Disruption: A River Of Secrets And Betrayal

by J. B. Jamison

  "Em, are you there?"

  "Yeah, I'm here. Sorry. And yeah, I know what she means."

  "Is it important; anything I need to know about?"

  "Not right now, no. I need to think a bit, and I'll let you know."

  "Ok. You said you're driving again? Where the heck are you?"

  "The boat gets to Chester around five in the morning, so I decided to drive on up there tonight. Figure I'll sleep late enough to get this head to stop aching."

  "What is it, about two hours up there?"

  "Nah, it just takes about an hour on I-55. It’s an easy drive, and there's not much traffic. I just wish I could find something on the radio."

  "Ok, well, you be careful. Hey, did you ever hear anything from Chambers or Dasilva yet?"

  "Nope, no problems from either of them."

  "Good. But keep your eyes open, OK?"

  "Will do Lennie. Go get some sleep."

  "Take care Em."

  Just over an hour later, Emily parked her car at a Best Western motel, made her way to her room on the second floor, and closed the door behind her. As tired as she was, there was a smile on her face. She had no idea that the little town of Chester was known as the hometown of Popeye the Sailor Man. Popeye's creator was born and raised in Chester, and since she had seen the first sign on the highway, she had been wearing the same grin. Popeye was how dad had gotten her to eat spinach so many years ago. There was something about the stuff that just did not want to go down her throat, but when her dad bent his arms and did his little dance while singing the Popeye The Sailor song, she could gulp it right down. There were good times back there, and while they made her smile, they made her wish he could remember them too.

  It had been a while since Emily had been to the beach, but after a quick shower, she crawled into the queen-size bed and closed her eyes. In a minute or two, she was watching the surf from her beach towel, trying to hear the waves as she watched her dad dodging the pill-shaped rocks someone was throwing at him from behind a palm tree. Jimmy Buffett was sitting in the sand with a bandage on his head, trying to get a signal on his cell phone.

  Back in Cape Girardeau, Colonel Chambers woke to the sound of his phone.

  "Chambers here."

  "Colonel Chambers?"

  "Yes, what is it?"

  "Colonel, my name is Steve. I'm sorry to bother you at this hour, but I need to let you know that Agent Grahams' life is in danger."

  "What? Steve? Are you the guy that's been calling her?"

  "Colonel, please. There is time for that later. Right now you need to understand that Emily is in danger. Do you know where she is?"

  "I believe she drove on up to Chester earlier, to be there for the boat tomorrow."

  "Colonel, she is indeed in Chester, at the Best Western motel. I knew that, and now you know that. What is important is that there are others who know that as well."

  "Who the hell are you?"

  "As I've told Emily, we are on the same team, I assure you. But these other people are not. Do you understand?"

  His phone was lying on the bed as he bolted out of the motel room door fastening his pants. He moved across the hall in one step and pounded on a door. "Reyes...Reyes...get your ass out here. We've got trouble."

  Chapter 95

  The alarm went off at four, which she figured would give her enough time to get ready for the boat. Emily rinsed her face, took care of her other usual morning things, picked up her bag, and opened the motel room door.

  "Who the hell are you?" she asked the man sitting in the chair next to her door.

  The man picked up his radio and mumbled something. "Just one second Agent Graham. I must ask you to please step back inside your room."

  "What the..."

  The man stood. His size and facial expression convinced her to do exactly as he said. The shiny badge and sidearm also helped. She went to the window and saw a half dozen black cars in the lot, with a group of people standing and looking at her car; from a distance. The only person near it was wearing something that looked like an overstuffed parka covering his entire body. She began putting the pieces together as the door opened and Chambers and Reyes stepped inside.

  "Ok," Emily said, "would somebody like to tell me what is going on here? Where did you two come from; again."

  "You can thank your friend Steve." Chambers said.

  "He called you?"

  "Yeah, around two o'clock or so, saying you were in danger."

  "Danger?"

  "The thing is, he knew exactly where you were, and said the other people knew too. So, Agent Graham, fill us in. What do you really know about this Steve, and who the hell are these other people?"

  "I've already told you what I know. Really. He's the guy that gave me the address for that Alex guy at Arbel’s in Louisville. He's called a couple more times. All he'll tell me is that we're on the same team and that this whole thing is about two groups who are fighting. But I've already told you all of that. What is going on now?"

  "Now?" Reyes said, "oh not much. We've just got a guy out there trying to disarm some kind of bomb somebody stuck under your car last night; something like that...not much."

  "Bomb? What the..." She looked for the right words as she noticed her body slowly lowering itself onto the edge of the bed. She didn’t think she was fainting, she'd never been that type, but for some reason her body had decided to take a brief break to reflect on things, leaving her mind to fend for itself.

  "From this point on, no more going off on your own, OK? Either one of us or someone from the team needs to be with you at all times. Are you OK with that?"

  "What if I have to go to the bathroom?" she asked.

  "We'll close our eyes," Reyes said. These are people who know when a bit of humor is the one defense to use.

  "Ok, let's do this again," Chamber said, "who knew where you were going last night?"

  "Well, the only people I talked with were you guys and Lennie. I guess maybe the boat Captain; I may have told him when we talked. And..."

  "You talked with the Captain again? What about?"

  "It was strange. He called me, and said that the Dennis guy told him to give me a call, just to talk."

  "Talk? About what?"

  "Apparently anything except what they are doing out there. We mostly talked about my dad; they worked together."

  "Ok, he might have told the Dennis guy about your plans. Who else? Dasilva?"

  "I don't think so. The last time we talked I didn't know I was coming up here tonight. In fact, I didn't even know where I was staying until I got up here, so how did they know what motel I was in?"

  "They might have someone tailing you."

  "Or you're bugged."

  "Me?"

  "Your car maybe. It’s a shot."

  "Well," Chambers said, "whatever it is, from here on you've got company; we're not giving them a third chance. What time is it? The boat gets here at five."

  "Guys," Emily hesitated, "there's one more thing I think you need to know, under the circumstances."

  "And that would be?" Reyes asked.

  "Somebody tried to kill my father in New Orleans."

  "What do you mean?"

  "His nurse called yesterday after finding a pill in one of his pockets; he hides them there sometimes and just pretends to take them."

  "OK," Reyes said.

  "This pill they found was the same as the one that Alex used to kill himself in Louisville; one of those kill pills created by the guys helping Shallenger."

  "You're sure about that?"

  "Lennie got the call confirming it a few hours ago."

  A long silence as everyone looked at their shoes. Emily noticed she was standing again.

  "OK then, someone is doing their best to get you out of the picture here Graham." Chambers said. "They figure they can either take you out, or your dad, but either way you'll no longer be a problem. Somehow, we need to have a really good conversation with this Steve guy."

  "If we're
going to the river," Reyes said, "we'd better get started. I think we have enough people here to provide Agent Graham with protection.

  Emily once again collected her stuff, and followed the two men from the room as she sang to herself, "Me, and my sha…dow". Humor; sometimes it was the only way.

  Activity at the river was larger than Caruthersville but smaller than Cape Girardeau. Instead of watching from the riverbank, Emily was standing in the middle of a group of agents and other official looking people, all paying more attention to the crowd around them than to the boat. As the boat passed, Emily was still close enough to see the pilothouse door open, and a man step out onto the gangway. It looked like he was holding a phone.

  She felt the vibration.

  "Graham."

  "Agent Graham, its Dennis. I want to apologize for being so rude earlier, and for not accepting your call. That was completely inappropriate of me. All I can say is that I had many things on my mind, and I truly want to apologize."

  "It’s not a problem. I was not offended."

  Chambers gave her a very strange look.

  "Agent Graham," Dennis said, "I would like to make it up to you, and offer you something that you may find to be very interesting and meaningful."

  "Yes. And what might that be?"

  "I would like to invite you to join us on the Francis B.; to come and see what we are doing, and give us the opportunity to explain things appropriately. Plus, I believe it might be helpful for you to see that the crew is perfectly safe, and has not been mistreated in any way."

  "Come aboard the Francis B? Me?"

  Both Chambers and Reyes stared, open-mouthed for a moment before both began shaking their heads.

  "Yes, please. I assure you that you will be perfectly safe. Will you join us, please?"

  "When? How?"

  Heads were shaking more violently although both men's eyes showed that they knew she is going to go.

  "I want to give you time to make arrangements. Are you familiar with the little town of Kimmswick? It’s a very nice little place not far below St. Louis; lots of history there. I have a friend who will meet you at the little marina there. He will bring you out to the Francis B. so you can ride along as we go through St. Louis; it should be quite a ride. But please, just yourself; I'm afraid we won't be able to provide hospitality for any of your other colleagues at this time. Can I tell my friend you will meet him there?"

  Emily knew she should have a discussion with Chambers and Reyes.

  "Yes, I'll be there."

  "Wonderful," Dennis said. "Agent Graham you have made my day."

  "I'm glad to hear that," Emily said.

  "One more thing before we go, Agent Graham?"

  "Yes?"

  "I want you to know that none of the things that have happened over the past twenty-four hours, things with you and your father; none of those things have been from us. None of them."

  "How did you know about..."

  "Until Kimmswick Agent Graham. And thank you once again."

  Click.

  Three hours later, Emily was in a helicopter heading for Kimmswick, Missouri, sitting between Colonel Chambers and Commander Reyes, neither of whom was convinced that what they were doing was a good idea. Even with the headsets, it was difficult to talk, so Emily allowed herself to drift off. She watched the surf gently lapping against the sand as she sat on her chair, watching the man underneath it trying to disarm the bomb someone had put there. Jimmy Buffett was standing down by the surf, completely surrounded by men in black suits and wearing sunglasses.

  Chapter 96

  "You look rested this morning," Ronnie said, "things must be getting better."

  "No," the older man said. "If anything, it’s even more challenging than before. But as I told you, we have time on our side, so we trust our people. But, the real question, have you come up with your action for our cashier up there this morning, to ask for your first name."

  "I did," he said proudly. "In fact, I've got a couple of ways it could be done."

  "Well, in that case, I'm afraid you have failed my little test."

  "What do you mean? You've not even heard my ideas."

  "I don't need to hear them; you've already told me that you don't have confidence in either one of them, so it would be a waste of my time to hear more."

  "I don't understand. Are you telling me now that you can read minds?

  "No, Ronnie, but if you tell me you have more than one way to do the task, it means that you don't have the confidence that either of them will do the job. If you had an action that you fully believed in, you wouldn't need another. Remember Ronnie, the risks are just too high, as we're seeing out there right now; we have to wait until we have the action that we know is the one best action to take. "

  Brief silence.

  "So, I guess I screwed up."

  "Yes, but don't worry about it; I did the same thing. All it means is that you still have things to learn; and we already knew that, didn't we?"

  The old man smiled.

  "Ok, yeah. So, are you going to tell me how you actually did it; the asking for first name thing?"

  "Sure, but I'm afraid it’s not all that exciting. Let's start by asking if you wanted to change some behavior of someone like the cashier here, who would probably have the most clout to do that in the company."

  "You mean the boss; the CEO?"

  "Well, maybe, but they've got many other things on their plate; most of them looking a lot more important than this. Who else? Think about what the cashier does, and what they represent."

  "Represent? Well, they're someone that deals with all the customers, so do you mean like they represent the company; something like that."

  "They represent the face of the company; exactly. When people interact with the cashier, it’s one of the few times they directly interact with the company. So its important that they do a good job, right? And who in the company probably spends a good deal of their time worrying about that kind of thing?"

  "PR? Marketing?"

  "There you go. So, if we could find a way to get the marketing people to believe it would improve the customer experience to call them by name..."

  "They've got the clout to get it done. So, we talk with someone in marketing, and..."

  "Channels Ronnie. At least four of them, more if possible."

  "Ok, find someone who knows someone in marketing..."

  "Better still. Where do marketing people get their ideas for how to improve things in the company?"

  "Reading I guess. So you write a book."

  "Keep thinking. Publishing is complicated. Where else?"

  "Well, from talking with each other, maybe at conferences or something."

  "Now you're catching on. If you had an idea you wanted to plant in someone's mind at a conference, how could you do that?"

  "Have a speaker talk about it, or have a workshop."

  "Ok. In this case, we began by digging through the marketing research databases and the libraries, until we found good information about the value of personalizing the customer transaction. We found good material on the role of using the customer's first name; we found someone's dissertation on that, and even a couple of small companies that were doing it and showing that it worked.

  "Ok, so you contacted them?"

  "No, always channels. We identified a few of the most popular marketing conferences, and the names of the people responsible for marketing and promoting those conferences. We saw to it that they received emails from people who may or may not have existed, asking if the conference was going to include speakers or presentations about this idea of customer first names, and mentioning an article or two they had read, or that dissertation. I think you can figure out the rest; that was the last we had to be involved."

  "Then someone in marketing at this coffee company went to the conference and heard about it, and that's why they do it here now?"

  "Yes."

  "So they think they're just doing some neat little PR thing to
make people feel cared about here, but they're really providing us with a way to communicate."

  "Exactly; it’s a positive thing for both of us."

  They sipped from their cups as the young man glanced at the cashier.

  "Ronnie." The old man was smiling.

  "Yeah?"

  "Do you realize that was the first time you have referred to our group using the term us?"

  "I did?"

  "Yes; but it’s not the first time you've made me proud. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

  Chapter 97

  "Look, I can take care of this," suit said as he sat at the quiet end of the bar.

  "Forget it," Dasilva said. "You had your chance, and you blew it; I've brought in someone else."

  "But..."

  "It’s already done. You're out."

  "You can't just push us out of this like that; you can't do that."

  Dasilva sipped from his drink as he slowly turned to face the very expensive suit.

  "Just what are you saying?"

  "I'm saying that we had a deal, and if you back out on it now, I can't be responsible for what might happen."

  Dasilva drained his glass and set it on the bar, never breaking eye contact with suit.

  "You're threatening me; is that it? Is that what you're doing here?"

  "Well, no, it’s just that..."

  "Ah, that's good to know." Dasilva waved to the bartender for a refill. "Because if you were doing that; threatening me, that would seriously change our relationship here, you know?"

  "No, I wasn't trying to..."

  "And with everything going on right now," Dasilva said as he watched his glass filling "I'm afraid I don't have time to be all political and, you know, spend time negotiating with threatening me. I would simply make a call and have someone take care of the situation for me. I'm sure you can understand."

  "Of course." Suit seemed to have lost his voice. "Don't worry about it; I was just hoping to have another chance to prove that we could take care of things for you."