by Ethan Jones
“Eh, this is too big, do you have something smaller?”
“How about this?” She showed him one about half the size.
Javin wanted something about eight ounces, but didn’t want to argue with the old woman. “That’s good. Put everything in one bag, please.”
The woman did and handed the goodies to Javin. He made some quick calculations and handed her two banknotes of five-thousand Iraqi dinars each, which was a little over eight US dollars. “Is this good?”
The woman nodded slowly, the rows of wrinkles dancing in her aged face. “Very good. Let me give you change.”
“Keep it.”
“May Allah be with you.” The woman thanked him by putting her hand over her heart.
“And with you too.”
He hurried back to the trailer and found Liberty at the small sink cleaning up one of the pans. “Oh, perfect timing,” she said.
“Can I put these here?” He showed her the bag and pointed at the kitchen table.
“No, bring them here. I’ve got to wash them first.” She took them from his hands. “But sit there. It’s ready to eat. Oh, you bought so many.”
“I got a good deal.” He smiled.
“I think the old lady conned you. And what’s with the honey?”
“I wanted some for my coffee.” He gestured at the chair by the window. He had left his empty cup on a corner table.
“I have some in here.” She pointed at a drawer to the left of the stove, near the bottom of the cupboard.
“I didn’t know.”
“Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
They sat at the cramped table across from the stove. “Mmmm, this is so good,” Javin said after tasting the first bite of the bacon.
“Eh, you like it?”
“Love it.” He finished chewing and cut into another piece.
“Should I make coffee?”
“After we’re done.”
“Okay.”
She took a few small bites and said, “I’ve got to tell you some good news.”
Javin looked at her bright blue eyes. “It’s about the transfer…”
“Yes, I checked my email while you were gone. It’s approved.”
“Wow, that’s excellent. I’m so excited for you, well, for us. When can you leave?”
“I already wrote back; gave them my two weeks’ notice.”
“Do you know where you’re going?”
Liberty shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Anywhere but here…”
“Come to Canada.”
She gave him a cockeyed look. “Is that an invitation, Javin?”
“It surely is.”
“Only if it’s serious.”
“It’s very serious.”
“And do what?” Liberty set down her fork.
Javin stopped chewing. “Be with me.”
“And watch you work? Go to lunches with other women?”
“We all have to work, but I’ll take some time off.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know. Enough.”
Liberty studied his face for a long moment. Then she smiled and said, “If this is serious, Javin, I’d love to.”
Javin reached for her hand and held it tight in his. “Liberty, I want us to be together. We have to work a few things out, for sure, but what couple doesn’t?”
Liberty wiped her lips and leaned over the table for a kiss. “Babe, I want to give this my best effort,” she said when she sat down. “But… what about your work?”
Javin shrugged. He didn’t know what to tell Liberty, but he also didn’t want to lie to her. “I’m going to talk to my boss the day after tomorrow, when I get back. I’ve explained to you about the inquiry. It’s likely the committee will reprimand or demote me. In practice, that would mean I’d be assigned a desk job. It would suck, but it would give me the freedom to be home every night.”
Liberty smiled. “I’d love that.”
Javin tried to return the smile, but he felt it was disingenuous. He wasn’t sure how long he’d last chained to a desk, shuffling papers and pushing pencils every single day for the rest of his career. Not to mention the possibility of Bateaux’s throwing Javin out of the agency altogether because of the aftermath of the unsanctioned Chinese operation. He wished he could share that with Liberty.
“What’s on your mind, babe?” she asked.
Javin shrugged. “Just worried about the meeting. I know it’s not going to be good.”
She offered him a reassuring smile. “It’s going to be fantastic. Whatever life throws at you, we’re going to deal with it together. You’ve got me, and I’ve got you covered.”
Javin smiled back. This time it was genuine, and he liked that. “Yes, I’d like that very much.”
He held Liberty’s hand in his and savored the moment. A strange, deep feeling began to warm up his heart. It had been a long time since he had felt like this.
Relaxed.
Free.
Happy.
Epilogue
Two Days Later
CIS Headquarters
Ottawa, Canada
Javin struggled to keep calm as he paced the long hall outside the office of his boss, Michael Bateaux, Director of Intelligence for the Central Europe Division. Initially, Bateaux had postponed their meeting, as he wanted to review the results of the inquiry committee before meeting with Javin. Then, the director changed his mind and called Javin in. He wasn’t sure if the committee had submitted its final report or if Bateaux had obtained new intelligence about Javin’s operations. He didn’t ask. He’d find out in a matter of time.
He looked at his phone as he waited for the boss to call him in. The wallpaper was a photo of Liberty and him taken at the Erbil International Airport just before his departure. A sad smile formed on his face. He already missed Liberty and couldn’t wait to be with her.
He drew in a deep breath, and a dull pain spread across his body. He had been shot in the chest during an operation in Barcelona and another time in London. It had been only a few days ago, but it felt as if it were a lifetime away. He had been quite fortunate to be wearing bulletproof jackets both times. The bullets had left him with only bruised lung tissue. The pain had all but gone, and it only seemed to affect him in times when he was overstressed.
The black, solid wood door of Bateaux’s office opened. “Pierce, you can come in now…”
Javin flattened the front of his jacket and tightened his tie. He was wearing his favorite black jacket, with a blood-red shirt and a black tie with a large double Windsor knot as he liked it. Although Bateaux didn’t require it, Javin was dressed in business attire for the meeting with his boss. Javin felt he always needed to dress for the situation.
“Thank you, sir. How are you doing?”
Bateaux shrugged and didn’t offer to shake Javin’s hand. “It is what it is. Take a seat,” Bateaux pointed at a couple of white leather chairs across from his desk by the floor-to-ceiling bulletproof glass windows.
Javin took one of them as Bateaux walked behind his square glass-top desk and headed toward a white metal file cabinet to the right. He unlocked the top drawer and picked up a couple of folders. The one at the top was orange, the color used by the inquiry committee. The second folder was white, indicating it was an ongoing operation.
Bateaux sat in his white leather swivel chair and opened the white file, which he placed in his lap. Bateaux was in his early sixties, with a head full of snow-white hair that he kept short-cropped but stylish. He had a large, broad forehead and a full gray beard, and was dressed in a light gray shirt, a black shawl-collar sweater, and black designer jeans, quite casually for his position. He flipped through the first couple of pages in the folder, then looked over his black-framed glasses at Javin. “Do you know what this is?”
What, I can read minds now? “No, I don’t.” He shook his head.
“It’s a report I’ve received from MSS. It’s about you and your unsanctioned op in China.”
Javin put on his best poker face. “My what?”
“Javin, don’t even start with it.”
“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t think I understand.”
Bateaux placed the folder on the table. He flipped the report around and showed Javin the page he had been reading from. “You went to China eight days ago. Why?” His voice had a scratchy edge, and his tone was that of frustration.
“After I started my leave, my forced leave, I just wanted to get away. I went to DC, with my girlfriend, Liberty. She had to go back to work, so I flew to China to visit an old friend.” Javin had rehearsed his reply, but he delivered it with slight pauses in between, to give the impression this was the first time he’d heard about this matter.
“Who was that friend?”
“His name is Fang Zehua. He’s an MSS operative in one of their cyber-security branches. He’s also an asset.”
“Was. Fang no longer works for the Chinese state agency.”
“Oh, what happened?”
Bateaux frowned. “How about I ask the questions?”
Javin shrugged. “Eh, sure…”
“So, Fang, why did you go to see him?”
“We had worked together, and he struck me as an extremely capable man. He also can be trusted, as we’ve seen in the past. So I asked him for a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
Javin shifted in his seat. “It’s not one of my proudest moments.” He looked away, his gaze floating somewhere outside the window overlooking Ottawa’s skyline. “I asked him to hack into Mossad’s agency servers.”
“Mossad?” Bateaux arched his eyebrows, clearly surprised with Javin’s reply. “What was the reason?”
“Revenge. I… I was displeased with how the agency handled Mossad’s intervention, especially their killing of Yael—”
“We’re not sure what bullets hit that operative. Even if it were Mossad, they apologized for the friendly fire.”
“You’re right, but at the time, I didn’t see it that way.”
“How did you see it?”
“Them getting away with it. There was no accountability, no punishment.”
“And you wanted to inflict punishment on them. Was that your goal?”
“Initially, yes. I wanted them to suffer like Yael and Claudia suffered.”
Bateaux studied Javin’s face for a moment. “Initially? What happened next?”
“I had overestimated my relationship with Fang. Once he heard who the target was, he wanted to have nothing to do with it. I couldn’t offer him enough money or favors to convince him.”
“So he never did anything about your request?”
“No. We were having dinner in Beijing when we discussed it. He told me in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t interested.” Javin said with confidence in his voice.
He had discussed this version of events with Fang, and together they had gone over the cover story, so that all details matched up.
Bateaux nodded, but the look on his face told Javin that his reply didn’t convince the boss. So he said, “You knew we weren’t going after Mossad, yet you still took this upon yourself, this unauthorized operation…”
Javin’s shoulders slumped, and his head hung down a little. He had a defeated expression on his face. “As I said, not the proudest moment in my career. Once I knew the agency wasn’t going to do anything officially, I decided to look at it myself. I thought if I could find some dirt on those Mossad operatives, we could use it against them. They could be removed from Mossad, which is the least they deserve for their crimes…”
Bateaux nodded. He leaned back on his seat and folded his arms across his chest. “So your trip to China and your meeting with Fang was for the sole purpose of hacking into Mossad’s servers?”
“Yes, what else could it be?”
Bateaux’s frown grew deeper.
“I’m sorry,” Javin said with true regret in his voice.
His boss said nothing for a long moment, then looked at the folder. “What happened at the Golden Duck restaurant?”
“Yes, about that. I really have no idea why it happened, but there was a shooting.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Apparently, a team of MSS agents had been following Fang. No idea why.”
“Did you ask?”
“I did. He said exactly that: He had no idea.”
“Okay. How did the shooting start?”
“They opened fire at us.” Javin shrugged. “Of course, we returned fire in self-defense.”
“Self-defense? It was all self-defense?”
“Yes, they fired in the middle of a crowded restaurant, with complete disregard for who might be in the line of fire. If we hadn’t fired back, I would have been dead. You wouldn’t have wanted that.”
Bateaux waved a dismissive hand. “No, of course not, Pierce.”
“That’s what happened. They chased us through the restaurant, then pursued us through the city in a car chase. We barely escaped.”
“What happened to the agents?”
“They crashed into a car while giving chase. That was the last we saw of them.”
Bateaux tipped his head toward the folder. “That’s not what the Chinese are asserting.”
Javin just listened.
Bateaux sighed and stood up. He paced to the window and shook his head. “The Chinese claim you killed both operatives.”
“What? No, no, I didn’t kill anyone.”
“So who did?”
“No idea.”
“Why would they blame you?”
“Do they need a reason?” Javin shrugged. “I mean, I’m an easy scapegoat. I’m sure they have camera footage of the shooting in the restaurant and of the chase. I was in Beijing without an official reason. I’m an easy target.”
“You had nothing to do with their killing?”
“Absolutely not. But if they’re claiming that, they must have evidence…”
“They have witness statements, but no one saw the killings.”
“Well, there you have it. If they have evidence, let them show it.” His voice grew louder than he had intended it.
“I know, Pierce, but I’m trying to get in front of this. The Chinese are still looking into it, especially since this is not all.” He paused for a moment, then said, “Tell me about the other shooting, the one by your hotel…”
Javin shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Yes, I went to my hotel for the night. Fang came to meet me to return my wallet. In the crazy chase, I had left it in the car. When he met me, two police officers appeared. They had followed Fang, and that’s how they found out where I was staying.”
“And they fired at you first?”
“That’s what happened. They fired to kill Fang and me. I returned fire, and we ran for our lives.”
“These Chinese are determined to kill you, Pierce, and I’m trying to figure out why.”
“Yes, I’m trying to do the same.”
“What did you do to make them come after you with such fury?”
“Nothing. I did nothing to them. Now, could they come after me for something else we’d done in China? That’s possible, but, honestly, I don’t know.”
Bateaux studied Javin’s face and let out a deep sigh. He returned to his desk, but didn’t sit down. “The thing is, Pierce, the Chinese are pressing hard with these charges. In your situation, this doesn’t look good at all. The inquiry committee isn’t finished with your botched ops, and now this…”
“But what do you think?”
He didn’t mind that Bateaux had insisted he would be the one asking questions. Javin could feel the tide turning, and he wasn’t going down in silence.
“It matters little what I think, Pierce. At this point, a lot of people, important people, people who give me orders, want you out of the agency. All I can do is slow them down, temporarily. But…” His voice trailed off.
“But?”
Bateaux sighed again. “It’s almost inevitable, Pierce.”
“A
nd does the truth matter? Is anyone asking whether I did any of this, these things I’m being accused of?”
“Of course, people are asking about that. I am. But I don’t know what to think anymore of you, Pierce, and this whole situation. Everywhere you go, bullets start flying.”
“I had nothing to do with that.”
“Even if that’s true, even when you’re ordered to stand down, you always do what you want. You want things to go your way, and when they don’t, you fight to find a way to get it done.”
Javin didn’t say anything. Bateaux was right.
“If I ask you what you did next, where you went, I’m sure I’ll find out someone else died. In fact, I know they did.” Bateaux sat heavily in his chair. He reached for the folder and flipped through the pages. “Al-Attiya, the aide to Qatari prince Al-Thani, has disappeared. No one has seen him for almost a week. Rumors have it that he was stealing from the prince, who had him beheaded.”
Javin shrugged. “He had it coming.”
“Right, but if I ask you the next question: Were you in Qatar before this happened, what would you say?”
“I’d say ‘yes,’ I was in Qatar.”
Bateaux frowned and spread his arms out. “There you have it, Javin. Then, a major attack took place in southern Syria, four days ago. The Mossad operatives, the ones you blame for killing Yael and kidnapping Claudia, all four of them were killed. Did you go to Syria?”
“Yes, I was in Syria, but in the northern part.”
“And you had nothing to do with their killing?”
“None whatsoever.”
“So, these are all coincidences, Pierce, just unexplained coincidences?”
Javin didn’t reply for a long moment. When he did, he said, “I don’t know what to say.”
Bateaux shook his head. “This is not an easy decision, Pierce, but you’re leaving me no choice.”
The tide had crashed. “Wait,” Javin raised his hand. “Before you say it, I want you to know that all these people who died, none of them were innocent. They paid for what they did to harm me or people I loved and cared for. People you cared for as well.”
“That could very well be the case, Pierce, but we can’t use this agency, the CIS, to run our private wars. We have rules, regulations, procedures, protocols, all of which you’ve ignored, bent, or broken so many times, over and over again. This has to end, Pierce. This will end.”