Chapter 21

"Breach of Discipline"

The morning of August 10th, 2006 dawned on England with the sudden news that passengers were no longer allowed to carry liquids in carry-on bags. What followed at Heathrow, Gatwick and soon, airports around the rest of the world was nothing more than underlining chaos and confusion for anyone trying to get on a commercial airliner. Many passengers were angry, some were understanding, but it was all efforts to protect everyone from terrorists like Abdullah Ali and his gang of terrorists.

However, the first raid in Bloomsbury was still very fresh on my mind. But, it wasn't because of the fact that we made the raid to begin with, it was during my battle with Abdullah that was heavily on my mind. As I got dressed and headed downstairs, I couldn't help but wonder of the consequences that I would have to face for putting myself in danger. I knew that I was going to be in trouble with Mr. Jones for discarding my protection, but I faced being in trouble before and I thought this was nothing more than an ordinary meeting.

"Possible," said Mr. Barkin, peeking his head outside of the meeting hall and motioning for me to come in. "Can you come in here for a minute?"

I knew that Ron was still conducting raids in Manchester and he probably wouldn't be back for another few hours, so I was left to face this alone. Stepping into the meeting room, I saw that there was nobody else in here except for Mr. Barkin and Mr. Jones. They had a seat that was right next to Mr. Jones that I guess was supposed to be for me. So, I walked over and sat down while they looked at me with looks of authority on their faces.

"I can guess why you want to speak with me," I said nervously. "It is because of the fact that I…"

But, Mr. Jones raised his hand at my face and silenced me from saying another word. Almost as if he knew what I was going to say before he had a chance to say it.

"Agent Possible," he said, understandingly but firmly. "We had been told that you discarded your armor when confronting a dangerous suspect like Abdullah Ali. May we ask why you would do such a thing?"

"I can explain, Mr. Jones," I replied, trying to find the words to answer him. "My armor was slowing me down and well, I couldn't fight back against him in it."

"Possible, there is a very good reason that you would all wear SWAT armor," added Mr. Barkin, his voice filled with a little bit of anger. "You were dealing with extremely dangerous people and when you are confronted, you are to neutralize them with your rifles. Clearly, you did not do that and had it not been for the intervention of the suspect who switched to our side, you would have been dead by now."

I knew for a fact that Mr. Barkin was right. If I had not been the foolish girl I was to not remove my armor, then I wouldn't have been in the situation that I was in.

"Furthermore," added Mr. Jones. "By confronting a dangerous suspect alone, you put yourself and the entire operation at risk. These terrorists are known to use suicide bombs to avoid being captured by the law."

"They weren't going to do that," I protested, trying to at least explain my reasons. "Many of the agents had managed to confront the suspects and obtain their weapons before any such act was carried out."

Both men sighed at my remarks, knowing that what I had done was wrong. True, I had put myself and the entire operation at risk. But, I couldn't erase what had happened at the Bloomsbury house. What is done is done.

"Look, Agent Possible," sighed Mr. Jones, his voiced filled with exasperation. "All we are trying to say to you is that we cannot believe that you would put yourself at risk like that. I know you want to retire on a high note, but we want you to be smart in your actions and retire alive and well."

"Well, you don't know what Abdullah tried to do to me," I retorted, rising to my feet. "Maybe what I did was stupid, but he recognized me from spying on him at Claridge's a few months back. Do you realize what he was going to do to me if Abis had not intervened? He tried to undress me in an effort to make me fear him! I didn't ask for it, Mr. Jones!"

"You brought this on yourself, Agent Possible," snapped Mr. Jones, giving me a hard stare. "You wanted to retire on a high note and by God, we gave you the chance. So don't come to me and lecture me on what could have happened had you not disobeyed orders!"

Part of me wanted to break down and cry at that moment, but I wasn't going to do it in front of my superior. Again, I had broken the rules by discarding my SWAT armor, but it didn't matter. Thousands of lives were saved by our actions and that was all there was to it. An awkward and tense silence filled the room for a few moments before Mr. Barkin broke it.

"Look, Possible," sighed Mr. Barkin. "After the events with Mankey, I can understand what you are going through. I was there when he tried to kill you and maybe I should have accompanied you on this mission. In fact, I wanted to take part in it, but Mr. Jones overruled me and said that this was your fight, not mine."

Mr. Jones just sat there and was filled with speechlessness over Mr. Barkin's remarks. He couldn't believe that someone was able to throw him under the bus like that. Still, this brought up a good point on the decisions that Mr. Jones had brought up. Perhaps maybe Mr. Barkin would have been a perfect fit to accompany me in the raid instead of that Israeli agent. After all, Mr. Barkin was a military veteran who served in the line of fire during that Vietnam War.

"Is this true?" I asked, my voice filled with shock. "If it is, then you have a lot to answer for, Mr. Jones."

Mr. Jones said nothing and rather, he wanted to just simply move on with enforcing the new security measures that were to be placed at airports around the world.

"Well? Tell me, I demand to know!" I snapped and Mr. Jones still said nothing. "I swear, if I find you had intentionally gave me no protection…."

"I did give you protection, Agent Possible," interrupted Mr. Jones. "But, you chose to not use the protection when the moment came to use it. So, shame on you!"

Exasperated, I got up and stormed out of the room without saying anything else, still believing that what I did in the raid was justified. Abdullah was not going to go down without a fight and I was going to give it to him, but it wasn't going to be wearing SWAT armor.

Still, there was also the matter of Mr. Barkin, a man who with a military background and who knew both I and Ron so well, being denied the chance to take part in a military style operation that he had experience in.

All these questions would be answered in due time as we moved ahead with the next phase of our mission, which was aiding airports in banning liquids from carry-on luggage…