Hanley motioned to the older man next to her. “Arnold Reyes here is our logistics coordinator. Code name Bricklayer. He’s a civilian, did a few stints as a contractor in Afghanistan, then was brought into JSOC, and finally into Ground Branch.” After waiting a beat, Hanley said, “You know you can trust him with your lives, because some of you already have. Lyle and Jason, Arnold has done more for you guys when you were in Ground Branch than you will ever appreciate.”
Reyes was deep into his forties and wore his thinning gray hair combed over. He had a slight build, eyeglasses, and a reddening to his face that made it clear he didn’t enjoy being complimented, talked about, or even looked at by others.
Still, he was thanked by the three assets, and he nodded, now looking at the table in front of him.
This was all pretty standard stuff for Court and the other two seated at the table. Court rose and refilled his coffee from the insulated decanter,Hightower finished his donut and licked his fingers, and Travers leaned forward, his elbows on the table’s edge.
Hanley said, “The security staff here at Ghost Town are five in number. I’ve taken to calling them ‘the Five Guys.’ They’re not going to be involved in anything operationally; they are just here for the safety of the building. These are guys I’ve known forever. You’ve probably trained with them all at one point or another. Ernie Gamble runs security.”
Hightower sat up now. “Gamble from Harvey Point?”
Harvey Point was a CIA training facility in North Carolina.
“That’s correct. Ernie was an armorer and a range safety officer there.”
“Shit,” Hightower said, looking away.
“A problem?” Hanley asked.
“I owe that dude some money. He outshot me once on the range. There was a bet involved.”
“I can direct you to the security room after our meeting.”
Hightower shook his head. Sheepishly, he said, “I’ll catch him later.”
Hanley continued. “Now, for the assets. Travers…your alias is Jason Reed, and your code name with Ghost Town will be Teddy.”
“Roger that.”
“Six…your alias is Brian Webb and your code name…will be Six.”
“Creative,” Hightower said, and Hanley just shrugged.
To the three office personnel sitting with them, he explained. “It was one half of his call sign on his Ground Branch team, way back when.
“It’s secure enough, and three of us know him as that already.”
He turned to Zack. “Hightower, your alias is Lyle Hart, and your code name is—”
“If you say Romantic,” Hightower interrupted, “I’m walking out that door.”
Hanley pointed a finger at the operator now, spoke forcefully. “You arenotwalking out that door, even if I call you Tinkerbell.” When his voice subsided, he said, “Your code name is Night Train.”
Zack executed a silent and subdued fist pump, but he said nothing.
Hanley said, “Okay, with all that out of the way, let’s get to it. As of now, we are now officially active, and I will start by saying, we’re in deep shit.”
Now Hightower sat up straighter and looked to Hanley. Notably, both Court and Travers continued sipping coffee as if they were not surprised in the least by what their boss had just said.
“The breach in our national security apparatus has continued. So far, the CIA has not been able to determine the location or means of the breach. ODNI, NSA, DIA, State, Department of Defense…everyone is running into the same thing. Classified operations are being disrupted in ways that make it seem like someone deep inside the IC is involved.
“We dealt with a leak a couple of years ago, as you all know. That specific compromise was contained to CIA’s logistics, specifically air transport. The Agency tied that off back then, so this is something new, and something more pervasive.”
“What has been leaked?” Hightower asked.
Hanley looked to Chris Travers. “Teddy? Why don’t you start?”
Travers said, “I was in Tunis with my team back in late October. We were blown. Ambushed at a safe house that was not known to the local station, so we think the leak came from stateside. One of my men was killed, three Russian nationals were killed.
