Chapter 32

Take the phone to the courthouse square park and place it inside a Hardee's bag. Take a biscuit and coffee from the Hardee's bag then deposit the trash in it after your breakfast. Place the bag filled with your trash and the phone into the refuge collector directly across from the courthouse. Move to a bench away from the refuse can and wait for it to be collected. Do no allow the county to empty those cans until our man gets it.

I followed the instructions even though I was in a little pain. It could have been worse. Of course I felt as though I looked as bad as the homeless man who collected the bag from the trash. I was pretty sure he walked around the block to be sure he wasn't followed, then climbed into a Cadillac to drive to the Church Camp.

No matter what he did, the phone was on its way to the Geek. No one ever called him anything but the Geek, so it could have been a team of ten, or a lone gunman type. I would never have known the difference, nor did I really care.

I went home, hung my hunting coat on the hook by the rear door, and for a change stayed out of bed. For one thing I was on the half dose of pain killers. Yes there was pain, but I was also thinking rationally for the first time in two weeks. Since I had breakfast at the local Hardee's restaurant, I was ready for a shower, then to greet the day.

The only thing I had to do was be sure the water was hot. To do that I turned on the water at the large plastic sink. The 'on demand' fish tank pump sent hot water to the sink. It was very hot so I immediately turned it off, then went to gather my clean clothes.

Carlos had dropped off my clean clothes, and picked up the bag of dirty ones the day before. I threw my dirty clothes in a fishnet kind of bag hanging on a hook in the living room by the stairs. Since I had the fire roaring from my morning labors, I was able to undress in the living room. I put the jeans, the white tee shirt, the blue thermal shirt and the panties into the fishnet bag.

Then standing in the living room nude, I tackled the pile on the second sofa. I put the underwear in the shoeboxes in the rack near the rear door. I hung the jeans on hangers from the bar above the rack. Then I took one pair of panties, one long sleeve red tee shirt and a pair of jeans into the bathroom.

After my almost satisfactory shower I dressed for the day. After my indoor clothing was in place I checked to be sure I was ready to leave the house on a moment's notice. The thick blue sweatshirt hung by the rear door, along with the lined mustard colored hunting coat I had worn earlier. I had to look all over for that kind of coat. It had hung there several months. It hung beside the camo hunting coat, which I had purchased on the drive back from the Techno Park job. Well I supposed a mountain girl could never have too many hunting coats.

Then I tackled the coffee pot so that I could sit by the stove to dry my hair. It took and hour during which time I tried to plan my day. I didn't want to do too much again and spend another three days more or less unconscious. So I planned to roll with the punches. I planned to limit myself to one nap, if I could squeeze it into my not so busy schedule.

I picked up the cheap tablet which allowed me to check the Church Camp email. I had expected a short open, but encrypted email saying they had received the phone. Instead there was a long coded and encrypted email. To decode it I would need to go to the grocery store and purchase a sleazy tabloid. Since I had about half an hour before my hair was completely dry, I finished my coffee.

When I did, I took my half pill, then pulled on the thick blue sweatshirt and the mustard colored hunting coat. I pretty much looked like an old hag with the stringy hair and no make up. Not to mention the jeans and hunting coat I wore. It was not the best look for a woman on the sunny side of thirty, especially one with a ten grand boob job. No cut rate jobs for me, I thought.

I drove to the plaza and a Food Lion supermarket. While I was there I picked up some frozen dinners to replenish my dwindling supply. I also got a bag of the fancy rolls to which I was partial. Then as a seemly after thought, I bought a Globe tabloid. When I got home I put away everything, then settled in to decode the message.

'I received your phone and contacted our expert. I am not used to dealing with these things, since we are more of a training and rehab facility. A complex of safe houses and other out of the ordinary functions for our parent company. So we have no procedure in place for this kind of thing. I was prepared to ship the whole thing to him, but I was advised to send him the serial number. He sent back detailed instructions as to how to unlock it and to clone it. I copied the whole memory onto a CD. We need to meet so you can pick up the CD. I will also return of the phone at the meeting. Andrew.'

Holy shit, I thought. They have the phone open and ready for me to view the contents. Now that is fucking good service, I thought. I encoded a much shorter message.

'I am back to 50% of normal ... Use the fucker for target practice. Am I finished with Morris and how did you do it?'

The answer was short and simple. 'All will be revealed at the meet. The phone shows you are being followed. He seems to be horny teenager, but be careful you are not followed here.'

My answer was, 'Yes but he can't follow during school hours or far from my house. It isn't a 24/7 kind of thing'

His answer, 'Come home at 2 PM today.'

My response, 'Can do boss.'

I spent the two and a half hours prone on the sofa. That time was well spent, since I gave my new situation some thought, as well as reliving my past successes with the undercover work. I realized that telling lies and being someone else was the only thing I had ever been good at. Also for the first time in my life I felt like I was doing some good. It was quite a break through for me.

I realized that people actually cared what I did for a change. People also depended on me for a change. Best of all people had lived and died because of me. Now that was power no one ever though I would have, least of all me.

When time came I made the long drive to the CC. It was a lot of miles but the roads were crap making it a disproportionately time consuming drive. When I got to CC, there was the usual security entrance. Very low tech, but I had no doubt very deadly.

I sat in the outer office of the commandant. He had no receptionist. Instead a cctv camera watched me. It never had to pee or fix its makeup. Speaking of which, I actually wore makeup. It had been a time consuming and painful experience, but I looked pretty much like myself. I wore a little too much eye shadow and liner because it was the hardest to control. They weren't the raccoon eyes of a teenager, but they were a little thick for an adult.

"Come in Rose," Andrew said as he leaned heavily on one cane.

I was sitting when I asked, "Am I your first asset?"

"My first administratively controlled asset. I have been a Mission Commander many times," he said.

"I hope my assignments ends better than yours," I said not understanding why I was being bitchy.

"As do I," he replied.

"I know you have questions, and I do as well. Why don't we start with yours," he said.

"Okay, how did you convince the SBI to let me go and not send me back to the joint?" I asked.

"Well first of all the threat of a return to the state women's maximum security facility is still on the table. The difference is now I Control your return, not Agent Mission. The how was simple Commandant Porter convinced Agent Mission's superior, that it would be easier to hide your existence if we ran the ops and just leased you to them. We don't have any auditors from which we need to hide off the books operations."

"I see. Well I have been impressed with your support so far. That phone clone was amazing," I commented.

"Well I was surprised with how well it went myself," he said reaching into his desk and removing the CD. "Now we need to get this kid off your ass without killing him."

"Oh, I'll take care of him," I said.

"You have till Monday. We will have the monitoring capability in place by then. If he shows on our radar after that, he will be dealt with by me," Andrew said.

"You will not kill him!" It was a demand, one that I was in no position to make.

"Of course not, who do you think we are. We will neutralize him by alerting his parent, and the SBI, who are responsible for the routine police work in that county these days. They will visit Jose and his parents. Lots of document checks of him and his extended family will follow. It will be hard for him to stalk you from Mexico," Andrew said.

"You do play rough," I said.

"Sylvia should have told you that," he said.

"She really didn't have to tell me," I said.

"Okay next order of business," he said sliding a paper across to me face down. "You are going to need to laundry money. That is best done with a small business. I'm sure if we supply you with a framework you can manage to hide the cash we pay you."

"I can manage to spend it. I shouldn't have to hide it," I said.

"I would think you should listen to us. The C.O. has a lot of experience with running dark operations like yours. She set the pattern that most everyone uses these days. So pick something that interest you."

The paper contained a list of ten businesses that would fly beneath the radar. Most of them were too girlie for me. I saw the Antique Rescue and Sales name on the list. "This one appeals to me," I said pointing to it.

"Okay go back and when you feel better set up the business using the money in your credit card account for the traceable expenses. Your secret money is for the non traceable." Then he reached into his desk for a red folder. "This is a business plan and lots of information about how to make it work."

"Thanks," I said.

"Go home and get that kid out of your personal life or we will," he said again. "A lot of people will be hurt if we have to do it."

"Right boss," I said.

"We will continue to correspond by the usual method," he said. "Do you know how to remove the hard drive from the state laptop?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Take it out and replace it with this one. Then destroy the one you remove. Give the drive a couple of whacks with a hammer. Then take it outside and pour a bottle of drain cleaner over it. Put it in one of those tin foil roasting pans and drop it in the county dumpster," Andrew demanded.