Chapter 19

Weekend 3

Saturday.

It was 3 AM when Lucille's front door opened. The very clean looking younger middle-aged young man entered. He probably came close to heart attack when Eddie spoke to him from behind the .38 cal wheel gun.

Eddie: Now I'm going to assume you are Lucille's husband, so I'm not going to just shoot you.

Husband: (near panic) Yes I am. Who are you?

Eddie: My name is Eddie and I'm one of your wife's associates.

Husband: She seems to have sunk to an even new low.

Eddie: Shut the fuck up before I mess up that pretty face. (Playing thug) Now there are some very bad people who might be targeting my team. I don't like that one fucking bit. You can either stay here and protect your wife, or I am going to have her and your kids moved to a safe house. At the same time I will hold a press conference to explain why this is necessary.

I doubt that kind of publicity will be good for an international banker. You want to show strength, not how irresponsible you are. The choice is yours. Now go be your wife's protector like you promised when you married her.

Eddie picked up the rest of his shit and walked out the front door. He walked to his car never giving May a second thought. He was absolutely sure that Lucille wouldn't shrink from her responsibility for May's safety.

He drove until 4:30 AM. It was a bitch staying awake. He had been sleep deprived since his foray into Mossberg two days before. Hell he still had the flash drive with the clone program and the camera's memory card of what they had seen inside the apartment type condo.

Eddie hit the wall after he got inside the house. He didn't even heat coffee, he just hit the sofa with a coverlet wrapped around him and crashed.

Lucille woke when her husband came to bed. She didn't speak. She just turned away from him.

Husband: Who was the thug in the living room, one of you misfits?

She had once described her team as social misfits and world class fuck ups. She regretted having described them that way, but it was too late to go back.

Lucille: Did he have a talk with you?

Husband: Did you put him up to it?

Lucille: Actually I didn't. If I were going to do that I would have had Wes do it. He would probably have broken some part of your body parts not needed to approve loans to petty dictators.

Husband: Which of the Neanderthals are you screwing?

Lucille: None yet. Now I'm going to sleep, so you can stop whining.

It was 5 AM when Wes left the projects to run. He carried only a spring loaded lock knife for protection. It was all he felt he needed against men who wanted to posture more than they wanted to kill.

He ran along at a slow pace while he looked the project over. It wasn't as bad as some of the slums he had seen around the world. It was probably just as dangerous in its own way. The Gangs had a death grip and were squeezing the life out of the young people. Not all, of course, but a significant number.

It was depressing enough to want a drink at 5 AM. He didn't stop by his car for the bottle of Vodka in the truck under the spare tire, but he sure as hell wanted to. The gang culture was like the warlord culture of the Middle East and Africa. They were like a disease with no cure.

The only thing to do was to eradicate them completely and to do it to all of them at the same time. You couldn't leave anyone of that culture left. God hates a vacuum. If you left even one member of one gang they would spring up again like weeds. Until the powers that be were willing to do that there was no hope for the poor trying to raise kids in that environment.

Wes turned back to Salina's home feeling helpless as he always did when confronted with social problems. He was much better at eliminating a purely military problem. Again he thought that it was too bad he had to hunt Swamp Dog when he felt so akin to them.

Salina awoke when Wes returned. She pulled his sweat soaked body back to the bed. The made love yet again. She loved the feel of him as well as the smell of him. What he loved about her was hard to explain. One of the things was her lack of planning. She never mentioned tomorrow in any planning context at all.

Mike had awakened in the middle of the night to the sensation of pain. He struggled from the bed and into the hall bathroom where he found the pills from his doctor at the free clinic. He was registered there under a generic false identity used by the Department of Justice.

With it he had been able to get painkillers without being in the system. Not being in the system saved him the hassle of paying a penalty for not registering with the IRS. The penalty was in lieu of proving he had income or assets. Mike was not one of the traditional working poor. He was one of the ever growing working poor who worked off the books. Almost untraceable until he applied for government subsidized benefits, like National Health Services treatment.

With the pills ingested he tried to return to sleep. He was prevented by his need to work out the problem of his being hacked and what they had or didn't have. He began to review the contents of his files. The hacker knew what progress they had made.

Whoever he was, he also knows Rose Seabold was a target of their investigation. It was more important than ever that they find her. She could be a target of the hacker group as well. Not to investigate her but to silence her. Mike finally did drift off to sleep.

May slept better than she had in years. The bed was a dream and those sheets were to die for. She carried the dress she had worn the night before down the hall to knock on Lucille's door.

May: (in an exaggerated whisper) Lucille, could I borrow something to wear home? I also need a ride. I am so sorry to ask.

Husband: So you are one of Lucille's misfits. I have to admit you are better looking than the one who put a gun in my face. I'm considering filing a police report about that.

May took an instant dislike to him. Misfit my ass, she thought.

May: If I were you, I'd think twice about that. First of all your wife was in danger, and I'm with the DOJ. We can find out where your cell phone was last night, while the man with the gun was protecting the two of us. The papers love shit like that. Now give me one of your tee shirts to wear over this dress or I'm going to scream sexual assault.

Then May did the most unbelievable thing. She scratched Lucille's husband.

Husband: (In surprise) What did you do that for?

May: DNA evidence.

Lucille came out of the room holding a tee shirt. She was also smiling since she knew that having a woman verbally abuse him, after Eddie had done the same the night before, was driving her husband crazy.

Lucille: Would you mind waiting? There is a Saturday tradition in this house. I always make pancakes and those little sausages on Saturdays.

May: Do you have blueberry syrup?

Lucille: No but I have strawberry.

May: Count me in.

It was afternoon when Mike finally got moving. Even so when he called Eddie he woke him

Eddie: What the hell do you want Mike you are supposed to be mending.

Mike: I had a thought last night. If someone cloned or hacked my computer memory they found the file on the drug dealer killing.

Eddie: So?

Mike: They also found all the files on Rose Seabold and all the files from the killing in detail. They are not going to have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.

Eddie, along with every other lawman of his generation, had heard that phrase but he doubted that Mike knew the origin of it.

Eddie: Shit.

Mike: Yeah.

Eddie: Should I come by to pick you up or can you ride that scooter to the office.

Mike: I'll meet you there in an hour, if that is okay. I just woke up and I haven't eaten yet.

Eddie: Sure it will take me a while to get there as well. I need to find May and see if she is still with us. I am assuming you are going to see this through.

Mike: Oh yes.

Eddie: Good then I'll see you in an hour.

Eddie: (Speaking into the cell phone) May I know you haven't had time to decide if you want to be in on this any longer, but unless you do we have a problem that can't wait, I need your decision now.

May: Lucille just dropped me at home. Give me a half hour to dress then I'll pick up my car and be on the way.

Eddie: So I can count on you to be here in less than an hour?

May: Yes you can.

Eddie's next call was to Wes and Salina who were still in the apartment watching some sports show. Eddie knew it only because it played in the background. Most likely it was to cover the sex noises. Neither seemed to be much of a sports fan to Eddie.

The final call was to Lucille.

Eddie: You might want to come to the office. We have some new information to explore.

Lucille: Oh and you couldn't have explained all this last night?

Eddie: We sent them all home to decide if they want to quit, remember? I rushed the deadline but they are all in, so you need to decide how far in you are.

Lucille: What the hell are you talking about?

Eddie: Come down in about forty five minutes and we will see if we wish to redefine the mission.

They were all present at 3 PM so Eddie began.

Eddie: Michael pointed out to me that whoever broke into the office should be able to figure out quickly that we are trying to connect Rose Seabold to the Swamp Dog. They may be afraid that it will just be a matter of time before she decided to talk. At the very least they will be concerned about it.

So we have to consider something she did may cause her life to be in danger. Consequently we need to pull out all the stops and make every effort to find her right away.

Since everyone seemed to agree, Eddie presented the plan.

We are going to have to divide into two groups. One group needs to go talk to the people in Mossberg again and the other to the people at Church Camp. We have already decided that we are going to change the groups.

May and I will go to Mossberg and Wes and Salina to Church Camp. Each team will take a burner phone to use for all communications. I want both teams in place at the same time. If I can get Bart to give us something you two will need to follow up at Church Camp. We need to find her before who ever broke in here finds her.

Lucille: What about Mike. When you four poke the bear he might run to Mike to slow you down. I can find an office in the House Office Building for him. I can even get a Capitol Police Officer to drive him to work and back.

Eddie: If we all leave in the morning, Mike won't need to be in place until Monday. Can you find him an office by then?

Lucille: I will be by his house Monday morning to give him a lift to his new temporary office. (Lucille gave Eddie a smile) Mike and I will have a grand old time while you four are gone.

Eddie: Well try not to have too good of a time or to spoil him please. He has work to do while we are gone. (Eddie handed Mike the flash drive.) So sometime in the morning we all leave for our respected assignments so that we can be on site at 9 AM without excuse.

May: Wes the only place to stay in County Seat is a crappy little Bed and Breakfast. If you don't want to sleep with the local bug population, you might try commuting to College Hill.

Wes: Thanks. I don't think you are going to like the accommodations in Mossberg any better.

Eddie (Pulling May aside) May, we have the furthest to drive. It's a good ten to sixteen hours on the road if I drive. I have no idea how long it will take you to drive. I'm sending Wes and Salina in the company car, so you and I will be squeezed into my Econobox.

May: Okay.

Eddie: What I'm getting at is that if we want a good night's sleep we need to arrive by 6 PM. Then we can get a good dinner and be ready for the next day. Or we can eat dinner on the road and try to get in before 9 PM.

May: Look, we are both grownups. Why don't I spend the night at your place? Then we can leave about seven in the morning. Even driving slow we should get there around 9 PM.

Eddie: Okay but it's not very comfortable in my house I'm still doing home improvements on it. (Turning to Mike) Stay by this burner phone. Sometime Monday we might want you to try hacking the Church Camp. In the meantime check Rose's computer for information, but I have no hope for it.

Mike: There is always hope, as long as she didn't toss the hard drive. Since everyone knows the files can sometimes be recovered that is happening more and more.

Eddie: Just do what you can and put a Trojan or worm on the Church Camp computer. Just be ready to monitor them somehow. I don't care how you do it.

Mike: I can't do that. What I can do is have it ready to implant as soon as you give me the word. They have a sweep of the files every four hours at least.

Eddie: How do you know that?

Mike: They have a legend in the dark arts, so I would expect no less from him. He may do it even more.

Eddie: Then do what you can. (To May) You want time to do anything else or will you be ready to go after the meeting.

May: Once we go by my apartment for clothes. I'm ready to leave for your house.

Eddie: I have to stop at a laundry before we leave town but that's all. I dropped some off on the way into town this afternoon.

May: I feel better knowing we have a plan to fight back. I don't have any idea why that would be.

Wes: Most likely because no one wants to be a victim. I totally agree and I'm glad the boss gave Mike the credit for it.

It was early evening when Eddie and May started the under thirty minute drive to his tenant farm. Eddie stopped at the Highway Plaza for a slightly later than usual dinner. They had Chinese. It didn't look a thing like traditional Chinese. It looked more like wild rice with beef stew. There were a few Chinese vegetables and a mini egg roll kind of thing on the side.

May: I ate way too much, but it was delicious. Should we stop and get a bottle of wine?

Eddie: I'll stop for you, but I don't really want a drink tonight.

May: Well I do. If your place is as rough as everyone says, I'm going to need it.

Eddie: Oh who has told you about my place?

May: It's not a secret is it? Lucille said there was a lot you had to do yet.

Eddie: We had a conference down here once, she brought her kids.

May: Yeah that's what I thought. I need something to soften the blow of sleeping on the floor.

Eddie: Fair enough but there are no wine stores out this far. I can get you into a really nice convenience store. There are so many bedroom communities on this road, I'm sure they have wine. Probably not what you want, but wine of some kind.

Wes: We only have a five or six hour drive. We won't have to leave too early. We could go on a picnic around a country road, if we left early.

Salina: I can't afford to be gone any longer than the job requires. You know that. The people here depend on me.

Wes: That's why I left the decision up to you. I really don't know what is best. It could be that no one ever comes to you on Sunday.

Salina: They do come to me on Sundays. The people who work or who get cut on Saturday come in. I know there isn't a lot of time for us, but you did know what my life was like.

Wes: Yes I know and I have tried to accommodate it since I have no life of my own. The poor and the wretched I can tolerate, but the bangers, with them I am having a hard time. Let them bleed out on the street. They make these people's lives worse, not better.

Salina: Wes I am like a band-aid on a cancer. Sometimes I feel useless, and yes when I save one of these freaks, I feel I have let the community down. I know the community would be better off without them, but I can't do that. That is for others. Mine is to save what life I can. Usually it is just an aspirin, but it is something.

Wes: You know that one day you will get caught in the crossfire.

Salina: Maybe, but at least I met you before that happens.

Lucille went home to play with her kids and watch Sponge Bob on TV with them. The TV show taught simple little moral truths that people could accept no matter what their big beliefs were. It was the beauty of mass marketing. Preach some universal truths no matter how you disguised it. Don't go near some other universal truths. Why should you? Preschoolers don't need to know about serial killers. Keeping them safe is our job.