Skill Set by Vernon Rush

Investigation and for the Counter Intelligence Activities, the latter appealing to Daniel the most, since its emphasis was in surreptitiously gathering information from and about other countries and their organizations in order to be on guard and protect our country as efficiently as possible. He listened to visiting active agents, willingly underwent all the testing required and before too many months went by, he had moved to Hyde Park, NY, to train and become an agent himself. His companion, the smiling, innocuous Franklin Thompson followed suit and they became an outstanding pair of shadow agents, known as such by very few senior agents and groomed to infiltrate and report everything of interest or concern. Eventually, the opportunity to work in D.C. right in the middle of the political pressure cooker that exists up on The Hill presented itself and Daniel, hidden inside the obsequious, apologetic, rather clumsy personage he used as a disguise, was hired as Isaac Rose’s intern, who was supposed to learn all he could on the job. Along with Daniel, Franklin Thompson was also hired in a parallel position, also secretly working as a watch-dog. Franklin didn’t let anyone know he was basically planted as Daniel’s guard dog, as well as the ordinary agent’s duties. He and Daniel were roommates again, but this time in a nondescript townhouse with nothing blatant to call attention to it at all. It was in a quiet neighborhood, had two master bedrooms, two land lines, and one false panel in the den area that slid open to reveal a bank of electronic equipment that would make the agents of the President’s personal bodyguards pea green with envy. Daniel and Franklin were trusted agents working undercover disguised as underlings in training, with watchful eyes on everyone close to the power in the government. And more importantly, on anyone who might possibly be considering an assassination plot against the President or on anyone with strategic information, such as Emma Soto, the Defense Secretary, or the Vice President, or the Secretary of State. No one working adjacent to Daniel and Franklin, not even Foxhound or Persephone, knew their true identity and they had been ordered to keep it that way. Their neighbors in the townhouse complex thought they were traveling salesmen working for a new electronic wireless telephone and internet company, the Orbit. They explained their odd hours of operation as necessary when setting up a large corporation’s electronic operations when less commerce was being conducted.

CHAPTER
11
    “ No. . .I ’m still on my way. . .What did you find out from the M.E.?” Daniel was talking into his cell phone as he walked rapidly from the roof-top parking area to the elevator bank. “Ah ha. . .Just as we thought, right?. . .I’ll be in Isaac’s office in less than three minutes. . .Suggest you remain right there behind the newspaper, as invisible as one of the roaches in the kitchen and let me know which direction Ivan and his cronies move after their breakfast. . .Yeah. Bye.” Daniel slipped his cell phone in his suit coat pocket just as he stepped onto the elevator going down. He nodded respectfully at one of the women standing aside impatiently but she did not acknowledge his presence. He blinked a few times, his blue eyes almost watery, but behind the smeared lenses of his eyeglasses, his nervous blinking hid a razor-sharp laser vision which didn ’t miss anything and his analytical mind filed the entire moment away for future reference.
    When the elevator stopped at the ninth floor, Daniel got off walking amid several other passengers who had exited at the same time. He lagged behind just long enough for the other seven passengers to disappear into various offices then he scurried to the door marked “ STAIRS. ” He pushed it open and restrained it so it could close only softly, then he rushed up a flight and opened the hall door marked “ Tenth Floor. ” Glancing back over his shoulder,