More Dangerous Than Indigo

More Dangerous Than Indigo

Propaganda is seen as an enemy, but it can also be used as a tool for saving lives; and quite efficiently. Sometimes more danger lies seeing through the wall rather than accepting it as it stands.

Color-coding spies for an alias is a rather archaic practice, but it reminds me of a story taught during training. My vocation comes with the standard-issue abnormal dosage of paranoia, which anyone surviving long enough to near retirement carries around more as clothing than an accessory.

Omitting the smaller details, this story is safe enough to divulge.

People on our side would often have colors associated. Some chose their own though others had to use what was assigned whether it meant association to a global situation or how much personal attention was needed.

As the tale goes, one of them went by Indigo. When I think back, it makes me wonder if the name justified the actions or if perhaps the personality of said individual fit to it, just as a gelatin dish which formed in a bronzed, decorative pan.

Indigo was in the business a while. Enough to be promoted and also have the opportunity to turn down assignments. That practice alone can attract unwanted eyes; but I don't want to get lost nor mired in semantics.

Concerning the case of the agent, a rapport was built. Connections made. Insulation granted. This is more the usual of operating standards. However, this particular case ended up becoming an exception...which is an obvious reason for being studied in the first place.

Indigo lived up to his "colorful" namesake. Being the appearance of the color in nature: such as only mentioned in relation to rainbows. A hue which many say cannot be seen whatsoever. Something more apt to a telescope than the naked eye after a rainstorm. The operator was difficult to see, but the allusion of the story explicitly pointed elsewhere.

The point of this codename was obvious to many of those in the classroom, but it was pointed out anyway. The course pertained to espionage and so many subtleties of the trade, but it was not subtle with pounding some of these messages into our collective memory.

When most folks attempt to describe the color indigo, they explain it in conjunction with the rainbow. It lurks between the colors of blue and purple. Somewhere between the end of one and the start of the other it lurks. Many cannot see it at all, however.

Hence the cautionary tale of Indigo. He looked like blue, as in the side of the law and authority - one of us - but straddled between us and another shade in the spectrum. He was, in fact, working for the other side. Or as they put it in the course: siding with the enemy. Indigo's tale was a story concerning black and white. Aside from the name itself, the instructor was not dealing in shades.

All which subsequently followed was not important. The usual. A slip-up. A paper trail connecting the dots, and an eventual capture. I am required to say all wrongs were righted at that point, but anyone with a high school education or a student of hard knocks (a.k.a. life) could put two and two together: or rather, see the ramifications of one person splitting interests into two. Damages were done. Waves were made. Lives could have possibly been lost. In this line of work any minor slip-up results in a major trajectory. That is a polite way of saying people dying from mistakes which are inconsequential in a standard American office building. Coming to work five minutes late or leaving five minutes early always have an intangible cloud hanging over any employees head in this field. Lives are perpetually in the balance.

All of this, my own longwinded version of events, could possibly be seen as my own attempt to be thorough. It could also be seen as a veiled attempt at procrastination. The longer I wait and withhold, the longer I can continue being what people perceive of me.