It had only been towards the end that Sylvia had found out about the woman who’d been a double agent and had written that controversial report – which she’d just told Sylvia had been doctored, and, Sylvia found out, had been successively buried.

Sylvia later found out the woman had been sacrificed for a deal between several governments.  The woman had known too much, including the names of those intelligence chiefs who had been taking orders from the group of men and women who were keen to find the diverted gold.  Those intelligence chiefs probably engineered that decision to sacrifice her in the deal, no matter how valuable of an asset she’d been.  Decades later, one of those intelligence chiefs had apparently been inducted into the House of Lords, as he’d so proudly boasted to Sylvia over the phone.

Sylvia spent a restless night, trying to sleep but unable to, thinking about everything she’d learnt, and which she’d tried to write out in her personal report that she hadn’t decided where to send yet.  She knew that she was up against people with almost unlimited power, influence, and money.  She also knew she was running out of time.

Early the next morning Sylvia drove to the nearest strip mall that had a post office, and then mailed the report to Bette’s duplex via express and registered mail, folded inside a plush toy for a toddler, and which she’d then packaged as a birthday gift.  She mailed several packages out, also by express mail, to other addresses.

A few blocks from there, she knew there was a Starbucks.  She wanted to call Bette from there, using one of the throw-away mobiles, while blending into the mid-morning crowd.  As she waited for her latte, she told the brunette to expect a package in the mail, a plush toy, posted by express mail, from Sylvia that was addressed to Christy.  She explained to Bette that she didn’t have time to explain why, but said the package was highly important and that Bette was to open the package right away.

As she hung up, Sylvia looked around furtively to see if there would be another pair just like the previous day that would stand-out from the crowd and looked like they were following her around.  She broke apart the phone she’d used to call Bette and dropped various pieces in different trash bins around the coffee shop and in the restrooms.  She hadn’t seen anyone looking at her.