by S. D. Skye
When she arrived in the kitchen, picture frame in hand, J.J. reached into the cabinet, removed three bottles of Belvedere and poured the contents of each into the sink. She’d wanted to begin her new life without a crutch, face life on her own two feet. She stepped on the pedal at the base of the trashcan which flipped the top open and, when the lid popped up, she slammed the frame and bottles inside with a loud crash, left nothing but the sound of broken glass and the memories of shattered outdated dreams. She had new dreams now. It took a year, but she’d done it, cleaned house. Mr. Six...and the booze were gone for good.
After shaking off the final remnants of her emotional crutches, she sat down at the dining room table and drafted her resignation memo. With each word written, she felt the weight of the world lift from her shoulders. It was brief but would serve its purpose.
Dear Mr. Nixon,
I quit. Effectively immediately.
Sincerely,
Former Special Agent J.J. McCall
She returned to her bed moments later and sat on the edge. At once, her emotions flooded into tears; she heaved sobs for everything and everyone she’d lost that day. It was a much-needed cleansing that would allow her to welcome with open heart everything and everyone she was about to gain.
• • •
Early Friday Morning…
Director Freeman’s secretary, Mrs. Whitehouse, called at the crack of dawn. He had good news to convey to J.J. that couldn’t wait for regular business hours. And J.J. was mighty glad he didn’t. She rolled over and palmed the alarm clock on the nightstand. It read five a.m.
Ugh! she grunted as she ascended from the bed and felt her way to the bathroom. In the mirror, the dark circles and red cracked eyeballs divulged openly what her body concealed. She was damn exhausted. Professionally fulfilled but exhausted. Romantically on the verge of a new adventure with the man of her dreams but exhausted. Vindicated. But exhausted. She slogged through the house, pulled herself together.
She’d waited patiently for the day to arrive, and in a twist that could only be part of a larger Karmic plan, J.J. would deliver the news alongside her new man. After their early morning appointment and their mid-morning meeting with the Director later on, they could grab some lunch, maybe an early dinner at their favorite watering hole. There she’d break the news to him—he was stuck with her forever. If he behaved as a good boy should.
She checked herself in the mirror just before she grabbed her keys to head out the door.
Her lips curled upward when her caller ID lit up.
“Donato! What’s shakin’ bacon?”
“You on the way? We’ve gotta hurry. He’s gonna be released in less than an hour and traffic’s a beast.”
“Yeah, I just opened the door.”
“So, uhhh....I know our morning’s full, but do you think we’ll get a chance to have that talk later today?”
“Absolutely, and let me just say, I think you’re going to be very pleased with the conversation.”
“Very pleased? Or just sorta pleased.”
“Very.”
She listened closely to hear his smile. There it is.
“You don’t know how happy I am to hear that. I’ll see you in a few.”
She slipped the letter in her pocket and took another look around her apartment. Indeed, her world would change forever—and for the better. When she returned home, she’d be a self-employed girlfriend of an Italian FBI agent, a surprising turn of events indeed.
• • •
The exit gate at the Alexandria jail opened, and Jack, stepped beyond the barbed-wire fence. He looked to the heavens, as if speaking to God, the same god he’d probably ignored for the sum total of his miserable life. He was wearing his typical tired polyester slacks and cotton button-down he’d worn to work on his last free day. When he spotted Tony and J.J. leaning against the passenger door of her car, he stutter-stepped and then moved toward them. The corners of his mouth lifted with each step until roughly 30 of his 32 teeth became visible. He bowed his head forward to greet Tony and then turned to J.J.
“You did it! You cleared my name.” He extended his hand to her. In the almost seven years that she’d worked for him, she’d never felt his greasy skin next to hers, and there was little cause to break that stellar record then.
But she did.
“I did my job.”
Although she’d never sought vengeance, she’d relish it.
He tugged the unbelted waist of his pants and pulled it over his beer gut. Then he smirked as if the fresh life lesson had already begun to fade from his memory. “You’re a good agent McCall, a lot like your mother.”
Her body stiffened; she stood erect. “My mother?” J.J. said almost breathless. “You mean, you knew her?”
Tony snapped his head toward J.J., baffled and confused.
“Yeah...I knew her,” he said. “I’ve been an agent for 33 years, of course I knew her.”
“Then you know what happened.”
He nodded. “Maybe we’ll talk…when I get back to the office.”
“I’m afraid there might be a problem with that.” J.J. glanced up at Tony and then back at him.
Jack’s eyebrows scrunched. He looked at them both repeatedly.
“Well,” J.J. said. “Director Freeman has authorized me to inform you that your clearances have been revoked due to excessive security violations. You can no longer work at headquarters. Security will, however, escort you to your desk long enough for you to pack up your belongings.”
His mouth fell open. “This is ridiculous! I’m innocent!”
“Yeah, well . . .the Director doesn’t seem to think so,” Tony chimed in.
Jack jerked his head back, shaking his head in denial.
“He’s giving you the option to accept an early retirement or face termination,” J.J. said. “It’s your choice.”
Jack tipped his head to the side, turned on his heel, and his chin dropped to his chest as he walked away.
“Jack, what about my mother. What happened to her?”
He started to speak then stopped himself. “You should ask your father,” he said and never looked back again.
“My father?”
“What’s ‘at all about?” Tony asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out at Sunday brunch.”
J.J. walked around to the driver’s side to slip into the car. Just as she poked the key in the ignition and they prepared to pull out, Tony’s phone rang.
“Donato,” Tony answered.
“Hi. This is Mrs. Whitehouse. The Director would like to see you immediately.”
“Us?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” she said. “Immediately. As in five minutes ago.”
“All right. We’re on the way.”
He turned to J.J. “We gotta get back to Headquarters. The director needs to meet with us now.”
“What’s going on? We were supposed to meet with him in a couple of hours anyway.”
He sighed. “Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
• • •
“Sir, you wanted to see us?” Tony asked as he and J.J. blocked the doorway.
“Good! You’re just in time,” he said. “Follow me.”
Tony and J.J. parted like the Red Sea and Freeman led them out of the office. Their heels clacked against the tile as he guided them down nearly empty corridor, not a word spoken as to their destination.
“Again, I want to commend you both on a job well done,” Freeman said. “This compromise issue has been plaguing the Bureau for far too long. Somehow, you managed to solve the problem in less than a week.”
“Thank you, sir,” J.J. and Tony now flanked him on either side.
“You’ve been in the Bureau long enough to know that no good deed goes unpunished.”
J.J. and Tony chuckled as they continued on.
“First, we’ve had a few developments that I need to make you both aware of,” he said, his expression one of conce
rn. “We got a call from the coroner’s office. Based on the angle of the entry and exit wounds, they don’t believe Cartwright committed suicide. He was murdered.”
“What!” both yelled. J.J. and Tony literally froze in their tracks.
“Lana?” J.J. asked.
Freeman nodded.
Tony inhaled a deep frustrated breath. “Glad she’s locked up.”
“Afraid not. Lana escaped from sheriff’s custody this morning. She claimed she was suffering from severe abdominal pains, apparently put on quite a performance. Let’s just say there was a failure to do a thorough body search. She picked the lock on her restraints at the hospital and escaped.”
“No freakin’ way!” Tony yelled.
J.J. stood in stunned silence.
“According to the sheriff, she made nice with one of the guards watching her room, had a little help.”
“Get the fu…heck outta here!” Tony said before he caught himself. “Sorry, sir, but I bet that idiot’s feeling like a piece of shit right now.”
“Don’t worry,” Freeman said. “I believe I used those exact words when I found out. We’ve got every law enforcement agency in D.C., Northern Virginia, and Prince George’s County looking for her. We’ve got her house, the airports, and the embassy under surveillance. If a Russian intelligence officer so much as passes gas, a G will be there to smell it. She won’t get far.”
“I’m stunned. Absolutely stunned,” J.J. said. She shook her head incessantly. Lana was shifty and a threat to J.J. as long as she remained free. She’d get caught, all right...if J.J. had to hunt her down on her own.
They all took deep breaths, as Freeman continued to lead them down the hall.
“In the meantime, I need to personally enlist your assistance,” Freeman said. “CIA, NSA, and Defense Intelligence have each provided the DNI with information that corroborates our theory that Lana was part of a tight network of Russian illegals. They’ve infiltrated the entire Intelligence Community.”
J.J. and Tony glanced at each other then turned forward, still trying to figure out where he was taking them. “We suspected as much,” Tony said.
“So, I want you both to head up an inter-agency task force to flush them out of the cracks and crevices in which they hide.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” J.J. said. “Did you say ‘head up’?”
She placed her hand on her pant pocket, containing her resignation letter. Finally, a chance to prove she could lead, to prove Sabinski, Cartwright...perhaps even Tony they’d been wrong about her. She not only had heart—she also had balls. But with her fingers on the precipice of her new life, her freedom, did she have anything left to prove?
They rounded corner at the end of the corridor, which led to an executive conference room. J.J. could see human shadows behind the frosted glass. This was her last chance to back out. Once she stepped in, she’d be committed until they caught the moles.
She stopped walking before they reached the door, her silence awkward and unexpected.
Director Freeman asked, “Everything okay Agent McCall?”
Chapter 48
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope…” Winston Churchill
J.J. touched her pocket again and looked at Tony, her eyes confessing her intentions before she spoke. Tony shook his head, his eyes pleading, begging her not to go through with it. She could refuse, walk away, and her life would be better. Problem was, J.J. had a realization at that moment. She wanted something else, something better than...better.
She sighed deeply, then responded. “Oh no, I’m fine,” she said. “I forgot where I put my key. It’s in my purse. Getting forgetful in my old age.”
Freeman nodded and smiled. “Ohhh, I understand. Anyway, to continue our discussion, yes, head up. Each agency involved is providing one representative. The FBI has lead on all domestic issues. The Agency has lead on overseas activities, with the exception of those directly involving military personnel, which will be handled by DIA. Are we understood?”
“Yes, sir. But the Agency doesn’t really play well with others,” J.J. said as they neared the conference room door.
Freeman stopped and turned to them as he placed his hand on the door knob. He whispered, “I know. But you’ve got find a way to work it out.” He locked his gaze on J.J. “If you’re capable of clearing Jack, you’re capable of cooperating with the CIA for the good of this country.”
Her lips parted in surprise.
“Now let’s get inside. Everyone is waiting.”
“Everyone?” Tony said.
Freeman turned the knob and pushed the door open.
“Come in so I can introduce you to your new team. Everyone meet Special Agents Antonio Donato and J.J. McCall.”
Tony led the duo across the threshold, and her eyes circled the room absorbing all the unfamiliar faces until her gaze locked on his. She’d plunged straight into her own personal and professional hell.
J.J. gasped as her heart plummeted through the seven floors beneath them; she felt woozy.
Tony caught her arm to stabilize her. “You okay?” he whispered.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine,” she replied in an equally hushed tone.
Meanwhile, as she got her bearings, Freeman moved to the head of the conference room, inviting Tony and J.J. to take the two seats flanking his. He remained standing to speak.
“If you saw the six o’clock news last night, I’m sure these two need no introduction.”
Everyone laughed as the two culprits smiled sheepishly.
“Welcome to Task Force PHANTOM HUNTER” Freeman said. “Now, if we can go around the room so everyone can introduce themselves?”
The first to respond was a dark-haired, doe-eyed, Italian-to-Greek bombshell sitting to Tony’s right. “Hello everyone. Gianna Campioni. I’m with DIA and have been working counterintelligence and force protection issues for the past ten years.”
Tony’s entire face lit up when he heard her name, which did not escape J.J.’s notice.
“La vostra famiglia Siciliana?” he asked her, his Italian sounding better than it had since she’d met him.
“Si, mio padre,” she responded, her voice floating as if on a cloud. When Tony finally remembered J.J. was sitting across the table eyeing him with a lethal stare, he mouthed, “She’s Sicilian. Her father.”
J.J. rolled her eyes.
“Glad to be part of the team. Looking forward to working with all of you,” she said, eying Tony as if to direct her message toward him and him only.
In the seat next to Gianna sat the next team member. NSA, J.J. guessed. He looked like the child Steve Urkel and Pee Wee Herman would produce if men could mate and bear children. He ran his hand across his moussed-back mane and pushed his oversized frames securely onto the bridge of his nose.
“I’m Walter Lowenstein . . . with No Such Agency,” he joked, nearly snorting himself into a coma. More sound funneled through his nose than his mouth. “I’ve been with NSA’s Cyber Counterintelligence Unit for the past eight years.”
Last but not least—him. His smug smile spread half way across the room as he stood to introduce himself and ensure everyone could absorb the essence of him in all of his chocolate glory. No sooner than he reached the full upright position did Tony’s jaw drop. It appeared that he finally recognized the man from the picture in J.J.’s living room. He snapped his head toward J.J., who could only shake hers and shrug. It’s not as if I could’ve planned it, she thought. And you have your nerve after making goo-goo eyes with Missa Thanga over there. From what J.J. could see, Gianna had nearly exploded with orgasm at the sight of Tony.
J.J. gripped her chair and braced herself as the sound of his voice had been known to transform her to mush, and J.J. mush would not be professional for an agent leading a task force.
“Hello, all. My name is Grayson Chance,” he announced, his voice oozing a velvet tenor. Then he stared at the object of hi
s affection. “But you can call me Six.”
Her skin tingled but did not itch, warning her more was at work than her lie detector capabilities.
“I’m CEG—Counterespionage Group. I’ve been working counterintelligence and CE issues for fifteen years, including a couple of tours at Moscow station. And this will be my second chance with Agent McCall,” he said, feigning a Freudian slip. “I mean...my second time working with Agent McCall.”
She surveyed the floor for any sign of a hole she might be able to dive into head first.
“Okaaaay,” said Director Freeman, eying J.J. with his eyebrows raised. “I have a meeting to attend on the Hill. I’m sure you can all take it from here. I expect great work.”
He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
“Hmmm...carry on! Best idea I’ve heard all day, right Agent McCall?”
Every eye in the room turned toward her, waiting for her reaction to the not-subtle flirt. “He’s such a…kidder,” she replied.
Translation: asshole.
She stood to make an announcement that would end her misery, at least for the day. “As you can all imagine, Agent Donato and I have a fair bit of paperwork to submit before the day’s end. So let’s say we adjourn this meeting until 9:00 a.m. Monday?”
Everyone looked around the room, shrugged, and then nodded their heads in agreement.
“Great! We’ll meet here first thing Monday. We have a difficult task ahead of us. Please come prepared to discuss your agency’s reporting.”
Gianna and Walter led the pack out the door with Tony and J.J. straggling behind. Perhaps out of a desire to take one last look, J.J. had the fool notion to glance back at Six. He hung back in his cocky stance, his hungry eyes feasting on J.J. as if she was seasoned and seared au jus.
