Maxine

I growled at the phone on my desk. For the past few hours I had tried to contact Kate but she either didn't pick up or had her mobile switched off. At least it had been for the past hour when all my calls went straight to her message bank. It wasn't that she was helping the feds that she could ignore her real work. I was still her boss and she had to answer a few of my questions. For one I wanted to get her full story on what happened yesterday. I had to bail Mike out of jail for crying out loud! She must have really make him worry to do something as stupid as breaking in a house. The police had only told me Mike had wanted to contact Kate and that she never replied any of his calls. I started to understand his urge to do something criminal myself. "Kate McGregor where are you?" I muttered in annoyance.

My question following the piece of information about the break in was why Mike so desperately wanted, or needed, to talk to Kate. They were on shore leave after all. They were working together in close confinements that I would think that by the time shore leave came around they would stay away from each other. I started to suspect a deeper and more personal involvement from the two senior officers although I didn't have any proof. If it was true that they had a personal relationship then there were still some strange kinks in the story. Why for example wouldn't Kate tell Mike she was helping the feds? As her CO he didn't need to know but as a close friend, or even worse a boyfriend, he would be someone you wanted to tell something like that.

Maybe the affection was only one way but Mike surely wouldn't be that stupid to attract suspicion if there was nothing going on. Maybe Kate was better in hiding secrets and was it all a way to make me think there's nothing going on. Oh, I could keep going on thinking and guessing but that was just useless and a waste of my time. There were so many things I needed to do. Like always there were loads of papers to be signed and since Mike had informed me they had found the luxury yacht and would bring it in there would be even more of that to come. The man and a woman who were on the yacht were brought onto the Hammersley and would be transferred to the feds as soon as they arrived back in port.

One last time I tried to call Kate McGregor but as soon as I heard her voice mail I hung up. There were enough pleas from my side on her message bank for her to get the hint to call me back. It didn't need another one. I probably wouldn't be sounding so nice and polite anymore either. Before I could do anything my phone rang and with the high hope it would be a certain Lieutenant calling back I eagerly picked it up. "Commander White," I answered the phone. To my dismay it wasn't who I thought it would be but instead it was the information desk telling me I had visitors. "Who are they?" I asked. If it was someone unimportant I could still try to scare them off and let me catch up on my work. "Two inspectors," the answer was. I audibly sighed and nodded as if the person could see that. "Let them in. I'm in my office," I instructed.

Not much later inspectors Mitchell and Wilson entered my office as if they owned the place. "Commander we need to know where the boat is right now," inspector Mitchell started. I was still wondering how it was possible for them to show up in my office within thirty seconds of the phone call and I hadn't even had a chance to think about why they needed to talk to me. "Which boat?" I asked. Inspector Wilson closed the door to my office and gave me an annoying look. "You know very well which boat," he replied. I stood up from my desk to kind of regain some power and stand over these guys. "We're currently having five patrol boats out, two frigates and a u-boat. I guess I can eliminate them from the list of possibilities," I started my little rant to irritate them. "So the boat you're talking about could be any of the four private boats we're dealing with at the moment. Now could you please be a little bit more specific into which boat you're talking about," I finished, quickly giving them a smug smile to let them know I knew they didn't like the way I had just spoken to them.

"The Golden Sunshine," inspector Mitchell illuminated. "It's the boat we use in our undercover operation. We need it. We needed it this morning," he explained. The undercover operation? The one Kate was part of? I looked through my notes to find some details. Had I missed the fact that Kate had been on that boat? I couldn't have missed that! I quickly scanned through it but couldn't find Kate's name. It wouldn't make sense anyway. If she had been on the boat I would have known. Everyone on the Hammersley knows her. "So, where is it right now?" inspector Mitchell asked again. I looked at the notes I had written down earlier and shrugged. "We'll expect them in port in about four hours," I answered. That was all I knew and could tell them. Skimming through the notes another time to find some clues to why this boat was so special to the inspectors I couldn't find any answers. "The undercover operation," I started a bit insecure. "Is it the one you use my Lieutenant for?" I asked. Inspector Wilson simply nodded and crossed his arms in front of his body. He clearly wasn't going to inform me on all the details if that was what I wanted, that much was clear from his body language.

I leaned back into my chair and scratched my head before I looked at the two men again. "I can't seem to get in touch with Lieutenant McGregor. Do you know where she is?" I asked. Wilson nodded and again that was as much information I was going to get. "Oh come on guys!" I exclaimed. "I was told I would get full cooperation from you. Right now I need to know where my Lieutenant is so I can tell her to get back here. She does have a job to do you know," I threw at them. I didn't care they could hear the irritation in my voice. "She's with Andrew and as soon as that boat is back she'll go out with the drug dealers. I can't tell you how long it will be before she's back in town but you assured us we could use her services as long as we needed it," inspector Wilson replied.

I didn't know what to say to them. It was true I had given them my assurance although I started to regret that decision. My superiors were getting twitchy about what was going on and I didn't know how much longer I could keep feeding them half truths and little lies. Looking at the two inspectors I knew that they wouldn't tell me everything they knew and the fact that they had shared the information about the whereabouts of Kate was about as much as I was going to get. That's why I was surprised to hear inspector Mitchell. "To make the trip safer for your Lieutenant we really need to know where the boat is right now. Those two nitwits you picked up deliberately took out this boat to find out if there were any bugs on it. I'll bet you a thousand bucks they're linked to the drug organisation we're moderating. You're Lieutenant is doing a great job so far and we want to make sure she'll do it a little longer. We want to plant some security stuff on the boat and preferably before it is back in port so no one get suspicious here. Those nitwits will tell their boss it's safe to take out the boat. The boss will give the OK to his guys who then will call your Lieutenant to arrange a date. So, do you understand why we want to plant those security bugs as soon as possible? It's in the best interest of your Lieutenant."

My mind was racing. I couldn't tell if it was true what they had just told me but it sounded logical. "I'll have to call the Hammersley to get the coordinates," I said before I picked up the phone to make the call. Not much later I got the information we needed and inspector Wilson left my office with it to arrange his people to get on their way. Inspector Mitchell stayed behind and looked at me intently. "Your Lieutenant is a great success and is helping us enormously," he started nicely. I just knew he was going to ask me for a favour but I didn't know what it would be. "You see, one of those guys likes her and right now we're briefing Lieutenant McGregor so she'll know what to do to get even more information. It means we need her services a little longer than we expected," he started.

I shook my head. "No way," I said firmly. "You'll have until next week. I can't authorise for her to be absent without telling my superiors what's going on. You can have her until then," I told him. His face dropped into a deadly glare but I didn't care. "You don't seem to get the seriousness of the situation," he threw at me. I nodded. "I think I do. I do understand you want this organisation out of the way as soon as possible but it's not Lieutenant McGregor's job to do that. She's helping you out with the maritime side of the operation but she is first and foremost a naval Lieutenant who needs to do her job. She'll be on a patrol starting next week," I told the man.

Suddenly he rose and threateningly leaned against my desk. "We'll see about that," he said. "You won't tell anyone because you know the consequences of that action will be horrendous," he continued while he turned around to leave my office. "It's in everyone's interest she finishes this job. You won't compromise that. She'll come back when she's ready." And with that he left my office. "Next week," I shouted. "Make sure she's back by then!"