Toni was going home to the Bronx for a week’s visit with her family. She’d be back next Wednesday. Jay’s parents were visiting relatives in Thailand, so he was hanging around the city and would probably spend much of the time here at HQ. Howard had relatives visiting. He’d be in town. Joanna was going to meet an old friend at a mountain cabin in Colorado. She’d be back Monday. And Michaels was going to Boise to see Susie.
And Megan too.
There was a case of mixed emotions.
“Anybody got anything new?” Jay said, “Well, I came across some inter esting statistics in the new Murray Morbidity and Mortality Report. According to the MMMR, life expectancy for men in Washington, D.c., is the lowest of any metropolitan area in the country. In fact, it’s lower than any rural area too, except for a couple of counties in South Dakota.
Sixty-three years. Whereas if you live in Cache County, Utah, you can expect to live fifteen years longer, a ripe old seventy-eight. And you can add eight or ten years to both those numbers if you’re a woman.” “I bet it feels a lot longer in Washington,” Howard said.
“I don’t know,” Toni said.
“Have you ever been in Utah?” “Yeah,” Jay said.
“I think maybe they all get too bored to die.” Michaels smiled.
“Fascinating. Anything that might relate to what we do in this agency.
Jay?” “Nope. I got through the poster’s fire walls, but the trail petered out, a dead-end in a box canyon. I haven’t been able to draw a bead on him since.” “Yee-haw,” Joanna said quietly.
“Excuse me?” Alex asked.
“Private joke,” she said.
“Sorry.” “All right. That’s it. If one of you catches the poster before we take off for the holiday, I’d bet big that Santa Claus will put some thing nice in your stocking, a Presidential Commendation at the least.” backslash “Oh, boy,” Jay said.
“A new floor for my parakeet’s cage.” ” “I didn’t know you had a parakeet,” Toni said. bar “I don’t, but for that, I’d get one.” “Somebody has to represent the agency at the LAW. convention in Kona on the Big Island in February,” Michaels said.
“Me! Me!” Jay said.
“Send me!” “Catch us a crook and you can work on your tan.” Joanna chuckled.
“What’s funny?” Jay asked.
“Nothing. I’m just imagining myself on that black sand beach I’ve heard about.” “Don’t pack your bikini just yet,” Jay said.
“No? Well, I wouldn’t start buying Coppertone in bulk either, if I were you.” “I think that’s got it,” Michaels said.
“Back to work.” As the meeting broke up. Sergeant Julio Fernandez arrived.
He nodded at Michaels, and moved to talk to Colonel Howard, where the senior officer stood talking to Lieutenant Winthrop.
“Colonel. Lieutenant” “Sarge,” Howard said.
Michaels caught a quick glimmer of some thing on Fernandez’s face when he looked at the young woman. Well. He could understand how the sergeant might appreciate Winthrop.
Back at their offices, Toni approached Alex.
“Got a minute?” “Sure.” In his office, she produced a small package, wrapped and decorated with a red bow.
“Merry Christmas,” she said.
“Thank you. Can I open it now?” “Nope. Got to wait until Susie opens her gifts. You’ll want Bus then.” “Ah, intrigue. All right, I’ll wait.
Here, I got you a little something.” He opened his desk drawer and removed a flat box, this one wrapped in the hardcopy Sunday cartoon section of the Arlington newspaper. She smiled at the wrapping, hefted it.
“Book?” “Go ahead and open it.” She did, carefully peeling the tape from the edges and unfolding the colorful newsprint.
“You going to save the paper, Toni?” “Sorry. Old habit.” She got to the book.
“Oh, wow.” It was a 1972 first edition of Dorin P.
Draeger’s The Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia.
“Where did you find this? It’s a classic.” She flipped through the pages, again with care, looking at the black-and white illustrations.
“I’ve never seen an original, only the on demand-print and CD versions.” He shrugged.
“Picked it up somewhere. I thought you might like it.” Yes, he had “picked it up somewhere,” all right.
He’d had a book seeker service hunting for six weeks for the thing, and it had cost him a week’s salary when they’d found it. Oh, well. He didn’t spend a lot of money. Outside of his living costs and Susie’s child support, his only hobby was the restoration of old cars. His current project was a Plymouth Prowler. That wasn’t cheap, but when he finally finished and sold the car, he’d get all he’d spent back, and then some. The book had made a dent in his bank account, but Toni deserved it. He couldn’t do his job without her. And the look on her face when she saw the thing was worth a lot too. He smiled.
Toni was about to close the book when she got to the title page.
“Hey, it’s autographed!” “Oh, really? Huh. How about that?” That autograph had jacked the price of the book up a few hundred dollars.
Impulsively, she hugged him.
God, she felt good, pressed against him that way.
She could stay there all day…. Toni pulled away and gave him a big grin.
“Thanks. My gift is nothing compared to this. You shouldn’t have.” He shrugged.
“Hey, a big meteor could fall on me while I’m taking the trash out tomorrow and what good would money be? I really appreciate all you do around here, Toni.” There was a silence that started to get awkward. He said, “So, you’re going home to see your folks?” “Yes. There’ll be a big gathering, all my brothers and sisters-in-law, and nieces and nephews, the uncles and aunts.
Regular army of relatives.” She paused.
“I hope your visit with Susie goes okay.” “Yeah.” “Well, I’d better get back to work.
Thanks again for the book, Alex.” “You’re welcome.” Thursday, December 23rd, 6:45 a.m.
Quantico, Virginia Joanna Winthrop took advantage of the take-off-work-early offer from Commander Michaels to book a deadhead seat on an early military jet leaving from Quantico and stopping off in Denver on its way to Alaska. When she mentioned it to Colonel Howard, Sarge Fernandez had offered to take her to the flight.
“I can catch a cab,” she’d said.
“No problem. Loot, I’m heading out that way anyhow, got some errands to run. I’ll swing by and pick you up.” It did make it easier for her.
“Sure.” So now she rode in the front seat of Fernandez’s personal car, a slate-gray seventeen-year-old Volvo sedan. She smiled.
“Funny, I’d have figured you for a little racier ride than this.” “It gets me there. Slow and steady. And it doesn’t spend much time in the shop.” “Well, I appreciate the lift.” ” “No problem.” They rode in silence for a few minutes, but she was aware of him giving her small peripheral glances.
Well. He was a man, and she knew that look.
He said, “You mind if I ask you some thing personal. Lieutenant?” Oh, Jesus, here it comes, she thought. He’s going to hit on me.
She’d had plenty of practice shutting male attention down when she wanted to. Although Fernandez had a certain Latin charm about him, it wouldn’t be a good idea, a relationship.
Even though the ranks were more quasi- than real-military in Net Force, and there wasn’t a specific prohibition against fraternization as in the Regular Army, there was a difference in their respective statuses. So she could let him down gently.
“Fire away.” “Has working with computers always been easy for you?” Hmm. That wasn’t what she expected.
“Excuse me?” “I’ve watched you. You’re good at it, that goes without saying, but you make it look easy. I was just wondering if it was. Easy, I mean.” She thought about it for a second. She didn’t want to sound egotistical, but the truth?
“Yeah. I guess it does come without a lot of effort for me. Always has. I had a kind of affinity for it.” He shook his head.
“I can strip a heavy machine gun and put it back together in the dark in a pouring rain, but when it comes to bits and bytes, I’m a tech no-dweeb.” She laughed. Men so seldom admitted to their shortcomings, it was refreshing to hear.
“I mean, I’ve tried to learn, but I have this block, the information just bounces off, it doesn’t sink in. I tried a class recently, but I had a… personality conflict with the instructor.
I think he just recognized that I was as dumb as dirt and would never get it.” “A thing can be told simply if the teller understands it properly.” “Excuse me?” “George Turner, a writer I admired in college. You know how a computer works, basic theory?” “Yeah. Well, actually… no.” “Okay. Let’s say you’re on guard duty, you’re watching a door. You open it when somebody with the right password comes by, you close it if they don’t have the password. You follow that?” “Sure.” “Now you know how computers work. A door is open or it’s closed. A switch is on or it is off.