The Backup Asset

…26

Under the cafeteria’s flickering fluorescent lights, Jeremy Weber waited for the coffee machine to finish brewing his second fix of the day, then headed back to his office.

“Hey, Weber, SAC Taylor was looking for you,” one of the operational support technicians said, passing him in the hallway.

“When?” Jeremy asked?

“Just now,” the tech replied and disappeared behind a door marked Special Investigations.

Jeremy left the coffee cup on his desk and walked right out, heading for his boss’s office.

Special Agent in Charge Taylor was a procedural investigator, more focused on the procedure manual than on following his gut. Jeremy rarely interacted with Taylor; both of them liked it that way. Jeremy’s way of thinking, of following leads and uncovering information, was more in line with what one saw in old detective movies than in the standing FBI procedures, despite his almost twenty years with the bureau. All that mattered to Jeremy was the truth and catching the bad guys as fast as possible. He routinely followed his gut and forgot to file the paperwork. That’s why Taylor wasn’t his biggest fan.

He knocked on Taylor’s open door.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Come in, get the door,” Taylor replied, pointing at one of the chairs in front of his desk.

Jeremy closed the door behind him, then sat on the indicated chair.

“Before we start,” Taylor said, “please note this is the final verbal warning you’ll get from me. If I have to repeat today’s spiel ever again, it will be in writing and it will go on your permanent record. Am I making myself clear?”

“Crystal, sir,” Jeremy replied, clenching his jaws. He felt his palms starting to sweat.

Taylor opened a file and started reading from his handwritten notes.

“You have interrogated a minor without a legal guardian present. You have used borderline excessive force during the interrogation of the Mortimer kidnapping suspect, and he wasn’t even the right suspect to begin with. He’s filed a lawsuit. All this, in the last month. Oh, here’s a real gem. You drove off and left your partner at Starbucks, where he was buying you both breakfast, and didn’t return to pick him up.”

“I’d just received a tip from one of my informants in the Wilson case. I thought human trafficking takes precedence over donuts, sir.”

“Don’t be a smartass with me, Weber. Your partner wasted half his day, waiting for you, covering for you, then taking a goddamn cab to get back to the office. Now he’s filed a request for reassignment.”

“Oh, I see… ” Jeremy whispered.

“Yeah… how many times have we been on this path, Weber? How many partners? No one wants to work with you, and I understand why. You don’t care about your partners. They believe you don’t have their back, and they don’t trust you!”

Taylor ended his tirade forcefully, slamming the folder on the desk, and his open palm on top of it. Jeremy almost flinched, but remained quiet. There was no point in arguing.

“You’re not a cowboy, Special Agent Weber,” Taylor said after a minute or so, “You’re not some Midwestern small-town sheriff who thinks he is the law and nothing else matters. You are a federal agent. And it’s about goddamn time you start behaving like one.” Taylor paused, waiting for Weber to respond.

“Yes, sir.”

“People smarter than you have written our procedures manuals. Follow them at all times. If in doubt, don’t break protocol; just follow the manual, without any exceptions. And learn how to be a team player. There’s no way I’m gonna allow you to work without a partner; it’s in the manual for many reasons. So find one who’ll work with you and do whatever it takes to stay in his or her good graces, because one more reassignment request from one of your partners and it goes on your record. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Jeremy answered. “If I may—”

“You may not! Dismissed!”

Jeremy left Taylor’s office and headed back to his own. Yeah… he’d have to change a few things. He promised himself he wasn’t gonna go through another one of Taylor’s rants, no matter what he had to do, and whose ass he had to kiss.

He sat down at his desk and took his weary head in his hands. It was amazing how all the things that seemed right to do in the heat of the moment ended up biting him in the ass.

He’d given the bureau the best twenty years of his life and he loved his job. He didn’t just think of himself though, he thought of his son; he needed to consider his family. He wasn’t going to throw everything down the drain for some gut feeling in some stupid case, or anything. Going forward, he was gonna follow procedure at all times; he had to. He’d promised himself that many times before, but this time he really meant it.