August 2027: An Unwelcome Blast from the Past Part III.
Nick had told Cameron to contact Thad rather than himself once he had his hands on the package – it made sense to contact someone that was in the same country and was alone after all; Nick had Jeff around, and it was almost time for them to head down to dinner over in London. Cameron had agreed, although he thought that Nick's true motivation for that request was to save him an expensive telephone call to England. Cameron was not the wealthiest of the close circle of Warblers by any means, but that did not matter to him. He had the lifestyle that he needed, a home in the country, job satisfaction and the love of a good woman. To that end he stopped his truck again a short way up the track to the farm, at a point where the road widened out to allow vehicles to pass each other, and placed a call to the Head Warbler…
He knew that Nick would have told Thad to expect a call from him, and he was not surprised when it was swiftly answered. Cameron was tempted to wait to speak until his friend said "Well!?" in a tetchy tone, but he did not; instead, he put on his best approximation of an English accent and spoke.
"Hello Greenfinch, Agent 006, aka Woodpecker, here. The mission that I was asked to undertake by Dove has been successful."
There was a brief pause, then Thad burst out laughing. "Oh, Cam, thank you for that! It was an awful impersonation, but you have made me laugh, and after all that has happened in the last few hours, that is exactly what I needed! You have the package safe?"
"Affirmative. I stopped the mailman before he could even get to Elspeth's place, and now just have to deliver the rest of their mail. What do you want me to do with the package?"
"I actually need you to get it to Sebastian, so if you could repackage it unopened in a postal box and mail it to him care of Dalton, then I will see that you get the money for postage back."
Cameron smiled inwardly at that last part, although it wasn't necessary. "Dare I ask what is in the package? All of this seems so cloak and dagger, like actually being in a spy thriller."
"Obviously such information is classified, 006," replied Thad, adopting the style that Cameron had used earlier. "The most I can tell you is that the item inside the package could have destroyed Jeff's relationship with his biological mother, and had it leaked further, destroyed the reputation of him, Nick and Sebastian altogether."
Cameron knew at once what it was from that, and in a hushed tone, replied, "Wait, I think I know what it is now, but wasn't that supposed to have been deleted a long time ago?"
Thad chuckled, and said, "You always did have an excellent memory and a deductive mind. You are correct, that is what is inside the package, and given the much higher profile of our three fellow Warblers now…"
"I will drop off the mail right now, then head directly to the post office and get it sent off to Dalton."
"Thanks for that, I do appreciate it, as will the others. Of course, you can't tell them that you worked out what it was…"
Once Cameron had rung off, Thad let out a sigh of relief; the flood of packages had now been stemmed, at least on this side of the Atlantic, and there was every chance that those that had been sent to the United Kingdom would never leave the mail centre at Heathrow. After all, the wife of heir to the throne would have a great deal of weight with the officials at the Royal Mail now; they just had to work out what would be the best way to get them back to the United States unopened – perhaps she could arrange for them to be mailed to Dalton direct using her privileges as a senior Royal…
He sent a quick text off to Nick, to advise him that all was well with the package in Vermont and to ask him to get in touch as soon as he knew what had happened to those sent to Britain; he did not expect an immediate response as he knew that it would be time for dinner now in London. He then sent a text to Sebastian to let him know that all of the packages had now been accounted for, again not expecting a response, as he would be at the theater in Columbus, getting ready for his show that night.
However, he decided that it would be best for him to try and speak to Trent right now, if only so that he could ask to speak to Rory and apologise to him profusely for the second interruption to their vacation time. However, his phone began to ring before he could dial, and to his shock he saw Trent's name on the screen. He answered, trying not to laugh at the irony, and said, "I was just about to call you – we must have a psychic link! So, all of the packages are now in our possession or soon will be…"
There was silence, and Thad felt his heart sinking the longer it went on.
"About that," said Trent solemnly. "My contact at the USPS just informed me that another twenty packages matching the description of ours were put into the mail today in the border city of Nogales, which is a short distance from Arivaca; the post office there is closed on a Saturday. It was flagged up at once as due to a technical fault, only counter service was available at the Nogales office today…"
Thad groaned, wondering where all of those packages would be going, and how on earth they were going to stop them.
"Our lady tried to walk out of the post office when she saw that the kiosks were all out of service, but there were no other customers in the building, so the clerk called her over to the counter, and there was no way she could refuse that without looking really suspicious. They processed all of the packages, but immediately flagged it due to the identical nature of the packages. They were then placed in a dispatch bag but separated from the other mail. The mail had already been collected for that day, so they haven't entered the system. My contact at the USPS has quarantined them and has placed a divert on them; they will go to Washington DC, where I can collect them up. The staff at Nogales will be told that they are connected to an ongoing mail fraud."
"That is wonderful news," said Thad, the relief in his voice obvious.
"What is even better than that is that we now have a description of the female that was sending them, and a whole new batch of surveillance camera footage."
"I am glad that we can eliminate the former Principal as our culprit."
"It wasn't him directly, but there has to be some connection, I think. We still don't know exactly who she is. That we might discover soon enough though; when she drove out of the parking lot at the post office, she turned south onto the road that leads to the border crossing point. That means there should be a record of her vehicle and of her documentation with Homeland Security. The problem is that now she is in Mexico she is outwith the reach of local law enforcement. I am going to have to advise that we need to get the Feds involved, because we might need the co-operation of the authorities in Mexico to sort this one out…
"I think that you and I should keep the potential involvement of the Mexican authorities in all of this to ourselves for now; the more people and agencies that get involved in stopping this, the more potential there is for the information to leak out. Nick would only worry about the impact on Jeff, and I think that it is for the best if we keep Sebastian oblivious to this new development as well for now. There is no need for them to even know about this second set of packages as we have already stopped them," Thad said quietly.
"And better yet, tomorrow is Sunday, so the post offices are closed in most places, even over the border in Mexico," replied Trent. He paused as Thad coughed loudly at that, horrified at the prospect that on Monday morning, the perpetrator could be dispatching packages from Mexico. "Oh, goodness no, Thad, I wasn't suggesting that they might start arriving from south of the border! Everything that comes in from down there is subject to far too many scans and checks for that to be practical for them. No, if there are any more packages sent, then it will be from a post office here, but the problem is that we don't know exactly where that will be. There will be little that we can do to stop them if they move on to another state, or worse, a busy city center post office. What we need to do is catch her. Hopefully we will be able to obtain more details from the customs officers at Nogales; if we are lucky we will be able to get a name and an address for her…"
"Can you get that process started?" asked Thad, sighing a little as he realised that there was no alternative to bringing in those authorities.
"I already have given then go-ahead; my contact at the USPS is speaking to his own opposite number in Homeland Security, passing on all the information that I have given them and repeating what I did to them; that this is strictly confidential and highly sensitive. Unfortunately, we are unlikely to find out anything more today, as these things take time unless the request has been made directly by the President or the Feds. Getting either of them involved opens up a whole new can of worms. If we take it slowly then hopefully, we can have all of this resolved without dragging Sebastian's name into it."
Thad sighed again, but he knew that Trent was right. Even the slightest hint of a scandal would spread like wildfire…
It would be a sleepless night for all of the main players in what was going on that Saturday, as there was so much at stake. Thad was concerned for all of them, anxious to prevent a disaster for them personally, as well as for the Warblers as a group. All it would take would be one unscrupulous journalist to obtain a copy of the DVD and decide that the denials of Sebastian, Nick and Jeff in the past were false. They would investigate further, bringing the whole Dalton scandal, that had largely been forgotten, back out into the media spotlight, and once it was there, they would keep digging for more dirt.
They would no doubt discover everything about the Preppy Boys stripper routine that Beats and Flint had performed in that gay bar in Princeton all those years ago too; when that came out, it would be the latter that would suffer the most, given that his mother would probably have multiple kinds of fit when her boy was splashed all over the media, her position in the community left in tatters. Of course, Dante was still unaware of Beats' past, and although he could see the young man in question shrugging it off, Thad was all too aware that it might be more of an issue with Lachlan's parents.
He also wondered if Sebastian had adopted a similar attitude to Nick, and had kept Dave out of the loop; whilst that would save the football coach worrying about his husband, it would make it a big shock when the spotlight turned on them both – and that was before the impact on the actor's sister-in-law was considered…
Across the Atlantic, Nick found himself unable to sleep that Saturday night, his mind awhirl with it all; the fact that his husband lay sound asleep at his side did not help. Still, it was better than the blond being awake and worrying. Nick could not bear anything hurting his husband, and if need be, he would go to very unethical and even illegal lengths if it kept the blond in the dark…
It would be in the early hours of Sunday morning, after he had watched the hours go round on the clock most of the night, that a thought suddenly came to Nick. They needed to find a way to debunk the whole story if necessary, to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it wasn't them with Sebastian in that film; the best way to do that would be to present the actual people from the film. The authorities back when the film had first come to their attention had just closed down the studio and deleted what they believed to be the sole master copy; there had been no attempt to his knowledge to contact the actual performers. He resolved to call Trent first thing to see what he thought about the idea, and find out if he had a contact somewhere that could give them access to the records of the previous case…
That resolve allowed Nick to doze off for an hour or so, and when he woke it was the first one that came to him. A glance at the clock showed him it was just after 6am, and after climbing carefully out of the bed so as not to disturb his husband, he dressed quickly and then headed down to the little writing room that had almost become his second home in the last few hours. As he went down the stairs, not wanting to call an elevator and attract a lot of attention, he sent a quick text message to Trent; he knew that he was usually up with the lark, even on vacation. He passed through the lobby silently, the place deserted; even the watchful Lady Alice was absent, sleeping somewhere no doubt where she would be left alone. Checking his phone as soon as he shut the writing room door behind him, he saw that Trent had replied, telling him he was awake and could talk to Nick now if he needed him to. The brunet had no hesitation in making that call…
"You couldn't sleep either?" said Trent as he answered the call. "I've tossed and turned most of the night, because we need to get to the bottom of all of this quickly, and the wheels of bureaucracy move much to slowly. I feel I should be doing more, and I want you to know that I will not stand silently by if the worst happens."
"I know that you won't, and I am grateful… The truth for me is that I am more worried about Jeff than myself. Yes, the UN will not be best pleased at first, but they will investigate and find out the truth, not believe the idle gossip of the worst of the media. However, that will not be the case for Jeff; mere rumour and innuendo will be more than enough to destroy him. Anyway, something occurred to me last night; what if we could find the actual stars of that awful film? If we could, and we could get them to admit, publicly if necessary, that they are the performers, then that would make the attempts of the person behind all of this worthless. I know that you and Thad are doing all you can to stop things in their tracks, but if you can't…"
Trent was silent for a moment as he considered what Nick was suggesting in the light of what he knew about the existence of a second batch of packages, and what he and Thad feared could happen next. Stopping any copies of the DVD reaching their destination was the ideal, but it would be useful to have a viable Plan B in readiness. The idea from Nick was perfect for that, particularly if they could get the truth out to the media before the lie became widespread…
"You might well be onto something there my friend; I actually have a contact that works in the records office for the FBI, and a quiet word there, and possibly a little help from one of my other contacts could get me access to that file…" He paused, thinking that there was no need to tell Nick that the other contact in question was the Vice President. "It is something that should have been investigated at the time, but the priority then was getting it off sale, the film destroyed, and the business closed down. I would assume that they did keep copies of all the relevant files in terms of those employed in the various productions, the performers and the crew as well. The best thing is that the FBI archives are staffed day and night, and my contact works nights. I can call now, and there will be someone there to answer, even at 1am in Washington DC. I can suggest that the whole situation is linked to…another situation that came up recently…"
Trent paused, aware that in his tired state, he had nearly revealed that Jonathan Anderson had tried to spoil the Coronation, and that was something that Nick did not know about, and hopefully never would. "Of course, there is one potential fly in the ointment here; we have to hope that the young men in question are still alive. You do hear such awful tales about the people that are involved in that industry and the problems they end up with. On top of that, the majority of those in the industry at the time the film was made were based in California and L.A. in particular – they might well have perished in the big quake."
"I never actually considered that," said Nick sadly.
"I can only get the check started and cross my fingers," replied Trent. "I will make it right now, and as soon as I find out anything I will send you a message. In the meantime, you need to try and relax, because there is one thing that I know about you, and about Jeff. When you are concerned about something, you end up with a certain expression, and Jeff will immediately pick up on that. If he sees that you are worried, he will start to worry too, and that is how it all starts…"
Nick let Trent end the call, then sat quietly in the little room and tried to compose himself and dismiss all of his cares for a while. He knew that Trent was right, just as he knew exactly when Jeff was feeling anxious by looking at him. They were soulmates after all, linked by more than just physical things. He had every confidence in Trent and his abilities; he had amassed a network of contacts in the corridors of power in the nation's capital. Then there was the fact that Thad was also on the case; like Wes before him, he always seemed to know the best thing to do in any crisis. He was an oasis of calm in all of the chaos. With those two at the helm, all would be fine…
With that, his phone began to ring, and he wondered what Trent had forgotten. Without looking at the screen, he answered it. "Either your contact is remarkably quick, or there is some detail that you need to tell me," he said with a grin.
"My contact, Mr Sterling-Duval? I fear that we might be at cross-purposes here…" came the reply, which made Nick gasp in horror.
"Your highness! I can only offer my sincere apologies! I had just finished a call with a friend of mine on the subject of the packages, and I presumed wrongly that he was calling me back to tell me something he had forgotten…"
There was laughter on the other end of the line, and the Princess of Wales said, "It is not an issue, trust me. It is a trifle early in the morning for this sort of call, but this is the only real opportunity that I will have to speak to you in private. I wanted to let you know that I managed to speak directly to the senior manager at the mail centre at Heathrow Airport and told him that a number of packages had been dispatched from the United States on Friday, addressed to The King at both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, the Prime Minister, and to a leading news editor. I did not name my source, or why I had not escalated it to the security services, but I think he understood that it was a personal issue that needed to be dealt with discretely. I told him that they contained highly inappropriate material and might have suggested that there might also be a biological agent present inside them; the sort of thing that could do untold damage to the flora and fauna of the United Kingdom. I considered saying harm to the recipient, but that would have probably led to him closing the mail centre and summoning the fire service, which would attract a lot of attention."
Nick agreed, then she went on, "I think that he ended up assuming that the tip off had come to me anonymously and that I did not want the police or GCHQ involved to save everyone too much embarrassment. To cut a long story short, I had a message this morning to tell me that he had intercepted the packages himself, and wanted to know what I wanted him to do with them. I was thinking that I could ask him to have them delivered to me personally this morning, and then when you are at the concert this afternoon, I can pass them to you…"
Nick shook his head, then realised that she could not see him, so spoke quickly. "Actually ma'am, might I request an alternative? I would have to take my work satchel with me to the concert to carry the packages in, and Jeff would query why I was taking it at all. I would then have the worry that either he or indeed Wes would open the satchel and find the packages before I can hide them away. No, if I give you the correct address, can you ask for them to be sent to Dalton Academy instead? I know that I am presuming quite a bit here, but I think that you would be able to achieve that. In addition, this course removes you from the role of the go between in all of this. It also removes the possible danger of a staff member coming across a package addressed to The King by accident, and taking it to him, thinking it had been misdirected…"
Catherine was silent for a moment, then laughed. "You actually make several valid points there; neither of us wants to be guarding packages all day, because we are not cut out for the life of secret agents. I shall make contact with the mail centre again right now and ask them to return them forthwith to the United States as undelivered mail. Now, as well as the full address of the school, you will need to give me the name of the person that we are sending it to…"
"Send them care of Sebastian Smythe," Nick said, hoping that she would not ask why the actor was the recipient of the items…
"Well, that will actually make things much easier. I can say that he is acting as a go between for your friend that works in the Oval Office, so as to avoid it being a major incident. There has already been one incident in connection with the Coronation I believe involving someone from the United States, so I can say that the packages are part of that," replied Catherine.
"I will accept whatever you think is best in that area, your Highness," Nick replied, whilst wondering what the other incident might have been.
"It will keep the most nosy of the courtiers satisfied and that is the main consideration," she answered, then in a lighter tone, she continued, "I must say that all of this intrigue and cloak and dagger stuff has made me feel like I am part of the cast of one of Mr Abram's spy films, but I am glad that this is coming to a conclusion."
"I hope so too, because I feel so guilty about keeping all of this a secret from Jeff, even if I am only doing so for his benefit."
"The same applies between me and William; I should have told him, but he would have wanted to observe protocol and put all of this through the official channels; by the time that all of that paperwork was done, and the right approaches made, the packages would have been at their destinations! No, it is for the best that we have kept this between ourselves and my only wish now would be that you inform me of what the conclusion to all of this drama is."
"I can do that," replied Nick.
They ended the call there, as time was marching on, and Nick knew from experience that Jeff would be waking up soon, and would immediately wonder where he was… It was then that he realised that he did not have a convincing excuse thought up to give to his husband yet, so he began to ponder on that as he walked back out into reception. To his delight, the answer was there; whilst he had been in the writing room, the Sunday newspapers had been delivered, and one of the staff was placing them in the racks for guests to help themselves to. He had a brief word with them, and soon he was heading back up in the elevator clutching copies of The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday and The Observer, all of which had large colour supplements enclosed illustrating all the events of the previous day. Both Jeff and Wes would enjoy looking through them, and after they were finished with them, they could be sent on to Thad for his collection of periodicals at Dalton; they would be a wonderful addition to his collection of media coverage of world events…
Nick entered his hotel room to find his husband sitting on the bed, and not exactly looking very pleased. "Where have you been Nicky? I woke up and the other side of the bed was empty! I didn't know what had happened to you!"
"I'm sorry, my love; you were sleeping so soundly when I woke up and I didn't want to disturb you as you were so tired last night. I should have left you a note however, so I do apologise. The truth is that I had one of my heads last night and I didn't get all that much sleep; I thought when it got light that a walk in the fresh air might help clear it, so I headed down to see if the park was open… In the end I just walked along The Mall to the statues of the King's grandparents, just to see if what they have been saying is true, and there is room for a statue of their daughter beside them. There would be, but I am not sure that the location is the most fitting for a permanent tribute to such a remarkable monarch."
"That I can agree with you on," replied Jeff. "Having said that, I did hear a rumour going around behind the scenes at Westminster Abbey yesterday, and that is that many influential people would like to see her statue placed on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. It has not held a permanent statue at any point since the Square was completed; there had been plans in the original design for a statue of William IV on horseback, an accompanying statue to the one of George IV on the other large plinth, but as is the case with so many public works even now, the money ran out before it could be commissioned. What should be placed there has thus been a topic of debate for decades, and a committee was eventually formed at the start of this century to decide on what should go there. So far they have let the space be used for a large number of temporary sculptures, but no progress was ever made on something long lasting. There is a school of thought that attributes this indecision to the fact that they had already decided it should house a statue of the late Queen, but they could not do that whilst she was alive…"
Nick nodded, wondering just how long his husband had been listening to someone to have found out so much about it all. Now that he had been told of the idea, it did seem fitting, particularly if it was a statue of the late Queen on horseback, as she had been at the Trooping of the Colour ceremony for so many years. The more he thought of it, the more he was certain that the lady in question would approve of it, far preferring such a memorial to one of her standing there in crown and ceremonial robes…
He then remembered what he had in his hands and went to sit on the bed by Jeff. "My head is feeling much better after my walk, but I still feel quite tired from lack of sleep; today will definitely need to be a coffee day at breakfast! As I came back in they were putting out the newspapers, so I picked up the three with the best photo supplements of yesterday for you. We can pass them on to Thad when we get back to New York tomorrow."
Jeff smiled at his husband, then said, "I can look through them as we make our way out to Windsor for the concert – would you mind taking your satchel and storing them in it for the journey? I am looking forward to this afternoon's concert, but I am glad that we are not expected to attend the evening firework display afterwards, given how early our flight back home is…"
Nick smiled, firstly at the irony that he was now being expected to take his satchel to Windsor Castle at Jeff's request, and then at the fact that his husband described their flight home the next day as early; most people would not see a departure after 10am as that at all! Having said that, he had also made preparations for their eight-hour flight home. Whilst he had been out on his last-minute errands on Friday, he had popped into a Boots pharmacy and had asked for advice from the pharmacist. He had explained the headaches he always had on long-haul flights, and asked if she could give him something to assist. She had recommended only one thing, and that was a mild sleeping draught.
Without checks by a doctor there was no way of knowing exactly what caused the headaches, so the best approach was to sleep through it. He would be able to take the pill as he boarded the plane and as it was fast acting, he would be asleep before they even took off; all being well, he would not wake until just prior to landing. He would therefore sleep for the most debilitating time, even if he could not avoid getting the headache. He had thought about telling Jeff the truth, but his lack of sleep would be just as good an explanation. They would be sitting in such as way on the trip home that Wes would be between them in any case, and he would be the perfect distraction for his papa for the duration of the journey…
