***
Vanessa Johnson had returned from the supermarket fifteen minutes earlier with the week’s shopping. It was more convenient to shop for the family’s needs before the afternoon rush.
So, she was alarmed by JJ’s call. Nevertheless, she moved quickly having already put away most of the food items. Leaving the rest of the groceries on the kitchen countertops, Vanessa grabbed her car and house keys before re-setting the alarm to the house so as to go and collect JJ as he’d requested her to do.
Vanessa did what she did when tense…hum her favourite church song as she manoeuvred her car out of the driveway. JJ was just ten minutes away, Friday afternoon traffic permitting.
***
Fred’s mouth fell open.
This can’t be right!
To ensure that he fully comprehended the significance of what he’d just read, Fred sat down in the chair next to JJ’s desk and started to read the letter addressed to his colleague for a second time, slower this time.
Meanwhile, JJ had started to clean out the draws of his desk. He placed the few personal items he kept there into his backpack. He also removed what was a meaningful item that had sat on his desk for years, He left all other items that were the property of BIB where they lay. JJ studied the item he had removed for a moment before carefully placing it in his backpack. It was a wood carving that had been presented on his fortieth birthday to him by Mark Egwell, his best friend outside of BIB.
It was a Bible verse which read: ‘The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go…’ (Joshua 1: 9).
Given the kind of work that JJ had done for BIB in recent years, along with his immediate circumstances, he found that these words offered him some immediate comfort at this trying time in his life.
Fred, who had now looked up from reading the letter sent to JJ, noticed JJ’s last action and instantly recalled the words on the carving. Having read them many times before but never pondered their full meaning, he now found himself doing so…
Just then, JJ spoke to him.
“I’m out of here, Fred. I’ll take that if I may.”
JJ stood up and gently took the letter from Fred. He also picked up the envelope the letter had come in which was still lying on his desk and began to leave the room, heading in the direction of the stairs.
Fred looked around to see if any other BIB operatives had seen all that had just taken place. Luckily, only Mohammed and Jayne were at their work stations and neither were looking in their direction, nor had heard their short and soft exchanges.
Fred decided to speak with Joe. She was somewhere in BIB HQ and not immediately in sight. Nor did he know where to start looking for her. His luck was in, because a minute later Joe reappeared, coming from the direction of the ladies’ bathroom. Fred rushed over to her before she could reach her work station and insisted that he speak with her urgently and in private.
“About what, Fred? I’m starving and about to eat lunch. Can’t it wait till I’m finished?”
“No, it can’t,” said Fred sternly, firmly grabbing her hand. Joe knew only too well what that grip meant. Trouble was about.
“Right. Coming,” she responded.
With that, Fred let go of her and strode purposefully away, heading towards the conference room. Joe followed him quickly, unsure of what to make of Fred’s urgency.
“Well?” she asked somewhat irritated once she’d closed the door behind her. No one else was in BIB’s conference room.
Fred wasted no time in telling her about the contents of the correspondence JJ had just shared with him. He also told Joe what JJ’s and his reaction to it had been. Joe was in disbelief. She, like Fred, was shocked at this development. They deciding that Fred should go off in search of JJ to speak further with him before Vanessa arrived at BIB HQ to collect and take him away. They did not want JJ to do anything stupid as a result of having received that letter.
They also decided that Joe would speak with Colonel Burke upon his return to BIB HQ to inform him of what had earlier transpired. Joe hoped that, with some luck, Colonel Burke would not be unduly delayed and would be back shortly, even if it was to be after JJ had left BIB HQ’s compound.
Her thoughts of lunch had disappeared. She was very worried about the apparent injustice that had been done to her good friend and colleague JJ.
***
Meanwhile, Fred caught up with JJ in BIB’s basement where he had just completed emptying the contents of his locker into a plastics bag.
“Hold on, JJ! What the hell is going on man? I don’t understand. Don’t do this…they can’t be serious, I mean, they can’t do this! Can they?”
JJ looked directly at Fred. “Yes, they can…and they have Fred. Look, Vanessa should be here any minute to pick me up. I have all that I need from this place, including my clothes and exercise gear, so I only need to grab my personal stuff from the BIB vehicle and I’ll be gone.”
“JJ, wait up –”
JJ cut across him. “Fred, there’s nothing for me to wait up or around for. I’m out. Plain and simple. Come with me. I’ll pass you my BIB equipment – vehicle keys, communications equipment, weapon, badge, etc. Give them to the chief once he’s back.”
Fred followed JJ out in to BIB’s section of the car park before speaking.
“JJ, this isn’t right man. Let’s at least wait till the chief comes back. I’m sure he’ll be able to sort this out with one phone call. There’s obviously been a big mistake,” Fred pleaded.
“No. What’s done is done, Fred. Just let me get out my personal items,” said JJ, opening the boot of the BIB vehicle he’d used as his own for the past eighteen months. He removed all BIB equipment and handed them to Fred. After closing the boot, JJ opened the front passenger car door and removed his personal belongings from the cubbyhole before also placing these into his backpack. He then closed the vehicle’s door and locked it before handing the keys to Fred.
“All yours,” JJ said with finality.
JJ was surprised that he’d been able to keep quite dispassionate since receipt of the correspondence from HOPS. He did not (yet) feel any pangs of embarrassment at what had just happened to him, only sadness and disappointment. Was he in denial? Maybe! Perhaps he’d feel differently and be upset in a few days’ time once the full meaning of the letter’s contents had sunk in. Anger might even follow.
He expected there to be an opportunity to clear his name. He would fight for that, alone if necessary.
Fred, once a fast-talking ‘ladies’ man’, did not know what to say to his very good friend and work colleague. Damn, he knew that something was not right here! He felt, no believed that once Colonel Burke was made aware of this situation, he would ‘make this all go away’, if not on his return to BIB HQ, soon thereafter through phone calls he would make. One of those might even be to the country’s leader.
“Hey, JJ, what if I get Joe to drop me home later to pick up my personal ride which I then lend you?” asked Fred.
“Thanks, Fred, but I don’t think I’ll have any place to go today once I’m back home.”
There was silence between them. Feeling that he had hurt Fred’s feelings, JJ changed his mind.
“Ah, what the hell, maybe I’ll take you up on your offer tomorrow. I really don’t want to inconvenience Vanessa from her usual routine by having to borrow her vehicle. Your car might come in handy after all,” responded JJ.
“No problem,” said a relieved Fred.
Five minutes later, Vanessa drove JJ away from BIB HQ. It was not often that JJ sat in the front seat of Vanessa’s vehicle. Unkindly, as they left the compound, Craig David’s Walking Away was being played on the radio station Vanessa was tuned to. JJ recognised the song’s poignancy given his situation. Vanessa did not.
Fred and JJ did not say their goodbyes before JJ’s departure either. Somehow, in each of their minds, both knew that their work association would continue unaffected by this incident, a mistake…a potentially bad and debilitating one for JJ and possi
bly BIB.
***
Fifteen minutes after JJ’s departure, Colonel Burke arrived back at BIB HQ. Riley Morris handed him the ON-SERVICE envelope addressed to ‘Colonel Trevor Burke, Director, Barbados Intelligence Bureau’. It was also marked ‘Private and Confidential’. In the lower right-hand corner on the front of the envelope was stamped Cabinet Office, over which showed hand-written initials he instantly recognised.
“Strange, I’ve never gotten one of these before. It must either be a promotion or my dismissal,” he said to Riley Morris with a smile as he started to leave the reception area.
“Surely to be the former, sir,” responded Riley.
“If so, will you pay the additional taxes on the few extra dollars I might get?”
“No sir, but I’d certainly come along for the free drinks you’ll host for your BIB operatives at your promotion party!”
“Good answer! I’d expect nothing less, young man,” said Colonel Burke with a laugh as he headed up to his office.
Joe, who had by now eaten her fish cutter, green salad and drank her juice, was waiting for Colonel Burke. She started to approach him as soon as she saw him.
“Sir, can I please speak urgently with you? It’s about…”
“Alright, Joe, just give me a couple of minutes please. I need a cup of coffee and to make a couple of telephone calls. Then, I promise, I’ll come right out to you.”
“Right sir…but I think you’re really going to want to hear what I have to tell you,” she persisted.
“Okay, Joe. I promise to get to you as quickly as I can, but give me five please,” said Colonel Burke while continuing on into his office.
Joe nodded in submission. She also noticed that Colonel Burke had an envelope in his hand. She wondered if he knew what she so badly and urgently wanted to tell him. Perhaps he was already in the process of doing something about JJ?
***
Colonel Burke sat down in the chair behind his desk. He placed the envelope he had been given onto it and poured out the full mug of coffee he’d promised himself, before switching on his computer. After taking a couple of mouthfuls of coffee, he looked up the telephone number of a longstanding Caribbean friend from their days together at City University in London. Colonel Burke also wanted to speak with someone in Barbados he knew well to ask them a big favour.
Out of curiosity, before he made either call, Colonel Burke decided to open the letter he had been given while his computer continued to go through its warming and security procedures. He put down the mug and started to open the letter, but stopped. He had sensed that something was not quite right outside of his office on his way in, but it had only now hit him. Besides Joe, none of his operatives were at their work stations. Why was that? It was an unusual occurrence to see the BIB operations centre almost bare of human beings. That, plus Joe’s demeanour signalled something was up. But what? Strange. He would find out after making his two calls.
Colonel Burke decided to examine this one piece of correspondence and finish his coffee before going to hear what Joe wanted to tell him. He would also establish where and what his missing operatives were up to. He knew that three of them were ‘out in the field’ at New Kensington Oval as part of the ECC security project. Another two were in BIB’s SIR doing specific ECC-related work, which meant that seven operatives (himself, Joe and five others – well six if you excluded Riley Morris who was on reception duty), should be somewhere close-by.
Colonel Burke finished opening the envelope before taking a mouthful of coffee and starting to read its contents. What he saw caused him to involuntarily drop the mug, resulting in him spilling coffee everywhere – down the front of his trousers, on the envelope, the desk itself and the floor. He was shocked. No, Colonel Burke was mad with himself for spilling the mug of coffee all over the place, but more so, at the letter’s contents and the person who had written it.
This is what Joe must have wanted to speak to me about. How did she know about this?
?
Anger was an emotion Colonel Burke seldom showed and had long learnt to control from his days as a senior BDF officer and through subsequent senior leadership courses and Special Forces-type training that he had undertaken overseas. So, while he did not swear because of this discipline, his throat was dry and he only eventually said incredulously, “What the devil is all this? Are they pulling my chain?”
The letter stated:
Cabinet Office,
Government Headquarters,
Bay Street,
St Michael
Friday, 20 April 2018
Mr James Johnson,
Senior Team Leader,
Barbados Intelligence Bureau,
Welches,
Christ Church.
Dear Mr Johnson,
RE: PRISON RUN (PR) ESCAPE, BARBADOS
I have decided to suspend you from all duties at BIB with immediate effect for three working days in the first instance.
Investigations are ongoing to establish what role you, or your ‘Gold Team’ might have played in, or failed to undertake (i.e. follow the correct procedures) during the PR of Wednesday, 18th April 2018 from HMP Dodds, St Philip to District ‘A’ Magistrate Court, St Michael during which there was an attempted escape of five prisoners’ where BPS and RBPF officers were injured as a result. Two of the prisoners remain at-large, with one of them being rated as a major danger to society.
Your Director has been copied in on this correspondence. I will advise you of further developments as the investigation develops or its outcome.
Yours sincerely,
Winston P. Smith
Dr Winston Peter Smith GCM, Cabinet Secretary / Head of the Barbados Public Service (HOPS)
cc: Colonel T. Burke, Director, BIB
After attempting to wipe himself, the envelope and his desk down (and not making a good job of any of these tasks), Colonel Burke hurried out of his office. Still no BIB operatives were visible. He made his way to the conference room where he found seven of them, including Joe. Samuel and Margaret had come up from the SIR, as had Riley from BIB’s reception desk to join their other operatives. With Colonel Burke’s attendance, there were now eight BIB operatives in the conference room. There was of course no JJ.
The operatives stopped speaking as their Director entered the room.
Fred did not give Colonel Burke a chance to speak.
“Glad you’re back, chief. What’s all this crap about JJ? This is bullshit, if I may say so, and with all due respect to you. I believe, speaking on behalf of everyone in this room…that we’re not happy. This seems very, very unfair and unjustified and…unwarranted. What can we do about this?”
Colonel Burke knew his operatives well, his three team leaders best of all. Fred was not someone who often spoke first or loudest, unless asked or he was particularly peeved about something. As this had rarely ever taken place in public, this was unusual. Colonel Burke knew that Fred was JJ’s closest friend in BIB…they had gone through a lot together since Fred had joined the agency.
Colonel Burke therefore forgave the outburst. He recognised Fred’s anger once he started to speak and referred to himself in the third person. Colonel Burke also realised that JJ had either shown the letter he had received or at least told Fred about its contents. Fred in turn, must have told their fellow BIB operatives who were in HQ. Operatives who were closest to JJ were sorely upset at what had happened. Others were too, for he was widely admired for his leadership qualities across the BIB family.
Colonel Burke observed that his assembled operatives looked angry and yes, also confused. If he could do a ‘Beam me up Scotty’ routine, he’d instantly transfer all of them into BIB’s gym, for he was sure they all wanted to be hitting something. The punching bags in the boxing area of the gym would come in handy right now for sure.
It occurred to Colonel Burke that HOPS had stirred up a hornet’s nest here, unnecessarily so.
Undaunted, Fred continued to speak before Colonel Burke could
explain himself. “Unless you were consulted on this action against JJ and did nothing to inform him that this was or might be coming down the pipe…”
“Enough! All of you. Let me make it clear that I don’t appreciate being addressed by any of you in this way, now or at any time…even under such trying circumstances as these. I can also see that Fred – indeed all of you, are very upset by this development. Let me assure you that I knew nothing about this, in fact, it appears that I’ve only found out about it after all of you! Let me speak with JJ and the person who issued this directive. Can I suggest we re-assemble again in say, an hour from now? I promise to give you an update on this unfortunate situation then. For now, let’s get back to work folks, we have not only the ECC project to support, but other matters that we’re aware of, to deal with as well. By the way, where’s JJ?”
“He’s left the building. He called Vanessa and asked her to collect him, so I guess he’s home, or nearly there. His desk, locker and BIB vehicle have been cleared of all his personal belongings. He gave all his official BIB equipment to Fred who will pass it all over to you shortly. JJ’s BIB vehicle is also in the car park,” said Joe.
“How long ago did he leave?” asked Colonel Burke.
“Half an hour, no more like forty minutes ago,” stated Fred.
“Damn it! Okay. As I said, you all get back to whatever you were doing. Fred and Joe please come to my office in…another fifteen minutes. Mohammed and Jayne too.”
With that, he left the conference room and headed back to his office to make some calls. Six to be precise.
***
The first call had been made to a VIP in a neighbouring Caribbean country to ask a favour. The second was to a fellow P.A.A.N.I. Head where another favour was also requested. The first two calls made by Colonel Burke saw him secure consideration, understanding and agreement to his requests.
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