You want to know how Ace got his nickname?

It didn't happen how you'd think. He's not Ace because he can pilot anything from a helicopter to a jet. He's not Ace because up until the agency washed him, he scored 100% on every one of their written tests.

He's Ace because without wire, he can't hit the broad side of a barn with a sidearm if his life depended on it. He's one of the worst marksmen I've ever tried to train.

And that's the God's honest truth of it.



I was an instructor at the Maryland facility when Ace came through the first time, and it probably wasn't an accident that I wound up there when he came back the second time, too.

In between, I'd been a cop, and for a few years after that, IS.

Consultant, not licensable. No one who's worked for the federal government ever applies for ratings or wire. A lot is made of the Agency's barring ex-IS, but the antipathy goes both ways.

I made a lot of money in the handful of years I worked consulting IS before I retired. More than I ever had as an agent, in a fraction of the time.

It colors how you see the agency, coming back.


It had for Ace the first time, I knew. It would color it for both of us, now.

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