SMK Chapter 6: At the Agency - Day 2
"Hey," Lee stopped and whispered as they approached the Q-Bureau the next morning. "Didn't we lock the door the last time we left here?"
"We always lock up." Amanda looked around him and noticed the door was ajar. Tension emanated off him as he took her by the hand and pulled her back against the wall. He looked at her and put his finger to his lips.
Suddenly, the door opened, and a figure emerged. In a split second, Lee's gun was in his hand, cocked, and pointed at the intruder. The man froze and put his hands up.
"Damn, I forgot how fast you are, Scarecrow."
Lee expelled a hard breath. "Billy..." It took a moment to recover, but he re-holstered his gun and took another deep, tension-releasing breath.
"Damn it, Billy, next time give me a head's up, will ya?"
"Sorry." Billy grinned ruefully. "I didn't know you were out here."
"What are you doing up here anyway?"
"Making a delivery." His smile stretched all the way across his face.
Lee slanted a suspicious look at him. "You're looking mighty proud of yourself; what did you do?"
"Come on in; I'll show you." Billy turned and led them into the office. "Let me give you a tour of your new space."
Lee and Amanda looked at one another. "New space?" They asked one another simultaneously. They followed him inside, closed the door, and looked around; everything looked just the way it had last time they'd been there.
"Yes, new space." Billy turned to face them. "Look, you two. I did a lot of thinking yesterday, and I realized that you aren't the only ones with confessions to make."
Lee slipped his hands into his pants pockets. "What do you mean, Billy?"
"Well, for starters…" He took a breath. "…I knew you were married. At least – I was pretty sure."
"What?" Lee's hands came out of his pockets, and he raised his voice in surprise. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Actually, I was trying to give you every chance to tell me."
Lee slowly nodded his head. "Okay, yeah, I can kind of see that now that you mention it."
Billy turned serious. "But along with the confession, I also feel like I need to give you both an apology."
"What for, Sir?"
"Well, I was the one who pushed you two together..."
"Now wait a minute..." Lee tried to interrupt him, but Billy held up his hand motioning for Lee to wait and listen.
"...I made you work together; I saw you become friends, and I watched you fall for each other. I even thought I knew when you got married." Lee and Amanda looked at each other, then back at Billy. "Oh, come on, you two. I'm a spook, and I'm your supervisor. You really think I didn't suspect?"
"Huh." Lee slipped his hands back into his pockets.
"And," Billy continued, "I know what a challenge marriage can be in the best of circumstances, much less in the spy business."
"Aw, Sir..."
"So, I should have never let Dr. Smith send you to Alyssa Danton's, Lee..."
Lee looked down at the floor and rattled the keys in his pocket. "No, Billy. I gotta own that one. I can't let you take any of the blame for that." It was still a sensitive subject, and he looked sidelong at Amanda.
She offered him a soft smile. "Well, you made the right choices in the end."
"Sure, and thank you for being able to say that. But first I was stupid." Lee frowned, still annoyed with himself. He reached out and ran his hand gently down her back. "Billy even tried to warn me. So did Francine, actually."
"I never should have let it get that far," Billy jumped in. "If nothing else, I should never have sent you in alone. I also apologize for not respecting your time off." Billy sighed. "Well, there's nothing I can do to go back and change the past, but..." Billy smiled, "…there is something I can do to help from here on out."
"Sir, that's really not necessary."
"Yes, Amanda, it is. If you two would follow me?" Billy turned and walked toward the vault.
"Follow you where, Billy?" Lee scoffed. "Inside the vault?"
Billy just turned and smiled. "Yes, Scarecrow; inside the vault. Now, I don't have the combination memorized, but if one of you would just put your palm here on this mirror…"
"Oh, look at that." Amanda came closer to inspect the new décor on the wall just to the left of the vault door. "I didn't even notice it."
Lee frowned. "Do what?"
"We used a mirror to camouflage the scanner. Put your hand on the mirror, Scarecrow."
Lee did, and heard a soft click. Billy opened the heavy vault door and stepped inside. Shocked, Lee and Amanda just looked at each other. "Huh." He shrugged his shoulders and gestured for her to go ahead of him.
"I've had my most trusted guys working on this all night." Billy closed the vault door and pointed to another mirror on the inside wall. "Your turn, Amanda."
She touched the mirror with her palm, and a very well camouflaged door slid open revealing a whole other set of rooms. "What?" Lee said incredulously and turned to Billy. "What's this?"
"This is a safe house." Billy led Lee and Amanda through the door. "You close the door with your handprint here." He pointed to yet another mirror. "Go ahead." Lee held his palm up to the mirror, and the door immediately closed.
"Oh, wow, Sir," Amanda gazed around the suite they found themselves in.
Lee chuckled in surprise and wandered around the room. "Far out." Billy just grinned.
The area looked like a hotel suite complete with carpeting, a comfortable sitting area, an office, a kitchenette, and a separate bedroom with a full bathroom.
"It's a fully functional bolt hole," Billy explained. "It has steel reinforced walls as well as a hidden door that leads to a staircase. At the bottom of the staircase there's another hidden door that goes underground and leads you out a block south of here."
"Impressive." Lee nodded his head incredulously. "But you didn't do all this in one night."
"No, the secret passage has been there for years. Old Man Thornton had it built back in the early 70s." Billy gazed around the room. "We started construction on the suite several years ago, but then funding was cut and, well…" He looked back at Lee and Amanda. "…now was a good time to put the finishing touches on it."
"I always wondered what was up with all that wasted space on the other side of Film Library." Lee scratched the back of his head.
"Well," Billy smiled. "Now you know."
Lee chuckled. "Now, I know."
"Now, in the Q-Bureau there's a new monitor that shows you the outside corridor from all angles. It will beep twice if anyone enters the corridor. You have a duplicate monitor here," Billy pointed toward a desk in a corner of the room.
"It's also a place for you to rest, Amanda." He turned to her and smiled. "You've got your own bathroom, so you don't have to go down the hall by yourself. And the bedroom is here if you need to rest." He paused, and his face turned serious. "And if, God forbid, you have to be stuck in here for any period of time, you have everything you need as well as an escape hatch."
"I don't know what to say, Sir, except thank you." Amanda walked over to Lee and slipped into a one-armed hug.
"Yeah, Billy. I don't know what to say, either." Lee gave Amanda a gentle squeeze. "This is amazing. Thank you."
"Well, you two are worth it." Billy smiled at them. "Now, the only people who know about this besides the three of us are the few guys on the work crew, Leatherneck, and Francine."
Back out in the main office, Billy handed them each a stack of files. "I want you two looking over the security clearances of our employees – from management, to agents, all the way down to the temp pool and the parking garage...consider anyone and everyone who could have any connection to you whatsoever, got it?"
"Billy, that's a huge job."
"I know it is, but I want to make sure to cross-check everyone against all known cases where you either killed someone or sent someone to prison." Lee nodded his head.
"We should probably check extended family connections...even obscure ones," Amanda added as she glanced through the files in her hands.
"Dig as deeply as you can. I know it's an enormous task, but once you've sorted through some names, Francine and I will help."
"Oh, good," Amanda sighed, relieved.
"Investigate these together. That way not only will Amanda have her own personal bodyguard..." he smiled at Amanda and nodded his head in Lee's direction. "...but you'll also be seen working together. Sooner or later, our guy is going to notice that he didn't get what he wanted." Billy gave them a pointed look and made his exit
Lee sat at his desk and reached for some files. "Well, how do you want to divide these up? You want to take the lower clearance ones?"
Before she could answer, Billy popped his head back in the door. "Oh, Amanda, I forgot to tell you. I've given you a temporary Level 10 Clearance so you can look at all the files under Lee's supervision. You might see things he wouldn't."
Lee smirked. "She usually does."
Billy winked at her and left.
"Well, alright then," Lee continued. "Now how do you want to tackle these?"
It was easy enough to meld into the background. She pretty much had access to every department at the Agency, and people were used to seeing her...while at the same time not seeing her. It was annoying, but it worked to her advantage.
She was eager to see if Mrs. King even showed up for work today. Maybe, after yesterday's meeting with Mr. Melrose, they just let her go. After all, she really only worked with Mr. Stetson. Best case scenario? Mr. Melrose told her she wasn't needed anymore. Not as great a scenario, but still acceptable? She was assigned to work with another agent. Either way, phase two would kick in. She smiled to herself. It was a brilliant plan.
She'd like to think she came up with it on her own, but as much as she hated to admit it, she'd had a little help. It hadn't been too difficult to find someone inside the Agency who could help her with the more mechanical stuff and who also wanted to get a little revenge on Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
She turned as the doors of the Georgetown Portal elevator swooshed open revealing the objects of her inner dialogue. Shock radiated through her as she watched the two of them exit the elevator like nothing had changed. It was tempting to slink behind a wall, but she forced herself to stay and remain as nonchalant as possible.
Rage whipped through her as her eyes followed them toward the bullpen. Mrs. King said something that made him laugh, and he bumped his shoulder into hers as he smiled down at her. The bump caught Mrs. King off guard, and she stumbled a bit. He put an arm around her to steady her and pulled her more closely to his side than he needed to. Mrs. King gazed up at him, and they laughed again. Hussy.
Confusion warred with the anger inside her. How could this be happening! They shouldn't even be together! She glanced around, suddenly aware she had been staring and hoped no one had noticed. She needed to find out what was going on, but she couldn't just leave the cart in the middle of the corridor. That could get her fired, and then her plans would totally fall apart.
She hadn't yet delivered the mail to the bullpen, so she followed them inside. They walked over to Francine's desk and started talking, so she delivered mail on the opposite side of the room where she could still overhear…
"Good morning, Francine."
Francine looked up from her desk. "Good morning, Amanda. How are you today?"
"I'm good, thanks. You?"
"Lovely. What can I do for the two of you?"
Lee handed Francine a stack of files. "Billy wants us to check these security clearances." Francine took the files and thumbed through them. "A few of them are above Amanda's clearance, and I've got my hands full with some other things." Francine nodded and looked up at him. "Would you be able to handle a few of these for me?"
"Sure, Lee. No problem."
"Thanks, Francine." He rapped his knuckles on her desk, then put his hand on the small of Mrs. King's back, ushering her out of the room. "What do you say we start at the State Department and work our way toward the Department of Justice?"
"You sure you don't want me to stay here and start working on those files?" Mrs. King's gaze skimmed over the room as she spoke; June quickly looked down at the stack of mail in her hands.
"Nah, I like it better when we're together." Lee smiled down at her, and Mrs. King smiled back.
"Absolutely."
"Maybe we'll even have time to grab a bite for lunch when we're done."
"Sounds like a plan."
No, no, no, no, no! What was going on? She knew for a fact the recording had been delivered to Encryption; she'd done it herself! It was marked 'National Security' so that Encryption would send it Top Priority to Dr. Smith! That had been nearly two days ago; there was no way Dr. Smith hadn't gotten it before now!
She could feel her blood pressure rising and knew her face was probably getting flushed. She needed to get out of there and find out what the problem was. This wasn't part of the plan, and she wasn't sure how to get it back on track. One thing was becoming quite clear, though. She was going to have to get rid of Mrs. King.
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