How I Met Your Mother Ch. 05

"There are bigger things at stake here than your family." Tom interrupted. Andrew laughed.

"Oooh, I'msogoing to pretend you didn't say that," he said. "Then again, coming from you, I kind of expected it."

"What's that mean?"

"Come on, you know what I mean – you view the idea of a family as something that's trotted out for photo opportunities and public relations exercises," Andrew countered. "You've got three kids in boarding school and a wife that you never see – it might work for you but it sure as shit doesn't work for us." Andrew glanced up at the clock. "Look, I don't want to seem rude, but I'm busy..."

"I understand that some of your more recent works have incorporated elements of Leah's field work in them," Tom's voice seemed to have dropped an octave. "There are potential security issues associated with that..."

"What? You're threatening me?" Andrew laughed.

"I'm not threatening you; I'm simply pointing out..."

"You know what, I've been nice to you up to now out of respect for the fact that you used to be Leah's boss," Andrew replied, taking a step towards Tom. He took a deep breath, trying to control his anger.

"My little sister was always the smartest of the three of us," Andrew said. "Really sickeningly self-righteous, massive sense of personal accountability, only buys eco-friendly products. She's sort of a "save the whales, save the rainforests, save the planet" type of a gal."

"She's also the head of one of those legal think-tanks, you know, the ones that like to expose hypocrisy in public bodies. Rumour has it that she was the person that tipped off the Telegraph about the expenses scandal recently. Now, I think she'd be very interested if I mentioned your name in connection with an incident at the Turkish embassy in Madrid a couple of years ago with a certain individual by the name of Yassef Tariq." Tom's face went pale, the blood draining out of it at a rate of knots. "And I figure that all that unwarranted attention to your...actions...would probably bring down the curtain on your blossoming career."

"So, if you're even considering the idea of trying to threaten or blackmail Leah into going back to work for you I suggest you bear that in mind. If she was here now she'd just smack you in the mouth and leave you with a bloody nose – me, I'm more inclined to see you publicly hung, drawn and quartered." Andrew said before gesturing towards the front door. "Now, get the fuck out of my house, Fatman. Some of us actually work for a living."

****

Madrid
2005

Even in the cold, cool air of the Spanish capital in the morning, Tom Benedict found himself sweating. He knew that the evening's operation had gone drastically wrong; recovering whatever good had come of the operation was paramount in his mind, both from a practical and a political sense.

Entering the safe house they had used, he immediately encountered Howard. Grabbing his arm, Tom pulled him to one side.

"Take the laptop over to Ersin's office in the Embassy – I've promised him a copy of the intelligence database we bought with us for MIT's purposes." He instructed him. Howard nodded and disappeared from the room. "Okay people, please tell me that something can be salvaged from this mess." Tom said as Leah, Alison and Elliot stood in the living room of the safe house. Even in the artificial light Tom could see that Elliot had the beginnings of a black eye as well as a split lip.

"Well Tariq actually survived the fall," Leah said. "Which is a miracle when you consider it. I've detailed Suri to make sure nothing happens to him while he's in hospital."

"What exactly is the prognosis?" Tom asked. Leah shrugged her shoulders.

"Both his legs are broken, several ribs, possibly a fractured spine, swelling in his cranium – that's before you consider any internal injuries." She paused for a moment, looking at Elliot with barely concealed fury in her eyes. "They had to induce a coma to stabilise him. You're looking at weeks, possibly months before we can talk to him."

"Well, we can handle that side of it once he's been transferred over to our jurisdiction." Elliot said. Alison's jaw almost hit the floor.

"What?" Leah spat. "What do you mean,once he's been transferred?"

"I thought you knew..." Elliot began, only for Tom to hold his hands up.

"Look, we've agreed that once we'd apprehended him, Tariq would be handed over to our colleagues in the CIA for questioning." He said. Leah shook her head in disbelief.

"We'veAgreed?Wenever agreed anything! This was our job, our target." Leah exploded. "We had everything under control until Flyboy here came along and fucked it up six ways from Sunday!" She looked down at the floor. "We bust our arses to pull this off at short notice and then you go and sell us out by handing over the whole reason we came here in the first place?" She threw her hands up in the air and stormed out of the building.

"Leah, where are you going?" Tom asked.

"Away from you, otherwise I'm liable to do something I'll regret." She said before slamming the door behind her.

****

Sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair, Suri had to admit to herself that she was rapidly moving past being bored. Looking at the glass wall of the small room in front of her, she could see the prone figure lying in the bed. He was hooked up to a variety of machines, including a ventilator to control his breathing. The door to the room opened and a man dressed in a short-sleeved light blue shirt approached her.

"Two minutes." He said in broken English, holding up two fingers for her at the same time. Suri nodded and entered the room. She looked at the broken body laying the bed and actually felt sorry for him for a moment. Trying her best to quash whatever sympathy she might have felt for the figure in the bed, she pulled out a small black box from her jacket pocket. Lifting up his hand, she carefully placed each finger in turn on a small sensor pad. An LCD display lit up, showing the impression of his fingerprint.

Of course, it would be easy to just unplug the ventilator and let him slip away,Suri mused as she repeated this procedure with his other fingers before retreating from the room. Once she had secured the door again she activated another function of the device in her hand. The wireless signal engaged and began to transmit the data back to London.

She sat down in the plastic chair again and waited, softly drumming her fingers against the arm of the chair.

****

Sweeping through the Embassy reception, Howard Metzelars clutched the laptop under his left arm and was immediately met by Ziynet Sali. She was wearing a grey trouser suit and her hair was down. He had to admit to himself that she was an extremely attractive young woman, one who he would like to get to know better under different circumstances.

"Good morning Mr Metzelars," Ziynet said as she greeted him. "I take it that's the laptop."

"Yes, my boss and your boss have agreed to a little impromptu data exchange." Howard replied.

"Excellent," Ziynet said. "Shall we go somewhere more private to discuss matters?" Howard nodded. "Follow me."

****

Suri was waving the PDA around in the air as she was trying to get a decent signal on it. Being in the middle of a six floor concrete slab wasn't helping things. Eventually the PDA beeped and the screen exploded in a blue-white light as it came to life.

As the data file downloaded to her hand-held device, Suri began to read it. Thirty seconds later she was scrambling to find a cell phone signal.

****

"...Now, the last set of files are password encrypted," Howard said as he gave Ziynet a practical tour of the laptop. She listened to his every word absorbing the information he was relaying to her. "However, I'll just remove the encryption from them for you..." his fingers danced across the keyboard. "And I think that's about it." He saved the settings on the machine and then handed it to Ziynet. "So, do you have something for me?"

"I do," Ziynet replied. She opened the draw on the other side of the desk and reached into it. Howard barely had time to register what was happening as she pulled the pistol with it's elongated barrel out of the draw and took aim.

Pfhtt! Pfhtt!

The two bullets struck him in the chest, knocking him out of his chair. Ziynet walked around the table and calmly adjusted her aim, firing once more into his head. The room was generally used for private meetings with the security staff and was effectively soundproofed for all intents and purposes, however there was something about the silencer attached to the end of it that appealed to her – and it never hurt to take precautions. She placed the laptop and the firearm into a small bag and left the room, securing the door behind her. Ziynet glanced down at her watch as she headed towards the main lobby of the Embassy.

"Miss Sali," The voice made Ziynet stop in her tracks. She turned to see Ersin's head poking out of his office further down the corridor. "Is that the laptop from Mr Benedict?"

"Yes sir, it is." She said. "Would you like to take a look at it?"

"Yes, yes I would!" He looked like a schoolboy on Christmas Day as Ziynet walked back down the corridor towards him. He held the door open for her as she entered. Carefully placing the bag down on the desk, she unzipped it away from Ersin's line of sight. "I have to admit, I'm looking forward to examining the data on that device."

"So am I," Ziynet said as she whipped her pistol out once more.

Pfhtt!

The shot struck Ersin in the head; the wall behind him was sprayed with a red-grey plume of matter. He toppled forward on his feet, striking the desk on his way down. Ziynet knew she didn't have time for anything creative so she tried to drag his overweight corpse behind the desk. Realising that his feet were sticking out in plain sight of anyone walking past his office she repositioned the waste paper bin to obscure them.

It wasn't perfect, but it would do for now – by the time he was discovered Ziynet would be far away from here. Securing the pistol in the bag with the laptop once more, she resumed her course towards the lobby of the Embassy. She allowed herself a faint smile as she thought about several people who were willing to pay serious money for the device in her hands.

****

Alison lit up her cigarette as she joined Leah outside the safe house. She offered the packet across to her friend. Leah looked up at her.

"Are you trying to make me laugh?"

"Never hurts to offer," Alison replied. "You never know, you might decide to start one day."

"Doubtful," Leah replied. "Sorry about in there."

"You don't need to apologise for anything missy," Alison replied. "I'm surprised you didn't hit him like you hit Elliot."

"Well, that would certainly have made my mind up for me regarding whether I can deal with all the political bullshit this job seems to have garnered over the last few years," Leah said. "God, I miss the simplicity of field work you know – you see something and you just react to it."

"It does have its advantages..." Alison muttered as Leah's phone rang.

"It's Suri," she said, looking at the name displayed on the screen. "Please tell me you have some good news?" Resignation was clearly audible in Leah's voice. "What? Oh shit!" She slammed the phone shut and bolted back into the safe house.

****

The ambulance was leaving as Suri reached the Turkish Embassy. Police cars and news crews were hovering around at the same time, making her feel distinctly uneasy. Waving her identification to the guard at the gate, she made a beeline towards Leah and Alison as they huddled near the entrance. Elliot was on his phone.

"I got here as quickly as I could." She said. "What's happened?"

"Howard is dead." Alison said. "As is the Turkish spook." Suri's jaw dropped and she felt her whole body becoming numb. Her mouth opened and closed several times, her mind struggling to find the words to express her feelings.

"No one can locate Ziynet – she's disappeared, along with the laptop that we bought with us." Leah added. "They've locked down the airports and all the trains out of Madrid, but she's got at least an hour's head start on us."

"...Do I sound like I'm joking?" Suri heard Elliot's raised voice as he wandered back across to them. "Fine, well you do that and you have the regional commander contact me as soon as he's available and then we'll see how you enjoy filtering radar data in Alaska for the rest of your career!" He ended the call and slammed his fist into the wall. "Cocksuckers!"

"No joy?" Leah asked. Elliot shook his head.

"Fuck all," He said. "I was told I'd have access to additional resources from the US based in the Embassy here and then I find they've been redirected to Morocco!"

"What's in Morocco?" Suri asked the question the other two women were thinking of.

"Aww, sorry, it's classified."

"Whatever," Suri waved him away. "It's confirmed – the guy in the hospital is Mehmet Ozluk, a Turkish born German Interpol agent. He'd been working undercover tracking some sort of currency fraud across the Mediterranean." She handed the phone to Leah. "That was his primary suspect." Leah looked at the image on the screen and sighed before handing it Alison.

"Who's this?"

"Well, when we were introduced to her, she was using the name Ziynet Sali." She shook her head. "This whole thing has been a set up from the start. Ziynet mentioned that she'd compiled the data on Tariq – she was using us to get to Ozluk. I'll bet that Tariq was probably never here in the first place."

"So, she's some sort of Al-Khayal agent working under cover?" Elliot asked. Alison shrugged her shoulders.

"No idea – if she is then this is a major sea change in their MO," She said. "It's almost Eastern European in approach."

"So what happens now?" Elliot asked. "We're just going to pack up and go home?"

"No," Leah said as she saw Tom exiting the Embassy. "We need to engage in some damage control." She looked over at Alison and Suri. "I'll call Emma back at the office to see if we can pull every operative whose name was on that laptop." Her phone was in her hand and she was dialling a number before she'd finished her response. "They're at risk of being exposed, and then we'll start looking for Ziynet. I would imagine that she's not entirely aware of what she's got her hands on yet – it might take her a while before she can figure out what to do with it."

"What then?" Suri asked. Leah shook her head.

"Personally, I'd opt for just killing the bitch once we find her," Alison's voice was loaded with anger as she lit up a cigarette. "But that's just me."

"Okay people, we're on the first flight back to London." Tom said as he joined them. "I still have a few things to sort out here, so I'll meet you at the airport in a few hours." The agents broke away from him, Alison putting her arm around Suri's shoulders, leaving Leah hanging back slightly. He looked at her as she made the call back to their office in London. "What are you doing?"

"Cleaning up your mess Tom." She snarled as she walked away in the same direction as her colleagues.

****

Highfield Park
2009
5:30 pm

"I had a visit today from your old boss," Andrew said as he sat down on the bench next to Leah. Cassie and Scott were both engaging in reaching the summit of the large climbing frame that dominated the children's play area of the park less then ten minutes walk from their home. "He wants you to go back to the department."

"Well, I hope you told him to forget about it." Leah replied. She looked over at Andrew and clearly saw the worry etched on his face. "What else did he say?"

"He was getting his knickers in a twist about couple of the books I've written, wittering on about national security implications..." Andrew laughed involuntarily. "I threatened to disclose what I knew about the Madrid situation to Ruth." Leah couldn't help but laugh as well.

"I can imagine the effect that had on him." She replied. "Then again, if I'd..." the sound of a low flying airplane overhead drowned out her words.

"Yeah, I guess that can colour your thinking," Andrew added. "Mom rang this morning – she wants to take the kids to Burnham on Sea for the half term week."

"I do hope you said yes."

"Of course I did. Can you imagine what we can do with a whole week without the kids?" Andrew answered as Scott ran across to them. He stood expectantly before his parents. "What's up?"

"I'm bored." Scott replied.

"Really?" Leah asked. "How do you feel about spending a week with Nan and Spiky Harry on holiday at half term?" Scott considered the question for a minute.

"Can I take my Nintendo DS?"

"Yes." Andrew replied.

"Does Cassie have to come?"

"Yes." Leah's response produced a frown on Scott's face. "But Nan will probably let you eat whatever you want while you're away." The frown suddenly turned into a smile.

"Okay."

"Good – now go and grab your sister and we'll get you home so we can have some dinner." Andrew watched as his son scampered back to the climbing frame, then leaned over and kissed Leah on the cheek. "You can tell Mom that she'll have to buy them ice cream every night."