Chapter 13: The First Real Job

With the excitement of Mason’s inheritance and then Elaine’s appearance, Cody had not done anything for Jewel’s excellent presentation. It turned out that she was given the promotion that was suggested on the Monday after her presentation. Cody’s response was to plan a big date night for them on Friday to celebrate. He made a reservation at a sushi and teppanyaki restaurant.

Jewel stood in the bedroom wearing only panties and a bra.

“Where are we going?” she asked Cody while she looked the minimal options she had hanging in his closet.

“You’ll find out,” he said with a grin. “If you are asking what you should wear, what about your green dress?”

She shot him a look then reached into the closet.

“You’re not fooling me. You just want to get me out of my bra.”

He watched as she shrugged off her bra and slipped the slinky dress over her head.

He whistled. “You look good. Really good.” He gave her a hug and a quick kiss. He took off his t-shirt and grabbed a button-up shirt and his sports coat from the closet. It was Jewel’s turn to whistle.

“A sports coat? Clearly we’re not going to Applebee’s, huh?”

He laughed and finished getting dressed.

In the car Jewel refrained from asking again where they were headed. In her mind she kept trying to guess based on where they turned. She was pleasantly surprised when Cody pulled in Shogun Alley.

“Teppanyaki?” she asked.

“Don’t forget the sushi,” Cody replied with a smile.

“You don’t like sushi,” she retorted.

“I don’t, but you love it. And tonight is your night. Everything that happened to me last week dwarfed your news, and then your promotion, so tonight we are out to celebrate you.”

She blushed slightly. “Thank you,” she said as she kissed him after he put the car in park.

Over dinner they talked about her new role. It was not only new to her but new to the company so she had a lot of influence as to what the role would entail.

“What about you?” Jewel finally asked. “With Mason’s inheritance you won’t have to do the data entry job if you don’t wan to.”

“I don’t know. Of course, I thought about it, but I’ve been waiting to hear from the lawyer. Until he sends me a check I just can’t believe I am getting money.”

“I get it,” she said. “If the others were getting fifty to one-hundred thousand, I have to assume you will be getting more. Maybe a lot more. If so, you could go back to school and start any career you wanted.”

Cody nodded. “I know. I actually like the data field I’m in. Obviously, I don’t like being the little guy entering the data. But the data scientists that are working the data have a pretty cool job. I may look into getting a degree that would get me into that type of work.”

“That would be pretty cool,” Jewel said. She eyed the sushi.

“Take it, please,” Cody laughed. “I had two pieces but that was more than enough for me.”

After dinner they went to an upscale bar that was part of a hotel. They had drinks and Jewel succeeded in pulling him onto the dance floor for a couple of songs.

At home she stripped and fell into the bed. Cody put his jacket in the closet when he felt a burn coming from his pocket.

“Are you OK?” asked Jewel.

“Yeah, I think I may have pulled a muscle with all that dancing.”

He kicked off his shoes then tossed his pants over a chair. He headed to the bathroom.

“Be right back,” he called.

He shut the door and leaned against it. He tented his fingers and found a message from Elaine.

“Tomorrow. 10:00 AM. We’ve got a job. Time Stop may not be possible for the whole mission so be alone.”

After waffles on Saturday morning, Jewel said she wanted to make a run to her apartment. She got lucky the previous night and had clothes for her date. She wanted to bring more to Cody’s apartment. Cody begged off saying he would stay and do laundry and clean his apartment. At 10:00 AM he was seated in the living room when everything went deadly still. Elaine just kicked off Time Stop. She was then standing in his kitchen.

“Ready?” she asked without preamble.

“Yes. Where are we going?” he answered.

“Montana,” she replied. “Senator Claremont is going back to his home state and he is our target.”

“What! But you said taking out high-ranking politicians was not possible. Too dangerous.”

Elaine clucked her tongue. “No, I said we can’t just pop in and shoot a high profile target. We can kill him but it has to look like an accident.”

Cody looked worried.

“Don’t fret. This will be an easy one. Trust me. The senator is on the Senate Intelligence Committee and was just briefed on a new top-secret technology. Two days later he makes a surprise visit to the middle-east. He’s always been suspect of being too friendly with those that are not allied with the US. His latest trip earned him a spot on our radar.”

“And this will be easy you say?”

“Yep. Claremont is going back to support the firefighters dealing with a massive forest fire. He’s set to fly over the fire in about twenty minutes then speak to a group on the outskirts of the fire.”

Cody was shaking his head.

“Think, Cody. There are several options.”

He finally started to put pieces together. He said, “I guess we could take out the helicopter as he flies over the fires. But that would also kill the pilot and one or more other passengers.”

Elaine is nodding. “Yep. And from what I’ve seen, they are going to try and get a photo-op with him near the fire. Dumb-shit should do a presser in front of the courthouse but he wants a more impactful image. The fire could suddenly flare and take him out at his makeshift podium. Or, after the speech, he’s going to have lunch at the town’s diner to glad-hand with the locals. One of them may be so upset that the senator gets a chestful of buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun.”