It started out on a summer afternoon. He’d been walking for hours, waiting for her. His contact. She said he could meet her on the embankment, along the River Thames.
He thought it was odd to suggest it, considering its obvious connotations with James Bond and other spy dramas. He went along with it because she sounded serious.
The reason for the meeting was grim. He’d worked for five years on projects in London for MI5. He hadn’t been paid, supported, or briefed on any of the operations.
In fact, he hadn’t seen or spoken to any person out of MI5’s staff for the entire time. He was expected to get on with what he already knew, and get himself out of harms way.
Every single attempt was successful, and so he was free to meet with her. She worked in Thames House. She said her role was to look over missions, and to observe operations.
He heard it as it dropped, “observe operations”. He found her mother before the meeting took place. He spoke about his difficulties, and asked what she was like as a daughter.
He discovered she’d failed repeatedly in her schooling, and left a lot of workplaces. In other conversations he found out if her MI5 job ended she’d strip to make ends meet.
The difficulty came in speaking to her. She was evasive, but overconfident, and chatty about living in the UK. Although she was a loser, it sounded like she still lived it up.
In their short ‘meeting’ he worked out it was apathy that mattered in the breakdown of their communications. He confirmed it was her who was meant to make his ends meet.