Zack said, “You can’t be seen with us, brother. You’re Agency.” After a pause, he said, “Unless I missed something.”
“You missed something,” Travers replied. With a deadpan look he said, “I got kicked down into the dirt with Matt and you two jokers.”
“Did you fuck up?” Court asked.
“Didn’t feel that way to me. My superiors disagreed.”
Court flashed his eyes over to Hanley. “Fucking superiors.”
Travers laughed a little. To Hightower and Court he said, “Damn good to see you guys. Staying out of trouble, I hope.”
“Would we be here if we weren’t in trouble?” Court said.
Travers said, “So you guyswerein that shit in Russia, weren’t you?”
Hanley spoke up first. “They can neither confirm nor deny.”
“I was just testing them, boss,” Travers said.
He poured himself some coffee, found a place at the table, and then all three men sat down as Hanley stood at the head.
“Welcome to TerreCom Industrial Consulting. Let me explain what’s going to happen. There are five people inside this office right now other than us. You met Erin; you’ll meet Jill and Arnold in a second. Earnest and Doyle are site security; they’re in a back office watching over the street via monitors, keeping an eye on the cams all over the office park. You won’t meet them, and they won’t meet you.
“I wanted to keep the group small today, just because you operators are here, and not everyone needs to know you. But when you guysaren’there, we’ll have more on staff. Fifteen total. Every single one of them has been vetted by meandby the United States government. There is only one employee here I’ve known less than ten years, and that’s only because ten years ago Jill was in middle school.
“All the cameras inside have been turned off for your visit, so don’t worry about that.”
He added, “Honestly, this might be the only time you three ever enter this building, but I wanted you to see how our operation is going to work.”
Hightower spoke up between bites of his donut. “I just want to know when I’m gonna get my teeth cleaned?”
“Violator has already made that joke,” Hanley said dryly, without turning to the man who’d said it. “Yes…this looks like a medical office. It was. It is no longer. It is where I work.”
Twenty
Hanley went on. “A few housekeeping items. Firstly, code names and code words. This location, and the operation we are all collectively conducting, will not be referred to in any commo as ‘Hampton Roads,’ ‘Norfolk,’ or ‘TerreCom.’ For operational security reasons, this location, this operation, is to be referred to as Ghost Town.
“Each member of Ghost Town will be given a code name; these are in addition to your domestic aliases and any cover for action aliases you will use abroad while in the field.”
He turned to the open hallway door. “Come on in.”
Erin Childers entered along with a young Asian female and an older Hispanic male. The young woman was dressed in office attire: a pencil skirt, a floral blouse, her hair in a ponytail. The man wore a black suit over a slightly wrinkled blue shirt.
“Meet the team.” Court couldn’t tell if Hanley was saying it to the three operators at the table or the three office staff just inside the door. The Asian woman smiled and gave a shy little wave, Childers nodded, and the Hispanic man just stood there with his hands in his pockets.
Matt said, “Firstly, my code name is Pilgrim. Erin is my number two. If you need something, logistically speaking or otherwise, and you don’t get me, go to her. Her code name is Conductor.
“On the technical side, this is Jill Mori. She is former CIA and will serve as our IT and OSINT expert.
“Jill’s code name is Gumdrop.” He added, “I know what you’re thinking. Jill might be young, but she’s one of the top ten best open-source intelligence analysts that I’ve ever known. I met her when I was DDO; she had just joined the Agency and was already impressing. I got her down to Colombia to work with me there. Earlier this year she was let go, her position was taken over by a Gauntlet contract employee, and I knew it wouldn’t take any time for the private sector to snatch her up for her skills, so when I set up Ghost Town, I appealed to her sense of duty and got her to join our outfit.”
Jill smiled a little. “He’s paying me, too, by the way.”
The men at the table laughed, and Jill, Erin, and Arnold sat down, while Matt continued to stand.
He said, “When the CIA sends us on an operation, Jill will use OSINT to make certain you guys have the details you need, not just what comes down from the CIA. She will save all your lives; I’m absolutely convinced of that.”
The three assets all thanked her in advance. She said, “I promise to do my best.”
