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“I only did what I thought was right,” Piper said. “I witnessed a bank robbery, I was able to pursue the suspects back to…”
“An undercover agent has to think differently,” Harris said, interrupting her. “You’re not some beat cop chasing down shoplifters. We go after the heavy hitters, the major players. You understand?”
After a quiet moment, Piper said, “Yes.”
“I hope you do,” Harris said. “I need you to understand. You are on thin, thin ice here. I do not want to see you fail. I want to see you succeed at this, at your career. I don’t want to see you get pulled out of this assignment and have to suffer an official reprimand on your record. That sort of thing…”
“That sort of thing can end a career,” Piper finished for him.
“That’s right,” he said, adding, “I’m not even going to bother mentioning your sister’s case and what we need to help her out. You already know.”
There it was. All his leverage, out there as bait.
A little more silence, then Piper said, “What do I need to do to make this right?”
There it was. The hook was in. Now he just needed to play out enough line and reel this fish in.
“We have to show the bosses some results,” he said. “Real results, not this weak drip-feed of useless information that you’ve been handing me these last few weeks.”
“I’ve been trying to…”
“Don’t try, Piper,” he said. “You don’t get any medals for trying. You need results. Real results. Something that the agency can use to get into this MC and bring it down.”
“But… I told you, they don’t seem to be involved in anything like that,” Piper said.
“Oh, right, right,” Harris said, rolling his eyes. “Your white knight biker club.”
“All I’m saying is, if there isn’t anything there, how can I find it?” Piper said. “They’re not dealing anything other than weed. They’re not committing violent crimes against civilians… hell, they’re the ones who turned the third bank robber over to the locals. Public opinion of them is that they’re heroes more than outlaws.”
“You’re sure they’re not dealing anything other than weed?” Harris said.
“I’m sure of it,” Piper said. “They’re dead set against that kind of thing.”
Harris looked down at the small paper bag sitting between the seats, between him and Piper. It was Navarro’s paper bag, the heroin paper bag, the impossible mountain he had to climb to make this work.
Once he did this, once he so much as suggested it to Piper, that would be it. There would be no turning back. This bell couldn’t be un-rung.
How had he gotten to this place? How had he fallen from a decorated FBI agent with a bright and shining future to a tool of the cartels, about to not only commit a felony, but also about to attempt to coerce a fellow agent to do the same thing right along with him?
One small, indiscreet step at a time, he supposed. It didn’t matter.
In for a penny, in for a pound, he thought, and dove into the deep end.
“In that case,” he said, “we’re going to have to take some more drastic measures. Make our opportunities, rather than wait for them.”
“Make our opportunities,” Piper said. “What does that mean?”
As an answer, Harris picked up the paper bag and dropped it in her lap.
“What’s this?” Piper said.
“Look in it.”
Now his throat was dry. This was the moment. The big reveal, the big ask. He had to play this just right, play her just right, lie in exactly the right way to get her to go along with this, or everything would go to pieces.
More than it already had.
Piper looked in the bag. She stared into it for a second, a long second that dragged out into an eternity.
