2. Lindsey
Robert Lindsey strode into the room, full of himself. That was the first thing Jack noticed. The man stood about five ten, a good four inches shorter than Jack. He looked about twenty pounds overweight. His light brown hair was thinning. His nose was long and narrow and beady eyes were set close to it. Lindsey’s mouth was thin with almost non-existent lips. He too wore the recognizable CIA ‘uniform’ with one exception, his tie was yellow not blue and his shoes looked scuffed.
Jack stood, holding out his hand. “Jack Bristow. Nice to meet you, Lindsey.” He stepped away from the desk, a small cardboard box in his hands. I wasn’t expecting you until later.”
“Yeah, well I made them leave earlier.” He walked to the desk after perfunctorily touching Jack’s hand. “I know most of what’s going on? Anything new I need to know?”
Jack rolled his eyes before turning. “Yes, Ben Devlin called. He’s authorized a new handler for Angela Benton, our agent inside SD-6.”
“Yeah, who?”
“Michael Vaughn. Ben approved the choice. Solid man…grounded and has handled other agents well. This is a delicate job, since Benton works deep in SD-6 and has told us that the others in Sloane’s employ truly believe they are part of a black ops division of the CIA.”
“Yeah.” Lindsey sat down. “What’s your assignment now?”
“Anything, I guess. I’m considering retirement. I’ve been with the Company 30 years.”
‘Umph.” He answered without comment. “Just keep yourself handy for the next few days while I settle in and then you can retire.”
“Of course,” Jack said quietly and left the room. The man was giving every impression of being a bastard and there was going to be trouble. Making an on-the-spot decision, Jack decided not to retire just yet. He would stay on longer than he anticipated. “I’ve asked the staff to come to the conference room. It’s the day shift and the one doing most of the work. There are two other shifts and graveyard works four to twelve and the night shift, twelve to eight, but then you knew that.”
“Yeah…okay, lead the way.”
When Jack returned home he was furious. Lindsey was a huge mistake, at least from his point of view. He thought that some others felt the same way, especially Michael Vaughn and his friend, Eric Weiss. Lindsey did nothing to give the staff positive vibes about his presence. He was unpleasant and demanding. There would be office meetings every morning promptly at 9:00 A.M. and everyone was expected to attend.
Fortunately, Angela disappeared when the meeting was called. Michael Vaughn was questioned about the undercover agent. However, since he’d only just met her, he had very little to say about her. Lindsey asked if he’d set up a meeting place outside of the office, which Michael gave the affirmative. Lindsey told him that he wanted daily reports on the undercover agent.
“Sir, I won’t be in contact with her daily; only when she has something new to report.”
“I want daily reports. If she hasn’t made contact, say so. I want to be kept up to date on everything having to do with SD-6. It is our job to take that organization down and from here on out, I want to know everything there is to know about anything having to do with it. If you have the file on our agent, I want to see it.”
Jack groaned mentally. No one but himself and Vaughn was to know about Angela Benton. Now the entire office knew. Christ, what an idiot! He was going to have to talk with Ben tonight as soon as he got home. He noticed too that Vaughn went white. He too knew that Lindsey had just committed a faux pas of the worst kind. He saw Jack’s look and knew he was going to complain to Langley.
“Why did they send this idiot? Doesn’t he know anything?” Michael complained to Eric after the meeting. “Letting everyone know we had an agent inside SD-6 could have terrible ramifications. She could get killed.”
“Well, he’s not going to become the most popular around here,” muttered Eric, nodding.
“If we have a mole here as I suspect,” Michael winced, “our contact could be in severe trouble. I’m going to have to meet with her tomorrow.”
Jack hung up the phone after talking with Ben. There was nothing he could do. Lindsey was a personal friend of the National Security Advisor to the President. It was he who asked the Director to send Lindsey to the LA Office to head the JTF. Jack walked to the cupboard and pulled down the bottle of Chivas. He poured himself a full glass, walking to the black leather sofa and sitting down.
Although it was getting dark, he turned no lights on just yet. He was angry and worried at the same time. Angela had been put at risk. If anyone talked or said anything about a double agent in SD-6, word could leak in several directions. He wondered if there was any way to get in touch with Irina. He knew where Angela lived, but was she being watched? He didn’t think so, but that didn’t mean there weren’t sporadic checks made of the SD-6 agents. He didn’t want to phone her either; she’d probably hang up on him.
He sipped his drink, sorting through options and decided that Vaughn would have to warn her. He knew the young man had taken a liking to Alexandra and he was also aware of the danger Lindsey put her in by his revealing there was a double-agent inside SD-6.
Jack opened his cell and punched in the number for Vaughn. “This is Jack. Your line isn’t tapped yet, so if you can, tell Angela what happened. Do not give Lindsey your meeting place. Devlin says Lindsey is there because of high places. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He continued sipping his drink until it was finished. By the time he’d put the glass in the dishwasher, he’d formulated a plan to get rid of Robert Lindsey before he compromised all of the work they’d done as well as their agents. He was sure that Lindsey would want to know about all the CIA agents at work around the Pacific Rim.
Unbeknownst to Jack, Angela after being warned by Michael, contacted her mother. She used one of her non-traceable cells.
“Mama?”
“Yes?”
“Bad news.” She told her about Lindsey and his mouth. “You have any suggestions?”
“Tell your father. He can…”
“No! He’s not the director anymore, Lindsey is…and I told him I didn’t want to see him ever again.”
Silence. “Why would you say that?” Irina knew, but she wanted to make Alexandra tell her.
“Mama, how could you?”
“Have sex with your father?” Irina deduced by the tone of her voice that she knew. She sighed. “He’s my husband and I wanted him. So it will do you no good to berate either of us. Normal desires, sweetheart. When you find that special man, you won’t need to ask.”
Alexandra reddened. It was hard to think of her parents having sex and enjoying it. Moya boje, they were in their fifties. They were too old! She really didn’t want to talk any more about that. “You still haven’t told me what to do about Lindsey. According to Michael, he’s a stick of dynamite ready to explode. If he does more damage, I…” She left it unsaid.
“I’ll take care of it,” Irina said quietly. “I will need more information.” She explained.
“I will call you as soon as I can.”
“Good, and Alexandra, be nice.” She hung up. This Robert Lindsey must be dealt with immediately. He was dangerous.
In L.A., Jack was fixing himself a sandwich before going to bed. He was mulling over what he was going to do to Lindsey in order to get him out of JTF. If he could get him to screw up royally, his cell phone buzzed. He looked at caller ID, but there was no indication who it was, other than it was from overseas.
“Bristow!”
“Jack? It’s me.”
“Irina?” He sat down. She’d barely had time to return to Russia.
What he didn’t know was she was in Barcelona. She had scheduled a meeting with her men who worked the smuggling business along the coast. It was a very profitable business especially since she let them keep all the proceeds to be divided between them. She used them to obtain information for an occasional contract killing as well as special jobs, which entailed smuggling or blackmail.
“I hear you have a problem in L.A.”
“Sweetheart, Alexandra called you?”
“Yes.” She paused. “How are you going to take care of him?”
“I’m working on it now. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way. He’s too dangerous as well as an asshole.”
“Be careful, Jack.”
He reddened at the sound of her voice which dropped another octave. It dripped with sexual overtones. He reddened. “Irina…why didn’t you tell me…?”
Oh God, she thought…did Alexandra say something? “About…?”
“What the KGB did to you.”
“What would that accomplish? It was twenty years ago and they didn’t succeed. I knew nothing about your…”
“…and the baby?” Jack’s voice nearly dropped to a whisper.
“Jack…” She could hear the sorrow in his voice. “Jack, I didn’t know until after you left. There was nothing I could do. Things that happened caused the miscarriage. I don’t want to talk about it. Understand?”
He sighed, nodded, saying, “Yes…”
“Now about Lindsey?”
“I said I’d take care of him.” Jack explained Lindsey’s connection to the White House. “I have to be careful.”
Irina smiled to herself. She could take care of it faster. “I know. I don’t want to hear you retired to someplace other than Rome or Paris. Love you. Keep in touch.”
She hung up before Jack could get her cell phone number. “Damn it.”
Lindsey was proving to be a real jackass. He was interfering constantly in the plans of the operations director. They were monitoring SD-6 using information relayed by Angela Benton. She was sent on a mission to Algeria by Sloane and she contacted Vaughn for a meet at the warehouse they’d chosen. Instead of Vaughn alone, Lindsey accompanied him. The meet did not go well as the director of JTF was demanding and almost insulting. He’d wanted to know if Angela could kill Sloane. When she said she could not, he told her that she’d better think again, especially if orders to do so were forthcoming from Washington.
“That’s not my job,” she said quietly. “Shooting Arvin Sloane will not stop the Alliance and stopping it is the task I’ve been given.”
“You’ll do whatever I tell you,” snapped Lindsey. “Your orders can be countermanded at any time.”
“Sir,” she clearly did not like him, “I am not an assassin.”
“You don’t have to shoot him to kill him. There are other more subtle ways.”
Vaughn interrupted. “Mr. Lindsey, the CIA has worked hard to get Angela into SD-6 without suspicion. The Alliance is the enemy. Killing Sloane is not going to stop them from continuing their criminal activities.”
“She’s insubordinate,” he glared at her.
Angela turned on her heel and left in spite of Lindsey’s demand that she stop and come back. She jumped into her car and drove off. She was as angry as she’d ever been and that included when she faced her father days before. Michael could contact her later and give her the counter-assignment. Lindsey was a fool and easily seen as a politician without any sense. Fortunately, she made sure her home address and phone number was deleted from every file possible. Michael assured her he memorized her cell number and it was nowhere in the system.
Lindsey was making no friends and the enemies were piling up. Angela completed her assignment for Sloane. She photographed the material for the CIA and handed it over to Michael three days after the confrontation with his boss.
“That man is an idiot. He could get me killed.” Angela put the disc in Michael’s hand.
“I know. Somehow we have to get him to screw up, so the Director can recall him without causing a rift.”
“He’d better get recalled soon or I’ll not be reporting back for a while.” She turned on her heel and left. Ordinarily she would have stayed to chat with Michael, but she was still too angry.
Watching her go, Michael thought Lindsey would get his just-rewards soon. However, Michael had no idea how soon or how it would be done.
TBC :starwars: :bond: :blowup: :sniper: :boxing:
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