The Retirement

Justin had been surprised when Tom Mitchell opened the door to the van—and he was even more surprised when Admiral Putnum walked up behind Mitchell. An old friend of the family, Justin was taken aback by both the admiral’s presence and the fact that he wasn’t surprised to see him alive. Putnum seemed to have a working knowledge of what Justin’s team’s mission was, as well as insight on their history.

They had been relieved at the van by another member of their team, Joey DePalma—also known as Joey D—who worked out of Mitchell’s Langley office. Joey was a technology specialist and just the sort of person you wanted working the van. Joey was given the rundown of what was taking place and what frequencies to monitor, settling in quickly.

Mitchell wanted to speak to the team in private, so they headed to their motel room, and on the way, Justin wondered what Mitchell’s visit was about. He suspected his boss wasn’t happy about his team responding to this incident, as it might compromise their integrity and effectiveness—and yet he’d been surprisingly calm since his arrival. Considering Mitchell was the sort of leader who never yelled at subordinates, his mask of calm wasn’t the positive omen that might’ve been coming from somebody else. Besides, Putnum’s presence indicated that something was wrong. Seeing as the CIA wasn’t chartered to operate domestically, their being here meant breaking a few laws, and if Justin had to make a guess at what this little meeting was going to be about, that’s what he’d bet on.