An Inconvenient Spy Ch. 01

The sheriff who I had talked to briefly a couple of times began, "Folks, I know that you want answers but frankly all we have right now are questions. What we know is that the house belonging to Jeff Franklin blew up late last night. The cause is undetermined at this time. Federal investigators are on the scene checking out the cause. There have been several reports from neighbors that say they heard a helicopter in the area about the time of the explosion. We have not been able to confirm that any local helicopter was flying last night. The Dallas Sheriff's office is checking up there to see if anything was flying. Jeff Franklin was seen by his neighbor yesterday afternoon but his car is still in his barn but no one was found in the house when we searched in it this morning. A search of the surrounding area found a SUV in an abandoned barn about a mile and a half from here but it has out of state plates and the owner has not been determined at this time. In short, we have a mystery going on here. Please don't speculate on anything. We will let you know if and when we find something concrete. I have met Jeff Franklin a couple of times and have never had any reason to suspect him of anything but being young and retired. His neighbors all say the same thing about him. So we don't have any idea if this was an accident, a crime scene, or what. I'll give you an update around noon. That's it. There'll be no questions because we don't have any answers at this time."

The news announcer returned and said, "In an unrelated story, a red SUV was hit by a hit and run driver last night just before dark. The lone woman driver was killed instantly when her car hit a bridge abutment. One witness reported that it was a white truck with no markings on it that rear ended the SUV and drove off at high speed. The sheriff's office has not released the name of the dead woman and an area-wide search is on going looking for the truck. In other news.............."

Natalie asked in horror, "Do you think that they thought that was me?"

"I don't know Nat but I guess we have to assume so until we hear otherwise. Finish your breakfast and let's go find a place to stay for the day."

"I'm with you."

"You keep saying that."

"I know but I kind of like it. We need to find a place for you to sleep."

We paid and left. We found our place to stay thirty miles down the road when a sign came up and pointed up a road to a state park with trailers for rent. That sounded perfect to me. We drove five miles to the gate and I got out and went into the office. A young lady was listening to music on her iPad.

"Good morning, miss. I see that you have some trailers for rent?"

Her perky voice answered, "Yes we do, Mister?"

"Fisher, Russell Fisher. My wife and I are returning from California and I drove all last night and couldn't go any farther. I think we would like to stay today and tonight if we can. I need to get back to Dallas tomorrow."

"I will have to charge you for two days since our day starts at 3:00 in the afternoon. Sorry, but that is the rules. The trailers are all new since we are trying this out as a new thing to attract visitors. We don't have the cable television in yet but the WIFi works if you have a laptop or an iPad. The radio reception is pretty good too."

That will be fine. I just need a long nap this morning and a good night's sleep tonight. We have some food for today but might like to go out to dinner tonight. Is there anything good close by?"

"Not really. Thirty miles that way is a town with a truck stop and a diner and that is about it."

"Well that will have to do. I can't drive any farther today."

"Ok, it is $25 per night so it will be $50 for two days and I need to see your driver's license."

I pulled out my wallet and almost pulled out my real driver's license but then pulled out the Russell Fisher one along with two twenties and a ten. She wrote down the information on the license in a journal book and handed the license back to me and then handed me a key to number twenty.

"Pull through the gate and drive down the left fork of the road. It will be the third one from the turn off. There is no one else in the park right now but there might be later."

"That's great. If we do go out to dinner tonight, is there a problem getting back in after the office closes?"

"No, this key will open the gate and if you leave in the morning before we open, just drop it in the box on this side. This gate will open automatically when you pull up."

"Thank you so much. I think we might have to come back next time we go this way."

"I hope so. I just started working here and hope that we can make this a success."

"Me too."

I went back out to the truck and we drove the short distance to the trailer which indeed looked brand new. I told Nat everything that the girl had said and she nodded. Then we unloaded our overnight bags and opened the trailer. It was really nice with a queen size bed in back and a small but workable bathroom and shower and an electric kitchen. We set the bags down and she pushed me to the bed.

"Get undressed, get under the covers and go to sleep. I'll wake you up if something happens or for lunch. I might even let you have me for lunch today." She smiled at me but by now it was almost too hard for me to smile. I took off my shoes and clothes and crawled into bed.

I woke with a naked nipple caressing my lips. I could only guess who the nipple belonged to but I found out when I sucked it into my mouth and nipped down on it with my lips.

"Ouch, you horny devil. I was just trying to wake you up nicely."

"Then how come you are naked?"

"Because I wanted to be ready for you if you woke up horny."

"And."

"If you aren't horny yet, I am going to make you horny in a few minutes."

"I think that you are the horny one. Regardless of what happens, you are ready to fuck anytime we are together."

"You noticed. It is you by the way. John isn't a great lover and the two women I enjoy are nice and all, but you make me crazy. I wanted you in the truck last night and I wanted you when we got here even though I knew that you were exhausted. So now, I still want you. Are you complaining?"

"Sit on my face for a few minutes while I decide if I have any complaints." In a flash, I had a warm wet pussy against my lips and a mouth around my cock. This time she came three times and when I tried to pull out in order to fuck her properly, but she pulled off just enough to say, "No, I want to taste you." Then she went back down on me and coaxed a full orgasm from my cock.

Then she pulled off and crawled up next to me and snuggled close. "You can kiss me if you want. I don't mind the taste of my cum on your lips." She rose up and kissed me fully and completely for quite some time. She finally pulled back and lay back down next to me.

"Damn, you fuck me the best and you taste great in my mouth. Loving you is easy and wonderful."

"What time is it?"

"Oh, it is about 4:00 I guess. I just let you sleep."

"Did you get on the computer?"

"I thought about it but realized that I didn't have the log in or password. We probably ought to get up and check. I've just been puttering around and getting things in order. What is your plan now?"

"We need to eat something. The office closes at 7:00 so I thought we would leave about 7:30 and get on the road. I pretty well told the girl that we would leave early in the morning so if anyone checks, we could have ten hour head start."

"Do you think that someone is looking for us?"

"I assume so. They spent a lot of time and money finding me and maybe you. Now they know that we aren't there. I would imagine that they aren't going to pack their bags and go home after one set back."

"Who do you think they are?"

"I really don't know but if I had to guess, I would think it might be that kid or his family from that country we both wrote about. That is the only real link to both of us."

"That makes sense because I was working on that when I worked for John too. He reviewed all my reports before they went to wherever they go."

"True. Think again about what you wrote. Did you say or project anything that might have alienated someone in the chain if the report got leaked? That is what happened to me. I wrote that the family was poised to try a coup on the ruling family and that is what happened. Everyone else discounted the family as being a minor power. I felt that they were more powerful. I have no idea who leaked the report but when it was out there, the shit really hit the fan."

"I remember. It was really nasty all around the place. The only thing that I wrote that might have been hard was a comment that if the younger on became the head of the family, things might not go well for us. The older son would probably follow his father and support us in the area. Everything else was just routine stuff."

"Well that could be a match but it sounds pretty weak. If we get to a safe computer, we can look up more. I haven't paid much attention to things over there since I retired."

"Me neither. And John hasn't said anything but then he wouldn't."

"Ok, let me shower and then we can eat and log in and see what else is Gwen or Jilly have found out."

The shower was too small for both of us so we each took a quick shower alone and then dressed in clean clothes. Nat heated up a couple cans of beef stew and we ate as I logged in.

"The user name is highly creative. It is Russell the Fisher Man. It was the best I could come up with at the time. I am going to change the password so don't worry about the old one." I logged in and went to the change password screen and typed in the new password twice.

"Ok, smart ass, what is the new password?"

"One star then Nat105followed by five stars."

"And what is the significance of that?"

"Before Nat105, my life was a one star life; after Nt105, my life is a five star special."

"You sure do know how to make a girl feel good."

"Listen you make me feel better than I ever have before."

"Seriously?"

"Dead seriously. The past couple of days have been wonderful with you except for being on the run. Now log into the gossip line and let's see what is there."

She did and there were three messages. The first was a short one from Gwen that said simply, "All hell is breaking loose." The second was from Jilly who said, "Jeff, be careful. Someone is after your ass." The third one was three pages long from Gwen. Instead of staying on line to read them closely, I opened Word and copied each one and pasted it to a document and then had Nat log out. Then we read it together. I highlighted each phrase that caught my eye.

Briefly, Gwen reported that the investigation of the explosion was still ongoing but that there were two dead men in camo uniforms with automatic weapons found dead near the trees. This information was not going to be released to the press. The FBI was all over the sight and had found my safe room. Nat's car had been identified but her name wasn't made public. By now, I could smell the cover up being put in place.

She went on to say that they found the drivers of the hit and run trucks that hit both John and the girl in the red SUV. They were both gang members who were paid $5000 each to rent a truck and hit an assigned target. Neither of the men knew who hired them but that they were paid in cash by a foreign sounding man.

She then said that the gossip line was full of speculation but that no one seemed to have a real clue what was going on. She was going to follow up if anything broke.

The last bit was interesting. Jilly would not be logging in to the gossip line for awhile. They realized that we had dated and since she was now senior, they were monitoring her closely. Gwen said that she could get written messages to Gwen since they had offices in nearby buildings.

Natalie asked, "So what do you think now?"

"Someone is spending a lot of money to find us and doesn't mind hurting people. I think that we are on the right track by getting away but the question is still where can we lay low for a week or so?"

"We could go to my parent's cabin in Colorado. It is remote and not many people know about it."

"Let's keep that in mind. We might go there after things cool off. I expect that they are looking through our backgrounds pretty closely and will check everything they find as a link. Where do your parents live?

"San Francisco. Dad got transferred there a couple of years ago. They live in a condo near Fisherman's Wharf."

"We might pay them a visit. I don't trust the phones so it would have to be a personal visit. Their phone is probably bugged trying to see if you call."

"Shit. This is really like a spy novel, isn't it?"

"Sure does seem like it. Log back in to the gossip line and send a short note to Gwen and log out quickly. She might be monitored too. Just ask her if Jilly can find out who got my report two years ago and who got yours last year. It may not be worth anything but it is the only thing I can come up with right now."

She did and was on line for less than a minute and logged out. Fortunately, she was a faster typing than I was. It was now 7:00, so I said that we should get our things back in the truck and be prepared to leave when we saw that the office was closed and the girl was gone for the day. At 7:30, we drove out of the gate after leaving the keys in the box. I turned west but planned on turning back north at the next road that way. I didn't want to leave a straight path in case anyone was following us. At this time I guess the one thing I wanted to know most was if people were on our tails and how close they were. Knowing how close or not they were could help me make better decisions.

I realized that if I drove directly to Cloudcroft, we would arrive way too early in the morning and might arouse suspicion. I decided to go north and hit the Interstate and go south again to Alamogordo and then up the mountain from the west. That would be consistent with the cover story we were using and would also put us in Cloudcroft about 9:00 in the morning. That should be a good time to arrive.

Natalie and I talked about this and that about ourselves without talking about our previous lives all that much. She talked a little about John but I could tell that she was holding back something. I decided to just wait and let her tell me when she was ready. Around midnight, she curled up on the seat and fell asleep in my lap again. This time, I had put a blanket in the cab to cover her with and she snuggled right down to me and went to sleep. I hoped that I was making the right decisions for both of us.

I stopped for gas at midnight near the New Mexico border and then drove on until dawn when we got to Soccoro. I stopped at a truck stop on the Interstate and we went in to freshen up and eat some breakfast. Truck stops seemed to be our best ally as we could eat, gas up, watch television and access the computer without being noticed. We were one of many that just stopped on their way to someplace else. This one also had some computers to use for a fee and you could access the net anonymously. I chose to use that and check my Russell Fisher e-mail account. I could at least see if anyone else had tried to log on through the activity screen. So far it appeared that no one had tried to access it except me. All that was posted was the daily news updates from Yahoo. I took a few minutes to look at the news updates on the explosion and there was little of value in the updates as the cover stories were starting to solidify and people were losing interest in further updates. The only other thing of interest was a blurb that a Senator was going to be on Fox News Sunday morning to talk about the pending Energy Bill. Politics as usual. The Energy Bill in question had been bouncing around Congress for over fifteen years and had gone through five rewrites. Meanwhile, nothing had changed. Frankly, nothing ever changed much when Congress got their hands on it because no one really wanted to change anything substantially. The status quo put money in the right pockets and any change would disrupt their cash flow and cause problems during election years. Debates on the status quo were par for the course; changes were forbidden.

I sent Natalie back to log in to the gossip line on the anonymous computer and see if there was a new posting. She came back a few minutes later with a confused look on her face.

"What's up?"

"I'm not sure. Gwen said that your report went to the Energy, Commerce and State departments and mine only went to the Energy Department. She also said that there had been an on-line meeting of all seniors today with the big guy talking. He asked if anyone had heard directly and indirectly from either one of us. A few said that they had only heard rumors or gossip. He then told them that he personally wanted to know if either of us contacted them directly or indirectly or heads would roll. Gwen said that Jill was going to stay out of the loop for now since she was the newest senior and had a previous history with you. She said one last thing and that was to watch the Sunday morning talk show on Fox. Gwen added that everyone was getting off of the open gossip pages and only talking directly to individuals now. So she didn't expect much news. It sounds like the screws are really being put on."

"That it is what it sounds like but it also sounds like something is fishy here. I've never heard of anyone being focused on like we are. Me maybe if I was doing something wrong, but never a junior and a retired one at that. There is something going on behind the scenes for sure. I think that we need to be somewhere to watch the talk show tomorrow morning. I hope we can find somewhere private so we can watch interrupted."

We finished our breakfast and as we were about to leave, something came to mind and I went back to the computer and looked up the Senator who was supposed to be on the news talk show. There it was. It was either a big coincidence or the making of a scandal. He had been a representative on the Energy Department committee when both our reports were submitted. He was now on the Senate Energy committee and on the Foreign Relations committee. A quick look at the law firm he was with before he was elected to congress listed that little dust bin country as one of their clients. So what we were looking at right now was a possible link from me and Natalie through this useless country and into the bowels of the House and the Senate. There was no telling who might be in the loop besides a few hit men from a country known for their violence. We definitely needed a place to lay low and let things unfold.

We finished and got in the truck and drove the two hours to Cloudcroft. We pulled into the center of town at 9:30 just as the stores and galleries were beginning to open up. We parked in an off street parking lot and walked down the main drag. It was cool and we wore our jackets and hats and appeared to mix in with the other tourists who were poking their way along. Something caught my eye in a real estate office window and I pulled Natalie over to look at it.

There was a big note that said "FOR SALE" with a picture of a travel trailer below it. It further said that the trailer was in excellent condition with new tires and the rest of the month left on the space rental. The price was $10,000 and was described as below market price and the reason for selling was a death in the family. All offers considered.

I looked at Natalie and asked, "What would you think if we bought that trailer and took our hotel room with us? We could stop in parks and roadside layovers and almost anywhere. It would slow us down a little but we aren't breaking any speed limits anyway."

She looked at me and said, "I like the idea but $10,000 is a lot of money and we would have to access our bank accounts to get it. That would leave us open to being noticed."