SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Welcome to Week 23 of the Friday Fiction Writing Challenge! Here’s a complete list of all the posts so far. Feel free to join in.

This week’s random word is: Communication

I’m still battling the flu this week, but I’m far less sausage-brained than last week. Woohoo! I had a few ideas for the prompt: Taking out a communication tower. Her non-verbal communication said more than she ever could. One-on-one communication wasn’t his strong suit.

I ended up mixing in some non-verbal stuff with some military comms—I loved using throat mics. And, in trying to veer away from the comfort of meet-cutes, I thought it would be fun to see how these characters would be after they’d broken up, and then saw each other again.

Here’s my response to the prompt:

I did this, thought Ben. He’d pushed Jenny away, leaving her unprotected, all because he couldn’t let himself trust her. She’d been missing for five hours. More than enough time for AJ’s men to have killed her and disposed of the body. He shoved the image from his mind. Until he saw her body, there was still hope.

He watched the cameras pan slightly. It was go-time. They couldn’t risk communication over the walkies, so Ben double-clicked his throat mic. The clicks signaling the rest of the team that the compound’s perimeter cameras were under Deniable Unit (DU) control.

Ben slipped through the gap in the fencing, leaving the rest of the team to cover him as he made for the squat building. He didn’t need DU intel to tell him that was where AJ was holding her—Ben had worked undercover in AJ’s organization long enough to know with sickening certainty.

A series of clicks sounded in his earpiece. He ducked behind a bush just as a guard rounded the building. Another click indicated Ben was clear.

Ben sprinted to the building and checked each window for Jenny. He’d almost given up hope when a loud yelp broke the silence.

“Bitch bit me!” A man yelled, followed by a door slamming.

Ben headed toward the noise and peered through the window. 

Jenny. 

Relief flooded him. She was alive. And alone. He forced the window and jumped in.

Jenny’s eyes locked on his, softening for a second before narrowing.

I like this couple and hope to revisit them in a future Deniable Unit story. Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic weekend!

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Full information on how is on the Genre Scribes: Friday Fiction Writing Challenge page.