I.N.E.T 1

by Brenda Cothern

“Now Trainee Knight was correct. The closer you become physically to the suspect you are surveilling, the greater the risk you are at. This is the reason that most of you in this room,” Monroe scanned the room and indicated all of them with a sweep of her hand before she continued. “Won’t become agents of the caliber that will be sent undercover that deep. Now, we are going to go through the different levels of surveillance and the method’s used with each level. These types of surveillance may be assigned as part of your duties as an agent with INET.”

  Knight tuned out the rest of the lecture at this point. He didn’t need a refresher course on what type of behavior should be photographed on a stake out, how and where to place monitoring equipment, or how to tell the difference between a mundane phone call and one that may be using code words to send a message.

  Almost two weeks of INET training and Knight was still waiting to be taught something he didn’t already know. As far as he was concerned, this training class was just another waste of his time. He tried not to let his annoyance at being stuck going through the motions that were the class, turn into frustration that would eventually lead to him getting pissed off. Knight glanced at his watch and noted they were hitting the three hour mark for this class. Will it never end?

  “Now, in front of me are files for each of you,” Monroe indicated a table off to the side where she now stood. “These folders are your assignment.”

  Knight’s attention tuned back into what Monroe was saying when he heard the word ‘assignment.’ An assignment of any kind at this point, even if it was just doing a case review, was more than welcomed to break up the boredom.

  “Each of these files is one of you,” Monroe smiled and Knight thought the look on the woman’s face was one of the most sadistic he had ever seen. She was clearly enjoying whatever this assignment was going to be.

  “Your assignment will be to learn about one of your classmates. Do surveillance and write a report on the things they don’t want you or anyone else to know. And..,” Monroe paused for dramatic effect. “Don’t get caught. If you suspect a fellow classmate is surveilling you, report your suspicion to an instructor. If you make your tail, they will be notified, their badge labeled with an orange stripe, and terminated from the assignment. If you are wrong, you will be the one banded with the orange stripe. Those of you who remain undetected will file a report by the end of next week.”

  “Really? That’s not a whole lot of time,” someone asked incredulously.

  “It is plenty of time,” Monroe corrected. “Sometimes you only have days to gather information on a suspect. In this case you have a week. Any other questions?”

  “Are we limited to the type of surveillance we can perform?”

  “No, Trainee Morgan, you can use any of the types of surveillance we covered in class today. Any equipment you require can be signed out at the annex. I suggest you use it.” Monroe continued to smile. “Anyone else?” When no one else asked a question after a short pause, Monroe finished. “Okay then, come get a file.”

  Knight watched as his classmates’ scurried out of their seats and shuffled down the aisle to sift through the file boxes on the table like it would make any difference who they chose. He didn’t give any thought to who would get his file while he remained in his seat and studied his classmates.

  Detecting a tail was something he already knew how to do and being anti-social so far was a benefit. If anyone suddenly tried to get friendly with him, then he would know they had his file. In fact, he was already planning his own tactic to start interacting with people who weren’t his target. If anyone was stupid enough to make a decision that he was their tail just because his behavior toward them changed then they didn’t need to be in the field jeopardizing those who knew what the hell they were doing.

  Knight grinned at his plan. It would give him something to do and amuse himself to break up the monotony of enduring lectures on shit he already knew. He was still sitting in his seat when most of his classmates had already obtained files and left the classroom. Agent Monroe walked up the stairs toward him.

  “I knew from the information you shared with the class that you have had undercover experience,” Monroe said quietly enough that other students wouldn’t overhear. “But I am curious…”

  “About what?” Knight raised a questioning brow.

  “You are still sitting here and not concerned about locating your assignment. Are you that good or just that cocky since you’ve worked undercover before?”

  Knight smirked. “Agent Monroe, you of all people should know that whether I hurry down there with the rest of the flock or not, it won’t make a damn bit of difference in determining who grabbed my file. My presence at the table won’t help me identify my tail and there really is no rush for me to grab a file, either. Is there?” Knight asked, but didn’t wait for an answer before he continued. “It doesn’t matter to me who my ‘target’ is, a suspect is a suspect.”

  Agent Monroe smiled and didn’t reply before she turned and walked back down the steps. When she reached the bottom, she finally looked back at him.

  “I am sure you will do very well in this class, Trainee Knight. But, I am still looking forward to your report.” Monroe turned and walked up to the table where the file boxes sat. She reached into a box and pulled out the last manila folder.

  Knight was aware that all of his classmates had already left the room so his eyes tracked Monroe’s movement when she placed the file on the table.

  “This is your assignment, Knight.” Monroe tapped her red painted nail on the file folder and didn’t bother to turn back and look at him before she walked out the door.

  “Fucking head game,” Knight cursed aloud and pushed out of his chair.

  I’ll show them a head game, Knight thought and grinned. He walked down the steps and didn’t even bother to look in the file for his target’s name before he picked it up and tucked it into his backpack.

  Knight walked into the cafeteria and scanned the room while he walked to the counter and ordered his dinner. He saw several people glance at him, but no one’s eyes lingered too long. As he picked up his tray, he selected his first target from one of the few that had glanced at him. Instead of sitting at his ‘normal’ table so that his back was at the wall, he approached his target.

  The girl was pretty enough, not a beauty by any means, but cute in a bookish kind of way. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and when Knight approached, he could see she had hazel eyes. She glanced his way and smiled when he stopped next to her table.

  “Is this seat taken?” Knight gave her a charming grin that he knew made most women blush. She was like most, and did.

  “Nope, pull up a chair,” she took a sip of her iced tea. “I’m Haley.”

  “Knight, but you can call me Sean,” Knight reached a hand across the table and shook hers. He waited for her to call him out on his name. If she did, then she had his file since all of the trainees first names were in their files even though they were referred to by their last names. He didn’t have a middle name so giving her a false name should have been a red flag.

  “Janice,” Haley offered her first name with a smile.

  “So Janice, you look kinda young, no offense, to be in INET training,” Knight shot her a wink. “They recruit you right out of college?”

  “Yeah, I was a marketing major with a minor in management when they scooped me up. I don’t miss UCLA though, this training is much more interesting than pitching products,” Haley offered the information freely.

  She won’t make it another day, Knight thought uncharitably. If I have her file, she’s already failed the assignment. Knight resisted shaking his head and continued to smile.

  “You from California then?” Knight asked and that was all the additional prompting he needed to give before she started sharing her life story.

  Knight made a mental note of everything she said in case it was her name in the file in his backpack. He answered her questions, very few questions
, with smooth lies on the off chance she was his tail.

  The longer they talked, Knight knew she wasn’t, but if his tail was in ear shot of their table, it would send whoever had his file on a wild goose chase right from the start. Monroe didn’t say they couldn’t lie and lying was vital to being undercover and not getting caught. He wrapped up his dinner with Haley and told her he’d see her around though he knew he wouldn’t be engaging her again.

  He was walking out the door when a guy behind him made a comment about Haley. “She’s cute. Did she mention if she was single?”

  Knight looked over his shoulder and grinned at the guy. He had sandy blond hair and milk chocolate brown eyes. He wasn’t as tall as Knight and if Knight had to guess, he probably topped out around 5’9” or 5’10”. The guy looked like a gym bunny and Knight made a mental note that this was one of the people who had glanced at him when he entered the cafeteria.

  “No, she didn’t say,” Knight replied.

  This guy was either his tail or Haley’s. If he was Haley’s then Knight wasn’t going to help him by sharing information on the girl. The guy should work for it just like the rest of the class. If he was Knight’s tail, then Knight would play with him the same way he had Haley.

  “You’re Holloway, right?” Knight asked as they walked toward the dorm.

  “Yeah, and your Knight.” Holloway grinned. “You seem to know a lot about undercover work. Is that your background?”

  “Nah, I just read a lot of cop and spy novels,” Knight lied smoothly again.

  “Spy novels don’t teach you how to shoot like you did on the range last week,” Holloway countered.

  “No, they don’t, my dad taught me that,” Knight smiled as if he was remembering a fond memory.

  “You’re lucky, then. My skills with a gun totally suck.”

  Knight waited for the question he knew was coming. Holloway asked it as they climbed the stairs. “Any chance you could give me some pointers next time we are at the range?”

  When they turned the corner of the stairs, Knight glanced past Holloway and spotted another one of the guys who had looked at him in the cafeteria. This guy had been sitting at a table behind Haley.

  “Sure.” Knight replied. “I’ll be going tomorrow around three. Why don’t you join me and we can get to know one another better. It never hurts to have friends here.” Knight patted the guy on the back when they went through the door to their hallway.

  They parted ways at Knight’s door and the guy that was behind them in the stairway kept walking. From the corner of his eye while he was opening his door, he saw the guy glance back at him.

  If he’s my tail, he’s already blown his cover, Knight grinned to himself and was already thinking of ways to fuck with the guy.

  Fifteen

  The next day, Knight was approached by three more of his classmates. All of them had questions about certain classmates he had already spoken to, but Knight didn’t answer any of them. In fact, he even had to go so far as to tell one girl that he wasn’t about to do her job for her.

  They all had asked questions about him, too. Each question he answered cemented the cover story he started when he first spoke to Haley. The only person who didn’t approach him was the guy who had followed him and Holloway up the stairs the night before. Knight caught glimpses of him hanging around the fringes of the people Knight spoke with, and this only confirmed Knight’s suspicion that the guy was his tail.

  The guy’s name was Pendleton and he was at the firing range before Knight met Holloway there at three. Knight was actually impressed that Pendleton thought to be in place to observe him before he arrived. All the better for Knight to feed him bullshit intel indirectly as he chatted up Holloway.

  During the two hours Knight gave Holloway pointers on shooting, Knight spoke freely with his classmate. They talked about everything from their childhood to first girlfriends, which of course Knight never had and easily lied about, to their hobbies. Pendleton left the range before they did, but Knight was sure the guy didn’t go too far.

  In the cafeteria at dinner, Knight noticed that five of the nine classmates he had spoken with already had orange bands on their trainee IDs and it was only day two of the assignment. A few of them gave him dirty looks as he walked by and the smart-ass in him couldn’t help but shoot them a wink. Knight retrieved his dinner and picked out a new target to sit with. He still hadn’t opened the assignment folder to see who his target was, but he wasn’t concerned. He was having too much fun fucking with his classmates and would get to it later.

  Knight bullshitted with his current target and finished up his meal. He didn’t see Slade last night and hadn’t seen his new partner yet today. Knight wasn’t worried though. He knew the guy wasn’t avoiding him and figured he’s see Slade when he saw him. Plus, having fun kept him distracted enough.

  One of his classmates’ called out to him as he was crossing the courtyard. It was Rhodes and Knight could clearly see the orange band around his ID.

  “Hey Rhodes,” Knight grinned without slowing his pace toward the dorm.

  “I really thought you were my tail,” Rhodes said by way of greeting. “You asked me so many questions, I was sure of it.” Rhodes didn’t sound upset, if anything the guy sounded impressed.

  “It’s called misdirecting,” Knight informed Rhodes.

  “So, everything you told me and Holloway was a lie?” Rhodes asked as if he couldn’t believe it.

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?” Knight laughed. “What did I lie about?” Knight glanced at Rhodes and Rhodes glanced back. “Did I even lie at all?”

  “Shit,” Rhodes shook his head. “How many others think you’re tailing them? And why even make us think that?”

  Knight shrugged, “Dunno, why would I?”

  “Fuck if I know,” Rhodes chuckled then lowered his voice. “Are you tailing any of us you’ve been getting chummy with?”

  Knight shrugged again. The fact was, he still hadn’t looked at the file on his target.

  Rhodes chuckled again, “I can’t wait to watch you finish this assignment. Catch you later, Knight.”

  Knight didn’t reply before Rhodes disappeared into his room. He continued to his own room and resisted the urge to wink at his tail who glanced up from where he knelt at the end of the hall while tying his shoe.

  Someone should tell him that trick only works when a shoe is actually untied. Otherwise, you just look like an idiot.

  Knight chuckled to himself and closed the door behind him.

  “Fish, I am telling you, we are wasting Knight by forcing him to go through this training.”

  Slade leaned on his director’s desk. He had already argued Knight’s previous undercover experience and superior marksmanship skills. Hell, he even argued that his new partner could quote their fucking employee manual word for word, but his boss still looked at him stoically.

  “Slade,” Fish started and sounded like he was silently praying for patience with just that one word. “It’s not my call. You know all recruits have to go through operative training.”

  “I know, but don’t let Knight’s looks fool you, Fish. He’s smart as fuck,” Slade ran his hands through his dark hair and began to pace. “Scary fucking smart,” Slade turned and faced his boss.

  “I know this, Slade. I knew it before we gave him the qualifying entrance exam. Not only did Knight ace the damn thing, but he made corrections to mistakes and gave us smart ass feedback in the margins.” Fish shook his head. “Feedback that they are likely going to use to update the test, for Christ’s sake. So, your point is?”

  “My point, Fish, is that if he continues to get pissed off about the training because he is bored to tears over not learning anything new, I don’t know how long sparring and getting him off is going to keep him content!”

  Slade paced away from Fish’s desk again and tried to think of a better way to argue his point. He ignored part of his team that glanced at him through Fisher’s window when he shouted. T
hey knew that when he was worked up like this, the best thing they could do was stay out of his way. The ball busting would come later, once he calmed down.

  “He’ll quit,” Slade continued with certainty. “Guys as smart as Knight…” Slade didn’t finish his thought.

  Knight’s intelligence scared the shit out of him and he was sure he hadn’t seen the half of it yet. Slade had an above average IQ, but he knew he wasn’t the smartest one in the room when he was with Knight. He had no idea why Knight was wasting his time doing undercover work for TPD when he easily could have been working for the CIA. It was his new partner’s intelligence that made Knight an excellent undercover agent and Slade had no doubt that if Knight felt like INET training was a waste of time, he might not stick around long enough to finish the training.

  Slade turned to pace back in the direction he came, but stopped short when he caught Fish grinning at him. He knew that grin and wanted to smack it right off his boss’ face.

  “What?” Slade growled out in frustration.

  “I never thought I would see the day,” Fish replied and reached for his desk calendar and a pen. “I’ve got to mark this date,” Fish chuckled without looking up from where he was actually writing on the calendar.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Slade had to ask because he was truly confused. However, he had a feeling he really didn’t want to know.

  Fish chuckled again. “I assigned you a partner and it stuck.” Fish looked up at Slade. “I knew you two would be a good fit. You haven’t even worked in the field with Knight yet and you’re already tearing into me like a finance attorney would tear into a white collar witness.”

  It wasn’t lost on Slade that Fish brought up his background in law for an analogy. He hadn’t lied to his new partner when he told Knight he had a background in finance, but he did omit the lawyer part because he didn’t want to deal with the ball busting that came with the profession. Still, Slade didn’t see Fisher’s point or why the asshole actually made a note on his calendar. Dick.