(04) Analysts


"What the hell is this secret passageway?" Agent Orange asked. His voice was pleasant but his reputation was not. The two analysts who had been given the communication between Jukebox and Legggs had decided that the secret passageway most likely referred to a human smuggling operation. This analysis was bolstered by former agent Watts', aka Jukebox, having been fired from Kyle for not supporting the policies regarding classification of illegals as potential terrorists.

"It's in the report," one of the analysts said. He glanced at his partner, who concurred with an affirmative nod. The two analysts wore almost identical navy blue suits with a pinstripe and soft core black shoes. The one who spoke was at least ten years younger than the one absently cleaning his glasses with a special polishing cloth. "Of course we're having to guess what they were talking about, because the only information we have is that we're dealing with a Kyle trained driver and a waitress who has a degree in anthropology from Vassar."

"Why is she working as a waitress if she has a degree from Vassar?

"She had a breakdown of some sort, and became socially marginalized."

Agent Orange waved a hand in dismissal and walked around to look out the window, his hands clasped behind his back. The younger analyst was able to look at him without being observed straight on, and he was awestruck at the agent's resemblance to an ape. He was thick bodied and his massive square head was stuck right on top of his shoulders, with no visible neck space separating them. His dark skin looked oily. He had taken off his tie, and black tufts of hair were sticking from under his off white shirt. He could feel the analyst's thoughts and he suddenly caught him in the uncompromising glare of his eyes. "Give me the highlights of the surveillance report again. Maybe I missed something."

The older agent, who was wrapped around a heavy paunch, looked out from a face framed by manicured white hair and wire rimmed glasses. "They were running with a D-24 unit."

"And we didn't suspect they were running a D-24? Watts is Kyle trained, of course he's running with a D-24."

"We had no reason to suspect he knew we had placed him under surveillance."

"Okay, this is where I say, 'A Kyle driver operates as if he's always under surveillance,' but that would just cause you to say something else to defend an incompetent operation. The fact is they were too confident he couldn't lose them and he did lose them. How did he do that?"

"He used the D-24 to get out ahead of them and then he cloaked. Before they could get the tracker to respond to him again he was gone. There was only one unwired road he could have turned off on and they followed that road down to a parking area for a county park. There wasn't another car in there."

"Did they check side roads on the way in?"

"Of course. There were two: a logging trail about five hundred yards off the highway, which just went off into the trees a ways, and a gated road leading in to a residential area. The gate was closed and there was no record of anything in or out in the past hour."

"Did they check the logging road again on the way out?"

The analyst adjusted his glasses and looked at the report again. "No. They realized he hadn't turned off on that road and immediately went back on the highway to look for his electronic signature."

"Well, they missed him. There's no other road he could have gone down within that enforcement zone that isn't wired, so they would have picked him up if he was anywhere else or if he entered the next enforcement zone. You can't just drive off a wired highway and not hit the shut down grid. That would have disabled his car and sent an accident alert and they would have picked it up on emergency traffic."

"With all due respect," the younger analyst said, "if he'd turned down that road they would have spotted him."

"If they didn't turn in first they would have spotted him. He cloaked and turned back knowing they'd assume he took the turn. He was probably watching them when they came out. Get me Bethaus."

The analyst moved to a screen and told the computer to contact Kyle Team 26. "Bethaus." The video cam was trained on the back seat passenger side. The team manager had dark brown skin; his head was shaved and he looked into the camera with an alert, businesslike expression.

"Bethaus!" Agent Orange yelled.

"Yes sir?"

"Go back out to Masterson County Park road and make sure Watts didn't follow you in. I think he's in there now. Where the hell else could he be? They didn't disappear into a hole in the ground."

"What disposition do you want if we find him?"

"You know the drill, national security issue, bring them in for questioning."

"Yes sir, we're on our way."

"Bethaus?"

"Yes sir?"

"The analysts are guessing about what the secret passageway actually refers to. We don't really know what they're doing. It might be a drug operation of some sort. It might be innocent, but I doubt that. Keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary."

"We're on it."

The camera clicked off and the transmission ended.

Posted: Thu - May 12, 2005 at 04:37 PM