Double Exposure - Part 1: The Return of La Belle Dame
22 March 1986. 2:30 am. West Berlin.
The woman lay in the plush hotel bed trying to determine when the man next to her would be in a deep enough sleep to where she could finally get up. She had first met the American businessman earlier this evening at Metropol discotheque where he almost instantly fell for her. He constantly told her throughout the evening that he had a "thing" for red-headed Irish girls. He spent money recklessly at the club in an obvious attempt to impress her with his wealth and stature. It must have worked, because it wasn't long before she ended up back in his hotel suite.
She thought back to the sex that they had less than 30 minutes ago. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. The man didn't do anything special or out of the ordinary, just typical drunk missionary sex. The entire act lasted less than 10 minutes. She'd most likely forget all the details about it by this time next week.
Finally she heard the man in bed begin to snore, she knew then that he was in a deep enough sleep that she could finally get out of this bed and onto what she came here for. She skillfully slipped her legs out from under the covers and onto the carpeted hotel floor. Then she slowly slithered the rest of her body out of the bed, being able to put all of her weight on her legs without making a noise. Soon she was standing naked next to the side of the bed, watching the man as he kept snoring. After a few minutes of observing the man, she determined that she did not wake him. She grabbed her clutch purse and made her way to the bedroom door. The bedroom was part of a massive Presidential suite but she easily memorized the layout of it when she arrived earlier that evening. She quickly exited the bedroom and closed the door gently behind her. Her skin tingled and her nipples were erect not from nerves, but rather from the cool air in the hotel suite. The windows were open, letting the March air in. She enjoyed the feeling because it made her more alert in these early morning hours.
She moved stealthily towards the second bedroom of the suite and into its bathroom. Her eyes were adjusted enough to the darkness that she didn't need to turn on the light in order to find the hotel robe. She quickly put it on and tied it around her waist, covering up her nakedness. She looked in the mirror and checked her wig. It was incredibly professional that was nearly impossible to spot, but she wanted to make sure that the sex that she had earlier did not move it out of place. As usual, the wig was perfectly positioned even after a night of dancing and sex. She would have to compliment Gloria later on her craftsmanship.
She wished that she could say the same about her pubic hair. Gloria had never been able to create a merkin that would still be deceptive after a night like this. So to make things easier, she just had her pubes dyed red to match the color of the wig. She didn't like it because it would conflict with any other non-redhead persona she adopted until it washed out, plus it just looked odd. If she was assigned another job before the dye finally washed out she would just shave, but she would prefer not to. She hated the look of a hairless vagina.
Finally she exited the bathroom and re-entered the second bedroom, double-checking that the bedroom door was closed. She made her way over to the bedroom desk and saw the man's briefcase set on top of it. Her muscle memory caused her to attempt to open it, but it was locked, as she knew it would be. Examining the briefcase, she saw that there was a professional lock on it rather than the typical 3 number combination locks that you find on any cheap briefcase you can get at Macy's. She opened her purse and pulled out a small toolkit and tiny flashlight. She turned on the light, shining it directly on the lock, pulled out some tools from the kit, and got to work. Within a few short minutes, she heard the satisfying [CLICK] of the briefcase unlocking.
Quickly but carefully, she opened the briefcase, shining the light into it to expose its contents. Inside were numerous folders that were all labeled in Russian. On top of the folders was a gun that she easily recognized as a Makarov PM, a favorite of the KGB.
She removed the gun from the case and quickly scanned the labels of each file until she found the one that she was looking for "Resources in West Berlin". She was fluent in Russian along with multiple other languages so understanding the words was no problem.
She reached again into her clutch purse and pulled out an incredibly small camera. Shining the light to concentrate on the open file, she began to snap photos of the contents of the folder.
Then she heard something that startled her.
[FLUSH]
She heard the flushing sound of the toilet from the other bedroom. He was up. Most likely he would come looking for her in the suite when he realized that she wasn't still in bed. She looked around at the items in front of her and realized that there was no way that she would be able to get this all back in order in time. She needed to do something fast. She thought about the contents of the pill case in her purse. She wanted to only use that pill as a last resort, but she was going to have to use it rather than get caught.
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Alexi Ivanov finished pissing and made his way back to his bed. As he slowly walked, he wondered as to why he was naked. He typically liked to sleep in pajamas especially when in a foreign hotel room, so this was different. Then his thoughts cleared and he remembered that little red-headed minx that he brought back to his room. And he smiled. He remembered Katie was her name. He would be ready to go again. Time to wake her up.
Once inside the bedroom he announced "Wakey wakey, Katie Katie!" in English. When there was no response, he turned on the lamp that was on the side table. "I said wakey wakey!"
Once the light was on, he was confused when he saw that she was gone. He began to panic. He thought about the briefcase that he had in the other room. What if she stole it? He realized that ignored his training and became careless, letting his guard down. Once his superiors found out, he would be interrogated and then most likely executed. Alexi ran towards the door, maybe he could catch her.
Alexi nearly ran into the woman as he opened the door to run out. She was standing there in a robe, holding an open beer bottle. "Hullo love, where are ye goin'? I was just bringin' ye some beer." she said with a thick Irish accent.
Relief washed over Alexi as he saw Katie in front of him. He was just being paranoid, although it was natural to be suspicious of people in his line of work. "Oh fuck, sweetheart. I just thought that you left without saying goodbye." he said in perfect English.
"Go on now, take a breath and enjoy a proper pint." she said.
Alexi grabbed the bottle and set it down on the nearby dresser. "Thanks, love, but I'm still a bit drunk from earlier." She watched him put the bottle down with disappointment in her eyes. "Why don't you get back into bed and I'll join you in a second. I just have to check on something in the other room."
