"Just try!", she said softly but with a voice of both confidence and authority. And I must admit, with a knee in my back, an elbow around my neck and staring at what appeared to me an exceedingly sharp, pointed object, I really wasn't in a position to argue. How did she do that so quickly and quietly? "It's an artform," she said as if reading my mind. "Identify yourself."
"6 8's," I said.
"Code name?"
"carla, and you?"
"Not so fast. How do I know that your the real fish?"
"Obviously you're up on your stuff. Check it out for yourself."
"Yup! No implant."
"Now! Will somebody please tell me who you are and what you're doing here? This was not in my copy of the script."
"Alan sent me. To check on you. He's worried that you'll fall victim to the split. There's some considerable turmoil at home with two evenly divided camps - pro and con. The pro camp wants to keep you here - the stuff we're getting back is good. The con camp is equally convinced that although interesting, your stuff is of no help to them at all. They want to pull you, surrender and send you to a forced-labor camp."
"And Alan?"
"Look! He's put his head on the chopping bloc for you. Now it's your turn."
"What am I supposed to do?"
"You must find a way to totally discredit the cons. Alan can't do it because he's too close to the center of the vortex. You can do it either subtley through press leaks, or use blunt-force trauma. Doesn't make any difference - whichever works. We're prepared to back you up on either. But we strongly suggest applying option (A) first with (B) held back just in case."
"Just in case what?"
"In case option (A) doesn't work?" "You're so young! How long have you been in the agency?" "Oh! I don't work for the agency. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!"