Mob Princess - Tess DiRosa's Story
Copyright© 2025 by Argon
Chapter 17: Buddies
Apparently, the President’s visit and speech in New Haven went without a hitch. The on-site teams found no fault with the information they had gathered, and everybody was happy. Meanwhile, the team was gathering information in Albuquerque, NM, where a short summit meeting with the Mexican president was planned. The number of Section 871 violators was far smaller than in New Haven and the modern street layout made route planning easier as well. However, due to the nature of a summit meeting, more personnel would be needed on-site, and Advance Team D2, “D” standing for domestic, was told to stay and help out the protective and overwatch teams.
Gojcic and Tess were given the task of interviewing seven men who had a history of Section 871 violations. Three of them were still on parole, and it was easy to find them. Gojcic was really good at talking to them, being persuasive and reasonable, yet exuding authority, and Tess let him have the stage. The other four were a little pissed off being questioned over something they had done years ago and against a completely different White House occupant, and while Gojcic still did his good-cop shtick, Tess played the hard ass agent to good effect.
The local field office also gave them the beef about current investigations into Section 871 violations, but none of the unsubs were deemed to be of the immediate threat variety.
Team D2 spent the day of the summit meeting on overwatch, keeping their eyes on two buildings opposite the meeting venue, assisted by Albuquerque PD tac team members. It was a quiet day with only one short excitement when there was a traffic accident outside, and they radioed it in to police and rescue services.
The real excitement of the whole deployment came in the evening when they were allowed to fly back on Air Force One, in the rear seats to be sure and ignored by the President’s staff, but nonetheless. It was silly being excited over flying with the POTUS, but the rookies, Tess and Gojcic, felt giddy. It was during that flight that Tess and Gordan Gojcic agreed to address each other by their first names, or rather as “Tessa” and “Gordy”.
They had the next day off again, and in the evening, they had dinner with Denise in Tess’s apartment. Denise and Gordan got along pretty well, and it was a pleasant affair.
They had two days at headquarters, scouting things online before they were dispatched to the next location, Detroit, MI, where the President would talk to automotive workers about preserving jobs in the industry and to investors about reviving the downtown area. For the Detroit assignment, Tess needed Gordan’s help to track each and every Section 871 offender, since there were simply too many, not astounding given the economic situation there. Talking with Mackinson, they decided to cut all minor cases stemming from the previous administration’s time in office, making the numbers manageable. Still, their offender map was lousy with flags when they arrived at Coleman Young International, already warned that they would get assigned overwatch assignments again on the day of the visit.
An added complication was the underfunded and understaffed police department, owing to the city’s recent bankruptcy, and Advance Team D4 was sent to help with the preparations. Once again, two-agent teams visited priority 871 offenders, especially those with violent priors or associated with extremist groups. Those agents were accompanied by Detroit PD officers to help defuse confrontations. Tess and Gordan were one of those house call teams and their nannies were two veteran cops, John DiFranco and Joseph Hunnicut, who bickered the whole time like some old couple, but were solid when encountering hostility. Tess and Gordan found out that their Detroit clients were completely unimpressed by their Secret Service badges.
On the second day, they were just visiting two separate offenders in the same high rise tenement, they even encountered violence, when their second target talked himself into a rage and tried to push Tess back, who was trying to calm him. Of course, his push landed him face down on the dirty hallway floor, with his right arm in a rather unforgiving and painful hold. He was screaming bloody murder while the cops flex-cuffed him securely. Since he was on parole, he would serve the remainder of his sentence, plus a little extra time for assaulting a federal agent.
The ease with which Tess had subdued the man must have impressed DiFranco and Hunnicut, for they treated her with utmost politeness afterwards, much to Gordan’s amusement.
The rest of their house calls went without violent altercations, but there was a lot of cussing and swearing. Still, one customer went back to jail, too, when Gordan espied a handgun on a table in the man’s apartment, a clear parole violation, and the two cops bagged him gleefully.
The day of the President’s visit was anticlimactic by comparison. The advance teams were providing overwatch support again. Tess and Gordan could even watch and hear the President when he spoke to a crowd about the efforts to revive Detroit and how much the Federal Government was already helping. He was a good speaker, but what Tess had seen of the city during the interviews with parolees and past offenders made her doubt that any improvement had already happened.
For the flight back to DC, an Air Force C-32 stood ready for the rather large Secret Service contingent, and by midnight, Tess was back in her apartment, trying to wind down from a stressful five days. It was a Friday night, too, meaning that she and her team mates had a free weekend. Since Denise was visiting some relatives, Tess and Gordan had decided to make use of the gorgeous fall weather by making a trip to Shenandoah National Park. Since Gordan owned a nifty little Miata, he would drive.
Therefore, in spite of the late arrival back home, the two of them set out at 8:30, driving with the ragtop folded back, and heading for Front Royal. From there, they drove leisurely along Skyline Drive, stopping frequently and enjoying the vista. It took them over three hours to reach Lee Highway, where they turned west for Luray. They had a late lunch in Luray, before they stood in line to visit Luray Caverns. Tess had never seen a stalactite cavern before, and she walked along the path in open-mouthed wonder. Gordan was more blasé about it. He had seen similar caverns in Croatia during childhood visits there with his parents, but the sheer size of the place still impressed him.
When they exited the cave, they were thoroughly famished, but finding nothing appealing in Luray, they drove eastward on Lee Highway until they found the Three Blacksmiths inn in Sperryville where they had an early dinner, before starting on the way back to DC. It was a scenic drive in the open car until they reached Gainesville and I-66. They kept the ragtop folded all the way back, and when Gordan dropped Tess off at her apartment building, she had to check herself to keep from giving him a thank-you kiss for the great day.
She must have been obvious, because Gordan gave her a rueful grin.
“Yeah, we had a great day, and I wouldn’t have fought you much, but it’s a bad idea, right?”
“Very bad,” Tess agreed. “I’d hate to lose my buddy.”
“Ditto. Let’s cool our jets tomorrow and then catch assassins again on Monday.”
“Right. Still, thanks for a great day!”
Come Monday morning, Tess was over her romantic mood, not that it mattered. Gordan was borrowed to D4 for a few days to fill in for a sick agent, and he had to join them in Seattle ASAP. This left D2 one agent short, but that was okay since they were waiting for the next assignment. This gave them all some time to catch up with paper work, file travel expense and O/T claims, but also to check off a few obligatory courses. Tess also practiced on the shooting range twice. She would never be a crack shot, but she was safely within the margins for qualifying.
She also had a chance to practice her unarmed combat skills, both with an instructor and with a few fellow agents. The instructor was a tough nut to crack, and they parted with a draw. Unassuming Edwards almost lured her into a trap which she barely evaded, before she attacked him again more carefully, and in the end, successfully. The other partners did not last long against her, cementing her image as a tough broad.
Her training bouts drew many watchers until the instructor, SSA Inawati, called an end to the sparring. He then proceeded to show Tess a few points in which she could improve, and they squared off against each other again. Tess tried the tips given to her, but she fought defensively only, denying Inawati even a single score. With a grin and a shake of his head, he stood back and bowed formally, only to spring into an attack again, but Tess had read his intentions and blocked him again.
“Damn it, DiRosa, you are good!” he finally acknowledged.
“A bit rusty, Sir. I haven’t practiced enough.”
“Lord help us! That’s an interesting mix you have. Of course, Aikido is at the front, alternating with Wing-Tsun, but I could also sense some old school Karate and even Jiu-Jitsu.”
“All true. I tried Tae-Kwon-Do, but my legs are not good enough, so I stick to what works.”
“I’ll put a memo in your file that you have the potential for an instructor.”
“Thanks. That may help when I piss off some presidential staffer and get yanked from PP,” Tess grinned.
“Yes, it may. Work on that temper. When you sparred with Edwards, it almost caused you to lose.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Sir.”
When Gordan returned to DC after four days, they still had no assignment, with the President busy in Washington shoring up support for the next budget. This gave the whole PP detail some room to breathe. SAC Warner, who oversaw the entire operation, used the next week for shuffling personnel around. They also had two more rookies on the detail, both rather seasoned agents, joining them from field offices where they had paid their dues for years. Tess was still the most junior agent on the detail, and she and Gojcic were now officially partners. As Tess heard through the grapevine, a lot of agents were leery of being partnered with her, for being too young and already standing out too much.
Tess shrugged it off, happy to partner with Gojcic whose ego was robust enough to deal with her. They meshed well and they focused on doing their job without much fanfare. They had also learned to trust each other when interviewing those citizens who made their antipathy to the POTUS known to the world.
When Advance Team D2 was finally sent out again to scout for the POTUS’s planned visit to Dallas, Texas, they were both running on their own, with Edwards now looking after SA Emma Driver, who had joined them from the Brooklyn field office and needed some coaching.
Of course, just the name of the city, Dallas, caused a heightened alert amongst the advance teams, but Tess and Gojcic were unfazed. There were haters everywhere in the US, after all, and Texas had its fair share of them, but not more.
From Dallas, they moved on to Laredo, where POTUS was set to inspect border fortifications along the Rio Grande. With the traffickers active on both sides of the river, the advance team was far more cautious than in Dallas, since people in that business were not known for asking questions before shooting.
Here, they also stayed on during the one-day presidential visit, supplementing the numbers of the protection detail, and performing overwatch duties along the travel routes. There was a lot of hurry up and wait for them, but by the day’s end, POTUS had left Laredo again in the C-32 that was Air Force One for the day, and the teams left a half hour later on a smaller Air Force plane, arriving at Reagan barely before midnight, Friday.
They had the next two days off, and Tess made use of that by driving up to Philadelphia for an overnight visit with her family. She also saw Vincent DiRosa and her cousin Felix, the latter insisting that she had to take over DiRosa Security in a few years. Tess did not exclude the possibility, but for now, she planned to go career in the service, and surprisingly, Vincent DiRosa agreed with that.
“You would be unhappy behind a desk at our corporate headquarters,” he opined. “You need the excitement of your profession. I am also very proud that my grand niece performs such a vital task. Our country is already divided enough, and we cannot afford the murder of our president. It would drive us further apart, and our enemies out there in the world would profit.”
That was certainly a valid aspect, and Felix acknowledged that with a grin.
“You’re right, Pops. Still, Tess, let me know if one of your fellow agents wants to exit and earn real money.”
“Believe me, I’ve been sounded out already. Only, those people would not be a match for DRS, but I’ll keep looking.”
They dropped the matter then, and Tess learned a few more things about recent developments within the family. An interesting fact was that their Certus Inc. subsidiary had joined forces with Villier Pharmaceuticals, a small Philadelphia outfit, pooling their production capacities. The two companies were still separate entities, with Villier doing R&D and marketing, and Certus handling the production needs. When Felix told her about their bottom line, Tess made big eyes. This certainly beat gambling. They even operated a jointly owned British subsidiary now and planned a new European production facility near Utrecht, in the Netherlands, to evade tariffs. The DiRosa empire was going multinational.
Spending the evening and the night with Joey and his family was also nice and informative. Joey just had his first research paper as corresponding author published, while Deirdre was heading an expanding bioinformatics group at UPenn. Gianni, their son, now spent his mornings at a daycare, and they took turns dropping him off and picking him up. So far, it worked, with Eileen often helping out. Carla was now in school, of course, in third grade already, fitting in well and having a small group of friends.
On Sunday morning, they had a family brunch, with Maureen, Numi and Carla joining them, too, and around 3 pm, Tess saddled the Beemer and rode off for DC. Having over eaten a little, she felt a little sleepy after a while and shortly after crossing the Susquehanna River, she exited into a service station to have her travel mug filled with coffee. Ten minutes later, she was on her way again, sipping from the cup every five minutes for the next two hours, until she could drive into the underground car parking of her apartment building.
After repacking her travel bag and reheating the contents of the doggie bag Deirdre had given her, Tess turned in at 9:30.
Arriving a few minutes early at the office on Monday morning, Tess was immediately ordered to see SAC Warner. She found him in his office. He was on the phone, but he bade her sit with a motion of his hand. When he ended the call, he looked at her and smiled.
“Morning, DiRosa. I hope you had a good weekend, ‘cause this week’s gonna suck. You have to fill in on young Miss Wilder’s detail. Don’t worry, you won’t drive her. You’ll be doing close-up protection for her. SA Harris had a small accident over the weekend and won’t be back this week. Sorry, but Team 2 has no assignments this week, and we need a female agent on Wilder’s detail.”
“Toilet sniffing?” Tess asked with a frown.
“Exactly. You’re not demoted, you didn’t do anything wrong, but Denham has only McNeill to fill in, and she’s needed on the VP’s detail. Be a good agent and help them out for a week, will you?”
“Of course, Sir. Do I meet the team at the school and spell McNeill?”
“Yeah. SA Santos will pick you up. She’s driving the girl now.”
“Okay. Will somebody page me when she arrives, or should I wait outside?”
“She’ll be picking you up at 9:30, outside.”
“Okay, I’ll be out and waiting for her, Sir.”
“It’s only a week, DiRosa. You’ll survive.”
“Of course, Sir.”
Tess went over to the team’s desks and told Gordan about her temporary reassignment, figuring that Mackinson had already been told by Warner. She also put on her lightweight ballistic vest under the blouse, since she would provide close protection for the Wilder girl. Standing around in body armor in the Washington DC summer would be a drag.
At least the wagon’s AC was working full time when Santos picked her up. She hadn’t met the woman before, but she was two years senior to Tess, Hispanic as her name hinted at, and of a stoic mindset. When Tess settled in the shotgun seat, Santos grinned at her.
“You did this for a half year?”
“Yeah, I called it Driving Miss Wilder. It’s as boring as Driving Miss Daisy.”
Santos chuckled. “The designation survived your tenure. You’re on the President’s detail now?”
“Yes, advance team work. It’s a little more entertaining than sitting in a parking lot.”
“Rub it in!” Santos laughed. “How come you were transferred?”
“You heard of my little adventure in the Tulips club?”
“Oh, yeah, that was you?”
“Yep. POTUS pinned a medal on my chest and then demanded I serve on his detail. At least, that’s what I heard. Mind you, I’m still awfully junior, so it can’t be my experience.”
“Well, at least you earned your slot on the team the hard way. I hope to move up, too. I worked in the Brooklyn office before, so this is heaven, compared.”
“Yeah, a friend of mine did her rookie year at the Brooklyn office. Lisa Miles?”
“The cute blonde? She was very good, but then she transferred to some field office out West.”
“Yeah, she joined us in Spokane. She’s still there. It’s a small office, and offers more diversified work compared with a big city field office.”
To her surprise, Tess could talk about Lisa without feeling hurt anymore.
“Good for her. What’s your background; I mean, before joining?”
“Pre-law at Penn, plus a lot of martial arts. You?”
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