Burned Food

'Nothing can come near the taste of your food.'

'Don't butter me up, darling. I am trying to prepare it from a recipe.'

'Waiting eagerly to taste the delicacies.'

'Yeah. Don't worry, this time I won't alter sugar with salt.' saying this, Bella started smiling. Tim, her husband, was on the other side of the phone. He couldn't see her wife smiling. Tim could only imagine how Bella was smiling. That was all he wanted for her: a smiling face without any worry.

'Yeah, Please don't do that. Last time, I failed to gulp even one morsel. Please, this time put your magic aside and do as the recipe says.'

'Don't worry Hon. I will work with my magic and your recipe.'

'Then, I would have to carry a back-up.'

'Don't you dare doubt on me. I am an excellent cook.'

'Says who?'

'My husband.'

'But your husband was unable to eat even two morsels of your delicious food.'

'Yeah and still he loves me more than ever.'

'That I do.'

'I can not cook and talk, can you...' Bella could not speak the rest of the words as the loud banging noise on the door disturbed the conversation.

'Looks like there is someone at the door. Talk to you later, Hon,' said Bella

'Love you, Darling.' Tim placed the cellphone on his desk. He began working on his project. The keys were experiencing the pressure of excitement by Tim. The keys were expressing their anguish with rhythmic clacking. 

There was a similar loud banging sound on the door. Bella placed her apron on the kitchen table and washed her hands to get rid of the olive oil. She hurried to the door as the banging sound was increasing exponentially. 

'Who is there?'

'Flower Delivery.' came a loud response from the other side of the door.

Bella glimpsed through the door eye hole and could see only flowers. She was not sure that who would send such a gift.

'Who send it?' asked Bella

'Some Gentleman by the name Tim Morrison.'

No, way. Tim knows the flower that she likes and white lily. Tim could never mistake her choice. 

She quickly removed her Glock and loaded a bullet in the chamber. She turned off the safety and attached a silencer to minimize the noise. She placed the nozzle behind the door to neutralize the target in a matter of seconds. The intruder would not have even time to think about what hit them so hard. 

'Miss, I am getting late. Kindly sign the receipt on the flowers and keep it outside. So that I can collect while on my return route. Take your time, Miss.' saying that the delivery man left. Bella could not see. But the years of training in special force helped her come to that conclusion as the footsteps seldom lie its intention.

To make sure about his conclusion, Bella turned on the camera and verified. The man was leaving in a hurry, quite a common observation. What was uncommon was the shoes that the delivery man was wearing. The George Cleverley shoes were more than expensive for a delivery man earning some dollars per delivery. She examined the surroundings with the campus camera and could not find any intruders lurking around. She switched to infra-red and was unable to pick up any signal. 

The agency trained the spies to question everything and especially, the obvious.

They were a spy couple. The agency assigned Tim to the desk because of a recent failure in a crucial mission. Tim was to sit behind a desk for the next six months because he risked his identity exposure to protect a source. Tim was on a mission to extradite an informer in the enemy nation.

Tim failed to follow orders and risk his identity to extradite the informer from hostile territory. He somehow saved that informer but lost his field position for six months. If he would have failed, termination was on the table.

The enemy somehow added two and two together to pinpoint Tim's name and his address. The thing that helped those enemy spies was the flower receipt. They researched and face-mapped Tim to that flower store. Building on that, the team of five enemy spies came up with a mission to execute the spy that extradited the traitor of their nation. 

'When did you upgrade my choice, Hon.?' asked Bella

'What are you talking about?' asked Tim.

'Someone delivered white lily at our door.'

As soon as Tim heard the word 'white lily' he stood up immediately. He carefully instructed Bella about the steps to take.

Bella followed every instruction given by Tim to ensure safety. Bella mentioned the odd shoes of a deliveryman, and Tim was sure that enemies were around. He somehow knew that the risk that he took to protect the informer exposed his identity. Tim was now on the hitlist of the enemies. 

'Play their game but be prepared. Let us be a step ahead of them.' Tim conveyed his plan to Bella.

Bella began phase one of the plan. She scanned the flowers with the latest danger-detection vision. She found a gas dispersion device at the bottom of the vase that was holding the white lily. The device had the remote-trigger activation, and that proved that the enemies were in the vicinity. 

She switched on the jammer and took that vase inside the home. The enemies were happy that their plan was working. One of the spies pulled out the mobile to trigger that gas-dispersing device that would make Bella unconscious. The trigger initiated the device. They could see the gas emerging out of the vase, and Bella fell to the ground, unconscious.

The enemies were happy that their plan was working as per their imagination. They gathered around the door to collect their bargaining chip to negotiate a deal. The deal was to exchange the wife of a spy for the traitor informer.

Meanwhile, a flashbang came rolling out of the door. The flashbang did what it does and in the best way possible. Everyone lost their sensory inputs for some seconds. Those few seconds were enough for Bella to take headshots. 

According to the plan, Bella had to act the part. She blocked the signals and replaced the gas dispersing device with a fog emitting device. When the enemies thought that Bella was unconscious, she prepared for a battle. She counted five intruders and loaded two Glock to take them all out quickly.

All got bullets to their heads. Total five enemy agents were down. 

Bella locked the door again and waited for Tim to arrive. The food burned, and the take-out from a restaurant would save the day.