Billy Melrose
“Okay,” said Billy. “You have your assignments. Let’s get out there and beat the bushes, folks.”
The agents scattered quickly; after all, Zeta was one of their own. Amanda caught Lee’s sleeve and said something; he responded with a nod. Then she split off from him, nearly running down the hall on the way to the closet elevator.
Billy had no idea why he followed her, but he did. The longest delay was waiting for the elevator after she’d taken it. He clasped and unclasped his hands, wondering why he was even doing this in the first place. He’d given orders that no agents were to proceed alone; today, they’d work in pairs and not worry about covers. Since Zeta was the source of the search, Francine didn’t have a partner, so he himself was planning to pair with her.
By the time he got to the Q-Bureau, Amanda had already vanished into the vault. Billy looked down and caught his breath.
Her desk was in disarray, with open files on top of open files and a chewed-up pencil tossed carelessly into the mix. The flowers she usually brought each day were wilted, and they looked suspiciously like the ones he’d seen the day before. Even worse, when he pulled open the desk drawer that was partly ajar, he found her weapon with the holster only partially secured.
“Sir?” Amanda had come out of the vault.
Billy indicated the desk. “Amanda, what’s this?”
A confused look appeared. “My desk.”
“It looks more like Lee’s,” he replied.
At that, her gaze fell to it, and as she apparently saw it with fresh eyes, her cheeks began to flush. “I’ll clean it up first thing once we get back.”
“No,” said Billy, quickly reshuffling people in his mind. “You’ll clean it up now.”
“Sir, Zeta’s one of our own agents!”
“I know that,” he replied. “But so are you. Amanda, what happened this morning in Claudia’s office? Not the confidential parts. Just tell me why you’ve been so wound up ever since then. Yes,” he continued, “I know you posted a personal best down in the shooting range after your son left. But this…” he trailed off, indicating the desk. “This isn’t like you. So what’s going on?”
“Sir, I — I’d really rather not talk about this morning.”
“Too bad. I told you, leave the confidential parts out.”
She sank down into her chair. “Jamie was…combative. With his words, I mean, not his actions. Claudia had to call him down several times during her assessment, and when she sent him out of the room so she could talk with Joe and me, he slammed the door so hard one of the pictures fell off the wall. We were both afraid that he was about to go destroy something, so Claudia simply gave us a couple names and numbers and said she’d follow up with a written report that we could take to whichever therapist we chose.”
Billy blinked. “I hadn’t been aware Joe was in the building.”
“I escorted him the whole time, sir. Joe and Jamie left together, and Joe gave Jamie a ride to school. Jamie was mad about that, too. He didn’t understand why he had to go in, since he was reporting late.” She closed her eyes. “He gave us both an earful before we left, and, well, he’s my son. He knows exactly where to aim his arrows.”
“I see.” He glanced down at the desk again. “What were you doing up here afterward?”
She flushed again. “I got a copy of the Segal Report. I was looking through it for clues about its origin.”
Billy didn’t know if he should be impressed or exasperated. He settled for worried. “Amanda, you’re perilously close to obsession territory.”
“I’m not!” she protested. “I just…sir, Francine’s lead investigator on this case, but she’s just not very detail oriented sometimes, and I don’t think she understood how important this was. I thought I would…I just wanted to help.”
“No,” he said. “Let her handle that, or give it to Zeta.” Then he realized what he’d just said. “Oh, damn it. Well, take it downstairs to Francine’s desk, at least.”
“I gave her the files directly.” Amanda’s voice dropped almost to a whisper.
“Then what are all these papers?”
“They’re not related to that case,” she answered quickly. “It’s…well, there’s been chatter lately about military action in either Chad or Libya. I’ve been trying to match things up so I can give you a clear report, but…” she dropped her gaze. “I haven’t found anything yet.”
He picked up one of the sheets that were scattered everywhere, perusing its contents. The more he read, the more his heart sank. “Amanda, this transcript is full of errors. You weren’t looking for patterns. You were trying to correct all the errors before anyone else found out you’re doing that.”
“Too late,” said Lee from behind them. “Because I just heard it.”
Billy hadn’t even heard him come into the office. Based on her surprised expression, neither had Amanda.
Lee circled around Billy so that he could face Amanda. “I have to ask. Are you going to be safe out there with me?”
“Of course I am!” she flared. “I’ve always watched your back before.”
Lee’s eyes flicked up to meet Billy’s gaze, and Billy shook his head slightly.
“Amanda,” said Lee. “Look at your desk and this drawer. You didn’t even double-check your weapon before going down to the shooting range. And this mess…” he indicated it with his hands. “This isn’t like you at all.”
“I am not becoming a burnout!” she yelled.
“Nobody said you were,” answered Billy. “But I’m not letting you into the field until the case is over. Scarecrow, go downstairs and find Francine. Tell her I said you’ll be the one paired with her instead of me. Amanda, stay here, clean up, and then come down to the bull pen. You’ll be responsible for coordinating all the reports that come in.” He paused, knowing he needed to say the next part, but hating it anyway. “And I’ll have to monitor to make sure you do it right.”
Amanda showed up in the bull pen about ten minutes later. She was following direct orders, at least, which was good, and she’d brought a set of transcripts with her so that she could work on them between calls from those out in the field. Billy knew he needed to talk to her about her latest set of errors, but he could see the hurt and worry in the set of her shoulders.
She was checking herself for errors already, he reminded himself. Maybe I don’t need to talk to her after all. He certainly hoped so. He knew he was probably rationalizing, but right now it seemed like the right path to take.
Leaving his office, he made his way over to where she was flipping switches on the communication equipment, cueing up for when the reports would start coming in. “Are you ready for this?”
“Yes, sir.” Her voice was hard and brittle, but her hands were accurate as she finished with the equipment and then pulled a fresh legal pad out of her file folder, writing the words Zeta Kidnapping Comms across the top. “They can start calling reports in anytime now.”
“Good,” he told her.
“Sir, about my desk and what I was doing —”
“Don’t,” he interrupted. “We can call it a temporary lapse.”
Her shoulders visibly relaxed.
“If,” he continued, “it doesn’t happen again. And I will be checking to see if it does.”
She took a breath. “Yes, sir. Understood.”
“Go ahead and do the mic check,” he ordered. “Let them know they can call in reports anytime now.”
She complied, noting the time each pair of agents responded back to confirm. “May I get a copy of those location assignments, sir? So that I can track on the map?”
Her voice was still stiffly formal, but it no longer sounded like she might potentially shatter into pieces. Billy decided not to say anything about that, either. She’d had a rough day already, and working communications meant it was far from over. “Give me just a minute.”
When he came back with the assignments, her head was bent over her transcripts and she had a red pencil out. There was a regular pencil lying on top of the legal pad, where she’d be able to grab it with a moment’s notice.
Amanda looked up as he approached, reaching for the assignment list. “Thank you, sir. I’ll get these plotted on the map right away so I can track their movements. I wish I’d thought to check locations with that mic check, and I know it’s another error, but I can make it up by asking the next time everyone calls in. They won’t have gotten very far down their routes anyway.”
“It’s fine, Amanda,” he said, keeping his voice gentle. He hadn’t caught the lapse until she’d pointed it out; and she was right: she could make it up fairly easily.
She closed her eyes and took a sharp breath. “Thank you, sir.”
“What I do want you to do,” he told her, “is reach out to a different pair every half-hour. Don’t always wait for them to call you. When you check in, give them anything you think is relevant and also take down an interim report.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, probably because she already knew the protocols. But he figured it wouldn’t hurt to be sure, and even better, she didn’t roll her eyes or respond with a cutting remark. Francine might have done either. Lee, of course, would have interrupted him halfway through and tried to finish the sentence. Amanda, though, was acting more like Amanda every second.
It was a long evening, but she kept up her duties without fail. Every half-hour she checked in with another team and got an interim report. In between check-ins, she listened for calls while correcting her transcripts. Toward the end of the night, though, she rubbed her eyes and put the transcripts aside. Billy found himself relaxing even more. Today really had been just a lapse.
At 10:30, he went to relieve her. “Take a break and get something to eat.”
“I’m fine, sir. And I’m not hungry.”
“That’s an order. You’re back up at midnight. I want you rested and fed.”
She sighed but nodded. “Yes, sir. I’ll just run up to the Q and fix myself a sandwich.”
Not even five minutes later, the radio came to life. “Scarecrow and Princess. We’ve found something.”
Billy leaned forward, keying the mic. “I hear you and confirm secure line. Go ahead.”
“Thank you,” answered Francine around a crackle of feedback. “Billy, it took us a while to talk the librarians into opening back up, but it’s a good thing they did. We found where Zeta had to have been working, based on her research materials.”
“I figured as much,” he answered. “Get to the point, please, Princess.”
“Right,” came the reply. “We went through the books she’d pulled. She left a note in one. It’s signed with a zeta. The lowercase Greek letter, I mean, not a zee. I think she was trying to make it clear it was her.”
“Keep going,” said Billy.
“Sir, we think she knew she was about to be taken. The handwriting’s sloppier than normal, which could’ve happened if she was writing fast. The note just says, ‘HVA Directorate A-16.’ Do you know what that is?”
“No, but I’ll find out. Any forensic evidence?”
Lee’s voice chimed in. “Yeah, I’ve got some fingerprint cards and a couple of impressions. Not a lot to go on, but we’ll bring it in.”
“See that you do,” Billy said as he signed off. That was when he heard the phone in his office ringing. He stayed where he was; the answering service would pick it up.
A few minutes later, one of the overnight aides brought him a note. Sunlight logged out and departed. Says family emergency. No return estimate.
Billy swore softly. What was Amanda up to now? Picking up the phone, he dialed her car phone’s number and listened to it ring. It was a good thing, he thought, that he’d made sure all of his agents had one as soon as they became commercially viable. It would be better, though, if she actually picked up.
She didn’t, but she called back as soon as he hung up. “I’m sorry, sir,” she told him. “I was on the phone.”
“With who? Lee?”
“No, sir, not yet. In fact, sir, it would be nice if you could call him and let him know.”
“Let him know what?”
“I was talking to Joe.” A brief pause was his only warning. “Jamie didn’t come home from school today.”
Author’s Note:
- The Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (HVA after the German initials) was responsible for Stasi operations outside of East Germany. Division A XVI was responsible for sabotage and counterintelligence, in addition to running their shell companies. The HVA Irregulars named in Chapter 34 are my own invention.