by David Archer
4
Kenzie was delighted to see them pull up, and was even more excited when they told her they were taking her out for a celebration dinner.
"Can we go to Bingo's Pizza?" she asked.
Sam looked at Indie with a look of total shock on his face. "Mommy," he said, "did you let the secret out? How did she know that's where we were going to go tonight? Did you tell her?"
Indie shook her head, her eyes wide and a smile trying to burst out of hiding. "No, Daddy, I didn't say a word. I think she's just so smart that she figured it out all by herself."
"I didn't know," Kenzie said. "I just asked if we could go there because I've been wanting to! Mommy didn't tell me, I promise she didn't! Are we really going there?"
Sam twisted in his seat so that he could look at his daughter. "Yep," he said. "Mommy and I decided that we're so excited about you being in school that we should take you out and have a little private party, just the three of us. And you know what else? I heard they even have go-kart races there! I bet that you and me can beat Mommy in a go-kart race, what do you think?"
Kenzie laughed with delight, but shook her head. "No! No, me and Mommy against you!"
Indie looked at her daughter in the rearview mirror, and yelled, "Yay! Us girls gotta stick together! We'll show Daddy, won't we, sweetheart?"
The nice thing about a place like Bingo's is that there are plenty of things to do, so even if you get there way too early for dinner, you can still have a good time until you're ready to eat. That's exactly what the Prichard family did. Sam, Indie and Kenzie let themselves have fun, playing arcade games and racing each other in go-karts—they were electric, and could really drift around the curves—and before they knew it, more than two hours had passed and they were all getting pretty hungry. They made their way to the dining area, where there was an endless buffet of different types of pizza and desserts.
It was nearly eight PM by the time they were all tired enough to give it up and go home. Indie let Sam carry Kenzie out and buckled her into her car seat, but then she gave him the keys and let him drive home. It wasn't a terribly long drive, since Denver simply isn't that large of a city, and they got home before nine. Indie carried her daughter inside and up the stairs, while Sam got her backpack and followed. He didn't always go upstairs for the tucking-in ceremony, but this time he decided to. Once they had the little girl in bed and off to sleep, they made their way back down the stairs and into their own bedroom.
Sam rolled out of bed the next morning in time to join Indie and Kenzie for breakfast. They had a good time together, and then it was time for Kenzie to head off to school again. Sam rode along as Indie drove her to school, and they were back home well before eight AM.
"So, did Herman come up with anything on our guy?" Sam asked as they got back into the house.
Indie shrugged. "After you left, yesterday," she said, "I came inside and did some housecleaning, and I had just gotten done when you showed up. That's why I was making a late lunch. Let's go see what he found, shall we?"
Sam grinned and got to his feet. "After you," he said. "You know I would follow you anywhere, don't you? There's just something about that wiggle that makes me want to follow you."
Indie glanced back over her shoulder and smiled at him, then stuck out her tongue as she hurried down the hall. Sam hobbled along as quickly as he could, but she was already seated at her desk when he got to their office.
Herman had apparently been busy, because there was a lot of data on the screen. Sam didn't know what it was at first glance, but he was confident that his wife would and that she would explain it to him. This was her world, the world of computers and information; she was his guide to that world, and he had learned to trust her.
"Well," Indie said, "it looks like he's found a few things." She clicked one of the first links on the page and a whole new screen opened up. This one was a reference to the patrol that was lost the night Long disappeared. Indie scanned over it quickly, with Sam looking over her shoulder, then pointed at the comment that had been left by a visitor to the site more than two years before. "Hey, look at this," she said. "Here's someone who claims to have seen Long alive in Pakistan, right around the time when bin Laden was killed. Basically, he's just asking what Long could possibly have been doing there. He wasn't part of any American mission, he certainly wasn't connected to the SEAL team that went in, so why would he even had been in that country? It's a good question."
"It's more than a good question, it's a question that should've been asked in more official settings. Somebody should've been asking questions about this guy for years, now, I think. What else we got?"
"Let's see," Indie said, as she closed that screen and clicked another link. This one opened what looked like a PDF file, apparently some sort of official document that listed various sightings of Long. "Holy cow! Check this out, this guy has been all over the world! And look at the dates, some of these would match up with major events in recent history. Good grief, look how far back these dates go! We got him in Tehran, during the Iran hostage crisis in seventy-nine; he was in Beirut, Lebanon in eighty-three and eighty-four, when car bombings were used on our embassy there, and he's been somewhere close to almost every Islamic terrorist attack since two thousand! Look at this list—here's Calcutta, India, Karachi in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Greece, Yemen, Libya, Egypt—look, he was in Benghazi when the ambassador was killed. Sam, somehow, this man has been close to almost every major foreign terrorist attack in the last 40 years or more!"
Sam whistled, and shook his head. "Baby, there's something really strange going on here. I think it's time to give Harry another call."
He didn't get the chance. His phone rang only a second later, and somehow he didn't even need to look to know that it was Harry calling.
Sam answered the phone by saying, "Harry, how did you know I was about to call you?"
Harry chuckled. "I didn't, but that doesn't surprise me a whole lot. Son," Harry said, "you manage to fall into the biggest buckets of poop that I've ever seen, but somehow you tend to survive them. I'm not sure how you do that, but I hope it's a talent you haven't lost lately. Your connection to this case has stirred up a hornet's nest up in DC that's got people calling me right and left, wanting to know if 'that special man of mine' can bring this person in."
"Oh, Lord, Harry," Sam said, "and what have you been telling them?"
"Why, Sam, I've been saying that I have the best man possible for the job, of course," Harry said. "I mean, you wouldn't want me to lie, would you? Truth be told, I don't know of anyone better suited to this type of job than you, so when my superiors are telling me to have you bring our mutual friend in, I'm telling them that all I can do is call and ask. You don't work for me, I reminded them. Unfortunately, the fact that you're a free agent is something they don't seem to be able to grasp, up there. I'm trying to reeducate them, but I can't seem to find the book called Reality For Dummies."
"That's because there isn't one," Sam said. "Reality is something you have to learn by experience, and even dummies are not immune to that. Good Lord, Harry, what am I supposed to do? I'm sitting here at the moment looking at a list of disguised appearances around the country that just happens to coincide with almost every major terrorist activity for decades! That's what I was calling you about, to let you know that we'd stumbled across this information. Didn't you just spend fifteen minutes a bit ago convincing me to stay as far away from him as I possibly could? "
"Well, Sam, boy, I know, and I guess I may have jumped the gun on that. Somebody bigger than me has decided we need to do something about this guy, and you know damn good and well that you're the only hope we got. Therefore, the first thing were going to do is get your family some protection. We can't let this mess endanger your wife and little girl. After that, you and I can discuss what to do next."
"You know what, Harry?" Sam asked. "I don't know that I want to get in the middle of this. I don't think I want my family in the middle of this. And I
sure as the dickens don't want to put them in any danger. I don't know who this guy is, and I really don't care, to be honest. He's not my problem; all I did was hire on to locate him for his daughter. There's no way on God's green earth that I could have possibly anticipated him being involved in whatever the hell it is he's involved in. I think I'm going to bow out of this, and let you figure it out on your own."
"Now, Sam, I can completely understand how you feel," Harry said. "The problem is, we don't know why he's in town, other than to visit his mama, but it seems odd that she's been sick a few times in the past, and he's never bothered to show up. The people upstairs are thinking that there's something more going on than just him having an attack of homesickness. Sam, if he's up to something in his normal line of work, then we probably need to put a stop to it as quickly as possible."
Sam was shaking his head emphatically. "No, Harry, I said no. Good grief, then, don't you remember what we just went through? Indie was wounded, and even Kenzie and our mothers were threatened by a madman with a gun, and from what you tell me, this man makes that one look like Peter Pan! How do you expect me to react? I'm sick and tired of having my family end up in danger, and every time I get mixed up with you, that's where they end up!"
"Now, Sam, that's not entirely true," Harry said, "or at least not as true as you make it sound. Granted, working with me isn't the safest thing you've ever done; on the other hand, look at how much you've accomplished. Sam, son, you are literally the best agent I have ever known, and this is another case of your country calling upon you for help."
Sam looked at Indie, who was staring at him with her eyes wide. She could only hear his side of the conversation, but he was pretty sure she knew the gist of what Harry was saying.
"Okay, first off, Harry, what makes your bosses think that there's any danger in his presence? Maybe the guy really is just here to visit his sick mother, did anyone think of that?"
"As I just said, Sam, she's been sick before. The woman has COPD, for crying out loud, this isn't the first time she's been near death! It is, however, the first time Long has bothered to make an appearance. Now, it would seem a pretty big stretch of the imagination to believe that he's aware she's sick this time, but hasn't been before. Wouldn't you agree with that? That being the case, the speculation in DC is that he was in the country, and probably in this area, for some other reason, and simply took advantage of the opportunity to be close enough to see his mother before she dies."
"Aw, c'mon, Harry," Sam said. "Even if I swallow that, what makes you think there's any reason for me to get involved?"
"Well now, Sam, I can think of one good reason for you to get involved, and that would be the fact that Long has a tendency not to leave a trail behind them. Knowing that you're connected, through me, it's not gonna take him long to decide that you're a loose end he wants to tie up."
Sam rubbed a hand over his face. Somehow, he had already come to that conclusion on his own. Just knowing the type of person Long was pretty well told him that he was already in danger. Of course, that meant his family was also in danger. No matter how he looked at it, Long was becoming his problem.
"Hang on a second, Harry," he said. "Let me try to explain this to Indie." He muted the phone without waiting for permission, and looked at his wife. "Harry's right, baby, this is going to be a mess. Long is bad news, and Harry's bosses are figuring it's kind of odd that he shows up now, even though his mother has been sick and near death before. It sounds like maybe he's got other reasons for being around here, and if that is so, then it could be a serious national security problem. In any event, like Harry says, it's not gonna take him long to decide he doesn't like the fact that I even knew he was here. If he decides to strike out at me, I don't want you and Kenzie anywhere he can reach."
"Sam, let's just get out of town," Indie said. "Let's go grab Kenzie from school and just get out of town. This guy is out of your league, baby, he's a professional killer! Come on, Sam, I can't take a chance of something happening to you!"
Sam sighed. "Babe, the smart move right now is to get you and Kenzie somewhere safe. I'll deal with this however I have to, and once it's over, well—maybe it's time I look at quitting this business after all. Between the money we've saved up and my pension, we can live pretty well, and maybe the music will pay off."
Indie leaned forward and put her face in her hands. "And what if Long is already watching us? For all we know, he could be listening to this conversation right now. Where are we going to go that could be safe?"
"Well, what I'm thinking," Sam said, "is that we'll give Beauregard's two girlfriends a call and have them come get you and Kenzie, and the four of you can go up to that vacation spot you enjoyed a while back." Sam winked at Indie, and she rolled her eyes at him. Beauregard, of course, was the name given to her mother's imaginary spirit guide; both her own mother, Kim, and Sam's mother, Grace, were firm believers in Beauregard, so referring to them as his girlfriends was a simple little code that she understood instantly. The vacation spot was also an easy one to figure out, because it referred to his father's old cabin in the mountains, where they had hidden during the terrorist incident a few weeks back.
"Okay, so that makes some sense, but then what are you going to do? You're still in over your head, baby. This guy is bad news; he's not the kind of lowlife that you've dealt with around here."
Sam grinned. "No," he said, "he's the kind of lowlife I had to deal with the last time you were hiding in that particular vacation spot. I actually think I'm getting to be pretty good at dealing with his type of people."
"Sam!" Indie yelled in his face. "You nearly got yourself killed dealing with that type of people! I'm not sure that inspires a lot of confidence on my part!"
Sam picked up the phone again. "It's what we got to do, baby," he said, before speaking to Harry again. "Okay, Harry?"
"I'm here, Sam," Harry said.
"Okay, first off, I'm getting a pretty strange feeling about this whole situation. Just how sure are you of the people who are wanting us to get involved in this?"
"Sam, my boy, it amazes me how you always manage to ask just the right questions. My big problem with this is that I'm not sure who's behind our involvement. Is it possible were being played like puppets? This is government, Son, of course it is. Does that make it any less our duty to do what we can to eliminate dangers to our country?"
Sam sighed, and shook his head, even though Harry couldn't see him. "No, it doesn't. Have you got anybody we can put on Indie and Kenzie and Beauregard's girlfriends, while they pack up and head out to the vacation location again?"
Harry chuckled. "Sam, I've had people watching all of the above for the last hour, including your mother, who seems to be on a shopping spree," he said. "I'm putting together a team right now and will send my personal car to pick them all up. That's the car they had out there the last time, the one with the built-in Wi-Fi. You just never know when that might come in handy, right?"
"Absolutely," Sam said. "I'll make sure Indie knows that you thought of her. Talk to you soon."
The line went dead instantly, and Sam looked at his wife. "Can you make a phone call through Herman? One that nobody could trace?"
"Yes. It's not actually through Herman, but I think that that's what you're asking me. Let me guess, you want me to call mom and start setting this up?"
Sam nodded. "Yes," he said. "And tell her that I don't want to hear a single word out of that dead Civil War soldier!"
"Even after he saved your life how many times now? You should learn to be grateful, Sam. Don't worry, I'll tell her." She turned to her computer and started tapping keys, and a moment later she slipped a headset over her ears. A dial pad appeared on her screen, and she punched in her mother's cell phone number, then told it to dial through. "Hey, mom?" she said a moment later. "It's me, how are things going?"
Sam could actually hear Kim's voice coming through the headphones, as she said, "I've been sitting here waiting for you to call. Beauregard told
me an hour ago that you'd be calling. He also said to tell Sam to remember that things are not always as they appear, and not everyone who's a bad guy is really a bad guy."
Indie glanced at Sam, knowing how loudly her mother had spoken and guessing that he had heard. He rolled his eyes, and she winked and replied. "Yeah, well, that's partly why I'm calling, mom," she said. "We took on a new case this morning, and it's turning into one of those messes that Harry gets involved in. You remember Harry, right? Well, this mess is big enough that Sam and Harry think that you and Grace and Kenzie and I should all go up to the cabin for a little while."
"Yes, yes, I know," Kim said. "When Beauregard told me you'd be calling, he said we'd be going up there. Grace is out picking up groceries now to take along. She should be back in about half an hour, and will be headed your way then."
Sam leaned forward. "Kim, don't bother coming this way," he said. "Harry says he's sending a car with the team to make sure you're safe, all of you. They'll bring you over here, and then you can all go to pick Kenzie up at school and they'll take you up to the cabin."
"Okay," Kim said, "Got it. I'll let Grace know."
Indie smiled. "Okay, mom," she said. "And Sam says to tell Beauregard thank you."
Sam glared at her for a moment, but then he grinned and nodded. As much as he hated to admit it, Beauregard—whether he was a real ghost, or just a figment of Kim's imagination—had a track record of being accurate, and his advice had saved Sam's life more than once, as Indie had said earlier. He wasn't sure what it meant, that not all bad guys are bad guys, but he intended to be sure of what was going on with Long before he made any decisions on how to deal with the situation. If that cryptic clue was a reference to Long, it could mean that this whole thing was some sort of set up, and Sam didn't want any part of such a mess. He did, however, plan to let Harry know what Beauregard had said, since Harry was aware of just how many times that imaginary ghost had been correct.