Computer Capers

by Dan Kelly

  The man was tough, had the reactions of a cobra and knew how to fight. As soon as he felt something touch his rebreather, he thrashed out and kicked away at them and in the next instant he had an ugly looking dagger in his hand. He had managed to put about ten feet between him and the seals and was feinting with the dagger, looking for an opening to dish out some serious pain.

  One of the seals got behind him while the other seal stayed in front of him. When the seal in back made his move, the man in front did the same. They had to get that dagger away from him before they could try to incapacitate him. The man was right handed, so they both went for his right arm and hand. During the struggle, Malcolm lost his grip on the dagger and it floated away. A few seconds later they heard a clanking noise and then Malcolm went limp. Unbelievably, the dagger had got caught in the whirring blades of his scooter and been hurled with sufficient force to stab him in the heart.

  The seals are stunned to see the dagger sticking out of the guy’s chest, but they’ve seen enough dead bodies to know that this man is history. They notify Haggerty and they and their buddies are soon picked up along with the assassin’s body which they have wrapped in some of the thick kelp to hide it from any onlookers.

  Fortunately, the boat that was set on fire by the explosion didn’t sink and miraculously no one on board was hurt. The Coast Guard cutter that was standing by to make sure none of the cluster of boats got too close to the President’s yacht rushed to the boat’s aid and was able to put the fire out before too much damage was done.

  After the seals have told their story, Haggerty tells the captain of the yacht to head for the destroyer to drop them off and then instructs him to bring them back to San Diego. On their way back, he calls the President and Joel with the bad news and Joel passes it on to Hank Aldridge.

  Hank explodes with, “Damn it! We really needed this guy to steer us to the scum that hired him. So far, none of the people we have looking for them has come up with anything we can sink our teeth into. Was either of the seals hurt?”

  “No sir.”

  “Well, that’s good news. At least something went our way. I’m so sick of getting rotten news I’m going to puke if I get any more.”

  “Hank, maybe things aren’t as bad as they appear.”

  What’s good about anything that’s happened today?”

  “We’re the only ones that know that this Malcolm guy is dead. We can use Ferguson to get a message to his buddies that Malcolm has been captured and is being held in some secret location for interrogation after an attempt on the Vice President’s life off the coast of Southern California. This will definitely rattle their cage and hopefully panic them enough to throw caution to the wind and start making some serious mistakes as they race to complete what they’ve started before Malcolm spills the beans. This development, of course, is being kept from the public because the administration does not want to upset them any more than they are already.”

  Hank is silent for a long while as he weighs what Joel has proposed. Joel is used to this, so he hangs on and waits.

  “You know, Joel, that just might stir things up enough to get them to do their own dirty work, maybe bring them out into the open. Hell, it’s better than anything else we’ve got in our arsenal which is pretty bare right now. We’ll have to figure out a way to get this information to Ferguson without arousing his suspicion. When are you and Barbara coming back to Chicago?”

  “As soon as we’ve said our goodbyes and given our thanks to everybody involved with operation Black Widow. We should be back in the office by late this afternoon.”

  “Okay, I’ll wait for you. When you two arrive, we can call the President with your idea and determine how we’ll get the story to Ferguson. Hank broke the connection and Joel set out to find Barbara.

  If he spotted Sean, he was sure that Barbara would be close by. Ever since she met the man it has been like a family reunion for her and Joel wouldn’t be surprised to find out that she’s also trying to develop a working relationship between him and Intrepid Investigations. No grass grows under that girl’s feet when it comes to business, but the way she uses her Irish wit and charm to manipulate folks to do what she asks is so beguiling that even when the people she’s trying to convince know what she’s up to they usually readily acquiesce.

  Sure enough, there she is chatting up her new Irish friend and by the look on his face he was buying whatever she was selling. “Okay you two. Knock it off. The neighbors are starting to talk.”

  Barbara turned to him as he approached and said, “Guess what. Sean agreed to be a source for me if I need him for any of my investigations. Isn’t that terrific?”

  Smiling Joel replied, “Why am I not surprised. You know, Sean, she’s very good at what she does, but devastating when it comes to getting her way. You didn’t have a chance man.”

  “Yeah, I know. It didn’t take me long to realize that, but I sure got a kick out of the way she went about it.”

  With a big smile on her face Barbara reacted by smacking them both on the arm and saying, “Hey. All I did was ask him for future help if I needed it and he agreed. What’s the big deal?”

  They all laughed, the thanks for everything and goodbyes were said and then Joel and Barbara headed for the airport. Their mood quickly turned serious as they thought about how their well-planned scheme had literally blown up in their faces. Joel mumbled, “How the hell do you defeat an enemy you can’t find?”

  Barbara blurted out without consciously thinking, “You make them find you.”

  It was like getting an unexpected swift kick in the butt. As soon as her words registered, a sliver of an idea started to bounce around in his head and it quickly fleshed out into something that had a decent chance of working.

  Joel glanced over at Barbara and said, “How good do you think we’d be at playing sitting ducks? I mean all of us, the entire Sentry team.”

  Wrinkling her brow and squinting her eyes she softly said, “I’ve got a feeling I’m not going to like what you’ve got on your mind when you finally spit it out.”

  “Hey, you’ve heard the expression ‘You can’t beat that with a stick.’ Well, I think when you’ve heard my idea you’ll agree that you couldn’t beat it with your Daddy’s shillelagh.”

  “I hope it’s better than that sick attempt at Irish humor.”

  “You’d have liked it if your new friend Sean Haggerty had said it.”

  Smiling she came back at him with, “He’d have said it with a thick brogue and Irish flair. That America accent of yours just doesn’t hack it.”

  “Accent? I don’t have an accent.”

  “The hell you don’t. It’s a mixture of Brooklyn, New Jersey, Pennsylvania Dutch and a little bit of mid-western twang thrown in for good measure. It’s the damndest sound I’ve ever heard and”, she quickly added before she ruffled his self-image too much, “I immediately became addicted.”

  “Oh, you’re good, Irish, you’re good.”

  With an even bigger smile on her face she coyly asked, “Might the gentleman who talks funny be a little jealous?”

  Smiling back at her he said, “I don’t have a jealous bone in my body. Well, maybe a few toes are annoyed.”

  After they had a good laugh Barbara said, “Okay, sport, out with this brainstorm of yours.”

  “I was thinking if a professional like Malcolm can be lured into a trap why not a bunch of megalomaniacs who are used to the luxury of being able to find someone and pay that someone to do their dirty work for them. They are very smart and very ruthless, but they have no first-hand experience when it comes to violence. If we can manage to put enough pressure on them to get them to act recklessly to accomplish what they’ve set out to do and start making mistakes, why couldn’t we orchestrate a situation that would motivate them to act rashly and attempt to personally remove an obstacle they perceive to be in their way, namely Sentry? Hopefully, falling into our trap would be the mistake that puts an end to their cockamamie quest for power.”<
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  “My feeling was right. I don’t like your idea at all, but just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea and that it won’t work. This trap had better be a doozie or Hank will nail you to the wall. Sentry is his baby.”

  “I haven’t gotten that far in my thinking yet. I thought you and I could bring the subject up when we get back to the office and if he thinks it’s a good idea the whole team can put their heads together to build the better mouse trap.”

  “Very funny and what do you mean you and I will bring the subject up. This is your idea. I don’t have a death wish. When he hears your idea, he’s going to blow a gasket.”

  “That’s why I want you with me. He’s less likely to lose his temper and tune me out if you’re there.” Chuckling he added, “He doesn’t like witnesses when he resorts to mayhem.”

  “Hiding behind a lady’s skirt doesn’t become you. It shoots your Mr. Cool image all to hell.”

  “Hey, any port in a storm and I kind of like that port.”

  Gradually, their repartee lapses into silence and their smiles into frowns fraught with concern. They both know that from here on out things are going to get a lot more dangerous for them and the American people as these self-appointed crusaders for another kind of America go all out to make their dream for America a reality.

  Chapter 54

  -Chicago-

  When Joel and Barbara arrive back at their office, Hank already has the team assembled in the conference room discussing how best to use Ferguson to goad his partners in pandemonium into screwing up and hanging themselves.

  As they walked into the conference room Hank said, “Welcome back, now stop goofing off, sit down and help us figure out the best way to rattle these snakes. We’ve also got to come up with a way to plant our little piece of fiction in a way that Ferguson is sure to see it and without him realizing that it is a plant.”

  Joel replied, “It’s good to see you too, Hank”, but he was smart enough to say it with a smile.

  Hank ignored his remark and got back to prodding his team into coming up with some workable ideas. Judging from Hank’s current mood which isn’t the jolliest right now, Joel’s thinking it might be best and safer if he presented his idea for using Sentry as a lure to catch the bad guys in front of the whole team. “That old adage ‘safety in numbers’ makes sense to me, but the way my luck is running lately I’ll probably be the exception to the rule. Oh well, do your duty, Jergensen, and don’t forget to duck!”

  “Hank, I’ve got an idea that we should seriously consider including in this work of fiction of ours.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “I’ve got the general idea pretty much worked out in my head and have weighed the pros and cons. I haven’t gotten to the specifics yet. I figured we could all work on that together if you bought into the idea.”

  “Okay, Joel, out with it.”

  Joel unloaded with both barrels and then waited for the return fire which he is certain is coming his way. The general is a master at lambasting, especially when he’s angry. For some crazy reason, Joel starts remembering a cartoon character he saw once when he was a kid. It had a beet red face, steam was coming out of its ears and lightning bolts were flashing in its eyes, but this time around he’s not laughing. The more seconds that tick off on the clock on the wall without a response from Hank, the more convinced Joel is that he’s about to experience one of those unpleasant Kodak moments that he’ll never be able to delete from his memory bank.

  So far, all Hank has done is alternately stare at Joel and the center of the conference room table. It is eerily quiet in the room and everyone is getting a little nervous, either from anticipating Hank popping his cork or the potential danger they would be in if they went ahead with Joel’s idea, probably a little of both.

  Hank stared at Joel one last time and then with a heavy sigh said, “When I first elected to get involved in finding these people and making them pay for their crimes against our society, I said that I was going to commit all of Sentry’s resources to help achieve that goal. That included its human resources. I also said that when and if it came time for Sentry to eliminate the threat to our way of life any of you could pass on that and I would hold no grudge.

  “My first reaction to Joel’s suggestion is ‘Nothing doing.’ Risking our lives in the pursuit and capture of these sickos is one thing, waving a red flag at them, daring them to take their best shot at us in a seemingly unprotected scenario is something else entirely. The risk associated with something like that is much greater. Too many things beyond our control could go wrong. Look what happened with Black Widow.

  “Having said all of this, Joel’s idea is a good one. It will enable us to get off the dime and do something that might finally bring an end to all of the chaos that has pervaded communities throughout our country. What I said at the beginning of all this still holds. If any one of you wants out, I will not hold that against you. Let’s take a vote. All in favor of Joel’s idea which includes your participation in same raise your hand.”

  At first, no one raised their hand as everyone was weighing the plus and minuses. Then, gradually, hands began to rise until there were ten in the air.

  Allison DeAngelo broke the somber mood with, “Boy, for a minute there I thought we had all bought our tickets to the twilight zone and were getting ready to board.”

  The laughter broke a lot of the tension and got their creative juices flowing. As everybody started talking at once, Barbara leaned over and whispered to Joel, “Man, they say the Irish are lucky. We’ve got nothing on you. I’m surprised you’re still amongst the living.”

  “Tell that to my heart. It’s still trying to beat a hasty retreat. It’s got to be setting some kind of record for beats per minute.”

  After taking a few seconds to share a smile, they joined in on the brainstorming. Three hours later the team had drafted a believable message from the head of the Secret Service to the President. It was a complete report of the trap that had been laid and what had actually transpired off the coast of Solana Beach except for one fabricated detail. The message stated that the assassin had been captured alive and was being held in a secret location for interrogation.

  The message also commended Sentry for being the source of the idea to set the trap and its invaluable assistance in devising it. The last sentence of the message was worded in a subtle yet inflammatory way to light a fire under the jackals’ asses and get their tempers rising to the point where they will want to seek revenge. ‘When we defeat these people, it will be because Sentry is in our corner.’

  Joel commented, “These people have egos the size of Mt. Rushmore. They don’t like to be challenged. They don’t like to be bested in anything. The last sentence in this message should be the match that gets the bon fire roaring. The use of the word ‘when’ instead of ‘if’ should definitely get the embers glowing.”

  Hank looked around the table and then said, “Okay, if we’re all satisfied with what we’ve written, how are we going to plant this Pulitzer piece of work so Ferguson will find it?”

  Joel, glad to see Hank’s sense of humor returning said, “Send it to him via inter-office mail.”

  Everyone gawked at him like he was 24 cents short of a quarter and Hank said, “Don’t you think he’ll be a wee bit suspicious about getting a copy of a TOP SECRET report to the President via inter-office mail?”

  “Not if Lorraine Caldwell is as good an actor as I think she can be.”

  Hank responds with, “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s bouncing around in that head of yours?”

  “Lorraine is sending memos, reports, press conference ideas from the President, etc. to Ferguson all the time. I saw her do it lots of times when Ashok and I were at the White House. She could come running into Ferguson’s office all flustered and upset over a serious mishap she has committed, briefly explaining how she somehow inadvertently mixed in some Top Secret information with some other information she had sent him in the inter- of
fice mail earlier that day. When she went to copy it for a meeting the President was having with his advisors, she couldn’t find it and soon realized what must have happened. She’d say that was the only plausible explanation for where it could be as she didn’t send anything to anybody else via inter-office mail that day.