Dead Drop (A Spider Shepherd short story) Read Online Free

want to be the cause of you getting hurt or worse.’
    ‘I have done
nothing wrong, Spider,’ said the boy.
    ‘I know that,’
said Shepherd. ‘But I can’t put your life at risk. It’s not fair.’
    Karim looked at
him with teary eyes. ‘And what if I hear something useful;? Something that
might save the lives of you and your friends? What would I do with information
like that? Just forget it, and see you die? Is that what you want?’
    Shepherd thought
for a few moments. ‘I’ll tell you what. There’s a way for us to stay in touch
without putting you at risk. I’ll set up a dead drop – a dead letter box
for us to use.’
    ‘A dead drop? I
do not understand.’
    ‘If you want to
get in touch with me or you have information, you can put a note in the dead
drop and I’ll take it and leave money for you there. And if you’re ever in
danger, you can also use it as a live drop - a live letter box - to tell me
that you need to meet.’
    Karim beamed, his
anger forgotten. ‘I have read of this.’ He rummaged through his sack of items
for sale and produced a battered Cold War spy novel. ‘An English officer gave
me this.’ He grinned. ‘Or anyway, it used to belong to him. I read it. Spies
use these dead drops, don’t they?’
    ‘Well we don’t do
it quite like the characters in novels,’ Shepherd said. ‘But you’ve got the
general idea.’
    ‘So I will be
your spy?’
    ‘Karim, no. I’m
just showing you a way that you can continue to talk to me without anyone
seeing you, that’s all.’
    The boy nodded
seriously. ‘I understand,’ he said.
    ‘OK, now spies in
the books have their dead drops in cities, but our dead drops are always in a
natural feature, like a fissure in the rock, or a cleft in a tree. To signal
that there’s a message, you just leave a mark that can be seen by a casual
glance, so you don’t have to check the dead drop itself, you just walk past and
glance that way. There’s an exposed rock face, in a little dip about 400 yards
to the west of the gates of our compound and far enough away from the main
buildings and the perimeter fence that pausing there won’t arouse any suspicion
if anyone happens to be watching. I need you to go and look for it later, OK?’
    Karim nodded and
wiped his eyes with the back of his hands.
    ‘There’s a crack
about an inch wide at the base of the rock, where the winter frosts have
penetrated it over the years,’ continued Shepherd.   ‘It’s a few inches deep, so anything you put in there won’t
be seen. Pretend you’re getting a stone out of your sandal or something and you
can squat down and you’ll be hidden from sight. I’ve marked it with a chalk
line on the rockface above it - when you’ve found it, rub out the chalk mark
with your finger. Make a fresh mark when you want to alert me. A horizontal
line will signal that there’s a message in the dead drop, a vertical one is
asking for a live drop - a meeting. If you - or I - ask for that, be at the
place at sunset that night or on each subsequent night until the meet. I will
check the dead drop when I’m taking my morning run, and you must do the same
every day. He paused ‘And Karim? Not a word about this to anyone else, OK?’
    Karim nodded,
face solemn. ‘Thank you Spider. Don’t worry, I won’t let you down.’
    ‘I know you
won’t. But listen, don’t take any risks whatsoever around the Taliban. No
amount of information about them is worth risking your life for. Now I want you
to repeat everything I have just said to you so that I know you haven’t forgotten
anything.’
    * * *
    Major Gannon had
talked to the American agents running the AID programme and discovered the date
of the next convoy distributing US dollars to a series of villages and small
towns, including Karim’s home village. Shepherd put together his preferred
four-man team - himself, McIntyre, Mitchell and Harper - to piggyback on the
convoy and then set up an OP overlooking the village.
    ‘What’s