Billy’s Case Files
By Ermintrude
See part 1 for disclaimers
Part 28
Stemwinder part 1 September 19, 1986
Billy was in a large meeting room in the pentagon. Dr. Quidd, the Agency’s psychological analyst was sitting next to him, and he knew Dr. Smyth was there also—probably sitting in the back—in the shadows as he liked to do.
Phillip Dart was outlining SIOP—the Single Integrated Operation Plan—the overall framework for the upcoming Stemwinder war games. Usually Billy had little concern for war games—but this time the President wanted the Soviets to have a covert look at part of the operations. There were upcoming peace talks and the President wanted a bargaining chip—without letting the Soviets know he had a bargaining chip.
So the Agency was an integral part of the games—in the planning stage. The actual exercises were still several weeks away—but Billy’s team would be active beforehand. Several Soviet agents had been chosen to possibly act as carrier pigeons for the release of a few select frequencies by which the Soviets could monitor the progress of the war games. That way they would be fully informed about the US’s defensive capability without knowing they had been allowed to get that information.
Billy wasn’t altogether pleased about the plan—he understood the Russians—he’d worked against—and with them—for most of his career. They rarely appreciated or believed anything they were just handed on a silver platter. Before they could have used Harry to leak the information—but since Gregory had been put away last year—using Harry as a triple agent was deemed too dangerous and possibly compromised. Who knew who Gregory had been able to convince of Harry’s duplicity?
So they had to cultivate a new source—or several. Billy knew better than to trust these things to one source alone. Rostov was the new KGB station chief—Gregory’s successor. An old-line by-the-book kind of guy. Billy was well aware of the man’s skills and abilities. He would be a worthy opponent—but Billy couldn’t cultivate a relationship with the man as he had with Gregory. It wasn’t in Rostov’s character. So they had to fall back on other agents making contact and hoping one lead would be fruitful.
Billy listened to the presentation drone on. He’d been on the fringes of too many similar operations to not be able to follow the proceedings with half a mind. He was concerned how much Quidd had been involved in setting it all up. The man was a competent analyst—a decent psychiatrist—and he did his job for the Agency well—but that job often clashed with Billy’s needs and priorities. And sometimes he felt the man had too much of a penchant for unnecessarily complicating things with his analyses and conclusions based on how people would react. It was too close to what Krutiov did for him to like it.
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Back in his office, Billy went over the assignments he had worked out. Francine would cultivate Rostov—she was Billy’s assistant and close enough to Billy himself so that if it worked—he’d have a good pipeline to the man himself. If it worked—but Billy doubted it would. The man was too old-school. He’d keep a close eye on his people but he’d not work any contacts himself. That was for the underlings.
Nieman would cultivate Ivan the Terrible. There was a good chance that one would pan out. He’d been a favorite of Gregory’s and now Rostov was in charge he’d lost some of his plum assignments. Hopefully he was ripe for an alliance with one of Billy’s people. Nieman was a good man—career Agency—quiet and stable. It might take more than a few weeks to make contact—but Billy hoped he was planting seeds for the future.
Sonja Chenko—originally reported by Scarecrow as a possible agent—and subsequent investigation had confirmed his initial assessment. She was young and new—but Billy knew youth was no reason to assume an agent was any less deadly or capable than any other. He’d decided to give her to Scarecrow—allow him to do a peacock dance with her—and have Amanda help out on it.
Billy mused. ‘Quidd gave me a hard time on this one—he wanted Scarecrow to go in solo. I need both of them on this one—and now is the time to test Amanda. She hasn’t been in on any peacock dances yet—and she needs to learn about them first hand. It will be tough on her. Scarecrow’s an old pro—he can handle this and a new relationship no sweat—but Amanda’s not used to the emotional compartmentalization required for the job. She’s emotional—which is an asset at times—but it’s also a possible liability—a deadly liability. She needs to learn to compartmentalize her feelings and fast. I hate to do it to them—they’ve been dancing around each other for so long—and now they’ve managed to hook up—I hope they’ve enjoyed their honeymoon over the summer because they’re about to be hit by the reality of the business.’
‘So Lee will do a peacock dance with Sonja—but how will I get Amanda involved past just monitoring his actions as backup? Quidd suggested the Lisbon variation—and I have to agree—reluctantly. It will be difficult for her to separate her feelings for Lee from the needs of their assignment—but giving her an active part in setting it all up will invest her more deeply in the mission.’
‘And then there’s the down side. If they are going to break up—it’s better that they break up sooner than later. And this might break them up if Amanda’s not up to the assignment. I hope they can remain a team—I need them as partners—but I also know that relationships don’t always work out. Look at Lee and Francine. Everyone—including me—thought that one might just work out for the long hall. It lasted almost a month—a record for Scarecrow. But he decided to move on—and Francine took it in stride—outwardly. I know she was in love with the man—and she’s never forgiven herself for it. But she was vulnerable after being dumped by Jonathan and when Scarecrow stepped in to help her heal—he unwittingly caused more damage. The man probably doesn’t realize—or maybe he does and that’s why he broke it off. Oh, who knows? Right now—my concern is Amanda King. And all I can do is to give them the assignment and hope she manages to help pull it off—successfully. Even if Sonja doesn’t bite—it’s a valuable learning experience for the both of them.’
‘Damn! If she’d gone through the training course she’d know about all of this—she’d have studied the scenarios and practiced them with fellow trainee candidates. So once again—she’s getting her education through the back door. Hopefully one day she can take the courses up front and officially. I’ve dropped enough hints—and hopefully someone will take me up on it.’
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Billy was finishing up the briefing on Sonja Chenko in his office with Lee, Amanda and Francine. “Excellent work Amanda. A successful Lisbon variation depends on teamwork.” He was doing his best to be supportive and reassuring.
“Yes sir. Lee did all the dancing.” Amanda left rather abruptly.
Lee and Francine left a minute later after exchanging looks and Billy sat back down at his desk. He sighed deeply. ‘She’s upset about all of this. I knew she would be. But she’s got to realize she needs to learn all of this. Hopefully Scarecrow will be there to talk to her about all of it. He’s been through the wringer with some of these—he knows how badly it can go—and how well. We use these scenarios because they achieve results more reliably than most any other tactic. So Mrs. King needs to learn it. And maybe next time she will be the one doing the dancing. At least I was able to avoid that little scenario for her first time out. No—this is for the best. Either they are strong enough to weather this one—or they don’t deserve to be together. It’s a tough business we’re in.’
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The phone on the bedside table rang. Billy checked the clock—it was 12:10am. “Melrose here.”
“This is Stemwinder communications officer—we’ve had a possible breach of security—Phillip Dart was discovered dead in his office. We need your presence down at his office to coordinate the investigation.”
“All right—I’ll be there in 30 minutes. Don’t let anyone in or out—secure the scene—I’ll get my people on it immediately.”
‘Damn! Why did the man have to go and get himself killed? I wonder if this has anything to do with the lead Scarecrow was checking with TP Aquinas? This isn’t good. I need to put the whole Agency on alert—I have a very bad feeling about this one.’
Two hours later after Billy had talked to Amanda about Lee’s disappearance, he knew it was worse than he’d thought. ‘Scarecrow’s prints on the safe, and now he’s gone. And Amanda was out there monitoring him when he disappeared. I wonder if she realizes how bad it looks for both of them? I know in my bones that this is a setup and frame—but who? The why is obvious—someone wants to disrupt Stemwinder—make us look bad. All I can do is to keep on my toes and do whatever I can to protect my agents.’
He got back on his phone to try to call off the Stemwinder exercises.
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Once Amanda arrived at the Agency, she was whisked off to debriefing. Billy knew they’d be especially thorough—so he had some time. He sat and thought about the situation. Stemwinder was scheduled to start at 6am—and he figured it would not go well. So he needed to prepare for damage control. Right now—the only leak was Scarecrow—he supposedly passed the proper frequencies to Sonja—but Phillip Dart’s safe had been breached—the day before. That gave the Soviets plenty of time to prepare a counter to their operations.
Smyth would come down on Mrs. King like a vengeance. Billy suspected Smyth harbored a grudge against Scarecrow. And so he also took it out on the man’s unofficial partner. And right now she was in debriefing. This was just round one—Billy knew how it went. They’d let her eat a bit—rest a bit—and then wake her up and start all over again.
‘I know Scarecrow won’t rest until he gets to the bottom of this frame. That means Sonja Chenko—and whoever she’s working with. And he needs his partner to do his best work. But she’s locked up here—and Smyth won’t let her out. I wonder if that lead he mentioned panned out? We need to check with Aquinas—but that’s for later. Right now—Scarecrow won’t come back in unless we drag him—and I don’t want to do that. So I have to let Amanda get to him—somehow.’
He ran through several scenarios in his mind. ‘Eventually she’ll be released from debriefing—they can do only so much. There will be a brief respite before they start the hard interrogation. That’s when I’ve got to get her out. Somehow Lee will manage to get a message to her. He’ll know she will have been brought back in. So he’ll probably try to call me. I have to make sure she’s in here or around so when he does call she can talk to him. They’re the closest partnership we have—somehow he’ll let her know when and where to meet him. That’s the best time! I can ‘let’ her escape—and have teams on her to follow wherever she goes. She may lose a few—but not everyone.’
He nodded. ‘That’s the best time—once Scarecrow calls her—I’ll set up a tracking operation to nab Scarecrow—when in reality it will be a tracking operation to follow her. Hopefully she’ll take the opportunity when I leave her alone to leave and go to where he told her to be. Then all we have to do is follow Amanda King—and hopefully we can get both of them and find out who did this and how we can make it right.’
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Billy felt bad that he had to pressure Amanda so much. Taking her into the Stemwinder control room to allow her to view the disaster up close was harsh—but he needed her to realize the danger both she and her partner were in. Smyth’s threats had been icing on the cake.
Then, once back in his office he had confronted her with the most damning evidence. The meet Rostov had tried to set up—had they known Francine was tailing him? It certainly looked bad. Their dinners at Emilios—five times in the past two weeks—while they had been working the peacock dance. Billy was disappointed—he had hoped they would be more discreet. Still—nobody would have known about it if Stemwinder hadn’t been blown. And her vehement denial that Lee and Sonja had been lovers. That was the most telling. The woman was definitely in love—and so was Lee. But that just made it look worse—they were partners and in love—so it looked like they were in it together. Whoever had planned this frame was a master.
Shortly after Amanda managed to leave, Billy went to his car to follow up on Francine’s tip. Lee had been there in the Georgetown grocery store—Sonja as well—the man was good—but Sonja escaped—with help. That much had been made clear from the eyewitness statements. An older man—greying—worn face—foreign accent.
After Smyth left in his car—Billy gathered his thoughts. ‘I managed to get Smyth to give me the D1. Good—I can control things better if I’m in charge. We have people already talking to Aquinas—hopefully he got something for Lee. I have to go and pick up Amanda from her house. I don’t want to do it—but orders are orders. Hopefully Scarecrow will be able to get to her again.’
‘And now I have a problem. I have to try to catch them—but I know Lee wants to stay free and work this himself. And he needs Amanda to do that. I hope they still have their luck because they’ll need it to be able to get away. We’ll put the house under surveillance and make sure her family isn’t threatened. But for now—the Agency is on full alert—and our main objective is to bring in Scarecrow—dead or alive.’
End part one.
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