Barking Up the Wrong Lead - A Gallagher Girls Story

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

“Assets,” Professor Woods began as she pushed aside the doors to Sublevel One.  The girls around me were sent into a flurry of note taking.  “A team is lost without them.  What are they, Castell?”

“Someone with critical information pertaining to a specific case,” Sarah said, not looking up from her notebook.

“And?” prompted Woods.

Sarah looked up, then.  “And they are willing to purposefully share that information?”

"Is that a question, Castell?"

Sarah looked as though she wanted to hide behind her pencil.  "No?"

“Well, it shouldn't be.  You're correct.”  Woods leaned up against her desk, crossing her arms and looking entirely unimpressed (as she usually did).  “Usually and expert in the field.  Someone who has tailed and studied a group of people.”

Three hands shot up in the air and Woods called on Alice.  “Could an asset be someone who is actively involved with the group in question?”

“Or once was,” Woods confirmed.  “Anyone who is familiar with the inner workings of the target group or person.”

More scribbling.  Our professor scanned the room but her eyes landed right on me.  For the shortest second, Woods looked at me like I might be a puzzle.  Like for the first time, she couldn’t quite read my mind in the way that she had gotten used to.  “Goode,” she said, the flicker of flame in her voice.  “There are three types of assets.  Name them.”

Okay.  So this is probably the part where I admit that I didn’t exactly read the chapter.  I mean I skimmed it, of course, but who’s got time to read CoveOps textbooks when there are articles about non-mine mine explosions out there?  “There are allegiant assets,” I began, my usual confidence gone.  I had to suppress a yawn.  “They're from the same branch or institution as the recon team.  Then there’s the parallel assets who are from an outside institution, but share the same interest.”

Woods nodded.  “And?”

I thought back to my textbook.  I hadn’t highlighted anything.  I hadn’t circled any key words.  I had jsut jumped through the chapter in between study sessions of Grandpa Joe’s report.  But still the words jumped out at me, loud and powerful in my head.  “Rogue asset.”

If Woods was impressed, it didn’t show.  “What is the difference between a rogue asset and a parallel asset?”

Every hand in the room went up around me, but Woods didn’t call on any of them.  Her eyes stayed fixed on me.  Waiting.  Daring me to answer.  “Betrayal,” I said.

The eager hands slowly fell as each girl waited for our teacher to say something.  The word lingered in the room, so heavy that I could almost feel it sinking.  Woods stood up off the desk and paced as she spoke—slowly.  Surely.  Definitively.  “Betrayal,” she repeated, stealing the word from the air.  “A rogue asset is most likely a parallel asset who has switched teams.  A journalist who had been trusted to retrieve sensitive information.  The secretary who knows a little bit too much about the bugs in her boss’ office.  On a rare occasion, they can even be someone from the origin organization—we refer to these assets as double agents.  No matter what form they come in, rogues can be extremely helpful to a search team as their information is both informed and up to date, but to the origin organization, they can be fatal.  Simply put ladies, rogue assets are traitors.  Always.”

I heard Erin Cross throw her hand in the air.  She didn’t wait for Woods to call on her before asking, “Professor, if we plan on pursuing a career with the CIA, how often can we expect to rely on rogue assets?”