by Marie Astor
“Whoa! Your father had a fortune? Are you an heiress? I don’t remember you telling me anything about that.”
Ally shook her head. Even when her father had been lauded in magazines and newspapers, it never crossed her mind to call herself an heiress and the word definitely didn’t apply to her now. “No, I’m not. But my father was the founder of Roberts Enterprises. I thought you figured it out from my last name.”
“Roberts is a common enough name.”
Noticing the blank look in Delilah’s eyes, Ally added, “The bankruptcy proceedings and the trial were all over the news.”
Delilah shrugged. “I don’t watch the news.” She reached for Ally’s hand. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“You told me your life story. It’s only fair that I tell you mine . . .” Ally took a deep breath, suddenly realizing that this would be the first time she’d be recounting everything that had happened to her in the past few horrible months, from start to finish. After her father had passed away, she’d shut her grief inside her and tried to bury her memories. She’d talked to Maddie a few times and to Uncle Otto, but they already knew her story. Now she’d have to revisit the nightmare in its entirety.
“Wow,” Delilah muttered after Ally finished her story. “And here I was feeling sorry for myself. I can’t imagine going through what you’ve been through. I’m so sorry.”
Ally shook her head. Thoughts of her past were always with her, in the back of her mind, but telling her story had unhinged her. “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. I don’t want to feel sorry for myself, or I’ll never get what I want.”
“What is it you want?” Delilah asked in a hushed tone.
“Revenge. I know that my father was innocent. Somebody wanted to ruin him, and I’m going to find out who it was. And then I’m going to make him pay for what he did.”
“Count me in,” Delilah said solemnly. “Whatever it is I can do to help, I’ll do it.”
“Thanks. I can’t wait for training to be over with. I have a plan in mind, but I need the agency’s systems to execute it. I need access to their lab facilities and their background search systems. I thought we’d have system access here, but the only database we have is a dummy replica of the real background search system that the agency has, or at least I think that they must have. And I’m pretty sure the agency has access to top-notch labs. That’s what I need for starters. Once I have proof, I’ll plan my next move.”
“But you’re not going to break the law, are you?” Delilah asked, looking scared.
“I can’t promise you that, but I can promise you that I won’t involve you in anything illegal.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I won’t back out on my promise. It’s just that it would really suck to go to jail.”
“I don’t intend to go to jail. Whoever it was who ended my father’s life won’t get the satisfaction of seeing me fail.”
Chapter 16 - Six Weeks Later
Ally took a seat behind the desk in her cubicle and logged into her computer. She’d been working for the agency in an official capacity for two weeks. So far she was yet to get an actual assignment, but her days had been busy nonetheless. She’d been occupied with additional on-the-job training, which included information on security protocols and safety procedures as well as learning the agency’s internal systems. She also moved into her new place, for which she didn’t actually have to do any moving. She was given the key to her new apartment at the end of her training, courtesy of the agency, and her belongings had already been transferred there from the storage unit prior to her arrival. Her quarters consisted of a tiny studio in a walk-up building in the East Village. At first she had been nervous about moving into agency housing: it felt as though even the most private aspects of her life would be subject to the agency’s supervision. She’d imagined a standardized dormitory complex and was instead surprised by the small but cozy studio. In spite of herself she loved it immediately—the place had everything she needed.
It’d be so easy to fall into the rhythm of her new routine, but she couldn’t afford herself such a luxury. While on the outside she might look eager to learn the ropes of her new job, her mind was feverishly working on ways to solve the mystery of her father’s demise. Of course there was always a possibility that she was imagining it all. The facts were against her, and if one relied solely on the evidence, there was a very high probability of her being wrong. It was the approach that the lawyers who had represented her father had taken, and even though he would never admit it, she knew that later on Uncle Otto also joined their ranks. And, she suspected, so did her father. Maybe she was crazy, but to her his death was the ultimate sign of giving up. The official cause of her father’s death was heart failure, but she believed that the reason he had passed away was that he no longer saw a reason to fight. She knew she couldn’t bring her father back, but she could prove his innocence, and she resolved to keep fighting until she did.
Last week she’d met with Uncle Otto. It had broken her heart to lie to him about her employment, but she couldn’t tell the truth, even to him. She was saddened to see that he was now living in a much smaller house, doing very basic legal work. Ally felt like a coward admitting to herself that under the circumstances she would’ve preferred not to see him, but it wasn’t an option. She needed to see the tests that had been performed on the equipment parts that Roberts Enterprises had installed while doing maintenance on the Pollux plants. Warrell & Kroden, the law firm that had been hired to defend her father, had copies of all the tests and Otto was able to request copies for Ally.
Ally placed the test results on her desk and studied them for the umpteenth time. She’d been poring over the records since she’d gotten her hands on them. All the equipment was deemed to be in perfect working order, and yet from the moment she saw the results she had a nagging feeling that something didn’t add up. Now she had the missing piece to check if her theory was correct. She picked up the cardboard box from her desk and headed to the section of the building where the research lab was located.
She found Doug Cleary at his desk, hunched over a pile of papers.
“Hey there,” Doug greeted her, hurriedly dumping the papers on his desk into a drawer and locking them away. “I wish you’d told me you were coming.”
“Sorry to startle you. Relax. I’m not trying to get the scoop on your new assignment, whatever it is you’re working on.”
Doug blushed. “That’s not what I meant. Confidential information must be protected at all times. It’s standard protocol requirements, or haven’t you read the clean desk policy?”
“I read it all right,” Ally replied impatiently. Doug was a stickler for protocol. Working the lab was the perfect assignment for him: the agency couldn’t have found a more meticulous person for the job. “I was hoping I could ask you for a favor,” Ally added, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
Doug shifted in his chair uncomfortably. “I’m pretty swamped here, but if it’s something quick—”
“What do you think about these?” Ally placed the test results from the Pollux project on his desk.
Doug focused his attention on the report, his expression growing stiffer with every minute. “I’m guessing this isn’t for an official assignment?” he asked a few minutes later.
Ally considered lying to him, but surmising that he was too perceptive to buy it decided to tell the truth. “No, it isn’t. That’s why I said that I needed a favor.”
“Does this have to do with what I think it has to do with?”
“How do I know what you think?”
Doug handed the papers back to her and crossed his arms on his chest. “If you want my help you’re going to have to be upfront with me, Ally.”
“Okay, don’t get your panties in a bunch. These test results were used as evidence in the Pollux plant failure trial, but I have reason to believe that they are erroneous. I was able to get my hands on spare parts that were supplied for the
project but were never used, and I want you to run another set of tests.”
Doug hung his head. “Great, just great. Are you trying to get me fired?”
“If you can’t do it, I completely understand. It’d require some pretty complex testing and this lab might not even have the equipment for it.”
“This lab happens to have cutting-edge equipment,” Doug spat back. “Doing these tests would be a walk in the park for me.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“Damn it.” He rubbed his forehead. “I should’ve seen it coming. Yes, I’ll do it.”
“Great. Here are the parts that need to be tested.” Ally placed the box on Doug’s desk.
He opened the box and looked inside. “What have we here? Servo motors, pumps, hydraulics, and could these be radiation hardened chips?” he asked, holding up a tiny chip.
“Spot on. I want to see if there’s anything wrong with this equipment.”
“But you already have the test results here.”
“I know, but I want to double check them.”
“You don’t think that the tests were thorough enough? There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the results.”
“Oh yeah? Check again.”
Doug leafed through the test results. “They didn’t test the chips.”
“Exactly.”
“But how could they have missed it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if I have anything to go on. It could be that the page with the chip test result got lost when Warrell & Kroden made a copy for me.”
“Warrell & Kroden?”
“They represented my father in the proceedings.”
“Those boys don’t mess around. I doubt they would’ve missed anything.”
“You’re probably right, but I’d like to test all of these parts and see if there might be something there.”
“Wait a minute, how did you get these?” Doug eyed her suspiciously. “There aren’t stolen, are they?”
“No.” Not exactly, she wanted to add, but held her tongue. “I paid a little visit to one of Pollux’s plants and asked them if they had spare parts remaining from the latest maintenance project done by Roberts Enterprises.”
“And they just let you waltz in there and gave you everything you asked for?”
“Pretty much, after I showed my ID.”
“Jesus! Are you trying to get fired, or worse, go to jail?”
“I’m trying to do whatever it takes to clear my father’s name. I didn’t want to tell you the details because I figured that the less you knew the better it’d be for you.”
“How in hell would it be better?”
“You wouldn’t be compromised. You could blame it all on me and say that you didn’t know anything about this.”
“And who would believe me?”
“I guess I didn’t think of that . . . I admit that this isn’t the perfect plan, but it’s the only one I have.”
“All right.” Doug nodded. “I’ll do it, but only because we’re friends and because I was a fan of your father. I wrote a paper on him and his company at school.”
“I really appreciate it, Doug.” Ally swallowed a lump in her throat.
“If something like this happened to my father, I’d be looking for answers too. I should have the results in two days max. I’ll call as soon as I have them.”
“Thanks.” Ally nodded and left the room.
***
With a heavy heart, Jake Morrissey ascended the front stairs of the DOE’s Manhattan building. He’d received an email from Marion stating that she wanted to see him, and that was never good news. Despite his doubts and trepidations, he’d managed to do a decent job as an instructor. At least he thought so, and if the recruits’ final scores for his subject were any indication, his opinion had plenty of ground. Of course that by no means meant that Marion would agree. He wondered about the reason behind her request and hoped that his stay in the city wouldn’t be long. He liked his new, quiet life in rural Connecticut. As an instructor, he had been given the option of agency housing, which he gladly accepted. It wasn’t anything major, just a modest two bedroom cottage adjacent to the training grounds, but it was clean and it was close to a lake and hiking trails. Now that the training for first-year recruits was over, Jake had a short break until the new round of advanced training for experienced recruits would begin. Jake spent his hiatus rowing in his canoe in the mornings, and hiking in the surrounding woods for hours on end. Physical activity tired his muscles and kept his mind free of guilty thoughts; well, at least it did the trick most of the time.
Jake showed his identification to the security desk and proceeded upstairs. He knew the way only too well. It wasn’t too long ago that he’d had an office on the very same floor. As he passed through the familiar halls, he wondered where the recent recruits were assigned. He could pretty much guess who got the field job and who was assigned behind the desk, but he wasn’t really so much interested in the fate of all the recruits, just one. Ally Roberts. Now that he was no longer her instructor, he allowed himself to mentally refer to her as Ally. What harm could it possibly do when their paths were no longer in danger of crossing? In a way he had felt almost relieved once finals were finished. He’d seen Ally get onto the bus with the rest of the recruits and head back to the city for her exciting future with the DOE. Aside from his formal farewell speech to the entire class, he didn’t say goodbye to her. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to avoid her for fear of saying something he wasn’t supposed to. But that didn’t mean that he’d forgotten her. On the contrary, during his long solitary hikes she was frequently in his thoughts. It brought him joy to think of her new future, to think that he’d been a small part of it, teaching her the skills she’d need to succeed. At times he almost managed to convince himself that his interest in her was that of mentor, which of course he knew wasn’t true. Still, thoughts couldn’t harm anyone and as long as he stayed in the outskirts of Connecticut he knew he was safe.
Jake took a deep breath and rapped his fingers on the door of Marion’s office. Just as he remembered, a brisk “Come in,” followed almost instantly. He opened the door and walked inside.
“Jake, how wonderful to see you.” Marion rose from her seat to greet him.
“It’s always a pleasure to see you, Marion,” said Jake as he took her hand. Her hand might have been slender, but her grip was as firm as that of a man’s, just the way he remembered. Marion had been with the agency long before Jake had joined, but she hardly looked a day older than he remembered from first meeting her.
“Please, have a seat,” she added, motioning to the chair opposite her desk.
“Thank you.” Jake lowered himself into the chair. “So, what can I do for you, Marion?”
“Cutting straight to the chase.” She smiled. “Just like always. Can’t two old friends reminisce?”
He smiled back at her. Her flattery wasn’t going to work on him. “I don’t remember you ever being sentimental, Marion.”
She nodded. “You got me there, Jake. You’ve done an excellent job as an instructor.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity, and I hope to continue serving the agency in this capacity. I think I found my calling.”
A slight frown rippled her smooth forehead. “Cut the bullshit, Jake. Instructor jobs are for blue hairs and has-beens, and you’re neither.”
“I disagree with you, Marion. I think I fit the category of a has-been perfectly,” Jake countered. If Marion thought she was going to get to him with her prickling, she had another thing coming.
“How long are you going to keep hiding?”
“Who says I’m hiding? I had a career, such as it was, as a field operative and now I feel that my skills would be best used to train new recruits.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think.”
“So much for old friends reminiscing,” he observed nonchalantly. He knew her too well to be offended.
&
nbsp; “Christ, Jake. I’m only saying this because I care about you—” she broke off. “You make it sound like we’re in some damn soap opera. You’re a good agent, one of the best ones we’ve got, and I need you out in the field instead of rotting away in the training facility.”
“I don’t think of it as ‘rotting away’, Marion. We’ve got a good crop of recruits and I like knowing that I had something to do with helping them start their career at the agency. I think that’s important. And I couldn’t go back to the field even if I wanted to.”
“So you’ve thought about it!” she exclaimed, delighted.
“Of course I’ve thought about it. I’m only human, after all. I loved my job. The excitement, the danger—”
“I thought you said you loved teaching,” she interrupted him.
“Don’t mock me, Marion. I enjoy teaching, but I’d be lying to say that I love it as much as being in the field. But I know that I can’t be out there again. I am responsible for a person’s death, for an innocent woman’s death.”
Marion blew out a long breath. “Consuelo Williams’s death was most unfortunate, but she was hardly an innocent victim. She knowingly engaged in a relationship with a corrupt man, a volatile man, a man who had amassed his wealth through crime.”
“Yes, but that hardly makes her a criminal, does it? And it doesn’t make it all right to use her and treat her life as disposable. The fact of the matter is that it was my fault.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Jake. The investigation proved that you weren’t to blame. Your reputation is clean.”
“My reputation may be clean, but my conscience isn’t.”
“She was engaged to Asafo Abarca who tried to perpetrate the grandest terrorist scheme I’ve seen in my career here. Had he been successful, we would’ve been in for the greatest oil crisis this country has ever seen. At no point did Consuelo Williams consider the moral flaws of her husband-to-be. Instead, she happily jumped into his bed in exchange for the life of luxury he promised her. Of course the fact that he was more than twice her age, fat and disgusting looking must’ve made things difficult, and she was only too happy for a little diversion with you. She knew that her fiancé was a dangerous man, a jealous man, but she chose to cheat on him with you anyway. It saddens me that Asafo strangled his bride-to-be in a fit of jealousy, but you can’t blame yourself for it, Jake.”