“No, the only time he calls is when he wants to come up and ski, or go elk hunting. He only skis over the Christmas holidays.”
“Did he remarry after you split up?”
“No, he’s feeling his oats, going through a series of bimbos to regain his youth. If they’re looking for a good time in bed, they’re wasting their time. I wonder what his Cialis bill is?”
Jack replied with a smile “Cialis? What’s that?”
“You can laugh now Jack, but there’s some Cialis in your future.”
Another silence . . . “I have to admit, Lynn, that you cause a physical reaction in me . . . and an emotional one. Maybe when all this is over, we can do something about it. For now it’s just a pleasant feeling I get sometimes when I’m with you.”
“I’ll bet my ‘pleasant feeling’ is stronger than yours.”
“You’re probably right about that, Lynn. I still have some lingering feelings that I’m being unfaithful to Helen because of my feelings for you. I know that sounds irrational, but feelings are hard to rise above.”
“I’ll be patient, Jack. I think we have a future together, and I’m willing to wait for that. … Now come over here and kiss me!”
Jack wrapped his arms around her and they shared the best kiss yet. After that, Lynn turned and snuggled back into his arm, enjoying the result of the kiss.”
#
They were awakened by Jack’s cell phone ringing. “Hello? . . . Hello?”
He heard a whispered answer “Jack, this is Tom. I think I’m about to be caught by Energy Resources security guards. I got a look at the file, but I don’t think I can get it out. If I don’t get away, here’s the off-shore bank account information: $2.8 million was transferred to account 4705-45912-8875. I’ll call if I get away. . . . Oh-oh. Here they come.” And the connection broke off.
Lynn pulled herself up out of a sound sleep just as Jack was saying “Tom! … Tom! … Shit, I lost him.”
“What’s going on, Jack? Was that a call from Tom? What did he say?”
“He got inside the Energy Resources contracts files and found the one he had planted, but the security guys were closing in on him. He gave me the account number and the transfer amount but then I lost the connection. I hope he was able to dodge them and get away. If he can, he should call me back soon.”
After an hour he and Lynn drifted back to sleep.
Chapter 24
One of the richest men of the country picked up the phone and said “Get me George Jenkins at Blackworth.”
“Hello George. I haven’t heard from you in a couple of days. What’s going on in Colorado.”
“Uh . . . We had a problem there. Just when we were closing in on them they bolted in a snow storm and we lost them.”
“You What!! Where are they now?”
“We don’t know, sir. But we have a couple of ideas about where he might be going, and we have those staked out.”
“I’m not a happy man, George. How about the mission to take out the other two agents – Gutierrez and Goodman. Are they put to rest?”
“Uh . . . Not exactly, sir.”
“Have you screwed that up too, George? You know that I can put a comment in the right ears and your Government contracts will disappear. And I’m getting close to my limit on this. Do you have any clue where these two agents are?”
“No sir. We made a second move on Goodman while she was in the hospital but she got away and put one of my operatives in the hospital. As for Gutierrez, we got a shot at him with a car bomb, but he disabled it and disappeared.”
“George, you’ve got 48 hours to take them out! After that, I’m going to another agency.”
George replied “Yes sir, I’ll keep you updated daily” before he realized the man had hung up on him.
Chapter 25
They woke up at six a.m. Jack disengaged himself from Lynn, went to the lobby, and brought back some bagels, bananas, and fresh coffee from the breakfast bar. They watched the news while they ate.
“Jack! Look at that! That’s you! On network news!”
Jack got a sinking feeling in his stomach. The bad guys finally released the information about the Alexandria Marriott killing.
“. . . And in Alexandria, Virginia the police have released the name of the prime suspect in a murder at the Alexandria Marriott last week. His name is Jackson Preston, a former member of an unnamed Government agency. Police believe he has fled the area and could be anywhere in the country. They urge people to keep a look out for him. He’s considered armed and dangerous.”
The only break Jack was getting here is that the photo they showed of him was from 15 years ago. He had aged quite a bit since then and his hair had turned from dirty blonde to mostly grey. He would have to get some stage makeup to change his appearance – glasses, cheek fillers, and all-white hair. In an effort to lighten the mood he turned to Lynn and asked “Does any of my blonde hair still show?”
“No, it’s fifty shades of grey,” she answered with a smile. “What are we going to do, Jack? If even one person recognizes you, the game is over.”
“You’re right. The ‘armed and dangerous’ part means they will have an excuse to shoot on sight. We need to get out of here, now! From now on, you will have to do all the motel checking in and food and gas purchases.”
Jack thought for a few minutes. “O.K. here’s what I think we should do. You’ll take your Jeep out this morning and buy a tow bar for it. Go to a U-Haul for that and get one that will clamp onto my rear bumper. From now on we’ll both travel in my truck with the Jeep in tow. I’ll ride in the back laying down with a pile of clothes that I can pull over me if I need to. Go to Goodwill and buy a bunch of clothes about your size and style – like you are traveling with all your possessions in the truck. How does that sound?”
“I think it will work, but what if I get stopped and they want to look in the rear bed?”
“All my weapons are hidden under a false bottom. But pick up three or four large suitcases at Goodwill to throw in the bed. Next, go to a theater supply shop – we’ll find a local one on the internet before you leave. Buy an assortment of disguise items for me – moustaches, bushy eyebrows, adhesive, white wigs, and face putty. If they ask you what you need them for, tell them your husband is playing Einstein in a stage production up in Chicago.”
“Damn you’re a fast thinker, Jack. All that in less than a minute and a half.”
“That fast thinking has saved my ass more than once, Lynn. Now get dressed and go get what we need. I’ll wait here in your room until you get back and I can get the disguise in place.”
#
It was almost 11 a.m. before they were ready to leave. While Lynn was out, Jack had gone through the IRS into yet another Caribbean bank, and found that the account number Tom had given him was in the name of Gov. George Gentry, the Republican Governor of Texas. Another Republican! Jack would have to revisit his theory to see how this fit in.
With his Einstein disguise in place, Jack lumbered out to his truck with Lynn right behind. Jack got into the front seat beside Lynn in the drivers seat so their departure wouldn’t draw attention. When they got on the Interstate he would climb into the back seat and lay down in Lynn’s pile of clothes. He looked back at the pile and saw Lynn had picked mostly sexy nightgowns and evening dresses, with some lingerie thrown in for good measure. She wasn’t going to let up on the hints, was she.
“Where to, Jack?”
“I’d like to stay off the Interstates but we can’t get the Foreman’s place in time if we do that, so we’ll only travel during peak traffic hours to hide in the herd. The best approach is for us to take I-65 to Louisville and then pick up I-64 through West Virginia to Charlottesville. That’s close enough to Fredericksburg that we can run our intrusion operation out of there. I’m going to go snuggle up with the lingerie and nightgowns back there and see if I can dream some sexy dreams. That is what you had in mind, wasn’t it?”
Lynn laughed in response.
Chapter 26
Gutierrez was worried. He was trapped in the back corner of the contracts file room and there was only one door. ‘I can hear the security guards coming down the hallway, so I must have set off a silent alarm of some kind. I’ve got to get out of here!’ He looked around and saw an open door to the copier room, so he ducked into it and locked the door behind him. Dead end! He took a few seconds to pull the SIM card out of his cell phone and grind it and the phone to pieces with his heel.
He thought he was trapped until he recalled some of his FRA training and looked for an open wall. He tapped back and forth to find the studs, then launched a wicked heel kick into the space between them. The sheetrock crumbled. A couple more kicks and he had a hole large enough to get through. Then he repeated the kicks on the inside of the sheet rock from the room next door and climbed through the hole. He emerged into a long conference room with a door at the far end. He ran to it and opened the door a crack just in time to see four security guards rush into the contracts room. He look the other way down the hall and saw a green exit sign. He made a dash for it and got into the stairwell before anyone saw him. He took the stairs six at a time – another trick they taught at the FRA training academy – and got to the ground floor emergency exit. He smiled as he thought ‘I made it.’ He opened the door and came face to face with a security guard with a drawn pistol.
“ON THE GROUND FACE DOWN, NOW! HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD.”
Tom complied.
Chapter 27
Lynn was making good time on the way to Charlottesville. They talked back and forth about their kids, their careers, the firsts in their lives – first kiss, first straight “A” report card, first spanking, first time staying out all night – and what they had to face from their parents afterward, their most embarrassing moment, (for jack it was when he peed in his pants in first grade, for Lynn it was when her swim suit top came loose at her 15th birthday party), the lowest point in their lives, the greatest emotional high they experienced, and their biggest disappointment. Anything to keep connected. They drove on in silence for awhile. Then Lynn said “uh oh. I have a flashing light behind me. You’d better cover up.”
Lynn pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the policeman to approach her car. She rolled down the window and said in her most flirtatious voice “Was I speeding, officer?” as she smiled up at him.
“No ma’am. Actually your were under the speed limit.” He made a point of looking into the rear seat, then turned red from embarrassment when he saw the nightgowns and lingerie. He asked for her driver’s license and registration.
“Are you moving somewhere Miss Nicholson?”
“Yes, I’m going to live my sister in Char . . . Charlotte, North Carolina. She says there are lots of eligible men my age there.”
The officer puffed up a bit at this. “I wouldn’t know about that, miss. The reason I stopped you is the brake lights on your towed vehicle don’t seem to be working.”
“I probably didn’t plug them in right. I am clueless when it comes to electrical things. Let me get out and check the connection.” as she started to open the door.
“No ma’am. There’s no need to get out. I’ll check it for you.”
He walked to the back of the truck, bent down and wiggled the connector. “Try it now, Miss Nicholson. . . That’s got it . It’s working now. You’re good to go.”
Lynn pulled out slowly and merged into traffic. “You performed wonderfully, my little coquette. You had him wrapped around your little finger.” Jack said.
“I’ve always been able to switch into my charmer mode easily, but I don’t like to do it. It’s not fair to men – they’re helpless against my feminine wiles.”
“I’ll have to remember that. I can’t recall any woman who had that power over me. But there’s a first time for everything.” That got a laugh out of Lynn.
#
They rolled into Charlottesville just as the sun went down. Jack told Lynn to go through a drive-thru and get them something to eat, then find a cheap, independent motel with parking around back. They found the Jefferson Motel ten miles east of town in rural suburb. Jack buried himself in lingerie again while Lynn checked in using her forged I.D. She pulled around back and parked on the far end of the parking lot so they could leave quickly if they needed to. Lynn went in and opened the door to the room. She looked around, checked the bathroom cleanliness and inspected the mattress seams for bedbugs. It passed her inspection – just barely. These places always made her feel a little dirty. ‘As soon as Jack gets in here, I want a shower.’ she thought. She phoned Jack and told him to come on in. Jack said there were some new guests in the parking lot and, as soon as they went into their room, he would come in.
Lynn decided she couldn’t wait for her shower so she went into the bathroom, stripped down, and got into a hot shower. As she got out of the shower and dried off she realized she had left her clean clothes in the suitcase on the bed. She listened to see if Jack was in the room yet but didn’t hear anything. She wrapped the skimpy towel around her and opened the bathroom door . . . and there was Jack looking straight at her. He was a gentleman and looked away, but it took him a couple of seconds.
Her face turned bright red with embarrassment as she bent forward to get a little more coverage from her thigh-length towel. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Jack. I thought you were still out in the car.”
“I’ll go outside for a few minutes and let you get something on. More than you have on now, I mean.”
“ No, just turn your head while I get some pajamas out of the suitcase and I’ll go in the bathroom and put them on.”
When she came out with a fuzzy bathrobe over her flowered pajamas. She couldn’t turn her face toward Jack, so she busied herself in her suitcase, then sat down at the opposite end of the couch from Jack.
“I guess that was your second most embarrassing moment, Lynn.”
“Pretty close, Jack. I feel so ashamed. You probably think I set that scene up just to tantalize you.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t do that, Lynn. I know it was just an innocent mistake on your part. I’m going to shower. But first I’ll get something to wear.”
Jack came out in athletic shorts and a West Virginia basketball shirt. He sat next to Lynn on the sofa and pulled her into his arms with her back snuggled against his chest.
“Now who’s being an exhibitionist, Jack.”
“Sorry, I didn’t bring my fluffy bathrobe.” They sat there for several minutes enjoying the closeness. Then Lynn got up and laid their burgers and fries out on the coffee table. Jack turned on the TV while they ate, and saw his face on the network news again.
“After I get into Forman’s place and see what I can find, we’ll need to find some remote hideout. We’ll need to stay for a couple of weeks so we can work on a way to blow this conspiracy apart. But I have no idea where we can go. Any thoughts, Lynn.”
“Your cabin in West Virginia would be a good place, but they are probably watching that. And we can’t go back to my place. I can’t think of anyplace else.”
Chapter 28
As Tom lay facedown on the ground he tried to visualize his immediate future. The security guards would call the police who would take him to the county jail. They would hold him there until some charges were drawn up and he would have to go in front of a judge and plead guilty. Maybe he could claim insanity? Probably not. Tom went over his options in his head. ‘I’ll call Jack with my one phone call and let him handle this. Any way I look at it, I’ll lose my job at FRA and spend some time in a state prison. After that, I don’t know what will happen. My wife thinks I’m off on an FRA assignment for a week, so I don’t have to worry about that yet. Well, at least I got the file put back so they won’t know what I was after.’
He heard two vehicles drive up and stop beside him. Two men in suits and ties put hand cuffs on him, pulled a black hood over his head, and put him in the back of an unmarked cargo van. No windows to
kick out and no seats to keep him from rolling around in the back when the van turned corners. ‘This definitely is not a police action. Maybe the FRA was called in to get me out of this before I become an embarrassment to them.’ Tom thought.
They drove for at least an hour then came to a stop. Tom was dragged out the back door of the van and into some structure – a large room from the way the sound echoed – and was handcuffed to a chair. When they pulled the hood off he saw that he was in a small warehouse. The thought hit Tom: ‘Just like in the movies – this is where they torture you until you talk and then put a bullet in your head.’
He heard an approaching car and they pulled the hood back over his head. A car door opened and he felt someone standing in front of him – maybe he sensed the body heat. “Well, Mr. Gutierrez, we thought you might show up at Energy Resources. I need to know what you were doing in there, but first let me lay out the situation for you. You’re in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of an industrial park with nothing but concrete walls around you. No one can hear you, no one can see you, and no one knows you’re here. You have no hope of escape or rescue. Do I make myself clear?”
Tom didn’t answer. Instead he reverted to his FRA training and concentrated on remembering every aspect of the man’s voice. The pitch, the smoothness – or lack of it in this case; the guy had a gravelly voice – his accent, the inflection of certain syllables, how long he paused between sentences, and between thoughts he was about to turn into words. How often does he have to take a breath while he’s talking. Does he clear his throat frequently? All these characteristics would be embedded in Tom’s memory so, if he ever heard that voice again, he could identify it as the man in the warehouse.
“Have you guys fed him or given him water yet?
“No sir, we followed your instructions, sir.”
Tom filed away in his memory that Mr. Gravel Voice is a boss of some kind, and judging by the deference the other man is giving him, a pretty important person.
“O.K. Tape his arms and legs to the chair and let him sit there with the hood on until tomorrow. Then we’ll see if he has something to say.”