SPY SCHOOL

~ Iain Kelly

She sucked at languages. She got her ass handed to her in combat training. The lie detector caught her out every single time.

‘Have you considered you may not be cut out for this line of work?’ her trainer asked.

She persisted. Cryptography was her elective for the summer term. They started with history. She took an interest, this subject her brain seemed to grasp.

She cracked the old keys and ciphers with ease. She created her own that no one could decode.

With tiny quills on the back of matchboxes her writing was neat, quick and accurate. She was top of the class.

Now they moved onto modern codes and communications. They were told about ones and zeros, number keys, millions of calculations per second.

A laptop was presented to each of them. Their task: write an unhackable piece of encryption.

After five minutes she raised her hand. The trainer approached her desk.

‘You’ve finished?’

She shook her head, ‘It keeps asking me to hit the ‘Any’ key, but I don’t see it anywhere.’

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Copyright Goroyboy

Written as part of Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. The challenge is to write a flash fiction story or poem in around 150 – 175 words, based on the weekly photo prompt. Thanks as always to the challenge host Priceless Joy. For more information visit HERE.

To read other stories based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.

Published by Iain Kelly

39 year old writer, avid film viewer and book reader, employed in the media industry as a television editor.

59 thoughts on “SPY SCHOOL”

  10. Pingback: SPY SCHOOL – The Militant Negro™

  11. Shame – born too late. She could come into her own if the security services need to plant an undercover agent among the street traders who write names on grains of rice?
    Nice story.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      2. I hit enter too soon on my last response…I was going to say, picture me thinking about it … like that movie GREASE – where the principal is on the loud speaker at the end of the year for the seniors as they face commencement, “Who knows maybe you’ll be the future day Eleanor Roosevelt, or J. Edgar Hoover?” and flashes to the goofballs that had bad grades and they all were contemplate being amazing people. That was me a minute ago. Interrogator…hmmm. I could only find a video of what I’m talking about, in Spanish, https://youtu.be/G9zV6XLZOBE

        Liked by 1 person

      1. lol. True. I’ve been trying to teach my Mom to use her smartphone for the last 5 years or so, at least she can text okay now. I remember when she started working after staying home 2/3 of the time with my brothers and I. She didn’t know how to turn the computer on the first day of her job. We laughed so hard, but now I look back and think that must have been hard.

        Liked by 1 person

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