The Mole at the Summit
A veteran spy is brought out of retirement for one last mission: to authenticate the identity of an elusive mole within the intelligence agency they once served. Set against the backdrop of an international summit, the spy must navigate old contacts and new enemies, fueled by the doubt that perhaps the mole is someone they once trusted.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Make the person helping your hero the one to worry about.
- End a scene on a phone call, a knock or a name.
- Let the reader know something the hero doesn't.
Writing thriller books
Something terrible is coming. Can they stop it in time?
Where a mystery looks back at a crime, a thriller looks forward at a threat. The reader often knows more than the hero, and the tension comes from watching danger close in. Short chapters, high stakes and a ticking clock are the tools of the trade.
What readers expect
- A clear, escalating threat
- A hero under pressure
- Twists and reversals
- Pace: little time to breathe
A tip before you start
Put a clock on it. A deadline the reader can count down turns every scene into a race.
More Spy Thriller prompts
- The Linguist's Coded MessagesIn a bustling European city, a skilled linguist is recruited by an enigmatic organization to decipher coded messages left in public spaces. As the…
- Spies Against DisasterWrite a gripping story about a group of spies from various countries, each with their agenda, forced to work together to prevent an international…
- The Spy's Final MissionA retired spy, living a quiet life in a small English village, receives an encrypted message from an old colleague believed to be dead. The message…
- The Entrepreneur's Spy NetworkWrite a story about a young tech entrepreneur who inadvertently intercepts a spy network's communications through their new security software. Finding…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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