Ice Cold
Page 18
“The only person who is ranked higher is the Director. His orders are considered to come from god on high, so to speak. He’s easy to work with, a terrible enemy, and he’ll stand behind you no matter what. He told a senior congressman to kiss his ass over and misunderstanding I had with one of his congressmen friends, telling him to kiss my ass. Both the politicians tried to go after us but weren’t able to identify us or who we were with.”
“That is damn good to know,” Joyce said.
“Well, think those things over. Mingle and talk to folks. Feel free now that you’ve already met Talon and talk with him. He would enjoy that because most don’t want anything to do with him. See you tonight about the same time. I’ll send Cynthia for you like last night. I think we will be able to come up with a concensus about you at that point. If all is a go, I will recommend you, and if you pass muster will probably be sworn in as soon as possible.”
“Wow, cool,” she said with smile.
They parted ways and Ice continued walking around and talking to folks. He decided he was going to ask some pointed question when he felt the person was comfortable with it. He didn’t get anywhere with doing it that way though. He was actually kind of sad considering these people.
Mid afternoon Dorothy was wheeled out in a wheelchair. She was aware, and able to do a lot of things but everybody could see she was still under some drug, for control.
Talon walked over and said “hi” to her. She looked up, smiled, and kind of waved her hand at him. He moved on.
The rest of the day was quite mundane for most of them. It continued that nobody knew anything about the the killings of the people at the Art Exhibit. Most of the ‘clients’ had fallen into a routine, and actually invited the agents to talk to them. Most of them also were building good friendships with each other.
That night at the meeting there was really nothing to report. The agents more or less joked, and enjoyed themselves. Talon reported on one the guys he had talked that day. Evidently Talon intended to sit and have a friendly conversation. He approached a man who was still kind of on the edge. Talon said he asked the guy a question and tried to smile to show it was meant in a friendly matter. Talon, as did the rest of group, laughed to learn that the guy shit his pants right there in the chair, jumped up and ran to the men’s room.
Stu told the group, “We’re trying something else that might lead to something. The theory on this is that although the chemical may have worked on test animals, it went to shit on giving it to humans. Somebody told me they thought they could use a variety of live blood cells and deliver the chemical to it and see what the results were. If all was okay with animal blood, but destroyed the human blood cells it may be a solution. So they will be running tests tonight and tomorrow. They have a couple other theories too that they want to prove one way or another.”
“Well shit!” Jack Hazelton spoke up. “I’m starting to feel like what our clients must feel like.”
“Hopefully we’ll learn more by then, but continue to talk to these folks. It’s definite time to do some Intelligence interrogations. There is some empty rooms over there. We can use two of you at a time to interrogate everybody. We will handle this at the level as law enforcement, not using physical means to obtain confessions. But two on one will be a good start. All of you take turns, all of you are top notch with interrogations so two go at it for an hour, then another two. The agents not being the interrogators need to kind of be around those who come out to listen to what’s said. Perhaps at that point someone will slip and say something. Understand?”
The agents nodded their head signifying their understanding.
“Ice,” Stu said looking right at him, “Come see me after your interview this evening. We need to take this all the way tonight. But, if you have any questions after your meeting we can go as far as tomorrow morning.”
“I think we can come up with some answers this evening,” Ice said seriously. “It should not be too late, but thanks for the latitude.
“Just a sec!” Talon spoke loudly and the rest of the people turned back at him. “Dorothy came out today as you probably know. When I approached her she just smiled and waved her hand. Kind of like a little kid.”
“Yeah,” Stu said, “but tomorrow we’re taking the drug down a third and see how she does. If still good by afternoon we might cut it to another third. Whatever it takes to get into that interrogation room and learn from her what she knows. She probably won’t remember shit.”
~~~~~
“How did your day go Joyce?” Ice asked.
“Well . . it was kind of an interesting day. Some of my fellow workers came and opened up a little. With them their concern was when they would be released and asked me about their continued career with us. Of course I couldn’t tell them anything since I really don’t know anything; but was able to settle them down a little bit more by giving them hope of some kind.”
“Good for you Joyce,” Ice said with a smile.
“Okay, I think I have told you most of what I need to tell you,” Ice stated “What’s your thoughts and what questions might you have?”
“Good question Ice,” Joyce said with a smile. “I’m glad to get this time because there are some questions I need answered. At this point right now I am leaning toward taking this position if offered.”
“Well,” Ice interjected, “that is good and on the right track. Smart to have your questions answered before you dedicate your life to us.”
“That is my first question,” Joyce said. “What does that actually mean. Is it forever thing, is there any retirement, what happens if you or anyone else wants to leave, and what if with age a person finds they just can’t continue on?”
“Great question Joyce,” Ice said.
“I’ll try to give you a complete answer, and when I’m done you can then ask me about anything you might not understand.”
Ice started, hoping he could cover the question, “First you need to realize that if you become an agent with us, you will continue to be an agent until you are killed or die.”
“However, we usually don’t kill our own. If some one goes rogue on us they immediately are considered a free agent and two things can happen. One is that we take them out, and we have had to do that. Second, as a free agent you no longer are covered with non prosecution of what you do. We’ve done this too, where the ex-agent is charged with any of the crimes he or she has committed, and somehow get a life sentence in a solitary confinement prison.
“Follow me so far?” Ice asked.
“Yes, thanks for laying it out so truthfully. Sounds a little scarey,” Joyce said, but continued to learn more and she stated so.
“Okay, now for some exceptions and there isn’t many,” Ice said. “There has been once or twice an agent was allowed to so call retire. But they were in very interesting circumstances. One guy came up with a long lasting kind of cancer but sure he would die within two years. He was on a very good basis with the Director and was a superior employee. He wanted to spend some time with his son that he had fathered before becoming an agent. Of course he had to sign several forms, but he received a good package, and retirement benefits. He lived like a king for the next year and a half.”
“There was once that I know of that another agent was allowed to leave. Again they were dang good agents in the eyes of our department and the Director. I don’t know all the details but it was on a mutual agreement that the agent really didn’t belong in their job, and the department had no real use for them.
“Once going through what you’ve gone through, and records from your law enforcement days have been included, along with any psychological testing your profile shows, you can do very well for yourself here, and you do make a perfect candidate.”
“I might not like everything I have to do,” Iced explained, “but I have enjoyed it here more than any other job I have ever had. Just like when in law enforcement you saw rapists and murderers go free because some technicality or a weak judge. We don’t
get those cases, so what we do is on the eternal way of things. We do not serve a mayor, president or any other politician. Well, I guess the Director has to play a little politics, but he started out kind of like you, except he was the only one for a couple years. He obtained more funding, and basically has an unlimited budget. That pours onto us too. We can use the best weapons, security systems, vehicles and so forth. Of course we learned we shouldn’t be conspicuous so settle for just a regular car. But then again, we have anything in or on that car we want. Another benefit is that as an agent you will never be arrested. Well, wait a second on that. I was arrested at least twice by local law enforcement. Both time I spent some time in jail. Once over night and another time for three days. It seems a mysterious person came to the court and paid my bail and neither he or I were ever seen again. You see, we have multiple ID’s and if one is burnt, the ID is destroyed. They can have a warrant for that person but will never find them. Another thing we have to do is learn to lie well. Not to each other or the Director, but too everybody else. You can compare it to a cop who has to go deep undercover for a few years. Many times they get burned out, get caught, have a nervous breakdown, or turn into a recluse because they think no one has any use for them.”
“With us it’s a life time, but our focus is only on the mission at hand. Might be a day, or it might be a week. But you see we get some wonderful breaks between missions. We get sent everywhere in the world and many times can enjoy these areas before we actually start working a mission. That is definitely a mental break. You might, or might know about the psychology our training involves. With me I was taught how do go into a different person. Well, like a person who has multiple personalities, but I myself am able to stay in direct contact with myself. We also have some people who are agents that do very similar things you do. They can counsel the client, one of us, knows we can tell them everything because there is no requirement that they have to tell on us. We are definitely a brotherhood, and in the last several years they even brought in some females. Cynthia is one of them.”
“Also we have staff meetings at least once a month. If we aren’t on a mission we are expected to attend and if we don’t we need to contact the Director as soon as the mission is done, which we would do anyway. He then passes along any information you may have missed, and find out from you what the organization missed with your absence.
“As I said, we are definitely a so called brotherhood. We protect our own. We can prefer some agents over other ones. Once you learn who is who and what their specialties are, so if you need their expertise they are open to share it. And of course, your mentor is checked out in all things, and is damn good at it too,” Ice said smiling at Joyce, “and to know me, is to love me.”
“I can understand that,” Joyce agreed, “but I haven’t seen you in your down and dirty being.”
“Yeah, we all have our ways in dealing with stuff. The agency takes very good care of us though. All we have to do is do our jobs, many times by ourselves, keep the Director involved, and let him know what’s going on, and keep him happy. Other than that you are free to do almost anything. We cannot be a person who wants to win a popularity test, or see our name in the paper, so we keep as low as possible. And we will train you to be a spook in the highest degree.”
“How about equipment? I think you kind of covered it but want to know a little more,” Joyce asked.
“You will be trained with every kind of weapon you can think of, and issued weapons and explosives you may need in a mission. You will be issued a satellite phone of the highest quality with the highest security built in. You will also be issued six throw away cell phones. They are like pennies to us. If we use one we grab a few more when going to staff meeting. The Director has the supply room open for us and until you see it, you won’t believe what we can get hold of.”
“You will also get a computer like the one I have. I custom ordered mine than passed it along through the Director. They install hardware and software on it that nobody can crack and even has an automatic way of changing code within a paragraph. You will also always have a bunch of different codes we use. However, only you and director will know what codes you have been issued. I think that was probably one of the hardest things I had to do and still have to do. Memorizing code is hard for me.”
“How about living locations?” Joyce asked.
“You will need to figure out where you want your home base, and buy it. It should be a stand alone structure, with good visibility. The agency will cause whatever you choose to be bullet and bomb proof. Debugging devices installed, and the finest security system in the world. With new technology everything will be brought up to standard within a week. You’ll also be allowed to change your password in the system whenever you want. The Director has said he wants them changed every two weeks on the outside, but would rather they are changed every week if not sooner. With some of the missions I’ve been on I felt on one day that I needed to change it twice, in that same day, then once a day while I remained in that country.”
“But anyway,” Ice said, “I was getting away from what I intended to convey to you. Your house will need a so called secret room and our agency will install it. At your home base you will have a bunch of stuff you’ll need to complete missions. You end up with dozens of guns, a bunch of explosives, grenades, and grenade launchers. I even have a flame thrower in my secret room.”
“Wherever your assignment is, you will more than like stay in a good hotel or motel. We have safe houses in quite a few large cities around the world. If you are sent to those cities that will be where you stay. We sell all those houses at least once a year and replace them with a house on the other side of town. Whatever. Another pro we have is that our department pays for anything, including your house. You’ll find that not paying any taxes and only paying for personal stuff, your income is comparatively huge to others. Even your heat and air-conditioning is paid for.”
“Sometimes, if an agent needs to, or we want them to, he or she would be put on a time period of just being back up. We use Talon for a lot of back up things and he is very good being a backup. He takes his job very seriously and will give his life to protect a fellow agent. Hell, once he took two bullets that were aimed at me.”
“That brings up another question,” Joyce said. “What kind of coverage do we have medically and such?”
“With your ID you will be given an insurance card that is the best to have. It will be accepted at most hospitals, and because of your coverage the administration of that hospital will be happy and treat you well. However, if you are wounded seriously, you will be taken to the best hospital available for your needs. If you can’t be transferred then we will have the best doctor who is available and send him to the hospital no matter where it is in the world. You have dental insurance with no deductible as is your car payment. Doesn’t matter anyway since your car is owned by us. There’s been several times I’ve had to just leave my car and get out of the country, or at least the state. We do have a helicopter at our disposal but an agent better have a damn good reason just to ask for it. It’s usually used to transport the Director to us, or taking a group of us to a particular location.”
“Oh, and also,” Ice said, “Your computer will have a program installed that you can see down on anything in the world. It is somehow attached to a satellite, and the user can zero down to a square foot if need be. The only problem of course is if there is solid ground cover.”
“I’m excited,” Joyce said. “When can I start?
“You sure Joyce?” Ice asked and explained. “You may be killed and have to do things you now don’t think you can do. You ready for a life in that.”
“Yes sir,” she said with a big smile.
“You don’t have to sir me,” Ice said. “All agents are equal as far as any rank structure; except for newbies. Like any other department you will be on what most call it as probation. But it doesn’t matter. If you fail during your probation we just have to kill you.”
“Like I said, if you screw up and even cause colateral damage or lives, you will be covered as long as we can see that it was just what we call an “oops.” That’s how my mass murder case went for me. It was an “Oops!, and the Director actually used that term.”
“When will I meet the Director?” Joyce asked.
“When you are sworn it,” Ice answered.
“When is that?” she asked.
“Tomorrow probably, if not the next day,” Ice stated matter of factly.
“Where?” she asked.
“Wow, you are full of questions,” Ice said with a smile. “You will be sworn in here, probably right in this room or the other one across the hall. He might even bring in other agents from their assignment over there in that building as witnesses.”
“Dang Ice,” Joyce said with a smile, “I’m so excited I probably won’t sleep tonight.”
“Know what you mean,” Ice said smiling, hoping Joyce at least knew part of what she was getting herself into.
The next morning Cynthia showed up in the large room where all the clients were. As soon as Cynthia walked in the door Joyce saw a couple agents leave. Cynthia just motioned Joyce to come with her. This time everybody was in the room so a murmur went through the bunch of them. There had already been several interrogations, many they were taken to an area just off the large room, opposite from where the entry door was.
On the way over she noticed three other agents following them. As she walked into the room where the staff meetings were held, she noticed five agents already seated plus the guy she thought was in charge.