The late October sky was threatening a storm as Annie felt her cell phone vibrate. She glanced at it. Eyal Lavin. She answered it; things tended to get exciting when the handsome Israeli spy was in town.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Need your help on a little matter. Since of course Mossad would not be spying within the boundaries of the United States, let's just say I have an intense personal curiosity about a certain person who happens to be staying in Washington D.C. Time is running out and I've run dry of ideas. Thought I'd use that as an excuse to say hello."
"Like you need an excuse. Officially I have no comment. Unofficially - tell me more."
"This person has rented an apartment, bought up enough food to last six weeks, and seems intent on not leaving. There's some intel on a device inside and I can't get to it - and there's exterior surveillance cameras with a surprisingly good security system. We have a variety of suspicions about this individual and I need that intel sooner rather than later. Our usual ploys have failed. All I need is to get within docking distance and I can download what we need. I need a good excuse or distraction to stand at his front door for about two minutes without him turning off his equpment."
Annie thought for a moment. "Eyal, as usual, your timing's excellent. Tonight's Halloween. But we'll need to have children."
"Annie, I knew you'd eventually come around and stop resisting me."
"Sorry, that isn't going to work. We need kids fast. Any way you can round some up?" Danielle was still in California, there were no other stray nieces and nephews borrowable for the night. "If you can get the children, I'll get the costumes, and meet you near the target address. It's already nearly 7pm - trick or treating will be over soon."
"I can do that." He rattled off the point for them to meet. Annie clicked off and ran into the nearest Rite-Aid drugstore. The costume selection was terrible - and not much off the shelf was going to fit her broad-shouldered friend. The remaining options were a scarecrow, an oversized Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, and ... Dracula. The cape could cover anything and he could get away with whatever shirt he had on. She snatched up the accessory fang pack with its tube of fake blood and white face make up, grabbed a feminine L'il Devil costume in red sequins for herself, changed on her front seat, and zoomed to the meeting place.
Where she found Eyal, accompanied by a trio of hyped-up children who had apparently already been trick or treating once that night and had consumed all of their candy. Two boys of eight or nine - one Ironman, one Scream - and a pert little princess who had to be carried.
"Where did you get these?" she asked, seriously impressed with their sudden family.
"Sorry. Need to know. Where did you get these?"
"Rite-aid. Put it on."
He lifted his eyebrows at the flowing black cape with a red collar and a plastic medal with an equally plastic red stone in it, but obligingly smeared on the white makeup and threw the cloak over his shoulders.
"Must I?"
"You need the fangs to sell it, sorry. Here." She assisted with the makeup and drew a convincing line of blood while the children bounced around them. "Nice to be dealing with fake blood for a change!"
"I was thinking the same thing."
She grinned at him. The vampire look suited him beautifully. "I vant to drink your blood," he whispered.
"Please, not in front of the children."
"You're hardly being a good role model in that outfit. I didn't know Rite-Aid had a Victoria's Secret department."
"Okay, so it is a little small. This late on Halloween didn't give me exactly the best selection."
The loaded into her car, less likely to be known than Eyal's, which he had used in surveillance on the target before. The boys were giggling and laughing in the back seat beside the Princess. Eyal had even brought a car seat. Annie was impressed.
"Pull over there." There were a couple of other late families on the street. "That's it."
Quickly moving from the car, Eyal took the Princess and let Annie herd the boys to the proper door. Lights were just showing through closed mini-blinds. "Trick or treat!" the boys announced, in unison. The door stayed shut. That didn't matter. She saw Eyal reach in his pocket, activating the transfer device and moving closer to the door.
"Trick or Treat! Smell my Feet! Give me something good to eat!" Annie called out gaily, getting a look of shock from Eyal, who was reaching forward and knocking hard on the door. From inside came swearing and the sound of someone quickly getting up from a desk chair. Eyal urged the boys to call out "Trick or Treat!" again.
"If you don't get away from my door I'm calling the police!"
"Trick or Treat!" Annie called out gaily, twirling her satin devil tail.
"Ve vant to drink your blood!" Eyal added.
The door swung open. The occupant, clad in camo gear, was leveling a weapon at them. "Get the heck off of my doorstep! This is no costume!" Eyal made placatory moves, "Look, man, we're sorry, just having some fun with the kids, no need - sorry..." as he was stepping away and shot her a look. Annie could tell that he had accomplished what he needed to.
"Sorry!" Annie repeated, giving her tail a final twirl as they continued on to another couple of doors, just to keep their cover intact before retreating to the car. The boys were happy with more candy, and the Princess just seemed happy to be carried around and shown off. She had gathered three Twix and a mini-packet of M&Ms. Eyal handed Annie the candy.
"Sweets to the sweet. Thanks."
"No problem. Got what you need?"
"More than that. The target is obviously under stress and behaving irrationally, willing to risk exposure and making an actionable threat. That's useful to know on top of the intel."
"Okay." They pulled up near his car. Eyal spoke to the boys in Hebrew and they piled out of the car and headed toward his.
"Still not going to tell me where they came from?" Annie asked as Eyal got out of the car. He came around to the driver's side and she wound down her window. "Need to know, neshema. But now they have to be returned. Which is a pity, because ...," he said, holding the Princess just aside and leaning in through the window. "I really vould like to drink your blood," he said, managing to land a little nip on Annie's neck. She whapped him with the pointy tip of her satin devil tail.
"Maybe next year, Eyal. Happy Halloween!"