"Candid Camera"
Naples Central Train Station June 5th, 2008 1715 hours The clock bell chimed a quarter past five. Hundreds of people crowded the train station, waiting for their transport home from their busy work day. All except one. He was still on his busy work day, a day which had already involved flying to two different cities and driving around this one to the train station. Jaime adjusted his peaked cap as he looked around the station. The square shape of the small mini-disc case pressed firmly in his hand, he moved seemingly at random through the crowd, slowly making his way across to a specific garbage can. As he moved, his thoughts went back to the meeting with Michael the day before, where he had been given the details and the item for the errand he had to run for the Section chief. == Section One, previous day == "This minidisc contains important intel for one of our clients. You will fly out to Naples and drop the disc for our client to retrieve after you have left." "A dead drop. Ok, but...why me?" "You were available." "Fair enough. Where's the drop to take place?" "Naples Central Train Station. There is a bench seat located next to a garbage can with a dented lid. Under the seat is a clip to fit this disc case," he'd then handed over the disc case, with the disc inside Jaime had presumed, "attach the case to the clip and make your exit. The drop must be complete by no later than 5.30pm tomorrow." "No worries." "That is all. You have a transport waiting." Jaime had just nodded and left. == Naples == There it was. Jaime had already scouted every other garbage can in the station, and all were in immaculate condition...except this one, with a dent in the lid. How convenient. He moved deliberately over to the seat he saw to the right of the bin and sat, leaning back and looking around as if bored. He looked down and seemed to notice he had a shoelace undone. Leaning down, one hand went to his shoe as the other felt around under the seat for the clip. Upon finding the clip, he attached the mini-disc case and felt it click into place softly. Job done. He finished up with the shoelace and sat back again, crossing his legs. After five minutes he stood and made his exit. The clock chimed half past five. Naples Central Train Station 1936 hrs It had been about two hours since Jaime had placed the disc under the bench. Jaime was in place, on a rooftop overlooking the train station, a telescopic zoom-lens digital camera sighted onto the bench seat. He wasn't expected to report back to Michael on this for another 4 hours, so he had decided he wanted to know who the intel he was passing on was going to. A figure walked over to the seat and sat. A few other people had already done this and every time Jaime had not stopped looking down the viewfinder of the camera until he was certain they hadn't lifted the package. He sighted down the viewfinder and set his finger on the button. He almost wished for a modified rifle designed to do camera work with, it would have been so much more comfortable. The figure he was watching sat back in the seat, looking around as if bored...in much the same way Jaime had done when making the drop. Jaime could feel the hair on the back of his neck rise slightly as he watched the man on the bench seat. The man crossed his legs, accidentally – or so it seemed – knocking his briefcase onto the floor. Jaime watched intently, finger resting on the camera button, ready to photograph his subject should he retrieve the disc. The man uncrossed his legs, bent down to pick up his briefcase and stood, walking off to the ticket booth and crossing the floor of the station out of sight. Jaime breathed normally again; the man hadn't taken the package. == Three and a half hours later == It was getting close his report-in time with Michael. He had been lying in the same position for nearly six hours and while it was not uncomfortable, it wasn't exactly the best place to be, lying prone on a building roof at night. And while his attention wasn't even beginning to wane – he'd had to wait far longer than this for a target before – he was wondering when this guy was going to turn up. Jaime noticed a movement in the station as looked back through the lens after having just stretched his next to avoid it getting stiff. Looking down the telescopic zoom lens he saw the station janitor making the rounds, emptying rubbish bins. Jaime watched as the janitor approached what he had come to think of as `his' bin and remove the lid, lifting out the plastic bag liner and dumping it in his trolley. The janitor then started wiping down the bench with a cloth. Nothing unusual there, until he got on his hands and knees and started cleaning under the seat. Jaime got ready on the button, as a little voice in his head noted that the janitor hadn't bothered cleaning *under* any other benches. Jaime saw the janitor pass his hand over where he knew the package to be, and just managed to catch him conceal the disc case in his cloth. His finger pressed down quickly on the camera button, rapidly taking photos as the `janitor' sat up, shoved the cloth in his pocket, stood, grabbed his trolley and continued on his rounds. Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean 0343 hours Jaime couldn't sleep. He could almost feel the photos he had snapped of the drop contact sitting above his head in the overhead luggage compartment. The entire flight back to the States, he could only think of one thing: getting those pictures back to Paige. Return