In Search of Enemies - A CIA Story - John Stockwell

Footsoldiers of Foreign Policy [61]
appeared to be reading a file. Probably a career trainee on interim
assignment. He would be the equivalent of a second lieutenant.
I was a colonel.
I closed in on him, introduced myself, explained my problem, and
asked if he would be so kind as to loan me his desk for a couple of
days. He leaped up and insisted it was no inconvenience at all. I slid
into his chair. ,
A few moments later, Marvin, the deputy branch chief, loomed
over the desk. We were the same grade, and friendly, but I was
encroaching on his territory.
"John," he said, "we are trying to get you some working space.
Now, I know you've got problems, but it would be better if we could
solve them without disrupting other officers. I had Gregory working
on something important .. . "
I stood, ready to insist, but a secretary hailed me with a phone call
from the front office and I had to hurry off to see Carl Bantam. By
the time I returned, Gregory was reinstalled at his desk with my
cables neatly placed on the comer. He didn't look up as I gathered
them and turned away.
Carl had given me two more cables to answer and a memo to write,
all IMMEDIATE. Something had to give. My eyes focused on the floor
just outside of the branch chief's offices, at the point that would bear
the heaviest traffic in Hom and Central. I walked over, took off my
shoes and settled into a variation of the yoga siddhasana, making
four stacks of cables, and began to write on a yellow pad on my knee.
Feet approached, hesitated, then turned towards the other door, the
long way around. I ignored everything, concentrating. Marvin came
to his door, turned, and went back inside his office. The branch chief
himself came hurrying from his office and narrowly missed stepping
on the Lusaka cables.
"You walk across my desk and I'll break your bloody leg,,, I said.
Then I glanced up. "Oh, hi. I didn't realize it was you . .. Nobody's
on vacation here at Horn and Central." His feet disappeared into
Marvin's office. Leaving my work stacked on the floor I got up and
hurried down the hall, responding to another summons from the
front office.
When I got back almost an hour later, Marvin directed me to a
desk by the window, on which my papers were already stacked. A
desk by the window is one of the first small perquisites which come
with mounting responsibility in the agency. Interim career trainees