Interlude 02

September 22nd, Austin, Texas

Dallas walked into the office this morning with a sour expression. The day after Fairfield had dropped him off at his home, he wasted no time informing the higher-ups about the situation they found themselves in.

However, not even two hours after he made the call, he was contacted by one of the three heads of the organization only addressed as ‘The Generals’. Normally, being contacted by one of them after submitting a report regarding an operation manager’s actions in an operation, meant that this operation manager must have a lot more pull in the organization that Dallas had expected. This particular ‘General’, however, was also his father, who had placed Dallas in his current position in hopes he could fast-track him through the ranks until he was ready to take over. So, he wasn’t worried when he heard his father’s voice on the phone and didn’t think it was about his report. That changed once the General started talking.

Dallas was now on ‘probation’.

His father, in this case speaking as the General, shared Fairfield’s view! It was his responsibility to prepare the photographic evidence, so it would now be his responsibility to correct any and all complications that arose as a consequence of his earlier negligence. This last part made him shudder.

He was still convinced that disposing of Mr. Carver was a gross overreaction and would create much more complications than the pictures themselves. Especially since there was no telling whether anyone had even discovered that minuscule detail exposing their tempering. That the higher-ups would sanction a disposal, on nothing more than the hunch of a possibility, did not fare well for Dallas’ future in the organization. At least not as long as he wasn’t able to adopt a similar mindset to Fairfield’s, and he didn’t know whether he had that in him.

So, surrendering to his fate, he made his way towards Fairfield’s office on Monday morning to start on damage control.

Inwardly cursing the man, Dallas politely apologized for his failure from Saturday night and assured him that something like the mistake with the photos would not happen again. Then he proposed to start surveillance of Ms. Anderson’s lawyer. If anyone discovered his oversight and was planning on using it, the lawyer would be the first to learn about it. Fairfield not only agreed but even commended Dallas for making the right decision.

Outwardly, Dallas was thankful for receiving another chance to prove himself. In truth, however, he had trouble stopping himself from rolling his eyes. Surely, these people were simply overreacting, burning money and essential resources on their personal quests to make their marks in the organization.

Now, however, he was sitting in front of his desk, after reading the report of the surveillance team they placed on the lawyer, and tried to suppress the feeling of dread invading his mind.

According to the report, the lawyer had made contact with Ms. Anderson’s son and convinced him to play an active role in his mother’s defense. Apparently, he worked for a Houston-based and rather unorthodox private security company that employed mainly highly trained ex-military personnel, as well as highly capable ... ex-cons!? Dallas looked twice at the information he had just read, before believing that he didn’t just misread it. Despite its relatively small size, the firm quickly made a name for itself thanks to its professionalism and success rate.

It was a mystery to him how anyone would be able to coordinate a staff like that, though that last little tidbit was immediately substantiated when the report spoke about the surveillance team being ‘unable to gather any intel regarding the meeting between the target and secondary actors’. Or, in plain English, their countersurveillance hat bested the organization with all their expertise and resources. That spelled trouble.

Luckily, based on the observed actions following their meeting, it was fairly simple to deduct what was spoken about.

Immediately after their meeting, Ms. Anderson’s son, Paul, left with her. It would be safe to assume that she was now living with him. The lawyer returned to his office in Austin. The audio recordings the team acquired through the lawyer’s tapped phone proved that the eager man did not waste much time and started making calls as soon as he had entered his car.