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jason taylor · 07-11-2018, 01:10 PM

Unusual Suspect

This is a short story I wrote once. Whether anyone can get ideas from it I don't know.

In 1942, the Haganah has a mole in a Vichy occupied city in Morocco named curiously after an obscure Humphrey Bogart movie no one will be interested in. After Operation Torch, that mission is of course obsolete. It is desired to debrief him and reinsert him in Axis high level. Naturally the OSS whose cooperation is needed, demand a sit-in on the debrief as a quid pro quo.

So far so good. However instead of just picking him up they conceal his unusual nature by grabbing random locals and taking them to an MP outpost for questioning. Most of them are released after a perfunctory grilling. However the Haganah mole is "arrested" and questioned. Then he is brought out for transfer. He grabs a gun, shoots the guard wounding him and escapes. The manhunt never finds him.

As it turns out the explanation is simple. A young OSS agent was promised a spot promotion, a bonus package, and any station he wanted if he would volunteer to get shot. This is meant to convince the unusual suspect's so-called compatriots that he is who he says.

07-11-2018, 01:10 PM	#462
jason taylor Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Portland, Oregon	Re: Ideas Are Easy Unusual Suspect This is a short story I wrote once. Whether anyone can get ideas from it I don't know. In 1942, the Haganah has a mole in a Vichy occupied city in Morocco named curiously after an obscure Humphrey Bogart movie no one will be interested in. After Operation Torch, that mission is of course obsolete. It is desired to debrief him and reinsert him in Axis high level. Naturally the OSS whose cooperation is needed, demand a sit-in on the debrief as a quid pro quo. So far so good. However instead of just picking him up they conceal his unusual nature by grabbing random locals and taking them to an MP outpost for questioning. Most of them are released after a perfunctory grilling. However the Haganah mole is "arrested" and questioned. Then he is brought out for transfer. He grabs a gun, shoots the guard wounding him and escapes. The manhunt never finds him. As it turns out the explanation is simple. A young OSS agent was promised a spot promotion, a bonus package, and any station he wanted if he would volunteer to get shot. This is meant to convince the unusual suspect's so-called compatriots that he is who he says. __________________ "The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison Last edited by jason taylor; 07-11-2018 at 06:26 PM.