"Whale Watching!?" Natalie said with a mix of shock and suspicion. "Adrian, you do realize that when most people go whale watching, they do so by getting on a boat… and going into the ocean…where there's water."
Adrian stopped for a moment and thought about what she just said. Maybe he hadn't thought this thing through entirely, true. But what other way was he going to be able to see the scene of the crime ,himself?
"Yeah. Of course." He said, trying to sound convincing.
"Adrian, you don't do water. Remember? The Tsunami thing?" she said.
"Natalie, that's so…then. I've had to jump off of a moving boat into freezing water, then I had to fall backwards into the water when I was pretending to be dead. I now know that I can swim. It'll be a piece of cake.
An hour later aboard a speeding boat…
"Why…why..Whyyyyy did I say we should go whale watching?" Adrian whined.
"I don't know. Why?" Natalie asked as Adrian clutched onto her arm.
"You should have stopped me." He said.
"I should have?" Natalie asked.
"Monk, we can always go back." Said Leland.
"Yeah, Adrian. Leland and I are fine just spending time with you all." Said TK
Adrian paused. "No…no….no….. No sense in that. I'll just have to conquer my fear."
Natalie cocked her head to one side and raised an eyebrow, then crossed her arms in front of her. "You. Conquer your fear? Like you can just will it away? Since when?!"
Leland looked around and puffed out his chest. "Oh, I know since when."
"When's that" Natalie asked.
"Since a certain double explosion a couple of days ago. This is about that case, isn't it?" Leland asked.
"Well…uh…" Adrian said, looking guilty.
"Adrian! You drug us out here so you could snoop around and see what happened on July 4th?" Natalie said with rising anger in her voice.
"Not…n…not just to s…see what happened. I w…wanted to show Leland and TK some of the sights as well." Adrian said to Natalie who was now giving him "the look."
"Natalie, I promise. It'll just be a minute. I need to see. I just have to. Then, we can enjoy the rest of the evening doing whatever it is you want to do. Just the four of us, that is if Julie is still okay watching the babies." He said.
"Julie is fine with it. I told her we wouldn't be back until around 10:00 PM anyway." Natalie said. Then, looking out at sea, she grimaced and shook her head. "Whale watching!"
A few moments silence passed, and Adrian spoke up. "Sweetheart. Natalie. Don't be angry."
"I'm not angry. I'm frustrated. You need to stop doing this stuff." She said.
"Doing what?" he asked.
"Launching out on your own and not talking to me before-hand. Marriage is a two-way street, you know. I may not be travelling with you right now, but that doesn't mean I don't care about what's going on. Communicate!" she scolded.
Adrian looked down. "I'm sorry. I will try keep you informed and bring you in on the decision making. Do you forgive me?"
Natalie looked over, without smiling. "Yes." Then, she looked back out to sea.
"One more thing." Adrian said.
"What's that?" She asked.
"You're a good swimmer, right?" he said.
"Yeah. I'm okay." She replied.
"If..if this thing capsizes, you'll save me right?" he asked.
Natalie was silent.
"You will save me, right?" he asked again.
"I'm thinking." She replied with a look on her face half irritation, half mischievous.
The boat slowed down and stopped, prompting the driver to say "Well, we're here. Little Brewster Island.
The Island itself was very small with only a few buildings on it including the lighthouse. Pulling up to the dock, the driver helped the two couples get off where they were greeted by a Coast Guard Lieutenant.
"Nobody is supposed to be out here right now. Can I help you folks?" said the man.
Adrian walked forward and flashed his DOJ badge quickly at the Lieutenant.
"Yes, I'm Agent Adrian Monk from the DOJ. I'm here investigating the crime scene and just wanted to look around for a moment."
The Lieutenant looked over at Leland and the ladies, and Adrian said "That's okay. They're with me. This is Police Commissioner Leland Stottlemeyer, and our assistants, TK and Natalie. We'll only be a minute."
"Fine. But just a minute." The Lieutenant said.
"Tell me, Lieutenant…" said Adrian.
"Crawford." Said the man.
"Lieutenant Crawford. Where exactly did the incident take place?" asked Adrian.
"Right over there, by those Rocks. Or so I was told. I wasn't actually on duty." Said Crawford.
"That's okay. And, did the boat actually hit the rocks before it detonated?" asked Adrian.
"Detonated? Agent…who did you say you worked for?" Crawford asked suspiciously.
"DOJ. I'm working closely with the counter-terrorism division." Adrian said.
"Terrorism? This was just a fishing boat that exploded." Said Crawford. "Hit some rocks and the gas went off."
Adrian stopped for a minute. Crawford clearly hadn't been briefed.
Leland couldn't help himself and joined in. "Are the young men who were on duty here?" he asked.
"Sanchez and Turner? No. My understanding is that they were reassigned almost immediately. Funny, they both have worked this post for over a year, then poof, reassigned. Weird how that happened. Hey, I'll give you all ten minutes to look around. But, then you need to leave. Seriously, nobody is supposed to be out here and I could get in trouble for letting you look, even with your credentials. So hurry it along." Crawford replied.
"We will, thank you." Said Natalie.
For the next ten minutes Adrian walked around the edge of the island carefully looking at the rocks of the island itself and then at the Shag Rocks beyond. Using his hands in their familiar zen-like fashion, he stopped at the Island's end and narrowed his eyes.
"What do you see?" asked Leland.
"They said that the boat hit the rocks. We know that isn't true. It hit some sort of monitoring station. But…where is the wreckage? You would think there would be something." He answered.
"Adrian, look. Over here." Natalie said, pointing to something a little further Northeast of the spot he stood on. Walking over, he looked down on the rocks and saw what looked like the blade of a fan or propeller, about the size of his hand. Using his pen, he picked it up and held it up to look at it.
"What is it?" asked TK.
"Looks like a propeller to some sort of underwater robot or drone." Said Adrian.
"So, are you thinking the IED might have been attached to a drone?" asked Leland.
"Yeah. But why? And how did they know the coordinates of where an underwater station existed for our military? Those things aren't easy to track via satellite." Adrian said.
"Good question." Said Leland.
"Are you thinking it could have been an inside job?" asked TK.
"Quite possibly." Adrian said.
"Someone who would have known where to find the station, but also someone who had enough money to pay for a somewhat sophisticated piece of machinery. This wasn't a plastic drone you buy out of a catalog. To carry the amount of explosives that it did, it had to be quite sturdy and of good quality." Stottlemeyer noted.
"You're right." Adrian said. "But who would have the access to that information and why are they doing this? And what about the National Guard Center?"
"Oh no, Mister. I know that look!" said Natalie.
"What?" asked Adrian.
"You promised a work-free night. We went out here to satisfy your wishes, but now you have to let it go for the evening and go enjoy yourself. Come on. Leland and TK are only going to be here a few days. Let's go have some fun." Natalie said.
"Listen to your wife Adrian. The work will be here. Plus, a promise is a promise." Said TK.
"Alright. You win." He said. "I give up for just tonight. Now, if you don't mind, can we get back on the boat and back onto dry land?"
Later that afternoon, the phone in President Stoddard's office rang. Answering it, he was able to get out a simple greeting "Stoddard speaking." When the next line buzzed in. He requested the first caller to hold while he answered the second call. "Stoddard speaking."
"Yes Mr. President, I just wanted to let you know that there was reported to be a minor breach of our network system earlier today. Someone was given access to some email and a drive associated with the two different explosions and opened some files regarding fishing vessels recently being intercepted in the area." Said DOJ head Fitzhugh.
"Given access? How?" asked Stoddard.
"New graduate with IT. She misunderstood, or rather assumed, what was needed was the same as some other accounts she had set up that day and set the agent's up the same way." Fitzhugh replied.
"Do we know who the agent is?" asked Stoddard.
"Yes. Monk. Adrian Monk. Honestly, it may have been an innocent mistake on both of their parts, but I thought you should know. The girl has been reprimanded and will be setting his system back the way it was before, first thing in the morning."
"Thanks for letting me know, Fitzhugh. I need to answer another call." Said Stoddard.
"You're welcome, sir." Said Fitzhugh, as Stoddard switched to the other line.
"Thanks for waiting." He stated.
"Yes, President Stoddard. This is Pat McCord. I was just calling to let you know that there were some visitors out at the attack sight near Brewster Island today." The voice said.
"Visitors? Whom?" asked Stoddard.
"DOJ Agent Adrian Monk, San Francisco Commissioner Leland Stottlemeyer, his wife Trudy and Monk's wife Natalie. Monk told our lieutenant that he was out investigating and, well he wasn't authorized by us or by the DHS" said McCord.
"Fine. Thank you. I'll take care of it." sighed Stoddard. "Thanks for letting me kno…"
Just then, the President's door burst open. It was his chief of staff, Paul Franklin.
"Mr. President, just got off the phone with Susan Fleming. Looks like there has been another attack. This time with casualties." Said Franklin.
"Oh no. Where?" asked Stoddard.
"Cannon Office Building." He replied. "We're not sure how it got in there, but went off about 15 minutes ago."
"So they're now attacking Congress?" asked Stoddard.
"Apparently so, Mr. President. We need to get you and the first lady out of here and to a safer place. We have Marine One already warming up, and Vice President and Mrs. Cole have already vacated to their safe spot." Said Franklin. "Please hurry."
"Thank you, Franklin. I appreciate it. "said Stoddard as he moved as quickly as he could towards the White House residence to collect a few things before he and Mrs. Stoddard rushed out the door.
