August 2017
Taylor's POV
"ID ma'am?" one of the guards asked as I pulled up to the gated compound known as the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. I pulled down my sunglasses and handed him my badge. He looked at me and looked down at the picture on my badge, studying it to see if I was really the person on the badge. "Who are you here to see?" he wanted to know.
"Special Agent James Palmer." All the guard did was nod before stepping back into his booth with my badge. I waited patiently while I watched him phone in to confirm my appointment. Security here was the tightest of any CIA facility I had been to and justifiably so. After a few minutes, he came back out and said, "Alright Ms. Swift, you are cleared to enter." He handed me my badge back and hit a button which raised gate and lowered the spikes in the ground.
I pulled the car through the gate, keeping a slow speed, and drove around until I found building seven. I hadn't been to headquarters in at least two years. Usually, I had no reason to be here. When I got the message from James last night to report here, I knew I was in trouble. The timing said it all. I took an early flight from New York to Virginia this morning. The clock in my car read 10:30. My meeting is scheduled for 11 AM, but I know I can't be late to this.
I wouldn't say that I was scared to be at headquarters, but I was certainly nervous. I didn't know who else I would be meeting with besides James. I scanned my badge to enter the building. Inside, bright lights illuminated the long white hallways. Employees in dark suits scurried about while juggling coffees and stacks of papers. The office environment was not for me. Though I felt out of place, I looked like I could fit since I chose to wear a black suit with black heels that clicked with every step. I took my time walking to the special operations office.
When I reached the operations office, a man at the front desk greeted me. "Hello, do you have an appointment with someone today?"
"Hi, yes I'm meeting with Special Agent James Palmer." I showed him my badge. The desk agent gave me a strange look when he saw my name and badge. Most people at the CIA didn't even know I worked for them, especially the office workers. It was quite entertaining to see their reactions.
"Special Agent Palmer told me to direct you back to the meeting room. He is in meeting room 3 which is just past all of the cubicles, take a left at the end of the hall and it will be the first door on your right."
"Thank you. Have a nice day," I said before walking back to the room. I took a few deep breaths as I approached the room.
Outside the meeting room, I could hear James talking with another person. It sounded like another woman. I knocked softly on the door and waited before I heard, "come in."
"Hi Taylor," James cheerily greeted me when I entered the room. He introduced me to the other person he was talking with, his boss. "Taylor, meet Special Agent Rebecca Stewart. Rebecca this is the famous Taylor Swift."
"Nice to finally meet you, Taylor." Rebecca extended her hand for me to shake. James never mentioned his boss before. Well, maybe he did a few times, but I never interacted with her since I primarily worked in the field.
"Likewise." I didn't feel like the bubbly celebrity who met fans and strangers all the time; I felt small and unsure of myself. I wanted this meeting to be over already, but it hadn't even started.
James was quick to fill the silence. "We are just waiting on a few more agents, and then we can get started with the meeting. By the way, congrats on your new album." I honestly couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or genuine, so I just thanked him.
A few minutes later, a group of four agents entered the room all talking loudly and laughing. All of them were guys. Now I was confused. When James messaged me, I was not under the impression that this was going to be a light-hearted meeting. Also, if this had anything to do about my surprise album announcement, why would we need four more people in on the conversation?
Everyone quieted down as they took their seats around the long rectangular conference table. Rebecca walked around, handing us each a manila folder with the word classified stamped across the front in bold red letters.
She talked as she walked back to her seat. "Thank you all for joining us. Taylor, thank you for joining us with such short notice. As you can tell from the folders in front of you, you have been brought in to be briefed on a new operation. We believe that each of you brings a unique skill set or position to the team. With that, let's get started."
I opened the classified folder and saw some familiar looking documents. A few of them were my old reports. Reports from several months ago when James asked me to pursue Joe as a source. While Rebecca talked about the documents in the folder, I got distracted by James who struggled to connect his laptop to the big monitor on the wall. The USB sticking out of his laptop caught my attention. It looked exactly like the one Joe gave me a few months ago.
Tuning back into Rebecca's brief, I heard her say, "You all have been given level one clearance for this operation. This is top secret clearance. It gives you access to any information across agencies. You must not speak about this operation to anyone who does not have the same clearance. Is that clear?"
Everyone in the room nodded. She then directed our attention to the screen. As soon as the picture appeared on the screen, I knew what it was and where it came from. This was a follow up to the operation I ran a few months back. I pretended like I'd never seen the files before.
"This," Rebecca gestured at the screen "was obtained back in June. Actually, Special Agent Swift headed that operation."
I nodded, careful to maintain a straight face. Did they know that I already knew what was on the device?
James chimed in, "The data on the device was well coded, but we finally accessed and processed it. Some of you in this room spent the past few months decoding and sifting through the information." So at least that explained why the other agents were here.
Rebecca continued, "After analyzing the contents of the device, people above us developed an operation team. That's all of you. If you could turn to the fourth page in your folder, you will see the overview of the data. It was obtained at a dead drop made by an agent of MI6. We are still unclear of who the source is and how they obtained this sensitive information. We do not know why they provided it. On the device is a list of over 1,000 undercover agents currently in operation for us and MI6. The fact that the provider of information had access to this information means that all of our agents on this list have been compromised. However, we have been keeping track of each agent and none of MI6 agents have been pulled from the field, so we can assume they don't know about the information leak. We will not be pulling agents out of the field just yet. Any questions so far?"
So many thoughts ran through my mind. I was relieved that they didn't know Joe and Natalie were the agents involved. I was also glad that, if they knew I was involved, they weren't revealing any signs about it. MI6 still hadn't figured out that they had a breach of their security system which was good for everyone. The downside of this was that neither party had plans to release their agents. Was I naive for believing in Joe's plan?
"Now you are all probably wondering what your roles are for the operation. Flip to page 10 in your folder. Taylor," James paused and looked at me. "As the field agent, you will be actively pursuing leads on the source from MI6. We compiled a list of potential agents already. You already have strong relationships with some of them. When we identify strong potentials, we will bring them in for questioning. We need to know who else has this list and what they intend to do with it. Use all the resources at your disposal." James continued to tell the other agents what their roles would be. Mainly, they are following current agents to make sure they are safe and searching for any evidence about the source.
As soon as James said strong relationships, I scanned the list of names in front of me. Joseph Alwyn. Third one down on the list. James knew that Joe and I were together, but I guess he didn't know that this wasn't like any of my previous source relationships. The worst part about this whole operation was that we weren't really interested in developing sources. The people on my list were targets. The CIA would take them out one-by-one to demonstrate their power over MI6. I couldn't let Joe be taken out. He would have to return to England and would probably be denied entry back into the States indefinitely. Any interaction with sources was to be submitted in a detailed report back to HQ. Falsifying my reports would be considered a felony. Considering the fact that Joe and I share a bed every night, falsifying my reports seemed like the only option.
"This operation is to be your number one priority. You will report anything related to the case directly to me or Special Agent Palmer. Meeting dismissed."
James pulled me aside after the meeting. "High up is not happy with your independent album release but this operation is their main priority. They chose you for a reason. Hopefully your promo for the album will give you some leverage on the sources, but it also makes you a target if the wrong people get the information on the device. You got lucky this time. If this operation goes well, HQ can probably forgive your missteps."
Walking out of the conference room, I wished that this meeting had been about my album instead of this operation. I could have handled that much better. James' warning was serious. I had no idea what my next move was. I dialed my boyfriend's number as soon as I was safely back in my car. When the phone started ringing, I wondered what I was going to say to him. He picked up on the first ring.
"Hey, how did it go?" Joe sounded concerned. He knew that I thought the meeting was about the album.
I wanted to tell him everything. Tell him that the CIA had the device and that MI6 still didn't know. Tell him that he was on my list of targets. Tell him that they intended to bring in all targets for questioning. Instead, I lied and said, "It actually went really well. I'm flying home tonight."
"Great, do you want me to pick you up?"
"No, that's okay. I'll be getting in super late. And, there's no need to stay up waiting for me."
"Okay. I'll leave you some dinner in the fridge. Safe travels, love."
I hung up before saying anything further. I was alone in this again.