Chapter 21

U is for Undercover Agents

After Don received Charlie's input on the next few schools to be hit, he came up with a plan - a few of his agents to go undercover, including himself.

Don told Charlie to stay a bit back, they can go for lunch but Charlie said he was already late and had to rush back.
Don reminded him again to get the students, Charlie said that was why he had to rush back to get the students before they go off.
"Thanks a lot for your help, Charl." Charlie nodded and went off in a hurry.

After Charlie had left, it was way after lunchtime, and Don told everyone there will be a meeting in the conference room around 3. Don said he would have a talk with the AD and arrange for undercover work in the schools Charlie had pointed out. They didn't know which school would be hit first or if all three would be hit at the same time. Don wanted to be sure all three schools would be covered. He made sure the FBI would have the most likely school to be hit according to Charlie's calculations and then LAPD would have the next two.

"OK folks, go for your lunch now. I will see you at three. Sorry for the rush."

It was already 2.20 p.m. David decided to call the deli for some sandwiches and after getting the orders from Don and Colby, he had the deli prepare the sandwiches and said that he will come down in ten minutes to collect. He asked for chicken, ham and tuna.

After 3.30, the meeting convened for the AD was held up.

The AD said he will assign another team to help out and he learnt that it will be Maggie Lowe's team.
Don was pleased and surprised as Maggie had managed to get more people to help out. Maggie had told Don that this type of undercover work is interesting and enjoyable. She managed to get more people involved because they were parents of young children. They do not want to have drugs in their children's school.

Don was pleased to get so much help. The meeting started with him thanking everybody taking part. He said they are only concentrating on one school. The other two not so risky were being handled by LAPD.

The AD said to make sure everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing, and he wished them good luck and left for another meeting.

"OK folks, thank you for your participation. I don't have to say much as to how critical this is going to be. We are trying to get rid of the scum who contaminate the school and the students, some as young as thirteen.
It is very important that we do what we can to get rid of them, if not all, some. OK, so much for prep talk."

The people in the room laughed, and then Don got serious.

"Listen up everyone. This is the chart where these three schools will most probably be hit by the suppliers. We do not know and have no idea who these people are. Be very vigilant. As I have said earlier, we are concentrating on the top of the list, the number one school on Charlie's list," Don paused for a second and surveyed the room.

"We are doing the surveillance for two days tops. If they don't show up, we will have to look for another way. The school we are targeting is St. Johns."

A gasp was heard in the group, and Don turned and asked, "Yes, Howard is it? What's the matter? Your kids' there?"

"No, Don, my sister is the temporary teacher there. The regular one went on maternity leave."

"What is she teaching?"

"European History and National Geography."

"You've been to the school? To pick her up or drop her off recently?"

"Nope, she's staying on her own and has her own transport."

"OK, afterwards you give me her name, and we'll contact her, Folks, looks like I'm the undercover Geography teacher."

This made the group laugh, and some jokes were passed around.

"Folks OK, OK, Colby, you will be the temp basketball coach in St John's. Jimmy, you will be the gardener. Hey, people cool down." Don stopped to let the laughter subside.

"This is important. Jim look upon this as a chance to your ladder of success. You will be our eyes on the ground and on people going in and out. You will be equipped with a recording device which will let us see what you see when you zoom in on it.

Colby will be inside the school hall. We noticed that the school hall is a popular place to hang around for the students even though there's no game going on. We are doing this for two days only, so Colby keep your eyes peeled. Even if you are not coaching, you will be in the hall at all times."

"What will I be doing, if I have no coaching duty?"

"Not to worry, I had a talk with Charlie just before this, and he's getting some students who will practice with you. These students will be the visiting team to show the younger students some tricks of the game. Charlie will take care of everything, he'll have one of them to talk to you."

Earlier before Charlie left:
After Charlie had completed his explanation, Don took him to the break room and while making coffee, he asked him. "Charlie, can you get some students to play basketball or rather 'practice' basketball with Colby in the school. I plan to get Colby to go as undercover coach. He may not have sessions but he needs to be in the area at all times if possible."

Charlie was all excited at that idea. He said he could work it into his thesis.

Don was puzzled as to what Charlie was talking about.

Charlie explained that he could get his students to play with Colby as an experiment.

Experiment to what, Don was getting more confused, and Charlie said, it doesn't matter and said he could supply the students to play with Colby and asked Don where and the details.
Don told him and said he will confirm later so that he could get his students ready.
Charlie said he'd better get going, and before he went out of the bullpen, he turned and asked Don, "You coming home tonight?"

Don shook his head and said 'not tonight' and asked if Charlie can stay back a bit, he can have lunch with him.

Present:
"David, you will be with the security. Max you are with him. Check the school security system too."

The rest of the people in the room were given their specific jobs, and Maggie's Team would be in the surveillance van and relay the happenings to Don and the others.

It was after 7 that the meeting broke up, and Don told them to come in early and try to get to the school before 7am. Everyone groaned and Don added, "Please, everyone dress accordingly. Don't look like FBI."

That got all of them laughing, and soon there were comments like:
'Gosh I don't have anything to wear!'

' I don't have a gardener's outfit'

And the one that got all of them laughing was from Maggie, "Hey Don, you can't wear those tight jeans to school. The principal will kick you out for indecent exposure or a distraction to the students."
"This way, they could concentrate on Don instead of the lessons he will be 'teaching' " one of the men said.

More laughter and Don said, "Funny guys, not to worry there, Mags, plenty of decent suits I have. Let me tell you all. I. can . teach ."

Jimmy and the rest of them went out guffawing .

"Thank you folks. Remember this is for the kids and the school. We will get the scum. See you all here sharp 6am." Don called out after the departing backs, and he had to smile a bit at the groans.

Great, this time he made sure he got to bed by eleven latest.

Another thing was that they, him and the AD were able to contact the school's Principal, Basil Traville and told him what they were going to do.

The Principal readily agreed for he too was all for eradication of drugs in his school.

tbc