Agent Pitch Finalist #49 - I, Spy

I, Spy
Adult Romantic suspense
84,000

QUERY:

For CIA operative Talia Reynolds, Canada is pretty much the bottom rung of the ladder in terms of detecting threats and being in danger. But even in Ottawa, the options are be careful or be killed, so Talia has had “careful” drummed into her skull pretty hard—hard enough that she can’t tell her aerospace engineer boyfriend Danny about her Top Secret occupation. That deception becomes harder still when she finally catches a hot case: aerospace executive (and potential spy) Fyodor Timofeyev.

Now Talia has to continually ditch Danny to seduce the secret-stealing exec on a three day deadline. As those days dwindle, keeping Danny away from danger grows more and more difficult. When her datebook isn’t the only place her two lives collide and Fyodor targets Danny and his work, Talia must choose to save either her secrets and her country, or the man she loves.

First 150 words:

I don’t do cat suits. The leather/plastic/spandex coatings female spies pour themselves into on TV are ridiculously impractical for actual spy tradecraft: no mobility, reflective in low light, loud colors. Nothing shouts “I’m a covert operative!” like a cat suit.

But I really wish I had one now. At least it wouldn’t snag on every half-screwed bolt I come across in this narrow ventilation shaft. My clothes are dark, close fitting and comfortable no matter how I have to contort myself, but I can’t move more than twenty feet without getting caught on something—like now. If I yank my pants hem free, my knee will hit the metal flashing, feet from my targets’ neighbors making dinner on the other side of the wall. I suck in a silent breath thick with their garlic and ginger.

I’ve made it this far. I’m not about to let one more hitch stop me.