Double Gold Star

“Too dangerous? Why? What’s going on? Does it have something to do with our new friends?”

Pen’s questions were met with silence.

“That’s a great big ‘yes.’” She said.

“What?”

Pen rose from her seat. “Haven’t you ever heard the expression, ‘No answer is an answer?’”

Scotch shook his head. “It must be something that circulates through the colonies.” He responded without looking at her.

“The colonies? First I’m a rotten spy and now I’m, what, an errant child?”

No answer.

“Scotch. Scotch are you with me?” She asks, snapping her fingers.

Scotch does not respond.

It had been a very long night and Pen was losing her patience. “Do this. Don’t do that. Go here, don’t go there. You’re a spy, figure it out. No, nothing is wrong. You can’t leave because you’re in danger. Your inconsistencies are infuriating.” She said. As she turned on her heel the fabric of the robe flowed around her legs.

“It’s classified.” He muttered.

She turned to face him. “What?” Pen asked quietly.

“It’s classified.” Scotch repeated.

“It’s classified? I’m supposed to be a spy, I’m the one in danger and it’s classified?”

Her comments are once again met with silence. Pen turned around and left the room.

“Where are you going?”

“I would tell you but it’s classified!” She called out. She changed into her clothes, locked herself in the bedroom with the comfortable bed, and left at first light.

Pen did not realize that she had the wrong phone until a text message popped up from Corporate the next afternoon. She put down the book she had filched from Scotch’s apartment and proceeded to text herself.

You have my phone.

Hello. It’s nice to hear from you too. Yes, I did sleep well thank you for asking. --S

I still have your phone.

That’s what happens when she sneaks out of a gentleman’s apartment in the wee hours. A lady forgets things. - S.

Women who behave like errant children are hardly ladies. Pen finished typing and hit send.

The phone rang.

“Shit.” Pen muttered before picking up. “Yeah.”

“Is that any way to greet a man after you’ve spent the night at his place?”

Pen did not respond.

“Is this the, no response is a response, thing that you were talking about?” He asked.

More silence.

“It seems that it is.” Scotch continued. “I have a couple of friends that were wondering if you might be interested in bowling a game or two.”

“Bowling?”

“They are anxious to know how our venues compare to yours in America.”

Pen thought for a moment. “Sure. That could be fun.”

“I’ll meet you at the school yard tomorrow at four pm. Oh and bring your day planner. We’ll compare calendars.”

“O-Kay. See you then.” Pen put down the phone, getting as far away from it as possible as quickly as she could. She looked at the clock on her nightstand. Six pm. Twenty- two hours. She had twenty-two hours to figure out what what was in that novel. She’d better get to it.

Scotch was not happy when four pm came and he found himself standing alone in the park. Pen’s phone vibrated in his hand.

Change of plans. Walk to the far side of the park, make a left, and duck into the tea house on the corner. Delete this message now.

Scotch deleted the message and wondered what was going on. He moved quickly, carefully matching his step to that of the power walkers around him. He made sure to allow a jogger or two to pass him in an effort to avoid standing out.

He entered the tea house and assessed the situation. The establishment was nearly full. Pen had chosen a small table at the back. A wall was behind her and she was facing the door. The kitchen was located on the opposite side of the building. The spy was able to claim the table next to her within seconds of it being abandoned by other patrons.

“You found me.” She said without looking at him.

Scotch leaned back in his chair allowing the waitress to clear things away, wipe down the table, and put it to rights. He gave her a quick nod and a “Thank you.” Scotch looked around while pretending to peruse his menu. “What happened to you?”

“Didn’t you wonder how you got out of your apartment building the other night without being detected?”

“It did seem a bit easier than it should have been.” He admitted.

Pen received her tea and scone from their waitress. The waitress then turned to Scotch and took his order.

“The men in the SUV weren’t following either of us. They were following this.” She said.

Scotch’s phone landed on the table in front of him.

“My phone? The agency has these phones specially made and programmed. Each is run through IT for screening and to verify that the phone has not been corrupted at any point during the manufacturing and shipping process.”

“The programming wasn’t corrupted. A very small chip was attached to the agency’s GPS chip. A professional would have had a difficult time finding it.”

“How did you find it?” Scotch asked accepting the pot of tea placed on the table in front of him.

“It was askew.”

“Askew?”

“It was not perfectly placed on top of the other chip. When placed correctly, the chip blends in. I was looking for something that did not look right and there was a slant to it. Someone was in a hurry when they placed it there.”

Scotch turned over the phone and began to pull off its back cover.

“Too late.” Pen said as she began slicing her scone in half.

“Where is it? Did you check for prints?”

“I looked for prints but there were none. The chip is in a Koi pond in a rest home on the other side of London. Hopefully it has been eaten by one of the fish that is going to be transported to Vienna. The owner of the rest home is a bit of hobbyist. The Koi bred very well this year.” She paused to enjoy a bite of her afternoon treat.

“How did you know about the chip?”

“I noticed our new friends outside my apartment building late last night. I did a bit of research, took a peek in the back of the phone and voila!”

Scotch looked at Pen as he returned her phone to her. “You are full of surprises today.”

“One of my college roommates dated a guy that had a scientific mind and an obsessive love of technology. He lived to talk about it. I was the only one in the apartment who could keep up with him. We stayed in touch, so I knew where to look.”

“You have officially earned your first double gold star.” Scotch proclaimed.

“You have a message from Corporate. It was why I texted you yesterday.”

Scotch scrolls through his messages. “It looks like we have a new mission. In thirty minutes.”

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.