COMING TO

The knock on his dorm-door brought him back to where he was.

Henry Jennings was at his desk, hard at study for Christmas Exams at St. Edwards Academy, an elite New England private highschool. Keeping good grades was a condition of being able to take all the classroom-leaves he would need for the hockey regionals - St. Edwards inter-varsity hockey was a contender this winter, and was already touted as the favourite for next season - 1988-'89, Henry's graduation year.

The year that Henry would be captain of the team - so all his mates had predicted. Once McClain was graduated and gone. Henry had thought his pals to be mental.

It took the knock on his door to shake him from his fugue state. Proof that it was fugue? Henry had not remembered coming back up to his room. Nor had he remembered sitting at his desk and opening the book in front of him. In December 1987, he was a junior. For some unknown reason - when he heard the knock on his door, he discovered that he had a freshman 'Introduction to Calculus' text in front of him. He'd been staring at the same page meant for freshmen for… staring at it for a long time.

Now aware, he looked around at his room. Everything was out, drawers were overturned, the mattress on the bed was leaned up against the wall and the covers were everywhere. Fortunately the dorm-room was small, and his possessions few.

He couldn't believe he'd come into his room and not noticed. He thought to himself, 'it would only take a few minutes to get everything back on their hangers, and then I can make the bed. I don't want to get written-up for being messy.'

The books strewn on the floor were another matter. It wasn't that he had bigger problems, but he spied the title page to his 'US Foreign Relations' paper on the floor under a shoe. 'Jeez,' he thought, 'I can't redo that paper - the rest had better be here somewhere'.

The knock became more insistent, and this time accompanied by a voice. "Hey Henry. It's Stan. We need to talk."

Henry thought that what he then replied with was strange, because he was not actually wondering about the time…. "Stan, what time is it?"

Through the door Stan said, "it's 4:15."

Henry looked around for clues for his next inquiry, "AM or PM?" His clock was no longer where it once was.

Stan said, "it's 4:15 in the morning, Henry. Look, we need to talk. Things are going to be happening soon."

Henry opened his door to see Stan standing tall outside. It surprised Henry that Stan wasn't surprised at the chaos in his room. (At that the kid across the hall opened his door and asked the two to 'keep it down'.) Stan entered, closed the door behind him and pulled upright the only other chair in the place, on which he sat.

Sitting, Henry listened and spoke as best he could, it seemed like his voice wouldn't work…...

Eventually, Henry said something:

Henry: Have you got hold of my parents yet? Paige?

Stan: That's not going to happen, Henry. I am so sorry.

Henry: Yes, it will. All you have to do is wait until the office at Dupont Circle Travel opens. You can reach dad there. With any luck, mom will be there, too.

- silence -

Stan: Today, your life is going to get complicated. Me, I'll try to intervene where I can. But this is now the Boston Field Office's. You remember my boss, Dennis Aderholt? He's just read me the riot act - he says I am now officially on a short leash. This now belongs to Boston…..

Henry: ….. you just said that it was 4 in the morning! How could you be talking…..

Stan: ….. and not even to the Washington bureau. - pause - Look, Henry, this is already going better for you than I feared. Then again, they may be using you as bait…

Henry: 'Bait'!? - silence - Stan, could you please tell me what is going on? My parents, they're not Russians. I would know. They don't speak Russian. - pause - I have to fix this room and get ready for exams…

Stan: Stop, Henry, stop, forget the room. - silence - For your sake, I need to go over this…. again.

- knock on the door, Beeman got up and opened it ajar -

Voice: Beeman, we're set to go by 6, maybe 6:30, before the cafeteria opens and there're kids milling around. We want to be at the field office before 8.

Henry (waiting for Stan to close the door and sit back down): What is this with 'bait', Stan? Who's bait?

Stan: You don't need to know, I'm sorry I said it.

Henry (sharply): No, not now! What you're telling me is that my parents lied to me all my life. Don't you now start!

Stan (with a heavy sigh): They stopped to go get Paige. That one was a surprise, it does not mesh with the KGB play-book. - pause - They think your parents will show up here, make a grab for you….

Henry (silence): What!? Why?

Stan: To exfiltrate you. With them. Back to the USSR.

- silence -

Henry: Why would I go to the USSR? Why would they go there, dad's from Pittsburgh! - pause - Mom, she said she loved me. - pause, chuckled - That was a new one. - pause - How could you possibly call them 'KGB'?

Stan (surprised): When? When did you speak to your mother? This is important, Henry.

Henry: Dad called the dorm the night before you showed up. - pause - Gawd, they were all weepy. Dad had been drinking, mom was all soppy, Paige…. all Paige could say was, 'I can't'.

Special Agent Stan Beeman, he told Henry that he'd be right back - that there were still a few hours left at St. Edwards. Before leaving, Stan looked out Henry's window to confirm that there was an agent outside looking up and in. There wasn't. Stan went down to the dorm's lobby where the Agent-in-Charge (AIC) from Boston was.

"Okay," Stan said somewhat out of breath, "I've got something. First, take my word for it, Henry is not part of it. He doesn't know what he knows. Get this: Philip and Elizabeth, they called him, here at the dorm - called the night they ran. Paige was with them. They were saying their goodbyes. Trust me, they're not heading here. I know these people."

The AIC said sarcastically, "yeah, so I am gathering….."

The knowledge of which actually troubled neighbour Stan Beeman all the more. In Paige's garage, Philip had turned out to have been meticulously honest with him. About their friendship. About Henry, who they were having to abandon. Probably even about a pending coup back in Moscow.

About Renee?

At that, the AIC's radio crackled, just as the dorm's fire alarm sounded. "Code 4, he's running. Agent Sahota has chased him into the forest. He can't get far. He went out the back, the emergency door, it is alarmed." To which the AIC replied into the radio, 'no shit! Find him!'

The ease in which Henry was caught signaled something that Beeman quickly mentioned to the Boston guys. "He's no illegal, if he were, he'd be in Canada before we knew he was gone."

More importantly, Henry had just given the Boston Field office a reason to keep Stan in the loop. As long as Stan could trickle-fed the AIC relevant information from Henry - info that checked out - Stan would continue on the file. On a short leash.

At 7:30 am sharp, a handcuffed Henry Jennings was led to the AIC's car out in the cold. They were late, and a few students were gawking out their windows at the circus. Beeman briefly scanned the windows of the dorm which faced the parking lot, and mercifully most seemed to be staying put. St. Edwards Academy's day was going to be as normal as it could be under the circumstances.

Coach Bowman's chances at the upcoming Regionals, though, just took a hit.

PARKING LOT CONVERSATIONS

Beeman, he had no luggage or personal effects with him at the school, those were all at the Manchester motel. Given that the Boston FBI guys were driving straight to their field office, Stan hoped he had time to pick his stuff up.

As he was getting into his car, a tearful Wand Chu emerged from a small group of students standing outside the main door, came up behind him, sans coat or anything other than a thin sweater to shield herself from the cold.

Stan said, "hey, Ms. Chu. There's no need, you look like you're freezing. There's nothing for you to do….. people will be in touch."

Through tears and hugging more tightly the sweater she had wrapped around herself, she said, "the headmaster has cancelled classes for today. There'll be an assembly in the gym at 10 am. Can you stay for that?"

"I'm sorry, I cannot," Beeman answered. If I get a chance, I'll mention that to the Boston Field Office, eventually, yes, that would be a good idea."

Wanda Chu paused, then said in a low voice, "I did what you asked."

It must have been the quizzical look on his face which caused her to add, "I didn't let on about the diary or the cassette." She paused, "look, I get it, it's you guys in Washington who are counterintelligence," which was not entirely true. "They asked me if I knew anything that they'd neglected to ask about…. I did as you asked. I asked them in return, 'what is it that you have in mind?' I didn't lie. But it didn't feel right."

Beeman looked at her as he got in, closed his door and rolled down the window. "I should thank you for your care for Henry, and your discretion. I'll be honest with you Ms. Chu, nothing about any of this 'feels' right."

She again pulled her thin sweater tighter around herself as she leaned toward the window. "What's going to happen to Henry?"

"That's anyone's guess," Beeman answered. "Me, I'm convinced he doesn't know anything. He's done nothing."

"He's such a good kid," she offered. Stan thought, 'yes, for the last six years they've been good neighbours. The best. At the end, my best friend finally told the truth.'

Beeman's brain switched on as he drove off the St Edwards Academy campus. It was imperative that he get to the Boston field office ASAP. He actually did not know where it was located in the city. If he stopped in Manchester, it would only be for gas and his things.

MISSED CALL

Returning to her office, Wanda Chu walked past the main desk where the receptionist was starting her day, quite aware - since yesterday - that she was now some focal point in some legal intrigue. It had started when the second and third FBI agent had arrived, asking for Henry Jennings, then asking directions to the Academy's rink.

As they left, one of the Special Agents had quipped to her, "I gather you pretty much have discretion over that phone there, over who to pass a call to. A few minutes ago, you'd probably take a message for the janitor. From now on, we have authority to clear the headmaster off a line if we need it. Are you clear?"

The receptionist said she had been. All of which scared her a bit.

So that morning when the academic advisor came past her, coming in from the cold parking lot, the receptionist made an arbitrary decision, one that would have been routine the week previous. She hoped she was not getting into trouble for just doing her job.

"Hey, Wanda," she said, "there's a call for you. I'm holding it, you can take it in your office. It's a girl, she was wanting to speak to that strawberry-haired FBI agent. I told her he'd just left, and that you were the one to speak to."

Chu quickened to her desk, looked at the phone in its cradle, with the flashing button showing a 'call waiting'. She could see out her window that Stan Beeman was already at the end of the long driveway, turning out to the highway.

So she picked up the phone, pressed the lighted button and said, "Wanda Chu, Academic advisor?"

The young voice at the other end said, "Is Mr. Beeman there? He's FBI."

Stan Beeman, he arrived in Boston well before mid-morning, and had found the FBI field office. Instead of parking in the office compound, he settled on the street - he figured there'd be less chance his car would be searched on the public street.

Entering, he was met at the front desk by the AIC of the Jennings' file - the guy who'd been up at St Edwards to arrest Henry.

Before Beeman could say anything, the AIC asked, "Say, Stan, is there a reason why Paige Jennings would be calling you up at the school? We'd tapped their line, I mean, how would she even know you were there?"

(to be continued…..)