The Triumvirate
Yoh-Lin Tee
Yoh-Lin was second generation Chinese Canadian. His parents migrated from Taiwan to Canada to give him and his unborn sibling a better future. He, the eldest son didn't disappoint, a Straight A student from kindergarten to High School; he completed a double major in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics; along with a string of minors from the University of Toronto, with honours to boot.
He joined the spy agency straight out of University and has been an utter disappointment to his parents ever since. All his adult life, Yoh-Lin lived with the following parental refrain, "You could have been a very rich Microsoft systems developer, but you waste your life spying on people. Shameless!" But Microsoft's loss was the Government gain. He has been with CSIS for the best part of 20 years; starting out as an underpaid Trainee and moving up to become an underpaid Senior Intelligence Analyst. He could have made Division Head but he didn't play politics well, in all honesty he'd rather deal with computers and informants than politicians and bureaucrats.
His best qualification, however, was his natural ordinariness. And ordinary was what made him very special. The thing about being a spy was the ability to blend in the environment like a chameleon, and be adaptive. He once told Spike, "If you want to be caught spying, act like one." To drive home his point, he and Spike played a game. They sat huddled at a corner coffee shop for an hour, and left at the same time. Yoh-Lin asked Spike to go back to the coffee shop asked the waitress who served them their coffee to describe the person he was just with. The waitress failed big time, "I can't remember," she said, ""He's just ordinary." It was never about the moves or the swagger that was all Hollywood.
Yoh-Lin has been a hundred different person in one life-time, he has a suitcase full of passports to prove it; but his favourite was the computer geek persona just because this was genuinely him. And perhaps why he connected with one Michaelangelo Scarlatti, among other reasons. He once remarked to Spike, "If they switched our dossier, none would be the wiser."
He's been pegged as a one-dimensional babbling genius, people forget there were other aspects to his personality, like he's an artist in his own rights. An accomplished pianist, he could for all intents and purposes play at any concert halls anywhere in the world had he pursued the ivory keys. Why didn't he? Sometimes he wondered.
The Master Spy also has a non-threatening personality. People relaxed in his presence not knowing that the man they assume to be harmless can be lethal when required. To say he's a martial arts expert would not come close to what he could do with just two fingers and an open palm.
Yoh-Lin's expertise has been tracking the "chatters" and interpreting it, for the task, he has a number of consultants he can call upon, one of whom was Scarlatti. The job was often tedious and boring so they relied on their ability to make it interesting. The geeks have their own brand of entertainment, mostly evolved puzzle-making and then finding creative solutions; this activity could definitely keep a cerebral person awake long enough to sniff out a sleeper cell.
If there was one aspect of his job Yoh-Lin hated it's the demand for constant travelling. The travel requirement was a killer. Yeah, travelling; the way to murder a man's libido and love life; and, the short-cut to an early death. It's all exciting and fun until you had to travel in all sorts of weather condition at all hours at short notice. Yoh-Lin has slept in almost every airport, port, train station, and bus stop in the world. He once cancelled a date and explained he was in fact half way around the world and couldn't make it in time for dinner, the woman never spoke to him again. Thus, at 40 Yoh-Lin Teh was still bachelor-at-large even though he was tall and very good looking. Very being the operative word.
Sam Miller
Sam was Sam. It wasn't Samantha or Samera or Samira. She was Sam, always was and always will be. She has an interesting background.
The eldest of three beautiful and talented sisters. She was ambitious. Tough. Aspirational. Her father, a doctor of medicine and her mother, an artist raised their daughters to believe they could be anything they wanted to be; and all Sam ever wanted to become was a spy. Where the idea came from she never questioned, she just wanted to be one. Her sisters reckoned it was from watching to many James Bond movies.
After university with a double major in politics and languages she joined the Foreign Service, initially as an interpreter. She was fluent in Chinese Mandarin and later, studied Arabic. She could have stayed in the Diplomatic Corp but didn't like what she was becoming: a decorative handbag. She wasn't anybody's handbag and she's let a few powerful men know in more ways than one. Sam once kneed a politician in the groin after he'd touched her bum one too many times.
The move to intelligence was a no-brainer. She excelled because she had the aptitude for it but she soon discovered she was becoming a handbag anyway. An Embassy function? "Get Sam to go with you." An inauguration at a Consulate? "Get Sam for your date." Enough was enough and what's how Sam came to be in Yoh-Lin's team.
At 35 Sam, drop dead gorgeous and aware of it, has a reputation of leaving behind a string of broken hearts. But then to be honest she never really need to make an effort. She only had to stand in the middle of the road to stop traffic. To her credit, she didn't capitalised on her looks unless the job required it. She has a razor sharp mind, a quick repartee and an insatiable craving for knowledge. Just the sort of person to get a sleeper cell to wake up.
Oh, and deadly with a gun, a knife, a syringe, a sword. She once incapacitated a man twice her body weight with a tweezer! She once joked she aim to do it one day with a paper clip.
Michaelangelo Scarlatti
Mike Scarlatti, aka Spike, believed in keeping the peace that was why despite a promising future in computing and chemistry he joined the police force. His first Training Officer, Sargent McCoy, recognised his talents early on and encouraged him to join the elite Strategic Response Unit, a version of SWAT.
Like Yoh-Lin, Spike was of migrant extraction and a disappointment of sort to his Italian father. And, like his friend, he has been somewhat pigeon-holed as a babbling genius. In truth he was a multi-dimensional man. A man of letters, of sensitivity, of passion and of faith. He has a pensive, reflective side to him that people overlook. A capacity to bear hardships and the bravado to carry on when the going got tough. Contrary to certain opinions, he didn't become SRU because of one skill set. No, he got there with a bag full of tricks and the belief that he could do more than know when to fire a gun.
Spike was also a cook. He could cook anything from sweets to spicy to salty to explosive, depending on the circumstances and the guests of honour. He once said that "bleach wasn't just to whiten your clothes and vinegar wasn't just to season your food."
It's only been recently that Spike managed to be in a relationship, in one sense because he has come of age and because the right person came along. It's still early days as far as relationships go but signs were it could last the distance. It would be tested severely during this so-called operation but he didn't know it yet. In his mind, he was vague on how it would all play out; with his plate full and time being what it was, a mere 24 hours a day; regardless of how many things needed doing. Waking a sleeper cell was another one of those things!
When the sleeper cell woke up, without any prodding on their part; the trio would find themselves in the midst of a cat and mouse game they couldn't have prepared for, even with all their training and experience. It could only get more complicated and the plot more convoluted from here.
Interesting?
