Cut and Run 1 - Cut and Run

to her voice.
    Ty looked her up and down in return and cocked his head to the side. “I used the flashy blue lights,” he told her with a helicopter motion of his finger.
    She sniffed as she glanced over his unshaven face, scuffed leather jacket, jeans, and dirty cowboy boots. His T-shirt seemed to be particularly appalling to her sensibilities, even though it was clean. It was black and had the words Cocke County FBI in large white print on the front. Upon closer inspection, there were smaller words between the larger ones, and when she squinted she was able to read the entire shirt: "I was probed in Cocke County by the FBI." She made a small, insulted noise as she looked back up at him. Ty ignored her, leaving her looking slightly scandalized as he headed for the Assistant Director's door.
    "You can't go in there yet!” she hissed as she stood from her desk and pointed at him.
    He stopped at the door and turned around to look at her, blatantly putting his hand on the door handle and pushing it down with a smirk. Her mouth worked soundlessly, and she turned and scrambled for her intercom to announce him before he could get inside.
    Assistant Director Richard Burns looked up at him in surprise and annoyance as Ty stepped into the office and closed the door behind him. “You wanted to see me, sir,” Ty greeted, the words perfectly professional, but the tone somehow just as insolent as it always was.
    "Sit down,” the man ordered with a jab of his pen at one of the seats across from his desk. “We're waiting for one more person."
    Ty moved to the seat and sat, his leather jacket sending up a tiny little cloud of dust as he flopped into the seat. He did a fairly good job of concealing his surprise. “Someone else?” he inquired evenly. “Am I being lynched?"
    "If you keep your mouth shut for the next thirty minutes, you may not spend the night in jail. How about that?” Burns answered seriously without looking up from the papers he was signing.
    Ty cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
    * * * *
    Zane Garrett entered the wide outer office to see the Assistant Director's secretary scurrying around her desk, obviously flustered. He paused, folding his hands behind his back. “Ma'am?” he asked politely when she didn't notice his entrance.
    She looked up at him in surprise. “Special Agent Garrett, thank you for being prompt,” she said, looking him up and down and nodding in approval of the tailored blue suit and silk tie. “You may go in now."
    "Thank you, ma'am,” he said evenly, proceeding to the door as she announced him through the intercom.
    Burns looked up from the papers he was shuffling and gestured him in. “Come in, Special Agent Garrett. We've got some things to thrash out,” he said to Zane, with a narrow-eyed look at the man sitting slumped in a chair in front of the desk.
    "Yes, sir,” Zane answered, moving to sit as the Director gestured. His eyes followed Burns’ gaze. Only a blink betrayed Zane's surprise. The unkempt man sitting opposite Burns was a complete mess. Zane barely restrained the urge to sneer at him. Maybe he was an informant of some sort. He had that burnt-out, fidgety look to him.
    Focusing on Burns again, Zane waited, composed and attentive, ready to start jumping through the next set of hoops.
    Ty shifted in his seat, slouching further down and glancing over at the new man. God, the guy looked like he had just come off a printing press or something. “What are you doing, a how-to manual?” Ty asked the Assistant Director sarcastically. “Before and after?” he suggested wryly with a gesture at himself and then at the other man.
    "Yes. You are sitting here before you get fired,” Burns answered studiously. “And he is taking your job after you leave."
    Ty pressed his lips tightly together and looked down at the shiny desktop sedately. Zane shifted his eyes between the man and Burns before narrowing them. He wondered why he had been asked to sit in on this meeting when the guy was obviously being fired. It seemed overly cruel. He clamped down hard on any further reaction and waited to see what would happen.
    Ty licked his lips and looked up again to meet his superior's eyes almost defiantly.
    "Fortunately for you, Grady, you have more lives than a cat,” the man said to him with a small frown. “And you're getting another chance to prove to us that you can do this job without blowing shit up. I won't say one more, because God knows I'll just