places: angelo's office

There were six agents in the room. The coffee pot was perking - working on its second batch of joe. Angelo was one of the agents. He was sitting on the edge of his desk for lack of enough chairs in the room. He was ready to get the crew up to speed and on the case. 

On the day S.A. Robert Townshend was buried, the Director Hoover himself called from Washington and asked agent Forte’ what he needed to get the job done.  The Director was angered by the death of an agent and assured Forte’ full support. “The people responsible for this will be captured and will be punished for this! You just let me know what you need Angelo and you’ll get it.” 

Angelo had the bandage off his head. He was an easy going guy. There wasn’t much that could rile him. The bump on his noggin still ached - yet his ego wasn’t bruised by his encounter.

One of the agents in the room spoke out before the briefing started. 

“Just who are we looking for?  What’s the M.O.?” 

The coffee was too hot to drink. Angelo blew on it slowly and took a few careful sips. 

“You know we are dealing with alien subversives - Soviets."  Some of you in here know some of what I’m about to tell you. We’ll go over all the ground to benefit everyone here." 

Angelo warmed his hands on the cup while trying not to spill it.  He seemed to be more occupied with it than the meeting.  His eyes gazed down into his distorted reflection in his coffee.

He didn’t just bury a co-worker, he buried a friend. He had to put his emotions aside and focus on the case. If he seemed calloused or indifferent it was his way of dealing with his loss.

The new agents had good reason to question Forte’s manner, but the older agents were accustomed to it. Those who knew Angelo, knew that he was a man who stayed on task. They had seen it before, from Angelo as well from fellow agents.

“Most all of you personally knew Special Agent Robert Townshend. His job with a supplier for the Soviets was to deliver false documentation for Communist infiltrators. Townshend had given us names of many of these infiltrators. The names he supplied are now part of a nationwide manhunt for the bureau. I am confident we are going to be able to apprehend those who Townshend had identified as to date.” 

Another agent spoke, “I've been on the outside of this. I thought we were just dealing with illegals. But you just mentioned Soviets. We’re not talking just a massive illegal integration. We talking subversive activity, saboteurs, spies?” 

“You’re Sam?"

“Yes sir, Sam Clark from San Francisco.”

"Glad to have you here Sam." said Angelo, “To answer your question - yes.”

“Agent Forte’, asked Clark, “Why did Townshend remain undercover after securing the names?  What more was he looking for? Where there more leads?”

“When Robert went undercover, we were not expecting to find an underground railroad. Most cells consist of half a dozen communist.  We thought we were fist dealing with communist sympathizers.  Townshend was the one to discover that this was a point of entry and had acquired trust with Clayton's forgery outfit. Robert infiltrated the network, he opened a vein of intelligence for us. We had been processing an overwhelming amount of information for the past six months. This is a very large spy ring. We have a lot of leads, a lot of names, but Townshend knew that there were more out there.  Robert’s sacrifice has taken us to gate. It’s our job to finish his job - close that gateway where alien subversives are entering our country.”

“Most of you in this room have been brought into this investigation at different times. As of today - you  will each be completely dedicated to this case. Washington is sending more agents from out of state. It’s going to be kind of crazy here the next few days. I’m counting on everyone in this room to be cooperative by helping me coordinate this investigation. Just  plan on our having frequent meetings like this. Consider yourself my lieutenants.”

Weems asked, “So where did these illegals heading once in the country...the spies that Robert Townshend had identified?”

“Different places Doug. They’ve mostly been headed to industrial cities. We’re pretty sure they’ve got inside help with local unions throughout the country. If they don’t have inside help, they’ll be finding ways to infiltrate in order to establish Communist cells. Most of us have seen this before.”

“Are the unions all they are trying to infiltrate?” asked Sam.

“No.” Angelo answered, “New York, California, even Washington, DC – political influence. 

“By the size of this list - it's more like an invasion!" exclaimed Weems. "What's behind all this?"

Angelo continued. “We’ve heard a lot of hearsay, but no one knows exactly what the Soviets are up to. 

"What do the higher-ups think is really going on?"

Their intentions have always been to overthrow the American government. It’s apparent that the Soviet Union is planting seeds to grow roots...to start more cells. Their planting ears to generate influence. No matter what their intentions, great or small - they are aggressively attempting to establish a foothold here in the United States.” 

Another agent chuckled, “We’ve got the bomb. Ol’ Ike ought to just threaten to drop one on Moscow as a message not to mess with us.” 

Another agent said, “I was in the 3^rd Army with old Blood and Guts himself. General Patton told us that we needed to deal with the Ruskies then. DC wasn’t interested in continuing the war.  Now we’ve got communists in our own backyard.” 

Forte’ took back the conversation. “You guys can talk about this on your own time. I need to get back on point.” 

Angelo took a drink from his coffee as the men in the room watched him quietly.

Angelo continued. “I was tempted to pull Robert out, but he was confident that he wasn’t suspected. I don’t know how his cover was blown. I knew Robert, he wasn’t one for taking unnecessary chances. He would have bailed if he had the faintest notion that he was in trouble.” 

He paused...reflecting...thinking. 

“Robert was working close with the counterfeiter, the supplier to the Soviets - a Mr. Clayton Tyler.” 

“That’s the guy who’s body we found in the creek, whose house burned down?” asked agent Ralph DeMint.

“Yeh.” answered Angelo, “His place had been torched just prior to our moving in. The four houses that were used as drop-offs had been evacuated by the time we got there. Our entire bust was a bust. It was Tyler Clayton’s place that Townshend said we would have found needed legal evidence.”

Angelo stood up and stretched his legs. “We’ve got more to talk about, but I’ve got to eat something.

“How about that guy that hit you over the head?” asked Weems, “How does he fit in this?”

Yeh, we’ll get to that.  DeMint and Smith checked out a couple of arsons that happened last night - more dead guys with guns in and around the place. We’ll get to that after lunch. One of you guys get a sandwich order together and the office’ll pay for it. Whoever goes to the delicatessen, make sure you bring everybody back a soda-pop. I’m going to step out for a minute and see if I can scrounge up an aspirin.”