Covert Affairs

[repeated line]

Annie Walker:
Read me in.

Auggie Anderson:
Here's what you need to know about assets: they are not trained operatives. They are normal people who we see as targets of opportunity, and they screw up all the time.

Annie Walker:
You've got some mouth on you.

Nadia Levandi:
You speak Estonian?

Annie Walker:
Just the swear words.

Auggie Anderson:
[after bumping into a chair] Dude, a blind guy works here! Don't rearrange the furniture!

Annie Walker:
Why are you so happy?

Auggie Anderson:
I'm heading to datatech.

Annie Walker:
Data-what?

Jai Wilcox:
Datatech, It's a computer security clearance. It's like comic-con for nerds.

Annie Walker:
Isn't that just comic-con?

Auggie Anderson:
[approaching Natasha at Datatech] Hold up. Tash?

[realizing it's Auggie, Natasha angrily slaps him]

Auggie Anderson:
Didn't see that coming.

Natasha Petrovna:
You should have. Do you know what I've been through the last two years?

Auggie Anderson:
No, I meant because I'm blind.

Auggie Anderson:
That guy. What is he wearing?

Natasha Petrovna:
Green tie, ugly shirt.

Auggie Anderson:
And what does that tell you?

Natasha Petrovna:
He's a businessman with no style?

Auggie Anderson:
No. He's a Canadian businessman. An American would have ordered ham or Canadian bacon. He ordered back bacon and she asked for a serviette.

Natasha Petrovna:
You didn't break up with me because the Agency told you to.

Auggie Anderson:
Yes, I did. I can show you the memo.

Natasha Petrovna:
Oh, please, Auggie. It's a notorious bureaucracy. That memo probably came after you dumped me.

Auggie Anderson:
I always choose you over the mission.

[the DPD has thrown Annie a surprise birthday party]

Annie Walker:
So, the sudden craving for chai?

Auggie Anderson:
Subterfuge.

Annie Walker:
Auggie, you are six whole days off. You don't need subterfuge, you need a calendar.

Annie Walker:
You're sending me to Paris?

Joan Campbell:
See, now I'm already having second thoughts.

Annie Walker:
But... you just gave me the assignment.

Joan Campbell:
Yeah, but you've got that look.

Annie Walker:
Look? What look?

Joan Campbell:
The look that every female operative gets the first time I send her to Paris.

[Annie is trying to initiate contact with a potential CIA asset]

Annie Walker:
I think... I have an opening. Nineteenth century portraits.

Auggie Anderson:
You call that an opening?

Annie Walker:
Got any good conversation starters?

Auggie Anderson:
Yeah, I do, actually, but they all require that you not be able to see.

Joan Campbell:
I don't want a postponement.

Auggie Anderson:
You know, I can that thing with the guy with the strings getting pulled. One phone call.

Joan Campbell:
It's my civic duty.

Auggie Anderson:
Okay, but what if you get stuck on some O.J.-like trial? You could be sequestered for weeks.

Joan Campbell:
I'm not gonna be sequestered, because I won't even be selected.

Auggie Anderson:
You don't know that.

Joan Campbell:
If you were on trial, would you want me on your jury?

Auggie Anderson:
Can I take the Fifth on that one?

Salma Devrient:
I'm pretty sure Annie works with the CIA. And if I had to guess, George here, it's not your real name, is it? It's probably... MI-6? You seem too Jewish to be an actual Mossad officer.

Eyal Lavine:
[offended] Too Jewish?

Auggie Anderson:
We were trained to believe two opposites. The first - is that a man is nothing on his own. We were only and always a unit. One entity, serving God and Country. The second - is that one brave individual's actions can change the shape of war. The Army can't know whether you will be brave or cowardly in crisis. No one can. Although they preferred you to be brave.

Annie Walker:
Only a fool confuses fate with destiny. Fate is what happens to us. Destiny is what we make in spite of our fate.

Annie Walker:
McAuley said "talk to Henry Wilcox."

Auggie Anderson:
Yes, but he meant it in a "go screw yourself" kind of way.

Annie Walker:
[leaving a briefing] Hey, Auggie? Why did Joan say I might have a shot 'cause I'm new?

Auggie Anderson:
McAuley is Christopher McAuley. He was a deep cover officer for fifteen years, knew everyone important that had anything to do with East Africa. One of his old contacts might know something about Hasaan's movements, but McAuley retired five years ago.

Annie Walker:
Why do I feel like I'm still missing something?

Auggie Anderson:
Well, when I say he retired, I mean he had a nervous breakdown, quit the CIA, moved to Middle of Nowhere, Virginia, and hasn't contacted us since. I can actually hear you frowning.

Annie Walker:
On a scale of none to a lot, how many people have tried to bring him in?

Auggie Anderson:
Almost every senior person in that room.

Annie Walker:
So this is basically a fool's errand?

Auggie Anderson:
Think of it more as a hazing ritual if it makes you feel better.

Christopher McAuley:
You wanna get off my property?

Annie Walker:
Mr. McAuley, my name is Annie Walker. I'm from...

Christopher McAuley:
Langley.

Annie Walker:
We need your help. Is there somewhere we could go and talk?

Christopher McAuley:
Get off my property.

Annie Walker:
Well, I have a flat tire.

Christopher McAuley:
Well, then I hope you have a spare.

Henry Wilcox:
So, do you think it was wise to come back from London at the personal request of Arthur Campbell?

Jai Wilcox:
Why do you always feel the need to give me career advice after the fact?

Henry Wilcox:
It isn't advice. It's criticism.

Annie Walker:
How do you feel about what we do?

Auggie Anderson:
[thoughtfully] Hmm...

Annie Walker:
I mean, I know that manipulating people for information is pretty much my job description, but... it always makes me feel...

Auggie Anderson:
Dirty?

Annie Walker:
Tell me it's worth it.

Auggie Anderson:
Tell me what "it" is, and I'll tell you if it's worth it.

Annie Walker:
I read McAuley's file. And based on what he said today, I might have something I can use.

Auggie Anderson:
Worth it. It would be a huge get for you to bring somebody like McAuley in. We don't always get to have everything nice and shiny and clean, but we are talking about keeping weapons out of the hands of terrorists here.

Annie Walker:
Henry Wilcox said "We're in the mud, all of us, whether we want to admit it or not."

Auggie Anderson:
Does that bother you?

Annie Walker:
I'd like to know how dirty I'm going to get.

Arthur Campbell:
If you can't live with secrets, you shouldn't be dating a spy.

Bob Breiding:
How did you get into Amsterdam, Mrs Brooks? There's no flag on your passport at the Schiphol or any of the neighboring airports.

Annie Walker:
Greece. I spent a week in the islands.

Bob Breiding:
Greek Immigration database is notoriously dysfunctional.

[all agents are required to submit to a polygraph, which annoys Auggie because Annie is out in the field and needs his assistance]

Interrogator:
I'm going to ask you a series of questions to act as a control sample, OK?

Auggie Anderson:
No, it's not OK. [interrogator looks up] You wanted the truth, right?

Interrogator:
Just answer the questions, please. Your name is August Anderson?

Auggie Anderson:
Yes, but my friends call me Auggie. You can call me August.

Interrogator:
Yes or no, please. You were born in Glencoe, Illinois, is that correct?

Auggie Anderson:
Yes.

Interrogator:
OK, you lost your eyesight while with special forces in Iraq, is that correct?

Auggie Anderson:
[sighs] I'm sorry, you'll have to be more specific.

Interrogator:
You were in Tikrit.

Auggie Anderson:
Yes.

Interrogator:
There was an incident, an explosion.

Auggie Anderson:
Yes.

Interrogator:
And now you're blind.

Auggie Anderson:
No, I'm not.

Interrogator:
You're not?

Auggie Anderson:
[coolly] What does the machine say? [machine registers no change] I spent twelve months down in the farm, I did my SERE training at Fort Bragg and I have *four* mean-ass older brothers. You don't think I know how to lie well enough to beat that thing?

[their mission has been compromised]

Eyal Lavine:
We shack up here for a few days, we let things die down, and then we do what we were brought together to do.

Annie Walker:
Which is what, exactly?

Eyal Lavine:
Exchange briefcases, of course. You want to tell me where yours is?

Annie Walker:
It's somewhere safe.

Eyal Lavine:
This is somewhere safe. That's why they call it a safe house. Where else is safe?

Annie Walker:
It got hot. I had to drop it. So...

Eyal Lavine:
That's how they teach you in the CIA?

Annie Walker:
Not to get caught with compromising materials? Yeah, it's basic CIA protocol.

Annie Walker:
I still have a month of training left.

Base Commander:
Now!

Annie Walker:
Everyone here is so young.

Auggie Anderson:
There was a hiring freeze that was unfrozen after 9/11. Fifty percent of the agency has five years' experience or less.

Auggie Anderson:
Seeing that dead body really turned me on.

Vincent Rossabi:
You're blind.

Auggie Anderson:
What are you, "sight-ist"?

Polygrapher:
You told us in your vetting interview that your last serious relationship ended two years ago.

Annie Walker:
Yes.

Polygrapher:
And you met abroad?

Annie Walker:
Yes. In Sri Lanka. I was backpacking, he was teaching English.

Polygrapher:
That's impulsive.

Annie Walker:
Is that a question?

Polygrapher:
Did you love one another?

Annie Walker:
Yes. We were in love.

Polygrapher:
The sex was good?

Annie Walker:
It rocked.

Auggie Anderson:
[getting a whiff of Annie's perfume] Jo Malone grapefruit?

Annie Walker:
Am I wearing too much perfume?

Auggie Anderson:
No. No, it's very subtle. A lot of the ladies around here lay it on so thick, it's like they're chumming for hammerheads.

Auggie Anderson:
[Annie walks away] Gotta love those kitten heels.

Auggie Anderson:
What's with all these background checks? There is an increasingly thick cloud of paranoia going 'round.

Eric Barber:
You know, I thought it was just me?

Auggie Anderson:
It's not - they're adding servers to hold extra data. And I heard Braithwaite opened a blue file on Henry Wilcox.

Eric Barber:
Really... huh. I thought Wilcox had Braithwaite in his pocket.

Auggie Anderson:
I did too. Hey, er... keep that one under your hat, alright?

Eric Barber:
Yeah, yeah, it's under the hat man, under the hat, under the hat...

[Auggie leaves]

Eric Barber:
[Calling over a co-worker conspiratorially] Hey, Tommy... Tommy!

Calder Michaels:
How'd it go with Patient Zero?

Auggie Anderson:
One wedge between Henry & Braithwaite, comin' up.

Calder Michaels:
It still amazes me how bad a building full of spies is at keeping a secret...

Joan Campbell:
[after Henry Wilcox "bumps into" her] Doesn't it strike you as odd that he just happened to be here, drowning his sorrows at our neighborhood restaurant?

Arthur Campbell:
Well, Henry doesn't do anything without a purpose.

Annie Walker:
Mingus box set? Headphones? You're not quitting, are you?

Auggie Anderson:
Don't get your hopes up. The entire DPD is moving into a brand new, state of the art "welcome to the twenty-first century ten years too late" facility.

Annie Walker:
Today? I didn't get the memo.

Auggie Anderson:
Well, that's because you weren't here three years ago when they actually did send out a memo saying that we were moving in a week. Got to love bureaucracy.

Henry Wilcox:
Did you read the article by Liza Hearn this morning? The woman must have a thesaurus. Who knew there were so many different ways to call Arthur a failure?

Auggie Anderson:
[to a friend who informed the State Department about his off-the-book investigation] I can't believe you're pulling a Lando Calrissian on me.

Annie Walker:
So, now that you've defected, what do you want to do?

Shen Yue:
Is it too late to catch the Nationals? I do love baseball.

Shen Yue:
A secret is like a wall. It can protect, but it can isolate.

Annie Walker:
When you listen to people speak, you learn to interpret what they mean, not what they say.