[WP] You're considered the worst spy in the agency. Which is funny because your doing what a soy should do, and you're pretty damn good at it
"Benton, you're assigned to the Kyoto case with Greenbaum," my handler said. "Your flight's tomorrow morning."
Which meant there wasn't enough time for me to request another partner or another case. The superiors didn't like when we questioned our orders, but I had to take a risk. Greenbaum was a walking hazard zone, an accident waiting to happen.
"Are you sure there isn't anyone else?" I asked, desperately hoping there was. "To replace me? Or her?"
"No one else. It's you and Greenbaum," Tan said.
It made no sense that the superiors had assigned something so important as the Kyoto case to Greenbaum. I'd seen her around the office sometimes, her frumpy outfits always a bit too loose or a bit too tight, her too-open smile. She tripped over nothing occasionally, and tripped over clearly visible obstacles constantly. People avoided her like the plague when she was carrying coffee, as spills were almost inevitable.
I couldn't imagine the sort of chaos she'd bring to a case, especially in a foreign country. She approached me as my handler left.
"Howdy pard-ner!" she said, her smile so sincere it seemed to mock my own despondency.
"Hello," I replied.
If this mission failed, my plans of becoming the director of the organization by fifty would be toast. No doubt another failure would hardly change Greenbaum's prospects. It was a miracle she still had a job. The last time she'd been reprimanded by the director, it had been... it had only been because of her not filling out the paperwork correctly. I tried to remember a failed mission of hers, and my mind drew a blank.
Her mission in Kandahar had taken longer than anticipated, but at the last moment she lucked out with an anonymous tip that led us to the terrorists' hideout. The one before hadn't been a failure either. She'd spent three months in the thick of the Amazon, somehow avoiding malaria and all the other mosquito-borne illnesses, and emerged with the leader of the cartel supplying cocaine to half the Eastern seaboard. She'd attributed that success to an Interpol agent who helped her, although we never saw the agent she mentioned. Her old partner had been an asset too, an experienced agent that was efficient and stoic. He'd retired a few months ago, and since then, she had been working solo.
As I thought further back, even to the days right after my training was completed and I was made a field agent, I couldn't remember a single case of Greenbaum's that had failed. Her identity had never been compromised, and little to no casualties. Sometimes it took longer than expected, and sometimes went over budget, but the job got done. Was she talented in a way I was missing? Was she ridiculously lucky? Or was she hiding something?
"Penny for your thoughts?" she asked, waving a hand in front of my face.
"Just thinking," I answered. "See you tomorrow."
"See ya!" Greenbaum said, turning around on the heel of her shoe. I turned the corner and watched her in the wide open space of our main floor. She smoothed down the cotton of her blouse and proceeded to walk back to her own office. Her stride was even and elegant, and as she loosened her shoulders she seemed to take on another persona.
"For a spy, you're rather horrible at sneaking around," she said, turning to face me. She smiled, this time close-lipped and knowing. "It's okay though. I'm good enough for both of us. I suppose I couldn't keep it from you, since we're partners and all."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because it's easier to climb the ranks when no one's trying to pull you down," Greenbaum said. "Did anyone try to steal my assignments away from me, or to piggyback off of my work? No. Because they thought that those assignments meant nothing, or that I would fail and drag them down with me. I've seen how the others treat you, Benton. They're waiting to reveal the golden boy of this agency to be nothing but fool's gold. Me? They just ignore me. The water cooler gossips may call me butterfingers, Clumsiella, or loser, but in the case files I'm a competent, professional agent. While you're all busy beings crabs in a barrel, I'm this close to being promoted to senior agent. Maybe even be the director of this place by age forty five."
