Chapter 3

My complicated sexual relationship with Laura and now Jennifer carried on for a month or so. The differences between the two sisters were profound. Laura was fairly passive in bed, adventurous enough to try anything, but never led the way so to speak. She was and is an intensely private person, though quite open about our friendship, just never about our sex life. Whereas Jennifer was a lady who knew what she wanted and would often suggest some adventure, she also loved to dress up in various 'outfits' from schoolgirl, to nun along with various basques, corsets, stockings and suspenders, it was always a mystery what she would choose and we had a lot of fun with role play.

The Teams reaction to my complicated life was one of both amusement and wonder, though they never asked for details. They'd seen the effect that visits to Julia by her sisters had improved her functioning slightly and figured every little helped. Earl simply warned me not to wear myself out, which would have been difficult as simply arranging to meet either one of the sisters was complicated by their own lives anyway, what with school terms and social events that they attended with their husbands and other family members. My job frequently had me working abroad or in another part of the country and the work was hard and very often dangerous; governments and terrorist cells do not like being spied upon and are not very trusting at the best of times. Still we were professionals and supremely competent, most of the time no-one realised we had been and gone, the few that did only long after. That's not to say we weren't shot at, occasionally held up by armed insurgents and robbed blind by corrupt bureaucrats, warlords and chieftains. In some cases it actually paid us to bribe, information was cheap and they loved lining their pockets at the 'innocent' foreigners expense, not realising what the true worth of the information was. We often bought passwords for server access for the price of a few cases of cheap rotgut. Give me admin access to a server for an hour or two and we'd have permanent back door access to it, even leaving it a lot more secure to outside hacking, we didn't want anyone else selling what we had. We did recognise various other intercept scripts, some of whom we disabled, some of whom we left well alone. You do not want to piss off the United States Intelligence services without damned good reason, they have more money and resources than some small countries I could mention and they do not like people meddling in their bailiwicks.

I had just returned from a mission in the Ukraine where we'd successfully infiltrated and retrieved a keylogger inthe server room of a company suspected of funnelling money into the hands of various terrorist groups. Again we didn't know who we did it for (other than the Company), just that it had been a nightmare as we'd accidentally strayed into the territory of one of the radical so called right wing groups in Kiev. In this case 'right wing' meant racist and they did not like foreigners at all and proceeded to harass us in our hotel and various places where we met. In the end Bill, John and Emma had gone off the reservation one night and had 'negotiated' with the group, leaving them with twenty seven dead and their leader and various sub-leaders nailed by various bodily parts to doors in their headquarters. That night Brian and I had also retrieved the keylogger and we all left on a flight, first time in over a year I'd caught Bill smiling too.

Still, the Company decided we needed a break, not a rest though and they put us on celebrity bodyguard work for a film premiere. That isn't to say we were a 'Goon' squad, the celebs had their own entourages for that. We were just there to monitor the site security and 'mingle' with the guests to spot any gate-crashers, paparazzi or other undesirables before they produced any headlines the organisers didn't want to see.

Yes, we would mingle with the stars, we being the rest of the Team. I get to stay in the control room and watch cameras and co-ordinate, price of being a geek I suppose.

Earl also got to hire some escorts for two of the male members, Emma squiring the other.

I was telling Laura and Jennifer about this when they first asked if I could get them tickets as they both have a thing about Johnny Depp and then asked me to ask Earl if they could be the escorts instead as they both had wardrobes full of designer stuff and were prepared to 'work' cheap.

Earl himself was bemused when I asked. "They really want to attend do they?" he asked.

"Yes and they do scrub up well, as you well know," I said with a grin.

"Very true," he said. "Hmmmmm, ask them to pop in with full kit on and I'll see if they make the grade."

I rang Laura and Jennifer and told them what Earl wanted. They agreed to pop in the next day with a selection of outfits and promised mayhem on me if I put them in a room with cameras.

The Team were going over the venue to be held at 30 St Mary Axe informally referred to as the Gherkin. The reception was to be on the top floor (level 40) with panoramic views of the city. The normal building security was handling access to the venue, the City of London Police had the outside crowd control. Our job was to nip any trouble in the venue in the bud, without upsetting the celebs, which could be tricky as diplomacy was not some of our members' strong suit. Insult me and I'll shrug it off, insult Bill beyond a certain point and you'll be taking your teeth home in a bag. He promised to be on his best behaviour, but he always promises that. He promised that in Kiev too. Earl entered the room with Laura and Jennifer who looked simply jaw-droppingly good.

"These two good Lady's have agreed to be your escorts for the venue. They've promised to behave and not mob Johnny. Decide who goes with whom and go over a few things to watch out for including where to go if there's any trouble," he intoned.

There were a few moments of silence before Bill, who looked as dumbstruck as I've ever seen him, said, "Welcome aboard Laura, Jennifer, we'll soon sort things."

There was no need for introductions, but Bill did go over the team call-signs for them.

They smiled at mine of course, Geek, Bill was known as Tripod, John as Boomer (he makes things go boom), Brian as Hector (because he's a h'actor) and Emma as Butch (because she is). Earl's call-sign was Duke (as in Duke of Earl)

Essentially all Laura and Jennifer would do is hang onto the arm of Bill and John and keep an eye out for anything untoward, not that we expected there to be any trouble, but we'd at least have more eyes on the ground.

The night of the party arrived and we all assembled in the security room that I'd equipped for our needs, the ladies looked simply stunning in their outfits including Emma who had been taken under the care of Laura and given various tips and a makeover to make her blend in a lot better when she was on Brian's arm.

We'd been given the word that the premiere was over and the guests were on their way and the Team began to circulate, mostly just wandering in an assigned third of the floor and observing. Anything odd was relayed through me and to the regular goon squads covering the various exits.

It soon turned out that Laura and Jennifer were an absolute goldmine on what was in and what was not, what was real and what was fake amongst the guests. They had an eye for anything out of place and the goons were kept busy checking credentials and several gate-crashers found themselves evicted quietly but firmly. The real moment came though when Laura came over the comms and pointed us to a couple just emerging from a rest room.

"Something very wrong there!" she said. "Look at the woman's shoulder, the bag she's carrying should only hold a few light items, but look at the strap, it's digging into the skin on her shoulder."

"She's right," said Bill. "Full room scan people, they might not be on their own."

Two other 'odd' couples were soon located and the goon squad were making their way unobtrusively towards them when the couples themselves started moving toward the centre of the venue where the stars were congregated.

"Shit!" muttered Bill. "L and J peel off to the safe zone. Butch, Hector, Boomer take them out now!"

It was like watching an elaborately choreographed dance. Both Laura and Jennifer's hands dipped into their own purses and retrieved a small Taser that they handed to Bill and John respectively then did a 180 turn and passed behind them towards the room centre and made for the security room entrance relying on me to tell them if they were heading into trouble.

Bill made for the couple nearest him and flipped his security badge asking to see the contents of the woman's' purse. This caused them to pause just long enough for the goon squad to encircle them and escort them away.

John, did the same approach with his couple only for the man to try and throw a punch, a big mistake as John simply avoided the wildly thrown haymaker and gave the guy a stiff fingered jab to the solar plexus. He kept his Taser pointed at the woman without even a waver as the goon squad collected them.

Harry and Emma had no trouble at all with their targets and the whole matter was over within seconds, none of the celebs any the wiser.

Turned out that the couples were part of an animal rights/meat is murder group who'd intended to spray any celebs wearing fur with fake blood.

The rest of the evening passed without any more trouble. Laura and Jennifer returned to the guys and eventually things wound down and arrangements were made for a de-brief the following afternoon. It has been a successful mission, though highlights of the evening for the ladies being a photograph with Johnny Depp and signed programs from all the celebs, not the intercepts.

I made sure that Laura and Jennifer got to their homes safely, and enjoyed their banter over the adventure they had.

"Why is Bill's call-sign Tripod?" Jennifer finally asked.

Laura and I nearly choked with laughter.

"It's because it's rumoured that if he dropped his pants he'd look like a tripod," I finally gasped out, over Laura's strangled hysterical laughter.

"Is he really?" Jennifer asked.

"It is so rumoured," I replied.

"How did you know?" Jennifer finally asked Laura.

"I asked him," Laura sniggered. "He told me what David just said."

"Oh my," Jennifer mourned with a sly smile at me. "It looks like I may have taken up with the wrong guy."

We all hugged and Jennifer got out of the taxi at her home. Laura and I continued on, swapping a few kisses until she too got out and I returned to my home.

It was 3am and I'd just managed to get the key in the lock when a voice behind me nearly made me jump out of my skin.

"Can I have a word, David?" came a soft female voice.

I rarely let my guard down, the job I do doesn't encourage it, yet I'd been caught completely flat-footed this time. Bill would have gone nuts if he found out. Then again, Bill checks over 3 year olds in case they have suicide vests installed on their person.

I whipped round swiftly and moved into a defensive stance only to relax as I faced Debby, the other sister-in-law.

"Sorry if I startled you," she said.

"It's OK," I replied, then. "Er, what are you doing here at this time of the morning?"

"Waiting for you, of course," she replied.

"OK, why?" I finally said when no other words were forthcoming.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" she asked, deftly avoiding the question with another.

I paused for a few seconds then invited Debby in, I didn't feel comfortable about it at all, but I wasn't in the mood to have a conversation with the possibility of the neighbours eavesdropping.

Debby gratefully accepted my offer of a coffee and sat on my settee cradling the mug in her hands.

"What are you up too with my sisters?" she finally asked.

"Ask them," I replied.

"I did, they told me to ask you," Debby finally replied.

"I helped them out with a few problems," I eventually ventured.

"You're a nice guy, David and very discreet," Debby said. "However, Mother knows about their trips to see Julia and has decided to deal with it and you. She thinks you're blackmailing them somehow and is going to task her private detective agency to remove the problem."

"Who might they be?" I asked.

"Travis and Murcheson," Debby replied. "Not nice people, but quite effective at removing nuisances."

"I know of them," I replied. "What I don't get is why you're telling me."

"David, I know you're having sex with Laura and Jennifer. I know you have gotten them to see Julia. I'll be seeing her myself this week too and I shouldn't have let Mother have her way over it." Debby said. "I've never seen them so happy in a long time and they were thrilled to be able to help out tonight. You've given them a purpose in life. However you're interfering in Mother's grand plan for the family and she won't stand for it."