A Brief Skit inspired by the film Telefon

[miss_s_b]

INT KGB office circa 1977. Dingy with nicotine-stained walls, rickety desks, black telephones. Two KGB agents are having a discussion.

AGENT 1: Well what about Ivanova? She was near Washington.

AGENT 2: No, we lost her in the first year when they showed the Rogar Corman film on TV at Halloween. Who knew they recited the poem at the start of it?

AGENT 1: Petrov?

AGENT 2: Went on a killing spree on his son's first birthday. I told you Happy Birthday was a bad activation poem for a sleeper agent, but would you listen?

AGENT 1: Prutkova?

AGENT 2: Killed everyone at her own wedding when they recited Maya Angelou.

AGENT 1: Well what about Syratov?

AGENT 2: A most unfortunate incident in a kindergarten. The Cat in the Hat is apparently quite commonly read to children...

AGENT 1: Well who does that leave?

Both start leafing through papers, looking for another name

AGENT 1 & 2 together, triumphantly: ...Karlova!

Agent 1 picks up a phone, consults the paper, dials a number, and recites in sepulchral tones:

AGENT 1: Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away...

((This skit brought to you by the incredulity caused by the idea that all those sleeper agents would have still been around in Telefon, when their activation phrase was one of THE most famous American poems of all time...))
((And not by procrastination on the Hitchcock post at all. Honest.))