Long Cool Woman Ch. 01

"What's the goal of the mission?" I asked. "To capture Shimono?"

"Ultimately." said Willingham, looking at me as if I were a turd on the floor for daring to ask him anything. "But we want to find her contacts with the Red Chinese first, and also determine what has been compromised and how badly, if indeed there has been compromise." I nodded.

"Who are you going to get to accomplish this mission?" asked Lindy Linares.

"The smartest person in the room." I said with a grin, pointing at the person sitting next to me... my wife.

"How did you know that?" Willingham thundered. "Dr. Fredricson, did you compromise the operation by talking to this man?"

"No, she has not said a word to me about this mission..." I said.

"...but I did have to tell my husband to watch the kids while I'm gone." Laura finished.

Willingham was stunned. "You're... you're married?" he gasped.

"I admit it." I said. "I'm the smartest person in the room... for asking her to marry me." I said proudly. FBI Agents chuckled. Laura smiled at the compliment and patted my thigh.

"All right, then." said Willingham. "Since you now know that, we can move on to the next phase. We'll be briefing Dr. Fredricson privately in the other room, and you can brief the FBI Agents on their roles, Mr. Assistant Director."

"Commander Troy," Willingham continued, coming up to me, "if the EAD wants you here, that's his prerogative. What I want from you... is cooperation." As I looked at him skeptically, he said "You have a reputation for fucking up Federal missions. Stay out of our way. Don't blow this chance for us to land a very big fish."

"I have my own job to do." I said. "So I don't know what your problem is."

Laura got up to go. "Let's go, Willingham." She turned to me and said "I won't be taking this, so hold on to it." She kissed me as she handed me her cellphone. To my shock, Willingham came up to me and reached his hand out.

"I'll be holding on to that." he said. "Give it to me." There were audible gasps in the room. I didn't move, but just stared at him.

Willingham said "This is what I mean about your cooperation, Commander Troy. That phone is CIA property, and must be turned in to me for security purposes. Hand it over."

I got up out of my chair, put the cellphone in my back pocket, and faced Willingham. "Molon labe." I said levelly. "Come take it from me."

Willingham was in utter shock. He looked over at EAD Lange, who growled "Think you can whip his ass? 'Cause that's what it's gonna take to get that phone from him."

Willingham turned back to me. "I'm not kidding." he said. "You won't get out of this building if you don't hand it over." There were more gasps in the room. He may not have meant that lethal force would be used to acquire the phone, but I didn't care: a red crowbar was now being tapped in its owner's palm.

"It's a good day to die." I said in a deep voice. "Are you prepared to die with me today?" Sheriff Griswold would be proud of my display of Klingon guile. Laura... not so much.

"For God's sake, Willingham!" my wife all but shouted, worn to obvious anger. "That phone is safer with my husband than it would be at Fort Knox. Now let's go... or let's call the whole damn thing off." To my regret, Willingham made the decision... to follow Laura out the door.

"Wow." said Julius Jefferson as I sat back down.

"What the fuck?" Lindy Linares said. "Who does that clown think he is?"

"Cardigan said he was one of the CIA's best technology experts." said Muscone.

"But he's not very knowledgeable about Shimono, nor her cases." said Martin Nash. "Commander Troy's name is all over her files, especially with regard to the May Cialis case. And he should've known of your involvement in the EMPTY QUIVER case, Commander."

"I heard that my name was redacted from most of the EMPTY QUIVER reports." I said. "By order of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So I'll spot Willingham that one. But you're right about the rest of it."

"He's a top-level technocrat," said EAD Lange, "which is a polite way of saying he's Washington bureaucrat. He's been in the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology for a while, and it's possible that one day he'll sit in the Deputy Director chair that Dr. Fredricson once occupied. We vetted him to the best of our abilities, and he appears to be okay..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Laura followed Willingham into the extremely secure areas in another part of the Federal Building. They went into the small room with the plexiglass cube were Melina had received her mission to assassinate Don's sister Elizabeth. (Author's note: The French Connection', Ch. 01.) Inside the room was a woman who handled paperwork and stuff, and a slender young man with bright red hair and a very nerdy-'ish' appearance.

"This is Mindy, who is handling the support for the mission." said Willingham, using the word 'support' to mean paperwork. "And this is Jed Jensen. He'll be your 'assistant' on the mission."

"Hello, Mindy." Laura said. "Hello, Jed. No offense, but..." she whirled to face Willingham, and said "... I asked specifically for a woman to be my assistant on this mission."

"Jed is very highly qualified-------" started Willingham.

"I'm sure he is." said Laura, glancing at Jed. "And once again, no offense to him. But I asked for a woman, and for very specific reasons. I don't understand why you have failed to meet that requirement of mine, Mr. Willingham, nor why you're trying to make excuses for your failure now. But I insist upon a woman assistant, and you'd better get me one fast, very fast, or we might as well abort this catastrophe and start over... with someone besides you."

"I don't see what the problem is with this Agent, and why you can't work with him-------" tried Willingham.

"BECAUSE THAT'S NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR, GOD DAMN YOU!" Laura shouted into Willingham's face, her own face crimson with fury. "Now shut your fucking mouth and get me the assets I asked for... or you won't be working on this or any other mission for the CIA ever again! You've got 30 minutes, or I abort the mission and call Langley. And if I call Langley... your career is over."

"For God's sake." Willingham muttered. He exited the room.

"Again, Jed, nothing personal." Laura said, trying to calm down. "I don't know where you're supposed to be, but you can go."

"Yes ma'am." said Jed. He also left the room.

Laura sat down opposite Mindy and said "Okay, let's the this going."

"Yes ma'am." said Mindy. "I shouldn't ask, but just to learn: why not take Jed as your assistant?"

"It'll raise red flags." said Laura. "I'm naturally a strong woman, anyway, so when I go in there, that's what they'll see. And this is badly politically incorrect, but a psychological fact: if they see a seemingly weak man following a strong woman around, they're going to think it's unnatural and not right. And I'm going to have enough problems not blowing this cover without giving them reason to look harder into it." Mindy nodded.

Laura knew that wasn't necessarily true, but had other reasons for wanting a female assistant, and she didn't really want to discuss them. And another reason was so that she didn't have to take Willingham's choice as her assistant: her trust in him was dropping through the floor already...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Okay," said EAD Lange, getting up, "this is my briefing for you guys, and I definitely want the Iron Crowbar in on it. I'm not sure if Willingham even knows all of this, so don't talk about it in front of him unless he asks or talks about it to you first."

"As you know," Lange started, "we had a massive breach of security when George Aurus and Jimmy Tolson were helped to escape from highly secure prisons." (Author's note: 'Shipping And Handling'.) "Quint Starr is now dead, and we believe Trent Ridge will not be a further disturbance to our collective harmony. But Barsbane and Shimono are still out there."

"Also," said the EAD, "we had embedded an undercover FBI Agent into MegaTech Industries. His name was David Lang, and he was discovered... and murdered. Commander Troy solved his actual murder, but that wasn't enough for the FBI brass. They want to know who was behind the murder, who gave the order to commit the murder and conceived the plan that those three Indians executed, pun not intended." (Author's note: 'Four Square'.)

"With that in mind," Lange continued, "along with the potential threat to our technological secrets, Dr. Fredricson agreed to go into MegaTech's office in Palmyra County just northeast of Midtown, posing as a contract compliance officer, likely with trips to the City. Our mission is going to be supporting her, following any leads she might send our way, and seeing who the traitors are, if anyone. And if we have a Shimono or Barsbane sighting, we may make a move to take them out of circulation."

"Sir," said Martin Nash, "CIA Officer Willingham seemed to not want that to happen, at least not taking Shimono out. Are we working independently of him?"

"Yes and no." said Lange. "I'm as unhappy as you are that we're having to work with anyone in the CIA..." Everyone looked over at me, and Lange got the hint: "...besides Dr. Fredricson, of course." he added. I just nodded, and Lange continued: "But the theft of technology by the Red Chinese is a huge issue, and I understand the CIA's desire to be part of this."

"Sounds like this is big, on a lot of fronts." said Muscone. "Real big."

"It is." I said. "And by the way, in asking me to 'cooperate', Willingham slipped and revealed that he does know a lot more about me than he was letting on. How much, I don't know. But Laura was still willing to continue the mission with him... she was even pushing him to get his ass in gear about it. For her to do that when I long since would've called it off or backed out... means the mission is a big one." Everyone nodded as they considered the ramifications of my words.

"All right," said EAD Lange, "we'll watch our CIA counterparts very carefully. But to answer your question, Martin, and your earlier question, Don... my goals might not fully coincide with the CIA's. I want Shimono and Barsbane to no longer be a threat... preferably under arrest and behind bars... but absolutely no longer a threat."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ten minutes after leaving, CIA Officer Willingham was back, with a mousey-looking woman with brown hair. "This is Donna Leslie." he said. "Will she do as your 'assistant' for this mission?"

Laura looked at the young woman and said "Will you be able to get up to speed on this very quickly?"

"I already am, ma'am." said Donna. "I've been studying it to be support if you're in the City, but I'm ready to go in with you if you need me to."

"And I do." said Laura. "Okay, let's get our backstops going, Mindy." Laura and Donna sat down.

"We made a very extensive backstop for you, Doctor." said Mindy, to Laura. "Your name is Dr. Lauren Washington, the 'Dr.' being a Ph.D. in Biotechnology and Cybernetics from Texas Tech University. You were in a minor research position in the CDC in Druid Hills, Georgia, then took a job with the Department of Homeland Security, where you've been since its inception in 2002, first as a research analyst, then as an oversight and compliance officer. Your Top Secret clearance covers every project MegaTech is working on."

Laura took the papers she was given and began memorizing them as Mindy said "I'm still going through and adjusting Jed's backstop to you, Donna. I-R-L (in real life), you have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from State Tech, so I'll use that. Your name will be Donna Prince." She gave Donna some papers to study. Laura noted out of the corner of her eye that Donna didn't seem to be studying the papers too hard, especially for someone whose backstop was supposedly being created on the fly...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Gee, I wonder where we had lunch. And what Jack Muscone ordered.

We were sitting in the 'Command Room' of the Cop Bar, just me and Jack. He noticed that I was more than in a reverie... I was a million miles away, it seemed.

"Penny for your thoughts." Jack said. "Something bothering you?"

"I dunno." I said, after I blinked myself back to reality. "I was wondering why Laura was going into MegaTech, when David Lang was found out and murdered, and Keiko Shimono was found out and disappeared. The bird has flown, or so I would think. And they'll be on the lookout for someone like Laura coming in."

"All I can tell you," said Jack, "is that Laura wanted to do this, may have volunteered for it... and may even have been the original mission planner. I know that she's been studying the MegaTech contracts with the Government and with subsidiaries for weeks, since the David Lang murder case. I'd assumed that you knew about it, too."

"No, I didn't. She told me just the other day." I said. "And we've had a few very busy weeks, with the Peter Blassingame rape and murder case, Molly being wounded, Irwin being killed, Trent Ridge causing trouble. So I didn't notice."

"Speaking of that," said Muscone, "EAD Lange said in so many words that Trent Ridge was no longer a problem. Any reason why he thinks that?"

"You'll have to ask the EAD that." I said.

Muscone chuckled derisively. "That's what I love about you, Don. You can dodge and weave and keep a stone-cold straight face the whole time. And no, I don't expect you to tell me what everyone from Tanya to Martin's uncle believes."

"Good." I said. "So we'll say no more about it. And I'm more focused on this mission my wife just went on. What's really going on with it? Any other things you know that I don't?"

Jack said "I'm sure you've made a 400-year observation or two. This thing is not what it seems to be. It could be that they genuinely think they might find a tunnel to Red China, or at least an espionage ring to break up. Or that they're reining in MegaTech CEO Elliot Sanders, who is an arrogant son of a bitch, and his COO Kara Zorn, whom Sheriff Griswold would compare with the Romulans when it comes to deceit. Or that they're looking for a path to Edward Blassingame."

"But you don't really think so." I said.

"No, I don't think so." said Jack. "But..." he paused, as if he were deciding if he should say something.

"Penny for 'em." I said.

Jack exhaled, then said "This is just between you and me, okay? Just us, not even Tanya or your family. Just us." I nodded, and Jack said "You know how in one of those 'Rambo' movies they sent him into Viet Nam to find POWs, expecting him to find nothing? It was supposed to be a dog and pony show, 'we tried and found nothing' type of thing?"

"Yeah." I said. "But when he really found a POW, they aborted the mission and stranded him?"

"Yes, that's the one." Jack continued, "Well, this may not be like that, but I get the idea that this whole mission Laura is going on is like that... a dog and pony show. She goes in, they'll find Shimono gone and nothing else wrong, they can report back to the powers-that-be in Washington that they tried but it came to nothing, and that MegaTech Industries is God's gift to the world..."

"But..." I said, "... but Laura would never waste her time doing something like that."

"And neither would we." said Jack. "Nor would our new EAD, if I'm reading him right. But I just get the idea that a lot of people will be happy if nothing comes of this..."

Part 3 - Twister

1:00pm, Saturday, June 15th. I arrived home at The Cabin. Molly Evans, Paulina Patterson, Teresa Croyle and my mother Phyllis were sitting in the greatroom, chattering like parakeets. Five boys were upstairs in 'Lego City'. Little Jack Burke was in the front room, playing a video game on the television monitor.

Tasha was drawing things on sheets of paper on the floor near the fireplace that separated the greatroom from the front room. And Carole was just sitting nearby on the floor, her back against the side of the sofa in the greatroom. She seemed to be in a reverie as she absentmindedly petted Bowser, who looked like he was going to give her only one hour to stop doing that.

"Hello, everyone." I said. Everyone except Bowser greeted me in return as I put my badge and gun on the top shelf of the coat closet (yes, the kids know better than to touch them) and went into the greatroom with the ladies.

"We had lunch already." said my mother. "There's some macaroni and cheese left over in the refrigerator."

"That's a surprise." I said. "The boys did not want hamburgers?"

"Oh, they did." said Teresa. "But they asked for hamburgers and stringbeans. Then they decided stringbeans weren't as good as potato chips when Grandma said she'd make Carole macaroni and cheese."

"And the boys ate all of the hamburgers." said Phyllis. "I've never seen that much food be eaten at one sitting... except when you were dining alone when you were growing up." We all chuckled at that.

Just then, I heard the loud trampling of many boys coming down the stairs. Jim burst out first, followed by his brothers Ross and Ian, and his cousins Doug and Little Mike (Todd Michael was now being called 'Mike', by the way).

"Hi Dad!" Jim said. "Then he looked around and said "Where's Mom?"

Extremely aware that Carole's gray eyes had cut over to me, I said "Your mom left on her trip to do research."

"Oh." said Jim. "I wanted to show her our new Lego neighborhood."

"She can see it when she gets back." I said.

I then looked at Carole, who was still stroking Buddy's back. She did not look angry and her voice did not sound angry when she said "Mommy went to 'meetings'... didn't she?"

"Well, not like 'meetings' when she would go to Washington, D.C." I said. "Like I said, she's doing research now that her college classes are done for the summer."

"When will she be back?" Jim asked.

"In a week or two." I said. "That's why your grandmother came to stay with us... to keep you boys and your dogs out of trouble." I said that last part to distract Carole. And it worked.

"Bowser is my dog." said Carole with a bit of a pout. Bowser just looked up at Carole upon hearing his name, then looked up at me.

"Yes he is." I said. "So why don't you and I take Bowser out, Carole?" The sentence was hardly finished before Bowser was at the back door, joined by Buddy...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was getting hot as Carole and I sat on a towel on the metal mesh loveseat, with the dogs having scampered around the corner to go do their business.

"You okay, Carole?" I asked. "You okay with Mommy being gone to do research?"

"I guess." Carole said, somewhat forlornly. "I just want her to be safe. But she's not safe going to 'meetings'... or 'research', as you're calling it, Daddy."

"I know, Fussbudget." I said. "But she's doing what she has to do, right? And we have to help her by thinking good thoughts for her, and not pouting about it. Good or good?"

"That's what Uncle Harvey says, Daddy." Carole said. "Or things like it."

"I know." I said. "I borrowed that from him. So... what do you want to do today, besides mope around?"

"I don't know, Daddy." Carole said. "I'm bored. Marie went out of Town with her mom and dad, and Tasha's making her own drawings."

"Why don't you write a story?" I suggested. "Like the one you gave Grandpa Griswold."

At first, Carole didn't seem to like the idea, then her face suddenly changed. "Okay, Daddy! I'm going to write a mystery story that will fool even you!" She jumped off the seat and ran pell-mell for the back door.

"Good luck with that!" I called out behind her. As Buddy and Bowser came up to me, I chuckled as I gave them some skritchins, looking forward to the challenge I knew Carole's mystery story would present...