“It’s pretty late, there shouldn’t be many people there.”
Kennedy nodded and followed him willingly.
Taylor was relieved when they walked in and there were only ten other people in the cafeteria. They went through the line and Kennedy passed almost everything.
“Kennedy, I know you don’t feel like eating, but we have to get something in you.”
“Ok,” she said, grabbing a few more things.
Sure enough, once she started eating, she easily finished her plate.
Dustin met them in the cafeteria, “Kennedy are you feeling any better?”
“A little,” Kennedy admitted.
Dustin looked to Taylor who nodded in agreement. They had made some progress over the last two hours.
“I went and debriefed Jennifer and Brett so don’t worry about that. I think Penny is getting some time in the gym.”
“The gym?” Kennedy asked.
“Yeah,” Dustin said looking confused.
“That sounds good actually. Taylor are you up for a run?”
Taylor was shocked that Kennedy felt up to running, “Of course.”
Dustin looked at Taylor questionably, but Taylor shrugged it off. Anything to keep her upward momentum going.
“Dustin?” Kennedy started. “Are you up for a mini golf rematch? I believe tomorrow is my day off.”
Taylor sat back in his chair smiling. These were good signs. Of course, she would still be worried about Jordan, and what path laid in front of her, but this was progress.
“Absolutely!” Dustin said excitedly. “I know just the place. Taylor are you in?”
“Most definitely!” Taylor agreed.
“Hey guys,” Kennedy said more solemnly. “I’m sorry for earlier. I was so lost. You were just supportive. I appreciate that.”
“Ahhhh Kennedy, we got your back girl,” Dustin said, rubbing his hand on hers.
They chit chatted for the rest of their dinner, almost like nothing had happened.
Taylor and Kennedy got changed into their workout clothes before they walked outside. The sun had set, but the moon was bright enough to illuminate the way. They walked until their dinners settled, and then Kennedy broke out into a run. Taylor was surprised at her gusto. He sprinted after her as she ran into the forest. She stayed off the path and ran between the trees like a doe. Taylor wondered how long she could keep up her sprint. It felt good to stretch his legs like that. He enjoyed the spontaneity.
A mile later Kennedy leaned up against a tree. Taylor stood next to her; both were breathing heavily.
“That felt fantastic!” Kennedy said between breaths.
“Good,” Taylor said, recovering. It had been a while since he had sprinted for so long. Kennedy had built up great endurance over their training sessions.
Kennedy waited a few minutes to speak again while she composed herself.
“Mind if we walk back?”
“If that is what you want?” Taylor asked.
“Oh, and I have no idea where we are, I hope you kept track.”
Taylor laughed, “I can do that.”
Taylor waited a few minutes before he reached his hand out to hers and started their walk back.
“I’m glad you are doing better,” Taylor said, keeping his earlier worry to himself.
“Thanks for taking over for a little,” Kennedy replied.
“Anything you need,” Taylor said.
“I needed this,” Kennedy said motioning to the outside.
“The outside is so refreshing.”
“And peaceful,” Kennedy finished. “Did we go off property?”
“No, the NSA owns at least a hundred acers.”
Kennedy nodded, “So no deciphering tomorrow?”
“Not even if you asked,” Taylor clarified.
“What about the bomb?”
“The NSA survived before you came, the NSA can survive one day without you.”
“You’re right!”
Taylor stopped their approach. They were still in the woods, the moon shining through the trees. He faced Kennedy. She was so beautiful, even in the dark. The moon outlined her face, and he could see her smiling. Taking her hand up to his lips he kissed it. Her skin was so soft. Releasing her hand, she put her arms around his neck and moved her head up closer to his.
Closing his eyes, Taylor tilted his head and closed the gap between them. As their lips touched, he could feel the tenderness of her lips. She kissed him for a few seconds before pulling back only an inch. Air released from her lungs and spread over Taylor’s face. His heart pounded loudly at her touch. Her eyes were so close to his, yet it wasn’t close enough.
Daringly, he closed the gap between them again, Kennedy didn’t resist him. He kissed her a little harder before pulling back. Joy spread through his whole body.
The rest of their walk they simply enjoyed each other’s presence, remaining silent.
Taylor and Kennedy showed their ID badges to get back into the building and Taylor escorted Kennedy to her room. She probably knew the way by now, but it felt like the proper thing to do.
“Good night Kennedy,” Taylor said as Kennedy opened the door.
“Thank you for the amazing evening,” Kennedy replied.
Taylor watched the door close before he released a deep breath.
∆∆∆
Kennedy melted into the door. How could the day have started so horribly, end so amazingly? She felt like she was flying! She danced across the room; how could she sleep now? Her heart was speeding so fast. Suddenly embarrassed, she realized Taylor could see that on his watch. She took some deep breaths to slow her heart. Then she jumped into the shower. The hot water felt good on her body.
Getting dressed in pajamas she grabbed a new book and got into bed. She read until she couldn’t stay awake any longer and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning Kennedy was still beaming. She had slept in and felt fully rested. Something she hadn’t felt for weeks.
Taylor, Kennedy, and Dustin spent the morning at a local mini golf course, before heading back to headquarters for lunch. Dustin had once again cleaned house.
“We’ll that was embarrassing,” Kennedy said, picking up some grilled chicken off the buffet.
“Poor Taylor, he has had to live with it for years,” Dustin said pridefully.
“That’s why we don’t play mini golf very often,” Taylor clarified.
“Are you a poor loser?” Kennedy asked playfully. “Mini golf is hardly a skill to brag about.”
“Ouch,” Dustin said. “We can’t all decipher codes.”
“And that is why you work for me,” Kennedy said happily.
“And that is why we work for you,” Taylor confirmed.
“I know today is your day off,” Dustin said after they had sat down.
“But what Dustin? I don’t want to hear it,” Kennedy countered.
Kennedy could see Taylor shaking his head to Dustin.
“You should listen to your friend,” Kennedy said smiling at Taylor.
Taylor was embarrassed that he was caught warning Dustin.
“We’ll hold off the hounds,” Taylor said. “They can wait till tomorrow. I did get information from Wendy. Your bloodwork came back, she is a little concerned about lingering toxins. She wanted us to stop by.”
“No, today is my day off. I feel fine, we can swing by tomorrow.”
“No problem,” Taylor agreed.
“What’s Penny been up to?” Kennedy asked.
“They gave her desk duty, until we figure this out,” Dustin said.
“She’ll be fine,” Taylor added.
Kennedy decided to spend the afternoon swimming. After nearly six months, Wendy assured her that her shoulder could handle it.
“I know what you are thinking,” Kennedy said on the elevator ride up.
“I put a swimsuit on under my suit,” Taylor said smiling.
“Ha..ha..ha,” Kennedy said knowingly. “I am a very capable swimme
r. I grew up in California after all.”
“I will be watching very closely,” Taylor said.
“I would expect nothing else.”
Once at the top, Kennedy took off her sweatshirt and sweatpants and dived into the pool. She had the pool to almost to herself. She easily fell into the breaststroke and did several laps before stopping at one end.
“See!” she said as she found Taylor standing at the corner of the pool.
“Keep it up then!” Taylor challenged.
Kennedy completed ten more laps before she stretched out on her back. This day off had been perfect. There was no stress, no pressure, and no falling unconscious. What more could a girl ask for? At the same time, she knew that Brett and Jennifer wanted to meet with her. What would they ask of her now? Would she be able to do what they wanted? Wendy said she would talk to them, but would that be enough to deter them?
Floating on her back, she listened to the emptiness of the water around her. This felt so simple compared to her complicated life.
The rest of the day Kennedy spent in her room. She watched some TV, read some of her book, and caught up with her mom. Taylor had brought dinner and they ate together in her room.
Neither of them talked about their intimacy the day before, but throughout the day they had shared gestures of affection. A hand squeeze, a smile just for her, or him touching her arm. She liked how they didn’t need to make this complicated. It just felt easy, and right.
They cuddled and watched a chick flick before Taylor said goodnight.
The next morning Kennedy was up on time and prepared to meet Jennifer and Brett. They grabbed a quick breakfast before heading over to the conference room.
“Good morning Kennedy,” Brett said, greeting her.
“Good morning,” Kennedy replied.
“Thank you for meeting with us today,” Jennifer started.
Kennedy nodded, “I hope we can make this work.”
“We have come up with some good options,” Brett said.
“Ok.” She was ready to hear what they had to say.
“This looming bomb threat has us nervous. We need to discover more information. As you know, your methods are faster and more accurate than any of our computer systems, so we need you. At the same time, we can’t keep pushing you to exhaustion. We know that. I think we forgot the human factor there last week, we apologize”
“What are you suggesting?” Kennedy asked.
“We’ve enrolled you in the University of Maryland. It is a little over twenty minutes away. We have matched up your classes to ones in Idaho and have spoken to all the professors. You will be able to pick up and start tomorrow. That is, if you want to.”
Kennedy looked to Taylor who nodded and smiled.
“Wow,” Kennedy said, deliberately not committing. She had not expected that. Would she be able to pick up a few weeks in? If the NSA said they took care of it, surely it was true. If it didn’t work out, she could always pull out.
“You can think about it,” Brett said, seeing her hesitation.
“Yes, I want to do it,” Kennedy said, unable to hide her excitement any longer.
Jennifer smiled, “We know it doesn’t replace your university, but we hope that it is comparable.”
“Thank you, it means a lot. Now what can I do for you?”
“Whatever you can manage,” Brett said quickly.
“We’ll send all of the messages to Taylor, and he’ll filter them to you. That way you won’t be stressed by the amount of code sitting in your messages. Also, Taylor can cut you off.”
Kennedy liked this idea. There was always going to be more code than she could decipher. At some point, enough would have to be enough.
“You’ll be able to live here, and we’ll provide transportation back and forth. Your team will remain the same.”
“Ok.”
“We sent someone in advance to pick up your books,” Jennifer said, picking up a bag off the ground. “I’ll send you an email with your schedule. We have a car scheduled to leave at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.”
“Alright,” Kennedy said excitedly. Taylor grabbed the bag for her.
“Any other questions?” Brett asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Kennedy said standing up.
“We are looking forward to our continued partnership,” Jennifer said, shaking her hand.
“Thanks,” Kennedy replied, as she shook Brett’s hand.
Kennedy walked into the hallway, still surprised.
“Well?” Taylor prodded.
“Well, it is perfect. At least I hope so.”
“Good, should you hit some books?”
“I think I owe them some deciphering.”
“Oh, they will appreciate that,” Taylor replied.
∆∆∆
Taylor left Kennedy in her room to catch up on her new classes and to work on some codes. He contacted Dustin to meet him at Taylor’s place.
Five minutes later Taylor heard some knocking.
“It’s open,” Taylor yelled, and Dustin walked in.
“Did Kennedy take the deal?” Dustin asked.
“Of course, she couldn’t pass it up.”
“It was a good idea Taylor; I’ll give you that. Do you think Jordan will find her here?”
“It’s hard to say. Do you want to talk about logistics?”
Taylor nodded, “Yes, let’s get started. One day isn’t very much time.”
“I’ve done some preliminary work.”
“Great,” Taylor said, pulling out his laptop.
Taylor and Dustin called Penny in before they got started. They then started planning out their arrival routes, back up routes, her schedule, safe spots, exposed spots, who would be where, and all other kinds of security issues. The work was tedious, but Taylor enjoyed it. This was what he was comfortable with. It was also a good learning exercise for Penny, who tried to keep up.
While they were finishing up, there was a knock at the door. Taylor opened it to see Kennedy there.
“Oh, hey Dustin, hey Penny,” Kennedy said. “I was getting hungry, anyone up for lunch?”
“We’re just finishing,” Taylor said. “Mind if we wait another ten minutes?”
“Oh sure,” Kennedy said walking out.
“Kennedy, please join us,” Dustin said, patting a seat next to the couch.
“Ok,” Kennedy said, walking back in.
“What happened to Strong Bones?” Taylor asked, jumping right back into things.
Kennedy interrupted, “Who is Strong Bones?”
“Our inside man at the company,” Taylor clarified.
“Who is it?” Kennedy asked, clearly intrigued.
“It’s classified,” Dustin replied. “We haven’t heard from him in weeks.”
“So, what can we do?” Penny asked.
“There is nothing we really can do,” Dustin added.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” Taylor said.
Quickly, they reviewed the last three hours of work into ten minutes for Kennedy. It felt so simple when they worded it to Kennedy, and that was a sign they had done their job right. She didn’t need to know the hours they just spend planning positions, contingencies, and risk factors. Her job was to live her life, and their job was to make that possible.
After lunch Taylor took Kennedy to meet up with Wendy.
“Thanks for fitting me in Taylor,” Wendy said harshly when they arrived.
“Oh, give him a break,” Kennedy said. “It was my fault.”
“Alright,” Wendy relented. “I want to do another blood test to compare the results from two days ago.”
“Were the levels dangerous?” Taylor asked. Maybe he should’ve pushed Kennedy to come the day before.
“With Kennedy’s history with drugs, it makes me a little worried. Dustin sent me the toxin report, and that should’ve cleared her system before your arrival.”
Wendy pricked her finger and retrieved her second sample.
“I
feel fine,” Kennedy pushed.
“I’m glad, hopefully this is nothing. That is all I need. Taylor I’ll call you later with the results.”
Taylor nodded as he helped Kennedy off the exam table.
The rest of the day Kennedy spent in her room. Taylor looked at his watch around 6 p.m. and assumed she had fallen asleep. Her vitals had remained perfectly steady over the last hour.
He had been closely monitoring her deciphering. Every time she pushed one through Brett and Jennifer, he would send her another few. So far, she had deciphered eight pages. He knew she wanted to get as much processed before school, so he allowed it. Surely fourteen hours of sleep would be plenty.
Wendy had called in and they were relieved to find out that the second blood work came back clean. The toxin had been completely flushed.
∆∆∆
Chapter 14
N 01110
Kennedy’s first day of school went better than she expected. In fact, she liked it better than her old school. The classes were similar enough with her last ones that she didn’t feel overwhelmingly behind. Also, they had cut her classes from six to four. That would be easier for her to manage.
Over the following weeks, the team had fallen into a good rhythm. Taylor’s filtering of the codes was working well. He didn’t hold her back when she had time to spare but kept it short when her stress levels started to rise.
The codes hadn’t revealed much. It was almost as if Jordan’s company had gone silent. Instead, the agency sent codes from other organizations. This was a relief. Kennedy didn’t miss the double deciphering she had to complete with Jordan’s. It also allowed her to almost double her output. This made Jennifer and Brett happy, which reduced her pressure too.
Taylor and Kennedy hadn’t found much time for them, but neither of them minded much. They held hands on the way to class, gave encouraging touches, and sneaked the occasional short kiss.
Living far from campus was annoying in some ways. They were on campus until she was done, which often left some dead time. She had found a good spot in the library to do school and decipher, but also just to grab a short nap or relax.
Sometimes she noticed that Dustin would allow Penny to take his place. She figured this was to give Penny some experience. It also showed Kennedy that they weren’t as concerned about any security threats. Of course, Taylor was always within arm’s reach.
Coded Page 24