Chapter 18

John stared at the black three-inch binder as if it were some sort of poisonous snake. Nine months of work distilled down to four hundred pages of documents separated into twenty-two chapters. One chapter was the introduction which gave a high level view of the document. Twenty chapters laid out an action plan for the twenty largest cities in the country. The final chapter was the conclusion detailing the consequences of following the program laid out in the rest of the document. This binder was the executive summary intended for three people to read.

There were twenty boxes of additional material to go along with the binder. The boxes were in storage at his house in a safe. Each box contained a set of sealed envelopes with orders addressed to specific agents. Inside an envelope were detailed instructions identifying where they were to go, when they were to be there, and what they were to do. On the cover of each envelope was the name of the agent for whom it was intended, and a time at which it was to be opened.

The essential element of his plan was secrecy. It was targeted at removing a number of leaks within the FBI and local police while avoiding judges known to be on the payroll of organized crime. Once the plan was put into effect, organized crime would have lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Hundreds of crack houses would be out of commission. Several dozen middle-level drug dealers would be removed from the streets. Three dozen fencing operations would be shutdown and the goods confiscated. Several credit card fraud farms would be eliminated. Four banks that provided money-laundering services would be raided and essential people arrested. The goal was to remove an entire tier of the organizations thereby forcing higher level leadership to get dirty. The exposure would make it easier to catch them committing a crime.

John wrapped the binder in bubble wrap and set it inside a box. It was a snug fit. He sealed the box with packing tape and then wrapped the box in brown paper. He wrote a single name and address on the paper. His part in this whole effort was nearly done.

He turned to Ed and said, “Bring him in, please.”

“Sure thing,” replied Ed with a twinkle in his eye. He knew this was an important moment. He opened the door and leaned out. With a single gesture, he beckoned the man waiting in the hall into the office.

The nondescript man entered the room without saying a word. Everything about this man was average. He was of average height and weight. His dull brown hair was styled in a simple hairstyle. He was middle aged with the slight paunch that was common among men his age. Even his speech had the standard Midwestern accent.

Ed asked, “Do you know what you are to do?”

“Yes.”

The courier was telling the truth. At a nod from Ed, John pushed the package across the desk. “This is to be delivered to Mike Holden at the FBI building in Washington DC, by three tomorrow afternoon.”

“I’ll be there.”

Ed nodded again. John said, “You can go, now. I’ll have need of your services again, in five days.”

The man left the office carrying the package. Ed shut the door behind him. Turning to John he said, “I’m glad that is gone. It will be good to avenge Sean’s death.”

“I agree.” John went to the computer, removed the disk drives from the computer, and put them into his brief case. He added, “I’ll be glad to get these drives into the safe at home.”

Ed said, “We have four days off. What do you want to do with them?”

John smiled as he answered, “I want to pamper the women for most of it. We haven’t been home in two days and I’d like to make it up to them.”

“Excellent idea.”

“If we go straight home, we can drop this off and come back to town to get some presents for them. We’ll be home before they get off from work.”

“Let’s go!”

John, Ed, and Rover left the office. They stopped at the receptionist and said, “We’re leaving now. We won’t be back for four days.”

“Hold on. Ann wants to see you before you leave.” The receptionist picked up the telephone and dialed Ann’s extension. After a pause, she said, “They’re leaving.”

Ann came running out of her office. As she entered the reception area, she demanded, “Tell me what you are working on.”

John calmly looked at her. “No.”

Ann froze and asked, “What do you mean, no?”

Ed answered, “I think he meant he wasn’t going to tell you what he’s working on.”

Ann glared at Ed for his restatement of the obvious. Her question was intended for them to explain the answer. “I’m the head of this office. If you sent something out of this office, I should know about it.”

“Generally, that’s true. However, in this case I can’t tell you.”

Ann exploded and shouted, “Get out of here!”

Ed said, “That’s what we were intending to do.”

The three exited the office leaving behind them an infuriated Ann. She stormed off to call Mike Holden. John had walked the border on just this side of proper behavior, but he had leapt across that line over the past nine months. Ed was just as bad. One day he comes in and flashes Treasury Agent identification. She knew that he was a full time student at the university.

John drove them directly home. They went straight to the safe and locked up the briefcase. Relieved at having the material safe from prying eyes, the two men went to the door to leave. They waited to see if Rover or Shadow would join them. Tiger was at the hospital guarding the women. Until the war with organized crime was over, no one went alone. One cat would go with each pair and another would stay in the house. Ed asked, “What’s keeping the cat?”

John thought about it and slapped his forehead. He answered, “Of course, Rover’s gone out to hunt. He’s been locked up in the office for a couple of days. Shadow won’t leave until Rover returns. We’ve got an hour to kill.”

“We can get something to eat.”

John agreed, “Sounds good to me. How about grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup?”

“Campbell’s?”

“Of course.”

“Marguerite is not going to like that,” remarked Ed with a laugh. The chef they had retained was professionally trained and hated cooking out of the can. She would mutter and complain the whole time.

The pair walked into the kitchen. Marguerite was singing in time to the music on the radio. She was standing in front of the stove slowly stirring a concoction in a large pot. She was dancing in time with the music. John asked, “So what kind of foul potion are you trying to brew up now?”

Ed laughed at the look on her face as she spun around and glared at John. She was embarrassed at having been caught dancing while she was cooking. She continued to glare at them as she asked, “So what kind of canned crap do you want, today?”

“Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.”

“I bet you want that horrible store bread with American Cheese Slices on it.”

Ed smiled as he answered, “Yes, and the more horrible the store bread the better.”

She sneered. She said, “Why in the hell did you hire me if all you want to eat is crap? You can hire a Vegas whore to cook this junk.”

John said, “True, but who would be able to cook dinner tonight?”

“Huh?”

Ed knew where John was going with this. He added, “Yes. We need one of those dinners that last for hours with all kinds of courses. The whole works. We’ll even let you include a little wine, except for us men.”

John turned to Ed and asked, “Do you think she’s up to the challenge?”

Ed laughed as he answered, “She might have forgotten how to cook after making all of that canned crap for us.”

Marguerite was hardly listening as she started to mentally assemble a full ten-course dinner for them. She went to the meat locker and started going through the meats. She had completely forgotten their request for lunch. John and Ed watched her at work, knowing that for one of the first times since she had arrived they had truly made her happy.

John tapped her on the shoulder startling her. He said, “You forgot about our lunch.”

She cried out, “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Ed joked, “Just for that, you and the staff have to serve us in the nude tonight.”

She blushed and ran to make their lunch. John laughed at her reaction. “She went off to make our crappy lunch without any complaints. Maybe you should threaten her with that more often.”

The men went to the table to wait for lunch. She was much more prompt than usual and set their plates in front of them without a complaint. She ran out of the room as soon as the men started eating. They enjoyed the meal tremendously.

Shadow joined them at the front door. They left for Phoenix and discussed the purchases that they would make as they drove along. They initially thought they would go for elegant dress that would be fitting for the evening that they planned. However, as they were driving, they passed a medieval store. Both men looked at each other with a knowing smile and John turned the car around. They pulled up in the parking lot and got out.

Entering the store was an experience. There were swords, suits of armor, tapestries, and costumes. Most of the stuff in the store had no real counterpart in medieval Europe, but it was nice and showy. The jewelry was large and gaudy; necklaces that were intricate weaves were intended to show off breasts barely covered by tight fitting dresses.

John and Ed wandered about looking at the general layout of the store. Shadow found a corner where he could keep an eye on everything and yet remain unnoticed. There was a man and a woman in medieval garb behind the counter. They glanced over at John and Ed with the lack of interest that comes of too many months of bored interactions with window shoppers. John knew they probably had a small circle of customers that accounted for the majority of their business. John winked at Ed and marched up to the counter. “Greetings my young entrepreneurs. We are having a dinner tonight and wish to dress our guests and ourselves in medieval attire. The whole works including shoes, clothes, jewelry, and whatever else is appropriate. You have two men and two women to outfit, money is no object.”

Ed interrupted, “Nay, my good man. You have forgotten the servants. They too must be properly attired!”

As the couple behind the counter stared at them in shock, John countered, “Ah, you forget. You had requested the servants to serve us naked for their transgression of lunch today!”

“Alas, that was under the former, but decadent theme we would have followed. We have changed the theme!”

John nodded and said, “So be it. I have no idea of their sizes, though.”

The woman behind the counter suggested, “Call them and ask.”

John gestured to the telephone. She handed it to him and he dialed the number for the kitchen. After Marguerite answered, John handed the telephone back to the woman and said, “Here’s Marguerite. Get the data that you need from her. Only tell her that you are a uniform shop. I’d like to surprise her.”

The woman behind the counter smiled. She picked up the telephone and after an animated exchange agreed to hold until Marguerite got all of the information required. She covered the mouthpiece and said, “She doesn’t sound too happy.”

John laughed as he imagined how Marguerite was reacting. He said, “That’s okay. We’re interrupting her cooking. She’s passionate about that and we don’t let her cook that often.”

Ed turned to the male clerk who was still staring at both of them. Ed turned to the clerk and said, “How about locking up so that we aren’t interrupted. And don’t mind Shadow, he won’t bite.”

The male clerk got out from behind the counter and moved towards the weapons. He decided that this was a holdup and he was going to resist in a most medieval manner. Ed noticed the move and nudged John. John reached in his wallet and removed his platinum card. He set it on the counter. The clerk took one look at the card and moved to lock the door.