CHAPTER 19
2330 hours
Conference Room
True to his word, Sam Beckett had spent the last three hours watching Lyla Hobkirk. It hadn't been easy. Lyla was a true social butterfly and flirt, dancing with every man in the room at least twice. In addition, Lyla and Tina were wearing the same dress in different colors; Tina in red and Lyla in black. Olga Vukovitch, who had been watching him watch Lyla, was intent on dancing with him as well.
The other main distraction Sam was dealing with was Dr. Donna Elesee. Despite being given the cold shoulder on Monday and the fact that she seemed to be going out of her way to avoid him, Sam found himself following her every movement around the room with his eyes. It was as if Sam Beckett were a moth and Donna Elesee a flame.
Isaac Mentnor spent much of the evening looking dignified and staying out of the center of attention. Helene Mercer-Fuld, the senator from New Jersey, took notice that Isaac had arrived with Bradley Talmadge and tried to pump him (Isaac) for information while they had a fox-trot. Isaac was only too happy to let Olga cut in and steal him away from the inquisitive senator.
After the dance with Olga, Isaac found himself alongside the dance floor beside Admiral Calavicci. "Lovely party, Admiral," Isaac began the requisite small talk.
"Thank you," Al responded. Offering his hand to shake Al asked, "You're Dr. Isaac Mentnor, aren't you?"
Isaac accepted Al's hand, "Yes, I am."
"I understand you're working for the NSA..." Al continued.
"I'm more of a consultant and advisor," Isaac cut him off, downplaying his roll in Project Backstep.
"You look too serious, honey," Tina's little girl voice softly berated Al as she and Verbena joined the men. Al made the introductions.
"Isaac Mentnor?" Verbena questioned. "Aren't you Dr. Elesee's professor?"
Isaac smiled. "Guilty as charged, my dear."
"Speaking of Donna," Tina interjected, "have you noticed that guy who keeps staring at her?"
"Who?" Al questioned after a cursory look around the room.
"Him," Tina nodded in the direction of the dance floor. "The dark haired one dancing with the 'painted-on' blue dress." The three other heads all turned in the direction of the dance floor to see whom Tina was talking about.
"Oh, them," Isaac said when his eyes fell on Olga and her partner. "The woman in the blue dress is my colleague, Dr. Olga Vukovitch."
"Why would anyone look at Donna with her in his arms?" Al said lasciviously, looking Dr. Vukovitch from top to bottom. Then said, "Ow!" as Tina punched him in the arm.
Verbena smiled at him as she taunted, "You deserved that." Turning her attention to Isaac she restated the question, "Who is that man?"
Al began to nervously shift from one foot to the other.
Isaac had no choice but to respond to Verbena's direct question. "That is another of my colleagues. His name is Frank Parker."
**********
The music had slowed to a sensuous waltz. Sam returned Olga to her seat and scanned the room for Lyla Hobkirk. 'There she is,' he noted to himself as Lyla approached the bar. Sam's eyes continued to sweep the room. Almost instantly they landed on Donna Elesee, chatting and smiling with Congressman Ho, across the room. The urge to talk to her, dance with her, struck Sam again. He didn't try to analyze it; he couldn't rationalize it away. The allure of Donna Elesee was inescapable and he wouldn't try to deny it again. Determined, Sam Beckett began to make his way across the dance floor toward her.
*******************
Verbena Beeks almost choked on her white wine. Coughing and sputtering she repeated Isaac's words. "That ... is ... Frank ... Parker?" she questioned.
"Are you OK?" Tina began fussing over Bena.
"Fine, fine." Bena was more interesting in 'Frank Parker' than mopping up her dripped on dress. She peered back over the dance floor. Al and Isaac watched her gaze as it landed on 'Frank' making his way across the floor towards Donna.
"Uh-oh," both men said softly. Their eyes met and with a quick nod each realized that the other knew exactly who 'Frank Parker' was. Verbena was only half a second behind them. The impending disaster was obvious to all three of them.
Verbena took action first. She quickly crossed the floor and placed herself directly between Mr. and Mrs. Beckett. Isaac followed less than half a second behind her. He strode over to Donna and swept her on to the dance floor.
"Mr. Parker?" she asked the slightly dazed man in front of her.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm Frank Parker," Sam said, shaking off his near trance.
"I'm Verbena Beeks. Care to dance?"
"Ah ... yeah, sure," Sam stammered as he started to waltz with the psychiatrist. Bena took the opportunity to dance closer to Sam than she usually would a stranger. As they placed some distance between themselves and the other couples on the floor, Sam took the chance to ask a question. "Bena, is everything O.K. here?"
She leaned in closer still to whisper in his ear, "Yes, everything is fine, Sam." Then she put more space between them and more loudly answered, "Despite what Craig Donovan told you."
Sam Beckett felt a warm hand clasp his shoulder and a familiar voice ask, "May I cut it, buddy?" With Verbena's nodded assent, Sam left Verbena in the care of Frank Parker's best friend.
2345
Security Office
During the hour that they had been eavesdropping on the party Frank Parker continued to delicately pump SammiJo for information. After mentioning the matching dresses, SammiJo passed along the fact that Lyla and Tina are sisters.
"So which one of them did I see at the bar? In the Imaging Chamber, I mean," Frank questioned.
"It could have been either," SammiJo replied, "they were both there." SammiJo then relayed the story about Lyla getting too drunk to drive, that Tina had brought her to Stallion's Gate, and that Gooshie had driven Lyla's car to the Project.
As Frank listened to SammiJo a hole in his swiss-cheesed memory suddenly filled in. From his pre-backstep briefing he remembered 'the primary was in the parking deck' and his eyes began to scan for the monitors showing the parking facility. There were four of them, each doing the standard 90-degree sweep over a set area. Frank was at a disadvantage, not knowing which cars belonged to PQL staff and which were visitors. Then he spotted the Admiral's T-bird and another hole filled in.
"Dr. Fuller," he interjected, "I suppose Lyla took her car home in the morning?"
"No, it wouldn't start. She took a cab instead."
"Then searching the cars arriving for the party won't help," Frank thought aloud. "Which car is Lyla's?"
"I don't know," came the reply. "But I know how to find out," SammiJo added with a twinkle in her eye. She went out to the anteroom and had a few words with Paulo, then after entering something into a computer workstation she returned to the monitoring room carrying a remote control device.
"Let's go to the video tape?" Parker jokingly questioned, his hopes high.
"You got it, sports fan!" Fuller replied in kind. She pointed the remote at the screen in the bottom left corner of the monitor bank and pushed a button. The image on the screen blurred and was replaced with surveillance video stamped 2/8/00 2137 hours. Frank watched as he and Al returned from Roswell. Al had parked his vintage T-Bird in his designated spot. The two spots to the left of his were empty as was the one on the right. As the camera panned left, Frank noted that Drs. Beeks, Gershowitz and Elesee's spaces were all empty.
"Can we..."
"Speed it up a bit?" SammiJo finished the question. "Sure." She hit the fast forward button. Over the next several hours both Drs. Elesee and Beeks returned to the complex. At 2/9/00 0137 two cars entered the garage and parked. SammiJo slowed the tape down again. A blue Saturn with rent-a-car tags parked in the spot closest to the door while a white Mazda Miata pulled into Gooshie's spot. SammiJo began a play-by-play for Frank.
"That's Gooshie, um, I mean Dr. Gershowitz, getting out of the Saturn. He's going over to his Miata. That's Tina coming around to let Lyla out. And it takes both of them to get her inside."
SammiJo fast-forwarded the tape again. The next activity was noted at 1154 when Nate Ramsey pulled into the open space between the Saturn and T-Bird.
"That can't be right," SammiJo said. "Lyla used a cab to leave in the morning because she said her car wouldn't start, but she didn't even try to start it."
"Shit! It's been here all along!" Frank yelled. He started to run for the door. SammiJo grabbed his arm and he spun around to face her. "Look, Fuller; do you trust me or not?!"
There was no hesitation in SammiJo Fuller's response. "Let's go!"
February 10, 2000, 0002 hours
Parking area
Frank Parker peered over the hood of the Saturn, looking for security personnel. He motioned to SammiJo to stay quiet and still. Two members of Delta Team, as Backstep's security force was known, passed by. Once they were out of sight Frank asked, "Have you ever stolen a car before?"
SammiJo shook her head in the negative.
"First thing we need to do is jimmy the door lock." Frank said.
Again SammiJo shook her head in the negative. "The doors are unlocked," she confidently stated.
'Yeah right!' Frank thought but he tried the driver's door anyway. It opened. He climbed into the driver's seat as SammiJo was settling herself into the front passenger seat. He frowned at her but said nothing as he reached under the dash for the ignition wires.
"You're planning to hot-wire this?" SammiJo asked.
"You got a better idea, sweet cheeks?" Frank didn't bother to mask his annoyance at her.
"How about the key, stud?" SammiJo matched his tone of voice.
"Where...?" Frank began to ask when SammiJo handed him the Saturn key.
SammiJo smiled sweetly at him as she responded to the unfinished question. "I noticed them at the edge of the floor mat when I got in." Frank heard an unspoken exasperated "Men!" in her voice.
Frank started the engine, threw the car into gear and raced toward the exit gate.
2330 hours
Conference Room
True to his word, Sam Beckett had spent the last three hours watching Lyla Hobkirk. It hadn't been easy. Lyla was a true social butterfly and flirt, dancing with every man in the room at least twice. In addition, Lyla and Tina were wearing the same dress in different colors; Tina in red and Lyla in black. Olga Vukovitch, who had been watching him watch Lyla, was intent on dancing with him as well.
The other main distraction Sam was dealing with was Dr. Donna Elesee. Despite being given the cold shoulder on Monday and the fact that she seemed to be going out of her way to avoid him, Sam found himself following her every movement around the room with his eyes. It was as if Sam Beckett were a moth and Donna Elesee a flame.
Isaac Mentnor spent much of the evening looking dignified and staying out of the center of attention. Helene Mercer-Fuld, the senator from New Jersey, took notice that Isaac had arrived with Bradley Talmadge and tried to pump him (Isaac) for information while they had a fox-trot. Isaac was only too happy to let Olga cut in and steal him away from the inquisitive senator.
After the dance with Olga, Isaac found himself alongside the dance floor beside Admiral Calavicci. "Lovely party, Admiral," Isaac began the requisite small talk.
"Thank you," Al responded. Offering his hand to shake Al asked, "You're Dr. Isaac Mentnor, aren't you?"
Isaac accepted Al's hand, "Yes, I am."
"I understand you're working for the NSA..." Al continued.
"I'm more of a consultant and advisor," Isaac cut him off, downplaying his roll in Project Backstep.
"You look too serious, honey," Tina's little girl voice softly berated Al as she and Verbena joined the men. Al made the introductions.
"Isaac Mentnor?" Verbena questioned. "Aren't you Dr. Elesee's professor?"
Isaac smiled. "Guilty as charged, my dear."
"Speaking of Donna," Tina interjected, "have you noticed that guy who keeps staring at her?"
"Who?" Al questioned after a cursory look around the room.
"Him," Tina nodded in the direction of the dance floor. "The dark haired one dancing with the 'painted-on' blue dress." The three other heads all turned in the direction of the dance floor to see whom Tina was talking about.
"Oh, them," Isaac said when his eyes fell on Olga and her partner. "The woman in the blue dress is my colleague, Dr. Olga Vukovitch."
"Why would anyone look at Donna with her in his arms?" Al said lasciviously, looking Dr. Vukovitch from top to bottom. Then said, "Ow!" as Tina punched him in the arm.
Verbena smiled at him as she taunted, "You deserved that." Turning her attention to Isaac she restated the question, "Who is that man?"
Al began to nervously shift from one foot to the other.
Isaac had no choice but to respond to Verbena's direct question. "That is another of my colleagues. His name is Frank Parker."
**********
The music had slowed to a sensuous waltz. Sam returned Olga to her seat and scanned the room for Lyla Hobkirk. 'There she is,' he noted to himself as Lyla approached the bar. Sam's eyes continued to sweep the room. Almost instantly they landed on Donna Elesee, chatting and smiling with Congressman Ho, across the room. The urge to talk to her, dance with her, struck Sam again. He didn't try to analyze it; he couldn't rationalize it away. The allure of Donna Elesee was inescapable and he wouldn't try to deny it again. Determined, Sam Beckett began to make his way across the dance floor toward her.
*******************
Verbena Beeks almost choked on her white wine. Coughing and sputtering she repeated Isaac's words. "That ... is ... Frank ... Parker?" she questioned.
"Are you OK?" Tina began fussing over Bena.
"Fine, fine." Bena was more interesting in 'Frank Parker' than mopping up her dripped on dress. She peered back over the dance floor. Al and Isaac watched her gaze as it landed on 'Frank' making his way across the floor towards Donna.
"Uh-oh," both men said softly. Their eyes met and with a quick nod each realized that the other knew exactly who 'Frank Parker' was. Verbena was only half a second behind them. The impending disaster was obvious to all three of them.
Verbena took action first. She quickly crossed the floor and placed herself directly between Mr. and Mrs. Beckett. Isaac followed less than half a second behind her. He strode over to Donna and swept her on to the dance floor.
"Mr. Parker?" she asked the slightly dazed man in front of her.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm Frank Parker," Sam said, shaking off his near trance.
"I'm Verbena Beeks. Care to dance?"
"Ah ... yeah, sure," Sam stammered as he started to waltz with the psychiatrist. Bena took the opportunity to dance closer to Sam than she usually would a stranger. As they placed some distance between themselves and the other couples on the floor, Sam took the chance to ask a question. "Bena, is everything O.K. here?"
She leaned in closer still to whisper in his ear, "Yes, everything is fine, Sam." Then she put more space between them and more loudly answered, "Despite what Craig Donovan told you."
Sam Beckett felt a warm hand clasp his shoulder and a familiar voice ask, "May I cut it, buddy?" With Verbena's nodded assent, Sam left Verbena in the care of Frank Parker's best friend.
2345
Security Office
During the hour that they had been eavesdropping on the party Frank Parker continued to delicately pump SammiJo for information. After mentioning the matching dresses, SammiJo passed along the fact that Lyla and Tina are sisters.
"So which one of them did I see at the bar? In the Imaging Chamber, I mean," Frank questioned.
"It could have been either," SammiJo replied, "they were both there." SammiJo then relayed the story about Lyla getting too drunk to drive, that Tina had brought her to Stallion's Gate, and that Gooshie had driven Lyla's car to the Project.
As Frank listened to SammiJo a hole in his swiss-cheesed memory suddenly filled in. From his pre-backstep briefing he remembered 'the primary was in the parking deck' and his eyes began to scan for the monitors showing the parking facility. There were four of them, each doing the standard 90-degree sweep over a set area. Frank was at a disadvantage, not knowing which cars belonged to PQL staff and which were visitors. Then he spotted the Admiral's T-bird and another hole filled in.
"Dr. Fuller," he interjected, "I suppose Lyla took her car home in the morning?"
"No, it wouldn't start. She took a cab instead."
"Then searching the cars arriving for the party won't help," Frank thought aloud. "Which car is Lyla's?"
"I don't know," came the reply. "But I know how to find out," SammiJo added with a twinkle in her eye. She went out to the anteroom and had a few words with Paulo, then after entering something into a computer workstation she returned to the monitoring room carrying a remote control device.
"Let's go to the video tape?" Parker jokingly questioned, his hopes high.
"You got it, sports fan!" Fuller replied in kind. She pointed the remote at the screen in the bottom left corner of the monitor bank and pushed a button. The image on the screen blurred and was replaced with surveillance video stamped 2/8/00 2137 hours. Frank watched as he and Al returned from Roswell. Al had parked his vintage T-Bird in his designated spot. The two spots to the left of his were empty as was the one on the right. As the camera panned left, Frank noted that Drs. Beeks, Gershowitz and Elesee's spaces were all empty.
"Can we..."
"Speed it up a bit?" SammiJo finished the question. "Sure." She hit the fast forward button. Over the next several hours both Drs. Elesee and Beeks returned to the complex. At 2/9/00 0137 two cars entered the garage and parked. SammiJo slowed the tape down again. A blue Saturn with rent-a-car tags parked in the spot closest to the door while a white Mazda Miata pulled into Gooshie's spot. SammiJo began a play-by-play for Frank.
"That's Gooshie, um, I mean Dr. Gershowitz, getting out of the Saturn. He's going over to his Miata. That's Tina coming around to let Lyla out. And it takes both of them to get her inside."
SammiJo fast-forwarded the tape again. The next activity was noted at 1154 when Nate Ramsey pulled into the open space between the Saturn and T-Bird.
"That can't be right," SammiJo said. "Lyla used a cab to leave in the morning because she said her car wouldn't start, but she didn't even try to start it."
"Shit! It's been here all along!" Frank yelled. He started to run for the door. SammiJo grabbed his arm and he spun around to face her. "Look, Fuller; do you trust me or not?!"
There was no hesitation in SammiJo Fuller's response. "Let's go!"
February 10, 2000, 0002 hours
Parking area
Frank Parker peered over the hood of the Saturn, looking for security personnel. He motioned to SammiJo to stay quiet and still. Two members of Delta Team, as Backstep's security force was known, passed by. Once they were out of sight Frank asked, "Have you ever stolen a car before?"
SammiJo shook her head in the negative.
"First thing we need to do is jimmy the door lock." Frank said.
Again SammiJo shook her head in the negative. "The doors are unlocked," she confidently stated.
'Yeah right!' Frank thought but he tried the driver's door anyway. It opened. He climbed into the driver's seat as SammiJo was settling herself into the front passenger seat. He frowned at her but said nothing as he reached under the dash for the ignition wires.
"You're planning to hot-wire this?" SammiJo asked.
"You got a better idea, sweet cheeks?" Frank didn't bother to mask his annoyance at her.
"How about the key, stud?" SammiJo matched his tone of voice.
"Where...?" Frank began to ask when SammiJo handed him the Saturn key.
SammiJo smiled sweetly at him as she responded to the unfinished question. "I noticed them at the edge of the floor mat when I got in." Frank heard an unspoken exasperated "Men!" in her voice.
Frank started the engine, threw the car into gear and raced toward the exit gate.