When they got home and walked in the door, Lee was sidetracked when Francine called him on his cell phone. "Hey, Francine, what's up?" Lee was a little annoyed and distracted, thinking about the promised bookmark from Amanda as he watched her go up the stairs.

"Scarecrow, I didn't see you leave the office. I got an earful from the State Department regarding your meeting-seems they are not too happy that you pointed out flaws in Homeland Security."

"Hey, they were trying to point the finger and I just pointed it back to them. It seems obvious to me. Don't you think there must be a mole or moles in Homeland Security or even in the airline that they came in on? Otherwise, how could some of the terrorists get by the No-Fly list?"

"No, you're right, but here's the bad news." Francine paused so her words would be given strict attention. "They want you and Amanda to head up an investigation to see if there are any moles who let in those terrorists we caught on the No-Fly list. They don't want Homeland Security to investigate in case someone in that agency is part of the cover-up and is involved in the investigation. You know what that means-longer hours and late nights."

"Francine! Why us? What about the FBI!?" Lee complained.

"Your reputation precedes you, Scarecrow, and your partner, the delightful Glinda-aka the former Mrs. King," Francine stated, referring to Amanda's code name that was personally given to her by Paul Barnes in honor of hers and Lee's partnership.

Lee groaned. He could just imagine her Cheshire cat grin beaming at him if he were there with her in person.

"So starting tomorrow I'd like you and Amanda to choose some other agents in some of the other sections-like the cyber terrorism unit, Crypto-to help you with this," the section chief instructed.

"What about the new recruit training?" Lee queried.

"Cut back on some of the training classes-have them help you. You're resourceful-figure it out. Good Luck," she said curtly and hung up the phone.

Lee yelled "Francine!" into the phone.

Lee banged his hand down on the counter, and Amanda came downstairs after changing out of her work clothes to see what was holding up Lee from opening their bookmark.

"What's wrong, Sweetheart?"

"Francine called, and the gist of it is we have to do an investigation on Homeland Security, the airlines, and TSA to see if there are any moles who let the terrorists that were caught into the country. And State wants us to do it!" Lee's jaw was twitching hard.

"What about our training of the new recruits?"

"That's to be cut back. Francine suggested letting some of the trainees help us. This is going to mean a lot of extra hours on top of my consulting."

Amanda sighed. "It will mean a lot more work! But it's not a bad idea to have the recruits help-it might be a good exercise for them, and we can see how their minds work. What we will need to do is go through the computer records and find when and where the terrorists entered the country.

Then we have to see who let them through at passport control on both sides—point of departure and entry. Also, we have to look at who has clearance to the No-Fly List." Amanda was in full agent mode, starting to make notes on a scratch sheet of paper. "We are going to have to have a lot of people on this. I already have a lot of ideas on how we can go about this." Amanda pinched her nose and kept jotting things down.

Lee was still thinking about the interruption of their reason for coming home early. He went over and took the pen out of Amanda's hand. "Come on, let's just relax. There is plenty of time tomorrow to get on this. We need some downtime." Lee pulled Amanda into his arms as she nodded, and he started to kiss that special place on her neck. Amanda stretched her neck to give him more access.

Just then Dotty came in from outside where she was watering her garden, interrupting them again. "Hi, you two! Guess who's coming for dinner tonight?"

Lee stopped what he was doing. Damn another interruption, he thought.

"Dinner? Here? Tonight?" Amanda questioned, thinking about that bookmark.

"The girls said they were going to bring Chinese food and a movie over to watch. Isn't that sweet, dear?"

"When did they say they would be here?" Lee questioned. He was thinking the same thing as Amanda.

"Mattie said at 6:30," Dotty answered.

Amanda looked at the clock. It was 5:30. She turned to look at Lee and said "Time for that bookmark!" She turned, grabbed Lee's hand, and ran up the stairs; Lee was a little slower than normal because his knee had been slowing him down lately.

Dotty shrugged her shoulders and said to herself, "Those two!" and set about folding the laundry as she heard the bedroom door slam.

Smk smk smk smk

Amanda and Lee came downstairs after finishing their "bookmark" just as JJ and Mattie arrived and started to spread out all the Chinese food cartons for dinner on the coffee table.

"Hi, girls!" Amanda gave them both a kiss.

"How are my princesses!?" Lee gave both girls kisses on the cheek.

"Doing good!" they both said together.

"So what movie did you bring? Hope it's not a chick flick," Lee said.

Mattie changed her voice to make it sound like a western twang, "No sir, I think we will all like it. I brought an old movie from 1980.The Gambler. It's a Western, so Poppy you will like it. And it has a cute cowboy in it for us women folk. This actor Bruce Boxletter...I think that's his name." Mattie looked at the movie cover. "Oh, it's Boxleitner. What a weird name!"

"Old!?1980! Hey wait a minute!" said Lee indignantly. "I bet he's not as cute as me!" Lee wiggled his eyebrows and gave a wink at Amanda who gave him a sly smile.

They all sat down to eat and enjoy the movie.

A few hours later the movie was over and they all agreed that it was a good choice.

Amanda commented, "That guy who played Billy Montana was cute...but your father is definitely cuter and has a better smile and dimples than that actor does."

The girls disagreed and thought that the Bruce Box guy was funny and very handsome. Lee mocked looking hurt as they all said goodbye for the night.

Smk- smk- smk- smk

The next day Lee and Amanda started setting up their investigative teams to find the security breach in Homeland Security. Amanda divided the country into five sections: West Coast, Southwest, Midwest, South, and Eastern. Lee assigned a crypto agent to each section and split the cyber terrorism unit that consisted of ten agents into five groups. Then the eight agents that were in training were designated for the various sections also. As the whole team discussed their strategy and the No-Fly list was scrutinized, they realized that the members of the cell that had been caught were all going by aliases and none were on the list! That meant their passports were forged and when inspected further, the agents were able to see many anomalies-small details that were different that gave proof the passports were counterfeit. Lee cursed his big mouth in that meeting. This was going to be a monumental task.