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“Quantico evaluations.”
“This is Laura Lee Saxton. I’m returning a call that was left on my voicemail.” As Lassiter had coached her, she sounded rough and annoyed to be making this call even though inside she was shaky.
“Thank you for returning the call so promptly,” West said in an official and professional tone of voice.
“What can I do for you?” she said in a hurried tone. “I’m not sure how you can have any questions on my submitted coursework. The grading is automatic, cut and dried, really.”
“This is Special Agent West, Harrison West, over the entire Quantico Evaluations Unit,” he said. And then he waited.
“Okay, again, what do you need?” her voice sounded both disinterested and impatient.
“Do I sound familiar to you at all?” he asked, champing at the bit to be recognized.
Lassiter pointed to the second response for this type of question that he had outlined for her. They were going in for the kill right away. “I had a professor at my university by that name, a raping, blackmailing bastard. You’re him, aren’t you?”
“No one raped or blackmailed anyone,” he replied firmly. “But you cheated, and I still have the proof.”
It shocked Laura Lee he said that on this phone line. Lassiter’s tapping finger brought her attention back to the sheet of paper. “Yeah, we both know how that really went down, not that it matters a decade later. No one cares. Now, what’s this about, Harrison?”
“I need a little information from you before I can even consider approving your credentials. Exactly what unit are you in that warrants you carry federal credentials?”
Laura Lee didn’t even need Lassiter to point out the response to this one. “That information is way above your paygrade.” Her voice was condescending and arrogant.
Everyone in the room heard his loud breathing into the phone. He was angered by that response. Good.
“You don’t seem to grasp the situation, Army girl. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before. I hold the power to pass or fail you again. Funny how that is, huh?”
Laura Lee’s hands gripped the edge of the conference table. Her knuckles were turning white. Brad Dupont’s hand took hold of hers, startling her. Lassiter tapping the next answer brought her attention back to him again.
“You hold no power over me, asshole. Having my creds will make my job easier, but it’s not a deal-breaker if I don’t have them. But I completed the work. I aced it. And I deserve to have them issued.”
“In order for me to complete the evaluation, I need to conduct an in-person interview. This is standard. I’m calling to schedule that. Can you be in Virginia the day after tomorrow?” He’d regained his composure and sounded official again.
Laura Lee and everyone at the table knew there was nothing standard about it. “Sorry, no can do. I’m out of the country for a few weeks.”
“Cut your vacation short,” West said.
“Not a vacation. If you need me there, you’re going to have to make your case to someone high above your paygrade.”
“Where are you?” he asked. “Perhaps I could come to you.”
“That’s classified and I wouldn’t recommend you traveling here, anyway.”
“When are you due back in the states?” West pressed.
“Three weeks, give or take.”
“You notify me immediately when you’re back and we’ll meet then to discuss the approval of your credentials.”
Lassiter tapped to another section of text.
“Either that or I may talk to my boss and see if it’s really necessary given the situation,” she said.
“How’s your mother doing? Parkinson’s gets flared up by stress, doesn’t it? I’d sure hate for information on you to be sent to her and have her spiral into a flare,” he said with a casual air.
Laura Lee’s panicked and angry eyes flew to Lassiter. That was nothing they’d prepared for. “Excuse me, will you repeat what you just said? I don’t think I heard you correctly,” she said.
Lassiter wrote out a reply.
