I am so enjoying thinking and writing this. I so appreciate your comments and ideas.
Chapter 4
Michael and Fiona arrived back at the loft. Immediately, they both started looking for listening devices. They knew that whatever they did from this point on, it needed to be between the two of them. They were going to have put distance between themselves and Sam, Maddie and Jesse. After checking the loft, Fi lied down on the bed and Michael went to his green chair. She was asleep in minutes.
"She must have had the same type of night I did," Michael thought guiltily. Then he started to replay conversations in his mind, all focusing on who would get this report beyond Max. He drew mental lines to all the people who he knew might have eyes on the report. He had met many of them when they debriefed him after his returned. He wished he had his files; there might have been a clue. Now, whoever was Fullerton's inside source was scanning his work.
Some names kept popping up in his mind. He kept thinking, whom would Anson use? Who had the most to gain? Who was most interested in Michael after he returned with the NOC list? Why?' One name kept coming back to him. One person knew the most about him. One man who had selected him. Recruited him. Mentored and abused him.
Raines. "My god, could it be that simple." Anson wanted him to believe that he was the last one left, but he had shown his hand. What if this was like the holy trinity of covert ops. A psychiatrist with a control issue, a manager to over see the jobs, and a master spy handler. It was like a two by four to the forehead. Management and Fullerton had left the agency, they needed a guy like Raines, the talent scout. This guy who went out and recruited the best and brightest from different walks of life, trained them, moved them around, all from the inside. He knew their field skills. It was perfect.
Michael began to realize that he had been played from the every beginning by everyone. His selection, and training. Who he was placed with and why. When he was chosen for this job, his handler had made sure that no one was to know outside of debriefing room especially his former handlers. As a part of the operation, when and if he came back in, he was to see where the roots of management went.
He felt like he found his first lead. That this might hold water. For the first time since Anson had entered their lives, Michael felt like there was light at the end of this tunnel. The question became how to confirm this and play it out.