It was as dark outside as the ashes of a fire, covering the buildings of the sleeping city at almost one in the morning. What was I doing out here at this hour? Picking up Ashton and I's new IDs and papers from one of his old assets.
Our plastic cards and passports weighed heavy in the pocket of my black jacket, the same trench coat I had worn in Moscow. It would be stupid to send two of us to do a one-man job, especially when Ashton could be planning our route through Israel and our cover identities, which was exactly what he was doing at the hotel.
He knew the country better than I did, and he knew how their officers operated. To make it into and then out of Tel Aviv as free people we needed to leave no stone unturned. It was quintessential to our survival. If one thing went wrong we would be turned away and sent back to Belarus where we would be discovered. If not we would end up in an Israeli prison, or killed if they discovered Ashton's identity and I was found with him. It was a risk we didn't want to have to take, which is exactly why we needed to know our schooling history, our teachers, our cars, degrees, addresses, wedding dates, religion, family members, what hotel we were staying at, how long, why we were here, what we did for a living; anything we could ever possibly be asked about had to be flawlessly memorized. Our flight was in two days and everything had to be perfect by then.
Nothing ever went that smoothly.
You're probably wondering what happened after Ashton and I had sex. Simple answer; he fucked me again in the shower then we dyed our hair and sent our ID photographs to Ashton's contact. I didn't think us hooking up was a big deal. I'm sure a lot of girls would have conflicting feelings after that or would want a commitment but I didn't. I highly doubted Ashton felt that way either. Our employment situations were very much in the air and despite the fact that both Ashton and I considered ourselves to be each other's closest friends. The fact of who we worked for could change that relationship very quickly, as well as our locations in the world. Besides, neither of us were built for a relationship if that's what you are hoping for. The two of us are lone rangers. I can't ever imagine either one of us having a child. God, that would be an ethical crisis and a half for me.
The point being; attachments were bad. They clouded your judgement, and bad judgement got you killed. I was just going to live in the moment. Whether that meant this was a one-time thing or that we would have a friends with benefits type of relationship was undetermined, but it would work itself out.
So here I was in downtown Minsk with my black heals quietly padding on the damp sidewalk, the sparse streetlights reflecting off the water in the roads. It was almost completely silent with the exception of the occasional car driving by. All the shops were closed and the people in their warm homes. It was different from many of the other cities I had visited in the sense that there wasn't much nightlife at one in the morning nor were there many twenty four hour places to go.
In retrospect, that's exactly how I knew I was being followed.
It's a feeling that consumes your subconscious if you know what it feels like from experience. Whoever was following me wouldn't kill me in the streets; they would wait until I ducked down an alley or went back to the hotel. I kept my gaze trained ahead, not giving any indication that I knew someone had their eyes glued to my figure. I hoped to God it was the same man from Moscow because if it was we were safe. I knew how the CIA works and they only contact handlers once a week maximum. There was no way anyone else would know I was in Minsk. In addition, either Ashton or I had been in the hotel room at all times and we swept for bugs when we first arrived, so our hotel room was safe for now.
I watched in the window of one of the dark shops while I turned the corner, spotting a dark shadowy body lingering across the street in the shadows, maybe fifteen feet back. I had to shake them off my tail before I went to the hotel again, or better yet, take care of them for good.
