Quaranteam - Book Two (Ch. 07)

Chapter Seven

December 13 ^th, 2020

By morning, Andy had begun to form a handful of ideas. That meant he was up and out of bed uncharacteristically early for a Sunday. He was particularly proud of how he was able to extricate himself from the pile of bodies without so much as a stir. In fact, while all the girls were basically still asleep, Andy snuck out of the bedroom and headed down to his office to make a handful of phone calls.

The first was to his agent, Trish Geovani, who was out in New York, although not in NYC proper. She wouldn't be in her office on a Sunday, but thankfully, since Andy's recent bump in prominence, she'd given him her home phone number, so any time he needed to reach her for business reasons, he could do so.

"Trish, how the hell are you this morning?" he said, sitting down at his desk, dressed in sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt from some fantasy convention he'd been a guest at a couple of years ago. He had her on FaceTime, and she looked like she was at home in her study, wearing a giant t-shirt that had as many holes in it as one of his first drafts. She leaned back in her chair, like she expected this to be some kind of gripe session, or news of other problems he was having that had suddenly sprung up without warning. Calling unscheduled on a Sunday was very much unlike him.

"Okay Andy, who died?" Trish sighed.

"Lots of people. Maybe you've seen the news? But that's not why I'm calling," he said. "If I wanted to put together a quick little book signing tour, say, six days, how hard would it be to get that together?"

He could see Trish sitting up on the other end of the line, realizing that he was being serious and wasn't just calling to chit chat. "Theoretically? Not very? I mean, you've got your security concerns to worry about..."

"Let us handle those," he countered. "If I picked six cities, how fast could you line up a bookstore for me in each one to do a signing, and get a bit of promotion going around it?"

"I basically phone up any bookstore in America and ask them if they want to do a book signing with you, right now, they're going to leap to say yes. Sales for your stuff doubled after the 60 Minutes interview, you know that, and bookstores are always eager for anything that gets people in through the door. Assuming you wanted me to start on this today, I could probably have your first signing tomorrow, assuming you can get there."

"I've got a private jet now, Trish, so getting there and back isn't the problem. Personal security we can also handle just fine, but logistics at these kinds of places might need law enforcement or military helping out if there's giant turnouts. I can probably reach out to the Air Force here, but if you've got contacts on the ground..."

"It shouldn't be too hard one way or another. You have a city list in mind?"

"New York City, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Denver, Seattle and LA."

"Quite the road trip."

"Air trip," he corrected, "but yeah."

"You need me to handle hotels, ground transportation and the like?"

"We'll cover all that ourselves," he said, waving his hand. "If I wanted to, could we start in NYC tomorrow evening?"

"I mean, I might have to call in a few favors, but I can probably make that happen," she admitted. "I don't know what turnout's going to be like, though. People are still pretty gunshy about leaving their own houses."

"That's the whole point, Trish," he sighed, leaning back in the incredibly expensive leather chair the house's original tenant had left behind. "As long as you're paired and vaccinated, there's nothing wrong with leaving the goddamn house. We keep telling people that, but apparently folks in the government aren't seeing anyone else do it, so I gotta put my money where my mouth is. I'll go and do signings and readings, make a big show of the thing. We'll do a photo blog of the whole trip, although maybe we'll leave out the airplane parts. Other than that, though, we'll show people, like really show people that it's time to stop hiding indoors. I want to have a little travel diary so that everyone who's protected knows they can go out and be part of the world again, encourage them to do so."

"We can get events thrown together fast, sure Andy, but I don't know if there's going to be enough turnout to make it worth your while," Trish said. "You can always show up and sign books, but that doesn't guarantee anyone's going to come or that you'll sell more books from the effort."

"I don't care about making money off it, Trish. I just want to do my part to help the country wake up from the slumber of staying in their homes, once they're vaccinated," Andy told her. "I'm also going to make a point of seeing some family members for a handful of people. We're probably going to do a stopover in Chicago, and the LA portion coincides with some meetings that Sarah and Emily need to take down there, so I figured, getting out of the house for a bit isn't the worst idea. My security team will probably chew me out for a while, but I think it's important we set precedent that we can see people, hang out with people, be around people. Anyone who's got the vaccine can. If I'm getting out there and being seen, that'll be progress enough. It'll be a start. And I want to take my fiancées around to a handful of places. We're going to stop and see Piper's parents, Fiona's parents, Niko's mom and, most importantly, introduce everyone to my nephew Connor. I know he's still in shock with his dad dying, but I need the kid to know I'm there for him, whatever he needs, however he needs it. It's safe for me to travel. It's safe for me to go see him, so I'm gonna do that. And I think it'll help the people of America if they don't just hear someone telling them it's safe, but actually acting like it. In a way where they can see it." He realized he'd been talking for quite a bit without her saying anything. "So what do you think?"

"I think... it'll be a good thing," she finally responded, shifting in her chair, having scribbled a dozen or so things onto a yellow legal pad while they were talking. "But I think you'd better clear it all with your security team first, and you'd better listen to every damn thing they'll tell you along the way. This is uncharted waters we're heading into right now, so be overly cautious rather than lax. No shaking hands, no taking pictures with people. Ask people who to make it out to, sign the book, hand them the book and then move on to the next person. Don't linger and for fuck sake, Andy, don't engage in political discussions, no matter how much I know you're going to want to. As long as you can do that, then I can have your list of bookstores ready for you by the time you're wheels up tomorrow morning. New York City's easy, so hell, I'll have that ready and booked before lunch."

"Okay, get it done and I'll start things rolling on this end," he said. "Thanks Trish. I know I can be a pain in the ass, but I'm trying to do the right thing."

"I know you are, Andy," Trish sighed. "That's when you're typically the biggest pain in the ass. Just take care of yourself while you're out there, okay? You went from being my favorite client for artistic reasons to my favorite client for financial reasons and I don't think I'd do well if you up and died on me, okay?"

"I'm certainly not planning on dying anytime soon, Trish."

"Nobody ever is, Andy. Nobody ever is." She reached forward and tapped the end call button as Andy saw the screen fall dark. One call down, a couple more to go.

His next phone call was to General Bonner over at the base, and he wasn't at all surprised when she picked up on the second ring, although this time it was strictly voice and not a video call. "Mister Rook. To what do I owe the honor of this call?" she said to him, a light undercurrent of snark in her voice.

"My plane, General. Have your people finished their inspection?"

"They did last night, and you should be thankful we did it. We found a couple of listening devices and a tracker on the plane, as well as a compartment that could've been used for smuggling. But other than that, you should be ready to go. Why the sudden need to check in on the plane? I thought you told me you didn't really have any need for it until next week."

"Change of plans," he said. "I'm going to do a sort of quick impromptu book signing tour, as a sort of effort to show the American people that once they're vaccinated, they can get out of the house. I was in downtown San Francisco yesterday and it was utterly dead. So, we're going to do a six-day book signing tour, I'm going to blog about the whole thing. We'll take photos all over and everyone's free to link to it from wherever or share photos from the trip. It'll be good PR for me, but even better PR for everyone to see that it's safe to go out there and live again. Just telling people it's fine out there for vaccinated people wasn't enough - we need to show them, otherwise they're going to think it's all smoke and mirrors."

"I can respect that," the General said. "You want some ground support at the locations?"

"My immediate reflex is to say no, which means I should probably say yes," Andy admitted. "I haven't told my security team yet, and I'm pretty certain they're going to throw a shitfit, but it's important that we keep making progress in showing the world that we're not going to all die out because of this plague. So, yeah, anything you can do to offer a little bit of added security on location would be helpful."

"You got a city list?"

"New York City, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Denver, Seattle and LA," he told her.

"Quite the little tour you've got going on," she replied. "I can have bodies on the ground in most of those locations, although you might be on your own in Jacksonville."

"That's Piper's hometown, so I think I should be good. I mean, if you can get me a handful of people there for site security, I won't say no, but I don't think we'll freak out if you can't, either."

"I can probably get a couple of people out there, but don't expect like a whole team. But if I sent you out there on tour naked, Lieutenant Colonel Hayes would probably be up my ass with a giant ass floodlight, determining if I'd engaged in conduct unbecoming," the General chuckled.

"Linda's getting promoted?"

"Number of promotions coming down the pipe, including one of your partners. We'll do the whole razzledazzle next week, but 2^nd Lieutenant Niko Redwolf is about to become Captain Redwolf," the General said. "It's needed to happen for a while now, but what with everything being what it is, you can understand why we're a little bit behind. You want to tell her, or should I?"

"You definitely should and not me," he stressed. For the next ten minutes or so, they worked out some of the logistics of it. The Air Force would provide between two to six people on site at each of the bookstores, offering some basic security, and Andy's crew would worry about transportation to and from the sites, and at the hotels they were staying in. He would have the list of the bookstores for the Air Force as soon as they had them in their own hands, and the General thanked him for his willingness to set a good example for everyone.

He was just finishing up with the General when Niko poked her head into his office and let out a big sigh. She immediately pulled out her phone and sent a text message, which Andy suspected was to Lexi. "You can't do that, Andy!" Niko said to him, a cross look on her face. "We need to know where you are! At all times! I woke up and you weren't in bed, and you weren't with Lexi or even Melody, for fuck sake! It's my job to keep you safe, and I can't do that if I don't know where the fuck you are!"

"I didn't leave the house, Niko!" Andy sighed, realizing she was probably right but clearly being uncomfortable with the notion of being unable to even move about his own home freely. "I know better than to head off the property without an escort, but there's going to be times where I'm going to walk around my goddamn house by myself, okay?"

She headed over and wrapped her arms around him in a big hug, moving to slide her ass up into his lap. "Yeah, okay, I suppose that's fair, but I would've gotten up with you if I knew you were getting up so early. It's unlike you to be up at the buttcrack of dawn."

"I know you would've gotten up if I asked you to, hon, but then you would've tried to talk me out of things before I set them in motion, and I'm not going to be talked out of this," he said, rubbing his hand against the back of her neck comfortingly. "I assume Lexi's on her way down here?"

"She can be. Do you need her?"

"Her and Melody. The whole Team Rook Security Detail."

Niko scowled at him, although the anger was mostly superficial and would quickly dissolve. He hoped. "I'm going to be angry about this, aren't I?"

"Maybe a little, but then I think you'll be okay with letting it slide," Andy told her, as she typed on her cell phone's tiny little screen, sending messages to the other two, letting them know where to come and meet them.

Alexis came in a couple minutes later, followed by Melody, who immediately came over, kissed Andy on the cheek and said, "Thanks for giving me a second chance, Andy."

"You know, you don't have to say that every morning," he joked. "Anyway, I wanted to get the three of you gathered here because we're going to do a field trip for the next week or so. We'll take the plane and we're going to do six different bookstore signings, starting tomorrow."

"Jesus, Andy," Lexi sighed. "This is the sort of thing we should have a week or two to plan. In advance. Like sane people. But I suspect your mind is already made up and we're doing this, regardless of how much we'd like you to reconsider. I guess we'll just have to have the advantage that our enemies won't really have time to prep either. Not local?"

"Cross the country. We'll take the plane. Stay in hotels that we'll book on the day, so nobody knows where we're staying in advance. A few nights we won't even be staying in the city where the book signing is."

"And if the hotel we want is full?" Niko asked before everyone stopped and turned to look at her. "Right. Right. Stupid." She laughed at the notion itself. "What hotel in the world is even going to have guests right now? Where are we going?"

"Couple of places on the east coast, couple in the middle and a couple here on the west coast. Last stop'll be L.A. so we can take Em and Sarah's meetings in Hollywood next Monday."

"You've got some plans for additional stops?" Niko asked.

"Yeah, we're going to swing by Piper's parents, stop in and check on my nephew, your mom and a few others."

"She's going to be out for the wedding next month, Andy."

"I know, but you haven't been back to the rez in a couple of years, baby. You said so yourself. And you probably need to see the state of the land with your own eyes," he said to her. "And I know Piper says she's okay, but I think getting her to see her folks sooner rather than later is probably the best for her mental health, anyway. And you seeing the Rez is best for you and yours."

"Who's going to go with us?"

"I figure we'll take the full Team Rook Fiancée Club, and we can stop by the house in a week's time to take care of anyone here who's close to their time lock before we make our way down to LA. I can also take care of a handful of people while people are packing, assuming the whole RFC is going to come along. I mean, if anyone doesn't want to go..."

"Are you kidding, Andy?" Niko laughed. "Everyone's been so cooped up that they're going to be tripping over themselves to get out of the house, much less out of the state. I mean, everyone's been so busy planning for the wedding that a week's break is probably something everyone desperately needs. When do we leave?"

"Just after lunch. It's about five and a half hours from here to NYC, and that'll let you all figure out hotels, coordinate with the Air Force and get everything prepped and ready. It'll be our first chance to take the new plane out for its first flight. First signing will be in NYC tomorrow evening."

"Not to be inconsiderate, sir," Melody said, "but are you sure you feel comfortable including me as part of your security detail so soon? I wouldn't blame you at all if you were paranoid or wanted more time to-"

"No time like the present if you ask me," Andy said, waving his hand. "But that's not my decision to make. Ladies?"

Lexi and Niko looked at each other, considering their situation for the moment. "I'd much rather have an extra set of hands on the security detail, Niko, if we can get them," Alexis said, "but I'm not marrying the big lug. Final call is definitely yours to make."

Niko glanced over at Melody for a moment then looked at Andy. "Then I'm with the big lug. We're giving her a second chance, so that means we have to give her that second chance. She's just as on the hook for his safety, if not more so than the rest of us. She can't take the reassignment again, remember? The only way she's getting away from Andy is if he's dead, and whatever our differences, she doesn't have that in her. So yeah, I agree with your assessment. She can help with security details, just not take point. We need all the help we can get."

Alexis nodded, her dark curly hair hanging around her shoulders. "Okay then, I'll start making accommodations for us in NYC, and for getting us transportation from the airfield to the hotel, as well as to and from the bookstore. Do we know what store yet?"

"I should have that before we're landing in NYC. My agent's on it right now. And I will defer all hotel decisions to you three. I know how last minute this is, so I want you all to feel as much inside your comfort zones as you can get."

"The girls are going to throw a hissy fit that you're giving them so little time to prep, babe," Niko giggled at him. "Especially considering all the different weathers we're going to see. Snow in NYC and Cincinnati, shorts weather in Florida... Although, now that I think about it, it's probably best that you don't give them long to pack. They can't lose the whole day making decisions."

Alexis smirked. "I guess that's one advantage of being on the security detail. We get to know in advance that we need to get up and go. I'm already packed in my head, but then again, I usually am by force of habit. Any rules or guidelines for the hotels I can consider?"

Andy shrugged. "Just get us the biggest suite we can find, I suppose. If anything, this'll also be a lesson to all the hotels that we visit that they're going to have to change the way their business works from now on, especially if it's going to be several people to one room on the regular. Two beds in one room isn't going to necessarily be a great business model anymore."

"Ten people, two cars, two security people on Andy at all times," Niko said. "You're not shaking hands with people come from signings."

"No, I hadn't planned on it."

"It wasn't a question, baby," Niko told him. "It was a statement. And if people want to do selfies, they can do it with a table in between you and them. I know you think we're being silly, but it's our job to keep you safe and sound, okay, so that means-"

"That means I listen to everything you tell me without hesitation or reservation. I got it, Niko," Andy sighed. "I know I can seem like a bit of a scatterbrain here and there, but I'm going to do my part for all of this. Your job is to keep me safe, and I'm not going to tell you how to do your job. You know it a thousand times better than I do. And the bookstores will all be smaller, independent bookstores. I don't need to go into Barnes & Nobles; they're doing just fine on their own."