The Innocent

Blue Man sat back and took all this information in. He didn’t break the silence and neither did Robie. He figured Blue Man had more to tell him than Robie had left to convey.

“Agent Wind worked in the field for years. She was a good agent, as I said. After she had her children she was reassigned to the IG’s Office at DOD, but she still worked closely with DCIS in all of its investigation sectors. And of course she continued to work for us.”

“How did that get her assigned to a hit list she wasn’t supposed to be on?” asked Robie. “And how can something like this happen anyway? I know we’re clandestine, but we’re also part of an organization with checks and balances.”

“Rogue traders lose billions of dollars of institutional money all the time. And those organizations are bigger and better funded than we are. And still it happens. If one person, or more likely a small group of people, are determined enough, they can accomplish the impossible.”

“I saw her go into the building that night. She had no kids with her.”

“Apparently they were with a sitter she’s used before that lives in the building. This sitter took them to the apartment when Agent Wind returned home.”

“Okay. What did Wind stumble on that got her killed?”

Blue Man looked curious. “How do you know she stumbled onto anything?”

“She lived in a crappy apartment with two little kids. There were legal docs on her table in the living room. You can’t bring home classified stuff and leave it lying around. So her work wasn’t classified. According to her passport her last trip out of the States was two years ago. She wasn’t a field agent, at least not any longer, according to you. Her youngest child wasn’t even a year old. She probably was pulled from the field because of that. But she was back working on something, probably considered routine. She found something. That’s why she was targeted. I doubt it was directly related to her work.”

Blue Man took this in, his head nodding approvingly. “You analyze well, Robie. I’m impressed.”

“And I’m full of questions. Do you know what she had stumbled onto?”

“No. We don’t. But like you we don’t think it was tied to her official duties.”

“Why do you want me to act as the liaison with the Bureau? That’s a big risk, particularly if they find out what I’ve been doing the last dozen years.”

“Which they won’t.”

“Like you said, one person or a group, if determined enough, can accomplish the impossible.”

“Give me your theory.”

“Someone found out what she had discovered and they ratted her. We have a mole on our side, as evidenced by the actions of my handler and others, and the hit was carried out. They weren’t sure I would pull the trigger so they had a backup. He had no compunction about blowing the kid and his mother away. And you said my handler had been reassigned. That was a lie. I don’t need lies from you.”

“How do you figure it was a lie?”

“He ordered me to kill Wind. You said that wasn’t authorized. So the guy’s a traitor. You don’t reassign traitors. If you had him in custody you wouldn’t need me telling you what happened and theorizing why. That means the handler has disappeared. Along with whoever else he was working with. How many are we talking?”

Blue Man sighed. “We think at least three other people in the chain, but there might be more.”

Robie just stared at him.

Blue Man looked down, fiddled with a silver-plated spoon on the immaculate white linen tablecloth. “It’s not good, certainly.”

“Understatement of the year. What exactly do you want me to do?”

“We have to keep tabs on the investigation without seeming to. So officially you will be a special agent with DCIS, but you will actually be reporting to me. We’ll provide you with all the cover and creds you need. They’re being placed at your apartment as we speak.”

Robie’s face darkened. “You say you’ve got at least four traitors. What if you actually have more? And what if one of them is at my apartment right now?”

“These agents were pulled from an entirely separate division. They’ve had no contact with your handler. Their loyalty is above question.”

“Right. Forgive me if I think that’s bullshit.”

“At some point you have to trust, Robie.”

“No I don’t. And everyone is okay with me joining the hunt?”

“DCIS is on board. Would you like to talk to the national security advisor? Or the deputy director of CIA?”

“Right now it wouldn’t matter to me what they said. But why me?”

“Because you didn’t pull the trigger, ironically enough. We trust you to do the right thing, Robie. There aren’t many I can say that about right now.”

Robie had thought of another possible reason why they wanted him involved.

I was there. Which means I’ll make the perfect fall guy if this goes to hell.

But he said, “Alright.”

His reasoning was straightforward. He would prefer to work the case himself and bring some sort of resolution and sense of justice to it, rather than wait for someone else to do it, and maybe screw it and him beyond repair.

If I go down, I go down by my own hand.