Cinnamon

We lasted longer than anyone expected.

In the history of the IMF, there weren't too many teams that remained operational longer than about three or four years.  The work is that hard. 

Oh, in the beginning, it's kind of exciting coming up with the con and daring yourself to put it over, but, sooner or later, you can't tell a mark anything without your eyes giving you away. 

Doesn't matter what it is.

There are only so many plans and so many combinations and, once you've been through them a few times and you've seen how the marks come out, or don't, on the other end, it's almost impossible to tell them the tale.

We'd play the Prisoner on a mark knowing that before it was over, he'd either be dead, or worse.  You'd know that, not because it was covered in a briefing, but because you had seen it, because you had cleaned up after.  Tell yourself whatever you want, in the end, we are playing Russian Roulette with someone else's head and you can only do that so long without getting some on you.

Our team stayed together for seven years mostly because we were able to bring in new people and because we got rid of Cinnamon.

In the beginning, during the Briggs years, she came in with Rollin but you could see that she was intent on trading up.  She worked her way through men like sharpeners through pencils.

Rollin was a good sport about it, at first.  He was really into the work and so was able to put on a brave face--it wasn't his own, mind you, but it was brave.  It was when she worked her way around to me that he could no longer hide his feelings.

Those were the worst days.

I was never into her shit, but that didn't stop her from making everyone else think I was.

We'd show to Phelps' apartment for a briefing and a demo of whatever black box Barney had come up with and she would rub all over me like a cat looking for kibble.

Rollin knew what she was before they joined the team.  Nobody ever could prove it, but the rumor was that they had been married.  Don't think it was for very long, but I am certain that it didn't end well.

I don't think he ever stopped feeling for her.  We talked about it that time in Windsor many years later.  Part of the reason he was always such a prick to me was because he thought there had been something between me and her.

Most of the time, these affairs wouldn't last very long.  It was like some sort of an initiation test that she had for all of the male members of the team.  She would take some of the shittiest assignments, but she needed to know that the rest of the team had her...back.

To be fair, she was the honey trap that made most of our jobs work, but being pimped out by your government can take its toll.  It was a wonder to me that she was able to walk away from our work and still have a cover legend to go back to.

She and Phelps were together for almost a year and a half.  It got so I couldn't stand going to those briefings and watch her throw herself at him.  The winking and flirting and touching and laughing were unbearable.

When they were over, it got pretty ugly. 

As I pieced it together, they were in a pretty bad place just before we went behind the Curtain on a job.

As ever, Cinnamon was being set up as bait and you could tell that she had had her fill of playing this part for one leacherous bad guy after another.  She talked more openly of getting out and Phelps was taking it personally.

After all these years, I don't remember the details as well as you'd think, but she got made.  After years of preventing international incidents, we were right in the middle of one.

Cinnamon was late for a rendezvous and Phelps was mad.

To this day, I don't know if he did it on purpose or not, but he said, on an open line, that if she didn't show up soon, he would put her in a closet and throw away the key.

It was just an expression, but, to those who were listening it was enough of a clue that they were able to identify that Cinnamon was claustrophobic and they used that against her to quite devastating effect.

Did she break?  Were any assets compromised?  Hard to say.

I do know that, after that, we worked less and less overseas.  Something about budget cuts.  We seemed to spend more of our time gaming the Commission.

It was never the same again.

In the end, she did what she was best at:  she survived.

The bitch.