Chapteer 19 The Assignment

1330 Zulu, Friday, July 6, 1984, The Director’s Private SCIF

The Director opens the SCIF and beckons Jason and David to follow him inside. He opens the meeting with: “Please sit down this may take a while. First, thanks for coming promptly and without telling anyone. I have a special assignment for the two of you and it must be kept secret from everyone else except anyone I tell you to involve. It may take several months so do either of you have anything going preventing you from taking on this assignment exclusively for the next few months?”

Jason and David look at each other and silently shake their heads indicating they can be available. Then David says: “We can do it, but it will put a load on Jackson. How do you want us to handle that Sir?”

“I’ll handle Jackson. I don’t want either of you to speak to him about this other than to say I have given you a special assignment. I’ll tell him to reassign all your current work. Agreed?”

“Yes Sir,” they both nod in the affirmative.

“Good. Now let me give you the background. For some time Senator Morris and I have had suspicions information known to only a very few may be leaking. We have noticed too many things that may not be coincidences. This series of events Fox Trot is working is the latest and I have decided to take action. If there is a mole in our agency I want us to find the mole and deal with the consequences before someone else finds out and embarrasses us. I trust you two absolutely but I am not that sure about Jackson or anyone else in the agency. That is why I selected you both and why you are not to tell Jackson anything, and especially don’t ever let him know I don’t fully trust him. He is such a quiet guy and works so hard I am afraid it would destroy our relationship if he isn’t the mole. I have no reason to suspect Jackson, it’s just he is a hard guy to get to know closely.”

David responds: “We understand Sir. We can keep the assignment between us. I have confidence in Jackson but he doesn’t let anyone get very close to him so I understand your concerns.”

“Good, here is what I want you to do. I want you to do all your work in this SCIF and keep all your files here. Only you two and I will have the combination for the SCIF so no one else will have access to it while you are on this assignment. I will have another filing cabinet with a security lock put in here and only the two of you are to have the combination to the lock. That will give me deniability to what you are doing should I ever need it. Do you understand?”

“Yes Sir,” both reply.

“Ok. I am going to give you both need-to-know for everything on the Agency’s computer. I want you to look through everything major concerning Europe, the Warsaw Pact and the USSR that has been public information since the new President took office. This means scanning through the Washington Post or Time Magazine for that time period. Make a list of the major announcements involving our plans or policies for that time. Then see if any events in Europe or behind the Iron Curtain relating to the public announcements seem odd in some way. For example, a major event in Eastern or Western Europe or in the Soviet Union that happens just before or closely after our announcement. Obviously, you could do all of this in the local public library but I don’t want anyone to know you are making such lists.”

“If you find one or more suspicious events then please share your findings with me. I want to see if my gut feelings about this connect to reality. Next, I want you to go through the agency’s databases to see if there is information that could have been leaked that might explain the suspicious events. If there is it would suggest to me we have a mole.”

David interjects: “I agree that would be highly suggestive of a leak. But isn’t it possible the leak, if there is one, is in another agency?”

“Certainly David, but for obvious reasons I want to make sure any leak is not in our agency first. If we believe there is a leak and we are confident it isn't in our agency then we can broaden the search.”

“Director, since you want us to cover the time period since the President took office do you suspect a mole could have come in with the new administration?” Jason asks.

“No, not any more than I suspect a mole in any other agency. It’s just it seems to me there have been more suspicious events since the new President took office. If you find information in our databases that could indicate we have a mole I want to know and I expect you to develop a plan to expose the mole without any publicity. I prefer I not know the details of your plan if it might blow back on me or this agency; I just want to know you have a plan you are reasonably confident will work. If your plan requires any foreign travel or coordination with other agencies or with MI6 let me know and I will handle the coordination. Finally, Jason, I want you to keep Mary Sue Lee informed of the project and your progress. The senator expects she will be informed and believes she may be able to help. She has insights into the work of other intelligence agencies you may not be aware of. Now, if you have no further questions I’ll leave you to go to work while I take care of letting Jackson know you two are unavailable for a few months.”

“No questions Sir, we are ready to start,” replies David.