had moved slightly, hearing them too.

Them silence.

A few minutes later, there was the sound of a key in a lock, then the careful turning of the door know, followed by two people covered head to foot bursting in and ready to shoot anything that moved.

One checked the room now flooded in light, then said, “Clear.”

Two paramedics came in, one to me, the other to Marianne.  She had been bound, the ties were cut, and she was dragged to her feet, and the first two in the room took her away.  I managed to sit up and answer a few questions.  Fuzzy but not disoriented.  There had been time for the drugs to wear off.

Then my boss came in, a scowl on her face, but then she always had a scowl.

The paramedic reported, “Drugged but no physical harm.”

“Good.  Give us the room.”

He nodded, packed the kit bag and left.

She glared at me.  “Caught the people trying to crack your safe.  Caught the kidnappers.  Still haven’t got who organised it, but he or she knows we’re onto them now.”

“You knew?”

“We had an inkling, nothing positive until Marianne was approached.”

“She is one of your people?”

“Someone we could trust, yes.  Left to your own devices, you would have been a prime honey trap target.  And it was a two birds with one stone operation.  You get a girlfriend, and we find who’s been leaking information in the department.  Getting a branch of a foreign intelligence group was a bonus.”

I felt like I was the biggest prize idiot on the planet.

She must have seen my look of bitter disappointment.

“Don’t worry.  She likes you, Phillip, though I can’t imagine why.  I’ve assigned her as your bodyguard for the duration of the project.  Just a heads up, she is an excellent shot, and our top agent in field interrogations.  I would try not to piss her off.  You’re lucky I’m not sending you back to training.  Now, off you go.”

She was waiting for me at the front door.

“Don’t look so downcast.  You could have got my sister.  I’m the nice one.”

I just shook my head.  Why hadn’t I taken that six-month assignment in Antarctica?

…

©  Charles Heath  2025