1. Vanishing Act

The first chapter of my spy thriller based on a dream I had.

Stefanie sat at a small table outside of the ice-cream shop eating a cone of frozen yogurt as she watched the eclectic mix of people stroll by on the boardwalk. 'Boardwalk' was an inaccurate term for the path that led among the dunes since it was actually made of asphalt, but that's what everyone called it. The twenty five year-old wore a blue halter, green shorts, sunglasses and a Blue-tooth headset. Her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she had a baseball cap on her head. Sitting at the table next to hers were two young men, one of whom kept smiling at her. She ignored him and kept watching the people walk by.

A few miles away sat a maroon sedan along a quiet, tree-lined street. At the wheel was a man of fifty with rugged good looks wearing khakis and a red polo shirt. He stared at the display of the laptop in front of him. He, too, wore a headset.

“Heads-up, Stef,” he said, “She's headed your way. Judging by her speed, she's either on roller-blades or a bicycle. Can you see her?”

Stefanie lowered her frozen yogurt and looked down the boardwalk. “Not yet, Jon,” she answered, “Wait! There she is. You're right, she's on a bike.”

Stefanie watched as a pretty young woman with short blond hair rode past, carefully navigating her bicycle through the crowd of people along the path. She came to another paved path that crossed the one she was on and turned.

“She just went north on Sawgrass,” said Stefanie.

“I knew it!” he said with satisfaction, “She's either headed for the boathouse or the old dance hall. Get ready to move out as soon as we figure out which.”

“Right,” she replied. She stood up, tossed the rest of her cone into a trash can and walked over to the golf cart she had rented earlier.

“Did you hear that, Becka?” Jonathon continued, “She's headed your way now.”

About a hundred yards away another pretty young woman with a headset, this one with raven hair pulled back into a ponytail, stood at an outdoor souvenir shop casually perusing the merchandize. She looked along the paved pathway. “She'll be hard to miss,” she responded, “There's hardly anyone around here.”

“You should be getting a visual on her now,” said Jonathon.

“Nope,” she replied, “Not yet.”

“Are you sure?! She's like, forty yards away from you!”

“All I see is an elderly couple and a big guy walking a dog.”

“C'mon, Becka! She's practically on top of... what the hell?! She's gone!!”

“What do you mean 'she's gone'?!” asked Stefanie.

“Her signal just disappeared!” he said as he tapped frantically at the keys on his laptop. “Becka, you didn't see her?! She was right there!”

“I'm telling you I didn't see her!” Becka replied testily, “It must be a technology failure.”

“But...”

“Maybe she's on to us and gave us the slip somehow,” suggested Stefanie.

“Impossible!” argued Becka, “We were extra careful. There's no way she could know about us. It must've been a technology failure.”

“Well, the technology worked fine when she went past me,” said Stefanie with sharp edge to her voice.

“Are you calling me a liar?!”

“Alright!  That's enough, you two,” chided Jonathon.

“Jon, do you want me to head over to the boathouse anyway and see if she shows up?” asked Stefanie.

He paused for a few moments before he answered, “No, if she's on to us as you say, she won't go anyplace where we'll expect her. Both of you head on back and I'll pick you up at the golf cart rental place. We'll figure out our next move after that.”

“Alright.”

“On my way,” added Becka.

A feeling of disquiet came over Jonathon as he stared at his laptop in disbelief.  How did she just disappear like that? Even if it was a technology failure - and he didn't believe it was - Becka should have seen her!

Damn! he thought as he shook his head in frustration, this girl is good!

Author's Note

I actually dreamed this story one night. I received several requests to continue the story so here it is.

Suggestions and constructive criticisms are always welcome.

Reviews

[C. Rose]

"the technology worked just fined when she passed me" is my favorite line.
A fun read. I like that you showed us the spies before telling us their names and you did it in the order the target was moving in.
I think the main reason you succeeded in catching my interest is that the target is a young woman on a bike, not an old man in a black car. You've hooked me into figuring out why they are trailing her.

[Craig2591]

Thank you very much.

[Barbara Walker]

My you have intriguing dreams! Written up very well. Great write.

[Craig2591]

Thanks!

[kwestion22]

I like the twist! Definitely keeps the reader wondering. Are you going to expand on this one?

[Craig2591]

I'd like to, but I'm not sure if I can. Thanks for the review.

[Fictionborn]

I have this eerie sense that the predator becomes the prey. Roger that.

[Craig2591]

Quite possibly. Thanks for the review.

[Nienor Niniel]

Yes, eat more nachos. I wonder who the woman on the bike is.

My dreams are always ridiculously nonsensical, or else I would do this type of thing.

[Craig2591]

My dreams are usually nonsensical, too. This one was an exception. I hope I can dream the next chapter, too.

Thanks for the review.

[Tabitha t]

I really reall;y like this. I love this kind of thing and I would love to see you expand on this and make this a novel. Action packed and full of awesome sauce!

[Craig2591]

Frankly Tabitha, I have no idea where to go with this. To continue it would involve a lot of intrigue and complex plot lines and those are things that I'm not good at. But I will give it a lot of thought because it is rather intriguing. Maybe I can come up with something more simple. It would be fun to get Ian and Chrissy involved, too. They could get unwillingly drawn into it somehow.

I'm glad you liked it and thank you for the review.

[Bella Luna]

Wow! This was really interesting! The descriptions were perfect and you really set up some intrigue! You better eat some more nachos! Will you be continuing it? Because I hope so! :)

[Craig2591]

I'm glad you liked it. I don't know about continuing it because I wouldn't know where to go next with the story. I'll think about it, though.