Robie instantly started to glance around the room. Bitterman shook his head. “No surveillance,” he said. “It’s not allowed.”
“Who says?” asked Robie.
“The highest authorities at the agency.”
“And you trust that to be the case?”
“I’ve been here a long time. And in my work I have been privy to a lot of secrets, many from people high up in the agency.”
Robie looked interested in this. “And this gives you protection how? Something happens to you those secrets get sent to the media?”
“Oh, it’s not really that melodramatic. And it’s far more self-serving. You see, none of these ‘higher-ups’ would ever want these secrets to be recorded and later come out. Thus great pains were taken and multiple eyes ensured that the psychologists’ offices here are free from surveillance of any kind. You can speak freely.”
“Why do you think I’m here, then?”
“You have undoubtedly pissed off upper management. Unless you have another explanation.”
“No, I think that one covers it.”
“Jessica Reel is here as well.”
“She was an instructor at the Burner.”
“I know she was. A damn good one too. But she’s a complicated person. Far more complicated than most who come through here, and that’s saying something, for they’re all complicated, in a way.”
“I know something of her history.”
Bitterman nodded. “Did you know that I did her entry psych evaluation when she first came to us as a recruit?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“After reading her background file, but before meeting her, I was convinced that she could not pass the psych eval. There was no way. She was too screwed up by life’s events.”
“But she did pass, obviously.”
“Of course she did. She literally amazed me in our first meeting. And she couldn’t have been much more than nineteen. An unheard-of thing. I don’t believe the agency bothers recruiting field agents that have not graduated college. And near the top of their classes. If ‘the best and the brightest’ sounds archaic, it’s anything but. You can’t be stupid and unmotivated and succeed at the CIA. The work is too demanding.”
“You must have seen something special in her.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Despite all my experience with reading people I’m not convinced that I was ever able to see the real person inside her, Agent Robie. I don’t think anyone ever has. Including probably you.”
“Janet DiCarlo told me roughly the same thing.”
Bitterman sat back, a frown creasing his features. “A tragedy. I understand that you are the only reason she’s not dead.”
“No, there was another reason. Jessica Reel. She’s also the reason I’m not dead.”
Bitterman tapped Robie’s bulky file. “I take it you two make a good team.”
“We have.”
“You respect her?”
“I do.”
“She has done questionable things in the past. Some have classified them as treasonous.”
“And now we jump to management’s side of things?” said Robie.
“I have to earn my paycheck, Agent Robie. I make no judgments. I don’t take sides. I just try to…understand.”
“But you’re here to evaluate whether I’m still psychologically fit for field duty. Not to figure out Reel.”
“I think those fields of inquiry may be interconnected. You made the decision to help her. Against orders. That is a serious breach of agency protocols. Even you must admit that. So the question becomes why a highly professional agent like yourself would have done that. Now that, Agent Robie, that does speak directly to the question of fitness to perform.”
“Well, if you’re judging that on the basis of my ability to follow orders, then I guess I’ve already failed the test.”
“Not at all. It goes deeper than that. Agents have not followed orders before. Some for reasons that later turned out to be indefensible. Others did so for reasons that later turned out to be justified. But even that is not definitive. Justified or not, not following orders is a very serious breach of duty. An army controlled by the whim of the lowest soldier is not an army at all. It is anarchy.”
Robie shifted in his seat. “I wouldn’t disagree with that.”
“And this was not the first time you so acted,” said Bitterman.
Now he opened the file and perused some pages. In fact, he took so long that Robie thought he had forgotten he was even there.
Finally, he looked up. “You didn’t pull the trigger.”
“The woman died anyway. And her very young son.”
“But not by your hand.”
“She was innocent. She was set up. The order for her death was not given by the agency. It was given for personal reasons by those who had infiltrated the agency. I did the