#outofspywork

For the fourth time that day, an argument had broken out at one of the CIA’s lesser known headquarters.

David had just about enough of it. He groaned and rubbed his eyes. Ever since he ‘retired’, he hadn’t had a damn break. It was either “file this” or “report that”, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t tune out the arguments that would go on daily about which information was from what source or what information belongs where, blah blah blah. David really couldn’t care less.

He sighed and got out of his chair, running his hands through his slowly greying hair.

David Monari was in his 48th year, aging badly, and an ex CIA spy; or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say he was a “retired” spy. After his last mission went sideways and his partner ended up dying in an explosion, he had been forced to retire. But after a debate with his old boss, considering his useful background and intelligence gathered over the years, he was allowed to work in the intelligence sector.

He started to pack his bag ready to go home, putting the picture of him and his three children inside, he smiled in the knowledge that he would be able to see them soon.

But then he sighed yet again, because even that wouldn’t last for very long. He and his wife Susan had been having trouble recently. Between him being put into forced retirement, their son getting into trouble at school, and the slowly boiling tension that was developing between them before their youngest daughter came.  Eventually, it had all become too much for them both, so they decided that for both of their sakes it would be best if they got a divorce. He finished packing his bag and put on his long beige coat. He was starting to walk out of his cubical when he was stop by Daniel Dumond.

Daniel was much younger than David: he had youthful brown eyes, unlike David’s dulling green; a chiselled face, quite like what you would see on one of Michel Angelo’s sculptures and just as smooth; whilst David’s face was almost rectangular, his crow’s feet being the most prominent feature, along with his large nose that looked like it could have been broken in the past.

“What do you want Daniel, I’m going home” he demanded, his voice grating tiredly.

 “Sarah wants these reports in by tomorrow” Daniel simply replied, handing over the files he was holding in his hand, before going back to his own cubical and sitting in his chair.

“You’re kidding me?” he groaned, putting the new files into his bag.

It was days like these when he wished he was back in the field, at least back then he didn’t have to do this much desk work.

After putting his bag over his shoulder, he walked down the corridors that lead him to the reception area and past the receptionists’ desk, just before he could exit the building the receptionist called for him.

He stopped, frowning, and retraced his steps, “What?”

The receptionist; a pretty young woman, who couldn’t have been more than 25, with long brunette hair tide up in a tidy bun and a smart pin stripe suit and matching skirt; handed him a few envelopes and what looked to be even more reports.

“Sarah dropped these off for you on her way out” the woman said as he took them off of her.

‘Of course she did’ he thought to himself. He then continued walking out, “Thank you” he grumbled.

He walked to the doors and pushed them open with his upper body, both hands overflowing with papers. He then headed across the office’s shared car park and out onto the street. He wasn’t really paying much attention, his mind busy sorting out the papers in his hands, he didn’t even realise someone was walking his way until it was too late.

David fell to the ground, his papers scattering everywhere. He quickly got onto his hands and knees collecting the papers. He thanked god that it wasn’t windy tonight as he started putting the lose pieces of paper back into the reports. But as soon as he did he saw the other guys hand start to tidy the papers into neat piles before picking them up.

“I- I’m sorry” the other person repeated over and over again, stuttering.

David finally looked up to see a man who must have been in his thirties. He had chocolate brown hair that was shoulder length and a little wavy; his eyes were mostly brown, but seemed to change to a dark green colour when the street lights hit them; and he had a square-ish jaw that had dots of stubble scattered here and there. His face filled out more than David’s, making him look a little younger than he actually was. His nose almost the same as the older mans’, but much smaller.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to” the man stuttered again, handing David the papers.

David smiled, as he twisted his head to the side a little and took the papers off of him. “It’s alright, don’t worry about it. It was my fault really, I should have been looking where I was going.” He insisted, slowly getting up, his knees cracking in protest. Yet another bad thing about ‘retiring’.

“Oh. Okay” the other man smiled as he got up, brushing dirt that wasn’t really there off of his dark green raincoat.

“Thank you by the way. That would have taken me a while” he laughed, bending over and picking up his bag.

“Oh! No problem. A person should always help another in need. Right?” the man said, laughing a little, whilst looking away.

“Y-Yeah” he shook his head, “Any way, I should go” he said as he started walking forwards past the man, never taking his eyes off of him.

“Oh, of course” the man replied walking the other way, every now and then glancing back at him, but mainly keeping his eyes to the floor, “I guess I’ll see you around then”

“Yeah, probably. Promise to be looking where I’m walking next time” he joked, walking backwards so he could talk to the man properly.

The man laughed and continued walking down the street, he didn’t look back again.   __________________________________________________________________________________

He got home an hour later after catching the last train, he’d missed the earlier one by a full half hour. He unlocked the door to his apartment and stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw.

Susan was in the kitchen with the neighbour from the apartment below; he was a much younger man than both of them, making him everything his wife searched for in a man. Young, handsome, and had a wonderful career at the police station; which he was slowly working his way up in, and obviously, it wasn’t the only thing he was currently working his way up with.

“Susan, I’m home” he said, pretending he didn’t just see his wife flirting with his neighbour. He put his head down along with his bag and took his coat off, putting it on the old fashioned hat stand next to the door.

“Oh. The children are in bed. George asked for you again” Susan said, not even making eye contact with him.

‘So that’s the card she’s playing tonight’ He sighed and shook his head. Picking up his bag as he walked towards the study; which was down the corridor leading to the bed rooms.

“Don’t stay up too late!” She shouted to him as he opened the study.

He ignored her and shut the door.

He walked over to his desk and sat down sighing.

He put his bag on the desk and started riffling through the papers, sorting them into piles. “Reports, more reports, bills, even more reports, letter from my old boss…”

David stared wide eyed at the letter. Surely it couldn’t be. He looked at the return address label and saw that it was in fact from him.

He quickly got his letter opener and sliced the envelope open, his hands shaking ever so slightly.

He read the letter, his heart going a hundred miles an hour.

Dear David

I know I told you the last time we met that I never wanted you to work for me and my department again.

But I need your help and expertise. Many junior and senior agents have been going missing after investigating a case we are currently working. I implore you to come at once to the office tomorrow morning, for this case is too dire to discuss through this letter.

Yours sincerely Michael Sinfield

David could almost dance with joy. But went for just pushing back in his desk chair and grinning his head off, chuckling slightly in disbelief.

David got up extra early that morning, kissing his youngest; who still slept in their bedroom, before going into his other two children’s bedrooms, after kissing them quickly he went to catch the first train to Washington.

As soon as he reached the main headquarters he sighed and looked up at the building.

He walked in the doors, which shut ever so slowly behind him. He walked up to the receptionist’s desk and placed his arms on the cold top with a smile, instantly recognising the receptionist.

“Excuse me ma’am I’m here for the new job opening” he said in his thick Tennessee accent.

“Just a moment sir” said the receptionist. She was a tall woman with a slim build; her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, which fell just short of the base of her shoulder blades.

He coughed getting a bit impatient, which made the woman look up, her eyes instantly widening.

“Why if it isn’t David Monari” she said, smirking and standing up from her chair. She reached over the desk and hugged him, wrapping her arms tightly around his as she did so.

“I haven’t seen you in years, not since the accident…” she trailed off towards the end, releasing him from her hug.

“I know…” he said, releasing his own grip on her.

“What you doing here… If it’s for what you said earlier, you do know Michaels not going to let you back into this sector right?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

David couldn’t help but chuckle, “No, no. He asked me to come back, something about agents being killed…” He gave her his letter as proof, though he knew he wouldn’t need it.

“Ah, yeah. He said I might join you if you would vouch for me” she said whilst she read the letter, never looking up from it.

“Of course I will” he smirked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well that’s good” She chuckled, finally handing over the letter.

“So, if you’re a field agent now, why are you behind that desk?” He asked, frowning in confusion.

She looked down with a sad smile, “I was a field agent…”

Before she could continue, he heard his name from across the room. He turned towards the stairs to see that it was his old boss.

“David. It’s good to see you” the man exclaimed to the other, extending out his arms in greeting. “Sir” was all David said in reply. He was trying so hard to keep his face straight and not glare at the other.

Michael Sinfield was a visibly aging man; his silver-white hair had been slicked back this morning, his face sporting only a few deep wrinkles on it, and he was wearing a blue and white pin striped suit.

Michael sighed and lowered his arms briefly, coming closer to the other before extending them again. This time placing his hand on David’s upper arm, his other hand stopped just above his waist in a gesture for David to follow him.

“Come with me to my office, we’ll talk there”

He didn’t say anything as he followed him, moving his arm so Michael’s hand would drop before he walked on ahead, easily recalling where the office was. As soon as he reached the open door, he hurried in and sat down.

Michael walked in a few seconds later, shutting the door behind him. He walked towards his desk and practically threw himself into the cushioned chair.

“Look David. You know exactly why you were taken out of this sector, there were the repercussions of what you did and I stand by my previous decision. But I really need your help. This… thing that is killing our agents…” He opened one of the desk draws and rummaged around in it whilst he spoke. When he found what he was looking for he threw it onto his desk, “Apparently you’ve encountered it before”

David frowned as he leaned forwards to look at what the other had flung onto the desk, it was a folder dating back to the 1980’s. He picked it up and started flipping through it, his eyes instantly widening at what he saw.

“Are you sure this is what’s killing them?” he asked breathlessly as he stared down at the paper.

“I’m afraid so David, the lab reports came back showing that it was the FP Virus”

“But how?” He asked, his face was beginning to turn into a frown, remembering exactly what the virus was and what it could do.

“We don’t know. We thought the last strand was destroyed 20 years ago. But this new strand it’s… Different. It appears to be stronger almost. We think it’s been given a boost, but with what we don’t know” Michael tried explaining.

“How?” he asked again, this time more to himself.

“We want you to put together a team to investigate this and try to put a stop to it all before the virus spreads out to the public,” He said as he handed David yet another folder, “I have already assigned you them, all woman of cause, we don’t want you compromising this mission by…”

David slammed the folder down on the desk along with both his palms, “Why is it all women?” he shouted at his old boss. “You know exactly why it’s all women!” His boss shouted back, slamming his own palms onto the desk. “David you could of… No, you did compromise your last mission by sleeping with Mathew! You were supposed to protect him, not fuck him!”

David glared at him, “I did protect him!”

“No you didn’t, because whilst you slept late into the day in his bed, he went out to do the mission on his own and got himself killed!” Michael shouted.

David’s face went pale, his heart starting to pound faster, a cold sweat forming on his skin as the memories of that night came rushing back.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose before answering, “I know. Trust me, my lesson was learnt sir”

His boss just scoffed, turning to face the window to the left of his desk before mumbling, “Yeah right, you’d probably end up corrupting any men I assigned to your team. You’ve probably already corrupted your so-”

Before he could finish, David had moved to his side of the desk and slammed him into it, pinning him down between his shoulder blades with one hand, whilst twisting his right arm with the other.

“Listen here you ignorant bastard. Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I’m going to ‘corrupt’ the people around me. And my son has nothing to do with this so don’t you dare bring him into it” he whispered harshly into the other man’s ear.

“Ok. OK! Let me go!” The other exclaimed, trying to wriggle out of his grasp.

David finally, but reluctantly, let go of his boss and walked back around the desk towards the door, “I’ll only accept it if I get to choose my own team.”

“Fine!” Michael said reluctantly as he started sorting out his suit. “Bloody Faggot” He mumbled under his breath just as David opened the door.

David stopped dead in his tracks and clenched his jaw. __________________________________________________________________________________

Screams could be heard from the main lobby of the headquarters, echoing throughout the entire building.

An ambulance crew came rushing into the building a few minutes later, helplessly trying to put a screaming figure onto a stretcher whilst he was rolling around like a mad man on the floor, obviously in pain.

“I would have you court-martialed for this if I didn’t bloody need you so much!” He shouted to David.

“What happened to Michael?” The blonde receptionist from before asked.

“He fell down the stairs.” David said simply, turning away to walk out the door.

“Lisa, Michael wants you at the hospital.” Somebody said to the blonde.

“Of course he does.” She grumbled, walking towards where her boss was laying, finally on the stretcher.

David sat on the bonnet of a car blowing into his hands, trying to warm them up. It was late July, the weather had decided to take a turn to the cold side, and a deep fog was beginning to spread across the harbour. “So you’re the new boss man then?” A young blonde man asked as he walked towards David.

“Depends who you are kid” he stated, raising an eyebrow to the other.

“Oh, I’m Clifton Manson, but please call me Clif. I’m one of the guys on your team now. I believe Lisa told you about me.” The other said, holding out his hand for David to take.

“Ah, of course, nice to meet ya” he said flatly, shaking the others hand.

Lisa had rung David the night after his bosses ‘accident’, explaining to him that because of his little stunt Michael had ordered her to give him the only female team anyway; but she knew that he was just being a homophobic bastard so she gave him a list of people’s personnel files over the phone for him to choose.

“It was strange she gave you our personnel files over the phone… Isn’t that kind of dangerous anyway? What with phone hacking and shit this company does” Clif asked, leaning against the bonnet next to David with his arms crossed.

David couldn’t help but chuckle, “No, she’s a bit paranoid of those kinda things, she always changes her number and uses a secure line to communicate through”

“Oh…” Was all he said, turning his head towards the sea.

Soon more and more people showed up, when Lisa finally appeared David quickly slid off the bonnet of the car and spoke up.

“Ok listen up. This virus isn’t something you can cure with a vaccine. It is deadly and if you come in contact with it you will more than likely die, unless you’re one of the lucky sods who’s actually immune to it.” He explained to the men and woman who were there.

“We have recent intelligence which suggests that an agent that had been kidnapped a short time ago has been found dead, and it is our job to collect his body before the police or anybody else get there. Now, it is more than likely that the police are already on the scene, so we need to secure the sight from them no matter what!” He emphasised even more.

“I need Clif, Franco, Jule and Lisa to secure the surrounding area whilst James and I secure the scene.” He ordered, pointing to each as he said their name.

“Yes sir!” They shouted back in unison, heading off in different directions.

David sighed and started walking up the steps to his left, leading up to the streets above and towards the alleyway where the victim had been found.

When they finally got to the scene, James was almost sick from what he saw. The deceased agent was a young male, probably in his late twenties, though you couldn’t be sure as his face was covered in yellow pussy boils, some turning green.  His eyes were only slightly open, the boils were so big they had forced his lids to close. His eyes, ears, nose and even mouth had blood dripping out of them; and the smell was horrible, being very similar to rotting flesh.

David sighed and crouched down next to the body, “James, pull yourself together and guard the alleyway entrance.” He ordered as he pulled out a swab and container out of his pocket.

He then started swabbing the puss out of the boils. He was thankful that the police weren’t here yet. It meant he could get his job done faster, without any distractions.

“The police are here boss.” James said over his shoulder, as if on cue.

David sighed and got up, pocketing the swabs.

“What are you doing here, this is a crime scene?!” One of the officers exclaimed, holding one hand to his gun whilst the other was flailing at the men.

“Daniel, I think these people are CIA.” Said the other officer, who David thought looked really familiar.

“What?! What on earth makes you think that?” The officer asked the other, whilst raising an eyebrow.

“Well, they have guns, that one’s wearing a bullet proof vest.” He pointed at James, “And the dispatcher said the body had boils and stuff on it so I assume it’s something either chemical wise or something nuclear… ” The other officer said.

David couldn’t help but grin and raise an eyebrow, chuckling a little. He couldn’t believe that man had worked out they were CIA from such little information.

“Bull, they could be the murders for all you know. Go sit in the car Benjamin!” The other officer exclaimed waving Benjamin away with his hand, whilst using the other to rub the bridge of his nose.

“But… But I also…” Benjamin tried to reason but he couldn’t get his words out.

“Car. Now!” Daniel shouted.

Benjamin flinched and turned around, not before looking David in the eyes and then quickly looking away.

“Why do I have to get stuck with the boss’s spaz of a brother?” The officer grumbled, still rubbing the bridge of his nose as he did so.

“He’s right. We’re CIA” David said, folding his arms over his chest with a small frown.

“Then show me your badges.” The officer said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at David. “I would but I don’t have it back yet. But my college here can.” He smirked. “Erm… Boss, I kind of left it at home.” James said nervously from behind him. David sighed and turned around to face the other, glaring holes into him, “Are you serious?” “I-I-I-I-I yes. I didn’t think I would need it!” James stuttered, leaning away from his boss who was getting closer to him.

David grabbed the others bullet proof vest and tugged him towards him, “You always carry your badge! You understand?”

“Yes!” James replied quickly, shaking slightly in fear. “Look sir, without credentials I’m afraid I am going to have ask you to leave.” The cop said through gritted teeth.

“I do…” Before David could continue he saw Benjamin rushing out of the cop car, arms flailing.

“Bad guys!” He exclaimed, pointing towards a black van which was driving down the street at high speed.

Suddenly it swerved sideways and stopped. The doors slid open, men started pouring out of the van in full on riot gear; some with masks and some not, raising their guns as they started shooting at them.

David quickly went for cover behind the parked car next to Benjamin; who was now taking cover behind the open cop car’s door.

He got out his weapon and started shooting. Ducking down whenever he saw the bullets coming.

He popped up above the car bonnet every once in a while to shoot; using the car as an anchor, before quickly ducking back down so that he didn’t get hit.

He let out a saddened sigh when he saw James fall to the ground with a bullet wound in his head. He then popped back up from behind the car to shoot, only to get grazed in the arm by a bullet. He took a sharp breath in because of the sting but ignored it and continued to shoot.

“Hey, they have the body!” Benjamin suddenly shouted.

David frowned and popped his head around the car to see some of the men dragging the body of the agent into the van.

“Damn it!” David exclaimed, before going back to leaning against the car.

  David sat on the back of an ambulance watching his team as they talked to the police.

He winced when one of the paramedics dabbed the disinfectant onto his wound. He sighed, about to tell the paramedics there was no need for them to do it, when he saw a figure walk towards him. He looked up to see it was one of the policeman, Benjamin. “Hey.” Benjamin greeted, nodding his head and raising his left hand. “Hey.” He greeted back.

Benjamin fidgeted a little before replying, “Erm  I… I was going to say that I met you coming out of your office a few days ago, earlier when Johnson was telling me to get in the car.”

David chuckled before replying, “I see. I thought I recognised you.”

Benjamin chuckled too, rubbing the back of his head, “Yeah. Erm, what’s your name by the way? Never got it before the bad guys came.”

David couldn’t hold back his snort when the other said bad guys.  He shook his head and sighed, “My name’s David Monari.”

“Cool. See you around then David.” He said awkwardly as he started heading back towards his cop car, glancing at him from over his shoulder.