Page 14 of S.O.S. Mizzay

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. “Someoneorsomeone’sin 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. “Idon’tneed to know where you’ve stashed Cobble, uh, Mr. Blue, or who’s babysitting him. That’s irrelevant to me.”Not.“But Idoneed 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 leastfor the time being. You, specifically because you aretoovested. If things progress well, wemightconsider 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.Thatire 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 availableto 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. Chuckwouldmake and take calls purportedly to and from Sawyer Blue. Hewoulddisappear 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 doesnothave 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 theywereclosing 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 whatyourmotivations might be where this case is concerned,” she challenged.

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