Behind the Staircase by Christopher Eagan

Author:Christopher Eagan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2018-06-12T14:38:54+00:00

THE SOUL PAINTER

With the tiniest pair of tweezers, and the newest magnifying headset, Richard Dells, carefully places a female face into a square frame in the corner of a piece of paper. The thinnest untraceable paper glue on the back stick furiously quickly, and he needs to match it up perfectly before it goes into the copier. Once that’s finished, the stamping begins, Hong Kong, Tehran, London, Jakarta, Cairo, all placed carefully, but not too carefully in the leather-bounded papers and soon enough, one legitimate Pakistani passport for Shafia Bagheri, good as-, well not that new. It helps that some of the binding is a little ragged with time an age. One corner slightly curled inward.

“Here, how’s this?” Richard asks Julie as he hands her newest passport. She smiles as she opens it up and looks through it.

“It’s perfect, thank you.”

“Try not to lose it again,”

“I didn’t lose it, I just, forgot which security box I had it in.” Julie explains. “What else you’ve got for me?” Julie asks, switching to her professional voice. Richard picks up the choker.

“Turn around.” Richard asks, Julie turns her back to Richard who takes the necklace and carefully places it around her neck, locking in the back. “Your main camera’s gonna be in your back, but if that doesn’t work, this is a sound recording device.

“It’s tight.” Julie complains.

“It’s supposed to be tight; it’s a choker. It’s so that, there’s less static when you’re moving around, hopefully. It’s basically a vamp mike, you can control it by your cell phone, just press zero-star-eight and it should turn itself on.” Richard explains, “And whatever it records should be saved on your phone.”

“Just as a backup?”

“Yeah. Well, backup and a test run.” Richard explains under his breath. “If it works, we’ll modify it for everyone, if not, then, we’ll see.” Julie checks how it looks in her reflection in a nearby computer screen.

“What if somebody asks about it.” Julie worries.

“Tell them, it just looks like mother of pearl and its just cheap costume jewelry.” Richard quips.

“What if I have the hijab on, will it work?” Richard pauses before answering Julie’s latest query.

“It should work still.”

“Even if it’s covering it up?” Julie asks. Again, Richard doesn’t answer right away.

“It should still work.”

“We’re gonna see if it works after I try it, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“This isn’t how you guys figure out if the guns and tanks work, is it?” Julie snaps at him.

“Don’t be absurd, the Army tests the tanks.” Richard responds. Julie, slightly smiles back, but holds back from laughing.

“Alright; I’ll let you know how it works when I get back.” Julie says as she types in the PIN number on the electronic doorknob before heading out of the room. Richard watches her leave and looks around the quiet room for a moment. The CIA Research & Development lab isn’t as filled with workers as it once was, not because of budget, but outdatedness has made the floor more lonely than busy. There’s less need

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