After the few guys who planned to remain in the Army said goodbye to the rest of us slackers, those of us who had been mustered out yesterday and who stuck around just to attend the party each went our own way after promising to continue contact. Per normal, I was the designated mule or point of contact since I had a relatively known and fixed address. Everyone could continually update me so if someone wanted to know where someone else was I could provide that information so long as everyone kept me updated. Most of them did which worked out pretty well in the long run.

Ralph and I stayed together for about a week trying to decide what we were going to do and if we would be doing it together but eventually even we separated, each heading for our own greener pastures. I went home for a few days then headed for the largest city nearby where I took a succession of three jobs, none of which especially struck me as being what I was looking for. Then again, I wasn’t certain exactly what it was I was looking for. After a bit more than ten years in the Army I wasn’t certain I would find something in civilian life which could keep my interest. Hell, even the last four years in the Army had seemed tame compared to my first six or so.

Ralph had struck a bit of pay dirt on his second attempt at finding a home for himself, at least for the interim. In fact it was his repeated mentioning of working as a well paid Security consultant out of an Alexandria based firm that finally prompted me to look into it as well. I was bumming around looking for something a little more exciting when, once more, Ralph called out of the blue.

“Gee, Lyon. You’d really like it here. It isn’t exactly like the stuff we did in the Army, but there’s a lot of similarity. The pay is good and we travel a lot. I kinda got used to that while we were in the Army so it’s almost like being home.”

“I don’t know Ralph. If there’s one thing I learned this past year, it’s that I’m used to being in charge and I’ve got a bit of a problem working for someone else. Now I don’t get to make the decisions or the decisions I am allowed to make aren’t very far off the bottom of the shit pile. And most of the time I’ve got to follow orders that are pretty damn far off the wall.”

“It wouldn’t be like that here, Lyon. I already talked with them about you. They’re interested.”

“You talked ... I hope you were careful about what you said.”

“I was. You know me.”

“Yeah. I know you. I just hope you didn’t mention Lynnette at all.”

“I didn’t.” he sounded hurt, “All I told them was you had been placed as the acting OIC of our unit but that you were actually an E-8. They’re still interested. Most of these guys are ex-military. A lot of them were officers. Just come talk with them, okay? You don’t have to make a decision right away. Just come, look at what they do and offer, and then give yourself a week to think about it.”

Eventually I did. I flew in, spent a day looking the operation over. Another day was spent out on one of the more ‘hum-drum’ details and yet another had me looking at their training program; all on their nickel. Then I flew home again to think about it. A week later I was signing paperwork and the Monday following I was funneled into their training program which reminded me in some ways of AIT. The rules and regulations were a little different since this was a civilian operation but the skills were a lot like those which we had used in the military and the rules and regs weren’t all that different. I suppose that’s what comes from military types setting up the business.

The one thing which kept sticking in my craw was the hurry up and wait which kept cropping up. It felt worse than the Army. Of course the unit I had OIC’d was usually so busy that I never had the wait part of the hurry up. It seemed to me that in the Army I was always going from one fire to another. It wasn’t long in that civilian operation before I was bored. The work wasn’t hard and that was probably the reason. There wasn’t all that much variety either. I made a few trips with other personnel which either took me around the U.S. or once in a while into South America or Europe but generally all I did once I got there was stand around and look mean. I didn’t really get to do any sort of action like I had in the Army. I was getting close to the end of my leeway period with the military and was beginning to think I’d do better for myself back in the Army even if I didn’t earn a tenth as much money. At least I’d have something to do most of the time which would keep my mind occupied. I really didn’t want to keep driving politicians or businessmen around all the time, nor commanding small teams who were doing the same while paying lip service to the security part of the process. This outfit thought security was when you sent out a hail of bullets in every direction after your principal had been killed.

The idea of my own company was becoming more and more enticing every day. By the end of my first year with these people I felt like a stale donut. You know, like a rock, sitting in one place without moving and probably capable of doubling as one. No movement, no thought, just sit there and veg. Another three months passed me by and I knew I had to go. It was either the Army again or that business that our friends had said they would like to see us start. By now it was getting on to be late ‘72, early ‘73 and interesting things had begun happening in Europe.

I corralled Ralph one day and sounded him out about it.

“Ralph, I think I’ve pretty much had it here.”

“Oh? What did you have in mind then, Lyon?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and if I don’t go back into the Army then I’m thinking I might contact our spook friends since we’re so close to them here. I’d like to know exactly what they have on their minds and how I or we ... might fit into it.”

“Gee, Lyon. I don’t know. I’m pretty comfortable here. The pay’s pretty good, the work isn’t all that interesting but it isn’t hard either. I’d like to stick with you but I don’t think I could be a spook. I’m just not cut out for that sort of thing.”

“I don’t think they wanted us to do spook work, Ralph. They seemed to be more interested in our becoming a sort of civilian ops-group which could handle the more difficult - physical part of the job rather than for us to be spooks ourselves. It would be the sort of thing we did while in the Army. We would be a sort of counter terrorist group of some kind as well as handling some protection work similar to what this group is doing, although I hope with a lot more security involved. The way it was explained to me, they wanted to have a military trained and NATO armed civilian group which could field three or four companies of personnel if it needed to.”

“Almost like what we were doing out of Thailand except as civilians? Rescuing people who were being held captive by enemy forces?”

“Something like that.”

“I thought that’s what the military branches were for.”

“This group would be dealing with people who claimed they weren’t military nor supposedly related to a country’s military command. If they were military sponsored and supplied then our military could attack the country which fielded them. If they were civilians acting outside their country’s civil and military authority then bringing our military against them could cause a bit of bad publicity but if there was a civilian agency which was allowed to cross all borders and had the blessing of all of the countries party to some sort of mutual agreement then we could go after them. We would also have the attraction of being deniable by our own government.”

“Ah, sort of like the Texas Rangers.”

“Well — not exactly. I’m also afraid we would need to send in more than just one person though. The idea of one riot, one ranger wouldn’t work too well in our case since we would be likely to come up against some pretty potent bad guys and not have much time to sort out the real instigators. We would be starting out small but would need to grow pretty quickly. Our friends could help us there by getting us training and weapons as well as greasing the wheels to get us accredited both here and in Europe in a bit of a rush. What do you think?”

“Well ... If you go for it then I’m in it with you. I think we could tap a lot of the guys from the old unit too. There’s a few I wish were still around because this would have been right up their alley.”

“That’s sort of what I had in mind. Our friends could probably help us out a bit with that ... And ... I miss some of those guys, too.”

It was funny. I had been listing all the reasons behind starting the company in an effort to let Ralph know what it was all about and in doing so I had sold myself on the idea. I was looking forward to the new company more than I was looking at sliding back into the Army. All I needed to do now was to call that phone number and see if our friends were still interested. Now where the hell did I put that number?

“Well, hello Lyon, thank you for calling. I suppose you’re finally bored with it all?”

“Something like that. I’m thinking of starting that protection business and building it into the sort of thing your people had been talking about. I’m afraid it wouldn’t happen overnight but we could likely start out with a half dozen members or so and if the money comes along then in three ... four years we might reach platoon size. Maybe even get to be company sized a couple of years after that. You said you could arrange training and NATO weaponry?”

“Give or take. We can arrange weapons but don’t hold your breath that they’ll all be NATO. We might find Eastern Block to be more plentiful and cheaper for the quality; and no, I didn’t say that.”

“Got’cha. What about legal recognition and licenses?”

“It will be necessary for you to pursue that, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be around to grease the wheels should it be needed.”

“European Community?”

“One thing at a time, Sergeant. Or should I say, Major? One thing at a time.”

“Right. There are some guys who are still active who I would like to tap if that’s possible.”

“Once the wheels are turning, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. In fact it might be a good idea for all of you to hold ranks in the Reserve. That will simplify things a bit.”

“What about people outside of the military complex whom I decide I want to tap?”

“We can arrange for the proper vetting and record keeping, if necessary, before you hire them.”

“I think we need to talk face to face somewhere quiet.”

“I understand. Do you still have your mobile phone?”

“Yes. Using it now.” I tried to think about how she could possibly know I bought one of those. At least it was a little smaller than the ones which looked like briefcases but it was still a handful to carry; must have weighed ten pounds with the batteries and all. It still had five channels though like most of them.

I heard a click before, “We’ll be in contact, sooner rather than later. Thanks for calling and I would suggest you head on home, that is, to the home you inherited.”

“I see. Any reason in particular?” I asked as I tried to remember if I had ever mentioned anything to her about Mom’s death and my inheritance.

“Let’s just say things would be a little less complicated if you were living there.”

“Okay. I’ll wait for your call, just don’t take a year. All right?”

“I had two to three days in mind, once you're settled in. Good-bye, Major.”

“Right, ma’am. Good-bye.”

By the time I got to the ‘Good-bye’ the line had gone dead. Okay, Major huh? It looked like the old ranks were going to come back to bite us, or at least me. Oh! Wait a minute... She doesn’t want me to... No... no... she didn’t say anything like that and she had mentioned that I would be going on the assignments with the guys when we spoke in person some time back. That brought back some major worries again, there was still the matter of those three documents I signed for which I had received no copies.

With nothing else to do it only took me a day to pack up what little I had stowed at my apartment near Alexandria. I rented a u-haul trailer to move everything, filling the little trailer, the trunk of my car and all of the back seat then took off for Chicago. My gas mileage was going to be terrible. Returning the trailer was going to be a problem too, as I needed to take it back to the original rental location. I guess once the rental agency got bigger and went national, if that ever happened, then it wouldn’t be such a problem. I wasn’t going to argue, twenty seven dollars for eight days wasn’t bad in my book and I still had some stuff in my apartment so I had to go back to get it anyway; plus return the keys to the manager. I told the rental agency I would likely have the trailer for two weeks so they were really happy to get it back in just over nine days.

I and my back seat load got back to Chicago then turned South. Home came into view about an hour later. I figured Chicago would be the starting point for the business and began to make plans for same as I waited for that telephone call. It had been nearly two weeks since we had talked, not the three days she had mentioned so I was a little concerned. On my third day home I was sitting on the living room floor with large paper pads scattered all around me. I was still doing some in-depth planning and had worked out where most of the start-up money was going to come from and taken myself up to my second year of planning when my mobile phone rang and a man’s voice began talking the moment I said ‘hello?’.

“Pick yourself up off the floor, Major. Dump that stuff you call beer in the sink and get yourself to Chicago. We’ll call you again when you get close to give you your final directions. Bring all that paperwork you’ve been spending your time creating.”

“I’ll have you know this is a good beer.”

“Try Paulaner Doppel Bock sometime and then tell me that again with a straight face.”

The phone went ‘click’ leaving me trying to talk to a dead line. I checked with the operator to see if she had a record of the call I just received but her lists were clear. As far as she was concerned I hadn't used my mobile in two weeks. I hoped my monthly bill reflected that. It had to be my mentors, or someone connected with them. Less than an hour later I was on my way, still wondering how they were going to know when I was approaching Chicago. I guess I shouldn’t have been concerned about that. I never saw any surveillance along the way but that didn’t really mean anything, somehow they just seemed to know because my phone rang again just a mile or two after I passed highway six.

“Your phone’s been busy.” the voice started in the moment I said ‘hello’ again.

“Sorry. I had to talk to someone and just hung up.”

“Well, you missed your turn. Go back to Six and go West. Don’t make any more calls, we’ll contact you when it’s time to turn again.”

And he was gone.

I managed to find a place a few miles further on where I could make a turn around. Going back to the Highway interchange, I turned West. It wasn’t long before I was contacted and directed via phone to a small strip mall where I was supposed to go into the jewelry store and ask for “Joe” of all things. Some of these people had serious issues which needed to be addressed.

Our little get together lasted three and a half days and by the time we were done, the three hundred something pages of concept our friends provided and my fifty or so pages of general dreaming had been seriously modified, sent for approval, and returned with some amendments. That was when I discovered all my people would be subject to short term recall to active duty since we were all going to be carried on the books as reservists. That effectively meant any assignments we were given had to take precedent over most of the civilian jobs we might have which would pay the bills. Yeah, that began to play havoc with the company income, not to mention its and my reputations, which prompted another round of meetings this time in Meade; Ralph and Lynnette attended (as dictated to me...)

“Major Lynnette Stevens will be listed on the gate roster as well as one civilian adviser named Ralph Caruthers. Stay at the Holiday Inn, a reservation will be made for you. When you arrive and have checked into your rooms, phone the gate at the number you were given during the Chicago meetings. The next morning a car will come to pick you both up at oh-eight-hundred and bring you here for the meeting.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Yeah, I still had my uniforms and when I tried one of them on it still fit, surprisingly enough. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that either.

Anyway, that was how the business startup - started up. Financing the beginning of our little adventure was fairly easy as I had saved much of what I had earned over the past six or seven years in the service. I provided most of the funds which moved our attempted departure from reality into some semblance of existence by also putting my house and rental properties up as collateral in order to obtain over four hundred fifty thou additional funds to help us along on our road to potential poverty. Those properties were the one’s I inherited from Mom when her body decided it wasn’t able to keep up with her active lifestyle any longer. Don’t be sad about Mom, she was really happy and much the extrovert her last four years. She enjoyed life to the fullest, something about which I am still very happy. The Federal government got into the act in the form of two small business grants which increased my available funds to just over six hundred thou.

The funds I obtained for our start up managed to somehow give me the position of senior partner, according to Ralph anyway. In other words, I owned the enterprise but he helped me run it despite my attempts to make him an equal partner to myself. It wouldn’t be quite fifty percent for each of us since there were a couple of other contributors to our cause.

“Gee, Lyon. I do a lot better at stuff if I don’t have a stake in it. I don’t want to be a partner.”

I don’t know why he didn’t want a share but I managed to set it up so he was one tenth owner, like it or not. I just didn’t bother to tell him for a while. Once he found out he mumbled and grumbled in that way that I had learned to love which meant he was pleased. It was enough that although he wasn’t completely happy with the idea he could accept it without being pressured by the reality of ownership. He balked like a mule when I tried to get him to accept more than that. I finally gave up since he was happy and so was I.

“All right Ralph, now we have money to pay people. We need to decide who’s going to be first to join our crew. We need an A list and a B list then we’ll make a list of potential alternates or add ons.”

“Gee Lyon, we kinda discussed this a long time ago. I thought we were going to bring most of the old gang on board.”

“That was pretty much my feeling. I just wanted to see if you still felt that way.”

“Yeah. Pretty much. I mean there were a couple of the guys who were a little crazy so I don’t know if we could handle taking them on board but most of them were pretty level headed. One thing though, you’ve got to remember that this won’t be the military so there are some things we won’t be able to get away with.”

“More or less.” I hadn’t told him yet about the reserve thing. I wasn’t certain he would have come along if I had.

I continued, “That’s the reason we need to send the guys for training. Civilians have to do things differently and our friends in Maryland said they could help with that. We also will need to work the guys back into a team then once money begins to flow we’ll start training them to get European licenses. A lot of stuff we’ll likely be involved in will be overseas not just here in the States.”

Ralph’s face lit up, “I get dibs on Bermuda.”

“Uh, Ralph, somehow I don’t think Bermuda will be one of the hot spots.”

You ever seen the expression on a little boy’s face when you tell him he can’t have any more candy for a month?

At any rate, we had a little over four hundred eighty thou of my funds and received another eighty five thou from the two spooks who put the bug in our ears so many years ago and who decided to put their money where their mouths happened to be, plus the two grants and a guaranteed loan. For that our silent partners received a total of fifteen percent ownership in the business. Some of the money I obtained was used to run the guys through the appropriate schools so we could obtain their certificates and then we licensed them nationally to carry ( concealed firearms, of course). All except for Jeff, who couldn’t qualify if it meant his soul. Guess that’s why he became a Medic in the service. That was one of the roles he took on for our business. Most of the time he had very little to do except study. I don’t know if that was a testimony to our proficiency, or to our initial lack of hazardous assignments. He was up for a degree in Computer Science, of all things, come next June.

At any rate, we began slowly to make money. Everyone was always paid on time and my loans were being repaid. Maybe a little slower than I had hoped but repaid. By the time a couple of years had rolled around my home was my own again and the rental properties were paying down their mortgage so I figured they would be mine again along about five years from now. Once my home was my own I began to put a little of the money I made, as primary owner, into a savings account. I celebrated reaching a personal account balance of five thousand dollars by going out and treating myself to a good steak. The money the business earned even allowed us to keep purchasing new toys for the guys to use. The company continued to make money and gather positive publicity, things were definitely looking up.

During those first couple of years we also added another twenty or so guys to our roster and still generally had our hands full whenever an important convention rolled into town. There were enough guys to handle the action when it was busy but that also meant there were so many of us that a lot of us just stood around when there wasn’t much happening. It would have been smart business sense to cut a bunch of the guys loose during the lean months but that would wreak havoc on their family life and I kind of liked having them all available should the shit hit the fan suddenly. During our down or diminished time we did a lot of schooling. I was also thinking about leasing out the guy’s time so they could do some light training of other business’ security forces. That would help pay their wages and might even put some more money into the pockets of the business.

With more jobs, salaries were beginning to climb, making everyone happy, and the business was beginning to salt away a small amount of money while still purchasing armored vehicles and several properties which we upgraded for use as “safe” houses. The houses and the property around them were extensively modified for use as protected properties. We also managed to gain ground with local law enforcement and the city. I suppose it helped if in addition to everyone enjoying the work, we also had a few connections in high places. The work was always the same, but different. How’s that for an intelligent description???

I happily had enough cash that I could flush out my ... uh ... wardrobe a bit, and occasionally wore some of my finery to a few of the lessor shindigs, assignments, what have you, which required the presence of someone other than the ... uh ... the male of the specie. Okay, YES, I would cross dress and play the part of a young woman for a day, sometimes two, since we didn’t have any female agents. The guys all thought it was a hoot, but they kept quiet about it and after six or seven times they actually began to ask if I could occasionally come into the office “en-drag” once in a while to kind of brighten the place up a little. I compromised by hiring a secretary, a female secretary. Nicci wasn’t all that certain about going to work in what was essentially an all male environ, but after a few weeks she was dishing it out with the best of them.

Meanwhile I continued to play the female agent when we needed one. To say that I could “pass” successfully as a woman would be an under-statement, especially after all my practice during my stint in the Army. I could not only pass, but had to fight off offers of dates from clients or people I would meet who had no idea. It was kind of fun once in a while but also a little scary that I could so successfully portray a woman. In an effort to head off any legal problems, I had our legal beagles prepare a statement for our clients to sign whenever they needed a woman to be present during the detail so that they acknowledged in writing that I was fulfilling that requirement with their full knowledge and consent. That protected them, me, and more importantly, the business. It didn’t happen very often and was mostly necessary when there were children or wives present. I had three or four conversations with the ‘powers that be’ about the possibility of hiring some female agents.

Another problem the legal beagles and our two friends in high places fixed for me once again was more identification ... I spent a night in the slammer because of my male ID when I was doing a job dressed as a female. Not a happy scenario. I was livid!!! If it hadn’t been for the rest of my team, the perp would have gotten away clean. Anyway, my legal department began a lawsuit against the city which the city was going to laugh off until our friends declared their interest. At that point the city attorneys decided they didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of coming out on top so they caved in. That gave us the opportunity to pull off a special deal with the city, and with a state judge, which allowed me to walk out without a scratch as well as carrying the paper to go obtain duplicate ID for my driver’s license, firearms permit, agency license and a couple of other little things in my female name plus a few other benefits for my business. Now, whenever I was Lyon I had male ID, and when I was Lynnette I had female ID. You have no idea how helpful that could turn out to be whenever I needed law enforcement assistance. I no longer needed to waste six hours to all night in explanations before assistance was forthcoming.

Eventually, we managed to hire two females who became agents so things became a little easier. For the business anyway, not necessarily for me. Now I’d lost my reason to dress occasionally. I only filled in once in a long while, usually only on the details when both Ralph and I were both in attendance. Sometimes we would go in together, and other times separately but both of us would attend. Most of the time I would be with the Principal and Ralph would mingle, coordinating with the guys which we placed here and there around the festivities. It was a little disconcerting the one time when I was supposedly one of two female bodyguards for a young female rock singer. She was a nice kid but some of her sycophants were totally off the wall.

It wasn’t too long before our ‘little’ company had managed to reach the grand old total of 86+ agents, ten of which were Canadian, plus support staff, and we had a $3,868,450 (I just looked at the budget figures) a year personnel budget (and climbing), with peripheral expenses adding another $1,689,000 or so to our yearly expenditures. The Canadians were 9 guys and a lady who mostly were known by somebody who knew somebody and so on and who had been successfully vetted by our friends. They were going through our training program since we hoped to open a branch office in Ottawa then we would gradually expand into Montreal and the capital cities of the 10 Provinces. From there we would think about the 3 Territories and other cities.

In our own city, we were able to handle anywhere from six to twenty jobs a month providing us on the average with $450K to a mil each month in cleared income. A good month could provide well over a million, a bad month ... hopefully not less than break even. We’d been building our reserves and had managed to stock up enough cash to handle five dead months in a row, which we never even came close to having happen. Even when the economy was in the wastebasket we were still holding our own. We might not be eating filet and lobster, but we were eating okay.

Now it was getting into late October. November and December weren’t usually the best time of the year for our business, but this year we had a number of potential jobs and were also looking into the possibility of some for early next year as well. It helped a lot that our city had become one the convention capitals of the United States. I liked to think that our little organization had a hand in helping with that decision but was realistic enough to figure the people making the decisions had probably never heard of us.

It was a little over a month before one of those tech conventions that we were contacted by a high tech company who’s president had heard of us from a friend of a friend. His company happened to be one of the up and coming software tech outfits according to Jeff. Our resident medic/ computer genius, remember? I say that tongue in cheek because we also had what could now be called an IT department. Two whole people and Jeff wasn’t one of them, but that didn’t stop me from picking his brains every chance I got.
The company turned out to be interested in obtaining our services to protect both their owner/ president as well as the next two down the totem pole for a five day convention which was due to occur in about a month. The owner was going to show up the week prior, so he could present a paper at the U then he was going to spend a little time off to relax and get in some skiing before the convention. We hadn’t had any snow yet so I thought he was jumping the gun a bit. That night we had an inch which melted away the next day but... How the hell did he know our snow season was going to come early? Anyway, that owner turned out to be James who later became my husband. Now that’s a LONG story ... and I don’t mean his six foot three inch frame. Maybe I’ll tell you about it ... I’ll think about that.

Anyway, one of the amenities provided by our services was our complete control of all arrangements and lodging for our principals. This was normally done at one of our “safe” houses. The benefits of our service included, in our high security package, armed bodyguards, driver, cook, housing, armored vehicle, in other words — the works. One of our more expensive details. This new potential client’s company didn’t blink an eye and we found our up front fees paid promptly with the money arriving in the form of a cashier’s check four weeks prior to the arrival of the Principal. At this point all of our costs had been covered and we were at break-even ... Cool. Everything after this would be gravy. A week prior to James arrival, they dropped the bombshell ... He required a lady to accompany him to several evening functions as well as be around during the convention and show itself. Figures, convention eye candy ...

We hurriedly began to go the rounds trying to see if we could find a model to do the convention except that would mean we had one more person to protect if the shit hit the fan during our gig. That still didn’t give us someone for the University thing.
Nowadays, this normally would not have been a problem as we had those three female agents. Where the rubber met the road was the simple fact they were all out of town on assignments which were scheduled to last well past the upcoming convention. Those assignments paid well and I wasn’t about to bust one of them for a well paying but shorter assignment. There was no time to hire and train anyone, much less ‘vette’ them. It was somewhere during our second day of worry that Ralph suggested Lynnette and I vetoed the idea out of hand as “not going to happen.”

“Lyon, come on. You know she could do it. She’s vetted, trained and capable. She knows most of the guys and they know and have worked with her before.”

“And for this job she’s unavailable. She only works short one or two day stints at the most,” I replied, somewhat irritated but unable to quite put my finger on the reason for that.

“Come on, she’s done this before. We’ve gone to what? A dozen conventions together? A piece of cake.”

“Ralph, I said no. Those were all one evening or one day events, not two weeks. Not going to happen. Besides, the Principals during those details were told up front and they okayed it. You’re talking about this happening really late in the game and without informed consent. Not going to happen.”

“So. We tell him.”

“Are you nuts, Ralph? You know what that usually does to our potential job? That’s the reason we bring it up so early in the game, like before we've accepted a deposit ... and there's still time for them to hire some other company.”

“Lyon, what could he do? Ask for the up front money back? Telling him or not telling him, or not providing a vetted lady ... any of those could lose us the job and the money. However if we tell him, and he is okay with it, then there is no cause and we keep the money and the job. It could mean a lot to the company at the moment. We’re in our weak months.”

“You’re saying we tell him about Lynnette and let him decide? You’re nuts, Ralph. You know that don’t you? Just from the few times we’ve talked with him, he’s Mr. Iron Rod up the spine, himself. We tell him something like this at this late a date and we could be throwing the whole business in the toilet by the time he and his company finished with us.”

“I’m just saying let him meet her. She and I fly in, meet with him and only him, and tell him the whole thing. We don’t have anyone else available at the moment since they sprung this addition on us so late, and if he’s amiable then Lynnette could be part of the security team.”

“You’re worse than nuts, Ralph. You’re certifiable. The moment we propose that he’ll demand the up front back faster that you can blink an eye. The dude has acted up tight every time we’ve spoken with him. The mere idea would be enough to cause him to backpedal all the way to the Atlantic which, considering where he lives, might not be all that difficult for him to reach.”

“Lyon, just let me and Lynnette meet with him. What can it hurt? As it stands right now we’ve likely lost the job and the money. With Lynnette we at least have a chance of keeping it. That’s another 240K in the bank for November after all our salaries and other costs. We just need to meet with him, tomorrow, if he has the time to see us.”

“I must be crazy. Okay, Ralph. I’ll have Lynnette meet you at the airport. You make the arrangements and confirm the appointment with him. I still think this is crazy.”

“You won’t regret it, buddy.”

“Ralph, I already do. I’m going home for the rest of the day. Call me there and let me know the appointment and flight info.”

“I’ll get right on it. Talk to you in about an hour.”

Ralph made all the arrangements while I had thoughts similar to those I had when we met Lucy and Houdini at that restaurant in Maryland and you all know how that worked out. The following morning Ralph and I, in the guise of Lynnette, met at the airport to check in through security. I was carrying my case with the ‘tools of my trade’ so we sought out the security offices before checking through the scanners.

Our weapons were taken on board and stowed with the pilots. It was easier that way despite the Federal paperwork which would have allowed us to carry them even when on board. I was in a classy burgundy business suit with a black blouse and pumps (low heels for business, of course), while my light brown hair was down across my shoulders and falling behind halfway to my waist. I guess I looked a bit like a model who was en route to some photo shoot.

While not intended, Ralph told me my appearance screamed ‘worship me, I’m beautiful’. I would have been just as happy in a pizza parlor dressed in jeans and at this point probably would have enjoyed it quite a bit more. Some of the men were panting after me as they walked past first class on their way to coach. Ralph gave them a proprietary stare with the inference in it that he would happily break an arm or two if anyone tried to talk to me.

“Damn it, Lynn. I’d forgotten you attract men like honey attracts ants.”

I gave him a happy half panicked laugh which he said reminded him of a porcelain chime.

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