Operation Peter Pan

My hands twitched as I glanced nervously behind me.  After checking my watch, I again glanced behind me, slowly proceeding into the darkened alleyway.  A rat scurried across my foot, startling me enough to send the lid to the garbage can loudly clattering across the concrete.  I paused momentarily, as if to reconsider, before slowly proceeding further into the dark recess of the city; the noise of the normal nightlife of Bluffington quickly faded, the buildings around me absorbing the noise.

Near the far end of the alley, I could see the light of a window, faint shapes flicker across the harsh light of the warehouse.  The deal was obviously still happening; despite having been told that it had been called off.  I just had a couple dozen feet to go, and I would be in position.  The sound of my team leader came over my coms, telling me that satellite coverage was taking a little longer than expected, but should operational in the next thirty seconds.

Glancing again behind me, I proceeding cautiously to the side of the building, attempting to hide my footsteps in the noise of the thunder that was growing increasing louder.  I could now feel the cold damp brick of the warehouse with my clammy hands and continued towards the window, moving ever more slowly.  My feet slipped on an oil slick and I lurched sidewise, barely catching himself on a drain pipe.  I again heard the voice of my team leader, this time crackling slightly due to the interference created by the storm, telling me that the live satellite was showing seven people in the warehouse and 2 hostages.

I prepared for a silent entry, threading the silencer on my Beretta and adjusting my Kevlar jacket.  I opened my coms, asking for clearance to use lethal force, if necessary to complete the recovery for the two agents held with in by the enemy operatives.  Before the getting a response, I heard a noise behind me and saw the glare of approaching headlights.   Knowing I didn’t have time, I quickly breached the window, startling the guards on the lower level who were unloading a shipment of automatic weapons.  The guards, knowing I had the jump on them, quietly submitted and allowed me to tie them.  As I did so,  I could hear the enemy operatives upstairs interrogating our agents, my fellow team members, attempting to get the GPS coordinates of our HQ. 

The buyer was tapping at the door, alerting the agents upstairs that the buyer was arrived and ending for now, the interrogation.  I began looking for a hiding spot, knowing I was trapped. Seeing a closet, I began moving quickly towards it --- Sammy -- , barely making it inside before  -- SAMMMY – the enemy operatives made it down stairs.  IT was here I remembered that I had left the two enemy agents tied up in plain sight and it was only moments before I was discov --- SAMMMY! – ered and I became a third hostage.

I started, the entire class was starting at me and I began to flush.  I had been daydreaming again and the teacher had been calling on me for the last several minutes.  I began to stammer, I…. I… I don’t kn – the teacher cut me off, telling me she was calling the principle and I was going to be expelled.   The class began laughing, and I, embarrassed, headed back to my dream where I had just heroically took out the rest of the enemy agents single-handedly and was taking a selfie with the subdued enemy agents before calling for an extraction for me and the two hostages upstairs who had been taken during a mission earlier that week.  Satisfied, I started to send the selfie to my parents, who I knew would be proud of me, when I again woke up and remembered that I was going to be expelled. 

And that is the story of my first day in First Grade.