Sands had decided that the best thing to do was tell the Company as much of the truth as he thought safe. The more lies one told, the easier one got caught. The more truth he told, the harder it would be for someone else to prove that he was lying about said activity.

It was all so simple that Sands couldn’t help but smile to himself.

When Director Douglas entered his room a little while later, Sands was fully prepared for him. His mind was prepared for several scenarios, with explanations and half-truths to go with all of them. The nurse with the musical voice announced Director Douglas’ arrival, then Douglas walked over and sat by his bed as the nurse closed the door behind her.

"Hello, Officer Sands," Director Douglas started, somewhat awkwardly. Although Sands had obviously heard of the man, they’d never met before, and evidently the sight of himself with bandages all over his face, legs and arm, was a little startling. Although Sands’ damned the circumstances, he liked the fact that the man was thrown off balance.

"Tell me…" Sands started, dispensing with a formal greeting, or a greeting of any sort for that matter. "That nurse that showed you in just now. What does she look like?" The other man started to open his mouth to say something, feeling awkward, but Sands didn’t wait for an answer before he continued. "Because, you see, her voice led me to conclude that she was hotter than two half-fucked squirrels in a forest fire, and the idea of a nurse with qualities such as that tending to my needs… " Sands paused for a moment and his voice dropped suggestively lower as he leaned conspiratorially toward the other man, "Well, let’s just say I can whip up a couple more needs she could fulfill for me."

Sands smiled inwardly but kept his face serious on the outside. Although he couldn’t see Douglas’ face, he knew the man was completely taken aback and evidently at a total loss for words as well. "I was just wondering. Oh wait, if she’s not then I don’t want to know. Truly, I’d rather keep my fantasy."

‘Keep him off balance enough so he’s open to your ideas and doesn’t catch your mistakes.’ Sands remembered that pearl of wisdom from… oh, hell… some professor he had had back at the Farm.

There was a long silence before the Director started again, and this pleased Sands very much. The man was not a master at interrogation; if he were Sands little opener wouldn’t have had any effect on him. But then, Douglas was Head of Security, not an interrogation officer.

Douglas cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Uh, Officer Sands, I’m Officer Douglas, Director of Security."

"Oh yes, I know who you are. A very important man!" Sands put his good arm onto his chest. "Golly, what did I do to deserve the honor of your visit?"

"I think you’re aware that things did not go as planned during your operation in Culiacan, Mexico…"

"Gee, and I thought getting my eyes pulled out and coming home with several new pieces of lead embedded in my body was all part of the master plan," Sands cut in sarcastically; he really didn’t mean to - he was trying to keep his sarcasm to a minimum - but the stupidity of the statement warranted the remark.

"I’m sorry, that was stupid of me," Douglas replied apologetically, the meaning of the statement hitting him after Sands’ reply.

Sands had to bite down on his lower lip to keep himself in control and not shoot off his mouth, or the guy’s head. The man was lucky Sands didn’t have a gun.

From Douglas’ point of view, it must have looked more like a pathetic reaction rather than a means of controlling an infamous temper, because Douglas set a hand on Sands’ shoulder and said, "I’m sorry about all this."

Sands kept quiet, and waited for him to continue.

Douglas cleared his throat and then proceeded. "You’ll be debriefed in a week, so I’m not going to press you for all of the hard facts at this moment, but you must understand that the roll-up of your operation is most upsetting to the Company. I need you to tell me who’s responsible for your injuries and what went wrong, so that OOS can assess the situation."

"The Barillo Cartel is responsible. As for what happened, a fucking bogus bona fide is what happened." Sands paused and leaned forward, towards the man’s voice. "What I want to know is who the fuck was responsible for AFN Agent Ajedrez’s bona fides? Whoever sent me that bona fide made one huge goddamn mistake."

"I’ll check into that immediately," Douglas said seriously, and Sands heard the sound of pen or pencil on paper. "Double Agent?"

"You could say that. Ajedrez was Barillo’s daughter."

Douglas raised his eyebrows as his eyes left his pen and paper. He looked back at the injured officer before him and mumbled an agitated "Damn it."

"Yeah. False intelligence and a bad bona fide is responsible for the roll-up. I’d sent an eyes only bona fide request to my superior, Officer Martin, to pass it to an OOS…"

"Officer Martin was acting as Bridge Officer?" Douglas interrupted, a little surprise lacing his voice. It was not standard routine for a Head of Headquarters to act as a low asset Bridge Officer to his Head Controller.

"That was my reaction as well." Sands said as he registered the surprise in the other officers voice.

"Didn’t you inquire as to why he was off standard procedure?"

Sands’ eyebrows raised. "What? Me? Officer Jeffery Sands question authority…" he paused for a moment and forced himself to adopt a serious expression as he continued mockingly, "… never." At the other officer’s silence, Sands went on. "In my request it clearly stated that I needed an extra tight security check on Ajedrez; if she passed through OOS she’d be a working agent for the Company under my handling and privy to material classified up to Flash. Double background and credential checks should have been run. Unfortunately, she was passed through the OOS clean and ended up spilling the beans, so to speak, on the entire operation to non other than Barillo himself."

"I’m going to be frank with you Officer Sands. I’ve glanced over your 201 File, and I’m fully aware of your record with the Company. You’ve been a great asset to the Company, gathering invaluable information for some ten years. I figured there must have been some sort of double agent or mole, that the error wasn’t yours."

"Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. My fatal error was trusting one of your fucking officers to report a trustworthy bona fide." Sands snapped back. He was angry… no, furious. He got that way whenever he thought about what led to the chain of events that caused the collapse of his operation.

Because Sands had known he’d been set up and hung out to dry, he had known right after talking to Martin that day at the Flying Cow, right before Ajedrez had caught up to him. He’d known because he was alone, and because no one had come to back him up.

No one had come to pull him out.

No one had come to act as his partner.

No one had come when he said he was being shadowed.

No one had come, period.

Sands shook his head slightly, trying to clear away the bombardment of unwanted thoughts.

He heard Douglas say something, but wasn’t really paying attention and didn’t care to hear any of his meaningless apologies. "Just answer me one thing Director. Was I burned? Because really, I didn’t see it coming."

"Not that I’m aware Officer Sands. You’re one of our most resourceful and successful officers, so I find it highly unlikely. Besides, I thought you said a bad bona fide caused-"

"A bad bona fide caused the roll-up, but that’s not what I’m talking about." Sands turned his head away from Douglas and faced straight ahead before continuing. "I had called my superior… twice… before I was captured. Both times I told him my position was compromised. Both times I told him I needed back up ASAP and both times I told him I was sure the cartel was shadowing me. I got absolutely zero support from my superior, or any fellow officers or agents on the assignment. If that doesn’t make it appear that I was burned and left to hang out to dry… well then golly-gee, I don't know what would."

"Alright. You’ll need to be debriefed as soon as you’re healthy enough. Next Monday if you think you’re up to it?"

"Fuck that! I’m up to it now." Sands was sick of waiting, of sitting here and doing nothing. He wanted to find out who was really responsible for doing this to him. Oh yes, Barillo and his cartel may have done it physically, but Sands just knew that someone else was involved as well and he had a pretty good idea of who it was. It all pointed in one direction, and Sands was sure it was no coincidence.

But perhaps it wasn’t just one man.

"I’ll set up your debrief for Monday then. Before I go, do you know what became of the double agent, Ajedrez?" Douglas asked, and Sands paused for a couple of beats before answering.

"Terminated," Sands finally deadpanned, his face showing nothing.

"Thank you, Officer, for your time."

Douglas didn’t ask how it happened or who had done it, but Sands knew the time for answers would soon come, during his debrief. Getting all those answers was not Director Douglas’ job.

Sands heard the man get up and walk towards the door.

"Oh, and Director?" Sands called to him, and he heard the footsteps pause.

"You find my cell phone and the copies of my conversations with Officer Martin… and I’ll give you proof." Sands let a small smile play upon his lips; it was not a pleasant one. "Although worthy of mention, it goes without saying…"

"What?" the director finally asked.

"I want to know who’s responsible for this." Sands replied, one finger lightly tapping the bandages on the right side of his head to accentuate his point. "And I want that person’s head on a platter. Can you dig it?"