Anne Fox - Camp Chaos

“We haven’t met,” she said as the jet’s engines spooled up.

“Not directly,” he said. “But you have greeted me in the past.”

“Oh? When was that?”

“About two weeks ago up in Raton,” he said, holding up his middle finger.

“Yeah, well, you need better binoculars. Ones with lens coatings that don’t reflect the light so well.”

He laughed. “I’ll have to let the other guy know.”

“You’ve been out there for over a month watching me every time I’d go up.”

“You do have spidie sense,” he said.

“I know when someone’s watching me, if that’s what you mean,” she replied.

“That could come in very useful if you take us up on our offer.”

She sat back a bit in her seat. “That doesn’t sound like I’m heading for a Bureau assignment.”

“Yes and no.” Now airborne, he signaled to the attendant, who was sitting in the back out of earshot.

“Get Agent Hanko something to eat and some coffee, would you, Doug? You do drink the stuff?”

“I’m a Special Agent,” she said, sounding a bit annoyed. “There are days when I live on the stuff.”

He sat and smiled at her while the attendant set a cup in front of her and filled it with coffee, set a small pitcher of cream, some sugar and a spoon next to it, then offered her pastries from an assortment. “What? No donuts for the cop?” she asked, pointing to a bagel.

“Sorry, Agent Hanko,” Doug said. “Would you like that toasted?”

I’ve been up since fucking 4:30 . Sure, let me starve a little longer while you toast the fucking thing. “No, I’ll take it as is, thanks, Doug.” He put it on a plate for her, along with cream cheese, peanut butter, jam, and butter in small condiment cups. Setting a knife and a napkin down next to the plate, he then made his way back to the back of the plane.

“Who are you?” she asked the man sitting opposite her.

“I’d love to tell you, but right now I can’t. That aside, we’re going to be a little over three hours in the air, which will give us plenty of time to get acquainted.”

You apparently know every damned thing about me, I know not a fucking thing about you. She spread cream cheese and jam on half of the bagel and took a bite. And I bet you think I should trust you, too.

“You go by Kat, right? Ok if I call you that?”

“Sure, why not?” she said. “It’s quicker than ‘Agent Hanko’.”

“I’ll apologize right up front, Kat, for the fact that I can’t tell you who I am nor who I work for. I know that isn’t the kind of introduction that generates a lot of trust, so I just have to ask you to bear with me.”

She took a bite of bagel and looked at him over it as she chewed.

“I will tell you that we need you.”

This guy’s not Bureau . “What the fuck for?”

He laughed. “You’ll fit right in. But in answer to your question…” He held up his hands like he was holding a rifle and made like he was pulling a trigger. “You’re really good at it.”

“So what.”

“So, the last guy we had who was really good at it retired.”

“So, why not just get someone else in your organization, whatever it is, who’s good at it?”

“We don’t have a whole bunch of people. When we need someone, we go looking for them wherever we might be able to find them.”

“Is this a DOJ plane? Because I’m here to tell you, I’m not getting into some shadow group fringe shit run by some rich motherfucker who thinks he can take over the world. And if that’s what you’re about, you can get Doug back there to go up and tell the pilot to turn this fucker around and take me back to Sunport.”

“You will fit right in,” he said with a smile, “and yes, this is a DOJ plane. We operate under the Department of Justice, but not everyone in the group is from the DoJ originally. We have some military guys, LEOs on occasion, and hopefully in the near future an FBI Special Agent.”

He leaned toward her. “We’re the ones who go after the shadow group fringe shits run by crazy-assed rich motherfuckers. And from your record with the Bureau, it looks like you’re all about bringing crazy-assed motherfuckers to justice, whether they’re rich or not.”

“This nation is run on the rule of law. No one should think they’re immune, and no one should be allowed to be immune.”

“It’s that kind of integrity that the group I’m part of lives by,” he said.

She studied his face. Few people she’d ever encountered could bullshit her without her knowing it. He was dead serious, and he was sincere.

“We know you like to be above-board and you like to be honest,” he said. “But one thing we don’t know is if you can keep a secret.”

“Assignments often require it,” she said.

“Assignments don’t require it to be forever . And that’s one thing you have to agree to if you decide you want to be a part of us. You can never talk about the unit. Ever. Not to anyone who’s not currently in the unit. Not even those who have retired or resigned.”

“And what happens if I talk? You throw my ass out of this thing over a jungle somewhere?”

“We don’t operate like that.” He laughed. “That’s spy versus spy shit, foreign spy shit at that, and we aren’t in the spy business. That’s the CIA’s job. We work exclusively on the domestic front.”

Kat popped the last of her bagel in her mouth. “And I thought that was the Bureau’s job,” she mumphed through a mouthful of bagel.

“It is. And it’s our job as well. We pass along information we gain to other stateside agencies. They pass information to us when they need our special expertise.”

“And what’s your special expertise?” she asked, dipping her finger in the peanut butter and licking it.

He watched her and said, “You know, if you’re still hungry, Doug can bring you something else.”

She looked at him, not really wanting to admit she could use a little more to eat. He smiled at her and leaned over to call down the aisle. “Hey, Doug! Bring the lady another bagel. And toast it this time. And if you would, bring me a cup of coffee◦– black, and refill hers.”

Doug walked forward and disappeared into the galley while the man sat and smiled at her. “You know, aside from people like the Attorney General and the Director, not many people get to ride this bird. It’s a privilege for us to ride it when we’re recruiting someone. So, enjoy the ride, if nothing else,” he said, while Doug set a plate with another bagel in front of her and filled coffee cups. “Doug here will make sure you’re comfortable, and I’ll just yak your ear off until we arrive at Quantico.”

“So, I’ve got to listen to you until we land and then another hour’s drive?”

“No, we’re landing at Quantico . It won’t take us an hour to get from the Marine Corps Air Station to our base.”

She choked a bit on the mouthful of bagel she’d bitten off. “I thought the only air ops in and out of there were for the President’s aircraft.”

“And occasionally us,” he said.

Searching his face again told her he was once more telling the truth.

“We don’t operate in the open,” he explained. “We can’t operate in the open. Our missions demand that we be unknowns. It’s how we get the big fish when the big fish need to be got.”

So, what the fuck am I getting into if I say yes to this shit? “You’re telling me precious little that would make me want to say yes or no.”

“Again, I apologize. It’s just the way it has to be for the moment.” He drank down some of his coffee. “Damn, Doug makes good java.” He watched her while she devoured half of her second bagel. “Gotta tell ya, I don’t know where you’re putting that. You have a hollow leg?”