Chapter 2 The Request

1420 Zulu, Tuesday, June 10, 1980, Agency Headquarters, Near Washington D.C.

David Green, a ten year veteran of the Counterintelligence Directorate has been promoted to Assistant Director of CID and is being congratulated by his boss Jackson Spruell, recently made CID Director, and by William Allen, the Agency Director. David has rarely talked with the Director except at his Christmas parties even though he is married to the Director’s niece. Director Allen is tall and thin with a long face and piercing gray eyes always behind wire-rimmed glasses. David and his peers consider him to be a tough but fair boss even if a bit old fashioned. After congratulating David Allen adds:  “We have confidence in you David. You have demonstrated leadership in your field work and with teams in this office. We are confident you will carry out this new assignment with diligence and honor. Is there anything you’d like from us before you begin?”            

“Just one thing Sir, I’d like to bring Jason Speare into the CID. He’s an old friend who has been with the Agency for nine years, the last eight in Operations in Europe. He was posted to Europe because he knows a couple of European languages from living there with his parents, and Russian, his minor in college. His father worked in Europe while Jason was in high school so I only saw him during our senior year but I knew him earlier when he was in Washington. Our parents were friends. He followed me to Central Michigan University and joined my fraternity. I talked him into applying to the Agency after college. Jason’s an expert at assessing potential assets but he hasn't recruited a single foreign agent. He’s better at analyzing people and situations than dealing with people the way recruiting an agent requires. He’s such a straight arrow he can’t bring himself to deceive others without it being obvious. I believe his analysis abilities are equally, or even more, valuable to CID.”

“Is Jason Bob Speare’s son?” Allen asks.

“Yes, he is.”

“I knew Bob during our time in the OSS during WW II. Bob was the best analyst I knew. If Jason is anything like his father we can sure use him in the CID. Do you agree, Jackson?”

“If you and David want him that’s good enough for me; we need another analyst. I’ll begin the paperwork for his transfer today. David, come with me. I’ll show you your new office and you can give my secretary, excuse me, our secretary, the details about Speare we need for the transfer request. Oh, Bill, how do you want to inform Senator Morris’s committee we have a new Assistant Director of CID? Do you want me to do it?”

“I think not Jackson. Let David contact Mary Sue Lee, the Senator’s key staff person. It’ll give David a chance to learn the ropes of being our back channel to the Senate Intelligence Committee. You can explain to David how we use the back channel and if he takes on that duty it’ll take some of the burden off you.  It’ll also give David some useful experience in how the intelligence community works.”

“Good Bill. Let’s get started David.”

After showing David his new office Jackson invites David into his own office and asks: “Tell me more about Speare and about you? Since he’s going to be on our team I’d like to know more about him. I know about your work but I’d like to more about you personally. I think it’ll make our working together go smoother if we know each other better. For starters, why did two boys from Washington D.C. decide to go to college in Michigan?”

“That’s an interesting story. I think you know my dad is an engineer. He went to Purdue University in Indiana for his engineering degree. He graduated just before the war and after spending the war years in the OSS, where he met Allen and Bob Speare, he was recruited as an engineer in the agency that develops our satellite based intelligence collection systems, He married my mother Janet before he left the OSS so we have always lived here. My parents were friends with the Speares when Mr. Speare was working in Washington. Jason and I have always been good friends even though I am a year older.”

“When it was time for college my dad wanted me to go somewhere in the Mid-West. He said being in the down to earth culture of Midwesterners would give me a better understanding of American people than I had from growing up in Washington where politics and foreign policy are the popular topics. My mother agreed. She said it might humble me a bit. She believed being smarter and a better athlete than most of my friends had made me arrogant. I learned to ski and to love it while in high school so I wanted a college close to ski resorts. I would have chosen a college in New England but to satisfy my dad I looked for one close to skiing in the Mid-West. I wanted to major in social studies and psychology so I had a broad choice. When I learned CMU is within a couple hours of ski hills I applied there. I enjoyed it there and recommended it to Jason. I suspect our fathers talked because when Jason told his parents I wanted him to come to CMU they encouraged it.”

David continues: “We both enjoyed our time at Central. Jason played baseball, one of his passions, and soccer on Saturdays with some foreign students since there was no university soccer team then. I concentrated on skiing and girls. Oh, Jason’s major was economics. I think that’s how he became so analytical in his work. And he is unmarried. I think you know I am married to Nancy Allen, the Director’s niece. I met her at one of his Christmas parties. We married in 1976 and we have two girls; three and one and a half. I still love skiing but this winter I expect I’ll spend most of my ski week on the bunny slope teaching Rachael, our three-year-old. That about covers Jason and me. Anything else you want to know?”

“That’s fine for now David. Let me tell you a little about me. I was born in 1942 shortly after my father deployed to England. He was killed during the Normandy invasion so I never knew him. My mother raised me and taught me to work hard and maintain a strong faith. Our church gave me a scholarship to Howard University, which paid for the expenses I couldn’t cover with part-time work. I didn’t take part in the civil rights movement while I was in college. My guilt led me to sign up for the Army after I graduated in 1964. I spent the next three years in Vietnam. I learned two important lessons in Nam. There’s no racial discrimination during combat and war is something to be avoided if at all possible.  I joined the Agency because I felt it was the best way I could contribute to preventing any more wars like Vietnam. You probably met my wife Angel at one of Bill’s Christmas parties. We were married in 1968, the year I joined the Agency. Angel and I have a son ten and a daughter six. Angel didn’t have the opportunity to go to college. She works in a department store at Tyson’s Corner. We moved to Vienna, which is close to both our jobs, just before our son started kindergarten hoping for a better school than the ones in our old neighborhood. But we still go back to the old neighborhood church where we’ve attended since we were kids. My hobbies are gardening and camping with my family in the summer and I spend a lot of time volunteering at church in the winter.”

David listens carefully to Jackson’s brief story of his life. Something bothers David; maybe because Jackson told the story without emotion and the story sounded rehearsed, too much like a cover story he was trained to identify. He dismisses the thought, putting it down to Jackson’s quiet personality, and thinks it’s just going to take a while to understand Jackson.