EPISODE 01: Operation Flying Dutchman 26

The digital wall mounted clock blinks and the numbers rearrange themselves to show 02:00 A.M.

The younger of the two officers presses a key, freezing the playback of the audio file. Williams paces back and forth between the digital pin board and his desk. Eyes lost in deep thought.

“What did the Director say when she called you out of the cell?” asks Klein, breaking the awkward silence.

Williams stops on his tracks and spins around to face Klein, but says nothing. Over his shoulder, long distance surveillance photos of the incident aboard the Night Crawler fade in and out of view in an endless loop.

“She didn’t say much. Mostly stood there and let her Operative, a field agent I’ve never heard of, do all the bossing around.” Williams stops to recall the details. “I tried to get some explanations, reminded them it was our operation. That we had been monitoring Magnus for months and it was our team that managed to get agents close enough to him to intercept the package. It made no sense for them to shut us down like that.”

“We must have stepped on some toes …” added Klein, scratching his oily hair.

William calls up a mission log file on his terminal and begins idly scrolling through the data.

OPERATION FLYING DUTCHMAN // POST-OP ANALYSIS

FIELD AGENT(S): [REDACTED]

SUPERVISOR(S): [REDACTED]

…

T - 0631 Fight breaks out on the Yacht [Night Crawler]. Agent [REDACTED] cover is compromised.

T - 0632 Support UH-60 [A9980] Re-tasked for Emergency Extraction. Fleet Command Acknowledges.

T - 0635 UH-60 [A9980] en route. Standing by for Extraction.

T - 0649 Agent [REDACTED] LC Tracker active. Long range surveillance indicates Agent [REDACTED] has been thrown overboard.

T - 0651 Transponder signal on the Yacht [Night Crawler] lost. UH-60 [A9980] gains visual confirmation. Yacht [Night Crawler] sunk.

T - 0652 UH-60 [A9980] reports Agent [REDACTED] secured. Condition: Stabilized.

T - 0659 UH-60 [A9980] reports Agent [REDACTED] transferred successfully to offshore black site [REDACTED].

…

Williams sighs deeply. “The Director did say one thing that got me thinking though.” He walks back to the pin board and swipes most of the photos away. Only one remains, and with single gesture he increases the scale of the image for a better look. “Klein, go back to the beginning of the debriefing again please.”

Klein nods and complies, hurriedly scrolling back on the audio file.

“Just before they left, as they boarded their helicopter with our agent and all the hard drives, the Director turned and asked me … ‘Just who do you think you have in that cell, Williams?’ At the time, I didn’t quite grasp the importance of that question but …”

As the audio file begins playing again, Klein glances up at the pin board, following the gaze of his senior officer who stood before the enhanced image of a young woman - sitting gloomily on a metal chair in a darkened interrogation cell. Hands bound by metal cuffs, head down and sullen. Short red hair glittering under the spotlight. Her gaze distant.

The audio plays back in the background.

A male voice asks, “Let’s start over shall we? Please identify yourself for the record.”

The female voice replies, “Agent Luna.”

(To be continued…)

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