Page 5

Twelve years ago: Boston …

“Close the door behind you,” Director Baskins told the last person in. “Now that everybody’s here, we have things to discuss regarding the South Sudan case.” The Boston head of the FBI had called the meeting in his office, including not only his personnel who were involved, but their DOJ liaisons as well.

Missy glanced around the table, being populated by FBI agents Smalley, Englewood, Fleischerman, Tertia, and Georgio, as well as a newbie agent who’d just started the previous week by the name of Sloane Vessers. From the DOJ, there was herself, Special Agent Oliphant, and SA Beranger. Their boss, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, or DAAG Cavateral had previously conferred with Baskins, and was sitting this one out, leaving the dirty work to the FBI.

Even though Missy had only been with the DOJ for a few months, all her fellow operatives knew that, before her transfer to the Department, she’d worked the case—the murders of her one-time squad—for the CIA after separating from the Army. For that reason, nobody blinked at her presence.

Missy, unbeknownst to all present except Baskins, knew exactly how everything was going to go down this morning.

She’d been briefed, and she needed to get her acting chops on.

Baskins began. “As of last week, we had to move our asset Sawyer Blue to a new safe-house, because his supposedly secure residence was, once again compromised.” Baskins scowled around the room, as if he could root out the rat amongst them, using pure will. “I’m tired of the bullshit,” he swore. “Someone or someone’s in our agencies are traitors, and until we find out who he, she, or they are, with agreement from DAAG Cavateral, I’m taking everyone here off the Sawyer Blue case except for Agent Smalley. I’ll be assigning a brand-new group of agents to work with Smalley, with the caveat that the newbies not be apprised of Mr. Blue’s location.”

There were grumbles of dissension, but after initial discord, everyone quieted, waiting to hear what else Baskins had to say.

“Out of an abundance of caution,” Baskins advised, “Smalley was the one who moved Mr. Blue this time, and will also be the only agent to perform that task from here on out, should the need arise again.”

Not true, but —

Missy leaped to her feet; her face stormy. “With all due respect, Director, that’s bullshit.” Nobody who knew her expected her to mince words. “This became my case when the bastards killed my squad. I’ve been digging away at it for over two years, and I don’t appreciate being told to step down.” She took a long, slow breath as if calming herself. “I’m not saying I have to be a part of everything,” she amended. “I don’t need to know where you’ve stashed Cobble, uh, Mr. Blue, or who’s babysitting him. That’s irrelevant to me.” Not. “But I do need to continue digging into who’s behind the massacre because of some freakin’ gold.”

Yeah. As soon as Cobble had regained his memory, he’d been able to inform them that the man he could now ID had entered the UN offices demanding documents that had implicated him and his faction in a gold smuggling operation.

“My men were blindsided,” Missy gritted out. “I can’t live with that, and I won’t give up.”

“Sit, Special Agent Andriopolos,” Baskins barked. “This is not up for discussion. DAAG Cavateral and I have made our decision. You and everyone here are off the investigation, at least for the time being. You, specifically because you are too vested. If things progress well, we might consider reinstating you to the case in the future.

“The CIA will continue to investigate their end of things overseas, while the DOJ will no longer, currently be involved. As of now, this is all in the FBI’s lap—Agent Smalley’s lap—and our primary function will be to keep Mr. Blue safe, while Smalley and a few other agents who’ve previously had nothing to do with this case, continue the probe which will hopefully uncover the other bad players.”

“I don’t agree with Andriopolos often,” SA Beranger sneered in her direction, because, yeah, there was no love lost between them.

He’d been an asshole when she’d briefly worked for the CIA, and since moving to the DOJ, he’d made it a point to harass her whenever possible.

“But she has a point,” the prick continued. “Why take us all off the case? We’re seasoned, and in my opinion, more skilled.”

“Then it’s a good thing your opinion isn’t necessary,” Baskins clipped. “Because for Mr. Blue’s continued safety, we’re paring things back.”

Missy dropped angrily to her chair, her entire body shaking with pretend-rage. Except for that which she directed at Beranger. That ire was real. The man was a prime, arrogant asshole.

Baskins addressed Smalley, who to this day—if the record scrubbing had been adequate—no one knew was related to Cobble. “Agent Smalley. Is this a task you believe you can continue without jeopardizing our asset?”

“I can,” Smalley agreed with a succinct nod of his head. “And I agree with your decision. Cutting everyone here out of the picture and starting with fresh faces will make my job easier. From here on out, Mr. Blue’s location will no longer be available to even the most senior of agents, including you, sir.” He gave Baskins a shrug of regret. “I look forward to working with a new batch of agents who’ll help uncover the hidden, bad apples.”

In reality, Smalley’s announced, solo-protector-role would be a diversionary tactic. Chuck would make and take calls purportedly to and from Sawyer Blue. He would disappear off everyone’s radar every now and again to keep up appearance that he was the one with hands on Cobble, but in reality, it would be Missy who moved Cobble in the future.

“Perfect,” Baskins agreed. “And no worries. Mr. Blue’s location does not have to be made available to me,” he assured Smalley. “As long as you believe you can keep Mr. Blue safe, I have no need to be in the loop. I will, however, want weekly reports of anything more you and the rest of your new team uncover regarding the case.”

Smalley nodded. “That all sounds reasonable.”

Should Missy put up more of a fuss? Absolutely .

“I disagree,” she snarled, glancing around at the other faces in the room.

Which one or ones of them were snakes, and how would they deal with this new setback that Baskins was delivering? “If we don’t keep a full, seasoned team stateside digging into this, it could go on for an indefinite amount of time. You can’t imagine that Agent Smalley, along with a few newbies, will be sufficient to unveil everyone in the network we’ve been targeting.”

“See?” Beranger added smugly. “Andriopolos agrees with me.”

Andy wanted nothing more than to punch the guy in the face. If she had to guess, she’d hazard that Beranger was up to his flat, ugly ass in the shit that had been going down. Not only because he was a prick, but because he’d been little or no help honing in on who was behind Cobble’s woes.

And they were closing in, or at least Missy felt they were. The problem was, every time their intelligence led them to a small terrorist cell with ties to the UN office incident, before they could round up the insurgents, the targets would all disappear. The damn leaks were clearly agencies’ wide, and the only way to move forward was to go at things covertly from now on.

“I’m not agreeing with you on anything, Beranger,” Missy huffed. “Except maybe digging deeper into what your motivations might be where this case is concerned,” she challenged.

Which would be part of Missy undercover job; diving deeply into Beranger’s life and the lives of everyone in this room before they were allowed anywhere near the case again. If she found evidence that pointed to anyone in particular having gone rogue, that person or persons would purposely be allowed to rejoin the case, but with surveillance on them at all times.

“Calm the hell down, Andriopolos,” Beranger squawked. “Just because you fucked up and let some grunts get ambushed, doesn’t mean you get to point the finger at the rest of us.”

That had Missy seeing red.

Before she could rip him a new one, however, the asshole had turned to address Director Baskins. “Once more, I think putting only one person on Mr. Blue’s safety from here on out is a mistake. And not using all the veteran resources in our department to continue a wider probe into the smuggling ring is short sighted. Permission to be part of Agent Smalley’s ongoing investigation.”

“I volunteer, as well,” his cohort, Agent Oliphant piped up. “There’s no way Smalley and a few newly minted FBI agents can deal with this all on their own.”

“Denied,” Baskins grunted, paying more attention to the paperwork in front of him than the agents’ inquiries before raising his head and addressing the table again. “Anyone else?” He gazed around at his agents while the three from the DOJ stewed; although Missy’s outrage was feigned.

“I can’t say I love the change,” Agent Englewood huffed. “But continuing as we were wasn’t getting us anywhere, so…”

He trailed off, and Agent Fleischerman took up the gauntlet. “I don’t agree with Agent Englewood. I’m with the DOJ guys on this one. Taking a bunch of people off the case seems counterintuitive.”

Agent Georgio went one better. “I actually think it’ll be the death of the entire case,” he growled.

Agent Tertia, who Missy had labeled a consummate peacekeeper, calmed what looked like it might devolve into a verbal clash.

“Director Baskins,” she suggested, “why don’t you simply run a deeper clearance check on those of us involved? If anything even remotely wonky shows up, you can boot that person’s ass individually instead of giving us all the ax. It can’t be the best use of our combined agencies’ resources to get rid of all hands but a few here at the Bureau. No offense to Agent Smalley.”

Chuck merely grunted.

Baskins held up a hand. “I’m one step ahead of you, Agent Tertia. It shouldn’t surprise you that after the last leak of intel, you were all thoroughly vetted again. No red flags were raised, which either means you’re all clean, or someone here is very good at scrubbing a profile history. Believe me, I’m not ruling that out.” His face grew stern as he perused the room as if attempting to see into each person’s soul. “No more arguing. My mind is made up. All of you except Agent Smalley are off the case. Does anyone else have anything to say?”

When there were no more overt objections, Baskins grunted. “You’re sure? Nobody is still thinking they know better than myself and DAAG Cavateral?” he asked, eyeballing Agents Georgio and Beranger in particular. They’d been the most vocal, besides Missy, for continuing things the way they were.

The pair both shook their heads, as did Missy.

“Good,” Baskins nodded, ignoring their sour pusses. “Now. I want to thank you all for the work you’ve done on the case up to this point. Because of your help, I feel we’ve made some decent headway.”

His eyes said differently, but maybe only Missy was seeing it.

“All of you except Agent Smalley will be assigned to new cases by Friday,” he apprised. “In the meantime, take the next four days off. Relax. Regroup. I don’t want to see your faces in here until the end of the week. DAAG Cavateral concurs with the break for his agents, as well. Do I make myself clear?”

Everyone grumblingly agreed, rose from their seats and headed for the door, but Baskins called Missy back. “Special Agent Andriopolos. May I speak with you a moment?”

“Of course,” she said, with what she hoped was just the right amount of disgruntlement. She flopped back down in her chair, and once the door closed, Director Baskins dropped the hard-ass persona he’d adopted.

“I think that went well,” he told her with a chuckle and a smirk.

Missy looked around the room, nervously. Was their conversation really private? With the shit that had been going on lately, Missy wasn’t letting her guard down.

“Don’t worry,” Baskins assured her. “We sweep my office daily for bugs.”

“Yeah, but… You don’t mind if I…?”

Missy pointed to the table, ducked her head down, and studied the underside of the wooden slab, finding nothing. She then got up and did the same with each chair before sitting herself back down. “We’re clear,” she sighed. “I needed to make sure. Someone could have brought something in with them. We can’t be too careful.”

Baskins chuckled. “I like the way you think. But…are we ready now to talk about our next step?” he asked with a raised brow.

“We are.”

“Excellent.”

He went on to outline exactly what her duties would be from here on out, and how she’d interface with Smalley on the case without anyone else knowing. And of course, despite what Baskins had ordered, Missy would eventually talk the director into letting Smalley in on where she’d be relocating Cobble in the future. Those orchestrations would be convoluted, and would probably need more hands than just hers.

“I also want you to keep an eye on Beranger,” Baskins resumed with a sour look. “I don’t like the guy.”

The feeling was mutual, but just because the man was a prick, didn’t mean he was their traitor, unless… “You have intel on him you want to share?”

Baskins grunted. “No. Just a feeling.”

Right.

Missy certainly understood that.