Last night, I was settled into my study to get a scene written for Part 2 of Linear Shift. I am so far behind on the writing, it’s not even funny. Anyway, the writing ‘du jure’ last night was for a scene where Peter has to sneak out to find Benny, who has been MIA since the end of Part 1. He has to sneak out, because he is now being watched by a security team to ensure his silence about the top secret mission. There will be a short snippet (unedited mind you) a little later in this post.
So, while I was getting the scene rolling, I had to include a bit of “tradecraft” terminology. Spy slang, you know? I know a bit of it from reading a large number of those styled books, but I still thought an internet search was in order.
For the first search, I typed out ‘espionage tactics’ and got a lot of interesting results. The scene I was working on had Peter sneaking out the back of the house, and he DID NOT want to be followed, and the first search didn’t come up with what I was looking for.
My second attempt was ‘how to lose a tail’. To my surprise, I got a result to a PDF document from the CIA website on “Tradecraft Primer”. I was shocked that the CIA had the document so readily available. I skimmed through it, but did not find what I was looking for. A few more result clicks, and found a whole plethora of covert tactics on Wiki. Well more than enough to write my scene, and not sound dumb about it.
Towards the end of me research session, I noticed a few ‘hiccups’ in my internet connection, but didn’t think anything of it. After I finished the scene, I headed up to bed. Being satisfied with my efforts on scene #4, I quickly feel asleep. A few hours later is when it happened. I woke up in a sweat, thinking about my research, and how I may have triggered some kind of CIA tap on my computers because of some of my search terminology. I wonder of I need to preface every search with ‘Novel research – SEARCH TERM’ just to let Big Brother that I mean no harm? Hell, YOLO, right? I’ll keep messing with the GOV until I am told to stop!
Anyway, enjoy a small snippet of Scene #4:
After a half dozen houses, he ducked behind a parked car, and waited. He listened intently, and heard nothing but the occasional cricket chirp. Satisfied, Peter crossed the alley and swiftly jumped the three foot tall fence, praying that the yard he was trespassing in had no dogs present. Without wasting time, he moved towards the rear of the house and slipped alongside of it, ducking below the windows as he crept by. The folks were home, and as he slide by the furthermost front window, he could hear the 9:00 o’clock news being broadcast.
Having made his way to the front of the yard, he discreetly lifted the gate latch and walked out onto the sidewalk. He resisted closing the gate, as he didn’t want to make a sound doing so.
By now, Peter’s pulse had risen by the excitement of being sneaky. He loved the feeling of adrenalin flowing through his veins, and he knew he may have found his new calling.
Without incident, Peter repeated the ‘duck and weave’ through the next five blocks before he was sure he was not being followed. Peter walked he last few blocks to Herb’s in plain sight, still checking his tail as they taught him in training. He was not followed, and he felt great.