Chapter 1

My boss is a spy—but one of ours.

My name is Katie Holmes. I was hired by the agency when I was 21 after graduating from college with honors and a broken heart from a bum of boyfriend. My parents were delighted that I was the first one in my family to receive a college degree. My boyfriend ruined graduation week by almost boasting that he had been seeing someone else for the past three months, and I had come in second. As he cruelly put it, “Second both in and out of bed.”

For the next three years I worked my way up the administrative ladder. In many ways it was just a job, but on the other hand, our business was spying. My evaluations were very good, and I passed the required lie detector test every six months. The guys kept hitting on me, but my past experience made me more or less the ice princess of E Section.

In the fourth year I was asked to become the administrative assistant to the head of E Section. The salary increase was excellent and my new boss Randy seemed like a serious but nice person. He was also five feet eleven inches tall, weighed about 175 pounds, with brown hair, and intense brown eyes that looked right through you. Obviously I took the job.

Spying became real to me in my new position. The early years had me filing weather reports, economic data, biographies of government people, and other dull reports. Now the material I handled came from our overseas offices and involved sensitive areas. Which government official was sleeping around. Who had money problems. Whom might we approach to see if they would work with us. I was naïve until I realized that human weakness is the heart of spying. E Section was always looking for human weakness, and when found, how they could exploit it.

One day I opened the courier envelope in order to log in the reports and have them ready for Randy to review later in the morning. The second envelope had large, glossy pictures and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A man who looked 60 years old was having sex with a woman that was lucky to be 20. She was beautiful with red hair, very white complexion, and large breasts with small, hard nipples. The man was in her and obviously was about to climax.

I was frozen, just staring at the pictures when I heard Randy’s voice behind me say, “Sometimes our business requires people to do things outside the box of normal human activity. That woman is one of our best assets—you would never guess that she is closer to 30 than 20. The man is a key advisor to the prime minister of his country. He comes from old money and has a wife and five children. We believe he cannot take the shame of a discovered affair.”

Randy stared at me and said, “Can you accept this side of the business and not let it affect you and your job?”

I stammered, “I don’t know.” I was blushing—not only at the pictures, but my reaction to the pictures in front of Randy. I asked, “Why do we have to do things like this?”

Randy remained quiet for a moment and then said, “Our business is to serve our country and save lives. Sometimes we do things that are horrible in any situation, but the one that our country now faces. There is a classic question often posed. Terrible people have taken your children and put them in a confined space with three hours of air. You have captured a person who knows where the children are located. Is torture, and the question assumes that torture will force him to reveal the location of the children, something that you would allow?”

Randy looked at me and asked, “Would you order the person tortured to save the children?”

I stammered again, “No ... yes ... I don’t know.”

Randy paused a moment and then said, “If you are to remain in E Section, you must be able to answer that question and variations of that question. I want you to talk to Anne who I think you know works for us. After talking to her, give me your answer.”

Anne was an operational person. I had filed some of her reports and occasionally greeted her in the hallway. She was confident and beautiful. She had a well defined figure that indicated many hours in the gym. Anne was five feet six inches tall with blond hair, blue-green eyes, and breasts that accentuated her spectacular body. It was hard for any employee to not watch her when she entered a room.

She walked in the next day and said, “Randy wants me to talk to you. Let’s go to the small conference room.”

Anne immediately took charge in the conference room. “I know what you saw. I know what Randy told you, and I know how you answered. In my early days in the field, I had a variation of the classic question Randy asked you. I hesitated, and the person died, and his family died, and I felt terrible.”

Before I could even collect my thoughts Anne continued, “Do you have a boyfriend? Do you enjoy sex?”

I finally broke in and said, “What business is it of yours? Why should I tell you anything... ?”

Anne interrupted, “this meeting is a career move conversation. I am trying to make a judgment about you and one way to do that is to put you under stress and see what happens. You were uncomfortable when I asked about a boyfriend, and you turned absolutely red when I asked about sex. Why? You are five feet seven inches tall or so, breasts bigger than mine but perfect for your body, and legs and an ass that most women would die for. You should have men lined up in front of your bedroom door.”

Anne stopped talking. She just stared at me. I said nothing. She said nothing.

Finally I told her about college, my boyfriend, my humiliation.

She asked, “Do you feel it is the worst thing that could ever happen to you--to be rejected?”

I thought for a moment and replied, “No, there are many things worse than that. Poor health, death of a close friend, or a nasty divorce with children would all be worse than my little rejection.”

She said, “This talk has gone two ways. Let’s try to bring them together. To remain in E Section you must be comfortable with yourself and be comfortable with some of the approaches we must use to serve our country. If you do not have that comfort level in both our mission and in your own self, you must request a transfer. There will be no prejudice, but you will no longer be subject to the situations in which we are involved.

“The choice is yours. Randy told me to tell you to take the rest of the week off. On Monday, resume working in Randy’s office, or go to human resources for your new assignment.”

Monday I returned to Randy’s office early in the morning. Two hours later he came in, stopped when he saw me, gave me a small smile and entered his inner office. The small smile did it. I had made the right decision.