The Three Day Pass Ch. 32

"I could not do that. It is not proper for me to sit with the master of the house."

"Don't give me that! I have seen you and my father have cups of coffee together-I do not wish to- but do I have to order you?"

"No, It just does not feel right." She smiled.

"I know. All this does not feel right even to me. Now that Fazzi is gone you and I will have to get used to it because I intend to have these informal meetings with you often." He stated, "That is if you wish to stay as the head of my household staff. While there are a few changes I have been thinking of making, letting you go is not one of them. For now I would like your opinion on some of them. The first thing I want you to do is to place a subscription for the "Wall Street Journal". I want it placed at my place setting everyday along with this News Letter. The second thing I am going to do is to let that chauffeur go. My father never liked to drive and he liked having a driver available. I, on the other hand, love to drive and I see no need having him sitting around here doing nothing. The third thing I want to do is to give you a raise."

"Well I would not mind the raise, but I'm going to have to think about staying on here." She said. "I have always liked working for you, but I do have my family to think about. They might not like me working alone in the home of a bachelor. However, you might be right about the chauffer. I never did like the chauffeur. He was too rough and uncouth. Fazzi was always warning him about being a gentleman."

"Well I do want, need and hope you will stay on-perhaps it might help if your mother was to move into the garage guest apartment. From there she could 'keep an eye' on the two of us and 'protect' your virtue." He jested.

"I did not mean that I could not trust you----but you know how mothers and family are. My mother is a very traditional and old-fashioned woman. I don't want to pry but is there any chance of Miss Muhammad and you getting back together someday?"

"No, my sister will be married in six months to a wonderful man she met in Michigan. Neither she nor Fazzi's ex-wife will be returning to Jersey." He said and then in a more serious voice he continued, "Summaya, I am sure that by this time you are aware that my sexual preferences are not for the female of the species and you might as well know that Mr. Worth and I are committed to each other. I hope this will not affect your decision to stay and that in any event you will keep this information to yourself for the present time."

"You are right. I have known for some time about you and Fazzi. I must say that I always hoped that you and his daughter would get together but I guess that is not possible." She said. "I like Mr. Worth and I hope it works out for the two of you. I will let you know my answer as soon as I talk to my mother."

"Well you think about it and let me know by next week as I will want to have things in order by then. In any event please let me know your answer by Monday. You can stay as long as you want and if you decide to leave I shall be very happy to recommend you and give you an excellent set of references."

"I will let you know first thing Monday morning and thank you for the offer of the raise and the apartment."

After his breakfast he went back up stairs and packed some clothes for the trip to DC. He made his goodbye call to Richard and thanked him for his breakfast surprise and to apologize for last night. "Let's wait until I see what the boss wants before we decide what we are going to do. Just remember that I love you and let's make a treaty that we will never sleep in separate bedrooms in the same house again."

"That was horrible, but, --- Joseph, let's add to that that we never go to bed again mad at each other."

"Rich you have that promise."

At noon Bill showed up and the two of them drove to a small airport, boarded a small jet and flew to DC. From the airport they were driven to a hotel and the next morning the two of them showed up at the White House where they joined a group of tourists on a regular tour of the national monument. Sometime during the tour the two of them were spirited away and were taken to the private residence of the President. Bill sat outside the door as Joseph was taken through security where he was made to endured a rather through body search. He was then shown into a comfortable sitting room and told to wait. "The President will be with you shortly. He apologizes for the search, but every one has to go through it. Please have a seat and wait."

"I understand, Mr. Barns informed me of the procedure." Joseph said as the secret service men were leaving the room. They smiled at him as they closed the door leaving him alone. He then sat down on the nearest chair and waited.

A few minutes later, another door opened and the President entered the room as Joseph stood up at attention and brought his hand to a snappy salute. The President smiled and said, "At ease Sergeant. You are supposed to be incognito. Please sit down and let's get acquainted. I was going to order some coffee. Would you care to join me?"

"Yes sir." Joseph said as the President lifted the phone, ordered coffee and refreshments. Then Joseph in a rather shaky voice continued, "I don't mind telling you sir that I am a bit nervous. Why am I here? What is this all about? I thought that with the death of Fazzi, this would be finished."

"And well it might be-except for three things." He said. One is that we are not one hundred percent sure he is dead. We only know what the Syrian government has told us and judging from past experiences we have no way of being sure if this is true or not. And the second reason it is not finished yet is that there is a lot of money involved, if I am informed correctly, almost a half billion dollars. That's a lot of money and we would like to see who tries to move on that money. If we do not have someone we can trust in charge of that money, it could be used to fund terrorist activities against us." The President paused took a sip of coffee and a bite of coffee cake and sat back in his chair.

"Sir, I do not believe that Fazzi is still alive. Knowing him the way I do, if he were alive he would not have allowed me to get control this early."

"You may be right, but on the other hand he may be alive and just testing you to see if you could be trusted after his death. If things did not work out, he could always pop up and take up where he left off."

"That is a bit far fetched, but I will accept the possibility for now. You said there were three reasons. What is the third?" Joseph asked taking a sip of his own coffee and then said; "So far I can see little reason for my having to continue living undercover, so to speak."

"Smart boy, Sergeant." He said, "but then I should have known that you would see through the icing. I do have your word that what I am going to say now is between the two of us even if you do not continue?"

"Yes you do."

"We have received a request from some friends that you continue to control the "Fund" and to keep up with your undercover work. You see Sergeant, as I'm sure Mr. Barns has told you-we have never had an agent as close to the top of the Moslem Emirate as you seem to have become. If Fazzi had lived, then his "son", our agent, would have been right there at the top and he would have been able to supply us with invaluable information."

"Who is this 'Friend'?" Joseph asked.

"Before I tell you that, I must have your assurance that you will agree to continue in this matter. I know I can order you to do it, but your enlistment is over in six months. I have the power to extend it, however, it might look suspicious if I did and that would put you in more danger. No, the best thing is let you return to civilian life and it will appear that you are free to do whatever you want."

"Appear????" Joseph questioned.

"I meant that you would not have to worry about the army interfering with your undercover duties. You would be a U.S. citizen and free to pursue whatever life you wanted. The Emirate might be more inclined to trust you as Fazzi's son rather than as Sgt. Joseph Benson. As Fazzi's heir you are in charge of all that money and they would love to get their hands on it without causing any international problems. What better way than to use an American as a front?"

"You don't really think I could gain their trust that much. They are not fools and I'm not that good." Joseph protested.

"Joseph," the president said, "You were good enough to fool Fazzi. If he had not been killed you would have been right up there. It was one of the reasons we asked 'our friend' not to kill him; and they did not. His own people did it. Now 'our friend' wants you to try to take his place."

"And if I can not gain their trust.... What then?"

"In that case-we will at least be able to keep an eye on that money and keep it from falling into the wrong hands." He said. "You will have plenty of protection. Our friends have an undercover agent that will be able to watch your back and help you if you should require it."

"I do not want that kind of protection. I don't need it and it will only get in my way."

"It hasn't so far and from what I'm told this agent has been watching you since the first time you entered Fazzi's house!" he said and then mustering his most sincere manner he added. "Joseph, we know everything there is to know about you and while I don't understand or approve of your sex life, I for one will always be proud to have known you. Both your country and I personally owe you a large debt, one that we can never repay. No matter what you decide, thank you. I will not order you to continue, but it would please me if you finished this thankless job."

Joseph thought about it for a few moments and then told him that he would have to talk it over with his partner first. "I think he will go along with it, but I still have to consult him."

"Who is that?"

"Rich Worth, the actor, who is the son of Richard Worthington Senior." Joseph said. "He and his family have been involved in this from the beginning. I would not want to do anything without them."

"Yes, as you know the father is a very close friend of mine and I know he has been involved in this from the beginning. I am sure the family will agree with this, but I'll be glad to talk to him myself if you want me to." He said.

"I would rather do that myself if you don't mind."

"Good, one thing more. Agent Barns will be your contact with the F.B.I., however I have directed them that you are in charge. The only one you will report to, will be me. You will be given a code word to use that will enable you contact me directly. The operator will be instructed to forward your calls to me. If it is important you can talk to me directly any time. Are there any questions?"

"Yes, how come I'm in charge? Why not Bill? He is the trained agent."

The president laughed and said, "I talked with Agent Barns and it was him that recommended this. And I agreed with him. If you feel you need him, you are free to contact him. He is the one that said it was best to let you run your own operation. With all the 'trained agents' we have in the world not one of them have done anything near as good as you have. I don't argue with success, I only like to foster it."

"There is one other thing I want to tell you before I give you my answer."

"What is that?"

"I was planning to fire an employee, Fazzi's chauffeur." Joseph said. "However I would like to keep the housekeeper, if that is OK with you."

The president thought for a while and then asked him, "I agree on the chauffeur, but I'm interested in knowing why would you want to keep the housekeeper on?"

"She happens to be a good cook and she is a wonderful housekeeper. But aside from that-there is just something I like about her. However if you don't think it would be a good idea...."

"I didn't say it was not a good idea, I was just curious as to your reasoning. Do you remember my saying that some 'Friends' would like you to continue to control the 'Fund'?"

"Yes."

"What I am going to tell you now is for your ears only. For reasons, which I do not want to go into now, the United States owes Israel a big favor. They allowed Fazzi to live as long as he did. There were literally hundreds of times they could have killed the both of you, but at our request they held off. This last time we had to inform them about you. They realized that with you as his 'son', he was worth more to us alive then dead. His housekeeper was and is one of their top agents. They have been tracking him for over fifteen years. You better keep her, but be careful. She has her thing to do and you have yours. The two may not always be the same thing, but if push comes to shove she may be a friend in need. I leave it to you. I have learned to trust your instincts. Anything else?"

"No Sir." Joseph said. "I think I will accept the job but, I will let you know for sure as soon as I speak with the Worthingtons."

To be continued...