Chapter 83

The first agent looked at him, his mouth agape, dumbfounded, realizing he was correct.

John pulled over on the side of the road and grabbed a flashlight and his thermal jacket.

“Where are you going?” Sheila asked.

“It’s been a long time since I was here. I just want to make certain there’s a place to turn this beast around before I pull in.” he said.

“Oh.” she said.

John pulled his jacket around him as he walked down the small dirt road. Thankful for its thermal characteristics. He had it fully snapped up by the time he got back. It was going to be a cold night. No surprise to him. When he had been young and foolish, he had longed to live in this area year round. The snow plows stopped over twenty miles away in each direction. It would have been a rough life indeed.

“You found a place?” Sheila asked as he climbed back in the motor home.

“Yup. Nice little flat spot. Behind those big trees on the left.” he said.

“I mean a place to turn around?” she said.

He grinned at her and nodded. Pulling the large motor home carefully down the narrow path. He pulled into the slot he had picked and rocked around a bit till his level indicators read close. Then he flipped a switch and the motor home leveled itself.

“Ah, decadence.” John mused.

“What?” Catarina asked.

“Leveling a motor home without blocks of wood and an hour of farting around.” John said.

A light flashed green on the dash.

“Done. We be home.” he chuckled.

“Now can I do the dishes?” Sheila asked.

“No, now I can.” John said.

“Why you?” she asked.

“One, cause I want to. Second, have you ever taken a navy shower?” he asked.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“My point. We have a limited water supply. Every gallon used on the dishes, is one we don’t have for the shower.” John said.

“I understand that.” she said.

“Fine, so watch me the first time. Then you can do it to your hearts content from now on.” he said.

“You are the most exasperating man at times.” she said.

“Why? Because I don’t expect or desire women to wait on me.” he asked.

“You do at home.” she said.

“At home, I hired two cooks ... three now, but the other seems to be on perpetual vacation. I pay them to cook and clean up. That is their job. They do it because they are paid to do it. It isn’t their job simply because they are women.” he said.

“My, my, a liberated man besides all his other fine points.” Catarina said, admiringly.

“I guess I knew that when he hired me as a CEO.” Sheila mused.

“If you would like to do something, I think a pot of coffee would be enjoyed by all.” he said, setting about pre-scraping the dishes.

“You’ve got the sink full.” she said.

“One in the bathroom. Same water comes out. Just do a light rinse.” he said.

Catarina grinned at Sheila and winked. Sheila grinned back.

“Don’t know why she gets this way.” John said, when she had left the kitchen.

“I do ... Because she loves you dearly. It is getting near the time when she has to go back and be a CEO. That is why she is desperately trying to be the other things a woman has been known to be in the past.” Catarina said softly.

John looked at he a moment and nodded.

“You are a very perceptive person at times.” John said, “So I should let her?” he asked.

“Yes, she will love you even more for it.” Catarina replied.

“And you, your time is running short too. What can I do for you?” he asked.

“Just love me like you mean it.” she said, softly.

“Ah, a simple task. Easy to do, cause I do mean it.” John said.

Catarina looked around and put her finger to her lips.

John shook his head.

“When I was checking this place out, did any cars pass by?” he asked.

“No.” she said.

“Well, I watched the mirror as much as I dared coming down the hill. If there was a car behind us, I would have seen its headlights, unless they were stupid enough to descend a mountain road at night without them.” John said.

“So?” Catarina asked.

“So, the thing about small transmitters, is that they have small power. The smaller the transmitter, the smaller the power. The way that they get around this, is by using a higher frequency. The higher the frequency, the shorter the wave length.

Now the thing about shorter wave length radio, is that it bounces off things real well, except the atmosphere. Longer waves are the only ones that do that. So my point is, that low power, high frequency radio transmitters are only good if you are close by, in line of sight of the transmitter. Otherwise, the signal just takes a bounce off the nearest mountain side and angles up into space. Not bouncing off the atmosphere. A single watt transmitter may communicate over thirty miles, but you won’t hear a peep out of it if you’re behind a small knoll.” John explained.

“Your point being.” Sheila asked, returning with a pot of water and getting some beans out of the freezer.

“My point being that I didn’t see any car coming down the hill after us, unless it was a long ways back. So, nobody is in range to hear any bug that might be listening to us right now. Even less likely, in fact that a bug is even listening to us. Because the way they get around battery size and life, is by broadcasting the power to the bug from a transmitter. The bug picks up the broadcast wave and modulates it with whatever signal it hears. Then re- transmits a portion of that same power as the signal that is picked up, for them to hear what is said. So in other words, if no signal is being broadcast to the bugs, then they are totally inert. To wit, nobody is listening. We have relative privacy for the moment.” John concluded.

“Your electronics lesson for today.” Sheila said, putting the beans into the grinder.

“I understand part of what you are saying, the low power, short range part. But I don’t follow the transmit in and out part.” Catarina said, after Sheila finished grinding.

“Something the Russians came up with actually. They gave a large, carved wooden seal —an emblem— as a present to the United Nations. It used to hang in the security council. Well, one day some British Ham radio operators were trying to call home from New York and stumbled upon a signal coming out of the United Nations building. What was being broadcast was a closed meeting of the security council. Not cool. But a sweep of the cambers found no operating transmitters. When they could finally arrange a sweep, that is. But by then the Russians had turned off their transmitter, so no power was being received by the bug. They finally figured it out. They started sweeping the chamber with a transmitter broadcasting different frequency’s until they got something else back. Bingo. This led them to the great seal. In it they found an ingenious little bug. Tiny and requiring no batteries. It was little more than a chamber with a wire attached for an antenna. The radio waves were picked up by the antenna and coupled into the camber. A small, thin metal diaphragm on one side acted as a microphone. Any sound hitting the diaphragm, caused the chamber to change shape just a bit, causing the radio waves inside to be changed just a bit. This change was then coupled back out the same antenna that was picking up the power. This small change would be directly relative to the sound that was picked up. A master work of simplicity and efficiency.” John said.

“So all you have to do to look for a bug, is to look for a signal coming out of it? And if you sweep a signal into an area and nothing comes out, then there are no bugs?” Catarina asked.

“Used to be. Now you have micro power integrated circuits. Like in your watch. That circuit uses so little power that the battery will go dead virtually as fast sitting on the shelf, as it will in that watch. With circuits requiring so little power, you can give a bug a degree of smarts. It won’t respond to just any signal. It has to be a special signal.” John explained.

“Ah, I see, unless you know what to send to it, nothing comes out.” Catarina said.

“Yes, exactly.” John beamed at her.

“You seem to comprehend technical things very well.” Sheila said, impressed herself.

“My father used to let me come watch him in his workshop. He was a sort of inventor. He was an accountant for a banking firm as his job, but he was always tinkering at home. He taught me a lot.” Catarina said.

“Your folks ... you said they had died. How?” John asked.

“In a small plane crash, five years ago.” she said softly.

“How did it happen?” he asked.

“My folks met a nice Hungarian couple about a year before. They did not have many friends, so I was glad for it. They spent much time together. The man’s hobby was flying. They were on a trip to Switzerland. My folks had saved for months. They thought to save money by flying themselves in the pilots small plane. Something happened, they do not know what. The plane was scattered all over a hillside. They never even found the man and his wife. My folks were killed instantly.” Catarina said, tears forming in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, you must have loved them very much.” he said.

“Yes ... I am afraid it hit Bianca a bit harder though. She was younger. I was in my mid-twenties. She was just sixteen. I took over raising her, which was a task in itself. She took it very badly for a long time. I thought that the trip to Russia would be good for her. Broaden her horizons a bit...” Catarina trailed off.

“So you feel responsible for what happened to her?” John asked.

Catarina nodded, a tear rolling down her cheek.

John caught it with a finger and moved it to his lips.

“The woman, the one you were involved with, tell me about her. How did you meet her?” he asked.

Catarina took a deep trembling breath to compose herself.

Sheila looked at John, wondering why he was dredging up these painful memories. She knew he had his reasons, but she was empathic towards Catarina’s pain. Tears were forming in her eyes.

“About six months after my folks died. She came into my shop. I remember thinking how pretty she was. She tried on several outfits. The fitting rooms were fairly secluded from the front of the shop, and to tell the truth, I did not have that much business. Anyway, she had on one outfit, examining herself in the mirror. It looked quite sexy on her. She looked over at me and asked me if I liked it. I told her it looked very sexy on her. She smiled at me and took it off, right before me. She wore only small French cut panties. She was very beautiful. She asked me to pick another outfit for her that I thought would look sexy on her, so I did. She tried it on and it did look very sexy. I found myself getting quite excited.

I remember she looked at me and smiled and I felt quite weak. She went to the racks and sorted through the clothing and selected an outfit. She handed it to me and said she thought it would look very sexy on me.

It seemed odd, but she was quite nice. She suggested that I try it on, so I did. I remember that I looked up and caught her looking at me. She did not turn away, she just smiled. I remember blushing and pulling the outfit on. I think it did look sexy on me. At least I felt very sexy with her looking at me.

She invited me out to dinner, saying we would drive the men wild with our outfits. I did not have many friends myself. I was very lonely. She was very pretty and nice. I accepted her invitation.

She took me out and bought me a very fine gourmet meal. I did not have much money, so I seldom had experienced such a meal. She purchased several bottles of wine with the meal and I am afraid I got very tipsy.

After we left the restaurant, we went for a walk to clear our heads. I did not know, or care where we were going. I was having quite a good time.

We ended up at her house. A very fine old cottage. I remember being quite impressed.

She poured us some more wine. I am afraid we drank another whole bottle. On the last glass she spilled some on my dress. She told me to take it off so she could soak it. I did not think a thing about it and did so. She took it into the other room to soak.

She came back, without her own dress on, again wearing just panties. I had on my panties and a bra.

She put on some music and started to waltz around. I was watching her. She extended her hand to me and I giggled and tried to join her. I kind of stumbled and she caught me. Holding me up against her. She took my hand and put it on her waist and took my other hand in hers and danced me around, holding me against her. I found myself getting very excited. When the music stopped, she did not let me go. She just pulled her head back and looked into my eyes. Then she kissed me.

I liked it, so I let her.

I had never been with a woman before. Not too many men for that matter. I was very lonely. She felt good.

She unfastened my brassiere and pulled it from between us. I remember it felt very good when our breasts merged. Another song started and we danced together. She had her leg between mine, grinding her hips into me as we danced.

I was getting very excited. She kept kissing me. Putting her tongue into my mouth and rubbing up against me. She held me to her with her hands on my buttocks. Pulling me hard against her legs.

When the music stopped, she took me by the hand and led me to her bedroom. I thought we were going to sleep. But she lay me down on the bed and then took off her panties. Then she stooped and took off mine. She was very sexy. She crawled on top of me and began kissing me more, feeling my body.

The next thing I knew, she had her hand between my legs. It had been so very long, and I was so very lonely. I am afraid I just melted under her touch. She made love to me, giving me two ... no, three orgasms. Then she asked me to do it to her. I did not know what to do, but she had pleased me so much ... I did what she had done to me back to her. Afterwards we both did it again.

The next morning I was hung over. I was ashamed and feeling dirty. She started kissing me again. I asked her to stop, but instead she started licking me again. She would not stop. I experienced an orgasm, and still, she would not stop. She did not stop until I had many, many orgasms. She was still licking me when I passed out again.