Collide T Minus 460 Days – December 2008
Auggie held on tight to the elbow of the young woman from Traveler's Assistance as they walked through the crowded terminal at Dulles International Airport. The chaos of the Monday after Christmas and all the travelers it produced made for a little more exhausting experience than he anticipated. Still he was back in Washington DC and he's made it this far on his own but he was glad to have the assistance of Sandy.
"We're nearly to the baggage claim area Mr. Anderson." Sandy announced. "Would you like me to stay to help you claim your bag?"
"My brother is supposed to be here soon, but would you mind staying until he arrives, just in case the baggage arrives."
"Not at all."
"Thank you." Auggie said as they stopped near the baggage claim.
Hal Kelly softly closed the door to the Oval Office. He had just had two hour meeting with the President of the United States. He had been in the Oval many times before, but it was always as security consultant or in an advisory role. Now everything had changed, even though he knew his role was temporary and had a specific purpose, he was about to embark his greatest and last job of his distinguished career.
"Mr. Kelly, your coat." The President's secretary held out his gray wool topcoat to him. "Will you be needing anything else?"
"Rolaids and a shot of Jack Daniels." He said with a smile.
"You're not the first person to ask for that after a meeting in there…I'll see if I can arrange it." She said with a laugh.
"Hey Auggie." Bryan said as he joined his brother in the luggage claim area. "Sorry I'm late, parking was a treat."
"No worries, we're just waiting for the bags"
"Will you be needing me anymore?" Sandy asked the men.
"No, thank you for your help Sandy."
Sandy smiled at them and disappeared into the crowd of people and to her next assignment.
"How was Christmas with the Andersons?" Bryan asked as soon as they were alone.
"Uneventful. How's Laura's family?"
"Just some minor drama, but she can tell you about it at dinner tonight."
The loud horn indicating the impending arrival of the luggage sounded and the two men moved toward the carousel.
"I've just got my Army duffle." Auggie told Bryan.
"Wait here, I'll grab it for you." Bryan told him he took his place along the edge of the carousel.
Arthur switched the channel on the television in his office to C-Span. He had been watching the daily briefing from the White House Press Secretary since Congress went into recess before Christmas. He settled back in his chair to see if anything new would develop today.
"I hope you don't mind, but Laura cleaned up your place a little and went to the grocery store for you." Bryan told Auggie as he pulled his BMW into traffic.
"That's great. Thanks." Auggie wished he could clean his own apartment and he might actually like going to the grocery store, neither of those activities were his favorites before he went to Iraq.
"She phoned Stacie last week and Stacie hooked her up with some sort of marker and a cheat sheet to mark everything for you."
Auggie was touched that she took the time to call Stacie and find out the best way to help him get settled. "That was really sweet of her…"
The White House Press Secretary took his place at the podium in the press briefing room and began to rattle off the laundry list of things on his report in a monotone voice.
Arthur busied himself with organizing the paperwork on his desk as he listened to the report: The First Lady was going to be in South Carolina for the opening of a bookstore for underprivileged kids, the President was recommending a committee look into corruption charges for a senator from North Dakota. Oh, and Hal Kelly had accepted the position of Director of National Intelligence.
Arthur couldn't believe what he had just heard. It was out there; it was finally out there. His friend Hal was officially his boss, and Henry Wilcox's boss. There was just a little satisfaction in knowing that Henry was out of town and the news wouldn't hit him until after the first of the year.
"Auggie, you made it." Laura said dropping the dishtowel on the counter and greeting her brother-in-law and husband at the door. "Was your flight okay?"
"Fine." Auggie set his cane on the chair next to the door and moved carefully but confidently to the kitchen island. "I hear you've been shopping for me. Thank you."
"I don't mind." Laura gave her husband a kiss and Auggie a hug.
"What's this?" Auggie pulled away from her and put his hand on her swollen belly. "Do you two have something to share?"
"Told you he'd notice." Laura winked at her husband.
"We're due in May." Bryan told Auggie. "But we haven't told Mom and Dad yet. We just told Laura's family at Christmas."
"Drama?" Auggie referred to his earlier conversation with his brother.
"Yeah, my little sister is pregnant too and she was upset that I'm due two weeks before she is, she wanted to have the first grandchild."
"Sister drama…" Auggie and Bryan said in unison as Bryan pulled a few bottles of their favorite beer from the refrigerator. They always said that they were glad they came from a family of brothers.
Collide T Minus 459 Days – December 2008
The car from the guardhouse dropped Auggie off at the front entrance of the CIA Headquarters in Langley. The driver offered to help him up to the lobby, but Auggie refused his assistance. As soon as Auggie heard the car pull away, he regretted the decision not to accept help. He and Stacie had walked the familiar route from the curb to the entrance to the security checkpoint a dozen times, but for some reason, he could barely remember the number of steps to the door. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and recalled the path in his head. With his cane extended in front of him he let his muscle memory help him to the door. Within moments, he was rewarded with the sound of the cane hitting the glass. Relieved, he pulled open the door and stepped inside.
"Did you hear the announcement yesterday?" Ken Jacobs asked as he stopped in the doorway of Arthur's office.
"Did I?" Arthur looked up and leaned back in his chair. "It was the highlight of my day." He said taking off his glasses and tossing them on the desk in front of him.
"Ding dong the king is gone?"
"Can't say for sure, but that is a possibility."
"I always thought the ornery bastard would outlast us all." Ken sighed.
"Doesn't look that way." Arthur smiled at his friend.
"It's going to be an interesting New Year."
"That it is.." Arthur said mysteriously.
Auggie knocked on the open door of Joan's office. "Joan?"
Joan closed the small file cabinet next to her desk and got up to greet him. "Welcome back."
"It's good to be back." Auggie answered as he walked into the office, his cane sweeping in front of him in the unfamiliar place.
"There's a chair about three feet in front of you on your left, grab a seat."
Auggie settled into the chair as Joan sat down behind her desk. "I'm not sure where you want me to start."
"Well, like I said, we're going to have you sit in with Scott for a few weeks. I know you've been on the other end of the Tech Ops department, but now you'll be the voice in the field agent's ear. It's a little different perspective, but I think you're uniquely qualified for it, seeing that you've been in the field yourself."
Auggie tried to manage a smile, but he this was going to be unfamiliar territory to him.
Joan could see the uncertainty cross his face. "We're going to need your expertise on many levels from encryption to technical issues. Let's get downstairs, Scott is waiting for you."
"Are you happy?" Annie asked her sister as she walked into the kitchen.
"I'm always happy." Danielle said sarcastically.
"I called the Smithsonian, I have an interview with them next week." Annie plopped down at a stool in front of the island while pulling the bowl of chicken salad that Dani was making across the counter to steal a finger full of it.
"What's the position?"
"Something in their acquisitions department. I'm not sure why they're chasing me, it's not like I have an extensive background in art."
"So a minor in art history from Georgetown doesn't count?"
"Okay, so I'm not an art buff, but it's worth talking to them." Annie shoved the bowl back across the counter.
"You could always be a full time mother of two."
"Nah, I'll leave that up to you, super Mom."
"These are some seriously cool gadgets." Scott informed Auggie as they sat at Auggie's desk in the Tech Ops department. "I was playing with them earlier, quite fun."
"You didn't break them did you?" Auggie said reaching for the refreshable Braille display.
"Don't worry Robin, I didn't move anything in the bat cave since you were here."
The sound of the door sliding open behind them caused both of them to turn around.
"Morning." An unfamiliar, tired sounding voice greeted them.
"Stu, this is Auggie Anderson, your new boss." Scott said.
Auggie extended his hand to the location that he believed Stu was in and Stu shook it firmly. "Mr. Anderson or Auggie?"
"Auggie, please."
"Stu joined us about last May, he's fresh out of Brown. Just enough wiz kid to annoy old farts like us."
Stu laughed at Scott's description of the two of them, they were maybe ten years older than him, certainly not old farts. "Anything I can do to help, just ask."
"The only thing I can think of right now; is to watch where you leave your chair and stuff like that. My shins are in a permanent stage of healing bruises." Auggie told him.
"Got it." Stu said as he settled into his chair.
"So what are we working on today?" Auggie was eager to get started.
"Let's see, I've got a nasty code that's been torturing me for the last two weeks sitting on my desk, a field agent in Mexico City that should be checking in with us soon and some research on a suspected sleeper cell in Buffalo that I'm about to pass off to Stu." Scott counted the projects off on his fingers before he tossed the sleeper cell file Stu's way.
Collide T Minus 457 Days – December 2008
Ben didn't have many belongings; he had traveled light since he left Sri Lanka over six months ago. He carefully packed them up into a small suitcase along with the laptop he had purchased for watching the surveillance tapes. He reached for his most recent purchase, a small handgun and put it in his waistband and covered it with his shirt. Wheeling his suitcase out of the small room in the Hotel Suez, he hoped none of his co-workers would see him. He would not be back.
"You're kidding me." Scott said in disbelief as he looked at the file that Auggie had just handed to him. "You're not human, you're a damned computer."
"It wasn't all that hard once you figured out the decryption code." Auggie didn't understand why Scott was so amazed.
"Do you do this shit in your sleep? I spent weeks on it and you figure it out in less than forty-eight hours."
Auggie just smiled at him, the file had just been translated into Braille for him yesterday evening and it took him less than twelve hours to figure out the code. He was trying not to let on how easy it was for him to crack it.
Scott tossed the file on his desk and his glasses soon followed. "Tell me something Anderson. Out- going manager to in -coming manager of Tech Ops, were you always this good and didn't let on?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Lying comes naturally to a field agent like you, but I'm still a pretty smart guy"
Auggie shrugged. "You're full of it."
"All those times when I'd call you for help and you kind of helped me." Scott remembered many an instance that he asked Auggie for assistance and Auggie gave him just enough to figure it out on his own. "Damn, you are good."
Auggie's mind raced back to his first official date with Natasha when Scott called him to help with a code. "I wasn't about to show up a manager with five years more experience than me, that's like signing your death warrant around here."
"Smart and able to play office politics." Scott laughed. "You're going to go far, Auggie."
Yoseph Itani couldn't believe that this day was finally here, he and his group had been planning it for weeks, no months and it was here. He was going to be the part of something big, something that would garner respect for Hezbollah for years to come. He opened the trunk of the small compact car and removed the well-prepared tote bags. Handing them to his friend, they headed toward the pool area of the resort.
Ben took his place in the corner of the cabana. He was as prepared as he would ever be. From the activity of the last few days, he had deducted which cabanas they were going to plant the explosives in. Now he just had to wait for them to arrive.
"They're bringing something inside with them." Williams said while looking through the lens of the binoculars, he was watching Yoseph carry the bags inside the resort.
"That's new." Jai said leaning forward in the seat of the car. The hair on his neck stood on end and a small shiver ran down his spine. "This is it." He pulled on the latch of the car door. "Call Chet, hell, call the cavalry." He sprang from the car and jogged toward the resort.
"9-1-1 from Roy Williams in Egypt…we need to jam all the cell phones in Suez right away." Stu said hanging up the phone.
Scott and Auggie sprang to action at their respective computers. "What satellites can we hop onto?" Auggie asked while typing, soon his fingers flew to the Braille display below his keyboard.
"If one of ours isn't available, we can try to jump on board a Russian one." Scott answered, equally as distracted.
"I'm on board one of ours." Auggie said continuing to work on the jamming procedure.
"Stu try to get into one of the Russian's. Let's jam everything we can." Scott ordered as the three Tech Ops calmly went about their task.
"Hello." Ben greeted Yoseph as soon as he entered the cabana, the gun he purchased pointed right at Yoesph's forehead. "I'll take that." He grabbed the beach bag from the hands of the terrorist and tossed it aside. "Cell phone too, two fingers only."
Yoseph reached inside his pocket and removed his cell phone with his thumb and index finger.
"Thank you." Ben took it from him and tossed it on the ground, smashing it. He handed a zip tie to Yoseph. "Put this on."
Yoseph followed his command and tied up his own hands.
"Good, now we hang out for a few minutes." Ben said while cautiously watching his prisoner.
"What's going on?" Joan asked as she witnessed the activity in the Tech Ops office.
"Not sure." Scott didn't look up from his display. "9-1-1 from Williams in Suez to jam all the cell towers."
"We've got another eleven minutes before the satellite comes back online." Auggie said reading his Braille display.
Jai followed Yoseph's friend through the crowd at the pool area, weaving back and forth, dodging scantily clad women. The women noticed him dressed in his usual beach bum attire, but he didn't notice them. He had a mission, to stop whatever Hezbollah was about to do. His mark ducked inside a cabana and Jai followed him inside.
It was primitive but effective; Ben wrapped the duct tape from the maintenance office at the Hotel Suez around the King Palm tree and his prisoner several times. This would assure that there would be no escape before the authorities arrived. Ben looked up as he tore the tape and spotted Jai following a man into a cabana.
"How long till the satellite comes back online?" Joan asked.
Auggie reached for his Braille watch, "Seven minutes."
"Damn, I wish they'd call in." Scott thought out loud.
"Who do we have there?" Joan wondered.
"Williams, Chet and Jai."
Jai's name caught Auggie off guard, he hadn't thought about him since their fight in the courtyard nearly a year ago. He was still pretty angry with Jai, but he didn't want any harm to come to him.
Ben entered the cabana through the back to find Jai and the terrorist standing face-to- face and gun-to-gun. "Look, the good guys have another gun." He said pushing the barrel of his gun into the back of the head of the terrorist. "Thank you." He grabbed the gun from the terrorist's trembling hand and the beach bag from the other. "Grab his cell phone." Ben instructed Jai as he used another zip tie.
Jai reached inside the shirt pocket of the terrorist and removed the cell phone. With one hand he slid open the back compartment and removed the battery. "Long time no see Mercer."
"Missed me, did you?" Ben asked, now holding his gun on Jai.
"Ben, I really wish…" Jai started.
"Gotta run.." Ben said pulling back the side of the cabana. "There's another one taped to a palm two cabanas over." With that he disappeared.
"The satellite is coming back online." Stu announced.
"Come on guys call in…" Auggie said under his breath.
Jai grabbed his prisoner by the arms and led him out into the sunlight. Once outside, Williams and several officers from resort security met him. "There's another one a few tents over….."
"Got him…" Chet said bringing Yoseph with him.
Jai reached for his secure phone and dialed, a familiar voice answered when he called into the Tech Ops department.
"Jai, is that you?" Auggie asked equally surprised to hear his voice.
"Yeah, tell Scott good job, we've got everything under control." Jai answered.
"Will do."
"Auggie.."
"Yeah?"
"Glad to have you back…" Jai said, that was about all the olive branch he could extend from an ocean and continent away.
Ben walked quickly through the crowd outside the resort; careful not to make a scene and notify security of his presence, no doubt the Agency had everyone looking for him again. He made his way slowly to the nondescript car that he had parked in the lot earlier that morning. Getting inside the car and starting the engine he realized that he had made his escape, again.
"Stu, if we're going to work together, I'd appreciate it if you didn't stare…" Auggie's voice as a combination of amusement and irritation.
"How…how did you…"
"I just know.." Auggie said swiveling his chair to face his subordinate. "What did you need?"
"It's just…" Stu stammered. "How did you do that?"
"I can show you if you'd like. Pull up your chair." Auggie heard the sound of Stu's chair wheeling toward him.
"It was pretty amazing what you did before." Stu marveled. "I'm not that fast and I can see."
Auggie thought about Stu's words for a moment. He had been going on pure adrenaline earlier that afternoon. He didn't think about what needed to be done, he just did it. It took him a few more seconds to do what he needed to do with out his eyesight and, sure, he had the support of Scott and Stu, but he was able to do his job. "Grab a pair of headphones and we'll get this thing fired up.." Auggie set out to explain how his software worked.
Collide T Minus 449 Days – January 2009
Annie used her new key to lock the door of the Brooks house and walked toward her car in the driveway. She hadn't been on a job interview in years and she somehow found herself very nervous. This was a first interview and she probably wasn't qualified for the position anyway, it would be good experience. The ding letter would come in a day or two and she could move on to something else. Starting the car, she wondered what it would be like to work for the top museum in the country.
"I still can't believe Mercer was there the whole time." Arthur told Jai.
"Looks like we had the same idea about stopping the resort bombing." Jai said taking drink of his coffee. "He actually helped."
"Kind of hard to hate the guy, isn't it? Don't worry, he'll surface again."
"I'm not worried. So where's the girl?"
"Here in DC, came home to see her sister for Christmas." Arthur replied. "We might be able to keep her in our pocket for a while."
"What are you up to?"
"I'll let you know when I have more information." Arthur didn't want to spill the news until Annie was committed to the Agency. "You should kick back, take a few days off.."
Jai leaned back in his chair at the sidewalk café and took another drink of his coffee. "I might just do that. Did my Dad say where I'm headed next?"
"I haven't spoken to him, but lay low, take a few days and I'll be back in touch." Arthur said before disconnecting the line. Jai was probably going to want to lie low the next few weeks, because the shit was going to hit the fan.
"So tell me the moment when you realized how much you enjoy art." Phillip Duncan asked Annie.
Annie thought about her answer for a moment. "I was about 16 or 17 and I was visiting Chicago with my parents and we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. I remember standing in front of Sunday on Le Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. I was just mesmerized by the pointillism technique. The skill, the labor of love, the talent that went into that massive piece of art.."
Phillip was impressed and he wasn't often impressed by his interviews, she could be qualified for a position at the Smithsonian, but that wasn't what this interview was for.
"This position requires quite a bit of travel, much of it at the last minute. Do you feel that would be an issue for you?" He was used to vetting Agency recruits. The girl in front of him seemed different than most of the individuals that usually sat across from him in the conference room. She was confident and self-assured, he found himself trying to sell her on the job instead of the other way around.
"No, I don't see that being a problem at all. I enjoy traveling and last minute is how I usually travel anyway. When I came back to Washington DC, I decided 48 hours before departure." Annie answered. "I'm still a little confused though."
"How so?"
"Well, I don't have an extensive background in art, but here we are."
"We're looking for someone with your unique combination of skills…."
"Really?"
"Your ability to speak seven languages is quite appealing. Much of the business we do is outside the United States and not all our contacts speak English."
"Understandable."
"Sometimes we find ourselves needing to understand the language of our contacts without them knowing we understand them. It helps in negotiation." Phillip was trying to be vague and pointed at the same time. "Of course your undergraduate studies in art history are important."
"Now this makes much more sense."
"One last question, Ms. Walker. For some, working for the Smithsonian is a calling, a service to our country. How do you feel about that?"
Annie thought that was an odd question, but this had been an odd interview. "My father was career Army. I grew up on Army bases and I understand the commitment it takes to serve our country. Who knows, looking back, I might have followed my father's footsteps into the military. It's a noble profession."
Phillip stood up and Annie followed suit. "Thank you Ms. Walker. I believe we will be in touch." He said shaking her hand and opening the door to the conference room.
"Thank you too." Annie said before stepping out the door.
Once Annie was out the door, Phillip looked toward the framed mirror on the wall and nodded his head.
On the other side of the one-way mirror Arthur smiled smugly to himself. "I like this one. We need to get her back in here." He told the other senior agent standing in the room with him.
Note: ComicalEpiphanies borrowed my character Scott Simpson, the head of the Tech Ops department for her story Close and Continuing, now I borrowed the scene she created with Scott and Auggie and the code Scott was trying to crack. Thanks to her for expanding the character for me and doing such a fantastic job. If you haven't read Close and Continuing, by all means stop by and check it out, early Auggie at it's best.
Thanks for reading.
-M