10

MEETING THE MORNING

Located in Washington D.C. is a company called Phoenix Enterprises that spearheads cutting edge military research. It is a think tank that employs many of the best minds in the world. The U.S. military no longer made or designed their own weapons; they purchased them from Phoenix Enterprises. Phoenix Enterprises develops the latest and greatest weaponry found throughout the world, and has made a hefty profit from their sales of such state of the art weaponry.

Phoenix Enterprises' home office is located in a ten story building in D.C., a mere three miles from the Pentagon. The building itself is one of those that seemed to be completely made out of mirrors. Its mirrors had a copper tint to them. And every morning, the rising sun reflected brightly off of the east side of the building, making it stand out among the marble, stone, and brick that make up most of D.C.

Phoenix employs around thirteen hundred people who work at the ten offices in various parts of the country. An additional three hundred field agents are also associated with the company. It is a huge company that wields a lot of power and influence in the United States.

On paper, Phoenix Enterprises, though much larger, seemed to be like the many other military research facilities operating in the United States. Actually, though, only about eight hundred of its employees are tasked with keeping the organizations façade intact. The real work at Phoenix Enterprises was done behind closed doors.

The President/CEO of Phoenix Enterprises was Marie Donovan, a middle aged woman who had built the company from the ground floor up. She had started Phoenix Enterprises with very little federal funding and had actually fronted a lot of the money needed to build a successful company herself. An inheritance left by her deceased parents funded this project of hers. The one thing that Marie Donovan never had to worry about was money.

She played the part of a female CEO rather well. She could hold her own with the best of them, the majority of which were men. She was the wealthiest, most powerful female in the business world. And she wore the part well, too. She was tall and thin, with dark emerald eyes that mesmerized anyone who made eye contact with them. Her stylishly cut brown hair was short, accentuating not only the color, but the shape of her eyes as well. She had a very engaging personality, and her countenance was warm and pleasant. A highly intelligent woman, she could converse skillfully with a scientist from any number of fields, and then switchgears instantly to take a phone call from the President and accept a dinner invitation to the White House.

That was only part of who she was, though. And very few people had seen the other side of her. Major Kerwin had been on the receiving end of her anger a few hours ago. Marie was not a happy woman right now. She'd been up all night trying to coordinate things. It was now morning, and the sun was already peeking over the horizon. Her office faced east so that she would see the sunrise every morning. It was always invigorating to her to see the sun rise in all its majesty. A new day was dawning, with new challenges and new possibilities. And she always had a front row seat.

Her tenth floor office was a sanctuary of sorts, where she'd go to clear her head and devise her latest plans. But her tenth floor office would not be the backdrop for seeing her next guest. She'd handle that on sublevel five in her 'other' office.

She walked over to her private elevator to make her way down to sublevel five. Once inside, she began thinking about all that had transpired over the last twenty-four hours. Last night's mission was thrown together at the last minute. No time had been available for much planning. She'd had to use assets she didn't like using-mercenaries she didn't know a damn thing about.

But someone at that lab was a traitor and therefore the whole complex out in Oregon a liability. I had to take care of it immediately, using whatever was available at the time. And those high priced mercenaries didn't come through. They failed to get the job done. I gave them two objectives-to get the discs and to destroy everything else. And what did I get?

The elevator doors opened, and Marie walked down the hallway towards her office. She passed through various security checkpoints along the way.

I hate failure. Can't stand it. Won't tolerate it. First things first, though. I need to calm Major Kerwin down and get him to start hunting for those discs. They're out there somewhere.

__________

Lydecker woke up at his usual time, 05:00, and began his morning routine. He went to his room and quietly got his jogging shoes out of the closet. He checked on Ashley who was still very much asleep, mumbling incomprehensibly. So, Lydecker went back to the living room, slipped on his shoes, and went out the front door. He set the security system that would keep Ashley locked in and everyone else locked out of his quarters. After a few minutes of stretching, he began his morning jog.

His daily jog wasn't as easy as it used to be. He'd worn out most of the cartilage in both of his knees over years of abuse. Most of the damage had been done when he was in the Army, but his stubborn insistence on continuing to jog wasn't helping any. He just couldn't see himself riding around on some damn bike. Jogging had become part of who he was, and he wasn't going to resort to the lower-impact cycling, bad knees or not.

Lydecker decided to cut his jog a little short today because of Ashley being alone back at his quarters. He knew he couldn't watch her 24/7, but over these first few days he wanted to be around as much as possible.

He made a quick stop at his office on his way back. He wanted to make copies of those discs he had, and not many people were ever around this early in the morning. Besides, he could start looking them over at his quarters. And it's always a good idea to have a backup. The copying didn't take long, and after he had locked everything back up, he began his trek back to his quarters.

Once he was back inside his quarters, he checked his watch-05: 30. Good. She should still be asleep, which means I can shower and shave and eat breakfast. Damn! I should have gotten a change of clothes out last night. Now I've got to go back in my room. I'll just have to be really quiet.

Lydecker walked to the room and looked inside. Ashley was still in bed and appeared to still be sleeping. He walked on in and over to the closet. His pants and a shirt were easy to get to. He'd worry about the shoes later. Then, he walked over to his dresser and slowly slid open a drawer. It made a creaking noise, and he heard Ashley move around in the bed a little bit. He looked over at her, expecting her to be awake, but she wasn't. He grabbed a clean pair of socks and boxers and headed for the shower.

He took off his sweaty t-shirt and tossed it in the hamper. He reached into the shower and turned it on so it'd be nice and hot when he hopped in. As he was slipping off his jogging pants, he felt something in the pocket.

The discs. I can't just leave these lying around. He fished them out of the pocket they were in. He then tossed the pants into the hamper, walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him, and went to the office. He put the discs in another one of his hidden safes. When he walked back out of the office, the hallway light came on and Ashley was standing in front of the bathroom door.

Ashley began knocking on the door. "Hey, Donald, are you almost finished? I, um, kind of need to use the…"

Lydecker spoke up, "Head?"

Somewhat startled, Ashley quickly turned and looked down the hallway to see Lydecker standing there, wearing nothing but his olive drab boxers. Ashley didn't know what to say, and she felt a flash of heat travel up her neck and face. She could only hope that Donald couldn't see it from where he was.

"I, I thought you were in there," she said, pointing to the bathroom door.

Lydecker chuckled and started walking towards her. "I was, but I had to take care of something in the office. I thought you were asleep."

He walked up right beside her. Ashley just stood there, frozen in place.

"You can go ahead."

"What?" she asked.

Lydecker smiled. "You can go on in there. I'll wait."

"Oh, yeah," she said as she reached for the door handle. "Thanks."

Suddenly Lydecker raised his right arm and blocked the doorway, making it so that their bodies were almost touching. Ashley didn't move, and she kept her eyes locked on the doorknob in front of her, not wanting to look at him. And she felt yet another hot flash envelope her face and neck.

Then Lydecker spoke softly, "Just don't take too long."

Ashley felt his warm breath on her neck, and a chill went down her spine.

Lydecker lowered his arm, which allowed Ashley to go into the bathroom. And she did, quickly. She closed the door, without looking at him, and locked it. Ashley looked at her face in the mirror. It was beet red.

Wonderful. Just because a guy rescues you doesn't mean you have to fall all over yourself when you're around him. Jesus!

She turned on the cold water in the sink and splashed a little water on her face. She looked up at her self in the mirror again and saw the huge bandage wrapped around her head.

Wait a minute! He rescued me. She stared at the mirror. I was hurt, in pain, lying on the cold ground. It was dark out. Then she remembered seeing Donald lean over her. He said something, but she couldn't understand what. Then he picked me up in his arms.

Ashley continued staring intently at the mirror, trying to remember some more. But that was evidently all she was going to get for now. As she finished up in the bathroom, she decided she'd keep this to herself for now. When she opened the door, Lydecker was standing there in the hallway, waiting. He looked at her, his eyebrows raised slightly.

"I went as fast as I could," she said while walking to the bedroom. " I think I'll lay back down for a little while now."

Lydecker looked over his shoulder and watched her disappear into the bedroom. He smiled, thinking about the day when he'd be following her into that bedroom.

Ashley called out from the bedroom, "Donald, you take as long as you'd like in the shower. Don't worry about me. I'm just going to be here relaxing."

Lydecker frowned. Where'd that come from? He walked into the bathroom. A few minutes ago I had her blushing and she was a nervous wreck, and now she's kidding around?

As Lydecker showered and shaved, he thought about this sudden change in her mood, and the only thing he could think of that would do this was if she remembered something. And, if that's the case, she's keeping it to herself. Smart girl.

As he got dressed, he began thinking about what this will mean. It will definitely complicate matters. Now that she's started remembering things, she could possibly have her memory completely restored in a few more days.

Maybe it's time I play my first card.