Call it What You Want

17 - Jokers Dressin' Up as Kings

September 2017

James' POV

"Good morning!" I greeted my co-workers cheerfully on my way to my desk. I carried my briefcase in one hand and my travel coffee mug in the other. When I reached my desk, I sat back into my chair and took a sip of coffee before even turning my computer on.

This had been my comfortable routine at the agency for the past fifteen years. Before working in the office, I worked in the field for five years. I reached over to the picture of my family on the corner of my desk to straighten it out. I started to login when one of the office assistants approached my desk.

"Sir?" he asked.

"Go ahead," I told him.

"Special Agent Swift left a message before you got in. She wanted me to let you know that she is leaving for London tomorrow."

"What?!" I yelled a little louder than I should have and startled the poor assistant. "I'm sorry. Thank you for passing along the message." I quickly logged in to my computer. I wanted to see if I had missed any developments in our operation overnight. My inbox was full of advertisements, spam, and a few work messages but none from Taylor.

Taylor was great. A great person and a great agent. I knew that this job was wearing her down, but lately she was exercising a little too much freedom. No, the agency cannot control her every move, but we also can't have her in a position that would jeopardize an operation. Curious to see if Rebecca knew anything about Taylor's excursion to London, I picked up my mug and hustled toward her office.

"Hey, how's it going?" she asked when she saw me approach.

Ignoring the small talk, I asked "do you know that Special Agent Swift is traveling to London tomorrow?"

"No, I wasn't aware. Is she following a lead?"

"I'm not sure. That's why I came to you to see if you knew anything."

Rebecca shook her head no. I turned around to return to my office. Then she added, "you have to do something about Taylor for all of our sakes, James."

Though I was halfway out the door, I froze. "Do something?" 

"She's your agent. The agency is getting impatient waiting for her to actually do something useful on this operation. You've been too soft on her. If they don't get answers soon or even a lead on a source, they will send someone else in for the operation"

I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that comment. "Okay, I'll handle it." I left Rebecca's office with Taylor's number already pulled up on my phone.

What was I going to say to her? She was already mad at me in the first place even though I didn't select her for the operation. Taylor didn't know that I asked the committee not to put her on this operation. They ignored my request because they thought her relationship with Joe would give her leverage. From the start, as much as she tried to hide it from me, I knew that her relationship with Joe was serious. She abandoned him as a source a long time ago. Now, she would protect him at all costs. That meant lying as a federal agent. I hit the call button.

"Hello?" Taylor answered the phone.

"Hey, it's James. So London?" I asked getting straight to the point.

"I figured you would call. Yeah, I'm going for work."

"Do you have any leads?"

"Not yet," she sighed.

"Taylor, I know that you want to focus on music, but you need to prioritize this case. I've been letting you have your space and maybe I let you have a little too much. The agency needs you to do your job."

"And what exactly is my job? Being a puppet for the agency? You all are so afraid of losing your control over me." Taylor then started to mock me by imitating my voice and saying, "I'm James, and I don't give a shit about my agents. I just want them to follow my orders."

"You know that's not true. I do care about you," I lowered my voice. "They are watching you more closely than ever. Believe me, I am trying to protect you." I wish she only knew how many times I stuck out my neck for her or had other agents assigned to operations, so she wouldn't have to go. 

The other end of the line was silent. Then Taylor came back on the line. "You think that you are so powerful just because you work at headquarters. You have no idea the choices I have to make in the field."

"I do," I responded. Not that she would care anyway. It's why I left the field in the first place. "Let me remind you of two things. You are not untouchable, and everyone is replaceable. If you don't produce a valid lead soon, the agency will replace you." I was most definitely not supposed to tell her that. 

"Just do your job and don't do anything foolish," I grumbled before hanging up. Taylor had to know that bringing someone else in on the operation meant that Joe would probably be brought in for questioning. At the same time, I feared that she might be about to do something that would bring us all down in flames with her. 

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Woohooo! You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for reading this story and supporting it. Thought I would get you another chapter for reaching 1K :)

I'm still trying to figure out how long I want this story to be. I will probably have at least ten more chapters so hang in there! Make sure to add this to your library if you want to get updates.