Storygram #142

Thank you for reading and sharing my daily #Storygram short stories! Be sure to subscribe to the Newsletter and check out my film Portfolio!

The Story:

She shuffled down the sidewalk with an armful of file folders. They slipped down every few steps, and she had to hike them up. Her arm was growing weary of its load. With only twenty minutes left until six o’clock, she had to hurry if those files were going to get to her office in London by tomorrow. And they would. They had to. She refused to let a shaking muscle keep this information from her agency.

The sunset was blinding her so badly that she almost didn’t see the black SUV pulling up beside her. A bald man in a black trench coat stepped out of the vehicle’s backseat and strolled over to her.

“Mind if I walk with you?”
“Yes,” she said with finality.

As she continued walking, he followed her from only a stride behind. She tried to walk faster, but the weight of the files prevented it.

“Miss Eiles, I’m just going to cut to the chase here, since you’re in such a hurry. I want those files, and you already know that. But what you don’t know is that you’re going to give them to me.”

She slowed to a standstill. At all costs the information in those files had to be protected. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her lighter and lit a cigarette. She turned around to look him in the eyes and took a slow puff on the cigarette before tossing it into a garbage can next to her. Its contents quickly caught fire, and she held the files above it.

He didn’t flinch a single muscle. It became clear to her that his confidence was real and her guise of confidence was apparent to him.

“I’m in those files, Miss Eiles, as an arms dealer. Destroying them only makes me harder to find. Your superiors will only meet with me if I have something of value to them. So, I need those files.”
“Why do you need to meet with them?”
“Because they need to know the real threat that’s coming, not in those files, and bigger than these little ghost games we play with each other. I must speak with them.”

Against all her training, her gut said the man was telling the truth, so she handed him the files. He pulled out the file pertaining to himself, handed it back to her, and walked away.