Category: Short stories
“Intimidation case.” Hans listened to the man in the red shirt. The man in the red shirt inspected Hans’s mobile then powered it off. “Secrecy first,” he said.
Person lurking by Zone Sierra. Nervous movement, potential improvised explosive device. The automated intelligence analysis flashed on Tessa’s screen.
They arrived without warning in José’s office. A high court judge, a policewoman from Operational Security, and a clear implication of illegal intercepts.
The professor stared at the words Top Secret on the analysis report. She lifted it and read the title: Wuhan Biological Weapons and Covid-19. She shrugged.
‘Is he actually proposing a kill order? That we should become involved in an assassination?’ The intelligence researcher’s eyes widened.
The paranoia was returning. Isabelle’s head throbbed with pain and her eyes were loosing their focus. She had too many types of intelligence feed to research.
The forced confession was in stilted Arabic with words that the suspect never used, and the recording from the interview had been replaced by a transcript.
Death or the classroom. Mohammed planned to sit at the back of the room and contemplate the appropriate method of suicide for a failed intelligence officer.
‘She’s a journalist, that makes her guilty,’ the intelligence officer declared. ‘Get me evidence for intrusive surveillance and we’ll find her dirty secrets.’
Mikael’s secrecy-first speech was cut short by the minister. ‘Tell me more about this cyber-attack. Are they really intending to cripple our railway network?’