Chapter 32
Phillip and Jim wanted one last chance to hang out with Bryan and Pete Van Slaars and Leeanne didn't feel up to making the drive down to Carswell to pick up Robert Clayton and James Jeter, so Lee and Amanda went without them. Using his Agency badge, Lee got them onto the base, got directions to the air terminal, and parked the Suburban outside the building at 3:30.
"Let's go in where it's cool and wait for them. I have no idea what they're coming in on, but you'll get a good look at it whatever it is. Carswell is a major Strategic Air Command base, flying the B-52 Stratofortress, but they'll be coming in on a transport of some kind, most likely."
A few minutes later, a jumbo jet touched down and taxied toward the terminal. Amanda looked at the lettering on the side and said, "Oh, my gosh, Lee, is that…?"
"No, of course not. It's just a specially equipped 747 with "United States of America" painted on the fuselage. Amanda, if he were on board, do you really think we'd even be allowed to get this close, Agency badge or no Agency badge, without clearing it with the Secret Service first? Those pilots have to get their flying hours in like everybody else, or they could be on the way to California, or they could be flying decoy."
"That's right, he's on summer vacation at his ranch in California, isn't he?"
"Yes. Ah, they're rolling the stairs up to the door."
A few moments later, Amanda's sharp eyes saw Robert Clayton, his strong profile recognizable even in a civilian suit and sunglasses, step out onto the rolling stairs and turn to shake hands with a man in Air Force service dress blues before starting down the stairs. Immediately behind him, another man also shook hands with the pilot before following Clayton down the stairs.
"I would love to know how my uncle wangled his way onto that flight," Lee said. "On the other hand, he knows a lot of Air Force pilots, and it could be that he and that one up there served together."
"I'm certainly going to find out. Let's go out and meet them."
"In this heat? Not a chance. We're staying right here where it's cool."
"He'll think we're …"
"No, he won't, and if we do go out there and he finds out that I let you stand out in the heat, there will be hell to pay. I've just now got him convinced that I'm not the stupid kid he thought I was; I'm not going to screw it up now."
"Well, at least go out there yourself."
"Nope. I'd be in just as much trouble for leaving you here while I went out there."
The argument lasted just long enough for Clayton and the other man, whom they knew was James Jeter, to reach the air-cooled comfort of the terminal. Both men immediately took off their d sunglasses as Amanda stepped forward to give Clayton a hug. "Clay, it's so good to see you," she said. "How was Francine when you left?"
"Gorgeous as ever; this new job is keeping her busy, but she's doing a bang-up job at it. Amanda, this is James Levi Jeter, master chief petty officer , retired, lately of SEAL Team Six. He tells me that his buddies in the teams call him "Jeterbug" or just 'JB', so that's what he wants to be called. JB, this lovely lady is my nephew's beautiful bride, the woman he had the sense to marry back in February."
"Mrs. Stetson, it's an honor," Jeter said. "It's good to see you again, Mr. Stetson."
"Lee, or Scarecrow," Lee said firmly.
"And I don't have a code name, but I'm Amanda," Amanda added.
"And that is a code all its own, from what Francine tells me. She asked me to pass this along to you," Clayton said, handing her an envelope with Billy Melrose's distinctive handwriting on the front.
"A note from Billy?" Amanda said. "What…"
"The easiest way to find out 'what' is to open it," Lee suggested dryly. She shot a glance at him and he grinned; he loved pulling Amanda's chain, even though he knew he'd pay for it later.
"Thank you for that, Stetson," she replied, equally dryly, as she accepted the pocketknife he always carried and used it to slit the flap. She took out the sheet, unfolded it, and said, "Chief of the Q Bureau, effective October 1st? But Lee, that's your job!"
"Nope, not anymore. He's promoting me to deputy director of field operations and moving me down to an office in the bullpen, the one right next to his. Jeannie's been after him to cut his hours back, and he's finally agreed to do it."
"But less than a year ago, he was urging you to take a job with SDBIR because promotions were frozen at the Agency."
"Yes, and they were, but he and Dr. Smyth did some major wheeling and dealing on Capitol Hill and got the new positions and the money to fund them put into the new appropriations bill for Fiscal 1988."
"Wow. Wait a minute, you knew this all along and you didn't tell me?"
"I didn't know it. I hoped that it would go through, but I didn't know it."
"Uh-huh. Nice try, Stetson. You just wanted to be here with a silly grin on your face when Billy gave me the word."
"Well, that too. Amanda, can we talk about this in the car? These two have just flown in from D.C. and you've been on your feet for most of an hour."
"All right, but first, you know what I have to do."
"Right over there," he said, pointing to a sign that said, "Female latrine."
"Yes, I know; I scoped it out as soon as we got into the building. Excuse me, gentlemen."
When she came out, all three men were waiting for her with broad smiles on their faces. She looked at Lee and said, "You told them. I knew you were going to tell them."
Clayton kissed her cheek and congratulated her, Jeter shook her hand, and Lee said, "Let's get this show on the road. If the traffic back up to Denton isn't too bad, we should be able to get to the rental place before it closes at six so we can start loading tonight."
They went out to the Suburban, Amanda claimed the rearmost seat so she could "recline like a lady of leisure", as she put it, and with Lee in the driver's seat, Clay riding shotgun and Jeter in the middle seat, they started back toward Denton.
"Bob and Barb Van Slaars are planning a going-away cookout for us, we don't have to worry about supper," Amanda said.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing Van again," Clay said.
'"Well, he feels the same way, believe me," Lee said. "We couldn't have asked for better neighbors during these last few weeks, and our boys are going to miss Bryan and Pete. They're already talking about getting together next summer for a week or so at our place, since we'll have plenty of room for them in the new house."
"When Colonel Clay told me about the house you found in Arlington, I was amazed," Jeter said. "I didn't think houses like that existed in a price range that people on government salaries could afford."
"Well, it helps that my mother and Curt Weller bought my old house for cash and that Lee's been very carefully saving money the whole time he's been working for the Agency," Amanda said, "but you're right; houses that big don't come on the market very often, and when they do, they're usually way too pricey for us, but we got this one. Room for us, room for all three of our teens, and room for the new baby, with a rec room in the finished basement so the kids can hang out there and we'll know exactly where they are, plus a backyard big enough to hold parties for all our friends and it's in the same school district. We promised the boys they wouldn't have to change school districts."
"Yeah, that's hard on kids. In my early days in the Navy, before I made it into the SEALs, we moved every three years," Jeter said. "Well you know all about that, Scarecrow, growing up on air force bases like you did."
"Yeah, and that's one of the reasons we wanted to minimize the amount of change the kids had to deal with," Lee said.
"Where do you live, JB?" Amanda asked. "I know from reading your Agency application that you're forty-five, divorced, with two adult children, a daughter who's married to a navy lieutenant assigned to shore duty in Norfolk while the USS John F. Kennedy is undergoing a major refit, and a son who just started his first year at Annapolis."
"That's right, Amanda. I've just moved into a house on Magnolia in Arlington. It's three bedrooms, which is more than I need most of the time, but I wanted to have a separate office, a real yard, and a guest room for when my daughter and her husband come to visit, or when my son is on leave from the academy. It was formerly a furnished house for rent – I'm told the Agency used to occasionally put distinguished defectors there, in fact – and I needed a furnished place right now. I like to work with my hands, and the garage makes a good workshop, so I'm planning to build as much of the furniture as I can. That way, I get good quality and solid wood for a fraction of the price it would cost for similar quality at retail."
In the remaining time it took to drive back to Denton, Amanda got the whole story of Jeter's divorce from him simply by relating her own experience with Joe King and listening when Jeter talked. Up front, Lee and his uncle shared a smile and a significant glance that said, " That's our Amanda; she may have the most unconventional interrogation techniques in the world, but she gets results."
When Amanda found out that Jeter would be alone at Christmas because his son, daughter, and son-in-law would be spending Christmas week with his ex-wife and her new husband, who were paying for a Disneyworld vacation for all of them, she immediately invited him to spend the holiday with their family. "And don't tell me you're imposing, because you aren't," she said firmly. " It's a big house and I don't want you to spend Christmas on your couch with a bowl of guacamole dip and a football game."
'Amanda," Lee said from the front seat.
"Inside joke?" Jeter asked.
"You could say that."
"She certainly does; I made that comment nearly four years ago, and she still remembers it," Lee said.
"Well, I must say, Scarecrow, I like her idea better. I accept, Amanda."
"Oh, good. This is our exit; very shortly you'll be meeting our herd – or is it horde?"
Jeter laughed. "Either way, I'm looking forward to it."