Notes from Paschka – 1. This story is a direct continuation of my first story "Vanishing." I recommend reading that first if you have not already done so.

2. I know nothing about spy agencies, computers, hacking or math. Anything in this story that looks like fact is me bluffing.

CHAPTER ONE

Confession

"So you know I can't tell you everything, right?" Charlie said, stealing a piece of Don's toast and popping it in his mouth.

Don shrugged. "If you say so. Don't touch my toast."

"You know I work for some organizations right, like the NSA, CIA, Homeland Security, Military, INTERPOL, CDC, whatever." Charlie sighed and shook his head. "Well, this mostly has nothing to do with any of those organizations, but I can't tell you who I was working for because it's classified."

Don snorted in disgust. "So we should just go with 'good guys' and 'bad guys'?" he asked sarcastically.

"That'll work. I'll… It's an international agency, sort of like INTERPOL, but we deal with things like terrorism and all that." Charlie looked over at the three laptops sitting open on the kitchen table, then leaned forward and shut them. "Is anyone else here?"

"No, Lauren's at the office. Dad's in Florida. We should call him."

"Yeah, later. Anyway, most of the stuff I do for them is cryptology. I code their transmissions and messages, and decode… other things."

"How long have you been working for them?"

"Six years now, I think."

"Like a full-time kind of thing? Or do you just consult sometimes?"

"It's pretty much an on-going thing," Charlie said. "I mostly work from here or even Calsci or the garage if I don't want anyone to see. It's high level stuff. You'd have to know what I'm working on to even get an idea…"

"Yeah, I'm beginning to realize that about your math," Don said, not sounding particularly impressed. "It's really annoying."

Charlie smiled and shrugged. "It was no big deal at first. It was such a high level of clearance that no one knew anything about what I was doing, including the 'bad guys' so to speak. I was never bothered. It was easy, really, until three years ago."

"When you met Marjolie."

Charlie looked down at his hands again, and Don knew he'd hit a bit of a sore spot. Charlie frowned and rubbed his thumb over the bruised knuckles. "Yeah, I guess right around then it all went to hell."

"She a really nice girl," Don offered.

Charlie looked up at him with a frown. "Oh? Just how much time have you two been spending together?"

"Don't even… It's not like that!" Don protested.

Charlie laughed. "Yeah, I know, I'm just teasing. And I'm really tired. Sorry. Anyway, three years ago I was in Europe on a lecture tour. Marjolie and I met in Germany. She was looking for a horse for one of her clients, and we hit it off, I guess. She came with me."

"She must have really liked you to have just dropped what she was doing and gone with you," Don said, trying to sound supportive.

"Sure. Not that any of that matters now," Charlie said. "Now she's afraid of me."

Don couldn't help but laugh. "I don't think she's afraid of you, Chuck. She's afraid of the scary people that were after you at the time."

"Same thing," Charlie muttered.

"How exactly do you feel about her?" Don asked curiously.

"At one point, I would have married her," Charlie said, looking at Don for a moment before looking at his coffee mug with a moody frown. "But then this whole thing happened, and she and I agreed it wasn't a good idea, and now that we've been apart so long… I guess we're just very good friends now. It's never going to get further than that."

"What about Amita?"

Charlie shrugged. "Me being an idiot. Don't get me wrong, I…" He stood suddenly. "I don't want to talk about this; can we get back to the story now?"

"Yeah," Don said in surprise as Charlie poured himself some more coffee. "Yeah, so three years ago…"

"I was in Germany, with Marjolie when they started showing up."

"They?"

Charlie sighed in frustration and shook his head. "I'm not sure I can tell you…"

"Charlie, I'm not going to understand any of this if you're going to be vague," Don said. "I'm not going to tell anyone else about this."

"I know that."

"Then tell me."

"It's an organization called the Ninth Alliance. They deal in terrorism and warfare: weapons, planes, armoured cars, bombs; all the stuff the bad guys need to cause mayhem, pretty much. They're international, they have people everywhere, and they're really very good at what they do."

"And they found out about you."

"Yeah. I had been I guess instrumental in stopping some pretty big transactions that the Ninth Alliance had organized. Somehow, my name got over to them and they started contacting me. I wasn't too worried… I've been contacted by people before that would get me arrested for treason if I had accepted the offers."

"So when you did lose your clearance…"

"We'll get to that later," Charlie said. He rubbed his eyes.

"Do you want some ice for your eye?" Don asked.

"Uh, no. This happened, like, five days ago," Charlie said. "Where's my laptop?"

"In my office, locked away safely," Don said.

"And my cell phone?"

Don motioned upstairs. "In my room. I've kept it charged and everything, just in case."

"Yeah, Alecia mentioned she'd talked to you," Charlie said with a small smile.

"She just barked out an order and hung up," Don said. "You should tell her to get some phone manners."

"I would, if she weren't the scariest person I know," Charlie said with a laugh. "Seriously, she's like Dad's age and British, and she could probably put Colby on the ground with her bare hands. It's awesome."

"Yeah, well, she told me you were coming home two months ago, and I've been waiting."

"Yeah, we ran into a small problem."

"Oh?"

"Later. Anyway, three years ago, in Germany, I was approached by the Ninth Alliance. They were pretty impressed with me, and offered me a job. I refused. It went back and forth for a while, and they tried a bit of intimidation, but then Alecia had it taken care of."

"Is she the boss then?"

"Not really, no. But she is the main point of contact, for me anyway. By the time it was all finished, Marjolie had gone home and been scared enough to not want too much to do with me anymore."

"I noticed you bought her a horse," Don said with a grin.

Charlie laughed. "Yeah, you have no idea. I know nothing about horses."

"So the Ninth Alliance didn't try to hurt you then?" Don asked, steering the conversation back on track.

"No. And as it turned out, they didn't try to go after anyone I know either, like you or Dad or Marjolie. They know they won't get my cooperation with intimidation. It just doesn't work that way."

"I've seen it work plenty of times, buddy," Don reminded him.

"Yes, but I'm not going to create a code for them that's very nearly unable to be solved when my family is at stake," Charlie said. "Ok, that didn't make sense. Obviously, when my family is at stake, I would do whatever it took to ensure their safety. However, with the way these things work, there's no way to get all of my focus and attention on what they want if I have that hanging over my head. I could just as easily create a code that would tell Alecia exactly what's going on, you know what I mean? I'm not explaining this very well."

"I think I understand," Don said, prodding the story forward. "So Marjolie went home, and Alecia took care of the Ninth Alliance. Can I ask how?"

Charlie shrugged. "I don't know. I imagine some people didn't survive it on their end. I'm not really privy to tactical information of that sort. I only need to know what I need to know. I don't want to know about assassinations and murder and violence and all of that, unless I'm in a position to stop it or a position where I'll want to stop it. I don't need that on my conscience."

"Ok," Don said. "I understand."

Charlie rubbed his eyes again and ran his hands through his hair. "I'm sorry, I'm about to drop here. I'm going to take a shower, if that's alright, and crash for a little while."

Don nodded and tried to hide his disappointment. He really wanted to get to what happened eight months ago when Charlie disappeared. "Ok. Everything is still where it was when you left."

Charlie nodded and left the kitchen.

CHAPTER TWO: Allowance.