Operation Freelance Part 5

            Charlotte made quick work of the bonds holding Adam and she helped him to the door leading to the passage.  “Her name is Ruth.”  He said to Charlotte before Malcolm ushered him towards the way out of the building.

            “Okay Jack, you’re right next to the room I think she’s in.”  Tony informed.  One of these days Charlotte was going to have Tony show her how he manages to get the right satellites exactly where he wants, when he wants them there. 

            “I’m picking up three heat signatures in the room.  Looks like this could get messy.  I can’t tell you who is who in there.”  Tony warned.

            “I really don’t do messy.”  Charlotte muttered.

            “That’s why you brought me along sweetheart.”  Malcolm quipped.  “I’ll be back up in a few minutes.”

            “It looks like there are only two other heat signatures in the entire building other than you and the three in that room.”  Jayme informed.  “That’s not surprising considering this place is probably just a temporary holding facility for prisoners to wait for some group to claim them or decide they could be worth something.”  

            “The other two people are at the front door I take it?”  Jack asked.

            “Looks like it.”  Marcus replied.  “I’ve got eyes on them.”

            “Okay, Malcolm you stay there.  Charlotte, find a way out into the hallway outside the room I’m at.  When I tell you, Marcus take out the two downstairs and Charlotte make a lot of noise in that hallway.”

            “Not our usual style, but It should work.”  Jayme replied.

            Charlotte squeezed back through the door and shut it behind her.  She back tracked to the next closest door and eased it open.  The room was dark and musty.  It felt like it hadn’t had a person in it for centuries.  She crossed the ten feet quickly and tried the door.  Unlocked, that was lucky she though.  “Okay Tony, I’m in the hallway.  Now where?”

            “You need to head up two levels.” Tony guided. 

            Charlotte chose to try going right to look for stairs.  She made her way down the carpeted hallway quickly, not needing to hide from anyone.  The hall was dimly lit and if she had more time she may have appreciated the landscape painting s lining the walls.  Clearly the previous owner had not planned on vacating the building or they would have thought to bring those with. 

            The hall turned left and Charlotte saw a stairwell entrance at the end.  “Found some stairs.”  She announced, keeping the team appraised.  She jogged to the door to make up time.  There was no sense in dragging the operation out any longer than she had to.  The door swung open easier than she anticipated and banged against the wall.

            “Jeez, I heard that up here.”  Jack hissed.

            Charlotte dashed up the stairs, taking two at a time.

            “Looks like you have attracted some interest.”  Malcolm warned.  “Moving in to distract.”

            Tony quickly directed Charlotte to the room she wanted.  As she ran she heard Malcolm doing his “drunk tourist” impression for the guards.

            “Two of the heat signatures in the room are moving around.  One looks like it’s headed for the door.”  Tony warned.

            “I’m in position.”  Charlotte informed as she slid to a stop outside the door.

            “Okay, Charlotte make as much noise as possible and Malcolm, you take out those two downstairs.”  Jack coordinated.

            Charlotte, struck by sudden inspiration started to stomp around the hall and bang on the walls while chanting “I want to be an Air Force Major I want to live a life of danger” as loud as she possibly could.  It took halfway through her second round of the chant for the door to open.  She drew her gun and was prepared to shoot whatever came out of the room when she heard the tell tale sound of a silencer shooting two rounds and she saw the top half of a body fall to the ground in the doorway.  Shot to the head, gets them every time Charlotte thought as she approached the room. 

            “Clear.”  Jack reported.

            Charlotte stepped over the dead body on her way into the room.  There was a second body across the room near where Ruth was tied to a chair.  Jack had shot him in the back of the head.

            “You’re all clear guys, so let’s grab the girl and go home.”  Malcolm sounded a little impatient.

            Jack had Ruth free in a matter of seconds.  Charlotte noted that she looked a little shook up, but it didn’t appear that there was any major damage.

            “Who are you?  Why should I go with you?”  Ruth eyed Jack and Charlotte with suspicion.

            “Well, my name is Charlotte and this is Jack.  We’re from The Firm.  As for trusting us,” Charlotte introduced and hoped that Tony was still listening.  He was.  “Adam says that the last conversation you two had was about how you were considering changing your cat’s brand of food.”

            Relief washed across Ruth’s face.  “So Adam sent you after me then?” 

            “Actually, he’s with us back at the hotel.”  Jack replied and offered her his arm like a gentleman. 

            “Well, then I guess I’ll be going with you.”  Ruth took his arm and let him lead her out into the hallway.  “Thank you for the rescue.”  She told him with just a hint of fawning.

            Charlotte rolled her eyes and followed, shaking her head.  Yep, she thought, he could definitely charm his way into a nun’s bed. 

Operation Freelance Part 4

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Charlotte eased herself though the opening and assessed the room.  Across the room, along the same wall as the door was on, she saw what looked like the agent.  He was sitting on the floor, with his knees drawn up to his chest.  His arms, bound at the wrists were resting on his knees.  He had his head leaned back against the wall and his eyes were closed.  As far as Charlotte could tell, he was either asleep or he didn’t hear her open the door.  Either that or he was pretending that he was asleep or didn’t hear her open the door.  The only other thing in the room was a metal pail in the corner opposite the agent; she guessed it was for sanitary purposes. 

As she approached him she did her best to ignore the smell.  It was clear that he had been there for a while.  She could tell from his breathing that he wasn’t asleep, so she stopped a few feet away from him and slid down against the wall, mimicking his pose.  “I’ll go first.  My name is Charlotte Grace Harper, from The Firm, and you I presume are Adam Quinn, MI5.  Would you like to settle a bet for me?”

“Bet?”  He managed to croak out with a hoarse voice, still not opening his eyes.

“Oh yes.  You see, we were sent here to extract an agent who got himself caught.  However, some of us think that maybe you wanted to be caught and the reason you are still here is that you require a little bit of assistance.”  Charlotte turned her head to gauge his reaction.

The agent shook his head and an ironic smile came across his face.  “You are correct,” he said staring straight ahead, “on half of your guesses.  I am Adam Quinn and I did intend to get caught.  However I am not here on MI5 business which is why I’m stuck here in kind of a bit of a bind with no back up.” 

Charlotte could hear the desperation in his voice.  She removed her night-vision goggles, and let her eyes adjust to the extremely low light.  She then got up, and crouched down facing him placing her hands on his shoulders.  It took him a couple of seconds to make eye contact with her.  When he did she held it for a few seconds before continuing.  “What help do you need?” 

            He stared at her for a bit, looking as if he was contemplating whether or not he could trust her.  “I came looking for an MI5 agent who has been taken by this group.”  Adam started to let the story flow.  “She isn’t a field agent, she does research and trend analysis and collects data.  She’s a really sweet woman and an asset to the agency.” 

            Charlotte unhooked her water bottle from her hip and offered it to Adam.  He took a couple of sips gratefully and continued.  “Well, she got on the trail of a Turkish arms dealer, and somehow, I guess they caught on.  The agency has known for a while that there’s been a mole, but nothing like this has happened before.  She went missing and because there was no evidence of wrong doing there wasn’t going to be an operation.  So I made the stupid decision of going after her without much of a plan and without backup.”

            “There’s evidence of at least one other prisoner in the building. “ Jayme informed the team.

            “I’ll check it out.”  Jack replied quickly.

            “So is everyone in agreement then?”  Malcolm asked.

            “I’m with the group on this one.”  Tony responded.

            Charlotte smiled and squeezed Adam’s shoulders reassuringly.  “We’ll help you get your agent back.”

            A look of relief flashed across Adam’s face and he lowered his head as if all the energy had left his body.  “Thank you.”  He whispered.

Operation Freelance Part 3

             The tunnel through the park was maybe a meter wide and a meter tall.  Not the most comfortable passages Charlotte had ever been in but at least it was still open.  Jack was in the lead, followed by Charlotte and then Malcolm.

           

“I have you at ten meters from the building.”  Tony’s voice came through their earpieces.  Charlotte was glad, crawling through a tunnel built almost a hundred years ago was not exactly her idea of a good time. 

“I see a door up ahead.”  Jack whispered.  All three of them turned their lights off, plunging them into darkness.  Charlotte heard Jack switch to night-vision goggles and heard the sounds of him inching himself forward towards the door.  Her and Malcolm went without the night-vision for the moment in the event that there was a blinding light on the other side. 

“I’m not getting any heat signatures on the other side of the door.”  Tony informed.

The door creaked a long, whiny sound as Jack opened it.  “Alright, we’re in.  Now which way?” 

Tony led them through the maze of tunnels built into the walls.  It seemed to Charlotte that a space of about two feet was built behind almost every wall in the building.  Not a lot of space, but enough to get around unnoticed.  There were even stairs built in.  If a person wanted to they could move to any area of the building, provided there was a way out into that room.  The major downside to the plan was that the floorboards were creaky, there was little insulation muffling the sound, and due to the tight space they had to move slowly. 

“Okay guys, you should be there.”  Tony finally whispered.  “It looks like there is one body in the room, and the room looks to be a standard ten foot by ten foot box.  No security posted in the area.  Not exactly a maximum security place is it?”

“Charlotte, take lead.  Malcolm and I will post guard.”  Jack nodded to her.  Jack moved a couple of meters further down the tunnel and Malcolm went back a couple of meters the way they had come.

Charlotte switched to her night-vision goggles and examined the wall, looking for a way through.  After about a minute of looking she found what looked like a latch on the wall.  “I think I’ve found the way in.”  She whispered.  She was almost back to where Malcolm was posted, so she figured the doors were built at the corners of the rooms.  She didn’t know if that would come in handy, but she figured it was good to take note of anyway. 

The latch fought her as she turned it and she wondered if anybody had ever used it before.  First she tried pushing to see if the door would swing in.  It didn’t move, so she took a deep breath and slowly began to pull, and she was rewarded with the sound of quiet scraping on the floor and a puff of dust being knocked from the door.  The door only opened to a 90-degree angle and was maybe a foot and a half wide and four feet tall.  An adult would really need to squeeze to get through the openings. 

Operation Freelance Part 2

Jayme lowered her binoculars and looked back at Charlotte from the window.  People often underestimated her because of her small stature coupled with a pixie face and dark thick-framed glasses made her look like a librarian.  She wore her brown hair in ringlet curls that ended at her chin and bounced happily with every movement of her head.  Her steel grey eyes showed the light of humor and she gave Charlotte a sly smile.  “Lover boy downstairs gave you something good then?”

“Cute.”  Charlotte shot back snidely.  “There’s possibly a way in from the park.  There’s an old tunnel that was built back in the 20s along with a series of hidden passages in the walls.  We could probably use those to get in, find the agent, and get back out again without drawing too much attention to ourselves.” 

“Well, that’s a bit of luck now isn’t it?”  Jack took a long drink of what was probably scotch and set down the papers he was examining on the coffee table as he leaned back into the couch.  He was what Charlotte liked to think of as a classic spy.  Nice pants, nice shoes, nice shirt, and never a black hair out of place on his head.  She would have bet him he couldn’t charm his way into a nun’s bed, but she was pretty sure she’d lose. 

“Bit of luck?”  Malcolm jeered from where he was leaning up against the wall next to the door.  “I still don’t think this is a good idea in the first place.  Isn’t MI-5 supposed to be an IN country organization?  What the Hell are they doing out here in the first place?”  Malcolm was tall, large, and what most people in their right mind would deem as scary. The t-shirt and jeans he wore along with his freshly buzz-cut hair only highlighted the fact that he was built like a professional fighter. 

“Maybe it was a mission, maybe he was on vacation, what does it matter?  We are here to get him out, so let’s get on with it.”  Jack replied lazily, swirling his drink. 

      “I think what Malcolm means is, how do we know that he didn’t get himself nabbed on purpose?”  Jayme tried to smooth over the tension. 

      “Fine, we’ll go in and ask him if he wants a lift before we drag him out of there.  Does that satisfy everyone?”  Charlotte argued, and then plugged the camera into the laptop on the coffee table, and pulled up the photos she had just taken.  Malcolm wandered over to the couch and looked at the photos over Jack’s shoulder as Charlotte walked over to Jayme and handed her the notebook. 

      Jayme took a few minutes to review Charlotte’s notes and handed the notebook to Jack.  “Okay, so we go in tonight.  What’s the guy’s name anyway?” 

      “Why does it matter?”  Malcolm muttered and rolled his eyes.

      “I’d like to stop calling him ‘that dude from MI-5.’”  Jayme glared at him. 

“Adam Quinn.”  Jack answered, finishing off his scotch and placing the empty glass down on the coffee table heavily.

Later on that day Jayme and Jack took a Frisbee out to the park and managed to locate the entrance to the tunnel.  Malcolm and Charlotte stayed behind to catch Tony up to speed on the operation.  Tony was the typical nerd type who ran the entire surveillance backup for the team’s operations, and he had just flown in from the home office that day. 

“I ran the theory that MI 5 may have gotten himself caught on purpose by the boss and he said that we are authorized to exercise our best judgment in the matter.”  Tony informed, using finger quotations during the last bit for effect.

      “Right.”  Jack addressed the group, all now gathered in the room.  “Charlotte, Malcolm, and I will go in tonight, Jayme and Tony will run support from here.”

      “Keep the com channels open.  If anything fishy comes up we all need to weigh in.”  Malcolm warned the group.

      “Alright.  Let’s grab some dinner and gear up.”  Jayme said. 

Operation Freelance Part 1

Charlotte had been on station in Ankara, Turkey for a week now, gathering as much information as she could on the prison facility run by a man called Jaheer Dafi.  The suspicion was that he was a member of Al Sahara, a group of terrorists operating worldwide looking to make a name for themselves in a big way.  Charlotte’s team had been sent in because they were holding a member of British Intelligence, and they didn’t even know it.  They thought that he was a member of the press, getting a little too nosy around their weapons facilities.  The Firm handled situations like this, where the use of the usual organizations would give away more information than necessary.  Plus, the Brits would owe them a favor, which was always helpful. 

The building they were using as a prison facility was conveniently located at the edge of a public park, so today Charlotte was playing tourist.  She was going for the classic college student bumming around Europe look.  Her long, blonde hair was pulled back into a messy bun with a bandana wrapped around her head like a headband.  She was wearing light-weight khaki cargo pants, sturdy brown hiking boots, and a grey wind breaker jacket over her pink t-shirt because it was a little on the cold side that day.  The building she was interested in luckily was one that had some interesting architecture, so she could get away with taking pictures of it, and writing down her observations in a travel journal, typical college student stuff. 

Once Charlotte had gotten all the shots she needed she headed back across the park to the hostel, conveniently located within view of the prison building.  The young man at the desk smiled and waved at her as she came in the door.

“You get some good shots for your paper?”  He asked.  Earlier that week she had gotten to talking with him and she found that he was a student at the local University.  He had bought her student travelling abroad story hook line and sinker.  

Charlotte walked to the desk and set her camera down.  “Yep, I was particularly interested in that building right across the street.  There is something a little off about it.” 

The man laughed and nodded.  “See, that’s how I know that you’re an architect major.  What the guidebooks don’t tell you is that that building is older than it looks.  My grandmother would tell you stories about how it was build a few years before we won our independence after World War I.  Apparently it was used to smuggle spies during the Cold War.  She tells the most fantastic stories of paying in hidden passages in the walls as children.” 

“Really?”  Charlotte was suddenly very interested.

“Oh yes.  See, that’s something that isn’t going to be in your guidebooks.”  The man beamed. 

“They just let the kids play in the building?”  Charlotte wasn’t quite buying the story.

“Oh no.  See when they built the building they knew they had to have a way to smuggle people out.  There is a tunnel that goes out into the park.  It’s probably been long sealed now, but my grandmother said they would slip in under the bushes and take the tunnel right to the building.”  He said solemnly.  “A little bit of local culture to add to your paper huh?” 

“Definitely, thanks!”  Charlotte smiled.  She picked up her camera and rounded the corner to the stairs.  She went up to the second floor and went to the second door on the right.  She gave two quick nocks, paused, then one more knock before opening the door.  She smiled at the team assembled in the small room.  “I think this job just got easier.”