Le Bureau des Légendes #5.8

JJA: Do you know of any mission involving Guillaume Debailly that failed?
Sylvain: No.

Sisteron: You're leaving?
JJA: Michel dismissed me. "Terminated", as they say. Can you imagine? ... He thinks I'm crazy. It was useful for a while, but lately, I've probably gone too far.
Sisteron: At least you recognize it...
JJA: That means it's time to quit while I'm ahead.

JJA: Whatever the outcome of the Kennedy mission, it's over for me. Either I end on a high note, a true success. If Kennedy is recruited, it'll go down in history. Or I leave on a failure, like many others, who tried and failed. But, I've lost much more than the others. I made quite a few sacrifices for this operation. My integrity, in particular.

Karlov: I'll call you with my decision.
Malotru: Do you have a choice?
Karlov: One always has a choice.

Marina: Here, we call that the "burial form". There's a question in the form: "Do you want to become an undercover agent." Next to it, there's a box to tick. Ticking that box means that you'll spend at least the next 12 to 18 months here at HQ. If you hope to be undercover one day, you can't be visible during the down time between missions. You can't travel or be in the field. We keep you here, nice and warm. While others run around the world, living exciting experiences, we do our utmost to protect your virginity. Basically, we bury you. So that one day, you may become the DGSE's pilot fish.

Marina: Those whose mission will be to spot potential traitors abroad. Being an undercover agent means spending several years abroad under an "FI", a fake identity. We also use the term "legend".
     You go abroad, to practice your profession: literature professor, seismologist, IT equipment smuggler... But your real job is to observe. To search for weaknesses, flaws and angles of attack so that the desk officers can recruit those we call "sources". Most of the time, they too are using an FI, so the sources never really know who they're dealing with.
     Your real job will be to destroy the lives of people who aren't necessarily bad. They're just foreigners in the service of their country, and who have access to intel that is crucial to our safety. People we call "bastards", just because they live across the border, and are aware of things their government is obsessed with hiding from us.

JJA: Goodbye.

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