The Longest Kept Secret

The more I thought about it, the more I was intrigued. I had done the one thing I thought I would never do in my whole lifetime. I shared something so secretive that I will be embarrassed and ashamed of the idea of anyone reading this.

I had made my way through hours of research, through hours of coffee being drunk. Through rain and sun, through early mornings and late nights. I was beside myself at the possible repercussions and major consequences for what had been written and meant to be kept a secret.

I had taken the time to find all the necessary ideas and creative writing needed to complete this manuscript. I had dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts. It was to be for my eyes only and never to be published or read by anyone. Yet it was now in the best seller's list of newly discovered published works for the 2025 season.

I was not sure how this work had become published when only one person knew of this, and it was me. I would be devastated and appalled at the idea of someone, anyone seeing what I had rough drafted, final draft, then turned the notes and the first two drafts into a working manuscript. The only one who would know was me and I was never sharing this manuscript.

My literary agent, Bill, was smiling when I went to tell him about anything new that he had in his possession which had been written by me. Bill says, "Nothing that I am aware of." "I would have known if you had something ready to be published."

I returned his smile and then said, "I am sure that you have one thing from me that was not meant to be seen by the public, and yes not even you either." "You know I always turn in the final work after have made it worthy to be seen."

Bill says, "You are being paranoid and overthinking this as usual." "You are going to cause your heart to burst from all the tension and stress you place on it." Bill laughed at the idea of my heart exploding.

"How can you say that I am being paranoid and overthinking things." "Have you no idea of what is floating out there, as my latest work, when there are things that were made mention of or spoken about that no one was ever supposed to see." "That it could very well place all those who are a part of and have been a part of my life in danger or at risk?"

Then the clock rang, and I woke up from a deep sleep. I looked around and realized I had an unsafe nightmare about something that may or may not have happened, yet the weird feeling was creeping up into my mind that it was not a dream at all.

I was halfway out of bed, tripping over a large box placed there sometime between when I laid down and now when I woke up. I was not sure what was in the box, so I reached around to the box and opened it quickly.

To my horror, were inside the box, several partly and completely copies of the very manuscript I had seen in my dream, which were the very work I knew would be a problem if they were seen by anyone and would be deadly for those who were in it because of what was revealed in detail.

I then phoned my agent, Bill, and asked him if he had seen any new material or manuscripts for him to look over. Bill was a decent guy and a great agent, but keeping a secret was not a strength of his, to say the least.

Bill replied, "You are so paranoid and always overthink things in the worst kind of way." "Seems rather childish that would ask this question of me." "How long have we been friends for?" "How long have I been your agent for?"

I muttered something quickly and then said, "I am coming down to see you right now, hope you are ready to see me about this mess?"

I slammed the receiver down and racing out of the apartment, I headed in the direction of Bill's offices, so that I would see his reaction after I let on that I knew.

I ran all the way to the building, entered the front lobby, and headed towards the elevator. My heart was racing and my mind clear and thinking about what to say when I saw Bill about this.

I rode the elevator up to the 11th floor, tried to get off before the doors fully opened, then headed to the left down the partly lit hallway. I stopped short of his office entrance way, seeing there was his body lying in the doorway, blocking my entry.

His face was in shock and his head had been filled with at least two bullets, that I could see from that angle. I jumped up and tried to step over the body, to call the police. The office was a littered mess of everything that a literary agent must make a good impression for their clients.

I reached the closest phone, and it was dead, the line cut. It was as I passed into Bill's office that I saw a torn scrap of paper lying on the desk under a paperweight. It had something scribbled on it.

I pulled the piece of paper, lifting it to the light to read and it was blurry. I was trying to make out the message and knew from the first word(s) on the paper that this was only the beginning of something which should have remained secret had been seen by the public.

The first word, being a keyword for a secret operation in the Baltic Sea, was Rubble. It was code for something buried deep in pile of paperwork that was handled in the 1980s. It was a mess of espionage and corruption. It involved many heads of state in at least twenty-five different countries and was meant to be declassified upon the tenth year of the new millennium, putting it around 2010.

The word was linked to ten assassinations or attempted assassinations, rigged jury tampering and other orders of business that spanned back to the mid 1930s or around that time. Various administrations and party affiliates of both sides, Republicans and Democrats alike were guilty and it ran deep into covert and secret bargaining matters that were all connected.

As I was about to grab all that I could find to remove it from sight and then destroy it, I smelled smoke and saw that the building was on fire. I still grabbed what I could, placing it into an attaché case found near the desk.

I ran out of the office area heading towards the open door and fled down the hallway. I ran to the stairway, skipping over two steps at a time and made it to the first floor, when the door leading to freedom was blocked by a security guard.

I knew I had to make it past him, yet his huge body blocked my exit. I lunged at him, knocking him backwards out the door. I jumped over his slumped body, leaving him and the building behind me.

I was outside when I saw the firetrucks arrive, and one officer saw me leaving and gave chase. I was on the run of my life. Wondering, "would ever bring an end to the very work that I only meant for my own eyes to see?" It was a race of time, coverups and literal staying one step ahead of all those who were wanting me to be dead.