Jeff, an out of work guitar player, while clearing junk out of his late aunt’s attic, found a sealed envelope with the words “Top Secret” stenciled on one side. Naturally, curiosity got the better of him and he just had to see what was inside. He carefully tore open the envelope, eager to see the contents. Taking a deep breath, although he had no clue why, he reached in and very slowly pulled out the papers. Again, he was clueless as to why he was taking his time.

The words at the top of the first page mimicked those on the envelope. Underneath ‘Top Secret’ in much smaller letters, it said, “For level 8m eyes only”.

Jeff sat down to read the papers, but something inside him stopped him and he decided against examining the documents any further. He wasn’t sure what it was he had in his hands and one thing for sure, is that he wasn’t about to risk ruining his life by reading something he was never meant to know about. His mind raced, wondering what on earth had his aunt been up to that resulted in her hiding top secret information in her attic. How did she end up with the papers, and how did she do it without anyone having the slightest idea of their existence? Was she a government agent of some kind? Did she take a wrong turn and was hiding evidence or state secrets, as was written on the envelope? Was she hiding them to protect someone? Each new question conjured up countless others. He was beside himself in disbelief.

Jeff, suddenly fearful, stopped, pausing to catch his breath, and hopefully gather his thoughts. He was at a lost as to what he should do. Did he need to call someone in authority, and if so, who should he call? The more he thought about what to do with the envelope, the more things seemed to complicate themselves, making him all the more nervous about what his next step should be. As he slipped the papers back into the envelope, Jeff noticed a fax number at the top of the top of the first page, jotted the number down, he decided to do a reverse search to see if he could find out who it was that sent the fax, and through that hopefully give him a clue as to who he should contact. His heart was in his throat, he was almost too nervous to think.

Sitting at his computer, Jeff loaded up one search site after another, only to learn that he would need to shell out $15 to get a report as to who the owner of the fax was. Disappointed, Jeff thought for a moment, then the idea of calling the fax number became a possibility and it just might work, especially if they had their fax machine setup similar to how his was, in that the fax wouldn’t connect or pickup unless it heard another fax machine at the calling end. Otherwise the machine would accept it as a normal voice call. ‘It’s worth a try, and it certainly won’t hurt to give a shot.’ he thought to himself.

Dialing the number, again he was disappointed as the grinding noise of the fax machine at the other end screeched in his ear. For a second, he was ready to give up, but he decided to send a short note to the fax number to see if he would get a response.

Jeff typed, and then printed a short message that read. *Have found envelope marked top secret, containing several pages that were faxed from your number. Please contact me.* Jeff included his name and phone number, hoping that whoever received the fax wasn’t on the FBI’s most wanted list, or someone equally as bad.

The fax on its way, Jeff was in the process of shutting down his computer when the phone rang. His heart jumped almost out of his throat.

The voice at the other end was calm, self-assured and helped ease the butterflies flopping around in his stomach. “Good morning Mr. Saunders, this is Amy Garrett, from the Central Intelligence Agency, could you explain this fax you just sent to us?”

“Central Intelligence…. Oh my God, well, ah, Yes, I ahh can. My name is Jeff Saunders, but you already know that. Well, I found an envelope in my late aunt’s attic, while I was doing some cleaning up there. I think it may be something of importance, but I really have no idea if it is or not.”

“Would you mind describing what you found?” she asked, almost as though it was routine.

“Er, yes, it’s a brown manila envelope with top secret stenciled on the front.” He offered nervously.

“I see, did you look to see what was inside, and if you did, could you describe what you saw?” Her voice seemed a little quicker, like a switch had been turned on. The change in her voice made Jeff all the more nervous.

“Well, when I saw it, and knowing my aunt as I do, I thought it was some kind of joke, so I opened it and started to pull out the papers. I’m not sure how many sheets there are, possibly 5 or 6, I didn’t have it out enough to count them. When I saw that it again said top secret at the top of the first page, and the words for level 8m eyes only” I got really nervous and put the papers back in the envelope.” Jeff added, “I didn’t want to see something I wasn’t supposed to, especially if seeing it might get me into trouble. I figured if the papers were genuine, that I could already be in a boatload of it already.” Jeff’s heart was beating so fast and so loud, he was sure the lady on the other end of the phone could hear it.

“Could you tell me what was written on the papers?” This time she sounded like a teacher giving an oral exam, and Jeff had been out of college for several years.

“No, I can’t, because when I saw the line that said, ‘for level 8m eyes only’ under the large print ‘top secret’, I got nervous and began pushing the papers back into the envelope. It was then that I noticed the fax numbers across the top of the page. I jotted it down and did a web search to see who it might be from. As it turned out, I found that I would need to pay to get the information, and because I wasn’t about to pay to find out. When calling the number didn’t work, I ended up sending you the fax.” Jeff wondered if he was giving too much information, but he actually felt relief at having told the woman what he woman what he knew.

“I see from your phone number that you live in the Middleburg area, could you bring the envelope to our offices, so that someone can have a look at it? If you prefer, we could have someone meet you at your place, but you would have to explain why several cars and several people entered your home.” The choices she gave were obviously made to ensure he would bring the envelope to them.

“I will be glad to bring you the envelope, just tell me when, where, and who I should ask for once I get there.”

“Tell the security you meet at the entrance your name and that you are here to see Mr. Gregory Reynolds. They will have already been informed that you are coming and will direct you to my desk. From there, I will escort you to Mr. Reynolds office. As to when, let’s see, its 10:45 AM now. Could you bring it in later today, say after lunch?”

“Yea, I can do that. I’ll have something to eat, and leave here around noon. It should take me about an hour or so to get there. So I should arrive there sometime shortly after 1:00, give or take.” Jeff let out a breath of air, feeling as though a heavy load had been removed from his shoulders.

“Excellent, I look forward to meeting you Mr. Saunders, and thank you for getting in touch with us in regards to the envelope.”

Jeff was thinking he should be thanking them, for helping remove much of the nervousness. “Thank you, Amy, for being so calming. At first, I was quite nervous and wasn’t sure what to expect. Thank you for easing my mind.” There was a smile in Jeff’s voice, and Amy could hear it.

“Not a problem, Mr. Saunders, we aren’t as bad as we’re made out to be in the movies. See you later today.” With that, she hung up, not giving Jeff a chance to say good bye. ‘Oh well, could have been worse. There could have been a squad of cars at my doorstep, with suited guys banging at my door.’

Despite his still being a little nervous, Jeff had a quick, but light lunch, showered and changed to head to Washington. He chuckled as he thought, ‘Mr. Saunders goes to Washington’. Then a vision of a news headline popping into his head. *Jeff Saunders makes major discovery, helps end fuel crisis*. Shaking his head, he thought that he had better keep his imagination to himself and stop fantasizing.

The drive to D.C. seemed to take longer than it normally did. Maybe he was thinking too much thinking, or maybe it was the traffic that increased as he neared the city. If only he had never come across the envelope in the first place, or better yet, if only he had stayed in bed, instead of deciding that today was the day he was going to clean out his aunt’s attic.

When he arrived, just as Amy said, he was directed to her desk, which was situated just to the right inside the lobby entrance. “Good afternoon, are you Amy? I’m Jeff Saunders. We talked on the phone this morning.” She was older than he had imagined her to be. In her 40’s, dark blond hair, and with what he guessed might be called a buxom figured. One thing for sure, she was a very attractive woman.

“Ah yes, Mr. Saunders, good to see you. Let me take you to Mr. Reynolds office. He’s expecting you.” She got up quickly and made a gesture for him to follow, then turned to lead him a short distance down a hallway and into an elevator. The ride in the elevator was short, as they only went up one floor.

When the doors slid open, two men were standing there waiting. They reached in and, grasping Jeff by the arms, led him to what appeared to be an interview room, similar to the ones he had seen on shows he’d watched on TV, like NCIS, or pretty much any police drama. The room was well lit, with two chairs facing each other across a wooden table, and not much else. The taller of the two men motioned for him to sit down.

Moments later, Gregory Reynolds entered, introduced himself while showing his ID, asked to see the envelope. As soon as he had the envelope in his hand, he excused himself saying he would be right back. Jeff watched as he took it into an adjoining room, where Jeff could easily tell that there were others in the room, not only because he could see their shadows on the floor as they moved about, but he was almost sure he could hear muffled laughter.

Upon returning, Reynolds had a very stern look on his face. He was accompanied by two men who were in the adjoining room with him. They stood silent and were very ominous in their posture. “Let’s get down to business.” Mr. Reynolds had a much less courteous look on his face as he sat in the chair opposite Jeff. “OK, we’ve examined the contents and we need to know what you know about what’s inside. So talk to me, tell me everything you know about the envelope and the documents inside.” Reynolds paused then continued, “Don’t hold anything back, and don’t try hiding anything.” He warned, then added, “Just be open and honest with us, because we really do have the means of knowing whether you are telling the truth or not.”

Needless to say, Jeff was now extremely nervous, but he took a deep breath and recounted everything he did, from his actions when he found the envelope, to his conversation with Amy on the phone. He left nothing out, looking at Gregory Reynolds as she spoke. “That’s pretty much everything I can remem……” Jeff was cut off in mid-sentence, as Reynolds, who earlier sounding very irritated, now along with the other men in the room burst into laughter. Sliding the last page of the ‘Top Secret’ documents across the table towards Jeff, Reynolds pointed to the last line, where it was stamped, in large bold letters, “MOVIE SCRIPT OUTLINE APPROVED” with a short note by the then director, “Looking forward to seeing the actual movie. Best of luck.” and was signed, Richard Helms.

Jeff could still hear the laughter coming from inside the interview room as he stepped inside the elevator. “Yep.” Jeff sighed, “I should have stayed in bed.”