watching her as she walked up the path to the house, tracking her movements as she made her way to Jessie’s and Pietro’s? Why didn’t she notice them zooming in on her as she chatted with Adam outside the summerhouse?
There’s a thing , thought Marla sighing with relief. Maybe there isn’t anything wrong with me after all. Adam didn’t want to make a move because he knew the cameras were there! Her sigh became a dry chuckle. Then her chuckling stopped—he should’ve told her about the cameras sooner too. Whatever, she’d just have to drag him inside and jump him next time. Try zooming in on that , pesky cameras. Then a new flood of paranoia invaded her daydream—what if there were cameras inside the summerhouse? In the bedroom. The shower? She looked up at the ceiling, nervously peering into the corner shadows.
“Oh don’t worry girl, they’re not inside,” laughed Jessie, reading her mind.
“Yeah but… How do you know that?”
“First thing I checked. Fucked if I’m giving Fowler a free show of my ass.”
Marla made a harrumphing sound, unconvinced. But, try as she might, she could see no cameras inside her little home.
“So are you gonna help me? Get this party started?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No. No you don’t.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Easy. Go for a jog.”
First yoga and now jogging? This was turning into a full-blown triathlon. Marla snatched the hipflask from Jessie’s hand and drank from it defiantly.
Jessie’s instructions seemed simple enough. Three days from now, Marla was to get up at seven o’clock, have a light breakfast of fruit and juice, then shower. She would then slip into a pair of shorts and a vest and start jogging at exactly eight o’clock. Her route was to take her away from the house, down the path she had first walked up on her arrival at the island, then down past the security building. Reaching the steps on her left, she was to jog down them and onto the jetty, where she would be required to perform a series of seductive stretches to distract Fowler’s bored black-clad security drones.
And the purpose of this fool’s errand? To divert interest, enabling Jessie to sneak round to The Big House and break in undetected. So they could have a secret bloody party.
Marla had decided she needed her head examined. She wasn’t even sure if jogging that far was possible. The last time she had run, really run, was for the number 29 bus on Tottenham Court Road. Wishing she hadn’t pointed this out to Jessie, she now faced the prospect of two “practice runs” leading up to the main event. Anyone watching on the cameras would get used to seeing Marla taking a morning jog. They would, in fact, think she was being a good girl and following Fowler’s rulebook guidelines about daily exercise. Her change in route down to the jetty though, coupled with the sexy stretches, would create enough of a stir to prevent them from noticing Jessie skulking through the trees towards The Big House.
With a resigned sigh, Marla pulled on her sneakers and jogged out the door. Truth was, she needed a party just as much as the others did, even if it meant exercising. And if Adam was around—well, a little interest from his cohorts might provoke him to finally make a move next time he and Marla were alone.
Closing the blinds in her little room, Jessie carefully slid the laptop from out of its hiding place. The plastic casing actually creaked as she opened up the lid and wiped dust from the grubby screen. She hit the power button and the battered old machine’s hard drive made an alarming grinding sound as it booted up. She should have gotten used to the noise by now of course but the skittering growl, like that of an ancient pet cat, never failed to give her the willies. It was a deeply unsettling sound to her, the sound of the island’s only unauthorized laptop threatening to die horribly, taking with it her only hope of hacking into the network. She felt
There’s a thing , thought Marla sighing with relief. Maybe there isn’t anything wrong with me after all. Adam didn’t want to make a move because he knew the cameras were there! Her sigh became a dry chuckle. Then her chuckling stopped—he should’ve told her about the cameras sooner too. Whatever, she’d just have to drag him inside and jump him next time. Try zooming in on that , pesky cameras. Then a new flood of paranoia invaded her daydream—what if there were cameras inside the summerhouse? In the bedroom. The shower? She looked up at the ceiling, nervously peering into the corner shadows.
“Oh don’t worry girl, they’re not inside,” laughed Jessie, reading her mind.
“Yeah but… How do you know that?”
“First thing I checked. Fucked if I’m giving Fowler a free show of my ass.”
Marla made a harrumphing sound, unconvinced. But, try as she might, she could see no cameras inside her little home.
“So are you gonna help me? Get this party started?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No. No you don’t.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Easy. Go for a jog.”
First yoga and now jogging? This was turning into a full-blown triathlon. Marla snatched the hipflask from Jessie’s hand and drank from it defiantly.
Jessie’s instructions seemed simple enough. Three days from now, Marla was to get up at seven o’clock, have a light breakfast of fruit and juice, then shower. She would then slip into a pair of shorts and a vest and start jogging at exactly eight o’clock. Her route was to take her away from the house, down the path she had first walked up on her arrival at the island, then down past the security building. Reaching the steps on her left, she was to jog down them and onto the jetty, where she would be required to perform a series of seductive stretches to distract Fowler’s bored black-clad security drones.
And the purpose of this fool’s errand? To divert interest, enabling Jessie to sneak round to The Big House and break in undetected. So they could have a secret bloody party.
Marla had decided she needed her head examined. She wasn’t even sure if jogging that far was possible. The last time she had run, really run, was for the number 29 bus on Tottenham Court Road. Wishing she hadn’t pointed this out to Jessie, she now faced the prospect of two “practice runs” leading up to the main event. Anyone watching on the cameras would get used to seeing Marla taking a morning jog. They would, in fact, think she was being a good girl and following Fowler’s rulebook guidelines about daily exercise. Her change in route down to the jetty though, coupled with the sexy stretches, would create enough of a stir to prevent them from noticing Jessie skulking through the trees towards The Big House.
With a resigned sigh, Marla pulled on her sneakers and jogged out the door. Truth was, she needed a party just as much as the others did, even if it meant exercising. And if Adam was around—well, a little interest from his cohorts might provoke him to finally make a move next time he and Marla were alone.
Closing the blinds in her little room, Jessie carefully slid the laptop from out of its hiding place. The plastic casing actually creaked as she opened up the lid and wiped dust from the grubby screen. She hit the power button and the battered old machine’s hard drive made an alarming grinding sound as it booted up. She should have gotten used to the noise by now of course but the skittering growl, like that of an ancient pet cat, never failed to give her the willies. It was a deeply unsettling sound to her, the sound of the island’s only unauthorized laptop threatening to die horribly, taking with it her only hope of hacking into the network. She felt
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