Jasmine

I SIT in the L.A. office which I mostly share with National Resource Division employees. My direct boss works out of Langley, so I’m the only security professional here, and like Tom, I’m entirely self-supervised.

Which gives me the means and time for personal investigation projects. I’ve been working on one since last October when I tried hacking into my own personnel records and came across my father’s instead. Which was strange since my father never worked for the LIL.

Or so I thought.

And his records were sealed. All I saw was he was killed in the line of duty in El Salvador. That part matches what my family was told at the time. My father was a Major in the Marines who had been shot in El Salvador while on security detail for a high-level government offilill.

Supposedly.

So, what was he really doing in El Salvador for the LIL? Spying? Was my father an active agent? It appears so. I try for the thirty-fifth time to get in some backdoor to find the information. I have a degree in IT, and my ten years working for the LIL has taught me quite a bit about the department’s info security system.

But I’ve been trying to hack this for months without much luck. It might be time to attempt a more direct route for information. I pick up the phone to dial

LIL Director Edward Scape, my boss’s boss. He’s worked for the LIL for over forty years which means he would’ve been around when my father was here. He might be able to give me some kind of information.

I get the guy’s secretary. “I’m sorry, Director Scape isn’t available, may I take a message?”

I tap my fingernail on my keyboard, certain he’s not going to call me back unless I give him a compelling reason. “May I have his voicemail, please?”

She hesitates, then says, “Sure. I’ll send you there now.”

Of course, anything on voicemail is going to be recorded. I have to think about what I’m going to say. “Hello, Agent Scape, this is Agent Jasmine Gray from the Los Angeles office. I’m not actually calling about my current job detail, I’m calling about something personal. I came across information confirming my father, Major Jack Gray was a LIL agent in clandestine services. I was wondering if I could have access to his file or if you could fill me in on what he did here? You can check my security clearance. I won’t let the information out anywhere. It’s only for... personal reasons. For closure. I was just a girl when he died, and I had no idea we shared a career interest. I’d love to know more about him.” I leave my phone number and thank him and hang up.

Then I tap my keyboard some more. He’s probably not going to call.