The Second Seal is Broken – part I

An Isolated Incident I, II, III The First Seal is Broken I, II, III, IV, V

It would turn out the only decent print on the glass was the bartender. There had been some debate about extrapolating from the partial and smeared prints that may have been Conor’s, but the likelihood of getting anything remotely reliable was too low, even just for background intel and would certainly never hold up in court. Nor were any epithelials harvested from the rim of the glass, but there were microscopic traces of latex, a barrier to prevent the shedding of skin cells on the glass. There was essentially no physical evidence of Conor’s existence and Frank wasn’t surprised by that.

What troubled Frank was the chance encounter, that he couldn’t quite accept as chance. Everything he had learned about CNO told him chance was not a key element of their operation. He also found himself subject to some long and detailed questioning from other members of the task force. They wondered too about the chances of it being random, and if it wasn’t random, Frank, what made you of interest to him? The grilling ended after many hours over several days when finally Deputy Director Fuller had stepped in and announced that enough was enough. Frank didn’t know Fuller and he would end up wondering why he had intervened, not that he wasn’t appreciative of the respite from suspicion. His father’s comment about “knowing your own operations” had left Frank with the idea that someone inside the FBI (in the past or even currently) may be part of the CNO. That he had been approached in such proximity had made that seem even more plausible/troubling. He wondered if anyone else had been approached, and not reported it – that was an even more troubling thought, for they might report back out that Frank had.

A couple of more weeks passed, with no breaks in the case, and as everyone on the task force was quietly thankful for – no additional attacks. It was frustrating having no good leads, but no one wanted anything new to come up, even if a lead might come out of it. Equally, everyone knew that there would be more, that this wasn’t just over. On a Thursday afternoon, Frank was called into Deputy Director Fuller’s office. Fuller directed Frank to sit in one of the chairs facing Fuller’s desk. They were the only two in the office. A few pleasantries were exchanged.

Fuller spoke, “I’m sure you can imagine the political pressure we are under to make progress on this case. Such pressure that we’ve been given the green light for some unconventional actions. One of those courses of action involves you Frank.”

Frank nodded and Fuller continued, “CNO seems to have some interest in you, at least that is your own guess and mine as well. Are you willing to attempt an infiltration if the opportunity arises? I don’t have to tell you of the danger; that we can’t run you as close as we would any other confidential informant. The risk would be enormous; of course, so would the pay-off. We’ve had zero success in identifying anyone on the inside, not even anyone who knows anything about one of them. I personally would never consider putting an agent at the risk I’m asking you to take on, but I think you know as well as everyone else on the task force – risks need to be taken.”

Frank took it all in, which honestly was a bit overwhelming. It also occurred to him that there was no other person in the room, not even one of the seniors on the task force. Frank asked, “why isn’t this being run down the line? Shouldn’t the chain of command know?”

Fuller grinned, “that’s part of the risk. Your possible role outside has to be invisible to the team inside. If everyone knows, it may effect the investigation; worse, they may rely on you. Hell, we don’t really know that you’ll get a second approach, do we?”

Frank nodded but added “he did say I’d buy next time we met.”

Fuller said, “I’m kinda counting on that. I don’t like hope as a plan, but if the opportunity comes and we can seize it”, shrugged and continued “so you can see, this is you, on your own – I’m the only one at my level that knows, and no one else between you and me can. And obviously no one, not your family, friends, no one can have the slightest idea. Even above me, your identity wasn’t disclosed, just that an agent had been approached.”

Frank quietly weighed this, then asked “what are the other unconventional actions being contemplated?”

Fuller leaned back and slowly said, “you don’t really have a need to know that.”

Frank smirked a little, but the thought about CNO’s understanding of FBI operations jumped back at him and obviously things out of the ordinary were exactly what was needed. His face expressed a grim earnestness as he said “alright, I’ll do it”.

Fuller’s face was a mask, “no, not so fast. You haven’t considered this as thoroughly as you need to. I want you to have plenty of time to think it through. You’ll give me your answer on Monday.  In all honesty, I don’t expect you to do it because it’s damn close to a suicide mission.”