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“I’d like to see Emma.” I shot back, a request, but also I was testing the water just as much as she was.
“I can arrange that.” Agent Zuri nodded.
We were playing a game of cat and mouse, but I was getting the sense that she thought I was the cat.
Good. Let her sweat.
She scanned my hand. It must have been pretty urgent for you to escape if you broke your own hand. “Quite clever, the morse code bit.”
Fucking hell, maybe I was at the agency.
She continued, “Miss Mitchell would do well in the field. She’s been quite resilient, all things considered.”
I watched her, trying to figure out where this was going. She was putting out feelers; she was fishing, something felt off.
Curious, I finally took the seat across the table, and Agent Zuri nodded, clearly pleased, and took the seat across from me. I began to notice this room while it did have the one-way glass. It did not seem to be equipped with the nasty interrogation supplies in the last room I’d been detained in. I was taking it all in, suspicious, wary, and completely skeptical. Maybe we were doing the good cop, bad cop bit now.
Agent Zuri laced her fingers together and rested them on the table, leaning forward. “Reynolds, what do you know about Viktor Ivanov?”
I mirrored her body language, leaning forward, hands on the table, “I think the better question is, what doyouknow about Viktor Ivanov? You seem to have all the answers here, huh, cupcake?”
She smirked slightly and tapped on the table.
Morse code.
She was tapping. “Fuck you.”
The corner of my mouth twitched.
“So you did get Emma’s message then.” Agent Zuri smiled deviously.
She was spunky, and she reminded me a bit of Emma. “Perhaps.” I responded coyly, still not willing to give up any solid intel.
“Then you know that Viktor has been selling classified information, putting military weapons into the hands of our enemies.”
“Ourenemies?” I countered.
“Alright, here it is, Reynolds.” The cockiness disappeared, and she got serious. “I’ve been tracking your work for some time. What you may not know is that the black op division you were working for is not part of the U.S. government.” She paused, watching me before she continued. “After your time serving as a SEAL, you were unknowingly recruited into a terrorist syndicate. Your black ops division, led by Viktor Ivanov, isnota covert branch of the CIA, despite what you’ve been told.” She continued carefully as my mind began to reel. “You’re not working for the good guys, Reynolds. Viktor has been poaching high performance agents and analysts posing as a black ops division of the CIA for the last twenty years.” She paused as I struggled to absorb what she was even saying, to decipher if it was true. I knew Viktor was a scumbag, but the idea of having the wool pulled over my own eyes was nearly unfathomable. She continued, “Do you think the U.S. government would order assassins to track down and eliminate every agent that made a mistake? We wouldn’t have a department left if we did that.”
I said nothing as the information raced through my mind a million miles a minute, trying to determine if she was speaking the truth or spinning lies.
“I’ve been watching you both for the last year, and we had intended to reach out to Emma Mitchell among a few others, to use her as a double agent. We knew she was hot on Viktor’s trail. But after that slip up in June, when you moved her in with you, we hardly were able to get in contact with her. You kept such a close eye on her, we couldn’t get in touch without risking her safety.” I smiled, knowing that was true. I had hardly let her out of my sight. Agent Zuri continued. “At the time, I wasn’t sure if you were aware of Viktors’ dealings, if you were being used as a pawn, or if you were actively supporting the syndicate. Once you obtained the hard drive from Shah, and Viktors agency sent a team after you, we knew you’d likely been kept in the dark.”
“If you are telling me the truth, then you have no reason to detain me, and I’d like to see Emma.” I responded, this was a whole truckload of shit she’d just unloaded on me, but my main concern right now was still Emma’s safety. If this was true, she was still a sitting duck. I watched Agent Zuri, unsure of how she’d respond.
“Very well. We have lots of time to discuss all this.” Agent Zuri nodded. “Come with me.” She stood up, and the door buzzed open.
I hesitantly followed Agent Zuri out into the hallway, surprised at what I saw. I was in a large office that was hustling and bustling with agents. She turned and gave me a subtle smirk. “Welcome to therealCIA, Reynolds. Try to keep up.”
I clicked my tongue, still unsure of what I believed. I just needed to see Emma. That was the most important thing right now.
We navigated across a sky bridge into an adjacent building, and I followed her into an elevator. The elevator music was a vast juxtaposition of pleasant music amidst my skepticism towards Agent Zuri.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye, knowing I could take her down right now if I wanted.
She stared forward as if she was unaware, but she responded. “I dare you.”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes at her cockiness. We rode the elevator up a few more floors in tense silence, and finally we stepped out into a light-filled building with large windows, some sort of medical floor, not quite a hospital, not quite an office.
