Chapter
16.
One year
later, Etienne was scraping by, working odd jobs and driving a beat
up old Cadillac. Agent Echo had failed in his bid for the Beijing
posting, and was re-assigned to CIA Headquarters, in Langley. The
Pope was insisting on more detailed information from online accounts,
and the only way to get it was with warrants. To satisfy this ever
growing thirst for information, Agent Echo conceived a joint
operation with the NSA. Now, if he needed a warrant, the story to
the judge would be that this new person was the subject of an
investigation of a hard to prove conspiracy. Piece by piece, the patchwork of lies grew up, like a tent erection. There were no concrete
leads, except historical ties back to the child hood of... Etienne
DuBios.
Rather than
arrest Etienne, and give him opportunity to clear his name, Etienne
was put under surveillance, 24/7. Serious FBI agents, and CIA trade
craft classes found employ in diligently documenting his visits to
Taco Bell, and WalMart, week after week. When interest dwindled,
Agent Echo would trot out some new application of the Beale Cipher,
or point out that Etienne appeared to have secret ties with the
Catholic Church. A class never lasted two years, and by the time a
given boss might see the pattern repeat, the (now very senior) Agent
Echo could promote him or extinguish his career at a whim. By the
time Echo was forced to “cut other Catholics in” on the affair,
the commitment was practically its own institution. Etienne was in
no danger of coming to trial. In fact, if a move were made to that
end, the ad hoc conspiracy of Catholics were so numerous that they
could not have done so if they tried. There was too much power,
money and influence invested in tertiary activities.
Etienne now
faced the ire of foreign despots, and he was occasionally informed of
their ill intent, if any “reached out” to engage the
indianna.scout of yahoo.com. He did not get a memo, and no one ever
said “Etienne, don't trust that person – he's a foreign
operative.” Rather, some person who must needs speak to him
anyway, in the course of normal business, mentioned that INS was
looking for a given individual, or that a man cheated in business
matters. They might say it was patent violations, or human
trafficking. However he was warned, Etienne knew not to fraternize,
without being given specifics.
The years of
poverty and ill repute were draining his life away, when Etienne
found the body.
