140Story - Day 22

  I'm writing a story 140 words at a time and posting the results here daily.  Can I sustain interest?  Will I lose the narrative thread?  Find out in this next installment of Bullets Ain't Cheap

mull her options, going through the same operational checklist I would have five years before, when I was her.  Fight?  No.  Flee?  No.  Negotiate and gather intel.
    Her posture changed, her shoulders relaxed and her weight shifted to a normal, non-fighting stance.  “He’s not missing.  Yet.”
    “Right,” I said, remembering protocol, “it hasn’t been forty-eight hours.  Trust me, he’s gone.  He thinks he’s found Kelly.”
    Her eyes narrowed and her hands folded over her chest, but after a moment she nodded.  “That’s why we’re paying you, isn’t it?”
    “Which is how I know Burton is never going to find Kelly,” I replied.  “Too easy.  Three photographs and your intel guys have enough to find a man like him who doesn’t want to be found?”
    She shook her head slowly.  “Burton wouldn’t fall for a trap.”
    “He doesn’t think