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If anyone in the office noticed that she left for long stretches in the middle of the day, they didn’t say anything. If their resentment came with a heavy dose of not giving a shit, that suited her just fine. She’d already mentioned to Baker’s secretary that she’d be in and out during the day completing his assignment, and the secretary promised to pass it along.
Breaking into people’s houses midday would be easier for her. She didn’t look suspicious. She was just a girl, after all.
The information in the packet she’d received contained only the addresses, the names of the people who lived there, whether they had families or not, and their estimated times of arrival and departure. Nothing about why they were being bugged. She could do her own research on the names; she had full access to government databases. But she figured the less she knew about them as people, as humans, the better.
The first house was on a cul-de-sac, which was unfortunate. Cul-de-sacs tended to breed nosy neighbors. She pulled up to the house. A gray SUV was parked in the driveway.
Perfect.
Annie shrugged out of her jacket and pulled on a white lab coat. She put on a pair of weak reading glasses in large frames that she’d bought at a drugstore along with a wooden clipboard. She’d found and printed out official-looking forms at the UCLA library. Her hair was gathered into a tight knot and secured at the base of her neck. She exchanged her flats for smart black pumps. Then she applied some neutral lipstick, completing her professional look. The listening device that she was to install was in the wide pocket of her lab coat, along with the tools she needed to install it.
She walked up the front walk and rang the bell.
A woman opened the door. “Can I help you?” she asked. The woman’s Slavic accent was barely noticeable, and it gave her an uneasy feeling.
“Mrs.Posp…Pospisil?” Annie said, purposefully butchering the pronunciation.
“Yes?”
“Oh good. I’m from SoCal Gas, and I’m going door-to-door in your neighborhood to investigate reports of a leak.”
“Leak?” she said, frowning.
“Oh yes. We’re trying to determine which house it might be coming from. Tell me, have you been getting headaches?”
“Oh,” the woman said. “No… I mean, I’m not sure.”
“You mind if I come in and take some readings?” Annie smiled and held up her clipboard. “It’ll take me five minutes to rule out your house as hazardous.”
“Yes,” the woman said. “Yes, please.”
Annie smiled and stepped inside.
* * *
The gas company ruse worked on three of the houses that day, and she returned to the office to stow the other two bugs in herdesk. They’d be safer inside a secure building as opposed to her car or her garage room. She left the lab coat and glasses in the car, but even so, when she walked in, it felt like everyone in the room stopped and stared.
Someone had left a handwritten note on her desk that saidGo see Buck.
The secretary stood up when Annie walked into the outer office. “He’s waiting for you,” she said and knocked on his door, pushing it open without waiting for a response.
Annie stepped in. “You wanted to see me?”
“Close the door,” he said.
She complied, nervous but determined not to care about whatever he had to say. They were forcing her to work here, forcing her to do the work of a CIA agent, even though she’d been clear about not wanting to do that anymore.
She took a seat in front of his desk.
“It was implied,” he said, “that you would bug these houses at night.”
“Are you having me followed?” She was surprised, but more than that, she was disappointed in herself. If she had learned anything over the years, it was that Big Brother was always watching.
“Yes,” he said without apology. He must have been in charge a long time and was used to answering to no one.
She’d been so preoccupied with her work that she hadn’t even noticed the tail. But that was no excuse for letting herself slip.
Buck was watching her, waiting for her to continue.
