by Linda Hawley
Oh no…he knows the codes…he’s penetrated GOG, I realized suddenly.
“Are you okay?” Bennett asked with alarm.
“What?” I said robotically, recalling the intimacy I’d shared with Paul.
“You’re suddenly pale. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, calling up my stone face.
“You sure?” he said with concern.
“The shock isn’t gonna get better the more you ask me, Bennett,” I said sarcastically. “I’m okay. Let’s go back, so I can clean out my desk, and then I’ll be on my way,” I said, realizing that I had much bigger problems to deal with than having just been fired.
“Wait, wait,” he said as I started to rise from the bench.
“What is it?” I said, disassociating my emotions to deal with later—locking them up in a box.
“You are on dangerous ground, Ann,” he said quietly, looking at me.
“What do you mean?” I asked, meeting his eyes again.
“Paul. Be very, very careful from here on out, okay?”
“Yes, I will,” I said, certain. “There’s no chance I’ll forget about the traitor,” I said coldly.
“You never cease to amaze me, Ann,” he said with a gentle smile.
“You may be amazed later, when I figure out how to deal with Paul. It might be a good idea to place an ad for a new technology geek,” I warned with a serious edge.
“I already have.”
“And now you’ve surprised me,” I said. I put my hand on his shoulder and looked at him. “Thank you for being honest with me.”
He didn’t reply, but instead his face looked worried.
“May I ask you something else?” I asked, a question niggling at the back of my mind.
“Yes. What is it?”
“Brock…is he in some way involved with Paul or the government’s fight against the cause?”
A look of fear filled Bennett’s face. He abruptly turned his head and looked out to the bay. I had clearly hit a nerve, and I waited patiently.
“There are some things that are extremely dangerous to speak of, and this is one of them. He’s my brother, Ann,” he said sadly, looking over at me.
Bennett had just confirmed—without using the words—that Brock was somehow involved with the government. Now Brock’s behavior toward me the past three years made sense.
We sat together in silence, watching the sea for ten minutes, and then we rose and started to walk back up the hill to AlterHydro. After a few steps, he pulled me to a stop and then turned to face me. I followed his lead. He looked like his normal self again.
“I forgot to tell you—I gave you a fifty-thousand-dollar severance package,” he said, matter of fact, and then winked.
I chuckled.
“Thank you. Can I get the check today, before I leave?”
He laughed. “Of course. I’ll have our friend, Vicki, run up to accounting and have the check written. I’m sure you know you’ll have to sign a letter saying you’ll never sue AlterHydro because I let you go.”
“Did the lawyer suggest that deal?”
“Yes,” he said flatly.
“My thoughts about lawyers might have just shifted,” I said with a smile. “It’s fine. If I take it to the company’s bank today and ask them to cash it in one-hundred-dollar bills, will they?”
“I’ll have our CFO call the bank as soon as they write the check. Cash is a very good idea, Ann.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
We continued to walk up the hill, and then I said, “Since you’re no longer my boss, I can finally tell you…”
“Tell me what?” Bennett cautiously asked, pulling on my arm to stop me from walking further.
“You need to lay off the Calvin Klein cologne, Bennett,” I said, serious.
He began laughing.
“It’s just too much! Do you know how I loathed going near you sometimes?” I said loudly over his laughing.
He only laughed harder.
“What’s so funny?” I asked with irritation.
“Someone told me you hated it,” he answered, still laughing.
“It figures. Who?” I demanded.
He was laughing so hard, he bent over and eked out the name, “Paul.”
Jerk.
“That’s not even the least bit funny, Bennett,” I said, anger rising.
Bennett rose and looked at me. “I guess he was trying to get you on my bad side even then. But that’s not the funny part. The funny part is that I wore the cologne purposely, just to watch your reaction.” He started laughing hard again. “I’ve never seen anyone but you try to speak and hold your breath at the same time. It was hysterical.” He snorted. “Sometimes it was all I could do to hold my laughter inside until after you left.”
“You are one sick guy, Bennett,” I said, certain.
“I know,” he agreed, his laughing starting to simmer down.
“So where was Calvin Klein today?” I asked playfully.
“I figured that since I had to fire you, I’d give you a reprieve.”
“You really are sick, you know that?”
“I said I know,” he snapped loudly.
I smiled.
We walked the rest of the way up the hill in silence.
It’s too bad I didn’t enjoy him this much when I worked for him.
We entered AlterHydro’s lobby together, and it was impossible to ignore the resounding smirk on Vicki’s face, clearly directed at me. Bennett saw it, too, and stalked over to her.
“Get up to accounting and have Jane cut her severance check,” he said quietly without pretense, nodding toward me.
Clearly Vicki knew that I was being fired.
Bennett continued quietly but firmly. “Then I want you to tell Jane to call our bank and speak to the branch manager. Have him immediately release the funds to Ann when she comes in today, in one-hundred-dollar bills. Then I want you to hand deliver the check to me in my office. You’ve got exactly five minutes,” Bennett informed her, looking down at his watch.
With her face losing its color as he spoke, Vicki replied immediately, “Yes, Sir.” She moved up and out of her seat faster than I had ever witnessed in three years.
As we stood in front of the reception desk watching Vicki leave, Bennett whispered to me, “What goes around comes around.”
I chuckled.
“Why don’t you clear out your desk, and I’ll bring the check to you?”
“Thank you, Bennett, I said, looking into his piercing blue eyes.”
He nodded in silence, then walked toward the elevators.
I descended the steps, realizing that I was entering my subterranean refuge for the last time. I also realized that I might run smack into the man whom I’d nearly given my heart to.
When I opened the basement door, I could see that the betrayer was gone.
That’s a good thing. I hadn’t yet formulated a plan about Paul, and I might react with a can of mace in his face, simply out of spite.
As Lulu greeted me, I bent down to pet her. She was very still. I assumed she could sense my mood.
Or maybe I would sick Killer on you, I thought, considering what Lulu could do to Paul.
I stood and approached my desk, noticing Edwin pop up from a piece of equipment. I saw him move toward me.
Oh, not now, Edwin…I’m a little busy, I thought, not wanting to play nice at the moment.
Finally there was no ignoring him as he reached me. He said nothing, and his face was grim. He held out his hand for me to shake.
I guess he knows. How the heck does he know? I wondered.
I shook his hand, and he looked into my eyes with intense, dark eyes and a serious expression. As quickly as he came, he retracted his hand and then returned to his desk. No words were exchanged.
Noticing a piece of paper that had slipped to the floor, I bent down and picked it up. As I rose, I glanced at it, ready to call out to Edwin that he had dropped it. But when I saw the four wor
ds, I pulled the paper to my chest and then immediately shoved it in my pants pocket. It read:
Chow is my brother.
Yet another shock today. Is Edwin GOG? I wonder what else will happen today.
My head snapped up to look at Edwin across the room as he stared at me. Then he did something that I will remember all my life. He bowed to me. It was a sweet, simple act of respect.
I returned his bow.
I’m sure Lulu wondered what was happening, because she was at my side from the time I entered the basement. Either that or she had to go pee.
“Just a few minutes, girl.”
I took my messenger bag, opened it, and set it on my desk to put my things in. After plopping down in my chair, I opened the bottom left drawer of my desk. I took a milk-chocolate-covered raspberry treat and put it in my mouth.
You should always eat chocolate on the day you’re fired.
The bottom right drawer contained Lulu’s treats; I gave her one and scooped the rest into my bag.
What else?
I passed up all the papers on top of my desk. After pulling open each drawer and looking through the contents, I saw nothing that was mine. When I opened the last drawer, I heard the basement door open. I looked up, my heart racing.
Vicki.
Well, that’s a relief, I thought, imagining that she had my check.
Looking back down, I went through the last drawer as Vicki made her way toward me. After adding my Mother Earth magazine to my bag of goodies, I stood as Vicki reached my desk.
“You’d better not take any company property, Ann,” she sneered.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I calmly replied, making eye contact.
Holding eye contact with the wicked witch, I reached across my desk and grasped the scissors I had purchased after mine disappeared. I held them a foot above my messenger bag, at Vicki’s eye level, opened my hand, and dropped them in, smiling all the while.
I heard a snicker from behind Vicki, just as she lunged into my bag to retrieve my scissors. I reacted quickly and grabbed them from her hand, and a tug of war ensued.
“Give ’em here!” she screamed forcefully, pulling with all her weight.
“They’re mine, ya bully,” I said, wishing I had my Taser.
“Vicki!” Bennett bellowed.
She let go of my scissors and turned towards him. “She’s taking company property,” she said, a whining tone sneaking from her voice.
Bennett came around Vicki to my desk and picked up the scissors, facing me. “Please accept these scissors and this check, in appreciation of your service to AlterHydro.”
“Thank you, Bennett,” I said with a smile and then looked at Vicki, who was red faced and blotchy.
“I still have to search her bag,” she said, her voice regaining some of the hardness she was used to wielding.
“Not in my lifetime,” Bennett said gruffly, not even turning around to address her.
Vicki then turned and left in a huff. As the basement door banged shut, I exhaled.
“I really must tell you that I’ll miss Vicki terribly. I might even shed a tear,” I said to Bennett sarcastically.
He then smiled and winked at me.
Bennett placed the lawyer’s severance letter on the desk for my signature.
I leaned over, reading it.
“My lawyer would tell me not to sign this,” I said flatly, picking up my pen.
“Then my lawyer would tell me not to give you the severance check,” he responded in kind.
“Lawyers,” I said with a laugh, signing it and then looking into Bennett’s eyes.
He held out the bank’s check and then extended his right hand out to me. I took the check and shook his hand in silence. Breaking from his gaze, I dropped both the scissors and the check into my bag.
“Come on, Lulu,” I said, looking down at her. Her bottom wagged.
I didn’t have any trouble cashing the check at AlterHydro’s bank; they had a bank bag ready with the amount pre-counted in hundred-dollar bills. The whole transaction took ten minutes. Then I brought the cash home and put it in my wall safe.
It was a shining moment in my day when I visited my bank, closing both my checking and savings accounts and getting my balance in one-hundred-dollar bills. I had nearly asked for it in ten-dollar bills, just to spite them, but I took the higher road instead. Of course, that transaction took my bank forty minutes—an experience I had expected. I sat down in the bay window overlooking the sea. Lulu plopped down next to me. After reaching in my bag, I pulled out treats for the both of us.
What a day. I was fired from my job not because I wasn’t doing it well, but because I am a member of GOG. And Bennett’s a supporter of GOG. I pulled out the paper Edwin had given me and looked at it again. Edwin is Chow’s brother. Does that mean that Edwin is also GOG? But the biggest surprise of the day was Paul.
The phone rang, pulling me away from my thoughts.
“Sinéad, take a message,” I said. The phone immediately stopped ringing.
“Message ready, Ann.”
“Replay the message.”
“Ann…it’s Paul…I just found out. Call me.”
“End of message,” Sinéad informed me.
“Liar!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
I hadn’t even tapped the pain I felt from Paul’s betrayal. Bolting up from the bay-window seat, I stomped into the bathroom, stripped off all my clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor, and stepped into the shower. I was eager to scrub away my memories of him. Turning the water on as hot as I could stand it, I let the water stream over me, washing away the dirtiness I felt from my association with the man who had betrayed me.
I was overcome with grief, tears mixing with the water running over my cheeks. Sinking to the shower floor, I sobbed until I exhausted myself, remembering all the moments with Paul that I had treasured but now knew were all lies. He baited me, then used me. Nothing that ever came out of his mouth was honest. Paul was a black-hearted scoundrel, and I vowed to never let him near my heart again.
Chapter 14
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
The Year 2015
Flying into Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, I arrived just after three p.m. From my Seattle connection, I was able to upgrade to first class, which allowed me to plug in my iPod, soothing me to sleep with the aid of three extra-strength Tylenol. Sleep had evaded me last night after the many shocks of the day, coupled with my slight anxiety about flying using a false identity.
After deplaning, I stopped at the Faber News & Gifts and picked up a Mountain Dew. Drinking it down as I walked through the airport terminal, I thought about the meeting. I was supposed to make contact in the Pentagon City fashion mall—of all places. Since there was direct access to the mall from the Washington Metro, we would be able to easily move to a new location after our meet-up.
This was a fly-in, fly-out trip; I would return to Bellingham tomorrow. Clearly this would be a discussion-only meeting about my future role in the cause. Of course, I needed to discuss my recent discoveries about Paul and make a plan on how to handle him upon my return to Bellingham.
After collecting my single bag, I was in a taxi heading to the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City. I didn’t know why GOG booked me there. Perhaps it was because high-profile clients frequented there, which meant that they would be less likely to scrutinize my fake identification. The taxi pulled up to the high-rise entrance, and a doorman had my door open, seemingly before the wheels even stopped. I paid the driver in cash and stepped out.
The lobby was opulent, from its huge imported rugs to the lead-glass chandeliers, which were suspended within recessed ceilings. Painted wood in warm colors made me feel as though I was in a gentlemen’s club. There were three front-desk clerks available; two were male and one was female. I took a deep breath and then approached the woman.
“Good afternoon, miss. How may I help you?” the woman wearing the Samantha nametag asked. She was all busin
ess with her forced smile on thin lips.
“I have a reservation. The last name is Jones,” I said with a smile, reaching for my new ID.
“And the first name is?”
“Julie,” I answered, forcing eye contact with her round brown eyes to refute the lie.
“Yes, I see it here,” she said, looking at the computer screen.
She could be practicing to be my old bank manager.
“Credit card and identification,” she said, matter of fact, staring me down with the pasted-on smile.
“I’ll pay cash,” I said, sliding my new ID across the black marble counter.
“Miss Jones, I see that your room is prepaid, but we’ll need a credit card for incidental charges to the room,” she said politely as she distractedly straightened her skirt.
“I don’t plan to charge anything to the room, so there won’t be a need for a credit card,” I countered softly with a smile and eye contact thrown in.
“Miss Jones, I cannot check you in without a credit card,” she said sternly.
I leaned into the counter and gently explained, “Samantha, my purse was stolen at the airport, and there are only two things that were not in it: the ID that I just gave you—because I had to show it to airport security and had put it in my pocket—and the cash I had in my pocket. If you’ve ever had your purse stolen, you know all the personal things we women keep in there…my photos…my special heirloom necklace from my grandmother—”
“Don’t you just hate losing all that?” she said, interrupting, mirroring my lean-in and speaking quietly. “I once was mugged in D.C.—this was years ago—but I never got those pictures back,” she said, confiding in me. “Not to mention that it took me a week to get replacement cards and a new ID. It felt terrible,” Samantha said with her eyebrows pursed.
I nodded. “I know…isn’t it a horrible feeling?” I said, screwing up my face to appear pitiful.
She looked at me for a moment and then quietly offered, “Let me speak to the hotel manager for you.”