Chapter 9

What do you do with twenty-two captured CIA agents after they've failed in an illegal assault on a US Corporation? After several hours of discussion with Steve Hastings, we decided to gift wrap them and return them to sender. We planted several hundred bugs on the agents and their clothing and equipment, flew them back East, packed them into a rented truck and, just before dawn, parked it at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue closest to the Capitol building, tied up with a huge bow. Then we alerted the media.

Naturally, since the truck's contents were unknown, cameras and live news feeds were rolling for several hours before the bomb squad and hazmat teams got far enough with their procedures to actually open the truck to see what was inside. By then, every newswire in the world had picked up the story and cameras from all over the globe recorded the sheepish exits of the captured agents when they were released from the truck. Just as the spin doctors were starting to disseminate a cover story, we triggered the remote control that began blasting the CIA's own recordings of the assault from the truck's sound system, punctuated with the URL where the full recording could be found.

Within fifteen minutes, the web server farm was cranking out so many copies of the proceedings that it used the entire bandwidth of a couple of T3 lines. It took the FBI a full eight hours to push through the necessary warrants and shut the server down, but by then traffic had been redirected to a mirror site. By the time they got that one shut down, traffic had slowed to a fraction of its original volume and the cat was out of the bag. Every foreign news service in the world was carrying significant stories about the CIA assault on Hastings' Company, while the conservative US media tried to make light of it.

By noon, Hastings was inundated with reporters, all wanting to know how he had managed to thwart a full-blown CIA assault on his company, and to capture the agents unharmed. Hastings, seized the opportunity to both advertise his company's unparalleled security measures, and to keep attention off of the five of us. Eventually, someone would realize that it was Gemini Security, and not just Hastings Enterprises, that had foiled the attack, and we would develop a reputation in the industry that would be hard to top. At the moment, though, under cover of the opening salvo, we still had work to do, and it was best done quietly.

To that end, I found myself, in disguise, sitting in a stately, wood-paneled office in one of the Senate office buildings off Constitution Avenue, only a short distance from the site of the morning's excitement. The conservative suit I wore matched the gray-sprinkled hair and fake paunch to a tee. Finally, after almost two hours, the door to the inner chamber opened and I was admitted to see the person I sought.

"Good afternoon, Senatuh!" I boomed, in a Southern accent that was as false as the bulge around my middle, "Ah just wanted to come and see how well owah contribution is being used, if y'all know what ah mean."

This was for the benefit of the matronly woman who let me in, then closed the door as she left.

"I'm sorry, Mr., ah, Rafkin is it?" His Texas accent was honestly acquired, though it was about the only honestly acquired thing he had. "My memory is a little rusty. Could you enlighten me a little as to what group you're with?"

"Whah, certainly, Senatuh! Certainly!" I said, still keeping up the show. "Perhaps this little ol' disc will help explain mattuhs. Oh don't worry, Ah guarantee it ain't got no viruses!"

That part was true. By now, Hastings' robot bug should have stripped his computer of any useful information and would be making its way to the miniaturized 'garage' in my shoe, therefore there was no need for viruses on the disc.

I watched with delight, and tasted his fear as the Senator's expression changed in the course of his scanning of the documents on the disc. By the time he turned back to me, he was white as a sheet.

"Whu..." He cleared his throat before he could continue. "Where did you get this information? It's false, of course, but I cannot have these kinds of lies circulating about me. How much do you want for every copy of this data?"

"Well, Senator," I replied, in my own voice, "the truth is, I do want something from you. You see, this is only the tip of the iceberg. I have witnesses that will corroborate what's on that disc, and additional data to prove its authenticity. Is the penalty for treason in wartime still death by firing squad? No matter, whatever the penalty, you have but one chance to avoid it. Resign your seat, effective immediately, and I won't let this information fall into the hands of the minority party."

"I can't do that!" he raged, "I'm the Senate Majority Leader! I refuse to let some pipsqueak with a grudge come in here and ruin my career! I'll have you arrested! I'll have you thrown so far under Gitmo that it'll be years before anyone knows you're gone!"

"You could try." I said calmly, removing the wig and facial mask, "but you might ask yourself if the guy who survived three attempts by the CIA to kill or capture him would be that stupid or that easily caught. Your opposition will have enough information to bring down your entire party leadership within the hour if I don't tell them not to."

"Then I'll just have to have them ask you to tell them not to!" he retorted.

"Oh, Senator!" I chuckled, "Clearly you've never been to S.E.R.E. training, nor do you have any knowledge of the way such things are set up so that all I have to do is put one word out of place in a sentence, or use a slightly different phrase. You could torture me for weeks on top of drug therapy, and you'd never figure out just how to stop that information from going out. Problem is, you don't have that long. If I don't stop them in the next forty-five minutes, that information goes out, automatically!"

I didn't feel any need to tell him that it would actually go out sooner than that if he made any attempt to have me detained, killed or otherwise rendered incommunicado. My four mind-mates would know and act instantly.

"You have until the end of the week to make the announcement, Senator." I said, as I headed for the door. "Then we're coming after you."

At almost the same time, Sun was having a similar conversation with the House Majority Leader, across the Mall in the offices of the House of Representatives.

I knew the illustrious Senator would be on the phone trying to get someone to tail me as soon as I left his office, so I quickly stepped into the Janitor's closet, removed the suit, and donned the coveralls and hat awaiting me there. I slowly pushed a service cart to the service entrance at the back of the building and used my borrowed security pass to activate the exit door. With a large bag of trash in each hand, I made my way to the dumpsters, dumped the trash bags, then traded places with the guy who came in on the garbage truck that was just about to leave. He went back to his job as janitor, and I took my leave of the garbage truck three blocks away.

Sun was just making her escape from the offices of the House of Representatives as I stripped off the coverall and, wearing jeans and T-shirt, left the alley to find the rental car with Jun at the wheel just pulling up to the curb. It occurred to me how much more smoothly such rendezvous were accomplished when the people involved were mind-linked. No attracting attention by sitting in parked cars, no radio messages calling for pickup.

With so many people on the streets, my Chi gave me no warning as a black SUV shot from an alleyway and slammed into the rear quarter of the rental car, spinning it onto the sidewalk and folding one of the wheels underneath. It COULD have been accidental, but given our current endeavors, we couldn't afford to make such assumptions. The car was still rocking as Jun and I released our belts and slammed open the doors, emerging into the cover of the vehicle, weapons drawn. Jun automatically scanned the surrounding area as I covered the vehicle that had hit us.

A lone figure slowly emerged from the driver's door, and my chi told me there was no one else in the vehicle. No one else in the area seemed to be interested in us, other than the morbid curiosity of motorists passing the scene of an accident.

"Very good, Darren!" the driver of the SUV said mockingly, "It's good to know you haven't lost ALL your instincts!"

"Oh, I've been keeping in practice." I said, standing, but keeping my weapon trained on the driver. "I see you're still taking shortcuts."

'You know this man?' Jun asked silently.

'Quincy Hollingsworth.' I replied, keeping my attention on said Hollingsworth.'Disowned son of a rich man. Washed out of SEAL training. Never quite understood the concept of teamwork. Always looking out for himself at the expense of others. He doesn't like me much.'

"You never got the idea, did you Darren?" Hollingsworth chided, "You've got to look out for yourself, 'cause nobody else will."

"That what you're doing, Quince?" I asked, "Looking out for yourself?"

"Something like that." He shrugged. "These suits pay me big money to keep the flies off their shit, and you happen to be one of those flies. I can't tell you how much good it did my soul to see your ugly mug on the security security tapes. You didn't really think that old janitor disguise was going to work, did you?"

It was my turn to shrug. "Got me out of the building, and if you're all they sent to stop me, you've already screwed up."

"You don't think I can stop you?" Quince removed a 9mm from his waistband and placed it carefully on the hood of the SUV. "Care for a rematch, Winchell?"

'Rematch?' Jun asked in my head.

'I kicked his ass the night before he rang the bell at SEAL training.' I replied, 'He's never forgotten, apparently.'

"I'd love to give you another lesson, Quince," I told him, "But even in DC the cops will show up eventually, and I doubt if your employers want you making a public scene."

"You think the cops will come if my employers tell them not to?" He laughed, "Not in this town, buddy! 'Sides, this isn't business anymore. It's personal. As far as I'm concerned your little girlfriend there can go. It's just you and me, Dar. Just like old times, eh, buddy?"

"I'm tempted to let you try to make this young lady leave, Quince," I replied, "but it would be just TOO embarrassing if a 'little girl' kicked your ass, wouldn't it? Tell you what, I'll save you the embarrassment and do it myself."

I carefully placed my own weapon on top of the rental car and slipped around the fender to face my opponent.

I was watching for tricks as Quincy stripped off his jacket, but didn't see the can of pepper spray until it was too late.

'Darren!' Jun's warning, too, was too late.

I managed to minimize the damage by getting my eyes closed, but it was going to be a while before I could see clearly.

'Be calm, Darren.' Jun soothed in my mind. 'Use my eyes.'

My own eyes were burning like fire, but she was right, I didn't have time to wait for my tears to wash away the irritant. My attacker was coming fast.

Using my Chi, augmented by Jun's vision, as we had practiced in the basketball game, I managed to elude Quince's first attack with only a couple of bruises to show for it, and took a second to center myself, driving the pain in my eyes from my mind so I could concentrate on the task at hand. I could feel my enemy's surprise at the fact that I had managed to somehow slip past his blows.

"Still taking shortcuts, Quince." I chided. "Still haven't figured out that there's no real substitute for doing the work!"

His anger boiled to the surface, just as I intended, and he came on in a fury of fists and flying feet. A couple of his strikes landed, but I blocked most of them and took the others in places where they couldn't do much damage.

He HAD been practicing, and his technique was much better than the last time I faced him, but then, so was mine. I weathered his attack, Jun and I both studying his moves as I tested his defenses.

Jun spotted it about the same time I did. 'See how his left drops when he's punching with the right? The next move will be the roundhouse kick, see?'

I nodded mentally, and baited Hollingsworth into attacking again, using my defense to guide his attack. Sure enough, the left hand dropped and he started the roundhouse kick. As he turned away from me, I dropped and as his body came around, delivered a hard punch to the thigh muscle at the front of his pivot leg.

The leg didn't quite give out, but when the kick missed its target, he lost his balance and stumbled, limping, a few feet away.

With my eyes still tightly closed, I pursued and delivered a sharp kick to the side of his other knee as it sought to stop his momentum. The knee bent sideways, ensuring that he wouldn't have the use of that leg again without extensive surgery.

He crumbled to the ground, and I was willing to let it go at that, but as I turned to retrieve my weapon, I saw, through Jun's eyes, the revolver being drawn from his ankle holster. Well, I didn't really want someone with that big of a grudge left on my back trail, so I put enough force into the side kick to snap his neck.

I didn't have to check his pulse to know that he was dead - his chi faded rapidly and disappeared.

As my mind turned from the fight, I realized that Mei and Wei were waiting for us a block away, through the same alley that had disgorged Hollingsworth's SUV. Sun had made a clean getaway and was already waiting for us at the designated rendezvous.

As Jun and I slipped into the backup car with Mei and Wei, I felt approval from the four of them. While the delay in dispatching Quincy could have endangered the mission, they felt that I had handled myself with honor, and their pragmatic side applauded his death. As bodyguards, they didn't believe in giving enemies a second chance to attack. Amidst the warmth of approval from the team, however, I felt something deeper, more heartfelt from Jun.

We didn't have time or attention to pay to such things at the moment - it would take every ounce of skill and concentration we had to complete our final visit, so emotions would have to wait, but I did have time to feel something within me answering what I felt from Jun.

We had to wait until long after dark, but eventually the limo we sought slid smoothly from the White House gates. We used several vehicles in the tail and the driver seemed none the wiser when he disgorged his corpulent passenger in front of a posh brownstone. We waited until all the lights had been off in the place for an hour before Mei and Wei went to work on the security system. They had it bypassed in no time flat and it was no trick to slip the antiquated lock and pick the deadbolt lock. Sun and Jun went inside with me while Mei and Wei kept watch. Sun found the computer in the study while her sister and I slipped upstairs to the bedroom.