To my readers:
This is my longest chapter. The content is intense and necessary to set up those that follow.
Chapter 45
Interesting Conversations
A hush hangs over the young Pownall's home. It has been over forty eight hours since Tia left Helen's shop, and still no word from the deranged woman.
"Ben, I have called that number…I don't know how many times." Ryn's head dips down, with eyes closed.
"Still that recording?" He sits next to his lover, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Always, the same." She answers.
The recording is Tia's voice reassuring a caller that this is a scrambled device. Even if the caller's cell is tracked or tapped, contact with this phone will neutralize any attempt to locate or record the conversation.
Ted comes down the stairs. The older Pownall's have stayed the night since hearing of the family's plight.
"Ben, can you help me make coffee. That new machine of yours is too high-tech for someone of my generation." He puts his hand on Ben's shoulder. His head tilts to the kitchen over a serious expression.
"Is my baby still sleeping?" Ryn asks. Her eyes are blood-shot. An effect from no sleep.
"Elaine is playing with him on the bed. Rest, my sweetheart." Ted's words are soft. A callous palm brushes the distraught mother's cheek.
The Kitchen
"What is it dad?" '
Ben's words are met with a stern expression.
"Shh…" His father moves closer to him. "Keep it down. I know her hearing is like superman." His head shakes. "About this, everyone at the beach." He whispers. "It sounds like a set-up."
Dad, what do you mean? I know her. If she kills Ryn, she wants everyone to see."
"Ben, don't you watch TV or a damn movie?" He again shakes his head as if the words from Ben are ridiculous.
"Dad, it's some kind of honor or tradition. She'll expect all of us to worship her as a new Queen."
"Son, she wants to kill all of us." A rush of air leaves his mouth.
"That bitch was raised by the damn Russians. She was taught real world, real life." The anxious older man uses his hand raised to his son's face to express the point.
"Not this damn nonsense of honor or tradition" Ted needs to take a breath.
"A bullet in the back of the head for every one of us…if she could."
"He is correct." The frail voice stiffens both men. "Tia is not one of us. She has enough human traits to do as your father says." Ryn walks to Ben.
"She will kill everyone." Her red eyes close as a trembling hand moves to her lover's chest.
"She will kill Little Ted, all of us." She appears ready to collapse. "All of us." She grabs onto Ben's white t-shirt. Ted's hands help her stand.
"We must kill her first." The last words before unconsciousness.
Twenty miles south of Bristol Cove
The Naval Research Facility located near Marietta is situated on a deserted road surrounded by thick foliage. An abandoned sewing machine factory was quickly renovated and in a matter of two months the structure had become serviceable.
Parked outside, waiting for an approaching armed guard in desert camouflage to question her, Maddie grips the steering wheel.
She opens the driver's side window.
After taking a breath, she turns to the young sailor.
"I…'
She is interrupted by his robotic-type delivery.
"Mam, I am to escort you to Lieutenant Commander Martinez's office."
It took a moment for the statement to register with the stunned driver. Though being stunned has become a regular part of her day since becoming involved with Joe.
As Maddie walks through the front door, the still amazed young woman tires to replay in her mind the last few minutes.
I'm ready to scream and yell to be let in. Making the biggest hysterical scene to end all hysterical scenes.
She pauses as the security guard knocks on Martinez's door.
And suddenly, here I am.
He opens the door and then moves to the side.
The hesitant young woman takes one step inside.
"Maddie, you look terrible."
Nicole leaves her chair and moves to her distraught friend.
"I know, I'm a mess." She cannot stop sobbing.
"Here, here girl. I know how you must feel." She takes the upset young woman in her arms. Raising her head Maddie talks through heaving breaths.
"How could you know how I feel? I can't eat. I can't sleep. All I do is think…" She gasps for enough air to finish.
"About him." Nicole's response.
Maddie stands silent as she blinks tearful eyes.
"How do I know? I'm a damn woman." She leans back giving her friend some room.
"You walk in here with hair looking like you were caught in a windstorm." Nicole shakes her head and exhales between pressed lips. "Your eyes look like you haven't slept in weeks. And" The naval officer stands, putting her hand on Maddie's shoulder. "Those stretch jeans look ready to fall off you." Taking a step back toward her desk. "And you ask me, how could I know."
A disgusted snort leaves Martinez's nostrils.
"When a woman looks like you do now…it's always a man."
"I must see him. Where is he?" Maddie asks.
"Good question. He takes off. Who knows where?" Nicole sighs. "He's had coffee with the past two Presidents, I think more than once. How do you reprimand a guy like that?"
"Oh, Nicole. I'm so afraid for him." Maddie pushes out the words with a ripped tone.
"Afraid for him?" Nicole asks.
Picking up a metal chair, she sits down in front of the heavy breathing young woman.
She hands her a Kleenex. "Maddie, I wanted to see you."
The admission takes her attention. Tears begin to ebb.
"I needed to talk to you about Agent Torello." Nicole stops, waiting for her to react. There is only a bewildered expression on the now exhausted young woman.
"Listen, he has done some unexplainable stuff. If he wasn't who he is, he'd be in big trouble." It becomes Nicole's turn to compose her thoughts. In order to get the young woman to talk, she must reveal sensitive information.
"Nicole, please tell me. I'm afraid Joe is involved in…"
"Something sinister?" Martinez replies.
An uneasy silence circles the small room.
"Agent Torello was back in the states about two months when he read files concerning this program. I mean," she resumes as Maddie sits frozen on the metal chair.
"He knew what to ask for. He read everything from the beginning, before we even had contact with Ryn." She inhales. "Back to when Andrews headed the operation." Again, she pauses. The person before her remains quiet. "He had been away from the US for two years. How could he even know about the program?" The puzzled officer looks at Maddie. "Then he volunteers for this assignment. Believe me, for a guy with his credentials this is a demotion."
"But, he has a high security clearance?" Maddie finally speaks.
"Yes, his clearance goes right up to the White House." Nicole explains.
"So, I don't understand." Admits the confused woman.
"It doesn't matter how high a clearance you have. And Torello goes right to the top." She puts her hand up to halt Maddie's response. "You must have a need to know. Even someone like him, that has conferences with the Joint Chiefs and has briefed Presidents cannot read even the simplest Confidential memo," she lowers her head to look at the confused expression on her friend's face, "if it does not concern your particular job, or mission or whatever."
Maddie drops her head onto trembling hands, as she begins to sob.
"Look, I understand how something can happen. Every damn woman in this place stops when he passes." She picks the drooping head up by the chin. "I think there's a couple of straight guys here that have a crush on him." Nicole lets out a measured chuckle, hoping to ease the pain in Maddie's heart.
"Honey, I'm positive he's left a string of emotionally destroyed women on every continent in the world." She lets out a disgusted sigh. "Maybe Antarctica has been spared?" Nicole lifts her friend out of the chair.
"Maddie, maybe you can call it an assignment or a mission, but he's killed people. And," hurrying her words as not to be interrupted.
"I don't mean when he was in the military, or in some do or die gunfight with some terrorist. I mean in cold blood."
Martinez steps back.
"You don't know him like I do." A wave of power streams through her veins. "Nicole, you only go by some dossier?" Maddie wipes her eyes.
"Here," Nicole hands her another Kleenex.
"He is not like that." Now, it is Maddie's turn to halt any replies.
"He's not the big bad deadly assassin you think he is."
Again, Nicole tries to speak.
"Now, please let me finish." Maddie cannot be stifled.
"He's just a lonely, sad little boy. The moments we spent together, they were…" Her eyes begin to water. "He needs…"
"Maddie, he needs you? That's what you're saying."
The sound of a disgruntled rush of air fills the room.
"Do you listen to yourself? He needs you. He's just a misunderstood little boy." Nicole's expression is no longer one of an understanding friend. With a sneer forming on her lips, "Maddie, now say the words that have driven women to the nut house." She points her finger at the cause of her ire.
Maddie inhales, putting a Kleenex to her eyes.
"I can change him. Nicole, I can change him."
The disgusted friend returns to her desk, picking up a folder and then throwing it back down. "He is only using you till his next assignment. You can't change a guy like that. Some people can't change."
"Oh, really?" Maddie asks with a renewed self-confidence.
"And did you change? Or are you still the same government whore that used Xander till you got the information you wanted"
The two women stare at each other. Nicole's posture is rigid. Her mouth opens as now, eyelids begin to form tears. She moves to the front of the desk, leaning back for support.
Maddie turns and opens the door. She stops, unable to turn to look back inside the room.
As her friend leaves the compound, Nicole recovers from her somber mood and uses her cell phone.
"Follow her. Is the tracker on the vehicle?" She nods with the voice's answer. "Don't worry about the main target. You'd be spotted in a minute." She licks her lips as she listens. "Right, we'll know what he's doing by tailing her."
As the Lieutenant Commander disconnects the call, the man leaning against the black Ford yells to his partner.
"Martinez wants us to continue."
Author's notes:
To be continued...