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office.”
    Ice walked to his desk and picked up the intelligence pack he had finished the night before. File in hand, he knocked on the station chief’s door.
    “Come in.”
    Frank Everton looked more like a teacher than a veteran CIA field officer and station chief. His thick-lensed glasses rested on a bulbous red nose over a bushy gray moustache. With his ruddy complexion, some thought he was an alcoholic, but Ice knew he was a teetotaler.
    Frank lifted his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “What can I do for you, James?”
    He held out the report. “I’ve got an ICTY pack here I want you to go over.”
    “Albanian or Serb?”
    “You need to read it.” He dropped the report on the desk. It was the Zahir pack, containing details of war crimes perpetrated by the Gray Wolves.
    Frank sighed. “Look buddy, we’ve spoken about this. These aren’t going to get up. The UN administration has made it perfectly clear they won’t be pursuing prosecution against any of the KLA. The last thing they want is Albanians rioting and burning everything to the ground because their heroes are dragged in front of an international court.”
    Ice dropped his bulky frame into the armchair in the corner of the office and drank from his coffee.
    “I’m sorry, James, but that’s the way it is.” Frank opened the file and flicked through it. “Zahir again. I told you not to work on this.”
    Ice’s eyes narrowed. “He’s a criminal. And, he’s running for office.”
    “I know. They released the candidacy list last night.”
    “And we’re fine with handing Kosovo over to war criminals and mafia?”
    “That’s not for us to decide. The State Department, NATO, and the UN all want a stable Kosovo. Guys like Zahir are the only ones who can provide that.” He looked up from the report. “James, you need to look forward, not back. I want you to focus on collecting against potential threats to the election process. The rumor mill is already running twenty-four-seven with conspiracy theories, assassination threats, and the like.”
    Ice nodded. He understood Frank’s unwillingness to rock the boat. Kosovo was teetering on a knife’s edge. Elements of the Albanian population were looking for any excuse to riot and throw out the remaining Serbs. No one wanted to be held responsible for igniting that fire.
    “You’re a damn good officer, James. You just need to step back sometimes.” He passed back the file. “Hey, you spoken to Vance recently?”
    “Not in a while. He should be done in Sierra Leone this week.”
    Frank smiled. “Yes and he’ll be arriving in a couple days. HQ is sending him over to run an audit on our source files.”
    Ice frowned. “Isn’t he going on leave?”
    “He’s here for a week first. Volunteered for the job. Something about wanting to check up on his old protégé.”
    “It’ll be good to catch up.”
    “Thought you might approve.”
    Ice stood and turned for the door.
    “Keep your chin up, James. You’re doing good work.”
    He left Frank’s office with the Zahir intel pack in hand. As he headed for the exit, Louise spoke, “James, are you going to have time to go over these files?”
    He knew the rest of the day would be taken up with paperwork preparing for the audit, but now he needed to get out and clear his head. “Just heading to the gym. I’ll catch you after lunch.”
    Two hours later, Ice dumped his gym bag in the corner of his room and collapsed on the bed. Lifting had done little to dispel his fury. All he could think about during the session was the injustice of Zahir running for power. The man was a murderer and almost certainly neck-deep in criminal activity. Ice pushed off the bed and filled a shaker with protein powder. He shook it furiously as he studied the photo of his family taped to the wall. His mother had passed away so it was just him, his father, and sister. The photo, taken last year, showed them smiling in front of a Christmas tree. Downing the shake,