by Mark Graham
“What do you do with them if they fail to play the game right?” Joyce asked, again curious.
“Generally when this has happened before we’ve given the agent a come to Jesus meeting and that usually starts things for their improvement. There’s a few other things we can do. Most of the time it all works out. There has been several situations, or should I say agents, who for some reason or another just go to shit and can’t be fixed. Depending on how it went was how the Director dealt with it. Personally, and this is just between you me, but I remember one time there was an agent on a private plane and it just happened to slam into a mountain. I would like to have better thoughts about it but realize anything can go bad. The Director has the option of assigning the agents in question to just a back up type thing. The people we have that do our clean ups have some agents that just background work, and other’s we have to give credit too that became disabled but could still be used. The team that does our security has a few people who the Director worked with.”
“What it come down to,” Ice said. “is that if the agent tries as much as or she can and just don’t make the grade, the Director is more than fair. He’s even been successful in transferring some to the FBI, or whatever service they are most likely to succeed in. To be blunt, if an agent goes rogue, and won’t come in, then that person is put on the Director’s list and taken care of by other agents like us. Short and sweet. Usually short!”
“Well, where do we have to go?” Joyce asked.
“One is in downtown Seattle,” he said. The other one is in Spokane. We’ll fly to Seattle and rent a car. It will probably take two or three days to scope this guy out, although I already have almost enough information. At the airport when we get there we will do the car rental thing, and when we finish in Seattle head on over to Spokane. Nice trip through the mountains if it’s a nice day.
In Spokane we have a woman as our assignment,” Ice stated farther. “She evidently has become involved in the middle of child slavery and unlawful adoptions. She’s either done some terrible things or had them done. All I know is that local law enforcement has been involved with her. She’s slippery, but has been warned that to continue doing what she does would evidently come to haunt her. I guess we’re the ghosts who will haunt her.”
“Wow, a woman,” Joyce said. “That’s something new to me.”
“Don’t let it surprise you too much because women are just as evil as men, and can be worse in some things.”
“Really,?” Joyce asked.
“Yep,” Ice stated, “and just a forward warning, you may be the one who does her in. Come to find out she is a strict lesbian, doesn’t like men, and doesn’t trust them. I think you however might be able to sneak under her radar.”
“Shit,” Joyce said, “well, guess I need to get my feet wet.
“Yeah, you do,” Ice said with a smile. “Besides, if all we can do is get at least kind of close range we might end up sniping her or blowing her up.”
Joyce accepted it for what it was worth and would not worry about it until the time came.
~~~~~
The next day they took it easy, each of them doing their own thing. Ice worked on his security system, fine tuning it in places. Joyce went for a walk, and played with the two dogs and read, finishing the book she had been reading. Joyce loved to read, and really enjoyed doing so especially if she could kind of feel she was actually in the story. She looked around and found a small pile of paperback books and checked out which ones she might like. She saw several she thought she would really like and went out and asked Ice if she could borrow a few of them.
“Hell, Joyce, you can have all of them. You can keep the ones you won’t be reading, then take them whenever you want. I’ve read them and wondered why I kept them. They only take up space, so read them and throw them away if you need to.”
She hated to destroy a perfectly good book but understood where Ice was coming from. She was quite happy because the books he had might take her a year to read. She realized though that all the flight time, and other travel time she’d be doing that she would have lots of chances to read.
The next day they got around, and were able to catch a flight that would end up in Seattle early evening of that day. They talked, napped, and Joyce started one of the two books she’d gotten from Ice. This one happened to be a crime novel which she really liked to read usually.
After getting to Seattle they did as typical and rented a car. Then they went in search of where their target was, and checked into a motel a few blocks from his house.
Joyce was glad she had brought her book because they kept an eye on the man’s house and his car, following him whenever he went anyplace. They found out the man, who they knew as Chucky, went to a jewelry shop, getting there at about ten, and worked until six. The rest of the time he spent at his home. With their surveillance they learned that Chucky had a nice, big black cat.
“He doesn’t look like a Chucky to me,” Joyce said on the second day checking Chuck out and the surrounding areas. Ice knew several places of interest and took Joyce to a few of those places to take away the monotony, of just waiting around all day until Chucky got out of work.
“Let me fill you in on something,” Ice told her smiling. “Most of the names we use on these people, we don’t even know. I try to just keep it interesting and name them. Chucky just seems like a good name to call him.”
“If we have to deal with an individual, then I make sure I know what there name is. Other then that I don’t really care. I know the real names of our people but figure why should I bother you with that. Soon enough you’ll be running your own show,.
“I have an idea,” Ice spoke up after they followed Chucky home.
“What’s that?” Joyce asked, interested.
“I have all the material to make a bomb,” he said. “Since you’re just fresh from finishing that training how about you make the bomb.”
“Really?” she asked kind of surprised, “Are you sure?” she asked.
“Serious as a heart attack,” Ice said with a smile. “Old Chucky there leaves about the same time every day. I actually timed him this morning and when he starts his car he always lets it idle for a full minute. Then he carefully drives off, turns left on the next street, then turns down that street that is really steep. Remember yesterday when you said you would be afraid to try to ride a bike down the hill?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” She answered.
“Well, it takes him approximately three and a half minutes from starting his car to be about mid way down that hill. Cars cannot park on that hill, so there is no parked cars and I haven’t seen any pedestrians either time we’ve been down there. All you have to do is make a bomb, causing the bomb to go off three and a half minutes after the car is started. Can you do it?” he asked.
“Yeah, there was a class just for that kind of thing. I learned you can set a particular time or just a timer that gives whatever it is we want.”
“Okay,” Ice said, “your mission this evening is make that bomb. Hope you don’t mind if I go in another room while you make it though.”
“No problem,” she said laughing. “Want to sit in the can, or the chair in front?”
“I will probably go for a run, and when done knock on the door. At that point I will get a fine cigar I’ve been wanting to smoke, grab a coke, and go down and sit in front of the office. You can call me when you’re done. If you fail, well . . . I guess I’ll witness the motel room being completely demolished and you, or parts of you flying over head.”
Joyce slapped his shoulder quite hard, “You ass, don’t you have more faith in me??
“Well, not yet,” I have never seen you at work with a bomb,” he said smiling and tapped her on the back of the head, to get her back for her slap.
When she came out of the room, and he saw her, he returned.
Ice went into the room and sat in one of the two chairs and Joyce joined him in the other.
“What I would lik
e you to do,” Ice said, “is to walk over to Chucky’s house, and set that bomb. You know where and how to wire it to the car. While you lay against the curb and reach as far over as you can, I’ll be standing in the street about twenty feet away. First so that I can keep a look out, second so that if anybody sees me their attention won’t go to you.”
“Okay, sounds good,” Joyce said. “It feels cool enough so I can wear a jacket, hiding this thing under it.”
“Yeah, or carry it in a purse,” he said.
She elected the purse in the end thinking it would make it easier to do.
They walked to Chucky’s house not seeing any other pedestrians and saw several cars driving down different streets. One car was a cop car but it was going the opposite direction. What he Iiked was that all these streets had nice big, beautiful trees, so a person on the side walk, or the gutter wouldn’t be seen, or at least as long as they weren’t below a street light.
They found the car exactly where he always parked it. When walking beside it Joyce bent down and laid down on the street next to the curb. Ice was able to see her actually be able to crawl part way under the car so knew she would probably try to get it as close as she could under the driver’s seat. It took her three minutes, a little long compared to an expert, but good for a new agent.
Within minutes from when Joyce hit the street, both of them continued their walk and worked their way back to the motel.
The next morning after coffee and breakfast they packed the car and left in time to be where they wanted to be when Chucky walked out. Whenever possible the agent was to be in the area when a killing went down to guarantee the person they meant to hit was the person they wanted, and that the person was dead before they left, and in turn being finished with their assignment.
As they planned, Chucky walked out of his house and got in the car. He put his seat belt on then started the car. Suddenly, he undid his seatbelt, got out of the car and ran up to the house and let himself in. He’d taken at least two minutes when they saw him come back and get into his car. Chucky was a worry wart kind of a guy so had to make sure his seat belt was on and his rear view mirrors were correct. About the time he took his hand off the mirror that was in the center of his upper windshield the entire car blew up.
The biggest snag in the works was that a woman with a couple kids happened to just be passing in their car beside Chucky’s car when it blew up. It kind of protected the agents car, but it in the most part blew the car to the other side of the street and it was laying on its side.
Joyce couldn’t hold it and broke down it tears, trying as hard as she could to either stop or at least muffling her dismay at what happened.
Ice calmly and quietly turned in the drive way across the street, and backed on to the street, and headed toward to the closest highway which would take him to the highway that went right out east from Seattle.
At first Ice loudly said for Joyce to settle down, but found she wasn’t going to be settled down by him or anybody else. “Hell,” he thought to himself, “where’s a psychologist when you need one.” He of course realized what he had just thought and actually laughed hoping Joyce wouldn’t hear him.
It wasn’t until a half hour later and they were on the highway heading east when Joyce could say anything. At first, only haltingly, crying between words. Ice allowed her to get a hold of herself a little better and massaged her shoulder hoping she understand he was there for her.
Finally, while still crying, but able to speak she said, “Why two kids Ice? Why two innocent kids? And a mother! Why, Ice, why!” she was still sobbing. “Why did that woman decide to at that moment be on that street, and right where a car was going to blow up. I did that Ice?” she said, starting to sob more again.
Ice knew it would take a while. After he killed his first kid, but meant to, it took him a while to be able to accept, get out of the denial stage and move on. He thought, and hoped Joyce would recover quickly.
“I can actually relate Joyce,” he said as kindly as he could, “just take your time and let it all out. If you have to cry until we get to Spokane, then do so.” He continued rubbing the back of her neck where he could feel her to be tensed up.
After a half hour she seemed to have recovered kind of. She started talking about something, then turned, speaking loudly right to Ice.”
“Yeah know what? Fuck it!” she hollered, “I can’t blame myself for what happened. We can blame God, or time, the guy who ordered this, or Chucky for fucking up in the first place! She smacked the dash board and Ice thought he might look and see it dented in.
“I know I will be haunted by this, probably for the rest of my life,” she said matter of factly, “but I refuse to let this rule the rest of my life. I hope I never end up killing a kid again, but by God, if it wasn’t for the bad guys we wouldn’t even be here. Dumb ass Chucky is who I blame for forgetting something and having to go back in the house. Fuck’n dumb ass!” she hollered.
Ice knew that Joyce was already on the mend. When somebody got to a point to be able to put the blame on a particular person other then themselves, they were heading in the right direction. As far as he was concerned anyway. “Damn it!” she said suddenly. “Fuck it!, let’s stop at the next interchange that has a convenience store. I’ll buy us both a good cigar and a cup of coffee. I’m buying.”
Ice realized that he would have to put up with a wild cat for the rest of the trip. It was then he decided that if possible he was to have her do the next kill. Best thing when falling off the horse is get back on.
About a half hour later Joyce was talking like her old self. She told Ice where she would like to visit in Seattle the next time she was there, if she could. She also asked Ice about different locations in the world and what special things they had to offer. They arrived in Spokane and stopped for a meal. Neither had eaten a thing other than what they had for breakfast, except for Ice who had got a long piece of beef jerky when in the convenience store.
After eating they found a motel they had checked out on the inter-net. It was close to where a conference was supposed to be held of some kind of women’s executive training organization.
When asked, Ice gave Joyce a small pill that was supposed to help one fall asleep. It did and Joyce fell asleep almost immediately. Ice knew that an episode she went through would take everything out of her. Hell, he knew some who were never the same after being in an accident where a child happened to die, let alone what happened this morning,
The next morning both got up about the same time, showered, and dressed. They met at the breakfast bar near the lobby. They had their coffee and each picked what they wanted to eat and met at a table that was vacant.
After talking for several minutes, Joyce asked, “So my fearless leader, what are our plans for the day?”
“We’re going to pack the car, then go over to the motel where we should be able to ID our target. We’ll play it from there. We just might be able to get the job done and get the hell out of here,” Ice said smiling at his last comment.
Joyce smiled back and said, “I certainly hope so. I want this mission over with!”
After getting their stuff to the car, which wasn’t much, they drove out of the motel lot and headed toward where their assignment was to take place. Ice had a hard time but finally found a parking space down near the end of the lot. They had dressed fairly nicely, knowing this was a conference,.
When they entered the motel there was a sea of women wondering around. The motel was actually a high rise with a wing off both sides. They looked at a sign and found out the convention their target was going to be at was just down the hall. They found the room which was set up to handle at least a thousand people. They picked a couch almost across from the entry door. They could plainly see the table where all their ID badges were, along with piles of plastic bags filled with stuff.
“This is good,” Ice said, “everybody has to stop at that table.”
“What if there is quite a big gang between
us?” Joyce asked, “will we be able to see her?”
“Good point,” Ice said. He got up and sat in a couch located quite close to the registration table. Joyce joined him, “yeah, we should be able to see everybody from here. If we have a problem I can go over and stand near that second table where the coffee and cookies, and fruit are at.”
“Great idea,” Ice said with a smile.
The conference didn’t start until nine but women started showing up a little after eight. Many who had gone through this experience before knew they had to be early, to find a seat they liked, and go to them, laying their little bags down and pulling their chairs out and leaning them against the table. It seemed that most conferences must have the same rule because Ice had witnessed it dozens of times. Ice enjoyed watching that kind of stuff. He had heard that in the U.S. if a person has a piece of pie placed in front of him or her, the person would point the point of the pie toward them. Many other countries didn’t go by that rule of thumb. He observed both in the U.S. and other parts of the world and found that theory to be true most of the time.
Joyce elbowed Ice and tried to point at a woman who just walked up to the registration table with two other women.
“Yep,” that’s her,” Ice said. “What should we call her?
Joyce looked puzzled, “What do you mean?” she asked.
“What name do you want to give her?” he asked.
“Well, duh, let’s see . . . . how about Martha she said, “I knew one a few years back and she was a real bitch.”
“See, that’s how we play the game. We don’t personalize and we get things done. We need to be out of here within two hours after this thing starts?”
“Well, of course,” she answered wondering how it would go down that way.