Best of Blue Bloods Part 18
Season 6 Episode 17
Frank had a serious meeting with a number of law enforcement personnel from England. It included A Deputy Director Harold Kellen of MI5, Deputy Commissioner Roger Thorton, Metropolitan Police, Commander Sloane Thompson, of the City of London Police. He welcomed them all personally. He spoke frankly, "You are, going to be seeing things out in the field over the next couple of days. You're going to have questions answered and perhaps even suspicions confirmed that go to the heart of how we protect out city and our way of life from the terrorists who would stop at nothing to destroy it-- or your own London as well. Any pictures that you take, any notes that you make, electronic or otherwise, need to be vetted thoroughly by us, are we agreed?"
The Deputy commissioner replied, "Of course, Commissioner. I prefer to keep it all up here in my head."
Frank looked at him, "Photographic memory?" He added, "I've always found that the really viral stuff tends to stick."
Frank noticed that Sloane didn't reply and he called her out, "Commander Thompson?"
She looked at him, "Agreed."
He nodded, "Good."
She added "Thank you. And quite clever, that, if I may say so."
He stiffened up, "That what?"
She replied, "That for-your-eyes-only bit just then. as if we're going to be privy to your drone-strike protocols and electro-shock treatments. " She smiled at him.
He struck back, ""Well, I assure you, we don't have those capabilities, Commander."
She added, "But we're not really going to see the capabilities you do have, now are we?"
Her superior chastised her, "Commander?"
She broke in, "I would like to go on record here.... "
Her other superior cut her off, "As being presumptuous?"
She retorted, "As having been promised straight whiskey, but fearing I'm being served with weak tea."
Frank sat back, "And what makes you think that, Commander?"
"I've done some homework, Commissioner Reagan. I've spoken to a number of private-sector security heads who've attended your SHIELD program. "
He replied, "Another program we're very proud of."
"But, Commissioner, the breadth of access to your department and its works appears to me to line up almost exactly with that of the SHIELD program.... "
Her Deputy scolded her, "Sloane, for God's sake."
She blurted out, "No! As if London and her citizens and her landmarks deserve no more of your insight and expertise than a hotel chain or an investment bank, a pharmaceutical firm, the entities of whom SHIELD is designed."
Frank was getting pissed, "Well, your homework is incomplete. That's just not true."
She went back again, "I sincerely hope that by the time we leave here tomorrow night, you will share with us what you truly dread, what you're prepared to do about what you truly dread, what you know that no one else does."
He glared at her, "Well, I can tell you one thing the Irish in me truly dreads." He paused and stared at her, "Ultimatums delivered in British accents." He had her and she just looked back at him.
Later in an informal meeting Frank went over other procedures and he saw Sloane wasn't buying Frank's answers.
"Okay, say we get a call. Guy buys X amount of fertilizer. A guy who's address is an apartment in the city who had no normal need for X amount of fertilizer. He also buys nine pressure cookers in the next state over, and we get that call,too. "
The deputy replied, "You want that guy."
Frank nodded, "And we'll get that guy. But the guy we'll miss drove an SUV packed with AK-47's up the east coast. And we will miss him because we do not have a cooperating merchant or a CI to call it in."
Sloane replied, "Pretty big hole in the net."
Her other commander once again chastised her, "Thank you Commander, Obvious."
Frank nodded, "Well, it is a pretty big hole in the net. But I expect it's more our problem than yours. From what I can tell, your telecoms don't have the same restrictions put on them as ours. You can scrub communications that we can't touch without miles of red tape. Too little too late."
The deputy questioned Frank, "In the name of what? Privacy?"
Frank smiled at him, "Not gonna go there."
The deputy replied,"Commissioner, we'd like to thank you for this most illuminating couple of days."
Frank cut him off, "Just a minute here. " He looked up, "Commander Thompson. You asked me what I dread the most?"
She looked at him, "Yes."
He stared back at her, "The Paris attacks. How low tech they were. A handful of actors whose whole plot consisted of synchronizing their watches to the tick of the clock on a nothing Friday night. But you still think I'm holding back?"
She stared back at him, "Yes, I do."
The deputy commissioner tried to diffuse things, "Excuse us, Commissioner, we're late for a meeting at the consulate. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting."
Sloane refused to let it go, "You say that you're restricted by law from scrubbing cellular communications, from a take-no-prisoners approach to the surveillance of Muslim communities, of their mosques, and you just stop there? You're asking us to believe that you haven't found ways under and around. You don't have black-ops procedures that, might aid our efforts were you to share them?"
He shrugged, "That's a very smart question." He stood, "And so you're smart enough to know that, that is a question that I cannot answer. So there we are."
She just stared back at him and her boss replied, "Very well then."
They got up to leave and Sloane was the last to get up. As she passed Frank, he added, "Sorry to disappoint you, Commander."