Chapter 33: A Much-Needed Vacation For Us All

I headed back to the office after a couple of days of R&R. I was not the first one there; that honor belonged to Molly. She was sitting at her desk, looking bored, and the day had not officially started. I greeted the others and noted the rest of the staff had the same attitude when they arrived. There was nothing on my desk that needed my attention, so I checked what others were working on. We had shown up for work and had nothing to do. I called the COS to see if there were any pressing issues, but he didn’t see anything in the near future. I thanked him and ended the call. I also called my contacts at the CIA and the State Department, but neither organization had anything pressing for us to work on.

I asked Dr. Frisch to join me for lunch; it was still warm enough at noon to enjoy the autumn sun in the park. He agreed, and I sprang for two cantina luncheon specials. We found an unoccupied bench in the sun and started eating our boxed lunch. I asked how everyone in the office was doing, since I had been working on a special project for the White House and had been out of contact with my teammates. He said there was a lot of frustration and boredom expressed by our coworkers. Some of the team members had considered resigning and looking for jobs elsewhere in DC. He admitted that he had called and talked to the law school at Georgetown. This was alarming; I had spent a lot of time putting the team together to do an almost impossible task, and we had accomplished it to everyone’s satisfaction. The team had achieved a lot—we had even moved to the UK for a year to be closer to the negotiations. Most of us had sacrificed a lot to do the job, but the compensation matched our sacrifices. I felt there was still a lot more our group could accomplish and wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. I was going to make a few phone calls when I got back to the office.

I called the President’s Chief of Staff and discussed the low morale my team members were experiencing with him. I explained that my people were bored and didn’t have anything of significance to do. The year in the UK had pulled them away from their friends and family. I expressed my concern that if my team disbanded, I could not expect the same results we had been able to achieve in the past. I made a suggestion: we give everyone a three-week vacation to rest and reconnect with friends and loved ones, and they would return to the job I knew they were capable of doing. He agreed and told me to go ahead with it.

I asked everyone to go to the conference room after I hung up the phone because I had an announcement to make. Everyone, except for the ‘Twin Mountains’, was in the office; I would fill them in later. I waited until everyone had taken a seat before starting my announcement.

“I have an announcement to make that affects us,” I said. “I just got off the phone with the President’s Chief of Staff. He wanted me to pass along the President’s and his gratitude for the excellent job we’ve been doing. We’ve done our jobs so well that there isn’t anything else the administration has for us.”

Looking around the room, I noticed that many faces were bracing for the worst, and a few others appeared on the verge of tears. Poor Molly had already started crying; her bottom lip was quivering. I hadn’t seen that look since I told a girl in third grade she had cooties.

“It is with a heavy heart and much disappointment that I announce we are all on a paid three-week vacation,” I said with a grin. “They want us back in three weeks, rested and raring to go. Several intelligence services, the Justice Department, and our military will use our services, so expect to earn your paychecks when you get back.”

Molly looked stunned for a moment, then a huge grin spread across her face when she comprehended what I had said. I looked around the room and saw similar expressions. I think I was going to be able to retain all my people.

“Now, get out of here, and I expect to see all of you three weeks from this coming Monday,” I said, relieved at the reception my comments had gotten. Everyone was all smiles, and I could tell their attitudes had vastly improved.

The rush to get out of the office matched that of everyone wanting to escape for a four-day holiday weekend. No one lingered, and I was left to lock up. It had been a long time since I had last done that.

I arrived home by taxi just after 3 PM and immediately went looking for Karen and Grandma Jorgenson. While a taxi wasn’t cheap, it was much more secure than traveling on the Metro in my opinion. I found Karen in the kitchen with her grandmother, baking dinner rolls that would be part of the meal we were having for supper that night. I greeted them both with hugs and went over to where our twin daughters were lying in their portable playpen. Looking down at them, I still wasn’t used to being a father. I was scared that I would miserably fail at it. Both infants recognized and smiled at me. Yes, I was a sucker for a female smiling at me; they already had me wrapped around their finger. The smile alone made my heart melt.

I sat at the kitchen table as the women worked, listening to them talk about their day and what cute things the twins had done. That was the perfect lead-in to what I was about to propose to my family. I told Karen and her grandmother that I had vacation time and suggested that we take a family vacation to visit friends and family. Karen asked how we would get there.

“We could always fly,” I said. “We could take a weekend and fly to Chicago or wherever else we wanted to go, but think of all the hassles traveling with the twins would be.”

This got both Karen and her grandmother nodding their heads in agreement with me. I could see that they were thinking about how much of a hassle that would be.

“Could you imagine what it would be like on the jet if one of them got fussy or had a really stinky diaper?” I asked. Both Karen and her grandma frowned at the thought of dealing with a dirty diaper on a jet.