She Was a Pretty Girl: A spy story Read online

  She Was a Pretty Girl

  Chapter 1

  She was a pretty girl. As she walked into the foyer and across to the lift, eyes followed her, the people who watched would not forget the short skirt and the pretty face for a long time, especially the men. The eyes watched her until the lift doors closed and the lift ascended.

  The lift stopped at the top floor and she stepped out, choosing to walk in the opposite direction than the one she wanted, as the people waiting for the lift went in. As soon as the lift started its descent, she turned and walked to the stairs that led to the roof, she was a girl on a mission.

  She closed the door quietly and climbed the stairs to get onto the roof. There she looked about to make sure no one was up there waiting for her, or just having a cigarette. She saw no one and walked to the building that housed the lift motor. She slipped on a pair of gloves and picked the lock just as quickly as she had done the day before.

  The only difference was that when she had made the same journey the day before she was dressed as a man and looked the part just as much as she now looked like a girl. She opened the door and picked up the gun which was hidden from view inside. She also picked up a blanket to lie on. She was there to kill a woman, not because she disliked the woman but because it was her job. She laid the blanket on the roof and set up the rifle ready. Now she had to wait and this was the awkward bit, if anyone chose to come onto the roof now and saw her they had to die as well!

  She watched the door to the roof from a vantage point that kept her hidden but no one came out of it before the alarm on her watch bleeped. She took another look at the door then walked back to her rifle, lying down beside it to look through the telescopic sight.

  She watched for some time before the door she was watching opened and her target walked in. The woman did not close the door but left it for the man following to come in and close it after him. As soon as the door was closed and the man was walking away from it the pretty girl fired. Two shots into the woman to make sure she died and then one in the man to make sure he did not raise the alarm before she was able to make her escape. She watched for a few seconds to see if anyone came to investigate and then stood up. She took the rifle and blanket and walked to the lift motor housing. There she dropped the rifle out of sight behind the machinery and carefully folded the blanket, it probably had her DNA on it. With the blanket folded ready she put it into a bag and stripped. The transformation was amazing. She went from pretty girl with lipstick on to a man with a neatly kept beard and moustache in three minutes.

  The discarded clothing went into the bag as did any tissues she used to wipe off her makeup and then she closed the lift motor housing door, locking it to make it look like no one had been near it. Now a he, he walked down three flights of stairs and took the lift from that floor to confuse anyone who might be looking at the tapes later.

  Outside he walked to his car and drove away. Stopping at the end of an alley ten minutes later to walk through the alley and get into a limousine. The limousine took her to a house with a wall round it and electric gates which opened as he approached.

  The limousine stopped at the front door and the driver remained where he sat, while the occupant climbed out of the car and walked into the house. The driver then climbed out and closed the car door, giving the door the sniper had just disappeared through a scowl. He drove out of the courtyard and back to the embassy.

  ‘Alright Bob?’ The man on the gate asked.

  ‘I hope she could learn to shut the door when she gets out Peter.’ Bob answered and drove in out of sight.

  Inside the house the clothes came off again to be replaced with a long robe, after a long shower. She made herself comfortable and then made a cryptic phone call.

  ‘The basket has been emptied of fruit.’ she announced and put the phone back into its cradle.

  Back in the building the secretary decided to look in on her boss as she could not raise him and found both bodies. Her scream echoed round the building for some time and the police were called.

  A week later she walked into another hotel and straight into the lift. She had done her homework and the new rifle was already hidden waiting for her to collect it. She rode up to the top floor and after making sure no one was watching, she climbed the stairs to the roof. The hotel was remarkably similar to the previous hotel with the exception that it was in a different country. Here they shot first and asked questions later, so she had to be more careful but the target was labeled a priority one target and that meant he had to die.

  Here there was no need to pick the motor housing lock as the door was hanging off its hinges. She had hidden the rifle well to ensure it would not be found and pulled it from its place of concealment with a smile that said that she thought she was cleverer then anyone who had been up there. Although there was nothing to say anyone had been up there anyway but she still smiled.

  This was to be her hardest target yet. The distance was long and there were going to be a lot of people in the room when she fired. It would be two shots and move out. She set up her rifle in the same way and lay down to wait, this time sunbathing with just the bare essentials on and the rifle covered by her discarded clothes. Anyone who came up now would see her but either leave her in peace or hit on her. If it was too near the time for her to shoot, she would have to hit back and the, would be Romeo, would suffer a more serious consequence than his actions probably deserved.

  She set the alarm on her watch and lay there sunbathing right up until it was nearly time to act having not seen anyone else on the roof but close to time she needed to be active, two men, both horny, walked up just to see if anyone was on the roof sunbathing. They walked out and saw her laying there and both walked over with not only lust in their eyes, it was coming out of their mouths.

  ‘Are you waiting for me?’ The first man asked when he reached her. He spoke in his own language but the hit girl was fluent in several languages.

  ‘I don’t know, was I?’ She asked.

  ‘No she was waiting for me Martinez.’ The second man answered before Martinez could.

  ‘Now why should she wait for a no hoper like you Culotti?’ Martinez retorted.

  ‘Because I am bigger down below that you are my friend, Rosita told you that, if you can’t remember.’ Culotti answered.

  ‘It is no matter my friend.’ Martinez declared. ‘We will take turns and this beautiful creature will tell us who was bigger.’

  ‘And I suppose you will suggest that you should go first my friend.’ Culotti retorted.

  ‘We will be fair and toss a coin to decide.’ Martinez answered. ‘Unless you feel you have the right to go first my friend?’

  ‘I would attest to no such thing my friend but I will supply the coin as you have a double headed coin in your pocket for such occasions.’ Culotti replied.

  The girl looked at her watch and sighed.

  ‘I will use your coin and toss it if you wish and you can call as I am a very poor guesser, unless I use my coin.’ Martinez admitted.

  Culotti produced a coin and gave it to Martinez. Martinez readied the coin to flip it into the air and that was when the hit girl’s alarm went off.

  ‘What is that for?’ Culotti asked as Martinez flicked the coin into the air.

  ‘It means you boys will never know who won.’ The girl answered and shot them both before the coin landed. ‘Sorry boys but you would have only been disappointed.’ She added and started to dress.

  By now the room below was full of people but the target was still missing. She settled down to wait for the latecomer. Ten minutes later the door opened and he was ushered into the room, walking four steps before two bullets hit his chest and he was thrown to
the floor. There was no tidying up this time, the hit girl ran across the roof, only stopping to pick up the coin the two men used to decide which one raped her first.

  She hurried down to the lift and pressed the button. She had timed all eventualities and this was the quickest method, even if the lift was delayed. The lift arrived and she stepped inside quickly, pressing the button for the lobby as soon as she was near enough. She stood there waiting for the lift to close while men were hurrying there from the building that the target was laying in but she knew she could beat them and escape. The doors closed and she was on her way down.

  The telephone rang on the desk and the clerk there picked up the receiver.

  ‘Cormorant hotel, how can I help?’ This was in the same language that the men who lay dead on the roof used.

  ‘No one is to leave the hotel! Do you understand?’ A voice the clerk recognised answered.

  ‘Yes sir, I will alert security.’ The clerk replied.

  ‘You have no security, do it yourself or you will not see tonight!’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  At that moment the lift opened and the girl emerged. She walked straight for the exit at speed but then he had seen this girl walk like that every time she had gone out. This time he had to stop her and that did not seem a hard task.

  ‘I am sorry, you cannot leave.’ The clerk called across to her. ‘I have orders.’

  ‘Are you going to stop me then?’ The girl asked.

  ‘Well yes, I have to.’ The clerk answered.

  ‘To bad feller.’ The girl answered and shot him with the same silenced pistol that had killed the two men on the roof.

  The clerk dropped out of sight behind the desk and the hit girl walked on but the clerk with his last living breath drew the pistol from under the desk and shot the hit girl in the back as she went through the door.

  The girl staggered under the impact of the bullet then walked on to where her car was parked. She knew she it was a bad wound and drove to the changeover point. It was not easy, as she was in a great deal of pain and her sight kept blurring but she stopped the car where she planned to leave it. Now all she had to walk to the limousine and all would be well. As soon as she stepped out of the car, her legs gave way and she had to haul herself up using the door for support, leaving fingerprints on it, as she no longer had her gloves on.

  She managed to get upright and walked away from the car, staggering on occasion like a drunk, until she could see the limousine. Now she marshaled the last of her strength and walked to the limousine as though nothing was up, opened the door and flopped inside.

  Men arrived at the hotel. They were heavily armed. Two blocked the entrance to allow no one to go in and no one to leave. The men inside saw the clerk where he lay a pistol in his hand.

  ‘Do you think he got a shot off?’ One of them asked.

  ‘No sign of blood in the doorway.’ A second man answered. ‘I’ll go up to the roof and see what is up there.’

  The man used the lift and then walked up the flight of stairs to the roof and inspected what was up there. He saw the weapon, he saw the two dead men and the blanket under the rifle before returning to the lobby.

  ‘We can get the DNA of the shooter from the blanket as it is still up there.’ He announced.

  ‘Not from the blood trail?’ Their boss asked from the door. ‘Were you going to look for blood outside, in case our man shot the shooter?’ He added. ‘Come on we need to see where it leads.’

  ‘Yes Santos.’ The two men answered.

  The limousine moved away and she relaxed. The driver drove to another house, roughly like the one on the last mission but this time the gate did not open. He used the intercom to speak to the girl in the back seat.

  ‘Open the gates please Clementine.’ He asked.

  There was no reply so he repeated the request. There was still no reply.

  ‘I will have to follow protocol if you do not answer Clementine.’ He warned but there was no answer. He picked up the phone. ‘I am enforcing a notice twenty one as the situation warrants.’ He announced.

  ‘Okay Ricardo, south door.’ A voice answered.

  Santos led his men to the trail of blood and they followed it to where it stopped.

  ‘They must have had a car waiting Santos.’ One man declared.

  ‘Yes and if I am not mistaken this looks like the work of Clementine and I want her head on a platter.’ Santos answered. ‘I want that car found. It looks like she is badly injured and she might have left clues.’

  ‘Yes Santos.’ The two men replied.

  Ricardo had never spoken to Clementine and was not allowed to apart from a question on the intercom. If that failed he could not look in on her as she might kill him for doing so, if she was injured. He reversed away from the doors and drove to the fall back location, parking by the south door as he was told to. He did not leave the driver’s seat but merely sat there waiting.

  A man opened the back door but kept out of the line of fire, then used a camera to look inside. If the camera was shot it was a good sign. He looked in and saw Clementine laying there, the gun in her lap but she was not able to fire it.

  ‘We have an operative down.’ He yelled, reached in and took the pistol from her so that medical staff could help her.

  Clementine was not dead but close to it. They lifted her from the car carefully and carried her inside to allow Ricardo to drive away, then they tried to save her. They cut her clothes and saw the hole in her back. She had lost a lot of blood, mainly inside the limousine and was close to death. They put a plasma feed into her arm and stopped any more blood coming out.

  ‘We need Doctor Cranmer her ASAP.’ The senior medical assessor declared. ‘And tell him to hurry or we will lose her.’

  The man who had initially looked in the car picked up the phone and relayed the message, all they could do now was to wait. Half an hour later there was a knock on the door and they let the doctor was inside but it was too late Clementine had breathed her last breath. All the doctor could do was document her death and sign the death certificate. There his problems started!

  ‘We found the car Santos.’ A man called over his mobile phone and Santos leapt out of the chair he was sitting in. ‘Where?’

  ‘On the south side Santos.’

  ‘Let us go and see what you can miss this time.’ Santos exclaimed and stormed out.

  They drove to the south side and pulled up near the car. There were three uniformed officers there and two forensic experts who were looking in the car.

  ‘What can you tell me?’ Santos asked.

  ‘A lot of blood in the car Santos, too much for her to go much further without help.’ The senior forensic expert answered.

  ‘Has any one seen a dead, pretty blonde?’ Santos asked.

  They all conferred, which in itself annoyed Santos.

  ‘No Santos.’ One answered.

  ‘Then she had help, waiting here and that is why she came here and no further. No one goes out of the country, who looks remotely like her, male or female. And anyone who is wounded in any way is detained, until I say they can go!’

  Clementine’s body was sent back to England in the diplomatic pouch. The pathologist who was to perform the postmortem took a blood sample and had her underling to take Clementine’s fingerprints. She took Clementine’s dress off but left her in her bra and pants for dignity before covering her and sliding her into a cold compartment until the results came back. The pathologist started another postmortem while she waited. With that finished she filled out the paperwork to complete the work. The underling hurried into the mortuary to tell her the news.

  ‘The fingerprints don’t match and she is the wrong blood type Marion.’ The underling reported.

  ‘So we have an anomaly Angela. Let us have her out and see just what we have.’ Marion declared.

  ‘Yes Marion.’

  Angela pulled Clementine out onto a gurney and took her to the now vacant table. This time Marion removed her b
ra and found that more than the bra came away.

  ‘What the hell.’ Marion cried which caught Angela’s attention.

  Marion removed Clementine’s pants with Angela watching and they both drew in breath sharply.

  ‘I didn’t expect that!’ Marion declared.

  ‘I’ve never seen a girl with those before.’ Angela agreed.

  Chapter 2

  John Fairchild sat behind his desk in the middle of London. He was the chief investigator of SI 8. A service not heard of by many people. He was in his office and the office had an anti-room which had another desk where Lorna Dorn his secretary sat. The door was open so that they could talk to each other without using the intercom.

  It was a good relationship, she did not suffer fools and he was no fool. They bounced ideas off each other when they were into an investigation to get an idea of the way they should go to investigate the particular case. His office door closed which made him look up.

  ‘Hello Winfield, to what do I owe this honour?’ John greeted and idly flicked the intercom switch on so that Lorna would hear and the conversation would be recorded.

  ‘We have a case for you John, a bit of an odd one to be precise.’ Winfield answered. ‘Do you remember Clementine?’

  The answer was yes, John did remember Clementine. Clementine was a very pretty girl who wanted to get on in life and had therefore used her body to improve her situation and John, who was a divorcee, had not turned down the chance to go to bed with a pretty girl. They had slept together twice so that John would endorse her request to join SI 8. After the second night in bed with Clementine he had willingly endorsed her entry, even though he knew she would not be interested in going to bed with him again after he had done so. The truth was, as he was older and she was very energetic, she was wearing him out so he was glad to sign.

  ‘Yes I remember Clementine.’ John answered.

  ‘Well she came back in the diplomatic pouch the other day.’ Winfield continued.

  ‘A damn shame, she was a very good agent.’ John answered guardedly, to not let anything slip.