Monday - September 8, 2008
 

Lee Stetson opened the door to what had been his office at the Agency before his arrest, expecting it to be empty.  It wasn’t.  His temporary replacement, David Hinton, was still cleaning out his belongings when he arrived.

It had been over a week since Quentin Broderick had resigned.  The storm of accusations that followed Broderick’s resignation was felt all over DC.  Lee and Amanda had planned to petition the Agency’s Board of Directors to be reinstated.  However, before they could appear before the board, Simon Abernathy officially reinstated them both.

“Scarecrow, I wasn’t expecting you to get in so early,” David began, looking rather edgy as he placed his belongings in a large cardboard box.  Pausing for a minute, he glanced around the office and offered a half-assed apology.  “I’m really sorry for what happened over the last few months.  You know, I never believed you were guilty.  Not for a minute.”

“It’s good to know, David,” Lee answered, gritting his teeth, tired of hearing the same old story from many of his co-workers.  Where were they over the past four months?  None of them came to his aide, or lifted a finger to help Amanda.  He’d found out the hard way who his friends were and who he could truly trust.

“If I do say so myself, I did get a lot accomplished this summer.  If you’d like, I can give you a status report,” David boasted eagerly.  “You know, go over what operations are most critical, which agents are where...”

“I appreciate the offer, David, but Abernathy already gave me a thorough briefing and sent me a detailed situation report.”

“Oh, I um, wasn’t aware of that,” David Hinton replied, bitterly.

Tired of the small talk, Lee decided not to continue with the mindless banter.  “I’ll give you a few minutes to finish up.  I’ll be down the hall getting some coffee.”  Without waiting for a reply, Lee left his office door open, and walked down the hallway.

After he poured himself a cup of coffee, he leaned against the counter, sipping the hot liquid.  He grimaced at the weak brew and poured the remainder down the drain.  He rummaged through the cabinet, giving some thought to making a stronger pot, when he was interrupted.

“I expected you to be in your office already, Scarecrow.  I’m running a bit late, but Leatherneck wanted to make sure everything was working properly,” Francine mentioned, stepping into the kitchen area, carrying a metal briefcase.

“We’ll have to wait a few minutes.  My office has yet to be vacated,” Lee grumbled.

“You mean to tell me Hinton’s still cleaning out his desk?” she asked, and Lee nodded.  “You may need a cattle prod to get him out of your office.  I saw him after Abernathy told him you were coming back.  I thought the guy was going to cry.  I’m not surprised that he’s taking his sweet old time.”

“What I’d like to know is how he accumulated so much junk.  You should have seen the size of the box he was filling.  My office isn’t that big,” he commented shaking his head.  “Not to mention, he’s only been acting Chief of European Operations since the end of June.”

“I don’t think he expected you to ever come back.  Rumor had it that they were going to make the title official at the end of the year,” Francine informed him.

Hearing someone come down the hallway, Lee poked his head out of the kitchen area.  “Here he comes now.”

“You’re office awaits,” David said, as he walked past them, lugging his cardboard box, loaded to the top with his personal belongings.  “Good luck…”

“Yeah, thanks,” Lee answered, and then nodded to Francine.  “Come on, we’ve got a lot of work this morning.”

“I’m right behind you,” she replied, carrying a case as she walked next to him, pausing for a minute when Lee walked into his office again.

He glanced around the generic office, but smiled gratefully that he once again had his life and job back.  Four months in jail were still an ever-present bad memory.  His main intention for going back to work was to figure out who set him up and why.

Lee turned around and saw that Francine was watching him carefully.  He smiled at his loyal friend and called out to her.  “Come on in, Francine, and shut the door.  Time’s a wasting.  Let’s get started.”

Francine did as she was asked – nodded to him and grinned.  Immediately opening her briefcase, she pulled out a small receiver.  Gradually and methodically, she walked around the room, checking for listening devices.  The lights on the device began to flash, and Francine honed in on the location.

Lee bent down, and peered under his desk.  Francine knelt down and he pointed to a cleverly hidden bug.  Shaking her head, she returned to the metal briefcase, took out a small glass case, and handed it to Lee.  Grabbing a handkerchief, Lee crawled under his desk, and pulled determinedly at the listening device.  After a strong tug, it came off and Lee immediately put it into the glass case, closing it instantly.

Francine continued sweeping for listening devices, finding one more in the telephone receiver.  Again, they swiftly removed the bug, and placed it into the specially made glass box, which would render it safe to speak without being overheard.

When they were both certain that they’d located and removed all the listening devices, Francine put away the state of the art equipment.

“Thanks for your help, Francine.  I really do appreciate it,” Lee replied, sitting down behind his desk for the first time in four months.

“Comfortable?” Francine ribbed jovially.

“Much better than my previous accommodations,” he admitted thinking back to the jail cell he occupied for all to long.  He proceeded to open the desk drawers to see what Hinton had left him.

“I bet,” she agreed.  “I told Amanda that I’d check her office this morning as well.  My guess is she’ll have a few bugs visiting her as well.”

“I’ll get these to Leatherneck.  We’ll see if he can identify who these little devils belong to,” he commented as he picked up the two listening devices and studied them carefully.   “Francine, have a seat.  There are some things I’d like to discuss.”

“You want to investigate who set you up,” Francine assumed.

“Among other things,” he grinned, pleased.  “I have a proposal for you.”

Raising her eyebrow, she sat down and studied her friend carefully.  “Scarecrow, what are you talking about, proposal?”

Lee leaned back in his chair and smiled.  “When Abernathy asked Amanda and me to return, we agreed with a few conditions.  I was sure that Hinton wouldn’t want to take orders from me, given that he’d been in charge for the past three months. Not surprisingly, he’s opted for reassignment,” Lee began to explain, patting the arms of his leather chair.

“Did Abernathy apologize for anything?” Francine questioned.

Lee chuckled.  “Abernathy apologize?!  Of course not, but both he and Lucinda Suttan were very accommodating.  I requested that certain key personnel decisions would be left for me to make.  After what went down, I wanted to know the people working with me were both loyal and trustworthy.”

“Scarecrow, I think I know where this is going…” she interrupted.

“Hear me out, Francine,” Lee suggested, holding up his hand for her to stop.  “I’m not talking about being one of my team.  You’re too good of an agent for that.  I need a second in command.  Of course, whoever takes that position, would have to be willing to travel, you know, London, Berlin, Paris… probably every other month or so.  Naturally, there will be times when I have to go to Europe, and I’ll need someone here to watch my back.”

“What about Amanda?” Francine questioned.

“No,” he answered immediately, shaking his head.  “Even if Abernathy would have agreed to that, we’d be spending way too much time apart.  Besides, you’re an exemplary agent, and I trust you implicitly.  Very few people get that distinct honor.  I can’t think of anyone else whom I’d want in this position.  I plan to retire in a couple of years.  You’d be a shoe in for the position if you wanted it.”

Francine sat in the chair speechless.  It took a few moments before she answered.  “Lee, I don’t know what to say?”

“Say yes, Francine, and I’ll even turn the other cheek when you spend an extra day or two in Paris on occasion,” he replied with a knowing smile.

“What’s the catch?”

Lee shrugged.  “Unlike most people at the Agency, I have no hidden agenda. You’re already aware that I intend to investigate who framed me.  Other than that, there isn’t a catch.  You should have been on the short list in the first place.  It was damned oversight by administration to have cut you off the list at all.”

“I won’t argue with you there.  I only have one question?”

“Shoot,” he requested with a nod.

“When do I start?”

“You already have.  By the end of the week, I want a list of candidates…”

“Of who could have framed you?” she finished his sentence.

He nodded.  “Amanda’s working on one and I’ve got a few ideas as well.  It’s still a long shot, but between the three of us, we might find him,” Lee explained.  He stood up and paced behind his desk, running through his suspect list in his head.  “Code the names on the list, Francine.  It’s obvious that someone’s at least listening to what I have to say.  I expect that the files on the computer will be tracked, as well as email.”

“Whoever he is, he’s got to be high enough in the Agency to be able to access or control those bank accounts and avoid detection from Internal Affairs, the Accounting Oversight Committee, and anyone else that might get curious.  That’ means…”

Lee picked up from when Francine paused.  “That means we’ve got to be both resourceful and extremely careful.”

“You don’t think Hinton was involved, do you?” she asked.

“Honestly, no,” he answered.  “I think he was put in charge here because he wouldn’t ask any questions or do any investigation on his own.”

“You’re probably right.  So where do we start?” Francine asked.

“That’s easy,” Lee answered, leaning back in his chair.  “We follow the money.  I’ve got the information from my attorney as to when the money moved out of the account and how much.  That’s got to be a good start.”

“All right, Scarecrow,” Francine nodded.  “I’ll have the name of the best computer forensic analyst on your desk before five o’clock this evening.”

“Whoever we choose,” Lee started, running his hand through his hair, “needs to be discreet and have a top secret security clearance.”

“That should make finding someone for the job so much easier,” she grumbled.  “Let me get out of here.  I have got to check Amanda’s office for bugs as well.  I’ll talk to you later.”

Lee stood up, while Francine packed the metal briefcase up.  He opened the door for his friend.  “Thanks, Francine.”
 

***

Amanda Stetson was on the phone in her office when she heard a knock at the door.  Covering the mouthpiece she called out, “Come in.”

Francine Desmond opened the door, and nodded silently to her.  Putting the metal briefcase on a chair, she opened it up and began working silently while Amanda continued with her call.

“No, it’s my car, not Lee’s.  The sooner the better, Lee thinks the brakes need to be replaced…  Wednesday will be fine.  We’ll drop off the car off first thing in the morning… Yes, I’ll tell him.  See you Wednesday.”  Finishing up the call, she hung up the phone but before she could say anything, Francine put a finger to her lips.

They both observed the lights flashing on the machine, signaling a listening device was in operation in her office.  Francine continued closing in on its location – pointing to under Amanda’s desk.

Amanda pushed her chair away from her desk and knelt down under it.  Her eyes scanned the underside of the desk.  At first, she didn’t notice it, but then, way in the back, appearing to be an insignificant blemish in the wood-grained desk, was a tiny bug.  Reaching for a tissue on her desk, she climbed underneath, and pulled on it until it came off into her hand.

Francine already had a glass container on her desk, waiting to house it.  Francine put a finger to her mouth, as she continued to search the office for other listening devices.  Just as in Lee’s office, they found another device in the receiver of the phone.  Continuing her methodical search, she swept every inch of the room until she was satisfied it was clean.

“We’ve got them all,” Francine boasted, putting the equipment back in the briefcase and the two bugs rested in their protective containers on Amanda’s desk.

“They’re not the same,” Amanda noted, as she studied them carefully.  Pointing to the one they found in her phone, she remarked, “This one is really tiny.  I don’t know how they can make them so small.  Did the Agency issue a new series this summer?”

Francine eyed them as well.  “Not that I’m aware of,” Francine remarked, eyeing them carefully herself.

“Did you find any in Lee’s office?” Amanda asked.

With a raised eyebrow, she nodded.  “Yup, two of them, similar locations to what we had in here.  I left them with Lee; they weren’t the same either.”

“Very interesting,” Amanda said.  “Do you have time for a cup of coffee, Francine?  I made a fresh pot a few minutes ago.”

“I’ll make the time,” Francine answered, glancing around Amanda’s office.  “I guess you’re glad to be back.”

Amanda poured them both a cup, handing the first to Francine before she sat back down.  “I’m happy to be out of payroll and have my security clearances back.  Although it’s going to take time to get back up to speed.  I have at least two weeks of security briefings to read through.”

“Standard BS.  You didn’t miss much, trust me.”

“Tell me, did you have time to talk with Lee this morning?” Amanda pressed.

 “Yes, we had a rather interesting discussion,” Francine answered with a smile, “and yes, I told him I’d take the position.”

Amanda face grinned in delight.  “Oh, Francine, that’s great.  It means a lot to both Lee and me knowing you’re watching his back.”

Francine shook her head.  “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, Amanda.”

“We sure have.  There was a time I wouldn’t have wanted you in that position.  Now, I couldn’t think of anyone better,” Amanda remarked, knowing her relationship with Francine was, for a long time, adversarial.  “I think this calls for a celebration.  What do you say to dinner later this week?  We can open a couple bottles of wine and put our heads together to see if we can figure out who was behind this mess.”

“Sounds like a good plan, but you have to sweep for your own bugs!” Francine laughed, taking a sip of her coffee.

“Yeah, considering what you found here, I guess we better check the house again, too,” Amanda admitted, glancing at the two bugs now sitting in protective cases.  “I thought the nightmare was over, but maybe it’s the second chapter.”

“We’re going to get the bottom of this soon.  So when do you want to do dinner?”

“How about Friday night?”

Francine shook her head.  “Can’t, I worked last weekend.  I have plans to go away this weekend.  How about Thursday?”

“I’ve got a meeting Thursday night with the community association and before I commit to Wednesday night, let me speak with Lee and make sure he doesn’t have anything on his schedule that I don’t know about.”

“Maybe it would be easier if we met for lunch – maybe mid-week.  We could plan a dinner then when all three of us are there with our schedules.”

“You’re probably right.  That might be easier,” Amanda agreed.

“Give me a call or shoot me an email and let me know where and when.”

“I’ll pick when and let you pick where,” Amanda nodded.

Francine took a big gulp of her coffee, before putting it down on Amanda’s desk.  “As much as I’d like to sit and relax, I better get out of here.  I’ll take these bugs down to Leatherneck and see if he can ID them.  I’ve got a few other details that need to be tended to this morning as well.  I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Francine, and thanks…” Amanda called out to her friend before she left her office.

Francine left the office, and Amanda could here the click of her heels as she went down the hall, towards the elevator.  Amanda sipped at her coffee and returned to reading her security briefings, hoping to catch up quickly.  Leaning back in her chair, she was quickly absorbed in her reading and didn’t notice another set of footsteps that came down the hall a few minutes later.   She also didn’t notice the shadow that lingered at her office door…

End Part Ten
 

Go to:  Part Eleven
 
 

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