February 2023 Story - Blowing the Mission (Chapter 1) (Patreon)

Agent Tom Ross wasn’t one for casinos. He wasn’t a gambling man and he hardly played poker. However, Casino di Venezia, the oldest casino in the world, was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was small but had that faded old charm to it with Roman statues, creaky floorboards, and Renaissance architecture. Like all the other buildings in Venice, Casino di Venezia sat on the water, and offered some very lovely views on the balconies.

Despite not being a gambler, Ross enjoyed the gambling aesthetic. The whiff of cigar smoke, the clinking of glass, and the roulettes turning, the dice tumbling. Ross enjoyed watching it all and taking in the sounds. He reveled in the environment of high-class. Unlike the typical American casino, nobody here wore jeans or sweatpants or shorts or sandals. While it was true that the 21st century introduced the idea of the young billionaire bumming it out in a sweatshirt and jeans, Europe still maintained that old sense of class. Ross liked to have an excuse to get out his tux and polished black dress shoes.

Ross loitered by the main bar that stretched out across the wall, cradling a gin and tonic. He must have looked like a tourist gawking at the ceiling and the walls and the architecture that was nearly 400 years old. He had to keep reminding himself not to give himself away. Casino di Venezia wasn’t even originally built as a casino, but a theater. However, there was a wing designated for gambling during intermissions that remained there to this day. It wasn’t until 1959 that they officially turned it into a casino, during the heyday of the gambling lifestyle. It was some real James Bond shit, something Ross was experiencing for the first time on his first international mission.

Across some tables, he finally spotted his contact – Haley Steinfield. She was a legendary British agent, having gone to China, Russia, and Iraq. She had quite the number of accomplished missions under her belt, all before hitting the age of 32. Ross had the pleasure of working with her during his time as an analyst back in Langley. She often visited as a foreign consultant, sometimes staying in the States for a few weeks before venturing off again. They first met when they took part in a joint task force to uncover Russia’s cybersecurity risks. Haley was going to Russia to investigate the suspected groups therein. Before doing so, she met up with the Americans to share information. Ross had a long meeting with her cross-referencing things. He remembered feeling so nervous trying to crack jokes to try to get her to like him. She actually laughed at his jokes, and he knew he had finally put his foot in the door.

To put it lightly, Ross found her to be fucking hot. The thing that always aroused him even more was that she didn’t seem to really notice it. She casually strutted her breasts and ass about, seemingly unaware of how they drove the other analysts wild when she walked by. Anytime someone heard that Haley Steinfield was visiting, all the men in the office dressed their best and passed around breath mints. For years, Ross had thought he wanted a relatively nerdy, goofy girl who kept to herself. He thought he would meet someone like that in the CIA. But when he met Haley, she awakened something in him. She had long brunette hair, accompanied by hazel eyes and a pointed face, and often dressed to the nines in tight business suits with flats. She wore glasses, spoke confidently, and knew her stuff. No matter what kind of dumpster fire they were going through at work, she kept her cool. She looked as though she could kick your ass, while at the same time joked around and could have a beer with the boys at the local bar. And that accent! Good Lord, that sexy posh accent killed him.

When he was an analyst, Haley sometimes leaned over him to point at something on the computer, usually a location on a map or a dossier on a perp. Ross could hardly contain his quivering whenever she did that. Her voice – deep and sensual. She always wore some expensive perfume that drove him wild.

Ross always imagined roleplaying with her. The hot librarian. The hot teacher. She could easily slip into any of those domination roles with high sexual tension.

And here she was, on a mission with him.

Ross’s heart thumped like crazy as she strolled to the bar. She looked phenomenal. Her hair was tied in a ponytail. She wore a long black dress that swept the floor with a gold belt around her waist. She very briefly glanced at him before ordering a drink. That was his cue.

Ross held his breath and stopped quivering. He ran a hand through his hair and made sure his breath didn’t stink.

Haley pretended not to notice him. That was part of the mission.

Hey…in a way…we are actually roleplaying, he thought to himself.

He composed himself before those thoughts could break him.

“Excuse me, Miss Havisham?”

Haley turned around. She raised a brow and said, “I’m sorry, I think you’ve got the wrong person.”

“Oh, darn. You really remind me of someone I once knew.”

Haley smiled thinly. “Maybe let’s have a drink and I can jog your memory.”

Technology was not as it used to be years ago. Agents could get away talking about state secrets in a crowded room. Not so much anymore. Anybody could be listening with any sort of device. The two of them had to be on their toes with their metaphors and similes in order to get across their points.

Haley was meant to meet up with him to confirm the nation’s suspicions about a certain Italian politician Alessio D’Amico. The recent spike in nationalism in some parts of Europe made old Uncle Sam nervous about more European politicians getting friendly with Putin. They just wanted to keep a closer eye and ear on him – just a little. Haley made sure to find a way to get close to him. How close? Well, apparently, she slept with him. So pretty damn close.

The thought of Haley using her body to lure someone enticed Ross. He never saw that side of her, and it made him deathly curious.

The two of them were meant to meet up in a hotel room outside the casino and discuss what Haley discovered. However, they had to play the role in front of everyone else just in case there were any prying eyes. If Ross had simply gone to her room, that would be noticeable on every CCTV camera. That would arouse suspicion. Their meeting had to look natural. They would meet at the bar, he would try to impress her with his luck at the tables, they would drink, laugh, and then go to the hotel. It all had to look believable.

Ross wasn’t particularly lucky at the poker table. He lost somewhere around $2,000. He grimaced thinking, There goes a bunch of taxpayer money…

Nevertheless, Haley played her role well as a lurid and sensual high-class prostitute who was interested in Ross. Things got heated when she sat on his lap and reached for the cards saying, “Let me show you how it’s done, dear.”

Ross held his breath. He must have looked flushed as he felt his collar tighten and his pulse quickened. She was a lot heavier than he imagined, and he liked that. He tried so hard not to get a boner. The urge to rub his crotch against her ass screamed.

Calm down, calm down, calm down. Shit, shit, shit. Think of something ugly. Think of something ugly. Ugly and gross. Uh. Uhhh. Uhhh. I don’t know! My grandmother naked! Sagging wrinkly boobs!

Haley won a round, and the table lit up with murmurs. She laughed heartily and sipped her fourth drink, after which she let off an audible belch.

She immediately put a hand to her mouth and said, “Whoops! Pardon me.”

Ross smiled nervously.

This woman is amazing.

He couldn’t tell if Haley was really drunk or continuing to act. She was really convincing either way, hiccupping and burping. Her eyes fluttered, looking a bit dazed, and then she jabbed a finger at his chest and said, “Yanno what? I have a room across at the Al Duca.” She pulled at his bowtie. “I think you should come with me, handsome.”

Ross laughed aloud very nervously and let her tug him towards the exit. Once outside, they took a gondola across to the hotel. Haley continued to giggle and stretched out her arms and legs on the gondola. Ross was worried that she might accidentally fall over in her stupor.

The trip only took a couple minutes. Ross helped her up on the pier like a gentleman and Haley put her weight on his shoulder, making him stagger trying to keep their balance. The Al Duca di Venezia was an extravagant but small hotel, much like the casino. Once in the elevator, Haley continued her rousing display of the drunken whore. Her breath reeked of vodka. She cornered Ross in the elevator and pretended to want to kiss him.

Jesus Christ. I was not ready for this much roleplay!

He gave into it by laughing at her drunken demeanor. It would look pretty weird if he was stiff and unfazed the entire time, especially since the elevator had security cameras.

At last, they were inside Haley’s room. Like a switch, she went from drunk to sober after she closed the door behind them. She locked it and said, “I’ve already bug-proofed the room. We’re safe.”

Ross watched in amazement as she walked across the room to close the curtains. She let her hair down, tore off her heels, and tossed them aside muttering, “Ugh.”

“How many drinks did you have?” Ross asked.

“Five. Why?”

“No reason.”

She smiled. “It takes me a lot to get pissed. Come, sit down.”

Haley took out her iPad from her luggage. This was no ordinary iPad, as it was fixed and modified to be more like a laptop, able to view files of all formats.

“So. Our friend Alessio is definitely up to something. There’s no real way of saying this other than he has some kind of bioweapon.”

Ross blinked twice. “What?” This was already beyond his expertise and expectations. Here he was thinking they were just going to spy on the guy and see how close he was to Putin. Now she dropped the word “bioweapon”.

“I bugged his laptop when he was asleep. I went through all the files, and he has an encrypted folder. After letting a simple brute force hack go at it for hours, I found this.”

She opened up a series of pictures that meant nothing to Ross. There were images of what looked like bacteria from underneath a microscope, along with lines of DNA codes spanning an entire document. There were graphs, tables, numbers—

“What is it?” he asked.

“That’s the scary party. I don’t quite know. But I do know that it’s the code of a bacterium meant to be foodborne. He has everything about it on here, from how it’s genetically modified to how it thrives. I just don’t know what it does, but something like that doesn’t just give you a sniffle if you know what I mean. It also seems possible that he helped create it himself. He does have a BS in organic chemistry. People seem to forget that.”

“Could it be that…he weaponized covid?”

“No. It’s a bacterium, not a virus.”

“Oh. Right. Duh.” He felt his cheeks go hot with embarrassment.

Haley leaned back in the armchair and put her bare feet up on the table. She took a swig of her beer, looking quite tomboyish in the moment. “But with the growing rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria these days, it doesn’t look good. And I have a weird feeling I know where it’s going to be tested.”

“Where?”

“Ukraine.”

“Jesus Christ. Yeah. That makes sense.”

Ross wondered if he picked the wrong time to be an agent on the field. The world was going mad. What was it about that Doomsday Clock? Less than seconds to midnight?

“Now,” Haley said. “I don’t know who else knows about this. But he did visit Putin weeks ago. That doesn’t give me a good feeling. Some smalltime papers have been noticing it. Alessio is rising to the top. He’s already making controversial comments buying into the justification of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, about them committing genocide against Russians. Some sort of bollocks like that.” Ross loved it when she cursed. “But something tells me he doesn’t actually believe it and is just saying it to get on Putin’s good side.”

“Why do you say that?”

Haley took another swig, then stifled a belch. The sound made a very loud rumble in her esophagus – bubbling with gas. She puffed out her cheeks and let the gas out quietly. She muttered, “Oof. Pardon me.” Ross felt flustered. She said, “I don’t know if he has any other angle besides one day being president of Italy. You and I both know what Putin can do to, er, the democratic process.”

After a long silence of her drinking and Ross contemplating if he was getting in over his head, Haley said, “We have to do something.”

“You sent this to your people?”

She shook her head gravely. “No can do. I don’t trust the Internet here. We’re just asking the Russians to know about it. They’d know we’re onto them. I’d have to physically smuggle it back home. I’d give you a copy of course.”

Ross sighed. Looked like a trip home was in order. The rest of the team would go ahead and deal with it. Someone else would be tasked with taking care of the bioweapon.

“So, looks like we’re going home then,” he said.

“No.”

Ross gave a double-take. “What?”

“No. We can’t. We have to do something about it. With the way the world is now? All it takes is one man to cock it all up. That’s why I’m going to blow up that bioweapon.”

“W-what? How? But—you’d have to get approval. All the hoops you’d get through. I don’t even think my guys would charge in like that on Italian soil.”

Haley leaned forward and looked at Ross in the eye. “Tom, look. You know me. I’ve had to spend my entire career trying to prove myself because I’m a woman. Don’t think I’m unaware of all the eyes at me every time I’m at the office. You never had to constantly be told you were wrong and have to be the one to say ‘I told you so’. I’ve experienced it back home, in Langley, and wherever else I go”

Ross gulped. He hoped she didn’t think of him as one of the other boys. He didn’t give any of his feelings away, did he? Then again, he didn’t think she would be talking like this to him if she had known his feelings about her.

“If we play this by the book,” she said, “it’s going to get lost in bureaucracy. The thing about war is that everyone loves to talk about stopping it but nobody actually wants to deal with it when it rears its ugly head. Look at Ukraine right now getting shafted while people watch from the sidelines, faffing around. It happened 80 years ago with Germany and Poland. Everyone stood back and watched hoping the problem would sort itself out. Then World War II blew up in their faces. After it ended, they said, ‘Oh boy how could we prevent this? Let’s create the U.N. to talk it out!’. Well. 80 years later and we’re still just watching two countries fight each other hoping the problem sorts itself out.”

She belched again, this time unapologetically. “No. We have to nip this in the bud.”

“You do…have a really good point.” Ross sighed heavily. “I assume you have a plan?”

Haley smiled wryly. “Of course.” She tapped the iPad screen to show a map. “The watermark on one of the photographs say BioSigma. Their lab facility is somewhere out in the middle of nowhere in Italy. I’ve taken the liberty of studying the local law enforcement response times, the route to get there, the guard shifts, everything. We can take it out in one night.”

Ross panicked. “We?”

“Yes.” She then tilted her head. “You did go through training. Right?”

“Oh, yes, yes. Of course I did.” Ross had gone through basic field training over on The Farm. He hadn’t expected to be wrapped up into a field mission so soon. He gulped and pulled on his collar. His heart thumped heavily. He wanted to impress Haley really badly.

“Good.” She smiled. “This will be your first field mission, right? I’m excited to work with you. I’ve done this sort of thing before. Just follow my lead. Sneak in, plant explosives, and run out. Good old sabotage.”

Haley then yawned, stretching her arms and legs. “I don’t know about you but I’m going to call it a night. You know you’re getting older when you have no interest in partying at a lavish casino like this all night long.”

The suite had two bedrooms. Ross went to his and looked at all the tools and supplies that Haley had brought for him. A backpack was laid out on the table with climbing gear, night vision goggles, tactical gear, and a pistol. He picked up the pistol – a Glock .40 caliber. He was used Glock models already from before he joined the agency and went to the shooting range. The typical 9mm Glocks were notoriously rectangular and blocky. The .40 was sleeker with a longer barrel. He felt more like a secret agent wielding it.

“Do you want anything to eat?” Haley called out from her room. “I can order some room service.”

“Yeah, that’d be good.”

“I am FAMISHED!”

Haley’s declaration of hunger turned him on. He remembered her eating lunch with him and the other boys in the office, stuffing massive sandwiches in her mouth and talking with her mouth full. Not quite like the type of women people thought she was. But to Ross – she was immaculate.

Ross later opened the door for room service. She had ordered a dish of Swedish meatballs with vegetables and a fancy cocktail. Ross missed home and ordered an old-fashioned medium-rare steak.

When she emerged from her bedroom, she had already taken a shower and was in a dark blue bathing robe with a towel on her head. Ross was taken aback, but Haley was completely comfortable like that in front of him, so he pretended not to be thinking about it.

The two of them ate at the center table, and Ross found it quite cozy and fun, like they were kids in a sleepover. Haley divulged about her previous missions, noting which places had her favorite food.

After gobbling down her last meatball, she smacked her lips and said, “You know Alessio has a fetish. It’s quite funny actually. I never knew it existed but then again there’s something for everyone.”

Ross stopped eating. “What’s he into?”

“He loves a woman who can belch and fart.” Without skipping a beat, she belched. “Lucky for him, I was the spy assigned to him.”

Ross froze. That was a wild coincidence. His heart skipped a beat and he bit his lip, watching Haley sip her cocktail.

“Is that so?” he said.

“Seducing him was very easy. Imagine just burping and farting in front of someone and they get turned on. It’s literally just me being me. I don’t have to worry about holding it in or anything like that.” She sighed. “Who knew my talent for burping on command would come in handy? I’d like to see the look on my father’s face now.”

Ross nearly dropped his utensils. He half-cried, “You can burp on command?”

Honestly, what can’t she do?

Haley nodded. She picked at the food stuck between her teeth. “Oh yeah. The only sister with three brothers? I was bound to have their bad habits imprinted on me. I mostly learned so I could get back at them.”

Ross found himself tightening his legs around his crotch. He relaxed, trying to be cool.

“It also helps when you got a burp stuck inside.” She grimaced, patting her chest. “Like I do right now. Ugh.”

Her throat made a gurgling sound as she inhaled deeply. Then she held it in for a split second and let out a scratchy, long, hideous belch.

BRRAAAAAAAaUUUUUuuuUuuuurrrRRRRrRrrRrrp!

At the end of the long croak, she sighed with relief and started laughing. “I’m so sorry! I couldn’t help it!”

“You’re good! That’s really impressive. A spy should have all sorts of skills, right?”

She continued to laugh. “Indeed, they should.”

There was an awkward moment after she stopped laughing and continued to smile at him. He looked away, nervous. She said, “I’m glad we’re working together, Ross. Usually I’m on solo missions.”

Ross nodded. “I’m glad we’re working together too.”