Smoke and Shadow by Gamal Hennessy

started.
     
    Sweat beaded on
Privti ’ s head,
since he knew he ’ d
be first in line for any real or metaphorical ass whipping. “ Mr. Baker, I followed
the subject along his normal route according to standard practices.
I didn ’ t maintain
line of sight with him because I didn ’ t want to reveal my position. Maas
never deviated from his route. Everything proceeded according
to …”
     
    “ Don ’ t talk
to me about standard behavior patterns, Ganesh. Talk to me about
awareness. Talk to me about paying attention and having your head
on straight. ” Baker stopped pacing to loom over Privti like an
executioner. “ Tell
me how you walk right past your target after he fell down a flight
of steps and broke his goddamn spine. ”
     
    Privti
couldn ’ t make eye
contact as he searched for an answer. “ I didn ’ t see him fall. I
didn ’ t hear him.
He must have been unconscious when I walked past his
position. ”
     
    “ Eyewitness
reports say they heard screaming a few minutes after
midnight. ” Kean
stood in a corner to take himself out of Baker ’ s line of fire. He looked down at
his tablet as he spoke so he didn ’ t have to make eye contact with his
boss. “ That
matches the timestamp we have for Maas leaving the bar, and it fits
with his normal time frame of walking from the bar back to his
house. Everything fits his pattern of behavior. ”
     
    “ I ’ m sorry, I
didn ’ t realize
falling head first down a flight of steps fit in his normal
pattern. ” Baker
turned on Kean with a withering glare.
     
    Kean tried to
back pedal and then realized he had nowhere to go. “ What I mean is, Maas was
a heavy drinker. The streets were dark, the sidewalk was wet.
We ’ ve all seen him
stumble back to his place. It could have-- ”
     
    “ That ’ s my
fucking point. ” Baker turned back to Privti. “ You all saw him stumble home every
night, except last night, the most important night, you
didn ’ t see
anything. That is simply not acceptable in a professional
surveillance operation. Why am I paying a man who
can ’ t perform
basic surveillance? ”
     
    “ Ghost, if Maas
took a tumble there isn ’ t much Ganesh could have done about it, even if he saw what
happened. ”
     
    Chu spoke up
because he didn ’ t
want Baker to read anything into his silence. Besides, he figured
defending Privti now would be the last thing a guilty man would
do. “ If he stepped
in and tried to help, he would have made the situation worse.
Calling an ambulance for Maas might have exposed the operation.
Trying to move him might have compounded the injury. If Ganesh did
see Maas tumble, continuing down the street might have been the
best move either way. ”
     
    “ That would all
be true Smoke, if I only cared about what happened to Maas. But my
point is bigger than that. ”
     
    “ What do you
mean? ”
     
    “ If Maas could
vanish right under your fucking nose, he could have made contact
with Beijing dozens of times without being detected. He could have
picked up dead drops, made a brush pass or contacted the Chinese
intelligence some other way. Hell, he could have been kidnapped and
we would never know it. ” Baker paused to rest his gaze on each of the
failed operators. “ We ’ re in the
intelligence business, gentlemen. It ’ s our job to collect information. If
you saw him fall and didn ’ t help him, that ’ s fine because then we would still
have the intelligence on what happened to him. Why should our
clients pay for a stake out operation if they could learn the
status of the target by reading the Daily News? ”
     
    Chu nodded, but
didn ’ t want to say
anything else. No one said anything for a long uncomfortable moment
until Baker let out an exasperated sigh.
     
    “ Fine.
Let ’ s try to pick
up the pieces. What do we know about Maas ’ s
condition? ”
     
    “ Not much ” Kean flipped to something else in his tablet but still
didn ’ t look at
Baker. “ We know he
had to be