Operation Sunburn Chapter IV 2049.6

[Jwalk100]

Honey Trap


A dejected Leland Matthews sat at his local bar in his hometown of Highpoint, North Carolina drinking lukewarm draft beer. He deftly slides the glass to the bartender and said, “Fill ‘er up, buddy.”

The bartender snags the glass and places it in the sink while at the same time grabbing a fresh, clean glass from the rack. He filled it with the cheap draft swill he pumped out daily to the beat down former assistant general manager. He placed the glass on a napkin in front of Matthews and stated, “Finish this then go home and clean your self up. I’m tired of smelling you from across the room.”

“Yeah, yeah”, muttered Matthews.

He took a long pull and glanced back as the door to the bar opened to emit light from the great outdoors. He glimpsed the coke bottle shape of a woman standing in the doorway. She was surveying the room, looking for a place to sit. She walked to the bar and sat three stools away from Leland.

“Heinie and a shot of Sazerac”, she said. The bartender pooped the bottle cap off a cold Heineken and pour a shot of the Sazerac Rye, depositing both in front of the lady. She said, “Thanks, just one a tab.”

The bartender winked and moved off to serve some other customers. Matthews tried to be inconspicuous as he was getting a good look at the woman. She was about 5 foot 8 maybe 130 pounds. Not skinny but toned with perky breasts and dancer’s legs. She sat drinking her beer and sipping her rye watching the tv on the wall. The tv was on the BBA Network with the talking heads babbling about the league. The breaking news scrolled across the bottom of the screen- ‘Yellow Springs Nine hire Derek Morgan as new assistant GM.’

The lady said out loud, “What the hell? What happened to the other guy?”

Matthews said, “He was ‘Let go’.”

“Oh my,” she said, ‘they are my favorite team.”

“Oh really?”, Matthews said.

She said, “Yeah, I love baseball.”

She looked over to him and a look of recognition appeared on her face. “Wow, you were the guy they let go. Leland Matthews, right?”

“Yep”, he mumbled.

“Let me buy you a drink.”, she said as she waved at the bartender to get his attention.

He perked up at the word ‘drink’ and said, “Thanks, that would be great!”

She stood up and walked to the stool next to him and sat. “My name is Karina.”

The beer and whiskey flowed as they talked for hours about baseball and what was next. He said, “How about we go somewhere quiet?”

“Great!”, she said. He joked, “Let me go powder my nose.”

She said, “I will too.”

He disappeared into the restroom and when he came back she was already seated. There were two fresh drinks there. She said, “We finish these and then we take off. I already took care of the bill.”

They tossed the drinks back and they both walked out of the bar. It was night already and they were plastered. She said, “I have a car coming for us.”

He thought, “Good thing I still had some protection in my wallet. This looks like ‘Go time’.”

A car pulls up and a driver gets out to open their door. “Thanks.”, she said as they settle into the car. The car pulls out of the lot and cruised down the road when Leland started to feel funny. Strange, I have drank more than this before. I shouldn’t feel like this. He looked over to Karina next to him as his vision closed down as if he was in a tunnel.

She told the driver, “He’s out.”

The driver said, “The plane is running and ready to take off. He should be out for the entire trip to Hawaii.”

[Dington]

Leland is a rat.