Spies spying on spies spying on spies - Chapter 10: has Viktor put the mission in jeopardy?

[Foxy Lady]

Chapter 1: a bad day at the office


Julia Fleming sat at the head of the table behind the name plate bearing her job title: Deputy Director. All the others had similar plates and that was how they referred to each other. Julia was always called “DD", because the consensus of opinion was that that was her cup size. For others, their titles had been shortened to a word. So Head of Personnel was known as Hoper. She had just finished a tedious report on recruitment and Julia turned to the Head of Special Operations.

‘Thank you, Hoper. Now, next item, ah yes, Hosop. What cases do you want to discuss this morning?’

‘Two, DD.’ He had a deep reassuring voice, which Julia had always found attractive. He had a special way of saying DD that always made her shiver. ‘If you open the Special Ops tab on your tablet, you’ll find two cases. Shall we start with case number SZ/2019/56bkj834/Alfred.’ The last part was always the code name. Everyone tapped on the case number and a photograph of Alfred appeared.

Julia froze, then she swiped the screen and read Alfred’s personal details. She put down the tablet and tapped the table.

‘I’m sorry, I have to adjourn the meeting. We will reconvene later.’

Everyone stared as she rushed from the room.

Half an hour later, having failed to find her Department Director, she had persuaded the head of the Chief’s private office that she had to see him immediately.

‘What’s up, Julia? It’s not like you to be in a flap.’

‘No, Chief, than you, Chief. I need to report a contact and my Director seems to have taken an early lunch.’

‘Tell me.’

‘I have just come from chairing the regular Wednesday meeting and Hosop, that stands for Head-’

‘Julia, I know what it stands for, please just come to the point.’

‘Right, Chief, yes, Chief. Well, Hosop’s first case was number SZ/2019/56bkj834/Alfred. I recognised him as soon as I saw his photo. You see, I met him on holiday last month.’

‘You took a cruise, is that right?’

‘Yes, Chief, that’s right, Chief. So, we were on the same cruise and were put on the same table and spent some time together chatting and socialising. And I want to report that contact, Chief.’

‘Thank you, Julia. You were right to insist on seeing me. Obviously, you can’t have any involvement with that case. I’ll arrange for another DD to take it over. Perhaps,’ he paused to think, ‘yes, perhaps it would be best if someone else took over the whole of Special Ops, just for the moment, because we’ll need to have an enquiry, just as a formality of course. There’s no question of you being suspended. Just carry on with your other duties until this gets straightened out.

Two hours later, Julia’s phone rang. A message from Internal Security to go to a ‘meeting’ in room 3.718b. When she got there, she found two people she had never seen before. A man and a woman, both in blue suits with white shirts, and tablets on the table in front of them. They didn’t introduce themselves.

‘Julia, thanks for coming. I know this has all come as a surprise for you.’ That was the man, who seemed to be the one in charge.

‘We understand that you met Alfred on your recent cruise. Just tell us how that came about.’ The woman was speaking now.

‘Yes, we met on the cruise. We were both on our own and on the first evening I arrived rather late for dinner and was told there were few seats left, but there was one by the window if I didn’t mind sharing, which I didn’t. And Viktor was already there. We introduced ourselves, just our first names, neither of us ever gave our surname. And we shared the table for the rest of the cruise. That seemed easiest as we had got to know each other a bit.’

Now the man cut in. ‘And was that your only contact, at meals?’

‘No, we saw each other around the ship and we’d stop to chat or just pass the time of day.’

‘And what did you chat about?’ The woman again. Did they always alternate questions, Julia wondered.

‘Nothing about work. That was never mentioned, he didn’t ask and I didn’t volunteer. I don’t really remember what we talked about, just inconsequential that people talk about on holiday. The weather, something one of the other passengers had done, whether we were going on shore at the next port. That sort of thing.’

The tablets in front of the couple pinged. The man picked his up and swiped it several times. ‘And how did you spend the rest of your time?’

‘Oh, you know, sitting around, reading, sun bathing.’

The man passed his tablet across to Julia. The woman was looking at hers now.

For the second time that day, Julia froze. Another photograph, this time one of her.

‘That’s a nice tan,’ he remarked. It didn’t seem to need an answer.

‘You didn’t get that on deck,’ the woman remarked, apparently casually, but this time it was a question.

‘No, obviously not, there was a prohibition on going topless.’

‘Topless,’ the man snorted, ‘you weren’t just bathing topless, you were bathing naked.’

‘And it takes time to get a good tan like that,’ the woman added.

It had indeed. Julia stared at her naked body, with its triangle of pubic hair neatly trimmed at the top of her heavy thighs and her tits hanging down towards the bulge of her stomach.

‘Where did you get this?’ she asked.

‘From your phone,’ the woman told her.

It had been locked, but in this organisation that didn’t matter.

‘Look at the next one,’ the man invited.

Another photo of Julia, from behind, leaning over a balcony and staring out across the ocean. She stared at her ass, beautifully bronzed, and said nothing.

‘That was taken on a balcony,’ the woman explained unnecessarily.

‘And your cabin didn’t have a balcony,’ the man concluded.

Julia could see there was no escape from this line of questions.

‘I used Viktor’s balcony to sunbathe,’ she stared at them, defiantly. ‘For privacy,’ she added, although she didn’t know why.

The man stood up.

‘Thank you for meeting us, Julia. Please go to see the Chief and he’ll tell you where we will be going from here.’

The woman held the door open for her.

Ten minutes later she was back in the Chief’s office, ushered straight in by a stern faced PA.

‘The best thing, Julia,’ he began without ceremony, ‘for you, that is, would be for you to take some time away from the office. Formally, that means I need to suspend you. Please hand your security pass to Michael,’ he indicated a man who had entered the room behind her. ‘He’ll escort you to collect your personal items, which we’ll need to search of course, and see you safely off the premises. We’ll be in touch about the rest of the investigation.’

Julia walked slowly to catch a train home, using her training to analyse what had just happened. Had she been set up by Viktor? Or by someone in her own organisation? Security could have found out details about her cabin quite quickly, but she had the feeling that they had known more than they said and that this had been carefully choreographed right from the moment when Hosop introduced Alfred at the meeting.

 

[Foxy Lady]

Chapter 2: the enquiry begins or does it?


The telephone call came two days later. Please report at 2pm tomorrow to the address below. Tomorrow was a Saturday and the address was a building in a quiet street with an entrance that was, if not exactly concealed, at least difficult to locate. Julia was shown into a small room where a plump and cheerful woman in a charcoal trouser suit was waiting.

‘Julia, hi, please come in and make yourself comfortable. This is a bummer, isn’t it, having to come in on a Saturday, but the sooner this is over the better.’

Julia nodded, not convinced by the apparent kindness of this woman who was, she was sure, a trained and skilful interrogator.

‘Call me Pat,’ the woman began when they were both seated. Julia noted that she had not said that was her name, only that that was what she should be called. ‘Let me be honest,’ she continued. Julia now knew that was about to be lied to. ‘Your interview on Wednesday was most unprofessional. You were bounced into it with no chance to compose yourself. Fortunately, it was not even recorded, so we can start with a fresh slate.’

If that was true, a big if, Julia was relieved.

‘I was taken rather unawares,’ she admitted.

‘Right, so as I was saying, we can start afresh and that means putting my cards on the table right away.’ Julia sat back and waited for more lies. ‘The thing is that all senior staff are regularly vetted for possible future promotion. That happened to you last year and, let me tell you right off, there were some concerns. Not about your ability to do your job, but about your suitability to move up to Director level. I’ll tell you about the concerns in a moment, but let me just jump to the end and explain that the Department decided to check whether its concerns were well founded. That is why it put a man onto the cruise to check you out, discreetly, without you knowing.’

‘Are you telling me that Viktor was planted by my own Department?’ Julia could not keep the shock out of her voice.

‘No, I’m not saying that, not at all. The man didn’t get a chance to get close, because Viktor was in his way, right from the off. All he could do was observe from a distance.’

‘So are you going to tell me about your concerns now?’ Julia was curt; she was not used to being kept waiting.

‘Very well, you’re divorced, right?’

‘Yes, we, that is Tim and I, had a good marriage, until I got pregnant, which Tim was thrilled about, until the baby, our daughter was born premature and died at six months.’ Julia paused to compose herself. ‘After that, things went wrong, we were never the same as before, it was like Tim blamed me for what happened. Anyway, he left almost seven years ago now and ultimately we got divorced. I’ve been on my own since.’

‘And like you say, there had been no one since, not even a one night stand, until Viktor.’

Julia nodded.

‘I’ve been on my own for a while now, so I have some idea of how you have been feeling.’

Really, thought Julia, how convenient is this? Too convenient. But Pat was not wearing a ring and there was no evidence that she had been, which proved exactly nothing.

‘But I don’t need to speculate, because you confided in your sister.’

Julia’s bowels clenched. ‘You’ve read our emails.’ It was Pat’s turn to nod. Shit.

‘You describe your feelings in graphic detail. I won’t embarrass you by repeating them. But you spoke of how frustrated you were by the absence of sex in your life, of how a vibrator gave you no satisfaction, of how much you missed a big fat cock fucking you like a stallion, I think those were some of the more delicate ways that you expressed yourself.’

‘I spoke of being beside myself and unable to concentrate, of imagining myself mounting the guys at the Wednesday meeting, and riding their cocks, working round the table until I was satisfied.’ Julia added, in an attempt to show that she was not embarrassed by her feelings.

‘And of the dreams you had.’ Julia prayed that Pat would not repeat the details of those dreams that she had recounted to her sister. She didn’t.

‘You went on the cruise, hoping to meet a man, didn’t you.’ A statement, not a question. Her voice gentle and soothing. There was no need for Julia to reply, her answer was written on her face. ‘Which was why your case was stuffed full of sexy and revealing underwear – stockings, suspender belts, thongs, push up and half cup bras.’ Of course, they had searched her bags, but this was too much.

‘No, that is so wrong,’ Julia was determined to correct this image of her. ‘Those are my normal underwear. They make me feel good, as a woman. I wear them all the time, at work, even now. No you want to see?’

Pat did not accept the challenge, but carried on as if Julia had not interrupted. ‘Did you never suspect? Did you never wonder why a good looking man would be attracted to someone who–’ Pat let her words hang.

‘Who is plain, overweight and dresses like a frump, at least on the outside.’ Julia completed the sentence for her. ‘I thought that he could see the person that I was not, beyond the surface. And that is what he told me, in a way.’

‘Look, our meeting was just by chance. He couldn’t have organised the whole seating plan just to get me to his table.’ Pat’s smile told her that he had indeed done just that. ‘But the sex, that wasn’t planned.’

‘Why do you think that,’ Pat just managed to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

‘Because, well because he told me about his wife dying, and when he suggested using his balcony to sun bathe he assured me I would be safe because he-, because he had been impotent since she died, and when I noticed he was responding to me he had to go and buy some condoms, and even then he needed some help, to get started. That couldn’t have been faked.’

Julia sat back with a feeling of triumph, but Pat raised her hand and ticked the points off on her fingers.

‘One, he’s married, still. Two, his wife just had a baby girl, a couple of days before the cruise. Three, the condoms he used weren’t sold on the ship. And four-’ she stopped.

‘And four, he needed help because he didn’t find me attractive, fat, ugly me, even a trained seducer couldn’t get hard at the sight of me.’ She wiped away a tear.

‘Look,’ Pat was in sympathetic mode now. ‘There’s some coffee and sandwiches next door. Have something to eat and drink, compose yourself, and have a think. Let’s meet back here in half an hour.’

Julia didn’t eat much, but she had a coffee and thought a lot. When she went back to Pat, she knew what she was going to do.

‘Pat,’ she began, ‘if that is your name, which I doubt, you obviously know everything about me and what happened, you probably even have video from his cabin.’ She waited and, after a pause, Pat nodded.

‘Yes, Julia, it was a scramble to get it installed but lucky for us we had a technician on the ship who managed to switch the equipment from our man’s cabin to Viktor’s suite. ‘I’ve been watching it again while you had your snack, actually.’

For the first time since she was a teenager, Julia blushed.

‘Look,’ Julia was not going to be diverted, ‘you know so much, this can’t be an interrogation. You know everything, so you know I didn’t mention work, didn’t give away any secrets. There’s something else, isn’t there. Another reason, I mean. Why not just cut to it and tell me what you want.’ And spare me any further embarrassment, she thought.

Pat took a while to make her decision.

‘You’re right. We wondered why he didn’t make a move on the ship or follow up when you got back, after all you had exchanged numbers. We thought he had given up on you, or his controllers had. But he’s here, right now, and he’s been checking up on where you live and work. We think he is ready to move in, although we are not sure what. We want you to go back to work and carry on as normal to draw him out and see what he’s after.’

‘Bait,’ Julia suggested, ‘a sort of reverse honey trap.’

‘No, we want you to play a much more active role than that, turn him for us if you can.’

‘And my special ops section, how much do they know?’

‘Next to nothing. They know he has arrived here, but not about your involvement, apart from the fact that you had met him. They will not be running this operation, so there is no potential for conflict or embarrassment on your part.’

‘OK,’ Julia agreed, ‘I’ll help in any way I can.’

Pat escorted her out of the building. As Julia was about to leave, she put a hand on her arm. ‘Julia, I’ve seen the videos, so believe me, you are not fat and you are not ugly. Never think that. The general opinion is that you are hot, believe me. Just remember that.’

 

[Foxy Lady]

Chapter 3: Viktor gets in touch



Julia stuck to her usual routine, doing nothing to alert anyone watching her that she was suspicious and making it easier for Pat’s team to spot any surveillance without drawing attention to themselves. The two women kept in touch by secure phonelines at the office.

It was a week before Pat had anything to report and then it was one of those feelings that watchers get, an intuition they called it,. In reality, it was a series of subtle changes to routine, a shift in the normal patterns they were used to seeing, that did not register consciously but were picked up by their experienced brains. Two days later, new electronic activity was being detected around Julia, probably reading and tracking her mobile phone. ‘Be ready’, was Julia’s advice, ‘have a plan but be flexible. Whatever you do, don’t put him off and don’t make him suspicious.’

Julia hadn’t needed to be given basic advice like that; she was not a novice after all. She’d thought a lot about Viktor, trying to put herself into his mind so that she could anticipate his moves. But her mind kept coming back to the times they had shared in his suite on the cruise ship and the fact that he had a wife and new baby at home. Did his wife know what he did? Had she lain awake imagining him seducing and shagging a woman on an ocean cruise? Had he whispered details of what they had done as he lay with his wife on his return? How did she really feel about what her husband had been doing?

The first contact was made on a Tuesday morning. The text came through as she was climbing the stairs from the tube on her way to the office. They had exchanged mobile phone numbers but his, of course, had not been active, until now. ‘Hi, it’s Viktor. Fancy meeting for a coffee? This morning? Lunchtime?’

Julia imagined how a woman who had been seduced on a cruise and then ignored would react. She might be needy and desperate or she might be annoyed and frosty. Or, she would, Julia decided, not want to miss out on another adventure but would not throw herself at someone who obviously saw her as a convenience. So, her first reply was plausible but not eager. ‘Hi, Viktor, sorry I am really busy today, so I can’t get out. Maybe this evening after work, before I meet my friend for supper.’ It was true about the friend, and Viktor probably knew that if he had read her texts.

He left her waiting for a reply, but eventually agreed. ‘OK, 5 at Costa outside Victoria Station.’ Her reply was a curt ‘See you.’

Their meeting was cool and business-like to begin with. He bought the coffees, she declined any cake, they sat down and he asked how she had been. ‘Fine, what about you?’ ‘Fine too.’ These were just the opening moves, the pawns advancing slowly across the board. ‘So what have you been doing?’ she asked eventually, only to get a vague reply about ‘being busy, you know how it is.’

As their cups emptied, Julia judged it time to move things on from this gentle sparring. ‘So,’ leaned back in her chair. ‘tell what has kept you so busy that you couldn’t even find time to send me a text.’ She stretched out her legs and listened as the rehearsed answer flowed out. Plausible, but a complete fabrication. Her leg nudged his a couple of times and his ankle caught hers. She smiled when he had finished, checked her watch and stood up. ‘Sorry, it’s time to meet my friend.’ He managed to look disappointed. At the last moment, she turned back. ‘I’ve missed you,’ she said and was gone before she had a chance to see his genuine smile. One of success or relief?

She was putting her key into her front door at 11.35 when she heard her name. She turned and he was standing right before her. She had not heard him. ‘Surprised?’ he asked. ‘Yes,’ she confirmed. ‘Pleasantly surprised?’ ‘Come in and I’ll show you,’ was her reply.

 

[Foxy Lady]

As Julia closed the front door of her house, Viktor’s fingers swiftly unzipped her dress and, as she turned towards him, he pushed it over her shoulders and over her broad hips. She kicked it aside as she pulled at the buttons of his shirt.

‘I’m wet for you,’ she breathed, and his fingers confirmed that she was. His shirt was off now and he was fumbling with the fastening of her bra.

‘Here?’ he suggested.

‘Bedroom,’ she insisted and ran up the stairs two at a time, the cheeks of her fat ass bouncing I Viktor’s face as he pounded after her.

With Viktor’s trousers and shorts around on the carpet at their feet, Julia pushed him backwards onto the bed and grabbed his cock, pulling hard until it was stiff enough to penetrate her. Then she pushed aside her thong and sank onto him. with a long sigh.

‘That’s sooo goooooodddddddddd,’ she held him inside her briefly, ‘I’ve not had a man in there since the cruise.’

Viktor was nuzzling her tits and pulling her ass.

‘When did you last fuck?’ she tried not to sound too concerned, just a casual inquiry.

‘With you,’ he looked her in the eye as he said it, then rolled her onto her back and began pumping frantically.

Julia was thrusting and bucking beneath him, screaming at him that she couldn’t wait. She was soon shaking, her tits and belly wobbling as her body shook with her orgasm. Viktor groaned and collapsed on top of her.







‘So, what’re your thoughts so far?’ Pat asked the man and the woman who were watching the feed with her. ‘While there is a natural break in proceedings.’

‘To be honest, it looks like she is putting on a show for him,’ was the man’s reaction.

‘It looks like an exuberant outpouring of sexual joy to me,’ the woman disagreed.

‘She isn’t the first professional woman who is desperate for a good fuck,’ Pat tried to lighten the tone and shared a smile with the woman. ‘Maybe we need to take that into account?’ she suggested.

The man did not agree. ‘I’m a man and so is Viktor. If it seems unnatural to me, it may seem that way to him, and remember that guy is a professional at this. We can’t afford to allow him to become suspicious.’







In a van, parked a few houses along the road from Julia’s home, two women were watching the same feed from a different angle.

‘He’s impressive, isn’t he,’ one remarked.

The other sneered. ‘Nothing special from what I could see. Bit on the thin side for me, and average length.’

‘That’s not what I meant. I meant that he could get hard with that lump of flesh. I wonder what his wife thinks about this.’

‘She doesn’t know. She believes that he is totally faithful to her.’

‘So we are bugging his home, then. I wondered if we were.’

‘What about her, though, does she know what he is or is she just desperate for a good fuck?’

‘Too early to say, we need to see more to get a feel for her.’

‘Yea, like Viktor, he’s getting a good feel by the look of it.’

They adjusted the screen and settled down to watch developments.

 

[Foxy Lady]

Chapter 5: Viktor gets sprayed

It was cramped in the van and the two women were crushed against each other as they watched the monitor.

‘He’s got a great ass, hasn’t he,’ one exclaimed.

‘Uuummm, fantastic technique. Look at the way he laps her from her ass all the way into her lady garden, long strokes, thick tongue,’ the other squirmed in her seat. ‘And back again,’ she sighed.

‘He’s covering up that he can’t get hard and who can blame him faced with that flab.’

‘Fuck, I wish my husband would do that. Any chance of us getting a copy of this?’

‘My God,’ the first woman pushed her face closer to the small screen, ‘look at her clawing at her tits. She’s cumming again, already.’




‘Yes, yea, yes,’ Julia was screaming and writhing, pushing her pussy into Viktor’s face. In the back of her mind she knew that she should be concentrating on the task of extracting any information that she could from him, but right now she didn’t give a shit about any of that. To hell with her job and to hell with Pat. She was getting off and she was enjoying it.

Her hands were clutching the bedding now, hanging on for dear life so that she didn’t rock off the bed. She knew what was going to happen and she didn’t care. She could warn Viktor but that would have broken his rhythm.

Then it happened. A sudden explosion in her belly, her body shook violently, and a spray hit Viktor right in the face.

He raised his dripping chin and laughed.




Pat pushed her chair back and looked at the man beside her.

‘So, do you think that she was putting that on?’

 

[Foxy Lady]

Julia and Viktor collapsed into helpless giggles as Julia’s lady shower dripped off his face and onto his chest. He pulled her towards him, kissing her and forcing her to taste her own juices, before lying back and spreading his arms across the bed. Julia took the invitation and began licking his chest, wriggling around the bed as her head descended to his cock that was lying flaccid on his belly. Once there, she took it into her mouth. Viktor began to squirm as her teeth sank into his soft flesh and wince as her nails scratched his balls.





The woman in the van gasped as Julia tackled his cock like a sausage.

‘Poor guy, she hasn’t got a clue how to work him.’

‘My partner would hit me if I treated him like that.’



Pat looked at her colleagues.

The man was squirming in his chair almost as much as Viktor was on the bed.

‘God, oh my god, just look at that.’

‘Amateur,’ the woman remarked.

‘Yea, but hot, so hot to be eaten like that. Shit, Pat, I’m going to need a break after this.’

The woman opposite him kicked off her shoe and pushed her foot between his thighs.



Viktor came suddenly, arching his back and bucking as he shot down Julia’s throat. She rose and smiled, as his sperm dribbled from the corner of his mouth. Then she pulled the sheet over them.

 

[Foxy Lady]

Julia rolled towards Viktor and whispered in his ear.

‘Now do you believe that I missed you?’

His answer was a kiss that reassured he did.

She wrapped her legs round him and pulled him closer, stroking him lightly and kissing his neck. He buried his face between her breasts.

‘Viktor,’ her lips brushed his ear, ‘I want you to make a promise.’

‘Of course,’ his reply was spontaneous.

‘Promise me that you are not laughing at me. I really couldn’t cope if you were just making fun of a plain, overweight, middle-aged woman. Viktor, I really, seriously could not handle that.’

He pushed her onto her back and eased her thighs apart. ‘You made a man of me again on the cruise, I told you that, and I will never forget that you did that for me. and, once and for all, you are not plain, overweight or middle-aged.’ He emphasised each word with a kiss, on her left breast, then her right and on her clit. Julia shivered and gasped as he slid between her legs, his cock pushing urgently at her pussy.

He worked on her expertly, slowly, with lips and teeth and fingers, as his cock kept a gentle rhythm of long strokes. They did not speak, there was no need, each knew how close the other was to orgasm as Viktor took them to the edge and pulled back, cooling them down, before beginning the slow climb back.

The end, when it came, was visible to the watchers only as a shudder of the sheet that covered them.





‘What the fuck is she playing at?’ the man demanded as he turned to Pat.

The other woman was quick to respond. ‘What she’s doing is obvious, isn’t it. She making love and wants privacy. It’s what I would want, what any woman would want.’

‘So she knows that she is being filmed then,’ the man was surprised, ‘I thought it had been cleared by ethics that she shouldn’t be told.’

‘It was,’ Pat intervened, ‘but she is an experienced officer, so she probably suspects.’

The man was furious. ‘I don’t believe I am hearing this, Pat. We have no idea what they have been talking about, and we will only have her word for what it was. That is not what we all agreed.’

‘She didn’t agree,’ the other woman pointed out, ‘because she wasn’t told. We haven’t taken her completely into our confidence, so how could she agree.’





The conversation in the van was different.

‘Three times, am I right, three times. My partner never manages more than two.’

‘Most guys manage two, and then only if you’re lucky. They usually lose interest before then.’

‘It was probably easier with the sheet covering them, so he couldn’t see all that flab.’

 

[Foxy Lady]

It was Viktor’s fault; he was sure of it. He had slipped out of Julia’s house just before the commuter rush, bleary eyed and unshaven. He had stepped back to avoid a dog walker with a trail of dogs behind her and had knocked the woman over. He rushed to her aid and helped her back onto her feet with an apology. Early to mid thirties, short brown hair, blue suit, white blouse, low heels and – he couldn’t miss the flash of thigh as she spread her legs slightly to get to her feet – stockings.

Another, profuse apology, which she brushed off with a wave of her left hand – no wedding ring – followed by an offer of a coffee, which she accepted. ‘Let me pay, please,’ she insisted. ‘You look like you need one more than me.’

‘Why?’ he asked when they were settled, their knees knocking under the small table.

‘Why?’ she asked in return, ‘why what?’

‘Why did you say I was the one who needed a coffee?’

‘Oh nothing, you looked tired, that’s all. Late night?’ she smiled as she took her first sip, that left frothy milk on her upper lip.

‘Late, yes, and tiring.’ Both were true. Julia had been more demanding that his wife always was when he returned from a mission overseas.

She smiled again, but asked no more questions, just chatted about the weather before draining the rest of her drink and announcing that it was time to go.

‘I was wondering-‘ Viktor began in his mock hesitant tone, just wondering, whether-‘

A final smile and she wrote a number on a page torn from a small, leather bound notebook.

Although he was sure it had been his fault, in his line of work it was always wise to check. So, out of habit, he followed her discreetly. She made no attempt to evade being tailed and let herself into an office block with a pass. So far so good. But not enough. There were four firms listed in the foyer and a web search back at his hotel confirmed her name and revealed line of work. A lawyer, specialising in commercial and residential tenancies. There was a photograph too. She had longer hair, blonde then, younger but definitely the same woman.

He planned to ask her to meet for lunch, but fell asleep and only work in mid afternoon. His first two calls went to voicemail and he got no reply to his invitations for a drink after work. No response to a text. But then on the third call she answered, and agreed, but said she would have to ring him when she was free because of a late meeting.

It was half past seven when she rang. ‘It’s you who sounds tired now,’ he told her. ‘Why not come to my hotel and we can have a snack in the bar.’ ‘I’ll come to your hotel,’ was her reply, ‘but I’d rather have a fuck.’

Half an hour later, she was stripping off in his room and tossing a condom at him. ‘No offence,’ she remarked as she slipped out of her bra. ‘None taken,’ he replied. She pushed him onto his back and climbed astride. ‘I don’t have long,’ she told him, ‘I need to catch my train.’

And off she went, taking him at the gallop. Half an hour later she was gone and Viktor lay on the bed wondering what had just happened.

 

[Foxy Lady]

Pat Skyped Julia. The face that appeared on the screen was tired but glowing.

‘How did it go last evening?’ Pat asked innocently.

‘Good, really good,’ Julia replied.

‘When did he leave?’

‘Late, very late.’ Julia’s face lit up with a broad grin. ‘But you know that, don’t you. The watchers in the van will have reported to you.’

Pat tried to return the smile, hoping she had covered her momentary confusion at hearing about watchers she knew nothing about. With the camera and microphones in Julia’s house, there had been no need for anyone on watch outside.

‘So you’re tired then.’

‘And sore,’ Julia laughed.

‘Yea, I know how you’re feeling. It’s easy to get carried away after a fallow period.’

‘It’s lucky I’m not going to see Viktor for a couple of days,’ Julia admitted, ‘it will give me a chance to recover. Viktor as well, he must be knackered.’

‘Are you sure you can treat this with detachment?’ Pat’s tone was serious now.

‘Of course, I’m having fun. It’s good to get some serious male attention after so long, even if I know that it is an act. But I may as well make the most of it while it’s available. It’s not like I am a naïve recently deflowered teenager.’ She hoped her response would reassure Pat, but Pat did not take up the hint.

‘So what approach did you take with him, Julia?’

‘Happy and a bit desperate, like a middle-aged divorcee who can’t quite believe her luck. With a hint of vulnerability that will allow him an opening if he wants to make an approach.’

Pat was not sure that that had come across on the performance she had witnessed the previous evening.

‘Did you get any hint that he might be open to an offer to come over to us?’ She didn’t really expect it, and he would probably not have any useful information anyway. But it was important that so senior an officer as Julia should feel that she was doing something more than acting as bait.

‘None, but it is too early to judge. Though there were moments, Pat, when I could almost have convinced myself that he was sincere in what he was saying to me, so I am reserving judgement for the moment.’

‘Right,’ Pat was drawing the interview to a close, ‘just go about your duties and private life as normal. Wait for him to make contact. Keep me informed. And use plenty of cold cream.’

Julia laughed. ‘I have already.’

The connection went dead and Pat picked up her phone.

‘Just had an interesting chat with Julia. She thought she spotted some watchers outside her house, so that needs to be checked and make sure that we have someone there, discreetly. I’m not sure she is as savvy as she is pretending, so make sure that she doesn’t get to handle anything particularly sensitive except that case we talked about. That is just the sort of thing she might slip him if she wanted to keep him happy.’

 

[Foxy Lady]

Viktor’s controller was furious.

‘Has he taken leave of his senses? What does he think he’s playing at? He’s not on holiday. This could jeopardise the entire mission that’s taken two years to plan.’

The others present at the meeting knew to keep quiet until he had calmed down, which he eventually did.

‘So,’ he took a deep breath, ‘what is our analysis of this event? Is she working for the other side or just a woman interested in some casual sex?’

He looked at the nervous man on his left.

‘Viktor checked her out as best he could, in the time available.’ The controller stifled the derisive snorts around the table and the man continued. ‘We’ve made the same checks and tried to get deeper into her background. It seems that she is just what she appears to be. Which doesn’t mean, of course, that she is not being used by the other side.’

‘Why would they want to do that and give away that they were onto us?’ The question came from a woman at the end of the table.

‘Good question,’ the controller smiled, ‘unless of course they anticipate that reasoning and think they can get away with it.’

‘But why?’ the woman persisted. ‘She didn’t plant anything in his room, she didn’t search it, and she didn’t take anything from it, and they could have arranged that anyway without drawing attention to themselves.’

‘True,’ the controller conceded, ‘there are so many possibilities, known and unknown, like there always are.’

As everyone knew, that was the way it would always be.

‘What about Viktor?’ The controller turned to the woman on his right. ‘How is he taking this, Veronika?’

The smartly dressed slim woman shifted in her seat, coughed, and looked around the room.

‘Not well. He’s badly shaken. She blind-sided him completely. He was foolish to get involved, even if she was just a casual kook up, as he is the first to acknowledge. But it has unsettled him that she could be working for the other side. And worse, his confidence has taken a knock.’

‘Really,’ the woman at the far end of the table seemed surprised at this, ‘why should he lose confidence by being picked up by some horny woman on the prowl?’

‘Because,’ Veronika made an obvious effort to explain as simply as she could, ‘the work we employ him for is seduction and he is – was anyway – good at it. But to have a woman take him by surprise and take control sexually, that’s not something he’s used to. Added to everything else, the psychological appraisal indicates-’ She stared pleadingly at the controller.

‘People like Viktor,’ the controller seemed no more comfortable then Veronika, ‘depend on confidence, just like all men do. But unlike most of us,’ he nudged Veronika with is foot, ‘he does not get to pick his own sexual partners. It was obvious from the time of first contact on the cruise last year that he did not find Julia attractive. Quite the opposite in fact. And this led him to experience some difficulties.’

‘You mean,’ there was a loud snort from the far end of the table, ‘that he couldn’t get it up.’

‘He experienced some difficulties,’ Veronika was quite to support her boss, ‘but he managed to turn them to his advantage, very successfully.’

But the other woman was not to be put down or put off. ‘He wasn’t having any trouble the other night, from what I saw of the video of him and Julia. Has he been popping those little blue life savers?’

‘No,’ Veronika snapped, ‘he hasn’t, although he was ordered to refrain from sex for the two months before he made contact with Julia again. No sex, no masturbating.’

The men around the table stared at her in silent empathy with Viktor and his plight.

‘Causing some marital friction, I understand,’ the controller put in.

‘To come back to the point,’ Veronika stepped in to get the meeting to order, ‘his confidence has been undermined by this, personally and professionally. And the success of this entire mission depends on his ability to perform. To retain a feeling of being in control.’

‘Pathetic,’ another snort from the end of the table.

‘Throw him in at the deep end, that’ll get his confidence back.’ The forceful contribution from the nervous man to the controller’s left took everyone by surprise. So much by surprise that they agreed unanimously that that was indeed the best course of action.

Viktor would be ordered to make contact with Julia for another visit that evening.