The Protector by Dawn Marie Snyder

This didn’t go unnoticed by Jack’s coworkers.  Seth who had taken the seat next to Jack looked at me with a smug grin on his face.
    I took a sip of my coffee and looked down at the toast that had been set in front of me. Eating was the last thing I had on my mind and the thought of food made me nauseous.  I wasn’t sure if it was the left over effects of the vodka  or the nerves that had settled in the pit of my stomach.
    It was Conway who spoke first. “Alison, I need you to go through everything that happened before you left Albuquerque and when you got to Tel Aviv.  Jack has filled me in about what happened when you were supposed to meet with Professor Hassan.”
    I looked at Jack confused. “You were there!”  It was more of a statement than a question.  I had thought I was completely insane thinking he was there. Why didn’t he stop the handoff when he knew it wasn’t Professor Hassan? Why did he even let the handoff take place? The questions raced through my mind as I realized that he could have stopped the whole thing. Anger began to well up inside of me.  I watched Jack intently wanting an answer but I realized rather quickly I wasn’t going to get one.
    He shoveled a bite of oatmeal into his mouth to keep from having to say anything.  I was pretty sure he could read the anger on my face.   
    “How long have you been watching me?” I suddenly wanted to know details of his time in Tel Aviv. I laughed at my own naivety. Of course he had been watching me. I had seen him. I had run into him at the hotel yesterday and saw him at the plaza. And Seth, he was on the plane when I left Dulles and I had seen him everywhere in Tel Aviv.  I figured after talking to Jack, he had kept an eye on me in Tel Aviv, but I hadn’t realized he had actually watched the hand off. I realized quickly that was pure stupidity on my part considering he had mentioned he always accompanied Tom from a distance on these types of trips.
    “Since you left Dulles,” Seth answered for Jack who was now sipping his coffee. I could feel the anger pulse through my veins as I began to grasp the magnitude of the situation.
    “You had your own special security detail young lady,” Conway added as if it was supposed to make me feel better. Instead it angered me all the more. I had gathered that this man, who towered over my small frame, was the head of the operation.  But there was something about him I didn’t trust.
    “Then if you were all there, why didn’t you stop the guy I gave the processor to? You knew it wasn’t Hassan. Jack you admitted that. Why did you let me hand it off to the wrong person?”  The anger grew more intense with each realization that this could have all been prevented.
    Finally Jack spoke, “Open market location could have caused more problems. Not to mention, I wasn’t the only one there who didn’t stop the handoff, the Israeli government had sent someone as well, your friend Joed. And I am pretty sure we weren’t the only ones.”
    “So you didn’t stop to think something was wrong when Tom sent his assistant to do the handoff?  Did you not see something unusual about that?” My tone was full of sarcasm and my voice was getting louder.  “Gee if this is how our government runs its intelligence operations, we’re screwed aren’t we?”  Anger completely consumed me and the anger always unleashed the bitch.
    “Tom had talked about grooming you to take his position. We had been working on your back ground check for a while now.  He just wasn’t sure how to approach you about helping us out,” Conway shifted his chair to face me now. “Tom gave me a heads up you would be coming in his place.”
    Both Seth and Jack looked at each other in surprise at Conway’s words. Obviously this was something they were not aware of.
    Suddenly I felt like the parent quizzing the child. “Then how was it supposed to happen? Was I supposed to just handoff the processor and go on my merry way? It