The Backup Asset

…54

“There he is,” Jeremy said, pointing at Hadden’s Acura, following the gentle curves of Norview Avenue, headed for the highway. “Let’s pull him over.”

She grunted, still angry that Jeremy insisted on picking up Hadden himself, and he let the two surveillance teams follow Smolin. Smolin is who she cared about; Smolin could potentially hold information about her mystery man, while Hadden was yesterday’s news.

Jeremy flipped a switch on the console of his Dodge Charger and the blue lights embedded in his radiator mask turned on, accompanied by the siren. Alex couldn’t stifle a smile.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” she said.

The Acura slowed down and came to a stop.

“Stay here,” Jeremy said and got out of the car. Alex obeyed him for about ten seconds, then jumped out of the car and followed him.

Quentin had handed Jeremy his driver’s license.

“Step out of your vehicle, sir, we need to perform a sobriety test,” Jeremy said, acting just like an off-duty highway patrolman.

The moment Hadden got out of his car that changed. Jeremy grabbed him and turned him around, forcing him face down against his car’s hood, and cuffing his hands behind his back.

“Quentin Hadden, you are under arrest for espionage and treason. You have the right to remain silent—”

“Hey, I know you,” Hadden said, looking at Alex.

“Yes, you know me,” Alex replied dryly. “That doesn’t change a thing.”

Jeremy helped Hadden get in the back seat of the Charger.

“I will need an attorney,” Hadden said.

Jeremy burst into laughter. “What? You think we caught you robbing a convenience store and you still have rights? Where you’re going there are no lawyers, and you have no rights and no privileges. The sooner you get that into your head, the better off you’ll be.”

Hadden remained quiet for the duration of the short trip to FBI headquarters. Upon arrival, Jeremy booked him and had someone put him in an interrogation room.

Alex trotted behind him and followed quietly everything he did.

“Jeremy, I want to sit in on the interrogation. I wanna ask him some questions, my way.”

“No, absolutely not.”

“Please,” she insisted, “it’s really important to me. I think I can get to him. I read in his file he has a lot of frustrations with his employer. I can use that, I’ve experienced it myself and I can create rapport with him. Please, let me try.”

“No, Alex, I’m sorry, I can’t. We can’t allow contractors to sit in interrogations; it’s against the procedure.”

“And since when do you give a damn about procedure?” Alex asked in a raised voice, letting frustration get to her.

“Since I have a son to think of,” he blurted out before thinking.

“Oh,” she said quietly, backing down. “I understand.”

Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck, exasperated. “Look, you can sit in the observation room and watch.”

“OK,” she replied. “But, Jeremy?” Alex called as he was walking toward the interrogation room.

“Yeah?”

“He’s too calm, and that’s a bad sign. Be careful.”

He stood there for a second, unsure what to say, then went into the room and closed the door behind him. Alex entered the adjacent room.

She saw Jeremy take a seat across the table from a calm, composed, and somewhat sad Hadden.

“One question for you, Quentin. Why?”

Hadden looked Jeremy in the eye with a faint smile on his lips and stayed silent.

“Why betray your country? Why sell state secrets, our latest technology? Why?”

Jeremy leaned forward in his chair, reducing the distance between the two. Hadden wasn’t fazed by it. Minutes of silence went by, uninterrupted.

“They deserved it,” Hadden finally spoke. “And more.”

“Who?”

“The swine at Walcott. The corporate fat cats who can’t find it in their hearts to give us a fucking lunch break without squeezing more work out of us. The assholes who treat us like disposable objects, like doormats.”

Hadden’s voice escalated with every phrase, as emotion took over his rational brain.

“I have to put up with an arrogant idiot like McLeod every day, and what options do I have? I couldn’t transfer, they didn’t approve it. I can’t stop working, ’cause, you see, everything is a perfect slave game. The system lets you have just enough to become vulnerable, enough to have something to lose, but never enough to be free. You just can’t get ahead in this life. Everything is pointless, not worth it.”

“Why not leave Walcott, get another job?” Jeremy probed gently when he caught a second.

“And exchange swine for swine but lose my tenure benefits too? Have you worked a single minute in a for-profit organization? Or have you just indulged in the relaxed pace and job security of government employ?”

“I’m not important right now, Quentin; let’s focus on you.”

Alex cringed and bit her lip. Hadden will see that as rejection and withdraw. But she definitely didn’t expect what followed next.

“Who am I kidding?” Hadden was saying, wearing a bitter, crooked smile and letting more sadness seep into his eyes, his voice. “No one ever gives a fuck. Well, neither do I, not anymore. I’m done.”

He looked Jeremy in the eyes as he cracked something in his teeth, then started convulsing almost immediately.

Alex rushed in the room, just in time to catch Hadden taking his last breath, loaded with the distinctive smell of cyanide. There was nothing she could do.

“Fuck…” she said quietly, looking at Hadden’s distorted features.

“I–I didn’t see that one coming,” Jeremy said, looking a little lost.

“He was too calm, Jeremy,” she replied. “He had reached his decision; it was just a matter of time before he was gonna do it.”

“We got nothing out of him we didn’t already know, goddamn it,” Jeremy said angrily, his face reddened with anger and the suffocating feeling of powerlessness he must have felt.

“Yeah, but we still have Smolin out there,” Alex said encouragingly, touching Jeremy’s hunched shoulder. “There’s still something to go on with, so let’s get to work.”