(1)
Dr. Greene* left the hotel room and gave Cinnamon a friendly wave. "Wish you well, Miss Carter. All of you." He said before closing the door.
She hated waiting. One would think after all these months working with the IMF that Cinnamon Carter would get used to the 'wait and see' aspect of her chosen profession. But, as with a certain actor and work companion of Cinnamon's, she grew antsy if asked to sit and wait around too long. Now, here she was in an above average hotel nestled in the middle of New York City – waiting.
Sitting at the foot of the bed, pulling at her nylons, Cinnamon glanced at a packet of cigarettes on the nightstand. She was dying for a smoke but promised herself she'd cut back. Lately, Cinnamon had developed a smoker's cough and her doctor advised, for a woman so young, restraint might be in order. She agreed but wondered what the doctor would have said, his expression critical, if she told him she had spent weeks without a smoke, as the guest of an eastern European country's prison system. That was last year and no one – none of the IMF team - questioned her lack of will-power then.
Instead, Cinnamon looked at the telephone beside the cigarettes and sighed. She should be hearing from Jim anytime now.
Cinnamon's part of their mission was done. She had gone in, distracted Maxwell Steiner long enough for Jim and the others to plant the information about Rollin and herself into his files, then she left with promises of an intimate dinner, just the two of them, in the future. Playing the irresponsible and lonely wife of an arms dealer was not altogether new to Cinnamon and she enjoyed the execution as well as getting men like Steiner off the street and into prison.
She also enjoyed working closely with Rollin Hand again. He was very intelligent and attractive. But more than that, he was a good man.
Still, she sensed Rollin wished her character during this mission was more in line with what he envisioned. He saw her as a slightly ruthless but loyal wife to her devoted if somewhat questionable spouse. They didn't get to play those roles too often anymore. Nevertheless Rollin, as well at the rest, knew where her specialty lay and how Cinnamon's attributes could best be used.
Rollin left mid-morning and she remembered him giving her a small wink as she adjusted and brushed the jacket he was wearing. It was rigged and had to be functioning properly for the mission to work. Yet, he took the moment to flirt with her; something Rollin often did and she appreciated it. Sometimes agents had to do such things or the intensity of a mission could get too overwhelming.
Yet, the moment always crumbled a bit when she wondered if he also flirted with other female agents.
Nervously Cinnamon got up, crossed to the side-table and picked up the cigarette pack. She paced as she smoked, unaccountably worried. They were on their last leg. Rollin and Willy would do their part and soon, she hoped, they would al fly home to Los Angeles – Mission: Accomplished.
His breaths were coming out in quick gasps and the searing pain moving through his left shoulder might have been crippling if it wasn't for the powerful treatment he had taken just before meeting Chung and Harper.
Rollin had been playing the part of a real-life well-known but nearly never seen arms dealer, Lou Canyon, with weapons to be bought by an eastside syndicate.
The real Canyon had unknowingly to most died a month previous to this meeting. He was a social drug user, something the IMF had learned after the fact - and addicted. He was known to heavily partake while meeting and greeting clients, who often joined in. It was an overdose that finally did him in.
Jim had not counted on the drug use but needed to be careful. He told Rollin to commence with an alternate plan, telling the two enemy agents he was working with Pierson and Chemins, well-known brutish New York crime figures.
Their IMF physician, Dr. Greene, was then called into Rollin and Cinnamon's hotel room, to prepare Rollin for any possibility. They had used the ingenious doctor before when the couple needed to be narcotic free for a few days. This time the new and improved preventive also included a pain killer.
Greene told them he had received criticism from some other agents. While his treatment left them free from the highs, lows, and negative reactions of various drugs, there was often stomach cramping and pain from injection needles that could be overwhelming. Dr. Greene took care of it with his new solution. His reviews were now much improved. "Think of it as a bonus." He told Rollin. "Just in case."
All had gone well during the pick-up. The weapons were moved into a large paneled truck in the back of a warehouse. The driver, Willy, gave Rollin a confidential nod which told him that Barney had tampered with communication. Soon the criminals would find themselves in the midst of a nasty case of looking guilty of selling to a foreign power, when everything was supposed to stay close to home.
It was the difference between five years or twenty-five years in state prison.
Chung and Harper were inconsequential. They were after the big man, Maxwell Steiner, mob boss extraordinaire. The only thing he loved more than money was beautiful women and Cinnamon had been instrumental in his set up.
As smoothly as everything was running, Rollin felt something was off despite, or perhaps because of, the good cheer behind Chung's usually austere expression. He offered Rollin some pills which the agent eagerly took as per character. He washed them down with a flask of spirits. He took a toke on a marijuana cigarette. As an actor, a one-time street kid, and native New Yorker, Rollin was not unfamiliar with pharmaceuticals but he was not a user – generally speaking. Keeping a cool head was always his top priority.
Willy drove off down the street in the truck and all Rollin needed to do was give a suitcase filled with money to Harper and make his getaway. The camera secreted on his body would catch all the rest. In theory the mission would be accomplished in record time and he would go back to the hotel where Cinnamon was waiting for him, their luggage packed. From there they'd grab a taxi, go to the airport and board a private plane back to Los Angeles. On the plane their companions would be waiting for them.
An unaccounted for man suddenly appeared and walked toward Rollin. He was tall with a thick beard and, smoking a cigar, he looked Rollin up down.
"And who is this?" Rollin asked casually, backing up ever so slightly.
"Alexander Chemins." He said candidly. "Brother to Nick Chemins and he never told me anything about Lou Canyon making an arms deal. Whoever you are, you are not Canyon!"
A gun was pulled and suddenly fired. Rollin was knocked against the brick wall of a neighboring Italian restaurant before he even realized Harper had discharged his weapon.
The camera and microphone built into Rollin's suit was disabled.
"Kill him and find that truck!" Harper demanded.
* Dr. Greene was mentioned in the first season M:I episode "A Cube of Sugar".
CONTINUE ...