"Call Annie and tell her it's done." Joan instructed Auggie. "And call Jai, tell him I need to talk to him before he gets on the plane tonight. I don't want him to get caught off guard on this one."
"Will do." Auggie answered, Jai deserved to know what had just happened.
Joan gave his shoulder a squeeze, their non-verbal communication for a job well done. Auggie reached up and grabbed her hand, returning the squeeze before dialing Annie's cell. "Good job." Joan whispered to him before turning on her heel to go back to her office with Arthur.
"Ollie, Ollie Oxen Free." Auggie said playfully as Annie answered the phone.
"It's done?"
"Oh, it's more than done." Auggie leaned back in his chair, relaxed for the first time since he opened the recording on his computer that morning. "You have to lay low tonight, some people here still think you're in danger."
"But my big, strong Auggie is going to save me. Again." Annie was enjoying his playful mood, it seemed like old times, before Sri Lanka.
"So that's what I am?"
"Yep." Annie answered. "So Allen's is out of the question tonight and I don't want to go home."
"I have beer." Auggie suggested.
"I can get a pizza."
"See you at my place then."
"You'd better have more than one beer in that fridge of yours."
"Have you ever known me to not be prepared?" Auggie laughed at the thought of only one beer in his fridge. That would never happen.
"The Sandbergs are playing the Alzheimer's card." Drew told Jai as he joined him leaning on the hood of the red sedan.
"Not surprising. Think anyone will buy it with an antique cookie jar with eighty grand inside in their possession." Jai looked out over the busy Orlando street. His mind was elsewhere.
"The nice man gave them the jar, they didn't know what was inside." Drew's voice was dripping in sarcasm.
"At least they know where they'll be spending their golden years." Jai answered as his phone rang. "Hey Auggie, what's going on there?"
"Can't really go into it now." Auggie told him from the other end of the line. "But Joan wants to talk to you before you head back this way."
"Really?"
"You need to talk to her." Auggie told him. "It's important."
"Did you make the call?" Arthur asked his assistant as he returned to the executive office suite.
Julie looked up from her computer. "Yes, she'll be here at 8 a.m."
"Was she skeptical or surprised that I wanted to meet?"
"A little of both."
"Good, I wouldn't expect anything less from her." Arthur said taking a deep breath. Tomorrow morning was a long way away.
Joan sat at her desk, mindlessly shuffling through the paperwork that had accumulated in just one afternoon. She wasn't looking forward to the conversation she was going to have.
"Jai on line four." Her assistant buzzed in on the intercom.
"Hello Jai" Joan said picking up the line.
"Auggie said you needed to talk to me." Jai sounded both curious and concerned.
"Jai, something happened this afternoon." Joan had no idea where to start.
"OK…."
" We discovered who was behind the leak."
"Fantastic." Jai was happy that the leak was finally contained and they could get back to their real jobs.
"You may not think so when I tell you who it is."
The gray town car pulled away from the curb leaving Liza sitting on the brick fence wall, the darkness in the Washington DC Park was enveloping her every being. Henry had just shared an incredible amount of information with her. Information that could get Arthur Campbell fired, Joan Campbell fired and maybe even Auggie fired. The fallout from this could be huge, and everyone from Larry King to the New York Times would interview her. Arthur jeopardized an important operation with known gunrunners in Florida and they probably lost an agent in Chantilly, Virginia tonight too. It was almost too much to take in. She wondered why Arthur wanted to meet with her in the morning. It was probably to give her his version of the story. At this point, she didn't know whom to believe anymore.
The gate area of Miami Dade International Airport was spinning around Jai. He asked her to repeat herself. He couldn't have heard that correctly, or had he?
"It was your father." Joan told him on the other end of the line. " We have a recording of him talking to Liza Hearn, leaking classified information among other things. We also planted a false flag with him this afternoon. We're pretty sure he will leak that to Liza as well."
Now Jai understood what was going on when he talked to Auggie earlier. "How? Why?" He stammered.
"You'll probably want to ask him why, but I would appreciate it if you wouldn't say anything to him, not yet anyway. I know he's your father, but I gave up trying to understand him years ago."
Jai looked absent-mindedly at two children playing chase around a line of chairs. "Honestly, so did I. When is it going to break?"
"Tomorrow, I imagine." Joan wanted to be anywhere but here, telling a good man that his father was truly evil. "You don't need to come in if you don't want to. Just be sure and call me if you're not."
"Thanks. I'll think about it." Jai said pressing end on this cell. He wanted to be surprised about this revelation. But he couldn't. He wanted to scream. But he couldn't. He wanted to shake his father by his shoulders and ask him why he would ruin his own career and reputation like this. But he couldn't. All he could do was sink into a chair and wait for his flight to be called.
Arthur sat in the silence of his office, watching the darkness of the night press across the sky. Who would have thought when he got up this morning that the day would end like this. He turned his encrypted cell phone over and over in his hand before dialing a telephone number that he knew by heart but never wanted to use.
"Steve, this is Arthur Campbell. I need to meet with you tonight." He paused for the response. " I know, it's late, but I think you'll want to hear what I have to say. We've found the leak and it may well shock the hell out of you. But then again, it may not."
"I smell pizza." Auggie exclaimed as he slid open the door to his apartment.
"You know it." Annie swooped in the door with an extra large size pizza box. "Pepperoni and mushroom, your favorite."
Auggie closed the door behind her as she set the box on the coffee table. "The Yin and Yang of pizza. Pepperoni for the bad and mushrooms for the good. Gotta have balance."
"And what's the beer?" Annie asked grabbing two plates from the shelf in the kitchen and setting them on the coffee table before plunking herself on the floor.
Auggie was already busy digging in the refrigerator, "A necessity." He answered while slowly making his way to Annie. He handed her a beer and sat down cross-legged next to her.
"I most certainly agree on that one." She took a drink of the cold amber liquid.
Auggie lifted his bottle to her. "To a job well done." They clinked bottles. "You are an excellent actress Miss Walker."
"Learned from the best." Annie said smiling and taking a bit of the pizza.
The warmth of the shower did nothing to relive the stress in her back and neck. It had been a long day. Tomorrow would be a longer day. Joan wrapped herself in a fuzzy terry cloth robe and walked out of the bathroom to find her husband sitting on the edge of the bed. He was stopped in mid motion of taking off his shoe.
"Penny for your thoughts…" She said crawling across the bed to his side.
"Hmmmmm.." Arthur finished taking off his shoe. "Sorry, just lost in thought."
"Did you talk to Steve?"
"Uh huh. He's briefing the president. I think they want to see how Henry spins the days events to Liza before making a decision about any charges."
"Do you think they'll actually charge him with treason?" She asked rubbing his shoulders; he was just as tense as she was.
"I don't know, maybe. Hard to say." Arthur was enjoying her touch.
"Tomorrow is another day." Joan was sensing that he didn't want to talk about it, and that was OK. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, softly kissing him.
"It is…" Arthur mumbled inhaling a deep breath.
"Do you think Jai knows?" Annie asked as she tossed a crust into the box of half eaten pizza.
"Joan asked me to have him call her." Auggie answered. "I don't think that was a pleasant conversation for either of them."
"Lord knows my dad isn't perfect, but can you imagine?"
"I couldn't imagine having Henry Wilcox as a father. It's a miracle that Jai isn't even more screwed up."
"Come on he's not that bad." Annie slapped him on the chest with the back of her hand.
"He's not." Auggie looked serious. "And despite it all, Jai didn't deserve this."
Thanks again for reading.
-M
