target of opportunity
In 2006, Camille Montes Pisavera has been a member of the Bolivian Secret Service for three years as of April. She is twenty-six years old, not married and has with no immediate family. Her profile says that she is highly intelligent, skilled at both analysis and field work, and has shown herself to be consistently determined to finish what she starts; she has never been arrested, never killed anyone, and has the kind of ruthlessness, ingenuity and amorality to use whatever is at hand to gain intelligence and/or access - including herself. Her profile also notes that she has a sharp temper, a sensitivity towards perceived condescension, and that she requires careful handling to optimize results.
2006 is also the year that her ultimate employers, the Bolivian government, enter into negotiations with one Dominic Greene, CEO of Greene Planet. Outwardly and officially, Greene Planet is an international utilities company which takes advantage of its name to philanthropically buy up tracts of land for ecological preservation. Unofficially, no such company would ever deal with such a government as Bolivia’s with their books and intentions open, and so the Bolivian Secret Service were asked to look into things.
Special Agent Montes was selected on account of her analytical skills, her talent at seeing connections, and a healing broken leg that requires her mind to be active so she won’t do something…independent.
('careful handling' can sometimes means 'keep on a tight leash')
The team finds nothing that can be proven in court, but by early 2007 they have found enough that Bolivia breaks off negotiations. Persons found dead (or not at all) are one thing; the risks of being sold out are quite another. Despite Montes' insistence that Greene is a man who takes ‘no’ as ‘not this way’, the investigation is also halted and its members redistributed.
However, as Montes’ profile states, she is not someone to give up merely because the powers that be order her. Greene in his self…well, she’s seen his type before. True, there is something that is makes her uneasy (too many ellipses and brackets with question marks and fill-in-laters), but it is vague enough and normally would not be her business.
Normally.
Normally, she would not have uncovered emails and transcripts and talk of doing deals with a former dictator by the name of Medrano. It’s not much, really, certainly not as much as a list would suggest and nothing that would really get mentioned in a report. But it’s enough. She has (both parents deceased; older sister deceased; still shows signs of pyrophobia) unfinished business with Medrano, and Greene Planet has openings for analysts.
Special Agent Montes asks her controller for a chance to investigate. Her own time, if need be, but there is something strange...Orejuela, an older man who collects books, butterflies and handcuffs, knows that her instincts are good, and agrees. They'll supply the routine fake background, but officially, she's on a leave of absence and on her own.
She's hired a month later.