Vengeance

3 LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

Christine O’Connor used the ride from the White House back to CIA headquarters to evaluate how best to proceed with the assigned task — track down and apprehend or kill Mixell. Under normal circumstances, the answer would have been obvious. The task would have been assigned to Jake Harrison and Khalila Dufour, who had led the two previous efforts. However, the circumstances at the moment were far from normal. Khalila was in the proverbial doghouse, to describe it mildly, and Harrison had disappeared.

Harrison had dropped off the grid because of what had occurred three months ago, when Mixell murdered Harrison’s wife. Christine would never forget the sight of Harrison holding Angie as she died in his arms. The conflict with Mixell that night had been brutal, leaving Harrison with two bullets in his chest while Christine suffered two knife wounds, with Harrison’s twelve-year-old daughter, Maddy, knocked unconscious and bleeding after Mixell slammed a shovel into the side of her head.

At the time, Christine had believed Mixell was dead, lying on the barn floor as blood spread out slowly beneath him. After hearing the faint sound of approaching police and medical vehicles, Christine had carried Maddy to the house for immediate medical attention, leaving Mixell’s body behind.

By the following morning, when she stood beside Harrison’s hospital bed after he awoke from surgery to repair the two bullet wounds, Christine had learned that Mixell had survived. But she had lied to Harrison, telling him Mixell was dead. As he lay in bed, grieving for his wife, Christine had decided that he had enough to deal with. She had planned to wait a few days before revealing that Mixell had survived. But by then, her lifelong relationship with Harrison — who had been her best friend as a child, had dated her for over a decade, and had proposed to her twice — had been shattered.

Harrison blamed Christine for everything. In the hospital room after his surgery, he told Christine that he never wanted to see or hear from her again. If she hadn’t pulled him into the CIA the first time, leading to the death of Mixell’s girlfriend, Mixell wouldn’t have taken his revenge out on Angie; it would instead have been just between the two men.

Christine had tried to meet with Harrison while he was recovering, but he refused to see her each time. She had tried one last time at Angie’s funeral, which had been delayed until Harrison was healthy enough to attend. She recalled the funeral, only two weeks ago…

Christine had known she wasn’t welcome, but had decided to attend anyway. Jake had refused to share the funeral details with her, sticking to the proclamation he had delivered in his hospital room.

I don’t ever want to see or hear from you again.

However, she didn’t need to be the CIA director to sleuth the details. There had been notices in the Baltimore newspapers and on the internet.

When Maddy spotted Christine’s arrival, she had moved to greet Christine, but Jake pulled her close, then whispered in her ear. Maddy stared at Christine for a moment, then subtly waved at her, and Christine waved back.

Harrison and Maddy were standing graveside with family members from both sides, including Jake’s parents, who had cared for Maddy while Jake was in the hospital. Under normal circumstances, Christine would have been beside Jake, offering her support. But it was clear that he still blamed her for Angie’s death, so she stood off to the side, watching from a distance.

Following the funeral, Harrison left Maddy with her grandparents. After arranging for a protective detail for his daughter, he had disappeared. Harrison seemed convinced that Mixell would attempt to track him down again and didn’t want Maddy anywhere near him when that happened.

Christine’s SUV passed through the entrance gate at Langley and stopped outside the Original Headquarters Building. After entering her seventh-floor office, she approached her secretary.

“Have the DD, DDO, and DDA meet me in my office.”

Deputy Director Monroe Bryant and Deputy Director for Analysis Tracey McFarland were the first to arrive, taking a seat at the conference table in Christine’s office, followed by Frank McKinnon, the agency’s new deputy director for operations. The position had opened up three months ago when PJ Rolow, the former DDO, had been slain by one of the agency’s own officers — Khalila Dufour. There were unusual circumstances involved, and Christine had left it up to the new DDO to recommend what to do about Khalila.

McKinnon was ten years older than Rolow, which wasn’t unusual given that Rolow had been the youngest DDO in the history of the agency. Rather than mirroring Rolow’s meteoric rise through the ranks, McKinnon had percolated his way to the top, spending notable time in various leadership roles after twenty years as a field officer. McKinnon was still feeling his way as DDO, leaving Rolow’s policies in place so far, and had not yet decided how best to handle the Khalila issue.

“How’d it go?” Tracey asked, empathetic to Christine’s uncomfortable position as CIA director and also Mixell’s childhood chum, along with the CIA’s failure to put Mixell away the two previous times.

“As best as can be expected,” Christine replied. “It’s the same drill as before — find Mixell before he does more harm.” She turned to McKinnon. “We’d normally assign Harrison and Khalila, but neither is an option at the moment. Any suggestions?”

“Khalila might be available,” McKinnon replied. Monroe and McFarland seemed surprised, but Christine had seen this coming.

“The president has tied our hands,” McKinnon explained. “His directive was clear — no one except the four of us, plus the president and his chief of staff, is to learn that Khalila killed Rolow; the official story is that he died of a heart attack. That limits the punitive measures we can take against Khalila. Anything too drastic will generate unwanted questions. Besides, Rolow had it coming, one way or another. Khalila saved the taxpayers a lot of money, skipping the expensive trial and freeing up a cell in federal prison.”

McFarland replied, “Spoken like a true DDO — just get the job done; dispense with the legalities.” McFarland meant it as a compliment. She smiled and added, “I think you’re going to fit in just fine as DDO.”

“Let’s not get too carried away,” Christine said. “I realize the rules get bent around here on occasion, but I need to be the one who authorizes it.” She directed her gaze at Deputy Director Bryant. “I know there are matters you hide from me, making the decision at your level, leaving me out of the loop. That needs to stop. I get a vote on anything that might violate the law.”

Bryant and McFarland exchanged glances.

Turning to Christine, Bryant said, “I do that for a reason — to insulate and protect the director from any fallout regarding those matters.”

“No,” Christine replied. “You do it because you believe that you, with four decades of agency experience, are more qualified than a newbie wet-behind-the-ears director who could barely spell CIA when she got appointed to the job.”

“Well, there’s that,” Bryant agreed.

“Going forward,” Christine replied, “you’ll bring all of these sensitive matters to me, and I’ll decide which ones get managed at your level.”

“As you wish,” he said, with no hint of resentment.

“Regarding sensitive matters,” Christine said as she shifted back to McKinnon, “what’s the plan for Khalila and Mixell?”

“I plan to reinstate Khalila next week. As far as rehabilitation goes, there’s been none and there won’t be. Her outlook on matters is firm, and I’m confident that if Khalila were to find herself in a similar situation in the future, she’d respond the same way. Frankly, I don’t blame her. If I had been in her shoes, I would have done the same thing.”

“So, Khalila will lead the effort to track down Mixell?” Christine asked.

“I’d prefer to have Harrison as well,” McKinnon replied. “I realize he’s trying to lay low, but if you approve, we’ll try to locate him and invite him back.”

Christine hesitated, considering what hiring Harrison the first time had cost him. But Mixell would eventually track down and attempt to kill Harrison, and the outcome would likely be better if Harrison was part of the team, hunting down Mixell instead.

Plus, if they located Harrison, it would give Christine an opportunity to at least talk with him. Give her a chance to clear the air and hopefully begin the effort to repair their relationship.

She nodded. “Find him.”