“Club Tropicana drinks are free…..fun and sunshine there’s enough for everyone…,” Penelope hummed along with the tune as it blared of the speakers around the pool. The waiter had just brought her another cocktail from the bar to her lounger as she lay soaking in the sunshine and glorious view of the sea out over the beach. “Tough work Pen, but somebody has to do it.” Penelope signed for the drink, charging it to her room and put her sunglasses back in place. It has been two days of relaxing and working on her tan since landing in the Caribbean, and with the tab being picked up by the firm, although Penelope knew that it couldn’t last. “Just enjoy it whilst you…..” her phone pinged on the table and Penelope could see who the message was from an sighed. “You will jinx it.” Penelope swung her legs off the lounger and into her flip flops. As she stood up Penelope took a look around. The place was busy but not packed and nothing seemed out of place. After wrapping a long sarong around her waist Penelope put her bag over her shoulder and picked up her phone and drink, “waste not want not,” and headed back to her private hut further along the beach. As she walked Penelope knew that she drew admiring glances, she wasn’t ashamed of her curvaceous figure and her outfit was showing it off.
After unlocking the door Penelope entered the shade of the hut and the temperature dropped considerably. It was still warm enough to walked around in a bikini though so not a great hardship. Retrieving her laptop from the locked case under the bed she put it on the small desk and sat down in the wicker chair. “Let’s see what the boss wants.” The laptop fired up almost instantly and the homepage came up. Penelope put the thumb drive into the USB socket and waited for the portal to open before entering her username and password. “You have one new message.” Penelope picked up the cocktail and took a long drag before hitting play on the message and leaning back getting comfortable. The face of her boss, Sir Henry Slade filled the screen.
“Good morning, Agent Stanhope. I hope that you have been enjoying the break.” Penelope raised the cocktail and took another sip. “Well, it is now time for you to earn your wage.” Penelope’s shoulders slumped. She could have used another couple of days of rest and relaxation but I suppose that came with working for Queen and country. “This is Hugo Fazakerley,” a picture appeared on the screen, “officially he is an international shipping agent but that is just a cover for his real profession. Arms dealer.” Penelope wondered why they didn’t just arrest these people if they knew about their criminal dealings. “He was small time but recently had been reaching out to some people that we wouldn’t like to have certain arms.” That was it then. Poor sod just went from having the right clients to the wrong clients. Oh, well. Not Penelope’s problem. “He is currently in the Caribbean to broker a deal. Your mission is to obtain evidence of the deal that we can use as leverage on him to bring down both him and his contacts.” Penelope nodded and took another drink. Another picture appeared of an attractive woman with dark hair and brown eyes. “This is Xenia Onatopp, Fazakerley’s head of security. Be careful around her, she is smart and dangerous. Nolan will be contact you with details this evening.” Also, easy of the eye. “Finally, as always, Stanhope if you are killed or captured, we will deny all knowledge of your actions.” The screen went blank just as Penelope finished her cocktail.
“Suppose I should grab a shower and get ready then.” Penelope got up and headed for the bathroom.
Industrial Complex, Caribbean
Penelope sat in the back of four wheeled drive vehicle as it moved through the lanes between the large warehouses. She was checking through the bag of equipment that Nolan had given her. “Q said that he forwarded everything that you would need.”
“Looks to all be here,” Penelope confirmed as she zipped up the bag. “Just stop at the next junction and drop me off. Turn right and head away from the target.” Penelope glanced at her watch. “Get you back at the same point in two hours. If I am not back, then try again in another hour. After that….” Penelope caught Nolan’s gaze in the rear-view mirror and he nodded as the brough the vehicle to a stop and Penelope slipped out the back door. Penelope pressed herself against a nearby wall until the vehicle had disappeared. Penelope looked around to get her bearings and the moved away from the wall toward the target. Checking out her outfit Penelope ran her hands over the form fitting clothes, black boots, black combats and a tight black sweater. “Rocking it girl.” Once she got close to the target warehouse Penelope knelt down across the road and peeked around the corner to get a look. It was a two-level structure with a wall around the yard. There were lights on in a couple of the high-level windows scattered across throughout the warehouse.
Taking a deep breath Penelope tied her long black hair back into a ponytail and opened the rucksack and removed a long length of rope with a grapple on it. After a last look around Penelope trotted over to the wall surrounding the target warehouse, head scanning around for threats. As she closed on the wall Penelope started to swing the grapple around and then when she judged it to be the correct moment tossed it at the of the wall and it caught. “First time,” Penelope whispered as she pressed her back against the wall. Giving anybody that had seen something a chance to react Penelope counted to thirty before tugging the rope to check that it would hold and started climbing the wall using the rope. It didn’t take long to reach the top where she paused at the top to unhook the grapple and fling it over before hanging off the dropping down into the yard that surrounded the warehouse. She landed with a soft thud and crouched down. Looking around Penelope didn’t see any movement so stood up and walked across to the door on that elevation and knelt down and examined the lock. Reaching around for her lockpick Penelope made short work of the lock on the door and stepped inside into a tight corridor with several doors coming from it.
“Call this security…” Penelope was almost embarrassed about how easy this had been. Carefully she mase her way along the corridor. There were doors off on either side, Penelope tried them all and they opened. Stepping inside each room in turn Penelope found nothing of real interest. Old papers all with dates that looked like nothing had happened here since 2017. “Strange for a logistics firm.” As Penelope made her way along the corridor the general noise increased. As she approached the end of the corridor it was clear that it led to a large open space. Penelope stopped at the end of the corridor and crouched down. In the large open space, there was a lot of activity. Men carried boxes around and drove forklift truck shuttling larger crates from one end of the warehouse to the other. There were piles of boxes scattered around and Penelope judged her time to sprint for the closed pile. There boxes were piled high enough that nobody could see her from the inside the main warehouse with smaller stacked protecting her flanks. “Let’s see what is in here.” Penelope moved some boxes so that she could get easy access to a crate that was sitting on the concrete floor. Pulling a small crowbar from her rucksack Penelope started to attack the crate, prying at the edges. “Geez, they used a lot of nails.” Penelope grunted as she put all her effort into the attempt to get the top of the crate off. The sounds of the men working seemed to intensify. They there was a loud noise as a crate was dropped and smashed. Penelope froze.
“BE CAREFUL!” someone shouted. Penelope then realised that she was holding her breath. After taking a quick look in the direction that the noise to make sure everyone else was distracted Penelope went back to work.
“Don’t get spooked Pen,” she told herself and went back to concentrating on getting the top of the crate. Then there was a crack and pop then the top of the crate lid was open. Penelope smiled and pushed the top to one side and looked at the packing inside. “What do we have here?” Penelope commented as leaned into the crate and started to rummage around. It had gone quiet and Penelope paused. “Was that some…” It was all in your head girl. The create was full of those loose packing foam chips and Penelope felt around with her hands finding something cool and metallic “And what for we have hear…” Placing both hands on the object Penelope straightened her back and raised it from the crate.
There was a soft crunch, a whoosh and a heavy thump at the back of her head and like someone hitting a switch everything went BLACK.
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“ooohhh….my head…” Penelope groaned as her senses started to switch back on. Her head was thumping, like it had been hit with a sledgehammer. “ooohh...what happened…” It was all a bit confusing. She tried to open her eyes but they were instantly assaulted by harsh fluorescent lighting and Penelope slammed them closed again.
“The little snoop is awake,” a male voice with an upper-class British accent commented. “I thought that you had cracked her skull open Jonas.” Then it all flooded back to Penelope and she squinted one eye open to find three people staring at her. Hugo Fazakerley, Xenia Onatopp and a large man with short blonde hair who was obviously Jonas.
“That is no way to treat a lady sport,” Penelope said as she tried to raise her right hand to inspect the source of pain on her head. She found that she couldn’t move it as it was attached to her left wrist. A quick check told her wrists were bond together with rope, tightly by the way that Penelope felt it biting into her wrists. A quick inventory told her that she was sitting in a chair wooden with her wrists bound behind the back of the chair. More rope encircled her body pinning her to the chair and each of her ankles were tied to the respective legs of the chair.
“Spunky, we like that around here,” Hugo replied. “Also, nice to hear another British accent.”
“Wish I could say the same,” Penelope replied as she tested the strength of her bindings.
“I wouldn’t bother expending the effort,” Xenia said. “I tied the knots myself.” Penelope continued to squirm for a bit they satisfied that the ropes wouldn’t budge without significant time and effort being expended. Either that or help from a someone.
“Thanks for not letting Lunk there have the job. I have a feeling he would have gotten a bit handsy.” Xenia smiled and nodded. Penelope looked around the room. There were in a small office, windows behind her, wooden chairs, a couple of desks, coat stand and a couple of filing cabinets. Hugo started to pace around the room with his hands in the pocket of his tweed jacket. “So, what is your story then?” Penelope asked in an attempt to break the silence.
“Pardon?” Hugo asked.
“Why are you knocking out and tying up young women?”
“Well, if we are being accurate Jonas here,” pointing at the large man, “knocked you out and Xenia tied you up.” Semantics. Penelope huffed and had another squirm. “Maybe we should be asking what brought you here?”
“Burglary, simple as that.” Penelope had decided to keep it as plausible as possible.
“Seems a strange target. Plenty of big houses or high-end stores on the island.” Hugo stated. “Yet, you chose a warehouse on an industrial estate.” Penelope shrugged. They couldn’t prove anything else. Just keep your mouth shut and ride in out.
“Shouldn’t you be calling the police about now?” Penelope asked, trying to put them on the back foot. Hugo shook his head.
“We like to take care of these things direct?” Xenia chipped in.
“These things?” Penelope raised an eyebrow. “Direct?”
“Yes, snooping strangers,” Hugo confirmed. Just then Jonas moved and Penelope eyes, drawn to the movement lingered on something lying on one of the desks. Hugo stopped pacing an placed a hand on Penelope’s right shoulder. “I would like to know she was here though…”
“I wouldn’t mind more time with the young lady either but it doesn’t matter. She will just be little tiny pieces when the place goes up,” Xenia commented. Penelope’s eyes went wide as she looked at the explosive device. “A bomb. Main control here but liked to other devices scattered around the warehouse. “Obviously we won’t he here when it goes….” Xenia made an explosive gesture with her hands. After getting over the initial surprise Penelope wasn’t that fussed. There was a mini EMP in her phone that would kill the electronics in the timer. It was voice activated as well. She could see her bag and phone lying on the desk close to the bomb. Everything was cool. Once these idiots left, she would sort it out then find something to cut the ropes. Then there was the sound of a phone ringing.
“Excuse me,” Hugo apologized and he answered his mobile. “No trouble at all…” As he spoke Hugo made a signal with his hand and Jonas and Xenia started to move around, packing certain items into bags. Once that was finished Hugo walked over to the bomb and pressed the counter. It read 10:00 then started to count down. Penelope took a deep breath.
“One more thing,” Xenia said as she picked up a roll of silver duct tape that had been left handily lying around. As she approached where Penelope was sitting bound to the chair Xenia tore a long strip from the roll. Xenia leaned and the placed the tape over Penelope’s lips and then smoothed in place. “There, no calling for help.” Then Xenia leaned in and whispered in Penelope’s ear. “Pity, I think that we could have had some fun.” Penelope’s mewed and her eyebrows shot up a little.
“mmmuuunn!” Penelope mumbled as she watched the woman walk away and join Hugo and Jonas at the door. Jonas held the door opened and Hugo, still on the phone, gestured for Xenia to go first. Xenia turned and blew Penelope a kiss before exiting the room.
“We can talk further with ……. At the charity thing tomorrow night…” Hugo said as they walked out the door followed by Jonas who slammed the door closed. Penelope looked from the door to the bomb, well the timer on the bomb really and relaxed. More than eight minutes. Loads of time. Penelope counted to ten to give her captors time to leave then it was time to make her escape. All she had to do was get this tape off her mouth. There was no stuffing and only a single layer so it wouldn’t be effective in preventing her from calling for help but it was enough so that the voice recognition software on her phone wouldn’t operate. Well, she had been tied, gagged and been in similar positions before. There had been Panama, Berlin, Dubrovnik, Kampala, St Petersburg, Santiago, Anchorage…. Now that she thought about it, perhaps there was a pattern emerging. Come on Penelope! There would be time for that later, concentrate on the problem at hand.
“mmmooonn,” Penelope tried to get her mouth scraping against her shoulders to try and rub the edge of the tape. After trying several times Penelope blew the air through her nose in frustration, Xenia had smoothed it out well. Obviously knew what she was doing with gags. Well, perhaps it had to be the old-fashioned way. Penelope checked the timer. Six minutes. Loads of time. Penelope started to rock the chair over to the table, it was a delicate operation, she needed enough momentum to move across the floor but not enough that she would tip over. Not my first rodeo! It took a bit of time but Penelope managed to make it across. Another quick glance at the time. Four minutes. Loads of time. Next problem. Get the phone. “mmuuffhh.” Penelope was going to have to knock the phone onto the floor. So, that was what she did. Bending over and using her forehead Penelope pushed the phone onto the floor. Penelope watched as the phone bounced and landed not far away. As she started to rock the chair to topple herself over Penelope took another glance at the timer. Two minutes. Getting a bit tight now. Penelope could feel the sweat running down her forehead and her back now. Just the physical exertion Pen. “uummppff!” Penelope grunted as she landed heavily on the floor and immediately started groping around for her phone. Finding it Penelope flicked her thumb across the screen to bring it to life before typing in the passcode. The phone vibrated. “uummppff!” Penelope grunted. Back to front Pen! Second attempt it worked. Penelope concentrated on the phone for a while. Having to do this through memory without seeing what she was doing was awkward. Then she caught a glance at the timer on the bomb.
“MMIITT!” Penelope shouted...fifteen, fourteen…stay calm Penelope, almost there…
“uuummmm,” thirteen…twelve…almost three…just one more…
“gggrruuppp,” eleven…ten…nine…a bead of sweat ran into her eye
“mmppff….uummppff…” eight…seven…six….