Chapter 20

(MOLLY'S STORY – BELFAST 2015)

In some ways, Molly was relieved that Danny had finally given her insight into his checkered past and admitted his clandestine membership in IRA during those years when raw emotions and violence were the rule rather than negotiations for peace.

She looked at the briefcase on the kitchen table and thought that the secrets hidden inside were no longer focused on events in Northern Ireland. Her entire career had been centered about that conflict and now all the attention was shifting to the dangers of Islamic Terrorism. Of course, it wasn't really called Islamic Terrorism in most of the industrialized countries because of political correctness but simply referred to as "Domestic Violence" or some generic term that didn't make any connection to the religious fanaticism of the persons involved. She thought it was in some way similar to the process of never really mentioning the root cultural differences and the religious competition inside the structure of the "Troubles" that never made it to a headline or on a television program.

In fact, the only report she had on her desk related to the historical "Troubles" was the one that described a vicious confrontation gang war going on between different splinter groups of the PIRA fighting for control of territories like the drug cartels of Mexico in North America. A lot of that violence was clan related and the different groups operated like the bandit organizations that preyed on the civilian innocents to finance their way of life. It bothered her that her superiors in Whitehall were gleefully commenting on the terrible casualties showing their satisfaction that their long-time enemies were squabbling amongst themselves for the crumbs left on the plate.

She was certain that Danny was truly separated from the conflict remaining both by geography and by his ingrained desire to be done with the violence once and for all. He seemed totally involved in his security business and she was happy that he had such things to keep him busy and out of trouble.

Molly had to attend a meeting this morning inside the "bubble" to discuss their upcoming strategy to disrupt the Jihadists from making new inroads into the inner cities with their bloody use of bombs and now the threat of deadly gas attacks in crowded trains and buses.

She didn't like the tendency of some of the younger "hotheads" to promote full-scale cleaning operations that would eliminate the need for incarceration or the involvement of other media and judicial interference at a later date. That was one of the lessons from the recent "Troubles" and one that the younger generation of operatives had decided was counter-productive to the desired result.

Still, she had to admit it was a blessing in disguise to merely supervise the removal and burial of the enemy and not need to be concerned about the expenditure of an already reduced budget to prosecute and incarcerate them in crowded prisons not ideal for their sort of attitude.

It was a rainy spring day that Molly first met Alistair.

He was one of those agents that were called back from Germany with a lot of tense nerves and regret on the part of the higher-ups in "M" section. She thought he looked innocuous and not in the least bit like a double agent but that was really not her specialty. It was on the tip of her tongue to mention him to Danny but she decided against it because in all honesty Alistair was the type of chap that made her juices run with that old feeling she had when she first met Danny. She didn't think it would do her any good because the accepted rumor was that he was like a lot of those fellows and kept to a "gay" lifestyle, still in the closet of course, because of the bias running rampant on the top floor.

Molly thought he was far too handsome for his own good but she daydreamed about converting him from his male-chasing ways and show him the benefits of having a passionate woman take care of his needs. The joke was on her because he was a skirt-chaser like all of the other field agents with time on their hands. The first time she gave him a hint of her interest, he had her bent over the file room desk so fast that her knickers were still wrapped around her knees. After that, she was at his disposal during working hours but she made it abundantly clear to him that her private life was just that and he was not to interfere in any way with her close relationship with her husband. It was just that every wife of long duration needs a bit of strange just to stay on her toes in the game of love and lust.

Since Danny was a survivor and a good one at that, he knew instinctively when his wife started to play the cheating game with him.

She was good at hiding her inner struggles and her many moods of this and that but she could not hide that little tiny spark of female satisfaction that lit her face up when she came home from work in recent days. He had no doubt one of her many co-workers was humping her in the dark recesses of the huge building in a place where they both were certain were no cameras or recording devices. It was almost laughable from his point of view because she was so transparent in that important facet of personal life but then he could never really understand what made women tick and that was why he didn't like to work with them when his life depended on it.

He wanted to tie her to a chair and interrogate her so badly that he could almost taste it but he knew it was completely out of the question. In fact, he had to confess it was only his just due for his many years of deception in more ways than one although that did not include the indiscriminate humping of members of the opposite sex. He had remained faithful during the marriage and prided his effort to stay loyal to his only true friend.