This Tape Will Self Destruct in Five Seconds

missouri

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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The tall man in the sports jacket looked awkward in the fabric shop as he approached the brunette clerk wearing glasses.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for a fabric for my wife. It’s going to be our fifth wedding anniversary and she wants something in amethyst.”

“You mean sapphire.” She paused for a moment. “I have just the thing in back. Come with me.”

She escorted him to a storage area and excused herself. Alone, he then pulled an envelope and a small tape recorder from inside a drawer and turned it on.

The control voice began, “Good morning, Mr. Phelps.”

Once again time for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ weekly edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a short story or poem no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

I must admit to being initially stumped by Rochelle’s choice this week. I’m not one to write a domestic type of scene and was frantically working to figure out what sort of mystery, clandestine encounter, or macabre scenario to weave in a fabric shop.

Then the old 1960s TV show Mission: Impossible popped into my head. It was a favorite of mine growing up and I still have a fondness for it (not to be confused with the movie series starring Tom Cruise).

For all but the first season, the show starred Peter Graves as Jim Phelps, the head of a small “Impossible Missions Force” who were clandestinely given their orders at secret drops using a small tape recorder and packet of photos. Phelps would then be seen at his home selecting pictures of the team members who he would gather, creating the plan to complete the “impossible” mission.

It always began with a scene such as I wrote above, and at the end of the recording, we would hear, “As always, if you or any of your IM force should be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.”

To read other stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.

To read more of my work, try the SciFi/Fantasy novelette ICE.

ice
At the end of time, the world is hot and men travel the vast oceans in merchant sailing ships. Captain Ki-Moon Yong of the Star of Jindo has discovered a new horror at the bottom of the world. Can he and the Star escape disaster long enough to warn a disbelieving world?

23 thoughts on “This Tape Will Self Destruct in Five Seconds”

  1. Well, now, that was a bit of a stretch– but quite creative for all that. You captured it very well, especially the initial coded dialog authorizing Mr.Phelps to be directed to the message and the mission packet.

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  3. Hitting a lot of the them today – A spoofed James Bond. Man from UNCLE and here you have the original series Mission Impossible. Maybe I’ll do another and try Flint (though it’s hard to spoof a spoof…)

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  4. Smoothly flowing story. I remember that show but as a small child I always got hopelessly lost quickly in what was going on. I wonder if I watched them now I’d be able to catch on?

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  5. A fabric shop would make a good front for a spy ring. At least, no one would suspect it. I thought the mistaken gem was an odd touch until it paid off at the end. Nicely done.
    -David

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  6. Hi James, the idea of having a password phrase exchange always makes me laugh. Would you trust a stranger? Dangerous game of double cross is the world of spies.

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    • Trust a stranger? Unless one is expected to recognize a very large number of agents whose sole purpose is to be inconspicuous and provide nothing but direction to an info packet, one has no choice. Think, though, of the background manipulations that had to occur to set up that innocuous exchange. Someone had to temporarily replace the clerk at the shop for an hour or so, probably during a lunch break. Someone had to supply Mr.Phelps secretly and securely with the coded elements of conversation and the shop location and time, but not more than that. Perhaps he has some regular channel for surreptitious brief messaging that we never see but that alerts him about an impending contact. An enemy would have to penetrate and spoof all these details in order to lure Mr.Phelps to a trap. A direct tagging of him and each member of his team, following them by remote reconnaissance, would be a more likely means to identify them and subsequently to interfere with their work.

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  10. Oh Nice. Had me going for a second, but you nailed it.

    Big fan of the IMF, we have all of the series on DVD. I recall seeing Dan and Jim go into all sorts of “shops” to get the briefing tape.

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