"Not far from the main gate?" Annie asked. "What do you mean not far from the main gate? Of Langley?"
"Yes, just a mile or two down the road," Eric answered.
"Do you think?" Annie looked at Jai and raised her eyebrow.
"Inside job," Jai finished the thought for Annie. "Barber, can you get any satellite eyes on the parking lot?"
The sound of buttons being pushed filled the speaker of the cell phone. "I was pulling the tapes from the main gate from the last two hours," Eric answered. "I'll do that later, let me see what satellite I can jump on, call you back in a few …."
"Damn."
"What did we just stumble onto?" Annie asked.
Auggie strode down the main hallway of Langley, mind and spirit renewed; it was amazing what a short little exchange with Annie could do for his state of mind. He was ready to tackle the next step in the plot against the President. As he pulled open the door to the DPD offices, he paused a moment by Eric Barber's desk.
"Going okay, Barber?" He asked.
"Think we just got a break," Eric answered as the excited shout of Stu inside Auggie's office echoed through the office. "Nothing concrete yet," Eric looked up noticing the distracted look on his boss's face. "I got this. See what Stu just hollered about."
"Thanks Barber," Auggie said and smiled as he crossed to his office and slid open the door. "Good news Stu?"
"Got into Big Bad Wolf's account," Stu said as he swung the chair around to face his boss. "Took me a few tries, but he's not nearly as frustrating as Yatzi. Damn, now I have to try Yatzi again …."
Auggie ghosted his hand around the perimeter of the desk to his workstation and sat down. "Not yet, let's see what Big Bad Wolfie has to tell us first."
Arthur placed the photocopied notes from Ben under a stack of files in his desk drawer, got up and headed for the door.
"Julie," he said as he pulled the door open, "Can you call Marjorie at the White House and see if you can get any information on pardon requests that may have crossed the President's desk."
Julie looked up from her computer monitor, "I just talked to Marjorie for the first time yesterday, and I'm not so sure she feels she can give me that information."
"Just ask, Jules, asking is free …" Arthur answered as he closed the door.
"For you maybe," Julie said to the closed door and sighed, he obviously didn't understand the unwritten rules of assistants in the bureaucracy that was Washington DC. She hadn't known Marjorie long enough for that kind of favor.
"Eric, talk to us," Jai said as he pushed the speakerphone button on his cell. Annie was sitting close to him; they'd both been waiting for Eric to call for what seemed like forever.
"Jumped onto a NASA satellite, got a few photos we can use," Eric told them.
"Great."
"That coupled with the main gate logs and tapes and we might be able to put this puzzle together. Got a lot of information to drill down."
"Need some help?" Annie asked.
"Thought you'd never ask," Eric said.
"We should be there in an hour." Jai stood up and grabbed his jacket.
"See you soon … and guys …."
"What is it Barber?" Jai could feel a favor coming.
"Could you stop and pick up a sandwich for me, I haven't had a chance to get to the food court."
"Always thinking about …." Jai began only to get a swat on the upper arm from Annie.
"Be nice," Annie ordered. "Yes, Eric we will pick up some lunch for you."
"He's one sick wolf," Stu commented. He and Auggie had spent the last half hour reading the e-mails of the third person involved in the conspiracy to kill the President of the United States.
"Deranged is probably a better word." Auggie pushed his chair away from his desk and stretched his arms over his head. "It sounds like this little plot is just the tip of this iceberg for him, he wants to do more."
"Timothy McVeigh on steroids," Stu said as he continued to read the information on his screen, "Auggie…."
"Yeah?" Auggie swung his chair to face Stu.
"Have you noticed that he's mentioned 'the Pig' quite a bit?"
"Yeah, I thought it might be a reference to the President," Auggie answered. "They mentioned pig in the chat room too."
"I don't think so … read the one I just sent you …"
Auggie pulled his chair closer to his desk and opened the e-mail Stu sent him. His brow furrowed as he read the information conveyed to him from the refreshable braille display. "Really? It sounds like it's a restaurant or bar or something."
"It sure does. Running a search of any liquor licenses in a hundred mile radius that have the name Pig in it."
"We might have caught a break."
Julie ripped the piece of paper from her note pad and stood up; crossing the office to her boss's door, she knocked three times. Their signal that she had something he wanted.
"Come in."
Julie opened the door. "I've got what you asked for," she said as she handed him the piece of paper, he had no idea how much she had to beg for the information or how much assistant's capitol it cost her.
"Great." Arthur took the paper from her hands. "Anyone I know on it?"
"Not that I can tell. A few reek of political favors, but that's not surprising."
Arthur stared at the list in disbelief. "You sure this is right?"
"Got it from Marjorie, just like you asked me to do."
Arthur folded the paper and placed it in the same desk drawer as Liza Hearn's notes from Ben. "This is disappointing."
"Do you want me to try to go further?" Julie knew she had to ask, but she wasn't prepared for his answer.
"No. No, this is fine. I just thought someone was angling for a pardon. I'll keep checking on my end."
Eric looked up as a brown paper bag was parked in the middle of his desk with a thud.
"Just what you asked for," Jai said and smirked.
"Thanks!" Barber said as he eagerly dug his hand into the bag. "Here you go." He handed Jai a thick file with his free hand, "If you two can drill down the photos, I'll keep an eye on things in the 'burbs."
Annie pulled the file from Jai's outstretched hand. "Thanks Eric, we'll be in the conference room."
"I'll be here …" Eric said through a bite of sandwich.
"Eating …" Jai said under his breath as he followed Annie down the hallway.
"Got four liquor licenses," Stu announced.
"Only four?" Joan asked as she leaned on Auggie's desk.
"I thought there'd be more too," Auggie replied. "Anything promising?"
"I think we can toss out the ones in Baltimore and Georgetown," Stu continued, "Bethesda, too."
"So that leaves us with one," Joan thought out loud.
"It's on Route 25 just inside the West Virginia border near Meyerstown, the Dixie Pig."
"Dixie Pig?" Auggie and Joan said in unison.
"Sounds like a class joint, doesn't it?" Stu said and laughed a bit.
Joan squeezed Auggie's shoulder, "Good job guys."
"A church parking lot, seriously? Who commits treason from a church parking lot?" Annie pulled the satellite photos closer to the rest of the photos on the table in front of her.
"Our guy does," Jai said with a distracted tone in his voice. "I've got a silver mini-van."
Annie checked the photo, "Nope."
"Black Chevy sedan?"
"Maybe. It's hard to tell the make and model." Annie squinted at the photo. "Keep going."
"Dark gray SUV?"
"No. Wait. Yes, I think so …" Annie pushed the photo toward Jai.
Jai compared the photo from the Main gate to that of the satellite photo of the church parking lot. "This is a real possibility." Jai got up and grabbed his suit jacket from the back of the chair.
"Where are you going?" Annie asked.
"I'm going to go sit on that parking lot. Our guy said he'd have more information for the team in Oakton. He's going to be calling back."
Annie pulled the photos back into a file and followed Jai out the door.
"Dunkin' Donuts, we may as well meet at the cop shop," Ben said as he sat in the vinyl booth, his back to Arthur.
"I don't see any cops," Arthur said and took a drink of coffee.
"They probably don't see any CIA operatives either. What's up?"
"Did you read the notes from our illustrious reporter?"
"Yes."
"Any thoughts on how that might be accomplished?"
"Multiple ways, but he's not exactly a drinking buddy of the person that could help him," Ben answered.
"My thoughts exactly, stay on course. Do what you need to do; we need to know how he plans to get that paper signed."
"You want me to …?"
"You know what I want you to do," Arthur said standing up. "You should really try the donuts with the red, white and blue sprinkles. Very patriotic."
Ben watched Arthur walk out the door and to his car; he knew what Arthur had just asked him to do, but he wasn't sure how tangled he wanted to get in Liza Hearn's web.
"Eric," Jai said as soon as the Tech Ops answered his phone. "I need you to run a plate. Quietly."
"Will do," Eric Barber answered. "Wait, there's an incoming call to our people in Oakton."
"This has to be our guy," Annie said from the passenger seat of Jai's BMW.
"GMC Acadia, Virginia plates SAG 598," Jai gave Barber the information.
"Hang on …" Eric fell silent on the other end of the line.
"What is it Barber?" Jai asked with concern in his voice.
"Do you have a visual on the suspect?" Eric finally asked.
"Just the car, not the driver, why?"
"It's someone. Someone big. I gotta run a voice recognition on this one."
"One of ours?" Annie asked.
"Oh yeah, get back here ASAP." Eric said feeling a burning in the pit of his stomach, wishing that Auggie wouldn't have given him this assignment.
"We really shouldn't be doing this," Stu told Auggie as he pulled his car onto Route 25. "Joan didn't tell us to do this ourselves."
"Joan told us to keep this quiet, we're keeping it quiet," Auggie reasoned.
"She's going to kill me; if she doesn't kill me, she's going to fire me," Stu muttered.
"We're just a couple of guys stopping at a bar, simple as that."
"Nothing with you is ever simple." Stu pulled into the parking lot of the Dixie Pig restaurant.
"Tell me what you see," Auggie unbuckled his seatbelt in anticipation.
"Small bar, kind of run down. Looks like it was an old house at one time. About a dozen vehicles in the parking lot, mostly older model domestic pickups. We're going to stand out like a sore thumb Auggie."
"No we're not, you don't look like you stepped out of GQ magazine do you?"
Stu looked down at the crummy clothes that he was wearing, "My mother wouldn't let me in her house looking like this."
"Good, let's go." Auggie said pulling on the door latch.
"You sure about this?" Joan asked as she watched Arthur pace his office.
"Barber ran it twice; we have visual proof and a voice print from the recording to Dick's people in Oakton. He's dead to rights," Jai confirmed the findings.
"He always was one of Henry's guys, I never trusted the slimy son of a bitch," Arthur said, his voice filled with venom.
Jai bristled at the words that came from Arthur's mouth; Annie caught his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze, mouthing 'don't.'
"Is he back on campus?" Joan asked Jai.
"Barber said he got back a few minutes after we did. He's in his office."
"Okay," Arthur said taking a deep breath, "We gotta do this now, Jai you stay here. Joan would you ask Julie to get a hold of Steve Baylor on your way out."
"You want me here?" Jai asked in disbelief.
"Yes, who better to take him down than Henry's son," Arthur told him.
"Oh, man it's better that you can't see this," Stu told Auggie quietly as he led him into the dark and dirty bar. "I didn't go to places like this when I was a poor college student."
"You were never a poor college student, Stu," Auggie said as Stu stopped in front of a small table near the bar.
Stu put Auggie's hand on the back of the chair and pulled one out for himself.
"It even feels greasy," Auggie commented as he pulled his chair out. "Let's just order a beer, pretend like we're talking and listen to what's going on."
Stu nodded even though Auggie couldn't see him and swiveled around to make eye contact with the bartender.
"Be over in a minute buddy, Allie just quit on us," the greasy bartender called to the men.
Liza turned to see who had just planted a kiss on the base of her neck, "Never thought I'd see you again."
"I'm not a one night stand kind of guy," Ben answered as he sat on a bar stool next to the pretty reporter.
"The way you took off before, you could have fooled me," Liza took a sip of her drink.
"I had a meeting," Ben explained as a beer was set before him by the bartender.
"A meeting?" Liza questioned. "You never told me what you do."
"I didn't."
"Are you going to?"
"Maybe …" Ben said looking into her eyes; she was so easy to hook.
"What's this?" he asked as the aerial photo was placed on the large conference table in front of him.
"Photo. The satellite kind," Arthur answered. "We have access to all kinds of things, like this too." Arthur caught the photo of the main gate that Jai just slid across the table to him.
"So?" he said, his voice cracking slightly.
"We know. We know it's you," Arthur growled. "We're the Central Intelligence Agency. How long did you think it would take before we figured it out?"
"You have a couple of photos, big deal." He shoved the photos back across the table to Arthur.
"We have so much more than that." Jai pushed the play button on the mini recorder.
"Can we go now?" Stu asked nervously as he scanned the patrons in the bar.
"We just got here," Auggie took a drink of the ice cold beer.
"I feel like everyone is staring at me."
"They're staring at me Stu, I'm sure blind guys aren't exactly common around here."
"Jeez, someone is coming …" Stu tapped his fingers nervously on the dirty table.
"Follow my lead," Auggie braced for the arrival of the person that Stu was so nervous about.
"Never seen you two around here before," the extra large man said as he towered above Stu and Auggie at the table.
"Never been here before," Auggie explained. "We heard good things about this place and we were thirsty, so we thought we'd stop by."
"Good things?" The man laughed in disbelief. "There ain't nothin' good about this place."
"Beer's cold," Auggie answered and slurped his beer.
As always; a thank you to PatriciaLouise for her help in editing the chapter.
Thanks for reading.
-M