Any Plans? (Patreon)

Laylana’s agency phone was showing an incoming call to a number she had kept since joining the Army Rangers. It was technically a personal number, but it had served her a few times over the years as a way to stay in contact with people she didn’t want going through CIA channels. They didn’t know the number got rerouted or that the signal got scrambled, encoded, decoded, and unscrambled. To them, it was just a phone call.

Laylana accepted the call.

“Vals, hey… Laylana… hey… This is Bedeken… Dawson… Dawson Bedeken… ”

Laylana rifled through her memories for the name. It took a long awkward breath’s length in time, but she remembered.

“Dawson…” Laylana wondered if the smile could be heard over her surprise. “What? Three years? Four?”

“Four. South Iran… Bandar Abbas…”

Laylana remembered it—and Dawson—well. “Persian Gulf pirates, but not really pirates…”

“Yeah,” Dawson replied. “That was a good op. We nailed it.”

Laylana and two other Rangers had hooked up with a Navy Seal team to recon and, if possible, neutralize, a terrorist cell who were thought to be pirates. And they might have actually been that, too, but they were definitely a terrorist cell first. The operation had taken a few weeks with a lot of idle time staring out windows of various warehouses and walking the piers at the port.

“Yeah, we did good work." Laylana paused, then said, "You kept my number?”

Dawson’s voice revealed his enthusiasm. “Heck yeah! Best looking Army Ranger I ever saw, and one heck of a soldier, to boot. I’ve thought about calling many times, but you know… I was in a sub for six months after our op, then I sort of felt like I didn’t have a reason to call… Then you… sort of dropped off the grid after you went to the CIA. I’m glad you can still get calls at this number… I didn't know, for sure…"

Laylana smiled to herself and replied, “But now, four years later, you call…” 

Part of Laylana wondered if he was somehow connected to what had happened in Indonesia. She didn’t like coincidences very much, especially when a lot was on the line.

“Yeah… Well, I’m out of the service now… I do private security work. And… I’m outside Paris. I remembered you said you had visited once, and had thought it was great… and… Yeah, so I called. Is it okay? Is this a good time?”

Laylana answered. “It’s a good time to call. I’m… I got more or less benched for a while.”

“Benched? What happened?”

“Well,” Laylana replied, “I’m not… No one is really sure, but I got IDed in a place I never was getting satellite images I wasn’t supposed to get to a place I’ve never been and probably won’t ever go.”

“Benched… Wow…”

“Beats getting burned,” Laylana answered.

“I suppose that’s true…” Dawson paused. “I was thinking… I was going to ask if you knew anything going on in Paris that… I should factor into my plans… But given your being benched, I won’t even ask… But… How about this? Maybe you’d have time to come to Paris. Big city and I’m not too familiar with it. Easy work, mostly… I just need a solid defensive survey… Best routes, worst places to visit… Basic security stuff… You could hang out with me… and my team… You could help a little, if you want.”

“You are asking me to come to Paris?” Laylana whirled ideas through her head how it could be connected to her troubles and if so how Paris fit in.”

Dawson replied. “Why not? I bet at least one of the secret identities I assume you have has some travel miles… Check in with somebody in your up-line, and then book a flight?”

Laylana’s mind raced. If it was a setup, and if she were on high alert, she might get some answers. And if it were just an old acquaintance calling up out of the blue, she might have a little fun while the dust from Indonesia settled.

“Paris…” Laylana replied. “I’ll shoot you a text with arrival time. I should be able to hit this quick and make it happen.”

"Any Plans?" is an interlogue, (Account #4) from the Secrets Of The World storyline. It follows "Laylana's Forest Nightmare," "By Any Means," and “Between Jobs” in the series.

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