My bed felt lumpy and hard. I made a mental note to complain about it even as my mind began to note it seemed awfully bright for early morning. My mouth felt like a cat had slept on my tongue all night and my head was pounding. I tried to remember what I drank last night but everything was coming up foggy.

“Somebody pu down the blinds. Iss too bright in here.” I complained only to hear a voice I didn’t recognize begin to speak.

“Okay, let’s vamoose. They’re all beginning to stir now.”

“You’ll get no argument from me. A couple of them are trying to sit up so they’ll be moving around a bit in another minute or two. Got everything?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

I heard footsteps moving off down the trail at a light jog. I tried to look in the direction they had gone but didn’t have enough control yet to do much more than roll around on the ground and moan. Squinting my eyes let me look around but everything was still so bright that I couldn’t leave them open very long. I groaned again then heard three or four other groans coming back at me as the others began to voice their displeasure at the pounding in our heads. I peeked out through my fingers still cursing the bright light while trying to see if anyone was sitting up. I saw someone in a uniform laying nearby. That caught me unawares. After several moments of deep introspection I identified the uniform as forestry service and wondered what the hell they were doing in my hotel room before my mind latched onto the memory that I was outdoors only to wonder once again why my bed was so hard and lumpy. About that time someone crawled over to begin playing patti-cake with my face. That was when everything slowly began to come back to me.

“Come on Lynn. Time to wake up. We need to get back and see if the guys we left at the hotel are okay.”

“Crap. I feel like I partied for a week.”

He patted my face again.

“I’m awake. I’m awake.”

“Ohh man... Did somebody get the license of that truck?” One of my guys moaned.

“It wasn’t a truck. It was our principals.”

Bill opened one eye half-way and looked around, “Tell me what I think happened, didn’t happen.”

“I’m afraid it did, guys. We were suckered. At least they left us some aspirin.”

“You sure? You want to trust something they left for us after what they just did?”

Jerry answered, “Tell you what. At this point I don’t care. If it kills me I’ll feel better than I do now.”

He held out his hand and with some effort and a lot of concentration I tossed him the bottle which bounced off his chest before it fell to the ground next to him. He groaned then after an extreme effort managed to pick it up while holding his head with his other hand. With some lack of coordination he finally removed the lid. After a moment he spoke again.

“It’s a Bayer bottle and the cap seal is still on it, for whatever that’s worth. I’m gonna chance it.”

He tore off the seal, depositing it in his pocket before dry swallowing three of the pills. He coughed once then capped the bottle and held it out to see if anyone else wanted some. There were no takers at the moment, we were all watching to see if he came out of it all right. He tried once again to sit up using one hand on the ground to try to steady himself.

It took us another five minutes before the rest of us could coordinate well enough to think about trying to stand up; which for most of us took four or five attempts, some cursing and head holding.

“Remind me to frisk anyone we are supposed to be protecting on future details.” Tony mused out loud, but to the general agreement of most of the other guys who were still holding their heads and squinting.

By that time Jerry announced that his headache while still fairly massive, was beginning to subside slowly. The rest of us were still nursing our heads so the bottle of aspirin quickly became an object of interest. They hadn’t lied about the aspirin so I was hoping they hadn’t lied about the safety of Cathy if they managed to get her from the office. Fortunately I had one Ace up my sleeve that they apparently didn’t know about although they knew so much that it was obvious I had a mole or possibly even two in my organization. My primary suspect was the former head of my comms department... whenever I could keep my thoughts organized.

“Crap. I’m dizzy in addition to having a headache the size of Alaska.”

I wasn’t about to give credit to anything our antagonists had said so Texas was off-limits. The guys quickly agreed with my summary of the situation.

Once we were in an area where we could use the rangers telephone I tried calling Nicci at the office but got no answer. Next I called the switchboard and was automatically shuffled off to the answering service. I told them to get the police and an ambulance off to my offices citing the possibility of armed intruders at the site. They were understandably reluctant until I gave them both passwords then the girl got her supervisor involved very quickly and within another minute I was informed the police and an ambulance were on their way. My biggest problem now was getting me and mine back to the office in a hell of a hurry.

The next phone call was to the remainder of my team who hadn’t known anything was amiss. They promised to check out of the hotel and meet us at the airport with all our gear after turning in their rental car. The rest of us crowded into the remaining two cars out of the three which we had used to get to the parking lot when we began our nature walk. Apparently the perps took the other one. We reported it as stolen once we got to the airport. Well... you never know. Maybe they were continuing to use it and we could find out where they had gone from here. That turned out to be a false hope because the rental people informed us that the car had been turned in to the rental agency about two hours previously. They had signed off its use and the perps who had turned it in had collected the remainder of our deposit on that car. Fine, so I not only goofed in my detail work but I also provided partial funding of their operation. It would be just my luck if their check had bounced thus sticking my company with the hotel, meals and rental car charges.

The charter company hadn’t expected us until tomorrow so it was a couple of hours before they had a plane and pilots ready to take us home.

“If you had been a couple of hours earlier we would have had a plane fairly quickly but we had a sudden charter which flew out just a couple of hours ago.”

I didn’t want to make any guesses who that might have been. The delay waiting for a plane and pilots gave my two guys who were closing down our operation here the time they needed to get the equipment together and arrive at the airport where they joined us shortly before we had a plane and pilots to take us home. A rushed flight plan was filed then less than fifteen minutes later we were in the air and on our way back to our city and the office. It was during the time we were waiting on our pilots and plane that I managed to finally reach Ralph who was out on a detail of his own. Fortunately he had been lugging his radio-telephone around with him.

“Ralph, thank God I reached you. We’ve been hit.”

“Hit? What do you ya mean, hit?”

“My detail. The clients weren’t clients. They took us down on location this morning. We woke up early this afternoon and now we’re waiting on a charter flight to take us back to the offices, there’s no response there; the police have been notified.”

“WHAT? How many were hurt?”

“On my detail, no one. I don’t know about the office. As soon as we get there I’ll see what’s what then give you a call and let you know what’s going on there. We won’t be there for another couple of hours counting both the flight once we get in the air and the driving time from the airport to the office once we get back.”

“Do you want me to meet you there?”

“Yes... NO! You better not. Your detail is too thin as it is. As soon as the guys get back, I’ll send two of them up your way.”

“Thanks. I could use them. What the hell were the perps after?”

“One guess. They also gave me a message for Lucy.”

“What? Oh! Aw shit. Does the kid know about ...”

“Yes, she does; if she made it there. Problem right now is I don’t know who to trust as some of what our principal told me makes me think we have at least one mole in our ranks.”

“Oh great. This just keeps getting better and better.”

“Tell me about it. Cathy has been told to only trust certain people and if one of them is a mole then...”

“Yeah...”

“I’ve got to go Ralph. The pilots are here and they say we will be able to leave in a few minutes. I’ll call as soon as I have some information.”

“Call me when you arrive, too.”

“Can do. Got to go Ralph, bye.”

“By...”

I hung up before he got it all out even as I hurried after the pilots who were by now nearly to the commuter prop plane which was sitting on the tarmac some ninety feet away. By the time we reached them, they had the door open and were about to enter the plane. Our luggage and electronic equipment was being stowed underneath in the bay even as we were boarding.

~ ~ ~ ~

I can’t say the flight was smooth. Things always shake more in a smaller aircraft than they do in a large commercial liner but my main concern was how long it was taking. I envisioned all of my people dead or dying and it wasn’t a good feeling... especially when one of those dead or dying might be Nicci. You never realise how much someone means to your organization until you stand to lose them. Not only that... she was a friend and I didn’t want to lose her.

Then there was the unspoken question, was my little girl all right? I guess the bozos thought I’d bring her with me on this detail but she wouldn’t have been safe enough so I left her with Nicci and the few agents who were manning the office while the rest of us were out on assignments. If the bozos hurt my little girl then they would answer to me, I didn’t care how long it would take me to find them all.

When we finally got back I jumped in a cab along with three of my guys while the rest of them went to collect the company car from long term parking. On the way I had second thoughts and diverted our ride to my house so we could pick up my own car since it was only slightly out of the way. At the house I wasted no time. I dumped my stuff in the entry hall, took all of us to the house armory where we loaded for bear, then we went through to the garage to collect my car. In moments I and my three Dobermans were again on our way to the office with the exception of each having added a tactical vest, two more firearms and eight magazines of ammunition. My personal entourage now consisted of Messrs. Remington, Smith, Wesson, and Gal. The Gal of course was Uziel Gal and the weapon was a brand new Uzi chambered in 9mm. I favored the 50 round magazine which was the reason I had selected the 9mm. Just to be perverse I had three spare magazines also fully loaded. I hoped the bozos were still at the office because I wanted to show them what war was really like.

I blew into the empty back parking lot halting at my parking space only a split second before I and my personnel raced up the walkway and then the stairs which left us momentarily halted at the private entry. If anyone had been watching they would probably have figured we were some sort of police or military group since we were all carrying heavy weaponry and looked like a tactical assault team. We used my entry key to gain access to the offices then began our search of the premises. We treated the place as a hostile environment. The first place to which we made tracks was through the computer facility then the conference rooms and finally the offices. That took us nearly ten minutes as we had to check every room on the way to be certain we didn’t end up with bad guys both ahead and behind us. Next was my office and its access to the bolt hole.

The access from the game room was just that, an access. No one could exit from that entry once it was closed. Once used, it had to be reset from a hidden panel in my office. I was mildly disturbed that I had seen no one during either our entry or our controlled rush to my office but that was something I could investigate later; right now I needed to know my little girl was safe.

Just because we had been in a rush didn’t mean we weren’t taking precautions on our way to my office. We did the same upon reaching it. Once convinced my office was empty, we quietly closed the door, securing it, then I hurried to my desk to activate the additional latches before going to my offices entrance to the bolt-hole. From my experience during a test with Ralph, I knew that someone knocking on the office door of the bolt-hole could be heard by someone inside the compartment. I knocked and tried calling to Cathy but had no response. I tried a second time.

“Cathy? It’s mommy.”

“Cathy? Are you there sweetheart?

I had no response and that worried me. Going to the bookshelf, I removed the books which gave me access to the combination lock behind which was a keypad that would give me access to the bolt hole from my office. After entering the code I pressed the activate button and was rewarded with the sound of the locks disengaging. I closed and locked the wall panel, replacing the books before going back to the hidden door panel to pry the door open so we could check the compartment.

“Cathy? If you’re there, I’m coming in sweetheart.”

With the help of one of my guys we got the door open, but other than the two cots and the containers of food and water the place was empty. Now I had a sinking feeling deep in my gut. I had failed my baby.

I tried to call Ralph but there was no dial tone. Our office exchange was dead. What did those bozos do, trash my offices? I sent one of my guys downstairs to use another phone to let him know Cathy was no where to be found and my next stop would be to learn how many of my people were in the hospital, if any, while I considered my next move. Before we left, I picked up the office phone to try to call Nicci at home just in the off chance she didn’t come in today and once again remembered my office exchange wasn't working.

After detailing two of my guys to man the command center here, I and the remaining one of my men made it back to my car without incident just in time to join with the last three of my detail who were arriving in the company car they had bailed out of long-term storage at the airport. I was debating putting the Uzi in the trunk lockup or carrying it in the car with me even as they pulled up. With the extra manpower I opted to secure it in the trunk safe before we took off for the hospital. The two men I had left behind in the offices would try to get power back on then man the comm center and let Lucy know we had been hit. I didn’t want to tell anyone I had dropped the ball with regard to Cathy until I absolutely needed to do so. I felt like a failure.

~ ~ ~ ~

At the hospital it took nearly twenty minutes to get someone to respond to my questions. Once they did I learned that three of the four people recovered from my offices had died and the fourth remained in critical condition. Apparently whatever they used on us in Colorado which just knocked us for a loop wasn’t what they used here. We did manage to learn that none of the four had been Nicci or Cathy. Again I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach even as I pondered what my next step was to be. Reluctant decision made, I borrowed the use of a phone and called Ralph to let him know of the loss of three of our agents with a fourth in critical condition. I also read him in concerning Nicci and Cathy.

“We don’t know that they have been taken, Ralph. At this point we only know they are missing.”

“Yeah. Missing. You forgot to mention they were supposed to be at the office, Lynn.”

“I didn’t forget. I was trying to ignore that in the hopes they might be somewhere safe and okay.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Lynn. Have you tried Nicci’s portable phone?”

That’s what was tickling the back of my mind. She hasn’t had the radio telephone long enough for me to take it for granted that she has one.

“I don’t have her number with me and I forgot to look it up while we were at the office.”

“Hang on, I’ve got it here. Call the mobile operator... Nicci’s ring page number is 44676.”

I thanked Ralph and immediately contacted the mobile operator asking her to try to reach the number.

“I’m sorry, all circuits are busy. Could you try again a little later?”

I waited ten minutes and tried again. This time circuit four was available and the operator sent out the call for 44676.

She said she rang it ten times but there was no answer.

“NICCI; PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE!” I shouted, as if I could will her to be able to answer.

One of my agents turned, giving me a stare as I yelled into the handset. I asked the operator to please ring it ten more times which were also to no avail. Despondent, I gave up for the moment trying desperately to think of some other path I could take.

“What do I do now? I can’t let James know I’ve lost his daughter.”

“We still don’t know that for sure, Ma’am. There could be a lot of reasons she’s not answering.”

“Name one.”

“Uh, she’s... out of range?”

“Uh, Uh. If she was out of range the phone wouldn’t have bounced back the confirmation of ring page.”

“Maybe she isn’t at the location of the phone for some reason.”

“Yeah, like she’s being held by those terrorists and can’t answer?”

“Well, no. Maybe it’s in her car and she’s not at the car for some reason.”

I thought about that. It was possible although she should have been at work. Now that I thought about it, where was her car? It wasn’t in the lot when we were there.

“Would you contact the office and ask them to arrange with the police to have a bulletin put out on her car? It wasn’t at the office so she just might be out somewhere. If that’s true then Cathy might be with her.”

“Right away.”

Well, it is worth a try however slim it might be, but the odds of learning anything good were pretty low. As a result I was still feeling barely above dirt myself. I don’t remember feeling this bad when we came back from a mission while in Asia... of course I didn’t lose as many people in one fell swoop there either. A disturbing thought crossed my mind for a moment but I wasn’t ready to deal with a possible second problem; the potential loss of more agents at James end of the deal. We were looking at several days out of contact with all others including Lucy. Surely this organization, whoever they were, wasn’t large enough to field sufficient manpower for three simultaneous operations?

I collapsed onto a chair in the waiting room trying to give myself time and inclination to think. Think. That wasn’t easy. As much as I was concerned about Cathy, I was also concerned about my people and felt guilty when I considered one and not the other. I thought I had learned to dispassionately consider problems and personnel years ago when I was OIC of my unit in SEA... obviously not. I was on the verge of crying for my people lost in this battle we didn’t, or I didn’t, expect to be fighting. How many more would I lose and what could I do about Cathy?

As I sat there pondering my navel, I tried to come up with some sort of solution which would allow me to feel I was doing something productive. All I accomplished was to question my own reasoning for starting this business. If I hadn’t done this then the likelihood that I would have met James and Cathy would probably have been somewhere next to unlikely or non-existent. I was so wrapped up in myself that I barely heard one of my people calling my name. He finally poked me in the arm, several times, which brought me around enough that I heard him.

“The hospital operator has been paging you, Lynn.”

I looked around in confusion then went back to the telephone at the nurses station. Raising my eyebrow as I placed my hand over the telephone handset gained me approval from the nurse sitting there.

“Dial zero and you will reach the hospital operator.”

I nodded my head, picked up the handset and dialed zero then waited.

“Operator.”

“You have been paging me? Ms. Stevens?”

“Yes ma’am. Hang up and I’ll transfer the call to that extension.”

“Thank you.”

I placed the handset back on the receiver and waited. A few seconds went by. It felt like an eternity until the phone rang.

“Stevens.”

“Ma’am. They’re all right.”

That puzzled me, “Who’s all right?”

“Nicci and Cathy. They’re here at the office. I’ll put Nicci on. Hold on.”

I nearly collapsed in relief.

“Lynn?”

“Nicci? Where have you been?”

“At the doctor’s office. Cathy complained of a tummy ache and when I took her temperature she had a fever. I thought it would be prudent to take her to the doctor so she could be checked. I told the guys in the comm room before we left.”

“Thank God. You know we were hit?”

“Once we got back, yes. I think we must have left just ten or fifteen minutes before it happened. Sorry it took so long but we didn’t have an appointment and had to wait for nearly two hours before we could get in. Cathy’s going to be fine. The doctor thinks it’s the flu bug and wants to see her again tomorrow. On the way back we stopped long enough to get some bottles of water so she can stay hydrated. The first I knew anything was wrong was when we got back to the office and walked in to find two of the agent assigned to your detail manning the comm center with everyone else missing. They filled me in more or less. How bad is it?”

“From the offices, three dead and one critical. From James detail no word yet. My people are fine. All they did was knock us out. We’re on our way back to the office. See you in twenty or less. Why didn’t you respond to the calls to your radio-telephone?”

“I didn’t know there were any. There weren’t any on it when I put it in the trunk for safe-keeping and that was when I got to the doctor’s office. I forgot to check it when we left there. The last ten or fifteen minutes Cathy and I have been here so if any calls came in while I was inside I wouldn’t be aware of them.”

“You have no idea how relieved I am. Just for safeties sake I want you and Cathy to stay in the comm center with the two agents I left there. Tell them to button up as though under siege and we will hurry back.”

I turned to the four agents who were standing near me, “Cathy and Nicci are okay. We still haven’t heard from James detail.”

My agents looked partially relieved.

~ ~ ~ ~

We arrived at the office twenty-five minutes later having bucked red lights most of the way going to and coming from the freeway. Even though it put an additional two miles on our journey, it was still the fastest way to go due to the reduction in the number of traffic signals encountered.

When we entered the offices I could see my agents had restored power to our part of the building so I hoped they could see on the surveillance monitors that we had arrived. It was only a few seconds later when they unbuttoned the comm center and Nicci came out to greet me with a small thunderbolt following in her wake seconds later.

“I’m sick, Mommy.”

“I heard, sweetheart. How do you feel right now?”

“Hungry.”

I took that to be a good sign but looked up at Nicci for conformation.

“She’s still having trouble holding food down. She’s visited the ladies room four times since we returned here. Soup might be a good idea for a while although she has been holding down the crackers she had a few minutes ago.”

“I feel funny again.”

“Oops, maybe not. Come on Cathy, let’s go visit the ladies room again.”

Nicci led Cathy off as I began to deal with my agents who had taken up the communications gauntlet.

“Have we heard from James detail?”

“Not yet, but we have had some communication with Colonel Jackson’s team.”

“What have they had to say?”

“Not a lot. There’s a Colonel Madison in charge of the military arm that has been providing protection. They said he reported having seven men down and a number of wounded. His people have reported that some of our people are down as well but we haven’t had any confirmation of that at this point from our own people.”

More? I sighed, “Let me know as soon as we have confirmation.”

“Yes, ma’am. Madison has requested more of our people if we can spare them... and he wants to be available on our mil-net if we still intend to activate it. I guess this little skirmish convinced him he wants a link with our comms.”

“Is there anyone there who can tie the two systems together?”

“We don’t know. If we can afford it we should probably send someone plus a couple more agents to cover the detail since we apparently have people down. We still don’t know how many or how bad. Apparently it isn’t as bad as his own people since he seems to be impressed with our people.”

“Next question; is there anyone here who knows the comms systems well enough to tie them together?”

“No... wait. Yeah, the former head of the comms division has been on admin leave pending confirmation of his new security check. He could do it.”

I sighed again. He was my present number one suspect as being our mole.

“There’s no one else?”

“Uh, not in town. We could send a message reassigning a comms guy from one of the details long enough to do the job.”

“Get with Nicci and decide who we could send without causing other problems. I’m going to my office; if you can detail someone to get Lucy... Colonel Jackson on the horn for me, have them patch it through to me there.”

“We’ll get right on it. If Nicci and I decide on someone to send, how do you want that handled?”

“Expedite his flight from his present location to James location and then notify the agents who are still standing at that location of the person’s name, flight number and arrival time so they can have the Colonel’s people provide a ride from the airport and back. Once he has the dual system up and running, have him watch it for a day before returning to his original assignment or here if the assignment ends before he is able to return.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

My agent rushed off leaving me standing there trying to decide what to do next. I finally realized standing there wasn’t getting anything done so I hurried off to my office where, hopefully, I could begin picking up the pieces. My first objective was to bring Ralph back into the loop and update him as to what little we now knew about James detail. My gut was worrying about how many more people I might have lost and how it would affect their families for those who had them. Chances of that were pretty good at this point since more than half of my people were married... many with children. I was beginning to think my organization could use a chaplain. I’m not certain which distressed me more, losing my men or recognizing we could use a full-time chaplain.

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/ 2014 USA, Earth by D. A.Trask.

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