Note: This story is evolving from my original plan. A plot bunny paid me a visit and hijacked my plans. Naughty bunnies!
It was another reason in the book of reasons that Joan didn't like him, Jai thought as he pulled his carryon bag behind him down the jet way of Miami International airport. She knew how much he hated Miami and yet here he was, again, in the god forsaken sun-drenched town. He wondered if it was bad karma that he kept getting ops that brought him to Miami.
"I'm here," Jai reported to Auggie as soon as he was clear of the jet way and safely in the concourse. "Not happy about it, but I'm here."
"You're in a city full of beautiful, barely dressed women. You can't make the best of it?" Auggie observed Jai's displeasure with the assignment and pushed a few of his buttons.
"I could, but I won't be here that long."
"Well, Wilson is expecting you at the Miami station as soon as you can get there."
"Perfect," Jai answered, "Call you once I'm in."
"It's getting bigger than I wanted it to," Joan said as she sank into one of the chairs across from Arthur, "I had to send Jai to Miami and read Wilson in."
"You sent Jai to Miami?" Arthur asked swiveling his chair to face his wife. "Bet he's happy about that."
"Auggie traced most of the packages to a UPS store on Biscayne Boulevard. I'm having Jai check it out."
"Who else have you read in?" Arthur asked.
"So far, just Wilson and Eric Barber in Tech Ops. I had to have him help Auggie with the video."
"I'm not too worried about Barber. Have Auggie keep an eye on Wilson's phone."
"Morning, sunshine."
"Morning, Auggie," Annie said sleepily into the phone.
"Not much sleep?"
"Helen likes to talk and she likes to play cards, she kept me up until two a.m. playing canasta."
"You know how to play canasta?" Auggie feigned surprise.
"I know how to do so many different things," Annie answered playfully. "Anything from the overnight?"
"Nothing on the audio. I have Barber going over the video right now. Nothing so far except for another UPS delivery. We've traced most of the UPS shipments to a UPS store near the Port of Miami. Jai's on it."
"Lucky Jai," Annie said with a laugh.
"I'm sure he thinks so right about now."
"Jai Wilcox. It's great to see your Ivy League mug back in Miami," Richard Wilson, Jr. greeted Jai with an outstretched hand.
"Rick, how are you doing?" Jai returned the handshake and watched Richard flinch at the use of the nickname he hated. "Still roughing it, I see." Jai looked out the window of the FDA office that also doubled as the Miami station to the causeway between Miami Beach and Miami proper. The view was spectacular and certainly better than even the seventh floor offices at Langley.
"Gotta admit, it's better than that basement dungeon that Roach has in London, I'm just happy to be running my own station at this age," Richard opened the door to his office and motioned for Jai to follow him. "I've reached out to an asset, I think we can get you in on the Biscayne Bay location."
"Any luck tailing the people from the Kinko's?"
"I thought we might check out the place this afternoon," Richard said as he sat down at his desk. "Want to catch a bite to eat tonight? I know a great place down on the beach."
"Nah, I think I'll skip it and order room service," Jai begged off; the last thing he wanted to do was have dinner with this pompous ass.
It had been nearly three years since Scott Simpson had set foot in Langley. He had lived and breathed the place since he graduated from MIT; that was until he found himself the father of triplets. Secretly he was happy that he had turned the reigns of Tech Ops over to Auggie, he trusted Auggie, in more ways than one. You could take the man out of the agency, but the agency was always in the man. Today was one of those days.
"Auggie Anderson, I like what you've done with the place," Scott said as he walked into the Tech Ops office.
Auggie turned his attention toward the sound of the familiar voice, "Scott Simpson?"
"You got it buddy," Scott walked over to his successor and slapped him lightly on the back, "Nice digs."
"Nothing like the train wreck you called the bat cave," Auggie said with a laugh. "How are the kids?"
"Great, just about to leave the terrible twos and hit the even more terrible threes," Scott fingered the badge attached to his shirt with the bright red 'V' on it. Part of him wanted to be back where the action was, here at Langley.
"If you're angling for your old job back, I'm not going anywhere."
Scott's mind was pulled back into reality. "Huh? No, that's not why I'm here. Got a minute and someplace we can talk?" Scott tried to hide the concern in his voice, but he wasn't a trained field agent like Auggie. He was thankful that Eric Barber wasn't either.
"Sure," Auggie heard the catch in Scott's voice and got up and grabbed his laser cane from its spot on the edge of his desk, "Would you keep an eye on things for me Barber?"
"You got it boss," Eric said from his desk in the corner of the office.
"Are you sure I can't make you some lunch dear?" Helen Rentmeester's voice called from the kitchen.
Annie had been watching the house across the street all morning. There was nothing of any real interest to report; the occupants had received several packages from UPS, but other than that, it was pretty standard surveillance. All of it had been caught on one of the cameras that Annie set up on the windowsill last night. "I'm not that hungry, but thank you anyway."
"My grandkids say I make a pretty mean chicken soup," Helen said as she walked into the living room while drying her hands on a towel. "You should really eat something."
Annie looked up into the expectant eyes of her hostess, "It does smell pretty good."
"That's settled then, come with me." A wide smile spread across Helen's face.
"So what's up?" Auggie finally asked as the past and present Tech Ops department managers settled onto the stone bench in the courtyard.
"You know I started my own business after the kids were born and Amy made partner?" Scott started.
"That's what I heard, it's going well, I assume."
"Terrific, I'm busy all the time. I'm getting a good reputation and lots of referrals, that's why this is so hard for me to do. ... One of my regular customers referred her brother-in-law to me. It was a pretty forward hard drive crash, so I replaced it for him. But when I was scanning it for any data I missed before recycling it, I ran across something …."
"So this is a CivOb?" Auggie interrupted.
"I suppose it is, in an off the books sort of way." Scott smiled at the familiar slang term of spies. "And for most computer geeks what I found wouldn't mean anything …"
"But you're not a normal computer geek," Auggie finished for him.
"I can't be, just like you're not a normal Tech Ops guy. There was a series of e-mails; it looked like the best way to slay a dragon to a normal person. Maybe even strategy for a video game. The use of poison, sword, a gun, but the dragon wasn't in places that a dragon would be. And I doubted it was a video game."
Auggie's ears perked up at what he was hearing, was he really hearing this?
"Then they mentioned a badger," Scott continued as he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes nervously.
"Shit," Auggie said as a chill ran down his spine.
"My thoughts exactly. I don't really think I'm breaking any kind of confidentiality code for computer technicians; but I did hang on to that hard drive," Scott said in a half whisper.
"Where is it?"
"I have three kids to think about. I really didn't want to get caught up in this; but I couldn't do nothing. If this is something, I couldn't let it hang on my conscience."
"Do you have it someplace safe?"
"I do. The original is in a safe deposit box. I also ghosted a few copies of it. They're in two other safe deposit boxes, different banks; the keys are in yet another safe deposit box, different bank."
"Smart move, once a company man …"
"Always a company man. I know," Scott said and sighed.
"We should probably take this to Arthur," Auggie suggested as he stood up.
Scott stood up next to Auggie and put his glasses back on. "No, you take it to Arthur. I don't want to spend anymore time here than necessary." Scott reached for Auggie's hand and pressed a card into it.
Auggie grasped the card and felt the crude yet readable Braille numbers on it; Scott must have used a nail and a piece of cardboard. "What is this?" Part of him was surprised that Scott thought enough to create a note that very few people could read; part of him was not.
"Phone number for a burn phone I bought this morning. I need to get that hard drive into your hands, but we need to do this right. I don't want this to be traced back to me."
Auggie drew air into his lungs and let it out slowly. "Understood."
"I need to get out of here," Scott said as he began to move toward the entrance. "My involvement with this begins and ends with you and only you."
"Absolutely," Auggie said following the sound of Scott's footsteps to the door. The two men walked back into the corridor. "Thank you Scott," Auggie extended his hand to his friend and predecessor. "You did the right thing."
"I know." Scott shook Auggie's hand firmly. "Just tell my stomach that. I never did have the guts for field work."
One of the things that Jai disliked about his job was surveillance; it was boring and repetitive and always involved some sort of junk food. Surveillance was even worse when he was sitting in a car with a man he disliked.
"So, that's something about your father," Richard said as he looked through the binoculars at the FedEx Kinko's store in Biscayne Bay.
Jai let out an irritated laugh and replied, "It only took you three hours to mention it. Pretty amazing."
"Treason? What was he thinking? He was forever entrenched as an elder statesman in the world of intelligence and he leaked information to a reporter. Arrogant if you ask me."
"Suppose your father wouldn't do anything like that if he got unceremoniously shoved out the door," Jai said tersely.
"If my father did, he wouldn't be stupid enough to get caught."
"Like your father does everything above the board," Jai mocked him, "the Director of the FBI can do no wrong. I almost forgot about the Congressional hearings four years ago. Wait, I was out in the field, doing real work then while you were here in this cushy job in Miami. Did Daddy help you get the station chief job?"
Richard put down the binoculars and stared at his colleague. "I got here on my own, just like you did!"
The two men sat in silence for a minute wanting to joust like two princes from warring kingdoms in medieval times.
"I almost forgot what a pain in the ass you were to work with," Jai finally said as he opened the passenger door to the car. "You know what Ricky, I'll keep an eye on things from the coffee shop."
"Fine!" Richard said to the slamming car door.
Jai walked quickly down the street toward the small sidewalk coffee shop, "I hate this fucking town," he mumbled.
"Where are you going?" Helen asked Annie as she emerged from the guest room in workout clothes.
"Thought I might go for a jog. Check out the neighborhood," Annie replied as she lunged forward in a stretch.
"What about them?" Helen gestured in the direction of the subject house.
"My guys back at the office have it under control; they're keeping an eye on things. I want to check out the back of the property and what else is going on around here."
After listening to Scott's footsteps echo down the hallway, Auggie turned on his heel and began to walk quickly down the halls of Langley. He did not stop at his office; he did not pass go. Instead he went straight for the elevator to the seventh floor. It seemed like forever before he heard the sound of the elevator door opening in front of him. After entering the car, he reached out and, reading the Braille numerals on the wall of the elevator, pushed the button for the executive floor. He could only hope that Arthur was in his office and that he wasn't in a meeting that he couldn't be disturbed from. Hell, for this he could be disturbed. Normally, Auggie was a patient man; he had to be. Today the elevator was testing every bit of his patience.
As Annie slowly jogged down the street, she looked around at the neighborhood that a terrorist cell might have moved into. On any other day she would be envious of this place, it was the type of hometown that she imagined herself living in if her family had ever been able to put down roots. Base housing was always utilitarian, kind of like 1970s tract homes, but without any character or soul. She rounded the corner to the street behind the subject house and slowed down to a walk, trying to make it look like she was cooling off while observing the back of the subject house out of the corner of her eye.
"Hello there," a voice called from her right.
Annie turned to see an older gentleman standing in his front yard with a hose in his hand watering his flower garden, "Hello," Annie greeted the man and walked slowly toward him.
"I saw you come out of Helen's house. Are you visiting her?" the man asked.
Annie smiled warmly at him, now she had to pull out her cover identity. "Yes, Helen was kind enough to let me stay with her for a few days while I check out jobs in the area." Annie extended her hand toward the man, "I'm Amy Jorgensen, a friend of Jason's."
"Ed Morton, nice to meet you Amy." Ed returned her handshake, "And it's nice to see some activity at Helen's. Other than her grandson, I never see anyone over there."
Annie let that comment drop because she didn't have an answer for it and there was something else that she wanted to talk about with Ed. "This is such a beautiful neighborhood, have you lived here long?"
"If you call fifty years long, then yes. My wife and I bought this house right after I got back from the Korean War, Navy man," Ed answered as he continued to water his flowers.
Annie smiled at him, normally she would have embarked on a conversation about their similar backgrounds, her father was in Vietnam, but Amy's father was an accountant and he lived in Baltimore, "I love the architecture of the white house across from Helen's, what do you know about it?"
"Oh, that house," Ed said knowingly. "Sally King lived there for years; she passed a few years back and some uppity folks from the city bought it to fix it up and sell it. Suppose they ran out of money, because it sat empty for a few years. Then the new people bought it. Seem nice enough, but they're kind of off."
"Off?"
"It's a lady and her son, but she has lots of men coming and going at all hours of the night. Sometimes the noise wakes up my Shirley."
Now they were getting somewhere. "Noise?"
"From the second garage out back. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were firing guns or shooting off fireworks. I reported it to the police, but nothing came of it. Still, they seem nice enough."
The front door of the house opened behind Ed and an older woman stepped onto the front porch. "Are you going to keep talking to that pretty thing or come inside and talk to your granddaughter on the phone?" the older woman scolded him.
Ed rolled his eyes at the sound his wife's voice. "Nice meeting you Amy. Better go inside before I get into any more trouble."
Auggie pushed open the heavy glass doors of the DCS office and stood in silence for a moment listening for the sound of Julie, Arthur's assistant.
"Hey Auggie," Julie said from the far side of the office. "What can I do for you?"
Auggie turned in the direction of her voice. "Is he in?"
Julie crossed the office to stand in front of her desk next to Auggie. "He is, and he's in with Joan."
"I really need to talk to him," Auggie said hoping the tone of his voice would convey how important it was that he speak to Arthur.
"Hang on a sec, let me ring in." Julie picked up the phone and touched a button on it, "I have Auggie out here; the look on his face told me I'd better interrupt you. ... Great I'll send him in." Julie hung up to the phone. "Go on in," she told Auggie.
"Thanks," Auggie told her and then turned to this left and counted the steps to the wooden doors of Arthur's office. Running his hand down the door he found the doorknob and took a deep breath before he opened the door.
Thanks to PatriciaLouise for her corrections and suggestions. Because of her, you are no longer subjected to the sloppy chapters I've produced in the past.
Thanks for reading.
M
