I left the communications/ control room with my mind searching for answers just as much as it had been when I had entered. Projectiles which were not made of lead and were like “needles”? Why target James and his VP’s? What was so important in his software business that someone was trying not only to kill him but all his higher associates and his/ their families? I would have thought that the software developers would have been more the targets. That thought brought me up short.

I corralled one of my operatives, “Would you have comms call Nicci and ask her to get Lucy back on the line for me? In a hurry? I’ll be back in the command center in just minute.”

Two minutes later I had Lucy on the horn again.

“All right Lynn, we just hung up, what’s going on?”

“I had a thought that needs to be checked out quickly. We know the higher ups were targeted but, what about the software developers he employs? Has anyone checked on them? Knowing exactly which of them has been targeted, if any, might lead us to the exact program they were all involved in writing or of which they all had knowledge. It might also be useful to know if anyone is missing. That could lead us to the perpetrators.”

“Yes. We had those same thoughts here and it is being checked even as we speak. There are only two projects which are held secure at the moment so we are aware of exactly which programmers we need to check. So far two of them are missing but that doesn’t mean a lot at this point in the game; they could just be out shopping for all we know. If we still haven’t tracked them down in a few more hours then it’s time to start worrying about them. We also have the advantage of having some other information you don’t, but for the moment I’m going to hold that close to my chest. We don’t believe they will go after Cathy again but if they do, it will not likely be in any great force. Your people should be able to handle it.”

“All right. Meanwhile I’ve issued orders for everyone to put on vests and we are handing out our heavier weaponry.”

“Heavier weaponry?”

“Some of the stuff we have used during our little escapades for your agency.”

“You know that isn’t legal unless your people are temporarily called to active duty.”

“Then I guess they’ll have to be temporarily drafted. How’s James doing?”

“James?”

I blushed even though we were on a phone connection.

“Uh... yes. We, er... have sort of begun... uh... dating. James and myself, that is.”

“Oh. We know about that.”

They know? How the hell could they know when it occurred just a few days ago?

“Lynn, don’t worry about it; and we agree with Mr. Thompson that his daughter will be safest there with you... ‘Mommy’.”

Again I blushed.

“Is there anything you people don’t know?”

“A lot, unfortunately. In your case we have been watching because I had a... hunch, if you will. It took a little longer than I had anticipated but... you’re making up for lost time. Call me if you come up with any more ideas... about this recent attempt on Mr. Thompson’s life, I mean.”

“Thanks, Lucy. I will.”

“Good. And keep me in the loop about your impending change of status as well. We can come up with some moral assistance as well as aiding in your selection of medical options. OH! Tell your men that they are temporarily called up, I’ll fax the orders to you. Bye Lynn. Nicci, are you still on here?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good, I want a list of the personnel who are involved in this detail so I can have their names penned to the orders. As soon as I have that done then I’ll fax them to you and you can fax a copy to Lynn.”

“Yes ma’am. Any ETA on those once I get the names to you?”

“Probably an hour.”

“Good. Fax the name list to your usual number?”

“That will work. I’ll let my Sergeant know they’re coming.”

“Less than twenty minutes, ma’am.”

“Good. If anything goes down over there I want to know about it soonest. Lynn might be too involved to let me know right away so I want you to do it. If you both advise me then that’s okay, and it’s a lot better than no one telling me about something when it might be important.”

“Got it, ma’am.”

“Good. Take care Nicci.”

“Yes ma’am. Bye.”

Once my leg of the conversation had been disconnected and Lucy was gone it was ten or fifteen seconds before my mind finished processing her comment. By the time I realized what she had said and I thought to grill her for more information all I had was a dead line. Frowning, I removed the headset I had used while talking with her, I dropped it back down on the stand near the monitor I had been watching which showed Cathy sleeping. The other upper monitors showed most of the guys in the living room with three making a shambles of my kitchen while across the bottom row the four monitors were lit up with scenes of the property surrounding the house. The fourth monitor on the top was very dark but not quite black, vague shapes could be seen but no detail was obvious. If it was lighted then I would have been worried. That video was the location of the in-house armory and we had enough weaponry and ammunition in there to win a small brush war.

I made my way back to the living room where most of the people had gathered and was still in my trance as I walked in. I suppose that showed since Bill called me on it.

“Lynn, you all right?”

“Uhm? Oh, yes I’m fine.”

“You sure? You look a little... I don’t know... preoccupied, maybe?”

“I just have a lot to think about. I’m okay. Would you pass the word around; I want everyone to be wearing their vests.”

“Our vests? Can I give them a reason and possible time limit? Those things aren’t too comfortable.”

“I know. I’m sorry about that. Maybe some day someone will come up with a better solution which doesn’t weigh half a ton and isn’t quite so uncomfortable. As for how long... I don’t know yet. The reason is to potentially save their lives if some fall-out comes our way from the James thing; which it might. The weapons that were used are very quiet and rapid firing. Which reminds me, pass out the heavy artillery and three magazines apiece. If the military guys aren’t up to speed on them then take them downstairs to the range and give them a little training. Be certain to lock their own weapons up in the armory and give them each a receipt for their weapon by serial number. Somehow I think their .45s won’t be much use if we get into a firefight.”

“No problem. I take it that by ‘rapid firing’ you mean the bad guys have full automatics since you’re breaking out our own. What have they got, AK’s?”

“No, not AK’s. They have... strange automatics. We’ve easily got the range on them but we need to know they’re there in order to keep that edge and that might be the trick. If they can get within a hundred yards then we need to be very careful. VERY… Careful.”

“O-kay… I’ll spread the word. Has anyone tested your perimeter sensors lately?”

“Not in the last year.”

“I’ll get a team on it.”

“Thank you. I think there are spares somewhere around here; possibly in the basement workshop’s lockers. I’ll be in my office if you need anything. If Cathy wakes up have someone let me know immediately.”

“I’ll pass the word all around. What about the army?”

“The army?”

“Yeah. They’ll need vests.”

I straightened for a moment; raising an eyebrow and sighing.

“I hadn’t thought of that. Measure them and get some sent out from the office. I don’t believe Colonel Madison would much appreciate my getting his men killed if it could be avoided.”

“Comms are planning on bringing a repeater out to set up in your attic again, Lynn. I’ll try to head that off for a few minutes so we can add the vests to list.”

“Good thinking. I’ll let you get to that while I take care of other business.”

I let Bill handle organizing everyone and see to the Army detachment. As I sat at my desk in my home office I made a note on the pad before me that we still needed to get the Army guys into town so we could buy them some civilian clothing and other supplies for their extended stay. I was the one who needed to get them into town... I was the one with the unlimited corporate card.

I made another note for a total of one thousand dollars to be placed on each of my local agents cards. I didn’t know what we were going to run into here and I didn’t want to hit a wall if we suddenly needed them to billet or live on the economy. I also made the note that I wanted the guys who were at James end of this mess to have fifteen hundred on each of their cards.

“Oh Damn.”

I grabbed the phone on my desk and punched line three since line four was in use, which might mean there was a secure call coming in to the operations room here. I hung up the phone again and waited a minute after the light went out. I took that to mean that I was free to place my call so I grabbed line three again and dialed the office.

“Hi, this is Lynn; could I speak with Nicci please?”

“Hi, Lynn. Forget something?”

“Yes, and No. I want to bring up a couple of things and have you check some stuff for me. First I want everyone on the local crew who are involved in this caper to have a thousand available on each of their cards; the crew at James end need to have fifteen hundred on theirs, at least for now. If this goes on very long we may need to add to that at intervals as they use it.

My next concern is: first - did they take their vests with them? If not I want them shipped out express so they have them as quickly as possible. If the limo is still here then we can send them with it. Second - ammunition and our automatic weapons. The guys know to use them in semi-auto to save on ammunition but if they need the firepower I want them to have full-auto as a backup and enough ammunition to make it count; maybe two or three hundred rounds apiece. Could you check all that for me?”

“Sure, Lynn. The limo is already on its way but probably no more than an hour out so let me call them and have them return for a bit. I’ll get on all this right away. Lucy called and said she would have the orders faxed to us sometime in the next hour… um, less than forty minutes now. They will fax a copy with the names over as soon as they’re finished.

Also, Ralph left a note that he wanted me to mention that he’s scheduled for the Denver job which starts in a couple of days. In the hubbub he wasn’t certain you would remember.”

“I didn’t, but that’s okay. Can you hold the fort there alone?”

“I think so. If I need any information or decisions that I can’t handle I’ve got you close by so I think we’re good, worst case I can call Lucy for support; just remember to keep your mobile phone charged for a change.”

“Okay, sorry. I’ll plug it in as soon as we’re off the phone. When the limo gets back, load a full auto and the ammunition for each weapon into the trunk along with their vests then send it off again.”

“That’s going to be one full trunk.”

“Why is that?”

“They’ve already got seven suitcases in it. The guys that were sent out on a moment’s notice didn’t have any luggage with them so it’s going with the limo. The rest of the guys are riding in the limo and their suitcases are also in the trunk, unless you want to spend the money for them to fly.”

“I think the pressure is off, momentarily so driving is okay. I hope it all fits. If not then send a chase car along and distribute everything between the two vehicles. The limo has to be pretty full with everyone riding in it. Don’t let them leave until they have copies of the orders showing they are on special detached duty. That way if they get pulled over for any reason the civil authorities can’t go bananas over the automatic rifles. Well... I suppose they still could, but they can’t do much of anything about it.

After you call the guys and have them turn around to come pick up everything, type up an authorization for the weapons, fax it to me, I’ll sign it and fax it back so they can carry it as well as their call up orders. That should cover most of the bases.”

“Most of them; unless some state police officer wants to be a hard nose in an effort to gain a reputation.” Nicci reminded me.

“Then tell them to arrest him, pop him into the back of his own car and one of them can drive it as part of the caravan until they reach their destination. Have them contact you, you contact Lucy and that Colonel what’s-his-name and let them deal with the idiot.”

“I like it. I better go, every minute the limo is getting another mile away from us.” She added for my benefit more than likely.

“Thanks Nicci. Drop a cover letter on top of the orders for the automatic weapons telling the guys here at my house to get the orders to me immediately for my signature.”

“Can do. Anything else?”

“Not at the moment. Good luck.”

“You too, Mommy. Bye.”

“Ouch. You had to remind me didn’t you?”

“Of course. That’s what older sisters are for. Bye, Lynn.”

“Bye, Nicci.”

I could hear her laughing as she hung up the phone. The next hour was spent in my office scribbling down my thoughts and ideas no matter how absurd. Eventually I searched through the five sheets of paper looking for those thoughts which I hadn’t scratched out of existence before placing them on a sixth sheet for my final examination and consideration. Unfortunately there weren’t all that many of them left after the scratching out. I decided that was due to my limited knowledge of what we were up against. I was just resolving to call Lucy when there was a knock at the door.

“Come in.”

“Ma’am? We just received these faxes. One is marked ‘Urgent’.”

“Let me see them.”

“This is the urgent one, ma’am.”

He handed me two sheets of paper. I recognized Nicci’s handiwork immediately and went to the second sheet. After I proof-read it, I signed it and told him to make enough copies for everyone including the five Army personnel then fax from the original to Nicci before filing it in our courier bag for delivery to the office for filing.

As he continued to wait I examined the second fax which was three sheets plus its cover page. As I suspected this was the set of temporary call-up orders listing each of my personnel that were on this particular deployment. Something didn’t seem right so I carefully went through it again before handing it to him to examine.

“Anything strange in here stand out to you?”

He took the sheets quizzically and began to read through them.

“I take it the others who are listed here are those who have deployed to protect our principal?”

“Yes, although that isn’t what seems to have my mind pondering the papers. Maybe I’m just misreading them or something.”

“I don’t see anything out of the ordinary but if it comes to me I’ll let you know.”

“Thank you. You can take all those out and make enough copies that each of the men can have one. Of course the Army guys don’t need copies of this one since they aren’t part of our group and have government ID... Uh, on second thought, give them copies, too. They’ll be in civilian clothing so they might need them. Tell their lieutenant that I need to speak with him. I should probably temporarily induct them into the organization and stop at the office to cut some of our ID so they have the same protections the rest of us have; for whatever that’s worth. Would you have one of the comms guys come see me while you’re dealing with all that, please?” I indicated the pile of paperwork he was holding.

“I’ll get right on it all.”

Five minutes later I had one of the command center communications experts in my office.

“… do you think you can do that?”

“Sure. I’ll need to get with the phone company to set up the lines but a round-robin won’t be a big problem. The biggest headache will come from trying to include the offices at the client’s end of all this. I’ll air express one of our military command repeaters to them to allow for both military and a civil system to be tied into that phone line once we get it set up. The Motorola stuff already has the necessary links to allow it. You know the FBI is working the case, too. Do you want to let them tap the repeater and the command net as well?”

“That wouldn’t hurt but we should pass that one across Colonel Madison's desk before we do it. He might not mind them using the repeater but he might not want them connected to the command net. Are we able to do that?”

“Uhmm, we’ll need to think about that one, ma’am. We might need to separate our principal channel from any they can use and restrict the net connection to our channel only. I’ll get everyone thinking about it. If it can be done that way we’ll come up with a plan for it.

When we ordered the gear we had just about every bell and whistle it was possible to add included in the packages. Along with the ability to service every crazy problem we could come up with.”

“So that’s why I had to pay so much for it all?”

He had the courtesy to look embarrassed.

“Yeah. That was part of it. The packages Motorola put together for us are pretty special. We had to work with them to get it tuned up the way we wanted. Any one of our repeaters is really a five option, three in one. That’s the reason we can put one into operation and add nearly anything or anyone into the mix. The Feds have taken a good look at our packages and ordered up some from Motorola as well. Having several Federal agencies on our side was part of the reason the FCC gave us the licenses for our comms that they did.”

That got me to wondering about some of the gear I’d never seen us use, so I asked him about that.

“Uh, that stuff is essentially the same and can do nearly all of the same things but it’s… uh, in the military bands.”

“You mean for like when we deploy on a military backed mission?”

“Uh, yeah; we figured that if the guys could learn to use one complex system and become proficient in it then why rock the boat? The military stuff is in bands which are close to the same as the civilian ones and it operates very much the same way so the guys will have comms like they’re used to if we deploy somewhere, even if they need to use different portables. The military stuff is a bit more rugged actually but it works just the same way.”

“Otherwise the stuff just sits?”

“Well, not exactly. We do exercise it with loads in place of the antennas so the batteries won’t go bad. The Mil-spec stuff has battery types which aren’t in the civvy stuff and, as I said, the gear is a lot more rugged. Loading it down for testing, its range is only three to five hundred feet rather than ten to twenty miles. If we had to go into operation in another country, we could give you a pretty passable system in less than a couple of hours depending on the cooperation of the local phone companies wherever we were. If we didn’t have their cooperation then we could still put it together as separate systems in the same amount of time and have it linked together in about twelve hours but then we would need to leave some techs as well as guards at each of the locations.”

I shook my head, “What the hell. It’s only money and most of it has already been spent. Okay, go get the system set up and send the repeaters and portables to the guys at the other end. Let them know the stuff is coming and then check on connecting the military into the system. Out of curiosity, are we allowed to deploy the military repeaters inside the US?”

“Yeah, but we have to notify whichever local command is involved when we do.”

“Okay, prepare one of the military repeaters and a couple dozen personal extra radio sets to go with it so the military personnel are on the net. I’ll get with their colonel and see if they want to be linked in. If it was tied into our own system then coordination would be a hell of lot simpler.”

Just then my phone buzzed.

“Hello?”

“Your little girl is awake and about.”

“Thanks. I’ll be right out.”

“Mommy!” A small rocket rushed in my direction before colliding with me prior to holding up her arms so I would pick her up; Andy was hanging from her hand by his ear.

“Poor Andy. You’re going to stretch my poor Teddy Bear’s ear.”

Cathy giggled, “Andy’s made nice. His ear won’t break.”

“No? What if I picked you up by the ear? Would your ear break?” I pretended to pull on her ear a bit and she squealed but moved Andy from her ear-lock to one which had her arm firmly wrapped around his neck in a choke hold.

“Hi, button-nose. Did you have a good nap?” I rubbed noses with her.

“Uh, huh.”

She pulled back.

“Can I have a puppy?”

“May I? And what did Daddy say about it?”

“He said to ask you.”

“Oh, passing the buck was he? Are you hungry? Let’s go get you dressed and we’ll think about what we’re going to have for supper.”

“I want a milkshake.”

“A milkshake? Nothing else? Just a milkshake? I guess milkshakes do taste really good though, don’t they? Don’t you think some other food might be in order to help you grow strong and healthy? Maybe you could have the milkshake for dessert.”

“I don’t know. Why do milkshakes taste different than milk?”

Oh, boy. We’re already at the answering a question with a question stage, too. This Mommy business was going to give me gray hair.

“What flavor?” Distraction works in the board-room so why not here? At least we got away from the puppy question.

“Mommy, do puppies like milkshakes?”

Well… then again, maybe not.

“I think milkshakes aren’t very good for doggies in general. Some kinds could make them very sick.”

“Poor puppies, they won’t know how good a milkshake is.”

“Nor cocoa or chocolate or a lot of other things.”

“I like cocoa.”

“Yes, but you’re not a doggy. They like it too but it is very bad for them.”

“Why is something bad that tastes good?”

I tried to explain to her as we walked back upstairs to her room to get her dressed for shopping and supper.

The guys were smiling as they listened to our ongoing conversation fade as we moved further away while I guided Cathy back upstairs. It was about this point in time that I was wishing there was some sort of parenting manual which had the answers to all the tough questions in it. Why did this seem to be more involved than my finals in college? Even my thesis didn’t seem to be this difficult.

Getting her dressed reminded me we needed to get out to the shopping center in the worst way. Not only did we need to buy clothes for the Army guys but I needed to get her some more clothes — and another winter coat. Two outfits were hardly enough to bring with her and there were only three left in her closet from her last visit since most of what we had purchased, when she was here last had gone home with her. The Army guys weren’t any better off and they didn’t even have heavy coats with them.

In Cathy’s room the first thing I did was pick up the phone and call the comm. Center.

“Could you let everyone know that as soon as I have Cathy dressed we will go do some shopping? Those Army personnel need to go along since they will need several changes of civilian clothing and some warm coats. Figure on three or four hours so we’ll be eating out this evening. I’ll get some staff in here to do the cooking beginning tomorrow. Let headquarters know we will be out and have someone bring my radio-phone along. They can ride herd on it so we won’t be out of contact.”

“Comms is getting the repeater system up and running, Let me check to see how long they figure it’ll be.”

“Okay, call me back at Cathy’s room. Extension 214.”

“Right.”

I continued to get Cathy dressed for the great outdoors but we would carry her coat until we went outside. Not having had a reply to the communications question I buzzed the comm. Center again once Cathy was ready.

“Okay, what do we know about the state of the comms?”

“They’ve got two of the repeaters up and in the system. There’s a repeater package on its way to this side of town. They’re going to install it in your attic and they figure it should cover this end of town pretty well just like before. It will also cover safe sites one and two if we need them for anything. They’re going to drop another repeater at site three since it’s in a hole. Repeater one is in the hut on the roof of our building per normal and it’s up and running. Number two is on the Norton tower like usual. That should be good enough to get us coverage up the highway for about thirty miles. That puts it just shy of the airport. They’re going to put number three at the airport. They are also bringing out twenty of the portables and headsets.”

“I thought we had some here.”

“We do, there are ten sets here and we threw them on the chargers again when we got in. They’re bringing enough for everyone plus spares just in case. Do you want the Army guys to have them too?”

“Yes. Get someone to take them off into a dark corner and show them how to use them.”

“Already in the planning stage, Lynn. They’ll be in the net as soon as the repeaters arri… okay, we see the car at the gate. It won’t be long before the system is up and running here.”

“Good. Tell everyone that as soon as this one is operational, we are on our way to the mall. Will the radio system work inside the mall? There’s a lot of steel and concrete there.”

“I don’t know. I’ll ask when they get in.”

“Good. Cathy and I are headed downstairs.”

“Copy.”

Copy? We were on the phone. I guess he was already thinking ahead to when we would be using the radio system.

Cathy and I got downstairs just in time to see the guys unloading the repeater and the thing they used to integrate all the antennas in the attic to the repeater package. We had set one or two up here before so the antennas were still in place up in the attic. Antennas were relatively cheap. I went up there one time recently and you could barely move around because of them. I didn’t bother to count but there had to be at least a dozen or more. I had little idea just how the whole system worked. When they described it as a voting system which selected the antenna/ receiver combinations which were in use around town and directed the appropriate transmitter’s power to the appropriate antenna combination to give us the best possible signal in the field I just said, “Oh. That sounds good” and hurried on my way. I didn’t care so much about the mechanics of it so long as it worked well.

The guys finally lugged the four packages out of the trunk of the car and into the kitchen where they packed each unit on board one at a time. The dumbwaiter then took it up to the attic where the two comm. techs and two others had made their way, after going up two flights of stairs. They met the equipment when it finally got to the attic and manhandled it off the dumbwaiter and into position while the next piece was being loaded on downstairs. I guess it wasn't quite that bad but close. Each of the pieces must have weighed eighty pounds or so and the dumbwaiter complained at each and every foot it lifted each piece. Of course it complained at each and every foot of lift even when all it was lifting was itself.

Some of the radio gear I could recognize. We had purchased it two years ago and I had the Motorola rep in my office at least twice a year chomping at the bit to sell us some updated equipment — for another ridiculous sum I must add. I needed to talk with my guys to see if it would do that much more for us to have the new stuff. They had already suggested we pick up some more of the personal radios but I wasn’t quite ready to plunk down a huge chunk of change for more repeaters unless we really needed them; especially since these weren't the normal everyday fixed frequency stuff used by multiple companies across the country.

Of course I had just ordered some for the west and east coast locations but that was already figured into the first year’s operating budget for each location. Good grief… all it costs is money… I thought about the additional income we were going to be receiving next year and hoped it would be enough to handle the additional agents and the new equipment. Sometimes rapid growth isn’t all that much fun.

Just before we went out to head to the mall, I set the thermometer down to sixty. Well, a penny saved… It all adds up and I needed to begin to do something to offset the money I was about to spend. I reluctantly decided I probably needed to buy the guys their new toys sometime really soon. The toys wouldn’t be arriving right away so if I ordered them now they might arrive sometime during the first quarter of next year. I had the guy’s wish lists in the drawer of my desk at work but had been putting it off. I guess I should really give in and call our Motorola rep. I hoped purchasing additional equipment which could be used here plus a full package ready for use in Europe would make his Christmas merry a month early. I vaguely wondered if we could get a discount for bulk? The way things were going I’d need the extra income we had scheduled next year just to keep the business afloat. It looked to me that I was going to be giving most of it to Motorola, not that it was a bad thing of course but… just coming at a bad time.

The horrible cost factor wasn’t due to the three multifunction multi-band repeaters either. It was the rather simple encryption system and the need for three times as many of the portables and peripherals as there would be agents to use them that brought the overall package up to such a ridiculous sum. After all, a hundred portables at three thousand a pop added up pretty quickly. Did they expect the rate of breakage to be excessively high over there? Why couldn’t we just buy fifty and then replace them as needed? I suspected that if I asked the question, I wasn’t going to like the answer.

All characters in this work have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relationship whatsoever to anyone or anything bearing the same name or names. The characters contained herein are not even distantly inspired by any specific individuals known or unknown to the author. All incidents described or alluded to within this work are pure invention. No affiliations, involvements or gender assignations due to the use of any images contained within this work are to be implied, intended or inferred.

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DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2013 USA, Earth by D. A.Trask.

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