Chapter 1:  Agency Briefing room

An Out-of-Town Assignment

Billy Melrose sat back into his chair, closed the folder in front of him and looked at the agents assembled at the conference table.  "OK.  That's it for the day's briefing.  Now for the week's assignments."  He fixed his gaze on two men at the end of the table.  "Jakes and Richards, I need the two of you to look into the possible Libyan terrorist connection to next month's trade summit here in Washington.  Desmond and Foxworth, you will now be in charge of coordinating security for the British Prime Minister's visit." 

Lee looked up at that and said, "Billy, I thought Amanda and I were doing security for the PM."

"Something else has come up Scarecrow, and I need you and Amanda to go out of town to conduct a security review."

Francine said cattily, "Oh, I'm sure that will be a real hardship for you two.  Out of town together on a case."

"Desmond!" Billy warned.

"How long will we be out of town, sir?" asked Amanda

"Well, I think you should be able to wrap up your end in three weeks."

"Three weeks?" Amanda gasped and tried to keep the smile off her face as she thought about how much she would enjoy three weeks with Lee, away from the Agency and prying eyes.

"Is there a problem, Amanda?  You've been on out of town trips before, so I figured you could handle this assignment.  If it's too much, I could put Francine with Lee and you could work with Foxworth on the PM security."

Lee looked over at her, silently pleading with his eyes for her not to mess this up.

"Oh no, sir.  There's no problem at all.  You don't need to change assignments on my account."

Lee smiled in relief and asked, "So, where are we going?"

Ignoring Lee's question, Billy gave out the rest of the assignments, then stood and addressed the room, "All right people, get to work."  Then he turned to Lee and Amanda and said, "You two in my office."

Amanda looked at Lee and he looked back at her and shrugged.

The three walked into Billy's office.  Lee and Amanda sat down in the chairs in front of the desk as Billy lowered himself into his chair.

"So, can you tell us now where we're going?"  Lee asked

"A ship building company has just put in a bid to build some new cruisers for the Navy.  It's an old established company.  Dates back to the 1600's."

Lee whistled.  "Wow, that is an old company.  And they're just now getting into defense work?"

"No, actually they've been doing defense work for many years.  They started off building whaling ships, and after the market for them declined, they started contract work for various groups, including the Navy."  Billy continued, "However, it's been a few years since their last full security review, so we've been tapped to do it. A Mr. David Collins owns the company.  That's who you're going to meet and interview and he'll give you full access to all the data you need."

Amanda asked, "And where do we find Mr. David Collins?"

Billy cleared his throat before answering her. "Collinsport, Maine.  Not too far from Bangor, actually.  When the request for a review team crossed my desk, I knew, Lee, that I wanted you on the team, then I decided that you might want Amanda along to help."

"But Maine?"  Lee asked in surprise. 

            "Hey, what's wrong with Maine?  I thought you and Amanda might like a nice long out of town assignment,"  Billy replied with a faint smile, looking at the two agents appraisingly.