Chapter 36

"You do realize that every single member of those two sub-committees is now terrified of you?" Dr. Wills said from his seat in the front of the SUV.

I smiled absently. "I read somewhere that having people fear you is more useful than having them love you. In my case there was never much chance they'd love me, so I'll settle for fear. Perhaps, in time, the fear will become respect."

Mr. Jones snorted. "I wouldn't hold my breath."

"I'm forced to agree with Mr. Jones." the Doctor said. "What will most likely happen, in the immediate future, is that our budget will become even more constricted, scrutiny of our operations will intensify and they will do everything in their power to increase our isolation within the Agency."

"Hoping to make us powerless and impotent?" I suggested.

"Exactly. You have clearly proven to them in undeniable fashion that we are a power to be reckoned with and they'll want to demonstrate for all to see just who holds the guard dog's leash."

"So before this we were merely a local junk-yard dog, but now we've grown up and become a pit-bull?"

"More like a bull mastiff." Mr. Jones replied.

"Quite right. We stepped out of our little yard and into the big wide world. They won't like that we did it, but having shown that we could and were capable of surviving, even prospering, outside that yard they'll start trying to use us as a tool... or brandishing us as a weapon."

"Lovely. Agencies that didn't even know we existed before will have us at the top of their shit lists. Cooperation of any kind is going to be tough to come by." I groused.

"Welcome to the world of politics." Dr. Wills laughed. "For the moment though, we don't need much in the way of inter-service cooperation. What we can use to our advantage are little incidents like the 'Ivan' bone we threw the FBI. Little favors add up. That will be one area where you will be invaluable my boy. While you learn the ropes, make contacts within other departments and other organizations... within the government itself. Build yourself a network of people who will be willing to help you, when the time comes. Focus on the lower levels, the junior department heads, the second tier managers, the mid-level civil servants and junior congressmen and senators. By the time you take over for me, they will have moved up as well and taken over for the men and women who will be actively opposing us for the foreseeable future. You have an invaluable gift that you can use to your advantage... you can tell who can and can't be trusted, who is playing the game for the game's sake and who is actually trying to accomplish something worthwhile."

He sighed deeply. "I tried to do that and have had only minimal success. My talent is nowhere near as strong and useful as yours. I've been limited in what I could do and because of that I've had very limited success. So, following the old political adage, 'If at first you don't succeed, redefine success, ' I have redefined my success by choosing you to follow me."

"I'll try not to let you down."

He laughed warmly. "Ike, you won't. It just isn't in your nature."

We made a detour to Rockville, picked up Anya and the girls then made a beeline for CIA headquarters where we were picked up on the rooftop and flown back home to the ranch. Dr. Wills went back with the helicopter, leaving Mr. Jones behind with us.

It had been a long day for me, even though by the time we arrived home it was only three in the afternoon. I had put off all questions about our meeting, so I spent the first hour describing to the girls what had happened. Izzy was shocked at finding out Ricky's father had been a congressman, had been our congressman. They all laughed viciously when I described the senator and congressman's final farewell to political life.

After that we scattered, Peggy and Lilly went out to check on the horses, Izzy disappeared into the kitchen and Mr. Jones took Anya upstairs so she could lie down. Her head was still bothering her and she needed to rest.

I went upstairs and into our bedroom, removed my suit hanging it in the closet, and took a quick shower, washing the makeup off my face, neck, shoulders and arms. The hair dye I'd been told would wash out after a few days. Leaving the shower, I filled up the hot tub and climbed in, letting the heat soak the aches and pains from my tired body.

'I'd like you to do something for me, lover.'

I looked up from the table top, where I'd been examining the chess pieces. The king-sized piece with my face was in the center of the round board, the three smaller figures of Izzy, Lilly and Peggy were around it in a triangle formation, with Anya and Mr. Jones a little off to one side and Dr. Wills and Colonel DeBerg on the opposite side. The blood red figures with no faces were scattered out at the edges, no longer in ranks or formations.

She sat on the opposite side of the table with a wraith-like bundle of vapors in her lap.

"What can I do for you, honey?"

'Keep a promise I made to someone. I can't do it myself, but you can.'

"Alright. What did you promise?"

'When you see them, just say "Carlie wants you to know she loves you, always and forever." You'll know who I mean and you'll know why when you meet.'

"I don't understand."

'You will, when the time comes. Come see us. It's time to say goodbye.'

"I'm not ready to say goodbye to you Carlie. Not yet."

'It's time, lover.'

I opened my eyes to find Izzy sitting across from me in the tub. I wiped my eyes and opened my arms. She stood up and waded thru the water and sat down on my lap. I wrapped my arms around her, one hand cupping a firm breast and the other flat against her belly and hugged her to me.

"I have to go to Dover."

She nodded, her right hand reaching up and resting over the hand that held her breast.

"We'll go with you." was all she said.

I craned my neck and kissed her cheek. "Okay. We'll go tomorrow."

We sat in the tub like that until we were both wrinkled and then we got out and made love till it was time for dinner.

I called Dr. Wills that night and told him I was going to Dover on personal business. He said he'd send the helicopter in the morning to pick us up. He offered to let us use the department's SUV for the trip, but I told him not to bother. We'd take my car, since it was sitting in the CIA parking lot not doing anything.

Mr. Jones and Anya said they'd come along too, but I told them to sit tight at the ranch and relax. Anya needed to take it easy and it was obvious that she and David were getting rather serious... if the noises coming from Anya's room were any indication.

"You aren't in the clear yet, you know. There could still be some damn fool out there who might be willing to take a shot at you." Jones said at dinner that night.

I shrugged. "I think that's probably going to be the case as long as I'm working for the CIA."

"At least take the pistols with you." he suggested.

"I will."

The four of us were waiting on the front steps when the helicopter arrived at eight the next morning, climbed in and were whisked off to the headquarters rooftop. Dr. Wills met us and showed me from the rooftop where my car was parked and suggested the best way to get to Dover, bypassing D.C. proper and going around Alexandria.

I'd never been to Dover before, and as it turned out, neither had Lilly or Peggy. So I ended up driving. It took a few hours to get there and I focused on the road and the signs while the girls talked amongst themselves.

Izzy and Peggy were in the back, Lilly sat up front with me. After the second hour Izzy and Peggy had snuggled together and taken a nap, leaving just the two of us awake.

"You're awfully quiet." Lilly said.

"Sorry. I've got a lot on my mind."

"Like?"

"I've had two dreams recently and Carlie's told me to come see her in both of them. Yesterday she said I was supposed to keep a promise for her that she'd made to someone."

"Do you know what the promise is?"

"That is one of the things that's been on my mind."

"Hmmm... and who she made the promise to would be another, right?"

"Give the lady a cigar." I said, smiling.

"Ike, do you think the voices you hear are... I don't know, your subconscious I guess is the psych term, or could they be something else?"

"That is one of the other things that's been bothering me. I wish I knew. Lilly, there are times when I'm not sure if I am sane. How can you know?"

She sighed and put her hand on my leg, giving my thigh a squeeze. "When I was depressed all the time and wanted to kill myself, I knew there was something wrong with me... I just didn't know what to do about it. I don't know if I was crazy or not, just really unhappy. When you went home, Peggy and I talked some. I asked her if she believed the voices she heard were real people. Know what she told me?"

"I'd guess that she thought they were real."

"Yup. I guess it all boils down to what real is. I never went to college so I'm not the smartest person around, but it seems to me that real is what each of us decides it is."

I laughed softly. "A good piece of the nineteenth century was spent trying to figure that very question out. The so-called Enlightenment. Some of them agreed with you and some took a different view. They said that nothing we perceived with our senses was real. Everyone sees a little differently, hears differently and so on. The argument says in essence that Reality is, and it's our perception of that Reality that's malleable. If I go with that line of thought, then I'm not crazy... the rest of you are just incapable of perceiving what I can."

"Well, maybe that's it then."

"Maybe. Either way, I owe it to her memory to try and keep the promise, if I can."

We arrived in DoverDelaware after one thirty. I stopped at a gas station and bought a local map. Lilly and I looked it over, trying to find the name of the cemetery. We located two, one on the edge of the south side of town and one on the upper west side. Since the west side one was closer, we decided to try it first.

I parked outside the main entrance and walked in to the ground's keeper's building, leaving the girls in the car. I asked the man if there was a family plot for the Van Lutens and he looked at me as if I were a lunatic.

"Mistah... the Van Lutens are one of the oldest families in Dovah. Hell, some say they founded the town. Old Man Van Luten owns pert near half the property. Their family plot would be in the original town cemetery."

"The one on the south side, you mean?"

"Nope, that'd be the newest one; most of the folks buried there died aftah 1940. No, you want the old churchyard in the centah of town."

I thanked the man and went back to the car and told the girls what I'd found out.

Dover Delaware is a grungy, gray, brick building kind of town under the best of circumstances. I've never seen it under the best of circumstances, but I don't imagine it improves much with bright sunlight and chirping birds. It reminds me of pictures I've seen of tiny little industrial towns at the turn of the last century. Dim, misty, morose, moody and unfriendly. It's one of those provincial kinds of places that if you weren't born there you'd always be an outsider, even if you lived in the place for sixty years. I hated it from the moment I set eyes on it.

The sun was setting... or maybe it was trying to get the hell out of Dover as fast as possible... so we decided to find a hotel for the night and resume our search in the morning.