Chapter 33: In Deep

Rebecca

I was in trouble.

See? I can do understatement as well as the next person. I still have no idea who it was who had dropped me into this dark hole, or why. Sure, they had a legitimate reason; I had refused to tell them about Jimmy. I'd known all along that it may someday come to this, but I had assumed it would be over the Sandman case, not the big dark secret in Las Vegas. Apparently the files on Elliott Bastion and his little church were flagged in the Justice Department computer. I had used my FBI ID code to access the files, so they knew exactly who it was. The question was why? Was it actually possible that the group was this well connected? The idea was, or at least seemed, absurd. Nobody in their right mind would waste this much power protecting their right to shag teenage girls. There had to be another explanation. Other explanations notwithstanding, I was in deep shit and sinking fast. The question in my mind was how far they would go. Let's face it; the FBI did have ways of extracting information from people. They usually stopped short of torture, we outsource most of that to the CIA and wait for the written report to come back, carefully edited of course. But there were a variety of drugs, plus hypno-techniques and the like, that they could and would use if they felt the situation warranted it. As an agent of the Bureau they had signed releases on file authorizing the use of most of these on me if the need ever arose.

I checked my watch, damn, almost midnight local time but still only nine o'clock on the west coast. I really needed to talk to my favorite shrink about the chances that I could prevent them from dissecting my brain and picking out the pieces they found interesting, but it was way too early for Bob to be in bed yet, unless Jimmy needed him for something. Ah, there was a thought. Jimmy had a lot on his plate and gets up early to run. Maybe I could get lucky and reach him, have him get a hold of Bob and get us together.

Not wanting to attract any more attention than necessary I arranged myself as comfortably as possible on what passed for a cot and used one of the triggers Bob had implanted to let me meet with Jimmy if the need ever arose. As soon as I was out I called Jimmy. To my surprise and delight, he answered.

"Hi, what's up?"

I said a quick thank you to God that he was there. "I'm in deep shit is what's up? Can you call Bob for me, get him to put himself under, and then get us together? I need to talk to both of you right away."

"He's already here. We were discussing another problem. Would it be a problem if the girls were here too?"

"No, this concerns everyone so Allison and Sha ... wait," God what was I saying? "You're not talking about Shannon are you? Or has something changed? Is she..." I had a moment of hope.

"No," he said, and the hope died, "I meant Allison and Lizzy."

"That will be fine. Jimmy, I..." I started to apologize for mentioning her but stopped myself, no point digging the hole any deeper. "That will be fine." I said.

"Okay, we'll meet you in the office."

Jimmy

Even as I hung up I transitioned the four of us to the office so we were there when Rebecca opened the door.

"You better all sit down, I need to cover this as quickly as possible." She didn't wait for us to actually sit down. "Jimmy, the first thing you need to do is get a hold of Rod and tell him you need those ID's he's working on for you yesterday. Rod got a call this morning ordering me to Washington ASAP, no mention of what it was about, nothing. Just that I was to report immediately and..."

I cut her off, "Wait a second. I want to try something." I looked at Allison and suddenly a large golden retriever was sitting in her chair. I changed to my 'working' persona and then glanced at Lizzy, "Do you have a particular disguise you want to use?"

"I never really gave it much thought." She smiled and closed her eyes and when she opened them back up, Control Agent 99 from the old Get Smart show was sitting in her chair, "How's this?"

"Well, he certainly won't believe you're who you look like, that's for sure." Rebecca said with a smile.

I thought about going out by the elevator, rather than do this in front of Rebecca, since she had no idea my abilities went this far, but if it worked then she would know anyway. I closed my eyes and concentrated, and then I opened them again in my room where I was still curled up with Allison. Reaching for my phone I quickly dialed Rebecca's boss.

He answered on the second ring, "Hello."

"Mr. Rodriguez, this is Jimmy, where are you right now?"

"Oh shit, this can't be good. Hold on a second," I could hear him moving and then the sound of a door closing. "I'm in my office at home. What's happened, you wouldn't have called me unless it was an emergency?" As he spoke the picture formed in my mind and suddenly I knew I had him.

"Make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, and relax." I waited as he arranged himself on the couch. "Picture an office building. You're in the lobby, walk to the elevator and go inside. When the door closes, press the button for the top floor. Where are you now, describe it to me."

"I'm in the elevator pressing the button to go up."

"Good, watch the panel and count the floors as you go up.

In my mind I could see him in the elevator, phone still in his hand, as he counted, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten."

By the time he reached eight his body in the office was now settled and sleeping, and I was standing invisibly in the elevator with him. When he reached ten I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "When the doors open, you will see an unmarked door across from you, walk to the door and open it."

I stood back and watched as the doors opened and he closed his phone. Then he walked across the hall and opened the door.

"Oh shit," he whispered when he opened the door to find us waiting for him. Allison immediately jumped down from the chair and jogged over to him, wagging her tail in greeting.

"Have a seat, boss, I don't know how much time I have," Rebecca said. He wandered dazedly to the nearest empty chair and as he sat down, Allison sat at his feet and nuzzled his hand to pet her. Without thinking he started scratching her behind one ear. He glanced around the room and when he spotted 99 sitting there he did a double take. He didn't have long to dwell on whatever he was thinking as Rebecca resumed her briefing.

"I found out why I was called to Washington, Rod, and it's not good. It's about my snooping around last night. They met me at the airport, and I figured that because of the time they would take me to a hotel and I'd be briefed in the morning. Wrong. I went straight to ground zero, and when I got there they took my gun and led me straight to a conference room. I waited there for about twenty minutes before three people came in and told me the meeting never took place. They immediately wanted to know why I was interested in Elliott Bastion and the Church. I gave them the basic rundown on what we suspected, and then they started pressing for my source. I had made the mistake of mentioning Jimmy as an asset," she turned to me, "which categorizes you as a particular type of contact and gives you certain protections, but only if I've jumped through the proper hoops and obtained the proper authorizations first, which I hadn't. I told them no and they pushed harder, implied certain things, reminded me I was sworn to uphold certain oaths, and that I was required to co-operate, etc. Basically, they threatened me. I told them I didn't care if the President himself walked in and ordered me to tell them, they weren't getting it because I had promised it to you as part of the deal when you first came to me with the information on the murders. I even stressed that you came to me.

"I'm currently sitting in a holding cell about two levels above hell. My biggest concern right at the moment is how far they may go to get me to talk. Rod, Jimmy and Allison need those ID's as fast as you can get them. Also, there are two more deposits, another sixty thousand dollars total, pending for Raphael Swenson. That should last you for a while, hopefully long enough for some more funds to shake loose. There's twenty-five coming from the arrest in Palm Springs and double that when we get a conviction. Rod, I think it would be best to set him up off-shore."

He nodded his agreement and she went on. "I don't even know who these people are. They wouldn't even give me their names, but they've got to be really high up the food chain to pull this all off. Rod, I don't think they're Bureau but they've got the clout to have a meeting of this kind in our own office and to order me locked up in holding. That's where I am right now. Bob, they've got signed releases to do whatever they need to in order to help me 'remember information' if you know what I mean. Hypnosis, several different drugs, just about anything short of physical torture, and with these three, I'm not sure just how far short that may be. Is there anything you can do here to block me from them hypnotizing me and getting the information they want."

"Excuse me," Rod said, patting Allison on the head and standing up. "I don't want to hear any more of anything that you're about to discuss. I think I've heard everything you really needed me to hear?" He glanced at Rebecca for confirmation. She nodded and he went on, "There are things I need to be doing."

"One last thing, Rod," Rebecca said. "I need a safe place for Jimmy to put the girl. If they have this kind of clout then we need her someplace as far from official circles as possible.

"Maybe not that far," I said. "We've been working on changing her appearance. Fortunately, her normal look is pretty extreme. What we really need is someone to do hair and some minor cosmetics." I pulled up an image of Phoebe when she came to us, and then another one of her in one of the dresses that Allison had bought. "We're thinking bleach the hair and then color it blonde," As I spoke the image changed, "get a real professional set of extensions, and cover up all the holes..." the image changed and I could see that everyone was impressed. "With the right cover story we figure she could walk up to a cop on the street and ask for directions and they wouldn't look twice at her, probably offer her a lift so no one bothered her. The problem is who to leave her with. We were considering keeping her at my house, a cousin from out of town staying with us because of a family tragedy or something, but obviously that won't work now."

"I'll get the story handled," Rod said. "Her mother is a single woman in the military and she's been deployed overseas into an area where she doesn't want to take her daughter. Just tell me who to put down as guardian and I'll have a complete set of documents by noon tomorrow; Medical releases, the works. As soon as possible, get me a picture of her and I'll get you an ID card. Call me in the morning and I'll have a name for her. Try to get the cosmetics done as soon as possible. Bob, I'll call you in a little while with a phone number for a woman to handle the hair and makeup. She's not too far away from all of you and she's done work for the Bureau before on undercover jobs. Doesn't matter if it's the middle of the night, call her, set it up, and take the girl to her. When she's done, I'll need a picture of her, as well as one of Jimmy and Allison for their ID's, digital if possible. A courier will bring you the initial batch of information. Give him the pictures on whatever memory card they are on in a sealed envelope and he'll get them back to me. I'll have the rest of the package delivered to Susan's before the end of the day. Bex, I don't know what you're into with all this, but I'm sure they can fill me in. Whatever happens, I'll do my best to get them away clean and if it comes to it, I'll take care of Amy."

I thought a saw a tear in his eye as he hugged her and I know I saw them in hers when she said, "Goodbye Rod, I hope it's not, but just in case ... Thanks."

He looked back at me, "I'll be expecting your call." I watched as he walked out the door and woke up in his office, where he immediately went to a bookshelf, moved a couple of books and pulled out another cell phone. I returned my attention to the people still gathered around me.

"I didn't know you could do that." Rebecca commented.

"Do what?" I asked.

She started to say something but Lizzy jumped in.

"Wait, don't answer yet," Lizzy said. "Think about it, Rebecca, do you actually have any idea what he just did? No, if you think about it really hard, you don't know what he does, or how he does any of this, do you? That's important to remember because it's not like the people you may be talking to are just going to throw out ideas and ask, 'Can he do this? Can he do that?' They're going to ask you to tell them what he does or how he does it, and when they do you can answer, honestly, that you don't know. As far as you know, all of this is still impossible. What do you think? Can you tell them that and be telling them the truth when you do it?"

She thought about it for a second, and while she was thinking, I casually walked over, touched her shoulder, and caught her eye as she looked at me, "Rebecca, I know you would never tell anyone about me. But I don't expect you to lie for me either. When you leave here tonight, you will forget all of this, you have no way to contact me unless I call you. Robert Shelby does not know anything about me at all. Director Rodriguez has no knowledge of who your source is that you know of. You have no personal knowledge of Phoebe beyond what I have told you and your own investigations; you don't know where she is or what she looks like. You will have no knowledge of any of the other people in this room unless I personally tell you that the snow level in the Amazon basin is expected to reach twelve feet by Christmas. Do you understand?"