The Lift

Ondra wondered how long he could keep doing this. Keep up the pretence of being a loyal party member while passing secrets to the other side. It was beginning to get him down. He’d been promised his brave actions would bring abut the demise of the regime, but that was 7 years ago and since then nothing had changed. Except he’d got older, more paranoid and more certain he’d been caught sooner or later. The amount of information he’d handed over meant the consequences of being caught didn’t bear thinking about. What made it worse was that he knew he was just being used by the other side, they were greedy for his information but their promises of spiriting him away from there were never fulfilled, 

He balanced on the stool at the bar, this was the biggest and best hotel in Brno and he was enjoying the chance to drink some fine cognac - a perk of being a party member, paid for by being disloyal. He’d only have two. He couldn’t splash the cash the West gave him too readily. But this was his little treat, his little secret.

‘Ivana please to meet you.’ Ondra looked at the woman by his side. She was tall and blonde and beautiful and was holding out a hand waiting for Ondra to shake it.

‘Ondra.’ Ondra said wearily.

‘Oh I know who you are.’ The mysterious woman said, sitting herself on the stool next to him and ordering two glasses of cognac. Her long stockinged legs draped down from the stool and she made a play of brushing an imaginary spec of dust from them, drawing Ondra’s eyes down to inspect the perfect legs. The stockings were expensive, not the cheap stuff most Czech women wore but real quality ones that you could only get in the party shops or from overseas. 

‘The liver was off on the menu tonight, I had to have the fish,’ the woman said quietly. Ondra recognised daft the code -she was one of them. He'd not arranged to meet one of them tonight, there must be something wrong. 

Ondra responded appropriately and then asked quietly ‘who are you?’

‘I'm just so pleased to meet the great Ondra Cech,’ the woman said, ignoring his question. ‘You are a legend.’  Ivana played with her jacket and top making sure Ondra noticed her cleavage. She touched the edge of her eye seductively. Ondra followed her hand like a cat following dancing string. 

Ondra was wondering how she knew about him, but she'd used the code so must be okay. She talked about him like he was James Bond  not some mug who dropped documents in rubbish bins. But who was he to argue if that is what she wanted to believe. She was talking in low tones which was expedient but also incredible sexy. Ondra felt her warm breath on his cheek as his leant in to listen to her husky voice. 

‘Shall we go to your room?’ she said. 

Ondra couldn't believe his ears, this woman was offering herself to him. 

‘Let's go,’ he said a little too eagerly. 

‘I'll follow you up,’ she said. ‘Room 1118.’ 

As Ondra got in the lift it dawned on him he'd never told her his room number. His stomach flipped as the lift doors closed and he realised he’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book. The lift shuddered into action as a shiver shuddered down Ondra's spine. Suddenly his tie felt tight and his palms sweaty. To his relief the lift went to floor 11 with no interruptions, maybe this was just an innocent liaison after all. But before the doors opened the lift moved again. He looked to see what floor but the numbers had disappeared from the screen. They were going down but the journey seemed to last longer than on the way up. Down down down. Or was it up up up, he concentrated hard, he didn't know. He was moving but his brain wouldn't tell him in which direction, that was a symptom of panic.  Then they stopped. Two dashes had replaced the floor numbers, the doors slid open revealing darkness. Ondra knew this was it, the game was up, his fears had been realised. Just 2 minutes ago e’d been horny as hell but now he was more scared than he’d ever been. There was silence all he could hear was his own breathing. Then with a clunk lights came on revealing they were in a garage. Is this where he would die or would they beat him and humiliate him first?  A figure stepped out of the shadows. Ondra recognised Ivana immediately despite her now wearing uniform and looking a lot less alluring.  Two other uniformed figures emerged from the shadows.  

‘I thought it might be better to go to my place,’ she said in a perfect English accent. ‘It's time to get you out of here.’ She smiled and led a confused Ondra away towards freedom.