Chapter 6

I was told later that the police chased down a juiced up Subaru, killing three young Korean men in a shootout. Our detail received the “No-Go” order when they got close enough to cut through the radio jammer that prevented us from receiving it before we got off of the elevator. And when they did, the detail sat on us. Literally sat on us!

A different State Department suit showed up to take Mark’s briefcase. I wondered if the Korean gang mistook me for Mark. If this was another kidnapping attempt, they had definitely escalated things by using guns. They had also brought down upon themselves the wrath of the Federal Government.

What the fuck was this new technology?

I was shipped off in another ambulance. I hadn’t received any new injuries, but I had certainly aggravated the bruise on my trap and scapula. All in all, I’d live.

A new set of detectives showed up to question me. I told them all I saw was the gray fabric of the guard’s jacket as he sat on me. When asked what I was doing there, I told him to call the president to get the clearance necessary to be read in. I even had one of Mike’s old cards that I handed them in a morbid moment of humor.

Oddly enough, no hospital ghoul showed up to demand money from me. I guess Anna was taking care of that.

The girls and I were released after being poked and prodded a bit, and were told to take it easy. On the trip back, I had two young ladies that were clinging to me half of the time seeking comfort, and then checking me over the other half of the time to make sure I wasn’t broken. I will unashamedly admit it felt good.

After a pot of some potent tea all three of us passed out on the bed.

Wednesday, neither girl felt up to going to school. I spent the day laying in bed, a girl resting their head on each leg as I alternated petting them. Most of their conversation was in Japanese, and that was fine with me as I tried to think through what happened. I had a nagging feeling in the back of my head. A voice kept screaming at me but I couldn’t quite make out. I’d have to just be patient as I worked through what I knew.

Now, as to what exactly I did know.

Somewhere, I knew there had been a security leak. Either the detail had talked, or someone in the State Department had talked. I was leaning towards someone inside the State Department. Spies inside government agencies were a part of working in any government agency or government contractor. They have annual classes you have to take to remind you that “Bad Guys or Girls” were out there.

The real problem was that there was no profile for a traitor. Anyone at anytime could be tempted for any number of reasons. Financial problems? Check. Religious or other ideologies? Check. For the thrill of it? Check. Men? Yup. Women? Yup. Soccer moms to multimillionaires. There was no single profile. From the beginning of governments and spies, the best and brightest have tried to find ways to prevent spies from getting into sensitive areas.

If the spy got caught, they could work out why, but the idea of the lone wolf bitter about this or that is good fiction; it just isn’t reality. If the average citizen wondered why the government treated their citizens like they were criminals, this would be one of those reasons. Of course, as an added bonus, when the government is responsible for huge swathes of criminal activities, they spend a lot of time looking over their shoulder.

Additionally, this situation felt haphazard. The whole set-up was stupid. Killing your target doesn’t give you leverage. And they apparently didn’t even know who their target was. Who would do that? It had a desperate and extreamly amateur feel. But who would hire out a kidnapping to amateurs? Why hire them again when they failed the first time?

I didn’t like where this was going. I kept running through the same circles with my thoughts, and the conclusions I kept getting made me feel depressed. As I had told Risa before, if their was a dollar to be made, someone would be willing to kill. And I was betting that there were a lot of dollars that could be made or lost. I needed to make a phone call.

“Anna, what are the chances that someone at the State Department has family still in Korea, and probably has a family member that is connected to this gang?” I asked, letting my musing find my voice.

“Is that what you think this is?” she asked?

“I think that what we are seeing here is someone trying to get some kind of leverage, but they are having to do so on the cheap,” I answered, “Maybe whoever did this is having trouble funneling money with out being traced. I mean, why a street gang? Maybe because someone knows them, and knows that they can hire them cheap as opposed to hiring a professional team, say like those Black Tar people.

“And when they failed the first time, why try again?” I continued, “Unless that is the only muscle they can get on such short notice. We only gave Mike a couple of days notice as to where we were meeting. So, maybe this thing that the company your father works for will redirect customers to them, or whatever, and that might mean a major loss of revenue for a company in Korea. So, some family in Korea gets a hold of a cousin here in the states, and asks for help based on family loyalty. They reach out to their family that lives locally, and that leads them to some local thugs,” I concluded.

“What makes you think that,” Anna asked. Risa was also watching me curiously.

“Someone leaked the time and place of the debreifing. I’m guessing it was supposed to be an ambush. No matter what else we know, we know that they were waiting for us. They even had a radio jammer,” I began, trying to work through the narrative in my mind, “Now while it could have been our security detail,” I pointed out, and then hastily added, “I doubt it really was,” Before either girl could protest, “But if it were, there would be easier ways to get you into the hands of the kidnappers. In fact, they would have bypassed me and gone directly for you,” I paused for a second, “It could have been someone in the law offices,” I continued, “But we went to them after the first kidnapping and I am still free and alive. Also, they didn’t know anything about what we were doing today. That leaves the State Department, and someone reading my contact reports,” I concluded.

Anna and Risa lay quietly looking at each other. They communicated on some other wave length, one that I could not tune into. After a minute, Anna turned to look at me.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“I need to make a phone call to someone in Germany,” I answered.

Andrew wasn’t someone who I would call a friend. But at the same time, I knew he didn’t actively hate me. We worked together on a few projects back when I was still in the Army, and again when I started working at the State Department in Germany.

“Drew speaking,” Andrew answered.

“Hey, it’s Eric,” I started.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I think there is a leak in the State Department here in San Francisco,” I answered.

“Explain,” he prompted. So I laid it out to him.

When I had finished he sat silently on the line, I could hear the tapping of keys.

“OK, got it. I know who to contact. Stay clear, you get me?” he asked.

“I get you,” I replied.

“Good. And this conversation never took place,” he added.

“I know,” I agreed.

And that was it.

A little over a week later, there was a major bust in the State Department. This was followed a couple of days later by several high profile arrests of street gangs from LA to San Francisco. I received a card in the mail, with no idea how they found out where I was living, and no return address, saying that my dorm room needed some cleaning, but that my fridge had been restocked.

The kidnapping problem had been taken care of. There was no drama, nor was there any exciting car chase, thank God. I really didn’t want any additional injuries. I let out a mental sigh of relief, and the days began looking brighter.

When I told the girls, they demanded to know what happened. I explained that I couldn’t, kissing them both soundly, and wondered how long they would let me stay. Anna’s father had some thoughts on the matter, and I was invited to return to my dorm room by the end of the week.

Oh well. It was a hell of a week though.

My return was anticlimactic. My room had been cleaned, though I don’t know by whom, and my fridge had indeed been stocked. They’d even left me some beer. I think someone decided my dorm room would make a nice base of operations for a week.

I resumed classes after the weekend, and for the next week everything almost went back to normal.

Except of course Anna and Risa would accompany me back to my dorm room most afternoons, and stay past dark. Risa stayed overnight a couple of nights. That was a delightful change of pace.

Over the next couple of weeks, preparations were being made for the Halloween ball. My tux had been picked up and delivered to my room. Anna was taking no chances, and demanded to see me in it before she would give her final approval. So, I spent an afternoon doing my best one armed James Bond impersonation to the delight of two very frisky young ladies.

Unfortunately Halloween night was to be the beginning of the end for us. Not that I knew it at the time.

I was moving much better by this time, three days of cold, followed by three days of moist heat had done a lot to reduce the bruising during my first week in hiding. Then a guy came by and stuck needles in me to quicken the healing process the following week. My bone was still bruised, but my trap was almost back to normal, and I could resume my morning runs so long as I didn’t bounce around too much.

On the night of the party Anna wasn’t content to leave me to dress myself, so she sent Kimi over to my dorm room to assist me in getting dressed. I would have been embarrassed except Kimi was, well I don’t know how to describe her. She took charge but somehow made you feel like she did everything you wanted. Everything Kimi said was phrased as a suggestion, but with the added weight of being told what Risa liked. I’d never been so expertly handled before. I felt like I got an insight into how an NCO deals with fresh O-1s.

I also figured out why the girls had laughed politely at me when I groaned at the idea of a wool tux. It turns out that not all of California is like LA. While I knew it wasn’t cold enough to snow, I will say that I felt very glad to be wearing wool.

Risa was busy doing her best to make sure I had a heart attack when I next saw her and God only knows how long that took. It was well worth the effort though. A limo picked both Kimi and me up and took us to the house. I waited by the door as Kimi went in and informed Risa we were here. Risa looked radiant as she rounded the corner. She wore a deep red silk dress that clung to her body. I’d seen many sides to Risa before, but this one, a sophisticated alluring woman, made me feel inadaquate. I almost felt a physical blow in my stomach. When I got to her eyes though, I could see that I had an almost similar affect on her.

“You are more beautiful than the sunset Risa,” I told her. She gave me one of her radiant smiles.

“And you look quite dashing yourself,” she said, and then gave me a dainty kiss. I gave her an odd look.

“I don’t want to muss my makeup,” she explained. I gave a dramatic, put upon sigh. She actually hit me in my shoulder. Not my injured shoulder mind you, but she hit me all the same.

“You can wait till the end of the ball to have your wicked way with me,” she said, her smile playful, beautiful.

“Yes ma’am,” I sighed, and then smiled, kissing her neck softly. She shivered.

“Anna was right about that too I see,” she looked at me accusingly.

“About what?” I asked.

“You can be very wicked!” she huffed.

“Uh, have you not had me between your legs before?” I reminded her, “Where I do that thing that keeps you on edge until you beg me to make you cum,”

She blushed a deep red, laughing softly.

“Hush!” she commanded imperiously. Then lost it as she couldn’t keep from laughing, “Yes, you can be a very wicked man. But you are my wicked man,” she amended, snuggling into me. She handed me her coat, a black, elegant bit of velvet and fell to her knees. It seemed sad to wrap her in something so shapeless though.

I escorted her outside, the driver holding the door open for us.

“I have to tell you,” I began, but seeing her like this made it difficult for me to talk.

“What?” she asked when I hesitated.

“It’s silly, but I feel ... like I am a pretender,” I tried.

“A pretender?” she pushed, her eyes showing concern.

“You look like royalty,” I told her. She smiled, but looked confused.

“I feel like I am some peasant pretending to stand next to the princess,” I added with a soft smile.

“No my warrior,” she said softly, “You are my shield, giving me solace,” she smiled warmly. She could see that I still felt uncomfortable.

“Eric, not every woman get an opportunity to stand with a warrior. You have fought for your country. You have fought for your honor. And you have fought to protect Anna and me. You are not a peasant. You are a knight. And you escort his princess as a knight should. This is as is should be,” she smiled, “And I will be the envy of the women at the party because my knight is real,” she added.

I couldn’t help but smile. Her words warmed me. I may have also blushed a little bit.

The Halloween ball was being held at the Terra Gallery. Risa and I were ushered in, and led past the introduction line. Neither of us was considered important enough to be formally introduced. We were shown to our table far from the front, only one other older couple sitting there.

“Harold Brown, with General Dynamics,” the man introduced himself, “And this is my wife Susan,”

“Eric, Risa’s escort,” I explained, “And student at Stanford,”

“Ah,” Harold accepted.

“Your dress is lovely,” Susan said to Risa.

“Thank you and yours is quite lovely as well,” Risa offered. I couldn’t tell you anything about dresses except if I think that they look good and maybe a little bit about the design.

Risa and I talked quietly with Harold and Susan about the beauty of the city until the final couple showed up.

“Thomas Chung, assistant cultural attaché for the consulate, and my fiancée Koren,” he offered after the rest of us had introduced ourselves around the table. Thomas was obviously of Japanese origin. His wife appeared to be South or Central American. I was only half right, her father was Argentinian and her mother was Greek. I felt a weird kind of pride that people from such diverse origins could meet and fall in love here.

Harold and Susan had kids in high school, pictures passed around. Tom and Koren had set the date for their wedding for next year. Risa and I were teased politely about being such a cute couple. My injuries were explained away, saying that I had been attacked by a group of thugs.

Dinner was actually rather nice with several traditional Japanese dishes served. I’d rarely eaten so much fish in one meal. Although I did shy away from the octopus. There were announcements made during the dinner, a few awards given out, and then the dance hall was opened for the guests.