by Finian Blake
Rhonda choked, “No nice words, no foreplay, just jump out there and say let’s fuck. My assistant is sitting in front of you why don’t you ask her.”
Gerald did not miss a beat. “You are Cherry Newley, correct?” She nodded. “The AG would officially like to ask you to drop the charges.”
“And why is that?” Cherry said with a surprisingly sweet sound to her voice.
“Felix is one of the most promising members on our staff and with felony charges against him the AG would have to dismiss him.”
Cherry didn’t say a word she just opened the coat that Rhonda had given her to reveal that she was naked underneath. She pointed to a large bruise on her left breast.
“These are tits not punching bags. Your invaluable coworker shredded my clothes and beat the shit out of me until I was unconscious!” A wicked smile crossed Cherry’s face. “I will drop the charges if you give me every stitch of clothing that you have on and walk out of the building naked after I kick you in the nuts five times.”
“You are out of your mind!”
Rhonda jumped right in, “Then, go back to the AG and tell him that you wouldn’t take one for the home team.” Rhonda called the head of security. “I want six people down to the Documents Room until the FBI leaves. I would like you to supervise this personally. I need to get Cherry home before she falls over.
“Of course I will. Give Cherry our best wishes.”
“Thanks she’ll need it after that bastard from the AG’s office. He actually asked her to drop the charges.” Rhonda wanted to have the rumor spread far and wide before quitting time.
Rhonda and Cherry knocked at Tom’s door right at six thirty. They had stopped at the liquor store finding four bottles of Chateau Neuff du Pape 1968 for just $600 a bottle to go with Sera’s dinner. She cooked a veal stew for the main course and prepared five other courses to go with it. The aroma from the house drove Cherry crazy. Tom mixed the drinks and when everybody was relaxed Tom started in, “Cherry I hear that you were at the emergency room today.”
“Yeah I went to emergency and Felix went to jail. I let him sucker punch me. He shredded my clothes although I did help him a little bit to make things look bad. I had all that I could do not to break anything of his.” Cherry waved her hand limply in the air. “The guy fights like a sissy. Tom did you get your business done?”
“Yeah, Edward and Layla interviewed the four terrorists for their promotion and they each have their own patrol car, complete with transponder.”
Cherry made a request, “Layla darling, could you look in on Felix and tell me where he is at?”
“I can do that now.
Layla took Cherry upstairs with her. Layla lay down on the bed and started to meditate. She was only out for five minutes and returned quickly. “Felix is parked two houses down the street and is watching the house now.” They both ran down the stairs to tell Tom who elected to have dinner and wait until it was dark before doing anything. He decided to call the police after dinner wanting to enjoy Sera’s expertise without interruption.
As they were sitting down Sera saw a face looking in the window. Tom went into the kitchen slipping out the back door. He peeked down the side of the house at first not seeing the intruder until the figure stepped back from the window. Tom waited until the figure moved up to the house again. He moved quickly down the house as the figure stepped back Tom grabbed his wrist flipping him to the ground and placing his knee between the man’s shoulder blades. His first decent meal in three months was ruined by a peeping tom. He made it a point to keep the intruder pinned to the ground and silent, until the police arrived. Cherry looked at the man.
“That’s him he assaulted me, tore my clothes and now he’s stalking me.” She turned into Rhonda’s arms starting to cry. “Will he ever leave me alone?”
Edward stepped out with a digital movie camera. Felix produced his Department of Justice ID and the police started to back down.
“Are you officers refusing to arrest a peeping tom and a stalker?”
“He is from the Department of Justice.”
Tom countered right back, “He was in your jail just a few hours ago for assaulting this woman. He put her in the hospital.” Arnold slipped out the front door while all of the action was at the side of the house. He took Layla’s description of the car finding it exactly where she said it should be. He punctured each tire three times in the sidewall making sure that it would have to be replaced and not repaired. Cherry was pissed off she had eaten a half bagel in the last thirty-six hours and there was a great dinner getting cold just on the other side of the wall.
Tom finally put the question to the police, “In front of witnesses and on camera are you refusing to do your duty?”
The officers relented and arrested Felix. Tom finished off, “I will have one of my people come down to the station to make sure that he is booked.” Sera had put the stew in a warm oven putting the dinner in a holding pattern. When it was finally served the dinner was still outstanding. Afterward everybody settled in with a cocktail except for Rhonda and Cherry who decided to leave. Sera stepped out of the door with Rhonda. “Let’s make a fresh start and let the past go.”
Rhonda gratefully acknowledged that her apology was accepted, “I am so very sorry.”
“It is behind us.”
As they drove down the street Cherry noticed a figure moving low around Felix’s car. Her first instinct was to call Tom. He pulled out his low light binoculars and saw Felix standing by his car. He slipped out of the house and managed to catch Felix by surprise again.
“They let you go.”
“I threatened them with the weight of the Attorney General.”
“Get the hell out of here.”
“I can’t I have four flat tires and I lost my cell phone when you tackled me.”
Tom took out his satellite phone and called a tow truck, “Give me your phone number and I will look for your phone.”
“I will just look for it now.” Tom held a k-bar knife to his throat. “If you move any closer to my house, I will give you a shave that you will never recover from.”
Felix puffed up, “Are you threatening me!”
Tom increased the pressure of the knife, “I don’t make threats. I keep promises. Stay away from my family, stay away from my house, stay away from my business and stay away from me.” A lift bed tow truck pulled around the corner turning on its lights. Tom stormed back to the house leaving Felix to ride with the driver.
Arnold was sitting with an M4 carbine looking out an open window in the living room. “You should have broken his neck when you had him on the ground, but I can still shoot him now.
Tom shook his head, “My cowboy days are over. I called the police to do things right.”
“Tom you are getting down right civilized. Did the police do it right?”
“No, they cut him loose as soon as they turned the corner, which reminds me.” Tom was a friend of the chief of police and had his home phone number. It was eleven PM but he called anyway and after a half an hour conversation Tom hung up laughing. “The chief needed two officers for special assignment at the Fort Meade toxic waste dump. The security company that had the contract went out of business and the city has to provide security until they can find another contractor since the entrance is on civilian land.”
“That sounds good to me Tom. How long do you think it will take?”
“I don’t know Arnie the whole job is in limbo they need a general contractor and the default general contractor is the EPA. With no maintenance the whole system is starting to fall apart. They should give those boys biohazard suits just to guard the gate.”
“Tom quit your gloating and tell me what you are going to do about those Saudi Terrorists.” Sera asked.
“They are not Saudi Terrorists. Here is the rule: If they are from Syria, Iran Iraq, Afghanistan or any other country they get the name of their country, but if they are from Saudi Arabia they are Muslim terrorists because the administ
ration is in bed with the Saudi’s. Now if the terrorists are from Pakistan, only the Indian’s can call them terrorists otherwise they are Muslim terrorists too because we have to go through their country to get to Afghanistan. Since we are dealing with the FBI and the CIA, we have to be politically correct. I just agreed to hire them so they are not really mine. Which reminds me I have Edward doing an ‘out of body’ check on them.”
The two men walked in the kitchen to see if Sera and Layla needed help in the kitchen. The dishes were still piled in the sink and the ladies were just finishing the last bottle of Cherry’s wine.
Sera was smiling warmly. “We figured that since you were chatting over drinks in the living room, we would chat over drinks in the kitchen. We are finished drinking so now we can all clean.” Sera had cleaned while she was cooking so there were few pots and pans left for him to clean.
Tom was putting away the last few dishes when Edward came down stairs. “The Saudis are having a meeting tomorrow night to select targets and they have been slowly collecting weapons and bomb making materials. They have almost 1,000 pounds of black powder on hand and are slowly buying three to five pounds at a time working every gun store in the four state area. Their machinist has threaded about fifty sections of pipe with the end’s and caps ready to go, so it will only take them an afternoon to make 50 pipe bombs. A bomb maker has eight or ten larger bombs planned but will need to make some homemade plastic explosive for a bigger bang. If they were really pressed they could go into action within a day or two. I think they’re looking for a project that is really big so they can grab some headlines. If that’s the case, we will have a week or two to track them and hopefully stop them.”
“Thanks I will make an appointment with our contacts. I would like to keep you out of sight even from our people so give me the locations and quantities and I will deal directly with the FBI Director. I don’t want another cluster fuck like we had with the ‘Sweeper File’.”
Rhonda and Cherry were in the NSA building early at six AM stopping at the cafeteria. Cherry picked up an extra cup of coffee and extra pastries. After Rhonda settled into her office Cherry took the cardboard tray down to the Document Room. Stan was sitting at his desk in the outer office.
“Stan, I wanted to thank you for all that you did for me yesterday. You did just the right thing in a bad situation. I know without a doubt that you would have helped me if you knew that I was in trouble.” Cherry could not put her arms all the way around Stan when she hugged him. At six seven and 280 pounds, he was a large man but he was not fat. Cherry pulled ten dollars from her pocket closing his hand around it. “I bled on your jacket so I would like to get it cleaned for you.”
“I couldn’t miss.”
“You did so much for me when I couldn’t do anything for myself. Please let me do this one little thing for you.”
“I’m sorry miss but I really couldn’t as a matter of fact I can’t accept your pastries. I promised my wife that I would stick to my diet.” Cherry left quietly returning with an apple and an orange. “I really can’t…” Cherry looked down at the fruit pouting. Stan realized that he hurt her feelings and accepted her offering.
Cherry brightened, “Rhonda is looking into improving your security clearance so that you can have a key card for the room.” The improved security clearance would mean a decent raise.
“I am sorry miss but I couldn’t accept anything for helping you.”
“You are a decent man.” Cherry brushed his arm and left quickly.
Cherry breezed into the office, “Rhonda is there any way that you can get Stan’s security clearance raised.”
“You really like the guy.”
“Stan was there without being asked. You need to surround yourself with people like that. If you do this, he will stand behind you like a shadow.”
Rhonda nodded and picked up the phone. After a few minutes conversation she hung up with a smile. “The director said that he will put his secretary on it right away. He comes in early so that he can do his work before everybody lines up for favors. He always thought that a guard down there was a waste. After Felix let loose on you with help just a few feet away, the director was going to put somebody down there with a higher clearance, but I believe that he will go for your suggestion.”
“Thanks Rhonda, he will take good care of Colleen when she comes back.”
“I thought that you would stay on.”
“I couldn’t take that young girls job. If we stay together I would probably work through Four Diamonds or you could have a look at what I have going.” Rhonda made a face at the thought of giving up her hard earned position. Cherry didn’t press. “Come on we have to get through today.”
The phone rang and Cherry picked up. “No their office hours begin at nine. Hold please…” Cherry looked at Rhonda. “It’s Gerald Wringer. He wants to pick up the file for the AG.
“No way, he’s not read into the file and none of that information is allowed to leave the vault.”
Cherry got back on the line. “Rhonda is in conference for the morning and will be back in the office around noon.” Cherry hung up the phone. “If we turn him down he will file a motion. We will claim national security and by the time he gets back to us it will be the weekend and by then we will be out of town. The NSA is not part of the Department of Justice and the Attorney General can fight it out with our Director. He is not too happy with the AG at this time.”
“Where will we go?”
Cherry picked up the satellite phone. “Sera can you get me anything at the Greenbrier? Yes, I will wait for your call.” Cherry hung up and went out to the outer office so that Rhonda could get some work done. It took almost an hour for her phone to ring. She walked into Rhonda’s office talking, “A weekend at the Amazon with an equestrian package for a weekend cottage on Springs Row with a full spa package, that’s a deal. Rhonda, how would you like a full spa package at the Greenbrier for the weekend starting Friday afternoon.”
“Beltway traffic will be a killer.”
“Four Diamonds has a helicopter they can have somebody fly us over there in a half hour. That way Felix won’t be able to follow us.”
“How…?” Rhonda’s curiosity was fully peaked.
“The manager at the Greenbrier is an avid rider and Sera exchanged some time at the Amazon Inn for time at the Greenbrier. Sera, manages the Amazon Inn in England.” Cherry had a thought before she left, “I would like to make some changes in security before the wing opens up.” It took a good fifteen minutes to outline changes. Rhonda felt that they were prudent and approved them all.
Tom was awake early, calling the FBI Director’s personal assistant at seven outlining everything that Edward had told him. “Assign an agent that you can trust not to go wild and we will exchange the information face to face. You can make up your mind after they report.”
“I am sending Special Agent Byrne to take command for our part of the project. He will handle everything on the government end and he will have full control with the authority of the Director.”
“Good we have one problem. Felix Owens from Justice was doing the peeping Tom thing by my house…He scared the shit out of my guests.”
“Why was he there?”
“One of my guests is handling a secret file at NSA Documents and he beat the shit out of her in the Documents Room.”
“Oh that problem, Gerald Wringer from the Attorney General called to get us to kill the investigation.”
“Yeah, well he is stalking her and investigating me. This guy is off his rocker. If he pokes his nose in at the wrong time it’s going to screw up this operation. Get something done or I am going to pull the plug on our deal.”
The assistant was panicked. “What do you expect me to do?”
Tom was getting pissed, “Start out by doing what is right. Throw the asshole in jail. Look at the pictures, what if she was your wife or girlfriend?”
“We will turn the matter over to agent Byrne.” The Assistant hung up
before Tom could reply.
When Randal Byrne walked into his office there was a folder on top of his desk with a note on it SEE THE DIRECTOR AT 08:30 which was a full half hour before his first normal appointment. Randal was there on time exactly at 08:30 to the second being admitted without delay. “Director what can I do for you?”
“I see that you have worked the ‘Sweeper File’ for my predecessor and I see that you worked with Tom Thomas through the whole situation out in LA. Most of the file was written between the two of you, so I will not have to bring anybody new into the case. Pauline Rider was the only witness left to testify and she is in witness protection. I am sticking my neck out to tell you this but her new name is Rhonda Savage and she is in charge of records at the NSA. The only other living person with knowledge of the case is that idiot Felix Owens.”
“Yes, I see that Tom Thomas is in on the case. Having worked with him before, I know Tom to be a good man in a tight situation. I will have no problem working with him. Felix Owens stopped by my office and asked if I had any information on the ‘Sweeper File’. I told him that he should go over to the NSA building since he was officially read into the file.”
The Director sounded disgusted, “Well he went over to documents and beat the shit out of Cherry Newly. The whole incident was recorded on video in glorious color with sound. I am talking about HD video not the grainy stuff. He sucker punched, kicked, and hit her. While she was down he ripped her clothes to shreds. He stalked her over to Tom Thomas’s house getting in a fight over there a few hours after his release. At this point the good news is that I am turning it over to you.”
“How is that good news?”
“It is good news because I am out of the loop and nobody needs to brief you on the ‘Sweeper File’. Tom is handling this until you decide that we should take over. I would however like to suggest you rely more on Tom’s resources than ours. We need to avoid any confused loyalties within the Justice Department.”
“But we are in the Justice Department.” The Director smiled and motioned toward the door. Randal stopped before opening the door. “I don’t think that it would do any good to refuse this assignment?”