Dream 41: Espionage
I haven't had one of these types of dreams for a while and most enjoyable it was. It's like watching and being in a film at the same time, with complicated plots twists and strange scenes. This dream is now a bit hazy but it involved me going to a vaguely middle eastern country to assimilate into the community and find out about 'Iraqi matters'. The country wasn't Iraq, it wasn't a specified place and it ranged from mountainous regions with old temple-like buildings to quite modern Europeanesque towns and cities and back to third world style towns and villages...
There were several scenes of me being with groups of people trying to ask discrete questions, but as a woman it was quite difficult and we were always on the point of being caught/found out. At one point me and a colleague had to report an impending incident (possibly a bomb attack). We went to a modern building which was the reception for a helicopter service. This was a safe building where we could link up with our headquarters. We also needed the helicopter to take us over areas so we could take photos. Our time had run out in this region and people were beginning to suspect. We had to wait for a plane (the helicopter seemed to have disappeared). There was a suspect hanging around us. I think it was a man but this was not certain. We were playing a kind of cat and mouse game. He suspected us of being spies and we were pretty certain he was part of a group of criminals/bombers. It was a question of who would make the first move.
We were ready to leave and suddenly s/he had on these high heel sandals, but they had little wheels in the soles. I knew they were bombs, because of the way s/he was rolling, every once in a while they would sort of skip. It could have been put down to the rough pavement but I knew something was fishy. I had to find a way to alert our people without giving ourselves away and also to be able to catch the bomber without harming anyone else. Not quite sure how but we got the shoes, but we did. When we looked at the bottom, there were these thin pink plastic wheels built in, but there were pieces cut out of them to accommodate the device. It explained why they kept skipping and proved my theory correct. The shoes ended up in a bomb oven, a place where certain explosives could be let off safely. The problem was that it only took a certain force and we couldn't open the shoes to find out how much explosive was in them without getting blown up ourselves. There was lots of discussion about whether to explode the shoes or not. If they were within the limit then the oven would contain them. If not then the oven itself would explode, possibly injure people, but more importantly alert the other side to our presence and our operations. The rest of this is a bit hazy, there was yet another exploding device which had to be dealt with, but we had to get back into the field.
Next we were at an airport. There was lots of waiting around and being shunted from one place to the next. My friend J was there this time, with a small group of friends. Finally we were allowed to board the plane. It was a very modern one with different seating sections. J wanted me to go ahead and get good normal seats, but I spotted a new section which sat sideways along the plane with a table in front. J didn't want a table seat so she went off into the normal sections. I thought it might be nice to have a table and it could even be possible to sleep with your head on it later. I was worried that I had the wrong ticket but no-one challenged me. I ended up talking to an academic bloke about some form of art. Can't remember all the details now but it was quite fascinating. I still had my spy persona but it was as if I was returning home and was now off duty.
Later we were in another airport and I had to get changed. Something to do with my usual clothing versus the local garb. I was trying to put some trousers on and had on normal knickers. A local woman saw me and thought I needed undergarments. She unwrapped a great long piece of cloth from her crotch area and gave it to me. It had some very slight staining, but she wanted me to take it as she thought I had my period and my need was greater than hers. I tried to explain in gestures that it was ok. I was horrified at the thought of putting on someone else's undergarments, but also touched that she would unconditionally try to help another woman whom she felt was in need.
At some point P and I were on a holiday which was also reconnaissance. We took loads of photos. Later in the dream I was playing them back on my camera/phone and instead of just still shots they were little moving vignettes with some family and other people whom we didn't even know had been there. They were very detailed and graphic. Fantastic buildings, gardens and landscapes, the photos seemed almost better than it had being there. There were loads more scenes and snippets but these are all I can remember. When you write them down they seem more logical and clear cut than in the dream, it was far more mixed up than that and also the feelings are hard to capture. The sense of adventure, stress of being caught, the wonder of new places and customs, the strange convoluted conversations, trying to get plane tickets, passports and so much more...