by Mark Graham
“Have a seat here Ice,” the Director motioned to a chair. Before Ice had arrived the other two men set three chairs in a triangular position so their conversion could be conveniently accomplished.
“Any new word on what’s going on, or who might be the person threatening me?” Ice asked in a friendly, but serious manner.
“Yeah, let’s cover that first Ice, and you too Stu. I’ve just been here a few minutes and Stu and I were just starting with some small talk and when you came in was the same time he told me about your nick name.”
“But anyway,” the Director went on, “nothing new on your threat thing. Whoever is making the threats is doing only that, the way we see it. We’ve used every thing we have and your messages are from some distant place and are routed around and through out the world. I still have some ears to the ground on that one though Ice.
“As you know, there were a hundred and four people killed at the Art Exhibit. I’m personally glad Ice that you weren’t one of them. This is a very serious matter and there is a lot of heat going out on this. The president is screaming about every agency there is. Thank God he doesn’t have a clue about us. As far as they’re concerned you’re a guy no body recognized, and had left probably before the disaster.”
“Well, that is at least good,” Stu added.
“Sure is,” the Director agreed. Back in headquarters we’ve been busy getting some agents out and investigation stuff out there to see if something else might have happened. An interesting question that came was “Why, or how come, only four or five people didn’t die?” Guess you’re considered to be one of them.
But anyway, we have found none of the six survivors have any connection with the others, except two of the guys belonged to the same Rotary Club. During autopsy they didn’t find anything particular that would keep these guys alive. Most of the dead were men. I did learn an interesting point that really means nothing to us, but a large group of gay males were attending the function. We think maybe that’s why there were more men that survived. All the survivors were straight as far as I could see,” the Director took a breath and looked at the other two. “Well, anyway, just an interesting fact. I do not know why I even passed that on.”
“So as we are right now we continue what we started to do?” Stu asked.
“That’s about all we can do for now. Hopefully within the week you guys come up with somebody or at least a list of suspects. Without at least that, our group over there may turn into shark food. Hate to see it but we do live in a cruel world, both of you and myself understand that in more ways than most.”
“Now then, Ice,” the Director said turning toward him, “what you got. Stu kind of filled me in on it a little last night but go ahead and tell me whatever it is you want to tell me and feel free to ask any questions.”
“Well . . Director,” Ice started, looking for the right words. “To be blunt about it I think I have found a good candidate for our organization.
Ice looked at the Director and he just sat there, nodding his head for Ice to continue.
“Back when I was given this assignment the first person I met was a Joyce Weathers. In fact she was the only one there that I spent a lot of time with and she coordinated every thing from there. The only other person I really spoke to was Dr. Mosely.”
“But anyway, I learned that Joyce has a doctorate in psychology and another one in something else. She is very personable. She has a few years in city law enforcement including a time as a detective. I started thinking of her as a candidate after being with her for a while. Of course, at the time, I felt I would give it a few days if not a week or two before bringing it to you.”
“I understand,” the Director said, waiting for Ice to go on.
“I thought, and still think she would make a hell of an agent with us. She’s street savy, I feel she has the demeanor and the aptitude to fit in, and could be a very good asset for us.”
“Interesting you should say this” the Director stated. “Her name has been brought up before but not as a candidate. I think she’s applied to several agencies and looks like she wants to get out of this scientist crap as soon as she can. After talking with Stu last night I ran here name through our intelligence computer network. She has very high scores in everything we need. Her law enforcement experience is exemplary. And interestingly, from her profile, she may be one like we are, that with the reasoning can end up taking out people. I was actually impressed.”
“I assume Ice that you haven’t approached her on this?” the Director asked.
“No I haven’t,” Ice stated, “but through our conversations I think she would be interested.”
“You know, that to get her to the candidate stage you have to sit down with and find out if she can do what we do. Tell all the negatives with the job, and go into detail some of the stuff we do?”
“Yes Director,” Ice said, “I am aware of that.”
“And if she comes on you will be her mentor for a year,” the Director stated seriously. You’re known as a lone gun man and actually don’t like others watching as you do some of the terrible stuff you can do. Can you do that?”
“Yes, I think she is worth it and can become a very capable agent.”
“Surprises me when it has always been you giving newbies a hard time and refusing to vote anybody in?” the Director asked smiling.
“Tell you what Ice,” the Director continued, “because of the circumstances we need to move on this. As fast as possible in fact. If she’s in she could even help us with this case since she at least knows who is who over there. And everybody over there is in danger in many aspects, and if we want her we’ll need to scoop her up. But, do not be reckless because of this. Treat it as a regular recruitment thing. When you come up with a negative or positive tell Stu here. He will contact me and we’ll go on from there. It’s possible she will fail in your questioning or even further down the line, but if she is who you say she is, and what her records show, she could definitely be a long term asset.”
“Great Director, and thanks,” he said getting up and ready to go back to the building.
“Wait a second,” the Director said, and handed him one of his favorite quality seven inch cigars. It was always an honor for an agent to get one of these.
“Well, maybe I need a glass of whiskey, sit out side and experience a free life.”
“Get out of here M&M,” the Director smiled and laughed as Ice walked out the door.
When Ice returned to the building he, as usual, went to the table and poured himself a large cup of coffee. He saw Joyce still sitting where she was so he headed right toward her and sat down.
“I’m only going to take a minute here just to let you know,” Ice said seriously. “You and I need to talk, and probably talk a lot.” Every day I need to make a lot of contacts with your fellow inmates so to speak,” said with a grin. “So put your your thinking cop hat on and be ready for some very serious questions.”
Joyce appeared worried, so Ice added. “Nothing to worry about, we just have to talk about you and your possible options for a career. When we talk the important thing is that you are honest and forthright, and give careful consideration in everything. Okay?” he asked.
She looked relieved and even smiled and looked excited, smiling, “Okay, I’m ready when you are. I’ll clear my schedule for you,” she said with an bigger smile.
Ice made of a goal of meeting with at least a dozen of the folks in the building before he broke with the job, and started the process with Joyce.
Chapter Thirteen
“You feeling okay Joyce?” Ice asked as both of them sat in two of the comfortable chairs close to each other.
“Just a little nervous, of course. Kind of excited to find out more about what you said,” she said giving him kind of a nervous smile.
“Okay, the ground rules are as I said earlier. You must be honest, no matter what it is. If you need to go into more detail do so. If you disagree say so. I always look at a disagr
eement as the perfect time to talk things out and find out if the other person does actually disagree, or just doesn’t understand the question.”
“I am going to ask you questions and tell you things that nobody else can know about. To even know some of the stuff you already know could send warning lights off in certain sectors.”
“If I ask you personal questions, try not to take them personally. It will be something I just need to know. This exercise is for me to know you in every way. Well . . . not in every way,” he said embarrassed and his face turning red. She giggled at him.
“But anyway, here it goes. I’m sticking myself out there just talking with you about this. This discussion has been authorized by the highest level.”
“The president?” Joyce asked interrupting, her eyes wide open.
“Hell, Joyce, the president doesn’t even know we exist. In fact as far as anybody goes this organization never was or will be. To be serious, to cause otherwise would usually cause death. We cannot be known about in a free country believed to be a democracy. Generally we don’t trust politicians. Okay with me so far.?”
“Wow,” Joyce said smiling, “so far it sounds exciting. Go on!”
Ice could see that some were watching them so he would remember he would probably need to make these talks some place else. Joyce didn’t need to be called a rat, and neither deserved to be the object of any gossip.
“We are starting to be noticed,” Ice said, “so let’s at least get started and I should go to someone else and try to show I can spend a lot of time with other folks too.”
“Okay,” Joyce said, I can understand that.
“Okay, my turn first. I work in an organization that is not known to be in existence. To most I am non-existent. Even the CIA considers us spooks. They kind of know what we do, but enough to leave us alone. We are basically the watch dog of the bad guys. To be more blunt, we kill people.”
“Wow, okay,” Joyce said quietly.
“We are not contract killers, nor do we really work for the government. That is one way we are not existent. We have one boss who runs the whole thing. He is an unknown person, but a real good guy to his agents. There are only a couple dozen of us throughout the world. Although we seem to be an extention of the intelligence of our country, we work for only one person and that’s our boss. Our orders come from him. He convenes over a group of two others to discuss the authenticity of what we need to know, and they make sure a person is exactly who he or she is said to be. All of us take our jobs very seriously. Yes, just like with the cops, when by ourselves we act like a bunch of crazy fools. We do already have three females on board. All three fully fledged agents. First question, “Do you think you could kill somebody?”
“Wow, that is a hell of a first question,” Joyce said not knowing if she should smile, frown giggle or what.
“I’ve thought about it before but only have the movies to go by. I remember a couple where cops decided to take things into their own hands, and it ended up they were killing a lot of innocent people. Do you train your agents in how and such?”
“To be truthful, our agents are over-trained. A new person goes through about two months of training in their first twelve to eighteen months. If you become one of us you will be assigned a mentor, who would be me. You will accompany that agent in anything he does, and go along with everything he does. You will not have permission to talk about it to anybody except your mentor. Well, that’s not entirely true, a safety valve is having the ability to approach the Director. If you do, you better have a damn good reason. He’s kind of the old bull-dog who thinks rookies need to observe or witness everything there is. We do psychological training which you probably know more about than I do, except maybe about the particular aspects of our job. You will daily train physically and attend classes on hand to hand fighting and be introduced to some martial arts. Most of us have at least a black belt in one of the arts. My advice is for you to do the same if you come on. Some of our work is close up, and some is far, far away. Follow me so far?”
“Yes, I think I do. I hate it when a person is hired and nobody takes the time to tell them what to do, or to teach them how to do it. Hell, when I got the job I have presently it took two weeks for anybody to even talk to me except my boss.”
“Okay, quickly,” Ice stated. “Do you think you can kill a man?”
“We were asked that when becoming a cop and yes, I am capable of killing.”
“Okay, these are different circumstances. Our targets are generally people we don’t know and we can’t get anywhere near the ball park in being able to claim we were defending ourselves.”
Joyce nodded and Ice could see a tear in one of her eyes, he went on.
“Do you think you could kill a woman?” Ice asked matter of factly.
“I - I - I don’t know,” she said as a tear developed in her other eye.
“Do you think you could kill a child?” he asked and he could see Joyce was at her end and she was probably really confused at the time.
“Okay Joyce, let’s ease down again. Most of us working here would say no to the last question. However a woman, as you know from being a cop, can be just as dangerous as a man.”
“Yeah, that’s the truth,” Joyce said, smiling as a tear dripped down her cheek.
“All of us are human beings, and like most we all have our specialties. We also won’t do certain things. You see that big ugly mother fucker over there?” Ice asked with a chuckle, pointing at Talon.
“I’ve seen him. The poor man. What happened to him?”
“That’s not really important but to satisfy you curiosity he was standing next to a grenade or a bomb that went off. The shrapnel put a few creases in his face, moved his nose and eyes around and screwed up his mouth. He has burn scars all over his body. He went through horrendous pain when healing.”
“I feel for the guy,” Joyce added.
“Well, now he doesn’t feel most things. His nerves have been damaged. He occasionally has shadow pains. What I was getting to was that he looks like a monster and scares people real bad when they see him. However, he’s the most gentle man I know. If he thinks somebody is in pain he will do almost any thing for them. So, we can not use him where he might cause pain if it’s not called for. He might kill somebody, but usually will not cause long lasting pain.”
“That is very interesting,” Joyce said. “I would really like a chance to talk to him.”
“In a couple days, depending what goes on here, maybe I can introduce you. Do you think you can spend an hour with him with just the two of you in the room?” Ice asked with a smile.
“Well, if you say he’s okay I would,” Joyce said with no sign of tears any more. “But really he seems like such an interesting man. I guess that’s my weakness, I want to talk to everybody and ask them how they feel,” she said smiling more.
“You will do a lot with that if you come over, although with your strengths you might make a damn good interrogator.”
“I wouldn’t be able to torture anybody though,” she said seriously.
“No, we all know that torture is not the best way to get a confession. Any torturing being done is done for the sake of torturing in itself,” Ice continued.
“Do you guys torture?” she asked.
“As a matter of fact we do. We have two men well trained in the art of torture,” Ice said not admitting he was the best.
“Wow, that is way too bad. The people you use must really be a little unhinged,” she said, not in an accusing manner; just a statement from a person who was observing from the outside.”
“I think we’ve had enough for a while. You need a break and need to kind of get comfortable with some of the stuff we talked about. Search your soul too. If you’re a praying person feel free to pray. Remember though, any thing you say will not be used against you in any matter, if you don’t know an answer, then you in fact need to think about it and come up with an answer. Do you understand these non-rights as I’ve expla
ined them to you?”
“You silly man,” Joyce said almost laughing.
“Okay,” Ice went on, “I need to go. I will see you later. Are you a night person enough to continue this conversation?” he asked seriously.
“Sure, might be easier that way,” Joyce responded. “we won’t be under the constant gaze of everybody.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know one way or another,” Ice said standing and walking away, and directly to the table where he refilled his coffee.
“You’re a coffee addict,” he heard somewhere behind him. He turned and saw a forty-something guy looking at him with a smile. Ice didn’t recognize him so smiled and put out his hand.
“I’m Todd, and glad to make your acquaintance.
“I’m Bill McCarty,” and I too am glad to make your acquaintance. It looks like we share the same addictions.
“So, anything I can do for you Bill,” Ice asked kind of automatically, liking the guy. He thought maybe the guy could be a used car salesman.
“No, not really,” the guy went on. “I’ve talked to a couple of your team mates and found they are friendly and try to be kind. I realize too that you guys must be part of the outcome of this death thing at the Art Exhibit.”
“Well, that’s entirely true,” Ice admitted.
“And the first of y’all to admit,” he said in a cheerful friendly manner.
“Hope you find out how all this happened. I know everybody here is still on edge, and some really worried,” Bill said more like a comment.
“Yeah, me too,” Ice went on. “We realize how you people must all feel in this situation. Personally I don’t envy any of you. Typically when dealing with any thing like this there are some who just turn into other people. We’re sorry, but we are at least trying to help the people be as comfortable as possible”
“And many of us appreciate it,” Bill said. “Since you guys came yesterday it seems the crowd is turning more into a group than a crowed. Before you guys came in yesterday we had a couple people, both men and women, kind of lose it.”