Chapter 299

The drive home didn't seem nearly as long as the drive up had. I wasn't anticipating my arrival home as much as I had been my arrival at the farm. All the renovations were completed. All that remained, for the time being, was just the battle of wits with the case officer. Actually I couldn't see us being at odds over the pending operation. I kind of liked the idea of blackmail parties. I had never done anything like it, but there was a first time for everything.

My immediate problem was what to tell Jennifer. She would need to know why I had suddenly decided to take to the Hollywood type parties. I had always found the antics of the entertainment people silly. What on earth would I tell her. She was my unofficial agent and my official best friend, so I would have to tell her something to cover both fronts.

I was going to be throwing parties, when I found the right people for them, so I needed to give some thought to where. The guys on the farm wanted me to go where the targets were, which made sense.

For that I planned to have Eve doing the scouting. She was definitely going to be my party planner of choice. The money for all this nonsense was going to get slipped into an account set up just for the operation. There had been talk of a self sustaining operation, but the memories of Iran-Contra pretty much ended that. There was also the small problem of everyone believing I was still alive.

The boys on the farm wanted me to keep up the pretense and I wanted to do so as well. In my mind I was alive. Most likely it would never come to the necessity for anyone to define my status. The guys could end the farce at any time. I had sorta made peace with the end just being the end whenever it came.

So back to the real problem. The one I had some control over at the moment. What to tell Jen and how to get started. The guys back in the control room would be working on the problems as well.

We communicated via encrypted cell phone signal as I moved from tower to tower on the way home. Somewhere a couple of hours from home, we decided that they would set up a dummy company. Since they had lots of practice, they would set up a dummy entertainment and public relations company. That company would contact me through Jen. A company like it could easily find my contact information from the TV network. It would be the ideal time, since I had gotten a lot of press from the Emmies.

Jen could actually bring the matter to my attention. I would ordinarily dismiss it out of hand, but this time I would reluctantly agree to it. After that the company could make the decisions. It was rather a compact little operation which made it appealing to me. It wasn't quite elegant, but it was clean.

It was late Saturday afternoon when I arrived in the tiny parking area space behind the Downtown House. I had been gone officially 48hours. I checked my messages inside the house and found that only Kate and Vlad had missed me.

Kate had news on the Heartland Mills project, and Vlad just wanted to touch base to be sure I hadn't been murdered. He was calm, and he never said it but it was obviously what he was thinking.

"Vlad it's me Maxine," I said when he answered the phone.

"Where have you been, I was about to put in a police report for you." he said.

"Have you gone senile, I told you I was going out of town for a day or two," I said.

"Yes and this is day two. If you hadn't called me by the end of day tomorrow, I would have begun to search for you seriously. You know we have to look out for each other." he was being cold and logical. "If they get to one of us. We are all in danger."

"I know Vlad, but I'm sure as hell dying of boredom, is that much better?" I suggested.

"Maxine as long as you are alive there will never be boredom in our lives," he said. "Anya sends her love and now I have a poker game I should rejoin. Come on over to the cloak and join?"

"I think that I am going to keep my money this week," I said with a laugh. I might have used my super brain to beat them anytime I wanted, but I ran it on normal load, so they had as good a chance as before. Not only was it only fair to lose now and then, but it helped to keep my secret.

I called Jen to let her know that I was home. "Hey shyster, I'm back with the real folks."

"So are you going to guard the body?" she asked.

"That clown wants someone to stand around and look like a body guard, when he is on stage. I told him to call a Hollywood casting agent. He wanted me because of that dumb TV show you plugged my ass into."

"That dumb TV show gave you the base of the money, we have turned into a small town fortune," Jennifer informed me.

"Honey, that is not where the money came from and you know it," I informed her.

"Some of it did. You know we are never to talk about the other," she said.

"I know that, Now you remember it," I scolded.

"Okay, so what is next with you? Are you still bored?" she asked.

"You bet I'm bored. I'm going to look for something a little more exciting than real estate development. In the meantime Kate thinks we might be close to a deal on Heartland Mills, so keep an eye out for that."

"Not a problem Maxine. I tell you this, if you are going on the rock concert tour, you better get me tickets. I have nieces and nephews to please." Jennifer said with a laugh.

"I turned down the rock concert gig. I want to help put this town together. You know make something that stays after I'm dust," I said that, but I was thinking after I'm rust. Had to keep a sense of humor, I also thought.

Saturday night passed with me in power saver and recharge mode. It wasn't necessary, but I really didn't have anything I wanted to do in the middle of the night.