“Has Cheryl Lynn gotten to you, too?” Bethany Anne cut in.
“No, why do you ask?”
“Because she’s been talking about the need for us to be prepared for press releases, and the ability to handle spin against us, once what we are doing comes out.”
“That’s a wise woman, then. But my experience battling Forsaken is why I’m suggesting PR. Our plans are to be on the other side of the moon. I don’t think we want a large number of others ‘spying’ on us, but they sure as hell are going to want to do that. Hell, I would if I were them.” He mused, then continued, “So, we can either go full black-out and not let anything out or we can let them see what we want them to see and no more. Last choice is we give them full access.”
“Like the whole embedded reporters ‘thing’ with the U.S.?” Bethany Anne asked.
“Yes, like the invasion of Iraq in ‘03,” he said.
“No, I’m not ready for that.” She responded. “I don’t want to give up anonymity this soon, if possible.”
Dan shrugged again, “Well, we need to be ready. When even a small amount of truth gets out, the rumors are going to be flying.” He shrugged, “It’s going to be hard to argue with someone who is already up there, but we need to make sure we have the wherewithal to back up our ‘No’ to their demands.”
“Understood.” She sighed, “I don’t like it, but I do understand. It’s going to be like letting the babies have a lick of the sugar lollipop, but telling them they can’t have it.”
“Pretty much,” Dan quipped, “And the biggest babies are going to be the U.S., Russia and China.”
“Those are some big babies,” she agreed. “We good?”
“Yes, so long as I’m not worrying about nuclear attacks, I’ll talk to the teams about digging in on the moon, in case we have to deal with letting someone land. Although, frankly, we don’t have to open a door for them.” He thought for a second, “You know, I think I’ll see about a good space suit. With the pods, we have superiority over most anything, but if we need to go outside of the Pod, it will be a problem.”
Bethany Anne stood up. “Consider what you could do with enough of those containers. Hell, have a few of them sitting around, and you have a moveable fence.” She added thoughtfully.
He nodded. She waved her goodbye and stepped out of his office.
TQB Base, Colorado - USA
“I need an engineer.” Where the first words Jeffrey heard as he walked into the central area. He saw Bobcat and William chatting in the middle area and noticed Marcus over getting coffee in the break area.
“Look William,” Bobcat said, as he lifted his sleeve so William could see a little way up his arm, “Does it look like I have an engineer hidden here?”
“Guys,” Jeffrey said, interrupting them before they could get off track. Both men turned to him, “I told you we would need more people. This isn’t a surprise or anything.” Jeffrey turned to William, “What help do you need?”
“Well,” He admitted, “I’m not sure how to help finish pulling all of these things together and locking them during assembly. I can do it, but I’m not going to be the one on the moon when it gets put together.”
“Ok, I’ve been getting a shit-ton of resumes submitted.” Jeffrey started.
“How in the hell do you get resumes for a super-secret outer-space initiative?” Bobcat asked. Then he watched as Jeffrey simply raised one eyebrow and waited him out, “Ok, boss.” Bobcat waved, “You have your ways … I get it.”
“It’s not that secret, Bobcat.” Jeffrey answered, “You get with Frank and then with Frank and ADAM to start pulling possibilities, so I can grab them now.”
Bobcat smiled, “You mean ‘poach’ them.”
“You say tomato - I say tomatoe.” Jeffrey smiled.
This time, it was Marcus that interrupted them as he made his way from the coffee area to his office. He yelled over, “Did you get my woman? Or rather, did you get the hydroponics expert?” He smiled as he disappeared into his office.
“Now, why the hell is he so hell bent on this one lady?” Bobcat asked.
“Because they worked together fifteen years ago.” Jeffrey answered. Bobcat raised his eyebrow and Jeffrey continued. “I think Marcus would like one person on the team that knew him back when so they could geek out together.”
“What?” William asked Jeffrey incredulously, “We don’t geek out with him enough?” William looked over to Bobcat who shrugged in response.
“Yeah,” Bobcat agreed, “I don’t get it either.” The two men looked back to Jeffrey.
“Either way,” Jeffrey continued, “I’m going to reach out to an engineer by the name of Michael Pendergrass. He’s qualified in engineering, high-performance vehicles, aerospace and mechanical repair.”
“Really?” William asked, “What’s his down side?
“Maybe that he likes Dr. Pepper?” Jeffrey replied, smiling.
“God help him.” Bobcat mused. “Sure hope that’s a Coke product.”
“It is, you beer snob.” William retorted.
“Word.” Bobcat confirmed.
“Do you even know what ‘word’ means?” William asked. All he got from Bobcat was a large smile.
Bobcat turned to Jeffrey, “Ok, really though. What’s this guy’s downside?”
Jeffrey answered, “He’s a British national who has a complete fixation on making things go faster. I’m pretty sure he is going to fit in fine, but I need William to confirm he has the mechanical chops to work with you two especially and …” He focused on William, “Make damn sure he knows the safety stuff. I don’t want someone going ‘too fast’ on the moon.”
“Just because one happens to be an adrenaline junkie,” Bobcat said, “doesn’t preclude one from being anal about safety.”
“Word.” Agreed William.
“Now that’s just rude.” Bobcat complained, “I completely stole that phrase from hip-hop culture and now you’re trying to steal it back.”
“How in the hell can you steal something back that wasn’t ever taken out of your possession?” William retorted, “It’s not as if I have ever failed in my ability to say ‘word’ jackass!”
“Hah!” Bobcat pointed at William who rolled his eyes to the ceiling then hung his head. William reached around to his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, opening it to retrieve a twenty to hand to Bobcat. “I cannot believe you remembered that bet from two months ago. Seriously? Giving you that twenty was worth it just so I can call you a ‘jackass’ again!”
“Word.” Bobcat said, smiling.
William just flipped him off then turned to Jeffrey, “I’m sorry about that jackass over there and I’m more than willing to interview poor Michael Penn.”
“Pendergrass,” Jeffrey corrected.
“There is no fucking way,” Bobcat said, “That we are allowing another Pendergrass in the outfit. We will have a great ceremony commemorating the shortening of his last name.”
Jeffrey looked back between the two men and just nodded. He was sure he would find out ‘why’ no more Pendergrasses would be allowed, but he just didn’t have the time for that right now.
He turned to go back to his own office to discover when Mr. M. Pendergrass could have a meeting. And, whether Michael might be available.
Washington DC - USA
The next day, Barb had made it into work without any problems. She was getting ready to leave, when a note popped up on her work computer, the very one that should be secure enough to not have unexpected messages show up.
She started to read the message and her eyes widened slightly before she got a grip on her reflexive surprise.
The text said: “Found your messages and understand you would like to meet. Your phone has been tracked and your accounts are tapped as well. I am wearing a blue tie and am available for a discussion if you would perhaps join me for dinner? Your favorite Chinese restaurant, I’m sitting in the back.” She finished the note before a second popped up.
“P.S. The chicken fried rice is delicious!”
Ok, now that freaked her the hell out. It wasn’t that she couldn’t figure out how he knew her favorite Chinese restaurant. Her credit cards could tell him how often she ate there, but to know her favorite dish was downright stalkish of him. Well, she presumed him, and who the hell was she to get all righteous on anyone ‘stalking’ someone? It was her own damned job and if she hadn’t done it so well, she wouldn’t need this guy.
When this was over, she was going to have to sit herself down and think about her priorities.
She clicked the messages closed after waiting another minute to see if anything else popped up. She grabbed the five special USB’s in the back of her drawer and slipped them into her pocket. She left her laptop in the middle drawer and locked it like she always did whenever she left it in the office.
Barb stood and grabbed her purse. She wanted to stomp her feet in frustration because she didn’t have a ‘go’ bag. She didn’t have anything but a brush, some makeup and a mirror in her purse, along with two mints her phone and some gum.
Looking around a final time, she didn’t see anything that she absolutely had to grab. She did spend a second to run her hand along the back of the chair she had taken from ’The Don’.
She grabbed her phone and took a few pictures of her office. It wasn’t like she could take any of the physical items, but if this happened to be the last time she was here, she’d have a way to remember it.
God, she was so going to suck if she ever needed to be an operative. Then again, she might be home by next weekend. She shouldn’t get ahead of herself.
It only took a minute to get down to the parking garage, hop in her car and leave the building heading east to the restaurant.
For good or for ill, she was trusting her gut with this decision. She sure hoped it wasn’t for ‘ill’.
Frank was enjoying his tea when he noticed Barb Nickers enter the restaurant. The lady at the front waved to her in recognition and he watched the two of them chat for a moment.
He had been able to acquire a Pod to come to Washington relatively easily. Dan didn’t require too many answers and since it was evening it wasn’t a problem getting to the area. He had been required to land outside of the city proper and get an Uber to pick him up.
Well, let’s be honest ADAM had handled the Uber car ride. The driver had been an elderly little lady who had talked about how she had three cats and a parakeet. It wasn’t quite the exciting spy story he had been going for.
However, she hadn’t questioned why he was at the old grocery store and she had been close by. The long trip into the city was going to generate a substantial fare for her so she was very happy. Frank was hoping that there would be a safe place to land the Pod inside the city if it got late enough. For God's sake, he might have to be a spy while riding in a big yellow car. That would really screw with his image!
He had arrived at Barb’s favorite Chinese food restaurant and decided to have the Chicken Fried Rice. He hadn’t had any in a while and it sounded good.
ADAM had hacked into the computer systems where Barb worked and sent the messages for Frank. Right now, Frank could only communicate with ADAM via text. The possibility that something might go wrong made it too dangerous to bring his laptop into town, so Frank had left it in the Pod.
It only took a moment for Barb to finish her conversation with the hostess and decide she was going to head to the back and meet with the man. She smiled tentatively at the gentleman as he stood up and walked to her side of the table to pull out her chair. “Call me Frank,” She dipped her head in appreciation as he deftly managed her chair before returning to his side of the table.
Frank hadn’t even put the napkin back in his lap before Barb hissed, “Before we say anything else, how the hell did you know my favorite dish is Chicken Fried Rice?” She looked down at his plate which was mostly empty.
Frank smiled at her, “I didn’t. The chef of the vessel I currently live on doesn’t normally make Chicken Fried Rice and I’ve always enjoyed it. Since I was back in town I thought I would eat it because I didn’t know if you were going to make the dinner or not.”
Barb sat back a little. She had assumed he knew her food preference and … “Wait, did you say ‘back in town’?” Frank nodded, so she asked, “Did you come here often or what?”
“I lived here.” He replied as the waitress came up. Barb placed her normal order and returned to the conversation.
“Really? Wait … sorry. I’m just too freaked presently. This isn’t my normal life right now.” Barb stopped talking. Willing herself to not say anything else while she was so out of her comfort zone.
“I understand. I take it that the report you pulled together on TQB caused some issues?”
She nodded.
“I’m guessing, if you are reaching out to us, that whoever had you research the report is either scary or you don’t know who they are. I’m guessing you decided that what you know about us is better than what you suspect about them?”
She nodded again. Wow, he thought, this lady can really keep her mouth shut.
“Did you figure out anything in this whole mess?” He asked.
She answered, disgust evident in her voice, “Yes, I figured out that they are using me as a cut-out.”
Frank’s face drew into a frown. He was a lot of things, but he wasn’t someone who used innocent females as cut-outs. “That tactic is a real piece of work.” He replied with some anger.
Barb looked around and was about to say more, when her Chicken Fried Rice arrived. Frank kept the conversation light while she ate. He was cataloging all the things he liked about Washington D.C. when she interrupted, “You really have lived here a long time. You don’t look that old.”
He smiled, “Really good genes?”
“They would have to be some very good genes. One of the places you mentioned closed over fifteen years ago. And, you would have had to be a pretty interesting teenager to have visited that museum as a kid.”
“How about I admit to having some work done?” Frank tried, smiling as if he had a good joke going.
She glanced at him a second time, but didn’t respond otherwise.
Frank’s phone buzzed. Startled, he looked down to see a text message from John. ‘Hey Romeo, you have two shadows just entering the restaurant and a white van is circling the block. How do you want to play this?’
Frank looked up at Barb while grabbing his teacup. He took a drink and looked around, noticing two men in suits being seated at a table near the front door.
He had two questions - who were the ‘shadows’ and why was John here? John should be near…
Oh … My … God. Bethany Anne was close by.
Looking at the two men who had entered, that was probably a good thing. It significantly improved the odds of them both remaining amongst the living.
The downside was that he would have to explain himself at the end of this whole thing. Damn, now he felt like he was going to get called to the principal’s office just as soon as they got through this.
“What’s wrong?” Barb asked.
“Well,” Frank began as he placed his cup back on the table. “We have two uninvited guests who just arrived via the front door. Both in dark blue suits, no ties. Don’t suppose they are just good friends of yours that are checking out your date?”
Barb had been about to swallow when Frank dropped that comment and she spewed a little tea over the table as she started coughing, “Oh my god!” She exclaimed as Frank used his napkin to clean the tea off of his shirt and the table. “I’m so sorry!” she said. He noticed she still took a moment to glance over at the guys.
Frank’s phone buzzed again, “Pick up at back door for one, BA will come get you.”
“Dammit,” he muttered.
“I am really sorry!” Barb repeated as she moved to his side of the table to help clean up the tea.
He looked her in the eyes, to make sure he had her attention. �
��No, I wasn’t cursing at you. I want you to visit the Lady’s room, then sneak out the back door into the alley. My friends will be there to help you. I’ll drop money for the food.”
“What’s wrong?” Barb was concerned that this nice man was going to get hurt because of her problems. “Are you going to be able to get out without those guys hurting you?”
“Them?” Frank looked back into her eyes and smiled, “I’m not worried about them at all.”
Barb cocked her head, “Then, what are you worried about?”
Frank looked toward the front door and then back at her, “My boss is coming. And … she is going to be pissed because I didn’t inform her I was coming for you.”
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