December 24
~~~~~~~~~~
International Network of Defense and Intelligence Operations
(INDIGO)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
~~~~~
"You're back."
John looked up from the file folder laid open on his desk, raising a brow at the man leaning casually in his office doorway. "So are you."
"Ive
been
back." David 'Blackie' De Haven sauntered with a fluid grace into the room. "Got in a couple nights ago." White teeth flashed in an easy, familiar grin. "Where were
you
?"
"Home for a funeral. Neighbor passed."
Blackie paused halfway down into the corner chair, his smirk fading. "Neighbor? Which one?"
"Jean." John sighed. "She'd been seriously ill, so it wasn't totally unexpected, but still..." He shook his head.
"Aw, sorry, Keep. That's rough, man."
Subdued, Blackie settled into the chair and let the silence stretch respectfully. He, out of all the the people John worked with, was the only one that knew anything about John's life outside of INDIGO. Just as it was frowned upon, for safety concerns, to reveal the nature of their work to 'outsiders', family included, John also took it a step further and normally did not discuss his personal life with co-workers.
Blackie was the exception, and John knew the reverse was true with him too. Over time they had discovered that not only did they work together well as a team, but gradually a deep, mutual respect had turned into friendship. Add in being stuck together for a few long, boring stake-outs during assignments and they were bound to get to know one another at least a little bit.
"Jean was a nice lady." Blackie reminisced. "Made a mean pie."
John leaned back in his chair, making it creak, and eyed his friend. "That's right. When you needed to stay at my place a couple years ago. You said you had to have some time for yourself and you were hell bent against meeting Jean or Orley... next thing I know there you are sitting on Jean's porch and she's stuffing you with lemonade and pie."
Pie
.
Apple pie...
Blue Waters...
Sitting bolt upright and clearing his throat, John began shuffling the papers strewn before him with renewed importance, ignoring De Haven's curious expression.
"I've got nothing but piles and piles of paperwork to finish out the Michigan project, and then I'll be done with that."
"Sol wanted that yesterday." Blackie interrupted, playing along with the lightening quick change of subject. "He told me to tell you." His classically handsome face lit up with it's usual grin. "And he said 'Merry Christmas'."
John huffed out a quick breath as his only response. Both he and Blackie knew that working over holidays was par for the course for them, each being bachelors with no family ties. Still, it would have been nice for once. A nice quiet Christmas Eve in front of a cozy fire with a pretty woman. But not just any woman.
What is she doing right now? Is she spending the evening with Orley? By herself? She shouldn't be alone on Christmas, especially this one. Alone and lonely...
He flipped one folder closed and shoved it to the side, and opened another one stuffed full of documents.
"With Michigan out of the way and I'll start in more closely with Sophia this week, getting her prepped." John glanced up while he talked, knowing the mere mention of Sophia McKinney always made Blackie sit up and take notice. David De Haven had the biggest school-boy crush on the woman. Not that he would admit it. "We've got Dimitri Belicoff out of prison. Thank you for that." Blackie's nod was the only acknowledgment of the many strings he had pulled to get Belicoff released from the Russian hell-hole he'd been stuck in. "And he is showing all signs of co-operating."
"He'd damn well better co-operate." Blackie snorted. "Or he's going right back where he was. I'll see to that personally."
"He will." John glanced up when there was no response. "You don't trust Belicoff."
Blackie shrugged one shoulder. "Do you? You've had more to do with recruiting him than I have."
John considered his answer for a long moment. "I believe he was set up by someone that wanted him out of the way, and I believe that before he was set up he was being looked at as an important asset by more than one impressive organization. I believe four years locked away and forgotten in a Russian prison has been more than enough to ensure his loyalty to whoever gets him
out
- that being
us
." It was John's turn to grin, a quickly fleeting expression. "He'll be watched closely, of course. But the fact is, because of Dimitri Belicoff's family ties he's our best bet right now for getting Sophia in where we need her. This is the plan and I've gone too far with it already to back out and start at square one. So, trust him or not... and for the moment I do... Belicoff is 'it'."
Blackie said nothing, and John took his silence as reluctant agreement. John knew that his partner's real issues with this assignment wasn't working with Dimitri Belicoff. It was using the Russian to get to his cousin Udre- a known weapons dealer- but
not
to take Udre down. No, this assignment, contracted through the CIA, was only using Udre as a stepping stone. A necessary evil. An evil that, for whatever reasons (
politics
... undoubtedly), the CIA had forbidden anyone to touch.
This 'hands off' directive set John's teeth on edge, and he knew that Blackie felt the same way. So much so that he'd had thoughts of defying orders and going after the bad bad Russian anyway... to hell with the fall-out... but the straw that was stopping him was the fact that there was no way Dimitri would cooperate if he thought Udre would be harmed in any way. And John knew that as close as he would be watching Dimitri, Dimitri would be watching right back for any breach of promise.
He just had to keep telling himself that nailing much bigger fish than Udre Belicoff would be worth it in the end. Besides that, it was orders. And if there was one thing John was known for, it was following orders. John 'By The Book' Keeper, always reliably sticking to the