Pros Fic: The French Chateau
Title: The French Chateau
Disclaimer: All things related to The Professionals belongs to others, I borrow the lads now and again simply for my own entertainment and for no other reason.
Shaking off the fatigue of the trip, Bodie quickly dropped his bags in the room and returned to the hallway to wait for the controller to join him. His eyes played across the ancestral portraits that lined both sides of the narrow hallway, noting the large number with black scarves lining the throats of men. He barely controlled his own flinch at the thought of the guillotine ending all those lives.
“Bodie,” he jerked around to find his employer in the doorway of his room. “Come in for a moment, would you?”
“Sir?” He asked after closing the door.
“Not a bad place for a meeting as these things go, wouldn’t you say?” Cowley asked as he stood at the nearly floor to ceiling window and took in the pond below and the acres of land beyond it.
“I’m betting the food will be better, as well,” the agent responded.
“Aye, though they’ll be expecting me to drink their damn Calvados - not really my cup of tea.” Cowley turned and smiled as he pointed to a bottle of single malt on his dresser. “I brought my own.”
The two men shared a smile before heading out the door. “Wouldn’t due to be late for the first meeting.” Cowley stated.
Two days later found one CI-5 operative bored out of his mind. Why security was needed at this meeting - at least personal security - was clearly above his pay grade. The meeting was a bunch of old war horses (not that he’d ever say that aloud within Cowley’s earshot) discussing the future of intelligence collection and collaboration. Each of the principals had brought an agent, which left 9 of them with nothing to do most of the time. Oh, they made hourly rounds of the area adjacent to the medieval chateau and random checks on doors, windows and the cars parked in the shadows of the remains of fortress walls built in the 13th century, but that was about it.
So Bodie kept to his morning run, making it longer as the countryside was fairly level and it wouldn’t do to return home and out of breath after his next run with Ray. He would never live that down so he added a few miles to his journey, enjoying the quiet hum of the Normandy countryside.
The third night he made one more round of the outer perimeter before retiring. Cowley had headed for his own room and his single malt an hour before so he knew he wouldn’t be needed until the next morning. After a quick shower, Bodie settled himself in bed, book in hand and read for an hour until his yawning began to interfere with his reading. Turning off the light, he waited for sleep to overtake him.
He startled awake, there was someone in his room. Someone brazen enough to be standing right beside his bloody bed! It certainly wasn’t Cowley as the controller would have announced himself, knowing his agent’s proclivity for shooting first and asking questions later. Opening his eyes slowly he took in the left side of the bed but there was no one there. Raising his eyes his attention caught sight of the blinking red light of the motion detector. He had yet to move so there was no way he was the reason for the light flashing as though someone - or something, some part of his brain whispered - was moving. Grabbing his gun from under the pillow he got up, turned on the lights and searched the room. He also checked his door which was locked. He moved quietly into the corridor and checked to make sure Cowley’s door was secure. Another search of his room turned up nothing and he returned to bed, gun in hand, finally dozing off as dawn began to lighten the shadows in his room.
At breakfast one of the other agents was complaining about the weird noises - which he’d sworn was someone playing with the water in his bathroom - that had kept him awake. “If I didn’t know any better”, he finished looking around the table, “I’d swear the place was haunted.”
This statement was met with restrained laughter. Bodie remained silent; there was no way he was admitting out loud whatever had happened in his room. He might agree with the bloke who said the place was haunted. He knew there was more to the world than what one could see based on his time in Africa and elsewhere in the world, but just because he knew it didn’t mean he was ever going to admit it.
The same thing happened the last night of his stay. He remained still, eyes open, watching the motion detector dance. He shivered as a gust of cold air moved across the bed toward the window. Whatever it was clearly had no interest in causing harm, it was as though someone were simply checking to see that he was asleep.
Bodie couldn’t decide whether to tell Ray about his odd encounter or not. He knew someone had been in the room with him, instincts honed to a fine edge over a lifetime told him that. He didn’t know who or what and certainly not why or how. Better not to tell Doyle, he decided as he closed his kit. His partner already had a long enough list of reasons to ship him off to Dr. Ross for a lengthy stay. Better not to add seeing ghosts to that list, as his partner would surely never let him live it down.
Disclaimer: All things related to The Professionals belongs to others, I borrow the lads now and again simply for my own entertainment and for no other reason.
Shaking off the fatigue of the trip, Bodie quickly dropped his bags in the room and returned to the hallway to wait for the controller to join him. His eyes played across the ancestral portraits that lined both sides of the narrow hallway, noting the large number with black scarves lining the throats of men. He barely controlled his own flinch at the thought of the guillotine ending all those lives.
“Bodie,” he jerked around to find his employer in the doorway of his room. “Come in for a moment, would you?”
“Sir?” He asked after closing the door.
“Not a bad place for a meeting as these things go, wouldn’t you say?” Cowley asked as he stood at the nearly floor to ceiling window and took in the pond below and the acres of land beyond it.
“I’m betting the food will be better, as well,” the agent responded.
“Aye, though they’ll be expecting me to drink their damn Calvados - not really my cup of tea.” Cowley turned and smiled as he pointed to a bottle of single malt on his dresser. “I brought my own.”
The two men shared a smile before heading out the door. “Wouldn’t due to be late for the first meeting.” Cowley stated.
Two days later found one CI-5 operative bored out of his mind. Why security was needed at this meeting - at least personal security - was clearly above his pay grade. The meeting was a bunch of old war horses (not that he’d ever say that aloud within Cowley’s earshot) discussing the future of intelligence collection and collaboration. Each of the principals had brought an agent, which left 9 of them with nothing to do most of the time. Oh, they made hourly rounds of the area adjacent to the medieval chateau and random checks on doors, windows and the cars parked in the shadows of the remains of fortress walls built in the 13th century, but that was about it.
So Bodie kept to his morning run, making it longer as the countryside was fairly level and it wouldn’t do to return home and out of breath after his next run with Ray. He would never live that down so he added a few miles to his journey, enjoying the quiet hum of the Normandy countryside.
The third night he made one more round of the outer perimeter before retiring. Cowley had headed for his own room and his single malt an hour before so he knew he wouldn’t be needed until the next morning. After a quick shower, Bodie settled himself in bed, book in hand and read for an hour until his yawning began to interfere with his reading. Turning off the light, he waited for sleep to overtake him.
He startled awake, there was someone in his room. Someone brazen enough to be standing right beside his bloody bed! It certainly wasn’t Cowley as the controller would have announced himself, knowing his agent’s proclivity for shooting first and asking questions later. Opening his eyes slowly he took in the left side of the bed but there was no one there. Raising his eyes his attention caught sight of the blinking red light of the motion detector. He had yet to move so there was no way he was the reason for the light flashing as though someone - or something, some part of his brain whispered - was moving. Grabbing his gun from under the pillow he got up, turned on the lights and searched the room. He also checked his door which was locked. He moved quietly into the corridor and checked to make sure Cowley’s door was secure. Another search of his room turned up nothing and he returned to bed, gun in hand, finally dozing off as dawn began to lighten the shadows in his room.
At breakfast one of the other agents was complaining about the weird noises - which he’d sworn was someone playing with the water in his bathroom - that had kept him awake. “If I didn’t know any better”, he finished looking around the table, “I’d swear the place was haunted.”
This statement was met with restrained laughter. Bodie remained silent; there was no way he was admitting out loud whatever had happened in his room. He might agree with the bloke who said the place was haunted. He knew there was more to the world than what one could see based on his time in Africa and elsewhere in the world, but just because he knew it didn’t mean he was ever going to admit it.
The same thing happened the last night of his stay. He remained still, eyes open, watching the motion detector dance. He shivered as a gust of cold air moved across the bed toward the window. Whatever it was clearly had no interest in causing harm, it was as though someone were simply checking to see that he was asleep.
Bodie couldn’t decide whether to tell Ray about his odd encounter or not. He knew someone had been in the room with him, instincts honed to a fine edge over a lifetime told him that. He didn’t know who or what and certainly not why or how. Better not to tell Doyle, he decided as he closed his kit. His partner already had a long enough list of reasons to ship him off to Dr. Ross for a lengthy stay. Better not to add seeing ghosts to that list, as his partner would surely never let him live it down.