He's barely able to get off the phone with Lester about Peter's intel and formulate a plan of action, as the fedora-adorned figure of Connor Temple storms through his office doors, an absolutely murderous look on his face. Lee sits back behind his desk, casually shuffles some paperwork on his desk and prepares for what will probably be the twenty-eight year old equivalent of a tantrum.
"So was anyone going to decide to share with me that Cutter is back from the dead or am I really thatbloody useless to you all?" He fumes and Lee just stares at him impassively, until he throws himself into one of Lee's chairs with a sigh.
"That's currently classified higher than you should know, Connor."
"You're not the only one with orders high up, you tosser," Connor adds stubbornly and that answered the question Lee has been wondering for quite some time, if Connor has been reporting directly to his own boss Lester these days. "Still, I'd have hoped you'd tell a bloke when his friend is back."
"It crossed my mind, but then you'd want to go with, and I need you here more."
Which is the truth. Connor isn't nearly as expendable to the operation as he thinks he is, but then again most of the brainier people in ATFP aren't. Field agents come and go and they can take military personnel on field assignments if need be, but the analytical minds that turn the cogs at HQ… not so much. And those seem to be the ones Missing more and more each time. The universe must be cruel with her sense of irony.
"Bishop and Lincoln can handle Cuttter."
"Let me go talk to him," Connor pleads, opening his hands in a helpless gesture. "I can get him to come back."
"No! If he comes back, he isn't leaving," Lee replies sharply, hoping Connor will think long and hard about that statement before firing off any more questions at him. He'd tell him more, but he's also pretty sure now his office is bugged, so he all but drags Connor out of his chair and pushes him out the doors of his office. "Come. Let's go take a walk."
"My office is bugged, isn't it?" Lee hisses into his ear and Connor raises an eyebrow of his own, but nods minutely. "Figures.Find me a place here that isn't." He pushes him down the hallway and lets the younger man lead them to a supply closet on the second floor. And this isn't going to look suspicious at all.
"Look, I just want you to know-" the younger man begins hurriedly once they are inside and Lee has barred the door, wedged between shelves and cleaning supplies, but Lee cuts him off.
"I know and I don't care for the explanation right now, just find me a temporary way to disable the bugs in my office quietly. Until then, if you must know sensitive details, this isn't a retrieval mission. Bishop is going to shake whatever guys go with him and contact Cutter on his own."
"But that means Peter and Lincoln-" Connor stammers and the boy is pretty quick on the uptake, but it still takes all of Lee's willpower not to grab the dark haired young man and roughly shake him just to get the point across that this is a lot bigger than just his friend coming back.
"I know what that means for Peter and Lincoln, and that's why this is so sensitive!" He hisses to avoid shouting. "I can't have you running a side operation with Lester during this, okay? Your pal Lester isn't so great that he'd drop the treason charges Cutter is facing if they extradite him back to the US, and I don't think you want that outcome either."
"Bloody hell," Connor mutters, scuffing his shoe against the linoleum floor. He pauses for a moment before replying. "No, I don't."
"How long will it take to jam the bugs? I only need a couple minutes so you can tell me everything, and I mean everythingyou know about Nick Cutter that I can relay back to Bishop."
"Not long, but all of HQ would go offline for a moment if you want the fastest and easiest way."
He takes a moment to weigh the risks, knowing that there's a minute chance something terriblecould inevitably go wrong in the couple minutes the electronics are down, but decides that it's probably worth himself, Bishop and Connor not losing their jobs or worse.
Connor's eyes are downcast, and he's still scuffing the floor with his shoe, probably weighing the outcomes of his own insubordination if found out by Lester.
"Hey," Connor's head snaps up at the sound of Lee's voice. "Thanks. For everything. I'm not going to lie to you that what we are doing won't get us into serious trouble, but thanks for at least trusting my judgment."
Connor just shrugs. "Well, 'm not doing this for you. This is for Cutter. And Abby."
"I can appreciate it all the same," Lee replies as he moves the chair away from the door, scans the corridor as empty and quietly slips out of the supply closet, Connor in tow. "Okay, let's get back up to my office now before someone notices us gone."
They walk back up to his office the long way, Lee taking the moment to really take in the enormity of the ATFP headquarters building. Twenty floors of shiny metal and glass holding everything you could possibly imagine, from interrogation rooms, a café because Lee has since developed quite the taste for Universe Prime coffee, academy classes and an indoor shooting range, to living quarters for the more present employees like Lee, Connor and Dr. Walter Bishop.
Sometimes he forgets just how huge this building he's in charge of is when between administrative work and 'Liv it keeps him cooped up on the fourth floor most of the time.
.
.
"Okay, this is everything Bishop brought back from his little jaunt around the world," Lee says as he slides the thick manila envelope across his desk to Connor. "Says your pal washed up on a shore and ended up in Mombasa a few days back."
"Mombasa?" Connor echoes quietly, as Lee nods. Apparently there's no obvious connection Connor can think of as to why his old boss would be there either so that hope is a bust.
They do get some progress though when flipping through the file past the heavily retracted notes, Connor's eyes begin to widen as he looks at the surveillance photos. Lee gives him a curious look as he stops and stabs his finger at the man Peter claimed they detained in Cairo with Cutter's show-me.
"Um Lee, this is big. Really fucking big," Connor replies excitedly, and Lee comes around his desk to see exactly what the big deal is about.
"Cutter isn't the only bloke back from the grave. That man in your photographs, that's our old co-worker Stephen Hart."
"Who?"