Somewhat Strange
For the 15 Minute Challenge – Somewhat
Time: 15 Minutes
Words Count: 372
The first rule of surveillance is never take your eyes off your target. That's why surveillance teams had to have at least two. One to keep an eye on the target, one to keep an eye on the Rest of the World.
That's how Special Agents Megan Reeves and David Sinclair wound up sitting together on a quiet street, pretending to be lost.
David kept his eyes on the front door across the street while Megan smoothed the unfolded map in front of her. The hope was that if any neighbors happened by, they would think that Megan and David were merely trying to read a map.
It apparently worked, because the two people who went past them, a newspaper boy and a woman who was walking her poodle, only gave them a cursory glance.
"Does this seem somewhat strange to you?" David said. "I mean, the lack of attention that we're getting?"
"What?" Megan asked. "Two people sitting in a black suburban in a quiet suburban neighborhood?"
"I mean, a black man and a white woman sitting together in a car," David said. "I can remember when that would have had the cops dropping by."
Megan grinned. "Well, the world has changed, somewhat," she said.
"Only somewhat?"
Megan nodded, even though David wasn't looking at her. "Only somewhat," she said. "Because in my old neighborhood, we'd be answering to security."
David raised his eyebrows. "Not the police?"
Megan shook her head. "They don't want plebian police in that neighborhood."
"Ah, they don't want police in my old neighborhood, either," David said. "But that's only to make it easier to mug people like us who are foolish enough to get lost there."
Megan snorted.
David straightened up. "Here she is," he said.
A slender woman slipped out of the front door they were staking out and crossed the street to them.
"Okay," she said. "They're up." Her lower lip quivered a trifle.
"Excellent," Megan said. "You did good."
"Are you sure…?"
David nodded. "Yes. You'd better wait here, though, there could be repercussions."
Megan and David pulled on their masks and headed across the street to the Craftsman.
Inside the Suburban, Amita Ramanujan buried her face in her hands and giggled uncontrollably.