Thursday
February 28, 2002
Los Angeles, California
Ryan stepped into his office and closed the door behind him. Assistant Regional Director Alberta Greene had cornered him in the hall and pestered him about the conference he was to attend in Salt Lake City the following week. While Alberta had tried to disguise it as professional interest it was obvious that she was angling to get herself invited. After a few minutes of her coy machinations he told her that since she was so knowledgeable perhaps she'd like to attend the conference in his place. It had taken her a few moments to realize he was being sincere and she had accepted the offer.
He had hoped that would be the end of their meeting but when Alberta continued trailing him he knew that there was more. Apparently she had the latest gossip on the bed-hopping going on at CTU: LA and was dying to share. Ryan wasn't sure why Alberta was always so fixated at with the unfolding soap opera there but he was certain her past relationship with Nina Myers played some part in it. He could only wonder what Myers had done to get on Alberta's bad side.
Ryan was honestly surprised that Myers had decided to get involved with both Bauer and -- if the rumor was true - Almeida. When she had worked for Division she didn't seem to have many personal relationships of any sort -- she seemed too professional for that. Aside from the antagonism shared by her and Alberta she mostly kept to herself. Not a loner, per se, but not interested in making friends. Just her work.
He didn't know that much about Almeida, Ryan had only met the man a few times. According to Alberta, Almeida was not the biggest fan of Myers' former paramour - Jack Bauer.
Bauer, had started with CTU around the same time he had. Ryan had worked with him on a field operation a few years back but hadn't had much interaction with him until recently. It was Bauer who had discovered that three agents were running a money laundering scheme and turned them over. Doing something like that would make you popular with the upper-level brass but not so much with your peers.
Unfortunately, the fact that Bauer was now considered a snitch by many of those who worked for him combined with his apparent tendency to play favorites just made the situation at CTU: LA a powder keg waiting to explode. Ryan had to visit that branch tomorrow morning to see if they were prepared for the Primary on Tuesday. It would give him a chance to see for himself how things were running over there.
He couldn't wait for that promotion to Federal to come through, then this would all be someone else's headache.
When Ryan had taken a job with CIA a little over twenty years ago it had been out of curiosity. It was one of his professors at NYU who told him to contact the Agency for a job even though he had been dubious. Much to his surprise, his command of the Russian language, interest in the then-new technology of computer science and his degree in Finance made him very attractive to the agency. He was advised to get a graduate degree, which he did, and three years later he had a job as a CIA agent.
One of his first real assignments had him on an internal investigation as a "mole-hunter." Over the preceding seven months the agency had lost 23 of its spies to the KGB after they had been discovered and killed. A lot of denial and dicking around later a mole-hunting team had been assembled. Ryan, 26 years old and with less than a year on the job, had to practically beg to be included on the team and he was after convincing one of his superiors that the best way to find the mole would be to look for unexplained wealth. His belief had proven correct and several weeks later they had caught their traitor.
After that he became the golden boy of the agency. Whether it was following money trails or working on field operations he seemed to succeed at any task he was given and the CIA piled on the special commendations, honors and promotions. His ambition and tendency to stick to the rules coupled with a personality that varied between abrasive and icy didn't win him many friends. While his bosses may have loved him he was a pariah of sorts among his peers.
But while Ryan was young he wasn't naive. He knew his bosses only cared for him as long as he was useful to them, once that changed they'd have no compunction to throwing him to the dogs.
That was the way it worked here. The only way around it was to keep advancing high enough to where you had more autonomy and power. Even then it wasn't foolproof judging by the shakedowns in the Agency after 9/11.
Sometimes he wondered why he hadn't taken that job with Goldman-Sachs and become an investment banker. The intelligence world was just as cutthroat as the business world and the pay was shit in comparison. Of course, the hours might be better but that was only because Ryan had stopped doing field missions and started delegating the less important of his business trips to Alberta. And it was a lot easier to fire people in the private sector.
The funny thing was that as much as he complained about his job and there were some things he hated about it -- if he had to do it all again he'd still choose the CIA. At first he'd taken the Agency's offer on a whim, to see if he could hack it. It was a gamble to be sure, especially with a wife and two young children at home, but with an MBA from Wharton to fall back on it wasn't too big of a risk.
More than that, he felt the work he would do with the CIA was so much more important than being another yuppie caught up in the "greed is good" fervor. It was a youthful sense of civic duty and a desire to be a part of something bigger that drew him into the Agency.
At least he got what he wanted - much like Jonah when he was in the belly of the whale - he was now a part of something bigger.
Ryan checked his watch, he better leave now before he was late for the weekly meeting with District.
February 28, 2002
Los Angeles, California
Ryan stepped into his office and closed the door behind him. Assistant Regional Director Alberta Greene had cornered him in the hall and pestered him about the conference he was to attend in Salt Lake City the following week. While Alberta had tried to disguise it as professional interest it was obvious that she was angling to get herself invited. After a few minutes of her coy machinations he told her that since she was so knowledgeable perhaps she'd like to attend the conference in his place. It had taken her a few moments to realize he was being sincere and she had accepted the offer.
He had hoped that would be the end of their meeting but when Alberta continued trailing him he knew that there was more. Apparently she had the latest gossip on the bed-hopping going on at CTU: LA and was dying to share. Ryan wasn't sure why Alberta was always so fixated at with the unfolding soap opera there but he was certain her past relationship with Nina Myers played some part in it. He could only wonder what Myers had done to get on Alberta's bad side.
Ryan was honestly surprised that Myers had decided to get involved with both Bauer and -- if the rumor was true - Almeida. When she had worked for Division she didn't seem to have many personal relationships of any sort -- she seemed too professional for that. Aside from the antagonism shared by her and Alberta she mostly kept to herself. Not a loner, per se, but not interested in making friends. Just her work.
He didn't know that much about Almeida, Ryan had only met the man a few times. According to Alberta, Almeida was not the biggest fan of Myers' former paramour - Jack Bauer.
Bauer, had started with CTU around the same time he had. Ryan had worked with him on a field operation a few years back but hadn't had much interaction with him until recently. It was Bauer who had discovered that three agents were running a money laundering scheme and turned them over. Doing something like that would make you popular with the upper-level brass but not so much with your peers.
Unfortunately, the fact that Bauer was now considered a snitch by many of those who worked for him combined with his apparent tendency to play favorites just made the situation at CTU: LA a powder keg waiting to explode. Ryan had to visit that branch tomorrow morning to see if they were prepared for the Primary on Tuesday. It would give him a chance to see for himself how things were running over there.
He couldn't wait for that promotion to Federal to come through, then this would all be someone else's headache.
When Ryan had taken a job with CIA a little over twenty years ago it had been out of curiosity. It was one of his professors at NYU who told him to contact the Agency for a job even though he had been dubious. Much to his surprise, his command of the Russian language, interest in the then-new technology of computer science and his degree in Finance made him very attractive to the agency. He was advised to get a graduate degree, which he did, and three years later he had a job as a CIA agent.
One of his first real assignments had him on an internal investigation as a "mole-hunter." Over the preceding seven months the agency had lost 23 of its spies to the KGB after they had been discovered and killed. A lot of denial and dicking around later a mole-hunting team had been assembled. Ryan, 26 years old and with less than a year on the job, had to practically beg to be included on the team and he was after convincing one of his superiors that the best way to find the mole would be to look for unexplained wealth. His belief had proven correct and several weeks later they had caught their traitor.
After that he became the golden boy of the agency. Whether it was following money trails or working on field operations he seemed to succeed at any task he was given and the CIA piled on the special commendations, honors and promotions. His ambition and tendency to stick to the rules coupled with a personality that varied between abrasive and icy didn't win him many friends. While his bosses may have loved him he was a pariah of sorts among his peers.
But while Ryan was young he wasn't naive. He knew his bosses only cared for him as long as he was useful to them, once that changed they'd have no compunction to throwing him to the dogs.
That was the way it worked here. The only way around it was to keep advancing high enough to where you had more autonomy and power. Even then it wasn't foolproof judging by the shakedowns in the Agency after 9/11.
Sometimes he wondered why he hadn't taken that job with Goldman-Sachs and become an investment banker. The intelligence world was just as cutthroat as the business world and the pay was shit in comparison. Of course, the hours might be better but that was only because Ryan had stopped doing field missions and started delegating the less important of his business trips to Alberta. And it was a lot easier to fire people in the private sector.
The funny thing was that as much as he complained about his job and there were some things he hated about it -- if he had to do it all again he'd still choose the CIA. At first he'd taken the Agency's offer on a whim, to see if he could hack it. It was a gamble to be sure, especially with a wife and two young children at home, but with an MBA from Wharton to fall back on it wasn't too big of a risk.
More than that, he felt the work he would do with the CIA was so much more important than being another yuppie caught up in the "greed is good" fervor. It was a youthful sense of civic duty and a desire to be a part of something bigger that drew him into the Agency.
At least he got what he wanted - much like Jonah when he was in the belly of the whale - he was now a part of something bigger.
Ryan checked his watch, he better leave now before he was late for the weekly meeting with District.