“Are
you going to carry any weapons in with you?” Katie asked as they headed up I95 to
meet with Lieutenant Jarvis.
“Just
my boot knives. I have one in each boot. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about
weapons with you two out there loaded to the teeth,” the dark woman replied with a
grin. “Oh, and I’ve got one of
those knock out pens in my back pocket. Just
for back up.” She laughed as Katie told
her that she really doubted she would need to use it, because they’d all fall over
once they got a good look at her.
“Is
that all?” Katie grinned. “No special earrings?”
“Nope. They haven’t made them in turquoise
yet.” Dean laughed as she pulled into
the parking lot for the Pentagon. “There’s
the van.” She lifted her chin in the
direction of the waiting van and headed in that direction, pulling up next to it.
As
they pulled up, a tall dark-haired man in his late twenties stepped out and waved. He was about the same height as Dean, maybe an
inch taller, with a short brush cut, clean shaven, and astounding green eyes. He was wearing black jeans and a black long
sleeved T-shirt that did very little to hide the fact that he could probably be the next
Mr. Universe. He walked across to the SUV
with a grace that defied his bulk and reached up to salute Dean.
“Evening,
Colonel!” The lieutenant saluted--even
though the gesture wasn’t necessary-- and grinned, showing perfect white teeth in the
parking lot lighting.
“Evening,
Bill,” Dean returned, smiling warmly back at him.
“This is Special Agent Katie O’Malley.
Katie, First Lieutenant William Jarvis. One
of my best men.” The pride in
Dean’s voice was obvious.
“Nice
to meet you, Lieutenant,” Katie replied and returned the smile in earnest.
“Just
Bill will do on this op.” He took her
weapons case from her hand and walked over to the van with it. “I know we talked on the phone yesterday, but
you sure aren’t what I pictured in my mind.”
“Oh? How’s that?” Katie asked curiously.
“Well,
I figured you’d be as tall as the colonel here, and at least as mean looking.” This he said with a chuckle that got a raised
eyebrow and crooked smile from the aforementioned colonel.
Katie
chuckled too before replying. “Well,
Bill, sometimes small packages can be very deceiving.”
“She’s
got that right!” Dean cut in. “On my last case, she dumped me on my butt
and had my throat blocked before I knew what hit me.”
“Whoa! You’re telling me that this little wisp of
woman got the best of you?” Bill scoffed, disbelieving.
“Yep. So you’d better watch your step, big
boy!” Dean responded with a nod and a grin before adding, “Besides, she’s
not your type anyway.”
“Ohhh,
meaning she’s your type?” Bill
grinned at his commander.
“Yeah,
so make sure you keep her safe, got it?”
“Yes,
Ma’am!” the young lieutenant beamed.
This
conversation left Katie a bit confused, but obviously Dean’s admission to the young
lieutenant was okay, or she wouldn’t have done it.
Just to be sure, Katie pulled Dean aside as Bill got into the van with the weapons
case.
“Dean? Something you want to tell me here?” the
blonde questioned.
“Oh. I forgot to tell you. Bill’s one of us. He’s a really good guy, and we watch out for
each other. His partner is a civilian
computer consultant that works for the Pentagon. They’re
two of the nicest guys around. We manage to
get out once in a while when I’m in-between assignments.” Dean looked apologetically at Katie. “Sorry, I should have warned you.”
“Hey,
no problem here, just nice to know I don’t have to watch my p’s and
q’s.” Katie gave Dean’s arm a
squeeze as they both got into the van.
They
pulled into the same convenience store they went to the last time they had the van out. Katie jumped out to get a few ‘extras’
for the night ahead, while Dean and Bill stayed in the van.
“I
gather you forgot to tell her about me,” Bill stated as they watched Katie enter the
convenience store.
“Yeah,
but she’s caught up now,” Dean said quietly.
“Just make sure she stays safe, okay? I
almost lost her last time. I don’t want
that to happen again.”
“No
problem, Colonel. We’ll make sure we
keep each other safe and you too, in the process,” the big man replied seriously.
“Thanks,
Lieutenant. I knew I could count on
you.”
They
sat there in silence as they waited for Katie to return with a sack full of goodies to
keep her hunger at bay for the entire night and then some.
When she put the sack down, Dean immediately pounced on the package of Ho Ho’s
she spied sitting on the very top, daring the young woman to try to take them away.
When
they arrived at the warehouse, it was only 2245 hours, and the place was still deserted. They pulled into the same parking lot and turned
on the equipment to make sure everything was operational.
They did a quick scan with the TDSC unit for any possible warm bodies lurking
inside. The place was still empty.
“Hey,
how are we going to pick you out from everyone else?
You don’t have that necklace on,” Katie inquired a bit apprehensively. Dean smiled and pointed to a gem in her concho
belt, indicating that she would show up on the screen as a nice blue dot. Much relieved, Katie nodded her approval, then
they finished going over the emergency signals.
“Right,
Colonel.” Bill repeated. “You say ‘gringo ladrones’ and
we’ll come in like gang busters.”
With
that, they pulled out in the van and went ten blocks away from the warehouse to drop Dean
off.
“Are
you sure you want us to leave you here?” Katie asked for what seemed to be the
millionth time.
“Yeah,
I’m sure! Now get the van back before
they start coming in,” Dean ordered. “I’ll
be fine, trust me!”
With
that, Katie and Bill closed the van door and headed back to set up their surveillance
before the warehouse workers started to arrive. Dean
watched them leave, before beginning a slow walk towards the warehouse, conscious of all
the night sounds and shadows that lay in her path.
*
* * * *
Despite
the slow pace Dean set, it still only took her twenty minutes to make it back to the
warehouse. When she arrived, it was nearly
2345, and she found that some of the dockworkers were beginning to arrive. She walked in the front entrance, casually looking
around until she recognized Golding from the picture in his file. Rather than go directly up to him, she began
asking each man she saw if he was ‘Señor Golding.’ A few of the men hooted out catcalls, which she
ignored, while some tried to see how far this beauty would let them go. Dean took care of that easily. The first one who tried to touch her found his
hand grasped in a vice like grip that quickly told him the lady wasn’t here to play. Finally, one of the men she asked, pointed Golding
out to her. She thanked him with a simple
‘gracias’ then walked over to him. Golding
had been watching her approach from the time she hit the front door to see how she carried
herself, and to give himself time to let his instincts come into play. By the time she walked up to him, he had decided
that she certainly looked like she could handle herself well enough to do the job.
“Señor
Golding. Soy Maria. Estoy aquí Enrique.”
“So
you’re Enrico’s cousin?” Golding looked at the tall woman nodding.
“Sí,”
was her simple response.
“Do
you speak English? Habla ingles?” he
asked, knowing that Enrico said she didn’t.
“No
good,” Dean stammered out.
“Can
you lift heavy boxes?” he asked, pointing at the boxes and making a lifting motion.
At
first Dean made a face as if not understanding him, then when he made the lifting motion,
she began nodding and repeating the lifting motion saying, “Ah, sí, puedo hacer el
trabajo,” and smiled at him.
“Okay,”
he nodded back, “follow me.” Again,
he made a motion with his hands for her to follow him.
Dean
obediently followed Golding to the back of the warehouse, where he went up to the foreman
and explained in a low voice that the woman was replacing Enrico for the night. He told the guy that she couldn’t speak
English, but seemed to catch on to hand signals pretty well. He also warned the man that he shouldn’t try
anything stupid with her, just get the shipment out on time. He walked over to Dean and
pointed at the man and said, “Burt.” Then
he pointed at her and looked at Burt and said, “Maria,” as he left to return to
the office at the front of the warehouse.
“So,
cutie pie -- you’re here to load boxes are you?”
He looked around at the other dock workers and grunted. “Well let’s see how strong you are, eh
boys?” Dean had anticipated that there
would be some macho maneuvering, so she just looked at the man with a questioning look.
The
foreman was of medium size and seemed to be solidly built.
He made his right biceps bulge and pointed at her.
Dean looked back thinking, Okay, let’s just get this bullshit out of the
way, shall we? She walked over to Burt,
nodding her head and smiling, and touched his muscle saying, “Sí, fuerte!” She quickly bent her knees, reached over to his
safety back belt tucking her right hand under it to secure her grip, then reached up with
her left hand, grabbing a handful of shirt to pull the man forward onto her shoulders. When she felt him settle, she stood, lifting the
man easily off the loading dock floor.
“What
the…!” he shouted as she lifted him up.
Dean walked over to shipping container that was being loaded and deposited him
fairly gently on top of the first box, all to the cheers of the other dockworkers. A very embarrassed Burt scrambled off the box and
nodded, saying, “Yeah, yeah, fuerte!”
Once
the cheering stopped, Burt led Dean to the work table to give her a safety back belt and a
pair of leather gloves. Then he took her over to the stack of boxes that were being
transferred from the forklift to the shipping container, miming what her job was.
Dean
nodded, put the safety equipment on, and began moving boxes, all the while tuning in to
the conversations around her, and stealing looks around the warehouse for anything that
looked different from the time she was here last.
*
* * * *
Katie
and Bill were settled comfortably in the van, keeping a careful eye on the blue dot that
danced back and forth on the screen, and tuning in to the conversations in and around the
warehouse. For some reason they kept picking
up static from the office area.
“Why
can’t we tune in the office better? I
didn’t think there were any limitations to this equipment other than the shielding we
encountered in the Catskills?” Katie asked Bill as she kept trying to home in on the
signal.
“They’ve
got an electrical blanket over the office throwing up interference to keep out unwanted
listeners,” Bill said simply. “We
can filter the interference out at the lab, but that won’t help us here. We’ve just got to keep taping and pull out
the information later.”
“But
what if Dean gets into the office and then uses the emergency signal. We’ll never know.” Katie was obviously worried about a worst-case
scenario after her escapade in the Catskills.
“The
colonel is very flexible. She’ll adapt
if we aren’t johnny on the spot,” Bill said, smiling at Katie. “She’s got great instincts, Katie.
She’ll be all right. She’ll warn us
first chance she gets.”
Katie
outwardly appeared to be placated by Bill’s rhetoric, but inside she still worried
over the possibility.
Sensing
her discomfort, Bill decided to try another tack. “So
how’d you take the colonel down?”
“Excuse
me?” Katie asked, misunderstanding and
blushing a bit.
“Sorry,”
Bill said chuckling. “I just wanted to
know how you were able to knock her on her butt.”
“Ohh,”
Katie blushed deeper, realizing her mistake, and went into the story on how they met on
the mountain that fateful night. Bill was
obviously surprised at the level of skill the young woman had in hand-to-hand combat, and
quickly asked if she’d mind showing him some moves.
He told her that he and the colonel worked out in the officers’ gym whenever
they had the chance, and he was hoping some day to be able to do exactly what Katie had
done. Only so far, it was his butt on the
mat. As they amiably shared stories about
Dean, they continued listening in, and watching Dean’s blue dot.
*
* * * *
Dean
worked for a solid two hours moving boxes without a rest stop, mentally tallying each box
and the cargo it was supposed to hold. The
two other guys at her workstation started out trying to out-do her, but soon gave up and
took a break. Wusses, Dean mused to
herself. Bet they haven’t worked a full eight hour shift since they started here. Not wanting to put herself in an awkward position
with her fellow workers, Dean did slow down, but refused to take a break until she
definitely needed one. At the three-hour
mark, Dean stopped, stretched and began looking around the warehouse. Finally, one of the guys she was working with, a
short squat man named Fred, came over as she continued to look around.
“You
lookin’ for somethin’, honey?” Fred asked in a fairly pleasant manner.
Dean
just looked at him, then continued her visual search.
Fred tried again thinking that maybe she needed the ‘john’ so he tapped
her on the shoulder and said, “bathroom?” to which Dean nodded vigorously,
stating “Sí, sí, baño.”
“Follow
me.” Fred waved his hand for her to
follow as he led her down the main aisle towards the front of the building. He stopped a short distance from the main office
and pointed her in the direction of the bathroom.
“Gracias,”
Dean said to Fred as she walked into the small bathroom.
She really did not need to use the facilities, and once inside, she was glad she
didn’t have to. Why is it that these
kinds of places never keep their restrooms clean? And
their choice of wallpaper always includes nudes! Dean
reviewed the wallpaper nudes to pass the time. Ooo,
that one’s cute. Kinda looks like Katie,
but with long hair! She dallied a little
longer before flushing the toilet. As she
exited, she noted that no one was in sight, so she purposely turned the wrong way and
began walking through the maze of crates in a haphazard fashion back towards the loading
dock. Halfway back, she silently turned a
corner and found two men standing by an open crate. They
had effectively removed the center boxes of ‘CheerieFlakes’ cereal creating a
cavity within.
“Okay,
now slip it in carefully. Roger will have a
fit if this unit gets busted,” the one man said as he helped the other guy lift the
bubble wrapped item.
“What
is it this time?” the second man asked as he carefully slipped it into the cavity.
“Some
kinda radar thingy -- it’s one of the last pieces he needs. I just know Rog will have our heads if it gets
busted, so be careful will ya!” As the
man turned to get better leverage on the package, he noticed Dean at the corner. Hurrying to slip the package into place, he turned
and yelled to her.
“Hey,
you!” He quickly walked towards Dean
pointing at her. Dean just played innocent,
pointing at herself. “Yeah, you!”
he shouted as he came face to face with her. “Where’d
you come from?”
“Yo?” Dean said, still maintaining the innocent look.
“Yo,
you! What’s your name?”
Dean
just cocked her head at the man with a questioning look, making him even angrier. He
grabbed her arm roughly and led her towards the office.
She put up a mild protest along the way repeating, “Qué he hecho?” and
in a broken accent “no bad.” When
they arrived at the office, the man roughly pulled her in, startling Roger on the phone.
“What’s
this?” Roger asked quickly before putting the phone down. “What’s she done?”
“Ed
and I were putting ‘the package’ away when I turned and saw this broad watching
us,” he said quickly. “You want me
to take care of her?”
“Let’s
see what she knows first,” Roger said. “Call
Jose, have him get over here quick. Put her
in the bathroom until he gets here.”
*
* * * *
Out
in the van, Katie and Bill stopped talking as they noted Dean’s blue dot moving
towards the office area.
“Looks
like she’s on the move,” Bill stated evenly.
“Yeah,
nice touch, looking for the bathroom.” Katie
smirked. “I’d like to have seen how
she got that message across.”
They
noted the area where she stood for a couple of minutes, then identified the sound of a
toilet flushing. “Okay, she’s
moving again,” Bill commented.
“Yeah,
but she’s not going back the same way she came.
She must have found an opportunity to do some snooping.” Katie observed the blue dot zigzagging on the
screen.
They
watched as her dot stopped near two additional ethereal bodies on the monitor and tuned in
the conversation. “Uh oh,” Katie
said quietly. “Looks like she’s in
a bit of trouble. Should we go in now?”
“No,
she hasn’t given the signal. Let’s
just keep an eye on her for now,” Bill said as the tension became visible in the
posture of both watchers.
*
* * * *
Ten
minutes later, Jose showed up at the warehouse, and they brought ‘Maria’ back
into the office. Roger told Jose the
questions to ask and then evaluated the responses, along with the dark woman’s
posture as she was questioned. After about
fifteen minutes of this drill, he seemed satisfied that the woman was telling the truth,
and was just disoriented after leaving the john. He
told Jose to take her back to the loading dock and to keep an eye on her, just in case.
The
next five hours went smoothly and by the end of the shift, all the shipping containers
were loaded, locked and waiting on the flat bed trucks for their next destination. At 0800 Monday morning, the workers lined up at
the warehouse office and waited to receive their pay for the night’s work. As Dean moved along the line, she caught snatches
of comments from the workers that there was only one more shipment, and then they’d
have to look for other work. When her turn
came to receive her pay, Roger told Jose to tell her that she would need to be back in one
week if Enrico wasn’t back from Mexico. Dean
nodded her head in affirmation as she counted her cash smiling. Well, you’re one cheap bastard. Dean thought, as she counted one hundred bucks
for eight hours of back-breaking work. Not
exactly what I’d call prime wages, Roger, but then you paid everyone else four
hundred. Trying to get away cheap with the
immigrant help, eh? Well, we’ll just
take care of that next time.
Dean
smiled at Jose, telling him to tell Senor Goldman that she’d be happy to work for him
next week for such fine wages. She left the
building whistling a snappy Latin tune. It
took her fifteen minutes to backtrack through the alleys to the parking lot where the van
was located and stealthy entered. Inside the
van, Lieutenant Jarvis and Katie were glued to the monitors watching the stationary blue
dot on the screen.
“Wonder
why she’s just standing there?” Bill
fine-tuned the audio. “I can’t hear
anything in that area at all. Can you?”
Katie
shook her head and said, “Nope,” as she continued to stare at the screen.
Dean
put her head between the two agents and asked, “Whatcha
lookin’ at?” smiling as they came unglued at her presence in the van.
“What
the fu…” Bill began “Jeeezz…”
Katie exclaimed at the same time “How’d
you… but, you’re still…” they both finished together.
“Nah,
that’s not me.” Dean continued
smiling at the two flustered agents. “That’s
just the scanning chip from my belt.” She
pointed at the obvious hole in her concho belt. “Just
thought it would work as a temporary tracking device since we didn’t bring any with
us. I slipped it into the container carrying
the ‘extra package’ in the CheerieFlakes cereal crate as a last minute idea. It’s in the packing slip casing on the
outside. What do you think?” Dean leaned on the back wall of the van, unable to
stretch to her full height in the cramped space.
Bill
was the first to reply. “Guess it should
work as long as we have access to a TDSC unit to track it.”
Katie
just nodded, since the technical capabilities of the Intelligence Section were outside her
realm of expertise.
“Yeah. I’ll call Tibbits now to put the satellite
unit section on alert to track this shipment before it starts moving.” Dean checked the GPS coordinates before she called
in her request. After a short chat with the
sergeant major, Dean hung up and, with a dazzling smile asked, “Anyone up for
breakfast?”
*
* * * * *
Chapter
7
1000
Hours, 30 October
After
dropping off Lieutenant Jarvis, Dean and Katie went back to the house for a quick nap
before returning to the Pentagon at 1800. As
soon as they opened the door to the house, they were greeted by three very annoyed
felines. Katie quickly fed her brood,
medicated Sugar, and followed Dean to the bedroom. Dean
was just coming out of the shower, still dripping from the quick wash.
“Mmmm,
you look good in that outfit, too,” Katie purred as she reached for a towel to help
dry her partner off. “Too bad I’m
so wiped, or I might try to take advantage of your vulnerable situation here,” she
said as her towel-covered hands slowly caressed Dean’s breasts.
“Who,
me? Vulnerable?” Dean’s eyes
twinkled as she made a lightning-quick move, pulling Katie into a tight embrace. The tall woman leaned down, placed her lips on the
young blonde’s, and administered a soft, passionate kiss. “Still too tired?”
“Mmm,
actually, yeah. I’m afraid real life is
interfering with my romantic life,” the blonde answered softly. “Rain check?”
“Rain
check,” Dean affirmed as she deftly picked the young woman up and carried her to the
bed, gently putting her down. She then
removed Katie’s clothes and slipped her under the covers before returning to the
bathroom to finish drying off. By the time
she returned to the bed, Katie was already asleep, so she quietly settled in next to her
lover and entered Morpheus’s realm.
*
* * * *
“Well,
it’s been moving since 0900,” Lieutenant Jarvis commented, as he entered
Dean’s office. “Looks like
it’s headed north. Maybe they’re
going to ship it out of New Jersey?”
“At
least we’ll be able to track it.” Katie
looked over at Dean. “Thanks to the
colonel’s quick thinking.”
“Hmm?”
Dean mumbled as she looked up from the current manual she was reading.
“The
package is on the move. Looks like it will be
going out of a port somewhere north of here,” Lieutenant Jarvis reiterated. “What’s got you so distracted?”
“I’m
trying to figure out what that package was. The
guy said it was some kind of radar ‘thingy’, and I’m just trying to see if
I can pinpoint it.” She sighed as she
put the manual down and stood to stretch. “I’m
not making much headway, though. Any
ideas?”
Bill
picked up the manual Dean had just set down and began scanning. “Phew! This
is some pretty technical stuff here. What
would a bunch of military misfits want with a radar set up?”
“Maybe
they want to be able to set it up for defense of their headquarters, wherever that might
be?” Katie offered. “You know, like
a warning system if anyone tried to enter a specific area.”
“Yeah,
or maybe they have their own airfield, and they need it for air traffic control,”
Bill chimed in.
“Or,
maybe they just want to beat the speed traps,” Dean sighed. “There are just so many uses for radar these
days. Unless we know what kind of set-up
they’re working on, it’s just a crap shoot!”
Dean went back to her chair and sat down, beginning her rocking motion. “Wish I could have gotten a better look at
the package they were loading.”
The
sound of the telephone ringing broke the silence in Dean’s office. She reached over to pick up the offending
instrument. “Colonel Peterson,”
she stated into the receiver.
“Yes. Really? That’s
interesting. Well, keep tracking it, okay? And thanks.”
Dean looked at her two partners, brows knit together and stated, “The package
is now headed west by train. That’s
certainly not the direction I was expecting.”
“West? Wonder what’s going on here. Maybe a circuitous route to make sure the shipment
isn’t compromised?” Katie offered, considering the final destination site that
they had suspected.
“Could
be. Why else go in the opposite direction of
where it’s final destination is supposed to be?” Bill supposed agreeably.
“Well,
the satellite surveillance section is still tracking it.
They’ll let us know of any changes.”
Dean looked at her watch. “I
don’t know about you two, but I’m ready for a change of scenery. Anyone interested in a workout in the
officers’ gym?
*
* * * *
It
took the trio about thirty minutes to get down to the gym after shutting down the
computers in the office and filing the afternoon’s research. Dean and Katie had brought workout clothes with
them in anticipation of at least getting in a run before the sun went down. Going to the gym was an even better idea. Entering the women’s locker room, Dean led
Katie to the attendant’s desk to get a locker assignment for her. The women’s locker room was larger than she
expected, brightly lit, and smelled better than any locker room she had ever been in.
“So
what kind of facilities do they have here?” Katie asked the attendant.
“Just
about anything you’d need to keep in shape, except a pool,” the attendant
replied. “We’ve got all the high
tech stuff, as well as the good old free weights, an indoor running track, and a couple of
small gyms for hand-to-hand work, aerobic and step routines.”
“Hey,
not bad.” Katie accepted her locker
assignment slip, signed it, returning the attendant’s copy and keeping hers. The attendant handed her a towel and asked her to
review the rules on the reverse side of her assignment slip. “Will do.” Dean read her locker number from the slip and led
Katie to the aisle where it was located. It
was only two aisles from Dean’s.
“So,
what do you want to do first?” Katie asked as she rounded the corner into Dean’s
aisle.
“Well,
I’m feeling a little stiff right now, so a little warm up on the free weights and a
short jog, then maybe a workout with Bill on the mats,” Dean replied easily.
“Sounds
good to me. Bill asked me if I’d show
him a few moves, so that’ll work out just fine.”
The
women went to the weight room first, hitting the circuit along with several other men and
women. The weight stations were actually
located in the middle of the oval indoor running track.
Whether the designers had intended the effect or not, the breeze caused by the
runners and joggers kept the weight lifters cooled. After
completing their strength training, they joined the others on the modest track and worked
on the aerobic portion of their program, with a warm up walk before breaking into a run.
Calculating
they had hit their target heart range for thirty minutes, they slowed to a walk once more
to cool down before proceeding to the gym, where they had promised to meet Bill. For the next two hours, they took turns working on
defense and attack tactics. No matter who came at her, every round that Katie was in was
won by her; and she graciously critiqued them regarding their techniques after each bout. Finally, Dean and Bill decided to team up on the
young woman for one final round. Katie had
anticipated this approach much earlier, so when they both attacked, she was ready for
them. Utilizing a combination of techniques
from aikido, judo, Tang Soo Do, kung fu, and karate, Katie prevailed again, landing both
would-be attackers on the mats several times. Bouncing
on the balls of her feet, Katie waited for them to rise and come at her again, but Bill
and Dean finally remained down. After
catching her breath, Dean rolled her head over to look at Bill and said, “Well …
that was fun!” earning a hearty chuckle from him.
Katie, the typical gracious winner, reached down to help them both up before taking
a winner’s lap around the small gym making cheering crowd noises as she jogged. “Yea… cheers…. Atta girl…
roar…” Having maxed their endurance levels for the night, the trio headed to the
locker room for well-deserved showers.
*
* * * *
“Well
at least we won’t have to work out when we get home,” Katie commented as the two
women exited the officers’ locker room. “In
fact, we could probably skip tomorrow, too, after the workout we had tonight.” She
added this afterthought hopefully.
“Don’t
count on it, Katie. That run up the stairs
after Enrico made me realize how much I’ve gotten out of shape. And our little exercise tonight reinforced
that!” the older woman said with conviction as she met Katie’s best puppy dog
look. “And that little pout won’t
help either.”
“So
you’re saying that if you had beat me tonight, you wouldn’t consider yourself
out of shape?” the blonde teased her older partner, giving her a gentle elbow in the
ribs.
“Oh,
no, I’m saying I’m out of shape. If
I was in better condition, I’d have whupped your butt!” Dean replied with a feral grin. “Just give me a week, and we’ll go
through that little exercise again.”
“Oooo. Do I sense a little challenge here?” the
blonde responded jovially. “What say we
make this a bit more interesting then.”
“What
do you have in mind?”
“How
about the loser has to give the winner a massage every night for a week?” Katie smiled, raising and lowering her eyebrows in
true Groucho Marx fashion.
“A
week?” Dean laughed. “Guess you’re not very confident. How about a month?”
“You’re
on!” Katie quipped as she entered Dean’s office.
“You know what they say, ‘The bigger they are the harder they fall.’
But don’t worry, I’ll let you down gently.”
“We’ll
see,” Dean answered with a grin of her own, knowing that even if she lost, she’d
still win, since she enjoyed giving Katie a massage as much as receiving one. “But right now, let’s see where our
package is at the moment.” Dean lifted
the phone and called down to the satellite surveillance section. She found that the package was just about to
Chicago, and they would know in a few hours where the next stop would be. Dean thanked them and said she’d contact
them at 2300 for an update. After checking
the latest information on the other prime mercenary targets, they decided to call it a
night, and headed home.
*
* * * *
At
2245, Dean rolled over and turned on the lamp on her bedside table. She punched in the number for the surveillance
section and waited for someone to pick up. After
six rings, the phone was finally answered. “This
is Colonel Peterson. What’s the location
of my package now?” Dean waited until
the staff sergeant found her information and returned to the phone. “It’s where?” Dean’s voice boomed through the quiet
bedroom, rousing the sleepy blonde who was still semi-wrapped around her waist. “How the hell did it get there so fast? Yeah, uh huh.
Well, can you pinpoint it exactly? Then
do it and get back to me immediately!” Dean
gave the staff sergeant her phone number then hung up the phone. A heavy-eyed Katie opened one eye and peered at
her frustrated partner.
“So,
where’s it at?” Katie was now
sitting up on the bedside next to her partner.
“Would
you believe Las Vegas?” Dean replied, shaking her head. “Seems it took a plane there. A commercial plane.
Not FedEx, or Airborne, or any of the normal shipping airlines, but a goddamned
commercial jetliner!”
“The
whole shipment?” Katie asked inquisitively as she began to knead at the knots she
knew would be developing in her partner’s shoulders.
“I
doubt it. There were too many shipping
canisters for that,” the tall woman said, still shaking her head in wonder. “It must have been removed from the crate for
some reason or another. Maybe they’ve
got to add it to another part or something. Who
knows?”
Dean
threw the covers off and slid out of bed, grabbing her robe and putting it on as she
stood. Once out of bed, she began to walk
around the room waiting for the phone to ring. It
only took three minutes for the return call, but in that time, you could almost see a path
in the carpet from her constant pacing. Grabbing
the phone she muttered, “Peterson. Yeah,
got it. Look, this is a priority. Keep an eye on that blip and let me know
immediately if it moves again. No, just if it
leaves Vegas!” Hanging up the phone she
looked at Katie and said, “Seems like it’s somewhere on the Strip. That’s as close as they could get right now. They have to wait for the next satellite to get
into the right orbit before they can pinpoint it any further.”
“Any
way a ground team could pinpoint it better?” Katie asked.
“That’s
a great idea, Katie. It’ll still be like
finding a needle in a haystack, but at least we could get a better bearing on what’s
going on with it.” Dean smiled at her
partner and sat back down on the bed next to Katie. “We’ve
got a team of new intelligence recruits going through training out in New Mexico. We could get a team up to Vegas by daylight. With the new hand held TDSC units, they could use
this as a practical exercise.” Dean
reached for the phone and made a quick call to General Carlton, explaining the situation
and the recommendation. The general concurred
that this could be a valuable training exercise for the recruits, and the addition of a
seasoned field instructor was also a plus. They
agreed that the only information they needed at this point was the location and condition
of the package. General Carlton said she
would issue the orders immediately. ”Now
we just have to wait and see what the team finds out.”
Dean sighed as she stood to take off her robe and slipped back under the covers.
“How
long before we get a response?” Katie asked yawning.
“Probably
within six to eight hours, depending on how long it will take them to track it without
being noticed.”
“Well,
then, we’d better get back to sleep,” the young woman suggested. “Not much we can do for now.”
“Oh,
I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Dean stated as she turned off the light and
slipped her hand out toward her lover’s body, finding her objective with exquisite
precision.
“Mmmm.” A soft moan escaped from Katie as she relaxed
into Dean’s ministrations. “You can
always find something creative to do, can’t you.”
“You’ve
got that right,” Dean mumbled as she burrowed under the covers towards her ultimate
target.
*
* * * *