I awakened... fully alert, although not certain exactly why. My brain was firing on twelve of its eight cylinders and the turbo boost was well engaged, as it attempted to make sense of the shadows which my semi-focused eyes were saying were dangerous unknowns looming all about me in our dark bedroom. My ears began straining to hear whatever it was that might have been that which had awakened me. It’s hard to believe how sinister a dark room seems when you can’t really focus on anything due to the near absence of light. You’d think that after sleeping for at least a few hours your eyes would be accustomed to the lack of light and you should be able to see, if not well then at least somewhat upon immediately opening them.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

NOTE: CO-AUTHOR - KATE HART

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate./small>

Chapter 00 continued

Slowly the optical enhancer/ interpreter within my brain woke up enough that it began to let me know it recognized most of the shapes populating the room once it compared my last knowledge of the room prior to turning out the lights with what my eyes were attempting to report to me just now. Nothing seemed out of place as, with some relief, I finally noted many of the threatening shapes were actually chairs and my vanity. The misshapen lumps on both them and the floor were the clothes we had abandoned and which were now draped hit and miss over those same chairs. The window drapes, an open closet door, was that open or closed when we went to bed?, and the other heaps of clothing on the floor between the bed and the open door to the landing were also beginning to come into a focus of sorts so long as I didn’t look directly at any of them.

I still didn't know what it was that caused me to awaken but I began to realize, as I continued to strain to hear and see, that I was sitting upright half in and half out of bed facing the open doorway which led out onto the upstairs landing. My hand was still searching fruitlessly under my pillow for my 9mm which I finally recalled should still be on the night stand since I failed to move it to its usual place under my pillow or at my side. When we rushed our preparations for bed last night I placed it on the night stand. Feeling around gently proved that was still, thankfully, the case. After we finished our devotions I was obviously too smitten to remember to move it.

Looking back at my significant other allowed me to note he was still asleep with his back toward me, I saw the covers and slight impression, now slowly filling, in the mattress which indicated I had been laying with my back against his. My movements apparently hadn’t fazed him. I've told him repeatedly that he could sleep through a tornado. I don’t know if that meant he had a clear conscience or if he was deaf and insensitive while he slept.

I realized I was beginning to notice even more detail in the shapes surrounding me. My chest felt like a trip-hammer was working away in there while my hearing had continued to ratchet up until now I was uncertain if the sounds I was hearing were real or some sort of product of my over active imagination keeping pace with the tom-tom beat of my heart. All that was missing were the war chants.

Seeking out the possible sound of our daughter in the remote chance she had once again cried out momentarily due to a nightmare, I couldn’t totally rule out that possibility. Her panicked dreams had been occurring less and less frequently of late since she now had a mother again. My presence in her life was something which began a little over a year ago but which only became a daily, and many times nightly, thing during these past several months. With a child of about six I suppose anything could be possible. I continued listening and watching but still didn’t have a reason for my sudden awakening. The house remained quiet... perhaps unnaturally so.

Sliding out of bed, 9mm now thankfully in hand, I glided toward the door; my long nylon nightgown flowing behind me making my passage appear as that of a wraith floating across the room. To my left I saw some movement then determined it was my reflection in the full length mirror attached to that aforementioned open closet door. At the landing doorway I continued to listen for some logical reason for my awakening. The night seemed tranquil, there was little light filtering its way into the house since there was no moon tonight. This is the time in its orbital cycle which had the moon following closely behind the sun in the daytime sky thereby leaving us without benefit of its reflective light for a few nights. The stars would have been our only source of light if it weren’t for the fog. The Fog sneaks in on little cat feet. Concentrate — I don’t need that kind of distraction just now.

The outside sounds were well muted by that same thick ground fog which also acted as an insulator to both sound and to the loss of warmth from the earth's crust. Warmth soaked up from the sun beaming down yesterday through a near cloudless sky. Glancing at the digital clock on the night stand revealed the time to be 2:48. Everything still seemed normal, just... quiet. Perhaps the house creaked as older homes are wont to do.

I began to mentally berate myself, in equal portions - first for not grabbing my night vision monoscope from the night stand drawer, and second for probably overreacting to my moderately new daughter’s continuing occasional nightmares. As I don’t hear her screaming for “Mommy” I knew she was likely okay.

Just as I began to chastise myself and decided I was imagining things and should return to bed to go back to sleep, I saw something move at the edge of my vision. Perhaps our daughter had gone to the bathroom and was now quietly returning to her room. If so, she forgot to flush the toilet. I continued to search for that elusive movement at the edge of my vision but didn't notice it again. I was about to chalk it all up to nerves when I noticed that movement again. A few moments later I heard a creak from the fourth stair up from the first floor. That had the effect of bringing me much further awake and completely aware of far more than I ever wanted to consider.
Our daughter could not be in two places at once, and everyone else in the family was accounted for. Releasing the safety on the Biretta with a click that I never noticed before but which now seemed to thunder about in the room echoing off the walls as though a bolt of lightning had gone through the house, I almost jumped out of my skin at the loudness of it. A shadow still at the edge of my vision seemed to turn beginning to make its way in my direction. Sliding back into the bedroom with my back close to the inside wall, I aimed the Biretta at the empty doorway. My Significant Other took this moment to turn over in his sleep and I nearly screamed at the sound.

Somehow I managed to calm my wildly beating heart once more, certain that the neighbors nearly a half mile distant must have been awakened by it, before I continued to listen intently for any sounds precipitating from the passage of that silent shadow that was moving along the landing. I also strained to hear anything from whoever might be on the stairs. I continued to wait impatiently to see if the shadow manifested itself in our bedroom doorway. My SO had finally realized I wasn’t on the bed and he was beginning to stir. I hoped he had sense enough to remain quiet once he fully awakened. Barely breathing, I strained to see anything at the door. I didn't have long to wait.

A grey shadow about my chest height began to enter the room followed closely by the larger mass of a stocky figure which was much too large to be our daughter. A blue dot of light reached out, sliding across the floor toward the bed before beginning to rise, climbing the side of the bed upon reaching it. It finally came to rest on the location I had vacated not long ago. I was afraid to breathe and it seemed like I'd been holding my breath for hours.

Again I berated myself. This time for not having the presence of mind to stuff two pillows under the covers when I got out of bed. Then again who would have thought that to be necessary? The beam of blue tracked back across my side of the bed before beginning to traverse the room apparently looking for the missing occupant of the bed. That missing occupant would, of course, be me. I carefully lined up my 9mm with the intruder's head. Just then I heard the toilet in the upstairs lavatory flush. My baby was up and she was about to walk into hell. The light spun toward the doorway as I pulled the trigger of the 9mm. No one was going to hurt my baby. An explosion of sound filled the room accompanied by a small flash of lightning from the muzzle and in that brief mad moment of fire, accompanied by an explosion of sound, my one open eye allowed me to notice several things:

First, the head was not a head but was a helmet of some sort. A helmet which had permitted my shot to snap the head of the individual and possibly stun him, but not necessarily kill him.
Second, I noticed rapid movement begin at the location of my Significant Other as he threw off his covers and turned to reach for his night stand where his .45 was located.

Third, moments after my shot, I somehow heard or sensed our daughter snapping a bolt on the bathroom door having taken only a brief time between the sound of my shot and the first snap of a bolt. No one could reach her now. The bathroom was as secure as one of the bedrooms on this floor could be if the door were closed and bolted.

These upstairs rooms had each been constructed in a manner that with the snap of the bolts, which were present on each of the doors, it would take an explosion like that needed to kill a tank in order to penetrate the door, walls, ceiling or floor. The lower floors were constructed in such a way that they could dissipate an explosion almost harmlessly, allowing damage only to the loose items contained within that lower floor of the house. The support for the second floor and attic would remain relatively undamaged even if the explosion or explosions were directed at them specifically. It would take a lot to kill my house.

I barely heard the sound of the lower bolt being worried into place at the bathroom door. After a pause and some scraping movement which I decided was the step stool located within the bathroom, I finally thought I heard the third bolt moving home. I was proud of her, only six and she remembered every bit of her training. I hoped she would remember to fill the tub and sink with cold water, there were compressed food packets in one of the drawers under the sink and with water she could stay there for several days if it was necessary. Now if my hearing would only cooperate and come back to some semblance of its original sensitivity I might be able to hear what the other intruder was doing.

My SO was moving more rapidly now as I brought my 9mm to bear on the fallen intruder's neck, snapping off two more explosions of sound and light while I had a finger plugging my left ear so at least it would still be able to be of use. The blue light winked off and the figure slumped. I could see during the flashes that the armor extended down over most of his - or her torso. Down to well below the waist. I don't understand how they could move so silently when they were covered with all that metal. It reminded me somewhat of the mediaeval knights. That would bear some investigation once we managed to get out of this situation. Two more blue lights winked on probing the doorway both from downstairs and from out on either the landing or the top of the stairs.

I heard my SO pulling his night vision goggles from the drawer and decided that might be a good idea for me as well. I nearly tripped over the bulk of the intruder as I crossed to my night stand, pulling my monoscope out of the drawer then placing it on over my head. Clicking it on, I turned and began to return to the area near the doorway when I noted that the armor must have protected the intruder after all since I could no longer see him on the floor. A quick scan of the room showed he wasn’t there anywhere. Rushing toward the door, I nearly crashed to the floor myself when I tripped over something large.

My night vision was telling me nothing was there. My one unaided eye was reporting there was some sort of large lump on the floor which my sense of feel quickly confirmed. Hubby, meanwhile, had nearly reached me and was about to trip as well when I motioned for him to stop. He did so mere inches from the bulk on the floor.

“Do you see anything here on the floor?” I whispered to him.

I saw his head tilt down a little further allowing him to scan this area of the room before coming back to rest on me after shaking his head 'no'. I hoped he had closed his eyes when he did that or he was going to be dizzy.

“Take off your goggles and feel here in front of me.”

He paused for a second or two as though trying to decide if I was crazy or if perhaps this was all some sort of dream before he gave me a confused look pulling the goggles off his head. He wouldn't be able to see much for a couple of minutes. Bending down he felt around until his hand struck the mass crumpled on the floor. This all seemed to take hours which I was certain we didn’t have. I was worried we would both be playing pat-a-cake with the body while another one came through the door to nail us both.

Hubby’s face betrayed surprise as he felt the mass on the floor next to me. I immediately on noting his reaction began watching the door again. The goggles flashed to his face while his gun hand began poking the body using the .45 as a probe. He finally lowered the goggles shutting them down before discarding them next to the body. I moved quickly across the open doorway to the alarm panel next to it so I could key in the code to turn on the downstairs lights. As I press the enter button I prayed the code I entered was for the downstairs and not up here. The bottom floor lit up granting me, for the moment, a sigh of relief. Scrambling movement could be heard from downstairs.

“Mommy?” a frightened little voice called out.

She had been continually telling me what a big girl she was now but each time something scary happened she would always run to find her new Mommy who would magically protect her. This time she knew Mommy was once again protecting her even though we didn’t happen to be together.
“Stay in there, baby. Daddy or I will let you know when you can come out.” I gave a quick thought entertaining the possibility something might happen to both of us.
“If Mr. Bear tells you it’s okay, you may come out then also.” At least she had followed her instructions.

My SO came close before he whispered, “Did you trigger the alarm?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn't they call?”

Why didn't they? My guys were good about following procedure. We should have had some confirmation of the alarm received or of my shots fired. Initial help should have been only thirty seconds to a minute away with backup less than twenty minutes behind that. I checked the clock again, 2:54. Time flies when you are having fun. Those few minutes seemed like hours.

“First response should have been here four minutes ago. Backup's not due for fourteen or so.”

“So we're on our own here?”

“Looks like it.” I answered, “I know there are at least two more, probably more than that. Watch the door.”

I hurried back to the night stand where I picked up my two spare magazines. Rolling across the bed and reaching into his night stand I grabbed the two for his .45 before quickly returning to him at the door nearly tripping over a pile of clothes while trying to avoid the body. He took two magazines then handed back the one which was mine and selected his second one by feel as he continued to watch toward the stairs.

The upstairs was no longer totally dark due to the small amount of spill light coming up from downstairs however two of those rooms were dark once more. Less than a minute later the entire house was dark once again.

“They must have found the breaker box.” my SO stated the obvious.

“Apparently so. I think there is one more of them up here, maybe two, and probably just as many downstairs.” as I peeked out the doorway toward the bathroom. If I listened hard I could just making out the water running into the tub and our daughter whimpering. This was a heavy trip to lay on a five to six year old,

“You're safe baby. Just stay in there.”

“Okay, Mommy.”

Brave little soul.

I eased out through the doorway, moving slowly toward both the bathroom, the top of the stairs, and my baby's bedroom. I was followed closely by my husband and his .45. We were as silent as the angel of death who, at this moment, was traveling with us in our joint search for lives to end and souls to take. Looking through the wooden railing down into the open area near the front door I could see the alarm panel glowing in its protective glory. Backup power was still functioning for that system at least. Bet the intruders forgot about the little detail of forty-eight hours of secondary power locked away in the sub-basement. The panel was green which meant no intrusions had occurred. That had me wondering. How did they get in? Something crossed between me and the panel as though enticing me to attempt a shot but reason prevailed. I had only eight more shots before this magazine was empty and it might be a long fourteen minutes. I needed to remember to wait for a certain target before I used another round. The first time I was lucky and then possibly wasted two shots trying to be certain. Next time I needed a sure thing before I spent another of my pitifully few rounds.

I was still moving slowly toward the stairs, closer to the bathroom where my new daughter was hiding as well as toward her bedroom. At that unprotected moment the landing at the top of the stairs creaked from weight bearing down on the topmost step. I could see a faint shadow forming in the gloom as a blue light winked on. Suddenly two shots reached out across the expanse. A .45 and a 9mm. The blue light winked out abruptly as something dropped to the floor next to the top of the stairs. Another light winked on from within my baby's bedroom resulting in a quick response from the .45 to its incursion. No sound came from the bedroom but the light went out. A second shot thundered from the .45 leaving me nearly deaf in my ear nearest it while something in the bedroom hit the floor. I more felt the hit than heard it but whatever it was didn’t seem to move afterward.

That was three.

By now another blue light was tracing the wall just ahead of us which meant it was coming from somewhere behind. It tracked over to me even as I just realized it's presence. I was diving aside for the floor and away from the small pool of light just as a rip of sound, something like coarse Velcro being slowly pulled apart, caused me to panic.

The sound drifted across the landing from the direction of the empty nursery we had in preparation for more additions to our brood. That room was located down the hall behind us. Even as the .45 began searching out the source of this new light and sound I felt multiple ‘somethings’ tug on my nightgown a portion of which had still been occupying the space I had departed only a moment previously.

The ‘somethings’ continued on, shredding that small portion of my gown before eventually thudding into the wall near the door to my baby's bedroom producing a sound like the rat-a-tat-tat of a drum being hastily beaten in a roll. The .45 barked twice before there was another thud felt through the floor somehow as another something dropped at a location back by the nursery. The blue light didn’t immediately wink off but slowly diminished in brilliance over perhaps five seconds time.

“Mommy, I'm scared,” many tears could be heard in that little voice.

“Stay there, baby, You’re Mommy's brave little girl. You're safe there,” I said to her even as I checked myself to confirm I was really intact and not numb from the shock of being hit.

That was four.

Three of those abominable blue lights were now searching the landing from downstairs but were unable to see us as we were staying low back by the wall, the landing was wide enough to hide us from any who might be trying to see us from below. The third stair from the top creaked resulting in both of us throwing an involuntary shot. We heard mine bounce off the armor but the .45 brought the intruder down. I wondered if that could be a clue — the 9mm travels much faster than the .45. I needed to remember to mention that at the debriefing once we managed to get to it. That blue light winked on and off several times before another reply from the .45 silenced it.

That was five.

The Velcro sound ripped from several locations downstairs followed quickly at the walls behind and above us which provided that rat-a-tat-tat again at the spots where we would have been had we been standing. When we get the lights working again I will be very interested in seeing what sort of projectiles they might be using. They obviously traveled slower than a bullet, are very silent, and hit like they have a lot of mass, that is to say... hard. Sort of like having a baseball batted at us except much smaller... and probably a whole lot more lethal.

I was just beginning to wonder how many hours we would need to continue this farce before help arrived when the sound of tires could be faintly heard filtering up to the house from somewhere down near the gate. I wondered why they didn't drive up closer to the house when I remembered the tire spikes and the unknown safety of the house area in general. I was beginning to think of going to the alarm panel to lower the spikes when I remembered the power had been cut off so I couldn't retract them anyway. As I thought about the sound of the tires on the lower driveway I was somewhat surprised that I had heard the vehicle since usually we don't hear them unless they were very close to the house. I suddenly decided it must be one of the armored limos or station wagons; heavy, with tires more like those used on trucks, makes more road noise. God, I couldn’t believe how much Armorglas ® weighed.

It was also fairly apparently we weren’t the only ones who heard the vehicle. Four of the blue lights flashed toward the front door for a moment and then went out. At that moment I realized one of those lights likely had its source from about halfway up the stairs. I placed three rapid shots down the stairwell only to hear one ping off armor before I’ve ducked back even as I dropped to the floor. The blue light flickered on searching in my direction as a rip of Velcro occurred with its resultant hitting the wall sound behind my location. The objects had passed just above my head while a double tap from the .45 erupted toward the source of the Velcro sound causing it to wink out. Something fell to the stairs. I heard my SO change his magazines. Either my count was off or he still had one or two in the magazine he just removed from the weapon. Smart move, don’t wait for it to go empty before you reload, you just might need the extra shots in a hurry.

And that was six down.

I was peeking out from the top of the stairs as the green light on the alarm panel suddenly turned blinking red while doors crashed open obviously unlocked quietly by my personnel before they rushed in. The panel showed a breach of both the back and the armored patio doors followed a moment later by the front door.

“Don't use the night vision, it can't see them!” I yelled as my guys began to pour into the house. My hubby and I stayed low so we wouldn't get tagged by mistake.

He yelled down, “We're all upstairs. Anyone downstairs is an intruder.”

I yelled again, “There are at least three down there and possibly one or more in the basement.”

I glanced down toward the front door just in time to see one of my guys targeted by a blue light.
I began to yell, “Watch o...” but before I could warn him I heard the rip of Velcro and he went down, his chest stitched with something which I hoped wasn’t blood. Hopefully he had his body armor on and it protected him. I heard my agents firing as well, as they continued the sweep of the downstairs. We began our own sweep upstairs. My baby's room was clear which caused me some discomfort since it showed no sign of the downed assailant who should have been there. The top of the stairs were likewise empty. Our bedroom was clear with the exception of the body which was still there on the floor near the door. The landing checked clear but the nursery was empty where we had expected a body.

“Clear,” began to sound throughout the house with us adding our two cents worth after we checked upstairs.

“Okay, Baby. You can unlock the door now and come out.”

We heard the middle bolt slide open.

“Baby, lock the middle again and unlock the other two first. It will be easier to slide them that way.”

We heard some scratching sounds as the bolt slowly slid home again then she began to fight the bottom one open before once again moving the step stool so she could start on the top. That one took her a little while but with some encouragement from me and a little whimpering from her she eventually got it open. Now the middle one was unbolted before the door opened and she came out running. She crashed into my arms, crying like — my brave, wonderful, baby.

A couple of minutes later the power was back on, lights were coming up and we could inspect the carnage. Of the six we hit only one remained. Of the three my agents hit, only one remained. Poor odds. Their armor was interesting, very thin and flexible except when hit by a high speed object such as a bullet. I think it may have held little stopping power for those Velcro projectiles whatever they were since they traveled far more slowly. My agent who was stitched was in definite need. He would be going to the hospital. The vests didn't seem to provide much protection against those weapons, but it did prevent him from becoming shish-kabob. The curious thing though, he was unconscious and the darts didn’t seem to have gone deep enough to cause that since they had become mostly stuck in his vest with only the points actually hitting him.

The walls that were hit by other darts seemed to indicate the darts were partially hollow, filled with some sort of liquid as was witnessed by the stain marks around each of them there on the walls. Soon samples of both the darts and the stains were being taken for analysis. I didn’t believe it’s water since the paint where the darts hit was beginning to ooze away from the wall as well as turning brownish-black. The darts themselves appeared to be heavy even though they were hollow. They were about an inch and a half long and maybe a quarter inch in irregular diameter. Kind of like small versions of the rocket ships you could see in the sci-fi movies.
They were, however, nasty little buggers.

And pretty darn quiet, too.

 »  »  »  »  »  »

Please note: If you have not read the information on the title page nor chapter 00 (the Prologue) to this chapter, please do so before continuing with this portion.
If you have not read Air Force Sweetheart (TacPzlSolGp) prior to reading this work, it is not necessary; however, there will be characters appearing at times within this work which are from the other series.
This work was inspired by T. D. Aldoennetti and is posted under her name since it is a companion series to that of AFS.
Please note: Co-Author of this work is Kate Hart

Renae A. Dumas

Chapter 01

Shortly before we were on the receiving end of that home invasion, I thought things had pretty much gotten down to a dull roar for us. James and I had been married for a little less than three months after going together and sharing Catherine back and forth for the previous twelve or so. Both our businesses were going great guns and we had some nice interactions going on between them. The Feds were happy with James’ work and with my security measures which actually made his place of work something more nearly impregnable than the sieve it had been, both physically and electronically. Catherine was extremely pleased with her new Mommy and wanted me to come to the ‘show off your parent day’ at her school. She was in the advanced learning set so while she was roughly first grade age she was third grade intellectually and pushing hard for fifth grade. I was just as pleased with having a daughter even if her advanced scholastics were a little difficult for me to accept. I had been smart but jump two to four grades? I don’t think so.

As far as James’ business went, I wasn’t going to pretend I understood anything about the software his people had been writing for the Feds any more than I was going to pretend I’d been told anything about their projects, which I hadn’t been. The two of us were good at compartmentalizing. Making his business bullet-proof didn’t mean I needed to understand the details of the work they did there... and vice-versa.

That was why when the home invasion occurred, it was a bit of a wake-up call. The first problem was, ‘How did they get in?’ That was followed almost immediately with ‘how did they get away when so many agents were in and around the house?’ Of course that didn’t hold a candle to, ‘why did they come after us and more specifically, which of us?’ If they were after my baby then they were going to have some explaining to do as soon as I got my hands on one or more of them while they were still alive. I’m an overly protective bitch in case you hadn’t noticed. You target my baby and you are on my shit list forever.

How did a ‘nice’ young lady such as myself wind up in a position to be fighting bad guys, much less being targeted by them you might ask? I suppose I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you.

Well... Seriously... I haven’t the faintest idea, not exactly anyway. I think it’s likely to have something to do with being married to James since I don’t believe my business would have enraged anyone to the point of attacking me or us in our home but it might have been something I did in my previous life... Don’t ask, I haven’t the faintest what it could be. I suppose for understandings sake I should start somewhere near the beginning. That, unfortunately, is the crux of the matter since deciding exactly what that beginning happened to be remains a little difficult.

I’m sorry, I suppose I’m not making much sense am I? Perhaps I’m still in shock over the invaders. Oh my God - neither Catherine nor I have night robes on. I caught her up and quickly made a strategic retreat going first to her bedroom and then my own before we returned to that first of several situation debriefs which would occur over the next two days. Once back downstairs she made a point of showing everyone her bunny slippers so she could receive the required homage due a princess as I went out to the kitchen to begin warming milk to make her a cup of cocoa. I also put on a pot of coffee which I’m certain would be appreciated by everyone once it finished perking. The debriefing adjourned to the dining room so I was still close enough to participate.

What? Oh, the story... Well... I suppose, for lack of some other beginning, we could start with my name... at least it’s my name now... or then... or... See, that’s part of the confusion. Okay, I’m Lynnette Joi Thompson but Stevens was my maiden name or... my last name before I became... Aww, hell. Anyway, that’s me, the L. J. of L. J. Stevens Security. So what does that have to do with anything? Well, nothing I suppose. Then again, it could be just about everything.

Both my name and I have a long and complicated history! Hell, that’s saying a mouthful without saying much of anything.
A few years ago I started a protection detail business with my friend Ralph and some of our buddies we had met while in the military. No ideas now, Ralph’s just a friend. Really. Almost like my brother... If I had one. Anyway - we felt like we were still nearly fresh out of the Army having both bummed around for almost a year looking for a place to fit in. Although we corresponded, we didn’t meet up again until we both went to work for a group of men who had formed a company which specialized in corporate and political protection details. Our going to work with them wasn’t quite our idea since we were gently prodded into it by some friends we met while we were still in Uncle Sam’s active employ. Not that we aren’t in Uncle Sam’s active employ now but at least now we were contractors and not soldiers, although that distinction was somewhat blurred at times. Wow, only at times? Who am I trying to kid? All the time would be more like it. The only difference is we get to decide what our missions are going to be and we have access to better equipment, well, most of the time. At least the gear’s plentiful and not overly pricy.

We probably would have wound up going this route a little earlier but we had been trying to actively resist continuing in said Uncle Sam’s employ and were, therefore, resisting the ‘suggestions’ which were being offered at the time. The company which hired Ralph and myself, thus beginning the grinding down of our resistance to starting our own business, also provided security or short term protection for high level businessmen and occasionally for that odd (in every sense of the word) bureaucrat/ politician whenever they happened to blow into DC and/ or it’s surrounds. No, we never worked for the mob, just real businessmen... That isn’t to say the mob isn’t real, nor businessmen, as I have since learned. They have a lot of very legitimate businesses but they also have their own security details so they seldom required our services. Whenever they did happen to need us then it was all legitimate and above board. Sometimes I think they were better to work with than the bureaucrats. On more than one occasion that has made me wonder if their roles weren’t reversed somehow in the deep past.

Anyway... back to my story. Ralph and I knew each other from high school which, of course, was before we went into the service. Yeah, we were Army nuts, ground pounders. As I was saying, after more than a few tours in, around, and through parts of Nam and surrounds where others feared to tread we made our way out of the military grind, at least for a while. Finally after a year of bumming around, then a short couple of years with that aforementioned protection company, which were a piece of cake by the way, I decided we should go into business for ourselves. Ralph and I discovered we were a little shy of three years post service when we finally agreed we wanted to go back home or at least close to it so we had begun to discuss what we could do once we got there.

Since we understood military and para-military Ops; the thought of starting up our own little protection biz actually was fairly interesting to us despite our trying to resist the not so subtle prodding from our ‘friends’. We finally figured, why not? We hired on about a dozen of our old Army buddies whom I had led around the green pastures of much of Southeast Asia and made a list of the others and their specialties so when and if we needed to add more we would have somewhere to begin. It comforted us to know we had some friends going along for the ride.

Misery loves company you know.

Well... That ‘we’ decided to get into the business was perhaps overstating things just a bit. To tell the truth we were kind of ‘gently nudged’ into it by those friends we had met while in the service. And yes, I know; that wasn’t the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth either. I guess if you want nothing but the truth then this isn’t the right business to get into. ‘Met’ might not quite be the right word here either. Worked for, worked with, took long walks in the woods together, would all be applicable but incomplete in description. That was just some of what we did, but the terms still truly only scratched the surface.

It’s hard to believe now how many years have passed since they put this idea into our heads. Harder, still, to believe that we took the ball and ran with it as well as we did. I think that they both knew how well much of this would turn out and while a little piece of me still resents what they did, I wouldn’t trade where I am today for anything in the world.

‘Sigh,’ The World. I can still hear the sounds of the slick’s rotors and Spooky’s miniguns like it was just yesterday when we left that God forsaken place. I look around this room at our company’s headquarters whenever we have staff meetings and still see the fresh young faces that I first got to know closer than brothers while humping through some of the most unforgiving jungles on the planet.

What? How did a woman end up running through the jungles of Vietnam during the war? Short answer is... well... she didn’t.
Umm, I guess it’s time to give you some more personal history. As I said, I am L. J. Stevens of L J Stevens Security. What I failed to mention was that before I was Lynnette Joi Stevens, I spent a lot of years trying to be Lyon Jay Stevens. You see, I was born with a male body. Yes, it’s absolutely true. Many of you out there would refer to me as a transsexual. Maybe even a freak. I refer to myself as a woman with a unique history, both medically and life experience wise.

I grappled with this for decades. And like many others, in order to prove myself wrong, I went for hyper-masculine pursuits. It didn’t matter that I was small, and skinny. I was constantly trying to prove myself to be as macho as any of the jocks in school.

And it worked after a fashion. Well, at least to a limited degree. I think a lot of the girls saw me as the ultimate tomboy or possibly as a radical feminist. But I think they recognized me for the girl I was despite my efforts to the contrary.

As for the guys, well, let’s face it — guys are not the most observant things on the planet. If they see what they want to see, then it’s real for them. If I could bench lots of weight, take a hit, play football — well then, as far as they were concerned, I was a guy. Little, and a bit scrawny, but a couple of fights where bigger guys came out the loser, after figuring “Hey. I’ll whip this little fag’s butt for a few laughs,” gained me the respect of most of the others as well as those whom I whipped.
My attitude in high school was part of what landed me in the Army, and more specifically, at Camp Mackall, home of the Special Warfare Center, doing what was laughingly referred to as the Q course.

My folks weren’t rich, so I wasn’t going to be able to afford to go to college, even if I worked full time and went to school. Which meant there was not going to be an educational deferment. Which also meant I was going to get drafted. I just knew my draft status was going to be 1-A. So, given the fact I knew I’d get drafted, how was I going to make it work to my advantage? And how could I do this and still be the ultra masculine Alpha male, hiding the real me in plain sight?

Research. Pure and simple, research. I started looking at all the options that the armed services had that I could take advantage of. Volunteering got me more available options than just being drafted, so I worked that into my plan. Next was what arm of the service to go into. The Air Force really held no appeal, neither did the Navy. Neither of them fit in with my need to continually prove what a man I was. So, that left the Army or the Marines.

That was a tough choice. Both were combat arms which appealed to that needed to feel I was a man. Both went in at the pointy end of the stick. But in looking at both services, at the basic level they both were simply cannon fodder. Bodies to be spent by those that commanded them, which didn’t really work for me.

So... I needed to look closer and deeper at them both. The Marines did have a history of ‘mustangs’, enlisted men promoted to officer through their actions. But, on the downside, enlisted promotion potential looked to be really slow. The old saw ‘that every Marine is a rifleman’ isn’t just a saying. It’s absolutely true. And while a part of me craved that, it meant that the Marines were limited in a lot of ways from the prospects of career potential.

And yes, I was looking at it then as a potential career. I couldn’t afford to go to college and the armed services were really looking like my only opportunity to help me get a career.

The Army on the other hand, had a number of combat arms as well as technical trades. And for a lot of them, you didn’t have to be an officer to have a career. And the advancement potential was better in the Army than in the Marines. Whether that was due to ‘attrition’ or due to a better system I had no idea at the time. Turns out, it was a combination of both.

One of the things I discovered after talking to a few people was the Special Warfare Group — rapidly becoming known as the Green Berets. They didn’t have anyone below the rank of sergeant. Getting accepted by them meant instant promotion. At 16, soon enough to be 18, this held promise. And they took on some of the most dangerous assignments the Army had. They did everything the Airborne and the Rangers did, and more. This also met my need to do all those ultra masculine things. It looked more and more like this is where I thought I wanted to be.

I was always a bright kid, and loved to read, so I started to find everything I could on Special Forces, as well as everything I could find on tactics and combat. I talked to as many people as I could, trying to find out what I would need to do to qualify for the Green Berets. I also designed an extreme exercise regime. I may have been wiry (read scrawny) but I was going to make sure it was all muscle. I now had a plan. I was in pretty darn good shape at the time, given that I was trying to compete with all the ultra huge jocks at school,, but I was really going to have to take things to the next level. Or maybe it was the next 2 or 3 levels.

I started running every morning and evening. First just putting in the miles, and after a couple of months I started running with a pack, gradually increasing the weight until I could run for miles with what was the equivalent of a full field pack. I began doing pushups and sit-ups until I could do 200 of each without completely exhausting myself. All during this time I tried to convince my dad to take me to the local Armory so I could learn to shoot and shoot well. It only took me three and a half months to wear him down. A buddy of his in town was the Range master at the Armory and from then on, until the day I went into the Army, I was there at least twice a week.

The Range master was a veteran of both WW II and Korea, and he took his job seriously. When I told him I was sure that I would be drafted, and wanted to have as much skill as I could have before I went, he took it as his duty to make sure his friend’s son was as prepared as he could possibly make me. For a small town, the armory had quite the arsenal of different weapons. Sergeant Joyce told me it was because a lot of the weapons that guys ‘brought home’ with them ended up being donated to the Armory. Being small boned presented a bit of a problem here, as the recoil from some of the weapons was almost more than my wrists or shoulder could take. Ah well, adapt the training program some more to work on hand, wrist and forearm strength.

I got an amazing education from Sgt. Joyce. I learned to handle the US 1911A1 - .45 without wrecking my wrists from the recoil, and could shoot expert to high expert with it; although my wrists would ache for days afterwards. We found that the 9mm weapons suited me best, and with the Biretta or the Browning Hi-Power I could not be beat. I’m sure the old guy made a lot of money betting on me at the range.

He trained me on the M1 and the M-14. I learned all the varieties of Springfield, including the venerable ‘03A4 sniper rifle. I shot the BAR, and was okay with it, but I knew it would be too heavy for me to carry in combat. We had WW II German weapons — Mausers and Walthers and Erma MP 38s and MP 40s; Japanese Arisaka rifles and Nambu pistols; Russian and Chinese Makarovs and AKMs, even a Dragunov sniper rifle. I did well with all of them. I made sure I did. Although just before I went into the Army, Sgt. Joyce did say I was a natural. By the time he was done with me, I could qualify as High Expert/ Sharpshooter on every weapon I picked up.

And he didn’t just teach me to shoot. He taught me how to field strip every weapon I touched, as well as how to fix some of the common problems with them. He even showed me how to take pieces from multiple weapons to get one operational weapon. That little bit of knowledge saved my butt on more than one occasion. I always thought he’d have been a great instructor for the Army, but any time I mentioned it, he would just say “I’ve done my time.”

But he didn’t stop at weapons. He started teaching me about the Army itself, not just what was in the books. How the Army functioned, as he saw it. Turns out he was right in an awful lot of cases. And what I learned from him helped me navigate the rocks and shoals of the Army as well as saved my butt. When I made it known to him that I was planning on trying to get into Special Forces, he stopped and just stared at me. I could see the look in his eyes saying “How fucking dumb are you kid? That’s a sure way to get killed.”

All he asked me was, “Why?”

I sat down and explained to him a lot of the research I had done on Special Forces and why I thought I might be suitable. I talked about the 6, and 12 man teams as well as the larger groups which sometimes wound up together. How they could function like a well oiled machine. I talked about the level of training they got; I talked about not just being a grunt that was being fed into the meat grinder. The sense of camaraderie and esprit de corps was something else I talked about with him. Being a part of something where you knew that everyone on your team looked out for everyone else; and where your skills had value.
He just grunted and thought about what I said for a few minutes.

“Well I will say, at least I didn’t hear that bullshit about being the meanest motherfucker in the valley come off your lips. And I can tell you’ve put a lot of thought and work into this.”
“Let me think about this for a while longer Lyon. I might be able to find some other help if this is what you really want.”

“It is Sarge. We both know I’m going into the Army. I want to come home in one piece, and I think I have the best shot at it with them.”

After that the subject was dropped, and wasn’t brought up again for quite a while.

I was just turning 17 and life at home was getting a bit strained at that point. I was only a year from being eligible for the draft, and it was affecting my mother a great deal. I think she always suspected or knew who I really was and what I was doing, but she never said anything. I think my dad was worried but he was also proud of me in a strange way. He didn’t want his only son to go to war, and maybe be killed, but I think he was proud of the fact that I wasn’t trying to weasel out of it and I was trying to prepare for it the best way I knew how.

My birthday that year was rather a solemn affair, as we all were trying to ignore the elephant known as Vietnam that always seemed to be in the room. Mum seemed to be on the edge of tears the whole night, every time she looked at me. I’m sure she was wondering what next year would bring, and if there would be any more after that.

That Saturday when I went to the Armory, Sgt. Joyce had someone with him. He introduced him to me as Gunny Martin. And he told me that the Gunny had been an unarmed combat instructor at Parris Island, and had done 2 tours in ‘Nam before he retired a few months earlier. I looked the Gunny over carefully, and I could see him looking at me, sizing me up.

“Kid” he said “do you want to go to Vietnam?”
 »  »  »  »  »  »

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

I bristled a bit at being called ‘kid’, but when I thought about it for a second, I realized that to him, anyone my age was just a kid. So I answered politely and respectfully.

“No sir, I don’t. But I don’t think I’m going to get a choice. So I’ve been trying to get as fit as I can, and Sgt. Joyce has been teaching me all he can about weapons.”

Looking at Sgt. Joyce, Gunny said “Well, at least he’s sane Marv. He’s smart enough to know that going to Nam is not a good thing…. But since he looks like a frickin’ girl!, he’s gonna have a hard time at Basic and probably even afterward, and you and I both know it.”

“Yeah Joe, I know. And that’s why I called you. He just turned 17 so he’s got just under a year before they draft him. He wants to beat them to the punch and volunteer so at least he has a bit of say in what happens to start with. I want you to teach him everything you can in the time we’ve got. Get him ready for the crap he’s going to face when he gets to Basic. If he can make top of his class in Basic he might get a shot at picking his slot. He’s a good kid and I don’t want to see him get shipped out as a friggin’ grunt right after Basic”

“Well, I suppose it’s worth a shot. Whaddya say kid, you want to learn what I can teach you?”

While they were talking I had been sitting there thinking about what Gunny had just said. I looked like a girl? Girls didn’t have muscles like I did, they didn’t train like I did, they didn’t look like I do. Did they?

“I look like a girl?!” were the first words that came out of my mouth.

“Yeah kid, sorry to say, but you do.” replied Gunny. “So, do you want to work with me or not?”

“Umm, yeah. Yeah, I do sir.”

“Okay kid, as a favor to Marv, and cause you look like a good kid, I’m willing. BUT, you gotta give me 100 fucking percent all the time. And we are going to train the 2 times a week you are normally here. Marv says he doesn’t have anything else he can teach you.”

Then almost as an afterthought, “And stop calling me sir. I work for a living.”

“Yes, si… Gunny.”

“Better.”

The first month with Gunny Martin was hell. I was sore in places I didn’t know existed, and he tossed me around like a rag doll. But I was learning. Learning what it would take to help keep me alive. And while he was teaching me unarmed combat, he was also teaching me things about how to stay alive in Vietnam. I was soaking up as much information as he could give me.
And as hard as he worked me, I kept coming back for more.

I was now a senior in high school, and it was only a matter of months before graduation and the Army. I was studying and training all the time. Not that it had any real effect on my social life or anything, because I certainly wasn’t one of the ‘in-crowd’. I didn’t have a girlfriend, nor did I even date, really. I mean, I was still a friend with a lot of the girls, but I wasn’t dating or Prom material. The guys pretty much left me alone except for the normal crap I took about looking like a ‘fag’ and crap like that.

Christmas that year had a whole new meaning too. We all knew that by next Christmas I was likely to be somewhere other than home. Most likely spending it with that big silent elephant, Vietnam. Mum and dad were both trying to be strong and cheerful, but I could see the toll it was taking on them. There was a quiet desperation about that Christmas, as if we were trying to pack a lifetime of memories into that one Christmas.

And in a way, I guess we were.

I didn’t know it then, but that was the last Christmas I would ever see my father. He died after being hit by a drunk driver just before I phased out of Basic, a few weeks early. I was given my three days of leave to attend the funeral. When I came home my mother told me what had happened. I vowed then never to take another drink, or date anyone who did. I didn’t want what happened to my father to happen to anyone else because of me.

I’ve not had a drink since.

His funeral was a somber affair. Sgt. Joyce (who told me to call him Marv now) and Gunny Martin came to support me. Mom’s sister, my aunt Joy came out from California to stay with mom for a while. A few people from dad’s work showed up, and a few of the kids that I had gotten along with at school came to pay their respects.

When we got back to the house that night after the funeral, my mom had this funny look in her eyes. I wouldn’t see that same type of look again until I had been in-country for a few months. Its that look people get when they have seen and experienced too much. In ‘Nam they called it the “thousand yard” stare. Kind of a vacant, running on autopilot kind of look. Some people can get over it, some people can’t, and some just push it aside and continue on, truckin’ on. Which is fine if they don’t crash hard some years later. We spent that evening and the next few days talking about what had to be done. You know, all the usual things —the house, the bank, the utilities, the life insurance and all of that stuff. Mom was a bit like a robot, but we eventually got through it all. I was really glad Aunty Joy had come to stay with her for a while. I would worry a little less since she had someone with her. But I digress from the story I’ve been telling you. Or is that ingress? I guess I was kind of jumping ahead.
Anyway, shortly after Christmas, I was working with Gunny Martin on a Saturday afternoon. We had moved from the basic unarmed stuff to the tricks he had learned in a lifetime of service around the world with the Marine Corps. All the back alley tricks and dodges that kept him alive for 30 years from China to the Philippines to Nicaragua and all points in between. It was during this workout, where I actually ‘killed’ the Gunny three times. Yep, that’s what I said — three times. It was the first time I’d ever gotten to him more than once.

It was after this workout that he said that he and Sergeant Joyce wanted to talk to me, “We’ve got some ideas to bounce off you.”
I said “Sure, but I need to let my family know I won’t be home for dinner.” I didn’t want my mother going to the extra trouble of making a meal if I wasn’t going to be home to eat it.

I was constantly amazed by the people who lived in my hometown. You’d know Gunny Martin was a soldier to look at him, just as you would Sergeant Joyce. But until they allowed you to get to know them, you would have no idea of the crap they lived through and survived. Or for that matter, how their gruff exteriors hid exceedingly sharp minds. These were the men who got me to reading Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, Thucydides, Liddell Hart, Mao Tse-Tung, Machiavelli, Rommel, Musashi and von Mellenthin. They opened my mind to possibilities that I previously had no idea existed.

So... when the Gunny said they wanted to talk, it behooved me to listen. I had learned a lot about and from both of these men. I sometimes wondered if they looked upon me as the child they never had. Through their friendship with each other, and with my father, they were able and willing to teach ‘their’ son everything they could. I would never be able to repay the love and kindness they showed me. So, after calling Mom and getting cleaned up, we headed out to the Gunny’s car. While I could drive, I saw no point to buying a car that I wasn’t going to need for a while. And besides, it wasn’t that big a town that you couldn’t walk most places.

We climbed in, and pulled away from the armory. Gunny looked over at me and said, “We’re going to go over to Marv’s place. One of the three of us will burn some steaks at some point and we’ll talk over your future in the military. Sound like a plan to you?”

“Sure thing Gunny. If Sarge is okay with it, I’ll be happy to do it. In fact if we stop at the Jewel on the way, I’ll pick up a few things to go with the steaks.”

Oh, yes…I never did mention that as an only child, my mother taught me to cook and cook well. She also taught me to be able to run a house on my own. Laundry, ironing, cleaning and everything else. I often wonder even now if she knew deep down that she was showing her daughter things that every woman should know.

“That works for me kid. I’m a lousy cook and I know it. I’m not sure that Marv is much better.”

So, we stopped at the Jewel grocery store. After checking with the Gunny to make sure Sarge had already gotten the steaks, I nipped into the store. I grabbed some dried pasta, a few spices and some olive oil, the makings for a scratch spaghetti sauce and the ingredients for a salad. Thinking of who I was going to cook for, I also threw in a nice fresh Italian loaf, and the making for my Favorite cookies — an Italian Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread.

I figured if nothing else, I could give these two wonderful men a partial thank you by cooking them a good meal. Now I know what you’re saying. Stevens is not an Italian name. You’re right, it’s not. But there were a couple of Italian families in the neighborhood and Mrs. Tortelli and Mrs. Fazzari were wonderful cooks and wonderful women who generously taught me how to cook Italian food when they saw how much I enjoyed it.

We continued on to Sgt. Joyce’s place, not really talking a lot, just relaxing after the day’s workout. We turned onto Elm Street and a couple of minutes later we were pulling up in front of a nice little bungalow. It wasn’t that big, but it was certainly the best kept house on the block. The walks and driveway were all shoveled, the house certainly appeared to be in excellent repair and the trees had obviously been properly trimmed just before winter. It was immediately apparent to me that this was Sgt. Joyce’s house. It embodied all that I knew about him. Neat, properly squared away, orderly.

As the Gunny and I approached the door, it opened, and there was Sgt. Joyce telling us to come in before we let all of Winter into the house. Once we got into the house I could see a much different man than I normally saw. While the house was small, it was tastefully furnished, and there were small pieces of art and sculpture around the living room. It was obvious to me that the sergeant had chosen items that meant something to him from his duty stations around the world, while keeping in mind an overall plan for his home. He had more layers to him than I had ever guessed.

“Coffee pot’s on, you two. Cups are in the cupboard above the maker. So’s the sugar. Creamer is in the fridge. When you two have finished playing with your coffee come on into the living room and we’ll talk.”

Gunny grabbed a couple of mugs out of the cupboard and looked at me with a questioning eye. I nodded and he reached the sugar out as well. He filled the two mugs, grabbed his and went into the living room. I reached into the fridge, grabbed the creamer, added a generous dollop as well as a couple of spoons of sugar, gave it a quick stir and went out to the living room. Sarge and the Gunny were making small talk when I came into the room, and as I sat down they turned to me.

“So Sarge, you guys wanted to talk to me?”

“Yeah, we do. We’ve been talking about your options for the Army and we wanted to get your thoughts. We know you’ve said you want to go into Special Forces. Are you still serious about that?”

“Yes, Sarge I am. With everything you guys have been teaching me, and all the reading about tactics and military history I’ve been doing, it still seems to make the most sense. For a number of reasons actually. First is the advancement potential — if I go Special Forces after Basic, I’m fast tracked for sergeant. And I can specialize to a larger degree than I could in the regular Army. Second, if everything you guys have told me is accurate, the Team members look after each other far more than in a regular unit, so my chances of survival are higher from that perspective — although the risk factor of the missions they undertake may balance that out. Third, it would appear that Special Forces is more interested in skills and respects those skills and abilities to a higher degree than a regular unit does.”

“Yeah, okay….it’s obvious you’ve thought about this a lot. And for what it’s worth, I agree with your reasons. Joe?”

“Yeah, me too. I admit that I have a bias towards the Marines and Marine Force Recon or the Seals though. But, if you’re looking at this from the long term, the Army does have more options to offer career wise.”

“Look Lyon, me and Marv have been kickin’ this back and forth for the last couple of months. We’ve been trying to decide the best way in for you and the best fit at the same time. We’ve come up with a plan that we think is workable.”

“Fill me in, Gunny.” The way they talked made me feel like I had a couple of extra dads, or uncles that were looking out for one of their own.

“Right. There’s a few things you got to know up front. First is, with your parent’s permission and the approval of the Army, you can join early. That’s before you turn 18 and before your name goes into the draft lottery. Now this isn’t as easy as it sounds. The Army’s permission isn’t automatic. You will have to meet both physical standards and intellectual standards. They will do testing for this. And even if you wow them in testing, it very often doesn’t happen. But with three or four recommendation letters from the right people and, if we do it through the right recruiting sergeant, it could happen.”

Tilting my head with an inquisitive look, I asked “You mean like letters from the Senator that Dad went to school with?”

This time Sgt. Joyce picked up the talking while looking me right in the eye saying, “No Lyon, letters from politicians would get your file red flagged either for using your political influence, or as a warning to others to stay the hell away from you because of the politics. The best letters would be to come from fairly high ranking officers, and non-coms. That’s where we would like to help you.”

“Now there’s a few things about the Gunny and I that you need to know. And that you need to keep to yourself. It’s nothing that we aren’t proud of, but we both like our privacy and we both don’t want people treating us different. We’re the same guys people have always known, we just have a few things that some don’t.”

I was really starting to wonder what Sarge was talking about. It was like they were trying to hide part of their past or something. Mind you, they did say it wasn’t something they were ashamed of. The look on my face must have been priceless, because they both were looking at me and started to laugh.

Gunny Martin stifled his chuckles. “If you could see the look on your face, kid! What it comes down to is at other times in our lives, for things neither of us think were anything more than our duty, we were decorated. And along the way we both were sergeants for officers who are now fairly senior in the Army and the Marines. Marv here, is entitled to wear the blue ribbon with all the stars on it.”

I was now openly gaping at Sgt. Joyce.

“You were awarded the Medal of Honor, Sarge? Can you tell me what for?”

“Lyon, I’m not going to get into the details. It was a long time ago. But the simple answer is for surviving when most of the rest of my company didn’t. I’m proud of what I did… I know it saved more lives than it took, but I left a lot of good friends on the field that day. And they earned that medal every bit as much as I did, if not more.”

I was amazed, but I guess not surprised at how self-depreciating Sgt. Joyce was about it. I think a small part of me understood what he was trying to say; and I certainly knew how folks in town would react to a Medal winner. I also knew that the Sarge didn’t want to be made out to be a hero.

“As much as I don’t want this info to get out Lyon, Joe and I both know a letter from a Medal winner will go a long way to helping you get where you want to go. And I phoned one of my old CO’s who is now a General. I explained the situation, he asked my opinion of you, which I gave him, and he agreed to give a letter of support based on that recommendation”

I was stunned. That these two men would do this for me left me in absolute shock and awe. And Sarge wasn’t finished.

“Joe here, as well as being an unarmed combat instructor is pretty highly decorated himself, Lyon. He has been awarded the Navy Cross twice. And I shit you not, if the Marines award you the Navy Cross, you better believe it’s because you came back alive. Not very many Marine Medal winners lived to have it awarded to them. And when we were talking about how to go about it, the just
retired Commandant of the Corps was Joe’s Company and then Battalion Commander, a number of years ago.”

“Yeah kid, I talked to the General just last week. He just asked me if you had ever ‘killed’ me during the time I’ve been working with you. When I told him yes, he pointed out that even at his prime, he never did, and he never saw a boot even get close the whole time I was at Parris Island. He will also supply a letter of recommendation to the entry board.”

“Joe and I think that with those letters, and the right choice of recruiting sergeants, that we can help you get to where you want to go. Of course, like we told you, you also need your parent’s permission.”

“Sarge, Gunny….I don’t know what to say except, thank you. Thank you for working with me over this past year. And thank you for allowing your privacy to be breached to help me out. I am very grateful.”

“Kid, we wouldn’t do it for you if we didn’t think you had it in you” rumbled the Gunny.

“Well. Why don’t I make us supper with those steaks while you guys sit and relax. It’s the least I can do to say thank you. Besides, it will let me think of ways to talk to my parents about this.”

While I started to prepare my ingredients to make the sauce for the pasta, I looked around the kitchen to see what Sarge had. Looking through the cupboards, it appeared that Sgt. Joyce was more of a cook than Joe thought. He had all the tools of the trade with which to make wonderful food. I knew I had everything to make a great meal for these two extra dads/uncles I seem to have acquired.

Now, let’s see. All of the vegetables are prepped for my spaghetti sauce, so I better get it started. A good sauce should simmer for a while. Well, actually, according to Mrs. Fazzari it should simmer all day but I didn’t have that kind of time. Lightly sautéing the onions and garlic in olive oil I added my peppers, mushrooms and celery along with the oregano, basil and a bit of marjoram. Oh, it was starting to smell good. Adding the diced tomatoes and then hand crushing the canned Roma tomatoes as I added them, the sauce began to take on the aroma of a proper sauce as the scents of all the mingling spices started to permeate the kitchen.

Yes, I know, I talk about how I cook my food a lot. But it is one of the ways that I could express my creativity while maintaining that masculine façade. After all, the best chefs in the world were men, weren’t they? Popping the lid on the sauce and turning down the heat so it could simmer, I turned to the rest of the meal.

Well, the cookies needed to be next, since they would take a while to bake and cool if we wanted them for dessert. Getting all my dough ready, I proceeded to prepare them somewhat like a traditional Scottish shortbread — a pan version if you will. As opposed to the small individual cookies that most Americans had come to expect. Well, set them aside for the moment, they don’t need to go in for 15 or 20 minutes yet.

Doing these things that were so familiar to me allowed my mind to concentrate on what we had talked about and how we would approach my mother and father. I didn’t think my father was going to be that much of a problem, since he was the one that had brought me to Sgt. Joyce in the first place. The knotty problem was how to sell whatever plan we came up with to my mother. Well, I would think about it some more while I completed everything for dinner. Quickly whisking together a nice vinaigrette for the salad, I turned to the steaks. A nice spice rub, I think. That combined with a fast sear in a cast iron pan should turn out quite nice. Hmmm… deglaze the pan with some red wine if Sarge has some, and make a nice sauce to finish the steaks off.

Grabbing the coffeepot, I went back into the living room where Sarge and Gunny were still talking.

“Dinner will be about another 45 minutes or so, gentlemen. Would you like a top up on coffee right now? I’m going to make a stronger espresso style blend to go with dinner.”

Getting a couple of affirmative nods, I topped up their cups. Heading back toward the kitchen, I turned and paused for a moment.

“Oh, and Sarge do you have a bottle of red wine in the house? I’d like to use a bit for the sauce for the steaks, and I figured we could all have a glass with dinner as well.”

“Yeah, I keep a couple of bottles around. I’ll grab you one. You know of course that I shouldn’t be letting you have any since you’re underage? But what the hell, soon enough you’ll probably be in ‘Nam and a drink with friends is always a nice thing.”

I turned and headed back into the kitchen, a little smile crossing my face. Sarge considered me a friend... who’d have thought.

Anyway, getting back to the matter at hand — supper, I dug the steaks out of the fridge so I could look at them and see how long they would take to cook. Oh geeze, what did they do? Make 3 steaks out of an entire cow? These things are huge. It’ll take forever to cook them properly. I hope they like their steaks rare, otherwise it might be tomorrow before we eat. Hmmm, better check to see how they like them done.

Setting out the steaks to bring them up to room temperature — I found that I get better control of cooking time and doneness if I do — I poked my head around the corner and asked them how they wanted their steaks. I was praying that neither wanted them well done.

“Knock the hooves and the horns off it, throw it through the fire and put it on the plate!” replied Gunny.

“Yeah, sounds good to me too, Lyon. Nice and rare.”

Okay, back to the food. Hmmm, maybe a nice meal for my parents, and have the Sarge and Gunny over to help explain the plan to them... might work. A good meal and a few glasses of wine can often make something a little more palatable. Well, finishing up my rub for the steaks and getting the cookies into the oven, it would soon be time to get the pasta and the steaks on. Now was a good time to take a moment to set the table. Scant minutes later, I was calling the other two to the table for dinner. The meal had turned out pretty much perfect. The steaks were just right, as was everything else.

As Sarge and Gunny sat down they viewed the meal on the table.

“God damn, Lyon, that looks good. I don’t think I’ve sat down to a meal like this in years.”

Gunny voiced his agreement and we got started. There wasn’t much talking as we ate the rather humongous meal in front of us.
“Lyon my boy, I haven’t eaten that good in a very long time. You got some hidden talents.”

Holding up his glass, Gunny looked solemn for a moment and said a phrase I will have heard too many times in the years yet to come.

“Absent Companions.”

Realising that this was a moment for Sarge and the Gunny, I kept silent as they raised their glasses to each other and drank.

 »  »  »  »  »  »

L. J. STEVENS, Vol. One (4th part)

by
T D Aldoennetti

with contributing authors
Kate Hart & Denise Trask

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

After dinner, Sarge, Gunny and I spent the rest of the evening and well into the night hashing out the plans for my enlistment in the army. We came up with, and rejected, at least half a dozen plans that evening.

All of the planning was contingent on my parent’s approval of course. Although I didn’t think they would say no, I wasn’t sure how my mother was going to react. She was not at all happy about all the training I was doing, even though she knew exactly why. I think she was maybe afraid I would get to like it too much, and it would change me in ways that she wasn’t prepared for. In the end, it did that of course, but in ways neither she nor I could ever have expected.

With my parent’s approval, I would make my application to join the army immediately out of high school. The gunny and the Sarge would provide letters along with the two officers they had talked about earlier; and we would make a trip to Chicago to see a recruiting sergeant that Sgt. Joyce knew.

As he put it: “I don’t want some pencil pushing REMF to sideline your path. If you test out as good as I think you will, that would be a distinct possibility. By going through Bud Richardson, we can be assured that this will go the way it’s supposed to. Bud served with Bill Woolridge who is the current SMA. One word in his ear and no one will fuck with your duty assignments.”

“What’s the SMA, Sarge?”

“The SMA is the Sergeant Major of the Army — the senior enlisted man in the entire army. They just created this position recently, and Bud tells me that Bill looks after the interests of all enlisted men. He reports directly to JCS, and spends a fair bit of time observing training and the like. No one short of JCS have the right to order him around, and if he were to find out someone was screwing with a friend’s friend…”

“Ah, I get the picture. Ummm… Sarge, Gunny? I’ve never asked, but why are you two doing all this for me. Sarge I know you’re a friend of my dad, and you kind of know him too Gunny; but… why?”

“Well” started the Sarge “your dad, Joe and I all went to high school together. We were close friends. Your dad and I enlisted in the army and Joe went into the Marines.

You got to remember that this was during the 30’s when there weren’t any jobs to speak of. We were all mid-way into our first hitch when the war broke out in Europe. Word came down that all hitches were being extended and that getting out wasn’t gonna be an option any time soon. Joe was with the 4th Marines in Shanghai, and your dad and I were here in the States volunteering for any bit of training we could get. We were in the Big Red One, 2/26 to be exact. We had been sent to Benning to go through the Infantry School, and had done well enough that we got sent to Advanced Infantry Training. If we passed, it was extra money each month, so we jumped at the chance.”

Sarge sighed, “Your dad will have to decide if he wants to talk about it, but we ended up together right through the end of WW II. Kasserine, where we got royally fucked and where American troops ran for the first time in over a hundred years; Sicily, Aachen….we saw things that no man should ever see, and we survived. Your old man was in the same attack where I got that damn medal. Not that I’m denigrating the Medal, Lyon. Far from it. But I lost too many friends that day. So did your dad. They were guys we trained with, fought with, and grew to be brothers with.

He got out after WW II. Went to school on the GI Bill, married your mother and had you. Joe and I stayed in. We all kept in touch though, from wherever Joe or I happened to be in the world, we all managed to stay friends. After I retired, I came home. When your dad came to me knowing that you would probably be drafted and likely to go to Nam, I just had to help.”
Gunny chimed in with his part of the story.

“I’ve kinda owed your dad since high school. He actually helped me make it all the way through. When Marv came to me and said he wanted some help getting you ready for the Army, I was in.

Marv, your dad, and I were kinda like the Three Musketeers in high school. Where you found one of us, you found all of us. And while we went mostly our separate ways after high school, we have always kept in touch through letters, or mutual friends. Marv and I married the Army and the Marines, we never had any kids of our own. So helping you get ready is like getting one of our own ready.”

Wow. I was learning a lot more about my family than I ever knew before. I knew my Dad had been in the Army, but he really never talked about it. He always just said, “that was a different time and place”. I had read about most of the campaigns of the Big Red One and knew from my reading they had seen some very tough and bloody fighting. My Dad never struck me as a man who would be in that. He was just my Dad, you know?

“Ummm — Sarge, was my Dad ever decorated?”

“Lyon, I’ll let you ask your Dad about that. Those are his stories to tell.”

Obviously my Dad had seen some pretty wild things, considering he never talked about his time in the war. It made me wonder if he was trying to prepare me for the crap that I might see in Vietnam. In addition to talking with him, I think I should talk to my mother about his experience in the war from her perspective. I remember she said they had been going out before the war. It could be part of the reason she is so worried about me going into the Army.

“Well, I think I need to sit down and have a long talk with Dad. And Mother, too. But for now, let’s talk about what happens if we assume I get into the Army prior to being drafted, and that my enlistment goes the way you guys hope it will.”

“Well then, let’s go through Basic to start with, Lyon.”

“Week zero is the Reception Battalion. Normally when recruits arrive, it’s the haircut, physical, inoculations, issuing of uniforms and kit, physical, intelligence and psych testing. It’s also where the recruits are separated into platoons.”
“Now, when we do the early enlistment, we are going to accompany it with a complete physical and inoculations. You will, of course, have a regulation haircut; there will be a complete set of testing protocols run on you. Since all of that will be done in advance, once we get the results back, we will sit down with Bud and work out getting your MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) set up before you report. If your MOS is locked in by Command, the DI’s, your Company Commander, usually a Captain, and even the Training Battalion Commander can’t fuck with it.

This may cause a bit of resentment on their part if they are aware of it in advance, and it might cost you some shit and abuse, but it means you would get to where you want and need to be.

You’re already in better shape than pretty much any recruit that will enter Basic and you’ve had training. The physical conditioning that you’ve been doing, combined with what the Gunny and I have been teaching you is going to put you miles ahead of the curve. Again, there are some potential problems in Basic with that. This is crap you are going to have to live with. The DI’s will be picking on you first because of the way you look; and second because as you continue to prove yourself they will look for ways to try and make you fail so that they can humiliate you in front of the platoon.”

Turning his head, he said as an aside to Joe, “I never thought I’d say this Joe, but I think when he’s doing unarmed combat training he is going to have to ‘kill’ the DI in charge. It will probably be the only way to prove himself. Have you been teaching him all of the back alley tricks and DI tricks you know?”

“Marv, he knows everything I know, and actually ‘killed’ me three times today. On that score he’ll be fine.”

“Lyon,” Joe turned toward me, “Marv is absolutely right. Much and all as I would never normally suggest it, because it will initially seriously piss off the DI’s, you will have to go for the whole nine yards. Generally, during unarmed combat training we pick someone and say to them ‘C’mon — try and kill me’, so we can put them down fast and easy and show the squad or platoon that we’re trained and they don’t know nothing. Don’t kill the guy or seriously hurt him, but when the time comes, if you can put him down and put him down hard, you need to do it. Like I said, while it will piss them off mightily, and you will likely end up doing a shitload of corrective training, it will serve another purpose.”

“Okay, guys... How does marking myself to all the DI’s serve a purpose Gunny? I would have thought that I would be better staying ahead of the curve, by not making a target of myself.”

“It’s like this, Lyon. To some degree you will already be marked by having an MOS assignment that none of them can fuck with, if they decide to investigate that far. That would be a simple matter of checking out Battalion's file on you rather than the one they have at the company level. You will be showing up the other recruits in terms of physical conditioning and knowledge. More precisely, in the way the Army works. The Battalion Commander and possibly the DI’s will have your 201 file, and access to your testing scores, the letters of recommendation and all. This will present an enigma and problem for them. You will have 2 letters from former and current Army personnel and 2 from former Marine personnel. That alone will have them scratching their heads. This will also make them wonder if you have a ‘rabbi’ somewhere that doesn’t show in the file. That will then cause a lot of back channel commo to happen.”

“A ‘rabbi,’ Gunny? What’s that?”

“A ‘rabbi’ Lyon is much like a protector. That would be a person who is watching out for you. The Battalion Commander will wonder if there’s a more senior officer keeping an eye on you, given that 2 of the letters will be from 3 and 4 star Generals. The DI’s will wonder if it’s a senior non-com given the letters from me and Marv. Heaven forbid you might have one of each tracking your progress. If it were me in their place, I would call in a favor or two and get the poop on the two non-coms. I’d probably go off the reservation and call the most senior Marine non-com I know — in my case a Master Gunner on the Commandant’s staff — and find out what the guy that gave the letter is really all about. And then I’d find a doggie that I knew and do the same in regard to the Army. Getting the skinny on the two non-com letters would give me a lot of clues as to the kind of person you are. Especially if the people I called knew the writers personally and could vouch for them. It wouldn’t tell me if you had a rabbi, but it would help me understand how you know what you know.”

“Again, from my point of view, it would cause me to do one of two things. If after learning everything I could, and I thought you weren’t fucking with the system, and if you were a really promising recruit, I would start challenging you by making things tougher but directing your training in such a way as to make you a better soldier. If I decided you were a worthless piece of shit then I would do my damnedest to bust your ass out.”

“It will depend on which way they decide as to how Basic will go for you, kid. Worst case, ‘cause they won’t flunk you out of Basic is that they try to ship you to ‘Nam as a grunt right after Basic. Best case, you get AIT and Special Forces.”

“Marv, you wanna keep filling him in on Basic? I need to get another cup of coffee.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay Lyon, so in week zero you will wow them to a certain point, but it will also make them suspicious and it may set you apart from your squad and platoon mates as well. It’s just something you’re going to have to deal with. But you still need to be a team player. That is a hugely important thing — no one man is an army, you need your platoon mates to work with you like a well-oiled machine.”

“So, now week one. A bunch more really basic crap to be honest Lyon. We’ve being teaching you how to march properly and the basic rank structures and some of the other basics. Over the next few weeks, we will get into uniform care and maintenance, how to stay ahead of the game and everything else to make you a real strac’ trooper that your DI’s will be proud of and so will we.

Week two starts to get into hand to hand combat, some teamwork challenges and the basics of map reading, terrain navigation and the like. They get more serious in the physical training with the Victory Tower and obstacle courses. And they’ll start with the first aid training. Now I know you’ve done basic and advanced first aid training, but it would help if you had more.

Week three starts bayonet and weapons training. Stuff we’ve already done, and you know you should come out expert to high expert there. Those three components make up phase 1 of Basic.

Phase 2 of Basic gets you to firing weapons, introduces you to heavier weapons like grenade launchers and anti-tank weapons, continued PT, introduction to the confidence course and pairing with another recruit who will become your ‘battle buddy’. This happens over a period of another 3 weeks.

Phase 3 of Basic is made up of the PT final, bivouac and combat exercises plus a final Field Training Exercise where the recruit platoon and squad leaders are in charge of their units. Only those that pass this will be moved on to AIT. That’s the basics of Basic, if you will. Throughout all of this, the DI’s and the officers will be looking at the recruits. They will be looking for leaders, specialists and what I call ‘naturals’. The naturals are the hardest to define. It is really only from years of experience can they pick out these people. A natural just doesn’t come along all that often. Maybe once in every 10 recruit rotations do you find one. God knows both Joe and I have seen our fair share of recruits and I think I have only seen a dozen or so true naturals.”

It was at this point that Gunny rejoined the conversation.

“Marv’s right. A natural born warrior is a precious commodity. Like him, in all my years I have not seen very many at all. No more than a dozen, that’s for sure. And unfortunately, unless they have a group of men around them that recognize them for what they are, they end up getting killed way too quickly.”

Gunny sighed.

“The problem is that they try to do too much without adequate back up. Well, that’s not entirely true either. Because the officers in charge recognize what they have, they tend to ask for more than can be accomplished without the aid of a well trained and accomplished squad or platoon around him. And when that happens, the natural tries to make it work anyway and too many times ends up getting killed. That’s one of the reasons I support the concept of SEALS and Special Forces. It gives the naturals the place where they can be developed with the proper support squad around them. And they actually make the men around them better, too. The team that ends up working with these guys tends to become better soldiers merely to keep up. And from pride of course.

Now I don’t know for sure if you’re a natural or not kid, but you ARE damned good. We’re going to keep trying to polish you so we can get you a couple of other things. If, and remember that word — if, you are testing out really well, and you do real well at the beginning of basic, they can essentially declare you ready for AIT and send you through. What they would likely do is put you with a rotation that is about to graduate and have you do the Standard Army Annual PT Examination and the FTX — the Field Training Exercise. If you pass those, it’s straight to AIT.

So for the next few weeks until you join up, Marv and I are going to run you through every aspect of basic. By the time we’re done, you will know more than any average recruit. The reason for us doing this is simple — we want to make it so you can do OSUT (One Station Unit Training) if possible and then move right into Special Forces Training.”

“Your MOS and your Special Forces training designation are going to depend a lot on your pre-entry testing, so you do want to make sure you do well on those. They have a lot of impact on your future career.”

Wow! No pressure guys! Well to be honest I already knew that my test scores were going to be a big thing, so that wasn’t really all that much of a surprise. But it’s not like a guy wants to be reminded of it, or anything. All I can do is my best, anyway. But they think I am “damned good”. High praise indeed from those two. They have worked me hard, and it sounds like they plan to continue that. But wow, they really do care about me. Not just because of dad, but because they truly care for me. All of a sudden it’s like I had 3 dads or something.

“So, if I ace the testing, we can pretty much dictate the MOS from there, correct?”

I got a couple of affirmative nods, so I went on.

“And, depending on how I do physically and with intake testing I might get ‘rushed’ through Basic and sent to AIT, but remain at the same duty station for all of it.”

Again, I got a couple of nods albeit less enthusiastic this time.

“There’s no guarantee of that, but if they have AIT training available there then it’s likely.” Sarge informed me.

“And you two are going to keep teaching me everything I need to know for basic so I can try to make this happen?”

“Of course we are, Lyon.”

“All right then, I would guess we have a plan then. I think we need to speak to my parents now. I want to have a couple of chats with both mother, and dad about different things in the meantime, but what do you guys say to coming over to dinner at our house next weekend so we can talk to them and outline the plan?”

“Sounds good, Lyon.”

“Works for me too, kid.”

“Gunny, it’s probably time I was getting home. Could you drop me off?”

“Sure thing kid, I have to get going anyway.”

The ride home was pretty much done in silence, both Gunny and I lost in our thoughts. It had been a busy day and a thoughtful evening. I was mentally and physically tuckered out.

As Gunny dropped me off, he said “Get some rest, ‘cause we’ll be working out at the same times this week for training. Just ‘cause you killed me don’t mean we’re done working.”

“Right Gunny.”

After I got home, I said good night to my mother and dad, said I would talk to them tomorrow and headed for bed. I don’t think my head even hit the pillow before I was asleep.

The next day I was up and out early. I knew Mom would want to know things I wasn’t ready to talk about yet, so I figured I’d best be out and about before she cornered me and made me say something I’d regret. She knew she would be losing me to the draft but that didn’t make it any easier for her. As that fateful moment was looming ever larger she was becoming more... ‘motherly’ toward me. I think a part of it was her not understanding the mindset of the whole thing.

Dad, well, he was resigned to it. He had served in his time and he knew others who had spent even more time after those hellish years. As a result he had an idea about what was coming and had made some sort of peace with it... if ‘peace’ was the right word here. I decided I would tell him about it all as soon as possible. He might be able to give me some sort of advance idea about how to bring it up with Mom when Sarge and Gunny came over for supper. He could also help Mom by adding his support to her when I did break the silence.

Even with all that, it hit Mom really hard to be suddenly face to face with the certainty of it all. At least the four of us were able to convince her that everything I had done up to this point offered me the greatest chance of surviving it all. Even so, she still came close to catatonia from the shock of facing it. I think she felt she was losing both a son and a daughter all at once since there were times she seemed to consider me to be one and the same. I know that sounds really weird, it wasn’t like she thought of me wearing dresses or anything but she had taught me to cook and care for the house much as she would for her daughter. It took a couple of days before she came out of her self- imposed, robot like, anxiety attack. When she did, she had a number of questions which, once answered, seemed to placate her a bit. The next week, Sarge and Gunny took me up to see their buddy

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic, or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Sarge and Gunny had phoned their buddy over the weekend so he was primed and ready when we arrived. That battery of tests they told me about were administered to me but I wasn’t told the results, at least not right away. All I could get out of the three of them was, “you did good, kid.” Other than a physical we polished off all the paperwork including my enlistment options and the copy and filing of the four letters Gunny and Sarge had been holding for me. Their buddy didn’t say a word about them, he just smiled and gave Sarge a thumbs up.

By the time we finished everything it was getting to be late in the day. They and their buddy took me out and we all had dinner together. That was when I learned a bit more about my testing. I did well enough that once I was in Basic, if I proved to do as well with the physical things as I did with the mental ones then the odds were fairly good that I might be moved into a company which was either in the end of phase two or beginning phase three.

“If that happens, kid, your new DIs won’t be at all happy. Look for a bit more shit to drop on you until you can prove yourself in their eyes. They’ll also spend some time talking to your old company to see just why you were dropped in on them. It usually happens because the recruit is a fuck up and his old company wanted him out before he tainted everyone else, but once in a while the reverse is true and they really are pushing someone up the line instead of down. Not often enough that anyone believes it when they’re told that’s the reason.”

“It won’t make a lot of difference if you prove yourself in the first week at that second company and if you wind up in phase three it will all be over before they have a chance to figure it out. They won’t be happy because all the buddy teams will already exist so you might wind up playing the game by yourself and that won’t be too much fun during your final exercises. Right after that will be when they’ll call everyone in one at a time to have you receive your orders. Whatever you do, don’t accept them. Instead hand your company commander a copy of your enlistment training guarantee. They have to accept it. It’s a set of orders which predate anything they will try to give to you and if you don’t accept theirs then they have to abide by those which you hand to them. Here, these are the ones you don’t want to lose. Keep an extra set on your person at all times as well as in the personal space of your footlocker. You might keep a couple of extra sets around at home, too. That way if the one in your footlocker ‘disappears’ you can have another one sent to you from home.”

“Disappears?”

“Yeah. Sometimes shit happens. But you’ll have Me, Sarge and Chester here all checking up on you. If they move you to another company mid-training, immediately let us know where they sent you.”

Well, it wasn’t as bad as they had outlined to me. I eventually found myself on a bus headed for camp. Mom, of course, had been trying to hold a stiff upper lip but just before I got on the bus she broke down and Dad had to lead her back to the car.
Eventually we arrived at camp and it was pretty much like what Gunny and the Sarge had explained to me. For some inexplicable reason they gave me the battery of tests all over again despite my having already taken them. It was late afternoon of the third day when they moved us up to our company. That had happened sooner than usual as I heard it, and we barely had time to drop our duffles before they had us out on the company grounds forming up so we could be put through the chow line. Once we finished chow we were sent back to our platoon bays to settle in.

The next morning bright and early we went on a slow jaunt around the five companies which made up this battalion. Supposedly it was only about a mile but by the time we returned for breakfast nearly a third of the guys were wheezing and we had four who had dropped out and needed to be nursemaided through the course by a drill corporal. Most of those guys were so overweight I was surprised they could carry themselves much less jog. I wondered what they would do once we began running. Not long after chow we formed ranks again and were off to an exercise ground for some PT. So far none of this had been a test of my physical condition but that was about to change.

“You! Private! What’s your name?”

“Lyon, Sergeant.” I yelled back.

“I know you’re lying, private. But I want your last name.”

“Stevens, Sergeant.” I yelled again.

“Are you making fun of me, recruit? I don’t like people who make fun of me. Down and give me twenty. Count ‘em off as you come up for air.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

I was down beginning my push-ups, “One... Two...” but by the time I reached five he had one of the other recruits sitting on my back which made me glad I could pull a full two hundred. By the time I made it to twenty it felt like two hundred.

“Get back in that line where you belong, private.” He yelled at me.

“Yes, Sergeant.” I yelled back, beginning to think this might not be such an easy training session as I had hoped.

“You breathing hard, private?”

“No, Sergeant.”

“Then get down and give me twenty more.”

At least I wasn’t the only one singled out for this attention. It was happening all over the place and the others weren’t just standing around watching those of us who were singled out. Everyone had something to be doing so we all felt miserable.
I finished the second twenty with somewhat greater ease than the first since there was no one sitting on my back this time.

“You breathing hard yet, private?”

I was trying to figure out what it was he had against me in particular when it dawned on me that my slight figure was likely sticking in his craw a bit.

“Yes, Sergeant.” I answered trying to look like I was breathing a bit harder.

“Let’s see if you can manage twenty more then.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

He was obviously trying to break me in front of everyone else.

I began to do the push-ups alternating one arm and then the other.

“Did I tell you to show off, private?”

“No, Sergeant.”

“What do we do with people who want to show off?”

“I don’t know, Sergeant.”

“We give them extra push-ups, private. That’s what we do. I want to see fifty of them out of you and do them right. Start over with ‘one’.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

I gave him his fifty which didn’t seem to please him too much but he sent me back to the regular line and began to concentrate on someone else. I could see him looking at me out of the corner of his eye every now and again though. I just knew this was going to be the one who would likely keep pushing and most probably the one Sarge and Gunny had mention that I would need to ‘kill’ in hand to hand. That might prove to be a little tough since he looked like he outweighed Gunny by about forty pounds; then again, I would only need to do it once.

The next morning we did our lap around the battalion and only three of the recruits dropped out. We had another wheezer but gained a few to better breathing. The pace was still pretty sedate. I wasn’t getting much out of it and was worried I was beginning to lose a bit of my edge. After chow I sought out my Sergeant and asked if we were allowed to run the battalion course when on our own time, explaining that I used to run five miles a day back home.

“So. We’re not giving you enough exercise in the mornings? Okay, tell you what. Each morning when we begin our run, you just run on ahead about three hundred yards, then you turn around and run back to the group, run around the back of the group and on up ahead another three hundred yards. You just keep on doing this until we’ve finished the circuit. Got that?”

“Yes, Sergeant. Thank you, Sergeant.” I trotted off before he had a chance to change his mind.

 « t  »

“Hi. What brings you past my office this early in the morning?”

“Hi Bill. Got a recruit I’m curious about. What do you know about that Stevens kid?”

“Stevens? Which one is that?”

“The one in my platoon who looks like a girl. You know what he asked me after chow this morning? He wanted to run the battalion circuit on his own time. Seems he used to run five miles a day at home and he felt a little put out that he had to restrict himself to one time around the loop going as slow as the rest of the platoon.”

“So he’s a troublemaker?”

“Naw. I don’t think so. I think he really wanted to keep up his running regimen. I don’t know what to make of him. I had him doing push-ups and he pounded out a hundred of them and I had the feeling he could have done it most of the day. He looks weak as a girl but he’s got a lot of strength hidden away in that body.”

“I’ll watch him. You may have someone worth teaching. What did you do about his running?”

The D.I. explained his little exercise he had assigned to Stevens, “If he handles a few days of that I think I might let him work at his own pace. I could use a good example to push the others into shape. He would be ideal for that.”

“Yeah. If you don’t get him killed by his own platoon.”

“Yeah.” he thought about that little problem, “I wouldn’t want that to happen. Damn, I should have made him one of the temp. corporals or his squad leader.”

“You still could. If the first one doesn’t work out so well then take it away from him and give it to this... whatever you said his name was.”

“Stevens. Think I’ll go over to battalion HQ and see if I can peek at his full jacket. There’s something here that doesn’t meet the eye and I’d like to know more about him.”

The Company Sergeant agreed, “Okay, I’ll tell you what. I’ll send for a full copy of the jacket they have on him. They don’t let us have a lot in the jackets we have here. I’d like to know more myself. Something doesn’t add up.”

“Could I read it when you get it?”

“I’ll let you know as soon as it arrives. Meanwhile, let’s let him have his head a little and see how far he wants to stick his neck out.”

“Thanks, Bill. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“No sweat, Frank. When do you take your platoon for hand-to-hand orientation?”

“Next week, why?”

The company Sergeant got up to check the hand-to-hand course schedule. “The course has an open session tomorrow. What would it do to your schedule to take them there tomorrow, for two hours? Maybe in place of the afternoon run and barracks drill which I see is on your schedule?”

Thinking, “Okay. So you think we could see how far his mettle extends?”

“Might be good to take him down a peg or two. Then again, we just might have a sleeper here so be careful.”

“Okay, what about George? Think he could give us a hand tomorrow?”

“I’ll give him a call and get back to you this evening. If he can, then let’s count on going that route tomorrow. Worst case we might learn the kid is more capable than anyone else in the platoon and then you’ll have a decision to make.”

“Yeah. Do I want him in charge of my platoon or do we need to come down on him, hard. That’d be a shame since he seems to be a nice kid. He hasn’t tried anything stupid. I’m just trying to decide if he’s a show off and good for nothing, or if he really wants to gain something out of all this.”

“I’ll call you at home later.”

“Okay. Thanks Bill. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

 « t  »

The next morning we went on our run. At least I had the opportunity to continue my regimen while the rest of them went on their plodding way around the battalion course.

“Stevens, get out there and run.”

I didn’t need a second reminder.

I was three hundred yards down the track before they had made their first fifty and met them on my way back, looping around behind them then charging ahead again as they reached a little over their first hundred. That meant I was running three to four hundred yards for each of their one hundred to one-fifty. That would give me at least three miles about the time they finished their first one.

By the end of the run I was pretty close to winded. A week of missing my running had me a little out of shape.

“Thanks, Sergeant. I really needed that.”

“Don’t thank me yet, Stevens. See me after chow. Fall back into your squad.”

I wondered what that was all about but fell in as we were lined up for chow. I finished in a hurry then went back out to find the sergeant. I didn’t see him for maybe five minutes and when I did he was coming out of the company building with the First Sergeant. He spotted me about the same time I started in his direction. He didn’t call my name but just motioned for me to come over.

“Stevens, this is First Sergeant Madison. Bill, this is the recruit I’ve been telling you about.”

“I’m hearing some interesting things about you, Stevens. I’d like the three of us to go into my office for a few minutes.”

“First Sergeant?”

“We need to talk. Come with us.”

Sarge and Gunny hadn’t warned me about anything like this. I wasn’t certain what to make of it. I followed them to a company office and our platoon sergeant shut the door then took a seat as I stood there. The First shirt walked around behind the desk and sat where he could look at me.

“Do you want to explain this?”

That left me a little confused, “uh, explain what First Sergeant?”

“This. This little pile of paper which tells me you aren’t just any recruit. Do you care to tell me why you have so many endorsements from people who matter? Why are you here when you seem to belong in special forces?”

Now I was confused.

“I admit I intend to try for special forces but I haven’t even completed basic so I’m here to learn.”

“By making fools of my training sergeants?”

“No, First Sergeant. I’m really here to learn. I’ve been taught a lot but I’m not trying to... ‘upset the apple cart’.”

The two men looked at me for fifteen or twenty seconds before the First Sergeant spoke again.

“Your platoon is going to the hand-to-hand course this afternoon. How are you going to do there?”

“I don’t know, Sergeant.”

“Guess.” He commanded me.

“I hope I will do well, First Sergeant.”

“Don’t fuck with me, Stevens or so help me you’ll never see the light of day again. Now, how much hand-to-hand have you already had and how good are you at it?”

I bit the bullet and began to explain my last year and a half to them. When I finished they looked at each other and each raised an eyebrow.

“Damn, Bill. I figured it had to be something like this. Do you still want me to take them down to hand-to-hand?”

“Yeah. I want our young hero here to try his hand with George. If he does well then we’ll decide where to go from there. Meanwhile, I’ve got to talk with Captain Moreno and decide what to do with Stevens if he does well at the course today. His test scores are off the mark and I‘d like to see how he can do in leadership. Kid, answer me one question would you? Why didn’t you go the OCS route?”

“I don’t want to be an officer. In Nam the enlisted aren’t targeted out of hand and being a lieutenant on patrol is just as likely to get me a bullet in the back as it is from the front.”

“At least the kid has a head on his shoulders, Bill.”

“Yeah, Jack. No faulting him there. Okay kid. Just hang loose while we work this out, okay? I’ll need to think about this a bit. I think we can give him more of a free hand in his physical training but he still needs to be brought up to speed in some areas. Let me know how he does at the course today. I’ll be getting a report from George, too.”

“Can do. Thanks, Bill. Com’on kid. We got a platoon to train.”

“We?”

“It’s a figure of speech, Kid. Don’t get cocky.”

 « t  »

That afternoon the platoon was off to the hand-to-hand course. When no one voluntarily came down to try to kill him, Sgt. George looked up in my direction, pointed and said, “You. Get your ass down here, take this bayonet and try to kill me.”
I started to get up when he added, “Not you, little lady. I want that big sack of shit sitting next to you. You’ll just have to wait your turn.”

Of course that brought a round of laughter from the platoon, they all knew who he was talking about.

The big burly gang banger who had picked the army in lieu of five years in prison got up and pushed everyone out of his way as he went down to claim the bayonet. After his first swing, it took Sgt. George all of four seconds to disarm the guy and have him prone on his stomach with the Sergeant’s boot planted squarely on his back holding him to the ground. The Sergeant stayed that way for a minute or two as he continued to talk to us then let the guy up as though he had forgotten he had him down there. No one thought it was funny, now.

Next he pointed at me and said, “Okay, little lady. You wanted a chance. Come on down and let's see if you can do any better.”

I refused the bayonet which brought a laugh from both him and the platoon. The next thing I knew we were into it. It wasn’t quite as easy as Gunny had made it out to be but I did manage to drop George for a brief moment twice before he began some moves I wasn’t familiar with. Even then, I still managed to hold my own using some of the back alley and DI tricks Gunny had taught me.
He didn’t get me down although I did go flying a couple of times but bounced up again like I had landed on a trampoline. At the end of the session, George stood back and stiffly bowed to me like we had been in some sort of martial art contest so I did the same to him and he smiled.

“Okay Kid, go sit over there next to your Sergeant. Good show.” He gently put his hand on my shoulder and pushed me toward the bleachers which were occupied only by our training Sergeant.

Turning to the rest of the platoon he bellowed, “NOW. As you can see, there’s a lot more to keeping your head when fighting hand-to-hand than just boxing or wrestling. What this course is going to teach to you is how to keep your head from being handed to you on a platter when you come up against an enemy who has skills you don’t. Stevens there isn’t going to be handy to help you when that happens so when you all begin this course you better pay attention because some of you are going to be paired to practice with him and I’m going to make certain he doesn’t pull any punches. Got that, Stevens?... Sarge? I might just borrow that Stevens kid from you from time to time to help teach some of the advanced classes the AIT knuckleheads are trying to pass.”

“I’ll let our company commander know about your request.”

“So will I.” Any of you think you could do as well as Stevens? If so, come on down here and I’ll let you try to prove it.”

There were no takers. That evening there were no jeers or little ‘encounters’ for me either. At least the orientation had taught my platoon buddies that if I really wanted to do so, I could hand them their own heads. Even the gang banger stayed away from me. There were a couple who even went so far as to ask if I could start teaching them some of the moves.

“Clear it with the Sergeant and if he says okay then, yeah.”

 « t  »

“... I tell you, Bill. He held his own with George. George is so impressed he’s thinking about borrowing Stevens to help teach some of the AIT courses; as I’m sure he’ll tell you this evening.”

“I’ve already had a phone call from him. Captain Moreno has pretty much dropped it all in my lap so you and I need to decide what to do about him. Do you think he will benefit from anything we could teach him here?”

“Not really. Hell, just from talking with him today I learned he knows a hell of a lot. I took him down to the armory and I think he knows more about weapons than our armorer. When I handed him a fourteen, he field-stripped it in nothing flat, condemned the firing pin then put it all back together noting that the barrel was damaged as well. I had him look at a 1911 and he took it down and put it back together again in four minutes flat. Said it had too much oil on it. The kid isn’t even being cocky, he just doesn’t realise he’s that good at it.”

“Think maybe he’s a natural?”

“I dun’no. If not, then he’s really perceptive. I don’t want to declare him a natural because then some frickin’ officer will get him killed but... damn... the kid’s good.”

“What do you think about bumping him up to a company that’s about to graduate?”

“I’d like to say there’s something we could teach him but... I don’t know what it would be. He needs AIT. That’s where he could learn something.”

“What about spending the next week as a recruit lieutenant?”

“Oh hell. You’d do that to the poor kid?”

Laughing, “yeah, I know what you mean. Okay. What about Platoon Sergeant?”

“I’ve already got one.”

“Push that one down to corporal?”

“No. He’s pretty good and the others have adjusted to him. Why can’t we just give Stevens his head and let him practice on his own away from the rest of the company?”

“We can’t do that, Jack. He has to be where he can be evaluated.”

“Then I guess the only thing we can do is bump him up and let him graduate with another company. We’ll need to let them know not to fuck with him since it won’t be a punishment.”

The First Sergeant pulled out a number of sheets of paper, consulting them as he had several times each of the past few days.

“C-2-4 is graduating next week. We could see if they have room for him and I could explain it all to their First Sergeant. Hopefully he’ll believe me and they won’t fuck with him for the week. He’s still better trained than any other basic trainees, even when they’re in their final week. I don’t know if Jacobs will believe me since this sort of thing happens so infrequently. You think Stevens could handle AIT as he is?”

“Handle it? Hell, He’ll own the damn place after the first three weeks. You sure Jacobs is the First Shirt at C-2-4? He owes me a favor.”

“It’s either him or Johnson.”

“Johnson’s a prick. If he’s the First over there, don’t send the kid to him.”

“We won’t have a graduating class for two weeks following C-2-4. Let me check, if it’s Johnson I’ll see what kind of a deal I can wrangle. If it’s Jacobs then I’ll remind him he owes you one.”

“Fair enough.”

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Two days later my D.I. took me to see the First Sergeant again. This time I wasn’t so apprehensive. I could excuse the first time since it didn’t conform to the scenario for which Sarge and Gunny had prepared me. Hell, even the first day of the hand to hand course didn’t conform. It was like some of the people here knew some big secret about me and they were trying to keep it away from everyone else, especially the officers.

We walked past the day room and over to the First Sergeant’s office. I could hear a conversation trickling through the door down at what I assumed was the C.O.’s office but couldn’t make out any words. Sarge knocked on the First Sergeant’s door and we heard “Enter” bellowed back at us. Sarge opened the door and nearly pushed me into the room.

The First Sergeant was there behind his desk but there was another one standing in the room next to him staring at me as Sarge pushed me in. I stood there and Sarge took a seat just like he did last time.

“Well? There he is. What d’ya think?”

The new guy looked me over, “This is a joke, right?”

The First Sergeant spoke up, “Not hardly, Jacobs. Steven’s would you be so kind as to give me fifty? Do it right over there.”
First Sergeant Madison pointed to a clear area off at the side of his office which obviously had been occupied by one of the two chairs that now were before his desk.

The three of them continued talking as I pounded out my fifty push-ups. When I finished, my platoon sergeant/ D.I. motioned for me to come over by him.

“Sit, Stevens. We still got some stuff to hash out.”

They kept talking. First Sergeant Jacobs kept looking at me like I had something contagious.

“Look. Our company graduates basic in a week and a half. We still have the final PT, the bivouac and combat exercises plus our final Field Training Exercise and aggressor force surprise.”

“That’s an idea.” Sergeant Norton said with a big smile on his face.

“What’s an idea?” Jacobs asked.

“Give the kid recruit-sergeant stripes and four guys from each of your platoons. Then hand him carte blanch and let his little group be the aggressor force.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. The company would murder them; and aggressor force comes from the AIT trainees who are about to graduate.”

“We’ll hand him over to the aggressor D.I. and let him acquaint him with the whys and wherefores. A little time on the course to see the lay of the land and then a free hand. Your company won’t know where the attack is going to occur and it might do them some good to be taken by surprise.”

“Care to make a bet to back up your enthusiasm, Frank? You need to lose one once in a while.”

“Okay. How’s fifty sound and I’ll owe you one?”

“Sound’s good to me.”

“And if Stevens comes out on top as declared by the aggressor monitors?”

“You’ve got to be kidding. There’s no way.”

“So you won’t back up your own enthusiasm?”

“Okay. It’s your funeral and his.” He pointed to me. “If he comes out on top he graduates with us and I’ll cover your fifty and owe you another favor. But if we win out then he goes through the next rotation with us and you owe me one.”

“Deal.”

I didn’t exactly like the way this seemed to be going. There were entirely too many ways First Sergeant Jacobs could stack the deck. That caused me to ask, “Who are normally the aggressor force, again?”

“Usually they are part of an AIT group who are close to graduating.”

“Why can’t I have a dozen of them? The company will still out number us by nine to one or more.”

Jacobs looked at me with a smile on his face, “Whatever turns you on little lady. Whatever turns you on.”

I wish people would quit calling me that.

“Wait a minute you two,” First Sergeant Madison held up his hand. “I’ve go a better idea. Mike, instead of pitting your company against Stevens, why don’t you give him one man from each of the company’s squads and make him a free-ranging patrol independent of the balance of your company? Let him and the men you give to him scout for you and, if they can, capture some or all of the aggressor force. That would be a feather in your company’s hat and would also prove Stevens deserves to graduate with you. No outside bets to put pressure on the kid and it’s a win-win. If he pulls it off then he deserves to go on to AIT. If he can’t then he still has some things to learn here and we’ll keep him and show him the ropes. Meanwhile, he could be shown the terrain on which your FTE and AF are going to occur. Let him get a feel for the area and have a free hand to assign his men as he sees fit.”

Sergeant Norton and First Sergeant Jacobs both looked at each other and then at me. I could tell Jacobs still had a lot of reservations about me.

“That would still make his force smaller than the aggressor force. He would only have twenty men, we have five platoons this rotation. The aggressors will likely have a full platoon so he’d be outnumbered better than two to one.”

“So, that just means he has to work a little harder. He’s getting used to it.”

They all sat there thinking about it as smiles began to cross everyone’s face except my own.

“We could kinda take him around to show him a few things so he could get a feel for the area.” Jacobs spoke up.

“Yeah, and maybe work out some blank ammo and blank fire attachments for the fourteens they’d be using so they will cycle okay.” Sergeant Norton added.

“No full auto, just single shot.” First Sergeant Jacobs added.

“Works for me. Hey kid, how much did your mentors teach you about tactics?”

 « t  »

I gave them a quick run down of the books I had studied and the drills Sarge and Gunny had taken me through.

“You know. This might actually work.” First Sergeant Jacobs began to get a wicked gleam in his eyes.

“Those AIT instructors haven’t had a defeat handed to them in quite a few years. It would be good to see a Basic Company given ‘em hell.”

“Don’t forget gentlemen, we don’t want to undermine the confidence the AIT trainees have picked up. We also will need to give Stevens time to bring his people up to speed so they can be effective. Mike, can you handle losing those people for the rest of this week and will it undermine their ability to graduate?”

“I’ll have to clear it with Captain Tipplemann but if he gives the go ahead, and I’m pretty sure he will, then we’ll be sure to pick some guys who can follow orders. If Stevens is given temp cadet-lieutenant rank then they’ll follow him.”

“Looks like we might have a winner here, except Stevens has a phobia about being an officer. Would your guys follow a cadet-sergeant?”

“I’ll make sure they will. Give him a drill corporal’s pot and cadet-E5 stripes and they won’t question his authority. They’ve had seven weeks to get used to it.”

“There’s a company going through it’s FTE and AF this week. Can we get the kid into an observation position so he can see what an aggressor force is all about? That could probably help him plan his strategy.”

I was all for that. Apparently First Sergeant Jacobs was beginning to line up behind it as well.

“They owe me. Let me make the arrangements. Just outfit the kid with his pot and stripes and I’ll let you know where and when.”

“Consider it done. Come on kid, we’re moving you into the empty squad bay where our drill corporals are housed. Let’s go get your gear.”

Sergeant Norton took me out to collect my stuff while the two First Sergeants continued to talk and look at the copy of my jacket which had been received from Battalion. When we got into the hall the conversation down at the other office was still in full swing. We turned and he led me over to my barrack where we collected my stuff and my bedding, I rolled my mattress and then we were off to another barrack building where everything was done in reverse. He gave me a half hour to put everything right while he went out to collect a drill corporal’s pot and cadet-sergeant stripes for me.

It was the very next day when we went out to observe the ambush the AIT trainees were going to administer to an “unsuspecting” basic training company. It was the classic simple crossed fields of fire ambush. A section of road depressed between two ten foot vertical banks... The ambush was made from both sides where each side could cover the bank on the other side of the road leaving no area available in which to find cover. It also gave the advantage of high ground to the aggressors. If a party of sappers came along above the aggressors, then they could only put down the half of them which were on that side. That would allow the rest to escape or carry out their attack on the company marching up into the trap. Not an easy trap to eliminate.

“What’s to prevent the aggressors from saying we didn’t shoot them and continuing on while just ignoring us?”

“That’s the reason the First Shirts are letting the word out that there will be a roving patrol which just might take the aggressor team to task. Now they have to not only prepare their trap for the company, they have to guard their flanks.”

“Oh, great. Why not make things easy for me?”

Sarge smiled, “in a way, we have. The school is going to place eight referees. Two in the company, two with each of the aggressor teams wherever they will be and two with your own personnel. They’ll decide who’s dead and who’s alive. Try not to be dead.”

I raised my eyebrows and dropped them again.

“Yeah, thanks... try not to be dead. I’ll try to remember that Sarge.”

He laughed, “I’m sure you will. There’s still time to back out.”

“After the buildup you and the First Sergeant made for me? Not to be ungrateful but this is beginning to seem like a fool’s errand. Those guys ever heard of Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, or Rommel?” I pointed at the AIT trainees.

“Probably not as effectively as you have.”

“Terrific.”

“Yes. Terrific. They probably know the names and a little of what they’re about but they don’t have a clue as to the deeper thoughts and tactics. And Rommel loved a classic pincer so who and what countered Rommel?”

I thought about it for a moment then began smiling.

“Actually, Rommel had those nice eighty-eights and because he established a large number of camouflaged fuel dumps all across the desert at strategic locations which he would likely travel, he could blitz across the desert very quickly. That meant his limited number of tanks could move and be present wherever he had need for them. Then he used his pincer from both sides as his main force went right up the middle.”

“There you have it, Stevens. Think you can do that with just twenty guys?”

I gave that some thought, “If they’re the right twenty guys who can quickly understand what I want to teach them and if we can start today.”

He grunted, “Then let’s go see First Sergent Jacobs and collect your team.”

The rest, as they say, was history. We didn’t collect all the AIT guys but the refs said we killed over half and captured four. Their ambush failed with only very minimal losses on our side. All of those were my own personnel, which was more or less expected. Four out of my twenty were declared dead and six were wounded. That was half my people which put a very wet blanket on my otherwise happy demeanor. I was transferred to C-2-4 for graduation, and then it was off to AIT and the beginning of my MOS specialties. Eventually I finished it all including some NCO command schooling which was added into the mix. I came out in the top one percent, with only one other person beating me in overall capability and he had been in the army for four years before he received this level of training. I had been poked up to PFC when I left basic and AIT and command school moved me up two more notches in just twenty seven weeks, so with NCO command school under my belt and E-5 on my collar I headed into the final eighteen weeks where I actually began to work with the team I was going to be leading once we took our little trip across the Pacific.

Completion of that preparation moved me up to E-6 just before we moved out. That was also the end of my rapid advancement.

As I mentioned before, the Army or rather active duty was where it all began to come to a head. Probably not in the manner you might think but still that’s where the ball began picking up speed. The actual beginning of our downfall into the intelligence community and the eventual acceptance of our friends pushing actually started with our involvement in a special rescue mission somewhere well behind that Northern eight-ball and which probably would never have happened if I hadn’t gone through the training with Sarge and Gunny prior to my enlistment. There’s such a thing as being too good at what you do, especially in the Army and I’d had nearly two years of it by the time this little excursion came up.

 « t  »

“Viper, the LZ is hot, repeat, the LZ is hot.”

“Copy Mad Hatter, do you have the package?”

“Negative, package is missing. Use alternate 2-1-Lima, 4-1-5-Bravo.”

“Copy, 2-1-Lima, 4-1-5-Bravo. Good Luck Mad Hatter. Out”

“Thanks, we’ll need it. Out”

“Now what, Sarge?”

“Now we locate and acquire the package then get him to 2-1-Lima/ Bravo before Friday at three, preferably alive and well. Come on guys, let’s boogie before Charley figures out our ride outt’a here was waved off and starts hunting for a reason.”

As we hiked our way further into Northern Vietnam I didn’t even want to think about those Zoomies. They had a rough job this time, especially since they didn’t have anything to show for a rushed flight from Thailand over Laos and into this Northwestern part of Nam only to learn we weren’t ready. Now they had the difficult job of trying to fly South over the mountains in the hopes they could be elsewhere before enough of an alert made it out that there would be people hunting for them. A flight like that couldn’t be done all that often and I had just asked for another one for four days from now. Go figure. I’m sure they appreciated that little challenge.

An hour later I and the men I had tagged to come along on this little recreational excursion into the deep wilds of Northern Vietnam pulled up for a breather so we could quietly consider our options. I pulled out the map given to me at the intelligence briefing even as I began wishing Vinh wasn’t so far South of us. Vihn hell, now we were only a hop, skip and a jump from Thahn Hoa and that was about halfway between Vihn and Ha Noi. We were so deep into the enemy’s territory that I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we so much as stumbled over a farmer’s chicken. I begin laying out our present knowledge and probable options in the idiotic premise that the more who knew about this the more good ideas might come from it. I can dream can’t I? Maybe I spent too much time in training.

“The package was missing from the zone and it was crawling with Charley so they probably have him and learned of the zone from him or from the guys that were with him. That doesn’t speak well for the likelihood that he or they are still alive. We’ve got less than four days to find him or learn he’s dead then to get our ass’s west to 2-1-Lima/Bravo. That by itself was going to be quite a little feat. If we’re lucky that will only be about two hundred clicks, so if we don’t find him in the next forty-eight hours we have to move out anyway. If we need more time than that... well, I guess then we’ll begin the long walk home crossing Laos to try to reach Thailand which is about half as far as South Vietnam.

The last place we checked was the closest likely spot they might have been holding him. That was the reason we para-dropped in at night. Hopefully he’s alive around here somewhere. The next place we’re going to check is supposedly a secure location for them as well as one of their hidden depots, although why they bother with tunnels and hidden stuff this far North is anybody’s guess. Intel said there were tunnels under that village with possible connections to two others which are very close by. There might even be one which goes so far as to connect with Bai Thuong. Although once again I haven’t the faintest why they would use tunnels when surface roads would be better and this is way north into their territory. If he’s here then this could be the place. Don’t ask me why they wouldn’t have him in Cho Bo or Hanoi for that matter.”

“Shit, Lyon, I HATE tunnels,” Frenchy injected.

“Who doesn’t, except a ‘rat’.” added Trank, “some of those tunnel rats scare me. A lot of them go in like they want to blow up along with anything they find.”

I looked at him wondering if maybe he really did have a little sense somewhere in that head of his. Trank was the one who I always thought was a bit like those whom he had just denounced.

“Hey Sarge, how far do those tunnels go? Could we sneak in from somewhere way outside?” At least Ralph was doing some thinking.

“Intel didn’t have that info. They only thought there were entrances under the four big buildings in the center of the village.”

“They thought? Great. What are we supposed to do, Micky Mouse the whole thing?”

“You know how it goes. Until we actually put someone in there to look, no one knows for certain. All I know is we want to be in, out, and far away before Wednesday afternoon.”

“Why Wednesday?”

“Because they hope to be allowed to bomb the shit out the whole area Wednesday afternoon according to the briefing I attended. That includes the next two villages as well. Those tunnels are a likely a heavy interim storage location and we aren’t supposed to strike this far North. If our package is alive and in there we have to find him and get him out pronto. And any of his team who might still be kicking.”

“Do you think the tunnels connect the three villages?”

“Intel thinks so but there’s nothing to verify that nor to bring it up as more than a suspicion. You know — Charlie loves tunnels. All right boys and girls, let’s move. Getting there is the easy part.”

My team worked their way the fifty klicks further north toward our village of choice while watching carefully for any signs of enemy activity, that is to say — any activity. Up here everybody was against us. Another hard to spot problem was children up in trees who could signal a distant force. Several times we altered our path due to one or more small roving patrols which were wandering the area. You wouldn’t think they would have all that many out since this was their part of the country and so close to the border with Laos. All we would need was one firefight and any thought of getting closer or further away could be forgotten. Every NVA regular for two clicks or more would be zeroing on the noise. Another stumbling block we discovered were the traps which although seemingly random were set in various locations. Sometimes wildlife tripped a trap but not often enough. Again, why do they have all this so deep into their own territory? Were they expecting us to suddenly come marching into the North like a swarm of locust?

After eight hair-raising hours we found ourselves, “about a klick from the village. This seemed to be a fairly secure location so let’s get a little shuteye in the hopes the enemy won’t expect anyone to be this close to them.” I set up a rotating watch so everyone got a chance to sleep.

“Break out your ration bars, but don’t leave anything around on the ground. I don’t want smell or debris telling Charlie we were nearby. Check your weapons, but do it quietly. And don’t use the oil, share the silicon. That oil has a smell they can spot from a couple of hundred meters away. How’s everyone’s water holding up?”

“I’ve got about a day’s worth”

“Me too. The next time we come across a dirty stream I need to fill up and drop a couple of tablets.”

“Me too.”

“I’m good.”

“If we find water tomorrow, I’ll top mine off.”

“Okay. Everyone keep an eye out for water, there has to be some close by since the villagers would need it. Get some sleep, Murph you’ve got first watch, then Benny, Trank and Frenchy. After that we’re moving again. Two hour watches. That’ll put us at the village about eight or nine so we have a little time to observe for a bit before taking it on.”

“What if there are too many to take on, Sarge?”

“Then we’ll arrange a diversion.”

“Oh boy, I’m getting a bad feeling about this.”

“Knock it off.”

“Hey Lyon, what about getting them to go after themselves like we did at that depot they had?”

“I was thinking something more along the line of artillery or mortars.”

“Mortars? Where the hell are you gonna get mortars?”

“Well, we have a little C-4 and properly used we could make it look like a barrage of sorts. If we get lucky and set something off then maybe they’ll go out hunting which would let us have enough time to slip in and do some hunting of our own. If they really do have a depot under the villages, we could blow that and save the Air boys some trouble. Target of opportunity as it were.”

“Maybe we’ll be lucky and they’ll have some fuel under there. I could get behind that.”

“Okay. Let’s get some shut eye... Murph you up to first watch?”

“Yeah, I can handle it. Besides that gives me the chance for six hours straight. Then I’ll be good to go.”

“Okay. Everyone quiet down and pack off.”

As the guys settled down, Lyon pulled out his map again to do some studying. Checking the compass and verifying a slightly round-a-bout path to the village so they could approach from the North hopefully allowing them to approach from a direction which was less likely to be patrolled. As if... Finally Lyon settled down to get some sleep.

All too soon, Frenchy was butting his boots, “Come on Sarge, it’s the end of fourth watch.”

Eight hours. Well, at least seven. That was a lot more than usual. I opened my eyes looking around. My guys were up and preparing to move. I did my morning rituals carefully burying the evidence under some brush before changing my pack load for the day. C-4 on top. After a little digging I found my own ‘little surprises’ and put them up on top too.

“Lyon, I’ve seen you carry a dozen of those little bottles out on every mission. You have them going out but not when we come back. What is that stuff?”

“Oh, just a little surprise for the enemy, Trank. Something I dreamed up to help a friend before we discovered it was too powerful for the job we had in mind. It became my own little surprise for Charlie instead.. Kept most of it around all this time. Each of these little bottles is roughly equivalent to half of that brick of C-4 you’re holding.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I kid you not. Just wait and see. It will do a lot better underground so we’ll use our bricks up topside and then plant these below.”

“Lemme see one. Are they stable?”

“You could shoot it with a rifle and it won’t go off. Stick a fuse in it and ‘bang’.”

“A fuse... Will one of our timers trip it?”

“Yep. All it takes is fire for a half second or so. Or the intense heat from one of our timer charges. I kinda prefer the old fashioned way. No blasting cap needed. A sniff for nitro won’t find it. It isn’t nitro based. Not a fulminate either, that stuff is too unstable.”

“I like it. Is this what you used on that depot? Where do I get me some?”

“Yep, six of these set that mess off. Next time were at SOG ask me. I’ve got three one gallon bottles filled with this stuff. The secret is to store it in a manner where it can’t develop any pressure. I’ve already used two of the five gallons I started with. Best of all, the ingredients are available on the open economy in Saigon so it’s easy for me to make some more. Other than that there are no special storage conditions.”

“Where do you cook it up?”

“I don’t. It’s a dry mix of simple items which were ground into a fine powder. Pour it into a fire and it just goes away, keep it sealed in that little bottle and add a little fire or a lot of spark and it’s all over, baby.”

“Cool. When do we get to play?”

“Soon, Trank, soon.”

Ralph piped up, “That reminds me, Lyon. Do you think I could have a date with Lynnette when we get back?”

I gave him a slight frown, shook then nodded my head, “Okay. For you Ralph, but no funny stuff. I’ll set it up. Might not be right away though.”

“Wow. Thanks. The other guys’ll be envious for the rest of the tour. You still thinking about getting out after this tour?”

“HEY YOU TWO, no jinxing the mission.” one of my newer personnel who was equally as hazardous to the enemy as the rest of us called over to Ralph and myself.

“Come on, Pork chop, give us a break. We’ve been over here for three already.”

“Yeah? Well, you’re still taking everybody’s fate into your hands.”

“Knock it off you two. EVERYBODY READY?” I pulled my pack on as I stood up, “Ok, let’s move.”

The small group of deadly friends started on yet another small step in the journey to find and hopefully rescue that individual they had been tasked to locate and assist. Hoping to find him alive along with as many of his original team as possible was beginning to look more and more like a pipe dream*. Every hour made it less likely, but sleep before battle is often a precious thing to find. Two and a half hours later our group had evaded three patrols, which were becoming larger even though less frequent. Lyon supposed Charlie was feeling more secure in this neck of his woods. The patrols unfortunately were more erratic in nature though, which tended to indicate one of the enemy bigwigs was likely ensconced here. Hopefully he could be captured and brought out as well. That would likely be a worthwhile coup d’etat.

From a short distance we observed the main village for a little over an hour before a pattern began to emerge. Another hour showed more people coming in and going out of two small buildings than would seem normal. All of our conversations were held in low whispers.

“My count says there should be nearly forty in that one now but all I can see are three,” Ralph noted.

“Yeah, and the one over there only has two in it that I can see but it should have close to thirty. I don’t think that many could fit unless they’re all standing up. That means there are at least two main entrances. Looks like Intel wasn’t that far off. Okay guys, listen up. What I want to do is preset the timers. The first wave is to take out every building except the big one and to redistribute or destroy that pile of supplies sitting next to the small one over there.” I pointed to what was probably some sort of small storage shed.

“We'll waste two quarter charges on nothing, that way it looks like the strike just got lucky. No more than a half bar on any one location except the buildings. Remember the big one remains untouched. The second wave will finish all the above ground supplies, those two vehicles, and have another two or three misses, again no more than a quarter bar wasted on a miss. I think that will pretty much use up our C-4. First wave in twenty five minutes plus thirty seconds, second wave in twenty six. That’s accomplished by setting all timers to twenty six but waiting the thirty seconds after setting the first twelve timers before setting the second set. On second thought add five more minutes to each so we have a little crawl time. Whatever you do, don’t let yourself be discovered. Our diversion is worthless if they find one of us. Start cracking.”

The guys quickly divided their bars of C-4 as two of them set the timers. Thirteen for the first rush and eleven more for the second.

“Hey sarge, what are we going to use down below?”

“We’ll improvise something.”

“Yeah. Right. The last time you ‘improvised something’ we barely got away and all that was left was a big crater.”

“There you go.”

“Terrific. Why did I volunteer for this crazy group anyway?”

“Guess you just like my sparkling personality.”

“Lyon, remind me to have a talk with a shrink the next time we go to Saigon.”

“Now, would I let them mess up a friend? Come on guys, time’s wasting.”

My small group efficiently lined up their charges and cautiously delivered them as close as possible to the entrances to the tunnels. The idea was to collapse them leaving only the one available, at least locally. This would also have the effect of showing us where the other entrances were, if any, out in the jungle which again was probably likely. My guys began returning after they delivered all of their early Christmas presents with nearly ten minutes to spare.

“Okay, let’s back out quietly and watch the fireworks. If all goes well, they’ll send out most of their guys looking for a mortar launch site and we’ll have the opportunity to move in to take prisoners.”

“You’re kidding. Take prisoners?”

“Yeah, I want our package and the big fish.”

“How did I get sucked into this crazy outfit?”

Patting him gently on the face, I answered in a feminine manner, “It must be because you love your little sister, Trank.”

Trank blushed like mad while the other guys smirked at him. I had been the brunt of jokes almost daily back at the base but I had a cadre of twenty or so who would follow me to hell and back even though my physical appearance was very slight, more nearly that of a woman’s. There was even a waiting list of almost twenty more that had recognized my small patrols went out on their missions returning mostly intact having accomplished our assignment and then some. Not the most successful non-com in the unit but close, damn close. Probably the most versatile and well liked.

The six men hunkered down shortly before their carefully orchestrated version of hell on Earth made itself known. After it was over, they watched from the short distance only to discover their original rendezvous point had been nearly on top of one of one of those jungle entrances. That would have been fun. The explosions timed out very nicely, imitating a mortar attack well. Not perfectly, but well enough.

Charlie poured out dispersing into the area nearby. There were perhaps three hundred of them which complicated things a little more than expected.

“Come on you mothers. Get out of there so we can get in that tunnel.”

“With so many here they must be about to move the supplies. Anyone notice any bicycles or other transport around here anywhere?”

“Nope. Maybe they’re staging at one of the other villages.”

“You think? With any luck most of the stuff will still be here then.”

A couple of NVA officers finally showed up. Soon their ranting at the men, who were mostly milling around, began to bring them into some semblance of order. Another minute or two brought some more officers into the mix dividing the men into groups sending about a dozen men back into the tunnels before the rest settled into three more or less equally sized groups which marched off each in their own direction. Hopefully they would enjoy a long fruitless search for the source of the attack.

Quietly, “Okay listen up. We have five topside and probably twenty to thirty in the tunnels. Pretty good odds. Each of you take two of these,” Lyon handed out some of the plastic bottles, “got your lighters?”

They all answered in the affirmative.

“Good, the fuses on each of those bottles are ten seconds. That means after you light it, get rid of it and get the hell away fast. In an enclosed area like the tunnels, one of these makes a bar of C-4 look like Sunday school.”

“You’re kidding,” Pork Chop murmured.

Ralph piped up, “remember a couple missions back? We were out of C-4 and still creamed the depot leaving that big crater? It was six of these set that off.”

“No shit?” Pork Chop tucked the two fused bottles carefully into the pocket on his left leg.

“I need three volunteers to take out the topside fodder. Since they have two in that smaller hut I guess we didn’t close the tunnel there so we need to leave a nasty surprise on the entrance. Keep it quiet when you take them out. We want to find the one’s below lulled into a safe feeling.”

Three moved out as Lyon, Ralph and Trank prepared to provide covering fire if it became necessary.

“Lyon, remind me to tap a CIA goof. I want one of those silenced pistols. It could be really handy in situations like this.”

“You get caught with it and it’ll be your ass.”

“Maybe. It would still come in handy.”

The all clear signal eventually showed from each hut so they moved out to join the others before invading the main entrance to the tunnels.

“Damn, I hate tunnels.”

“Keep it down. In there even a whisper carries.”

The six men moved into and through the tunnel as quietly as they could, space was restrictive until suddenly they were in what appeared to be one of several large storage ‘rooms’.

“Rations. Our rations.”

“Check them for tampering. Some of the stuff we’ve found in the past was poisoned. If they look like they’ve never been opened grab a few days worth for each of us plus a few days worth for four more, then let’s keep moving.”

Two minutes later we were on our way again. Since I was the only one who brought a pack in with me, pretty much because the other guys wouldn’t have been able to negotiate the tunnels while wearing a pack, I became the designated mule.

“Hey Lyon, clean water. It looks like it’s set up for their guys to use.”

“Okay. Fill up, but drop tabs anyway.” I tossed them my canteen and a bottle of tablets.

We continued to explore as time continued to tick remorselessly away. I again checked my watch to find thirty-five minutes had gone by. At best we probably had another forty-five before the search groups would start returning. Things were getting tight. Another cave, this time with munitions. Four of my compact explosive charges went into strategic locations along with timers set to pop them off amidst the ammo and explosives. “Set the timers for four hours. If we’re not long gone by then we aren’t going to be.”

Just then four enemy walked in resulting in a brief scuffle with knives and teeth. End of story, one light cut to our side and four enemy down on the other.

“Get them behind that pile of ammo boxes fast, before they bleed out all over the floor. I want everything to look normal to anyone who wanders through. Try to get as much of the bloody dirt back there too if you can do it without making any noise.”

Three long minutes later we were searching down the tunnel from which the four Tangos had emerged only a few minutes ago.

* pipe dream: Old reference to the hallucinations caused from smoking an Opium pipe frequently found in the Western States during the use of Chinese labor while building the transcontinental railway, and also found for many years afterward in the Chinese quarter of the larger Western Cities.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

As my band of happy miscreants worked their way through the tunnels, point suddenly gave the hand signal to halt before indicating there were enemy ahead. When we stopped to think about what we were hearing we could tell there were muffled voices somewhere ahead. How he could have heard them surprised me until I heard a loud but brief grunt of pain rising above the low background noise. I tried to make out what the voices were saying but it was mostly just indistinguishable from the background. We continued to move in but more cautiously and as quietly as possible.

We knew we were getting closer as some words could now clearly be heard and appeared to be accented English with some sort of low pitched replies coming back between the louder words. Even more slowly we moved closer until we felt we were right on top of whomever was speaking that accented English. The muffled responses were still a little too low to be understood but it was obvious that they were pretty much the same thing over and over with a little variation, then we realised the questions were as well. Several grunts of pain could be heard once in a while, apparently as the result of some impact made on whomever it was who grunted then occasionally answered. This was beginning to appear suspiciously like it might be our missing package or possibly another American captive who had been brought North before being interrogated.

We continued to work our way as close as we dared, slowly approaching the edge of an entrance to yet another underground but better lighted room. Again I checked my watch seeing once more that we were living on borrowed time. Peeking carefully around the edge of the tunnel from down at floor level, I spotted three Americans and roughly ten enemy; one of which was a Chinese officer or, at least, he was wearing a Chinese officer’s uniform. There were several NVA officers in there too although I couldn’t see their ranks from my floor level viewpoint. This might not be such a wasted trip after all.

I motioned for my guys to backtrack and they worked their way back away from the room to a location where we could hopefully whisper without being likely to be heard over what was going on in the room. I hated tunnels, sound traveled in such funny ways in them.

“Okay. There are three of them in there. I think the one might be our missing package. The other two I recognize from around SOG every now and then. I guess they’re all that’s left of the ‘Lurps’ (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) we were told had been up this way. All our guys are seated. The package on a chair and the other two on the floor near the far wall. There are about ten gooks in there, but I want the Chinese officer alive. He’s wearing a Chinese uniform so you can’t miss him. Him, I want to take with us. I think we’re deep enough that shots won’t be heard topside but anyone down in the tunnels can’t help but hear them so be ready to fight our way out. As soon as we take them down and pick up our guys and that Chinese, I want two charges set...”

I pointed at Pork Chop then back as though at the far side of the room we were about to assault as I said this, “one bottle on the ceiling of each of the two tunnels on the other side of the room. Five minutes to pop plus cross tunnel trip wires. Someone moves through one and both pop. We’ll go out the way we came in. Any questions?”

With no replies, I nodded my head, “Good... Come on. Let’s do this.”

The six of us made our way back to the entrance of the room before I snuck another floor level peek. I raised my fingers to show there were six and pointed in the direction where they were standing. The other four, unfortunately, were bunched in the middle of the room near the prisoner they were working on. Their height didn’t make them much taller than our guy on the chair. I marked the direction of the Chinese, who was also in the middle of the room, and indicated he had a sidearm. Eye contact with each of my guys showed me they were ready to rock and roll.

On my signal, which was me rushing into the room as fast as the confines of any tunnel would permit, my guys followed, pouring into the room. Our M-14s took down the enemy while a couple of careful pops were made to pick off those who were near any of the prisoners. The Chinese managed to draw his pistol but Ralph took out his arm causing the pistol to drop, unused, to the floor. It was times like this that I wished the supply groups in the States would get off their butts and get the M-16s we had heard about out into the field. It would have been a little easier on us to haul them around in here, not to mention we could have carried a lot more ammo.

Trank popped the two tangos located on either side of the package. It was all over in about three seconds which in a situation like this felt like it was either a split second or half of forever. Knives came out to free the prisoners. That’s when we learned there were cuffs on the two LRRPs. That was a new wrinkle.

Freeing them would need to wait for a bit since we found no keys on any of the enemy bodies. Pork chop had immediately begun laying our charges on the tunnels I had told them about, using the bottles he stashed in his leg pocket. One bottle back in each tunnel above at the ceiling. They probably wouldn’t do a lot other than delay pursuit and cause some additional digging but they would serve to slow pursuit from that direction. He finally attracted my attention and indicated four and a half minutes remaining. I nodded back to him then got our guys to begin moving back out the way we had come in. We half dragged, half prodded that Chinese officer along with us.

Two of my men were now on point while Pork Chop was watching our backs as we tried to flow through the tunnels not quite successfully imitating shadows. A couple of shots occurred ahead of us then it went quiet. When we got there and peeked around the tunnel corner we spotted a couple of NVA on the floor. Just then two more came in from a side tunnel both ready for bear but they dropped in a hurry with at least four shots apiece landing in them. Our point team guys were still somewhere up ahead and if we didn’t start catching up they could get into trouble pretty easy. Another bottle quickly went on that tunnel. Five minutes later we were passing through the munitions room where we had laid those charges. My point was waiting there for us, they had opened a crate and grabbed four grenades apiece. Not great things to use in tunnels but in an emergency — what the heck?

“Ralph, drop a half dozen of those in my pack we may need them once we get out.”

That was a mistake on my part. Ralph is one of those if three are good then twenty are better type of person. He must have dropped ten or fifteen into my pack on top of the rats. Now I knew for a fact that I was the mule as I had somewhere around another twenty five to thirty five pounds of weight on my shoulders. Ralph and Trank each carried four more on their persons plus they were sharing the weight of a box of M-14 ammo which they were carrying between them. No wonder the enemy paid a bounty for any of our rifles villagers turned in to them. They were using our own weaponry against us in addition to their own. Maybe switching to M-16s would be a good thing. The ammo wasn’t interchangeable. The two LRRPs were able to walk okay, although their hands were still bound by the cuffs. Further along there was some soft dirt so they asked for my guys to shoot the links between the cuffs so they could help. I was of two minds about that. It would be good to have their hands mostly free but the sound would let the enemy nearly pinpoint our location. Then again they were probably already searching for the source of our shots anyway.

“That could be dangerous.”

“Just do it before we come to our senses.”

With the cuffs now separated, the two LRRPs helped the package along, which freed my group to provide cover. We again heard shots from up the tunnel, this time they went on for a bit before it settled down. Approaching the area of the shots we found Murph treating Benny’s leg for a wound but close to a dozen NVA regs were lying around the left side of the room near another branch tunnel. Ralph and Trank broke open the box of ammo so everyone could take on as much extra as they could carry. We didn’t have the time to reload spare magazines while we were down here. I gave Murph and Benny each a couple of my spare mags so they could replace what they had spent. I figured I’d reload the empties they traded to me later since I still had four loaded ones in my pack, now under who knows how many grenades.

We still needed to get further away from our two surprises on those far tunnels before they popped which wasn’t all that far from happening. I didn’t want the pressure wave to wreak havoc with us as well as the tunnels when they both came down. The rescued guys each grabbed an AK and as many magazines from the NVA as they could carry. None of the mags were full — typical. Some of them had less than five rounds. Guess they had supply problems too unless they all threw a lot more lead than either Murph or Benny. Murph helped Benny along while I sent two others on as point for a bit. The ten of us started moving again, pushing that Chinese officer along. He wasn’t making it easy. One of the LRRPs had taken a knife off one of the dead NVA. He pricked the Chinese in the... just a little which got him to moving a bit faster. They were both moving bullets from short partially filled mags to make up full ones as they went.

“Hold up. Were nearly to the tunnel entrance and it’s a tight squeeze. There could be enemy all over outside so we need to sneak a peek carefully. If it’s still clear then we need to boogie out before they get back, which should be almost any second. Hopefully they’ll all be in the tunnels when our big surprise wakes up.”

“Sarge...” one of the LRRPs said, “Larry and I’ll go out first, then you can bring your guys. If we start pouring lead you’ll know it isn’t safe out there. This way they won’t know you guys are down here. That could give you an edge if you need it.”

They both exchanged the magazines in their rifles for full ones they had just finished topping off when there were two muffled explosions close together from somewhere far behind us. A little dirt dropped from the ceiling over our heads and a few seconds later we were hit by a little of the pressure wave which had probably leached off into other tunnels as well as this one. A second or two later there was another explosion and that pressure wave came along a little more powerfully than the one before. Pork Chop looked at his watch and nodded his head, “off by ten seconds.” was all he said. On the other hand, our claustrophobic looked like he would rather be on a plane about to make a para-drop into the middle of a battalion of snakes or maybe popping up in the middle of a squad of Cong; almost anywhere but here in the tunnels. I nodded in acceptance that the bangs were our own and that it likely meant no one had followed us from that quarter at least. Timed explosions that go off at radically the wrong time tended to indicate some kind of enemy intervention.

Our two rescued comrades-in-arms made their way up into the small building. Since it remained quiet I started my guys up into what remained of the place then we helped the package up. He didn’t seem to be too badly hurt but there could still be some internal injuries. He was beaten pretty badly and didn’t look all that good. Neither did the two LRRPs but they were in far better shape than he was.

I wasn’t happy about our chances since 2-1-Lima/Bravo was better than a day away at a damn good pace. We’d be pushing the envelope if the package couldn’t support his own weight pretty soon. The area was still quiet and the two rescued LRRPs were outside somewhere in the jungle. I was still musing over the fact they were alive at all, since neither the Cong nor the Chinese cared all that much for LRRPs. My team and I helped the two wounded along as we made our way out of the building and into the jungle. The LRRPs joined us a minute or two later.

“Which way now, Sarge?”

“See the daylight through the trees over there? We go roughly that way for about a klick to pick up our other packs, which we hid out there. Then we turn Southwest for about twenty klicks. If we make it that far we have a chance to make the new rendezvous.”

“Where’s that?”

I tapped the side of my nose, “Wherever this leads me. Murph, you and this bright young man take point. We’re after our packs and rats. Watch out for patrols they’re a lot larger than ours.”

I neglected to mention to the two LRRPs that there were rations in my pack. Those two looked just a little too clean to have been held prisoner for several days and the package looked like he was given all the attention. Of course my suspicions could have been completely unfounded. Despite the lack of insignia, the one I took to be our package had the look of a ranking officer about him so that would have been enough reason for them to give him their attention first.

We set out at a rapid pace but after a half a klick needed to slow as neither the package nor Benny were doing well as we rushed along. I spent part of the journey watching the one LRRP who was traveling with us. I managed to learn his nick-name, “It’s Blade, because I like to do my work quietly.”

“That explains why you like that knife. I’m Lyon, with a y not an I.”

“Lyon. I’ve heard of you. Your guy’s are billeted on the East side of Mess Four, aren’t you?”

“Close to that.”

“Nice to know you. Thanks for coming to the party and pulling our fat out of the fire. Larry and I were next up for the treatment.”

“Why did they concentrate on him?” Lyon pointed to the package.

“Probably because he’s Air Farce and looks like an officer. They don’t waste much time on guys like us, we’re usually drawn and quartered in quick time. I’m really surprised they kept us alive. Maybe they thought we could become nice object lessons later.”

‘Quiet! Down!’ Ralph waved his hand to get our attention then relayed the message signaled back to us by our point men. Everyone dropped out of sight to listen. Soon quiet footsteps could be heard working their way along the “trail” which was really nothing more than a path used by the ‘wildlife’. The feet continue moving past for a couple of minutes while shadows of men could be detected in passing. After a couple of minutes the path was clear again but we continued to wait. Three minutes later another four or five went past and thirty seconds after that four or five more moved past. I and my men waited quietly for another four minutes before we proceeded toward our destination again.

“What do you think that was?” Blade asked.

“Probably one of the patrols that went out to find out from where we launched the mortar attack.”

“Mortars? Shit, you have Mortars? We need to level that complex.”

“That’s all taken care of, Blade. I just hope they make it back in time for the festivities. I’d hate for them to miss the party.”

Blade smiled, “You got an Air strike coming in?”

“Something like that. That’s why we had to get you three out in a hurry.”

Larry returned from point munching a ration bar. He tossed another one to Blade.

Quietly he told us, “Murph says the area is clear now. He’s waiting at the packs.”

I nodded and motioned for my guys to continue the short distance remaining. I wasn’t too happy to learn the searchers had gone out this far in their pursuit of whomever had launched that ‘mortar attack’. We soon found Murph sitting on a small mound of dirt, chewing on a ration bar while he was carefully reloading two of his previously emptied magazines with some of the bullet packs we had liberated.

“Hey, Lyon. What time is it? Are we getting close to fireworks?”

I checked my watch, “Still a over an hour ‘til Doomsday. We all need to scarf some ration bars and water then make tracks for a bit before we stop to rest. Everyone top your magazines, we may not have time later. We’re still about four hours from the spot where we slept before. That seemed pretty safe. It will put us a bit further away before the hornets become upset and leave their nest. With any luck they might still be cleaning up the mess when the whole thing blows.”

Dropping my pack I opened it enough to extract some of the ration bars which I distributed around along with two grenades apiece for anyone who needed them. Lifting my pack, hefting it up and down a little, I smiled,

“That’s more like it.”

We fed a couple of ration bars to the package and gave him a little water,

“How long has it been since they fed you guys?” I asked noting that the two LRRPs each had put down several in short order.

“A couple of days. We ate just before they picked us up. It was like they knew we were coming. They wanted this officer pretty badly. That Chinese speaks fluent English so don’t say anything you don’t want him to understand. I’d be just as happy to put a bullet in his head and leave him here.”

“Don’t. I want this one alive. I don’t care if you take off his arms or legs, but I want him alive when we get back.”

“I could do a little blade work; he might like to talk a bit better after that.”

“Not while I’m in charge.”

“That could be arranged.”

Immediately after that comment, Blade had five M-14s aimed at him.

Ralph tapped him on the head with the muzzle of his M-14, “touch our Sergeant and die, scumbag.”

Blade looked at the guys and then smiled and spread his hands wide, “No sweat fellows, can’t you take a joke?”

“Not that kind.”

Blade settled down, so did my guys and things started to get back to ‘normal’. The package was beginning to become a little more perky since Murph had given him a little pain killer. That meant we had a chance of making our rendezvous on time. We wrapped his ribs with whatever we had available, which wasn’t much, then started making tracks again with him walking a little better but still needing some assistance.

“Sir, I’m sorry, but we’ve got to keep moving. If the pain gets to be too bad we still have a lot of pain killer so don’t hesitate to ask. I would also like our medic to get a couple of antibiotics into you. Don’t wait until you can’t move because it takes an hour or so for the stuff to start working and we don’t have that kind of time.”

“Fine Sergeant, then maybe you better give me some of each right now so I won’t slow you down too badly. How much time do we have?”

I checked my watch and did some mental gymnastics, “About 35 hours, Sir. If we make only one stop for five or six hours sleep then we will make it okay.”

I hedged my bet by dropping five hours from my calculated leeway before I answered. That made it seem worse than it really was but that way if someone or something slowed us down then there would be five extra hours on the clock to get there. The five minute break to get some antibiotics and pain killer into the package along with more water came to an end allowing my little group of killers to be on their way again. The Chinese was trying every little thing he could to delay the trip.

I was finally fed up with it all, “Blade?”

“Yes, Sergeant?” he answers somewhat facetiously since he was the same rank but as this was my party he couldn’t say much.

“I’m getting tired of that foreign officer causing all this delay. The next time he does it, carve up his left arm just a bit. If he does it again, carve up his right one. We’ll continue on to the other extremities until he can’t walk or cooperates whichever comes first. If he can’t walk then we’ll just slit his throat and leave him behind for the wildlife.”

I was gambling that the Chinese didn’t know I wouldn’t do that. And also gambled on the chance that his English was good enough to be able to understand me completely.

“You got it, Sergeant,” Blade answered somewhat more energetically heading in the direction of the Chinese officer.

The Chinese was looking at us like he was trying to decide if I meant it. Blade pricked him in the stomach just a touch and if the Chinese could have become a part of the ground or maybe suddenly be an American I think he would have done so. He must have decided we meant it since he cooperated the rest of the way to the LZ. After all, a dead officer can’t be returned to his country. Well, I suppose he can, he just wouldn’t know about it.

Sometime around three hours after we had departed the lodging our hosts so kindly provided for our miscreant pals we heard a distant series of explosions. I checked my watch, “Damn. We need to turn in a complaint... Those timers were off by five minutes.”

The guys laughed and Blade looked amused, “You know something, Sarge. You’re all right. You look like a girl, but you’re all right.” He held out his hand, I took it and he gave it a shake, “Nice working with you, Sarge. Maybe you’ll invite me to a few more of your little tea parties?”

“I’ll take it under advisement.”

Ralph gave Blade a slap on his back, “Hey Blade, ever carve up a Thanksgiving Turkey?”

“Yeah, but they’re no fun. They don’t cry or scream, just taste good.”

Everyone laughed — except the Chinese.

Eventually my tired team reached our LZ. We arrived with only an hour to spare since the package tried to tough it out and we had to stop for a couple of hours to give him some rest as well as get more pain killer into him. Now at the LZ, I bullied him into taking even more pain killer and antibiotics.

“You are in no shape to handle the ride back unless we get more pain killer into you, Sir. And I’m not going to chance you coming down with some sort of jungle rot from being out here with all those cuts and your depleted condition. You will take these medications, Sir; even if I have to sit on you and force them into you.”

The package laughed at that thought, beginning to say something about me reminding him of his fiancee just before I tossed an antibiotic into his open mouth. He choked it down then gave some thought to just giving in and taking his medicine. I managed to get him to take another ration bar and a third of a canteen of water, too. That was after he recovered from yet another laughing fit caused by Trank who spoke up just after I tossed the antibiotic tablet.

Trank had looked him straight in the eye as he said, “Don’t argue with Momma Lyon, Sir. She’ll have you on latrine duty for a week, officer and injuries or not.”

I turned and gave Trank a stare that said I was thinking about the same thing for him if he didn’t keep his mouth shut.
When we had roughly ten minutes remaining before our scheduled pickup I told Benny to turn on the radio so we could hear a call from our taxi service. We swept the area on arrival for any signs of enemy activity. So far it seemed to be clear. We made two more sweeps while we were waiting and it still checked out but I didn’t want to stick around any longer than was absolutely necessary. We were so far into Indian territory that I wasn’t certain the cavalry would make it and I didn’t want to stumble over some damn Indian who was lost.

After waiting a few minutes I gave the radio another quick try but still came up with the same results... No response. The radio was awfully silent and I was beginning to worry something had happened to our ride on it’s way in. I wasn’t the only one. We were all getting edgy even though we were still pushing the time and probably the range of the radios by a bit.

“You’re Mad Hatter, huh?” the package said to me, “Glad to meet you, I’m Houdini.”

“Nice to meet you, Houdini. Didn’t you cut it a little fine this time?”

“Dropped the key to my handcuffs. That slowed me down.”

A couple of the guys gave the package a smile. He had to be doing a little better since we stuffed him with more pain killer which apparently was finally allowing him some rest from his injuries. The entire team hoped there were no serious internals. Be hell if he wasn’t able to handle the ride back.

~ ~ ~

In the air the choppers were coming on fast. This far North could play a rough game for everyone involved if they were discovered. The trip from Thailand across Laos and into Northern Vietnam was no cake walk either. It was about time to provide a team a ride and so far the air was still clear of enemy action and the ground hadn’t offered any surprises. Whatever hell these guys had been brewing this far North couldn’t have been any fun. Not for the enemy... nor for them, either.

~ ~ ~

Back at the LZ, I had Benny hand me the radio again. I tried another call for our ride. There was still five minutes to go. I hoped those pilots were good, the map didn’t show how small this site happened to be. On the upside, with the LZ clear there would be enough time for them to come in one at a time. The team began listening and watching carefully, almost willing our taxi ride to be here and themselves to be up in the air with the helicopters well on our way out. We hoped that everything had gone well for our Air Force pals.

The next try on the radio was made a minute after the proposed arrival time but it resulted in one of the happiest moments of my life. We actually got an answer from the choppers and in less than ten minutes we were on our way out of the frying pan and away from the fire which we learned hadn’t been all that far away from us by the time the Zoomies arrived. I’ll never say anything bad about the Air Force guys again. The bad-guys had sent a reinforced company after us.

I had made what I figured would be my last attempt before we began to walk when, “Mad Hatter, this is Ghostrider. Do you copy?” crackled over the radio.

“Roger, Ghostrider, we copy you 5 by.”

My answer to our ride home was greeted by the guys with smiles all around. That was a great change from the stress which had been apparent on them only moments before.

Thank God. Soon I could rest and let someone else carry the load for a bit.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

“Mad Hatter, we are inbound your location. ETA, 2 minutes. Wait one and pop smoke to identify.”

“Copy Dragon Lead, will pop smoke in one. Standing by.”

The choppers continued inbound to the pickup zone. In the lead chopper the Crew chief tapped the shoulder of his pilot some forty seconds or so later, pointing ahead and to the port side of the chopper. In the distance red smoke could be seen rising from the ground.

“Mad Hatter, I see red smoke. I say again, red smoke. Acknowledge.”

“That’s affirm, Ghostrider. Red smoke at our location.”

Correcting the course toward the smoke, the pilot prepared to drop to hug the treetops as he made the run in to collect the individual who seemed to be aptly named. Perhaps it was the mission label.

“Chief, keep an eye out. This one’s going to be no cake walk.”

Almost immediately the reply occurred, “Sir, we have what looks like another heavy NVA patrol off to the right about 1 or 2 klicks and moving fast. Those guys on the ground are going to have a lot of company pretty damn soon.”

Those ground pounders were going to be mighty pissed if we didn’t pick them up. Whipping my head around to the right I took a look see at what the crew chief was talking about. We started seeing muzzle flashes so they were obviously trying to shoot us from that far away. They looked like a bunch of ants who just had their anthill kicked over.

“Mad Hatter, this is Ghostrider. We have what appears to be a second reinforced NVA patrol inbound your location no more than 2 klicks out. Get your people to the LZ now! We’ll be coming in light on the skids and you’ll have about a minute before I have to dust off. Ghostrider lead out.”

“Two, this is Lead. Come in light and wait one before dustoff. We have inbound NVA.”

“Roger, Lead.”

“Crew chief, lock and load if you haven’t. Be ready on those 60’s.”

As we came over the tree line the LZ came fully into view. Christ, the damn postage stamp was so small it could barely be considered a landing site! It was going to be a stone cold bitch getting both birds in there at once.

“Two, this is One. I’ll take the front end of the clearing, you take the back. Come in perpendicular to me or we’re fucked. Copy?”

“Copy One.”

Flaring out over the top of the canopy I edged the slick taking us over the LZ before I started my descent. I could see our trade already making their way toward us. Bringing the bird down to the ground I could feel it rocking side to side from the draft as I tried to keep it stable without fully touching down.

I got a double tap on the back of my helmet from the crew chief letting me know when everyone was aboard, “Let’s di di mao, Sir.” He yelled over the noise.

“Two…One. Light on the skids and heading for daylight.”

“Roger One, I’m no more than ten behind you.”

I could feel the sweat trickling down my neck, the cyclic felt slippery in my hand.

“Daniels, keep sharp on that sixty…I don’t want any surprises.”

Clearing the LZ we rose above the treetops before I dipped the nose of the bird and started to head in a rush for the barn. Checking over my shoulder I could see that Two was clear as well and was joining me on my port quarter.

“Two, this is One. Go to max power and let’s di di the fuck outta here.”

“Copy One”

We were looking for any signs of hostile activity as we climbed above the trees. Off in the distance there was a little smoke rising from some unseen source.

“Hey, Groundpounders. You the guys responsible for that?” my crew chief asked.

They looked off into the distance and seemed especially pleased with themselves.

“More or less.” the woman answered for them, what she was doing up here, toting a rifle and a pack and seeming pretty sure of herself was a first for me. She wasn’t Vietnamese either. Her accent was American so what the hell she was doing here was anybody’s guess.

I could overhear them through my crew chief’s headset as they yelled to each other.

“Hey, Lyon. Think we might wangle some time to take a break when we get back to MACV?”

“I’ll see what I can do, Trank.” I heard the woman answer.

“Cool. I don’t care what they say about you Sarge, you’re the best.”

Sarge? She was a sergeant? That one guy looked like an Air Force officer and she was telling him what to do.
Now that we were on our way back we were breathing a little easier, not a lot, but easier. The Groundpounders were trying to get some shuteye now that we were carrying the ball.

~~~

I and my number two had just cleared the LZ if it could be called that and leveled at cruising altitude and speed. Barely topping the trees meant that we would be over and past most any threat before they could react to our location. They might be able to hear us coming but they couldn’t see us until we were right on top of and then past them. The trees would block most of their opportunities for a good shot so all we would be subjected to was sporadic AK fire. Of course, they could still get lucky. Once we passed into Laos we could lift a bit. Hell we had to clear the mountain passes so we would be lifting anyway.

“Two, One. How’s your fuel?”

“I’m good for the distance, One. So long as we don’t need to play any games on the way.”

“One copies.”

It sounded like we were both in the same boat. We were pushing the edge of our range just to get back to the MLS to refuel, and we still had to cross the neck of Laos to do it. What these crazy fucks were doing up near Bai Thuong and Thahn Hoa I don’t even want to know. I just wanted to get me and my guys back across the mountains and the neck of Laos to Bueng Kan in one piece to refuel and then make our way on to Udorn. From there these crazy ground pounders could take transport back to wherever, they would be out of my hair and no longer my problem.

To make this whole mess even worse the woman who was with these crazies seemed to be the one giving the orders. I know, what the fuck anyway? A woman would you believe and I was pretty sure she was Caucasian to boot. What the hell she was doing up here was still bugging me. Maybe she never heard that women aren’t supposed to be in combat zones. These guys couldn’t be Army. With her along they had to be some kind of black ops team. The tall one still reminded me of a high ranking Air Force officer of some kind but he wasn’t doing so well. He took the orders she was dishing out, whenever he wasn’t sleeping. They kept waking him up whenever he began to move a little and then popped more pills into him so I figured he’d been hurt and they were keeping him asleep to try to ease the pain. This whole trip seemed kind of strange, especially after the briefing we received prior to coming up here. Double fuel load, half of it in the form of drums of av-gas, light on weaponry and the fastest birds we had. That should have been enough to tell us we didn’t want to go on this mission. If I never saw this part of Vietnam again it would be far too soon. I think we could readily confirm that those ground pounders had to be out of their minds. On the plus side though, we were so far North that the NVA never expected a flight to come hopping over the border like this so while it was nerve wracking, it was relatively peaceful and we took very little flak... coming in anyway...

We still had to get out.

Most of those free riders had no insignia or rank showing. They acted like military but they could just as easily have been some kind of agency pukes. They had a Chinese with them too, judging from his uniform but, the way they watched him I’d say he seemed to be more of a prisoner than a guest. This was a weird group. Once we got back, I’d certainly like to know what role that woman played in this little farce. When will these people learn the North is no place to play even for the big boys? I was feeling fortunate that they hadn’t wanted us to head up China way, we were close enough to Hanoi to turn my hair grey.

We made it to the MLS, landed just before our turbines began to cough as they asked for more fuel from tanks which had been manufacturing it out of thin air for the past fifteen minutes. We refueled while the woman and most of the others watched everything like they still expected it to go to hell in a hand-basket. We completed fueling in less than twenty taking on a light load but more than enough to get home. Baring unfriendly action, we could now make it safely back to Udorn. I had a chance to stretch my legs and back, as well as grab a sandwich and a cup of coffee which was more than that team did, they were still munching rations and drinking water. Once we were back in the air they seemed to relax a little.

We were heading SW toward our destination when about five minutes out of Ban Rai and just inside Thailand we start taking a little fire. It wasn’t just a couple of Cong sympathizers shooting at us with AK’s, but some heavy MG fire. Some fuckers must have seen us traveling Northeast after we picked up our extra fuel going in then they let someone know and which allowed them to set up a welcoming committee along our probable path of return. We broke off to evade the fire, took to the treetops and raced away. No foul. At least the hits didn’t seem to have done anything. Besides we were over Thailand and they were probably already fading North fast for the border with Laos.

“Two, you good?”

“Roger One, we’re fine. You?”

“Took some hits, but everything seems okay as far as t can tell.”

It wasn’t another ten minutes when my main board began to light up like a Christmas Tree. It was slow at first, so we nearly missed the warning signs. Fuckers must have nicked a hydraulic line. We weren’t smoking yet, but she was starting to get a little sluggish on the controls. With my cargo I opted for discretion rather than valour.

“Scarface Base, this is Scarface One. Do you copy?...”

“I say again, Scarface Base, this is Scarface One — do you copy?”

“Unit calling, you’re breaking up.”

I didn’t like the idea but I took it up another five hundred feet since the extra altitude might help my signal get back to base.

“Scarface Base, this is Scarface One Inbound, ETA twenty or less. Took some fire coming off the neck of Lao. Two is fine, I took some hits. Put Sandy on call, my board is starting to look a lot like Christmas.”

“Copy, one. Alerting Sandy and the Thais now. Can you make it to U? (He pronounced it “ou” as in “you”) What’s the damage?”

“Looks like they nicked a hydraulic line. Pressure decreasing, getting sluggish. No smoke yet.”

“Copy, one. We’ll have Scarface three and four in the air in less than one and they’ll come to cover your six the rest of the way in or if you need to put it down somewhere. ETA yours, seven or less.”

“Roger”

My bird was getting increasingly sluggish, causing me to need to concentrate on keeping everything in check. I could taste the coppery tang of blood mixed with sweat. I discovered the blood was from my lips where I bit them in frustration. I was also beginning to have this urgent need to piss. Looking ahead of us, I could see the gun-ships approaching now. Letting out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding I was never so glad to see those two. If I could keep it in the air 15 minutes more at most, we would be home. Got to try and keep it flying.

“Crew Chief. Tell our passengers to prepare for a hard landing and give them the drill just in case they haven’t been through it in a while.”

“Yes, Sir. Hey, you ground poun...” his mic cut off as he began passing instructions to the hitchhikers we picked up.

I and my co were becoming increasingly anxious and it was taking both of us to control this beast. We were down to maybe five minutes when we got another call.

“One, Base”

“Go Base”

“Sitrep.”

“Real sluggish now. Getting harder to control auto-rotation.”

“Copy. Three reports you’re starting to smoke”

“Thanks, I really wanted to know that. Copy base”

I finally opted to crank the throttle to emergency military power to try and overcome some of the flight stabilization problems I was having. I backed it off a little trying to find a happy medium where I could control it best; all the while I continued beseeching my bird, “C’mon you bitch. Stay in the air”

The base was in sight now. I could see the Thai’s fire brigade preparing for our arrival. The birds near my pad were being evac’ed so if my bird went up the fire wouldn’t spread to them. Time seemed compressed. I guess I’d been concentrating more on the bird than I had on the time.

“Base, this is One.”

“Go One.”

“Hydraulics are pretty much gone, coming in hot and heavy. I’m holding this one together with spit. Crash team ready?”

“Roger One. Team is ready.”

I don’t know why that didn’t give me any relief. I could smell the smoke now. Even at max power we were having a hard time controlling her and the engine seemed to sound a little different. Maybe they hit something on it too. The tail boom was swinging back and forth like some psychopathic clock, constantly threatening to go into a complete spin. My feel for the hydraulics was getting worse so they were probably pretty much fucked. Best I could do, get it over the pad, chop the power and pray. This time it was going to hurt.

I could hear my crew chief yelling at everyone to hang on tight, “as soon as the chopper lands, get the fuck out and away, ASAP. Let the crash crew do their jobs.”

I continued to psych myself and was as ready as I was going to get. We were in as good a position as I could hold the bird but we were rushing the pad. At this point we were only about 30 or 40 feet off the ground, dropping down as we were just sliding over that oil slick which was our landing spot while my co and I tried to keep the nose slightly up. I could see guys on the ground cringing as we reached the pad.

Our altitude was down to fifteen or twenty feet when I began to chop the power only to have the engine seize a split second prior to my hand following my brain’s command.

We dropped like a fucking rock even with the blades beginning to free rotate. Before we could hit the ground the fucking hydraulics finally seized so, suddenly, we didn’t even have the rotating blades to slow our drop. It wasn’t far but it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

The tail boom impacted first, then the skids. Just then I was thrown forward in my straps like I’d been kicked in the back by a mule, I saw one of the rear rotor blades flying across the field like some demented bird or maybe a boomerang. I remembered hoping it wouldn’t consider returning. My bird flopped over about forty five and I heard one of the main rotor blades ping off thudding to the ground somewhere not too far away. I guess it could have been worse, the blades could still have been rotating and gone who knows where. I suppose I blacked out for a few seconds only to come to, when I felt someone pulling at me to get me out of my seat. Before I was extracted the blackness took me again.

Awareness came back to me slowly. As I did my normal internal check, I noticed that I hurt like hell all over, especially where those straps grabbed me when we hit. I vaguely remembered the touchdown and getting thrown forward in my straps. That would explain the sore shoulders and neck, but it didn’t explain why I felt like my whole body had been put through a clothes wringer.
I went through my checklist. Still had arms and legs — check. Fingers and toes worked — uh, check. I could hear sounds around me, so my hearing was working if not yet okay. Cracking open one eye, I could see around me, so at least that one worked. Slightly opening the other — yup, it’s okay, too.

I decided about that time that all major systems appeared to be functional. I still felt like I’d been put through the wringer. I reached up to see if my head was bandaged, checking my torso along the way. I seem to be pretty much okay even though I hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. Next question, where exactly was I? Sniffing the air, and listening to the sounds around me, it soon became apparent. I was in what passed for a hospital here at Udorn. Okay, so just how fucked up was I? Couldn’t be too bad I figured, otherwise I’d probably be at Bangkok.

Just then I heard a noise off to my right, like someone clearing their throat. Opening my eyes fully, and turning my head I looked to see who was there.

Damn! It was that woman from the chopper yesterday, but now she was wearing Spec Ops camos and she had master sergeant’s stripes. What in the name of all that’s Holy was going on here?

“I see you’re awake. My team and I wanted to stick around until you came back from zombie land so we could thank you personally. That was a hairy frigging LZ, and you still got in and got us all back, even with the added thrill ride. I didn’t know we paid for E-tickets*. Thanks.”

“Ummm... Maybe I’m still all fu... screwed up, but did you say YOUR team? Women aren’t allowed in combat.”

The Sergent smiled. A rather sardonic and bittersweet smile, but a smile all the same.

“Sorry to burst your bubble pal, but I’m not a woman. Sergeant Lyon Stevens, 5th SFG. That was my A team you pulled out — and I think every one of them can attest to the fact that there are no boobs or other female parts on me.”

I laid back and shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs out of my brain pan. I must have hit it harder than I thought. There is no way this “person” could be Stevens. To hear the other Green Beanies talk about this guy, he had to be 10 feet tall and look like John Wayne. And if scuttlebutt was true, he’d done more successful John Wayne walkathons than pretty much anybody in MACV-SOG.

“You’re Stevens?!! The same Stevens that fucked up Uncle Ho and his supply lines during ‘Shining Brass’? No fucking way!”

“Sorry to disappoint you sport, but I'm me. And yes, we ran a few SLAM missions then. Mostly we’re recon, LuRPs; but we have been known to do some ‘specials’ for CCN on occasion. Like the one we just came back from. By the way, I know your handle — Ghostrider — but just what is your name anyway?”

I sighed. Well, let’s see if he makes the connection. Damm idiot roomie at flight school who read comic books hung that damn moniker on me and I just can’t seem to get rid of it.

“Slade... Lieutenant Carter Slade.”

“Funny, I’d have thought the white suit would have stood out more,” Lyon snickered, “I read the comics too.”

Aw crap!

“And I suppose that your chopper would be the replacement for the horse... Air Cavalry and all that. I would have thought it would have a little more white on it though.”

Double Crap! He has read them...

“Well, no matter. You risked your butt to pull ours out, and we appreciate it. We owe you one, Ghost Rider. You need anything, you let us know. Now I have to get the team and my guests back to Saigon. Apparently the package we brought out is rather important. Not to mention the prisoner we got. See you next time around.”

With that Lyon left me alone in the room and I continued to consider this unlikely turn of events along with the embarrassment of facing up to the rumored Green Beanie equivalent of Superman.

I am so going to hunt down my old roomie and smack the hell out of him.

Stupid damned handle he stuck me with! But I wouldn’t mind working with this Stevens. He obviously has his shit together. I mean, look at how his team treats him. There was a deference there and respect that only comes from being earned the hard way. I wonder if there is any way I can make sure I am teamed with them every time they need to go into Indian Country?

 « t  »

I left Lieutenant Carter Slade a.k.a. ‘Ghostrider’ and walked out of their hospital heading off to pick up my team once again so we could extract ourselves back to Saigon. I figured the lieutenant could pretty much handle himself from this point and all our reports had been filed so... I was glad he didn’t seem to be too bad off, despite being out cold when they dragged him out of what was left of the helicopter we had been in. Next step was picking up my team, the package, and then our prisoner before we hopped another ride the rest of the way to Bangkok and then Saigon. When I went to collect the package, he tried to bluff his way out of going with us.

“I’m okay now, Sergeant. I’ll just arrange for a ride back on my own. You and your team can go ahead.”

“Sorry Sir, but that’s not the way it’s going to happen. My orders came from some General back in the States and they stated specifically that I and my team were not to allow you out of our sight and if you tried to argue then we were to place you under temporary detention and take you with us.”

He wasn’t too pleased to hear that and tried to argue. I showed him a copy of the orders, which I figured might become necessary. That’s the reason I broke protocol and carried them with me. I had them printed on flash paper so I could destroy them quickly if push came to shove and we were close to being captured.

He came; not happily, nor quietly, but he came.

As my team, the package and our prisoner returned to the flight line I couldn’t help but notice the pile of wreckage sitting amidst the other choppers. There was still that one big rotor blade sticking up out of the ground like a lost and demented blade of metallic grass. That got me to wondering how we got out of that part of the whole mess still alive and mostly in one piece. At least it didn’t burn or explode. There were a couple of fifty gallon drums and a hand pump out near it so I guess they were off-loading whatever was left of the fuel as a precaution now.

My team, the package and our prisoner finally reached Bangkok, trying our best to be elsewhere whenever we thought we had been spotted. There we gave up our prisoner and faced the music for not having properly protected the package in the first place despite the fact we were sent in after the fat had dropped in the fire. Go figure. Somebody had to save their own butt so we got the shaft. This Houdini must have been important since there were a bunch of the top brass here in Bangkok running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I think they’re going to wear out the phones and teletypes they had here. I’ll bet they sent a dozen messages if they sent one telling the world that the package was back and mostly intact. A pair of MPs became his escorts to make certain he was on a bird back to Saigon and then the States in the very near future. No one here seemed to feel our orders were particularly significant so I sent a message back to the originator of them telling them that the Bangkok hierarchy wouldn’t let us complete them and requested to be absolved. Unless otherwise notified before twelve hundred tomorrow, we would kidnap the package and return him to Saigon forceably.

We had our reply within three hours.

Next we took the God given opportunity to avoid all the hubbub and fade into the background where I plotted our way back to MACV. I managed to get my guys patched up a bit by the local medical guy then we got some ‘decent’ chow, anything’s better than rats, no not those four legged things... Rats... rations. You know, that stuff we trade off for real food.

“Loosen up. We’re going over the to Zoomie’s mess for some chow. I want you all to be on your best behavior while we’re there. That means you use the knife and fork, not your fingers, and I want the best table manners out of you that you could ever expect to offer. Got it?”

“Sure Lyon. You don’t want us to burn our bridges since we might be called on for a repeat performance which would have us eating here again.”

“You got that in one. That means no talking shop and no slurping the soup. Okay?”

“Yeah. Fine. You act like we’ve never been out in polite company before.”

“I wouldn’t know if you have. But I know what I’ve seen back at MACV and it won’t play here.”

The guys actually behaved themselves during the meal and afterward. I can’t vouch for how they acted while I was out scrounging up a ride to take us back to Saigon. I knew I had to come up with the means of getting us the hell out of here before MACV started charging us for R&R time. Besides, I wanted to get back to some semblance of the civilization we were used to, even if it did have some scary bangs, slams and pings every now and then.

Once I knew we had a ride I tried to see about getting us a little undisturbed sack time. Five hours later we were again awake and twenty minutes after that we were in a transport and on our way, having successfully hidden from the mucks who might or might not have been looking for us. E&E, escape and evade, baby. Escape and evade.

 »  »  »  »  »  »

L. J. STEVENS, Vol. One
by
T D Aldoennetti

with contributing authors
Kate Hart & Denise Trask

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

When our connecting flight from Bangkok finally arrived at ‘Tan’* we quietly made tracks. We managed to successfully return to our own area, while barely avoiding a work detail or two which Trank happened to note were forming up shortly after we arrived. Even at our own compound he was working point.

It was unlikely we would have been doing any of the work if we had gotten drafted, but the time spent supervising it was no cake walk either. We made our way on a round-a-bout path to return to our billet managing to avoid yet two more such details. Figures, it was that time of the morning. At least the mornings were cooler than the afternoons. After we dropped our gear, I had my two guys who were banged up checked out by our own medical group.

Worse case for my banged up buds turned out to be a week of relaxation and observation with maybe another two or three weeks of light duty while his leg healed. Not too bad. I managed to pilfer a medical ticket for him so he was exempt from the work details for the next four weeks. After reporting, I was called on the carpet for not taking a direct flight from Udorn to Saigon but the round-a-bout not only seemed a little safer to me right after tempting fate so many times to get that spook back in one piece but it was leaving Udorn within minutes of our need. Further, Bangkok was a good place to get him medical attention if he turned out to really need more than it seemed. I said so and our CO decided he agreed with me.

Since we were unlikely to be going on another bad one for a week or two that meant Benny would be back out in time to enjoy the fun right along with the rest of us. The next couple of tasks I and my team would likely have to tend to should be a bit easier so I drew on a couple of my alternate heros when we went through planning for those. Planning, yeah. All of two hours in a lecture and then out the gates. Might be nice sometime to have something which passed for real Intel before we went on one of our little excursions? By now, most of us had become pretty good at spotting the Intel guys. They were the ones who were really good at writing fiction. Now don’t get me wrong, some of them were quite good at what they did and came up with some excellent conjectures. Unfortunately, command didn’t see fit to share those thoughts so produced with us lowly peons.

Anyway, as I was saying, when the rest of us finally returned to our shared billet it didn’t take us more than a couple of tired hours to figure out that our barrack had lost two more good men. It was a little obvious when the paper pushers from headquarters company left empty footlockers and rolled up beds behind them for us to discover.

“Hey, any of you guy seen Perk lately?”

“No. Check with the guys next door. Some of them go out with him once in a while. He usually does house calls at a couple of the villages up their way when they go out.”

Well... Turns out he was one of the missing. Sgt. Perkins; he was a great medic and was pretty good at playing with the stuff that went boom as well. A strange combination, but he felt properly placed explosives destroyed enemy supplies which meant he was saving lives of our guys. Damn... That reminded me, he would have been twenty-one next week, we had a surprise party planned. Ralph told me he was going to see if he could learn how Perk bought it. If it was some stupid idiot who gave him up then we could pay the guy a social call during one of our next times out. Maybe bring the score back to even, just a bit.

The next day was quiet for us. There was a lot of debrief, clean up and resupply of our individual equipment, munitions and so on. I made up another couple dozen bottles of my yellow surprise from the large economy sized containers I had buried. The small bottles were hidden at the bottom of my pack along with a half dozen bars of judiciously ‘borrowed’ C-4. You know? It’s kind of funny how the amount of C-4 seems to diminish every time one of my patrols comes back and goes through resupply. I used to worry about the Supply Sergeant taking me to task over it until the time we didn’t ask for any and he got all upset that we hadn’t and tracked us down as we were headed back to our quarters.

“Look, Lyon. I don’t give a damn what your guys use the stuff for so long as it’s killing enemy or destroying their supplies. Now you hustle your guys back over to my shack and tell them they better pick up three to five bars apiece or my inventory’s going to be off. And my inventory better not be off, if you catch my drift.”

We caught it and hurried back so each of us could happily tuck away between four and six bars apiece.

Back to my pack. After my little bottles of yellow surprise and six bars of C-4, I piled eight days dry rations for three on top then enough ammo for the platoon for ten hair-raising seconds followed by a lot of extra shoestrings, chocolate bars and socks. I would have taken a kitchen sink as well but my pack could only hold so much.

The chocolate bars were for the village kids who usually could provide more accurate Intel than the adults. You’d be surprised how much stuff a kid can see and remember. It took me a little time to prepare the candy though. You’ve got to be careful, no American wrappers. Keep it all looking like it came from Nam otherwise the kids could wind up in some deep shit. I bought local candy for kids around here then saved the wrappers to hold the Hershey bars and other chocolates we bought in the PX. Our good-hearted friend in Supply even managed to sneak a couple of orders through for candy bars which he supplied to us in exchange for some hooch. We actually made out on that deal since the hooch cost us a lot less than the candy. One thing about the Hershey bars though, they melt easy. Especially over here. That took a lot of ingenuity to solve. It took us nearly four months to come up with something that worked for longer than two hours.

One day after we returned from a simple recon, Trank dropped by and whispered, “Hey Lyon, look what I’ve got.”

“Oh hell, Trank. Why’d you have to show me that?”

“It’s legit.” he looked abashed at my response, “I won it from one of the spooks at a poker game. He promised me a hundred rounds for it, too.”

“Trank, you’re going to get it if anyone sees that pistol. You know the Convention forbids that sort of thing.”

“Then why can the spooks use them?”

“They aren’t military. If you have to carry that don’t let me see it. Hell, I don’t even want to know you have it.”

“I can keep the silencer separate until I need it. It’s not illegal to carry the pistol.”

“I warned you when we were out on patrol. I don’t want to know.”

“I already checked it out and it’s good to twenty five yards.”

“It’s your ass, Trank. I never saw it. I don’t know anything about it. Don’t let the others see you with it.”

“I’m cool, Lyon.”

“Yeah. You’re so cool you’re petrified. You sure your mother didn’t drop you on your head when you were a baby? Keep that thing under wraps. No one sees it and no one sees you use it, if you do. Got it?”

“Yeah. No sweat, Lyon. I feel safer already.”

Shaking my head, I watched Trank take his pistol and silencer back out of the barrack as he hid the silencer away in his uniform. That guy was going to get more than a Fifteen out of that if anyone found out about it. Sure, a silenced pistol could be a valuable resource in the field but the potential trouble wasn’t worth the luxury. Trank was his own worst enemy and I was beginning to think he was a walking court-martial looking for a place to happen and people to drag down with him.

The next day we were out in the field again on another milk run. More simple observation shit. Just stay out of the way for a few days then let the Navy or the Air Force do their jobs. All we needed to do was call in the targets and let them know when Charlie was there in the first place. A walk in the park. Not like the rumors I heard on and off over the past eight months or so of guys dressed as women who supposedly had been going on single or double parties into the deep woods up close to China way. If that was true, then those guys were so deep into the shit without so much as a roll of toilet paper for protection that it gave me chills on a hot day. Thanks, but no thanks, I’ll take my chances in the tunnels.

We finished two of the wait in place recons over the past five days which was beginning to make me think the Army must believe easy missions were our R&R. At a guess that would mean they were about to throw something nasty our way again. We all hoped it would be something interesting.

When I received the call to leave my team after our last little ‘cake walk’ and report to company HQ, I figured the next fun assignment has reared its head at last. I showed up and reported, saluting our green lieutenant who was probably very happy he got to stay home all the time. Wait until next month buddy, the Captain said your turn on the rotation is coming up. The Lieutenant sent me to one of the small offices where I found one of Battalion’s Majors waiting. Happy horse shit.

I reported and he replied with an incredulous, “You’re Lyon?” Gee, I thought I just gave him my name when I reported to him.

“Yes Sir. I’m SFC Lyon. What can I do for you, Sir?”

“You the Lyon who just came back from Xuá¢n Mai with a Chinese prisoner?”

“Somewhere around there, give or take a hundred klicks and up into the mountains a little. Yes, Sir.”

“Grab the team you used on that mission and report to me at Battalion HQ.”

“Sir. One of my team still has about a week to go in the hospital.”

“Okay. Then grab everyone who’s left and meet me over at Battalion HQ. You guys are going for a ride.”

“What do we need, Sir?”

“That’ll be explained at HQ. You’ll have a couple of hours afterward to get ready.”

“Yes, Sir. Five minutes. Uh, better make that ten minutes, Sir.”

The Major nodded his head and departed for his jeep which was parked in what passed for shade out front of our HQ while its attached driver was trying to look like he was staying awake. Meanwhile, I charged out to grab everyone I could find. I managed to locate Trank quickly and told him to hide the pistol and silencer in the deepest, darkest hole he could find then meet us at Battalion HQ. Next I located Ralph. He and I rushed around to find the rest of the team. Frenchy became enthusiastic when he learned we were likely to be getting into some kind of major situation again. Finally we had everyone but Trank rounded up then rushed over to Battalion HQ to learn what this was all about. I was about to send Ralph back to drag Trank here by his hair when the slacker finally sauntered up.

In we went, asking for the Major. The orderly pushed us off on a Captain instead but a few minutes later we were playing ‘salute a Colonel’. I don’t know what game they were planning on having us us play, but to my way of thinking, seeing a Colonel was never a good thing.

“Relax gentlemen. We’re still cutting your orders. In the meantime you will find your dress greens, pull them out, dust them and yourselves off and get ready for an airplane ride. You’ll be going in the company of the Air Force at least as far as California, more probably all the way to your final destination. When you arrive at CONUS, you will be moved rapidly through the Air Force’s red tape and you will all wind up at the DC command area courtesy of either Air Force or civilian air transport. On the way there or on the trip back as well as during the time you spend at your destination you will not embarrass me. Is that understood?”

Our Chorus of confused voices saying “Yes, Sir” echoed around the room for a moment before he continued.

“While there you will be temporarily under the command of a Colonel Jackson whom I have been led to believe will chew you up and swallow you alive if you even think about fucking up. You will answer any questions put to you to the best of your ability and when the Colonel is finished with you, you will report to the Air Force who will return you here post haste. Is that clear? No side trips. No unauthorized acquisitions brought back with you.”

I gave a quick scowl to Trank as the Colonel continued, “We will expect to see you again two weeks or less from today. Now go clean up, change and report back here looking like you know just how a real soldier should look and act. I know that might be difficult for some of you who have been over here for several tours but try and pretend. If we are suitably impressed you’ll receive your traveling orders.”

“Yes, Sir.” we chorused at him once again.

“Dismissed.” We all saluted and he returned them then we made tracks for the barracks. I didn’t even get on the guys about the protocol for saluting in the Colonel’s office.

“What was that all about, Lyon?”

“Hell if I know. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t good. You’ve all got about an hour to shower, shave and make yourselves look like parade soldiers instead of veteran grunts. Report back to me and I’ll decide if you pass the muster before we place ourselves on the hot seat at Battalion. Any of you ever seen that Colonel around here before?”

When I didn’t get any answers, I shooed the guys off, “ Move it. You’re wasting daylight.”

Just over an hour later I was checking out the guys, giving ‘em hell over some obvious errors. After the guys were sent off to make their corrections I di di bopped over to the hospital to tell Benny he was gonna miss out on whatever this little adventure was going to turn out to be. He wasn’t too happy but he figured he could milk the hospital for much of the time we would be gone. I had to make tracks since, good or bad, the guys were all meeting at Battalion where we would go in together. I was thinking they had better be looking tall. I couldn’t believe Frenchy didn’t update his uniform stripes or change his Vietnam Service ribbon to reflect time in country. You got to lead some of them around by the hand.

I rushed back to discover Frenchy was the first one standing around like he’d been there all day waiting for the rest of us. The others who had been invited to this little party weren’t even in sight.

“Frenchy, I’m not even going to ask how you can get cleaned up, straighten out your uniform and change your stripes and ribbons in less than an hour.”

Hinting that I would like to know since it could be a valuable skill, “Hell, you even got a haircut since I checked you guys out.”

“Of course, mon ami. You don’t expect me to receive orders for a trip to the States while dressed less than ‘all I could be’ do you? After all, some things are worth the sacrifices we must make.”

You’ve gotta admire Frenchy’s way with words. That’s one of the things which caused us to tap him as one of the nuts we wanted on our original team when Ralph and I started our business. He could charm the scales off a snake and make it wish it had more of them to give.

The rest of the guys straggled in, with Ralph shepherding them along moments before we needed to report to that Captain again. As spokesperson, I reported for us and received our orders, distributing them to the guys. Fortunately we didn’t need to see the Colonel again as the Captain gave us the ‘best behavior’ speech once more before telling us to draw funds for our trip per our orders then sicced us on an unsuspecting CONUS. The guys and I immediately trekked back to the company HQ to have multiple copies of our orders made. Five immediately went into the command structure hopper never again to see the light of day which left us each with twenty five. Now we were off to Finance drawing funds for the trip after losing another two sets of orders each and signing our lives away once again. We each managed to depart with about $1200 apiece. That only took two hours, a couple dozen arguments and turned out to be a bit scary. None of us were looking forward to what might happen if anyone figured out a small fortune was walking around within the company perimeter. The guys were all for partying but I told them that we would be in or near DC somewhere and the rooms there would likely eat up every bit of our funds since we would be on the economy. That threw a very wet blanket over their party. Where the hell is Ft. Meade, Maryland anyway?

We headed back to the barracks to pick up what little gear we were taking with us and to make tracks to see if there was any room left on one of the planes making it’s trip back to the states. When we showed up to report to the Zoomie Major per our “orders” things moved into high gear. We were given seats on a plane that was leaving in less than three hours. I don’t even want to know who we bumped in order to get on the plane. The major gave us each an additional two page set of orders the purpose of which, he explained, was to move us through the Air Force system as fast as they could make space for us.

“Show these whenever you are questioned, along with your orders from the Army. There will not be a problem. Do not release these orders to anyone. They are noted as specific to each individual and are valid for fifteen days commencing today. Guard these with your life, men. They aren’t issued but once in a blue moon.”

We left his office with our additional orders in hand and while we were waiting I began to read them. Great, another General. “What the hell is this all about?”

Ralph is sitting so close that he heard me, “What’s that, Lyon?”

“Hmm?”

“You asked, ‘what the hell this is all about?’.”

“Just thinking out loud.”

“Okay Boss, spill. You don’t usually say something unless it’s important.”

By now Ralph and I had attracted the attention of the rest of the squad who were looking at me expectantly.

“I just read our Air Force expedite orders and they were initiated by another General.”

“No shit?”

Everyone fumbled for their orders looking for the signature line before babbling in competition for best lunatic. True the major signed them but he did so at the behest of a General according to the info at the bottom of the sheets.

“What the f–s going on?”

“Why are all these Generals getting in on this?”

“Hey Sarge, I’m beginning to not like this.”

“Lyon, do you think they think we’ve done something we haven’t?”

Trank suddenly began to look very guilty and everybody noticed.

“Okay Trank spill it. What have you been up to?”

“Uh, Lyon you told me not to show it around.”

“You have that damn thing with you?”

“I couldn’t think of a good place to hide it.”

By now the guys were looking at Trank and myself wondering if we got them into some deep shit.

“Trank, when we get back here from whatever this is all about I’m going to bury you in shitty details for the rest of your tour, if not your life.”

Trank looked abashed and the rest of the guys were now clamoring for information. I couldn’t see a way out of this except to bring them in on the secret. But first, I tried reasoning.

“Guys, guys, LOOSEN UP. You don’t want to know. Trank has acquired a little toy for our missions, against my better wishes I might add,” Trank just looked more guilty, “and it isn’t anything which would affect the team so long as you don’t know about it. Now I’m ordering you not to try to learn about it because in this case what you don’t know won’t hurt you.”

That’s when I learned the guys already knew.

“Trank, is there anybody you didn’t tell?”

“Sure, Lyon. Lots of people, and no officers.”

“You do know that DC is a no firearms kind of place don’t you? And I think the Air Force has some kind of prohibition about non-flight crew carrying loaded weapons on their planes going to or arriving from CONUS.”

Trank got another guilty look.

“Trank, tell me it’s not loaded.”

“Aww, Lyon. What good is an unloaded pistol?”

“Don’t let anyone see you do it, and I MEAN anyone; but you will unload that piece and throw away the bullets. And I mean right NOW mister.”

“Aww, Lyon”

“NOW!”

“Okay Sarge. Okay.”

Trank got up then looked around before heading off to the latrine. Some of the guys wanted to follow him but I nixed that in no uncertain terms.

“No! Everyone stays right here. If Trank wants to work up to a stay in Leavenworth, I don’t want to lose anyone else to his stupidity.” Then under my breath, “How can anyone be so good at most things and so stupid at something like this?”

I didn’t know I said it loud enough to be heard.

“That’s Trank, Sarge. He can’t help himself.”

The rest of the guys jumped in to offer tidbits to his defense.

“AT EASE, Guys. I’m not going to do anything to him. Well, not much anyway. But his actions could place everyone who knows about his new little toy in jeopardy. Crap, I don’t need this.”

About then Trank was returning all smiles.

“Trank, tell me you didn’t try to flush the bullets and they are now gone.”

“Naw, they’re too heavy to flush. I tossed them...”

I held up my hand in front of him, “That’s all we need to know. More information just gets us all in deeper.”

I checked the time again and since it was getting close we gathered up the few little things we had going with us. Our big stuff like extra uniforms and so on had already been turned in for transport. We were just arriving at our check point when we saw Larry and Blade walking up.

They waved as they greeted us, “Hey guys. What’re you doing here?”

“Got orders, Blade. You heading out?”

“Got to go report to some big wigs somewhere near DC. I guess that officer was important to somebody since the orders came down from a two star.”

“No kidding? We just report to a Colonel.”

“Us too. But a two star initiated the orders.”

“Uh... The Colonel you report to wouldn’t happen to be named Jackson would he?”

Larry had been reading the orders while we were jawing, “Yeah. Colonel Jackson at Ft. Meade. What is this shit?”

I looked at Larry and Blade, “That officer we pulled out of a jam wouldn’t happen to be some kind of intelligence spook would he?”

“Maybe. He had a code name. What was it now?” Larry began scratching his head trying to remember something which didn’t seem all that important to him at the time.

“Houdini.” I offered.

“Yeah. That’s it. Houdini. Strange moniker to be carrying.”

“Hey Larry, it’s no stranger than Mad Hatter,” Blade replied looking me square in the eyes.

“Mad Hatter? Who’s Mad Hatter?”

Blade pointed at me.

“You’re kidding, right? I heard of you.”

“Nothing good I hope.”

“Nah, the usual shit. Why do you think they’re sending us to DC?”

“Couldn’t be for anything good.”

“Five’ll get you ten that it has something to do with that spook.” Larry continued. By now everyone decided our package was a spook although I still wasn’t entirely certain of that. He just didn’t seem all that spook-like to me. Maybe some kind of intelligence but not a field spook.

We continued to have a lively discussion rather than grabbing some winks eventually wandering back out to check in for our flight. The Zoomies grabbed another copy of each of our orders and had us sit down to wait again. Finally we were on our way to whatever it was that was waiting for us. Our Colonel’s comment about Colonel Jackson eating us alive if we fucked up was still floating through my mind as we flew home.

I gave a lot of thought to this trip and what it might really mean. It’s obviously not an award because that could be done in Nam and with just paperwork since we were needed in the field. I didn’t think it was any kind of punishment since our company seemed to feel we would be returning in ten days give or take a little. If it’s anything to do with that semi-spook then why are we all going? It seems like overkill to me. Blade and Larry plus myself and/or Ralph should have been plenty to answer questions about his capture and rescue. Then too, why the Air Force major and the cutting of special transport orders just to push us quickly through the red tape? I mean, I don’t mind because that means we don’t need to go through the replacement companies in California in order to get on a plane to return here. But why all this special treatment?

I continued to look at my orders noting they were initiated by a two star just like Larry said so we were all apparently going to the same place. I and all my boys were on one set of orders so I presumed Larry and Blade were both on their set. Funny way to run an Army. Oh well, who am I to argue? At least I’ve got a chance to grab a few winks. Be nice if it was a little warmer in the plane though. I guessed I should be happy they weren’t going to drop us out of a bomb bay with parachutes, that would be fun. Oh yeah.

* ‘Tan’ Tan Son Nhut Airbase and the nearby location of some of the US military presence near Saigon during the Vietnam conflict.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

After we landed in California, we all were ready for a good meal and some sack time. Trying to accomplish that took a bit of doing. We finally got to eat at the Air Force mess, which again turned out to be pretty good. Boy, those Zoomies have it rough. We still needed some sack time as sleep on the Transport wasn’t conducive to rest. It was more akin to what I called ‘zoning’, which meant I might have been snoring but my mind hadn’t shut off and wasn’t ignoring the cold nor the rumbling which came through the frame of the aircraft up into our seats and transferred to us. I bundled us off to the office which supposedly held the officer we were directed to see by those helpful Air Force types who had tried to direct us in the same direction as everyone else, at least until they saw our expedite orders.

After showing them a copy of those orders they then began running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to intercept our duffles before they were transported to the wrong place. Probably ninety-five percent of those who had just arrived were headed for the outfit which treated everyone like cattle, pushing them along as they decided who was being mustered out and who was moving on to a new location. Due to our ranks we wouldn’t have been there long but the replacement holding and mustering out detachment would have delayed us a bit, most of the guys working there had a tendency not to read paperwork. Especially if someone said it was important.

Fine. Nearly 24 hours after leaving Nam we still weren’t being given a chance to rest. Faster than you could blink an eye, we and our duffles were on another plane going to Denver. Maybe we could get some decent sleep there, we barely had time for the chow I mentioned earlier.

By now the guys were beginning to become crabby and we were all wishing for a shower, change and a shave... Well, most of us anyway. I still didn’t need to shave. That’s really great in the mornings, by the way, because it saved me some time getting myself together which translated into an extra ten minutes sack time. Thinking about that reminded me of the greenie who was sleeping when we wound up on the receiving end of a rocket attack. He got up and went to the latrine, then started shaving before he dressed. I warned him and headed for shelter. If he wanted to get killed that was his business. I couldn’t get him to leave. By the time he was shaved and dressed it was all over so he just wandered over to where the mess had been and stood gaping at the wreckage. Thankfully he was some other NCOs responsibility since I saw him later with an E-7 haranguing at him. I couldn’t believe it at the time since the marks on his uniform blouse and his pants looked like they lined up perfectly as though they had been pressed while he was wearing them. I don’t know if he ever made it or not, but I would have my doubts unless he made some serious adjustments. Who takes the time to shave when rockets are dropping? Maybe he was one of those ones the shrinks said just shut down their mental processes when they arrived over there.

We finally arrived in Maryland and managed to obtain some decent quarters at a motel, rest and food almost two and a half days before we were expected to report. Hell, today was Friday and the sun hadn’t even set so we had two whole days to ourselves. God, this was great. So this was what a real bed looked like? It’s been so long I could barely remember.
The next morning Ralph seized upon this God given opportunity to remind me of my agreement to let him have a ‘date’ with Lynnette on the economy, which he would like to redeem at some restaurant he happened to know about from when he was in the Baltimore area once before. Since even he admitted he hadn’t been in this area for at least six years, how the hell would he remember one particular restaurant?

“Aw come on, Lyon. The chances of meeting someone who knows us are slim to none here, so it would be safe. The guys pretty much know and they don’t care one way or the other, if they’re not outright supportive. Besides if we’re out with one girl who’ll dance with us then usually a couple of others will come along and dance too. We could go out to the restaurant and then have some more dancing and with the guys there what’s going to happen?”

He kept badgering at me until the guys came by the room and heard him. At first they knocked lightly on the door then they became a little noisier. I let them in just so management wouldn’t think we were trying to tear the place apart.

Once in the room, Frenchy took the opportunity to jump in with both left feet, “Hey. Did Lynnette come along too? That’d be great. We could go out dancing. I’ve discovered a club just down the street that looks respectable. Maybe we could have a little fun and remember what girls look like. With any luck we might even get a dance or two.”

That figured. If anyone would discover a club this early in our arrival here, it would be Frenchy; at least it wasn’t a bar. At least I hoped not.

They began to all keep at me until I gave up, “All right guys. But you protect Lynnette, and no girls come back to your rooms. There’ll be no funny business. Keep it to supper, dancing and talking. Then we all return here together without the girls. Got it?”

They hastily agreed and I drew sixty bucks from each of them, kicking in sixty or so of my own. That allowed me to go out and pick up the stuff I needed which took me longer than I expected since I didn’t know where things were around here. This was a bad idea and I made certain they knew it, especially so since neither Blade nor Larry knew about this little... diversion I had. By 1300 I’d been exceptionally lucky and had picked up everything I could think of. By 1700 we were all on our way to the club... it seemed a bit strange to me since I hadn’t done this for a couple of years give or take six months and seldom, if ever, with so many guys around me who knew. It was a huge cluster-fuck waiting to happen. This was still a bit like being surrounded by a barracks full of men and I never did this in that venue. I knew I had my own quarters there, so to speak, but they weren’t isolated and there really was no privacy. The other slight worry I had was that neither Larry nor Blade had ever been in on me doing this sort of thing and they were an unknown which could end up stabbing me in the back, probably literally knowing Blade’s penchant for sharp pointy things.

Anyway we voted on the order things were to occur then ended up going to the club to dance first in the hopes the guys could pick up a few girls to go along to the restaurant. Afterward we would bring them back to the club for some more dancing before retiring here to our rooms again.

“Monday we report to that Colonel, and I want you all bright eyed and bushy tailed. The first one of you who tries anything with the girls will think that the world fell in on him. And keep the number of drinks to two or less. Got that? Tomorrow we just relax here. Anybody checked out the pool yet?”

“It seems to be fairly clean, boss.”

“Yeah. Not that we could eat off the tiles but there’s no scum growing in it.”

I was overjoyed to hear that...

My overgrown children once again agreed to all my conditions before we were off to the club. Despite my trepidation over the potential for some really serious fallout from our little excursion the guys behaved themselves quite well... Even Trank. Blade and Larry were a surprise, too. Although Larry and Blade had been a bit - reluctant, when they first figured out my masquerade even they had admitted I looked good and Blade brought up the conversation we had back in Nam as we brought out that Zoomie officer. Blade seemed to adopt me as his little sister and was faster to discourage other male interests than Ralph happened to be. At least he got between me and two of the more... belligerent half drunks who were in the club. Maybe he was just using me as bait so he could knife someone. Although he didn’t resort to that either so I wasn’t certain where he was going.

The guys were right, by the way, with one girl dancing with them, in turns, others began to show up until we were all paired up and it was time to go to supper. I was duly appreciative of that since if we had kept at it I doubt I would have been able to walk after a few more hours. As I said, it wasn’t long before girls began to gravitate to our little party so our two previously uninformed comrades began to think the deception was actually pretty ‘cool’. Or at least that’s what they said. They didn’t behave badly toward me nor toward the real girls so I guess they meant it.

The girls accepted the idea of going to supper with us so we rushed off. Our reservation was for 1930 and we just made it in the doors when a pair of people were about to push out past us. The guy seemed vaguely familiar to me but Ralph spotted him and stepped right into it dragging me along with him.

“Hello, Sir. Remember us?”

“Hello, uh... Lyon... no, Ralph isn’t it? You remember me? We met a couple of weeks ago but it wasn’t under the best of circumstances.”

I suddenly recognised the man and tried my best not to make myself noticeable to him.
Larry got a good look at him for a second or two before his face flashed recognition and he responded, “Yeah, I guess you weren’t at your best the last time we met.”

“No, not really. Allow me to introduce my fiancee, Lucy. Lucy this is.. I believe you’re a master sergeant??? Ralph... Sorry don’t know your last name.”

“Ralph’s okay, Sir. Everyone calls me that anyway. Pleased to meet you Lucy. My date this evening is Lynnette. Lynnette, this is a guy I met overseas while we were conducting a little communication business, and this is his fiancee, Lucy.”

We girls greeted each other as I hoped and prayed this Lucy didn’t twig to me. I latched onto Ralph’s arm in the hopes I could pressure him a little and guide him away quietly, which was actually a bit like trying to move a brick outhouse when it was fastened to the ground with rebar and about five feet of underground concrete. I could see Houdini’s fiancee giving me some serious thought. Oh man, I hoped she didn’t peg I was a guy, or if she did — she didn’t let on about it. I’d never live it down and it might just ruin an otherwise nice afternoon and evening. This was one bad idea. Finally we said our goodbye’s as Lucy suggested to me “try the lobster” before they wished us a pleasant evening then vanished out the door. I was considering fainting in relief.

A few minutes later we were being seated and fifteen minutes after that my panic had been nearly forgotten. The rest of the evening turned out to be much calmer so by the time we finished supper and went back to the club to dance some more my ordeal had been thoroughly dismissed from my mind. We left the girls about eleven, made our way back to our accommodations, where we all settled in for the night. By the way, the lobster was pretty good. More than a bit pricey, but good.

Sunday, we spent most of the day hanging around the pool. Some of the guys had suits while others rushed off to buy some. Blade tried to convince me to go buy one and swim as Lynnette, with the idea that a bunch of guys hanging around the pool might discourage females from using it. I told him I appreciated the thought but this was a day for me to relax too so... thanks, but no thanks. I hoped he wouldn’t take it the wrong way, besides, I still wasn’t sure where he was coming from in all this.

Management only got after us a couple of times and that was because we were a little loud and they had some day sleepers in some rooms near the pool. I spent a little time wondering if we could somehow con our Colonel into installing a pool near our billet? We could always claim it helped relax our muscles as well as giving us a way to wind down after a long tough day instead of going out on the town and creating trouble. Well, a guy can dream can’t he?

Monday morning I rousted everyone about six and we took our time getting ourselves together then wandered out for a late breakfast. Well... when in Rome - relax. We had great accommodations, good chow a short walk away, relative peace, and no crazies shooting at us or trying to drop rockets on our heads. It was still difficult to comprehend that the acka, acka, clack, clack sounds we were hearing were due to the jackhammers the street repair guys were using a block away. The first time I heard it I was half asleep and woke up searching for my weapons. Breakfast was good and we still had more than an hour to find our way to the building and that Colonel who would ‘chew us up and spit us out’ if we fucked up while we were here. No biggie. I intended to enjoy this to the fullest.

We copped a ride to the main gate but they wouldn’t let the cabs on the base so I guessed we would need to hoof it from there. Not my idea of a good time but... The MP at the gate took a look at our orders before he told us to wait. He called them in and fifteen minutes later we had a ride. I wonder if he would have done that for an officer? I wasn’t about to argue. Ten minutes after that we were at the building going through another security check. Yep. These people have got to be spooks. No one else would put security inside of security inside of yet more security. I was willing to bet the Pentagon wasn’t this bad. This time the MP was an AP. I guess that meant the building was joint-services. Seemed a little funny to me since this was an Army base... Ft. Meade, remember?

Anyway the guy with the greatest number of those funny little stripes got on the phone and after a minute told us, “You’re at the wrong building. Oh, it’s the right building as far as your orders go but Colonel Jackson will be over at another building all day today. Your little pow-wow has been moved.

“Great, no one informed us.”

“I guess it’s a good thing you guys are thirty minutes early,” the AP commented dryly before adding: “Go back out and down about a hundred paces that’a way.” he pointed back down the street from within the building. “Down there, you’ll find a bus stop. Get on the bus and tell the driver you need to know when you’re at annex number four... I’d get a move-on if I were you. The bus should be along any minute.”

This wasn’t our fault. We left as early as we could since we didn’t know how far it was to the Fort from where we were staying. Only took fifteen minutes so even with the delay at the gate that still put us here half an hour early. We hustled down to the bus stop where we had another short wait before a small bus driven by a civilian pulled up. He took us all on board along with an SP who showed up a few seconds before the bus. Great, so the Navy’s involved in this mess, too. We managed to fit in with nearly a dozen empty seats remaining before we were off again. We rode back out the gate where we had abandoned our taxis immediately after taking on four more passengers at the bus stop at the gate then after a forty minute ride and several more stops round Robin Hood’s barn we re-entered what I thought was more of the same place. Again it was through another guarded gate and less than three minutes later we were told we were supposed to get off.

“The building you want is that one about fifty feet back from the street and one building up. Good Luck.” He pointed toward a building which had two rows of potted trees in front of it.

I was right when I figured the SP was our escort since he got off at the same stop and walked with us into the same building. Once there, he escorted us in and handed us off to some more MPs before he disappeared deeper into the building. I made certain Colonel Jackson was in the building before we signed in. We were issued visitors badges then were collectively shown to a small conference room just fifty feet from a canteen filled with vending machines. Now we were given the opportunity to hurry up and wait once again. Typical. At least there was coffee at the counter in the corner so we didn’t need to buy some at that canteen.
Checking my watch for about the tenth time, caused me some concern since we arrived twenty minutes past our time to report. Now it was nearly half an hour after that. Three minutes later the doors opened and a Captain and a Major entered the room. I called attention and we all stood, with the Major telling us almost immediately to relax.

That’s what she said, “Relax, guys.” Like we were embarrassing her or something.

“When Colonel Jackson shows up, please just stay seated. We don’t want to be playing officer and enlisted all day long and you’re likely to be seeing a lot of different people both enlisted and officers during the week. Here’s an important clue. If they have the same patch as mine on their sleeve or pocket then they are part of our group and we don’t play military while we’re indoors working. Anyone else, feel free to give them a hard time.”

I was beginning to think I liked this Major, what was her name? Delheim, I think she said. Yes, I did notice that there were no name tags on their uniforms.

A couple of minutes of easy chat went by before the doors opened again. This time it was the Colonel and a couple of enlisted weinies. You can tell they’re intelligence types... all spit and polish and... HOLY SHIT!

There is a God and He hates me.

I gave another careful glance at the Colonel hoping my eyes were lying to me when at about the same point in time Ralph finally came to; “Oh shit.”

I nudged him with my elbow.

“Lyon, that’s the fiancee of the spook...” I nudged him a little harder.

“Wha??? Uhh!” I had unobtrusively poked my finger in his ribs before he finally caught on.

“Gentlemen,” the Major began the meeting, “I would like to introduce Colonel Jackson, code name ‘magician’.

The Colonel’s aides placed a set of folders in front of her which were nearly a duplicate of those which were in front of the Major. The only difference that I could see between them was the Colonel’s folders each had a sheet or two of yellow writing tablet covered with information attached to the face of each folder by paperclips, and... they were thicker. Obviously this Colonel read her material prior to entering into an engagement. I began to worry a little. Her folders actually did look pretty thick. Somehow I thought she might have a lot more information about each of us than the Army usually manages to stuff into the jackets of their personnel. I had caught a glimpse of the jacket the Major had on Trank and it looked like it had two to three times as much paper in it as the ones they had at SOG - and they were pretty full. The Colonel’s folder on him made the one the major had look like an empty book.

The Colonel’s entire pile was at least half again deeper than the one the Major had. At a guess they had pulled our entire military history prior to inviting us here. Now I was becoming curious as well as apprehensive. Just how much did they know about each of us and... did it go back further than our military careers? Spooks don’t spook on the citizens of their own country, do they? Wait a minute, the FBI gets involved whenever a security clearance is being considered so, now that I think about it, maybe they do.

“Gentlemen.” Colonel Jackson was getting right to it, “We will only have you here for seven to ten days dependent upon several things. Before you ask it; yes, I intend to use each and every one of them. I believe I met most if not all of you last night when Colonel Scott and I were leaving the restaurant and you were coming in. I’m sorry, but you are unlikely to have the time to visit it again until we have finished these meetings - if then.

I’m going to outline these first few days for you. Today and tomorrow we will be speaking with each of you individually. The following day will be spent in a conference room once again where we hope to have the opportunity to nudge your memories a bit during a group session. Sometimes we can obtain additional information that way which no one remembers when they are alone. The purpose of the solitary discussions is to allow us to weed out the information which each of you thinks is pertinent but which actually has little value to our work. That isn’t your fault nor anyone else’s; that’s just the way the human mind works. You each have your own interests and background and that plays a large part in what you consider to be important and that which you remember as a result. The final days will be a bit more fluid with the actual events of those days having been dictated or, possibly, directed by the results of these first three.

The team interviewing you will be those of us here plus a half dozen others. Each of you will be interviewed by each of us so please don’t be distressed when we ask you the same questions over and over. Sometimes little details show up when we least expect them and those little details can lead to some very big conclusions which can go a long way toward helping the war effort.”

It was about this point in her lecture that the doors opened again allowing six more people to enter the room. After some quick introductions, the Colonel assigned each of us to either one of those other people or one of the ones who were already at the table with us. The Major handed off the appropriate jacket and a notepad to each interviewer before we all traipsed out to be led to smaller rooms where the questions began. Once we were all gone that left only the Colonel and the Major in the conference room.
At my first interview, my mind was half concentrating on the questions and half on that Colonel. I continued to wonder if she figured out that Ralph’s ‘date’ last night and myself were one and the same. My next little bit of insecurity was in wondering exactly what she would do about it once she figured it out. Talk about walking into the lion’s den. I wonder if this is what Colonel Benjamin had in mind when he told us not to fuck up?

The interviews each lasted a bit over an hour with a break of about twenty minutes between them. Each of us saw four interviewers that first day. The Colonel had turned invisible, off who knows where, and at the end of the day we were returned to the conference room where a Captain gave us our tasking orders before releasing us. Every one of the officers with whom we talked had some sort of ‘code’ name since others from the same group, as noted by those little patches the major mentioned to us, referred to our interviewers by those names. The one Captain was “Cypher” but someone else had called him Bellamy. I kept wondering if we should be noting who was who by their names or by their monikers. The whole thing still smelled of some kind of set up. I couldn’t see the purpose behind it all. Then again, maybe there wasn’t one. They could have debriefed us in Nam and sent the info to this unit. One other ‘little’ thing that was bothering me was how they seem to already know the answers to many of the questions they were putting to us. There was a whole lot more to this than they were letting on and they asked a lot of questions which didn’t seem to have anything to do with the rescue. Or at least, nothing that I could see. The other little thing which took me a day to figure out but had been nagging at me since this all began; they seemed to know more about each of us than I would have thought would have been in our records or that SOG would have let on. That meant they had someone do some very fast research through all our prior units even back into our civilian life. They just seemed to know an awful lot about those civilian lives prior to our each winding up in the Army.

That much became more apparent to me during our second day of ‘interviews.’ I hadn’t seen the Colonel at all the second day until I was blind-sided while halfway through my fourth interview of the day. I was answering a question when the door opened behind me and a slender hand and arm reached past me to accept the notepad and folder my interviewer had before him only a few seconds previously.

A voice told me, “Come with me and bring your cover with you. We won’t be returning to this location today.”

I recognized the voice as belonging to that Colonel. This wasn’t looking so good to me. I also wasn’t comfortable with trying E&E in this setting either. Her voice didn’t sound like I was in trouble but then again since she was a Colonel that meant that she’d had enough time in the service to learn to hide whatever it was she intended to do from showing up in her speech, not to mention she was probably a spook and that just compounded everything.

Following her as she led me to the front lobby, she waited impatiently as I turned in my visitor’s badge and was signed out then we were out of the building and down to a staff car which just happened to be waiting there for no apparent reason other than to perhaps wait for some wandering Colonel dragging a worried Sergeant behind her who might just happen by and want transport to some other location. I was becoming more concerned that the next destination might be the stockade. We entered the car and were whisked off eventually ending up at the building I and my team had first seen Monday morning. She got out leading me into the building, pausing only long enough to get me signed in and badged once more then we were off again.

Less than five minutes later we entered an office area which had one of those emblems etched down in the lower outer corner of the frosted glass which was embedded in the door and which matched those our interviewers had been wearing. They didn’t like to advertise very much. The first words I heard her say since we left that little interview room were when the Colonel checked with a civilian who was seated at a desk just inside that door. A few moments later we proceeded on through another door and into what I figured was her office. Sure enough, she went around behind the desk even as she pointed to one of the two chairs located before it.

“Sit,” she said. Somewhat like you would do with a well trained puppy. I sat, figuring if I played the part well enough she might pat me on the head, give me a bone, and let me go. I wasn’t looking forward to learning what it was that caused her to interrupt my debrief and to bring me all the way over here. I was still trying to decide exactly what was going on as she gave me a good once over. If she had been an X-ray machine I would have started to be worried about my future ability to father children as well as possibly asking her how many cavities I had in my teeth, and how well the break I had in my arm last year had mended. Plopping the jacket she carried with us down on a corner of her desk, she opened yet another, which was one of several, that had been sitting prominently on her desk centered before her chair. The one she brought with her from the interviewer was ignored almost as though she had dropped it into a trash basket. Inside this new folder were a number of photographs and papers which I couldn’t quite make out from my less advantageous location. Eventually she spread the photos before her glancing repeatedly between them and myself. I was finally able to recognise two of them. My heart jumped into my throat and believe me, it took a lot to get it to do that.

“I can explain, Ma’am.”

She looked up at me with one eyebrow raised, “I didn’t ask for an explanation.”

“Yes Ma’am. I mean, No Ma’am.” I shut up, remembering something about discretion being the better part of valor, figuring that silence in this case was about as close to that golden discretion as I was likely to get.

She continued to look through the photos while reading some of the papers then opened a drawer and pulled out another jacket which she opened as well, moving the first one slightly to one side to make room for the second. The new one had a number of pages of those yellow note tablet sheets on top of everything else. She spent a couple of minutes glancing through them before frowning then searching deeper into the pile of papers held within.

“SFC...” she said sort of under her breath.

“Ma’am?”

“Oh. You passed the board for SFC sixteen months ago.” she replied matter of factly.

“Yes, Ma’am. Something like that.”

“When you dress, has anyone ever detected you?”

I decide to play dumb for the moment, “Dress?”

Her eyes looked up with a ‘don’t fuck with me’ look while her head remained positioned as though it was still reading the papers in the folder.

She continued to look at me until I stammered out, “Uh... No, Ma’am. At least not until you did, Ma’am.”

She nodded, “You’re very good at it. By the way, we have your missing man being air-lifted in. He should be here tomorrow. Staff Sergeant Benjamin, I believe?”

“Yes, Ma’am. Benny. He was in the base hospital.”

“I know.” She said cryptically. Did I mention that I was now pretty certain she was a spook, too?

She continued to read my files, glancing at me every now and then, obviously thinking. At this point I wasn’t certain if this was a good or a bad thing and I was hoping it wouldn’t be necessary for me to find out.

“Do you have any identification in your female personae?”

I nearly choked.

“Uh... No, Ma’am. That’s the reason I needed to be really careful about it. Am I going to be thrown out of the Army over this Ma’am?”

She looked at me with what I took to be surprise on her face.

“Not as far as I’m concerned. I had something else in mind. Do all of your guys know about this? I suppose they do, but to what extent?”

“Yes, Ma’am. The guys who are here know about Lynnette. The two LRRPs, Blade and Larry whom we rescued along with Houdini, didn’t until Saturday but they’ve only been involved with us for a very short time. They play out of a different team.”

“Not any more. They’re all going to be a part of your new team.”

My new team? What was all this?

“Uh. My new team, Ma’am? What ‘new team’?”

She looked up at me with her eyes but not her head once again, ignoring my question as she quickly looked back down without saying anything.

Ask a silly question, I suppose.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

I waited for her to drop more about this new team shit on me but she seemed to have decided to clam up for the moment. Her face suddenly changed which caused me to consider running for the door. The way my luck was going at the moment she probably had a harpoon in her desk and could haul me back in before I could reach the outer door.

“I’m going to have a set of orders cut. Do you have uniforms for a woman?”

“Unif... No Ma’am.” My weird-o-meter just jammed its pointer around the end stop a couple of times on it’s way to flying off the meter face entirely.

“Damn. Okay. We can work around that for the moment. Tomorrow you will arrive here dressed as you were Saturday evening unless you have something more appropriate for day wear. All of your men will come to this building tomorrow morning at...” she paused, staring at, or possibly through me as she gave it some thought and I again worried about my future ability to procreate. I gave slight thought to the possibility that she was some kind of Frankenstein creation and was actually a machine masquerading as a woman. That quickly went by the wayside since she was just too convincing to be a machine.

She continued as though she hadn’t taken the three or four seconds to make whatever decision she had come up with, “ . . . 1100. That should be late enough that if I need more time to prepare you, I’ll have it. You will arrive here . . . no, scratch that. I’ll pick you up at Oh Eight Hundred tomorrow morning and you will be ready to go out as a female in the event we need to finish what we will begin today. The orders I’m going to have cut will have your full female name on them. Once you’re here and properly attired, there will be photos taken and within another day we will provide you with both civilian and military identification for your female personae. What’s the longest you have ever lived as a woman?”

I was still sitting there trying to digest everything she just said. It finally dawned on me she asked me a question.

“Excuse me, Ma’am? I’m sorry. Everything you just said took me completely by surprise. What was the question?”

“How long have you lived as a woman at one sitting? A few hours, a day, a week? How long?”

I was in shock. “Uh . . . maybe eight, nine, perhaps ten hours.” I was so flustered, I forgot to say, ‘Ma’am.’

“Think you could pull it off continuously for say . . . a month or two at a time?”

“A Mon . . . I don’t know Ma’am. Ma’am, what’s this all about?”

“Well, it’s not quite what I had originally proposed to the Generals but it’s a very viable alternative. Being able to bounce back and forth could have some very positive benefits which we hadn’t previously considered. More so than full conversion.” She nodded her head as if agreeing with herself while she stared at me considering her next statement, “Some very good benefits. Think you could handle bouncing back and forth for say . . . a year or two? No more than three?”

She didn’t bother to wait for my answer so I assumed the questions were rhetorical. I was still trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about, especially that ‘full conversion’ she had mentioned. The thoughts in my head were bouncing off my walls of reason and possibly dribbling out my ears as I continued half listening to her soliloquy while she mused about the possibilities, generally talking out the potentials to herself. It was like I wasn’t even in the room. At this point I would have been just as happy if I hadn’t been.

After a couple of minutes she looked directly at me again, “Stand up, Lynnette. Slowly turn around and let me get a good look at you.”

I reluctantly stood up and slowly turned in place.

She continued talking to herself while X-Raying me again as I turned. It made me think of a roast on a spit and the thought of turning in paperwork for extra pay briefly crossed my mind as I wondered if being here could qualify me for continuing hazardous duty pay.

“Longer hair . . . definitely longer hair. Light brown, not quite blond . . . Yes. Need breast forms. Stop there!”

I quit turning, nearly recoiling, while she continued musing, “Set of uniforms, needs to be a Captain, no that’s not enough . . . a Major. The Generals will need to get involved in that. Small shopping spree, maybe three, four thousand plus the appliances; six at most. They’ll need to be good. I’ll go along to smooth the way. This could work. This could work very well. Slight change to the conceptual plans but this could work out much better in the long run. It could still offer all the advantages we considered for the original missions and add some. She’ll need a few of weeks training down in Virginia as will the initial team. I think they’re right, we could do this.”

She leaned over to her intercom, “Denise could you schedule a joint planning session with our pocket Generals and the Q team? I’d like it to be one of the next two days at the General’s convenience. Let them know this has something to do with our very dark lizard project.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I’ll get on it right away.”

The Colonel’s attention moved away from the intercom and back to me as I could see her eyes refocus then she turned to her intercom again, “Denise? Would you also call Houdini and ask him to come see me sometime in the next twenty? When you hang up with his office then please come in here and bring a steno pad.”

Less than three minutes later, the lady who had been in the outer office entered without knocking, closed the door, then walked over and seated herself in the other chair where she began to write as the Colonel was speaking. There was a pause for a moment as the Colonel asked me another question.

“What’s the name of that Female Major again? The whole thing? Lynnette something.”

It only took me a moment to figure out she wanted my female name again, “Uh . . . Lynnette Joi Stevens, Ma’am.”

“Denise . . . Lynnette Joi . . . ”

“Stevens. Yes, Ma’am. Is Joi with an ‘i’ or a ‘y’?” She scribbled some more on her pad as I answered her before she consulted her pad then asked the Colonel, “What time should I arrange with Idents for the photos, fingerprinting and so on?”

“Best make that for around thirteen hundred. Special stores at elevent hundred for the whole group when they arrive. fifteen hundred today for uniform stores for Lynnette if they can handle short notice otherwise no later than sixteen hundred. I’ll need them to provide at least one properly sized and medaled uniform at that time with the rest to this office before ten hundred tomorrow. The Sergeant here, can provide the sizing information. Append the normal list of medals for SouthEast Asia, VietNam campaign, throw in the E list as well and maybe add the support list for the latest Korea. I want the China, S mission stuff issued but not on the uniforms, obviously.”

The secretary continued scribbling on her pad during all that.

“Could you get a conference call together with our two Generals before you start in on cutting those orders? I need to speak with them before we spend a lot of time preparing the paper. They might want to make a few changes.”

“Of course. If there’s nothing else I’ll go place those calls right now then begin the parts of the paperwork which are unlikely to change.”

“That should do it, Denise. Sergeant, would you wait out in the outer office while I finish a few things here? Don’t wander away.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

I followed the secretary out, opening the door for her then closing it behind us before sitting in one of the chairs across from her desk while taking in the room. Over in a corner near yet another door I spotted a small table which held a coffee pot, cups and the makings. I asked, “Is anyone allowed to take a cup of coffee from that pot?”

I was motioning toward the pot just about the time the other door opened and a Staff Sergeant walked out to speak with the Secretary for a moment. He glanced at me as he exited the room he had been in. While he was waiting to talk with the secretary who was setting up that conference call the Colonel wanted, he looked at me for a bit longer taking perhaps as much as a minute to make some sort of decision before she finished and gathered his attention. He finally turned, walking back into his office immediately after grabbing a cup of coffee from the pot I had asked about only a minute or so before. The door closed behind him once he was back in his office.

“Sure. Help yourself. Use a cup from this end. The others are personal cups belonging to staff.”

“Huh? Oh . . . Thanks.” I got up and went over, taking one of the cups, scattering one spoonful of sugar into it just before pouring the coffee. It smelled pretty good. They really live the life of Riley here.

“Ma’am, the General’s aides are holding on four.”

I was carrying the cup back to my chair before I happened to notice my cup was shaking. Not a lot mind you but enough to make me nervous.

I continued to sip at my cup of coffee, which tasted pretty good by the way, as my mind continued to worrying at all of this. The thoughts that this might seem weird to the guys passed through my head followed shortly afterward by the thought that I felt it was pretty weird, myself. I wondered how the guys would handle it. It wasn’t too long before I was wondering exactly what it really happened to be and why it was happening to me. The first words I remembered coming from Gunny’s mouth came back to haunt me in full force as I sat there, ‘ since he looks like a freaking girl!, he’s gonna have a hard time.’

I was beginning to think ‘a hard time’ didn’t even come close to doing this situation justice. Just as I began my second cup that spook Zoomie came in, walked across to the Colonel’s door and went on in without so much as a ‘how do you do’. While the door was open I could hear the Colonel talking to someone so I guess she was still on her conference call. That was one long call.
Now that I had the time to stop and think while I was sitting there, I began to consider everything we had been discussing and the concept that this enigmatic “them” were about to provide me with female ID. Not just ID but both Civilian and Military ID. I still wondered what that was all about.

This whole group had to be spooks so there had to be some kind of spook reason behind it. Wait a minute, didn’t she say something about longer hair? And lighter in colour? How the hell am I going to do that? I can’t stay with the unit and bounce back and forth from male to female to civilian and back. What did she say? Something more than just “Do the guys know about me” dressing like that? Wait a minute here. This was moving a little too fast to be comfortable. They want me to do this in public for long periods of time? Well, I mean more public, or something. Aww hell.

It was never my intention to become a female. I was quite content the way I was, thanks; even if my body did have a bit of a female shape to it. I did this more as a joke. Well — maybe a joke is a bad way to describe it. More of a release-the-tension sort of thing. I didn’t need to hold everything inside me all the time if I could be a girl once in a while. It was a lot different — I’m not sure just how to describe it. When I was me, that is the male me, I was pretty much in charge. I made the decisions and bore the brunt of any crap which might come down on us. When I was a girl I could relax a bit and let the guys handle the stiff stuff. I felt, I don’t know . . . comfortable, relaxed, at ease?

I didn’t need to be constantly thinking about how to keep the flack away from the guys, nor the insane antics Trank always was getting into. They were doing it for me since I was the girl. For one or two days out of a year it was kind of nice. A little like going on a short vacation without needing to actually go away somewhere. I could still control any situations which occurred but it was done completely differently. It was all more . . . relaxing, more . . . natural.

My introspection lasted until that Zoomie exited the Colonel’s office striding across the waiting room while giving me a hasty once over then he exited through the outer door. I had that feeling that you get when someone holds up a camera and says, “say cheese.” He was another one who wasn’t much of a talker. Maybe all spooks were like that.

I dropped back into my thoughts wondering if I could handle doing the female thing for more than a few hours at a time. How the hell could they clear it with SOG, anyway? First time I dressed I’d first be laughed out of the unit, then drummed out, if I survived the laughing and all that would likely go with it. The whole thing would go over like a lead balloon with command as well. How could I be a macho machoman when the ‘little lady’ would pop out every so often? What was the question she asked? How many hours or days? Did I answer her? If I did, I don’t remember what I said.

Hell, what was the longest I ever did it? There was that one weekend I hid myself away in the house and was dressed from Friday night to Sunday night. Does that count? I suppose she was only interested in the times I did it in public, and more importantly, once I was over eighteen. Most of those were evenings or nights accompanied by someone who could protect me a bit which would give me the chance to protect myself as well. But . . . did I ever do it during the day?

Yeah, now that I think about it. I went to that shopping center and bought some clothes that one time. That was daytime. The longest I ever did it at one sitting . . . Damn, that’s a hard one . . . maybe that time Linda and I and our Moms went out together all day one Saturday during the summer or that one evening when they asked me to protect Linda when her Mom didn’t trust the boy she was going to date, and with just cause it turned out. That was a bit weird. I was mentally prepared to go with her as myself when she and her Mom came over and they and my Mom explained that it just wouldn’t work if I was a boy going along to protect her. It was a bit of a shock but I went out as a girl on a double date that once. It was . . . interesting, but not something I had thought I would want to repeat, nor did I think it would ever be repeated. Boy was I wrong.

If we only counted the times when I was out in public then there couldn’t have been very many opportunities. Probably six or eight hours max. Umm, I don’t know . . . Oh, yeah, there was that one holiday weekend when I went out three evenings in a row but during the day I was a male again and I made certain the wig I wore was quite a bit different than my own hair colour. I guess that’s it. Maybe eight hours.

". . .gent? . . . HEY SOLDIER, LISTEN UP.”

Huh? I looked around quickly only to see the secretary looking at me.

“You awake now? The Colonel wants you in her office again.”

“Oh, sorry. Thanks.”

“Would you take these in to her? She wants to check them over before she signs them and we make the duplicates for you.”

“Sure.”

She handed me close to two dozen sheets of typed paper before she motioned me toward the Colonel’s door.
I was just about to knock when she said, “Just go in, place the papers on her desk and sit down quietly until she has a chance to check them.”

I followed the instructions I was given.

After she finished with whatever she was working on, Colonel Jackson spent ten to fifteen minutes looking over the papers I brought into her office before affixing her signature to most of them. She sorted them into three little stacks which she then piled crossed back and forth in one larger stack before she got up and began stuffing everything but those papers into her safe as I stood in front of the chair before her desk, having risen when she did. She went from the safe to the coat rack in the corner where she retrieved her jacket, cover and purse then returned to shuffle the order of the stacks of papers. Holding them in her left hand, she put her purse over her left shoulder using her right hand, and said, “Come with me.” Not much of a talker, this one, like I mentioned before.

We went back out to her secretary where Jackson said, “twelve copies to go please, Denise. Make five more for Joint records, make an extra copy of the top set and forward it to his old command. Return the others to me. The originals of the bottom two stacks will go to General Burkhart since I’m doing all this under his authority. As soon as I have the remaining copies I’ll be out of here for the day. I should be back tomorrow about ten or eleven hundred. If I must be reached then contact my driver through the pool radio. Oh! You might let them know I’ll be keeping this driver the rest of today until somewhere around twenty or twenty-one hundred. I’ll see he gets supper. The sergeant here will be with me during that time.

When Captain Carter calls to ask about dismissing the other men for the day, tell him to instruct them to return to the quarters at which they are billeted and they are to remain there until Sergeant Stevens joins them later. They can go out for supper but they must return to their quarters promptly as the Sergeant and I may have need of contacting them, and we might show up at any time.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I’ll have the copies in just a few minutes. Is there anything else you need done now?”

I watched this exchange wondering exactly what the hell was going on. One of the sets of orders was going to SOG? What was that all about? Colonel Jackson began talking again so I suddenly switched my attention entirely to her hoping she would let some bread crumbs drop which would fill me in a bit.

“No, thank you Denise. Now that I think about it though, make ten extra sets for us to take with us, and one extra of the bottom stack.”

She directed her attention to me as she continued, “It’s getting to be pretty late in the day so we need to do everything quickly. We’ll go to your hotel or motel first. You can tell the driver which one and provide directions, if he needs them, once we get in the car. Do you still have your things from Sunday?”

“Yes, Ma’am. They’re washed out and are probably dry by now.” I looked at her with some suspicion, “Why? . . . Ma’am.”

“You’ll need to change quickly then we have some shopping to do. I also need to get you to the hairdresser and have your hair coloured. No arguments, no questions. For now just do it. Everything will be reversible if need be.”

I was beginning to get a bad feeling about this, “Yes. Ma’am.” Once again the instructions our Colonel gave us began to cross my mind.

“As soon as your hair looks better then we will go purchase some more civilian clothing for you. Tomorrow morning we will go to stores and you’ll be issued some officer’s uniforms. I wanted to do that today but there isn’t time. Did you provide Denise with the sizing information?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good. Then we might have one uniform here by morning. We’ll need civilian clothing as well as the uniforms when we take your photos and begin to run ID for you which will also occur tomorrow. Your men can come in shortly before eleven hundred. I hope we’ll be finished and back before then. That’s when we will run you all through special stores. Exactly what that is will be explained to you at the time. Effective tomorrow at oh eight hundred you will all be transferred to this unit’s command. Orders to that effect will be handed to each of you when you gather here tomorrow. The rest will be explained tomorrow. Your orders, Sergeant, are a part of this pile of paper you are about to receive, certain of which you will sign and return to me.”

She turned back to her secretary who had just arrived with the copies as I considered her near order telling me I would sign some of the papers. “Thank you, Denise. May I have a pen please?”

She turned back to me, “Don’t just stand there Sergeant, come over here and sign these as I give them to you.”

After I signed my life away without even the time to read the stuff to figure out what I was getting myself and the other guys into, she took one of the sheets and carefully put it into an envelope placing a delivery address on the front as we waited for the secretary to make one set of copies of the rest. The copies were given to me and the originals dropped into a folder which the secretary produced and to which she appended a small sheet of paper describing the contents before she promised it would go into the safe.

“Let’s go Sergeant, we’re burning daylight.”

I was beginning to understand what the Colonel at my unit was talking about. Colonel Jackson was a very no nonsense, let’s get things done now, in your face type of lady. How she could be like that and still exude peaches and cream as she did it was quite an achievement. I was glad I wasn’t on her bad side list. As I began to consider all that was happening my mind turned out it’s next little bit of insecurity ... maybe I was on that list, and that’s why all this was happening.

While we were riding she began to go into a little detail about what they had in mind for us. She said she would have preferred to have a couple of dozen more like me but sixteen wasn’t bad. I reminded her, hesitantly, that the rest of the guys in my unit didn’t do this sort of thing.

She laughed, “I hope not. I don’t believe there is anything we could do to make them believable. Don’t worry about that Sergeant. The others you’ll be working with aren’t from your previous unit. How many more are there back at SOG which are a part of your main team or teams?”

“I’ve got close to two dozen regulars and about fifteen others I frequently tap.”

“I want the names of all the regulars. We will transfer them to this unit at the same time this part of your team goes back. In fact, give me the names of the six or so of the best from your additional personnel, we’ll want thirty total. We’ll draw them out too. Worst case, we’ll send some back. Do they all know about your dressing?”

“No ma’am. These guys are the only ones in on that. Do you want those names now?”

“No. Tomorrow will be soon enough. Write them up tonight while you’re back at your hotel and give them to me when I come to pick you up tomorrow morning. We’ll need to arrange for replacements for the ones we will be ‘borrowing’.”

I was beginning to realise her term ‘borrowing’ was more of a ‘we’re going to take them, and likely never give them back during your lifetime’ kind of thing. Eventually we arrived at the motel and she looked around briefly asking, “This is where you’ve been staying?” She asked like the place was something disgusting she would want to shake from her shoe.

“Yes, Ma’am. It’s kinda nice and it grows on you.”

The Colonel sorta sniffed her nose, “Grows on me . . . Just so long as it isn’t carnivorous. All right . . . We’ll move you all tomorrow. Before I pick you up at oh eight hundred make certain your guys will be ready to depart with everything they and you brought with you from SEA. Transport to the base and the secure quarters we have there will occur around oh eight thirty. They’re to check out of here as soon as the van arrives to move them. Got that?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Okay, Sergeant. Hop to it. Get in there and change, then move your fanny back out here. We’ve got a lot to do. You’ve got thirty minutes while I get some more work done here at the car.”

I got. Colonel Jackson stayed at the car so she could do her planning and possibly walk over to the phone booth if she needed to place a call. Thirty minutes, huh? Glad she wasn’t putting me under any pressure here.

I skipped some of the formalities such as a shower and hoped that my cheap perfume would hide the scent of the little buildup of sweat which anxiety had brought on. Funny I never noticed that while in Nam. Glad this was a nice day but I was still going to be overdressed since I wasn’t going out on a supper date. She said we might go to twenty-one hundred. I might not look so out of place once the sun began to set.

Standing at the sink and the counter which was supposed to double as a vanity accompanied by poor lighting but which did have a full sized mirror above it, I kept moving. A knock occurred at the door and I was thinking this was a hell of a time for that since I was dressed like a woman but didn’t have my wig in place nor any makeup on.

“Sergeant. It’s Colonel Jackson. If you’re dressed, open the door.”

Terrific. I went to the door but hid behind it as I opened it so no one could see me. She came in as I closed the door and first thing she did was throw the curtains wide open. I was closing the door when she did that so of course I yelped before beating a hasty retreat toward the bathroom grabbing my wig as I went.

“Sergeant. Stop right there.”

I stopped but quickly threw on the wig. She just as quickly came over and pulled it right back off.

“Stand still . . . No, not enough light. Come over here by the window.”

That would not even have been close to my first choice. Nor my second, nor third for that matter.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Once she had me over by the window she took a good look then said, “Okay, slowly turn in place.”

She poked and prodded here and there asking about some of my curves, “Is that you or is that padding?”

“A little of each” was my reply as I reluctantly explained which was which.

She nodded as I felt like a piece of meat at the corner grocery beginning to worry about whether she was a vegetarian or a carnivore. Be just my luck that she’s both.

“Loosen your blouse a couple of buttons — That’s better. You’re too stiff, relax more . . . you’re still too stiff . . . That’ll do, not perfect but better. We’ve got some instructors in Virginia that will quickly teach you how to carry yourself so you will be more convincing.”

She pulled on the blouse and bra a little, checking my ‘breasts’.

“Those don’t even have a clue of matching your skin tone.” she said as she wrinkled her nose.

“They were all I could find quickly and cheap. I wasn’t planning on using them in any situation which might have a man ogling me ... Ma’am.”

“Cut the Ma’ams and Colonels and so on. You’re a civilian for the moment so we’re just two women who are going to be out shopping together. Let’s see your makeup.”

She looked it over shaking her head as she did so then lifted the room phone and placed a call from memory.

“Betty please . . . Betty, this is Lucy Jackson again . . . Yes, we’ll be there in about forty minutes. I need something else done as well. Could you give Dottie a ‘heads up’ that I’m going to need a makeup session for the lady I’m bringing in? . . No, I’m afraid she hasn’t much of a clue. To save time she won’t be wearing any makeup. We will have only an hour so the whole nine yards will need to be accomplished quickly. She will also need to know exactly which cosmetics were used so we will be able to purchase some while we are out today . . . Good . . . All right, see you then.”

Jackson turned back to me and buttoned the lower of the two open buttons which she had unbuttoned earlier on my blouse. She left that upper one open. Grasping my face with her left hand she gently turned it back and forth before asking,

“How often do you shave?”

“I don’t.”

“Good. How did you get away with having your hair that long?”

“Most of the time it was under cover of one sort or another and the few times it was noticeable they either were too busy to say anything or just told me to go get it cut and then didn’t follow up to see if I did. I was lucky, I guess.”

“What about hair lice?”

“I wash it frequently and have some good hair care products.”

She grunted before she ran her finger through my hair, giving a grimace as she did so.

“We need to get you better products while we’re out. Don’t let me forget. You’ll see what the right stuff can do for you once we’re at the salon. Come on, we need to get moving. Do you have a purse?”

“Not for daytime.”

“Well, load the one you’ve got and let’s get going. Take all your ID, we’ll replace or add to it tomorrow.”

“I don’t have female ID.”

“You ... That’s right, Damn. All right, then take your male ID and again . . . we’ll add to it tomorrow. How did you ever pass without photo ID?”

“Almost no one checks since as a female, I don’t look that much like a teenager.”

We were walking out to the car when she landed another one on me, “You need some skin care products too. By the way, your dossier said you use Lynnette as your female name. Do you use Lynn as a contraction?”

“Yes, on both. My name is Lawrence Jay Stevens. When I go feminine I use Lynnette Joi Stevens. Same initials that way.”

“All right Lynn. Call me Lucy and we’ve known each other for about a year. We met at my building where you work as a secretary. It helps things that you have a boyfriend.”

“I hope this boyfriend isn’t some nut case.”

“I don’t know, is he? You were out with him when we met at the restaurant.”

“Oh! Ralph? I’ve known him for more than a few years. He’s pretty level headed.”

“That’s good to hear.”

I couldn’t tell if she was being facetious or if she liked my choice of “boyfriends”.
We spent the ride thinking. As we pulled up to a shopping center she said, “Okay, we’re here. Betty is going to give your hair some life, length, and add some colour and slight highlights to it. Dottie is going to give you a facial and do your make up so you can see how it should be done. Your face looks nice, proper makeup could make it look even better. With the proper make up you could be quite appealing. Remind me, we also need to pick up some jewelry for you. Something a little more mainstream than the stuff you’re wearing.”

She looked closely at my ears, “We need to pierce those.”

Pierce my ... “Wait a minute, now.”

“No arguments.”

“Uh. Who’s paying for all this?” Not to mention why and can this steamroller be stopped?

“The Army. Just go with the flow, okay?”

“Do you do this to everyone you meet?”

“No. Only the special cases get my full attention.”

I followed Lucy into the salon as I continued to wonder if being a special case was a good thing or a bad one.

“Hi, Lucy.”

“Hi Carol, are they ready for her?”

“Not quite, but the back room is available so we can put her in there. Jan can wash her hair while Betty finishes up. Dottie will be available in about thirty.”

“That’s about all the time we have.”

Carol nodded, “Nothing like a little pressure, huh?”

“You know how it is. The Army won’t wait.” Colonel Jackson told her.

“Yes, I know. My husband is forever rushing about. Come on ... What did you say your name is?” she asked as she turned in my direction.

“Lynnette. Call me Lynn.”

“Okay. Come on in Lynn. We’ll get this started.”

I know, this is all just a dream isn’t it? Maybe it’s a nightmare. Jury’s still out on that. Can’t we just back up to just before our rescue attempt and restart from there? Like from maybe three or four hundred klicks away? An hour and thirty-five minutes later Lucy and I walked out of the Salon. I now had fingernails, not a lot longer because of military requirements, but obviously feminine; and my hair matched the color of the extensions which were woven into it. It was down easily covering beyond the top of my shoulders, possibly half way into my shoulder blades. My face had makeup on it but you’d never know it unless you looked really close and it was my fervent intent never to allow anyone to get that close without first engaging in hand to hand. I looked as good or better than I had whenever Mom had made me up to go out as “protection” during one of my neighborhood girlfriend’s dates. She wasn’t like my ‘girlfriend’ girlfriend but was literally the girl next door and we had become good friends.

“My Mom and hers had become good friends so we had too. We didn’t think of ourselves as a girl and a guy nor as two girls. We were just best friends. We could tell each other secrets, watch out for each other and play together. If anyone started giving one of us a bad time they had both of us to contend with. She was a better fighter than I was, but I could run logic rings around most people we came up against. Since Mom and her mother were such good friends, so were we, it was one of those days a few days before she was going to go out on her first date that they cooked up the idea of me tagging along for safety’s sake. I didn’t care much for the idea but Cathy was all for it since she was more than willing to have me around during some of the times she didn’t feel comfortable going out with a boy. We got to be pretty good at double teaming against the boys.”

Lucy and I had gotten to chatting, during which I happened to mention that little tidbit to her somewhere during the conversation.

“My sister and I used to do that too. I remember this one time after Mom sent me along on a particularly difficult date. We used the money Mom sent with us to get back home and when we were walking arm in arm zig zag up the front walk we were singing “We shall overcome,” as our skirts swung back and forth together,” she related to me.

Her comment didn’t come home to roost with me for a year or so then it caused me to begin wondering. Never did get the whole story though. After a while it didn’t seem to matter a whole hell of a lot.

We continued to chat while I became more comfortable with being en femme for the second time in less than a week. A little too comfortable as it turned out. We were shopping and I was trying on clothes like it was something I did every day. I came to about an hour or so later when Lucy asked me some question or another while I was looking at a really nice blouse.

“I . . . what?”

“I said, that blouse looks really nice but I don’t think you’ll have much opportunity to wear it, at least not until you return to CONUS again and by then it will be out of style. Why don’t you look around on the economy once you get back overseas? You might find something nice over there which won’t be quite so dated when you come back to here.”

I continued fingering it as her words finally sunk in. Looking around I noted we were in our third store and she was right. The bags we were carrying were filled with sensible things which I could use overseas, especially in a warmer climate and which were fairly generic so by the time I got back here they wouldn’t be out of date very badly. I sighed and let the material drop from my fingers.

“Lynn, if you like it so much why don’t you save a little money and purchase some silks or the like while you’re overseas. As I was saying, the difference in styling would allow them to be usable here much longer than the rapidly changing trends here in the States would normally allow.”

“That would certainly be true, if I could find something I liked. I don’t have much opportunity to look through women’s fashions while over there.”

“You’ll have a little more opportunity than you had before.”

Another reminder that my status or rather, gender would be much more — fluid — shall we say. Again, I began wondering what this was really all about. I didn’t think the Army was doing this out of the goodness in it’s heart. Possibly from malice, but I didn’t believe that was coming into play here all that much either. This whole thing was beginning to become a bit more worrisome. Fun, at least for a day or two but ... worrisome.

We finished our shopping, for the day at any rate, Lucy told me to be prepared to continue this tomorrow morning at a couple of shops which opened at nine and we started out into the parking lot.

“I and a driver will be at your motel to pick you up around eight to eight thirty. I might need some time in the morning before I can come collect you. If I can make it at eight then we could go out for breakfast together.”

As we were walking having just spotted the car and driver, we were about fifty feet from a pickup truck which was between us and our ride. Suddenly this Doberman jumped out of the back and began to run right at us. I figured, “great” and started to get ready to fight it.

“Don’t,” Lucy said as the dog was nearly on us.

It slowed a little then stood up against her, dancing a little as it was trying to either bite or lick her face. I noticed her hand was in her purse and wondered if she was getting out some Mace or something when she brought it back out holding a large dog bone.

“Sit.” she said as she waved it in front of the dog’s eyes and the dog quickly was on the ground sitting patiently.

“Good dog. Take it nice.”

She held out the bone and the dog reached up gently taking it from her hand before it began to crunch it down as she explained, shrugging her shoulders, “Dogs like me. Some of them, like this one, come running up and treat me like a long lost friend whom they haven’t seen in years. I don’t know why. It can be embarrassing at times. When I was a child I used to need to be careful going home from school or I would have a pack following me by the time I got home. It’s only recently that I started carrying dog bones with me. It’s the only way I’ve been able to get them to calm down.”

The dog finished it’s bone and began looking around for crumbs. She held a smaller one out and said, “take this one to your truck to eat. Wait there for your owner.” She talked to it in a low conversational tone just like she and I had been talking. The dog reached up carefully, took the second treat and bounded back across the parking lot and up into the back of the pickup.

“If I hadn’t seen it, I never would have believed it.”

“Dogs like me.” she said again, shrugging her shoulders, “sometimes it’s like a curse.”

We walked past the dog who looked up from it’s treat long enough to quietly mumble something to her when we walked by. We continued on to our ride and by nine thirty we’d arrived back at my motel. I was hoping the guys were all here because if they weren’t she’d likely chew them out tomorrow if she didn’t stick around to see just how long they stayed out before returning.
I was about to stick my key in the door when it suddenly hit me. I was dressed as Lynnette and had another female with me. I didn’t want to barge in on the guys without a little warning. Who knew how they might be dressed at the moment, even though it should just be Ralph who was in there. Now I was suddenly a little apprehensive. I didn’t think I had anything to fear from them but this time I was coming in as a girl rather than someone they all knew as Lyon and I was a bit embarrassed about entering a male sanctum. I hoped Ralph was dressed. Maybe I’d better knock before I opened the door.

“What’s the hold up here, Sergeant?”

“Uh . . . I, uh, think I’ll knock on the door, Ma’am. Just in case they’re indisposed a bit in there.”

She laughed for a moment, shook her head before giving me, “Whatever. If they don’t answer right away then it’s their problem, not ours. Knock and give them five seconds then open it.”

I gave the door three light taps which I hoped were loud enough to be heard inside. Waiting a couple of seconds I gave it another three taps just a little harder then noisily inserted the key. Two seconds later I opened the door. When we entered we discovered Ralph was the only one in there and he was so busy sawing wood while sprawled out on top of the bed fully clothed that he didn’t hear me rap on the door. I really hadn’t expected the team to be collected here waiting for us since the rest of them had their own shared rooms. I hoped we would find them in them.

We rousted Ralph who took the normal few seconds to become coherent as did we all. We quickly had him up collecting his shoes so he could go round up the rest of ‘my’ team which now included Larry and Blade. They, whether they knew it or not, were now effectively a part of my new team or at least they would be as soon as they received their orders tomorrow morning. Gradually everyone assembled back at Ralph’s and my shared room where the new facts of life were explained to them. I left that to the Colonel. I figured if she gave them the story then they couldn’t come unglued at me about it.

“Tomorrow morning you will each receive a new set of orders. From that time on you will all officially be a part of operation Black Dragon. During the next three to four weeks you will meet many of the rest of the personnel who will also be involved. Once you all complete your twenty five day training course, which you will graduate the first time through, then Lynn will be the OIC of your new little group. If you can’t handle that then I’ve got several choice assignments to which any of you will be shipped for the duration. Believe me when I say none of you will like any of those assignments. Are there any questions so far?”

The room remained silent.

Lucy turned her head toward me, “You said there was an Air Force lieutenant who would be a likely candidate for the helicopter arm of this thing?”

“Yes, Ma’am. Lieutenant Carter Slade, moniker, ‘ghostrider’ stationed at Udorn, I think. At least that was where he was in their hospital after we crashed.”

“Crashed? And you want him for the Air Force OIC? He’ll be doing some of the flying, you know.”

“Yes, Ma’am. If it wasn’t for his flying ability we would likely have all been dead somewhere in the jungle.”

“Okay . . . I’ll see what we can do. Carter Slade, huh?” She looked at me with laughter in her eyes. I guess she reads the comics, too.

The next couple of weeks proved to be most interesting. The next day Colonel Jackson showed up early, well . . . early for around here, with her driver and she and I were off again. This time we had a quick breakfast with a conference then there was a little shopping to do before we made tracks back to her offices. There I found a little surprise waiting for me in the form of a major’s uniform which had all the little badges of courage and fortitude attached that should have been on my male uniform but weren’t for various reasons, all of which bordered on the ‘need to know,’ ‘never been there,’ ‘we categorically deny we were directly involved in any such action’ storylines.

“Uh, ma’am. Some of these aren’t supposed to be here since we aren’t admitting I had anything to do with those actions.”

“You’re absolutely correct. SFC Lyon couldn’t have them on his uniform but Lynnette can and does since she was involved with support for ARVN. Get with the program. You’re two people from now on, and you’ll need to remember which is which, when, and what background each has. Now hustle into that uniform so we can get the rest of this show on the road. Go into the bathroom behind that door and change. Your guys will be showing up in a little over an hour and a half and I still have some things for you to do before they get here.”

I hustled. For some reason I didn’t expect the skirt to be as short as it seemed to be. Looking in the mirror everything seemed about right but it just felt ... wrong ... short ... revealing.

“Stop pulling at that skirt. Just relax and go with the flow. You’ll get used to it.”

“Yes, Ma’am. If you say so.” As I unintentionally tried to pull it down a little once again.

She scowled at me and I got the idea even as my hand was going for the skirt a third time. This was all easier said than done.

“Put on your cover — not like that. Like this.”

She put on her own and I tried to duplicate her method. It wasn’t as easy as she made it look. Especially since my ‘hair’ was up in a rather large bun, instead of hanging free so that made it even more difficult.

“If my hair was shorter it wouldn’t be so difficult.”

“If your hair was shorter you wouldn’t be able to become a ‘civilian’ when you needed to be one. Women your — our age don’t usually wear their hair shorter if they’re civilians. Short hair would be a dead giveaway that you were military. And I’m emphasizing the word dead here. Once your team has been through special stores here they will need to go through the mall to pick up some civilian clothing in keeping with the civilian side of the mission. Don’t worry, you already have the things you need — mostly. There will be some advisors going along to be certain your guys catch on as well. You’ll need to watch though because the male side of you will need some of the same things, pick them up while you’re watching them. We’ll give you a credit card to use for your own things but it has a limited credit line. The advisors will handle the expenses for your men.”

“Why can’t we get what we need from military supply?”

“First of all, because it’s civilian items. Secondly, it costs less to purchase directly off the economy than it does to go through military stores despite the breaks the government gets for the items it purchases.”

For some reason she was scowling at me again and a moment later she swatted my hand which, of it’s own volition, mind you, was tugging down at my skirt again.

They gave a lot of thought to our orders. All my orders used my first two initials and the last name. ie. L. J. Stevens. Everything else was generic except the serial number on those infrequent occasions when it was shown. The only other times differences were apparent was when rank needed to be shown. As a result I had a bunch of paper and had to be careful which I pulled out and when. I could be either male or female as the situation warranted. If I had to be an officer then female was called for since the only officer’s uniforms and orders were for a female but I could still do any office paperwork while as a male. The signature L. J. Stevens would remain the same so anything I signed would be correct and proper. As a male I would be an E-8 but if we needed an officer then I could be a female Major.

I thought it might be prudent to at least know my new date of rank should it come to a shouting match between equal ranking officers or enlisted. My curiosity was sated when I discovered they had given me three years in grade according to my paperwork so it was unlikely I would come across too many majors who outranked me, in passing at any rate. Besides that, I could always fall back on the special orders I would be carrying which had been signed by both of those Generals the Colonel kept dragging into our conversations. As a result I figured I wouldn’t need to outrank anyone anyway.

In an effort to prevent anyone from dragging their feet, one General was Air Force while the other was Army. They effectively were our ‘get out of jail free’ card and there wouldn’t be much of a chance of anyone in Nam or thereabouts being able to countermand anything we wanted to do or acquire as a result. All I had to do was hand them a copy for the interim and we were good to go. If we needed something from the Navy there might be a bit of a delay but it wouldn’t take very long since we could come at it from the top down. I must admit, the spooks knew the military business inside and out. Those special orders were fairly generic as well and applied to anyone and everyone in my new little unit. We even had our own unit insignia, not that we would get to wear it very often. It was an interesting patch which had both Vietnamese and Latin inscribed on it. I read the Vietnamese and wondered at the Latin.

“They both say the same thing.”

“Pardon?”

“The Latin and the Vietnamese both mean the same thing.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

I was beginning to feel butterflies and hoped they didn’t intend to take up permanent residence. The idea of flip-flopping from male to female and back for longer than just a day or two once every six months to a year was beginning to give me the willies. For some reason I was beginning to think this would all be a lot more difficult than the Colonel had been letting on.
At least the time we had training in Virginia paid off for me. When I was Lynnette, I could go and do almost anything without being outed. That was both good and bad but mostly good. I just needed to keep my wits about me whenever I was out alone. I took particular pride at having passed their “on the economy” final with flying colours.

Trank took to our training like a seal to water. It turned out that his new toy was practically an extension of his arm. He could hit things with that little pistol while it had it’s silencer on it that most of the other’s only dreamed about being able to see, much less hit. The instructors warned him that the rounds were traveling slow enough that at the longer ranges he had used against the sand filled targets, his shots probably would either have only wounded or served to piss the target off, but not kill. He took that in stride, somehow making the adjustment more or less automatically. They just shook their heads and let him have his. Blade learned some new tricks, as if he didn’t have enough already; and most of my guys picked up at least three, usually more, new or improved ways to kill quietly. As for me ... well, in addition to learning how to BE a female I was learning to be an officer and a lady. They even gave me my graduation ring back dated to match into my supposed records. They were very detail oriented. Somehow it didn’t seem to matter that my graduation from OCS was recorded as having happened before I had graduated from seventh grade.

Well, if I had come up as an officer then I would have graduated as a lieutenant and it would have taken some time for me to make it to major. Since my DOR as a major was some three years past or about the time I really graduated high school other things prior to that time had to be 'adjusted'. Moments later I was rudely interrupted from my introspection by one of the instructors who, once again, was berating me for one thing or another.

“Try that again, ma’am. You must remember, you’re in front of members of your Battalion and as the female OIC you simply don’t just sit down like a fifty pound sack of potatoes dropped on the ground. You must be fluid and ladylike even though they are all going to understand you’re hard as nails if any of them gets out of line. Don’t yell, just talk quietly and distinctly. The effect will be multiplied for several reasons, one of which is you are female and in charge. There has to be a reason a woman was put in charge when a man might do. It usually means she can be more of a hard ass if she needs to be. Now, let see you try that again. Remember to continue talking as you are beginning to sit.”

It wasn’t until two and a half weeks later when we had completed our training courses and were actually flying West that it suddenly hit me that I was going to be a female OIC which meant I would be spending a sizeable amount of time in female mode. Hell, I was flying in female mode. That’s when I pulled out and again carefully read all the paperwork Lucy had supplied to me but it wasn’t until I had reached the third read through that the revelation had suddenly come home to roost.

My own little unit. Yeah, Sure. There were a few more than three hundred fifty personnel who would be doing the actual missions and more than a hundred more who were support of various kinds while we would have nearly a hundred from the Air Force who would provide our air cover, taxi service, et cetera. Just under a third of my new command were on this plane along with six of my new ‘female’ officers who had recently completed the same training we had gone through. The first thing I needed to do once we were situated, was make certain everyone had one nice clean crisp copy of the get out of jail paperwork in their pockets except when they were out on a fire mission. The orders probably wouldn’t have cut much slack with the enemy anyway. The other papers I needed to duplicate were blanket reqs which I or my designated appointee could use to acquire almost anything we wanted, whenever we wanted it. I was going to make certain everyone understood that the ‘get out of jail free’ papers didn’t mean they could tear up the town or anything else and get away scot free. I could make trouble for troublesome personnel just as well or better than most officers and I knew all the little dodges my enlisted personnel might try. I put the papers back into my briefcase then leaned back to take a nap as the plane continued it’s way West.

We flew with the sun having left the Eastern US at five in the morning. It was a little disconcerting to arrive in Northern California around two and a half hours later after we had flown for over five. My mental clock kept screaming it was ten forty-five which the clocks on the walls continued to tell us it was a little before eight. We stopped here for fuel and would do so once more before we arrived at Don Mueang about eight in the evening tomorrow and after having flown for nearly twenty-two hours. Don’t ask, I don’t even want to know. All I cared about was we were going to lose two days because of the international date line. We had departed as the sun was beginning to think about lighting up the sky only to be scheduled to arrive when it was saying sayonara.

From that point on the Zoomies wouldn’t be happy since I still had those special Air Force orders which granted me and all of mine, in this case a sizable portion of those aforementioned three hundred fifty and, courtesy of a few changes á¡ la that Air Force Spook and his General, the right to bump anything and everything to get to where we needed to be in what I considered to be a timely manner. If that wasn’t enough then I could commandeer almost anything I wanted courtesy of those same General’s oh-so-nice orders which granted me exclusive right to do almost anything I wanted which would further my mission.

That Lieutenant Slade, our Air Force liaison and the helicopters we were going to need would be about a week behind us which was okay with me since I would need the time to take over and begin to rebuild the small base to which we were going. I could imagine the consternation the Captain who presently was in charge of it would go through when he discovered we were taking half of his buildings and that our half was off limits to his people. That would quickly be enforced by a platoon of MPs which were supposed to arrive within a day or two of our own arrival. It wasn’t like we were going to keep the buildings. We’d give them back as soon as the construction people finished building ours.

The construction Battalion was supposed to arrive about the same time we did, if not before. It was their job to clear enough space that they could build thirty five more barracks, hardened storage for sixty-eight helicopters, of which thirty-five were heavy gun ships, our own mess, workshops and twenty emplaced fuel bunkers. Each and every helicopter would have the ability to hold extra fuel so we could easily make it deep into Nam and back on one fueling if things didn’t get too dicey. The buildings would hopefully be ready, sandbagged and hardened before said helicopters and their personnel arrived. I hoped they wouldn’t be too put out at our lack of fine cuisine but I’d try to do something about that as soon as possible so the Air Force guys would continue to be happy.

The Army wanted to put some flyers there but that was nixed by the spooks, for which I was grateful. I didn’t have anything against the Army pilots but I was used to the Air force providing the aircraft and I didn’t need any pissing contests. The fuel bunkers ... those would be put in place at a number of underground locations so we would have plenty of fuel even if we were shelled, resulting in some of them being destroyed. Refilling them would remain a priority on the part of both the Air Force and the Army for the duration of the group of missions which were scheduled to last about a year and a half to three. The first half year was for some of the small operations the purpose of which was supposedly to get us all acquainted with working together then the real deal would begin. That is if things didn’t get moved up by some enemy action which the Spooks hoped wouldn’t occur for a while. The work we would be involved in would mostly be in Laos but we had been told the rest of SEA could not be excluded from our sandbox. Turns out it wasn’t either.

Trank and Frenchy would now get their wish for more interesting action than even they thought they wanted and Trank, of course, was very happy to now have his own semi-legal silenced automatic courtesy of special stores. He tried for two but they literally laughed in his face. That we would be seeing action wasn’t in doubt since we would be less than ten klicks from the border with Laos, and well less than five hundred from much of North Vietnam.

“Are you happy now, Trank? They gave you your very own toy. Just keep it put away when it isn’t actually in use. And by use I mean when it is being fired at the enemy or being cleaned.”

He gave me a hurt expression but stashed it.

This OIC shit wasn’t exactly my idea of a cup of tea. I was already planning the multitude of ways I could foster off the paperwork and other stuff on the others who were supposed to be my staff. Of everyone headed to my little part of the world, sixteen were female or as female as I was anyway, and they were each bringing their own entourage with them. By the time they all arrived I would easily have my more than three hundred fifty operational personnel and the support people would be there in short order. I hoped I would find at least twenty of them already there when we arrived.

At Don Mueang I had my ‘officers’ form ranks long enough to do another head count. This was the first opportunity I had to really try my special orders out on anyone. It didn’t take long for it to escalate to a Lt. Colonel who was anything but happy when he learned he had to outrank a couple of Generals and not a major. There wasn’t presently an American general in Thailand who outranked either of the two of those who had signed my paperwork. I and all of mine went into the Air Force mess for chow before sauntering off to acquire some transport to our assigned location.

When we began to receive static from the flight line I seriously thought about permanently acquiring some aircraft and fuel for same, which brought that same Lt. Colonel running to defuse the situation. While transport was being arranged, our luggage, special and otherwise was being returned from the replacement station in Bangkok. I don’t know what good it does to put orders in the duffles and on the crates when so few people actually read them. They quickly provided us with transport to the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base which was located at Udon Thani on my map.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

When we arrived, a welcoming committee was there waiting for us. It was getting late in the evening so we were billeted for the night, fed and generally made as welcome as they could provide for. I think what they were doing was a little like what you would do if you suddenly had to live with a loose cobra for a day — give it everything it wants then stand back, hope it’s happy and that you don’t wake up in the morning sharing your bed with it.

Anyway, they wouldn’t bother us so long as we didn’t bother them too much. By the time we had breakfast the next morning, they had received most of our special cargo and were making arrangements for us to be taken to our own little part of the world. I told them not to rush things as I had business to transact with their officers for a couple of hours. That was the result of something I had noticed when we arrived. They had helicopters. Helicopters hell, they had an attack helicopter battalion. It was there that I began my search.

I told my boys to behave themselves then wandered off trying to find the officers in charge of that group of helicopters as well as their maintenance. I figured our helicopters could receive their maintenance here at one time or another since the base we would be setting up wouldn’t be large enough to qualify for any kind of major maintenance. I also knew from the map that Nakhon Phanom would be about the same distance from us so that was another possibility unless they didn’t have a helo depot. They were marked as a Navy base anyway so I didn’t suspect they had many helos. Since the base seemed to be in the middle of land on my map, I wondered a bit at the ‘Navy’ part of the designator. Maybe there was a river nearby that didn’t show on my map. I held in the back of my mind the possibility of possibly ‘acquiring’ some of the helicopters here for my units use.

It took me a bit to find the offices where I began my spiel. They were polite but not especially interested. I gave them the option of being on my good side, in which case I would happily commandeer whatever they needed to easily support me and mine, or they could be on my bad side in which case I would commandeer their fleet of attack helicopters, spare parts, maintenance personnel, etc. and they could start over from scratch. They tried to tell me I didn’t have the authority. I showed them my paperwork and told them, “verify it with Washington, and I don’t mean General George.”

The answer came back in less than an hour. They joined the ranks of the many who also were not happy. I again offered them the opportunity to be on my good side and they jumped at it. Especially when I offered to order some of the parts which they hadn’t been able to push through under their own authority. They decided to give me the opportunity to prove I could do the impossible. Their list now went in under my paperwork and was approved within the remainder of the day. Delivery was promised within four to seven. Sometimes even a Cobra could be useful.

“See? I can make many of your logistics problems go away. Tell me exactly what you need to support my birds and anything you haven’t been able to get under your own authority and I can submit it under my blanket. We can be of mutual benefit to each other. Just don’t expect me to approve any old thing you might want to order. Good examples of that are dancing girls and cases of booze.”

I said that as I pulled out and dropped the basic TMs for my helicopters on their desk from my briefcase. It felt ten pounds lighter. I was happy to lose those since I had been trying to understand them and was failing miserably. Supposedly there were at least eight or ten more for each of the models we were going to be using plus the additional TM’s for the equipment and instrument packages. They looked at each other, smiled and their Colonel shook my hand.

“I don’t know how it is you have so much clout, but so long as you can get the stuff we can’t which will keep my birds flying as well as the things you need for your own, you’ve got yourself a maintenance depot.”

“Thank you. I’ll let my Air Force OIC know.” The school instructors were right, I didn’t need to raise my voice even once to get them to listen to reason. That was a far cry from the way things were done man to man until you had a little rank on your sleeve. It wouldn’t be long before all my nice dress uniforms with all those little extras, such as major’s insignia would be packed away and we would all be in nice nondescript uniforms which showed no ranks or affiliations.

Because of my extra-curricular attempts to procure a maintenance depot we were delayed an extra day but my people now had a potential source of heavy maintenance for our birds. Whether there was anyone here qualified to work on the ones we would be receiving was another thing. I figured if I could get equipment and parts this easily then my paperwork might do the same for specially trained personnel so once we arrived at our new corner of the world I submitted my request for same. Less than a month later there were six new people at that base who were qualified to do full repair of our specially modified birds and who had enough rank and training to guide others in said repairs, we even had two civilian contractors for a period of one year who could guide and teach others in said maintenance and repair.

It was early the next morning, in fact just minutes after breakfast, that they had us on our way to our destination. I figured they would make certain all our stuff followed us very quickly since I doubted they wanted a repeat visit from my nasty side. They did and I didn’t. We arrived at our little hole in the wall within a couple of hours but it was nearly two weeks before I figured out exactly where we actually ended up. It was some twenty klicks outside Bung Kan and if you tripped, you had to be careful which way you fell or you would be in Laos. In my imagination I could even see a difference in the foliage as it crossed the border. As to our flight support don’t get me wrong, I liked the Zoomies. Especially after that one we tapped to add into our special little group had helped us along so much. I was still hoping he liked his surprise promotion. Once he showed up at our little corner of the sandbox and learned why he got it he might want to give it back. I was still a little concerned about his reaction to the new female me as well. That and the little gorilla of me being a Major part of the time but sometimes a lowly E-8 during others would likely be something else that might stick in his craw. I hoped he could keep his people in line. We had too much to accomplish to be taking time out for people who couldn’t keep their heads on straight. That included my own people and I wasn’t going to coddle any of them, either.

Blade and Larry were turning out better than I thought they would, so that was a plus. It was difficult sometimes since Blade seemed to take it on himself to be my protector when I was in female guise. That lasted about six months then slowly tapered off during the following six. If someone looked at me cross-eyed while he was around I nearly had to physically restrain him. It had reached the point that we were pretty much treating each other as brother and sister. It hit me hard when he was one of the ones we lost a couple of years later.

Most of ‘my’ personnel were essentially hand picked by me; that is, the male me, so I was hoping they would adjust quickly. The big question for me were the others who were accompanying the sixteen other females who were joining our happy little band. Not a tuba player in the lot.

By the time I added up everyone who was involved we could fill out several companies quite adequately. Then there was the matter of our special supplies and the particular not to mention peculiar transport and comms we had. Hell, that was another thing I forgot to count in the list of personnel. We had our own communications/ electronic maintenance platoon, plus another which were supposed to be our supply people, one more to provide the paperwork staff and one wholly of MPs who’s basic responsibility was to protect us and our part of the base against our own people and anyone else who might attempt to infiltrate, not that we couldn’t take care of ourselves.

The three times the enemy slipped over the border and tried to play with us there was more fire going out from our part of the base than from the rest of the guys here and the enemy combined. After those three attempts they began to leave us alone. Of course the rumor that the Army had placed all their nut cases in one basket here helped a bit. That explained to the enemy why we liked to light up like the fourth of July when given the slightest provocation. Somewhere along the line they just stopped harassing us. I think they were still around but they came along and just looked then left again. Maybe we had become a teaching situation for their new recruits.

“You see these crazy Americans? Learn that patch well. If you see it leave them alone ... They will do as much damage to the area as you could possibly want so just make them think you are at the place that needs to be destroyed then run very fast and let them do all the work.”

Not that we did as much damage as the enemy but if we were sent into a situation it was because command needed some serious help and we followed a ‘scorched earth’ policy figuring if we didn’t leave anything useful behind then that was a good thing. The only problems we really seemed to encounter during our first year pretty much occurred due to the small problem that most of our uniforms showed no rank nor unit designators. Normally that would make us fair game for ordinary pukes who thought we were weenies or prisoners, as it sometimes turned out. I intended to come down hard on any of my own people who got out of line as well as anyone else who had an axe to grind. I practiced at acting much like that Colonel had while we had been back at Meade. You know, peaches and cream while she stripped the varnish off your uniform brass even as she used formaldehyde on your hide.

The first four weeks following our arrival here were anything but fun. We had our first assignment almost before we had the means to get to it even as I and my officers were still trying to get our acts together. My other ‘little’ problem was my right hand team wasn’t supposed to know what my left hand team was doing whenever my left hand team was doing the things they had been formulated for in the first place.

The ‘girls’ spent as much time in civilian garb and in Bangkok or Saigon among a few other places where American civilian females congregated. They got to know people and after a couple of months we began to pick up on small tidbits of intelligence information which were then forwarded to Lucy’s new and improved group. I wasn’t certain if I was pleased that someone further up the chain had done to her what she had done to me or not. I did feel it was only fair that since I had close to four hundred personnel (and still growing as I was to find out later) as well as having sixteen ‘operatives’ working out of ‘my’ back yard; she should have more than just the couple of hundred or so that she commanded. It didn’t happen right away but when it did, I didn’t lose any sleep over it.

I had yanked the jackets for each of ‘my’ females and learned that most of them had been, uh... ‘made’? I knew they had all started out as males but of the sixteen there were only three which were like me, able to switch back and forth. The other thirteen were... female. Again, this was a hell of a way to run a war.

My other little problem was Ralph. He had this aversion to being an officer.

“Dammit Ralph, if I can be a supposedly part-time Major then you can damn well put up with Colonel Jackson making you a part-time Captain. At least you get to remain male.”

“I know Lynn. I just don’t like it. I’m a hand’s on kind of guy, and Officers aren’t supposed to do the touchy-feely stuff.”

“Well, seeing as we’re a special kind of unit, maybe our officers are a special kind of people who are still actually allowed to work using their hands.”

Ralph just laughed.

I reminded him, “Just don’t do it when there’s other people around who aren’t a part of our unit. Especially officers. I doubt they’d understand.”

I’d like to say he was happy in his role but I knew he wasn’t. He kept trying to convince me he was a follower, not a leader, but then once he was garbed as what he felt was a Sergeant again he would immediately begin showing the guys what to do and directing them around to get it done. I think he was just frightened of those railroad tracks he supposedly was wearing. Remember? I told you we didn’t wear our rank or unit insignia. Our uniforms were — well ... uniform in their lack of identifying information — not even name tags.

Oh, we did get to have a nice half inch blob of red color in the shape of a cobra on our right hand collars though. I don’t believe any of us actually figured out what it was supposed to mean. The pins showed up one day with a one sheet set of orders that informed me that “everyone in the unit would wear one each said pin whenever in uniform.” Whenever we went off base for some sort of special briefing we also wore a patch on one sleeve but other than that ... Nothing. I should have figured out right then and there that I was going to have more people assigned to me since there was something close to five hundred extra pins, but I guess I wasn’t the most observant knife in the drawer.

Of course all this was more than the original occupants of this little hole in the wall could handle and they especially didn’t like women or a woman being the highest ranking officer on the base but what could they say? We outranked them and we enforced isolation with a vengeance. They were green beanies and I felt some camaraderie toward them but it took them a couple of weeks to discover we were just as lethal as they were, if not moreso. I didn’t bother telling them that we started out as green beanies and then took it one step beyond. Eventually they accepted us as being pretty much like themselves except maybe a little crazier.
One day an inspection team came by and began going over the other part of the base with a fine-tooth comb. I learned from their C.O. that this happened once in a blue moon. Since they didn’t have a clue about our side of the base they tried to inspect us as well. That went over like a lead balloon and after we told them not to come back, politely of course, we shipped them back to Bangkok on a pair of our transport helicopters our treat, or perhaps, our threat since my personnel were heavily armed during the flight. Well, we did return all their weapons and other stuff once our helicopters set down in Bangkok so what did they have to complain about? Their Captain wasn’t very happy with us but whenever an inspection team came by after that, they studiously ignored our part of the base during what turned out to be the next three years. Hell, if they saw anyone on the base whom they even thought had that little red cobra glaring off their collar, they would find somewhere else to suddenly be. In fact, now that I think about it, that was pretty much how the Zoomies treated us in Udorn as well, even when I was dressed nicely with all the rank and insignia. There was just something about that little red Cobra that put people off. That’s something else that should have had alarm bells ringing in my head.

It took me about six months to get a real barber shop, PX, combined enlisted/ officers club, and theater going but we were beginning to have some comforts. The barbers were Thai locals and they were taught to leave the girls hair long even though they cut the men’s hair short. My own had grown out a bit and, of course, was changing to my natural colour. Since I was forbidden to go out on patrols or “missions of any kind which could result in any possible way, shape, or form in your capture or injury, you are hereby forbidden to participate in any actions which could in our opinion result in said injury or capture. That means no action, Major.”

Well, since I wouldn’t need this long, hot hair any more I had it cut back to a shorter style reminiscent of a page boy. That effectively eliminated my extensions even though my hair was still two-tone. The new was growing in slightly darker than the coloured portion which was slowly disappearing with each subsequent visit to the barber shop.

There were times when I thought it felt like we had been dropped out here and almost forgotten. Supplies and pay would come in, orders would come along (nearly daily) which we would summarily execute, after which our reports and action summaries would go back out along with recs for the supplies we had expended and more medical supplies for our injured. And that was just the standard military ops side of this fiasco. My intel side of the game had other problems. My special support requests for their items was encoded and sent back to Maryland rather than through normal channels. Maryland would then cut orders for those things we needed and come at our supply needs from the top down. It made for speedy supply which was all I needed to care about at the moment.
Other than that we were isolated and left pretty much alone. We could go into town locally, for whatever that was worth, and could fly almost anywhere (and did) but other outside contact with our own kind was moderately limited. About the only thing which changed was whether the few of us involved in “gender bending” would be going out as a male or as a female. The females mostly did their work in Laos and South Vietnam gathering the intelligence which we used to supply the intelligence unit in Meade as well as a few other places. The males went out on fire missions into enemy held territory usually in North Vietnam. But all that was set by the orders we received over our encrypted radio systems on the AutoDin network.

Many of our fire missions were cover for the placement (and sometimes pickup) of one or two of our ‘girls’ who had been on assignment in North Vietnam. We had been very lucky during our first seventeen or eighteen months in that the NVA hadn’t twigged to our deceptions. If they had decided to begin searching each and every nun they came across then my girls could be in a world of hurt. Each of them carried a very small but powerful communications device which worked hand in hand with our special encrypted PRXC-25s. They also had silenced weaponry and more than one ‘toothpick’. Those were considered expendable, the weapons they were to try to bring back but if they couldn’t it wasn’t the end of the world. The weapons were Soviet made. Our girls went in for periods not usually longer than eight days but there was one which turned out to be a twenty-six day nightmare. That was because the enemy had begun searching for her and we had been unable to make connection with her three times as a result. After the first attempt at a pickup had failed I began to worry, after the second I began to get mad. By the time the fourth pickup attempt rolled around, I made certain we didn’t go after her in stealth mode. We went in hunting for bear and as a result the enemy didn't twig to the fact we were there for a pick-up. The batteries in her radio were nearly dead by the time we went in for that fourth pickup, so nine of my hunter-killers turned the surrounding area for several clicks in every direction into succotash while the tenth one picked her up. Nobody survives messing with one of my ‘girls’.

She was barely alive, having had little to eat or drink during most of the time she was ‘running’. She also had been wounded, not badly but any wound saps your strength. Couple that with the lack of proper nutrition and she was dehydrated, hungry, nearly delirious with fever and not certain where she was. It had been a miracle that she heard the chopper calling and had replied because she was nowhere near the fourth (and last) extraction point. I felt that I had failed her.

It was about seven or eight months later into our double sided mission that another one of my ‘girls’ turned up missing. She had been in Saigon on some intelligence gathering when it happened. One day I had her action report and the next day no one seemed to know where or who she was. I sent an alarmed message to Maryland immediately after I sent a twelve man team to Saigon to begin tracking her last known activities. Two days later we wound up ‘hosting’ two of Saigon’s more prominently suspected NVA sympathisers and after a cosy conversation they revealed she had been taken off for a little heart to heart chat in North Vietnam. As I took exception to that, we went in with our drums rolling and guns blazing. Or at least my people did. Lucy had again sent me a, “thou shalt not become personally involved in any actions taken by your personnel on the behalf of another.” In other words, “stay home and let your people do their jobs.”

As Mama Bear I was not a happy camper, but I did as I was told. She hadn’t told me I couldn’t see to it that my people had every necessary form of support going in though. They recovered our missing ‘girl’. Not entirely in one piece but still alive, and they presented the enemy base with my personal departing gift in the form of one Hades bomb dropped by an ‘errant’ fighter-bomber which ‘thought it was over some other location’. After that we were down one operative since none was sent out to replace the woman we sent back to the States due to medical necessity.

Speaking of medical needs...

“Major, Captain Tremain is outside again. He’d like to speak with you about the medical supplies.”

I shook my head and sighed, “Okay, send him in and then bring me four aspirin and a glass of flavored hemlock.”

Sgt. Rascal laughed, “yes, ma’am...” He opened the door again and indicated to the major that he could enter, “Ma’am, Captain Tremain.”

“Captain. Have a seat. What brings you over to my neck of the woods on such a lovely day?”

“What else, ma’am? Medical supplies again. They simply can’t seem to get it through their thick skulls that blood plasma has to be continuously refrigerated as it is being transported. Half of what we just received from Bangkok is no longer viable. The other supplies are about half of what we requested.”

“The amounts were cut back since we have a limited number of operational personnel. I can’t control that very well. Neither can I control the handling of the supplies which are given to us.”

“Maybe not, ma’am. But you can file complaints about it.”

“Which I have done. Repeatedly. Wait here a moment.”

I went out to my Sergeant's filing cabinet, fished through it and pulled out a folder taking it back into my office.

“These are all complaints about the handling of the medical supplies, duly noted, transmitted, and filed.”

“Is there any way we could transport the supplies ourselves? Maybe take some of the guesswork out of their handling?”

“I don’t know. Then too, we have no idea how much time those supplies spent just sitting around waiting for someone to transport them. Can the blood plasma be packed in dry ice? That might at least clue them to the fact it needs to be refrigerated all the time.”

His face blanched when I asked that question.

“The boxes have large lettering on them demanding refrigeration at all times. It’s simply a case of someone not caring enough to follow the instructions which are on the boxes as well as the paperwork which accompanies them.”

I sighed again, “I’ll send another complaint and try to be more specific about the ... blood plasma? Did I get that right?”

“Yes ... Ma’am.”

“I’ll see that it goes out today and would appreciate your providing my Sergeant with the details as to how much more we need to order and how much was damaged due to improper handling. Anything else?”

He looked more mollified than when he had come into my office.

“No. I’m certain there will be more as we continue to go through the supplies but for now that’s the most important thing. Despite our low numbers of operational personnel, we do have a high rate of injury. As such we need a disproportionate amount of medical supplies. Perhaps if you told them that when the supplies were ordered it might help. It’s worth a try, I think. Thank you for your time, Ma’am.”

I nodded my head as he was getting up. He gave me a salute which I returned then he was out the door and almost to the outside door before mine had a chance to close again. My Sergeant knocked and walked in placing four aspirin and a glass of orange coloured Kool-Aid on my desk.

“Your glass of Hemlock, your majesty. I could hear him even out there. Do you want me to write up a complaint to go in with the next supply order?”

“Yes, somewhere along the line someone isn’t doing their job so we might as well let everyone know about it. Send the next order in under our special operating orders. That might help, too; and thank you for the Hemlock.”

“You’re welcome Ma’am. I tried to get cherry but they said they were out at the moment. Apparently it’s a favorite of the Thai Air Force and Army Guard who provide the base security.”

“Tell them to order extra. It never hurts to keep the local personnel happy.”

“Yes, Ma’am. Are you ready to see our latest replacements?”

“Give me about fifteen minutes to take these and get them working then bring them in.”

There were times when I really wished I’d never heard of a spook named Houdini.

The next week I received orders to report soonest to Quang Tri. That’s about as far North as you could go and still be in South Vietnam at the time. I was to bring ten of my people along and we were to be prepared for elephants which I took to mean, heavily armed. The only part I didn’t particularly care for was — it was the female me they wanted to lead the mission. I didn’t get called out all that often. Hell, I wasn’t given permission to so much as have a hang-nail all that often. The powers that be seemed to use me more for planning now and they always seemed to give us the more difficult missions to accomplish, which also seemed to include spooks of one kind or another; either rescuing wayward spooks or taking them into some hell hole and dropping them off then coming back to a new LZ and picking them up again. Again I was unhappy with the name Houdini.

I pulled together a team which I hoped would appear particularly lethal and informed them we would be leaving the following day. When dawn was breaking we left in two of our transport birds accompanied by four of our most lethal attack helos. We also brought some of our most interesting but lethal toys along with us. We had three of our new an/prxc-29c radio sets along for the ride, carefully distributed across the helos. I didn’t want to take any of those new toys with us, especially since it was the crypto stuff but I didn’t have much of a choice, they were specified in the orders. Our path took us over Laos again, but this time we weren’t headed North. We went South as far as That Phanom before we took the scenic route over Laos to Quang Tri. There was a hell of a lot of air activity which had me worried. My fly boys seemed a little edgy about it as well but we stuck it out remaining close to the ground most of the way. It wasn’t much fun.

We spent the rest of the day being briefed once we got there. It was another case of getting to play action heros again. Two layers of help had already been sent in but even they were being overwhelmed. Ours was an evacuation mission for a firebase that didn’t exist. We would be going in while flying low, sticking around long enough to raise our particular brand of havoc, then flying out with as many of our people as we could cram onto the helicopters. By that time we would have reduced the weight we were carrying both in fuel and supplies so we could probably handle fifteen to twenty or so on each bird. That depended on how tightly we packed them in and the weight limits of the birds themselves. That was more than Command thought were still living at the place to which they were sending us which didn’t do a lot for my peace of mind especially since I had only ten people with me and they had sent in close to a hundred each of the previous times. Our special orders called for us to make the place and it’s surrounds as uninhabitable as possible once we were all in the air. Sounded pretty much like the normal mode of operation for my people.

The following morning I and four of my team ‘hitched’ an early ride to the chopper base courtesy of the orders which gave me the right to commandeer anything military which I felt might possibly be needed to achieve my mission, which coincidentally had never been spelled out in the orders so it was pretty much whatever I decided to call it. The other six were to meet us there in fifteen minutes. They had their own little duty to perform in the meantime which also used a set of the orders allowing them to waltz out with almost anything they wanted. I told them to assure the supply people that if we didn’t use it we would return it intact if at all possible. I was secretly hoping we would have the opportunity, I would just love the opportunity to make a great big hole in someone’s day not to mention in North Vietnam.

When we arrived we walked into the headquarters building pretty much breezing right past the few people who were there at that hour then we marched right into the commander’s office without so much as a by-your-leave to the enlisted or officers manning the gauntlet leading to his door. It wasn’t long before the base Commander showed up to see who had taken over his office. We closed the door when he entered and proceeded to have a very quick discussion with him. It was quick because I simply showed him the orders and told him what he was going to do. He wasn’t a happy camper, so what else was new?

“I promise, you can have your helicopters back when I’m finished with them.”

He didn’t seem to feel that was particularly comforting once he knew where we were going. I thought about kissing his forehead but he was going slightly bald and I was worried it might be catching. Less than two minutes after he walked into his office we were walking out again, led by the commander. The outer office area had changed a little by then. We exited his office to find there were a half dozen armed MP’s situated out there while everyone else was much further from the Colonel’s door. There were a few more people there than there had been when we arrived so I guessed some of them were the daytime crew.

The MP’s were eyeing our weapons and the little problem of no insignia of nearly any kind on our uniforms plus the maroon coloured berets in place on our heads. Again I had the feeling that those red cobras weren’t helping the situation any. About that point in time my other six miscreants turned up. They walked in right behind the MP’s who were now surrounded. Things became a little tense for a few seconds. I suppose there’s something about five heavily armed people just waltzing through an office that tends to bring out the worst in people. It couldn’t have been the fact that a woman was the one in the lead and she was armed just as heavily as were the rest of the team. That there were six more of my demolition crew between everyone else and the outer door also didn’t seem to help matters.

The Colonel glanced around the room then saw the Captain who I suppose should have been at one of the two desks just outside his door, “Captain Murdock, see to it these people have whatever they want as fast as we can provide it for them. If it takes more than five minutes to do that then I’ll find someone else who can get it done faster.”

He turned around and walked back into his office, closing the door behind him. I turned and looked in the direction he had been facing. Two Captains were standing there. I didn’t care which one was Murdock,

“Captain. I want four helicopters, each loaded for extended flight even if carrying twenty extra personnel apiece. They are to be loaded for bear with a double fuel load however you have to manage it. Full crew with gunners on each one. Eight missiles minimum on each — sixteen would be better, I know you have the large helicopters here capable of carrying at least that many ready to fire along with heavy cargo. I want five days worth of rations for eighty split evenly between the choppers and double the normal ammunition load on each helicopter. Going out I also want about three thousand rounds of boxed 5.56 on each bird. And those boxes better be easy to get into. A couple of boxes of grenades on each bird as well, a mix of WP and HE would be nice. At least two of my team will be riding in each helicopter on the way in. And I want a complete refuel for each of the six helicopters I and my team arrived in. I need it all faster than the five minutes the Colonel spelled out. If you’ve got them available I also want three medical satchels available on board each helicopter. If you need special orders for any of that then copy these papers. You don’t get to keep my originals.”

Neither Captain moved for a second or two and I was just about to open my mouth to say ‘move’ when one of them did. In less than three seconds he was across the office to a desk and three digit dialed a phone. As soon as it was answered he began yelling into it. The six MP’s just faded past my guys back out the door giving them the nod as they went.

I was finally beginning to understand how Colonel Jackson could be all peaches and cream while telling someone to do something. It’s more frightening to the men if the woman was playing at being nice and ladylike while essentially cutting them a new one. The men tended to get with the program pretty quickly. I suppose they didn’t want to see what the woman might do if she got really disturbed ... Especially when she was armed to her eye-teeth like I happened to be at the moment.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

We wandered down to the flight line to watch the festivities as they progressed. It was nearly an hour and twenty minutes before we had everything. I never expected them to be able to provide it in only five minutes especially since not all of their daytime personnel had even gone to chow much less reported to the flight line or their supplies depot, but it gave me the opportunity to scowl and look around every few minutes causing them some increased anxiety and effort.

People kept arriving and jumping into it as fast as they could receive their orders. Each of the helicopters they provided to us had five drums of fuel in it’s compartment, which gave me the jitters. One phosphorous round would take both them and us up like an atom bomb. The upside was we had both an electric and a hand pump on each bird and probably more than enough fuel. We put down once on the way in and managed to leave both two empties and a full drum behind, per bird. That gave us a little more room and reduced my worries a little. It also gave us a very small fuel dump to return to if we needed it. My birds still had a more than adequate fuel load since they were capable of nearly three times the flight distance of those which we had just commandeered. Of course we had sacrificed some load weight capacity in order to obtain that.

When we were about thirty klicks out from our destination, we picked a likely spot to land so we could transfer the remaining fuel before going into action. The hour long flight was taking it’s toll on our nerves since we were deep in enemy held territory. After the fuel transfers we still had between a quarter and a half drum apiece so I figured they might make good bombs to drop on the enemy. We taped an HE grenade to the side of each drum and waited to drop them until we had a known target to engage. It wasn’t long before we began to take some ground fire. One drum went down with it’s grenade igniting it not long after it was shoved out of it’s helicopter. It was pretty effective but the fireball nearly took out the helicopter that dropped it.

“Holy crap. Left ... Left ... shit, that nearly burned my face off.” Blade commented in something a bit more than simply calm, cool and collected.

We learned a lot from that first drop... drop the drum, change direction, and run- fast.

We also decided dropping the last three drums from a little higher altitude might be nice. The premise being that it would give the av-gas a chance to spread a little upon hitting the ground since the impact would be greater as well as allowing the helicopter to get further away before the gas went up. We could use the ten second fuses instead of the three’s. We had three or four of them in each helo and that actually worked out pretty good. Well enough that we were able to land two of the helicopters in the interim to off load most of the boxed 5.56 on board to our guys on the ground before we went out to work on anyone who might still be coming to the party. My own birds kept worrying at the enemy in the meantime.

Fifteen minutes later it was pretty much over and we sent one helicopter in at a time to pick up roughly twenty of the personnel we came to rescue. It was tight quarters since there were a number of semi-walking wounded but we made it even though three of my own helos had to get into the act. The helicopters were heavily loaded but as fuel and ammunition burned things became lighter. We left nearly forty of my little bottles of yellow surprise behind as our parting gifts. I hoped the enemy appreciated them all to pieces.

All in all I guess it was a good op. We evacuated a hundred and thirty-four personnel of which nearly half were injured. Later estimate was we caused over eight hundred enemy casualties with our improvised bombs as well as the other ordinance we expended and an untold number of wounded. The guys on the ground had to have accounted for almost as many since their field of fire had hundreds of bodies on it. It looked like the North was planning on annexing a little more of the South and this base got in the way. This fit in pretty snug with what we saw happening in Laos as well.

Command was not going to like the reports we sent in after this mission.

As we were flying out of the area, one of the pilots called over to my command bird and gave them a message for me. It seems there were two “non-military” personnel who were picked up along with everyone else and they needed to get a message out in one hell of a hurry. Something about some special weaponry and personnel coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail which we had to eliminate before it and they got deep enough into Cambodia to cross into South Vietnam and be a real problem. I needed to hear more about this and didn’t want it blabbed all over the radio so I told them first chance we had to put down for a minute, I wanted those two “non-military” personnel in my bird where we could talk while we were flying home. Besides I had one of the special command sets and the bird they were on didn’t.

“I’m sorry, we can’t discuss our information with you. We answer only to our own agency.”

“Uh, huh. I’ll tell you what. I’ll just have the pilot put down and we’ll let you off here, then continue on just as though you never existed. Now listen up you two yahoos, I’ve probably got a higher clearance than either of you ever thought of having. Furthermore, I’m the one with the encrypted radio which could get your message out long before we get back to civilization. Now if your message is so important and so time sensitive don’t you think you should get on the horn here and tell somebody who cares?”

“She has a point, Bill.”

“Yeah, but this needs to go back to Washington, not to some local Lt. Colonel who doesn’t have a clue.”

“True enough.”

“Gentlemen; I think I can solve this right now. See this little switch with the red handle? This moves the radio into a frequency hopping encrypted mode. The little selector dial next to it allows us to select a starting channel which we can use locally with another one of these sets to connect to Autovon. Once the connection is made then I can dial the Washington office I work with and once they are connected then we can both throw the second switch with the black handle and the switch on their voice encryption system and we have a double system going. The one is an extremely narrow frequency hopping encryption and the second is a thirty-five step voice digitizing and encrypting system. Don’t ask me what it all means, I don’t know and I don’t care. I’ve been told that it would take a week to break the voice encryption and about a month to break the frequency hop one. I can have whatever you want to say in Washington or actually Ft. Meade about a second after you say it. Is that good enough for you?”

“So how does it get to our people?”

“Just tell my people, who also happen to include a couple of generals, and they can get the information through from their end. My people can talk with you and help get your information to people who care starting at the top and working down but just be ready for a slight delay during the conversation since the encryption equipment needs to switch from send to reply and back and that takes a portion of a second. Then there is a delay due to the actual path from here to there or back.”

“Why haven’t we heard of this equipment?”

“Because you never saw it. There are less than a dozen pieces in SouthEast Asia and I’ve got them all.”

“Why the hell would a bunch of ground pounders have something like this. It sounds more like something an intelligence group would have?”

“We’re wasting time but you’re right, we are an intelligence group. We’re also one of the most lethal small covert groups around. If we go in hunting for bear, you better bet we’re going to bring at least one home. Now, do you want to waste more time or get the message out before we’re shot down or it no longer matters?”

They weren’t happy, just like a lot of other people but they took the opportunity and ran with it.

A few weeks later I was just finishing the paperwork which was going to grant me a measly six replacement transport helicopters when my Sergeant knocked on the door, “Ma’am, there’s a Colonel Scott here to see you.”

My Sergeant usually made a great door keeper, I doubted a general could have gotten past him without being announced first.

Scott ... I seemed to recall that name from somewhere.

He must have recognised the look on my face because he continued, “He said you might know him better by his code name — Houdini.”

My face must have turned white as my Sergeant looked at me like he was expecting me to faint. I recovered as best I could.

“Send him in, and bring us some coffee, please.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

The last memorable time I had seen this man, he looked a little like death warmed over. I didn’t even want to consider the few short times I had seen him stateside. Colonel Scott sauntered into my office plopping himself into one of the seats before me.

“You’re looking good, Major.”

“So are you. Much better than the first time I saw you.”

“Well ... you know how it goes. The hospitality of the North left a lot to be desired.”

“We will have coffee arriving in a moment. I don’t suppose this is just a social call. We are a bit out of the beaten path for that.”

He laughed, “You’re right. I have a problem which is about to become your problem as well.”

I wasn’t terribly happy to hear that, but after all - it was our job. The Sergeant arrived with our coffee, knocking first to let us know he was about to enter in the event we were discussing something which wasn’t for other ears. We remained quiet while he placed the coffee and condiments on the desk between us then he asked one question.

“Ma’am, do you wish me to notify your Air Force OIC that you will want to see him?”

I gave that a little thought as Houdini nodded his head. I took that cue and gave my answer to the Sergeant.

“Yes, please. Let me know when he arrives but have him wait outside until we decide we’re ready to see him.” I translated the nod Houdini had given into a set of orders.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Sergeant Rascal replied to me before he retreated quietly.

“All right. What is this problem which is rapidly becoming my own?”

“I need a ride. It will cover a great deal of territory in Northern Laos and probably will antagonize a large number of people who have access to entirely too many SAMs.”

“I’m certain my Air Force OIC will be unpleasantly surprised to hear that.”

The Colonel chuckled before continuing.

“We are trying to arrange for counter SAM support aircraft as well as other Electronic counter measures. What I need from you will be six to eight heavy gun ships heavily laden and fueled for maybe four or five trips back and forth across the Laos-North Nam border then on up to examine the particular Laos- North Vietnam border crossings which our reconnaissance aircraft have noted are in heavy use by NVA troops. We will likely call in some air strikes on those locations so I will need at least one of your new secure comm units tied into the AutoVon network.”

“You don’t want much, do you? I suppose you wanted all this yesterday?”

He agreed, “Last year wouldn’t have been soon enough.”

“You do realize that despite our two hundred foot tower here we do have a limited range for communication in Laos.”

“We have taken that into account. One of the electronics planes which will be orbiting has another of those comsets built into it. It can relay our information to the appropriate commands. Our actual use communicating with you here probably won’t begin until we have come back down to within a hundred klicks of the Laos-Thailand border. It should be able to reach that far despite the low power. Concentrating it all in a very narrow pulsed signal effectively boosts the range.”

I, myself, knew that was the case before he even mentioned it since on occasion I had myself easily reached out over a hundred clicks with a piece of equipment which under normal operational conditions was rated for only about forty. Going into the special secure mode made a great deal of difference, both in communication security and in effective power. How they did that without draining the hell out of the batteries I’d never know. It worked - well and that was all I cared about.

I began leafing through my mind trying to decide if I had enough birds available since a number of them were committed to other tasks at the moment and there presently were four down to maintenance. I was finally forced to go to my aircraft chart which confirmed that which I was thinking. Most of my flight personnel were also committed. We had enough pilots to handle his six aircraft but I wanted to have twelve ready for this mission. That way when the six returned there could already be six more fresh and waiting should he want to go out again immediately. I explained this to him.

“If I can get them to expedite the four that are down for maintenance, I should have three more which will be coming off a mission this evening. That means I can give you six tomorrow morning and probably have six more ready by tomorrow night. After that it will be only six the following day. Your final two flights will be delayed by a couple of days as my aircraft are committed as well as nine needing to go down to maintenance in just another forty or fifty hours so I’m stretched thin unless I can request more of those aircraft. I would be unlikely to receive them in time for your needs anyway since it took me nearly a month to replace the transport helo which was shot down last month. Apparently our attack model isn’t off the shelf so it would take even longer.”
He laughed again, “Not even close to being off the shelf. You have thirty-four very special birds. And if six is all you can manage then six it will have to be.”

“So I’ve been learning. The last six months have been — educational, to say the least. Do you realise it took me a month just to get some people who knew anything about these helicopters assigned to our maintenance depot in Udorn? Even then, I had to wait another month to get the last two and some of the parts for these helicopters are particular not just to the model but to this particular sub-model of which I understand only fifty were made. Since I have thirty four of them would you mind telling me where the other sixteen are?”

“Yes, I would.”

I waited a moment digesting that which he said then I frowned.

“Thanks.” I said dryly, “I hope they’re happy with their toys.”

“I’m sure they are. Believe me, they’re putting them to good use. There are ... plans ... in the works to give you another three hundred ground operations personnel and another fifty transport helicopters but your heavy attack helos will remain fixed at thirty-four.”

“Three ... Thanks, I don’t think. Where, exactly, am I going to put another three hundred personnel not to mention fifty more helicopters? And how do I replace an attack helo if one gets shot down?”

“Don’t let it get shot down. As for space, you know that tree-line to the South? There will be a construction battalion here next week to push that back a bit. By the time your additional helicopters and personnel arrive you’ll have plenty of space, buildings, hangers and fuel.”

“Oh thank you so very much, great and fearless leader. You know I hate all this paper pushing? I haven’t been out on a mission with the other girls in at least six months.”

“I seem to recall Magician saying something along those lines. She also said you take to the paperwork naturally, as well as this particular ... unified front you’ve been presenting. She is quite pleased that you plan far deeper than most people she has run across and she has every confidence in you.”

I shook my head, “You know, you sell more baloney than a delicatessen.”

He shrugged, “Story of my life. What can I say? It sells, and I have an abundant supply.”

“Now that you have ruined my day, may I offer you the hospitality of my little part of the world? We have an excellent mess. It should be since it’s run by the Air Force and all their orders for supplies go in under our special orders. We even have a couple of nice clean unoccupied rooms for wayward or injured officers, should any happen to stumble onto our little part of the world.”

“You’ve attracted my interest. I would also like to see your medical facilities and have a little heart to heart with your Air Force OIC.”

“Why don’t we grab him on our way out to take a look at the Med Fac? Then he can show you to a room and lead you by the hand to the Mess.”

“Sounds good to me.”

I collected my purse and my cover then we exited my office finding Captain Slade waiting outside. He quickly stood when he saw the Colonel, saluting his superior before things became a bit more relaxed again. I performed the introductions and we trekked off to the medical facilities. As we left that location, I handed Colonel Scott off to Captain Slade’s tender mercies warning him not to take offensive action when he heard what Colonel Scott had in mind. Finally I made my way back to my office so I could attempt to expedite the maintenance in progress on four of my war-birds. I had my Sergeant also inform the depot that we would be sending them nine more in short order so they might just as well order all the normal parts right now if they didn’t have enough on hand since they would begin seeing the birds in just a few days. I authorised ordering the parts using our special acquisition orders so we would have them in time that maintenance wouldn’t be badly delayed. I had too much going on now for one of my attack helos to be gone for more than a few days thanks to this sudden addition of roughly thirty bird-day long flights. Damn, that was going to eat up the hours remaining between maintenance for those birds. Something the maintenance officer was saying brought my attention back to the telephone handset I was holding up to my ear.

“We would like to order out a half dozen spare engines. That could speed things up if we suddenly needed to pull one. They do fail every now and then.”

I grimaced, “order - three and I’ll okay it. Those engines wouldn’t happen to fit your own helos would they?”

“They might but our OIC has us keeping the supplies carefully separated. If they come in, they will be held for your birds. Which brings up an interesting point. Could we also order some engines for our own?”

I rolled my eyes before remembering this was a phone call.

“Yes. Three for your own birds. Just copy me with the paperwork so I have a copy on file here. Any special needs?”

“A few things. I’ll send you a copy then order them when I receive your okay back. Does that work out, Major?”

“Yes. Try not to make it too expensive. I am on a budget here despite my assistance from the powers that be.”

He seemed pleased and we hung up on a positive note. I began staring at my aircraft chart worrying about how I was going to fill my mission requirements when roughly twenty five percent of my attack helicopters would be down to maintenance within the next week and a half or possibly less. One bright side to all this. Once I had another fifty transport helos, I would have enough to warrant my own maintenance depot for those particular birds. Maybe I could sneak the attack helos into the mix somehow and bypass Udorn entirely.

Turning back to my desk I called out for my Sergeant then began discussing our new needs with him so we could get a leg up on acquiring fuel, quarters, hardened hangers, food, medical supplies, etc for my new people which I suddenly realised would number far more than the three hundred new operational personnel. There would be additional maintenance, support and aircrews as well. Effectively they were about to double my trouble. Not for the first time I began considering resigning my commission and never coming back. That brought up the question I had pondered a number of times previously. Since I was never really “commissioned” (as far as I knew) could I resign it? I once again began the futility of trying to remember exactly what was printed on those various pieces of paper I had to sign. Not all of them had been copied to me. Nor were copies found in my jacket. I had most of my copies carefully stashed away but I remembered signing nine documents and I had only six copies.

That led to me thinking about going out on missions these past six months. I had managed about one a month as myself. The rest of the time was spent masquerading as an officer trying to get things done that desperately needed doing. I went out on one mission as an officer and that was something which wouldn’t be talked about. I still didn’t see why I needed to be Lynnette for that. Seemed to me Lyon could have done it just as well.

That got me to thinking about the good times the guys and I had together and I began missing the comradery. Finally I got up from my desk, dropped all the paperwork on my Sergeant’s desk as I told him, “I’ll be gone the rest of the day. I’m going out to the barracks to see some of the guys I worked with before we were assigned here.”

He looked at me funny then said, “Yes, Ma’am.”

He was another of the new ones who didn’t know my past history. There weren’t too many of them here that did. That had me a little depressed, too. I crossed the training field, saluting the few personnel who saw me and who saluted. They didn’t necessarily know my rank but they all knew every woman on the base was an officer so saluting was precautionary on their part. When I reached the barrack in which I knew Trank, Frenchy, Larry and Blade were billeted I gave no thought to just opening the door and entering.

“Atten Hut. Female officer in the barracks.”

Huh? I looked back then realized the female officer was me. Crap. And I just waltzed right on in.

“As you were. I’m looking for Frenchy or Trank. Are they around? And if not them then Larry or Blade will do.”

“Uh, I think Frenchy and Trank are in the shower and Larry and Blade might be at the mess, Ma’am. Uh, some of the guys aren’t exactly dressed for the occasion, Ma’am. Would you mind waiting outside and we’ll let them know you’re here. Sorry, Ma’am.”

I nearly broke down in tears. I felt so — so ... distant. I’ve been spending far too much time in the female guise.

“I ... I ... I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. Thank you — uh, I guess I’ll go.”

“Do you want us to let them know you were here, Ma’am?”

“I ... yes ... No! Don’t bother, it wasn’t important. Thank you. Sorry to have bothered you, gentlemen.”

I walked out, standing just outside the door for perhaps a minute. I felt like I had lost something but wasn’t certain what it was. As I began to wander I somehow found myself outside the Mess but didn’t feel very hungry. Turning away I just began to walk. My path took me past the hangers where I tried to avoid the Air Force personnel who were working with the helicopters preparing some of them for tomorrow’s missions. They would be unpleasantly surprised to learn their carefully scheduled operation had been rejuggled this afternoon.

Reaching the Southern end of the field, I stared at the tree line realising that in just a week or so it would once again be cut back to make way for quarters for more helicopters and personnel. I turned around looking back across the large clearing where our helicopters staged just prior to flying off and where they landed to bring back those who survived or needed medical help. I was playing with people’s lives. That also depressed me and brought light tears to the corners of my eyes. Who the hell was I to send these men into harm’s way when I wouldn’t go myself? Hell, I’d go but I’d have to violate orders to do so.

Food. I needed to let the mess know we would be receiving more personnel sometime in the next month or so. They would need more supplies and possibly storage space. I would need to have them let me know what they needed so I could get it ordered and in the pipeline in a timely manner. My mind turned to the missions scheduled for tomorrow plus the added nonsense which would take Houdini into Northern Laos. That wasn’t a good idea. Not only did we stand to lose some of my helos we might even lose him again. Right now Northern Laos was more of an armed camp than Northern Vietnam had been. Why don’t they just level everything above the 1955 cease fire line and then carefully remove the NVA from Laos? If they didn’t, we stood to lose Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and probably even Thailand. I needed to let my Sergeant know we should place a double order for the missiles the helos use. I had a feeling we would be using a lot of them sometime really soon, like maybe tomorrow?

Wiping the tears from my face I turned again looking at the trees for a few moments before slowly walking off toward my own quarters. I had been doing a lot of thinking but had come to very few conclusions.

On the way back I ran into Ralph and Benny who were on their way to supper.

“Hi Lynnette, have you had supper yet?”

“I’m not particularly hungry.”

“Then why not come and keep us company? Maybe you’ll see something you’d like. If not we can chat anyway. Anything new and interesting happening?”

“I guess that would depend on your definition of interesting.”

He held the door open for me, “After you, Ma’am.”

I entered and we took a look at the food which was available. My stomach decided it was hungry even if I wasn’t so it growled as I stood in front of the chicken fried steak. The guys had their food piled onto their plates. I took a large meat, a small portion of each of the vegetables and about a tablespoonful of mashed potatoes. I wasn’t certain I could eat all that was on my plate. I skipped the desserts which made the mess Sergeant frown but I had enough to worry about without adding extra weight to my load.

While I was standing there I brought him up to speed and he promised to work it up and have it on my Sergeant’s desk in two to three days. That conversation was where I learned that the mess would need to be enlarged so it could hold two more walk in freezers and a couple more stoves and ovens. An increase of possibly six more mess personnel plus more dining space ... yada, yada, yada. Why is nothing ever simple?

We sat down and the guys began to tuck it away much as I used to do some many months ago. I nibbled at my steak, finished the vegetables and about half the potatoes. For some reason I had selected a glass of milk which I not only finished but even had a second glass as a chaser. All during the meal we had held our conversation down. When we left the mess they asked again about anything new and/ or interesting.

“There’s a possibility we might receive some more personnel and possibly more helicopters as well. I don’t have any paperwork confirming it though so it could just be a rumor coming down the pipe.”

“That’d be great.” Ralph smiled, “We could use some more of those attack choppers.”

“I’m afraid they won’t be part of the mix. We have thirty four and there were only fifty of this model built. This is a very particular sub-model of the line and I’ve been told that the other sixteen are in use elsewhere. Knowing that we can’t replace them, I’ve initiated orders for substantial replacement parts for them. They’ve been invaluable for our purposes so I don’t want any of them down for long periods of time because of some difficulty getting parts.”

“Terrific.” Benny intoned, “be just our luck it’s an obsolete model and parts are no longer available.”

“Well, so far it hasn’t become that bad, Benny.”

“Say Lynnette, any idea when Lyon’s going to be able to go out on a patrol again. The gang would kind of like to get together and deal with some of the stuff like old times.”

“So would I.” I said quietly, “it isn’t likely to happen very soon. Command seems to want me stuck right here in my nice safe stupid little office.”

“I thought you got to decide who goes on which mission?”

“I do, within limits. But I’ve been given orders specifying my non-involvement with any further active action. I was surprised they let me go on that little evac mission last month. I still haven’t figured that one out.”

“Maybe they wanted your direct observation of the whole thing. They wanted your take on what was happening.”

“Fine, they got it. If they wanted it so badly they certainly didn’t say anything afterward that gave me any indication of why.”

“So, what’s with the increase in personnel if not a response? Seems to me they were trying to see how you did in the field so they could have a reason to give you more responsibility. More personnel and helicopters is more responsibility.”

“Yeah, and more time stuck in my lousy office.”

“So? Get a better office.” Benny seemed to be admonishing me.

“What?”

“You don’t like your office? Add some curtains or maybe a picture or two. Give it some feminine touches. Have it painted something nice instead of ‘institutional drab’. Make it ‘your’ office.”

I looked at him like he had just grown a second head.

“My office?”

“Yeah. Your office. Hell, it’s your home away from home. You’ve got to live in it. Do something to make it yours even if it’s painting stripes on the ceiling. What did Lyon do to his room? Don’t tell me he didn’t have any pictures from home or a calendar or something in his room. After all there are some things which the Army allows their people to do so they don’t go crazy.”

“My office?” I seemed to be stuck in a rut.

“Sure. Why not?”

Why not? — Hell yeah, why not?

I smiled, leaned forward and kissed Benny on the cheek then got up and was on my way to take a really good look at my office, or perhaps my first look at it to see what could be done with it.

 « t  »

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get paint in colors that aren’t standard for the military? It isn’t like picking up a Sears or Wards catalog and just ordering the stuff. Curtains, too. What made no sense to me whatsoever was I could order prints of paintings to hang on the walls but finding paint or curtains was like trying to find a needle in a haystack when you didn’t even know which state the haystack was in.

Believe it or not, it was Trank and Frenchy who found my paint. They never did tell me where they got it and since it might have been evidence I thought I’d best use it quickly then dispose of the containers before any questions had a chance to be asked. A month or so after I began my task to redo my office, I had a nice smelly, freshly painted room with three ‘paintings’ hanging on the walls, a bookcase with quite a few books in it (again, I wasn’t going to ask and yes, they were in English) a vase complete with flowers on my desk and three nice chairs for any visitors who might come by. We even had a water cooler and a coffee station out in the main part of the offices. No more calling over to the Mess to have coffee sent over.

While I was adding amenities to my office, the Army and the Air Force were adding responsibilities to my shoulders. I received my new personnel which included no more ‘female’ members, but a round dozen male officers who were duly surprised to learn the base OIC was a woman, a short tempered woman on occasion. The support personnel and the MPs were increased in numbers as were the Air Force personnel. Most of my time was now spent in paperwork, briefings, debriefings and making certain the few combat helos I had were kept airworthy. It was great having so many small light attack-transport birds but I didn’t have enough of the killers to protect them all so we finally began losing some to enemy action. That was what I found to be the most frustrating part of this whole thing. It took nearly a year before I could get more helo’s that were similar to those which went out armed for bear. Those we did receive were a different model with new problems, totally different parts requirements and a range of about two thirds of that of my original war-birds.

Fixing the range problem took us nearly another six months. I managed to get my ass out (as a male) into the boonies a couple of times and enjoyed every second of it despite the young kids calling me ‘pops’. I never did find out what they called Lynnette. Hell, I was only three or four years older than they were. I don’t look old do I? Don’t answer that, I don’t want to know, besides you should never tell a lady she looks old. It wasn’t long before the spooks decided I was an asset to be protected and I was again forbidden to go on any more missions unless they specified I was to do so. That went over like a lead balloon with me but I couldn’t argue. The downside? It meant I spent nearly 24/7 by 365 days a year as Lynnette. Even with all the changes and additions it was difficult to handle the assignments which now seemed to come in at the rate of three to four a day.

We somehow managed to keep up the insane pace for nearly three and a half years before we began losing a lot of personnel due to rotation and increasing attrition. I suppose it had to start happening. We had gone so long without losing very many and the enemy was coming up with more offensives so I guess we finally started getting our members hit while out on missions.

We did, during our short existence, go in harm’s way on about twenty-three hundred missions. Nearly a hundred of those involved the entire unit and most of our birds. We also had a record of over three hundred rescues from deep in enemy territory of which nearly half were prisoners who were being interrogated at the time we came along asking if we could play. We also brought back a classified number of NVA officers and a number of ‘advisers’ who just ‘happened to be there’ when we went in to extract our personnel. The enemy whom we brought back were, more or less, in good condition, pretty much similar and in a number of case better than the condition of our own people at the time we ‘rescued’ them.

The original crew who had followed me to this hole in the wall had numbered twenty-nine. Those numbers had diminished by fourteen due to injuries or deaths which took them home one way or another. We got the hint when we lost nearly forty personnel and seven helicopters all at one time. The eighth helo got away with only some minor hits and three wounded. They said it seemed like the enemy had been waiting for them.

I forwarded that information to Lucy and Houdini and orders were quick in coming to disband our happy little group sending all of the remaining personnel in a multitude of directions. Five of my original people rotated while the remaining ten followed me to my new assignment which had us playing in an entirely different sandbox, with completely new rules, and across a different ocean.

Before going there, Lucy called me into Meade for a two day conference and a few days R&R before I moved on once again. During that conference I was appraised of some things of which I had not previously been aware.

There was a bad-guy with whom she had worked in Vietnam prior to her assignment at Meade. He had escaped custody with the help of a half dozen rogue agents from a civilian agency who also disappeared with him. There also had been an officer attached to the General's staff who apparently had been providing intelligence to those rogues and who had also disappeared shortly before he could be court-marshalled. All in all, a tidy little group who held some animosity for Lucy, Houdini, and by inference myself and my people. Apparently there was someone or several someone’s who were still in the intelligence loop providing them with information. They weren’t necessarily siding with the NVA or Chinese but they certainly were not aligned with the U.S.A..

“We strongly recommend you keep your eyes open from here on out and report anything which even remotely seems like someone had prior knowledge of your unit’s working area or conditions.”

“Will I have some of the girls with me in Europe?”

“No. We must assume their covers are blown and therefore they will be operating as normal officers now and in the foreseeable future.”

I nodded my head, accepted my orders, gave Lucy a hug and walked out the door.

In Europe, I spent far more time bouncing back and forth between male and female. My pals and I slowly climbed back up to around forty and we managed to learn a lot while on assignment in the Bronx. Like it or not, we were shuffled around a bit in order to provide information for Lucy’s groups as well as to keep our tracks scarce. We got to play in most of Europe as well as the Middle East and Northern Africa. It was a learning experience which lasted four years before nearly all of us finally found our way back out the revolving door.

We had been receiving hints from Magician and Houdini that our government would not be adverse to hiring our expertise should we decide to start up a civilian agency using the skills we had learned both in SEA and in the dozen or so countries we had vacationed in during our time in various parts of ‘Eastern Europe’ and the Middle East.

As my period of servitude was about to come to an end for the fourth time, the lady who started this all came to visit me shortly before I mustered out. I figured this was their last shot at trying to get me to re-up yet again. It was, but not in the manner I was thinking.

“Lyon, both Randolf and I would be willing to put money into helping your start-up business. We could be silent partners. I’m certain the government would also be favorably disposed to provide some funds as well. They might be willing to provide a low interest loan to help you with the beginning years in return for your assistance in certain areas of your expertise. We still have some interests in Asia as well as Africa, the Middle East and Europe where your people could be of great value. After all, you would have an excellent civilian cover which could be exploited and along with some of our other ‘switch hitters’ your team could be in a unique position to discover information which would be valuable to us.”

“Thanks, Lucy. Tell Randolf I appreciate it as well. At this stage of the game I’m not certain I really want to continue doing this sort of thing. Especially not the Lynnette side of it at any rate, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll think about it. Seriously. Just don’t expect an answer from me anytime really soon. I’ll keep in touch but for now I’m getting out of the military and I just need to take some time to relax and wind down a little. Ask me again in a year. I just might be bored enough that I’ll take you up on it. One thing though ... ”

“And that is?”

“If I should decide to do it then I pick my team members and I call the shots. You guys can give us a sense of direction and can help us by providing military background info on anyone we are thinking of hiring, but we do it our way.”

She looked at me as though she wanted to laugh.

“Didn’t you do it ‘your way’ before?”

“Not exactly. Most of the time we were told what to do. If I start this business you’re talking about then it will be my business, run my way, and not an offshoot of the military complex.”

“I think we could live with that. So long as you recognise the fact that frequently we would have time constraints in which we would all need to be operating. Another thing, if you did do something like that; your’s might not be the only team we could have doing it’s thing. I just hate to lose you. Your team has proven itself to be most effective and a lot of that was due to your leadership. I’ll pass your ideas on to those who care. Take care of yourself, kid. Don’t lose my phone number. Oh, and one more little thing ... ”

I waited a moment then asked, “and what might that little thing be?”

She gave me her smile just like she had back in Meade when all this started. I just knew I wasn’t going to like her answer.

“If you do this, you and each member of your happy little enterprise will be members of a reserve unit. On paper, of course.”

“Oh, of course. And exactly what will this reserve unit be doing?”

“Whatever you need them to be doing within the limits of the assignments we give to you. When you aren’t on the governments dime then you will be free to earn a dishonest dollar as civilians. See you around.”

She winked at me then picked up her cover and purse before walking out the door even as I began wondering if I had even been offered a choice.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

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.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Our flight turned out to be uneventful. Two hours and one stop later we showed our identification, retrieved our cases, and walked out the deplaning ramp into the terminal where we each found a restroom so we could extract our weaponry from the cases and place them into the appropriate holsters, sheathes and, in one case, a 9mm went into my purse. With two hours to kill, an early lunch was in order, during which we discussed strategy.

“Remember Ralph, only Mr. Thomson is to know.”

“Lynnette, no problem. It isn’t like we haven’t done this before, and you’ve taken this route a number of times.”

“True, but every other time was for only one day, not two weeks and not in such uncontrolled circumstances.”

“Oh come on, Lynn. You know you like the opportunity and the guys certainly wouldn’t mind a bit.”

In a way Ralph was right. Every other time had been, at the very most, for a maximum of two days but normally only a day or even less and I really would have liked the chance to do it for a longer time. Every other time when it was over, I would go home and cry my eyes out for what seemed like hours wishing it had gone on longer. I could probably enjoy two or three days, maybe even the whole two weeks. It might help get it out of my system for a while. It was different when I knew I could change back after a day or two, but two weeks? That seemed like it was nearly forever despite having done it for even longer periods while in the service. Of course I wouldn’t be doing any of the spook’s work this time out. The alternate to that would be that I might do it for these two weeks and not want to stop. I wasn’t certain that would be a good thing. Then again, I wasn’t certain it would be all that bad either.

“Lynnette, you know we can do this ... legally. Then you’d just be another one of the girls as well as the boss.”

I smiled at him, “I know Ralph. That’s such a sweet offer. I know you mean it, but there are a bunch of complications. One of them being that I’m still not certain I want to do this on a permanent basis.”

“I know, but most of the other complications we could handle if you wanted to do it.”

“What about Jeannie? Now SHE’s a complication.” I reminded him about my ex and her antics.

“Lynnette, I told you a year ago that isn’t a problem. I can handle her.”

“I know. I’m just afraid of how ... ”

“Nothing illegal.”

“Uh, huh,” I rolled my eyes.

“Seriously. She says she has some dirt on you which would cause a lot of problems ... well, now I’ve got a bundle on her and if I release it first then whatever she does will just look like sour grapes and no one will believe it, or, they won’t care. You know the original 30 already know and are supportive. That’s nearly half the company. You should let that Canadian lady know, too. I’ll bet she would be supportive as well.”

“Yes, I know ... Maybe I could do it for a while. It might be fun to do it for a longer period. As for the Canadians ... I don’t need that kind of a problem cropping up at the moment. We simply don’t need to be hunting for more Canadian agents when we are so close to opening that office.”

I began to think about how I might enjoy this despite anything my ex might have up her sleeve. Thinking about that made me wonder why I agreed to the possibility of doing this for so long this time.

“Lynn, if this client goes with the flow, then you should come in all this week as well. You need to be in the office anyway for the team briefings, and the final work up ... It would be a great opportunity to see once again what it’s like to do it for a longer time. After all, the time you did it in the Service hardly counts since you were so busy all the time you didn’t really have a chance to think about it. Most everyone not in the know has gone on assignments so it would allow you a little time to get a feel for it before the detail actually begins.”

Three weeks?

“Yes, I know,” I sighed. “I can see Nicci now. I walk into my office and she has the cops in there so fast my head would spin.”

“Nicci knows,” Ralph says with a smile.

Scowling, “You told her?”

“She told me. She’s a bit put out actually. She has wanted to meet you for quite a while, now. She heard about you from the guys whenever you worked a job and she eventually put two and two together. She’s a smart cookie, of course that’s why she has the job she has. I think it’s about time for you to tell her. She wants to be a friend.”

“I’ll think about it, Ralph. What time is it? I forgot my watch.”

“You forgot your lipstick too.” He checked his watch, “It getting on, we should go.”

“I have my lipstick right here,” pulling the tube from my purse, “I didn’t want to waste it, so I didn’t put any on because I knew I would be eating before we went to the meeting. Pardon me, but I need the powder room for a few minutes.”

I got up and went to the ladies room to do my business, and to put on my lipstick. A few minutes later I met Ralph out front where we caught a taxi ride to a huge, new industrial park where we stopped before a modern style, four storied glass walled building.

“Nice digs,” Ralph commented as we looked at the floor to roof entry area which took up the center of the building. It had wrap around walkways at each level plus a garden surrounding the guard station located which was located in the center of that lobby-entrance. After being appropriately awed, we checked in for our one o’clock. By the time someone collected us and we were shown into the inner sanctum on the fourth floor, there were five people waiting for us and it was nearly a quarter after.

“Ralph,” James shook his hand having met Ralph back when he first talked with us, “and you must be Lynnette.” He shook my hand also, but a bit less firmly.

“Mr. Thompson.”

“Call me James.”

“James, then.”

“Allow me to introduce Bill and George. They are the two vice presidents who will also be attending the convention. The other two gentlemen are the vice presidents for our legal and financial departments.”

This event was not unexpected and was a part of the preparatory discussion Ralph and I had during lunch. We had a predetermined manner in which we would handle this part of the meeting so we continued on just as though we were the advance team gathering what extra info we needed, especially that which covered the need for a female agent. Half an hour later things were pretty well sewn up so we stipulated the necessity of a five minute private meeting before we departed. In a few minutes the meeting wrapped up and Legal and Finance left the room.

Ralph looked at Bill and George, “Mr. Thompson, is there more to discuss?”

“You said you wanted a private meeting. Here we are.”

“Yes, a PRIVATE meeting.” Ralph replied.

James gave a slight scowl to Ralph, “I don’t think there is anything to discuss which cannot be said in front of Bill or George.”

Ralph gave me a look of resignation, “oh well, guess you were right, he’s just looking for someone to blame if things don’t go well.”

I frowned before reaching into my purse removing a piece of paper which I placed on the table near James, who by this time was also frowning at Ralph’s comment. Ralph always did have this propensity toward opening his mouth before putting his brain in gear. He did necessarily say bad things but he sometimes let out information that it was best to keep hidden a while longer.

“Mr. Thompson, this is a refund of all the advance monies your company has paid to date. If you cannot follow our instructions explicitly then we are not the security company you need. We suggest you hire some off-duty police officers who will take your orders. Our Principals must follow our instructions as we give them and when we give them; not their own path. Thank-you for considering Stevens Security.”

Ralph and I both stood, letting ourselves out of his conference room leaving James standing there gaping like a fish, his face turning an angry scarlet. His two VP just looked shocked.

After we reached the lobby, Ralph begged the use of a phone, calling for a taxi which pulled up about five minutes after we exited the building. We rode to the airport in silence going in to redeem our return trip vouchers, we checked in our weapons then walked to the boarding gate to wait for the half hour until boarding.

The return flight was just as uneventful as the one which brought us here earlier in the day. We had the opportunity to discuss the costs we had incurred thus far. This round-trip flight ... $ 987, two and a half weeks pay for our team ... $23,827. 31 what with medical insurance, taxes and the like ... administrative costs ... $2671. Why the thirty-one cents? Because the insurance, taxes, etc. came up to some strange amount since a couple of the guys were on the edge of their tax bracket and insurance was going up so instead of making it a nice rounded $23,775 it moved up a bit and was that weird fifty-two dollars and thirty-one cents higher.

“Ralph, pull the twenty three grand from my personal account, that’ll hurt a bit, but I won’t see the guys short changed because I turned down a job at the last minute. The flight costs should be a legitimate expense and tax-deductible, I think ... check with legal and accounting on that. The $2671 is a loss, but the office girls need to be paid for the time they’ve spent on the prep for this job as well and we already tagged their work to this account. Fortunately we have others so it only affected a part of their earnings and the company savings can foot that part.”

“I’m sorry, Lynn. We could have done the job with bells on. Some of the guys were looking forward to working with you. A couple of the newbies too. The old gang always talks you up. It’s too bad about the job, but I guess it’s better we found out he couldn’t take direction before a clinch than during. What irks me is we didn’t even get to see if he was okay with you substituting for one of the female agents.”

“True ... ” I was fairly quiet. I didn’t know how I felt about having dumped the job that could have allowed me to spend just two weeks doing something that felt a bit like a vacation to me.

“Come on Lynnette, talk to me. This is your buddy, Ralph.”

I remained quiet and Ralph just waited patiently. I was looking at my fingernails and the polish which matched my suit.

Ralph suddenly pointed out my window, “Wow, look at that. Some day we need to buy one of those.”

I glanced out the window and saw a Gulfstream flying by in the distance. It was one of the earlier models and seemed to be going in roughly the same direction as we were traveling, but it was separated by distance, a little altitude, and speed, not to mention price. I doubted the cost of our two tickets would have even made a dent in the cost of that little beauty.

“Did you see it, Lynnette? He had to be making about a hundred miles an hour faster than we’re going.”

“Yes, I saw it. He was probably making closer to 150 knots over us. Maybe a few years down the road, if I don’t turn down any more well paying jobs.”

“Aww, Lynn. Don’t kick yourself. He wouldn’t take direction. Some day that will get him killed. I don’t want that to happen while it’s our watch. That could kill our business.”

I nodded my head in agreement then spent the last half of the flight with my mind locked in thought.

We had taken nearly three years to grow to this size and our benefactors needed us to be at least six times larger than this. They would have liked it to have been yesterday. We had a few agents who could play in some of the foreign sandboxes, most of whom we had hired away from other agencies so they were already certified in Europe as well as a few other countries. That helped to satisfy some of our lessor commitments to our spook friends. We had begun to make some serious money, which also made our friends happy since they received a share of our profits, and I had made a point of quickly paying off the one loan we had and which the government had guaranteed. The grants were just that, grants and while not overly large they weren’t exactly small either.

By now, the business owned a number of well protected properties, armored vehicles both for equipment and for people hauling. We were still growing and were about to expand into two additional cities here in the States, which were popular convention sites, as well as one located in Canada. That was the reason for the ten Canadian agents and the three office staff who were here training prior to being cut loose on an unsuspecting Canada.

Turning down this job wouldn’t kill us, but it would hurt for the short term. As a company we had begun working with several Federal Agencies and were gaining a good reputation. However, as good as things seem to be, we still didn’t have extensive cash reserves. We could survive this little bump in the road but things still wouldn’t be pretty for a while yet. I figured pretty wouldn’t come around until we had nearly twelve Mil in savings. At under four we were still a long way away from that.

I continued thinking about the job I had just turned down. If we had done this job well, then we would have had about an additional two hundred twenty K in the bank after all of our expected expenses. That, plus the opportunity for more good publicity which could have helped us start moving at the two new locations and allowed us to come up to speed much more rapidly. The two jobs scheduled to start a couple of weeks later would still bring our reserves up another eighty K from our projected levels, post purchase of the office buildings in those other two cities. Not bad for a little company that started on what I figured was a shoestring budget and a prayer. Our total cash assets presently sat at about three point thirty-five Mil, enough for close to five months with no income so long as there weren’t any unexpected expenses. We weren’t in bad shape, just not in perfect health.
We landed five minutes early for a change, collected our weapons cases then headed on into the concourse.

“I’m going to the office for a couple of hours. You coming in? Nicci would love to meet you.” Ralph suggested.

“Nicci meets me everyday, Ralph.”

“Come on. You know what I mean, Lynnette.”

I sighed, looking at my reflection which was cast back at me by a glass panel that covered an ad for a Bahamas vacation. I could see an attractive woman looking back as I pondered the advisability of going to the office like this.

“Hang on a sec, Lynnette. I’m going to go call the office and see if the Earth’s shaking.”

I continued to stand there looking at my reflection and thinking about ... well ... just about everything as Ralph walked to a nearby set of pay phones. I didn’t know what I was thinking when I agreed to go talk with James. It was a dumb move and I don’t know how I thought it could work out any way but bad. Our business didn’t need that kind of publicity, especially not the kind that said we would turn down jobs at the last second leaving principals out in the cold, dark ocean of the world without life preservers.

Ralph finished his call, “Lynn, we may have a problem.”

“Another one?” I sighed, my five months cash assets rapidly dwindling in my mind to four and hopefully not lower. “What’s this one?”

“Thompson walked in the doors just before Nicci answered my phone call.”

“What? Great! Had to be the Gulfstream.”

I could have smacked my head. I should have realised it could have been him when we saw it was going in basically the same direction we were. When we spoke with him before, he had arrived in a private aircraft and one of my newbies picked him up at a general aviation terminal. I hadn’t made a conscious effort to remember the manufacturer of the aircraft if the newbie had even reported it.

Ralph nodded in agreement, “Nicci put him in your office.”

“Oh great. Did he bring his attorney with him?” I could see all our hard work of these past years going out the window in a lawsuit.

“I don’t know. I didn’t remember to ask, and Nicci just said and I quote, ‘I put him in Lynnette’s office and told him I expected you both back shortly,’ end quote.”

“Okay,” I sigh again, “You head on in and I’ll go home and change then rush right in.”

“Lynn, didn’t you hear me? Nicci put him in YOUR office.”

“Yeah. I heard you. She put him in my off ... ” suddenly the light dawned, “Oh Shit.”

“Cussing in your old age, Lynn? I’ve never heard you cuss before.”

“This is an exception.” I closed my eyes, sighing yet again. Maybe when I opened them again this would all turn out to have just been a bad dream. I opened one eye looking around. Nope, didn’t go away.

“Okay, let’s go face the music.” I hated to use that metaphor ever since that TV game show ‘Face the Music’ had swept the air waves.

I was still hoping this was a bad dream somehow even as we rushed out to find and bail out Ralph’s Buick from the short term lot. I was betting that James didn’t drive a Buick. Hell, he probably rode in a chauffeured limo.

After less than thirty minutes of travel broken up by a quick stop at a pay phone, we arrived at the office, hurrying into the room where we stopped in front of Nicci’s desk. She looked up, smiled at Ralph, then bounced out of her chair to come around her desk and give me a hug.

“Lynnette, I’m so glad to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you. Lyon never says a thing and I have to get it all third hand from the guys. Please come into the office more often.”

“I’ve been giving that a lot of thought lately, Nicci.”

She smiled, “Wow. You even sound as sexy as you look, girl. Well, you two had better get on in there,” she pointed at my office, “He’s on his third cup of coffee.”

Ralph and I exchanged glances then started for the office door. Ralph opened it for me. As I entered I spotted James looking out the window, “Your Gulfstream makes excellent time, Mr. Thompson.”

“Call me, James. Remember? How did you know we have a Gulfstream?”

“We saw it as you passed the airliner in which we were riding.” We shook hands again, “What is it you want from us now?”

“I would like you to accept the return of your check and our job.”

“We already explained all that. You failed the test and we will not be responsible for your safety. If one of our clients will not immediately follow our instructions, then they could be killed. That could destroy all our future business. We would rather refuse a job than take that chance.”

“But I am following your instructions. Here I am, and alone. I can do what you require, I just need to understand it.”

“Frequently there isn’t any time to explain, MR. Thompson ... ”

“James!”

“James.” I replied disgustedly, “Frequently you must immediately do what we say, no waiting, no hesitation, no second guessing.”

“All right. I can do that.”

“Drop to the floor.”

“What? I don’t, oh.” he got down fairly quickly once his brain processed the need to follow instructions without questioning them.

“It won’t work, JAMES.”

“Why not? I got down.”

“True. You did, but you were already dead.”

“Dead? How? There’s no one else in here.”

“True. The bullet that killed you did not come from within this room nor from within this building. It came from the building down the street.”

He got up, again without our instructions to do so, then went to the window.

“Someone could shoot me in here from that far away?” He pointed at a brown building half a block away.

“Not the brown building, that red brick building about three blocks further away.”

He looked out again then finally noticed the building which had a fifth story window open to an otherwise darkened room.

“You’re kidding.” incredulous.

“Alpha two, splat,” I said quietly into a small hand radio, hoping that my people had called in after they were set up and not before. A moment later the window thumped, moving slightly as a splotch of yellow colour appeared on it just in front of James’ Face. He recoiled from the sudden appearance of colour as I continued my lesson for him.

“Alpha one, splat.”

Another thump and a splotch of red colour joined the yellow splattered in a slightly different pattern due to the change of shot origin and in response to James slight change of location near the window.

“Alpha team, stand down. Return to base.”

I was thankful Ralph and I cooked this up on the way in from the airport. When we stopped to call in, we found there were two of our guys standing around in the office so we were able to quickly get them to set up in our leased rooms in those other buildings which permitted us to make such demonstrations. We had the Mayor in here one day when he was being particularly difficult with his city provided protection detail. Not normally our concern, but we do have a mutual support agreement with the city. True, not all of our guys were trained as snipers. In fact only three of them had such training but at only three or four blocks and just for a demonstration, most of the guys could hit pretty close to the mark with a rifle and that was all that mattered in a demonstration of vulnerability.

“James, those were sniper’s rifles using coloured marker rounds. Those rounds are not terribly accurate. Bullets are far more accurate and the distance from the sniper to you would likely have been far greater. If we were the ones playing at being snipers then we usually would have selected a building or location at least two to three times as distant. If we suspect we have a problem out there and tell you to get down, we don’t have time to debate it. We won’t say it if we don’t have a very good reason. If you’re dead, explanations won’t matter. If you’re still alive, then we can go somewhere which is more safe and provide the explanation then. As I have said, you don’t take direction well so we don’t want your job. Ralph would you please show Mr. Thompson out?”

“WAIT. Please ... ” Thompson took a moment to compose his thoughts.

“It’s not every day that I’m killed and live to talk about it. Okay. I know we ... ” he grimaced, “I ... don’t understand much about protection but I’m willing to learn. Given a little time and drill, I can do better ... ”

“DROP.”

I’ve got to give him this, he did do better. He quit talking mid-sentence and went to the floor quickly, this time hiding behind my desk. He also stayed down this time until we escorted him out the door as though we were actually taking fire. We didn’t bother to mention that these windows were armored and although we might suspect we had a sniper hiding out somewhere we normally wouldn’t know about a sniper until it was too late. Telling him that information would have defeated our little demonstration. Now that he was nice and pliable we took him to our conference room to run him through a mock debriefing then we dropped the other shoe.

“James, during the two weeks you will be in our care, I will be a part of your protection detail. There is one thing you must understand, however, since we provide full disclosure to our clients. If you decide to terminate this potential contract upon this notification, then you may keep that check. If you accept these terms in full then you may return it to us and we will continue preparations for your protection detail.”

“I agree. Lay it on me.”

“You have requested a female agent be available during these two weeks, however, we have only three female agents and they are all on other assignments. Therefore, I shall substitute in that role. Is this agreeable to you?”

Now he looked confused, “I don’t understand.”

“Mr. Thompson ... James, we have no females available to accompany you as you have requested, nor for those other times you indicated. I shall, therefore, fill that role as you see me now,” indicating myself with a wave of my hands.

I thought I was being fairly specific in my explanation. I again waited to see if he could connect all the dots without my spelling out every little detail to him. Apparently not.

“Let me make it more clear and dot the i’s and cross the t’s. I am not a Female. Sometimes we do not have a Female available for an assignment and this happens to be one of those times. We would, otherwise, have been quite happy to assign one of them to the detail. There are a few times when we will not allow our Female agents on a detail as we feel the risk to them is too great and as we have only the three we are a bit protective of them. Fortunately we believe this is not one of those times, however they are all presently working so we have no one else available. When we need a additional Female agent, I fill in. This must be agreed to by the client, in writing, before we begin. We do ask that you do not divulge now or in the future that I as a non female have filled in that role, and I shall do all I can to be as charming and feminine as possible so that neither you nor your company are embarrassed at any time. Is this substitution acceptable to you for the period we shall be providing your security detail?”

“You ... Uh ... not a female?!?” he stammered out while closely examining me. Apparently he still didn’t see anything other than a woman before him.

“But ... but ... My God.”

He reached out and touched then held my hand, holding it in both of his as though trying to divine an explanation through the touch of my hand. He continued to stare carefully at my face then at my legs and again at my hand.

“This is a joke, right?”

“No, James. This is not a joke,” I sighed figuring we’d still lost the job. He didn’t seem to be handling it well despite our previous empathy.

“Would you mind terribly if we both stood and I kissed you?” he asked.

I recoiled slightly drawing my hand out of his grasp before I looked at Ralph, surprise and disbelief on my face. Maybe James was crazy. Ralph looked at me with just as much disbelief before raising his hands palms toward me as he shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head in a ‘it’s your call, I’m not going to get in the middle of this one'. His face seemed to be just as puzzled as was mine. I hesitantly stood before James who moved closer then gently wrapped his arms around me pulling me into a full kiss on my lips. At first my eyes went wide in panic then after a few seconds they closed of their own volition as I ‘went with the flow’. James began to hold me a little tighter as I weakly tried to pull away. A few seconds later I tried to bring my arms up to go around his neck but the manner in which he was holding me prevented that. I settled for his waist. The kiss continued. Three or four hours later we pulled back from each other and I looked at the clock to discover not even a minute had gone by, probably not even fifteen seconds. I reached up to touch my lips. I was in shock.

James mouthed, “right” at me then, after a few seconds began talking. It took me several attempts before I began to comprehend him.

“Lynnette ... Lynnette? Do you have an evening gown?”

I became aware of his question, “Yes ... I have a nice one, but it’s not strapless ... for obvious reasons,” I pointed toward my chest as I answered in a slightly husky voice.

“You need to fix that. Here’s the deposit check back. You wanted me to sign something?”

Ralph presented him with the papers that attested he had been informed about my status and found the substitution agreeable. James signed them and Ralph gave him a copy to put in his suit pocket. As his hand came out again it was holding his checkbook. He began writing.

“Here, Lynnette, is a check for $4,000. Purchase a couple of strapless gowns. I think Burgundy would be a good colour for one of them, as it seems to suit you.” He nodded his head at my business suit. “You will also need a mink coat, white preferably. There may be several occasions during the two weeks which would necessitate it. See you early next week.”

He walked out leaving me standing there with my mouth open, my eyes watching him leave but ... my mind was a million miles away.

Thirty seconds later Nicci walked in, took one look at me and asked, “What’s wrong with her?”

“Oh nothing,” Ralph quipped, “She just needs two strapless gowns with all the trimmings and a white mink coat by the time we begin the Thompson gig.” He walked out of the room laughing, “Oh ... And she just had her first kiss,” his laughter continued to be heard until he closed his office door... but probably continued afterward.

“Lynnette ... Lynnette! LYNN! Snap out of it girl, come on, get a grip. Here, sit here.” She led me to the chair behind her desk in the waiting room where I had absentmindedly followed Ralph during his departure from my office. She guided me into a sitting position. Unconscious or not, I still managed to be properly demure as I sat. I was still holding the two checks James had given to me. The job deposit and the one for my... GOWNS?

“Lynn, snap out of it. If you’re going to be ready by Monday you need to get a move on. Come on, let’s go. I’ll grab my purse, where’s yours?”

“My ... In my office.” I was still thinking at least; fast and furious. It was my sense of direction that was stumbling.

“WHERE, in your office?” Nicci asked as she rushed toward my desk, while glancing around the room. I was too busy trying to figure out what just happened to reply. She finally searched my desk finding my purse. Dragging it out, she returned just in time to chase away a Newbie, “If you don’t want to be fired, get away from her. She’s the boss.”

His eyes got wide and he quit trying to hit on the pretty girl sitting behind the desk.

“My God. That’s Lynnette?”

“Yes, she’s Lynnette. Scat.” He moved away quickly.

“Is she okay? She seems to be a bit out of it.”

“She just had a bad shock. We’re going out for the afternoon. Would you go tell Ralph we’ll be back in the morning.” She pointed at his office door motioning for the newbie to shoo in that direction even as she gathered me to begin guiding me off and to the elevator.

Nicci continued to guide me out to her car where I sat as she went around to get in on the driver’s side, “LYNN, close your door and put on your seat belt.”

I complied, with my mind slowly beginning to find it’s way back to Earth from wherever it was that it went. By the time we reached Nicci’s destination I was almost coherent again, or at least I was almost able to talk in something close to whole sentences.

“He kissed me.” I mused.

“Who? Ralph? I’ll murder him.”

“No, not Ralph ... James.”

“Who’s Jam ... Mr. Thompson?” She nearly screamed. I nodded my head, hoping she heard the rattle.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. We stood up and he kissed me.”

“Where?”

“In the conference room.”

“No, I mean where did he kiss you, on the cheek or ... ”

“On my lips.”

“Oh hell ... Did you kiss him?”

“On his lips.”

“LYNN! OH SHIT! Did you close your eyes? Did you CLOSE YOUR EYES??”

“My eyes?? I ... Yes.”

“Did you like it?”

“Like it ... I ... He kissed me.”

“Oh God, we’re in trouble. Lynn, snap out of it. Boys like to kiss girls. Is he the first boy who’s ever kissed you?”

“The first??? Yes, my first kiss.”

“Damn it Lynn, come on. You can’t do this. Come on girl, come back to Earth. You have some power shopping to do.”

“Shopping?”

“Yes, shopping; and put those checks away before you crumble them to shreds. Put them somewhere safe in your purse. Do your... No, that would be too much to expect. You probably need new breast forms if you’re going to wear strapless and the undergarments plus the gowns themselves, the purses and shoes ... The fur, and everything will need to be altered and the accessories coloured to match in time for your date.”

“My date?”

Nicci gave me a soft slap, “Hello. Earth to Lynn, are you in there?”

I started looking around discovering we were in a store.

“Nicci? What are we doing here?”

“You’re buying your new breast forms here. They need to match your skin tone and you need them to arrive by Saturday. You need everything to be altered and ready by Saturday. If you don’t start NOW, and I mean right this minute, nothing will be ready. Do you remember anything that happened at the office?”

“He kissed me.”

“Don’t start that again. I mean after that.”

I searched my mind but all I remembered was a fog and muted conversation around me. Everything kept flopping back to that kiss and then it all became vague.

“Something happened?”

“Yeah, a four-alarm fire.”

That grabbed me enough that I realized it wouldn’t be a good thing if our building had been burned to the ground, “The office? What are we doing here? Did they put it out?”

“Relax, Lynn. You were the four-alarm fire, or rather James caused it.”

“James? I’m confused.”

“Do you remember anything from after he kissed you?”

“I liked it.”

“Let’s try a different approach. After James walked out, what do you remember? Oh, for crying out loud. Give me your purse!”

Nicci rummaged in it for a moment before she pulled out a check, holding it about an inch in front of my nose, “Remember this?”

I took it from her and held it out looking at it as though seeing it for the first time, “yes, this is our refund check for the deposit on the job.”

She grabbed it out of my hands then looked at it before she frowned. She began to rummage through my purse again, pulling out another check and looking at it this time before handing it to me.

“What’s this for?”

“What does the memo line say?”

“Gowns, accessories, and ... OH SHIT. I KISSED HIM. Why did I kiss him?”

“Heaven only knows, but you have some fast and serious shopping to do, Lynn. You need to start right now. We are here to obtain your new breast forms so you can wear a strapless gown undetected. I presume you use them?? They need to be ordered NOW so they will arrive in time. Then we need to go from here to find your undergarments and the gowns ... Tomorrow we’ll purchase your fur.”

“I’m fucked,” I said in a medium baritone.

“LYNN ... ”

“Sorry Nicci. I apologize,” still deep in the nearly masculine registers.

“I’ve never heard you swear before. And be careful about your tone of voice, girl. Look around you.”

Once again I came to and realised we were in a store with other shoppers nearby. In a properly feminine voice, “I’ve never been ... I mean, I’m not ... I didn’t ... Oh, hell,” on the verge of tears, “What makes it even worse is I did it to myself.”

“Lynnette Stevens there is nothing wrong with you except that you’re rapidly running out of time. We need to get this shopping done and move on over to Macys. NOW!” Nicci signaled to a sales clerk as she helped me remove my blazer while guiding me in the direction of a fitting room.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

The next time I managed to revert even marginally to my senses we were in a different store. I presumed it was Macys but didn't recognize the area which I immediately presumed was Women's lingerie and more. I didn't shop for my things here, but I guessed that was going to change in the near future. Looking about I noticed a large number of small packages surrounding me presumably either some of which just having been or still awaiting purchase. Just then the strait jacket I was only beginning to realize was wrapped around me made it’s presence known by cinching a little tighter. I discovered upon inspection that it didn't reach all that much above the nipples of my breast forms. I also both noted the increased difficulty in breathing and the stark contrast of my old breast forms against my chest.

“I hope we purchased some of these which match a great deal better than these.” Near 'flesh tone' contrasted very nicely with my skin which was nearer a light olive due to my Italian ancestry.

“Yes, you did. They should arrive Friday and be available for you to pick up Saturday morning.”

“Good, because these are a bit obvious.”

“The new ones will be a much better match but probably still off just a bit. It’s okay if they are a bit lighter since even in a bathing suit they would normally be covered so they would not be as tanned as the rest of you.”

Tanned?

I was just beginning to think about how I was dressed when I discovered one other little problem, my chest was uncomfortable. Uncomfortable hell, my chest hurt. I reached down to reposition the forms only to find they were now glued on.

“Stop fidgeting, Lynn. I need to tighten this a little more.”

“This is uncomfortable,” I complained.

“You'll get used to it in twenty minutes or so. You better, because it’s your support for under the gown.”

I looked down, where the breasts were being squeezed together while pulling on my chest. It was about that time that I realized everything lower down was different as well. I was wearing all the things I needed to wear to make the gown look good and hang properly while on me. As I glanced around I saw an Emerald Green gown hanging nearby. It looked a bit like my Powder Blue gown at home except ... Aw crap, it was strapless. A few of the conversations from the past hour were beginning to filter back into my conscious mind as I realised what was happening. I was going en Femme for three weeks. At this point I did what any red-blooded American male would do... I panicked.

“Oh, shit!” At least I said it in a feminine tone of voice.

“Lynn! That's three times in less than two hours that I've heard you swearing. Get a grip, Girl. There, I think that will work.”

“Is this supposed to prevent me from breathing?” I asked facetiously, having never been in a strapless gown before.

“Yes,” she swatted my hands which were trying to pull up on the bustier in an effort to better cover ‘my’ breasts.

“Behave.” she said accusingly.

Just then a sales lady barged into the room, took a look before nodding her head, “The courier you called has arrived.”

I looked curiously at Nicci.

“Ralph needs to take the refund check back to finance so she can properly adjust the books. She wanted proof that the check hadn’t been and wouldn’t be cashed. Then she needs to set the ledgers right again so there are funds credited against the Thompson job. You put it in your purse when we were leaving.”

Nicci exited the changing room, leaving me with the saleslady, as she carried an envelope out to the courier for delivery to Ralph. Meanwhile, the saleslady took the gown off the rack to begin helping me put it on. After several minutes of my fussing, it was on and fastened.

Next she took a pair of white pumps from a shoe box and handed them to me one at a time, “Put these on, they are low enough that you will be able to dance without killing your feet. If they fit, we will dye them later while your gown is being altered. You will need to come in again Thursday or Friday to try on the Burgundy gown when it arrives. Hopefully it will be here late Wednesday but call first, as our deliveries have been a bit late, which is normal this time of year.”

“Will there be enough time to fit it?” I was beginning to come around again.

“I think so. You might need to pick it or both up on Monday morning, especially if it doesn't arrive until Thursday or Friday. This looks good. Let's go see what your friend thinks before we begin marking for alterations.”

She started for the doorway, opening the curtains before walking out of the room, expecting me to follow. I did, for a moment, then suddenly decided how exposed I happened to be and how many other shoppers there were out there. I immediately got cold feet.

“Well, come on. The light is better out here. We can't fit you in the changing room.”

Just then Nicci returned from her dealings with the courier, whom I saw high tailing it toward the elevators. She grabbed my hand and almost dragged me the rest of the way out of the changing room, pausing only when we were what seemed like a mile or two away from the room. I felt self-conscious, a bit like a fish might when it is out of water; and I was probably breathing just about as well. She lifted my hair, some of which was caught in the gown then let it fall again across my bare back which caused me to recoil slightly.

My back, I suddenly realised, had nothing between it and my hair. Wearing a strapless gown was nothing like the clothing I usually wore as Lynnette. Normally I would be covered neck to knees or sometimes even lower. Now I was covered ankles to chest, barely, and I felt terribly exposed. I again began trying to pull the gown up higher.

“That looks good. Stop fidgeting,” she slapped my hands again.

“Yes, Mommy,” I replied.

She scowled then went back to inspecting. The saleslady returned with another lady following her. This one must be the person who did the alterations since I saw she had a measuring tape and small container of chalks and pins.

“Turn,” my new tormenter commanded as she moved her finger in a circle indicating the direction she wanted me to move. I began a slow spin as she watched. “Walk to the counter, and return.”

To prove I could follow inane directions, I did so.

“Well, she isn't a model but the gown seems to be hanging well. It could do with a little lengthening and some minor adjustments. You have long legs.”

She stooped to lift the edge of the gown, inspecting the hem to see how much material was available, nodding her head to herself as she checked, “Good.” Then she released the gown stepping back to view the whole thing before directing me to once more, “turn slowly.”

Once she had me stop again, she examined the hem all the way around as she had me turn in small spurts, following her gestures so she could continue to check it all.

“Stand straight, pull your shoulders back,” she gazed at me with a critical eye, then began fussing with the bodice. Throughout this entire fiasco she had been making notes on a small pad which was on a wrist band while she plopped a pin into the gown or made a small chalk mark using one of several different colours. She sighed a couple of times as she fussed with the waist.

“You're cinched in pretty tight, if we let that out a quarter inch or so, the gown would fit better and you would be able to breathe a little easier. Would you rather I take the gown in to this size or allow you the breathing room?”

“Breathing room,” I gasped, a little in jest but not entirely.

She smiled, giving me a knowing nod, “I thought as much. Looks good. I have my notes,” she turned to the saleslady as she began to leave, “Send it up tomorrow morning and we will have it finished by Friday. Is there anything else? I thought you said there were two gowns?”

Our sales lady explained the second gown had just been ordered and might possibly be in by Thursday, so I would likely need to come in for another fitting then.

The seamstress scowled, “Does it need to be ready before next Monday?”

“Unfortunately,” was the reply.

Sighing again, she shook her head before pursed her lips in thought. “If we don't do the fitting until Friday we will need an overtime authorization in order to finish it by Monday. Are there shoes and a handbag to be matched as well”

Our saleslady nodded her head.

“We must have everything immediately after the fitting. You will need to obtain the overtime for my people.” She began to walk away.

I suddenly remembered something and panicked, “Wait. I have a problem.”

They both turned to look at the gown trying to see what could be amiss now, as I hurried toward and then into the changing room. I grabbed my purse nearly colliding with them as I was on my way out again. When I hadn't immediately returned they had followed me into the changing room. I backed up to allow them to enter further.

“I will need fast access to my handgun,” as I pulled out the Beretta showing it to them.

Nicci raised her head, “I'm sorry Lynn, I forgot about that.”

The ladies looked at me like I just become a two headed snake, backing away but unable to go very far since Nicci was blocking the doorway having followed them as they had followed me. I pulled out my ID and showed it to them while explaining, “the gowns are for me to wear during a security detail. I will be accompanying our principal so I need to be armed. I also must have somewhere to carry my identification, permits and the firearms and spare ammunition.”

At first they tried to say I could simply carry them in the matching clutch, but Nicci shot that down with a simple statement which nearly caused me to faint.

“So what does she do when she is dancing? She won't have the clutch with her, and there might be no time to go find it. And I’m not certain but the clutch might be too small and it certainly would look strange to have several pounds of weight in it. It couldn’t just hang from her wrist while she was dancing.”

Now the possibility of a smaller weapon was discussed and also shot down almost as rapidly.

“The 9mm isn't my first choice but it’s as small as I'm willing to go. Anything smaller and I may as well be using a slingshot.”

Now the possibility of carrying it under the gown and the petticoats was raised, considered, and rejected as impractical due to lack of speed in an emergency as well as becoming a target versus providing protection during the time it would take to pull it out from under everything.

“If possible, I would prefer to have a .45 but it doesn't happen to fit in my purse. I also have three spare magazines I will need to carry.”

The ladies looked at each other then at the pistol and its magazines.

“Could you call upstairs and ask Cynthia to come down here?” the seamstress asked of the saleslady as she began to heft one of the magazines frowning as she did so.

“They’re heavy, aren’t they?”

“They get lighter as I use the bullets.” I made a brief try for levity but I think it was lost on her, she just gave me a look that was a combination of horror and confusion.

The Saleslady left the room to place the call while the seamstress continued to ponder the problem, frustration evident upon her face.

I explained to her, “I hope you can solve this. If you do, then I will send the other three women over to purchase gowns and to have them altered which will allow them to carry as well. Could we also have a small hidden pocket in which we could carry our Identification and permits?”

I gently reminded her of that little necessity. We have to stay legal now, don’t we?

“Any other surprise requests? A gown really wasn't meant to allow for this sort of thing. They are supposed to be nearly form fitting. I'm coming up with all sorts of ideas, but I find reasons they won't work almost as quickly. If you dance, or run, then we have a problem keeping everything in place. Cynthia might have some ideas when she gets here. She's a member of a shooting club, but I don't believe any of them are wearing gowns when they are shooting.”

A few minutes later, another lady arrived. I presumed she was Cynthia. She took a quick look at the gown, “Looks pretty good. What's the problem?”

I stepped aside and she saw the 9mm plus it’s magazines and my ID and permits on the chair behind me. Her smile dropped as I said, “Those - need to go in here,” pointing with both hands to the gown I was wearing.

Her eyes went back and forth a half dozen times, as her eyebrows rose almost to her hairline. After a few more seconds, “Why don't you carry a .45?”

“You could do that?” I considered the offer then reason prevailed, “I think I would really prefer to stick with my two Berettas, and their spare magazines. That way if one weapon jams or is disabled then my ammunition is still good for the other.”

She looked at me like she was trying to decide if I was joking or not, “Turn,” she spun her finger in a circle, “slow.”

What's wrong with these people? Their sentences seemed to be mostly monosyllabic. I made a complete circle as she indicated with her finger that she wanted me to do it again in the opposite direction.

I completed my second spin before she indicated I should do it again ... “slowly”. Halfway around she grabbed my waist while I was facing away from her, “stop here.”

She picked up my 9mm, deftly ejected the magazine and then the round which was in the chamber. She placed them on the chair with the three spares before she brought the empty Beretta over behind me.

“Are you right-handed, or are you left-handed?”

“Right.”

Now she began to hold it in various positions against my back, low enough that I could reach back for the grip. “Okay, try it again. Do it as though you are reaching under some loose material to get to it.”

Wow, a complete sentence.

“Are the two weapons the same size? Are they able to share a holster? Not at the same time obviously.”

“Yes, they are identical weapons.”

“Put your blazer on over the gown for a few minutes, then return to stand with your back to me again.”

I looked at her as I tried to fathom what was going on in her mind even as I pulled on my blazer. The clash of colours wasn't too disgusting. I felt her holding the Beretta up under the blazer in the spot she had previously selected, and which I had proven I could easily reach.

“Reach for it.”

My hand tangled in the blazer. After nearly a dozen tries I was getting the hang of it and with a slight change of position of the weapon I found my reach for it to be comfortable and fairly rapid.

“Release it.” then she asked the saleslady, “would you hold the blazer up out of my way so I can mark the location with chalk?”

I let go of the weapon, drawing my arm out from under the blazer as the saleslady came over to hold the blazer up so Cynthia could examine the spot she selected for the weapon. She made some faint chalk marks before she pulled the weapon away from my back. As I turned to face her I noted she was deep in thought. I think it was the grimace on her face that gave it away.

“I'll need to think about this. Could you come in again tomorrow morning?”

“I have business meetings in the morning, but I could come in for most of the afternoon, say about two?”

“Okay. When you come in go directly to the third floor and ask for me, Cynthia. Bring both your weapons, spare magazines, all of this,” she pointed at the 9mm and it's magazines, “and the holsters for both.”

“I can do that. Will you need me to do the same for the second gown?”

Her eyebrows rose again as she looked around the room. The saleslady quickly explained once again that the other gown wouldn't arrive until Thursday or Friday then added, “It is in a Burgundy.”

“That could be a problem. I suppose we could trim it in black or maybe white or beige fur,” Cynthia remained thoughtful for several seconds. “That just might work out. Be a bit expensive though.”

“If this works out, then I'll send the other girls to have gowns altered so they too may carry during special events. They can select the gowns, but the company will pay for everything.”

“I'd appreciate it if you only send one in at a time. The alterations and additions will add a lot to the cost and will require a lot of time. If we are even able to do it while still keeping the gowns looking good and uncluttered. I hope you know this is going to require a lot of overtime and will be expensive.”

“I'm becoming accustomed to the idea.”

She turned to the saleslady, “could you send these things up right away? We will need to begin working on it immediately so it will be ready for another fitting session tomorrow.”

She shook her head, “I'll need to talk with the girls about this.”

Her expression changed and after a brief pause she turned back to me, “Do you have the time to come upstairs right now so the others can see this?”

“Give me access to a phone and I can have the other weapon sent over along with it’s magazines and both holsters. They could probably be sent by messenger and be here in less than 30 minutes.”

“Good. Then we can go on up to the third floor now, just as you are. That would help a lot, and it will let everyone see what we’re up against.”

She muttered under her breath as she was walking away, “I needed this challenge like another hole in my head.”

I borrowed the use of a phone and placed my call telling Ralph about the problems and my need for my other weapon, magazines and holsters. After I gave him the combination to the gun safe in my office, he told me he would have a newbie rush right over with everything.

“Tell him to bring it to the third floor then we will release him to leave as soon as he delivers everything.”

Now we paid for my purchases before going up to the third floor where five ladies surrounded me all jabbering about the nice gown and then several nearly fainted when the 9mm automatic came out. Cynthia, again, was holding it in the location she marked with chalk, still not satisfied with the location. We had a conflict with the zipper.

The newbie arrived about 7:30 and I sent him on his way after signing for my weapon and ammo. We had just over an hour to come up with a solution. Cynthia was still wrapped up in finding the best spot for the 9mm. If she could growl, she probably would be doing so... if she took the time to even think about it. Her mind was going a mile a minute trying to decide how they could solve this problem.

The second 9mm defied our attempts to place it in the same area where the first one managed to be tucked away so very nicely. One good thing, I didn't need to explain to Cynthia the need for a backup weapon nor with my need for two weapons since she was firearms literate.

“Why don't you just carry a .45?” she finally repeated, facetiously.

“It wouldn't fit in my purse. Besides, the grip is too wide and I can’t control it well enough.”

Again, she gave me a look as though she was trying to decide if I was joking or not. I wasn’t, by the way. The idea for placement of the second 9mm was altered a bit before becoming workable, the first 9mm still trespassed well into the region upon which the zipper had prior claim. The first did seem to be comfortable for me at that location. I could reach it without excessive obstruction and it didn't dig into my back.

In order to give the gown some balance in appearance as well as in it’s weight distribution she placed the three spare magazines on both sides just above or below the 9mm. The locations were not quite as comfortable to reach but, with practice, were accessible. The zipper was now close to completely inaccessible for the lower third of it’s path. I was beginning to wonder if she was going to sew me into the gown as a permanent part of my daily wardrobe. The second 9mm and it's magazines finally found an out of the way location beneath the petticoats, no other location having turned out to be attractive.

Time, meanwhile, had been marching inexorably forward and it was nearly 9:00 and closing.

She finally told me to “remove the gown and petticoats, you may dress in your suit again. I think the next steps are ours to take until you come in tomorrow afternoon. Please bring your armory with you tomorrow as well.”

Jokingly, I asked, “Oh! Will you have room for the two grenades as well?”

She turned pale, “How large are they and how much do they weigh?”

“Don't worry ... I was joking.”

She gave me a crooked little smile which said she wasn't all that certain I was actually joking. I continued to change to my skirt suit as she made notes on her pad of paper, her mental wheels turning the whole time.

“I'll bring everything in again tomorrow when I come to purchase my fur. We can continue this then.”

“What kind of fur?”

“A white Mink.”

She made more notes on her pad as she mused out loud, “okay, so we can still trim in black or in white. Black would be better, look good stand alone and not clash with the fur. Yeah, black trim if we need it. Mink to match the texture of the white fur.”

Nicci and I gathered my purchases then found our way out.

As we were leaving the shopping center she asked, “Lynn, how many business suits do you have?”

“Just this one. Why?”

“Lynn ... You can't show up everyday in the same suit.”

My face fell. I hadn't given that a single thought. As I have only dressed en femme for business for a day or less and much less than once every 90 days or more, I had only one suit. It was all I needed. More business clothing was the furthest thing from my mind.

Nicci grabbed my arm guiding me to her car, “Too late now, hun ... Tomorrow morning, er ... afternoon, we need to take you shopping for a few more skirt suits, perhaps some pant suits, or combinations so you can mix and match for a number of good office outfits. If you have a nice blouse and some good jeans, you could wear them to the office tomorrow since it will be a working day and then we will leave soon after lunch to purchase your wardrobe before we go for your additional fitting session. How are you fixed for jewelry?”

“Jewelry ... ”

“Lynn ... You need jewelry to wear with the gowns. The real stuff. You know Rubies and Diamonds and Pearls, oh my. Not to mention Sapphires and Emeralds. Then you need some really good everyday jewelry to wear with your suits and other clothes. Oh, you'll need sweaters, blouses and probably a half dozen nice blazers for mix and match with your everyday clothes or jeans.

Remember to wear these undergarments with your jeans tomorrow since we will be going for another fitting with your gown. Have you given any thought to a crash course in dancing so you don't fall flat on your face? I mean that literally, as well as figuratively.”

No, I hadn't. Just then she grabbed my earlobe dividing her time between looking at my ear and looking at the road.

“ Your ears aren’t pierced.”

I didn’t know if that was a question or a statement, “No, they’re not. Is that important?”

She looked at me like I was crazy. I don’t know, maybe I was. Then she continued our previous conversation without missing a beat.

“He'll probably want to dance at the evening functions especially since you will be in a ball gown.”

Great. Just abso-fucking-lutely Great. Pardon my French ... What else could go wrong? No, don't tell me, it’s better that I don’t know and just continue to live in ignorance. That way it won’t hurt as much as it builds up to when it happens.

“Don't look so disgusted at me, Lynn. I'm just calling a spade, a spade.”

I rolled my eyes, as I looked away from Nicci saying, “a shovel by any other name.”

“Don't be like that with me, Lynn. We've known each other for too long and are good enough friends that you know I'm right on all counts. You're cute and he'll want to dance, I know the type.”

“I'm cute? I know I can pass as a Female but, I'm 'cute'?”

“Don't look at me like that, this was your idea. I'm just glad I finally got to meet you as Lynnette. It's kind of nice having a female boss.”

“Nicci, I'm NOT Female.”

“Wow ... not Female ... Let's see ... You look like you're Female,” she sniffed my perfume, “You're wearing a perfume which is normally only worn by a female. You have Female ID. You act Female ... ”

She cocked her head and grimaced for a second, “ ... most of the time, anyway ... You sound Female. Let's pull over and ask that cop if you're Female or not.” She began to head for the curb.

“Let's not. All right, Nicci, knock it off.”

“Oh, you're just upset because you have to buy more clothes and wear that scrumptious strapless gown, and go dancing with a handsome, witty, smart and rich client. Who kissed you, by the way, on the lips.” She started laughing.

“Nicci, did you have to remind me of that? Knock it off. This isn't funny.”

“Are you trying to tell me to have finance give him his money back, and call off the job?”

“I ... don't know. I just didn't envision getting sucked into all this.”

“Lynn. You're a pretty girl. It's only for a few weeks and then if you can't stand the heat you can change back if you want to ... Why can't you just go with the flow and enjoy it for those few weeks? You afraid you might like it?”

“Nicci, that is exactly the point. I do like it, but I'm NOT a girl. I'm scared sh ... to death. Not only that but when I'm wearing that gown,” my voice dropped almost to a whisper, “I feel like I'm undressed.”

“Hardly undressed. We'll buy you a bikini tomorrow then you'll know what undressed feels like,” she smiled as she said it.

I knew she was just kidding ... On second thought, I think she was just kidding ... “I hope you're just kidding.”

“Not exactly. We do need to purchase you a swimsuit, even if it is a one piece. What if he wants to swim in the pool and starts to drown. Are you going to jump in while wearing a skirt in order to pull him out?”

I was in no way, shape or inclination to think about that, so I didn't bother to answer her.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

The next morning I arrived at work early. My ensemble was smart, relaxed. I was wearing levis, sneakers, a dressy blouse and the faux-rabbit fur jacket I’ve had for a couple of years. My hair was up in a pony tail. I gathered a few kidding wolf whistles from the old hands who had also come in early and some stares from the few newbies who were going to be a part of the detail during the following two weeks. I heard a familiar threat given by one of the old hands to a couple of the newbies, “You want to keep your jobs? Don't make passes at the boss.”

That comment caused them to take another look at the twenty something year old female they saw and tried to equate that vision with the thirty plus year old woman whom they’d been told was the principle owner of the business. Ralph showed up a few minutes later and by seven there were seventeen of us collected in our larger conference room along with coffee, donuts and bagels on hand courtesy of the company and a kind stop on the way into the office by Nicci. Moments later Nicci entered the conference room carrying a cup of coffee and her steno pad.

She gave me a smile, then sat in a chair located at about the middle of the table where she could easily hear everything which might be discussed in the room. With her notes, and the recordings we always made using the cameras and three microphones located around the room we would have a semi-permanent record of the briefing, questions and assignments. Great for a who does what to or for whom synopsis of the meeting. Everyone would have the same information and knew who was responsible for what. No arguments about what was said or implied. Everything was recorded. We had so many of those seven inch reels of video tape with meetings on them that they filled a closet even though we reused them beginning two months after a job had been completed.

The entire two weeks were covered, in detail. Questions were asked and answered or someone was assigned to obtain the answer and present it at a another meeting which would occur later this week. We all had work to do to prepare for our two weeks of orchestrated madness. This time, like many others, I wasn’t the agent in charge despite being the boss, but I was an asset who was free to act on my own. This allowed me to pursue my own agenda, if necessary, as well as be in the direct company of our Principal. In some cases this was good, and in some cases it could add to the work load of the other agents since in such a situation the female or attached agent would generally be treated as though they were a member of the Principal's entourage. Sometimes that could be a good thing as others would not realise one of the Principal’s people was really one of our armed to their teeth agents.

The up side to this whole game was that I had worked with most of these agents both as a male and as a female and we all knew how the others thought and what they would do in various situations. Part of my task happened to be the control of the Principal whenever I was accompanying him. That left the other agents free to apply themselves to whatever situation or predicament might be confronting us at the moment. We used this method before and it usually worked out well. It also gave us a slight edge since many men would not immediately harm a woman out of hand and so they paused before attempting it. That gave me the opportunity to take them down before they could get to the Principal, if they manage to make it through the other agents.

The down side was there were some men out there who targeted the woman immediately since taking her down usually would demoralize the men who were there to provide a defense. Fortunately there were several hundred who would pause for every one who sought out the woman as the initial target. There were some men who simply liked to hurt women. And there were also some who didn't really care about whether the target was male or female ... They were just a target.

The University venue would be checked out by three members of the team and two of the three “safe” houses would be checked and prepped, with operational staff assigned. Soon our seventeen agents would be joined by nearly ten staff members who would act the part of the servants and who would run each of those safe houses during the two weeks. True, there were two at each house year round but they would be joined by three more at each location plus two agents from our working team of seventeen; eighteen if you counted myself.

Three of our limos had been sent to the city garage for servicing. Our working agreement with the city allowed us to have our vehicles promptly serviced without worrying about undesired additions attaching themselves to the vehicles features. In return we provided both financial and special assistance to the cities law-enforcement if special occasions made it necessary. This deal had both of us feeling like we were winners. The P.D. was very happy to have a platoon strength para-military force at hand to assist their swat team members when necessary. Especially so since we were also counter terrorism trained which was a necessity for Europe more than the US, at least so far. Many of us were listed favorably with a large and growing number of the Federal alphabet agencies as well. Sometimes having an acceptable go between buffering a Federal Agency and a P.D. provided both with more information and cooperation. There were no “pissing” matches or turf wars.

Nicci and I rushed out about 11:30, stopping for a bite to eat before we continued on to spend an hour and a half purchasing more clothing and two swim suits. I still wasn’t entirely happy with that. At least the suits weren’t bikini style. I felt exposed just thinking about that. Of course there were more shoes, handbags, everyday jewelry ... lots of everyday jewelry. The $4000.00 James gave me would cover the cost of the gowns, accessories, alterations and maybe part of the fur but I was paying out of pocket for all my new jewelry, new clothing, undergarments, make up, lotions, oils, cleansers, etc. etc. and so forth. Where the hell was I going to put all this stuff?

I did some quick totaling and found I was personally about $4000 out of pocket so far, and I hadn't purchased the real stuff yet. You know, the Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds and Sapphires. My heart went pitty pat in excitement just thinking about them.
Nicci dropped the bombshell while we were looking at the real jewelry. My ears needed to be pierced. I had done my best to forget that little detail in the hopes she had as well, no such luck. Contemplation of having my ears tortured nearly had me in tears before it even happened. I was surmising that I’d rather be in a firefight; at least I would be allowed to shoot back. I was getting very close to tears as I sat waiting for them to snap the diamond studs into my earlobes. Less than a minute later, it was all over and I was wondering why I thought it was going to be so traumatic. I thought it would be something akin to having my fingernails pulled out. Anticipation was 90% of the pain, I suppose.

We made it to the second floor of Macy's. About a half hour and $33,000 later, I had my jewelry. The jewelry purchases required a call to my bank to assure them that, yes, I was indeed purchasing jewelry and a mink coat. I telephone transferred $40,000 from my savings to my checking account in an effort to have sufficient funds to handle everything just in case I saw something else that I liked. Here I was spending thousands in order to be female for a few weeks when I would begrudge myself a measly few hundred for a new suit as a male. As I gave it more thought I realized there was something wrong with this picture. If I intended to remain female then it might make some sense, but ... The more I thought about it the more I wondered why I was enjoying this shopping trip so much. We took everything out to lock in the car before we returned to go up and face the wrath of the Cynthia Goddess.

Up at the third floor again, I was changed into the gown so we could continue where we left off yesterday. For some reason, I no longer felt as exposed as I had yesterday. The very slight covering of my chest offered by the diamond necklace, and the bracelet on my arm, made me feel as though I was better concealed than I had been yesterday. In fact, I felt kind of pretty. I was happily contemplating myself and the gown’s appearance as I gazed into the mirror noting the sparkle of the sunlight coming in through the windows as it refracted through my earrings. For some reason, everything just felt so right today.

Changes had been made to the gown, just not permanently, and it was hanging rather poorly. Now the 9mm and it's magazines went into the specially modified petticoat before they had me walk around for a bit to see how that felt. Cynthia decided to go for broke and we snapped the additional material onto the gown which allowed the second 9mm and it's magazines to go into place then I walked around some more. Several changes needed to be made before I was able to walk normally. The Beretta in the petticoats and the magazines which accompanied it were no longer banging painfully against my legs with every movement. The Beretta at my back felt comfortable as well, after we again made a few minor changes. Those required a slight adjustment to the placement of the three spare magazines back there as well.

The additional material which held my Beretta covered most of the zipper and necessitated additional difficulty when putting on or taking off the gown. Several vertical 'pleats' in the gown hid the snaps which allowed the external material to be secured in place when it was added. When the extra material was removed the pleats could be snapped closed allowing the gown to look fairly normal and still fit well, that is to say snugly against my torso. With the pleats open and the additional material snapped on, the gown looked a little strange until a Beretta and it’s magazines were in it then the extra weight pulled at it properly allowing it to again look nearly normal. It just looked like I had some sort of artsy decoration as a part of the back of my gown.

After they were happy with this idea for the modifications, they said they could have this first gown completed by late Saturday or at worst early Monday morning so I would be able to pick it up Saturday Afternoon, “but call first to be certain.”

The other one they hoped to have ready by Monday afternoon, if it arrived at the store no later than Thursday afternoon and we fitted it on Friday. I felt really good about this. Oh, not just about having my weapons and ID with me, but about seeing the pretty woman in the mirror. It made me feel really feminine and I almost wished James was here to give me another kiss.

Wednesday came and went with a lot of effort expended on the part of everyone with, hopefully, as much work being completed as energy spent. No matter how much planning was done, we all knew something would always crop up at the last minute. To top it all off, I’d been fussing with my new earrings almost constantly. I’d been cleaning my ears with the hydrogen peroxide as directed and turning the earrings every hour or two, probably a great deal more since I couldn’t seem to keep my hands away from them. It felt a little strange but Nicci said, “You’ll get used to it in a day or two.”

Okay, I hoped so.

I was again in jeans, sneaks, and a blouse with my fur jacket draped over my shoulders. It should have been on a hanger in the small closet next to the three bookshelves in my office but I didn’t wear it all that often so for the time being it and I were inseparable. I was happily going over reports from other details while I subconsciously rubbed my face in the fur. Everything was looking good. I signed the reports then checked with Ralph to see how his side was going. All was well, so today had been relatively uneventful as disasters went. That’s the way we liked it.

It was a couple of minutes before five my com buzzed and Nicci told me, “Mr. Thompson is on two.”

I thanked her then punched the button, “Hello Mr. Thompson, this is Lynnette Stevens.”

“I thought we settled all this Monday...” my heart jumped to my throat. What the heck did we mess up now?

“Call me, James.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, “James then.”

“I just wanted to let you know that plans have changed just a little and I will arrive Saturday morning not Monday.”

“That’s fine, we can accommodate that change.”

“Good. I was hoping. The reservations at the lodge were confirmed but they now start Sunday, not Monday.”

“Lodge? I don’t remember that.”

“I mentioned it when we met four weeks ago. Skiing ... Remember?”

“Yes, we remembered the Skiing but we have a “safe house” near the resort.”

“Oh. I didn’t know you had property in Vail. Okay, I can cancel the reservations.”

“Wait a minute. You didn’t say anything about Vail. We thought you were going Skiing near here during the two days, now three, prior to the University things. Our recordings of the meetings don’t say anything about Vail.”

“I’m certain something was said. I’ll check. Anyway, I need to know if 5 rooms are enough for your team?”

“Yes, but now we need to send the team to check out the lodge and the area in Vail plus the slopes you’ll be on. We need to get a feel for what’s going on there at this time. I’ve got to get them cracking on this. Could I have the information so they know which place to check out?”

“Okay. I’ll have my secretary add Thursday and Friday to your rooms so your advance team has somewhere to stay as they check it all out. Your room will adjoin mine, don’t forget your skies. See you Sunday.”

“Wait. James? Hello?”

“Yes, I’m still here.”

“James, I don’t ski.”

“You didn’t mention that.”

“We have a half dozen good men who ski. I never expected you wanted me to ski. I’ve never learned.”

“Well, I suppose I’ll just have to teach you. Can’t have my date not knowing how to ski. Get some clothes and skis and I’ll start your lessons. See you Saturday.”

“James. James?” Damn.

I can’t go to Vail while I still need to be here to have my gowns fitted. I punched the com button,

“Ralph, are you still in your office?”

“Sure thing. What’s up?”

“James! Could you come in here? And if Nicci is still out there bring her too. We’re in trouble.”

Ralph came in a minute later, dragging a reluctant Nicci with him.

“Thanks guys. Nicci you’re on double time probably for an hour or two.”

“I have a date tonight, Lynn,” she said almost plaintively.

“Okay. I’ll tell you everything quickly then you can take your two hours early tomorrow morning.”

“Sounds serious.”

“It is. Thompson just slipped us a mickey. He will be arriving Saturday, not Monday for three days of Skiing.”

“No sweat, Lynn.” Ralph threw out.

“Big sweat. He isn’t Skiing here. The reservations are in Vail.”

“VAIL!”

“Yes.”

“He didn’t tell us that.”

“It seems to have slipped his mind. We need our advance team up there tomorrow to start checking it all out. The six who are skiers need to go since they will have the best idea of what’s needed on the slopes. One other little problem. He wants me to ski with him.”

“So how is that a problem?”

“I can’t ski.”

“You grew up here, and you can’t ski? Aw, Shit.”

“Nicci, can you ski?”

“Sure, since I was eight. We can go tomorrow morning, Lynn, and purchase your stuff. A couple of outfits and the skis. I can give you some pointers Friday.”

“Why not tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow afternoon you are trying on the second gown so they can set it up for your armory, remember?”

I rolled my eyes, “I forgot that was tomorrow.”

Ralph looked puzzled, “armory?”

“I’m having the gowns altered to allow me to carry both of my Berettas plus their spare magazines concealed within the clothing.”

“Should we start calling you Ms. Bond?”

“You do, and you’ll be transferred to our Anchorage office.”

Ralph thought about that for a moment, “We don’t have an Anchorage office.”

“We will as soon as you get there.”

“Ouch,” he turned to Nicci, “How does she look in a strapless?”

“Great. She’ll have all the newbies panting after her, at least until they figure out she’s not just some pretty girl, but the boss. Anything else, Lynn? I’ll arrange airline tickets for nine and several rental cars when I come in tomorrow morning. The few other members of the traveling team can ride with the armored limo which can leave Friday morning. That will put them there no later than sometime Saturday. How does that work out?”

I gave that a little thought, “I think it will be okay but the limo should probably leave tomorrow morning. Place an advance on each of the men’s cards for nine hundred for food and assorted other things and tell them that is to hold them through the entire detail. We’ll fly most of the team back on Wednesday and two will drive the armored limo back which will make it available again by late the next Friday if the weather doesn’t change for the worse. You know what needs to happen, Nicci. Scat, have a nice date and I’ll see you in the morning.”

Nicci almost ran out of the office and I heard her go out the front door just seconds later.

“You know, Lynn. Nicci’s a good kid. She’s doing a hell of a job. You need to pay her more.”

“Yeah. I’ve got the lawyers looking at bring her in as a partner just the same as you, but that won’t happen for several months. I suppose she could be given a raise in the meantime. Think ten percent is enough? We could probably bump it by fifteen. I was thinking of a small expense account, say a thousand a month, and a company house too. One with enough floor space that she could handle clients and the occasional office party. She can take the title of executive secretary in the meantime along with the raise. Once we get the partnership taken care of then she will become the vice-president of operations. She’s pretty much doing that anyway. Set it up with accounting so she sees the fifteen percent on this paycheck. Don’t tell her, let her discover it Friday.”

“You’re a stinker, Lynn. Okay, I’ll make sure accounting fixes it so she sees the increase on this next paycheck retro for these two weeks.”

“Thanks, Ralph. She’ll know she’s important when she sees the increase and the expense account. I’ll be certain to stay out of her range Friday.”

“Why’s that?”

“A girl kissing a girl? I don’t need the office thinking I’m a lesbian.”

“Fat chance, Lynn. Word’s already around that you and James are an ‘item’.”

“What? Okay, Ralph, who started that rumor?”

“Well, let’s see. James goes out of the office saying ‘see you next week, sweetheart’ and then you are all dreamy the rest of the day and go clothes shopping suddenly with Nicci. The next day you’re in the office planning the James rendevous and looking all wistful and every time someone mentions his name your eyes light up. Not to mention your mumbling about being kissed every few minutes right after he left. No ... I have no idea who’s responsible for the rumor.”

Sweetheart? Why didn’t I remember that before now?

“Oh, great ... What do the guy’s think?”

“The newbies don’t think anything. The old hands have started a pool.”

“A pool? What sort of a pool?”

“Just a simple one.”

“Ralph, what is the purpose of the pool?”

“To see who guesses the closest.”

“RALPH, spill it. The closest to what?”

“Oh, nuthin’ much. The guy who guesses the closest to your engagement date wins the pool. They already have plans to start another for your wedding date.”

“I’m not following this, Ralph. I don’t even have a girlfri ... ” my face suddenly turned bright red, “Oh, No ... No! No, I’m not going to date James. NO! End of pool. No one wins. N. O. !!! Not going to happen. Besides, he knows I’m not a female.”

“Does he?”

“You were there when I told him.”

“And he believed you, of course, after seeing your female ID and talking to a bunch of the old hands before we arrived from the airport. And after taking a good look at you, kissing you and seeing how you reacted?”

“This is a joke, right? I mean, there is no way I am going to date another guy.”

“There’s still that kiss and the way you responded to it.”

“I’m dreaming. This has to be a nightmare.”

“Umm, possibly. I didn’t know we could all have the same nightmare at the same time and even when we were awake.”

“Ralph, if I’m dreaming this, then anything’s possible.”

“Good Point. Can you become pregnant? You better take some condoms with you to Vail.”

“RALPH!”

He walked out of my office laughing, leaving me there not knowing if I wanted to scream or cry. I had to put a halt to this, right now. I finally went home and worried all night.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

The next morning a light snow was coming down as I made my early way to the office, this time I was dressed in a nice pant-suit with a paisley print blouse in darker colours and a pair of black, hopefully antiskid, low heeled pumps, very businesslike.

I called James’ office first thing even though it was still slightly before eight there. Surprise, surprise, I actually reached a live person, or at least they or it could interact with me verbally, “ I wish to leave a message for Mr. Thompson. This is Lynnette Stevens and I’m afraid that I shall be unavailable to accompany his entourage while in Vail.”

“You are Lynnette Stevens and will not be in Vail.” I could probably have received more empathy from a robot.

“That is correct. My security team shall be there and should be quite sufficient to handle any problems. I have the utmost confidence in them. Once Mr. Thompson is in the Chicago area I will be in and out long enough to handle the convention and his University obligations. The check he gave to me to cover special expenses has not been cashed and will be returned via overnight with signature receipt required.”

“The check for special expenses has not been cashed. It is returning overnight.”

“Yes.” The way whoever it was said that made me think of a check holding a boarding pass and walking onto an aircraft for the flight back to his location.

“I would appreciate it if you could give that message to Mr. Thompson.”

“The message will be given to Mr. Thompson. Time out, seven fifty-seven.”

“Thank you. Good-bye?”

“Good-bye.” click.

That was a strange conversation but at least I would be able to prove he received the his four thousand dollar check once I had the return receipt. I then typed a notice and, after using a black marker pen to title it, ran two copies on the office copier. Next I marched out to our various company bulletin boards to post them. The notices stated that the ‘pool’ was hereby dissolved, there was no us between myself and James, I would not be getting engaged nor married to either James or anyone else in the foreseeable future and all bets were off. End-of-Story!

No sooner than I had hung up than another one of those early morning calls came in. I answered the call since our receptionist wouldn’t show until eight our time and I didn’t need to add another call to our answering service. They billed by the call and even included our calls to retrieve any messages which they might have taken during the night.

“L. J. Stevens Security.”

“GoodDai to You.” The gentleman sounded quite chipper and in just four words almost screamed that he was from some part of the United Kingdom.

“And to you, sir. This is Lynnette Stevens and how may I help you?”

“Rather a small operation if you are answering your own phones, wot?”

“No sir. Just quite early. It is only just seven here. The office staff won’t be in for another hour or so.”

“Ah. I see. Very good then. I have been investing for some fifteen years and have recently decided I am in the market for a new broker. Do you have a general prospectus you could send to me? I’m interested in both the Asian and European markets.”

“Well, sir. I would love to do that but ...”

“Oh, yes; you would need my name and address for that, wouldn’t you?”

“I would if we dealt in those things sir. We ...”

“You are a Security company, are you not?”

“No sir. Not that kind of security company ...”

“What other kind is there?”

“Uh, the kind that uses bullets, sir. We deal in protec ...”

“Oh, quite. Well, I haven’t a need for that sort of thing at the moment, thank you. Should I find I need to have someone removed I should be happy to call again.” Click.

“Yes ... sir.” I hung up.

Calls like that didn’t come in very often but we did receive them. I had considered changing the name of the business in an effort to forestall more such calls but then it would likely affect business and the name would need to be changed in so many places including with GSA that it could be a nightmare. Then there would be those thousands of phone books, GSA’s own listings and clients who were relying on the many hundreds of business cards I and my agents had handed out over time so we could lose significant business due to a name change. Calls of the sort I had just entertained occurred perhaps once a month so it was easier, usually, to simply explain.

Thankfully my receptionist arrived fifteen minutes early and Nicci was hot on her heels so I left everything in their capable hands having fielded only two other calls before they arrived. One Nicci could handle so I left the information on her desk and the other I wished off on Ralph, slipping it into his in basket under the topmost piece of paper. I continued with my work reviewing the preparations for the two US and one Canadian city to which we would be expanding.

By that afternoon there were two dozen pink roses in a vase on my desk with a note that said, “see you in Vail.” Obviously he hadn’t received my message before he sent them. Tomorrow he would have his check and within a couple of days I would have my receipt. By now I was seriously considering returning the deposit as well and telling him to go hire a ‘duck’. Nicci checked with me several times about going out to try on the Burgundy gown.

“Macy’s has called and the gown did arrive last night.” she again reminded me.

I was in no mood. After I growled at her for the third time she didn’t ask again. Shortly after five she checked with me and again reminded me that the nine agents flew out to Vail as scheduled and had checked in from the lodge about an hour and a half ago. They had three rental cars and the four remaining agents had also departed this morning with the armored limo and expected to arrive sometime late tomorrow. Everyone had their credit cards and finance had transferred funds from our holding account to the working one so when the Am Ex bills came in, the accounts could be quickly settled. I liked doing it that way since account statements were better than receipts. There was also the added bonus of them never getting lost or mulched into unreadable wads by the agents, even though it cost a bit more things cost a bit more that way. There was also a certain respect my people received from the providers with whom we dealt during the course of our work which helped keep my people happy.

“That’s more than enough, Nicci. Thompson is paying for the rooms. They are sharing three to a room so we need only to rent one additional room when the guys who are driving there arrive. George has a room to himself since he is ‘head of mission’.”

“When are you flying out, Lynn? I’ll make the reservations.”

“I’m not going.”

Nicci’s eyebrows rose and lowered again just as quickly, especially after all the growling she received about going to check on the gown, “Uh ... Okay. Well, guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good evening.”

She started out just as line one began to ring. As she went to answer it I said, “leave it, Nicci. We closed twenty minutes ago so the answering service can pick it up. The guys will be calling in on the special line so it isn’t any of them. Anything else can wait until morning.”

She nodded her head, smiled, then grabbed her purse and coat, winked at me and was out the door less than seconds later. The light on line one eventually went out. Less than a minute later, line one was ringing again. Ten seconds after that line two was ringing and line one hung up. Two continued to ring as I waited for the answering service to pick it up. After a minute they still hadn’t answered the line and it was beginning to get on my nerves. I was about to pick it up and give whoever it was a piece of my mind when it stopped ringing. This time it remained silent. I completed my paperwork, grabbed my purse and coat, locked up and passed Ralph who was on his way back in after having retrieved one of our limos from city maintenance and settling some problem or another which they seemed to have come up with. I drove out of the parking lot playing slip-n-slide despite my snow tires as I entered the street before continuing on my ice crunching way with my tires sounding like they were crushing small pebbles.

Along the way, I discovered myself taking a slight detour into the parking lot of a sporting goods store which sold Skiing equipment. For the next hour or so I bummed around in the shop looking at and learning about Skiing equipment and outfits. I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of skis. Not just manufacturers, but different uses for the skis. Some offered greater control with less skill required to obtain that control. Others were made for speed but most certainly not for a beginner and required more skill which a beginner, of course, would not have. I wasn’t especially interested in those since I really didn’t want to tempt fate. There was ski wax for those whom I assumed liked to slip and slide. My only recollection of using wax was when the next door neighbor’s daughter and I used wax paper to make the backyard slide more slick. I’ll bet we gained twice the speed once we waxed the slide.

I was able to quickly confirm to myself that I knew from nothing when it came to Skiing. The salesman suggested a nice pair of red beginner’s skis, boots, poles and all the other paraphernalia a skier might ever want during their lifetime, which just might prove to be considerably shorter due simply to the act of skiing or, at least, it seemed that way to me. He told me the beginner’s skis would offer a great deal of control with little effort and without allowing me to go at speeds which I would never otherwise consider without a ton or two of protective metal around me. Skiing on a mountain with nothing between me and disaster but a snow bunny outfit was not high on my list of acceptable compromises.

He obviously wanted to make a sale right away. I wanted time to consider this insanity further before committing myself. We compromised, with him listing everything including my choices in clothing colours and gaining the promise that I would seek him out should I decide to become so committed. Suicide by tree still didn’t seem to be grabbing me. He gave me his card and the list before I returned to my car. I did at least keep them, placing them into the zippered pocket in my purse.

Now, I somehow detoured to Macy’s where I found myself going up to look at furs while that department was still open. They were overjoyed to assist me when they learned I was interested in a white Mink in at least 3/4 length. An hour later I was walking out of the store wearing a full length white Mink coat while considering my gradually depleting savings account. I was about $1700 poorer for that one transaction. I don’t know why I did it, but I decided the warmth and feel of the coat was something to which I could easily become accustomed. I paused to think about that. I was spending my own money, not James’. In fact I’d been spending a lot of my own money these past few days.

Memories of all the jewelry now sitting at home in the upstairs safe trickled past my consciousness, I deduced I was likely at least partially nuts. When would I ever need this stuff? I mean, it was great and I really felt good about it but when would I wear it? That made me remember I needed to find a doctor with whom I could talk about deciding if I was me, or if I was ME. Shivers ran up and down my spine as I realised I was still interested in the possibility of becoming ME. No, I didn’t mean for a week or two, nor for a month. I meant from now on... a new and different ME. I suddenly went through a moment’s confusion as I tried to sort my feelings, attempting to decide if I felt like a male masquerading as a female, or if I felt like a female who had been masquerading as a male for much of her life. There was no clear cut answer to that little conundrum.

“Aw man, is all this as confusing for others who are stuck on this boat?”

Neither my car nor the new coat answered me and I doubt anyone could have hidden in my purse. At this point I wasn’t about to ask someone who was just walking down the street although I probably could have had my pick since there were still quite a few shoppers out.

For some reason, I felt as though I was beginning to lean toward the latter of my considerations despite my heavy applications of all things male in the past. I was much more at ease with myself as a female, I think that should count for something but at this point I wasn’t certain just what that something might be. I did know if I was to be given the chance to remain female the rest of my life ... I was leaning toward taking the opportunity. I should have taken more photographs the few times I was dressed as a female as I grew up. Of course if my parents had found them I would have likely been burnt toast. I would now dearly love to have a deeper female history in my past, but ... well, I was so busy being Lyon for everyone else that I didn’t even try to decide who I was for me. God, even when I was potential draft fodder I went the macho route.

This whole thing seemed to be so sudden. Then again, I guessed it really wasn’t. I’d been doing this sort of thing now and then for almost twenty years as best as I could remember. Who remembers what they were doing when they were only five years old? It was only a few days ago that I had begun to admit to myself this might be the direction I wanted to go. I think the times before, it frightened me and I ran from it but for some reason I always came back and wanted it again. There might be a year or two in-between but I came back. That long period while in service to my country was a shock, actually. I still wasn’t certain what to make of that. I was surprised that it became so ... so ... natural?

Still sitting in the car I continued to rub my cheek against the fur of the coat and just luxuriated in the feel of it around me. Finally, I drove home, parked in my garage then closed the door by remote control so I could sit there again happily burying my face into the fur. I should have purchased the matching muff; it was only three hundred more.

After daydreaming for awhile about greeting my husband, whomever he might turn out to be, while wearing nothing save for this fur; I eventually came to and took myself into the house. I didn’t turn up the heat so I had that to use as an excuse to continue wearing the Mink for a few more minutes. Hunger finally told me to be more sensible. I turned up the heat and five minutes later carefully placed my Mink into the closet. I needed to purchase something in which to hang the fur so it would be protected. I could still feel that wonderful sensation of the fur against my face.

Pausing to think about myself wearing the Green gown with the Diamonds and my new Mink coat as I went out with my husband to some ritzy event left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling for a short time. I’d been smiling at the daydream before catching myself and moving on. What the hell was wrong with me? Then again, what if nothing was wrong with me except my gender? It wasn’t as if I was thinking of myself as a guy dressed like a woman. I was thinking of me ... A woman ... going out with my husband ... The love of my life ... and ... babies, young children?

“Whoa ...” This was getting to be a bit heavy, know what I mean? This was far more intense than just spending a day playing the part of a woman. This was the real deal. This was me. The real ME. Beginning to think about how I would feel when I went back to being Lyon was like ... thinking about having a root canal without Novocain, I didn’t care for the idea at all. Sitting here thinking about spending the rest of my life as Lynnette ... Well ... it was like fireworks going off and the sun coming out and life beginning as the spring flowers spread open all around me. To walk down a summer street with my daughter skipping along at my side as we went shopping. Going to PTA meetings, watching her play and taking pictures of her for her scrapbook, and for mine. My child ... my children.

These feelings were so different than when I just spent a day or two as a woman. I don’t remember how I felt about my time as a female major. I chalked that up to being so busy that I didn’t have the time to think about it. It just happened. I was Lynnette for close to two years and ... it didn’t even faze me one way or another. How was that possible? Did that mean that I was comfortable with being a female even then or did it just mean my mind was so overloaded with work that I didn’t have time to even think about it?

More recently when I did it, I could reason that it was for the business. Before that it was just a lark to see how I would look and feel. Yes, I liked it, but it was always for just a day or a few hours before I panicked and changed back. Yes, I cried when it was over ... I cried a lot. Geez, I’m a woman ... I mean, a man ... I mean ... I don’t know what I mean. My conscience kicked in just then with ‘really? You’re a man? Then why do you cry when it’s over? Why do you want it to continue? Aren’t you happier when you’re a woman’?

Look at me, fake hair, fake breasts, a man’s sexual organs ...

‘Yes. Look at you, 145 pounds, essentially a woman’s figure, soft skin, no facial hair to speak of, no girl friend but a lot of female friends who consider you to be someone in their circle of girlfriends. Your voice is still higher pitched although you do successfully force it into the lower octaves similar to a male. True, the forcing isn’t difficult but your natural voice is more feminine than masculine. Even your face is like your mother’s and her mother’s. Your brother looks like your Father, and weighs in at 235 pounds not 145. You stand 5 foot 10 inches, tall for a woman. He stands at 6 foot 6 inches, just barely taller than your father. Look at all the guys who were in your unit, all at 190 to 220 pounds and easily at your height or taller. At that time you were 125 pounds soaking wet, you’ve put on some fat, girl.’

Even now, the guys who work for you shoot 11mm or .45s, you can barely control one. You fire a wimpy 9mm or .32 auto. Sure you shoot better than they do, you must, since your bullets are less powerful. The other women in your business like working for you, not because you’re a guy but because they know they can come to you with a problem and you’ll really listen, and usually be on their side or understand their point of view. Go ahead, take off those feminine clothes and the makeup, put on one of Lyon’s business suits and go to work tomorrow as a man.’

That thought was truly frightening.

I ... couldn’t do that ... I’d been a woman for three and a half days, almost four and ... I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to finally be me. Forever.

God what was wrong with me? Why was I thinking like this? Then again, maybe there was nothing wrong with me. I couldn’t have babies, which hurt, but even as a single woman I could still adopt. I could have a little miracle to raise and clothe and love and care about. I needed these few weeks so I could decide. Decide what? Decide who I am and who I want to remain? No ... I have decided ... I’m Lynnette.

Then how do I feel about men? Would I, could I, go to bed with a man? NO. No ... Not unless he was the right man. Then how do I meet the ‘right’ man if I don’t spend the time as Lynnette in order to possibly meet the right man?
But there were so many a** ***** out there. How would I know him even if I tripped over him? Was he just going to suddenly walk up to me one day and say, “here I am, I’m the right one.”? I don’t think so, especially not with my less than stellar female past.

Questions and answers, and more questions continued to bombard me all night. I slept in fits and starts. I rested, but I didn’t. My alarm went off at 5:30 and I dragged myself out of bed having found no long term answers during my sleep, just a lot more questions. I put my hair up, covering it then turned on the water to take a shower. I washed with my perfumed soap and luxuriated under the pulsing jets as they beat down slowly relaxing my back and shoulders, I realised I had come to one conclusion ... I didn’t want someone telling me why I couldn’t be me. I wanted to find someone who could tell me why I could be me ... me ... Lynnette.

Shutting off the water then wiping down the walls of the shower, I stepped out to grab a fluffy towel, patting myself dry before powdering my body. I put on my panties and bra feeling the luxury of it lifting the breasts ... no ... feeling the luxury of it lifting MY breasts, then I put on my robe to go out to deal with my hair and makeup. Selecting one of the new skirt suits after putting on my slip and stockings, I grimaced at the thought, but put on a pair of boots to walk through the great outdoors. In order to look nice in the office I carried my low-heel pumps so I could wear them once I was inside again. That is if I didn’t walk around in my stocking feet on the carpeted floors.

My purse, pumps and I went out to the car which I had started remotely after keying the garage door open. That hopefully would have given the car enough time to warm up so I could turn on the heater and quickly have the interior warmed. I unlocked it again when I reached it. Getting in was nice. Turning on the heater had it just beginning to provide warmth but the car wasn’t terribly cold since it had been in the heated garage all night. Backing out of the garage, I keyed the door closed then alarmed the house from the touch pad next to the driveway. The light on the pad flickered on a few seconds later to tell me that the house alarm was functioning and “in the green” before I locked the cover to the pad and drove to work.
So started my fourth consecutive day as a female. The beginning of the rest of my life. I needed to tell Nicci and Ralph. They should know right away. I didn’t know what to do about telling the employees, maybe Ralph or Nicci could help me there. I simply had to find an understanding doctor with whom I could talk. I wished I had the time to start hunting right now because I had to begin to find and do whatever would be necessary to become me, the real me, the Lynnette me. God that idea felt so good.

Parking at work I shivered my way into the building missing my Mink but thankful for the rabbit jacket. Upon reaching Nicci’s desk I wrote a note and left it saying I need to talk with both her and Ralph once they were both in and before we began the day. In big letters I wrote ‘IT’S IMPORTANT’ and signed it Lynn. I’d never look at that name the same way again. Now that name was really me and not just borrowed. Or maybe I was that name. I don’t care. I was finally ME. It took me five minutes to write that simple note. I tore up nearly a half dozen before simply saying, “I need a meeting with the two of you, privately.” I took the scraps of my aborted notes into my office then closed the door. There I tore them into small pieces then dropped them in my wastebasket, old news.

I began to make notes of things to research like cross dressers and sex changes. I know there must be others like me out there somewhere. Like me, they seemed to be hiding for their own protection. How long would it take before I found a legitimate source of information? How would I know it once I found it? Too many questions and no where near enough answers.
I felt myself approaching the borderlands of the ‘Kingdom of Tears’ once again. I was hoping for a much more positive set of questions to somehow research before talking with Nicci and Ralph but they would be here long before the library opened. Then too, the library might not have anything. I likely needed to learn if there was a medical library I could peruse. Even if there was, what would I look for? How would I tell someone that I needed to look for information about becoming myself? I didn’t want to be committed just because I figured out that I was in the wrong body.

The intercom buzzed. When I answered, Nicci told me Ralph had just come in and they could meet with me any time I was ready. Ready? How does one really prepare for the rest of her life? I asked for a few minutes then took a tissue to dry my tears. Rushing over to my little washroom I quickly washed my face before touching up my makeup and returning to my desk. I sat down behind my anchor pausing for a few moments before finally buzzing Nicci, saying I was ready for them to come in. I was slipping on my pumps even as they nearly immediately entered the room.

“Hi Lynn, you look great in that suit. What’s up, girl?” That obviously was Nicci. Not just the voice but the sentiment.

“Morning Lynn. We get another message from Thompson?” and, of course, Ralph.

“Thanks, Nicci. No. He’s been quiet so far this morning. I have something a little more important to talk about and I need to let you guys know about it first.”

I’d like to say it was easy to tell them, but that would be a lie. My insecurity had me wandering all over my office as I tried to think of how to break it to them. Once I returned to my desk and managed to tell them Nicci bounced out of her chair and flew around the desk to me as I sat in the chair to which I had just returned. She gave me a long hug, bubbling the whole time. Ralph thought I was joking at first. When he figured out I meant it, he just went silent, apparently pondering the ramifications of my revelation. Nicci found her chair again but her eyes were on fire and her smile was telling me she thought it was great.

Just to be safe I told them that if they wanted to leave the company, I’d understand. I would buy out Ralph’s ten percent and give Nicci an excellent severance package and great references.

Nicci looked hurt, “You want me to leave?”

“No, Nicci. I want you to stay. I want everyone to stay, but I need to become who I really need to be and if that chases some of them away then ... I don’t want to force anyone to stay here if they don’t want to do it.”

Her smile returned, “Okay Lynn, I’ll be at my desk ... working.” She came around my desk again, hugged me a second time before she started to walk away, she suddenly stopped and came back to hug me again, this time for much longer.

“This is so great, Lynn.” She nearly bounced out of my office.

Ralph, on the other hand, was still thinking. “You know we might lose some of the guys?”

“Yes. I hope not many. I would prefer to lose no one. I was hoping the old crew would stay since they’ve met me as Lynnette many times. The Newbies all know Lynnette is the boss, so they are probably okay. The only ones I wonder about are in the middle, and that is about a quarter to a third of our staff.”

“Actually, Lynn, I thought they would be okay with it just like the original guys. I figured the Newbies would be the problem and they’re almost half our agents.”

“What about you, Ralph? Are you able to handle it?”

“Me?” he asked incredulously, “Hell yeah, I can handle it. I always thought you made a great woman. Even back in Thailand. Remember the time those kids in Nam were in the middle of everything and we needed to get them out quickly and safely? They wouldn’t even consider listening to any of the guys but when you went in and talked with them, they responded to you as though you were their long lost mother and most all of them wanted to do anything you needed. They listened quietly and then moved out to safety quietly like little lambs even though you were obviously an American. You’re great with kids. The name of the business doesn’t even need to be changed because it’s registered as L. J. Stevens Security and that could be either Lyon Jay Stevens or Lynnette Joi Stevens. When you signed the papers you wrote L. J. and your signature hasn’t changed. You have valid ID and permits in both names courtesy of the efforts of our legal beagles and your patron saints, so we could declare the one lost and just use the female ID from now on. I guess we could keep the male ID in the safe until we have the blessings of the legal department but I don’t see a problem with Lynnette staying around. Besides, we could use another female agent. That will mean we will have one at each location.”

By now I had tears in my eyes again and figured I was beginning to look like a raccoon. I got up go around my desk to give Ralph a hug, “Thanks, Ralph. This really means a lot to me.”

“No sweat Lynn. Oh, by the way, the answering service took a call after hours yesterday and we were already gone. You better buy some skis for the trip to Vail. James left a message saying, ‘if she doesn’t meet me there then I’ll be in Chicago Saturday morning and I’ll drag her to Vail by the scruff of her mink fur’. He said he wants you to meet Catherine.”

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story begins it’s evolution.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

“Catherine? Who’s Catherine?”

“Beats me. He didn’t say. Maybe she’s his wife. If I were you, I’d go.”

“He didn’t kiss like he was married.” I pointed out. “Great. Okay. Okay. I’ll need to borrow Nicci again today. I need to try on the two gowns at Macy’s and I’ll need her to help me with the ski stuff. You can reach me on my mobile if anything Earth shaking happens. I checked it last night and I’ll leave it on while I’m away from the car. If you call and I don’t answer then at least I’ll know to give you a call back. While we’re out, I’m also going to get Nicci a company mobile phone. She’ll probably hate me for it, both for the additional workload and for the size of the thing, but she needs to be more in the loop.”

“About time. Oh. Lynn?”

“Yes?”

“Glad to have you here. It’s about time you finally made up your mind. I was beginning to think I was going to need to find some way to push you.”

That little revelation started my tears flowing again, just when I thought I was getting them under control. He beat a hasty retreat to the door then sent in Nicci, as I stumbled into my washroom to take care of my face.
Nicci came in while I was still bawling and washing. She mothered me until I was cried out then allowed me to wash my face again before I put on some more makeup. We collected my weapons then charged out to head over to Macy’s so I could try on my new gown as well as the one which should have finished it’s alterations by now.

The emerald green gown was wonderful, the clutch and shoes matched perfectly. My armory tucked away nicely for travel. Now the trials began for the Burgundy gown which fit a bit differently since the cut was different. By three things were finally under control and I changed back to my skirt suit. Now we were off to the ski shop much to the joy of the salesman when I asked for him by name. There we obtained everything under the sun which I might need when and if I went Skiing. Nicci pushed a pair of goggles at me so I could protect my eyes from both crisp wind and snow glare as she explained something else.

“I know he recommended those skis but, trust me Lynn, these will be much better for you and once you begin to understand what’s going on, you’ll thank me for having you get these even though they cost a bit more.”

“You’re certain, Nicci? He said the ones he picked were for beginners and I’m certainly a beginner.”

“Yes. These will work well for you while you’re just starting out but will continue to be usable once you get thirty or forty hours under your belt. Those others, once you get past the absolute beginner’s stage wouldn’t help you continue to learn. These will probably work for your first year or two, say two seasons. Those, it would all be over in less than one and you’d be switching to these anyway.”

“Okay. If you say so.”

“I intend to have you doing well enough in a few days that those others would have just slowed you down, Lynn. Trust me. I know what I’m talking about, I’ve been there and done that; went through three pairs of skis my first winter. Of course I was on the slopes eight hours a day for nearly two months.”

I couldn’t envision having that much time that I could spend two months just skiing. Wow. “How did you spend eight hours a day for two months skiing?”

“I was eight years old, remember?”

“Oh. Oh my gosh, look at the time, Nicci. We’ve got to get back to the office.”

We returned to work so Nicci could retrieve her car. Just before she left I reminded her to charge her new mobile. Well, I can’t help it if that’s what they call them, they can be picked up and moved with one hand so I suppose that means they’re mobile. At least her’s looks attractive, a bit like a large briefcase and, like mine, it has five channels; I was almost always able to find a channel to use. We weren’t supposed to do it but sometimes I would pause on a channel which was in service and would listen to the conversations I accidentally found as I searched for an empty channel. As Nicci drove off I was looking for that elusive empty channel. Damn, there’s got to be an empty channel here somewhere. Ahh, finally.

I called Ralph rather than walking through the cold to talk to him. He told me he notified James that I would be in Vail Saturday and that nothing else was shaking so I might as well head on home. I took him at his word and did just that stopping at the grocery on the way. There I picked up two evenings worth of Swansons since I didn’t feel like cooking tonight and wanted something simple for tomorrow night. I also called the agent we used to schedule our flights and arranged for a flight to Vail early Saturday morning. He called me back telling me I was due to depart at 5:00 Am — just great. Well, the alternative was 11:35 Am and that wouldn’t work out.

Changing clothes after I made my reservations left me in my jeans and a working blouse, I went up to the attic to drag down two suit cases. Packing my warm things in one, and my ski stuff in the other I placed the cases in the hall near the garage door before adding my new skis and poles up against the wall next to the suit cases. Then I rushed off to my weapons travel case bringing it back to place there with the other stuff. Now the green gown’s travel case was hung in the closet next to the suitcases. After my TV dinner, some news and a movie, I prepared for bed as I began to plan out my Friday. I didn’t know where the week had gone, it just seemed like I was busy every day.

I was up with the crack before dawn as usual. I hadn’t been able to successfully sleep past reveille for years. Whenever I tried, I just lay there thinking so I finally would decide I might just as well get up. I fixed some breakfast, ate, then washed the dishes. Next order of business was cleaning up the kitchen and putting the house in order. I didn’t want to come home from Vail to a messy house. I decided I’d eat breakfast in Vail with the guys Saturday morning. After dressing casual warm, I began assembling my various bottles of perfume, lotions, hairbrushes, combs and other things I needed to care for my hair or properly cleanse my face and body. These all went into my cosmetics case, which I had forgotten to bring down from the attic the day before resulting in another trip up there today.

A scrunchie held my hair up in a ponytail and I looked around for anything I might have missed, finish reading a few reports, before calling to see if the store was open so I could pick up my new breast forms if they had, hopefully, made it in. They were just opening their doors for the day and yes, my forms had arrived late yesterday. Pulling my fur jacket out of the hall closet then grabbing my purse along with one of the 9s, I checked for my ID and permits then was off immediately after setting the house alarm. Twenty minutes and two slip and slides later, I was parked in the store’s lot before carefully walking into the store.

While there, I looked through the nightgowns, picking up two more, as well as some more thin socks to go with my winter booties and sneaks. I purchased thick socks at the ski store when I purchased those boots. I gave Nicci a call from the car right after the saleslady/ fitter and I did our thing with the new breast forms. The old ones were removed, cleaned and placed into the box while the new ones were affixed to my chest with careful applications of the adhesive around the edges to help them to look to be a part of my chest. These were a little heavier than the others and I was glad to have the bra redistributing much of the weight off of my chest and onto my shoulders.

“Hi Nicci. What do you have scheduled for today?”

“Right now, nothing. I charged my mobile last night and when I came in this morning, Ralph was already here. Oh, by the way, thanks for my raise and for the expense account.”

Ralph had blabbed, pretty much like I figured he would, but she waited until today to thank me. I should have known better than to expect him to keep the secret.

“How would you like to be paid to go Skiing?”

“Are you kidding?” was her response.

“No. I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t mind giving me a few lessons before I go to Vail tomorrow so I won’t fall completely flat on my face in front of James.”

“When and where, girl?”

“Meet me at my place in an hour and I’ll drive us out to wherever you feel is a good place for me to start learning. Just go easy on me, I know Skiing from nothing.”

“You got it, Lynn. But after a couple of hours you’re going to be sore.”

“Nothing ever comes easy does it?”

“Not the good things, Babe. See you at your place in an hour. And if you’re still out on the town you had best pick up some liniment for your future aches and pains.”

We hung up and I made tracks for home with the one detour for liniment. It never hurts, you know. If I don’t need it then it can sit on the shelf. Once home, I shed my jacket and examined my choices for my snow bunny outfit ... Ravishing Red, Pretty Pink and Yummy Yellow. I didn’t feel like calling attention to myself quite as much as the Red would do so I decided on Pretty Pink then started preparing. A little later I noticed Nicci pulling up, so I opened the garage door remotely to allow her to park her car inside. She began transferring her skis and poles to the rack on my car. I brought my own things out after pulling up the top of my outfit and when everything was secure went back for my purse. I was warm and toasty. Nicci went back to her car bringing out her purse and some goggles similar to mine after locking her car.

“Your head is going to be cold, Lynn.”

I pulled up the built in fur lined hood which looked like trim when it was down, “will this be enough?”

“Maybe. If not, there’s a ski shop up there and we can pick up something while up there. Ready?”

“No. But, let’s not let that stop us.”

We were off, while talking like two girl friends who hadn’t seen each other for weeks. After a couple of hours on the slopes the most important thing I learned was how to sit down so I wouldn’t crash badly. The second most important thing was how to get up again. The third was - all women are sisters. Seriously, I had a lot of fun; between screams of terror and delight. Nicci skied rings around me but she’d been doing it since she was eight or nine. I still had fun and she went slow, so I could enjoy it too. I learned a lot about control and I learned that I needed to learn a lot more. We spent four fast and furious hours on the beginner’s slope, a mild and on a totally clear slight downhill which had no dangerous obstacles on it ... almost.

“Leave it to you, Lynn, to find the only rock lining the slope,” she kidded me as we headed back home.

“It wasn’t a rock, it was a boulder and it was well inside the edge of the course.”

“Uh, huh ... ”

“Other than that I think I did pretty well for a first day.”

“When you weren’t screaming. All jokes aside, Lynn. Yes, you actually did fairly well. You still need to be able to recognize the difference between powder and pack ice. You ski on powder, you crash on ice.”

“Minor details.”

“You won’t think so when you wake up in a hospital, in traction. By the way, did you run into that rock because you were ogling those two hunks who were showing off for us or because you just weren’t watching where you were going?”

“What two hunks? and that blasted rock had snow backed up against it and I couldn’t tell it was a rock. Everything looks the same through the goggles.”

“What two hunks? Miss fashion model didn’t see those two who all but threw themselves at us? And you just aren’t used to looking at a mountainside covered in snow. It looks worse with your naked eyes. After twenty or thirty more hours you’ll be able to recognize things a bit better. You did pretty well for your first day, other than not noticing those two. How could you miss that one who nearly ran you down? By the way, take a nice, long, hot bath; or tomorrow you won’t be able to move.”

“Gee, thanks. And I was too busy trying to remain upright and on my skis to notice anything else. Half the time I didn’t even know where we were so how would I have noticed anyone else? Oh boy, I’m starting to feel this. You know, Nicci, this is probably the only way you can get paid to beat up on the boss.”

“Any time,” she started laughing and soon I joined in. It was fun being one of the girls.

Nicci transferred her stuff to her car and we hugged goodbye then she headed for home. I closed the garage door then wiped down my skis and poles, the car rack as well, before placing my ski stuff in the house with my luggage for tomorrow’s trip to the airport. There should be some sort of carrier for that stuff to travel in when it goes on an airplane. Ohh ... I’m beginning to feel my muscles. I probably wouldn’t have noticed until tomorrow morning but going up the stairs to the bedrooms made it a bit obvious.
I drew a nice hot bath and soaked for a while, promising myself to do it again before bed. Heating my TV dinner I ate, watch some TV then did my clean up. Now I decided to take a shower with the jets pulsing rather than another bath. After the shower I felt a lot better, pulled on a nightgown, snapped the switch on my electric blanket and laid down to sleep after setting the alarm for three. It felt like my head had just touched the pillow when the alarm went off. Looking at the clock told me it was three. I frowned and willed the clock back to midnight but it ignored me so I got up and dressed warmly. Casual again, with my fur jacket to help me keep warm. The pink outfit came out of the dryer where it had fluffed on low heat for nearly an hour and a half before the dryer shut down. It went into the suitcase that had my other outfits.

I packed my guns and spare ammo in the secure case, then called for a cab immediately after my visit to the garage where I turned the heat for the driveway on high as well as for the walk plus two of the wind generators to compensate for the power usage. The timer for the heat was set to a half hour while the generators heat was set for five. Next I took several minutes to carry everything from the back hallway up to the front door to give me something to do while I waited for the cab.

I discovered I was sore, but at least I was able to move. I hated to think how it would have been if I hadn’t bathed and showered away most of my aches and pains. I needed to remember to get Nicci a thank-you gift for spending the time to teach me and for telling me how to minimize my impending traumas.

The taxi arrived just before four and he gave me an estimate of thirty minutes to the airport terminal ... I would be cutting it very fine. I asked if we could somehow make it safely in only twenty-five? We did it in twenty-two and I gave him a twenty dollar tip. A porter took my stuff inside to the lone agent where I went through check in. The plane was a tad late, figures. - I rushed to make a half hour arrival and the plane was late. Not bad, I learned; we would be taking off at about 5:10 instead of 5:00, that gave me enough time for a coffee before boarding. I figured I could hold it for the roughly hour flight from here to Vail.

Deciding to wait until I arrived there before I called the guys as that would save me a little money if they had our portable radio packages in place and running. I had my Motorola with me. If not, then I could always fall back on a phone call to the lodge. Once I was there I’d learn when James and his family were due. If it was close to my arrival time then we could ride in together when the guys came to pick them up, otherwise I’d grab a cab to the lodge. I finished my coffee as the plane began boarding ... Just twenty of us. My weapons case stayed with me since I used my ID and permits. I hoped my skis made it on board.

Closing my eyes as soon as I was seated granted me a short nap, the touch down awakened me again. 6:20, okay. By the time I collected my luggage at the carousel, the skis and poles were just beginning to show up, intact by the way. It was now nearly 7:00. Pulling out my radio, I called to see if anyone was monitoring the command repeater channel, hoping they had some of the radio packages up and running. It turned out they did. I checked in to see how things were shaking.

“The limo arrived yesterday mid-afternoon, we’ve already checked out the slopes, lodge and around town. Nothing special to worry about, we did need two extra rooms. Yours, the Principal’s and a third room are available beginning today and going into Wednesday morning. His private jet is due to arrive at noon or a little before ... We figured on being there about 11:00, maybe 10:30.”
“That sounds great. I’ll take a taxi to the lodge and join you all for breakfast. Are you eating there or should I meet you somewhere else?”

“There’s a Denny’s close to the lifts. We’ve been eating there.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you there after I drop my stuff at the lodge.”

“We’ll wait for you, Lynn. If you’ll be here before 8:00 you can check in, then we’ll all go to breakfast together. We’re about fifteen to twenty minutes from the airport. It’s in Eagle, Vail is a bit East of there.”

“Wonderful. See you at the lodge.”

The taxi pulled up at the Lodge with plenty of time to spare. My stuff was taken inside by one of the newbies since I let my guys know I was here. I checked in and received a room key after I told the manager I didn’t need the room until after the noon hour. They told me they would place my things in my room as soon as it was available once housekeeping finished with it. They made it sound like it had been trashed but I knew that it was just terminology, I least I hoped so.

My guys begin trickling down a little after I checked in, “Hey Lynn, skiing’s great,” that comment came from our resident ski meister who lived and breathed to ski. If he could, he would be on the slopes year round. More greetings assaulted me and then we all walked out to the rental cars to go to breakfast. I saw the five newbies who were on the detail and poked George lightly in the ribs motioning with my head,

“How’re they doing?”

“Okay. Nothing big’s shaking. Until it does, it’s hard to tell. They’re good on the range and two of them ski - they do okay, nuthin’ to write home about yet. Like any newbie they feel a little out of place, give them six months to a year and we’ll know better.”

An accurate appraisal, it generally takes a year for the newness to wear off and for guys to learn the other team members quirks. We tended to move guys around so they don’t become complacent due to familiarity. It also helped if we needed to have members of more than one team on an assignment, we could mix and match as necessary. Each of the guys would be given a specific role for the mission and was expected to fill that role. Sometimes we assigned more than he could easily chew so it would also become a learning experience. Other times we gave him less but handed him a newbie to guide around.

That was the case during these two weeks, we had ten newbies on their first or second runs scattered through the four jobs we were handling just now and the old hands were still showing them the ropes. This was one of the easier jobs so we had more newbies around than normal. Hell, we hired more newbies than normal this year. Our sixty-two agents had jumped to eighty-six almost overnight and nearly twenty of the sixty-two had been newbies less than two months previously. By the end of December we would be losing thirty agents to the two other US cities. Ten old pros and four newbies each plus one female. Sink or swim, baby ... Sink or swim.

“How long has that chick been with the company?” one newbie asked. I pretended I didn’t hear him.

“About since you were in diapers.” one of the old hands replied.

I smiled and waited for the smart-alec response.

“How does she do? Can she hold her own weight?” Fairly professional, this one might just make it. Possibly just trying to get a feel for a team member.

As we were opening the car doors, “Don’t bet against her on the range, and if you don’t want your manhood handed to you on a platter don’t antagonize her.”

“You’re kidding?!”

“Try something like getting fresh with her and find out. Then when she finishes with you, we get to start. And to you, her name’s Lynnette.”

The newbie stopped cold, then continued to his ride. They had all been told about Lynnette and the two guys who’s clocks she cleaned after they took down her three man team a year or so back.

“The police scraped up what was left of the two bushwhackers and poured them into cells to await trial for murder after they spent several weeks in the hospital, touch and go. The taxpayers paid all that money to bring them back from death and to hold them for two years before convicting them to life without parole. They still don’t have full use of their hands and feet, but their mouths seem to work just fine. Lynnette should have started there.”

“Wow, she looks like she’s twenty.”

“Good diet, working out, rigorous schedule. She’s about thirty but is more fit than most guys in their twenties. Something you would be wise to remember kid. You going to close that door so we can get the car warmed up and go to breakfast?”

We drove to Denny’s in the three rental cars. As we went in the waitresses were still making space for us having expected the group and seen us arrive in the lot. After two days they had become accustomed to the group arriving about this time of the morning. At breakfast we discussed the rules of engagement and George assigned people to vehicles.

“The principal will be in Arm-1 along with his family, Lynnette and Bill. Rental -1 will lead off, rental 2 and 3 will follow Arm-1. Luggage and gear will go into the rentals not the armored vehicle. We’ll make tracks straight to the Lodge — check everyone in and then the slope team will go out while the Principal preps for his skiing. We don’t know if his wife skis and last word I got was his daughter would be along. We don’t know how old she is or if she skis either; she was dropped on us at the last conference. We have six skiers so we’re okay there with two on each if necessary.

The two agents who are our ski meisters will accompany the Principal since we understand he is quite proficient. He might want to go on the advanced slopes. Jerry, we know you can ski but how good are you?” George pressed.

“I get along.”

“There’s a big difference between getting along and being an advanced skier.”

“Okay. I was paired into a Swiss mountain team for two years. Yeah, I can ski.”

“That’s not in your folder,” I immediately injected.

“I don’t like to advertise.”

“Any other things we should know about?” again George took charge.

“I qualified sharpshooter with the H & K on single shot at 50 klicks per hour.” Jerry answered as if it was an everyday event.

“Skiing?” I asked.

“Skiing.” he agreed.

“You’re part of the Principal’s primary as of now. Bill move back to Ren-2 and Casey to Ren-3,” I temporarily took command before remembering this was George’s show.

“Jerry, when we get back to the office, update your records with all of your information. It helps us to know all of the talents we have on tap,” George told him with what, for him, was a stern reprimand.

“You won’t like some of them.”

Again I piped up, “leave that to me to decide. If I need a killer, I need to know who to pick. The same goes if I need a babysitter. If you like kids and are good and patient with them, it needs to be in the records. Sometimes things come up which require us to draw on hidden talents.”

Jerry nodded his head, “Okay boss, will do.”

We finished breakfast and were into the third round of coffee carafes before we wrapped up.

“How’s airport security?” I inquired, wondering if we might have problems with turf.

“We’re doing pretty good there. Our snipers have access to the roofs of the two taller buildings and we can control the rest of the roof tops from those. The first day was fun, but it always is. We had to get The Feds involved to secure the cooperation of the Airport. After that they’ve been behaving. Our 800 pound gorilla outweighed their 200 pound gorilla. Their legal department tried to stop us and so the Feds got on them. The FBI threatened to have the airport closed for a season or two and suddenly the whole community was against the airport’s legal beagles. It helps to be in the FBI’s good graces, they said to tell you we owe them one now.”

“That isn’t a problem. They have owed us for so long that they are probably happy it’s going to be the other way around for a while.”

“Yeah. Now when we walk into the airport, the airport security guys want to know what flavor coffee to send for.”

“Don’t antagonize them. We may need to be friends in the future.”

“We already offered to provide some training and tips in exchange for cooperation. They seemed interested.”

“Really, George? Okay, Let them know three, one week sessions each about 3 months apart are authorised with two of our guys in attendance. Make one of them an overt/covert surveillance systems specialist. Everyone always needs pointers in that area, even us.”

“Great. Thanks, Lynn. They’ll be glad to hear it. I told them I’d check into it.”

“Not a problem, I’ll just play the costs against our profits on this job since it’s basically related. Tell them that if they want to send two of their guys to our training camp sometime after the new year, call us and we’ll arrange a date for the two week session on us but they pay for the room and board for their guys. We probably won’t do that until April or May though. Thoroughly explain the camp to them beforehand, I don’t want any misconceptions.”

“Thanks, Lynn. You’re feeling generous.”

“I have a feeling we may need to keep this particular airport very happy with us in the future. Just make certain they remember our company name so if we blow into town on a moments notice we don’t need to sic the Feds on them again to get cooperation.”

“Gotcha’, Lynn. Any one need stuff from their rooms? Snipers? No? Okay, Gary take our limo driver and Jim ... and ... Tony back for the armored then the four of you meet us with both cars at the airport. The rest of us will head on out to the airport after everyone takes whatever pit stops they need before we take off.”

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license of the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

We broke up to head for the rest rooms and the cars. I availed myself of the Ladies room discovering I had it all to myself. I did my duty then washed my hands and checked my makeup, lipstick and clothing. I took a couple of minutes to quickly brush out my hair again before I pulled out a scrunchie to put it up into a ponytail. I was beginning to love my rabbit fur jacket, it had been a good purchase, dressy but casual, not to mention - warm, even if I was out in the wintery cold. My ponytail hung down just enough to help the jacket keep the back of my neck warm but when indoors I would be cooler than if my hair hung down covering my neck and upper back. Ten of us piled into two of the rentals then headed for the airport while the other four guys George specified took the third rental car back to the Lodge to acquire our Armored limo before following us to the airport.

We arrived at the airport about ten minutes of eleven and everyone set off with their gear to their respective locations. Our snipers were in place less than fifteen minutes later and George coordinated with airport security telling them the good news that their training sessions had been approved by the “big boss” at no cost to them except for that of them providing for the housing and meals for the men they sent. We would provide our own during the times we came to train them on their home ground.

As we passed through the airport we managed to scare off several young punks who apparently made their living by preying on the tourists who came through the airport. One of them made a big mistake and was under arrest for assault which would begin after his broken arm was treated at the hospital. His pal was just shaken at having tried their shenanigans on a group that turned out to be heavily armed and combat ready. Sometimes I wished I looked a little more formidable, then again being thin and lithe had it’s good points too. The two newbies who had been tagging along with me had suddenly developed a new respect for my ability to put someone down.

We waited where we had a clear view of the runway approach and even though the weather was beginning to close in a little I managed to see the Gulfstream on its approach at around twenty minutes of twelve. I gave the team a “heads-up” on the command channel.
Our comms were the larger Motorola radios which offered us up to five point-to-point and three repeater channels which operated with our Motorola portable repeater packages. Those provided us a lot greater range since they could be placed on top of tall buildings when available, so we could carry on some long distance conversations. We could also conduct several unit to unit conversations while three simultaneous long range conversations were under way without causing interference. It was a nice system, and a little touchy since it was still very developmental according to Motorola. Very pricey, but nice. We sent two of the guys to Motorola for training in the operation and low level troubleshooting of the system. Each of the repeater units was suitcase mounted and just plugged into a normal power socket, or a car’s cigarette lighter if necessary. Each of them also had four hours of back-up battery built in so they did very nicely for most of our needs. George told me that one of the packages was up on top of a mountain in a room inside the building up there. It gave us coverage for a number of miles along the highway and through most of Vail. At the right spot in Eagle we could even hit it but that was a lot more iffy since the valley wasn’t straight from Eagle to Vail.
The five point to point channels were nationally protected and there were maybe two dozen Federal agencies who used similar systems on those same channels. It was a great system, there could be three channels in use and no interference problems important enough to mention.

Adding other groups or agencies to our system was easy too, so our ‘comms’ specialists told me. I guess that was true since we allowed the FBI to piggyback on two of the repeaters we were using in Denver last year. I didn’t understand the details but Comms told me that one of the FBI’s tertiary repeater channels was the same as one of the protected repeater channels we were sometimes allowed to use so he adjusted whatever it was in the each of the two cases which were on the roofs of the tallest buildings around and the FBI was in business. They were running nearly thirty agents and we were running twenty and no one knew the other was using the system, at least I didn’t. Pretty potent, but you get what you pay for. In that particular case with our agent’s units and our four repeater packages operating in Denver we had about $380K in equipment deployed not including the stuff which was prepared for use back at our main location South of Chicago. Yeah, I know, but I told you it was pricey. If we had the normal systems it would have cost us less than half as much. I don’t like to scrimp on equipment, that can get you into trouble when you really don’t have the time for it.

James' Gulfstream finally pulled up to within 20 feet of us just as the limo and chase cars pulled onto the tarmac to close on the Gulfstream in preparation of receiving passengers and luggage. In less than a minute the door opened and the stairs dropped. James got out heading in our direction. As I watched I saw a dark-haired woman, whom I supposed was his wife, come down the stairs before she turned to help a three or four-year old girl down from the plane. The girl’s hair was a light brown similar to mine and, like mine, hers was also in a ponytail. I had her outclassed on length though.

James reached me, giving my hand a shake.

“Hi, Lynette. This the detail?”

“Yes. It is. This is George. He’s in charge of the detail and the one with whom you make any arrangements for things you want to do so we can place some men in position beforehand. I’m here, but I’m just along for the ride.”

I handed him off to George just as his daughter broke away from his wife to begin running toward us shouting, “Mommy, Mommy.”

James turned back, apparently in surprise, and both I and the other agents were searching for whomever it might have been who breached our security without so much as a “hello, who are you?” from any of my guys.

Just before the young girl crashed into me I realised what was coming and dropped down with my side to her. She crashed, throwing her arms around my neck as she held on for dear life, a stuffed doll which she was holding in one hand landed on my back with a thud. More quietly she said, “Mommy!”

This now had me confused causing my mind to go a mile a minute trying to decide why the child would be calling me “mommy”. Somehow two and two was not adding up to four. James began to extract her as her mother came over looking embarrassed. The little girl just held on tighter. Never underestimate the strength of a four-year old. They are just as capable of choking the life out of you as any adult, especially when they have you in a love lock. I looked at James then gave him a small shake of my head as I held the girl against me. He backed off as her mother began to apologize. James reached out and touched her arm, she looked at him for a moment as he shook his head. After a few seonds of the guys watching the big tough woman now being very motherly to a clinging child, George took charge. He started the ball rolling and got the guys in gear. They began to collect everything then stowed it in the rental car trunks while I continue to play nursemaid to the little girl who finally turned loose of my neck enough that she could show me her doll, Rebecca.

“Rebecca reminds me of a doll I had when I was a little girl.”

“What was her name?” a sweet little voice.

“Raggedy Anne.” I had rapidly searched my memory for any name which might do and that as a girl I might have had for a doll. Not an easy task as you could see.

“Cathy, maybe you should let Nana carry you now,” James suggested.

“No! Mommy!” and the arms locked around my neck again half choking me again as my mind tried to decide if I would have time to process this new information before I had the life choked out of me.

“It’s okay, James. Catherine may stay with me for now,” I replied, assuming Cathy was short for the Catherine to whom James was going to introduce me.

Her arms unlocked a bit and her small ponytail hit me in the face as Cathy turned her head to look at her Father, “Mommy’s back,” a smile on her face.

“Cathy, I need to put you down so we can go to the car, but I want you to hold my hand until we are in the car.” I cautioned her.
She cooperated and we were finally standing with her hand holding mine, Rebecca having been transferred to her other hand. The hand she was using to hold onto my fingers was like a vise. I made a mental note to check my fingers after she let go.

After we were in the car I took the time to ask, “I take it, Nana is her nursemaid?”

“Yes. Her mother ... passed on about a year after she was born.”

“She’s wonderful.”

“She’s a handful.”

I turned to her again, “Cathy, do you like snow?”

“It’s cold.”

I checked her and noted she was like ice even for having only been in the cold for a few minutes and bundled up on top of that.

“Jerry, could I have one of the blankets? I think they are under the seat back, near you.”

He leaned forward, pulling the seat back forward enough that he could reach into the compartment behind it. After a few moments he extracted a blanket. In moments it was on its way to me and I covered Cathy with it.

“Better? You should be a little warmer soon. Here move onto my lap and put your arms inside my jacket then I’ll cover you again.”
She moved to comply as I unzipped my jacket. Her hands were cold. After she was situated, I covered her legs and much of her body with a double layer of the blanket and she began snuggling. I held her close caressing her hair as she soaked up my warmth while mumbling to me, “You smell good, Mommy.”

I looked at James, one of my eyebrows raised as I gave Cathy a kiss on her forehead. “Thank-you baby. Just get warm while Daddy and I talk, Okay?”

“Okay.”

I looked at James, uncertain where to begin. Five more minutes and I still wasn’t certain what I wanted to say. By now George had the show on the road with our two snipers being picked up by the last car before following the rest of us who had started on ahead. They radioed that they were just starting out which meant they were four minutes behind us. Cathy was beginning to settle and soon she was fast asleep leaning against me.

Quietly, “How old is she?”

“Three, she’ll be four next spring.”

“You never remarried? No girlfriends?”

“No. Time just wasn’t there and I never found anyone whom I thought might want the job. It isn’t easy to be a Mommy.”

“Nor a Daddy.”

“No.” he replied somewhat hesitantly.

“Why me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you want me to meet your daughter?”

“That’s complicated.”

“I have two weeks to hear it. Don’t tell me I look like her mother.”

“No. It isn’t that. Your hair does, as you can obviously see,” he pointed to his daughter’s hair, “and you have a presence which marks you as different than most.”

“So I ask again, why me?”

“I don’t know. I wanted to see how she related to you. Apparently Cathy likes you, a lot. She’s a pretty good judge of character, but I think part of what interested me was your disclaimer in your conference room. That was a sneaky step. I’ll bet it takes a lot of people off guard so they believe it.”

“Believe it. I can prove it.”

His eyes opened in surprise, “You mean it’s the truth?”

“Yes, but I don’t exactly pass the information around. We can talk about this more in a private venue.”
He got the hint, “okay. If there is anything I can do, just ask.”

“One thing you can do, explain to Cathy about me and her Mommy.”

He smiled,”You seem to be doing a very passable imitation. She’s convinced.”

“And you?”

“I don’t believe it would be that difficult to convince me either.”

Bill chimed in, “Hey Lynn, are you going to go all domestic on us?”

I gave him a scowl, then lightened up, “Not planning on it at the moment, but I suppose anything’s possible. At least for the duration of this job I’ll be both a wildcat and a domestic.”

“Ralph will have a cow. The company will fall apart without your direction.”

I snorted in response and my little package moved in her sleep a bit then settled again.

“She’s a good traveler,” I mention to James.

“Not usually. She can be a handful. She just needs a woman’s touch, a mother’s touch.”

I looked down noticing I was still caressing her hair, holding her close, wrapped warmly. I kissed her forehead again adding quietly, “It’ll be okay, baby. Everything will be okay.”

She murmured quietly then settled again. When we reached the lodge, the car came to a stop which awakened Catherine. She cuddled tight again.

“We need to get out, baby. Don’t worry, I’ll be right here. Where’s Rebecca?”

She looked for her doll, becoming frantic for a moment in her search. It turned out Rebecca had become lost and dropped on the floor. We found Rebecca which allowed Cathy to be able to face the world again, her doll firmly grasped in her hand. I got out of the car, zipped my jacket then helped Cathy out of the car, zipping her fleece-lined coat before picking her up to carry her into the Lodge. I had James throw the blanket over her again to help keep her legs warm just before we walked in. We went up to the check in with me carrying Cathy, her head against my shoulder part of the time but her eyes alert and examining everything she saw. She seemed considerable older than just three.

James went through check in and the Lodge staff called me Mrs. Thompson several times even though James didn’t introduce me as such. He did tell them Cathy was his daughter, I suppose because I was holding her and we looked a bit similar, same hair colour anyway, they add two and two up incorrectly.

Cathy was hanging onto me like I was her lifeline. We went up to the rooms where I made a point of stashing the Nanny and Cathy in the room next to James as he was telling the bell hop otherwise.

I looked around finding my cases in the room, “Why are my things in here? They belong down in the far room.”

“But Mrs. Thompson, we thought ... ”

“First of all, I’m not Mrs. Thompson. My name is Stevens, I’m certain the members of the staff hare have heard my name at least once during the past few days.”

About this time one of my guys came along, “Hey boss, they’re putting the wrong stuff in your room.”

“We were just discussing that very thing, Bill. Weren’t we?” I looked at James as I spoke to the Bell Hop.

“And You,” I looked directly at James eyes, “had better explain right away to your daughter that I am NOT her mother... hair colour to the contrary.”

I walked out of the room and down to my own, only to discover my key would not unlock the door so it was necessary that I go downstairs to the desk to complain. I did so while borrowing one of my more formidable line backers from George that he could go down with me. The manager quickly understood, accepting the return of the key I had previously been issued and quietly handing me the proper key for the room I had selected.

Walking back to my room we passed the one now shared by Cathy and the Nanny... What was her name? Oh yes... Nora. Shared by Cathy and Nora. James and Nora were talking to a crying Cathy.

“But Daddy, you said ... ”

I stopped to listen to the muted voices coming from the room, which brought to a halt the two with whom I had been talking. Only Cathy’s voice was loud enough to easily hear through the closed door. She was obviously distressed.

“You said you would go up to Mommy so I would know. I want Mommy.”

I and my two line backers heard a small collision with the door, which quickly opened and a tearful Cathy charged into the hallway. She saw me and in moments was wrapped around me again as James and Nora exited the room in pursuit. My guys saw my eyes turn cold as I looked at James.

“You slimy, calculating, manipulative, egotistical bastard. You’re playing with her like a cat with a mouse. When this job is finished you better not plan on using our services again or a Mother isn’t the only thing this poor child will be missing.”

I crouched down to hold Cathy and softly explained, “Honey, your Daddy made a mistake. He thought I was someone else. You understand mistakes? Your Daddy didn’t LIE to you,” as I glared at him over her head.
“He just made a mistake and thought I was your Mommy. Where’s Rebecca? You didn’t lose her did you? She’ll be lonely.” I glared at him again.

“You’re not my Mommy?” More tears just under the surface and in her voice, breaking my heart.

“No honey. I’m not your Mommy, but why don’t you find Rebecca and come stay with me for a little while until you feel better? Okay? Maybe we can pretend I’m your Mommy for so long as we are all here.”

She went through several cycles of drawing away and hugging tightly back until finally, “okay. Can I bring Rebecca?”

“Go find her, I’ll wait here for you.” Cathy ran back into the room as I looked at James, “Don’t you even think it.”

After a minute of searching, Cathy returned and I took her hand leading her down to my room. As I passed Bill, “Bill, would you find the blanket we brought up from the car and bring it down to my room? Cathy hand is still like ice. Just come right in with it, don’t bother to knock.” He hurried off.

Somehow I needed to erase the damage James had done to Cathy’s trust. Bill, in the meantime was given the blanket by the Nanny who had it in the room she shared with Cathy. It was then that he then delivered his own message to James.

“You know, Mr. Thompson, the last time I saw that much anger on Lynn’s face, she pretty much decimated the bastard who caused it. I’d watch my P’s and Q’s around her for a while if I were you. You have a really strange way of showing you love your daughter.”

“Actually, I love her very much. I was hoping Lynn would like the job of being her mother.”

“Being in love and loving is a job to you?” Bill shook his head, “And her name is Ms. Stevens to you, MR. Thompson.” He and the agent who was helping him hunt for the blanket turned to walk away leaving James standing in the hall outside his rooms.

Meanwhile, I had a very unhappy child to console. We spent perhaps an hour with her sitting on my lap just being held close as I used tissues to wipe her tears. After the crying slowed, we went to the bathroom and I drew some warm water in the basin then took a rag to gently wash her face. I did a lot of talking, humming and just holding during that hour as I rocked her back and forth with the blanket wrapped around her. Some of her years of pain came out bringing tears to my face as well. Years of thinking her mother didn’t want her or that she did something to make her mother go away. She didn’t understand that her mother died. James never helped her to deal with the sadness and self-loathing she developed as a result. He and I were going to have another little talk, soon!

“Yes, sweetheart. Your mommy got very sick and went away, it wasn’t your fault. Sometimes adults get sick just like children do. Sometimes people can become so sick that they die and go away. That’s what happened to your mommy even though she wanted to stay and take care of you.”

“Daddy told me mommy went away.”

“Yes, she did but she wasn’t given a choice. She was so sick the angels had to come for her even though she would have liked to stay with you. Where she went she can’t come back even if she wanted to come back to you.”

“Will I get to see her again? I don’t remember her very much. Just pictures Daddy has.”

“Some day. A long, long time from now. First you must grow up into a young woman and then have a family of your own. Eventually they will have other children and you will be a grandmother. Sometime after that you will be able to see your mother again.”
She seemed very solemn and gave that a lot of thought.

“Would my mommy be sad if I want you to be my pretend mommy?”

“I don’t think so, sweetheart. Every little girl needs a mommy so she would be happy that you’ve found one. If your daddy gets married again then that person will be your mommy.”

“I want you to be my mommy.”

“I’m not exactly the best person for that, Cathy. I’ve never been a mommy before so I probably couldn’t really teach you a lot of the things a mommy should be teaching her daughter.”

She lowered her head to me and just sat there for the longest time. Tears were still slowly leaking from her eyes as she thought about everything. I continued to use tissues to blot her eyes every now and again. After we had been sitting in the room nearly an hour I asked her, “Are you hungry, baby?”

“Yes.”

“What would you like to eat?”

“A chocolate sundae?”

I smiled at her, “Oh, I like those too. We’ve been crying though, so it’s probably better for us if we put good food in our tummies. Maybe we could have a chocolate sundae a little later. Right now we need to put back the protein and vitamins our crying used up. Maybe a little meat and some vegetables so we won’t get sick.”

After a little thought she agreed, “Okay. Can I have a chocolate Sunday for dessert?”

“Come on. Let’s wash your face again then go down and see what they have that’s good to eat and which will keep us healthy. Maybe if we both have room afterward we could share a chocolate sundae.”

“Okay.” She agreed happily before beginning her search for Rebecca once again.

“I think she’s under the blanket, Cathy,” pointing at the thermal blanket which was piled in the chair we had been in.

She hurried back to the chair, moving the blanket around until she discovered Rebecca wrapped in the folds then she came back to hold my hand so we could go for some food. As we walked out of my room I grabbed my purse in passing. When we went by the door’s of the guy’s rooms I knocked on each door until one of them opened a few seconds after we had gone past.

Turning, I explained to the agent, “Cathy and I are going down to have some food. We’ve been crying and need to replenish our protein and vitamins.”

The agent caught on quickly, “Good idea. Tell you what, I’ll let the guys know then come down and join you in the dining room. They should have opened at two. James and the detail went out skiing about forty minutes ago. Nora is in her room and some of the guys are downstairs while a few are in town checking some things out. Do you want me to ask the Nanny if she wants to tag along.”

“If you could do that for me. If she needs a break for a while that’s okay, though. Thank-you.”

“No sweat. Lynn?”

“Yes?”

“If he gives you a problem, the guy’s all want you to know that we will walk with you.”

I smiled at him, “Thanks. That won’t be necessary. We will fulfill the terms of the contract with him to the letter. For Cathy, it will be to the spirit.”

“Gotcha. I’ll spread the word before I come down.” He touched his radio and I nodded my head in understanding.

The next few days found nearly everyone, at one time or another, playing with Cathy. Hide and seek in the Lodge. Making snowmen, having snowball fights which somehow my guys always seem to lose. In general, they allowed her to have fun being a child. James, on the other hand, was allowed grudging support for his skiing, shopping, whatever. He and I went out skiing together on the beginners slopes for a couple of hours each of two days while Cathy stayed with the Nanny and a couple of the guys. I like to think my skiing was improving but somehow I still managed to find things on the runs which never seemed to bother anyone else. One thing though, Nicci was right. I was beginning to understand what I was seeing. By the end of the seond day James had me on one of the “easier” intermediate slopes and I was managing to scream my way downhill, that is, when I wasn’t laughing myself silly.

I tried to spend as much time with Cathy as I did with her father and we even went to town for dinner, James, Cathy and myself one evening. Okay, so five of the guys went along too. Cathy was coming out of her shell and had been telling me all about how she was going to get to go to school soon since she had passed some test or another which seemed to indicate she could handle first grade a little early. I wasn’t certain if she was still thinking of me as her pretend mommy or if she was forgetting herself when she called to me.

“Oh Mommy, come look at this pretty dress. Could I have it for when I go to school?”

How do you answer a question like that?

I gave it a try with, “Oh, that is a nice dress. I don’t know though, it might be a little much for school. You’ll be going out to play in whatever you wear to school and it would be a shame to get it dirty or ripped, wouldn’t it?”

She gave that a lot of thought before sighing and coming back to hold my hand as we continued to window shop. I think I could get used to something like this.

By Wednesday morning the little girl who had started out so sad was smiling and had special names for half or more of the team. If she wanted to go play in the snow there would be at least three, or more, who immediately began to bundle her up warm, ready to go out with her. I think she had never had so much fun. I sent one of the guys into town the first day to find a bookstore to buy a dozen or so storybooks we could read to her. Cinderella, Snow White, Pinnocchio, that sort of thing. He came back with them as well as a few which I’d never heard of or forgotten. When he returned he had nearly twenty books and for some reason there was always someone around who was ready to read with her. I was wishing there were some children around who were her age but most of the ones here were likely twelve to fourteen and despite her seeming maturity, the age difference would just be too much. I mused about that wondering how it could be that adults could be a better match for a three to four year old than would be other children who were older.

She and I had lots of talks, and she spent a lot of time clinging and hugging, pretty good hugger too. She would come back all tired from playing in the snow, crawl into my lap and fall asleep with me holding her. Sometimes I would even hum lullabies to her which had been hummed or sung to me by my grandmother. She was a very special little girl. We went shopping together and went up to the base of the ski lift so she could watch all the people who wanted to tempt fate as well as those who made it back down successfully. Fortunately the ones who didn’t return quite so successfully were quietly removed to the medical facility or the hospital and she didn’t see them so I didn't need to explain skiing accidents to her.

The day before we were due to return to the Chicago area I called Nicci. I hadn’t had any updates about our pending goings on and my sixth sense had gone into overtime.

“Hi, Nicci. Anything shaking?”

“Hi, Lynn. How's it all going there?"

"Much as expected. I'm doing a bit better on the slopes so you won't have quite so difficult a time bringing me up to speed there when we get back. Anything special going on that I should know about?"

"Not really. It’s been pretty quiet. We had a couple of specials called in but Ralph handled them. Something in Europe. He assigned three of our recent hires over there to each of them. He said if you called in to tell you it was something the major needed to check up on when she returned. Are you a major? And if so, in what branch of the armed services?”

“Uh. I’ll talk with you about it when I get back. If Ralph handled it, why do I need to get involved?”

“All I know is someone named Lucy wants you to arrainge a meeting as soon as you are available.”

“Oh joy. I hope Ralph told her that I’m tied up for the next week and a half.”

“I think so. You really need to talk with him as soon as you get back or give him a call. He said the secrecy lid is on the project and he needs to talk with you in our screened room, asap.”

“Great." which was actually anything but, "Okay, we’re coming back tomorrow but I won’t be able to talk with him right away. Maybe a day or so afterward. We’re pretty tied up. Let him know I’ll call him as soon as we can get together.”

“Can do.”

“Anything else happening?”

“Nothing special. OH!”

“Oh? I hope this is a good ‘oh’ and not a bad ‘oh’.”

“Yes. The first checks from our West coast tenants have started to arrive. How do you want them handled?”

“Just the standard ledger stuff. Finance has all the details. Give them to her and let her keep track of it all. Tell her to hold the checks and deposit them at the start of each week. That way we can track it all a bit easier. I don’t want them handled the same way as our protection clients. I’d like to keep them separated even though the funds will still go into the common account.”

“Okay. I’ll let her know. Anything else?”

“Not from this end. See you in a day or two.”

“Okay Lynn. Take care.”

“Thanks, Nicci. See you.”

The next day we flew back to Chicago. From there Cathy and the Nanny would continue on home while the rest of us stayed with her Father so he could do his thing at the University and at the convention. There would also be some relaxing time at one of our “safe” houses. There would be myself and eight of my agents on the Gulfstream with James, Cathy and the Nanny. We would be met at the airport by our at home team. The remainder of my guys would check us all out of the lodge, return the rental cars and then ride back in the limo. James was still in the doghouse with all of us. I think he was trying to make an effort but he didn’t know how to just be human. When we were debarking near Chicago, Cathy was hugging everyone and she was still smiling. A couple of the guys promised to send her photos of at least one of the snowball fights, plus the snowmen and the time she rode “Mr. Bear” around the downstairs of the Lodge as they searched for Rebecca who was conveniently hidden under his coat until finally she was placed out on one of the chairs like she had been sitting there just waiting for Cathy to come back and reclaim her.

I was about to go out the plane’s door when she latched on to me, hugging me hard, “I wish you were my Mommy.”

That brought more tears to my eyes. I hugged her back, “If I ever have a little girl, I wish she could be you, baby.”

We smiled and hugged some more before she let go, a very grown up little girl. I kissed her on the forehead and we shared a look before she said, “Bye, Mommy.”

I nearly fell out of the plane since the tears in my eyes were making it difficult for me to see the few stairs. I thought about the past few days and decided if it had just been Cathy I would have taken her home in a heartbeat. Unfortunately the package of shit that she called ‘Daddy’ was far from my idea of something I wanted to allow in my house. The whole three days, he didn’t play with or read to her once that I know of. When this job was finished, he and I had some talking to do and he’d better be able to listen.
We got to the “safe” house then I caught a ride to my own home, called Nicci to check on the happenings, before telling her I was off to collect my gowns and stuff.

After I picked up and paid off everything I returned home, took a nice bath and gave my hair a good cleaning. The adhesive on the breast forms needed some touching up before I could begin to dress for this evening’s activities.

The plan was to arrive at the safe house about five which I felt should give us plenty of time. Just to be obstinate I was wearing the Green gown and my nice new Emeralds. I practiced sitting down and rising up a few times just in case there was some trick to a long gown that wasn’t obvious over that of a shorter skirt. The only thing I discovered was that my outside Beretta dug into my low back when I leaned back in the chair. That and the inside Beretta banged my legs a bit painfully if I sat or got up too quickly.
After ten minutes I also discovered I didn’t tighten the belt band properly on the petticoat which held the five pounds of hardware so I needed to adjust it a bit. I hoped I wasn’t going to need the ladies room. All this stuff would be a bit of a bother.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license granted by the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

I suppose in those few minutes I managed to learn pretty much everything I wondered about concerning wearing a strapless ball gown. I walked around the house for fifteen minutes to half an hour without my feet, legs, or back bugging me. I actually felt kind of pretty and didn’t have a bit of that undressed feeling I had when I was first trying on the gowns. I began imagining Cathy dressed in a nice party dress, her hair down like mine as we were presented to the maddening throng as Lady Stevens and her daughter Catherine. That brought a smile to my face.

The squeeze on my chest and body by the bustier was still a bit of an annoyance but not intolerable. It still took getting accustomed to, but over a half hour had become almost unnoticeable. I didn’t know how I would feel about it after six or seven hours. Live and learn, I supposed. When I was going through the trials of the fittings, an hour and a half wasn’t bad.

Shortly before sixteen hundred I called for a taxi, figuring twenty minutes or less for it to get here, and thirty to forty to reach the house where James was stashed. When we began to get close I would call ahead and let them know to lower the tire spikes and open the gate. That thought reminded me to go grab my Motorola which was still sitting in it’s charger in my kitchen. I added it and it’s earpiece/ microphone to the spot next to my clutch which contained all my other necessities. I wish they made these radios smaller, it was somewhere between a little difficult and next to impossible to hide when I was dressed like this and I didn’t want it in my clutch. It wouldn’t fit anyway unless I removed the antenna, then it would be worthless if I needed it in a hurry. Just to be safe, I checked for everything I thought I might remotely need and added as much of it as I could, discarding some items in favor of others.

The taxi pulled up my circular driveway then the driver impolitely honked the horn rather than getting out to ring the doorbell. I pulled on my mink, opened the front door, exited and was locking the door then re-setting the alarm as I heard him get out and come around to open my door for me. He had seen the way I was dressed. Better late than never, I suppose. A minute later I had given him my destination and warned him not to drive onto the property itself until I told him it was okay. I explain that, during the winter, sometimes several attempt needed to be made before the tire spikes could be lowered due to frozen water in the mechanisms. That wasn’t quite true but would serve to make him cautious.

I called ahead when we reached a point about a mile out and discovered that the guys did have someone monitoring the radio system so everything could be accomplished before we needed to pull into the driveway. I received the all clear call just as we arrived so I told the driver it was okay to drive on in. He took the car up to the front door, checked the meter at the dash of the taxi and let me know, “That’s $18.20, Ma’am.”

I gave him $20 saying, “Keep the change,” as Bill was opening the front door. He came down to open the car door for me and then assisted me to the front door of the house, just in case the steps were slippery since they weren’t heated although the driveway and porch were.

“Hi, Lynn. Good to see you. The speech and presentation went well and he’s getting ready for tonight.” Bill closed the door shutting the cold air out of the house and I began to feel warmth flowing over me as I start to remove my mink.

He quickly helped me, “Take your fur?”

I turned my back to him to allow him to assist, then he promptly and carefully hung it in the closet. He gave me a quiet wolf whistle once he turned back to me and I acknowledged it with a mock curtsey. Accepting the offer of his arm we walked into the living room which brought four other men to their feet. As soon as they realised it was me they relaxed again.

“Wow, Lynn. You look great.”

“Yeah. You going to start dressing like that at the office?”

I looked at them with a fake hint of disgust on my face, “No. I don’t think so. I’d never get any work out of any of you. You’d be too busy tripping over your tongues.”

“You got that in one,” one of them chipped in.

I glanced around, “Where’s our Principal?”

“Upstairs dressing,” replied another as he checked his watch, “He should be down any minute.”

Raising one of my eyebrows, “Knowing how it is with most men, he is probably fussing with his tie. Which room is he in?”

“Second one down the landing from the stairs, left to right.”

I walked out going upstairs. Forgot to practice that ... After a couple of steps I was holding the front of the gown and the petticoat so my armament was out of the way while I negotiated the stairs. Finally upstairs with a minimum of injury, I walked to his room then after knocking on the door,

“James, it’s Lynn. Are you decent?” As if.

He opened the door a moment later, a look of exasperation on his face,

“Why can’t they just let us wear regular ties with a tuxedo? I hate these things,” flipping his bow tie which was hanging loose down the front of his shirt.

I pushed him back into the room closing the door behind me, before leading him over to better light. “It’s because they figure every man is going to have a woman who will be able to tie it for him. Stand still.”

I fussed with his tie and in less than a minute it was tied and adjusted. He reached for it and I swatted his hand, “leave it alone, it looks nice.”

He went to the mirror looking at it for a moment before he played with the tie anyway. “You’re hired.”

Turning, his attention finally off the tie, he noticed me for the first time. His jaw dropped as I smiled and did a slow twirl. As I finished he was looking at me like one of those cartoon wolves who was ogling a pretty girl.

“You certain you’re not female?”

“Any time you need proof ... ”

He shook his head from side to side and came closer, “May I?”

I nodded consent, then he came over and held me close, a little too close. My face reminded him he was still in my dog house — without heat.

“I want to thank you for all the time you spent with my daughter. She was telling me all about how you all were so much fun with her. She especially likes you. I’m glad you bought those storybooks.”

I didn’t realize he even knew they were there. He continued, “I had forgotten how nice it is just to sit down and read her a story.”

Maybe he wasn’t such an ogre after all. “James, It’s nice to play with her, too. We enjoyed the tea parties and we both liked me fussing over the things she liked to do. It made her feel like she belonged and was a part of life instead of a little girl in a sterile fish bowl.”

“I know. I know I’m a lousy father, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love her. I just don’t know what to do. Amanda died so soon and I just don’t know how to raise her. I want her to be a young lady and not a tom-boy so I stay away from her so I won’t rub off on her the wrong way.”

“James, just be her Daddy. Take her to see the zoo or shopping for clothes. Just be close to offer hugs when she needs and wants them. Let a couple of her girl friends come stay overnight or let her go stay with them once in a while. She does have friends her own age doesn’t she?”

I could see him almost panic at the suggestion she should stay overnight at someone’s home. Maybe I’ve been wrong about him. Maybe being a single father frightens him and he doesn’t know what to do.

“James? What’s wrong?”

“What if something happens to her? I couldn’t handle that.”

“James.” I reproached him, “ Children get hurt now and again. It’s part of growing up. If we don’t allow them to learn as safely as we might then they can’t protect themselves as they grow older. What do you have planned for her for Christmas?”

He looked at me blankly, “Nothing special. Just stay at home.”

He was back onto firmer ground and more confident. I gave him a disgusted look.

“Tell you what. You and Cathy come here for the two weeks starting a few days before Christmas and going through the New Year. I have spare rooms at home and we could have a good time. Might do you good to lose a snowball fight or two.”

“I’m a pretty fierce competitor.”

“James! The first thing you need to learn is that your daughter ALWAYS wins a snowball fight. You may put up a valiant defense but SHE wins.”

He nodded his head in sudden understanding, “This helps her to gain confidence ... ”

“And more. The two weeks might do you some good too. And I’m certain some of the guys would love to have her around their kids for the holidays. Another thing. She needs to be around other children her age. She needs this a lot. Come here for the two weeks or at least let her come here early, then you show up in time for Christmas Eve and stay through New Years. A little girl needs her family near her during the holidays. We have an office Christmas Party for the children at one of the homes, usually mine. The business buys the kids a bunch of presents. Santa Claus shows up to hand them out.”

I extracted myself from his arms going over to lift his coat, holding it for him as he put it on.

“Lynn, may I call you Lynn?”

“For now, let’s go with Lynnette. I’ll decide on the other later.”

“Okay. Lynnette, I find it difficult to equate what I see and hear with you not being female. I believe you, but you just look and act so ... so ... feminine.”

“Well, this is my tenth day in a row. I’ve dressed every now and then over most of the past twenty five years but generally never longer than a day or two except four times and those times it wasn’t my choice.”

“Why the change, if I may ask?”

“Truthfully? I don’t know. I just ... Don’t know. It feels right somehow.”

“I imagine it’s a bit frightening.”

“Actually ... Not really. It’s almost a relief to be doing this on a continual basis. I’ve decided it’s going to be a permanent change and I’m very comfortable with the idea.”

“From an unbiased point of view, I think it’s a good choice. You are a beautiful woman.”

I smiled at him, “Thank-you, but I hardly think you are unbiased. I’m not doing this to be beautiful, I’m doing it so I may be me for me, as opposed to trying to be some male for everyone else.”

“Okay, not unbiased, but let’s say I’m being slightly objective.”

I gave him the ‘yeah, right’ stare for a moment as I continue smiling.

“Really Lynn ... Lynnette,” he stammered out.

I looked around, “Do you have everything you need? Wallet, ID, keys, everything?”

He checked, adding a few items to his pockets as I picked my clutch up from the small table near the door where I had placed it when I came into his room. We walked out the door onto the landing where he offered me his arm before guiding me over to the stairs. They turned out to be a little tricky since I couldn’t see where I was walking but we managed to make it down okay since I had his arm to steady me. I would need to practice that a bit.

When the guys heard my heels clicking on the stairs, they exited the living room. Ralph had arrived while I was up talking with James. His jaw dropped for a moment as he got a good look at me then he quickly recovered, “Lynn, you look fabulous. Too bad you can’t carry in that outfit.”

“Oh, but I am. Both of my Berettas and their spare magazines. That reminds me, when the girls get back from their assignments they need to be sent to identify themselves at Macy’s and each of them are to have two gowns purchased and altered at company expense so they can carry weapons during events which require something along the line of a ball gown. It doesn’t need to be quite so formal but a sheath can’t be modified to hold the weapons. The alterations people at Macy’s said they still can’t do anything if we wear something more snugly fitting. Remind me to tell Nicci all the details so she can append the girl’s assignment files.”

“Okay.” He kept looking at me, “I don’t see where you could be hiding them. But if you say you’re carrying then I believe you.” The other agents were looking and seemingly agreed with his assessment.

“That’s the whole point, Ralph. I don’t want the perps to know I’m carrying. Hell, I don’t want anyone to know I’m carrying.”

My use of the swear word hit them like a sledgehammer. They didn’t think a thing about it if I swore while I was Lyon, but as Lynnette it bothered them. I needed to learn to control my language.

“Sorry guys, it sort of slipped out. Is the car out front now? And could someone get my mink?”

Bill checked the radio, “car’s moving up now.”

My mink showed up a moment later and a newbie held it for me as I slipped it on, James nodded approvingly, “Look like you spent my money well.”

“Actually you signed for your returned check, my own money bought all this.” as I indicated the emeralds, gown and fur, “and it was considerably more than the amount of your check.”

“Those are real?” he indicated the emeralds.

“I hope so. I paid enough for them and they were supposed to be natural. Not man made.”

“You returned the check?”

“Yes. And you signed for the delivery, I have the postal return receipt. I am not going to be beholding to anyone, especially not to a client.”

He looked a little confused but didn’t say anything further.

Offering me his arm, James led me out into the cold, down the stairs and then opened the car door for me. He did at least know how to be a gentleman, offering me his hand to assist me in entering the car.
We rode in quiet thought to the Convention Center, which had a portion walled off to accommodate the needs of the University’s fund gathering banquet. Enough room had been made for upwards of five hundred or so to attend the meal, the speeches, and to mingle before and after. It was a one thousand dollar a plate dinner donation and a great idea on the part of the University. They would wind up with close to nine hundred a plate after expenses and in many cases received much more than that from a single donation, not to mention the political hay they gleaned from the event. They usually pulled in at least Two mil from the event, normally closer to Four.

It was a good investment to the future so I didn’t mind paying my thousand dollars. Then you have people like James who plunk down twenty five thousand or more. With a hundred like him they were easily over the Two mil mark on the dinner donations alone before the evening even had a chance to get under way. I couldn’t imagine what his motivation was in his donations to the University but knew his wheels were always turning, investment versus yield. I suppose he must be expecting to receive some computer geniuses from their technical sciences college sometime in the near future.

As we entered, I thought I recognized quite a few of the shakers and makers from both industry and politics here tonight. That actually wasn’t too odd since a large number of the Universities graduates were now powerful personages. I saw a number of them eyeing me, probably wondering who I happened to be. I didn’t bother to enlighten most of them. It was even more delicious watching the women who were with them as they looked at my Emeralds. Their eyes were turning green and it wasn’t from the reflection of the light from the chandeliers bouncing off my Emeralds. I made a point of letting the rest of the security team know that the ceiling was false and had been lowered into place above the chandeliers. That prompted George to send a couple of men up to verify.

I wasn’t about to tell anyone that I had purchased most of my Jewelry at about thirty to forty percent of retail. My thirty-three thousand brought me well over eighty-five thousand in fine jewelry. All I needed now was to find a good deal on pearls.

There was a small string ensemble playing waltz music and James dragged me out for a dance or two as he led me between the few other adventurous souls who were also dancing before we settled into supper and then the obligatory speeches which would follow. After a couple of dances we stopped and James began to go around the room networking. He had me on his arm but I could see that most of the men here had abandoned their wives as they set out on their own networking paths. James must have had some ulterior motive in mind as I couldn’t imagine that he was doing this without considering the consequences.

I started listening a little more closely to the conversations and began to hear of opportunities for my own business. More conventions, other cities, the possibility of jobs in the two cities into which we were expanding and even some which might open up in Europe. I began networking as well and handed out more than just a few business cards.

“Hello James. Who’s your lady friend?”

We turned allowing me to recognize the gentleman speaking to us. He just happened to be one of our State Senators.

“Hello Charles, I thought that sounded like your voice. This is Lynnette Stevens of L. J. Stevens.”

“A lawyer?”

“No. Protection detail.”

The Senator gave me a doubting look, “Where are the agents?”

“She’s one. The linebackers are scattered around the room.”

“She doesn’t look terribly formidable. What would you do, young lady, if I were to attack James?”

“If I didn’t kill you outright, you would wake up in a hospital in police or Federal custody. Here’s one of our company cards, we’re listed with GSA in case you’re ever interested.”

“Thank-you, I’ll keep that in mind. Do you work in other cities?”

“We have National recognition ... We are able to field a fifty-man counter-terror team. We also teach security, counter terrorism and domestic protection. We are still about four months away from European recognition but are working on it and already have agents on the payroll who are certified there. All agents have permits to carry concealed nationally or throughout Europe with the exception of our medical staff. Here in the states we work hand in hand with the FBI and close to a half dozen of the other alphabet agencies. We use the latest Motorola radios in the same models as several Federal agencies and are able to sometimes share equipment. We occasionally are permitted to operate multi-city with secure satellite communications, although that usually only happens if we are involved in something which also has National Security implications. We’re not some penny-ante detective agency.”

“I’ll have my people contact your company. Maybe we could work out some sort of arrangement which would allow us some high level protection on short notice?”

“We usually need a few days to field a team, but we could have two or three men on the scene in less than eight hours. That depends a great deal on available flights, personnel and sometimes where our armored vehicles happen to be ... We are usually able to have an armored limo on site in less than two days, weather permitting. We are growing but our resources are a little thin at the moment since we are expanding into two new cities. One on each coast.

We hope to be back up to fully trained and manned strength in each city within eighteen months. Our primary city is centrally located so at the moment we usually are able to respond to either coast fairly quickly. Take a look in the books at our GSA reference information. They can provide you with most of the details you will likely need to know.”

“You sound like an advertisement, Mrs. Stevens. Your husband owns the company?”

“I own my company, Senator. And it’s Ms. Stevens,” the chill in my voice reflected my opinion of people who think a woman can’t do something on her own.

“Sorry. No offense intended. It’s a little unusual for a woman to own a security business. If you don’t mind, I’ll have my people make some inquiries and if we like what we learn we’ll get back to you. James ... Ms. Stevens,” he nodded his head to me.

James shook his head as the Senator walked away, “Me ... The Senator ... Are you this hard on all your potential clients?”

“Only when they are patronizing or egotistical.”

“And which am I? Patronizing or Egotistical?”

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

In response to his question I cautiously offered,“You ... Are improving.”

“The way you say that, I’m not certain if it was a good thing or not.”

“Don’t push your luck, James.”

“Perhaps we had best find our places. The banquet should begin soon.”

He directed me over toward the tables located closer to the stage. We managed to locate our spots in just a few minutes. Our meal orders had been placed only the week prior and were keyed to the numbered place settings to avoid errors. I went for the chicken, figuring there wasn’t much they could do to go wrong in it’s preparation, unless they decided not to cook it. I intended to eat just enough of the meat to be fashionable but generally to stick mostly to the salad and vegi’s. I think James selected the fish as his entree.

Surprisingly, the meal was very good. The dinner conversation poor, but the after dinner speeches including James’ were interesting as well as funny, and I had a second opportunity to accomplish some more networking afterward. Once the evening ended I checked the business cards remaining in my clutch and discovered I had given out nearly 30 cards. I was pleased I had given out so many as well as upset that I hadn’t given out all fifty which I had brought along on a hunch. I didn’t recall having that many conversations, but there were a few times when more than one card found a potential client during one gathering. I was surprised mostly because I was looking for quality, not quantity.

At three to eight thousand a day, we were decidedly somewhere far above the low-priced spread. In case you happen to be curious, James was paying very near to the eight K end of the spectrum, of course that included two other principals, but even so ... Despite our cold shoulder to him during the first days of our detail, he seemed satisfied so far.

As far as the business’ profitability... even though we were entering one of our weakest periods, we had seven jobs going down and continued to be rapidly filling our Christmas stockings (ie. The company savings account) so it looked to be good through the beginning of the New Year with twelve jobs already lined up for the first two months of next year and the possibility of eight more lingering within reach. Those jobs would max us out for our first two months, personnel wise, not necessarily income wise. We had over twenty more jobs lined up or nearly so for the March to June dates with only a few additional jobs each month needed to place us solidly in the green or even to take us into the blue on the spreadsheet. We would either “crack our nut” with the potential jobs we had or come close enough to it that nearly anything else would be profit. Any walk in’s or last second business would be the cream we could skim off the surface. That meant all we had to do was keep the cats, in the form of other security agencies, away long enough that we could gather all our mice into a nice tidy package. The New York region was already shaping up to be an almost instant break even if not showing a profit almost right away. It was nice to be wanted. Jobs still cleared through our central location but we handed off the ones which were nearest to our two new locations. Our first attempt in Canada would begin in a month and it would have it’s own phone number and do it’s own set ups. It was a stand-alone unlike our other locations here in the States.

That our number of jobs was rapidly climbing and most of our business was by referral, that told us a great deal about our client satisfaction. If we added in our support jobs and the occasional give away to other agencies or to the Feds we would normally find a balance between income and outflow which broke even in those areas so our special jobs for our ‘friends’ didn’t weigh too heavily on us. Publicity although infrequent was usually good so we felt we were coming out ahead on that score in the long run. Oh, and by publicity I don’t mean in the newspapers or television. The publicity we received was more referrals and an increasing client base and both were picking up. By now we had quite a few who would deal only with us even when they were going to be in other cities.

There was this one Russian government official who had visited over here a few times and been guided our way on his second or third visit. We ran his protection six times after that and he was so taken with our thoroughness and professionalism that he even asked us to tell him the second we had our European ... Well, you get the idea. We had the feeling he intended to act like a pimp for our Euro business. It took a while before I began to wonder how much he would take ‘off the top.’

We were paying our guys fairly well, ranging from 28K for a newbie to 70K a year for old hands who possessed ten or more registered talents. I know that’s a lot but it never hurts to pay people if you want to keep them. The team leads got another 5K above that.

Our newbies were trained up quickly so they began moving up the ladder adding to our capabilities and diversity. Ralph and I had spent some time discussing it all and decided our central business would be the one which, for now, would be responsible for training up our newbies before they were reassigned to one of the other cities. True, a lot of the training occurred in Virginia, but we had a number of old hands here who were good at mentoring and who didn’t want to move so that helped us make up our minds.

For the early to mid 1970s we were a company which paid extremely well and as a result we received fantastic loyalty from our agents. At the moment we were a little thin since we had four of them out of service, so to speak. They were presently receiving twenty eight weeks training in Europe. When they returned home, we would have them prepare our own training program for the rest of the guys gradually running each of my guys through it.

That would be advantageous for us since then we could simply run the rest of them through a twelve-week course which would get them certified over there so we could add them to those whom we had hired away from other European companies. The new certifications, of course, would need to wait until we had European sanction, which wouldn’t happen until we had personnel who were certified. A catch twenty-two of sorts which was designed to require the hiring and employ of European personnel. That was the reason why I was so interested in Jerry’s talents. He already had his certifications having received training and spending two years with a Swiss team. It should be a simple matter to use him to open the door on his re-certification and then shove some more guys right along behind him for their initial certs. In the end, we hired ten of the Swiss, five Germans, and a mix from five other countries to bring our European arm on line more quickly. Then we started adding American personnel as well as more from all parts of Europe. Getting timely info on each prospective employee was getting to be more difficult but our friends at Meade had a small team of us fly to Europe to meet with some of their other friends and counterparts which got the ball rolling very nicely. You’d be surprised how much it helps to have contact with the right people.

Payroll ... God, payroll each month was becoming crazy. Affordable, but crazy. With all that was happening, payroll was climbing. With all of our recent changes, increases in personnel and acquisitions of property in other cities (and countries), plus the increases in the numbers of agents and in the number of support personnel we were down to only two months of cash assets from our once high of ten. We were working on re-building it, however that didn’t stop me from worrying about it.

Then too, we needed several more people like Nicci. They were actually incredibly difficult to find. Most of the people who worked related positions at other companies really didn’t have a clue when it came to our operations and they probably should not have been in charge of the jobs they were doing in the companies they were in. We decided Nicci did really well at coordinating from our central location and although she was handling our other two cities as well, we liked the way our business model worked and that’s what prompted us to begin searching for a Nicci for each of our cities as well as intensifying the hunt for one and then, shortly thereafter, three for Europe. One for now even though we were still in what could be thought of as the early stages over there. I felt it would be better to bring a Nicci clone up with the growth of the business than to spring it all on someone fully grown, messed up and likely to drive them to distraction as they tried to get a handle on it. Turns out that was a wise decision.

The new office buildings in our coastal cities had been leased out so we were guaranteed enough income each month to use to pay the loans down and to handle the utilities and other less major expenses. That would also give our business locations the free rent we desired for our enterprises. We provided our tenants a lot of services for their money as well as generally lower leasing costs than most of the businesses who needed to make a sizable profit from their leases. That meant our tenants were happy with the arrangements and so were we. Generally, we were well below ten-percent empty-space in our buildings. That was nice since the norm at most places was twelve to fifteen even with these boom times, although we could see that the ‘boom’ was unlikely to last much longer.

Sorry I tend to think about a lot and diverge from my train of thought fairly often. Back to how this all came about ... James and I finished our evening at the University fund raiser so I asked one of the newbies to call for the car. Ten minutes later we were wheeling our way back to the safe house arriving about 11:30. He and I had a private talk until a little after midnight.

“I’ll fly Cathy up on the seventeenth and I’ll show up around the twenty-third or twenty-fourth. She can stay until after New Years, if that’s okay with you, and I’ll try to stay until then also. No guarantees, but at the moment it’s more likely than not. ‘Piye’ hasn’t planned on getting into anything over the holidays.”

I was thinking about presents and the need to add Cathy to the office list so his slip went right over my head for a few months until I played it back during one of our subsequent discussions three or four months later. I was still into planning how I could handle my guests and completely missed his reference as well as his next comment.

“ ... again?”

“I’m sorry, James. I was thinking about something and didn’t catch what you just said.”

“Oh ... Uh ... I was just wondering ... Lynnette ... could we start over as though I didn’t make a jerk out of myself?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Well, You say you’re going to remain female and I suppose that means you intend to go all the way and have some sort of surgeries to at least give you the appearance and everything. Hormones, the whole 9 yards. See, I’m not totally out to lunch concerning this sort of thing. I like your personality, and Cathy likes you. I ... Umm ... I was just wondering ... If I wasn’t such a jerk and really behaved myself, if maybe ... Uh ... maybe ... we could date a little?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Date? And, why is it you seem to know so much about this sort of thing?”

“Umm ... Well ... I’ve got a lady working for me in the development group who used to be a guy. She’s really good at software and I didn’t want to lose her so ... Well ... anyway I asked her if she minded if just she and I knew about her change and my insurance helped foot some of the bill for her while I made certain the company funded most of the rest as well as kept her on. Anyway, she stayed on. Same job, same salary but now female. It wasn’t really a problem since most of the developers didn’t meet with each other very much. They just pushed their software around for each other to work with and integrate. I was the one who usually met with each of them one-on-one so it was easy for me to say she had always been there, just off in another part of the building and working nights instead of days.

I told the others working days that I decided to move her into the slot which had been vacated by ‘her male personna’ when he ‘quit to take a job with another company’. She had federal clearances as a male and I just pushed at the... agency... for which I’d been doing special work so they made certain the name change wasn’t a problem. The two projects we had going for them gave them a little incentive to cooperate, especially when I explained that her work had been a major part of our products for them during the past two years. Her quality of work hadn’t changed just because she became female after all.

I also cleared the way with my day people by telling them that, ‘I don’t want any of you pestering her. She’s a little shy about having just been promoted but her work is quite good so she will fit right in.”

“If you say so boss. Can she handle the stuff Rivera was doing?”

“I think so. I’ve given her a hint about much of it over the past couple of months and she’s done pretty well. She came up with a lot of the same ideas and code that Rivera did. Maybe a little different but, what the heck, everyone can’t program everything identically.”

“Yeah. Sounds like she’ll fit right in. Okay, we’ll see how she’ll do. Maybe she’ll be able to kick out code that has some of the same idiosyncracies to it that Rivera’s did. He could come up with some of the most off-the-wall stuff that worked like lightning.”

“I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. As I said, during these last couple of months she pretty much matched the way he did things. She was a bit surprised to find someone thinking that way but seems to have been able to apply the same approach to other of her work. Very surprising lady.”

James segued from his relating of the woman who worked for him and back to my or our own situation, “And as to us ... Well ... uhh ... Maybe, You know, we could sort of like pretend we just met; you’re a girl, I’m a boy and maybe just ... date ... a little ... to see if we like similar things ... and, maybe, have some chances to talk more and ... well ... oh hell, I’m really messing this up.”

I reached out to touch his arm, “No, you’re not, go on.” What the hell was I saying?

“Well, like tonight. I really had fun. We were talking to others about our businesses but we were together and it was ... nice. I liked having you there holding onto my arm or my hand and smiling at me once in a while and just ... being close ... It was ... Comforting and ... Nice.”

He was trying hard not to act like a schoolboy asking for his first date but failing miserably. It was hard not to laugh as he tried to negotiate the minefield of asking for a date.

“ You’re repeating yourself. You really mean all that, don’t you?” I was flattered and shocked but it was kind of nice despite the fact he knew about my origins. Even if he didn’t quite believe me concerning them.

“Well ... Yeah. I don’t know why but I like it when you’re near and I just feel like something ... someone ... is missing when you’re not there. Then whenever you get angry with me I just can’t think and just ... I want ... You are ... I’m really messing this up. I’d say I had too much to drink except all I had was one glass of wine with dinner. That’s funny too, I usually have three or four glasses of wine but I don’t see you drinking and I don’t want to offend you so I don’t either.”

“But you would if I wasn’t around?”

“I ... don’t know. Maybe a glass but not three or four. You don’t drink do you?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Never?”

“No. Never.”

“Okay. Would it bother you if I have a glass with meals?”

“It would if we began dating. I won’t go out with someone who smokes either.”

“I don’t smoke.”

“I know.”

“You’d rather I didn’t drink at all?”

“If we continue to go together, which at this time we’re not. But if we were going to do so then I would ask you never to drink. That’s a major reason I won’t date someone.”

“Oh ... I see ... and if I stop altogether?”

“I might consider dating you long enough to see how we get along. If for no other reason than to see Cathy some more.”

“Cathy? ... ”

“Yes. She should be included if we go on dates. Not necessarily all of them but probably at least half anyway.”

“Okay ... I ... Lynnette, if I won’t drink anything could we go on a date tomorrow? I know Cathy isn’t here, but maybe we could continue again near Christmas, and then she could come along.”

“Tomorrow?” I was stunned. It was one thing to be considering this academically as something which might or might not occur at some indeterminate time in the future but ... tomorrow?

“Yes. Please. I promise not to be a jerk, or at least to try not to be one.”

I thought about that. This was all very weird. He knew I wasn’t a female but he wanted to go on a date. Then again, he also knew I intended to become female ... I shook my head as I was considering all this. It looked like I was saying no which caused him to get this obviously stricken look on his face.

“Okay, James. I have some work to do tomorrow morning but we could have a date in the late afternoon, casual?”

His face brightened again, “Okay, casual and maybe Friday we could go out to supper together. You pick some really nice place since I don’t know the area that well.”

“Do you like Italian?”

“Italian? Italian’s good.”

“Okay, I know a nice little place we could go to Friday that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. They prepare great food, and there’s always a space for people from our agency even when their business is packed beyond belief.”

“Will we be able to get in on short notice, Lynn?”

“Oh yes. They lease from us and we have an offer of a reserved table, there’s always someone from our group going there every few days.”

“Thanks Lynnette, Tomorrow afternoon - casual, then Friday for Italian. I’ll look forward to both. Thank you Lynnette. I’ll try not to make you regret the decision.”

“James, it’s nearly twelve-thirty and I need to get home. I have a lot to do tomorrow before I can even meet you for our date. I’m bushed. I need rest.”

He gave me his hand to help me up, then leaned down as he kissed my fingers before he released my hand allowing me to precede him out of the room. I asked one of my guys to call for a taxi but Bill had them bring up the limo to give me a ride home. As the car was coming around he helped me put on my mink, another minute or two and the lights from the limo could be seen crossing the front windows of the house as the car approached on the circular driveway. We walked out into a light snow and Bill opened the car door for me then closed it again behind me. I asked to be taken home which prompted a short question and answer session since this newbie didn’t know where I lived. He consulted a map then we headed on down toward the gate, stopping long enough for the tire spikes to be retracted. I was home by one-twenty and in bed by one-forty-five with the alarm set for seven so I could have a little rest.

The next morning I woke up wondering why I was awake since I had just put my head on the pillow. A second later my alarm went off nearly causing me to leap up. Terrific. Putting my hair up and covering it, I went through a rapid shower with the spray on pulse allowing the hot water to beat me soundly about my back, neck and shoulders slowly drawing the tension in my muscles down and out through the drain.

I considered it to be my good fortune that I didn’t need to shave anywhere, I’ve never had body or facial hair. Now I didn’t want any. While I was in the shower my mind was covering a few dozen topics, one of which fleeted across the vacant spaces of my mind concerned the alarm clock and wakening moments before the alarm became a shrill pest. I decided that the clock produced a ‘click’ sound which actually awakened me an instant before the clamor began but the speed at which my mind was working gave me an altered impression of how long I was awake before that clamor started. I finished drying and went to find clothes for the day.

Dressing semi-casual in a pant suit, I allowed my hair to hang long. It took longer to brush it this morning, must have been due to my tossing and turning all night. The bed was a wreck. Oh well, it was time to change it anyway. I had to be out of it as I couldn’t figure out what day it was until I looked at my newspaper which had somehow been delivered on time during the early morning.

Checking my mobile showed me a red battery light. Great. That meant I forgot to charge it last night, but then that was the reason I had a second charger at work and could also plug it into the cigarette lighter socket in my car to provide power for it. I needed to remember to obtain a third charger to keep with my suitcases for those times when I traveled. I wished, more than once, they had thought to build one into the large case they used for the damn thing. There had to be some room in there somewhere that they could have hidden one, the chargers aren’t all that big.

As I drove in to work, I kept thinking back to last night trying to figure out how I went from hating James guts to deciding to go out on two dates with him. I didn’t come up with any reasonable answers. Most of my thoughts were interrupted by the excitement of realizing I’d scheduled a date before I began worrying he might not like me, then starting to worry that he might. So far the only saving grace I had come up with was called Cathy.

I eventually became aware that my car’s autopilot had shut down which caused me to finally come to. Looking around in confusion for a few seconds until I realized that I was parked in a visitor’s slot in the front lot at work. Starting the engine, I drove around to the employee’s parking noting as I arrived that Nicci and Ralph’s cars were both there ahead of me. I yawned as I took the elevator up to the first floor as I considered briefly where the employee parking would be if we ever received enough rain to cause the building to slide down the hill. Sensibly, I decided it wouldn’t be a total catastrophe as we could just pave the area where the building had been previously located and make that the new lot. Damn, I needed more sleep ... and a huge pot full of coffee. My mental focus at the moment was anything but.

Standing in the building lobby, I looked around in some confusion, something didn’t seem quite right but I could quite place it. I took me about a minute to figure out that I got off on the wrong floor. I needed the next floor up. Again I hoped for some coffee and had to trust that by now Nicci would have some ready. If not, I guessed I could always eat some of the grounds while I waited for the rest to perk.

Taking the stairs I made it up to our floor then went in, my heels clicking staccato as I walked down the hall, across our entry and past the receptionist who also had made it in early. We mutually said “good morning” as I walked by, she didn’t even look up to see who I was. I was about to say “good morning” to Nicci as she gave me the strangest look which caused me to stop cold. She came out from behind her desk, grabbed my hand and half dragged, half led me into the lady’s room away from that wonderful aroma of a caffeinated beverage I so desired while I wondered what the hell this was all about.

“Are you all right?” She held me facing her, looking into my eyes with concern.

I stared at her, “Yes, the last time I checked. I’ll be better after a couple of cups of COFFEE.”

She gave me a look as though I wasn’t all there then turned me toward the mirror, “See anything that doesn’t look quite right?”

I briefly thought she had gone off the deep end but decided to humor her and looked at myself in the mirror. I started to say, ‘I don’t see anything wro’ when I discovered two immediate problems. The easiest one to fix would be the lack of mascara, which I thought I had put on at home. The more difficult one would be to remove the mascara where my eye shadow should have been, I almost screamed.

Covering my eyes with my hands I started shaking my head, “I’m losing it. Is there any coffee ready?”

“Start cleaning your face, I’ll bring the coffee.”

I grabbed paper towels, making the mental note that we needed to install a small closet here which held wash cloths and towels. Running warm water to wet the towel, I began to wash my face while trying not to splash my pants suit with the now tainted water. My mind began working in overdrive trying to remember and detect how many more mistakes I might have made as I was getting ready for work. With the way my luck was going today I probably brushed my hair with my toothbrush.

A quick check showed everything else seemed pretty much okay. The shoes didn’t match my pant suit but they were a very near black and marginally acceptable, the blouse was a stretch but fortunately not altogether out of it. My face was improving, then I again remembered the long time I had brushing my hair. Not seeing any toothpaste in it, I begin to worry I might have used the mascara brush on it or something else equally depressing.

Nicci returned with coffee and I gulped down nearly the whole cup in four swallows and in about as many seconds.

“Is my hair okay?”

Nicci took a good look, “Yes. What happened? You usually look a lot better.”

“Rough night. Even my bed was a wreck. I don’t know why. I remember going to bed a little after 1:30 and waking up a few moments before the alarm. The night went by in a flash, guess my mind didn’t shut down.

“Anything special or just ‘bad food’?”

“Bad foo ... Oh. No, the meal was very good. Which reminds me, we might have a few jobs coming our way due to the contacts I made last night. I’ll try to detail it all in a head’s up so you will be pre-informed should we receive any calls.”

“Okay, Lynn. This just isn’t like you, so I thought maybe there was a problem. Just not enough sleep, huh?”

“Or something else.”

Her eyebrows rose up at my comment, “What sort of a ‘something else’?”

“I’m not certain where to start.”

“You were okay yesterday. So let’s start with when you went home to get ready for the Uni. thing.”

“That went okay. So did everything else with the Uni. It’s the conversation after we returned to the safe house that kind of shifted things into the twilight zone.”

She moistened and soaped another paper towel and as gently as possible cleaned away some more of my offending mascara, rinsing it off with another wet towel. I’m glad we use the soft white foldy kind and not the paper rolls which I’ve always felt were hard and scratchy and smelled funny.

She finished then looked at me expectantly, “and?” she prompted.

“And James and I talked for about an hour or so.”

“You talked for an hour. Let’s see, you were okay after the U. event, but not after going home. Looks to me like that hour’s worth of conversation is somehow important to this story. Spill it, what happened?”

“We talked ... ”

“Yes, you already said that. What did you talk about?”

“Cathy. And him ... and me.”

“And? Come on girl. Something’s wrong.”

“Ah ... we ... ... sort of made a date.”

“What? What do you mean you ‘made a date’?”

A look of sudden comprehension crossed her face, “Oh no. You didn’t. You have a date with that jerk? What were you thinking?”

My explanation poured out in a river, it was like I was trying to get as many words out as I could before Nicci interrupted me.

“It’s not like that. As we talked I figured out he isn’t as bad as I thought. He’s just ... overwhelmed and worried his daughter is going to grow up all warped without a Mommy to help her grow up. I invited them here for Christmas through New Years. Cathy will arrive almost a week prior to Christmas and I figured I’d add her to our office Christmas party for the kids. She and James will stay at my place during that time since I have spare rooms. I think she’ll have fun.”

“Okay. Cathy for Christmas is fine, but tell me more about this ‘date’ you have with Mr. Thompson.”

“Well, I’m not certain. That’s this afternoon and is casual but I don’t know what he has on his mind. Tomorrow evening we are eating downstairs.”

“You have two dates with him?” she stared at me dumbfounded. She felt my forehead, “Nope, not a fever. Darn, I guess it’s a momentary lapse of sanity. Be careful girl, leopards ... ”

“ ... don’t change their spots,” we said at the same time.

“That’s right Lynn. Be careful, he has to have a hidden agenda.”

“Oh, I don’t think it’s hidden. I think he is still trying to get me to take the position as mother to Cathy. Which, actually, I don’t believe I would mind. She’s a pretty terrific little girl.”

“Watch it Lynn, so far I’d say his tactics are working. She’s coming up for Christmas through New Years and he’ll be up for part of that time too. God, I knew we were in trouble the moment you kissed him.” A look of horror crossed her face momentarily, “You didn’t kiss him again, did you?”

“No.”

“Thank God for small favors.”

“Any more of this?” I held my coffee cup up hoping to distract this throwback to the Spanish inquisition.

“Until the guys get to it, a whole pot. Come on, go plain vanilla today. You look good enough without make up.”

I checked myself in the mirror again, still wondering about my lapse of sanity.

“You’re certain nothing else is really messed up?”

“Nothing as bad as your eyes were. I question your clothing selection since you are usually impeccable but you’ll do. No meetings or special events scheduled. You need to stay away from James though, he’s an evil influence.”

“He promised not to be a jerk.”

“Yeah? Then why are you so messed up this morning? Come on and get another cup of coffee before the pot’s empty. Your morning stuff is on your desk. Take a look at the New York report first, and Ralph wants that meeting as soon as you both are in.”

“Something bad happen in New York?” I really wasn’t ready for that.

“No. I think it’s something good but I don’t have the whole picture on the New York thing yet. You’d be in a better position to decide.”

“I suppose Ralph’s meeting has to do with the calls he got from Lucy?”

“I think so. Who’s Lucy?”

“One of the high muckety-mucks with one of the government agencies we deal with. I’ll need to talk it over with them before I can tell you any more.”

“Oh. Okay, classified shit, huh?”

“Uh... Something like that.”

“Does this have anything to do with what some of the guys have talked about every now and then?”

“What kind of talk?”

“Something about all the agents being members of a military reserve.”

“Nicci. For now, forget you ever heard them talking and if you hear any of them again remind them not to say anything.”

She looked at me then frowned for a moment, “If you bring me into the know on this, does that mean I’ll need to be a member of this reserve unit too?”

I hesitated before I said anything, “I don’t know. Nicci, that’s all I can say for now. Don’t push it. Is there any more of this?” I held up my coffee cup.

Nicci led me out of the ladies room going to the coffee pot where I drained next to the last cup from the pot. Nicci gave me an ‘I told you so’ stare before she began to make another twenty cups. First thing in the morning that twenty cup pot went dry pretty quickly. We all drank so much coffee every day that I began to consider we should invest in futures, or whatever it is they have for coffee.

Retiring to my office, I elected to hide for a while as I immersed myself in work. Around twenty reports later Nicci barged in with more and took the ones I’d completed.

“Lynn, are you expecting any investigation into our capabilities during the day today as a result of your networking last night?”

I thought about the conversations, “Not really. Most of it was several months down the road. I was trying for more for our two new cities and our March through June here. Why?”

“Just wondering. I got a call from our contact at the FBI who said some Senator had made inquiries about the business in the wee small hours of this morning.”

I laughed, surprised, “Yes. That was one of the contacts. That’s fast. I thought the potential jerk ... er ... God, I need more sleep and more coffee. I meant job, was two or three months away. He did say something about ‘spur of the moment needs’ occasionally cropping up, but nothing specific was mentioned. I didn’t expect inquiries so soon. I’ll put together my contacts report and get it to you before lunch.”

“Then you better hurry. Lunch started about half an hour ago.”

I looked over at the clock which cheerfully showed me the little hand was between the twelve and the one and the big hand was on thirty-four. I dropped my shaking head into my hands, groaning as I did so.

“Boss, if you don’t mind, I’m hungry and I was waiting for you. If you’re not going out then I’m off for some food.”

“Let me get my purse and lock up these reports. I’m losing it.”

“Lynn, that’s twice now, and both times were after contact with Thompson. Is he some kind of drug?”

“I hope not. I really don’t want to become addicted to him.”

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Nicci and I passed Ralph as we were on our way out. He was just coming in along with four of the guys from another detail.

“Hi Lynn, you look great as usual. Late lunch?”

“Yes, and thanks, I needed that.”

“I heard you’re going skiing with our favorite principal this afternoon.”

“Skiing? Thanks for the heads-up. I didn’t know what we were doing. I’ll be certain to take my stuff with me. I’ll have a couple of reports for you after lunch,” I yelled back, as Nicci and I went out the entrance hall door into the cold and the snow, the deep cool in that moderately sized, weather buffering room preparing us to expect the cold outside.

“Do we need the car?”

“I thought we might just walk the block, Lynn. I’d like to go to that little place on the corner and have a salad.”

“That sounds good.” I quickly agreed. It was far wiser not to talk but to just keep myself warm until we reached our destination.

Even with the traction overlays on my low pumps I didn’t have quite so good a grip on the sidewalk as did Nicci’s boots but I made it without any unforseen, or possibly foreseen mishaps. While eating we talked about men in general and continued to plan some of the Christmas party activities. I learned we needed to contact an alternate Santa this year as our regular had an out of town engagement at his niece’s house. He had given us the name and number for two alternates.

Nicci indicated the second name on the list, “I’m hoping for that second one in particular. He’s supposed to have a sleigh and eight reindeer that might thrill the kids and make for great pictures, I’ll call him when we get back. I won’t be surprised if we can’t get him though, he probably books months in advance but we can give it a try.”

“Also book him for next year on Christmas Eve afternoon, Nicci. Two hours should do it. See how he charges his time. For the reindeer, sleigh and him we could go up to 4K but don’t tell him that. Get all his info and let me know. Tell him we’ll let him know tomorrow morning unless there’s some kind of rush for it ... Your judgement ... ”

“I hope we get him, my six year old niece would love it.”

“Your niece?”

“My sister’s kid.”

“Anyone on staff have kids in the three to four year old range?”

“Sure, about a quarter to a third of the ones who are married. Half the staff are married with children.”

“Where have I been?”

“Busy.”

“Well, now I’ve got a three and a half year old to bring to the party.”

“They’ll welcome you and her with open arms. Just wait until she starts school. I hope you’re up on crayon , spelling and arithmetic. Oh, and you better practice jacks and jump rope too.”

“Nicci, she isn’t my daughter.”

“Uh huh ... Oh ... and review Aesop’s fables, the Brother’s Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.”

“Nicci, what are you trying to tell me?”

“Not a thing, Mommy. Not a thing.”

I folded my hands over my tummy, “Does it show?” I asked in jest.

“Not yet, Mommy.”

The waitress overheard that part of our conversation as she came over to pour us more coffee, “Congratulations. When’s it due?”

I replied, “She’s already arrived, I’m afraid,” which confused her and started Nicci laughing hysterically.

We paid for our salads, after leaving a tip for the waitress then cautiously made our way back to the office. I was in much less of a fog than I had been this morning. By two I finished my work, had a joint conference with Ralph and Nicci before I left the office in their capable hands.

The conference with Lucy only took forty minutes, twenty minutes of which was spent with Ralph bringing me up to speed while we tried to fit into Lucy’s schedule via a speaker-phone call. The conference with her took only ten minutes and then we spent ten more trying to act on her needs. Fortunately Ralph already had some of our European agents working on the problem.

It seems three of the suspects involved in the Munich massacre of September ‘72 were believed to be back in Europe and we were one of three agencies which was trying to track them. All data to be reported to our friends and what they did with it wasn’t our purview. We were just supposed to “find and track”.

One of the suspects was killed during the fourth day we were tailing the individuals. The other two departed Europe and were killed a few days later. That made me suspect our government was trading knowledge with a particular other agency but at least we didn’t have a direct link to them. As for Nicci and her role to play in future events, I was told I could bring her up to speed and if it was deemed necessary by those higher on the food chain than Lucy happened to be then she would let us know if the conscription of Nicci (full name, and social security number requested at the time of our conference call) was to occur so I could break the news to her gently.

After we finished our call I let Ralph update our European agents as I dashed home to pick up my ski stuff before driving myself to the safe house where James was being housed. Using my mobile, which I had charged while working in my office, I phoned in then waited for the tire spikes to retract and the gate to open so I could drive up to the house. I wondered briefly why they called them spikes when they were actually more like a claw designed to rip and shred not just puncture? As I reached the door I was greeted by a newbie who allowed me to go inside where it was warm before he halted me. He began patting me down as I looked at him strangely. A voice piped up, “What the hell are you doing, Jim? Trying to impress the boss?” The newbie looked around at the source of the voice,

“Just doing what I was told, boss.”

“I’m not the boss, she is. Sorry about that, Lynn. Some of the newbies don’t know you by sight yet,” he scowled at Jim who stepped back from me in confusion.

I held out my hand, “Welcome to the organization Jim. I’m Lynnette.”

He had this confused look on his face as he took my hand giving it a gentle shake.

I continued, “You must be one of the new hires from the past couple of weeks. Sorry I haven’t had time to meet you all by now but for this time of year we’ve been pretty busy. Married?”

“Huh?” Was his well thought out reply.

“Are you married?” I almost spelled out each word for him.

“Uh, no. I have a girlfriend. We’re talking about maybe next year if I do okay at the job.”

“Fair enough. I’ll pull your folder when I go back to the office. Anything special I should know? Anything which maybe isn’t in the folder yet?”

“I don’t think so ... I minored in computer science. I have a misdemeanor conviction for hacking, but I’m off probation and since it wasn’t a felony I’m still eligible to carry and do all the normal stuff. I was a kid when that happened.”

I looked at him thinking he was still a kid. God, I was beginning to feel old. I needed to raise a family soon. Twenty years of seeing them grow up would put me in my fifties. Those feelings I’d been suppressing these past couple of years must be those of impending motherhood. Cathy must be bringing them to the forefront now. I sighed. Maybe James really was seeing something I’d missed, except he looked like he was about three or four years younger than myself. Then and there I made myself a promise to learn his age.

I asked, “Is Jim any good on the computers?”

“He hasn’t been tried on them yet.”

“After this detail ends, pair him with Phillip for a couple of weeks. I want to know more and I want a supplementary report in his folder.”

My mind was looking forward to our full sanction in the European Theater and possible team members to add to our advance team which presently would be nearly all Europeans whom we were still in the process of hiring. The older agent nodded his head. The newbie stood there like he had been turned to stone.

“Speak any foreign languages?”

“Uh, er, yeah.”

I waited for a few seconds and then slowly lowered my head as I asked,
“Okayyy ... so what are they and how well do you speak them?”

“OH! Uh, French and Spanish.”

“And ... ?”

“Uh, just French and Spanish.”

“How well?”

“Oh, sorry. Uh, French is high school French. Never tried talking with a native speaker. Spanish is from Mexico but school taught. Pretty good at that. Probably have an accent but I understand it just fine.”

Just as I was saying, “Get that into his folder if it isn’t there already,” the front door opened and several agents entered with James in the middle.

“Hi Lynn,” greeted me from several sources, “The newbie try to feel you up yet?”

I looked back at the kid who’s face blushed.

“Ah, he did. Damn, and he’s still standing. Must be tougher than I thought.” one of the older agents said.

The kid blushed even redder.

“Good Afternoon, Lynnette. I’m pleased you’re here,” James shmoozed.

I made a point of smelling his breath, “have you been drinking?”

“Not a drop, as these gentlemen will attest. Not even with lunch.”

“That must be a first.”

“Aw, Lynnette. I thought we agreed, no fangs or claws, just two days of being nice to each other.”

“I am being nice, James. If I wasn’t, you’d be in the hospital.” I smiled before I took his arm leading him into the living room.

The confused newbie was asking, “Who’s Lynnette? I clue she works in the office, but what does she do?” which got him a big laugh from the older guys. James and I were talking having just sat down on the couch in the living room when someone finally told the newbie who I was. I heard him almost shout, “I was patting down the owner? Crap.”

I smiled then turned back to the conversation with James.

He had changed his mind about us skiing. This was due to two reasons: One, he had already put in four hours on the advanced slopes and; Two, it was beginning to snow more than just lightly. We opted for staying warm, safe, and talking. He excused himself long enough to go change, returning fifteen minutes later with that strange heavy suitcase he brought along. I call it strange because there was a connection on the side where the receptacle end of a power cord could be plugged.

He found a place for us to sit in the family room which was near an outlet, then opened the case taking out a long power cord which he placed into that socket then into the wall outlet. Returning, he raised an antenna which was about four or five feet long then began to fiddle with the switches and controls. That made me think of a ‘mad scientist’ playing in his laboratory. At first I thought this was some kind of extra large mobile but then I nixed that idea since it had what looked like a typewriter keyboard mounted in it. There was a TV screen in the lid that didn’t fit quite right, and I wondered how they did that since there was no room for the neck of the tube to stick out the back of the lid.

I was about to back away a bit just in case it or he decided to do something strange as the screen in the lid slowly lit up like a TV would if it didn’t have that ‘instant on’ feature some of the newer sets were offering. I thought it was kind of funny he would carry a TV with him everywhere he went but then TVs didn’t have that keyboard either. He caught me staring at the screen.

“The reason that looks so strange is because it’s a replacement screen and doesn’t quite fit where the original was located. The case was dropped once and the screen shattered. These side beam screens are a lot more fragile than the ones they use which have the neck located behind them.”

Some kind of weird list began to appear on the screen and he started tapping in selections on the keyboard. Finally a scene appeared on the screen and what looked like a home movie began flickering for us to watch. We spent the next couple of hours watching his home movies taken of Cathy, some of which were with her mother. I have no idea how all that film could have been kept inside the suitcase. Maybe it was all microfilm of some kind. At first I thought the whole thing it might be a video player but he never changed any reels. The quality wasn’t terrific but the movies were easy to make out if you pulled back from the screen a bit. After I gave it a little thought, he never changed the reels of film either. I wondered how that was done. One movie would end and he would tap some more keys then another would begin.

He provided a running commentary as we watched. He, obviously, was very proud of his daughter and it wasn’t an act, he really did love her. When he forgot he was all grown up, they had a lot of fun playing at games she wanted to play. He even held Rebecca for her while she poured “tea”. He held Rebecca, not well, but held her. I think he is one of these fathers who would hold their newborn upside down unless shown how to do it, and then he might do it anyway just because he was so nervous. Watching the movies, I placed Cathy’s intellectual development at somewhere around six or seven maybe a stretch at eight, so she was roughly twice as far along as her chronological years would indicate. I needed to adjust the presents we were going to obtain for her for Christmas. Some to appeal to her age and some to her intellect.

James and I ate supper at the house, giving his suitcase time to cool a bit while it remained connected to the power outlet. That allowed it’s fan to continue running while the rest of it was off. I noted the case got pretty warm when it was in use. Partway through supper, he went back to the other room to collect the case again, lugging it into the dining room where he carefully placed it on the buffet. I was gritting my teeth as he did it afraid the weight of his case might crack the inch thick marble top but it held up well and he placed his case down gently which thankfully didn’t scratch my marble. Even so I had gritted my teeth as I saw the case landing on the thirteen thousand dollar slab of marble. Maybe I shouldn’t spend so much money on making the safe houses look quite so nice. Then again, we did frequently have people staying in them who had enough money that they expected the quality of presence that sort of thing offered.

He played with the keys again and was soon rewarded with an image of his daughter eating her supper at home. She brightened when she glanced off to the side and, I presume, saw us on some other suitcase or something like it. She waved at us while she looked to the side. That shocked the hell out of me. Somehow we were actually looking at each other and she had to be back at their home. The three of us engaged in a light conversation just as though we were a real family sitting together at the dining table although the sound wasn’t all that good, nor that loud. Sometimes the image broke up a bit, sort of like TV used to do back in the fifties when the tuner knob wasn't quite set right. That made me think about TV now and how spoiled I was since all I had to do now was set the selector to the channel number.

Shortly after we finished our meal, my mobile began ringing for the third time this evening. I finally picked up the case then wandered into another room to open it and return the call.

“Lynn? Nicci! I’ve been trying to reach you all evening. We need to act now if we want that new Santa with the reindeer. He’s all booked up except for noon to four the day before Christmas. He spends two hours with the kids and the first and fourth hours are spent in set up and tear down. The cost is three grand for the two hours with the kids.”

“Okay with me. Lock him in. Nicci? Ask him if he is has any time just prior to or immediately following that noon booking, if so, ask him if he would make it ten to four or noon to six or whatever with four hours with the kids for a total of six grand? If he won’t or can’t then accept the four hours at three grand. Also see if we can prebook him for next year both three weeks prior to Christmas to interview the kids and again on Christmas morning from eight to noon to hand out presents instead of the afternoon before.”

“Got it. I’ll call you back later.”

“Just leave it on my answering machine at home and I’ll pick it up when I get there. Thanks Nicci. Anything else shaking?”

“That Senator has been doing a lot of checking, or at least he has someone checking. We’ve had three more calls from friendly sources.”

“Put him on our hot list and start a folder. I’ll try to remember everything that was said and get it to you tomorrow. Tell Phillip and Grace to start in on him and assign a couple of our other researchers. I want to know why he’s so interested in our business so quickly.”

“Can do. How’s the jerk?”

“Kind of nice, actually. We’ve been watching home movies of Cathy growing up. Leave a memo on my desk to look for some appropriate presents for her.”

“Presents for a four year old, got it.”

“No ... Presents for Cathy. Intellectually I’d place her more at about seven or eight despite her physical age.”

“Ahh ... Only child, over taught, and expected to be an adult presents?”

“Something like that, but with some of the one’s to remind her to be a little girl too.”

“This is bad, I’m beginning to like the jerk.”

“Me too, Nicci. Lock in Santa and go home. See you tomorrow morning.”

“I am home. As I said, I’ve been trying to reach you for a while. It's seven thirty. Bye, Boss.”

I clicked my phone back into standby then elected to attach and plug in the charger once again since I didn’t do it last night and only had a few hours of charge on it from at the office today. When I returned to the dining room I discovered James was getting up from his now empty coffee cup and going over to pick up the suitcase so he could walk into the living room where I had just completed my conversation with Nicci. We went back to watching home movies as we continued to talk.

“So that’s her mother. What was she like?”

“Nothing like you, if that’s what you’re wondering... We met in college while I was completing my doctorate in computer science. She was just completing her bachelors in humanities and I was in my last year at the college as well as working the first year of my business.”

I already knew a little about this from the background check Phillip, Grace, Joanne and Tom had managed to find during their investigations. That coupled with information my other people had been able to extract from here and there helped to fill in the picture.

“How did you find the time?”

He laughed, “It wasn’t easy. I was eating, drinking and sleeping computers but somehow she was always there and we went out together for an hour here or an hour there. She was vivacious, always working the crowd. She made certain the right people knew about the direction of my research and she was instrumental in securing grants to help with the funding. After she finished her degree we spent a year working together and finally spent a night in bed. We were married a month later. We were in love, happy and the business was beginning to take off. It occupied us for a couple of years until Amanda wound up pregnant. I was scared to death but excited as well ... I wanted the business to be further along so we could have a fairy tale life but it was okay. I wanted a family... I want a family.”

“What happened?”

“We... We worked very hard to bring the business up more quickly. By now I had more than two dozen employees and we were creating code for some of the big boys. One of the more popular multi-faceted applications used in business is entirely our work although we were a sub-contractor so it’s marketed under the name of the company which paid us to develop the applications. They own the code outright so they have made several changes to the original by now. Some bad, mostly good.”

“What about Amanda and Cathy?”

He was silent for a bit. Finally he began talking again, a little more subdued and pensive.

“Amanda had a difficult time of it during the birth. At one point it was touch and go but she made it and came home with our baby girl a couple of weeks later. Cathy was marvelous and you could see how much Amanda loved her. The movies show that, too. Cathy became precocious, Amanda’s doing, she somehow could instill knowledge into the baby and Cathy was able to recognize each of us very quickly. She seldom cried but was bubbly and interested in absolutely everything. Toy’s could hold her interest for hours. She would fall asleep playing and wake up continuing as though the nap was just a lull. We couldn’t help but love her.”

I was about to pointedly ask what happened when he continued.

“Amanda was sick a lot after the birth, so we knew something was wrong. The doctors tested and tested but couldn’t find anything. Six months after the birth she had a radical hysterectomy. It didn’t help, and she continued to go downhill. She died a little after Cathy was a year old. Now Cathy fixates on any woman who’s hair is a similar colour.”

A sudden change of direction occurred as he asked, “Is that your real hair or is it a wig?”

“This is a fall, my own hair is the same colour and they were woven together just the other day. In about three or four months I will need to have it changed and, if it’s recoverable, it could be woven into my own hair again for another three to four months. Eventually my own hair will grow out to this length. My own hair is only about 9 to 10 inches long at the moment.”

“It’s very convincing. When you told me in your conference room that you weren’t a female, I couldn’t believe it. That’s why I wanted to kiss you, so I could decide. It convinced me you were female but for some reason wanted me to think you weren’t. Completely fooled me.”

“That wasn’t my intent.”

“I understand. Amanda was five years younger than myself. At a guess I’d say you’re maybe two years older?”

“I’m twenty nine.”

“I’m only one year younger then... I’m sorry I put you through all that crap I handed out. I’m afraid I don’t have many social graces even though I did learn to network. Amanda was a good teacher.”

He went into another quiet time and I could see the wistful memories flickering behind his eyes. He came around again after thirty or forty seconds.

“I hope I’m not being a bore or worse.”

“Actually James, no you’re not. I’m interested in hearing all this. So you had decided on an older woman for your next wife? Or did you think someone like me would be a safer choice?”

“Oh God, no... WAIT... ” he nearly panicked, “that didn’t come out the way I meant it. I like you... as a person. Damn... I like you as a woman, too. Why can’t I get this right?”

I nodded my acceptance of the compliment, however left handed.

“Aw, crap. I’m mucking this up. I told you I don’t have many social graces... especially when dealing with a woman. I admit, I thought you were... are... a woman. And I also knew Cathy would like you because of the colour of your hair and then she would begin to like your personality. You’re alive, vibrant... you seem to cheer a room and are easy going while still very businesslike. Different from Amanda but the same in some ways. Cathy likes you and she lets you know what she thinks. God, sometimes I think she must be an adult. If she doesn’t like someone then she likely never will. Yes, when I thought you were a female the thought also crossed my mind more than once that you could possibly take the job of being a mother to her... ”

“Take the job? Is that how you think of it? Being a Mother isn’t a job, James. And neither is being a Father. If it’s a job, then the child won’t receive the love she needs to grow and mature properly. Food, rest and exercise help her body to grow, but love helps her soul to grow. Someone, to whom it is a job, can’t give the love needed to nourish the soul nor the mind of the child, and it takes a lot of love.”

“I know. I understand that. It’s just an unfortunate choice of words on my part. Again, because of my poor social graces. I’m at my wit’s end. She has gone without a mother for nearly two and a half years and I’m at a bad time in the development of my company. We have a radical new concept in software and hardware which we are developing and which we are about to demonstrate to both the government and the military. We have a contract with the government to provide... Well... We are acting in a software support capacity on a... special project. As a result, my time is consumed and will be for at least six more months. I need more time with my daughter but I need it with my business too. It’s very difficult.”

“I understand, James. My own company is going through some serious expansion pains just now. We are moving into three new cities and have added roughly forty-five percent to the size of our staff in just the last four months. We hope to double in size again within the next year. We are likely less than four months from moving into Europe, in fact we are already hiring and working there but the company has no real presence there yet. Just like you, my time isn’t my own. Then on top of all that I decided to finally switch to being the real me and I’m trying to get that started. It isn’t easy.”

“When did you make the change in public?”

“The same day we came to your office and then you came to mine and kissed me.”

“It was a pretty nice kiss.”

“Thank-you. It was a bit of a surprise for me.”

“Lynn... Would you... mind... if I had another?”

I began to reply, “I don’t think that would be... ” when he leaned over, lacing his lips on mine.

I stopped talking as my eyes once again went wide for a moment then closed once again of their own volition. This time my arms went around his neck and his folded around my waist. I’m not certain how long we stayed like that, there were several small breaks for air, but we didn’t draw back even when we finished kissing. We stood there just holding on to each other relishing the warmth of the physical contact, our foreheads touching even if our lips weren’t any longer.

“Wow,” escaped my lips quietly. I started to pull away but he just held on for a few more seconds or so. I was thinking about going for another kiss that was a bit more substantial if there was such a thing, as he began to release me placing his hand up against the side of my face, lightly touching me as I pressed my face into his hand. He was looking into my eyes intently. I wondered briefly why I hadn’t ever felt this sort of thing when I kissed a girl. Was I Gay? His hand left my face but he continued to stare into my eyes. His were actually quite pretty when he was smiling.

“Christmas?” he asked quietly.

“What?” I asked even more quietly.

“We may come for Christmas?”

I began to gather my wits, “Oh... Yes... Christmas. I’m hiring a new Santa Claus for this year’s party. I think Cathy will enjoy him. The party is all about the kids.”

“That would be nice. Could we spend a little time together, too?”

“Well... of course. It would be a bit difficult not to be together since we will all be in the same house.”

“I think that will be nice. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Me too,” I whispered, then began to wonder exactly what I was looking forward to. Why didn’t even come into the equation until much later.

“James... ”

“Yes?”

“I... ” leaning forward I put my arms around his neck again and my lips on his as I closed my eyes and began to kiss him again. His arms automatically went around me once more. His lips tasted really nice. I could smell his aftershave and suddenly realised I was kissing a man - and I liked it. His tongue touched my lips, I opened my mouth slightly so my tongue could touch his and we explored. It was like an electric shock was going through my body. Wow... I... I... He...

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Once again time seemed to be displaced. I don’t know why we stopped our kissing but if I was complete right now I would be ready to lead him upstairs and get down to business. I didn’t want to go home. When we finished kissing we again stood there forehead to forehead quietly holding each other. My eyes were closed and my thoughts were going through thermal meltdown. Part of me was wondering why I had never felt like this when I kissed a girl and another part was saying, “Who cares?”

He started to let go which caused me to tighten my arms a little drawing his around my waist yet again. I didn’t want to let go. His arms were warm, he smelled wonderful, there was a great heat between us and the world didn’t matter. My eyes were still closed. I started thinking about the fifteen pounds I needed to lose, and my derriere was too big, my one ear was a little lower than the other, my ear lobes didn’t match, my nose was too big and a thousand more things which might make him not like me. Then I began to wonder why he did. I finally discovered I was deep breathing like I’d just finished running a mile.

Slowly my arms unwrapped from around his neck, my eyes opened again and I looked into his as I moved back a little whispering, “Wow.”

He smiled. He had a really nice smile. He helped me to the couch, “before you fall down,” he said quietly.

We sat there while he held my hands together in his. We just sat there for the longest time. This was different, this was nice ... This was ... I don’t know how long we sat there quietly, but when I began to come around again and noticed my surroundings it was nearly nine and I was in no condition to drive home.

He guided me upstairs, “You need some sleep, Lynn.”

He helped me remove my shoes then tucked me, fully clothed, into bed. He was leaving toward the door when I said, “James, please wait. I won’t and can’t do anything tonight but, please, would you just sleep next to me tonight? JUST sleep?”

He looked at me for a minute then took off his shoes and crawled into the bed with me. I cuddled against him, my cheek against his shoulder, my arm across his chest and eventually I went to sleep breathing in the smell of his aftershave.

Other than awakening a couple of times during the night in shock that I was sleeping next to him, nothing happened. I visited the bathroom once then crawled back into bed seeking his warmth. I felt him move around during the night as well but didn’t really awaken more than enough to know he had been moving. I had some really strange dreams ... well, maybe not so strange for a woman.

Early in the night I shed my blouse and pants, sleeping in my pantslip and camisole. I awakened in the morning to discover him gently rubbing the nipples of my breast forms through my camisole and bra. What surprised me was I could feel it a bit as the motion and touch of his fingers transferred through the form and onto my chest. It wasn’t unpleasant. As I awakened he leaned over me giving me a kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck and a moment later discovered he was wearing only his underpants. He slid over on top of me and I spread my legs to allow him to assume the dominant position. He was holding most of his weight off of me.

“See how nice it could be to have a husband in bed with you?”

“I never said it wasn’t. But until I’m completely female it isn’t going to happen.”

“It’s happening now.”

“You aren’t my husband, and if I start screaming, an army will pour through that door locked or not.”

“Couldn’t we just pretend for a few seconds?”

I thought about that then raised into him, folding my legs around him. It did feel nice.

I released my hold pulling back again, “Let me up. I need to go home to change so I can get into the office, I have work to do.”

“Could I go with you? I need to talk with my office if I could borrow your conference room. Your office is higher than this location so I'm hoping the signal there will be better.”

“Okay. How does that suitcase work? And you need to let me up.”

He rolled off me, then I reluctantly got up going to check my hair and use the amenities in the bathroom. When I returned, he was shaving with a cordless. He wandered into the bathroom as I pulled on my pants and tucked in my blouse. The low heels went back on my stocking feet then I dug into my purse for my mascara and lipstick. Going over to the vanity, the lights clicked on and I did my minimal for the day. It was just beginning to become light outside, the clock said seven fifteen.

“James, I’m going downstairs. I need to get my jacket and check my car. It sat out all night.”

“Okay. I’ll be down in a minute.” he called back to me.

Exiting his room, I traipsed downstairs to pull my jacket from the closet, put it on and zipped it before I went out to see if I still had a car. It wasn’t too bad, I could still see some color poking out from under the mound of snow. I’d seen a lot worse. By now my gloves were on and I began pushing snow away from the exhaust pipe, off of the hood, and away from the front grille. I unlocked the car which took a bit of warm breath and hands on to release the key cover. After five or six tries I was able to unlock the door then began fighting with it trying to get it open. One of the guys happened along and he yanked on it a couple of times, nearly removing the handle but he managed to open the door. It swung open easily once the ice had been broken loose and the snow was out of the way.

After three reluctant attempts the engine started, it only took a few seconds before I was happily rewarded with it’s purr. While the engine warmed, I begin to knock the snow off the top of the car becoming more cautious when my hand hit the ski rack causing me to suddenly remember it was hidden under the snow along with a couple of sharp poles. Again I fought with the car until the trunk lid finally opened so I could obtain my rubber scraper which I used as gently as possible to remove snow from the windows. It was made to squeegee water off the windows after a rain but it doubled nicely as a snow remover. Not so good for ice though as I discovered one day last year when I scored a mark across my windshield.

The engine had a couple of minutes to warm up so I switched on the defroster and heaters. The seats had built in coils and the rest of the car had forced heat as well as heating coils which were in the rear windows. That was especially nice since the rear windows were covered with sheet ice as well as the little snow which had been sticking to them.

Looking into the monitor for the pursuit camera nothing was visible but a blur. Going to the back I discovered the lens of the camera was blocked with an accumulation of snow. My rolled up kerchief made short work of that, I needed to remember to put a box of Q-tips in the glove box. The camera was now clear of snow, but the image was still a little blurry. I had wished more than once that the camera was inside the car looking out the rear window but then it couldn’t see things close behind the car. The windshield wipers now made short work of whatever snow or ice remained on the windshield. They just pushed it around at first but the defrosters finally heated the glass enough that the wipers were able to fling the stuff off. I switched from the defroster to heat to begin warming the interior of the car. Everything checked out and I was good to go about the time James exited the front door with two of the guys in tow. They all piled into the car after James put his suitcase TV thing into the trunk.

“You’re brave souls to trust my driving.”

“Go on, Lynnette. I know you aced the EVOC.”

“Yes. But that was on dry pavement, not snow and ice.”

I goosed the throttle momentarily to break the tires loose if they should happen to need it then begin to sedately move the car to the waiting point so the tire spikes could be lowered.

“Let me know when they think the spikes are down.”

“They say they’re having a problem with number three.”

I tried to remember where three was located and was about to ask when he said, “Okay, they got it. The fully retracted indicator is lit.”

The gate began to open, pushing snow. It got stuck about half way but I managed to squeeze my car out allowing the gate to close behind me.

“The guys are going to love shoveling that stuff out of the way so they can get the limo out,” one of the agents observed.

“Yeah. This was a wet storm so it’s all sticking together. Not nice like powder. And it will turn to ice if the temperature rises a little then drops again.”

“I’m going to turn down the heat a little, are you warm enough back there?”

“Yeah. These heated seats are great, Lynn. How much did the car set you back?”

“$62K. Plus the extra rims and snow tires. Oh, that also included a full sized spare, not one of those new stupid little good for nothing things.”

“I hate those things too. They make a donut look good.”

The trip home took almost twice as long as my trip from home to the safe house. The snow was still sticking to the roof of my car, partially held in place by the ski rack, skis and poles. When my car made it’s way up the snow filled driveway I inserted my key and waited for the light to turn green then entered the disarming code via the keypad, waiting for the second light to turn green which indicated the alarm had been disabled. Touching the remote for the garage door caused it to open and with only a little loss of traction on the ice we managed to make it into the dry garage where I shut off the engine then hit the garage door control again to close it behind us.

When we piled out of the car my first concern was to go over to check the power bank monitors where I discovered I had nearly a full charge in the peripheral batteries but the house set were down to forty percent. I hoped I didn’t have a cell or two that were dying. That seemed to happen nearly every winter except for the first one when using this system. This was leading edge technology so I couldn’t get replacement cells just anywhere. Someone had said they were the same as those used by the telephone companies but that didn't mean I could buy them there.

“I must have forgotten to shut off the heat. The house charge is down.”

James suddenly took great interest, coming over to look at the panel as I clicked on four breakers, set four switches, then a timer for ninety minutes.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ve turned on the driveway heaters and set the timer to kick them off after ninety minutes. That should be long enough to completely clear the driveway unless it starts snowing again. That will allow the limo to drive all the way up to the front and leave room for the chase cars as well. Most of the water created by the melting snow will drain off before it freezes again.”

I clicked on two more breakers. “This will defrost my sidewalks and stairs. All outside heat is powered from the peripheral batteries which show fully charged.”

I checked the consumption meter which showed an estimate of 50% peripheral usage. With both the house and the prediction of the peripherals being down I thought it best I should bring up all of the wind generators.

“The charge gets close like this every winter.” I said as I snapped on four more breakers.

“The last four breakers will force thaw the four wind generators. Each can produce two kilowatts in a five mph breeze and ten K in a twenty or higher wind. The peripheral batteries can store fifty Kilowatt hours and the house batteries can store close to one hundred. The system is also capable of drawing power from the commercial power company but I haven’t needed to do that in two years. My whole system is pretty much self contained. Let’s go in.”

Unlocking the door leading into the mud room we entered then I locked the door again. We walked on into the main house before I turned on the perimeter alarm system again. The alarm warned me one window wasn’t secure on the second floor. We did a hasty check only to find I forgot to close the bathroom window after my bath when I was in my rush to get to the safe house. That little mind fart allowed a small accumulation of snow to drift up against the opening due, I suppose, to air flow into the house through the screen. Otherwise, the house was clear and I had closed the window which cleared the alarm. Re-setting the alarm system gave me a green light. I made a mental note that I needed a master control outside for when I set the alarm as I was going out. The reason why I shouldn’t do that came back to me even faster than the original thought had passed through my mind. Going back downstairs, I started the ten cup coffee pot then retrieved some Danish from the refrigerator to go with it. A quick heating of the serving plate allowed me to warm the Danish. I admonished them to use the napkins as I returned for the coffee. Getting out all the cups and saucers then placing them on the kitchen counter along with cream and sweeteners I pulled out a tray and placed three of the cups on it. Now I started the twenty cup coffee maker so the rest of the gang would have coffee when they arrived, then pulled out more Danish placing it all on a larger pre-warmed platter. The smaller coffee pot went onto my tray and I carried it out for them to serve themselves.

“Use the coasters. I don’t want coffee rings on my furniture. Some of this was my great grandmother’s. There’s more Danish in the kitchen and more coffee is brewing. Cups, cream, sweeteners and napkins are out there waiting for the rest of the guys. I’m going upstairs to shower and change. Be back in an hour.” Turning to James, “Are you able to make your connection okay?”

“Yes. Fine, Thank-you. Here, look. Cathy’s having breakfast. Just a second, I’ll turn on my camera.” He manipulated the keys and I could see us appear in a little window in the lower right corner of the screen as he turned the case to include us both in that smaller picture.
“Hi Cathy. How’s breakfast?” She looked up, away from the table, obviously at a monitor screen.

“Hi Daddy, Hi ... Mommy,” she looked embarrassed, “I’m sorry, I forgot your name.”

“Mommy’s okay, Cathy. My name is Lynn.”

“Lynn. Thank-you. I had fun while I was there.”

“How would you like to come here for Christmas? We’ll be doing all kinds of special things and there will other children to meet and Santa Claus will be handing out presents.”

Her face fell for a moment then brightened again, “Really? Do we get to play in the snow, too?”

“Certainly.”

“Can I go, Daddy?”

“Yes. You can go, but it won’t be for quite a few weeks yet so you will have lots of time until then.”

“Cathy, did you send a letter to Santa this year?”

She looked hurt, “No.”

“Why not? Can’t you write yet? Nana could help you.”

“I know.”

James gave me a little squeeze on my arm just out of range of the camera.

“Well maybe you could tell your father and he could let Santa know.”

“Okay.” she still sounded lackluster.

“I’ve got to go sweetheart, your father will be here for a while ... Bye.”

“Bye.”

I made a mental note to ask him what the problem happened to be with Santa Claus and Cathy sometime when we had a moment alone then I headed on up to my room. Selecting my outfit for the day, it went onto my bed before I undressed and went in for a nice hot shower, luxuriating in the pounding water and mindless activity.

My thoughts drifted back to this morning, awakening next to James and the thoughts which ran through my mind. Eventually the water began cooling, a certain indication I should end the shower if I wanted to remain warm. I wrapped my hair and patted myself dry then powdered and put on my undies.

Now I begin the tedium of drying my hair, brushing it excessively until it behaved. In the dry winter weather, static was easy to build up so getting it to behave was a chore. I hoped once my own had grown out it would be a little easier to care for, this was like caring for two heads of hair. I was still young enough to want long hair. I put it all up into a ponytail and continued dressing, then applied my make up before putting on my blouse. Today was going to be very casual.

Going back down, I found everyone had arrived so I checked the pot, refilled the small one with the remains of the twenty cup pot then went out to start another pot brewing. Passing back into the garage during my circuit so I could check the power system again I noted the snow which had been on the roof of my car had turned into a puddle on the floor under it. I took down my skis and poles drying them before putting them against the wall of the garage. Finally the power system was checked again. I could have done this in the kitchen or in my bedroom but I couldn’t do projections or see the rate of use and charge at those locations so I wanted to do it here. The peripheral batteries were still losing ground but not much. That meant the wind generators were providing most of the energy which was thawing the driveway and sidewalks. Peripheral storage was now about eighty five percent. The house was gaining, fortunately. It was up to sixty percent over the last hour or so despite our usage of heat, lights and the water heater for my shower. I could almost see the house storage indicator climbing.

If this wind kept up I would easily have the house bank filled by the end of the day even if I left the heat on. I made the mental note to set it down to sixty degrees before we left, that should work out okay. I heard a click and all the peripheral breakers snapped off. I reset the kick-off timer to four hours but this time set a startup time of around 4:00. Then I clicked on half of the walk, driveway and stair breakers again. That hopefully would allow those areas to thaw again before I got home for the evening. The squeegee thing was taken down from the wall so the puddle of water surrounding my car could be pushed toward the center of the garage where the drain accepted most of it. Then I dried the squeegee with a paper towel. As I reentered the kitchen I found one of the guys raiding my refrigerator.

“Hi Lynn, got any luncheon meat? Thought I’d make a sandwich.”

“No. I was planning on treating us all to Denny’s or I-Hop. Go tell the guys to decide which while I clean this up. How’s James doing with his suitcase?”

“He shut down a couple of minutes ago. Spent most of that time with his office and daughter. He’ll go back on it once we get to the office. He figures the additional height there will help with the signal. Apparently he likes being up on hills.”

I nodded my head, “Could you have the guys bring their cups and trash into the kitchen? After I finish here, we’ll all go eat.”

“Sure thing, Lynn.”

A minute later, as the sink was filled with hot soapy water and the guys were bringing their stuff into the kitchen in a procession. I began washing and had some of the saucers in the rinse water when James came in with his cup. I slid his into the soapy water then began washing more saucers as he started searching for something.

“What are you looking for, James?”

“A dish towel. I’ll dry.”

I wasn’t about to refuse the offer of help, “Under here,” I indicated with soap suds dripping from my gloved hand.

He pulled out a towel.

“That’s a hand towel, leave it out and take one of the white ones with designs on them, those are the dish towels.”

He pulled out a dish towel then closed the door so I could stand at the sinks again. As he dried and stacked the saucers he was looking at my neat orderly kitchen. Dozens of spoons, ladles, knives and strainers were hanging or sheathed all over the place. He looked in some of the lower cupboards to discover mixing bowls, cooking pots, two double boilers, a brand spanking new Rival crock pot and two turkey pans complete with covers.

As he began drying the cups, he looked around some more finding the two range tops in the center island, which were each covered by a composite marble slab which disguised them, while an overhead ventilation hood gave away their location. Two large ovens and a large microwave were built into the stone faced wall nearby. The refrigerator was 23 cu. ft. and there was an upright freezer next to it. My kitchen was ready and able to support a large party. A medium sized microwave was located on the center island along with both a four and an eight slice toaster. The commercial eight slice was spotlessly clean. It should be since it was fairly new and had never baked a slice of toast, at least to my knowledge.

James turned back to finish his duties drying the cups and saucers. Soon I was draining the soapy water, rinsing the sink and drying it with the moist dish towel. I opened the drain of the sink that was filled with the rinse water then shook off the gloves before drying them with the dish towel. Finally I dried the rinse sink.

The dish towel was used to wipe down the counter then went into the laundry room. The trash was taken out and we were finished.

James watched all my activity silently.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

We proceeded to the limo and chase cars. The driveway was still warm enough to prevent more icing. Ditto with the walk and stairs. James and I entered the limo along with the driver and one agent. The remainder of them piled into the two chase cars and we were all on our way. The streets, unfortunately, did not share the heating elements which were found in my driveway so they were a bit more treacherous. At least the vehicles weren’t frigid since the heat rising from the driveway heated the undercarriages and, therefore, carried over to a limited degree into and around the three vehicles themselves.

We arrived at our destination going in for a late breakfast/ early lunch. This allowed us rapid seating, fortunately. As we finished our meal just over an hour later I paid with my corporate card. Those of us with a need to relieve the effects of the coffee we had been drinking spent a few minutes in the rest rooms before we departed for the office. There, I turned our smaller conference room over to James for his use conducting his own business. It was the one he had been in before and I wanted to hold our larger room free for other needs. Nicci and I began to tackle our paperwork. Before I left James, he opened up his small suitcase checking to see if he had enough signal to reach the nearest military installation. I kept gathering clues as to how his suitcase worked. Apparently he had enough signal or more than he had back at the house as his face lit up and he began moments later happily working with his people much as if he was actually back in his own offices.

Twenty minutes later Ralph joined Nicci and myself as we continued to work through reports, accepted a new tenant in our latest Western acquisition and fussed with the renovation and alarm details for the three floors we intended to occupy at our East coast building. We fussed with the same problems yesterday concerning our West coast building, too. Oh well.

A thought assailed me, I needed to speak with James about his suitcase. I was thinking that I might like to have one which allowed that kind of capability, allowing me access to my business offices from remote locations, such as client’s offices or board rooms in other cities.

When lunch began to roll around we found we still had a lot of work to do so we ordered lunch in. I didn’t eat much for our late breakfast in anticipation of lunch so I was a bit hungry. As we were finishing our meal I was trying to beg scraps off Nicci’s lunch.

“What is this? You’re the one who is going to have a paid supper. Italian, no less, while I have to make do with leftover chicken tonight.”

“I’ll save some of the salad and the meatballs for you to eat tomorrow, supper’s still five hours away.”

Ralph gave me a gentle poke, “Doesn’t look to me like you’re starving, Lynn. In fact I’d say you could probably handle losing a pound or two,” he grinned broadly.

I cupped my hands around my ears as if trying to better hear, “Did you hear something, Nicci? It was so faint I couldn’t make it out.” I gave him a dirty look and so did Nicci, he got the point.

It was around that time that I realised I hadn’t checked on James in a while, having been too preoccupied with reports from our other ongoing operations. We had one principal who had been difficult throughout the entire detail and whom we had finally handed back to his own company’s security people. He had managed to cause us sufficient problems that we barely broke even on the job. Now that it was over we marked both his name and the company name as one of those with whom we did not intend to do business again. I was of the mind to simply tell them to find someone else the next time they called but reason prevailed and the report was completed with a copy forwarded to them company including our recommendations of two other security companies including the one for which I had worked before starting my own. Thinking about it they would be unlikely to take his crap if they hired them.

In a separate envelope we included a sealed report for the President of the company outlining the reasons we would not accept any future business with them. What they did about their vice-president and future security concerns was no longer our problem.

When I walked into the conference room I discovered it was empty. Checking with reception, she informed me that James and his detail had departed about 1:30. I had no idea where they might have gone so I was off both to visit Phillip and our situation room. The guys would call in their location so “the board” could be updated. That showed the last report to be somewhere in the suburbs at or near a mall. Last report had been made fifteen minutes ago. Afterward the three of us continued our work examining more of the mundane documents necessary to the running of the business. We also paid a number of the bills. The report from our attorneys about our West coast renovation was read and finally understood after a couple of phone calls. Can’t lawyers ever say anything in English? I mean, in the English I can understand?

There would be a bit of a delay while permits for the antenna structures and the planned structural changes to support a helipad were pushed through the city’s planning commission. We needed to address someone’s concern about some birds and mice living somewhere nearby. Now we don’t want to disturb the seagulls or mocking birds, do we? Actually the complaint was for the anticipated noise which might disturb some small animals mating habits in a small state park located about a mile from the building. Something about possible flights over the park or some such thing. I don’t know why we couldn’t just go off in some other direction and circle around if we needed to go in that direction for some reason. Invisible pathways up in the air have always been a bit of a mystery to me. I guess it’s something like what a sniper goes through. You plan your shot for days, you set it up, you squeeze it off only to have a bird fly into the path of the bullet so all bets are off. One surprised bird and one very frustrated sniper who hopefully is able to reacquire and execute the second shot quickly. Some one little thing can upset some very big thing, so we must do what we can to anticipate, protect, and circumvent the little things without harming them.

“Aughh, more paperwork.”

“Lynn ... You knew that when you came in out of the cold.”

“Yes, but I thought I might get to go out and play at least once in a while.”

“No such luck, kid. We gotta protect our Projects Director. You only get to go out on the milk runs now, and then usually for only part of the run. Cheer up, the convention is only a couple of days away and then you get to network and play to your heart’s content for five days.”

“Oh right. I get to go be an attractive ornament waving my hands over computers and software packages about which I know nothing. We don’t even have an exhibit since the convention has nothing to do with physical security or protection.”

Nicci speaks up, “Why don’t we have an exhibit? I mean, it’s a little late now but even computer types could be interested in personal protection or security for corporate assets. Look at Mr. Thompson’s company, they hired us to protect the founder and two of the vice presidents since their loss could have a horrible effect upon the welfare of their company. They said it took them weeks to find someone who referred them to someone who referred them to us. Phillip and Grace are attending the Convention and Phillip is presenting a paper there at one of the symposiums.”

Now that was news to me. I knew they were attending but I didn’t know about the paper. It suddenly dawned on me that I had been focused solely on the physical aspects of security such as perimeter alarms, personal protection and medical intervention, that sort of thing. There are, however, a lot of much softer ways to affect your target, hence our small but mighty computer department. Wow, two whole people.

I suddenly was seeing a need for three or four more people, some really powerful computers and maybe even a forensic science department with emphasis on modern technology.

“Nicci, would you schedule a meeting between Phillip, Grace and myself for some time after the convention has ended? I need them to consider an expansion of their department to include more technology and technological forensics, records access nationwide, crime scene technical systems analysis. I know this is a duplication of other agencies and we seldom have need of it, but I need to talk with them about all the possible ways we might head off a potential problem other than simply a strong physical presence. We also need to consider small exhibits at shows or conventions which don’t pertain to protection and hazardous duties but which might attract clients.”

I thought about the possibilities of considering approaches to intercepting electronic spying or theft of computer data. We could sweep for things like listening devices but we didn’t know enough about sweeping computers for listening and reporting software, if there was such a thing. Just one more thing I needed to talk about with James. Many of the installations were adding microphones to the computer systems and Phillip had said that some day a few might even be connected to low resolution cameras for special applications. I was beginning to consider they might possibly be used for surreptitious corporate spying which would then send the information to some other location via the ARPANET. Phillip kept telling me that “one day we will think nothing of using the ARPANET to send documents, sound and pictures all over the globe.”

That sounded like a fairy tale. Of course so did putting a man in orbit only a few decades ago.

“Phillip and Grace probably have better ideas about this sort of thing but I don’t have enough background to understand it. I’m certain they’ll have ideas, they just need to present them to me in a manner I can understand.”

“Good Luck,” Nicci commented as she finished taking all this down in shorthand. “I’ll type up all you just said as you said it and try to put it into some semblance of order then give it to you to check before I message them. Watch out for Phillip, he’s wanted a one hundred man laboratory and his own little fiefdom for at least the last year.”

I smiled, “That’s part of the reason it has never happened. He’s very good at what he does but his organizational skills for running a department are almost non-existent. Ralph here, for instance, hates doing what he’s doing but he is exceptional at it. We don’t have anyone else who even comes close to his talents.”

I winked at him, “That’s why he’s a tenth partner. You are the same. I’m trying to figure out how to give you a partnership position without losing what you are doing now. It’s almost worked out, Babe, so stick with me a bit longer and you’ll begin to reap some nice benefits. I hope to be able to announce you for New Year’s. You up to that?”

Nicci’s mouth dropped open, “A ... a partner? But I don’t have anything to offer ... I mean ... I’m just me, a little fish.”

“You’ve got a lot, Nicci,” I hugged her, “and I’m setting it up so you, like Ralph, are protected from any lawsuits which might get tossed our way any time in the future. Better pay, bigger expense account, more say in what goes on. You can handle it, you have been for more than a year. The only problem has been how to give you the recognition you deserve.”

Nicci’s eyes were full of tears. We adjourned our meeting on that happy note and I led Nicci out to her desk to find tissues for her.

“You know, Nicci ... This change will not absolve you of continuing to be the unofficial den mother of our pack of wolves,” meaning the agents.

She tried to laugh then began hiccupping, the tears finally ending.
Once I thought she was going to be okay, I returned to my office, coming back a minute later to hand her a small packet of $20 bills which I had pulled from my safe.

“Consider this a bonus, Nicci. There’ll be more at Christmas, but this will help out right away. And go house shopping during the next couple of week ends. You’ve been to my home, find something you like along a similar vein. The company will purchase it if our security checks indicate it can be converted to a safe house. The special filtering of the water, standby or off grid power, heated drive and walks, security fencing and tire shredders, the whole nine yards. The best thing is our lawyers will have it set up so you don’t need to declare it as yearly income. It won’t be compensation. As a shareholder you will be required to have a certain ability to entertain or put up potential clients, when necessary, and to have get together’s or meetings for the employee’s like Ralph and I do throughout the year. Be certain to find a place with a large enclosed yard and enough land, at least ten acres, that we could begin installing wind generators and children’s play sets. The company will handle the changes to the property. Unfortunately, even once you find it you probably won’t get to move in until Summer or maybe Autumn. When we finish, it will be like one of our ‘safe’ houses, but you get to live there. You’re important enough to the company to protect.”

Nicci hugged me ... tight ... “Thanks, Lynn. This is wonderful. I feel like I’m dreaming.”

“You earned it, Nicci. You’ve proven that you can handle everything we throw at you. Well ... As much as I’d like to stay and celebrate with you, I’ve got to get going. I need to track down and retrieve a wayward security detail and a wandering Principal.”

She smiles, “Go get ‘em, Lynn.”

I winked at her as I headed on out to go check our situation board in Phillip’s bailiwick again. As I walked toward the limits of Phillip’s outer sanctum I thought about the need to reign in my spending. If it didn’t slow soon, we would be down to nothing a lot sooner than in five very lean months. The two new property acquisitions on the East and West coasts would be paying for themselves by the end of November, which was good. Also by the end of December we would have completed nine well paying jobs and have banked close to another twelve hundred fifty thousand after all other expenses but that was barely a drop in the wages and expenses we saw every year. This expansion business was a pain in the... With what was already in the bank the additional could see us into March. By then we would hopefully have enough to pay the last installment on our taxes and then we could begin once again to save during the following three months through June, our busiest season after August - September.

I hoped by this time next year to have our employee roster filled out to at least 40 at each of the U.S. locations, 60 would be better. We had fourteen European employees with more being investigated. If they checked out and we hired them all that would give us just over twenty five. Each had received a small stipend as a retainer of sorts giving us the right of first call for their talents as soon as we could re-register them and receive certification for our company. By then we would have at least four point two Mil in the bank which would only be about three months worth of funds after we added the next 60 agents and 20 support personnel. With any luck, we might be able to begin ‘buying down’ on the mortgages for our new buildings by the following year. It might wind up becoming necessary to dip deeply into my own cash reserves before things started to climb up again. My reserves wouldn’t be able to handle more than about two weeks so things needed to pick up a bit. Of course I suppose I could mortgage my rental properties again. Should I begin screaming now?

I continued to hope the European agreements would come through soon. They were a lot more protection minded over there. Here in the US of A, it was a bit more difficult to find well paying work. Only the really big fish took on security and protection details, and they seldom hired out because most of them were into control of their details since they were really just looking for someone to blame rather than having real protection. They’d be better off to hire rent-a-cops. You get what you pay for, babe. You get what you pay for.

I walked into the edge of Phillips sanctum-sanctorum then looked at the board, which was actually a very large map of the region with coloured stick pins in it. I noted the Limo and cars at the city yard appeared to had been moved slightly. With a map this size covering the whole region it was difficult to tell. A check of the information sheets below the board indicated that yes, they had been moved and were in the city lot now so I guess maintenance had been completed.

I sighed, there was another three grand in expenses. It all came at us so fast this time of year. I guess that’s because Winter was our ‘wind-down and prepare for the next onslaught’ time of year. January, on the other hand, was a pick me up. Not as good as our best months, but a good start to each new year. I left again without seeing either Phillip or Grace.

Walking past Nicci, who smiled, then on into my office I collected my purse and mobile which made me look like a lawyer everywhere I went. It wasn’t really too large, a bit bigger than Nicci’s but this was an older model. The weight was the biggest problem. Mine must have weighed close to twenty pounds while Nicci’s was down around ten. Not for the first time did I wish these things were smaller and that we could dial our own phone calls instead of going through a mobile operator. Some sort of communication security might be nice too.

Just before going out I again checked the reports on our cash reserves. Exiting my office I noted Nicci was ready to leave as well. We walked out into the parking lot together.

I was surprised that our assets were a lot better off than I thought they would be, but then I remembered the payments we authorized today hadn’t been deducted from those totals yet. I subtracted them in my head and discovered we were about where I figured we would be for this time of year. I also checked my own assets and found they were greater than I remembered even when I deducted my recent extravagances. Why there must be a whole additional day’s worth of payroll available in my reserves beyond the two weeks I figured on. Don’t panic yet, girl. There’s a saving grace, all of the new real estate is leased out which will be a positive cash flow even with the remodeling costs to accommodate our new tenants. That is, once we made it past the first three months. March would be a major turning point.
Once the permits for the wind generators we hoped to put on the roofs came through and the battery banks went into the basements, we would be able to become about fifty percent energy self-sufficient which would help a lot.

That’s part of what interested some of our tenants. We provided the utilities at no cost to them. All utilities were included in the monthly lease although the lease was slightly lower than others in the area. In many cases where security wasn’t involved, we also provided a leased cleaning service. We cut the bank a little slack since they used their own. Everyone felt like they were getting something for nothing and we had a positive cash flow. Not big, but positive. That’s what it was all about. We weren’t looking for a profit from the leases, just enough to offset the monthly payment to the bank and to pay the various businesses that provided our utilities and so on. The remodeling costs were covered over the first three months of the year after that we would actually make a little money each month which would be tucked away for that proverbial ‘rainy day’.

Nicci climbed into her car and I began to go around the corner toward my own when I suddenly panicked. My mind pulled away from my costs analysis as I began searching for my car. Finally out of the haze I recalled riding in with everyone else in the Limo. Wonderful. I turned back and waved good-bye to Nicci as she drove out of the lot before I trudged back through the snow and slush to get back into the building so I could call for a taxi using the guard/ receptionist’s lobby phone. Well, it was a lot cheaper to use his land-line than it would be to use my mobile and he was convenient, if you didn’t count the snow and slush. Besides, that gave me a reason to go back inside where it was warmer. Fifteen minutes later I was on my way and as the taxi finally approached the gate of my home I opened the gate using the remote I kept in my purse. After paying my fare, plus tip, I carefully walked up the stairs, entered the house with the driver still standing there scratching his head at the lack of appreciable snow on either my driveway or the walks outside the fencing. I ignored him as I turned the key which activated the keypad then entered my code to deactivate my alarm system. Apparently the snow stopped falling before my timer kicked the breaker power back on, so the drive and walk cooled then reheated beginning at four. That meant they were pretty much clear of ice, snow, and runoff by the time I got home. Judging from the rest of the street it looked like the scrapers had come through sometime during the day and pushed most of the slush and snow off the street and onto the sidewalks. The only sidewalk which was clear was the one by my property which the construction company had ripped out and reinstalled with heating elements under it. I hate shoveling snow and never have the time for it.

I peeked out watching the taxi drive back out. Once he was off the property, I pressed the key pad code to close the gate then rearmed the perimeter alarms before I went upstairs to change to something a little more dressy for my date. I went for a skirt and a sweater which would emphasize my curves. Nothing too dressy as I didn’t want to get stray sauces on my nice things. My jewelry clashed so that changed too. I opted to wear some things which were a little more classy than what I would wear to the office, it was a date after all. I put on low heels so if it snowed I would be less likely to participate in a catastrophe then checked to confirm the fur jacket looked good with my outfit. That wasn’t quite as resounding a success. I abandoned my opportunity at warmth and went with one of the blazers, which matched my mix well, setting it aside for now.

Let’s see ... Hair up or down? Ponytail? No! I don’t think so ... down I think ... I’m not happy yet ... French curl? Yes, French curl - chic. Finishing my hair I first checked then spent a little time touching up my make-up. Next I checked my nails discovering I had a broken one. When did that happen? Fifteen minutes later my nails were once again good to go. Looking good, girl. I checked outside noticing a light snow fall so a quick trip to the garage was called for. In the garage I reset the timer for five hours since it had dropped to just under three by now. Half heat would likely be enough to maintain the driveway and the walks if the snow didn’t begin to fall too heavily. The peripheral and house batteries were both up over ninety percent again so just to be cautious, I clicked on the heaters for two of the wind generators and set them into the system again. That would probably be more than enough. Entering the house I noted it was nearly eighteen-thirty so I figured they would be arriving any minute.

Wow, a real date. This was so cool. Moments later the doorbell rang. It had to be the guys since they had a control for the gate and not just any old control would do the job. I check the camera anyway then opened the door to let everyone in. James gave me a bouquet of pink roses and I took the time to put them into a vase with water and ginger ale then we were on our way. Surprise, we didn’t head for the office and Italian.

“I made a reservation. Where are we going?”

“We called and cancelled it, they were just as happy since someone from your office had requested a table so our cancellation left one open. This will be a surprise,” James answers.

About a quarter after seven we pulled up to one of the high priced spreads and the guys opened the door for us. Frank helped me out of the car giving me a big smile.

“Lynn, you should see your face. It’s priceless.”

Wow, not only am I on a date but it’s a complete surprise. I took James’ arm as we walked in.

“If I had known we were coming here, I would have worn something more appropriate,” I whispered to James.

“You look great, Lynn,” he smiles, “In fact you look terrific.”

“Thompson party, seven-thirty,” he said and in less than a minute we were on our way to our tables. James and I sat at a small booth with the guys in booths on either side. Wow, a real date ...

“Wine, Sir?”

“No. Thank-you. We aren’t drinking. Perhaps a little water and coffee.”

“And you, Madam?”

“Water and coffee are fine, thank-you.”

“Of course,” and he was off.

He returned soon with the coffee and menus even as a young man was filling our water glasses, holding them out away from the table then returning them, one at a time. Just as they left our waiter arrived, “Do you need more time?”

“Yes ... Please ... A few minutes,” James smiled.

“Very good,” he was off and we were ‘alone’ once again.

“James, I thought you didn’t know this city.”

“Let your fingers do the walking.”

I smiled at him then began to examine my menu. I really shouldn’t, but I needed the protein so when the waiter returned I order the Filet Mignon ... medium well done. James ordered the lobster.

“Appetizer?”

“No ... I think, perhaps, we will have the house soup, not the chowder.”

“Very good, Sir. I shall return in a few moments.”

After our waiter departed, I asked, “How do you know so much about the food they offer?”

“I read the menu.”

As I only saw him glance at it page by page, it took only a few moments for me to realize he must have a photographic memory. Or, at least, something closely approximating same.

“Something is amusing?” he asked, looking at me.

“No. No, I just put two and two together.”

“About what, may I ask?”

“Your memory. It’s at least partially photographic, isn’t it?”

“To a limited extent, I suppose so. It helps a great deal when I am negotiating. There are areas in which it doesn’t seem to help at all. It’s of great benefit to me when we are comparing tens of thousands of bytes of code or several hundred to a thousand lines. I can quickly review the code in my mind to find the offending area then we go into the code itself to see what has either been incorrectly written, left out entirely, or added in the wrong place. We are able to find our errors rather more quickly than a simple debugging as a result. Normal debugging tools only go so far.”

“Are you able to prepare code which could be used to assist in my business?”

“We can write code for use in just about anything. The problem is realizing exactly what really is needed in order to solve the problem. After that, writing the code is pretty simple if an application can be devised for a situation. Just knowing you have a problem doesn’t automatically present a solution upon which code may be based. The days of Sherlock Holmes capable computers remain quite far away I’m afraid, as are sentient machines. Programs may be written which mimic thought but the programs are not self altering and self teaching. The day that happens, the machines will begin to control us and then eliminate us as unnecessary to the equation.”

“That’s a cheerful thought. You paint a gloomy picture, James.”

“Just reality. If we give machines our own base capacities, then they will, of course, develop along the same lines. We are, after all, predators. When a predator higher on the chain comes into play then we become it’s cattle or flock of sheep. Simple logic.”

“Scary logic.”

“That too. Ah, here’s our soup ... Thank-you.”

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

We were quiet as the soup was served and remained that way as we began to eat. A few minutes later more coffee was poured.

“The soup is excellent,” James offered to our waiter.

“Thank you, Sir.” The waiter beat a hasty retreat and we were alone again.

Well ... As alone as you can be with a party of eleven. At least James and I had our own table. Soon I had again forgotten our circumstances and I was just enjoying the date and the beginnings of conversation. It wasn’t long before we were lost in discussion.

“I’m not certain what it is I’m looking for, so exactly how to get there is still a bit of a mystery for me. What I would like to do is expand our little computer lab as well as add forensic capabilities. Not that I want dead bodies around but a lab that is fully capable of working with physical trace evidence as well as a computer system which is sophisticated enough to allow us to ascertain potential means of electronic intrusion and plug them both with hardware and perhaps software would be useful. Perhaps retinal scanners or fingerprint scanners, if such things exist, in order to prove identity. Of course that would be a bit of a problem for someone who has to go through it six or seven or more times a day.”

“I like the idea, Lynn. May I think about it and get back to you? Some form of computer security is already in our hoppers but I like this idea of extending it further. This could be a good seller for both my company and yours if we are able to find a way to implement it.”

“Possibly. I think it would help us obtain more contracts. I’m going to toss the idea across Phillip and Grace’s desks to see what they think.”

“Phillip and Grace?”

“Yes. They’re our computer people.”

“Could you give us a couple of weeks before you start throwing the idea around? I’m not trying to shut you out, but I would like the chance to see if we can come up with something as a concept, then I’ll get right back to you. It’s much more along the line of some of the stuff we do so maybe we could provide a little definition to the idea just to see how it meshes with your own ideas and business.”

I thought about that for a moment, “All right, James. How about until the New Year? That gives you nearly seven weeks to play with it. January and February are going to be busy months for us so December is a heavy prep month.”

I didn’t bother to mention that I believed almost anything told to Phillip would become national news in a matter of hours. That was just part of the reason I couldn’t put him into a position which gave him more authority. I couldn’t chance the information leaks especially if we were dealing with sensitive issues. He had lost more than one security clearance despite his prowess with information and technology. I had been thinking about replacing him or possibly creating a new department and then shifting most of the operation into it along with Grace despite the degrees and expertise Phillip held. I just ... didn’t want to make any waves at the moment. He was very knowledgeable, just ... terribly transparent as far as security went.

“Sounds good to me, Lynn. I consider this to be a joint venture so maybe some of my computer people could meet with your computer people and iron out some details after you and I get the preliminaries locked down. Besides, this will give me another reason to see you again other than Christmas.”

“Why don’t we just keep my people out of the loop for now? I would like to see what yours come up with without any collaboration at first.”

“Okay, Lynn. We can do that.”

I begged a few minutes to go out to the lobby pay phone where I dialed Nicci’s office number. Yes, I knew she wouldn’t be there. I left a message on her office answering machine so she would get it when she came in to work.

“Nicci? Lynn ... would you cancel my meeting with Phillip and Grace and reschedule it into the third week of January? Don’t bother to let them know I intended to talk with them nor the topic of conversation until I have the opportunity to reconsider this in January. I’m not going to be ready to discuss my ideas with them until then. James is going to see what his computer wizards can come up with as a concept. After he and I discuss it again, during the first week of January, then perhaps I’ll be ready to pull Phillip and Grace into the loop. Oh ... And would you get with the attorneys and obtain some non-disclosure agreements for me? Have them include instructions as to how to fill them out. Thanks Nicci.”

I wished the mobile phone was a lot smaller. Some day maybe one of those phones would be small enough to fit in my purse, of course then I might not be able to put anything else in there. I began to envision a telephone handset with an antenna. James smiled as I returned to explain the message I just left for Nicci,

“Putting us on the spot? Hard deadline.”

“For me, too. No, part of it is an in-house problem which I haven’t yet decided how to solve. Until then I think I want to keep this idea under wraps. Allowing your people to give it a little thought will mean it stays a secret for a while longer.”

“Got a sieve in your computer department, Lynn?”

I gave him a frown. “A little.”

“If you want to handle more government work then you’ll need to take care of it. The sooner the better, especially if your company continues to be involved with mine.”

“I know.” I sighed, “it’s just ... He’s been with us from the beginning of this company. I really hate to cut him out.”

“Since it’s a him we’re talking about, I take it that your leak is Phillip? Maybe you could tuck him into the development side of things. That would limit how much information he would have access to on a day to day basis as well as allow him to just brainstorm new ways to use what he already knows.”

“I don’t know. Maybe somewhere down the line your people could take a look at mine and give a gentle suggestion that I should divide my department. That would be a beginning toward isolating him. Then I could bring in new people slowly to build the portion of the department which is being run by Grace while I lead him off into a theoretical world, effectively isolating him. He is amazingly capable but...”

“That might work. Make him feel you’re taking greater advantage of his knowledge while you actually place him into a small room and close the door so he doesn’t know what’s going on outside his own little universe.”

“Exactly. I hate to do that but my company won’t be able to advance unless I do. On the other hand, I don’t want to lose his expertise.”

“Sometimes, decisions can be difficult to implement. If you want your company to grow then it might be necessary.”

Our conversation became lighter and we continued to chat during supper. James was correct, by the way, the soup was wonderful. By the end of the meal I was happily stuffed and had learned a lot about James’ private life, and he more about me and the years of contemplating my metamorphosis.
“So, why did you finally decide to go all the way?”

“I don’t believe it was like that. It’s more of a need to be whom I really am. I don’t know how to put it in words but this last week and a half has been like a fairy tale come true. I feel like I’m suddenly free to be me. I don’t think I could handle going back to Lyon again. I’m desperate to find a doctor and finish this then put the old me behind me. Then again, the old me is a part of the new me but the new me is the person I want the world to know. Somehow I need more time to try to find others out there as well as doctor’s who want to help as opposed to doctors who want to tell me I’m crazy and they can cure me. I want to grow real breasts and not have these things glued to my chest. And I want to be able to look at myself in a mirror and see me, not some travesty of nature. I’m not explaining this very well am I?”

“Actually, Lynn, I think you are explaining it quite well. Do you have a printer I could use?”

“A printer?”

I wondered what this could have to do with what we are discussing,

“Well yes, there are printers back at the office.”

“Good. I’ve done a bit of research while at the house you have at my disposal. The network has access to a growing library of information. I’ve found quite a lot of information and would like to give it to you. I’m afraid you can’t disclose how you learned about the information since it contains references to several government programs which are still involved in this sort of thing although they appear to be winding down. I would like to print some of it for you to read. Probably a hundred or so pages. Including a few pictures which aren’t all that good since they are basically facsimile images and are lacking in both grayscale and detail.

There are, however, a number of doctors who apparently specialize in assisting people like you to find the body to match your feelings. I don’t want to bias you so I would rather give you all the information so you can decide for yourself. It’s a new and wide open field with several doctors now moving into the private sector from previous government employment.”

“I ... You researched ... I don’t know what to say. Does the stuff look real?”

I asked in disgust, trying not to get my hopes up until I had a chance to read it.

“Did you read any of it, James?”

“A bit, here and there. It’s all new to me so I don’t understand some of the references except more by inference. I suppose it would mean much more to someone who has had to live with it.”

“Do they think people like me are crazy?”

“No. The concerned ones don’t. Neither do I. In fact, from what I think I understand, many who ... ” he searched for the word, “transition into being completed women are living happy, healthy, and fairly normal lives. Some have married, some have adopted children and are raising families. You need to read it all, it’s still very cutting edge and apparently the most recent stuff began with a very classified program of some kind which the military implemented roughly seven to ten years ago. There was one page which seemed to indicate some of those who were ... transitioned, were sent into other countries to act as spies of one kind or another.”

Now I was becoming excited. This reminded me of my own situation but I couldn’t tell James that, “could we print it tonight?”

“I would need to reach the information again in order to print it. Probably tomorrow at your office with one of the printers there connected to my suitcase terminal would be best.”

“Oh ... ” the thought of waiting another day or even another night deflated me.

Everyone was on their after supper coffee, so James called for our check putting it all on his AMEX. We filed out to our cars in the cold which was compounded by a light snow then drove back to the safe house. The usual games were played with the tire spikes before the gate opened and we drove inside. The gate and spikes were returned to normal eventually being buried or covered by the light snow. We needed to do something about that one set of spikes which always seemed to freeze up when it got cold. Better drainage or something ... with maybe a low power heater to keep it from freezing.

Once inside, I got right down to discussing as much of the material as James could remember, but he still preferred that I read it tomorrow for myself. I kept him up talking until well past midnight.

“Lynn. Come on, let’s get some sleep. It’s nearly two o’clock in the morning. I don’t care if tomorrow is Saturday.”

“But this is so interesting. I wish I’d know all this five years ago ... Hell, I wish I’d known all this twenty years ago.”

“Twenty years ago half or more of this information didn’t exist. Lynn, come on. Some of it is information that isn’t even supposed to be available to the public. That’s probably why I’m finding it on the government side of things. Come, get a few hours sleep then we’ll print it tomorrow morning and you can start looking at it then. I mean ... when we wake up and go to your office.”

“James, talking about this is like giving water and food to a dying woman. I want to know it all right away ... ”

James came over and took my hand, “Lynn. Come to bed and sleep or I’ll paddle your pretty behind.”

“You and whose army?”

“Lynn, please. Just come sleep. You can cuddle all you want and I won’t take advantage of you. Just take off your skirt and sweater so they don’t wrinkle and come to bed.”

I sighed, then got up from the chair where I had been sitting as we talked, still trying to pry more information out of him as we went upstairs to the bedroom. There I walked over to the chair near my side of the bed, unzipped my skirt, stepped out of it and carefully laid it across the chair. I removed my sweater as James looked at me, “God, you have gorgeous legs.”

“Only my legs?”

“No ... the rest of you is gorgeous too.”

I gave him a small curtsey before I removed my camisole placing it over my sweater, then dropped the half slip placing it with my skirt. I debated about the bra but decide nothing else was coming off. Shutting off the light I crawled into bed beside him. Twice in two days. What are you thinking girl?

“Don’t you dare snag my hose.”

We’d been laying there a couple of minutes when he quietly started talking,

“Lynn, have you ever thought about getting married, maybe raising a family?”

Where was this coming from?

“Been there, done that. Biggest mistake of my life. We were together fifteen months before we separated. We divorced six months after that ... still has hooks into me for 3K a month. That’s a lot of money.”

“Sorry, what was he like?”

“She. What was she like? Seemed nice enough. Guess she was, actually, but she couldn’t handle my becoming Lynnette once in a while. Oh, she laughed with me and we went out together shopping. She took pictures of me changing and now they are in some safety deposit box and her lawyer is after me to raise her monthly extortion to six grand since my business has taken off. I don’t need that kind of shit again and her original extortion almost caused my company to fold since she got an additional lump sum of a hundred grand in addition to the monthly she had been getting after she went to court telling them I had a successful business. They looked at the present assets but didn’t consider the loans I took out to get those assets. I was barely able to afford the hundred grand at the time. The court had previously awarded her ten years at three grand a month, which was exorbitant, or until she remarried, whichever came first. She has a live-in boy friend who’s a doctor but she is holding off marrying him until she has gotten every cent she can out of me.”

“That was another lifetime, Lynn. You’re someone else now.”

“Blackmail is blackmail, James. Proving it is the problem.”

“Who’s her lawyer?”

“Some sleazeball.”

“Does he know about the pictures she’s using to support her extortion? He could lose his license.”

“He’d have to know, wouldn’t he? She sends me copies and the next day he’s in my office asking for more money.”

“Not necessarily. Do you have the photos?”

“I burned them.”

“The next time she sends any, save them and the envelope they came in. They’re evidence that she’s blackmailing you. The courts today are beginning to become more accepting of someone’s need to alter their perceived sex so once you’re actually making the change then what she’s doing can come around to bite her and her lawyer. At least some of the courts are more accepting. It depends on the judge, I think. Eventually it will probably be more mainstream.”

“You think so?”

“Pretty certain. Have your lawyers get affidavits from some doctors. They should know what to do or you could ask the doctors for a good lawyer. Don’t you have identification in your female name? That should go a long way toward convincing a judge. Hire an investigator, find out where your ex has a safety deposit box and serve a warrant on the contents as a part of discovery. Fight back, you have rights and her lawyer will drop her like a hot rock if he’s honest. Have your lawyers call him and have a talk with him.”

We lay there quietly for a few minutes.

“Lynn?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry. You are really a nice woman and it upsets me that you’re going through this shit. If you need someone to talk to, please ... count me as someone who cares and who will listen, okay?”

I didn’t answer, but lay there for a minute thinking before turning and cuddling against him. He put his arm around me and my tears began to drop to the pillow as I dropped off to a troubled sleep. His hand was gently rubbing my shoulder and arm even as sleep overtook me.

When I awakened the next morning, I saw James sitting in a chair working with his suitcase again.

“Good Morning, Glory.”

I looked at him in perplexity.

“Morning Glory ... a beautiful flower?” he adds.

“Oh. Okay.” Feeling anything but. I made my way into the bathroom
exiting a few minutes later to dress. I had my half slip, skirt and camisole on and was beginning to pull on my sweater as I walked behind him to glance at that screen in his suitcase. I was pulling my hair up out of the sweater as I saw Cathy in her pajamas and robe, eating her breakfast.

“Good Morning, Cathy.” I cheerfully called out.

Her head turned to look at the monitor and her face lit up, Good Morning Mommy ... I mean ... Lynn ... Sorry,” her face was sad again.

“That’s okay, baby. You can call me Mommy if you wish.” Her face brightened a bit.

“But you won’t be my Mommy, will you?” Terribly perceptive for such a young girl.

“Not exactly, sweetheart. But I’ll try to be there for you, anyway. Maybe sort of a temporary Mommy until a permanent one comes along, okay?”

She was quiet for a bit as she thought that one over, “Okay ... Mommy.”
I smiled at her and she smiled back. I winked and blew her a kiss and she was happy again doing the same back to me with a slight lack of coordination but lots of enthusiasm. Looking off camera, “Nana, I have a Mommy again.”

It’s difficult to remember she is only three and a half. I felt so sorry for her as she needed to be more mature than her years. I leaned down and whispered in James ear, “couldn’t she come and be with us until Monday?”

“Cathy, Mommy would like to know if you would like to come here until Monday?”

“Oh, Yes!”

“Okay, finish your breakfast, and have Nana help you pack, and the two of you can come and stay here through the rest of the weekend. I’ll have the plane readied so in an hour or two you can leave. That way you’ll be here before noon.”

Cathy was trying to shovel her food in now.

I added, “Cathy, be a lady. Eat slowly and chew your food. Dainty bites, and remember to finish your milk.”

She slowed down and through a half full mouth, “Okay, Mommy,” she used a finger to prevent a wayward piece of toast from exiting her mouth as she answered.

“James, I need to do some shopping for food and supplies before she arrives. Will you have the guys call me and let me know when to pick her up? I want to meet her at the airport. Tell the guys we will be staying at my place for the weekend.”

He nodded his head, yes. I said goodbye to Cathy before locating and slipping on my shoes then began to hunt for my purse. After a little thought I remembered my purse was downstairs so I went down to find someone to drive me home so I could check on the battery charges and pick up my car.
A newbie was assigned to take me home. Once we arrived he checked my house before leaving. Back in his car, he slipped and slid out the gate then on down the street. I reset the alarm after the gate closed then went to turn on the driveway and walk heaters setting the timer to four hours. Both power meters showed the batteries to still be up over ninety percent so I click on only one generator then wandered up to change clothes. Something warm and casual for the day’s activities. Wanting to leave the house heat up, I went back out to activate heat for a second wind generator resetting them to charge both sets of batteries if a good wind came up while I was out. Half an hour after arriving at the house I was on my way out again headed for the grocery. This afternoon I would take Cathy out for some new clothing and sleepwear.

The driveway was just beginning to show a hint of thawing; the walk and the stairs were a little better off but would probably still be treacherous for another hour, it was pretty cold out. I set the alarm then backed out of the garage using the control to close the door. Driving out, I left the gate open, this trip. One wind generator was turning slowly, the other one looked like it was trying but needed further thawing before it ... Nope, there it went. Four kilowatts ... That was probably about a quarter of what was being used. I might need to activate the other two generators when I returned unless the wind picked up a bit.

Driving to the store was a typical winter experience even with the snow tires. Fifteen minutes later I was in the store accompanied here and there by possibly five or six other early morning shoppers. As a precaution, I was stocking up on everything since I would be feeding the crew each day at least for the weekend. I also picked up some more grind, and some hot chocolate mix for Cathy as well as three gallons of milk. For the guys, six pies and eight gallons of ice cream as well as five pounds each of a half dozen luncheon meats and eight loaves of bread. The bread might make it into tomorrow. I remembered how much the moochers ate the last time a two day stay at my house occurred. I was thinking Jeff had a tape-worm, he was always eating a sandwich. The sandwich thought reminded me to pick up two gallons of mustard, two of ketchup, one of mayonnaise, and one of pickle relish. At this rate I’d need a second cart. At least the guys were trained to wash their own dishes when they were at my place. I was certain the old hands would let the newbies know the procedure. I moved from the Deli and on to the meat department.

There I picked out five large roasts, two hams, nine pounds of shrimp, that would probably be gone in a half a meal, and about twenty pounds of chicken as well as cleaned them out of ground beef and hot dogs. Moving back up the line to dairy/ poultry area again, I grabbed three flats of eggs which, hopefully, would be enough to last through the week end. My cart was becoming difficult to push. The other women were looking at my cart as though they thought I was crazy.

One older lady stopped for a moment, “Don’t you think that’s a bit much, dear?”

I smiled at her, “I’m having twelve guests in over the weekend.”

She looked again, frowning, “Good Luck, dear.” and toddled off pushing her cart which had six items in it.

I finished my rounds of the store with a trip down an aisle where I picked out flour, sugar, and artificial sweeteners before changing aisles to check on the cookies. Before I was finished I had six packages each of eight different kinds.

Rolling the cart full to the checkout allowed me to learn the extent of the damage and nearly a hundred ninety dollars later I was on my way to the car. I needed to begin watching for coupons if I was going to do this very often. As I was walking past the displays of books something caught my eye and I paused. That was my second big mistake.

Another twenty-eight dollars and eighty-three cents later I was departing with a few more story books. By the time I reached my car again, snow was falling lightly with a hint of becoming heavier, the wind gusting enough that my two wind generators might be putting out close to five Kilowatts apiece. I would probably still need to turn on the other two so I could turn on more heat in the house and in the drive and walks while the batteries continued to charge. I didn’t have a clue as to what a kilowatt was but I had filed away in my memory what the company had said when they installed the system.

“During the summer you’ll likely use up to fifteen kilowatts a day but during the winter you will go over twenty and probably hit twenty five a day.”

Since the batteries couldn’t be overcharged due to some sort of sensing system in the chargers I felt it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, the meters in the garage or my bedroom would show me if power was going into or coming out of the batteries and all I had to do was turn on another generator if I wanted to charge them. I tried not to worry about what to do if all the generators were on and there was still power coming out of the batteries. So far, that hadn’t happened.

I began loading my car with my treasures before pushing the empty cart into one of the snowdrifts that used to be a cart repository. Perhaps it still was but the pile of snow was covering them if they were there.

Eventually I got into the car and started the engine. After the engine warmed for a minute or two, I was able to begin my journey back to the house.

Upon arrival, I found both generators were turning faithfully and the driveway could be easily seen. My mobile rang as I pulled into the garage, after I parked I answered to learn it was my guys who had just departed breakfast for their journey to my house. That explained why they weren’t here when I arrived home. Now I began the fun and games of moving all the food into the house and placing it into the various refrigerator, freezer, bread box, pantry, and what-have-you locations so it would be ready for inhuman consumption. No, not a mistake, inhuman ... normal people couldn’t possibly eat all this in only one weekend, not even twelve of them.
I was still putting things away when they arrived. Disabling the perimeter alarm, I buzzed the door to let them in.

“I’m in the kitchen,” I replied to their query as to my location.

They did a sweep of the house determining that everything was fine, pretty much as they expected since it was my home. James informed me Cathy’s flight should be landing about ten o’clock which puzzled me for a moment until I remembered Cathy was an hour ahead of us so her flight which would only take about an hour and a half would likely land roughly a half hour after it took off; at least as far as local clocks went. I could see where instantaneous travel all the way around the world might be a bit unsettling should it ever come to pass. Imagine departing at midnight, to arrive immediately at noon of the previous or next day, Ouch.

A little later James and I departed in my Volvo, with one chase car in tow, arriving at the airport moments before we saw the Gulfstream touching down. It came across the tarmac and in only a few minutes was before us with the door opening, soon Cathy and Rebecca were hurrying across to us.

This time I was ready for , “Mommy” as she wrapped herself around me before I lifted her. The guys collected the luggage, stowing it in the chase car’s trunk while the four of us climbed into my Volvo. The pilots walked into the building as James told me arrangements had been made for them. Our little two car procession drove out the general aviation gate then I took us shopping for some things for Cathy.

While there, we also checked out the toys and books. The toys didn’t hold much interest but she latched onto three books of which I already had two. I explained I had those waiting for her at home and asked her to pick two others. She could read a little and would start to practice printing soon.

Ahead of her age group, or at least ahead of where we were when we were her age. I suppose children now are more advanced in things. When do they get to be children? Phillip told me that some day soon everyone would be walking around with a computer in their pocket and children wouldn’t be able to do anything without them. Now that was just plain scary. I wondered how long it would be before we were plugged into the pocket sized computers we would be carrying around?

As we exited the store and as walked back to the car Cathy slipped and fell. My heart started pounding and I was down next to her in a flash, checking her and fussing over her until I was certain she was okay. I hugged her tight before we continue to the car her hand firmly grasping mine. I helped her into the car then suddenly was aware that I might need a car seat for her. She looked so small and vulnerable sitting there with the seat belt on.
Cathy wanted to look at one of her books while in the car so I let her pick one and her Nanny gave it to her. She had begun reading with some help from the Nanny before the car even made it out of the lot. Twenty minutes later we were pulling into my garage. I was happy with the driveway which was wet but clear of snow and ice. Cathy’s book was interrupted for now, as we began taking things inside. Discovering that I had turned on all the heaters but hadn’t remembered it, I clicked off half the heaters to reduce power consumption but continued some heating of the driveway, walks and stairs. The timer was once again set to five hours.

Inside, we began putting things away then called for delivery of eight pizza’s for lunch which would allow them to arrive just about the right time. Reflecting on our impending power needs as I turned up the heat settings for the rest of the house to seventy degrees, I decided that called for another trip to the garage where I clicked on the heaters for the other two wind generators thus eventually adding them into the fray. Peripheral and house batteries were both at eighty percent with an estimated forty percent usage facing them. With all four generators and the continuing wind we should hold our own and if the wind picked up a little more we would even be placing a charge into the batteries. If it got up to twenty miles per hour I might need to shut down one generator if the automatics didn’t do it for me. As it was, occasional gusts showed a ten kilowatt charge rate and normal wind speeds were showing a two kilowatt drain. It was still a drain overall but the opportunity for increased winds and charge was there.

Returning to the kitchen with Cathy tagging along, I put out two loaves of bread and enough luncheon meats and lettuce for thirty, plus several pint containers of the condiments ladled from the gallon containers. The warning that pizza’s were due to arrive in about 40 minutes was given along with the notice that there were sandwich makings in the kitchen for those who were interested. I started both of the twenty cup coffee pots using the fresh grind, and began to heat water for tea in the eight cup pot reminding the guys they were responsible for cleaning their own dishes and, “Use the coasters. I will not have stains on my antique furniture.”

I poured Cathy a mix of chocolate and regular milk which she began to consume with great enthusiasm. She had been following me around all this time but once she had her glass of milk she took it into the other room so she could dig out one of the story books while she drank her milk. The next thing I knew she was sitting with ‘Mr. Bear’ having the story read to her as she continued to drink her milk, giggling at his antics while he attempted to animate the story for her. He does really good vocal impersonations of a dwarf or an evil queen.

Now that things were a bit more organized I began to do some of the long range preparations for supper. First in for preparation was one of the roasts, I spent about half an hour preparing it before it went into one of the ovens to begin slow cooking. Watching how the luncheon meats were disappearing was shocking of itself but once the pizza’s arrived I began to worry that my shopping trip might have only allowed me to obtain half the supplies I might need this week-end. The subsequent devouring of the pizza’s, of which I am partially at fault having consumed three slices myself clued me that the guys probably hadn’t eaten in the past week in anticipation of eating here these two days. That said, I decided to prep a second roast. See, I told you all the food I bought was unlikely to last the weekend.

During the next hour I prepared everything else, with Cathy’s help as she was happy to be with me and doing something women do together. The Nanny even got involved and appeared to be a good cook, or at least she knew how to do things. James wandered in and bumbled about for about twenty minutes before wandering out again, in general he was a help but, like most men, he wasn’t all that comfortable in the kitchen, especially around three women who were working and talking together. I suppose he felt a little like the fourth wheel on a tricycle.

The supper table was set early, we made room for fourteen. I wandered in to check on the guys in the observation room, which was essentially the electronic command center for the house. All the cameras fed here first and the gate and other defense mechanisms could be controlled from here whenever we had a large party in the house. One of the secondary battery monitors and wind-generator controls like the one in the garage was in here as well. Wind had picked up so despite my cooking which used a large amount of power and the heating of the drive and walks which used even more, the batteries were up to eighty-eight and ninety-two percent respectively with close to a fifteen kilowatt charge rate on top of that.

I clicked off one of the generators so the rapid charge would slow lessening the chance of damaging any of the batteries. The carafe filled with coffee plus a container of sugar, some artificial sweeteners and some cream in a second container was left for them along with the remnants of the sandwich makings and some of the pizza as I warned them that supper was nearly ready then made my way back to the living room. I let the other guys know the battery banks liquid levels were due to be checked and asked if some of them could do it. Three of them, two old pros and a newbie they corralled into learning the procedures, headed for the cellar returning about forty minutes later.

“Lynn, you’ll need to order more distilled water. You’re down to just less than a five gallon bottle. There are four empties down there now. We put the empties on the lift so you’ll just need to raise them whenever.”

“Thank-you, I’ll put them on my Monday list.”

I wondered why the batteries always seem to use more water during the Winter than they did during the Summer? Giving thought to ordering the water I decided I’d order eight bottles from Sparkletts and pay the extra deposits. Hopefully that would be enough water to make it through the winter.

Finally all my hostess duties had been completed except for pulling out more Danish to begin thawing for morning and starting a third pot of coffee. I don’t know where the guys put all this. That gave me a moments pause so I went to the downstairs bathroom and checked toilet paper. The roll was down to half and there were no spares so I went back up and grabbed a four pack bringing it down to place in one of the drawers as back up. Finishing that, I sought out Cathy. I could hear squeals of joy outside which led me to the back window where I saw Cathy, James and three of the agents in a snowball fight. I grabbed my rabbit coat and boots and rushed out to join Cathy as a teammate.

Her Father soon allied himself with us and it was three against three. James and I kept up our bombardment as Cathy landed a small snowball on ‘Mr. Bear’ who shook and roared, “I’ll get you, me pretties,” giving a strange cackle which I guess was supposed to be some maniacal laugh.

Cathy started laughing as she piled together another snowball. He was about to retaliate when the three of us each landed a snowball on him which caused him to retreat to the porch before we began a furious onslaught against the remaining two. They surrendered quickly, then the men all went inside to get warm while Cathy and I began to build a snowman. Cathy had been strangely untouched by any snowballs. Fifteen minutes later we were inside as well, getting warm and making hot chocolate with marshmallows for Cathy.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.
Chapter image (helicopter) public domain.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

The fireplace had been fed some more logs and was still crackling merrily.
While we had been out collecting Cathy at the airport and then going to the store for her winter clothes, the guys who had stayed here started the fire and brought in more wood, stacking it over in the corner on the flagstones which made up the storage area of the extended hearth.

I didn’t mind that as there was a lot of wood available outside and burning it cut back on the electric heating which eased the load on the battery banks. As that room was very toasty I cheated a little, clicking on the fireplace heat ducting fans which would transfer some of the heat from the firebox vanes and the stones lining it, out to the adjacent rooms while the smoke and fumes continued on up the chimney.

I was really quite happy Cathy was here and she must have been also as she was spending as much or more time with me than she did with her father. Being a Mom was turning out to be kind of nice.

After we had lunch Cathy asked, “Mommy ... Can we read my book some more?” Smiling at her I led her into the den, turned up the thermostat a little and we found her book. After we had been reading for about a half hour and we were just beginning our third book I told her, “I need to go check on the roast for a little bit. I’ll let the guys know you are reading so maybe some of them will come and help you with the big words.”

“Okay, Mommy.”

Almost as soon as I mentioned it, some of the guys gravitated out of the living room to go in to help her. They eventually wound up partially acting out the story much to her amusement. After there were several guys there to help, I left long enough to check and moisten the roast before returning to help her read and then repeated the check of the roast again just after the story was finished. Cathy had been curled on the couch leaning on me whenever I was there and I had my arm around her letting her know someone cared.

“Mommy, can I read another?”

I looked at James, who was shaking his head before I replied.

“Cathy why don’t you decide which one you would like to read and we will save it for after supper.”

“Okay,” a little disappointment in her voice. She went over to look through the small pile, selecting one before she yawned again.

“Are you tired, honey? Need a nap?”

“Nooooo ... ” she plaintively wailed.

I smiled at her, “I promise not to let you miss anything important.”

“Promise?”

She was still at the age when promises were iron-clad.

“Cross my heart. Why don’t you let Nana take you up to your room. You could have a short nap and then I’ll wake you for supper. Afterward we can read your next story.”

Cathy got up coming over to hug me and give me a kiss, then she went to her Father and did the same.
“Sweet dreams, baby,” I called to her as she walked away with her nursemaid.

“See you later, Cathy,” her father called out.

I watched as she left with the Nanny, then put her books into the pile with the others while placing her new selection on top.

“You’re really good with her. You’ll make a good mother some day.”

I looked at James with a mix of surprise, happiness, and longing for the possibility.

“Some day. If I get that far. It’s nice having a daughter, even if it is only temporary and I’m
actually borrowing.”

“Once you’re a woman, maybe you won’t need to borrow anymore.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing specific. I just think if you stop telling people that you are going to become a woman and just start being one that you might find someone who would like you for who you are and who could accept you and love you. Then the two of you could raise a family together.”

“Someone like you, I suppose?” I asked, a little annoyed.

“Not necessarily. Although I find you to be intelligent as well as pretty.”

“Again, what is that supposed to mean?” wondering where this conversation was going.

“Possibly not what you are thinking. My wife was considerably different than you, both in personality and in business acumen. She was an excellent networker, wonderful wife and devoted mother. I still love her very much after all this time since her death but, I will never find another like her and, further, probably shouldn’t. In you, I find someone with business capabilities ... You network easily, or at least appear to do so, and are growing your business as well as attempting to branch into areas which are peripheral but pertinent.

You said you purchased commercial properties which are used by your business but you selected more than your business needed so you could lease out some of the property thereby creating a positive cash flow rather than a drain. That’s good business sense. You have two junior partners, by your own admission, plus others who are ‘silent partners’ and you have taken steps to protect their interests. At this point I’d say each of us has a net worth probably very close to that of the other. The opportunity exists that we could each benefit from an equal merger of our businesses. The two of us might be able to cause a great deal of growth in a mutual venture. We also have a certain unspoken trust of each other for whatever reason.

That trust is bringing me to want to spend more time with the woman with whom I’m talking. Note, I said woman. That IS what you are despite whatever road you must take to get there. For now I would be quite happy to simply be allowed to continue seeing you on a non-professional basis. We can hold the professional considerations aside for future examination.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Say Yes, at least to allowing me to continue to date you, as well as continuing to be a surrogate mother for Cathy. She likes you a lot.”

“I ... Don’t know. I haven’t given it much serious consideration.”

“Then why did you suggest Cathy come here for the week-end or longer? Why have us here for Christmas? What do you want from our presence?”

“I don’t know. I just didn’t want Cathy to have a sterile Christmas and I wanted her to feel included in the things you and I were doing as much as possible.”

“Spoken like a true mother, who wants her child to feel wanted and loved. Or are you trying to hide behind her so you and I won't become too close? If you hurt her I should be most displeased.”

“James, I would never knowingly cause hurt to her feelings. I love her like she’s my own ... ” Almost in a whisper, “ ... daughter.”

He nodded his head while looking at me closely.

“Ohmigosh. I’ve got to check the roast,” I rushed out going to the kitchen only to find him following me. I couldn’t escape that easily. As I basted the roast, deciding it could use a half hour more before I moved it to the other oven to keep warm, James kept the conversation light granting me time to think, as if that was possible.

He wanted to begin dating me in anticipation of my transition to womanhood and he was willing to allow me to fulfill the role of mother to his daughter. He also proposed a business merger.
I felt like he had a gun to my head. If we married and performed the merger then something went seriously wrong in our marriage, it could seriously affect my business. If the marriage went well but the merger didn’t then what effect would it have on the marriage? Probably not good. If both went well? One chance in three, not terribly good odds. I would need some assurances that the business could be split again if necessary and without any loss of growth accumulated by either business during the temporary alliance. Perhaps they could be held by a holding company comprised equally of James and myself.

“No, James. I don’t think that would work very well. If we continue to see each other, I think the two businesses need to remain separated.”

I needed to talk this over with the attorneys. Meanwhile, what should I do? Should I continue to see him non-professionally?

I had been preparing the second roast and started the lower oven ten minutes ago so it would be warm. Then I moved the first roast into the lower oven to keep it warm before placing the second into the much hotter oven to begin cooking. Supper would be in about two hours with the second roast ready about that time or maybe shortly after.

“James?”

“Yes?”

“I think I would like to continue dating you. If you can make me feel you aren’t holding a gun to my head. As to the businesses, I still need a lot of time to think about that.”

“Okay, Lynn, thank-you. I’ll try very hard not to make you regret it.”

“No promises, James. Remember, I started out hating your guts. Now, I don’t know why, but I would like to continue seeing you ... And Cathy.” I hastily added.

“We’re a package deal anyway,” he replied.

I laughed, and so did he. We were standing close so he leaned forward to kiss me softly. I turned bright red before turning away to going back to the potatoes I had started peeling. As I finished the potatoes, James was telling me his life’s history and prying mine out of me with a finesse I didn’t know was possible.

After the potatoes, I moved on to opening ten large cans of soup pouring them into a kettle then added half the amount in water before asking him to place it on the electric burner so it could warm slowly and would be low enough that I could easily stir it. I know I could just as easily have placed it on the burner before I began to fill it but I needed the added diversion for him.

The potatoes were in another kettle which was now on a second burner and slowly warming before coming to a light boil. Fresh shelled peas, carrot slices, lima and cut string beans plus a little corn went into a third pot. Before he could escape, I put James’ hands to work; after he washed them and put on an apron. I had him begin to cut the heads of lettuce and separate the leaves into a large bowl. As he was accomplishing this small task I cut a number of tomatoes into slices to also be included in our salad. About half the fresh mixed vegetables would be added after they cooked and chilled a little in the refrigerator.

James next task was to open three jars of dressing and pour some of each into it’s own serving bowl for use on the salads. This was something new for me. I usually make the dressings from scratch but there was a section in the store that had pre-made dressings in pint, quart and gallon containers so I thought I would give them a try and picked up a quart of each of four of them. So far he seemed to be doing well at his tasks. I proceeded to check all the vegetables and the soup, lowering the heat on the soup just a tad to help hold the flavor then stirring everything before going to check the roasts. They were doing well, the first was still warm and moist, and the second had well begun at cooking nicely having pre-cooked a bit in the cooler oven. Now I rinsed and dried my hands.

“James, I’m going to awaken Cathy so she can prepare for supper, I’ll be right back. Don’t mess with anything. Oh! In three or four minutes stir the soup for a minute and again five minutes later if I’m not back by then.”

He nodded his head dutifully, “Kiss her forehead to awaken her. That’s what Amanda used to do all the time and Cathy comes awake with less ‘fanfare’ that way as well.”

“Fanfare?”

“She tends to throw her arms around a lot as she wakes up but a kiss on the forehead brings her up more slowly and she doesn’t become violent.”

I nodded my head going out and up the stairs. Slipping into her darkened room, I made my way over to look at her asleep on the bed. Leaning closer, I kissed her forehead gently.

“Cathy, wake up sleepyhead. It’s almost supper time,” I quietly told her.

She smiled as her eyes opened to see me, “Hi Mommy, I had a nice dream. You went away but then you came back as a new Mommy so Daddy and I won’t be alone anymore.”

“That was a nice dream, baby. Do you need Nana to help you get ready for supper? I need to go down and continue preparing it.”

“Can I try? I’m a big girl, but Nana can help if I get stuck.”

“Okay. This isn’t a special meal so you don’t need to wear a dress. I’m going to eat supper dressed like this and then we’ll read your book after Mommy cleans up everything.”

Cathy yawned, “Okay Mommy. Nana always knows what to choose.”

I kissed her on the forehead again.

“You always did that Mommy. I missed you. Will you sing lullabies to me again when I go to bed?”

“It’s been a long, long time, baby. I don’t know if I remember any.”

Getting up from sitting on the bed I added, “I’ll send Nana in.”

I exited the room as she was getting out of bed. Next, I knocked on the nursemaid’s door telling her, when she answered, “Supper will be ready in just over half an hour, Cathy is up and starting to prepare for supper. No one need wear a dress, I’m into casual.” as I indicated that to which I had changed to when we returned home earlier.

She smiled then walked down and entered Cathy’s room. I began to try to muster the courage to go down and face the inquisitor again.

He was stirring the soup as I entered the kitchen. I smiled at him as thanks for a job well done. He began talking again as I took over the duties once more. Thankfully James kept the conversation light; talking about Cathy and her childhood before I met her. I’m learning so much that it was difficult for me to realize I really had only been near her for little more than three days.

“So, how did her finger painted mural turn out?”

“Well, let’s just say it was no DaVinci ... Possibly a little more along the lines of a Picasso. We let it stay on the bedroom wall for a few weeks before cleaning it off. She grew tired of it by then. It wasn’t too long before crayons were of far greater interest. Much less messy to work with, just keep her away from blank walls.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for when she visits during Christmas. Please don’t pack crayons in her things for the trip.”

I had a fleeting thought, “She doesn’t color over art which is hanging, does she?” Thinking that I might possibly need to remove my oil paintings and store them temporarily.

“No, thank God. I have a number of originals hanging at home which would be very difficult to restore. Some of the ones I’ve seen here are quite valuable as well, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yes, there is a Monet ... A Matisse and a VanGogh as well as a few of the lessor artists but, still valuable. I missed out on a DaVinci ... The bidding started at three quarters of my available funds and surpassed me in just two bids. I really didn’t expect to be in the running but had hoped for the possibility. I satisfied my cravings with the Monet instead.”

“Now that’s a bit of a coincidence. I purchased a DaVinci at auction last year at Southby’s. There was an effeminate man who made the opening bid but didn’t continue to bid. He purchased a Monet two offerings later.”

“At Southby’s? I hate to tell you this but that was probably my alter ego or perhaps, my prior ego. I prefer to think of him as the larval stage and this is the butterfly, speaking only of freedom and beauty.”

“I appreciate the metamorphosis. I do hope you intend to remain this way.”

“Or even better, once I find someone to help me, I intend to complete the change. Thank-you, James, for not ‘weirding out’ on me.”

“I see nothing to ‘weird out’ about, Lynn. I like the way you are. As a female, I mean.”

My face again felt quite warm. Some of the things he says are embarrassing, but I was craving them. When he held me close ... It just felt so ... right. I know I would never be able to make a baby with him even after my change, but I truthfully hoped he would actually be able to accept that I was Female which is something I had tried to deny for years, even so much as to get into fights over someone saying I looked feminine. My efforts obviously were not met with much success for here I was again as my feminine self.

“I hate to break away from this conversation, James, but I really must begin to place the food out on the table and everyone needs to wash and come to supper. Would you let everyone know they need to wash up?”

James assisted by transferring everything to the table after warning everyone that they needed to prepare for supper. Meanwhile I carved the first roast into serving size pieces. After he had made a few trips the roast was ready so he carried it out while I brought another of the 20 cup pots out to go onto the roll around cart. I reminded myself that from now on I needed to remember to place it in the dining room before adding the water or starting it to make coffee. I managed to make the trip without spilling it through no fault of my own, plugging it in to remain warm. This pot had some additional things added for flavor and was a combination of four different coffee beans. I love the opportunity to select the beans and run them through the grinder before purchasing. Some really flavorful blends could be achieved. I had several favorites.

I warned everyone that this roast had to serve us all until the other was ready which wouldn’t be for about a half hour, all those who wanted seconds would just need to wait for a bit. Cathy sat between me and the Nanny so we could help her, James I placed at the head of the table, even though it was my home. Three bottles of a light wine were placed on the table so everyone could have a glass if so desired. James and I refrained and, of course, Cathy and the nanny.

I was stunned that Cathy was so well mannered at the dinner table and aside from being a child she acted very grown up. Some assistance was needed to help cut her food but either Nora or myself provided her with that aid. The only error I saw her make was trying to talk with her mouth full.

“Cathy, chew it all thoroughly and swallow before talking. Take smaller bites.”

“Okay, Mommy,” she placed her hand before her mouth to prevent spillage, her eyes sweeping the table to see if anyone noticed.

She finally swallowed her mouthful in several tries and washed it down with a little milk. The glass was a bit big for her.

“Cathy,” I whispered, “while we are out tomorrow, remind me to purchase some smaller glasses so you will find it easier to hold them.”

She leaned close and whispered back, “I will Mommy.”

She smiled and her eyes sparkled. We were almost holding a secret just between the two of us.

We made it through the first roast. I finally checked the second deciding it was ready and fit for consumption. After slicing it just as I did the other, it was taken out and placed where the platter which held the first roast had been. I discovered the hungry crew were more than ready for it, the ravaging horde. Genghis Kahn’s thousands had nothing on this bunch.

Cathy left nearly half of her meal unfinished, which wasn’t all that unexpected. I prompted her to consume a little more of her vegetables before she was unable to continue. Nearly all of her slice of meat was gone. I got up to help her down from the table then we took our plates out to the kitchen before I began to help her read the book she had selected before she had gone down for a nap. A little later some of the guys came to read with her and I promised that I would return to continue with her after the dishes were finished.

Several of the guys helped with clearing the table bringing everything out to the kitchen. I shanghaied a few of the guys to help with the washing and drying while I took the left overs, packaging them for placement into the refrigerator. With my part in the festivities completed, I went out to be with Cathy.

The first book was nearly completed and I was happily into the motherhood thing with my daughter next to me when I suddenly realised that, Yes ... I was indeed into the motherhood thing. I looked at this young lady leaning against me and who had been calling me ‘Mommy’. Light tears filled my eyes as I began holding her gently next to me.

Cathy sensed something, looking up at me, “What’s wrong, Mommy? Why are you crying?”

“Mommy loves you, baby. I was just thinking how sad I would be if you weren’t here.”

She snuggled in closer, “I’m here, Mommy. Don’t cry.”

That had exactly the opposite effect and my tears really began to flow. I wrapped my arms around her hugging her close, “Mommy loves you, baby.”

She stood up next to me on the couch wrapping her arms around my neck,

“I love you too, Mommy.”

I simply had to find an understanding doctor ... Right away!

The guys vacated the room when I began to read to Cathy but a couple of others came in. Upon seeing the female moment they discreetly vacated as well. Two more were headed off by them as I noticed them head back down the hall toward the living room. My female moment lasted at least another minute before I realized I needed to talk more with James about the information he had found. We didn’t go in to the office so it didn’t get printed for me to read. I needed to look at it so I could take notes and find a doctor with whom I could talk about this ... this ... whatever this was. Finally I made it past my tears, calmed down and came to earth once again.

“Cathy, do you want to read another book?”

She was all for that. I placed the one we finished, more or less, into the stack after she selected another. In moments we began reading. A few pages in, a couple of the guys peeked in and I commandeered them to read with Cathy while I found James. I told Cathy that, “I need to talk with Daddy for a few minutes. Do you need Mr. Bear to come read with you, too?”

She did, of course, and named a couple of the other agents as well. I headed out going to the living room where I found everyone else. I asked James, "Could we talk and would you please bring your suitcase thing along?"

Next I let the guys know that Cathy wanted some of her friends to read with her. Half the guys got up to head on down the hall. I made a mental note of who was going since they were likely the ones with children at home. James and I retired to my office where I could look at his suitcase screen and take notes.

There I explained my need to find doctors to help me on my way to womanhood and to help me to complete whatever needed to be done to eventually take me there. I didn’t bother telling him that my daughter was in the other room reading a book. He would just need to learn that over time. I began to pay more attention to his mannerisms and quirks, some of which were endearing and some of which were infuriating. After an hour of reading I was armed with more data and at least had a half-baked idea of the path I needed to take. The only real problem I’d seen concerning James and myself was we were both Alpha’s. If I could refrain myself from tearing his throat out then we might just get along.

There were three good possibilities for my mental health assistance, and three as well for the actual surgeries. I needed to do some homework before deciding. There were a large number of others but as near as I was able to make out these six were the most prominent which weren’t still directly involved with any governmental programs. I needed to keep it all close to home since my business had so many jobs occurring during these next five months I couldn’t get away for very long nor very far. If we counted the if-maybe’s as jobs then we would need ‘all hands on deck’. We could still use a few more jobs for each month but what we had pretty well sewn up wasn’t bad and we stood to make a little money as well. A few more high end jobs would be gravy. We might make it back into the Filet Mignon yet.

Hearing voices; no, not that kind, I decided reading time had ended and thanked James for his herculean efforts on my behalf. Excusing myself I went out to claim Cathy and to take her up and prepare her for bed. That was an interesting task, selecting PJ’s and brushing her hair for fifteen minutes, as well as again the next morning, getting her to wash her face and clean her teeth (not one of her favorite tasks). Finally, I had her ready for her prayers then into bed. One of her prayers was for me (Mommy) not to cry. She explained that she used to pray for me (Mommy) to come back, but now that I was here, she didn’t want me to be sad. I explained that sometimes tears were for when we were happy as well. That was a concept she had trouble understanding and I wasn’t ready to go into any detail just yet.

She settled into the bed then I tucked her in, gave her a kiss on her forehead and turned out the light. “I’ll leave the door open just a little, baby.”

“But Mommy, I’m not a baby anymore.”

“You’ll always be a baby to me, sweetheart. You’re my baby.”

She gave me a little scowl.

“Cathy, that’s a good thing. Much better than being someone else’s baby.”

That was another idea which was a little difficult for her to understand so she just smiled and I blew her a kiss goodnight, then closed the door down except for the last few inches, listening for a few moments before I quietly made my way downstairs to see what all the guys were up to. During my journey I stumbled across James.

“James, I want to thank you for all that research you did for me. It’s wonderful to have those doctor’s names and actually have some idea of who to talk to and what can actually be done.”

“You’re welcome, Lynn. My pleasure.”

“James, not to change the subject but, does anyone manufacture a computer which a private person could easily use? Those things Phillip and Grace play with drive me a little crazy. I can think of so many uses but no one sells one which I understand and might be able to use.”

“Well, that’s a bit of what my company is all about. We are trying to develop programming which will allow more people to use computers and which will allow computers to do more without needing a lot of external changes to do each job. That way they could be used for more projects around the home. Things like writing letters so you can store the letter and be able to reference back to it at any time, or make small changes to it so it could be sent to someone else such as form letters or billings could be a big help and speed things quite a bit. How about a recipe database, or maybe medical records. There are a lot of ideas out there but right now the computers and their programming haven’t caught up although there are a lot of companies working hard to that end. Both on the programming side and on the part of manufacturers of the processing hardware who are trying to make things smaller as well as more capable. It’s a difficult fight.

Give us all ten years and you’ll probably see one as powerful as the ones at your business but small enough to sit on the corner of any desk. I could teach you some of the stuff used now. It isn’t that difficult and you would probably catch on pretty quickly. You’re pretty smart.”

He saw me blush and continued, “I mean it. You catch onto things quickly. I think some of the programs I use would be good for you to use as well. There are some which you don’t need but the basic office stuff you could learn. For now the problem still happens to be that computers are larger than the size of your desk when they have enough memory and mass storage to be worthwhile. Another small problem is keeping them cool and the electric bill each month. For now, with a few weeks training you could wow Phillip.”

“I remember it cost quite a bit to get our part of the building wired so Phillip and Grace could connect with ARPANET and we had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get permission. Would the same connection work for the computer I might use or would I need a new one?”

“Unfortunately we would need to add a few things to allow you to use one here and you would likely be spending much of your time trying to get it to do the things you wanted to accomplish just yet. What you want in a computer is likely a decade or two away. I’m sorry Lynn. As you can see, the equipment I use to talk with Cathy isn’t even what I would call a computer although some day I believe we will be able to not only use a computer to process information and prepare correspondence but we will be able to send letters to each other over the Network and perhaps even send video files or achieve and archive live video conferences through the computers.”

“James, speaking of Cathy, when we go out tomorrow I want her to come along with us. If I begin dating you, I want her to have the opportunity to just be a little girl and to grow up like any other little girl with all the fanfare and pictures and scrapbooks and diaries so she doesn’t miss anything. So she will have those memories when she is grown up, memories of the joy she had just being a little girl. That’s something I never had and most people like me never will have. I miss it even though I never had any of it as a female. If I have anything to say about it, I won’t have Cathy miss it. You’ll need to get accustomed to that. If I decide to be her mother then she is going to have a normal childhood and all that entails.”

James was very quiet as I ranted. When I finished he came over and gently hugged me allowing me after a minute to lower my head onto his shoulder as he continued to hold me close.

“People like you? I hadn’t even given that any thought ... Of course there must be others who have the same needs you do.”

He paused and I could see his eyes lose their focus as he seemed to give that some thought. It was almost like he had created a file in his mind and was secreting it away in some filing cabinet that only he could access. Then, a few seconds later, his face changed and he continued.

“Lynn, there isn’t any way I can say this without sounding like I’m trying to force you into something. That isn’t how I want this to sound. Any time you want to become a part of this family and have a continual say in Cathy’s welfare, just say so. For now, you are doing a terrific job at being her temporary mother and I’ve never seen her happier. Lady ... I mean that by the way ... Lady... I have met a lot of women in passing ever since my wife died. I’ve dated no one and haven’t even considered the possibility. I don’t know what it is about you that piqued my interest but I am interested. I was so convinced that you were a woman when you told me you weren’t ... I just couldn’t believe it. I’m still not certain ... ”

“Any time ... ”

“I know. What I’m trying to say, and not doing a very good job of it Lynn, is I’m not going to push. I would like to date with you a bit whenever we have the chance and I know that won’t be often. I would also like to let Cathy stay with you once in a while, IF and this is a big if, IF you happen to consider marrying me and becoming a mother to Cathy. Meanwhile, as often as possible when we get together, I would like to include Cathy just as you said before. She is very precious to me and I like to see her happy. You help her to be that way. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know you don’t need to do it, but I’m so glad you are.”

By the time he finished speaking I had tears in my eyes. I couldn’t tell if he did because mine were in the way. I hugged him, tight, and gave him a short kiss ... yes, on his lips. He started to talk again and I burst out bawling, turned and ran-stumbled my way upstairs to my room. I threw myself on my bed and had a good cry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. In just a little more than a week I’ve become an emotional wreck. I can’t do this ... It isn’t fair to Cathy. She needs a mother and I’m not even a woman.

I’ve never been a little girl; well, not exactly. Oh yeah ... Now how am I supposed to be able to give her a birds and bees talk and explain things to her when she begins to experience that one event so particular to females the world over. She will be looking to me for answers and I won’t have them because I have never experienced them. It isn’t fair to her. She needs a real mother. A female mother.

Then why am I crying now?.. Because I can’t be a real female or because I can’t be her mother?.. Or maybe both.

Part way through the night I awakened to hear sounds of anxiety. I got up, grabbed my Beretta before I rushed out of my room searching for the sound’s source. It was coming from Cathy’s room. I was down there and in the room in a flash ready to put down any perp who might be in the room. All I found was a very unhappy three year old who woke up in a strange place and who had no one to comfort her. I spent ten minutes holding her and then led her back to my room so she could share my bed.
That way if she had another panic attack she would have someone to grasp. I explained that when she awakened in the morning I might not be in the bed because I would need to go down to fix breakfast for everyone. I was surprised no one else heard her. Maybe I would make a good mommy. She quickly dropped off to sleep after my kiss to her forehead. All was once again right in her world so it was safe to sleep.

The remainder of the night had followed right in the footsteps of the first with me waking and sleeping and waking again, over and over, with tears in my eyes for Cathy and her need for a mother and tears for me having never experienced being a little girl, so I’m worthless as a substitute. All my thoughts of becoming a woman and raising children had now just become a fantasy because I couldn’t offer them what they really needed, a female figure in their lives.

The next morning I awakened with my right eye glued shut due to tears and my left wasn’t in much better condition. Somehow I made it into my bathroom where my eyes became useful again after I washed my face several times. Eventually I dressed, put on a little mascara and lipstick so I would look semi-dressed then went down to prepare breakfast for the men. About seven I could get Cathy up so we could get her ready for breakfast. She and I would eat together along with the nanny if she didn’t come down earlier as a result of all the noise the guys were likely to make.

I was downstairs mixing pancake batter and cracking open part of another flat of eggs, putting them into a large mixing bowl so I could make scrambled eggs. I was also making home fries and heating sausage. In my spare time I pulled out a gallon container of Log Cabin syrup pouring some of it into five pitchers which held a little over a pint in each. The guys might need more, but that would be a good start.

Just as they were beginning to show up, I shangheid some of them into forced labor having them go to work setting the table as I put the food in the oven to keep it warm even as I cooked more. The two coffee pots had just finishing perking so there would be coffee for them to wake up to. I told them they needed to take care of themselves while I went back upstairs to get Cathy ready for breakfast.

“All the food is cooked, Each of you just needs to place some on a plate for yourself and sit down at the table to eat. Anyone who doesn’t make it to food this time around will just have to wait for me to come back down with Cathy. I’ll cook some more then.”

I tried to sneak into my room but discovered Cathy was awake, just playing possum. When I kissed her forehead she got me in a hammerlock, so I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her off the bed, carrying her to the bathroom. She was all smiles and giggles and very happy to see me. Maybe I could be a fit mother. It would be so wonderful to raise two girls. They would be company for each other as well.

I felt the need to start introducing Cathy to some of the ‘light’ as well as ‘heavy’ classical music, a little of each major kind of music and some opera. Maybe she would even like my favorite. Then there were all the old standby’s. She would need to learn to dance, especially the older styles which continued forever. Waltz, Foxtrot, Cha Cha (bet you forgot about that one, and it’s compatriot the Cha Cha Cha), Samba, big band sounds and swing, ragtime, plus of course, rock and roll. That would likely do for the basics. Maybe she would become interested in ballet. I wasn’t certain if I could handle that. I resolved not to hold my breath on that one.

I liked to ride horses. Maybe she would become interested when she was older and we could ride together. I hoped she would begin to like dogs by the time she was five or six, we could get a pair of German Shepherds. I could train them as well as teach her how to command them for protection use. No, they’re not attack or guard dogs. Protection dogs are much more family oriented and they like “little people”. I had a friend who trained one and whenever his grandniece visited. The dog; a papered, silver sable, female German Shepherd named Daimler von Taublick, but nicknamed ‘bear’ for the way she had appeared when a small puppy - would follow her everywhere. If the family wanted to be near her, not a problem, any stranger was met with a “friendly” furface and, if they got too close, a growl. Family members who didn’t visit all that much were slowly introduced and within an hour or two they were allowed near his grandniece. I don’t know what would have happened if they had pressed the issue before the dog accepted them.

Cathy and I managed to make it through the face washing and hair brushing, as well as the dressing and her assorted morning anxieties at being in a strange new place, then we went down for breakfast.
Don’t ever make the mistake of asking a three year old what they want for breakfast ... Ice cream isn’t a proper nutritional substitute for eggs, ham, sausage, fried potatoes and milk. She doesn’t need to eat a lot of food but she needs a balance and frequent small meals. I even managed to get her to take a vitamin. I had to explain she would not like the taste if she chewed it. It only took her four tries to swallow it. Tomorrow, I hoped, would be easier.

“I don’t know how you did that.”

“Did what, James?”

“I don’t know how you got her to take a vitamin pill.”

I chuckled at him, “It’s a Mommy thing, and Cathy did very well. Didn’t you, baby?”

Cathy said, “All gone Mommy,” before she opened her mouth so we could see.

“Yes, it is. Very good, young lady.” James agreed.

She sipped some more orange juice, obviously very proud of herself. I leaned down to kiss her on the top of her head as she continued eating her breakfast. The Nanny was just finishing her own meal while several of my agents were busy washing and drying some of the dishes. I noted they had one of the newbies helping.

I wound up preparing a little more food for the few who didn’t make it down in time for the first batch and seconds for two of the guys who for some reason needed to eat every scrap of food available in my house and home whenever they came over. I could never understand why they didn’t blow up like balloons but that pair never seemed to put on any fat. They must have extraordinary metabolisms. I considered what they had each eaten versus the one egg, small slice of ham, scoop of cottage cheese and a peach half which had been on my plate ... I still needed to lose some weight.

Cathy was tucking away her breakfast like she hadn’t eaten for a week. She likely weighed about a third to half of my weight, if that, and she was eating as much as I had plus two slices of toast, an extra (small) helping of eggs, and a glass and a half of milk. Of course she was a growing girl. I finished my breakfast then placed my plate and coffee cup into the sink getting a sorrowful eye from the newbie who was doing the washing.

“I cooked, it seems only fair one of you washes,” I mentioned quietly. He gave me a crooked little smile like washing wasn’t his idea but he was out voted, or out maneuvered.

Everyone finally finished breakfast and the dishes were nearly clean. I began to put the cleaned and dried plates and cups away in the cupboard then started on the silverware, checking it for any missed bits as I went. By the time I finished, the guys had the last few items finished and were beginning to put them away.

I asked the Nanny to dress Cathy warmly as we were going to go into town to purchase a few more things and I was going to go to the mall to pick up some warmer clothing for Cathy to wear when playing in the snow.

“Where are you going today, James?”

“This is still one of my relaxing days, I was thinking of going up to do some more skiing and then later this afternoon thought, if you don’t mind, we might go into town to see a movie.”

“Cinderella, Daddy? Please!”

James smiled at Cathy, “I don’t know if that one is going around again Cathy. Maybe we can find another one.”

“Snow White?”

“We’ll see. It depends what’s available. The movies here are probably different than the one’s at home.”

“I’ll check the theater at the mall while we’re there, James. Most of the movies are listed in the paper if you can find what the guys did with it. It might even still be out in the snow for all I know.”

“I think they brought it in, I saw some of them reading a paper earlier but don’t know if it was today’s paper or not. I’ll do some checking.”

I nodded my head then walked out following Cathy and the Nanny who were going upstairs to prepare Cathy for walking outdoors. I wandered off to find my booties. That was a bit of a puzzle, why do booties cost more than boots? Anyway, I also changed into something a little warmer for walking outdoors. It was a long way from the parking lot into the mall. Then too, I needed to be able to shed the jacket, or at least open it because the mall was always too hot during the winter. I gave it a moment’s thought remembering there was a mall Santa so I grabbed my Polaroid, wonderful invention, in the hopes I could convince Cathy to talk to Santa. After a few minutes of search I found a strip of five flash bulbs which I could put into the photoflash attachment, one at a time of course.

The Nanny brought Cathy downstairs shortly after I went down to retrieve my jacket, “Do you mind if I tag along? It’s a bit difficult for me to get in any shopping time and this seems a perfect opportunity.”

“Not at all Nora, the more the merrier. Besides this is a girl’s trip anyway.”

“You’re bringing a camera? Photos of Cathy shopping?”

“That and hopefully S-A-N-T-A as well.”

She looked at me like I was crazy, shaking her head as she did so, “Lots of luck, she doesn’t like S-A-N-T-A since he didn’t bring her mother back.”

“Well, I’m back now so maybe ... ”

“Mommy, what’s ess ay ent tyay?” making four syllables out of my five letters.

“A surprise, baby. I hope it will be a nice one.”

“Oh ... Mommy, can I go see Santa Claus?”

The nanny looked shocked especially since she had just finished telling me that Cathy didn’t like Santa.

“Santa Claus? Are you sure, baby?”

“Yes. He brought you back, it just took a long time. Now I want to ask if we can all live together again.”

Out of the mouths of babes. This was getting out of control. I was beginning to wonder if Cathy had some special connections. Maybe if I gave her my Christmas list to show to Santa...

I crouched down to give my precocious daughter a long hug.

After our hug, I went to the downstairs half bath with my make up and after cleaning my eyes and face put on some makeup again with a touch of eye shadow. Finally feeling human again, I returned to the living room and the three of us wandered out to the garage while James and most of the gang went out to the limo and the chase cars. The agents pulled some of their skiing stuff from the second chase car which was staying here with the few who were remaining at the house.

The first two cars departed even as I was pulling out of the garage after having once again started the driveway and walk heating elements as well as two of the wind generators. I hoped some day the convertors which turned batteries power into commercial power would be replaced with some which were more efficient and created less heat in the basement. At least the driveway heating elements didn’t care if their power was battery power or commercial power, so I didn’t need to convert that power twice. The company which installed the system said that would make it’s use about five percent more efficient.

We tooted horns at each other before they set out and we followed them about thirty seconds later, each going our separate ways. I watched the gates close behind me as I drove away. The agents we had left with the house were obviously in the command center, or at least one of them was.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Upon reaching the Mall we pulled into the parking lot to discover the typical early pre-Christmas zoo which generally began around late November. Most of these were people who usually decided to begin just after Thanksgiving so they wouldn’t miss out on anything but this year came out two weeks earlier. I was thankful I hadn’t participated, at least until today.

Fortunately it wouldn’t become the normal pre-Christmas madhouse for two or three weeks yet. By then everyone who hadn’t been participating would join those who began early. Why so many would wait until Christmas was approaching them like a runaway express train I couldn’t understand. I generally did my shopping much earlier in the year despite the possibility of someone receiving something I had already purchased. Then again, there were enough kids involved what with all my employees that all I needed to do was switch gifts around a little which meant the office ‘Santa’ was usually covered.

As we entered the mall I had been examining the Nanny who didn’t seem to have much in the way of cold weather clothing. While we were in shopping for Cathy, I more or less ordered Nora to look for some for herself as she was likely to be spending more time here with Cathy and the weather would be cold for a number of months yet. Not just cold, but getting colder before it became warmer again. Cathy and I shopped as the nanny went off on her own to see what she could find. By the end of the first hour we had found Cathy several nice outfits for wear and shortly after that Nora came back with something draped over her arm.

“I had rather hoped you would be wearing it, Nora.”

“I didn’t want to wear it. I tried it on and it fits but I don’t have enough to purchase it. I wanted you to see it so you could help me find something like it somewhere nearby which was a little less expensive.”

“I don’t recall telling you to purchase it, just to find it. I will purchase it and I hope you found more than one. I can’t have you becoming ill from the cold when Cathy is depending on you.”

“But, I can’t possibly pay you back Ms. Stevens. This outfit alone is a week’s pay. Well ... figuratively.”

“Nora, for pity’s sake. Go find at least two more outfits. Go on. I’m buying them and I didn’t ask you to pay me back. You need to stay warm just as much as Cathy does. And put one of them on. Just bring all the tickets for it and for your booties and mittens so I can purchase them as well.”

She continued to stand there as thought she hadn’t heard a word I had said.

“Nora, are you deaf? We have almost finished our shopping so go on and find some more outfits and some boots so you won’t become ill. It won’t help Cathy if you’re sick. You also need a heavier coat. I’ll purchase everything then we can get on with the shopping we need to be doing elsewhere in the mall. I’ll just charge the expense against our profits for this job. You are a needed asset. Pick something that allows you to be warm but opens up a bit so you won’t be too hot here in the mall... especially here in the mall; I don’t understand why they turn up the heat when it gets colder outside.

Perhaps you can find something like that which I’m wearing. It’s nice and warm when we are outdoors, but zipped down like this I’m not too hot when indoors. After Santa then we’ll go to the market again. I swear those guys are going to eat me out of my house and home.”

Nora smiled, “Thank you. I’ll only be a few minutes.”

She rushed off again as I took Cathy into the dressing room to try on yet another outfit. It fit a little loose and seemed a tad long for her but that meant it would likely fit for the few months of winter, at least this year; next year would be something else again. When we came out there was still no sign of Nora.

“Mommy, will we be able to go see Santa?”

I was crouching down to fix her sleeve while attaching the strings from one of the mittens to the cuff eyelets so if she took her mittens off they wouldn’t get lost. That would let us leave them off while she was in the mall but they would still be quickly available. The outfit was unzipped, as was mine, to help her remain cool enough inside the mall. Another mother with two young girls paused nearby checking some of the outfits nearby, holding them up to each of her daughters. We caught each other’s eye for a moment and smiled at the other’s family.

“I found these over in the clearance area,” as I pointed toward the clearance tables, “There are perhaps three or four dozen more which are a little larger and they are forty percent off. It wouldn’t hurt to look.”
She smiled at me, “Thanks,” then gathered a hand of each of her daughters, leading them in the direction of the clearance tables as one of the girls said, “Mom, I liked that one.”

By this time Nora was returning with three outfits, one of which she was wearing.

“Did you remember warm boots?”

“Yes. Fur lined and on SALE.” She gave me momentary raised eyebrows at the comment ‘sale’ as she pointed back toward the shoe and boot section of the store while turning her ankle to better show off one of the booties.

We went up to the register to wait for our turn, yet another reason not to shop during the madhouse weeks, then placed our things on the counter handing the sales girl the tags from the things which were being worn out of the store. After she rang everything I gave her my corporate Am Ex since I would charge the items against James’ contract funds. Of course it would lower our profits by a whole two hundred sixty-seven dollars, but it would give me some peace of mind knowing these two were warmer and more protected against the winter weather, especially Cathy.

As we made our way to the center of the mall and ‘Santa’, we paused by the theater to see what was playing but nothing stood out as really appropriate for a three to four year old. I hoped James found something at one of the other theaters while he was looking in the paper.

The next store we passed that I wanted to shop was the jeweler. There we began looking at earrings for Cathy. I knew it might be a bit early but I thought it might be better if she had a mommy to hold her hand when her ears were pierced. Her eyes were big as saucers as she looked through the earrings. I told her we weren’t going to spend a lot of money but we would purchase some nice things for her to wear.

We found three pair of studs in 18K gold and selected one of the sets to use as the starter earrings. I explained that I’d had my ears pierced too, and although it hurt a little, it was more frightening than painful. As we sat for her piercing she began to cry in anticipation. After it was over she quickly stopped crying while I rocked her back and forth and soon she wanted a mirror to see her new earrings. By the time we walked out of the store you would never have known she had a problem. I let Nora take several pictures during the time I was keeping Cathy placated. The final picture was of Cathy using a mirror to look at the little Emerald studs now present at her ear lobes.

We continued to the center of the mall where, fortunately, we found Santa. I had been worried it might have been too early in the season for him even though this mall had always seemed to begin Christmas early.

Santa’s little Elves were maintaining control, organizing the children into a line so they could spend their few minutes with Santa. There was a convenient place for parents to stand to take photos as well as a camera set up to take Polaroids of the child with Santa for those who didn’t have their own camera. I asked for two photos, opting to save those in my Polaroid. After paying for them Nora and I went to that location which would allow me to take photos if I wanted to do so, as well as collect Cathy once she finished talking with Santa.

Soon Cathy was on Santa’s lap spilling her heart out. She proudly told Santa she had a Mommy again and thanked him for bringing me, that almost broke my heart. Then she asked for the usual things ... A new dolly so Rebecca wouldn’t be lonely, maybe a puppy (if Daddy would say okay), a new party dress so she would have something nice to wear with her new earrings, which she proudly showed off to Santa ... and a new sister if Santa would have Mommy and Daddy go to the hospital and buy one. Now my eyes were round as saucers, Nora placed her hand on my arm and was silently laughing. Santa took one look at me when Cathy pointed me out and started Ho Ho Ho’ing. I’m certain my face must have turned as red as an apple, or fire truck, or what have you. It certainly felt very warm.
Santa’s helpers brought Cathy over to me after her turn with Santa and they handed me the two photographs I’d paid to have taken. I also received a short list of the things Cathy had asked for so I could obtain them in time for Christmas. All this was given with a smile as the last item on the list was pointed out. My face was still warm, and I was beginning to have quite a few reservations about the baby sister. I quietly led Cathy to the doors leading to the parking lot, bundled her up and the three of us went out to the car with our purchases.

At the grocery I picked up more eggs, bread and a few dozen other things, not spending quite so much as I had the first time. Cathy reminded me we needed to purchase glasses which were a bit smaller so they would be easier for her to hold. In plasticware, I picked up a package of four sturdy ‘glasses’ for her to use which had designs of animals embedded in them. That made them more obviously hers and if they fell to the floor anytime, they were unlikely to shatter into a million pieces.
Once we were home, Cathy helped by carrying some of the smaller things from the car to the kitchen. After it was all put away, we went off to explore the house together. After I showed her the room she would be using and we removed the outfits which were to keep us warm while outdoors she announced she needed ‘the little room’. That took me a moment or two to decipher before I led her to the bathroom.

“Will you be okay, Cathy or do you want me to help?”

“I can do it, Mommy.”

“All right. Don’t forget to wipe; and wash your hands afterward.”

“I won’t.” she said as she closed the door. I didn’t know if she meant she wouldn’t forget or she wouldn’t wash her hands.
I waited outside the door as I heard all the appropriate noises coming from inside. Then I heard her running water in the sink. When she came out I checked the room quickly, straightened the towels and continued our tour.

Finally, I asked Cathy to come help me to bake a cake. Well, actually there would be three cakes so there would be dessert for everyone for a couple of meals (or for at least one meal plus snacks, if I knew the guys).
During the mixing of the batter she helped me read the recipe. Well, she knew the numbers anyway, some of the words were difficult but she tried to pronounce them coming up with some interesting words. We finally switched roles so I could read the recipe and gather the ingredients while Cathy stirred as best she could.

As more was added and the going became tougher I took over the stirring and she took over the pouring of the ingredients into the bowl. I had an electric mixer but somehow the cakes and things tasted better if I stirred them by hand.

After we finished mixing the batter for the last cake and removed the first one from the oven placing the two layers onto a rack to cool, the second cake went in to bake as we began the clean-up. Shortly after the third two layers finally came out of the oven and the heat was shut off, we finished the clean up in the kitchen. The icing was mixed earlier while we waited for the third cake to bake and we easily had enough for all three cakes ... Just to be certain it was perfect, we sampled it more than just once before we began frosting the three cakes. Well, we’re both chocoholics, Cathy and I ... Just- not so many samples that we spoiled our lunch.
Cathy wanted to explore the house again, so I let two of the agents and the Nanny take her around the downstairs. There was plenty for her to see and once she saw the stack of storybooks again the agents would likely be involved reading to her for a while. That gave me the opportunity to begin lunch while knowing Cathy wouldn’t be getting into any trouble. An hour later I rang the lunch bunch bell and learned that the continued exploration didn't make it past the family room and two of the storybooks. With two agents and the Nanny, they were able to put on a skit as they read from the storybook. That had Cathy in giggles and tears for nearly the entire hour. “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll get you, my pretty ... ” Well, what can I say ... They used their imaginations apparently with more than one story book as their guide.

Somehow the three little pigs turned into three little princesses with a few other minor changes in characters and plot. Once she learned to read the whole thing on her own she was likely to be disappointed to learn the story didn’t have any princesses in it, nor an Emerald City ... The agents must have some imaginations if they were able to combine The Wizard of Oz and the Three Little Pigs all into one story. I guess the Emerald City took the place of the house of bricks because I didn’t find any emeralds on the floor of the family room. Obviously the Emerald City withstood the huffing and puffing. I could easily have done with a brick or two of the road though... Oh, well.

James still had not returned by the time we finished lunch so I suppose he was still having fun on the slopes. Of course Cathy eventually noticed Daddy wasn’t “home” and asked, “Mommy, where’s Daddy?” with a bit of fear in her voice as though she felt she had just gotten a Mommy back and now her Daddy was missing.

“He went skiing, baby. He should be back soon.”

“What’s skiing?”

How do you explain to a child that skiing is something people do when they strap pieces of a tree to their feet so they can go very quickly down a hill? I’m not much of a skier, nor do I wish to be. I do not, however, want to bias Cathy one way or another since there are people who really love the sport and for all I know she might also, albeit some time in the future.

“Come with me, Cathy. I’ll show you some skis and try to explain. It can be a lot of fun.”

We occupied ourselves for perhaps 30 to 40 minutes with me answering her questions as honestly as I could while attempting not to bias her against the activity. She seemed mildly interested. With James’ passion for the sport she might well take it up. As I have said before, suicide by tree doesn’t interest me, although I am not going to prevent James from following the sport nor Cathy if it interests her. That wouldn’t prevent me from worrying about her though.

It suddenly hit me that I was thinking like her mother and that I had more or less accepted that role now, following it nearly automatically. Now that was just plain scary. I also realised that I was now considering learning to ski so I could protect my baby, to whatever extent was possible, while she was out on those slopes. The idea of skiing was frightening, but the idea of not being there when she needed me was even more so. What was happening to me?

“Cathy, perhaps we might go watch Daddy ski sometime soon so you will know what happens. There is a lot to learn to be able to ski well and you need to be a little older before you can start but at least you could watch people doing it so you understand it a little more. There are other winter sports as well. There is ice skating, for instance.”

Since this was a little closer to home and much closer to medical care if needed, I felt far better about introducing her to ice skating.

Unfortunately I didn’t ice skate either, “Mommy can’t ice skate so maybe we could learn that together.”

“What’s Ice skaping?”

“Skaattting. Skating.” I corrected her pronunciation.

“Skaattering.” she said slowly drawing it out as I had in my effort to let her hear all the letters. Oh well. We would get there eventually. I guided us back into the main body of the house.

“Tomorrow morning I’ll take you to see people skating. Then maybe we’ll watch your Father skiing before we all have lunch together.”

Lynnette, you silly girl, now you need to learn to skate as well as ski. Oh well. No one ever said my life would be uneventful. I should write a book, then again, no one would ever believe it. It just isn’t possible for so much to be happening to just one person ... Then again, it was happening to me ...

Eauhh, goose-bumps all over.

“You look funny, Mommy.”

“I’m just thinking about a lot, baby.”

For instance, her calling me “Mommy” instead of “Daddy”, and I like it. It’s hard to remember that less than two weeks ago I was walking around and everyone was calling me Lyon. Just as easy as sitting down, everyone at work was now calling me Lynnette ... and I was responding to the name as though I had been born with it. I suppose, in a sense, I was born with it. It just wasn’t on my birth certificate.

Just then I found it was necessary to peel myself off of the ceiling after Cathy screamed, “DADDY’s HOME!” as she rushed toward the front door, having spotted the cars arriving and James getting out. Reaching James she gave his legs a squeeze. As soon as she released him he stooped down to pick her up, carrying her back into the house from the place near the front door where she greeted him. He came over to me, leaned over to give me a kiss then we went for a three way hug. Cathy planted a kiss on Daddy and then planted one on me. Her family was complete again. Well, almost ... I still remembered what she asked for from Santa. I still couldn’t believe I’d gone from hating James’ guts to considering being a part of that family all in less than two weeks ... I know, I know ... This is all just some weird dream, isn’t it??? Please!!! I mean, it’s okay that I want to be a woman, but ... a mother??? And before I even have a chance to decide if I like her Father???

He still grated on me a bit. But he was trying ... He quit drinking with his meals which I suppose was a pretty big concession. He didn’t drink otherwise so that was okay. He was spending more time considering both Cathy and myself and trusted me with his daughter. I pulled back from my inward reflections beginning to listen to Cathy who was describing her heroic efforts at allowing her ears to be pierced.

"I only cried a little while and Mommy was right, it didn’t hurt much, but it was scary. Then we went to see Santa Claus and I told him I have a Mommy again and showed him my new earrings. They’re a pretty green and Mommy said they’re Emrads.”

“Emrads? You mean Em- er- alds,” James corrected her.

“Yes. Emrads,” she said with great conviction, slurring her a & d but still missing the l.

“James? Does Cathy have a hearing problem?”

“I don’t believe so, but I suppose we should have her hearing checked just to be certain.”

“Daddy, come up to my room. I want to show you my new clothes and the other earrings which I get to wear after my ears heal.”

“Did you say thank-you to Mommy?”

Cathy paled as she thought about the shopping trip. She came over to me reaching up so I picked her up as she wrapped her arms around my neck,

“I’m sorry Mommy. I forgot to say, Thank-you.” She placed a wet kiss on my cheek.

“You’re welcome, Cathy. Just remember to be careful with your new earrings. We also need to clean your ears again and turn the earrings a little. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll take care of that and then you can show your new things to Daddy.”

“Okay,” her transgression immediately forgotten as she tried to drag James up to her room while I followed them, bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide and several cotton balls in hand.

This time there were no tears as I cleaned her ear-lobes. The one previous cleaning was enough to show her that it might sting a little but it wasn’t a major trauma. I was already dreading the loss of her first tooth which, as I thought about it, might not be all that far away. We needed to spend some time teaching her more of her letters and improving her simple reading so she could begin school early. No, I’m not trying to rid myself of her ... Allowing her to go to school will be more traumatic for me than for her. Oh God, here I go again ... I’m thinking of myself as her mother. I simply must find a doctor and get this show on the road. I could just imagine trying to explain all this to some doctor ...

Hi, I want to be a woman so I may marry James and be Cathy’s mother.

I think I needed to give this some thought as to exactly how to approach this subject. How do I put feelings into words? I wondered momentarily if character references from Ralph and Nicci would help? Perhaps from Cathy. I could always have the old hands come in and have a chat with him... uh... on second thought...

Having cleaned Cathy’s ears and turned the earrings once again, I left her with her Father as she began to show him her new warm winter wear and the other earrings. They didn’t come down soon, so after about twenty minutes I went up to check discovering James was reading a story to her. He wasn’t making it into a skit however. It will be interesting to see Cathy’s reaction should she have him read three little princesses and see him try to explain why there were three pigs on the cover of the book.

Thinking about the agents and Nora doing the skit for Cathy made me wish that I could have recorded it on my Akai reel to reel. I’ll need to go back to that store and take a more serious look at their new Akai video recorder. They said it was something new and much smaller than the previous version which came out last year. It even had a TV camera included. It still looked pretty big to me ... I couldn’t see myself lugging it around hunting for an electrical outlet so I could make a recording of some precious moment which would be long gone by the time I had the recorder ready.

The salesmen said Akai had partnered a few years back with some other company to put movies on tape. That might be interesting, but the price seemed a bit much just to watch movies. The demo reel they played looked a lot like a normal 1/4 inch audio tape reel except a little more silver in colour. They said it was metal tape, whatever that is. The pictures weren’t bad though and they said in a pinch, high grade audio tape could be used but the images would suffer. I wondered if they would come out with a colour version soon? Watching the tape move through the machine was scary. I was used to seeing tape move at seven and a half or three and three-quarters inches per second but this moved at least twice as fast or probably fifteen inches per second, at that rate a reel would be gone in less than twenty minutes. They said that because the metal tape was much thinner, it would be good for just under an hour. He obviously wanted a sale but I wasn’t quite ready to purchase another AKAI so soon after the first. After all, I had only used the first one three... no, make that four times in the past year.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright confers an implicit license by the author to BCTS permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such license and/or posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

When I reached Cathy’s room I poked my head in and announced, “It will be supper soon, you two, so no starting a new story when you finish that one.”

Cathy pouted then smiled accepting my statement, after all Mommies know best. James smiled and nodded his head, “about a half hour?”

“About that, maybe forty five. Be certain she washes up before coming down.”

He nodded in agreement then continued to read. Cathy was following the story with interest, despite having had it read to her so many times before, interrupting once in a while to ask about words and their meanings. I picked the hydrogen peroxide up from where I had left it and put it away in the bathroom then went back to the kitchen.

Once again I’d been preparing supper for an Army, things were a little easier this time since some items simply needed to be reheated rather than made up from scratch. The mashed potatoes and vegetables were left overs to which I added half again more after cooking them, the sweet potatoes were freshly prepared as were the two new roasts, the soup was onion leek which had ‘cured’ all day, while the salad was comprised of shredded carrots and a little cabbage mixed together and added to lettuce and some lightly cooked fresh peas, and kidney beans. Any left overs from the two previous roasts had been consumed during the day along with about half of the luncheon meats. I discovered I hadn’t purchased enough bread. I would need to pick up six more loaves tomorrow.

Since my house was apparently going to be the base of operations this week I thought I’d have most of the staff brought over from the safe house so I didn’t wind up trying to prepare the meals for everyone as well as playing Mommy and convention model. As if. James and I would need to have a bit of a conference as to exactly what it was he was expecting me to do for the convention. I needed to plan how I was to dress for each day as well as carry my Identification and at least one weapon. Then too, his two vice presidents would be arriving tonight and more than half of this force would be divided off to provide protection for them. That would help my food budget as well.

I was thinking about Cathy but since she wasn’t in school yet I thought I’d try to convince James to allow her to stay here during the week. That would give us the opportunity to be together more often so she wouldn’t be alone with only the Nanny for company at some home isolated from her Father for a week.

Supper was just about ready when this small bolt of lightning came flying into the kitchen, “Mommy, Mommy look what I did.” as she waved a piece of paper in the air while running across the kitchen toward me.

“Don’t run in the house,” slowed her approach minutely.

“Cathy, if you run and fall you could be badly hurt. There are a lot of things in a house that could cause you serious injury if you crash into them. I don’t want to need to take you to the doctor or the hospital. The kitchen is especially a bad place to run. Now, what is it you have there?”

“I’m sorry Mommy. I won’t run anymore.” Then the excitement began to build again, “Look what I did ... ” waving the piece of paper again.

I managed to get her to calm down a bit so we could look at the paper. It was a drawing done in ball point. There were three stick people and a four legged something with a house and sky and what I suppose was a driveway in the background.

“Oh, now that’s good ... Who are the people?” as if I couldn’t guess.

“This is Daddy, and this is me, and that’s you,” was proudly stated.

I surmised this was probably the case since the person in the middle was smaller than the other two.

“Well now, I would have known the middle one was you because she is just about your height. Who is that?” I ask as I pointed to the four legged thing. If her Christmas list was anything to go by then she will probably tell me it’s a dog.

“That’s my horsey.”

“You have a horse?” I asked in astonishment partially because I was pretty certain they lived in an area which didn’t have horse properties. There wasn’t room enough nor were there riding trails so far as I knew.

“I will.”

“I see ... Maybe you’ll have a doggy before you have a horsey?”

She stopped long enough to consider that, “Maybe it’s a doggy and then later there’ll be a horsey?”

“Maybe. The way it is drawn it must be a big doggy.”

She looked at her picture and smiled, “a great big doggy,” she agreed,
“Maybe she’s a Great Dame.”

“You mean, a Great Dane?”

She nodded her head.

“That’s a good picture. Are your hands washed, it’s time for supper?”

The smile dropped from her face and she started to run out of the kitchen.

“Cathy! Walk! A minute or two won’t hurt.”

She slowed her pace down from that of a lightning bolt to simply that of a speeding train as she continued out through the dining room then up the stairs to go wash her hands, leaving her conceptual drawing in the kitchen. I walked over to the refrigerator, pulled off one of the ornamental magnets before I placed the paper against the fridge then used the magnet to hold it there. My first drawing composed by and presented to me by my little artist. I needed to remember to stop while in town to obtain some gold stars. I would put a gold star on the corner of the paper and let her discover it later.

Cathy and James came down to supper together. Everything was on the table and George had finished briefing everyone earlier as to who was going where and with whom. George would initially go with the ten who were covering the two vice-presidents who would be staying at yet other safe house while the remaining three agents would stay here with James, Cathy, the nanny and myself. Once the VPs were situated then George would be moving around and overseeing everyone. James and his vice-presidents had been separated so that if a calamity befell him, it was unlikely to also include the other two. Two of the agents staying here tonight would be going to the Convention Center tomorrow morning as would four of those from the VP detail. That would put James and myself driving in to the Center together along with two agents.

Those of us still at the house began eating supper. Since I hadn’t planned for so few people, there would be massive amounts of left-overs. During supper we discussed a lot of things including exactly what I would be doing both tomorrow and for the rest of the week. At least the whole time wouldn’t be spent as eye candy. Part of the time I got to play secretary using a computer keyboard. Lucky me.

Mental note: Have some business suits altered so I could carry at least one automatic and some spare ammunition as well as money, IDs, and everything else under the sun that I could possibly get into a skirt suit without making either it or me look like a staging area for World War Three.

I raised the issue of Cathy and my idea of allowing her to remain here during the week so she would have a family atmosphere for that long at least. Cathy was all for it, so James gave in and said okay. I was beginning to notice that even at an age a bit shy of four, Cathy was already learning how to hold her father around her little finger. I was beginning to wonder if she would yield to her ‘mommy’.

Once supper was completed, James and Cathy went out to the family room while lucky me tackled the chore of doing the clean up. Fifteen minutes later the left overs were in the fridge. Another fifteen and the dishes were rinsed and in the washer. Finally I wiped down the dining room and the kitchen then started the dishwasher and went off hunting for the children. I finally tracked them down discovering the one reading to the other so I sat down on the piano bench to listen, having remained carefully and quietly behind them. James continued to simply read rather than making a production of it like the Nanny and agents did earlier, but Cathy seemed mesmerized anyway. She obviously had favorite stories and this was likely one of them.

I listened to the story and their interplay as Cathy tried to read the words and brought up the occasional question. Out of boredom I turned to the piano. There was a small pile of sheet music there which I began to look through with no particular purpose. There was one selection which I hadn’t yet tried playing. It was new to me even though the sheet music said it had been around for a goodly number of years. It was quite a catchy musical number and looked to be a bit more complicated than I usually happened to play. I don’t know what prompted me to purchase it but I had. As I hadn’t heard it anywhere yet I probably couldn’t do it justice since most of my playing was a mimic of what I had heard rather more than it was reading the sheet music. If I’d heard it before then I could read the sheet music and follow along with what I had previously heard, give or take.

I put it up to read it through a couple of times as Cathy’s story was beginning to wrap up. The sheet music managed to intrigue me enough that when the story ended I began to softly play just the right hand of the piece, that was complicated enough in some places. James and Cathy turned to listen as slowly I begin to play closer and closer to the proper tempo gradually beginning to understand the piece. Finally I began to add the left hand to the mix which allowed the piece to begin to take on the body it was meant to have. Scott Joplin’s ‘The Entertainer’ began to pour out of my soul and through the piano, taking on a life of it’s own.

“That was pretty, Mommy.”

“Yes, baby, it was. I wish I could do it justice but we’ll just need to wait until I can find it recorded somewhere. If you want to listen for minute or two, I’ll play another piece.”

From memory I began to play “Moonlight Sonata,” followed by the “Pink Panther” and then a poor attempt at “Baby Elephant Walk” which doesn’t do well with only a piano as the source. By the time I was about a third of the way into the Pink Panther most of the agents who were remaining here with us had found their way into the room. The Nanny did as well only a few moments later. Having a large audience didn’t do a thing for this girl’s nerves but fortunately they were behind me so I didn’t know they were there until I finished “Baby Elephant Walk.” That meant I didn’t have the opportunity to become nervous until I finished my first three attempts at playing and was about to turn around. I spun around and blushed red at the sudden applause.

Now Cathy was asking for some of her favorites like where the mice sang “Cinderelly,” or the dwarves sang “Hi Ho,” and a few others she vaguely remembered from the movies she had seen. These greatly tasked my ability to recall the tunes much less play them but Cathy seemed to be happy. I played a few more of the oldies like “Camptown Ladies,” “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” then “Moon River*” and “Girl from Ipanema” before I began receiving requests from the men who were listening. After another dozen songs or so I was thoroughly worn out. I don’t know how professional pianists could play for hours on end. It’s really tiring, not to mention nerve wracking.

Cathy, by now, had been fast asleep for some time curled up against James so I used this as an excuse to stop playing so we could carry her up to prepare her for bed.

“Those were pretty, Mommy. Some day I’ll play and be all femoose.”

“Famous, and you would need to practice a lot, every day in fact, to do that. It’s been a while since I’ve played. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it, but it was difficult. I should do it every day. I was only six when first I played.”

Taking her upstairs, we managed to get her changed, her face and teeth cleaned and prayers said, all in about half an hour despite her help. She lay down and was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. I hoped that meant it would be an easy night. I shut off her light and closed the door down to a three inch crack then turned on the landing lights. Don’t you dare make the same joke James did about airplanes demolishing the house. They are the lights for the landing outside the upstairs rooms. I turned them on so there would be some spill light entering her room. After listening for a minute to be certain she was really asleep, I went back downstairs moderately unwillingly as I could use some sleep myself and getting to bed early sounded rather enticing. I made myself a promise to go to bed before 10:00 so I could gather a good night’s sleep before the circus began tomorrow.

We managed to talk for several hours so I obviously did not make my 10:00 Pm self-inflicted curfew. The conversation was productive however and I came away from it feeling much better about the potential relationship which was beginning to build between James and myself. Specifically how he saw me and where we might go in our relationship. He escorted me upstairs to the door of my room and there he gave me a slight kiss, allowing me to retreat into my room without the potential unpleasantries of trying to prevent him from sleeping in my room. I gave him a smile as I closed my door then waited to hear him go down the landing to his own room. After I went through my rituals and collapsed into bed my mind allowed me to sleep but it kept working for what must have been all night. Some time during the night I awakened to a howl and the sounds of Cathy screaming for “Mommy”.

Grabbing my 9mm I rushed down to her room to find her standing on her bed but with no other problems. An agent found his way into the room having been alerted by the agent on duty who was manning the electronic surveillance equipment. He was also prepared for bear but neither of us found one despite searching under the bed, in the corners, and in the closet. No boogie men either, but try to convince Cathy of that. I told the agent he could go back to his room then I took Cathy to mine so if she awakened again there would be someone close to keep her company. Neither James nor the Nanny awakened to the hubbub which, after I gave it a little consideration, really wasn’t all that loud, after all. I guess part of being a Mommy is listening for your child while you’re sleeping. Cathy settled into my bed and cuddled close then drifted off to sleep with me following closely behind. Several more times during the night I came partially awake feeling her move around on the bed. Each time she checked to find Mommy beside her so no traumatic events occurred. Mommy’s always keep their babies safe.

The next morning, I was up just before the alarm which allowed Cathy to continue sleeping while I went off to the shower and do my morning preparations. I was just finishing dressing when I realised my little faker was laying there playing possum watching me finish my makeup.

“Good Morning. Did you sleep better after I brought you in here?”

“I slept nice, Mommy.” I could have told her that ... She really didn’t awaken me any more during the night.

“We need to get you ready for breakfast and your Nanny will probably wonder where you are by now. Come on, baby. Let’s put on your robe and we’ll go down and have a little cereal and maybe an egg and some bacon before she comes to get you dressed. After breakfast Daddy and I need to go to work but we’ll be back and then maybe we will all go out for dinner. Would you like that?”

“I get to go too?” she asked almost in amazement.

“If we go out, yes, you do.”

She smiled one of those rising sun smiles and nodded her head so vigorously it left me as dizzy as it should have left her. I held out my hand, she reached up to take it then we walked to her room to get her robe before going down for breakfast.

I should have remembered. We still had three agents here and I needed to prepare breakfast for everyone. My cache of eggs turned out to be pretty low and much of the breakfast makings were gone. I needed to contact George to arrange for more food to be purchased and brought to the house while we were at the Convention. I also needed to have one of the cooks brought over here from the safe house James would have been in since I wouldn’t have the time to do everything. We could move our part of the operation over to that safe house but Cathy would be staying here for Christmas and I preferred to have her returning to a house with which she was familiar so she would feel at home while she was here. The trauma of being at a new house is best handled only once.

Somehow we managed to have breakfast then I rushed up to prepare for my part in the day’s activities, while the Nanny took Cathy under her wing. Of course James and the boys were basically ready to go while I had no time to prepare so I was the one holding up the parade. Thankfully Cathy decided she wanted a story before we left so that occupied a portion of James’ time. I gave the assignment of contacting George and arranging for the food and the transfer of someone from the safe house to this one to the agent who was remaining at this property today. I came down prepared for the day about forty minutes after going upstairs (my personal best) and we went out to the car. I would have taken mine but George’s instructions overruled me since he said I was a part of the principal’s entourage for the week so we would be going in the armored limo which was sitting out in the snow in front of my house.

It was about that point in time when it dawned on me that I hadn’t set any heaters in motion nor any wind generators. I gave my excuses and took a few minutes to go to the garage to start the thawing of all four generators
once I discovered the batteries were down to nearly 20% for the house and 30% for the peripheral devices. After that I clicked on half of the driveway and sidewalk heaters so if it snowed we might still be able to get back into the house. Showing the newbie, who would be staying here with the Nanny and Cathy, the breaker panel and the method of controlling the wind generators into the battery banks so he could check it all again and set it in motion around three o’clock if it needed to be reset. That should leave the driveway and sidewalks clear for our return as well as put a further charge into the batteries.

“If the batteries are below 30% on the peripheral panel then don’t turn on the heaters for the driveway and sidewalk, but check an hour later to see if the charge has come up. Worst case we walk through the snow to get back into the house.”

The newbie took extensive notes and then we left him, Cathy and Nora and the rest of us were off to see the Wizard. My concerns as we drove off about leaving someone who hadn’t a clue in charge of the battery systems and generators having been effectively neutralized.

“Don’t worry about the wiz kid, Lynn. He’ll get it right.”

“The wiz Kid?”

“Yeah, the newbie has a degree in electronics. He probably has built systems more complicated than yours.”

I hoped so. What’s the difference between Electrical Engineering and Electronics? Are they the same thing? I was afraid to ask.

We made good time to the Convention Center where we received our badges and papers after registering as venders and security personnel. James tried to register me as one of his entourage but the convention people already had my name down as L. J. Stevens (security consultant) so in a manner of speaking they recognised me. That meant they required me and all my people to check through, however unwillingly, as security consultants attached to James’ party.

His VP’s had not yet checked in so he gave the registrars a head’s up to the fact that there would be more security personnel arriving with them as well. The Convention people required us as security people to pay for the privilege of entering the inner sanctum, which was not all that unexpected since it happened nearly every time we accompanied people here. We should get a discount or frequent attendee benefits or something. The agents paid using their company bank cards, received their badges with the red stripes, at least that’s something we get that no one else has, and we were in.

I didn’t know if the red stripes on my agents badges were so people would know we were armed or so terrorists would know to shoot us first. With all of our pull with the city we still weren’t able to convince them that those stupid badges marked our agents instead of allowing them to remain unobtrusive and in the background unless needed. I even had one idiot explain to me that the red stripes would let the police know not to shoot my agents if an emergency occurred.

I argued unsuccessfully that “all the bad guys would need to do is take out my agents and wear the badges themselves then the police wouldn’t shoot them while they had a field day shooting the police.”

Once we were walking into the inner convention floor I queried my guys,

“Why do governmental agencies always seem to put imbeciles in charge of things? I have a theory about it. Learn what things a person is good at and make the note in their file to never put them in charge of those things.”

“Calm down Lynn. Calm down. It’s just a computer convention, nothing is going to happen. Well, nothing like terrorists. Corporate raiders maybe, or software thieves, maybe some pickpockets; but not terrorists.”

James led us to their booth location while consulting the Convention map. James’ company had four connected spaces at one end of a row which gave them two spaces on parallel aisles plus the end cap as their customer contact space. Their entire four spaces were basically open to each other as well as to the aisles where the foot traffic passed by. This gave their display area an enticing appearance. There were four employees present there when we arrived and after James spent a little time with them he returned to give me a short tutorial in the use of one of the systems.

He brought one of his employees with him to help explain things and after ten minutes James was off talking with the VPs who had just arrived while the employee spent another twenty minutes explaining the operation of the particular portion of the system which I would be using. He took the time to explain just what it all really meant in English so I could understand, since computer speak and I had never made even a nodding acquaintance.

I was thankful for his explanation because if he had used only computerese I would have been totally lost. As it was I barely understood what he was saying. I wondered if there was any hope for people like me who didn’t know a thing about computers. About the only thing I understood was there is this funny typewriter which I could use and there were others here and there in the area on which people could type. At other locations there were printers on which the computers could type their answers and there were nearly a dozen miniature printer thingys ... What did he call them? Oh, yeah ... EP-101s. I’m supposed to remember that?

Anyway the little printers used small paper and printed about twenty or so characters across the sheet before starting their next line of text or numbers. The stuff that came out of the computer onto those sheets didn’t mean a thing to me but the computer types who wandered in and out of the display area would all go agog at it. I hoped Phillip and Grace didn’t spend much time here. I could just see them putting in for one of these systems. James said it “only” cost about $110,000. That was a certain way to blow a sizable chunk of my monthly operating budget in one quick and easy blow. James would make back most everything they had paid for our services in one simple purchase.

By the end of the first day, James was happy with the way things were going and they had made some sales which included service contacts. I gave a few business cards out to prospective clients who were looking for security people to accompany them to conventions in Europe. I explained that we were in the process of being certified there and hoped to have it completed within four to six months. Two of them seemed happy with that prospect while several others took the cards but were in need of something much more immediate. I called over one of my agents, asking him to check with Jerry for a recommendation. A few minutes later we passed the information to the businessmen and they promised to keep our card even though we might not be the one’s providing their people’s European security this year.

Our day was finally over allowing us to return home while the VPs would finish the last three hours of the day. Tomorrow we would again take the morning but the VPs would start later to finish the day. The four employees were split two and two to provide cover for the morning and the evening shifts.

James was happy with how things had gone for me, both with the prospective security clients and with my demonstrations. Somehow I found it difficult to think I had contributed much since I basically didn’t know what I was doing much less talking about. I felt a bit like one of those talking heads on the TV who would dispense the news by reading it. The inflection in their voices showing they didn’t have a clue about what it meant. They were just parroting it out for public consumption.
We arrived home about seven and I was bushed. Cathy of course remembered that I said we might go out which to her meant we absolutely and without equivocation would be doing so. I just wanted to go curl up and sleep.

“She’s been talking about it all day. She is so excited to be going out with Mommy and Daddy,” the Nanny said in an aside to us.

James and I gave each other a look and then looked at Cathy who was all smiles.

“Pizza?” I tentatively placed into the conversation.

James gave a weak smile as Cathy began to chant, “Peet-sa, Peet-sa, Peet-sa.”

* Note from Renae Dumas: Andy Williams, who made famous the signature song “Moon River” and the owner of the Moon River Theater died on September 25th, 2012 at the age of 84. His legacy continues but he will be sorely missed.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.
Chapter image public domain.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 200 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Upon checking with the agents I learned the cooks had only just finished bringing everything over to begin organizing for tomorrow. Once again I went out to check the heaters, wind generators and battery charges which were still pretty low. Okay, four generators and only half heat for the walks and driveway. We would need plenty of juice for the cooks tomorrow.
We opted for simple for the evening matching Cathy’s chanting. Piling into the limo again we drove to a local pizza joint one chase car in tow. There the limo caused a bit of a stir for a minute before no one recognized us and the commotion died a hurried death.

After we ordered several pizzas and pitchers of soft drinks plus one milk, which they didn’t have so we settled for a small coke for Cathy (and one refill) we managed to secure a table finally able to sit down to begin unwinding from the day. Cathy was still bouncing, watching everything that was going on and talking to anyone and everyone who walked past. I made eye contact every now and again with other mothers who had children here and we shared that common expression which indicated we were both happy to have the child with us as well as distressed that we had so little influence as to calm our children due to the excitement of going out like an adult to eat with her parents. I sighed and turned back to Cathy, who calmed down immediately once the food reached the table and was directly at hand.

Our Pizza adventure turned out fairly well and again I was impressed with Cathy’s table manners. It might just be me but I think her understanding of a conversation was easily escalating into the nine year old bracket, reminding me to be more careful of what I said when around her. Many things which would go right over a three year olds head were completely understood by her. Well, at least partially understood.

“Mommy, will you and Daddy go to the hospital and buy me a baby sister for Christmas?”

James choked on his root beer and looked first at Cathy then at me as though he was worried I might have thought he put her up to it.

“We can talk about that at home, baby. Daddy and I aren’t quite ready to bring home a sister for you. Maybe after you’re in school, we’ll see.”

James choked again. Cathy sat back momentarily content, sipping at her coke as she digested the answer before accepting it and moving on with the conversation which she now directed toward ‘doggies’ and ‘horsies’. If her ability to guide a conversation was any indication, my hands were going to be full once she discovered boys. I was just beginning to worry about that when I realized exactly what it was I was worrying about. Next, I began worrying about my ability to survive her growing up. I didn’t know if I was up to protecting ‘my’ daughter from boys. In fact I wasn’t at all certain I was up to being a full time woman and Mom. There were certain key bits missing from both my past and present makeup which I somehow thought would likely be necessary for such an endeavor.

“ ... won’t you Mommy?”

What did I miss?

“I’m sorry, Cathy. I was thinking about something and didn’t hear you.”

“I was telling Daddy that you were going to be my Mommy forever and ever and help me grow up to be just like you, won’t you Mommy?”

Wow, the tough one.

“It’s a little more complicated than that, baby, everyone’s different. Daddy and I have been talking about it but if it happens it will take a little while.”

She again paused to digest my sentence, “Oh ... Next week?”

“Not that soon, maybe after you are in school for a little while. We’ll see.”

“When do I get to go to school?”

Both Adam and I choked at that one.

He responded, “It will be a while yet. You’ve got to grow a little more first. We’ll let you know when you can go to school.”

“Is school far away?”

That one came at us with a little fear hidden behind it. I was wondering why she would be fearing school when James answered.

“That would depend upon which school you go to, Cathy.”

Meanwhile as a result of my little sentence I discovered I had almost committed myself to this family, I could just picture the changes in the betting pool, which never dissolved but just went underground after my note on the bulletin board. My bet originally would have been on never but now I wasn’t certain that bet would have even been in the running at all.

“Mommy, when you go to get my sister from the hospital then you’ll be my Mommy forever and ever?”

My face was, by now, quite red and I was wondering how to move Cathy away from these topics.

James again made a valiant effort to come to my rescue by attempting to move Cathy again to the subject of dogs. I busied myself with a napkin at Cathy’s face followed with, “Finish your pizza, baby.”

“I’m full, Mommy.”

“All right, then drink the last of your coke and we’ll be going home soon. Small sips don’t make a mess.”

She sipped at the quarter glass of coke for a short time, lowering it to about an eighth before announcing she was full again and telling the world she needed to go wee-wee. Again my face was red. I helped her down and led her to the ladies room where I helped prevent her from falling in while she did her thing then allowed her to wipe carefully. We pulled her clothing back into place, went to wash then trooped, hand in hand, back out to the table where the clean up and “doggie” carton procedures had nearly been completed. Cathy’s entourage then worked its way back outside while the table where we had been sitting was repopulated by the next group of pizza eaters even before we had made it out the doors. There were no mothers in that group or, at least, there were no small children.

Before the limo had even exited the parking lot, Cathy was asleep on my lap. She stirred a little at the house when I gave her to the Nanny to prepare her for bed.

“I’ll be up in about fifteen to check on her.”

As the Nanny carried Cathy upstairs James came over to me, “I had nothing to do with all that this evening, Lynn. I was as surprised as you were.”

“Well, I had a bit of a warning when Cathy visited Santa Claus ...” which brought a surprised look from James, “She asked him for a baby sister if you and I would go to the hospital and purchase one for her.”

He smiled, chuckling, “Sometimes it’s difficult to realize she is only three. So much of the time she seems much older.”

“Yes. Three going on thirty and back again. I’m worried about school when she finally discovers boys.”

“I don’t want to think about it.”

“Me neither.”
“You know ... You really make a good mother.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“I mean it, Lynn. Look at Cathy. Where does she go when she needs help?
Who is it she wants to emulate? In the short time she has been with you she has come out of her shell and started to have fun. When she has something for ‘show and tell’ you are the first person she runs to.”

“I’m certain it’s just the novelty of having someone nearby whom she perceives as her mother now. Who did she go to before? You?”

“No. She didn’t really interact much. She would draw and paint and play but there was no one she would rush to as her sanctuary and source of comfort. Of course she would go to myself or the Nanny but not like she does to you. I think we will all have an eye-opener the end of the week when she and I return home. Will you be ready for that?”
“I ... haven’t really given it much thought. Do you think she will be a problem?”

“I think she found her Mommy and she won’t willingly let go of you.”

“She must. I’m not her mother.”

“You’re doing more than a passable imitation. The mothering instinct seems to be strong in you.”

“But I can’t ... I’m not ...”

“A female? Let’s see ... If it looks like a duck, it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck ...”

“James. You know I’m not female. I can’t be a mother, even if I wanted to be one. I don’t have the plumbing for it.”

“Maybe not. But there are women out there who cannot bear children. That doesn’t seem to stop them from adopting and having their families.”

“But ... I ... You know I’m not the same as them. I wasn’t born female. Hell, I’m not female even now.”

“That doesn’t seem to be stopping you from being a good mother to Cathy.”

“James, you know what I’m trying to say.”

“Lynn. Stop arguing for a minute and think about this from another point of view. If you were born female, and I’m not saying you were, and you couldn’t have children; then along come myself and Cathy and she latches on to you as her long lost mother and you respond in kind ... what do you think would be different than things are right now?”

“I’d have proper plumbing for one thing.”

“Semantics. That can be arranged surgically. It’s done frequently, even now. Stop arguing and just think about it for a minute.”

Think about it? What if I had grown up as a girl? What if I couldn’t have children but actually was female? What would be different? I wouldn’t have been in SEA for one thing. I wouldn’t have had all that training and met the friends I had met nor started this business. Would I? Whoa ... Even when I’m “female” I still like running this business and am still looking forward to expanding into other cities and into Europe. I like what I’m doing and I like Cathy. Her drawings are beginning to appear at the refrigerator door with more regularity and little gold stars are appearing on them. That’s something about which she is very proud ... The star fairy has been coming to put stars on her drawings so she has been trying to make them better so she will continue to receive more stars.

If I ask her to do something she tries to do it right away but she will argue a little with James or the Nanny. To her, I am “Mommy”. That’s an awesome responsibility. Guiding a young soul, that is more difficult and important than my business. I need to have a talk with Ralph and Nicci. Being a woman feels right to me somehow, but being a mother? Am I ready for that? Could I do justice to the role? Could I raise a young girl to be a woman and a lady? Could I be a grandmother? I’m not ready for this ... One step at a time. I need to find a doctor to discuss this and learn if it is something which could even occur. There are some out there who are doing it but what effect would it have on Cathy if or when she learned her “mother” wasn’t a woman?

She is so special ... I don’t want to hurt her. Geez, I wish I had been born female. Then I really could be Cathy’s mother.

“Speaking of Cathy, I need to go up and check on her, James. I need to tuck her in.”

He smiled knowingly which was infuriating in a nice way. I left him sitting there as I went upstairs to check on my daughter. Having successfully extracted myself from further conversation, I went to Cathy’s room and found her lightly asleep. She came awake the instant I kissed her forehead,

“I love you Mommy. I said my prayers with Nana.”

“I love you too, baby. Hush now, go back to sleep and I’ll see you in the morning. Nighty-bye.”
She snuggled down into the covers and I adjusted them a little while smiling at her. Her eyes closed and opened and closed several times before she was out again. That gave me the opportunity to quietly make my way out the door shutting it down to a crack before turning on the lights for the landing again. Tonight was a bit better for her as she slept through the night without any nightmares. I figured if there were going to be any, pizza would have precipitated them but it didn’t happen.

The next morning I was up early, going down to prepare breakfast for everyone only to find my kitchen occupied and breakfast already in motion. I had forgotten the cooks would be here for the rest of the week. I could have slept for another hour. I went back up and looked longingly at the bed but I knew if I went back to bed now, then I’d be wasted all day. Instead I took a shower and got ready for the day.

Returning downstairs still put me far ahead of most of the gang and I had nothing to occupy my time. I thought about the battery banks, going out to check on them after peeking out at the snow. The banks were coming up, with the peripheral batteries at nearly ninety percent and the house at between 60 and 70 percent. Once again I clicked on the heat for the four generators and half heat ... no ... full heat to the drive, walks and this time included the sidewalks down by the street as well as for the back porch, which was actually more like a sun deck, setting the timer for three hours then grimaced at the estimated power usage which would deplete the peripheral storage batteries if no wind came up. I ran a ‘what if’ for the house and found it had enough energy for sixteen hours without charge at present use. Real life would be a bit longer since the kitchen would be shut down most of the day. I began praying for wind. At least if the batteries hit ten percent then the grid power would be connected and begin to charge everything. That meant I would have a $25 connect charge plus the bill for the power usage, at least I hoped it was still only $25. That once in a year reconnect charge would occur only because I hadn’t used any grid power for over a year.

Wandering back into the house from the garage, I was still wondering what to do with myself with the remaining twenty minutes or so I had available. My wandering found me next to my piano so I went back, shut the doors to hold down the sound, and then returned to play lightly for a while. Most of it was practice at scales and chords to limber my fingers getting them accustomed to reaching out for the keys. Eventually I played a few songs from musicals and my poor rendition of ‘Claire-de-Lune’. I don’t even want to think how badly I mangled the beginnings of the ‘Brandenburg’ before abandoning it and moving on to the ‘Moonlight’ sonata. Somewhere during all this I realized I was hungry. Opening the doors I found most of the occupants of my house in the dining room eating their way through my meager food stocks, so I wandered out to the kitchen to learn if there was any food remaining for their hungry hostess.

“Ms. Stevens, not to worry. Go have a seat and we’ll bring in some breakfast for you. How does a few eggs, toast, coffee, cottage cheese and a peach half sound? Most anything else you might want is available as well.”

“A small slice of ham?”

“You’ve got it. Give us a few minutes and it’ll be right out.”

I smiled my appreciation then went back to the dining room to join the conversation until my food arrived. After that my mouth was too busy chewing to spend time talking.
Breakfast was wonderful; mostly, I suppose, because I wasn’t the one who needed to prepare it. I must have been hungry because I inhaled the food, even the lettuce leaf on which the cottage cheese and peach half had been seated. I helped clear the table and while in the kitchen asked if Nora and Cathy had been down for their breakfast. That required a little explanation since apparently they had not been down yet. I warned the two staff members that, “Cathy might refer to me as ‘Mommy’ and the artwork on the refrigerator was hers. Nora is her Nanny.”

Explanation accepted they made certain that there would be some food quickly ready for each of them and they would also make up a small bowl of cream of wheat for Cathy along with the juice, milk and small quantities of egg, toast and ham. I also warned them that she was a “precocious three-year-old going on nine who will likely talk your legs off given the opportunity. Whatever you do, don’t let her talk you into reading to her or you will be stuck for the day.”

They were still chuckling as I made my way out, going upstairs to freshen up, grab my purse, and then make my way back down again to join everyone else who was going to the convention center. Nora and Cathy took this moment to appear so James and I got to kiss Cathy good-bye before we went out to brave the snow. I noted the drive and walks were mostly thawed and hoped for enough wind to replenish the two battery banks. So long as the wind didn’t stop for more than thirty minutes the generators would continue to charge the batteries as long as wind was available or until the batteries were full. The thirty minute kick off wasn’t a feature I liked but I didn’t know how to change it so that any wind would always cause a charge. If the generators got cold enough then they would freeze and wouldn’t turn unless they were defrosted again. During the winter I automatically turned on the heaters for the generators. If I did it accidentally on a summer day the temperature sensors would kick the heat off pretty quickly. During the winter if they became so warm that the sensors kicked the heat off — once they cooled the heat would come on again so long as the breakers were still turned on.

I might not have much to worry about as the wind seemed to be quite active this morning and each generator was capable of producing 10KVA, whatever that was, at twenty miles per hour. I’ve been told that the four generators could charge both battery banks completely from dead to full charge in less than five hours at full output. I had yet to see that happen. The best I’d ever seen was about a fifteen hour charge from around 25% to full charge. Even that was impressive since the driveway, walks and house heaters were all running at the time. Besides, we never had a continuous wind. It was always gusts of ten to twenty and which lasted only a minute or two then would be gone for a bit only to return again over and over.

The batteries were almost always at or above the mid yellow to low green and frequently into the mid or high green. Green was the upper quarter of the charge indicator, yellow the middle half and red the lower quarter with black at the bottom 5%. By the time either of my batteries had gone into the black the whole system would have switched to the grid (commercial power) and would remain there until the batteries were fully replenished or until I manually switched the system back to generators and batteries only. If I didn’t tap the grid for power at least once a year then I had that reconnect charge which really wasn’t a reconnect charge so much as a billing set up charge for the next year.

After we pulled into the convention center lot and exited to make our way inside, the driver took the car off to park it somewhere accessible before he too, came into the building. We had our badges which allowed us access so we walked on into the building then onto the convention floor, making our way to the business displays and computers. The few guards who had watched everything to be certain it didn’t get up and run off during the night glanced at the badges worn by my agents and myself and quietly faded back away from our area, presumably figuring that if someone wanted to take something from one of the display booths near us they would be a great deal more than foolish to attempt it. We were a little early, so James took a look at everything before his two employees showed up fifteen minutes later. A bit of clean up occurred to make the area more attractive, then the plan of attack for the day was discussed. That had me wondering once again why people who knew about computers couldn’t talk in English but had to use some sort of short hand Greek or Latin. It made me wonder if they were related to Doctors in some way.

Again I was given the opportunity to play at being a secretary with that funny typewriter. All the little printers were given more of that silvery paper with which to play. The big printer still had more than 3/4 of its box of paper remaining and there were three more boxes under the table just waiting for use should the first one ever run out. The ribbon was changed so everything it printed during the show today would remain nice and dark. The partially used ribbon was placed into the packaging from which the new ribbon was extracted. All the ‘little’ things to make the presentations more enticing were eventually completed and then we were simply waiting for the doors to open and the first visitors to begin to appear. I began to wonder how much the attendance would be affected by the snow.

It turns out I had wondered needlessly. When the doors opened only ten or twenty people walked onto the convention floor. When I looked up about an hour later the maddening throng was everywhere. Our area had perhaps six people looking at various aspects of the systems and software and both James and the two employees were busy. I wound up playing twenty questions with someone, answering their questions with my limited knowledge until James found the time to come to my rescue. I introduced him to the gentleman whose name tag said “Frank” and James took it from there. I went back to my typing.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Lynn continues her secretarial duties at James’ exhibit booth:

All this was becoming very interesting. I was beginning to understand there was some ‘cause and effect’ going on here. Shortly after I typed in a certain string of information and pressed the key which completed my inquiry, some activity could be seen and about a minute later the big printer would spill out a sheet or two of information. I looked at what I was presently typing, finished it, and then pressed the extra keys James told me about before walking over to wait for the printer to do something. A minute later it printed a page of material.

It has been almost two months since I last posted one of Teddi’s chapters. This has been due to two business trips which have occupied nearly six weeks of that time. I did not take my notebook computer with me during the out of country trip (5 weeks) since I felt with all the difficulties I was having with connections to BCTS, I would likely be unable to post a chapter while out of the country. After returning and then going to D.C. this past week, my notebook was used only for my business work during that time. I arrived at Denise’s home Saturday at around four in the afternoon; promptly checked for pm’s, answered one and then crashed for a short nap.

We went out to supper where we caught up on business and personal info then I linked through the business I-net connection at Denise’s home to grab the next chapter of Duty Calls off my main PC at home. Denise checked it and pronounced it as good as it was going to get so here it is.

I was slowly beginning to understand the relationship between my typing and the answers which were coming out on the printer. I suppose most of what I typed into the computer wasn’t really questions, per se, but was more of a directive for the computer to do something and then print the results of that something. I was slowly learning.

Apparently somewhere in the computer there was some business information hidden, probably on those four big reels of tape. What I was doing was basically asking for an analysis of various things concerning the information stored on them. It was interesting as I watched the progression. I would type all my material, press those keys James told me about, then the reels of tape would start moving around maniacally, before the computer would print some information on that printer. Going back to look through the things I’d typed allowed me to slowly make up my own question for the computer. I typed it in during a ten minute lull in activity then pressed those extra keys before hurrying back to see what happened. I arrived just as the typewriter pushed out four pages of material. It worked. I had a list of employees ranked first by salary and then by duration of employ. I tore off my pages and took them back to my question. This was getting to be fun now that I had some vague idea of what I was doing. I did some more sleuthing and eventually typed in a new question set, pushed the keys and rushed over to the typewriter just in time to see it finish printing one line; “invalid parameters.”

As I typed in other requests from James’ lists, I also spent the time trying to figure how to properly make my own request, receiving two more “invalid parameters” answers for my troubles before the typewriter spit out nearly twenty pages. I looked at the pages and couldn’t understand how they related to my request at all. I went back to typing in the material James gave to me. The typewriter went back to printing stuff that made sense when examined from the point of view of James’ requests. Okay, so I’m not a computer operator. Why does the stuff need to be in code or gibberish or whatever it is? I’m kind of partial to the IF, THEN types of things. I’m beginning to think that running my business might just be one of the things where computers couldn’t help.

The next two days were pretty much a repeat of the first two just with new faces, and a few older ones, coming through to look at the applications. A few people become quite excited and others would look at it and basically yawn. By noon of the fifth day, we had gone through three boxes of paper and four ribbons, although they were still usable just not new which was important for appearances sake here at the convention. The fourth box of paper was about half used and the floor was clearing for lunch. In a sudden flash of belated insight I knew what I did wrong in setting my parameters two days ago so during lunch I wrote down how I wanted to ask for the information. James saw me working away as I ate but shrugged it off. After lunch we returned to the floor and the employees broke for lunch. I sat down and begin typing in my request now certain I would obtain a response. After I typed in everything I double checked it then pressed those keys to get the computer to act on it.

The reels of tape began to move back and forth but nothing else seemed to be happening, not even an “invalid parameters” response. Perhaps I didn’t push the keys in the right order. I tried again a bit more carefully and again nothing happened. Okay, so I probably did push the keys in the right order. I was so certain I had finally figured it out.

I gave up and began to type James’ stuff in again. I was just double checking my entry before pressing those keys when the printer began to print. Five of the little EP-101s also started printing. I was confused, I hadn’t pressed those special keys yet and the 101s shouldn’t be printing unless James gave them some other problem.

James looked up at the slight noise when it continued longer than usual. The printer was still printing and it was on its tenth or eleventh sheet of paper. Two of the EP-101s had run out of paper but they did that all the time. I was reloading them as James went over to the printer to see what it was doing. He backtracked to the first page then began to review that which was being printed; by the time he reached page twelve there was another four hanging out of it. He switched it off, reviewed those four pages then went back to my typewriter to review the material I’d been inputting. He didn’t see anything wrong with it and paused to think for a minute. That’s when he saw my note pad and the query I had prepared sitting on it in big bold “look at me, I’m the reason” printed ballpoint pen characters.

He reviewed the query doing a couple of double takes then picked up my pad going back to the printout. A couple of minutes later he turned the printer back on and it resumed its clatter. I could see him thinking then he checked the remaining paper in the box. A smile was on his face and I wasn’t certain if I was in big trouble or if I did a good thing. By now I was pretty certain that all this was in response to my query.

All the activity of our printers was attracting attention and there were quite a few people walking in to look around then leaning down to read the notepad, which James laid on the bench next to the printer. There was some finger pointing and a few lifted the printout so they could read the first few pages. There was a lot of talking and a number of people were seeking out James and talking with him. I was just trying to hide somewhere quiet and out of the way. The two employees were just returning from lunch noting all the activity at our booth so they joined the fray. A moment later they were looking at the notepad, then at the printout then at the notepad. They smiled too and walked off to try to answer questions from the people who were inundating James. I quietly found the deepest darkest corner in which I could hide wondering if I could find one of the guys to drive me home before I was noticed.

The two VPs and second set of employees were just arriving since it was just getting to be one o’clock and they asked one of the other employees about the activity. He said something then pointed to the printer and the notepad. They too went over and repeated that which I had seen several times before, and then they were out talking with people who were still entering the booth area. It was now several people deep with some spilling out into the aisle ways. The printer was still printing; I looked up at the clock to see it was 1:10. All this started about twenty five minutes ago. I decided, since discretion is always the better part of valor, to go back to the cafeteria and have a cup of coffee in the hopes this would all die down before I returned. I didn’t make it. James had one of the employees corral me and bring me to the discussion he was having with two gentlemen. There he had me explain the reasoning which I used in order to write the query. As I was doing that he ran off again to check the printer which was happily still printing paper although the EP-101s had ceased their activity. He returned with a contract shortly before I finished my explanation and he and the two gentlemen were off to find one of the desks located in another partially empty corner of our area where they began filling out the contract. I looked around discovering the two VPs were doing the same thing as was one of the four employees. Another employee brought someone over so I could relate to him the thinking process used to create the query that resulted in this enormously inappropriate use of ink and paper.

You would think logic was never a part of the mental processes for these people. At least the way I wrote my query seemed quite logical to me. A bit like the way one would work through a set of tunnels populated by Cong; carefully and thoroughly, leaving no unchecked areas behind you so you won’t be surprised. During a short break I went over and re-read my hand written query. It seemed straight forward to me. I even added those parts which James had in each of his queries, figuring since they were in every request they must have something to do with where the answers were to be delivered and in what form. Obviously I was mistaken about something.

By 1:35 the printer had gone quiet. I don’t know if it broke down from sheer exhaustion of sliding its poor little print head back and forth as it clattered away, or if my answer had been completed. Nearly all of the paper which had been in the box when this started was now in a nice neat pile on the receiving table behind the printer. The ink on the last printed sheets was a bit lighter than that on the first ones. I hurried off to find that first used ribbon then exchanged them, putting the obviously well worn ribbon into the box and marking it as used. At least I was taught how to replace ribbons and paper so I could make myself useful in a pinch. Going around to the EP-101s I gave two more of them new paper and then went back to my typewriter, debating about pushing those keys to start James’ query which I had typed in but not initiated. I thought back remembering this one would only produce five sheets of paper so I went ahead and a minute or so later the typeprinter spit out the requested material then went silent again.

Our booth was beginning to empty once again as I looked around. Everyone was busy so once again I grabbed my purse then managed to slip out of the booth and off to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee and a chance to try to allow my nerves a little time to calm down. My simple little request to which I thought I might receive four or five sheets of paper turned into some sort of monster with nearly five hundred pages of material in response. I couldn’t see how a query for the expenses made over a one week period ranked by order of job importance would require five hundred sheets of paper, unless...
James found me in the cafeteria about fifteen minutes later, my mind still wrapped around the problem of deciding where I went wrong.

“Mind if I sit here?”

I looked up and motioned to James to go ahead while I continued to sip the remnants of my coffee.

“Have things settled down at the booth or did I stir up a hornet’s nest that won’t go away?”

“No. No, everything is pretty quiet again. They figure they will input your inquiry again about six so it will be active during this evening’s peak time.”

“Oh, okay. It doesn’t respond for two or three minutes after those keys are pressed.”

“Really? That long? I suppose I can understand why ... It takes a lot of computing power to work up the response and prepare it for printing. By the way, there is an error in the query formulation and that’s why the EP-101s were printing as well. I re-wrote your query and the re-write is what they will input tonight. Whatever made you think of that inquiry?”

“I wanted to know about job expenses versus job importance. I thought that might be a good indicator for excessive costs for a job. You know; an indicator that if the job was routine but was taking most of the costs versus a more urgent job using less money than the routine job would be an indicator the job was not cost effective. I was trying to see if computers would be valuable to me to evaluate quickly the jobs we take on.”

“The query you typed did not specify a lower cost limit for any of the expenses so it provided every expense for each job down to the last nut, bolt, and screw. Nor did you ask for a summary, but rather an itemization. Thus every nut, bolt, or screw was listed on a separate line pertinent to the time of use on each project and there are five projects contained in the test data, therefore ...”

“Therefore, it printed about five hundred pages of costs. Did it ever summarize?”

“The end of each project had a totals page or pages, which is probably what you actually were looking for.”

“Well, if nothing else; at least it attracted a lot of attention.”

“That it did. And a lot of contracts. I’ve sent one of my assistants out to pick up another box of paper and another ribbon for this evening’s run.”

“Really? A lot of contracts?”

“That short one hour period probably yielded as many contracts as the past four days of the show. That’s why we’re going to run it again this evening. I wish we had run it the last four days.”

“I tried. Two days ago was when I first attempted it all it would tell me is the question was irrelevant or some such thing.”

“Irrelevant question?” a strange expression crossed his face.

“I don’t remember the particular words but it basically told me I didn’t know what I was asking.”

“Not too surprising. The question you inserted would have been difficult to formulate even for a good programmer. Job importance or urgency is a difficult thing to assess much less label into a project. The two also have a way of changing as time progresses. It’s an interesting idea though. I’ll give it some thought. Ready to go?”

"That depends upon where, James.”

“Back to the house. Maybe out to dinner.”

“How about just back to the house? If you and Cathy stay through tomorrow then we could spend part of the week end as a family and maybe go somewhere and eat out together for lunch and supper tomorrow. Then you could leave Sunday. I’m certain Cathy would enjoy a little more time together ... and I think I might not be all that adverse to it either.”

“I’d like that.” James offered his arm to me, “Madam, your carriage awaits.”

“I hope it has a gasoline engine and heat.”

“Nothing but the best, milady.”

The team called ahead and by the time we walked out of the hall and to the front of the building our limo had made its way around to the pickup area. In minutes we had departing through the gates of the parking lot and were on our way to my home. I began to wonder how Cathy was doing and what she might have been into today. Yesterday when we arrived home, she had two more pictures for me to put on the refrigerator. If this kept up I was going to need a larger refrigerator. One thing, she was getting better at her drawings. She wanted more gold stars. I think I’ll put up a cork board in the family room to help hold the overflow.
We ate in this evening, telling Cathy of our plans to go watch ice skating tomorrow morning and then to watch skiing a little later. We would eat lunch at the lodge there by the slopes so she could watch some more while we ate. We discovered a children’s movie had finally arrived at the theater probably on Thursday, so we could take her to see that during the afternoon which would give us the opportunity to have something preplanned which she could likely enjoy. After the movie then we could go home again, maybe play in the snow in the back yard and, if I was up to it, I could play the piano a little again.

Cathy had been enjoying that each evening and had ‘helped’ play it with many giggles and lots of enthusiasm. She was now able to play most of ‘chopsticks.’ Well, two fingered but still ... She still needed to be shown where to begin but she had a good feeling for the beat. I needed to think about possibly obtaining lessons for her. Let’s see ... I think I was about five when I started. This might be a little too early for her to begin. Two finger playing was a little on the difficult side, too. I decided to check into child sized keyboards. Maybe I could purchase one for her as a Christmas gift from Santa. I needed to speak with James about getting her a puppy, too... though summer might be quite a bit better for that though.

Her interest in piano was equaled only by her interest in ice skating, especially since she watched with avid interest as two older girls were practicing on the ice. Once we went home she made herself dizzy doing spins while trying to imitate the girls. Of course she fell down a lot, not knowing how to land, but she didn’t cry and was right back up and at it moments later. I hated to think how many bruises she would have. I moved everything I could think of that could be broken up and out of the way, and the agents helped clear some space so she wouldn’t impact anything hard if she fell, other than the carpet on the floor. My downstairs looked radically different with all of the vases and lamps on higher perches, my small glass figurines and my entire collection of five inch pixies which had immediately garnered her attention when she arrived, were now sitting on the highest shelves of my built in bookcase. When she left with her father for the next few weeks, I would need to take the opportunity to begin ‘child-proofing’ my home. I also needed to talk with Nicci and maybe some of the wives of our agents who were mothers of young girls. I needed some guidance before Cathy returned. I also decided I had best find time somehow to obtain some ice-skating lessons for myself before she returned, I’d speak with Nicci about that as well.

Sunday seemed to come quickly. This had been an interesting couple of weeks but I had very much enjoyed having Cathy around and I think she enjoyed it too. We were saying our good-byes and she latched onto me so tight I was having difficulty getting air. It’s obvious that if she could drag me onto the plane she was going to do so.

I finally managed a bit of a diversion, “Now Cathy, I’ll expect you to have several good drawings for me to put on the refrigerator when you come back for Christmas. OH,” as though it was an afterthought, “Don’t forget to leave a note for Santa to deliver your presents here for Christmas otherwise they might be left at the wrong house and you won’t receive them until you return there again.”

“Mommy,” an exasperated young voice declared, “Santa’s smart. He knows everything. He’ll know I’m staying at your house for Christmas. I told him, if he brings me a horsey he should bring it here because you have a great big back yard with fences where it can stay. The yard at Daddy’s is big but the back yard goes down to the water and the horsey could swim away.”
That took me a little aback. I’d need to think about that one. Suddenly I wasn’t so certain about this Santa thing.

“Cathy, all the snow on the ground would make it difficult for the horse to find food and neither your father’s nor my yards have some place for a horse to stay warm and safe. Perhaps we should wait for the horse until another year when we are better prepared to protect and feed a horse. The horse would also need a much bigger place to stay than just my back yard. They need to be able to run.”

I could see the wheels turning; finally she nodded her head and agreed, “maybe a doggy then.”

One catastrophe partially avoided. Cathy gave me a kiss then stepped back.

“Watch Mommy,” then she executed a turn-and-a-half pirouette halting facing halfway away from the plane before turning back toward it with a little wobble as she recovered from the dizzies before she walked to the plane her hand firmly in that of the Nanny to aid her in maintaining her balance as she recovered from the spin. If she had fallen to the tarmac she could have scraped herself or worse. The week I’m going to be alone with her may prove to be more traumatic for me than for her, especially since the Nanny gets those two weeks off. I hope I don’t crash during my crash course in motherhood. I was beginning to understand why they were called ‘crash courses’. Walking back to the main terminal I turned to watch as James’ gulfstream finally taxied out to the holding point near the runway before it eventually entered the runway and took off. We had completed our job. James, Cathy and the Nanny were all on board and homeward bound. His two VP’s had returned Saturday morning.

“Husband has custody, huh?” a nearby voice asked.

I turned to see a woman about my age who was obviously waiting for a child to arrive, holding a teddy bear to give the child.

“Actually, her mother has died and she seems to want me to fill that vacancy.”

“Be careful. The father’s can always be a problem. I know. My husband has money and money talks. He took both of my children. Now my little boy won’t come see me and my daughter is only able to visit twice a year. It hurts. It hurts a lot.”

She noticed a large plane just touching down on the runway with the Alaska Airlines logo on the tail and her attention riveted to it. I began to walk away, “Remember,” she called to me without taking her eyes of that plane, “everything I just said.”

The Gulfstream was out of sight so, I drove myself to work. Parking in front, I entered the lobby then took the elevator up to our floor, unlocked the door and disengaged the alarm. Thirty seconds later the phone rang on line four and I answered, knowing it was the monitoring company. I gave them the password and everyone settled down then I hung up and went to my office to see if anything had accumulated in my absence.

There was a small stack of papers centered on the blotter located before the chair that was behind my desk. Walking over, I dropped my purse on the end of the desk as I slipped into the chair just before picking up the small stack of fifteen or twenty sheets. A quick look told me they were all from Nicci and appeared to be summaries of what had been happening during my absence. Forty minutes later I had a good feel for all that happened, appreciating that Ralph and Nicci had taken good care of most everything.

We had landed six of the eight potential jobs for January and more than half of the ones for both February and March. This was in addition to those which we already had secured. That Senator was still pushing inquiries. If he really wanted to know something why didn’t he just come right out and ask? We didn’t hide information. The European opportunity still existed and was still treading water just as it was two weeks ago. I needed to call Jerry in for a little talk to see what he thought we could do to hurry it along a bit.

Judging from the information I’d just seen, we were only weeks from staffing both the East and West Coast locations. Just before Christmas wasn’t such a good idea. I decided I’d hold it off until after New Year’s so everyone could have a nice Christmas and make it to the office party.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

I continued to think about the staffing of our new coastal offices. Most of the newbies who would be going with the old hands weren’t ready to take their exams so they would still need more training before they could be certified. That was another thing which was in our favor - certifications. The Society had only been around just under twenty years now but they were recognized even in Europe. The name was a little strange since a lot of what they were doing was far from simply Industrial Security but they knew well what it was they spoke about. Most members simply referred to them as ASIS and I thought their certifications were something worth some consideration; especially if we wanted more government jobs. We still had twenty-four people who needed to complete their studies to gain further certification. I made a note to leave for Nicci so she would check to see how many of our agents would need to recertify soon and to make up a list for the deadlines for each of them. I didn’t want anyone to lose certification because they forgot to study the most recent materials.

This has been a trip. Finding myself using Teddi's account to post some of her story just feels... odd.
Please don't expect the chapters to come quickly as there is only one more which is completed. The rest are all partials and I'll try to get to them as fast as I can. I also have my L o t Fey to work on and the 1200 pound gorilla which I mentioned in the post from Saturday.

Anesidora

Some forty-five minutes later I had finished my perusal of the material which had been occupying space on my desk. A couple of quick notes were written for Nicci and Ralph and the materials moved back to their desks before I left again. I hoped the notes would be enough that they could resolve some issues before I arrived since they were likely to come in before I did in the morning. Glancing around the offices I briefly considered dropping downstairs for a bite of Italian but decided instead to go on home.

Once home, I placed the drive and walk to the front door into low thaw mode then again included the walk adjacent to the street on high since the plows had piled all their street snow there. This time I didn’t set the timer so the low heat would run all night in case it snowed again. I would need to check the street side walks in a couple of hours and possibly shut off one or both of those breakers. The contractors the company hired to redo the walk next to my property, which allowed us to heat it instead of shoveling it off, had also added a drain system which led to the storm drains. That prevented the melt from winding up on the street where it could freeze which might lead to an accident.

Projected battery usage showed nothing would be left in the peripheral batteries so I added three of my poor overworked wind generators into the mix. Now the projected remainder showed to be only ten percent by morning even if the light wind remained throughout the night. I added the fourth generator. If I could do it, I wanted to avoid connecting to the grid. Once I connected then they needed access for their meter reader and my meters were within the grounds well beyond the gate and up near the house. Fortunately we had relocated them to the outside of the gated portion of the properties at the three safe houses. Once again the thought of having them relocated here crossed my mind and once again the reasons why we didn’t do so criss-crossed almost as quickly. I couldn’t believe the expense we would would entail to do it here. It was nearly twice the combined cost of the other three; something about easements, underground high power wires for the neighborhood and the very expensive surveillance measures I had planted in the ground surrounding my house.

I returned to my kitchen, examining the food I had on hand which forced the discovery that I still had enough on hand to feed a small army for a day or two. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel up to preparing anything. With some resignation I popped one of the few frozen TV dinners into the Microwave, set the timer to kick off at the appropriate time then went to my piano where I began to play anything which came to mind as I tried to regain what little sanity I hoped I still had gathering dust around here somewhere. Finally my hands and wrists were telling me it was time to stop so I went back to remove my meal from the oven only to discover it was barely warm. A glance at the clock showed me I’d been playing for nearly two hours as I pondered the events of these past several weeks. I suppose I should have realised something like that had happened since the shadows indicated some time had passed if I had bothered to take note of them. That was a little disturbing actually since normally I was far more observant of events around me.

Thrusting the item laughingly called a dinner back into the microwave, it received another two minutes of heat before I removed it then plunked myself down on one of the four stools at my kitchen counter where I began to poke at my food while taking small bites. By the time I figured out I wasn’t going to have all the answers I needed, the food was nearly cold again. I knew I needed nourishment so I wound up quickly shoveling the more than half a meal down as quickly as I could chew and swallow before taking the aluminum tray and my utensils to the sink so I could clean up after myself. I found my purse out in my car in the garage instead of on the hall table then went upstairs to the bedroom. I never realised before just how quiet this house was when I was the only person in it. Every few minutes I felt cheated since I half expected Cathy to come running in with another revelation or a drawing for which she needed praise. I was developing quite a nice case of parental anxiety as I continued to wonder what she was getting into and why the house was so quiet. More than once I found myself getting up to hunt for her before I realized what I was doing.

Back in my bedroom for the third or fourth time, I again checked the state of charge of the battery banks and the charging rate; pressed the shut off button for half the heating elements under the public sidewalks then set the alarm system to include the entire downstairs and the whole perimeter of both the grounds and house; at least I didn't have the problem of the squirrels setting off the ground alarms. They had moved on for better pickings elsewhere if they weren't already holed up for the coming winter. That reminded me I needed to purchase some food to leave out for them during the winter since I doubted they had sufficient food stashed to carry them through if winter was actually coming early.

I noticed the wind was picking up and checked the projected final state of charge which was climbing despite the usage which was draining the batteries even while coupled with the generators output.

With projected reduced battery usage I decided upon an extravagance and drew a hot bath, dropping some scented oil into the water. That was probably a mistake, especially if the wind happened to quit but I needed the soak. I also lit a lavender scented candle then settled into my tub. Twenty minutes later I was fighting to stay awake. Breaking free of my lethargy, I dried, powdered and, after cleaning the tub, selected a nightgown then finished my ministrations before retiring. I didn’t know exactly what the cause might have been but I was exhausted. I hoped it was due to after-mission let down because the other possibility was something I was not, as yet, prepared to handle.

I didn’t remember having any dreams but sometime during the night I came awake with a start, having heard my baby whimpering. I charged to her room and only as I discovered her bed was empty did I remember she had gone home. I felt cheated. I didn’t get to mother my baby. It wasn’t fair.

Returning to my room I tossed and turned for who knows how long before dropping off into what was to be a fitful sleep. The next morning the alarm awakened me and I was up and holding my automatic searching for the bad guys before I realized it was just the alarm clock. I began to wonder what was wrong with me and counted myself fortunate that I hadn't put a bullet through the alarm clock. Then again... that might not have been all that bad.

I was a regular grump at work and I didn’t know why. I had vague feelings of worry about Cathy and even vaguer ones about James. My concentration was worse than off. Nicci and I went out to lunch together but even that seemed flat. During the afternoon I poured myself into my work driving both Ralph and Nicci crazy.

“Lynn, don’t take this wrong but, girl to girl, I think you need to go home and relax. You’re all wound up. You’ve had a stressful couple of weeks so take a day or two and come back down off the rafters, okay?” I could trust Nicci to tell me what I needed to do even while radiating concern.

“Maybe you’re right. I feel a bit out of sorts. I don’t know what wrong, I just have this vague feeling something isn’t right and I don’t know what it is.”

“If I didn’t know better I’d say it’s PMS but you can’t have that; at least I don’t believe you can. Of course as I’ve learned with you, just about anything’s possible. I mean that in a good way, by the way. This is probably just post-mission let down. I’ve seen lots of the guys go through that especially when they became very involved in the mission.”

“You’re right, Nicci. I remember that from some of the... shall we say... more endearing missions in Nam. Especially the ones which lasted more than a couple of weeks. Some guys never came back down and were reassigned or were given a Section Eight. I can’t say as I’ve ever had that problem before, especially when the mission was for such a short time.”

Ralph happened to be passing by and he had stopped to listen so he managed to kick in his two cents worth, “Lynn, go home. Rest. Come back in a couple of days or so. The world won’t fall apart in that time. Or if it does, we won’t know about it.”

I took the hint with both of them railing on my case. I took a moment to wander through the office to check on everything which proved to me there were no fires which needed to be put out so I returned to my office, grabbed my purse and coat, said good-bye to Nicci and Ralph then went out to my car to drive home. Somewhere between the office and halfway home I suddenly found myself taking a detour which led me to that sporting goods store where I had purchased my ski stuff. There I tracked down that same salesman and got a bit of a lesson in ice skates, purchasing a pair along with some good blade covers before making my way home on the icy streets.

At home I keyed open the gate, closing it as I continued on, guiding my car slipping and sliding up the drive then into the garage. I barely stopped in time to avoid the wall in front of me when my tires suddenly had traction and began to thrust my car forward. After closing the garage door remotely I got out of my car then walked over to check the battery bank panel once again. When the generators were engaged and the driveway and walk heaters were once again in play, I walked over to the alarm panel to deactivate the rest of the house alarms so I could go inside. I hit the reset on the garage mounted alarm remote panel which showed a clear ‘board’, then made my way into the kitchen carrying my box of ice skates and my purse. There I drew myself a kettle of water to place on a burner set to low before I took my new purchase into the family room where I put it and my purse down on the couch. Returning to the kitchen I kicked the heat up a bit to speed the heating of my kettle of water as I got out a tea bag, cup and saucer.

After the usual ‘watched pot’ syndrome, I finally had a nice cup of tea and after grabbing a doily, I wandered back to the family room again where I turned on the ‘boob’ tube before pulling out my purchase to examine my new skates. I knew I would need to wear them a bit so my ankles could become accustomed to the new stresses I was likely to be placing on them while I eventually learned to balance on a thin blade. Deciding to try them on again (with the blade protectors on of course) I hoped I would be able to stand trusting the blade covers to prevent the destruction of my carpet.

Something on the tube caught my eye and before I knew it an hour and a half had passed by while I cycled back and forth between sitting and standing as I tried to gain experience balancing on the skates. Somewhere along the way I decided they didn’t look all that good when I was wearing a pant suit so I supposed I would be going back to purchase some clothing to wear while ice skating. By now, at least, I was able to get up off the couch and stand without coming close to falling over. My ankles weren’t complaining too much so maybe I was in better shape than I thought. Tottering on heels had probably helped prepare me a for this but the need for side-to-side support was wearing me down despite the high rise of the ankle portion of the skates.

Taking the skates off, they were boxed once again before I tip-toed to the kitchen to clean my cup and empty the last of the water from the kettle. I considered rummaging through the fridge but decided I wasn’t all that hungry so I abandoned the idea of supper, at least for now. I did grab two celery stalks before going back to collect my box of skates and my purse then I headed on up to my bedroom. Forty minutes later I was in bed and out like a light.

“Mommy!” brought me awake in the middle of the night like I was shot out of a cannon and I was halfway to my bedroom door, automatic in hand, to check on my baby when I remembered I was alone in the house or I had thought I was.

“It’s okay, baby. Mommy’s here. Everything’s all right.” I dropped back into bed rolled onto my side then for no apparent reason said, “Here Cathy, hold onto Mommy and go back to sleep.” The rest of the night went peacefully, maybe I needed to purchase a doll I could hold so I could sleep clear through the night.

The next morning I got out of bed and almost fell over. My ankles and lower legs were complaining something fierce. Delayed reaction I suppose. I hobbled off to the bathroom and eventually limped my way downstairs to begin some coffee. Fortunately I remembered to start the small pot after pouring four cups worth of water into it from out of the big pot. I drained the remainder of the large pot and dried it out. Fortunately I hadn’t gotten so far as to put the coffee grounds into it. That would have been all I needed, preparing twenty cups of coffee so I could have two or three. I was still thinking about the last two nights and hearing Cathy whimpering and calling for Mommy. I simply didn’t realise she had affected me that much. Maybe I could be a good mother at that.

I pulled two eggs out of the fridge then rummaged around until I found some peaches and a little less than a fifth of a container of cottage cheese which, fortunately, still smelled good. The last of the ham was beginning to shimmer so I dumped it in the garbage pail to be taken out later, continuing my search for something else edible, finally compromising with three strips of bacon before starting to prepare my breakfast.

Once breakfast had been completed I went through my ritual cleaning of the dirtied items and of the kitchen itself before attempting to decide what I was going to do with myself today. A short search finally produced the yellow pages which I found buried under both some magazines and three of Cathy’s storybooks on a corner table in the family room.

As I sat on the couch I began my search for ice rinks. I found only one but I was certain there were at least two in town. That puzzled me a bit but all I wanted to know was when they opened, I figured one would probably have hours which were duplicated by the second one. The hours, unfortunately, weren’t spelled out in the ad; boo, hiss. I wrote down their phone number and address then returned the book to the hall stand where I discovered the white pages were also missing. Presumably they were not in the family room unless they had found a more imaginative place to be hidden. I surmised the two ice rinks were likely to open at about the same time so calling the one should give me an idea of the time for both.

The sporting goods store, at least, had its opening time in its ad, 10:00 Am. Shortly before 10:00 I called the ice rink and obtained a recording which indicated they were open to club members at 7:00 and to the general public at 12:00. They closed to everyone at 9:00 Pm.

Picking up my skates, purse and jacket then wandering out to the car I finally made my way to the sporting goods store arriving shortly after they had opened. My salesman wasn’t there so I latched onto an older lady and described my plight. She directed me to various items including tights (cold weather despite being indoors - it’s an ice rink after all), a medium short skirted skating outfit with fur on the collar, wrists and as trim on the skirt which, after some search, was found in my size. She recommended two as that way I could have one to wear while the other was being dry-cleaned. Trading off on them would also offer the opportunity to minimize the wear on one due to the falls I was likely to incur as I learned to balance and perform while on skates.

“Everyone falls, my dear, even the professionals. The ice cuts because after it has been sliced repeatedly by skates there are many sharp edges. You should also obtain a pair of mittens to protect your hands at least until you become good enough to reduce your falls to a minimum. I would also recommend lessons at least for the first few weeks. You will find they are well worth the money in the long run.”

“Where do I arrange for lessons?”

“The ice rinks usually have instructors available and beginning classes are normally small. If you are willing to pay a slightly larger fee you might even obtain one on one instruction. Lessons are much less expensive if you join the rinks skating club, although I wouldn’t do that unless you expect to be putting in six to eight hours a week or more.”

“And if I want to bring my daughter?”

“You will need to ask them but I think the rink just down the street then left at the traffic signal,” she pointed in a direction perpendicular to the street we were on, “has reduced rates for children. I may be wrong as I haven’t skated for a number of years now. My old bones couldn’t take a fall very well.”

We searched for a bit before finding another outfit similar to the first although the second one was in green. The first was in a light blue and it had taken some hunting on our part to locate it. We found a tomato red one fairly quickly but red and I didn’t do well together. Besides, I thought if I was going to make a fool of myself on the ice I would prefer to do it in a color which wasn’t screaming “look at me” quite so loudly.

After paying for my purchases I had the dubious pleasure of making my way a second time through the six-inch deep snow which had occupied the lot overnight. I carefully drove out and down to the traffic signal where I turned left going about a half mile before finding the skating rink. The place looked deserted but there were close to a dozen cars in the lot so I parked. Going up to push on the doors proved they were unlocked allowing me to make my way inside.

In the lobby I saw a number of photos of famous skaters. I supposed they were implying those skaters had trained at this particular rink, which I somehow doubted. I continued to examine the photos and several of the brochures which were available on the counter. After ten or fifteen minutes someone actually came to the lobby and said, “Good morning. We open to the public at noon. Is there something with which I might help you?”

“Yes. Thank you. I’m interested in more information at this point so I can decide just how I want to proceed. I’m thinking about obtaining lessons and possibly eventually lessons for my young daughter as well. She is only three and a half so she might not be able to begin as yet but I thought I had best be able to skate, at least a little, before she decides she wants to begin.”

“Smart move. Lessons are available and to the general public they are $15 an hour with five or so in the class. Club members pay $10 an hour unless you want a private lesson which is $25 an hour. If you wish to spend a full day on the ice then a private session is $160 and usually requires a reservation made at least three days in advance unless there are openings available. The all day session is eight hours on the ice, likely with either Renee or Trisha, but only Monday through Friday 8:00 Am to 5:00 Pm with an hour break in the middle. We don’t do private lessons on week ends there are too many people on the ice. Club members also have a locker assigned and club membership is $50 a month which includes the rink access fee. Non-club members may rent a locker for $1 an hour or $5 for the entire day. Rink access is $1 a day or $5 for a seven day week. You provide your own lock. I would recommend against joining the club right away as we have found many people begin the lessons but drop out after only three or four and then they are stuck with paying the months membership. We prefer club members be those who really wish to continue learning and skating.”

“What is the cost of private lessons to the general public, again?”

“We don’t provide private instruction to the general public. Only to club members.”

“When do the next public lessons begin?”

The girl went to check her schedule sheets, pulling out several clipboards and making a show of examining them. “Trisha will be starting a class Thursday at noon. She has room for one more in the class.”

“When would the next private session be available?”

She leafed through the clipboards as she explained once again, “They are only available to club members... There is a two-hour session available today starting at 1:00 Pm with Trisha and another at 7:00 Pm with Renee.”

“And tomorrow?”

They both have at least one session available Trisha at 8:00 Am and Renee at ten. Renee comes in later.”

“All right, let’s sign me up for a membership and then a private session with Trisha today and the one with Renee tomorrow morning. I’ll decide then just how I want to continue from there.”

“Fine. Fill out these papers would you? Have you ever skated before?”

“No. This is a first for me and I’ll need to go home to change.”

“We have changing rooms here and you can purchase a padlock from us for your locker for $5. If you’ve never skated, you had better take the noon class with Richard before you see Trisha. Trisha will be taking you out on the ice and Richard will teach you how to fall down and get up so you don’t hurt yourself badly with either your skates or the ice. We have medical facilities here and are able to treat most injuries or pre-treat them if transport is required. We have a rapid response agreement with an ambulance service.”

“That makes me feel much better.”

“Most of our members say much the same thing.”

My sarcasm was completely lost on her.

“That will be $205, cash or credit card?”

“Corporate card.”

She did the transaction and I signed the transaction receipt. Next she pulled out some papers and a padlock then proceeded to explain the layout of the rink, changing rooms, locations of the restrooms and the lockers, telling me where my locker was located. I ripped the padlock off of its packaging and she threw the cardboard and staples away while I took the padlock and the two keys.

“Remember, Lynnette,” she said after reading my name off the membership application, “keep one key with you. Don’t lock them both in your locker or we will need to cut the padlock off the locker to allow you to get back into it. Blade covers must remain on skates at all times except when on the ice. During the class with Richard skates are optional. Class begins in twenty minutes so you had best hurry and change. I’ll let Trisha know to collect you at the end of Richard’s class. Have fun.”

The way she said that made me feel like it was a command and not a suggestion. I was quickly off to my locker to place my purse inside and then made tracks to the nearest changing room. I barely made it to class on time after changing and putting on my skates then locking all my street clothes into the locker. There were four others in the class but they were mostly in the 12-year old range. There were three mothers sitting there watching so I figured either one mother was missing or two of the girls were sisters. After a couple of minutes I decided it was the latter since two of the girls looked very similar and tended to remain together during the instruction. Learning to fall with the skates aimed away from both myself and everyone else was a trip. I hoped I didn’t need to practice it for real but somehow knew it would happen despite my best intentions. Before I knew it class was over and Trisha was there to collect me.

I suppose I did pretty well for a beginner. Trisha was a hard task mistress but she actually had me skating one and a half times around the rink without falling after perhaps the first hour of instruction. I felt like I was flying along until a couple of younger girls zoomed past like we were standing still.

Trisha told me not to worry about it, “After ten or twenty hours you’ll be doing laps around the rink like an old pro. By the time you reach that point we will also have you doing some of the things only the professionals dream about.”

“I think I’ll be satisfied just staying upright.”

She laughed, “Stay right there and watch for a moment.”

She zoomed out onto the ice, did a pirouette in the air before landing going backwards then continued on as she turned to gather speed on the turn. She did the same thing on the way back and then as she got close did an abrupt braking followed by a sort of tip-toe run across the ice before gliding to a power stop in front of me.

“Wow.”

She laughed again, “You will be able to do that, too. Those are some of the easy moves. If you can put in eight to ten hours a week we could have you doing some of that in just a few weeks.”

“There are a few other easy moves which will let you look like you’re dancing on the ice. You will learn some of those during the first eight hours. Come on, let’s try changing lead together. Watch as I do it next to you, it’s easy. It just looks complicated.”

By the time my two hours ended my number of falls had reduced dramatically and my enjoyment factor had gone way up. We ended with a figure eight of the rink and as I put my blade protectors on my skates I noticed the number of people on the ice had gone up by a factor of about three with more joining as every minute passed. I suppose that made sense, public access had started shortly before my lesson and other club members were likely to be showing up. Then too, school let out just about the end of my lesson so any of the kids who were playing hooky or who didn’t have afternoon classes would be able to be here. Soon there would be people getting off work who would also come to skate. Note to myself, schedule most of my lessons for mornings, at least for a while.

Finding my way to my locker, I pulled out my street clothes then sat down to remove my skates which I stowed in the locker before going to the changing room. It wasn’t long before I was in my street clothes and back at the locker where I collected my purse and skates, leaving the locker empty but with my lock still on it; eventually I arrived home. After my first day of skating a nice hot bath sounded wonderful. Making my way upstairs I spent a little over an hour pampering myself before I went back down to clean up my skates and wash my skating outfit. Fortunately sanity had prevailed and I had skipped purchasing the outfit which was fur trimmed so I had dodged the dry cleaning bullet. The thought crossed my mind as I thought about skating, I wondered if Nicci skated? I also wondered if we could bring guests to the rink? I forgot to ask about the charges for my ‘daughter’ so I’d need to bring all that up tomorrow when I made some more appointments.

Hearing the ring of the phone, I made my way to the one in the family room hoping to reach it before whomever it was hung up.

“Hello?”

“Hi Lynn, it’s Nicci. You’re a hard girl to reach.”

“Well, it is my day off and so is tomorrow. I’m busy.”

“I hope it isn’t work.”

“No. It isn’t work.” I answered almost facetiously, “actually I was starting to learn to ice skate. Tomorrow I have another lesson.”

“Cool. Mind if I come too?”

“That’s something I wanted to ask... Do you skate?”

“That’s like asking Santa Claus if he drives a sleigh.”

“Well... I don’t know... does he?” That just got me a laugh.

“My first lesson tomorrow is at 08:00; I scheduled two back-to-back. I don’t know if we are allowed to bring guests.”

“Which rink are you using?”

“Sonia’s”

“Great, I’m a member there. Who’s your instructor tomorrow... Tricia or Renee?”

“The first one is with Tricia. I had a lesson with her today. Renee usually comes in later so I have one with her after the one with Tricia.”

“They’re both good. Bill isn’t so bad either but he likes to gently grope the ladies on the premise he is helping them not to fall down. Why don’t we meet there tomorrow at eight? That will give us a little time to skate before your session and maybe I can help you learn a little too. That would but you a little further ahead of the curve.”

“I’ll remember that about Bill. The girl who signed me up didn’t happen to mention him. How about we meet right after my first lesson? That would be somewhere around nine fifty. That way I’ll have a little free time on the ice before Renee comes in. Before my lesson today, I had Richard for the class where we learned how to fall down without serious injury.”

“Figures, Richard is their resident nurse. Hope you never have to see him much.”

“Why?”

“Oh, he skates really well, but if you’re seeing him it means you’ve been injured.”

“He doesn’t teach?”

“Not that I’ve ever seen. Anyway back to the reason I called. Mr. Thompson called today and wanted to talk to you. Something about Cathy...”

I quickly injected, “Is she all right?”

“He didn’t say. Why? What do you know that we don’t?”

I spent a few minutes relating to her my two unreasonably emotional nights and my concerns.

“Just like a mother. You better call Mr. Thompson and find out if your little girl is okay. Get a pencil and paper and I’ll give you his number.”

“Just a moment, I’m going to put you on hold.”

I put the phone down then got up to go to the hall where I pulled a pad of paper and pen from the drawer then picked up the phone there. Nicci gave me Thompson’s number before we arranged to meet at 8:45 at the rink. After we hung up I returned to the family room so I could sit on the couch while I used that phone. Pulling it over to me I dialed his number.

“Thompson residence.”

“Hello. This is Lynnette Stevens, James left a message for me to call.”

“One moment please, I’ll see if Mr. Thompson is in.”

‘I’ll see if Mr. Thompson is in’... He better be. He called me first.

Less than a minute later I heard the phone pick up and James voice came across, “Lynn. How are you?”

“I think the question is, how’s Cathy?”

“Okay. She’s doing just fine...”

“Then why did you call and cause me to lose ten years off my life expectancy?”

“It... It’s a little difficult to explain. She... Have you noticed anything... strange over the past night or two?”

“It’s funny you should ask that.”

“You have then?” he sounded incredulous.

“Well, yes and no. I thought it was just my over active imagination. What’s been happening there?”

“I’m not certain. Sunday night Cathy woke up sometime during the night and became quite upset then suddenly calmed down before anyone got to her and was fast asleep hugging her pillow when the nanny got to the room. Last night was nearly the same but she was mumbling ‘Mommy’ as she hugged the pillow.”

I was barely able to breath, much less talk. Cathy and I had formed some sort of bond and it seemed to be able to transcend the distance between us. This was a little scary. I was a Mommy. After a few times of James asking, “Lynn?” I managed to take in a breath and began relating what I had noticed here and how I responded to the whimpering or crying residing in my mind.

“It was just in my mind. I couldn’t really have been hearing anything.”

“Uh huh, ‘Mommy’ Stevens is it?”

“James, I didn’t mean to do anything like that. We haven’t even decided to go steady much less be married. I still need to see some doctors and get the ball rolling.”

“What about tomorrow? I could send the plane.”

“I can’t. I have ice skating lessons tomorrow and for the next few weeks.”

“Ice skating?”

“Yes, Cathy is interested so I had best know how to skate before I begin taking her.”

I could hear a smile in his voice, “Good idea, Mommy. Are you going to learn to ski too? I need someone to mother me on the slopes.”

“You don’t need a mother on the slopes, but Cathy will.”

“And when she begins to swish down the more difficult slopes?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps by then I won’t have such a difficult time with skiing and I’ll be able to accompany her.”

“You know, as much as I hate to admit it, you were right and there will come a time when we will just need to allow her freedom to make a mistake or two.”

My heart came up into my throat as I considered that. “Maybe not for a while.”

James laughed, “Maybe not. But one day she is going to want to go out with a boy and we will need to trust her enough to allow it,”

“Oh, I’ll trust her. But I know about boys, I won’t trust him. Maybe I’ll teach Cathy hand to hand so she can protect herself.”

James laughs, “Ouch. Would you really do that?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“I believe you would. I can see it all now. Some Cad kisses Cathy and instead of slapping him she throws him across the room.”

“Well... I’ll also teach her not to overreact.”

“For any boys who might come into her life, I thank you.”

“But if they pull her hair or cause other problems, all bets are off.”

“I’ll remember to advise the boys to behave themselves unless they want to lose their wandering hand.”

“You better.”

“I just have one request.”

“Which is?”

“Please don’t teach her any killing techniques.”

“Then tell the boys not to do anything which will result in her use of same.”

“You’re a hard woman, Lynnette... A hard woman.”

“And you love it.”

“Well, there is that. At any rate, I was thinking about Christmas and wondered if I might send her presents there so they will all be there if I can’t make it in time for the party.”

“You could bring any which are from you or family who give her presents when you come. We won’t open any of those until you’re here. At the office party all of the presents are from Santa.”

“Okay, I have a half dozen here which are from Santa so I’ll ship those and bring the rest with me when I come up.”

“That works. Let me know a few days in advance before you send her and I’ll make arrangements to take her skating. Once she’s here we’ll go out and buy her skates and clothes for the lessons. Does her nanny skate?”

“I don’t know. That never came up. I’ll find out as I suspect once Cathy begins skating, she will want to continue when she returns back here. Maybe you could come visit here for a week sometime next year and take her skating. We don’t have a lot of children friendly vacation locations to visit though.”

“I’m certain we could come up with something, and I could stop by as I go to or from our new facility on the East coast. Just how far are you located from New York?”

“The State or the City?”

“Actually, Manhattan.”

“A couple of hours and then one trying to get into Manhattan.”

“I suppose I could fly in.”

“Not unless your building has a heliport. Even then it would be tricky flying.”

“Oh, our building is at the South end of the cluster at the North end of the Park. It is well away from the Financial Center and all those huge skyscrapers. I have yet to see the UN building but from the roof of our building you can just make out those new twin towers and the Empire State Building — if it’s a clear day.”

“Ah, I suppose then it wouldn’t be quite so bad. An older building?”

“Fairly. We don’t have a heliport and I suppose the building couldn’t support one. We hope to pay it off in about five years and then we’ll begin shopping around for a location where we can build a new one. If all goes well between now and then, of course.”

“You have dreams of an empire in real-estate?”

“No, just enough income from tenants to offset the costs of the building, utilities, upkeep and taxes, basically. The money for the business itself will be earned by the business. The former gives us some place that is essentially rent free. Once we build, we will put in some living quarters at the top as well. That gives us a building we own and control in addition to a safe haven for our clients on three or four floors. With two suites per floor we could house a lot of clients. Safety would be a big issue and, of course, the helipad you so fortuitously mentioned. Our West coast building is relatively new but we needed to renovate it to fill our needs and some of the changes are still in the pipeline.”

“Sounds busy. How do you find the time to skate?”

“I’m taking each morning for a few weeks. That and I have today and tomorrow off.”

“I need a deal like that. I thought you owned the business?”

“I do. Mostly anyway. I put my two junior partners in charge for a couple of days. It’ll do them good and I’m only a phone call away. I went in yesterday and reviewed everything they did. Signed off on most of it. They’re doing okay.”

“God. I’d be afraid the whole place would fall apart in my absence. You must have some good talent.”

“I do. Ralph and I have been together for years and Nicci came on board running, she practically runs the place anyway so I decided to give her the authority to do it. If I’m not available then she has Ralph or Lucy to fall back on.”

“Lucy?”

“Oh... Uh, she’s someone I met while in the service. It was she and her husband who suggested this business to us and helped us with the start up and vetting of our initial agents. Now they hold fifteen percent as silent partners and are sort of “consultants” when we fall into the cracks.”

“What about your mother and father?”

“Dad was killed in an accident just as I was finishing Basic Training. My first leave was spent going to his funeral and then helping Mom get organized until Aunt Joi came out to help. By then I had to report.”

“Sorry to hear that. So if we get married then Cathy will have a Grandmother?”

“No. I’m afraid Mom died a few years back.”

“I see. It was just a thought. I was thinking about our honeymoon.”

“Aren’t you getting the cart before the horse, James? We haven’t even really discussed the possibility and believe me there will be a lot to discuss.”

“Well, hypothetically.”

“Oh... Hypothetically... of course, hypothetically.”

“Of course?”

“Don’t get your hopes up just yet, James.”

“I can but try.”

“Uh huh. Try a little less hard and we might have a chance.”

He grabbed onto that for all it was worth, “A Chance?”

“I think we best end this call, James. We can discuss some of this when we are together at Christmas.”

“I was right. You’re a hard woman, Lynnette.”

“And you love every second of it.”

He laughed, “I’ll send Cathy a week before Christmas unless you want her there a little earlier. The Nanny won’t be able to come. She has those two weeks off for family. If you need someone there then I can hire someone for those two weeks like I usually do. That way if you need to go into work you won’t need to have her tagging along.”

“Just let me know when and where to meet the plane. We’ll work something out at this end.”

“Okay. Oh, speak of the bolt of lightning. Cathy, come over here. Mommy’s on the phone.”

I could hear the phone shuffling around for a moment.

“Hi Mommy. I made more pictures.”

“Good for you. Remember to bring them with you when you come for Christmas.”

“I will. I fell down.”

I was instantly concerned, “Are you all right?”

“I was spinning in a circle like the girls on the ice but I tripped. I hurt my knee but Nanna put some camp for nick on it. It hurt for a while but it’s getting all better.”

“Good. You need to be careful when you spin like that.”

“I will. Nanna wants me. Here’s Daddy.”

A few moments later I heard his voice again, “I’m back.”

“Good Luck.”

“Thanks; I think I’ll need it. She’s been going a mile a minute ever since we came home. I’ll let you know before I send her up.”

“Thanks - I think. I’m still child proofing my house.”

He laughed, “I think you’re the one who needs luck. See you in a month or so, Lynn.”

“Bye, James.”

I hung up even as I thought back to what that woman had said at the airport. It was beginning to seem a bit like that, wasn’t it?

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

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

All rights reserved.

Please note: any publication or post of this story in any language in France, its possessions, or protectorates in any manner whatsoever, or any attempt to include this story, in part or in whole in any language, as or in a work published in France or its possessions or protectorates will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the copyright laws of the United States and of the World Court..

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

During the next two weeks Nicci and I spent two hours each morning skating. Between her and the lessons I signed up to receive, I was improving with leaps and bounds.

Work had been busy but not difficult and Ralph and I had signed on some more jobs for the first quarter of next year which would put our income levels at a new high.

As it was, we made nearly a half a mil more this year than we did last year even after paying off some bills which we originally thought would be carried over into the new year. Things were looking up in a big way. We had enough jobs already scheduled for next year to match this year’s income and that was from just the first seven months. I was looking at the possibility of expanding our West and East coast offices shortly after initially staffing them and that meant we would need to hire more agents because I still needed to hold nearly a dozen in reserve to ship to Europe the moment we got our approval there. I later changed my mind about that and scattered them around the three locations until the European thing came through.

We had twenty-four European nationals on retainers of a sort. They were from a mix of the nations and were working for others at the moment but we could call and they would come. The ‘retainers’ allowed us the luxury of being able to say ‘come’ shortly before we needed them and they would give notice to their present employers allowing us to add them to our ranks after something like two to four weeks. That meant we could have a total of thirty six registered agents on the ground less than five weeks after we had the go ahead. The downside? Well, it would be an instant increase in expenses in the form of salaries and the need to take almost all of those who were on retainer and run them through the certification courses.

The upside? They were mostly trained and just needed refreshers to pass those same courses for their first time, then we would have a formidable group in Europe to which we could add. I hoped we could handshake with Interpol and some of the governmental agencies over there, much as we were able to do with many of the alphabet agencies here. I also had some pressure from Magician and Houdini who were chomping at the bit for us to get over there. Lucy said she would have work for us to do within minutes of my first agents setting their feet on the ground in Paris.

“They won’t even know they’ve been there. We could have them out on the next flights and working within another fifteen hours.”

I wasn’t certain how that would affect my own plans but obviously the staff at either of our initial two headquarters would be rather dismal to begin with. I didn’t want to hire more people because I didn’t know how long Lucy’s projects would last and having extra people on board without work to support them could be a very bad thing.

The first location I wanted to staff would obviously be London while the second would be in Milan. Milan would give us a central quick response access to a number of countries. At least it looked that way on paper. Eventually we would branch out to place an office in each of the various capitols. We had been looking at Germany for a while but decided on Milan since it was both a financial center and more central to everything as far as travel went. The rail system was developed and improving steadily so access could be fairly rapid. We hoped we would grow quickly enough that we could begin to expand into the major cities of other countries within two years of our European inception.

Other than all that, things were going pretty smoothly. We didn’t expect to have any difficult assignments through the end of this year. For that matter we didn’t expect to have any for at least the first three months of the next year. No unwanted lumps in our gravy.

I turned another set of papers over after signing the attached set of notes then penned a note for Nicci since she would be in early tomorrow. She had some paperwork to complete before she met me at the skating rink tomorrow so I added these things to her pile so she could at least get a heads up on them. The note she had left for me before I arrived while she was still here said she had a difficult day pulling everything together for one of our newest assignments. I was thankful that she spent the time pulling her hair out so our agents didn’t have to do so once they arrived to begin a new assignment. She was pretty good at taking care of fires before they happened.

I sighed, it was nearly eight PM and I was almost as tired as she had been when I sent her home to get some rest. Once I had arrived she was game to try to stay but then she would be dead on her feet tomorrow. I killed the lights and set the alarm then made tracks downstairs and out to my car, discovering it had a light layer of snow on it while those beautiful but cold little flakes were still coming down. Driving carefully, I reached home twenty minutes later; parked my car in the garage, set the walk and driveway heaters to kick on at six AM and the wind generators to thaw at five, then went in to have supper, take a nice long soak in the tub and get some sleep myself.

The next morning I was in the midst of my skating lesson and was looking forward to being joined by Nicci afterward, when it was interrupted by the girl who had signed me up the first day I came in. She was calling to us from the edge of the rink.

“Your office called, they want you to return the call immediately.”

“Did they say why?”

“It was someone named Nicci... All she said was to tell you a Mr. Thompson was attacked and you are needed in the office immediately.”

“JAMES?”

“Who’s James?”

“Mr. Thompson. Where’s a phone I can use? I need to call my office right away.”

“Come with me but don’t forget to put the blade covers on your skates first. We don’t need slices in the carpet.” She put her hand out, halting me as I began to step away from the rink.

“Wait here. I’ll be right back, I left them over there.” I pointed.

I skated back across the rink to where I had left my blade covers then skated back to her before pausing to put them on my skates. I then opted to remove the skates from my feet before I followed her out to the lobby where she lifted a phone up from behind the counter placing it on top for me to use.

“Dial nine to get an outside line. If this is long-distance you’ll need to pay for the call when we get the bill.”

“It’s to my office which is about five miles away.”

“Probably local then.”

I dialed nine then the office. The switchboard transferred me to Nicci and I got the skinny. James was okay, but shaken. Some Colonel wanted him to accept military security operatives to accompany him everywhere since the attack was apparently related to some of the work he was doing on some sort of software for a government project. James wanted my firm to provide his security rather than a team of military personnel. I was surprised about that. I guess we scored higher on his good job list than I thought. Of course being higher than a military team who didn’t have a clue as to what was going on wouldn’t be difficult. Unfortunately just at this moment we didn’t have a clue either.

“We need you in here right away, Lynn. Cathy and her nanny were also targeted. Cathy is okay but her nanny is in the hospital in critical condition. Ralph managed to grab four of our agents who didn’t have an immediate assignment and they hit the airport here just a few minutes ago. We will have the rest on their way in less than three hours. One of the first ones will be escorting Cathy back here. James wants her here and protected. In fact, now that I checked the clock, our agents should be in the air so they will be there within an hour and a half. Ralph called and had them hold the plane for our people. Apparently he has some pull with someone at the airport.”

“Cathy was attacked? Was she hurt at all?”

“Apparently not. We still don’t have a lot of details. Mr. Thompson was understandably a little upset when he and Ralph spoke.”

“He wants Cathy to be here?”

“Yes. He said that she would be safest here with you. We are putting together a full team which Ralph said should include two snipers and hopefully we will be able to send the rest of them out within a couple of hours. Ralph thinks we should send one of the armored cars as well.”

“I agree. Pick the one that has the most hours remaining before its next servicing. There should be one which we just got back from the city yard. This is unexpected. I haven’t even had time to child-proof my home. It’s four or five weeks earlier than I was expecting her.”

“Feel like you’re being thrown into the thick of things, Mommy?”

“That isn’t funny.”

“We need to hang up this call Lynn, and you need to get yourself in here in a hurry. Ralph wants you to look over the rest of the team he’s trying to put together and to make some decisions about equipment and any funding they might need. We put five hundred dollars on each of the guy’s cards for those who already left but that won’t last long if they need to stay there for very long. Susan would like to know how we are going to bill this, of course. We also need to put together a second team to protect Catherine. Don’t bother to change, just grab your stuff and hurry in.”

“Am I allowed to get my street clothes out of my locker and put on my boots before I dash to my car?”

“If you hurry. Hang on a sec. Ralph wants something.”

I heard some mumbling in the background before Nicci came on the phone again, “Ralph just wanted you to know that James didn’t wait. Catherine’s flight took off five minutes ago. There are five Army personnel traveling with her.”

“Are we hosting her guard as well?”

“Don’t ask me. James or that Colonel are calling all the shots just now.”

“Great. That will need to change if we’re getting involved. Okay, give me five minutes to at least get my things together and I’ll be on my way. I’ll finish changing after I get to the office. As soon as I arrive I want a conference call with James, me, you, Ralph and that Colonel. It will probably be best to put it in our wired conference room. That way we can record the conversation so we’ll have something to review later since we’re apt to be talking fast and furious without enough time to assimilate it all. I’ll be on my way in five minutes. OH! Is George available? Cathy knows and trusts him so he could meet the plane. Have him use the limo which is about to go in for servicing.”

“I’ll check. See you when you get here Lynn.”

“Yeah. Thanks. Bye, Nicci. OH! Nicci?”

“Yes. I’m still here.”

“See if Mr. Bear is available. If so, then get him to meet the plane along with George.”

“Mr. Bear?”

“Yes. Uh, Bill... Bill… Uh...” I had to pause to think a moment, “William Capplemann.”

“Ah. Okay. I take it Mr. Bear is Cathy’s name for him?”

“Yes. She’ll recognize him and trust him. I need to grab everything. See you in about twenty minutes or so, if I don’t get any tickets for speeding.”

“Okay. I’ll let Ralph know. Bye... Mommy.”

I gave her a soft growl as we hung up the phones then I rushed in the direction of the locker room only to halt just after leaving the lobby so I could return to grab my skates which I’d left on the counter top in my haste to get moving. I rushed off again to grab my things out of my locker, slip on my shoes, booties and fur jacket then in less than five minutes I was in my car pulling out of the lot slipping and sliding a lot more than was necessary since I was unconsciously trying to hurry.

Fourteen minutes and what seemed like forever later I was at the office. I picked up a police cruiser during my rush but it was only a few seconds later that he dropped his lights and fell back allowing me to continue my semi-panicked drive without incident. I learned later that Ralph had contacted the city PD and let them know we might have a large number of operatives rushing around for an hour or so due to a National Emergency which, of course, was classified so he couldn’t tell them much of anything about it for the moment. If we hadn’t had the rapport with the city PD that we did, they probably would have ignored him and stopped us all. They were understandably concerned about the idea of an Emergency and wanted to know how it might affect them but he told his contact that we would update them as soon as possible after he handed them a list of license plate numbers of those who would likely be seen rushing around. That little half-truth was both good news and bad since now we would need to come up with a plausible explanation for them which wouldn’t get them all up in arms while still sounding sufficiently serious. I figured I’d leave that up to Ralph to solve since he was the one who came up with the idea, after all.

When I arrived at the office, I attempted to rush right in but quickly opted for ‘slower is safer’ when I slipped and almost fell on a patch of ice. I sped up a little once I was inside gaining a few looks of confusion from people coming to work in the other businesses in the building. I burst through the doors into our lobby throwing a “Good Morning” out to our receptionist as I flew past while rushing into the working area of our floor just before I came to a landing in front of Nicci’s desk.

“Okay, Nicci, I’m here. What’s the ETA for Cathy and when do we talk with James?”

She checked the clock, “Forty-five to fifty minutes, give or take the five. George is out on that Milwaukee assignment but “Mr. Bear” was available. He was only about twenty minutes from the office when I told him to turn around and go to the airport. He should arrive shortly before their plane. I gave him the information and warned him about the guard. He has his own car though so if you want to send a limo we’ll need to have a newbie drive it.”

“Yes, do that. They and their luggage won’t all fit in just one vehicle. That way there will be two vehicles there and Bill can act as the chase car with two of the guard riding with him. Call him back to give him that information and get his mileage from him so we can reimburse him for the use of his car from wherever he was when you diverted him until they all get to the office. Wait a minute.”

I had just seen one of the newbies walk into the office, “What’s your name and do you have an assignment at the moment?”

“I, er, no. I just came in to see when my next assignment was to start. Oh. I’m Tony... er, Anthony.”

“Okay, Tony ‘er’ Anthony. We have an urgent assignment coming down for a few hours to a day or so. Hang loose right here while we make some more decisions. No, wait!”

I changed my mind.

“Go to operations and get the keys from them for the limo which is just about to go in for servicing then return here. We’ll decide what’s coming down and how to handle it while you’re doing that.”

“I’m on it.”

He hurried down the hall and into another portion of our part of the building as Nicci and I continued to talk.
~ ~ ~ ~

Nicci, Ralph and I were in the conference room connected with James and Colonel Madison about five minutes after we dispatched the newbie with the limo to his airport destination and the rendezvous with Mr. Bear and Cathy.

“James?”

“Lynnette? Has Cathy arrived yet?”

“No. She should be landing soon though and we will have a limo and chase car there or they will be there soon after she arrives. Now I want more information about this attack. Where did it happen and who did it?”

“You can’t discuss this, Mr. Thompson.”

“Excuse me, who said that?”

“This is Colonel Madison. No information about this can be discussed with people who haven’t been cleared by my command; certainly not with a civilian agency.”

“Then I suggest you better have your people get in contact with my command in Ft. Meade, Colonel. And I mean, right now.”

“Who do you think you are?”

“Someone who probably has more security clearances than you do; and someone who most certainly has connections to more clout than your command would ever want to see. James has my special contacts number and I’m dialing them right now.”

I picked up a clear line on the phone in front of me and began dialing.

“Please notify your command so they can clear my people and we can both get on with our jobs.”

“You act like military.”

“If we have to be.” I answered as the phone began to ring.

“What does that mean?”

“We have some heavy governmental connections both to the civil and the military sides of government. We aren’t some little civilian agency which has no clue. We are a world-wide organization and as such are connected to all aspects of this and other countries governments. I can’t tell you more than that because I don’t know if you are cleared for it.”

I figured a little fib about our widespread involvement was worth any flack I would get from Lucy over it.

The Colonel grunted, “Touche.”

I began to talk with the person who answered my call even as the Colonel continued to talk, apparently to James.

“Okay, give me the number and I’ll have it checked out. Meanwhile only the minimum information can be told to them.”

James piped up, “Remember I told you I was sending Cathy to her mother? This is her, and she is probably more security minded than you are. Here, this is the number for your people to call and the contact name.”

“That’s an AutoVon number. General... Uh, huh. Okay, Let me have this checked out in a hurry.”

We could hear some sort of background noise and talking then the Colonel was back, “Okay, I need to go talk with one of my officers. Be careful what you say but go ahead. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Again there was some sort of background noise picked up by the teleconference equipment as it ratcheted up its audio gain. Apparently the Colonel left the room since moments later James began to tell us a little more about the attacks.

“There were four people who tried to kidnap Cathy. Six more hit us as we were driving from the office to a meeting I was to attend this morning. That happened about... an hour and forty minutes ago. I put Cathy on the plane less than an hour after the attacks. All I could think of was getting her away from here and I knew you could offer her the best protection. I’ll have my people talk with your people to arrange for billing for her protection. Whatever it takes, just keep her safe, okay?”

“You know I will, James.”

“I know...” he said very quietly. “When she arrives, she will have one of the copies of her medical records, birth certificate, and so on in an envelope which she has been told to give to Mommy. In it you will find a paper which will grant you the right to make medical and other decisions regarding her. I hope you won’t need it.”

“James?..”

“If something happens to me then I want you to take over. She needs a mommy.”

“James!” This was a shock.

“There’s more. The attacks weren’t just on me and my family. They targeted my vice presidents and their families as well. Three of them are dead and the fourth is badly injured. A number of their family members are in the hospital or dead as well. This was well planned and coordinated so you better prepare for the worst. I don’t know that they will come after Cathy again but they might. It has a lot to do with something I can’t talk about, even if you do turn out to have the clearances necessary for it. We...”

He paused as if to think before he continued, “They hit the business here at the same time. They got in but didn’t gain access to anything important. By the time we got here they were gone and this place was a mess. The area which was in use for the job is still secure - barely. We can’t get in yet. The Army is going to blow the security doors so we can check in there. I won’t be certain until we get inside but I don’t believe they got through the doors so that would mean all the data is safe.”

He paused again then continued. I could hear his voice choke up, “Keep her safe, Lynn. Please. Keep her safe. I’ve got to go. There’s a lot to do and I need to be certain all my work has been protected. Thanks, Lynn. I hope to see you at Christmas.”

“James, stay in contact with us... James... James? Damn!”

I pounded the top of the conference room table. The connection was still there but even as I was talking we could hear the sound of a chair being moved and moments later a door opened and closed in the background as the amplifier gradually ratcheted up its gain again like they do whenever there are no louder sounds to be heard.

I turned to Nicci who was just getting off the phone.

“When will the guys reach the airport?”

“Bill is there. He just arrived. The plane hasn’t landed yet.”

“And the limousine?”

“Uh, should be about ten minutes out, maybe less. Bill said Anthony is a bit of a lead-foot so it might be earlier.”

I smiled as line five began to ring; that was the line my agents used when they reported in and the one Nicci had just been talking on. Nicci picked it up again. After a quick conversation she hung up and turned toward us, “Bill says he can see the Gulfstream on approach and the limo is just pulling through the gates. They’re both early; excellent timing though.”

“I think I better go change into something more appropriate. If I’m going to be hosting some military presence then I think we should get off to a proper start right away. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Okay, Lynn. Do you want me to let Ralph know to change?”

“No. I think if everyone else is dressed down it will have more impact. Be right back.”

I turned and walked out of the conference room returning to my office to collect the one uniform I kept there for emergencies. Forty-Five minutes later the five Army personnel, Cathy and my two agents arrived. The Lieutenant saw a major waiting for him and properly reported even though moments after Cathy saw me, I had a small child clinging to my legs. She was holding a large manila envelope which appeared to be well stuffed.

“Mommy, Daddy said to give this to you.” She held up the envelope and something shifted in it nearly causing her to drop it.

“Thank you, baby. Did you make any drawings for me to put on the refrigerator?”

“Yes. But they burned up.”

“Burned up?”

“Uh-huh. When the house burned down and Nanna told me we had to get out. That’s when the bad men hurt Nanna. Is Nanna all right?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. We’ll find out later. Come on. Let’s go to the conference room for a few minutes. Gentlemen, would you come with us please?” I said to the Army personnel as well as to my own two agents.

“Ral... Captain Caruthers, would you come in with us, please?”

Ralph was still in civilian garb but he nodded his head and started for the conference room.

“Nicci, you too.” I added. She grabbed her steno pad and followed Ralph into the large room where she went over to turn on the recording system after dropping her steno pad at her usual seat located at the mid-point of the inboard side of the table.

As we were going to the conference room I asked Cathy why she didn’t have Rebecca with her.

“Rebecca burned up in the fire. The fire man couldn’t come put out the fire because he was helping Daddy put out the fire at his work. Nanna tried to hide me but when the house was burning we ran out the back door and the bad men hurt her.”

“How did you get away, sweetheart?”

She pointed to two of the Army personnel, “they came when I was running. They shot the bad men, it was scary. One of the bad men was a policeman. Another policeman came and they said he was a good policeman then they took me to Daddy in a car with a siren. I had to hold my ears until they turned it off. Daddy said maybe more bad men would come so he was going to send me to stay with you because the bad men couldn’t be bad around you.”

“Thank you, Baby. Would you sit over here next to me while I talk with everyone and then we’ll go home.”

“Okay. Can we have a pizza?”

I smiled at her, “Maybe, sweetheart. I’ll see.”

I engaged the sonic protection before I began talking. That would make it very difficult for anyone outside to understand anything said in here. We could hear a buzz coming from the windows which indicated that part of the protection was working. We didn’t want to stay in here too long as the low but audible sound would eventually give us all a headache. I noticed Cathy moved and when I looked at her she had her fingers in her ears.

“It’s noisy.” She scowled as I nodded my head since she still had her fingers in her ears.

The military personnel presented no problem. Their Lieutenant surmised he was dealing with some sort of intelligence group since the personnel were dressed as civilians and we took what seemed to him to be some strange precautions before talking about things. It was to our advantage to allow him to continue to think like that and, in a way, he was right. His orders were to remain with his men as escort to Cathy but I added three of my own agents into the mix anyway introducing them as lieutenants as well which didn’t make his enlisted personnel feel any better. That was all they needed, a detail that was officer top heavy.

I turned more toward them than their lieutenant, “I think you’ll find we spend less time on protocol than we do on obtaining results, so if you can all just relax into this we will be able to accomplish much more. Did any of you bring civilian clothing with you?”

The lieutenant answered my question, “We really didn’t have much time to prepare, Ma’am. I’m afraid when the Colonel sent the word down for us to jump, the only questions we had time for were ‘how high’ and ‘which direction’?”

“Okay. Then in a couple of hours or less we will go to the mall and you can all select civilian clothing... several changes plus some good winter coats and boots and whatever toiletries you might need — toothbrush, shaving kit, and so on. If you’re going to be spending extended time here then you will need to fit in with my people. We will foot the bill since it wasn’t your fault you didn’t bring any clothing with you.”

“I think we can do that, Ma’am.”

“Then the first thing you all need to learn is to call me Lynn, or Lynnette. Not ma’am or major. Remember to pretend you’re civilians for the time being.”

“I think we can handle that, ma... Lynn.”

“Good. It will probably be easier once we have you in civilian clothing. So long as you remain dressed in military uniforms you’ll stand out like sore thumbs and if we wind up being targeted then you would likely be the first ones down. Dressed like civilians you stand a better chance of living since whoever the attackers are will figure you are not so much of a threat. We will also lock your weapons away in our armory and issue you others which fit in a bit better with the civilian/ mercenary role and which will allow us to all share similar ammunition. Don’t worry, they will be just as effective as your present weapons and we will return your weapons to you when you are ready to return to your command.”

The phone took that moment to buzz and Nicci picked it up.

She held the receiver out to me, “Lynn? Lucy.”

I raised my head, a question forming on my forehead then I nodded to her and went to the phone. After a conversation which lasted less than five minutes, we hung up.

“Nicci. Place the entire available staff on alert. Send eight to my home and have them sweep for anyone on the property then check both the vehicles and inside the house and garage. Look for any kind of incendiaries as well. Have another team check and then hold house ‘C’. That way we have somewhere to fall back to if it becomes necessary. If we must, pull one man away from each of our larger deployments and bring them back here to flesh out our numbers here. Check the board and call in everyone you can. Anything which begins in one week or less is to be considered as already deployed. Everyone else at least helps out here until the day before their deployment is scheduled. I know that still won’t be too many for our needs here but we do need the strongest presence we can assemble. Have someone sample for those who are on vacation and get them back here if they can do so. We will reschedule vacations at their convenience later and anyone who comes in early gets a free ride for an extra five days vacation time. We also need to have someone here at the office to receive calls twenty-four hours a day for the interim. Rotating shifts will work.”

“I’m on it, Lynn.” She picked up the phone as she opened a notebook then dialed and began to quietly speak into it in a rush to get things under way while I continued with the army people.

“Well, Lieutenant. It seems you and your men have been tossed into the deep end of the pool.”

They all looked at each other for a few seconds before his sergeant smiled, “So... ma... Lynn; what else is new?”

I smiled at him and he turned slightly red as he smiled back.

~ ~ ~ ~

I had one of the men from my detail plus one of the soldiers ride in my car with Cathy and myself while the others rode in the limo or one of our chase cars. We all converged on my home where, of course, there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. I hoped it would be gone by tomorrow, if not then winter was showing its face a little early. We normally shouldn’t be seeing this much snow stick until late December. Per usual, the roads had been lightly salted and the scrapers had come by, making the public sidewalk nearly impassable or at least unsafe.

As was starting to become my habit, I clicked on the breakers to thaw my walks, the driveway and the public walk once again. The batteries were down a bit so I put all four generators into the fray since there wasn’t a lot of wind out there; I prayed for at least some wind to come up in the next half hour or I would have wasted the energy I was using to defrost the generators. The guys who would staff the command center could keep an eye on the generators and make certain if the wind made it up to over ten miles an hour that one of the generators would be shut down; two, if it became necessary. If they missed it then the automatics would take care of it later but if I left it up to the automatics they sometimes boiled off some of the water in the batteries before they did so. I hoped someday soon they could come up with better batteries than those huge automobile type things, lead-acid was a huge waste of space and a difficult weight to work with. It would be nice to have some kind of chemical reaction available which didn’t include the need to add distilled water every few days to a week.

After checking with the team that had examined my house and grounds we all trooped in. I started the coffee pot and offered everyone coffee before the inspection team took off to check out and occupy our number three safe house. At that point I went upstairs to change, making a mental note to take another clean uniform into work tomorrow. A very subdued Cathy followed me of course. She kept trying to decide what to do with her hands. I guess missing Rebecca was beginning to take its toll. Once I felt human I moved her from sitting on my bed to sitting on my lap over in the chair where we would usually sit to chat.

“Mommy, will Daddy be okay?”

“I think so, sweetheart. There are a lot of people there to make certain he stays all right.”

“Mommy, I’m scared. There are bad men and... I’m too little to help Daddy. I don’t want them to take my Daddy away.”

“Neither do I, Cathy. That’s why I sent some men to help your Daddy.”

She nodded her head, “Good. Daddy has a gun but he never shot anyone. Is it hard to shoot someone?”

“It isn’t hard, sweetheart; but sometimes the reasons aren’t enough to allow it. We can’t just go around shooting people because we think they’re bad. It must be proven first and even then that isn’t always enough. There are people who are a little bit bad and people who are a whole lot bad. We can’t treat them all the same.”

“Why?”

Oh boy. Were we already at the ‘why?’ stage?

“Well... the people who are a little bad can usually be helped not to be bad any more. Then because they’re not bad any more they can help everyone else. It isn’t always right to shoot someone because we think they are bad.
What if you saw a man shoot another man? Would we immediately shoot him? If we waited, we might have learned that he was an undercover policeman who only shot a man who had killed a lot of people. We can’t judge someone because of just one action we see.”

“I can. What about Nanna? The bad men shot Nanna.”

“Well, I agree that Nanna usually doesn’t do anything bad enough to be shot. The man might have thought she was doing something bad when she wasn’t. In that case his shooting her might have been a mistake. Then that would mean he wasn’t a bad man. He made a mistake which hurt Nanna but he might not have meant to do so.”

“Oh...” Cathy took that information and was mentally chewing on it, trying to make it digestible. After a minute or two she had still not said anything and when I quietly checked she was fast asleep leaning against me, her day having proven to be very draining and now that she felt safe it was okay to take a nap.

I took her to the room she had stayed in the last time she was here and helped her to prepare for a nap before I tucked her into bed to sleep again.

“Maybe a little later we’ll go to the store and you can pick out a new Rebecca, okay?”

“Okay. Can she be named Jackie?”

“She can be named whatever you want, baby. Do you want to borrow my Andy?”

She shook her head no but frowned and looked for something to do with her hands again.

“He’ll be lonely. You know he likes it when you’re here.”

She thought about that for a few moments, “Okay. He’s been lonely all day hasn’t he?”

“Yes. He usually has to wait a lot longer before I get home and go to bed. If he knew you were here and I didn’t let him see you then he would be upset. We don’t want him to be upset do we?”

She shook her head ‘no’ again.

“I’ll go get Andy and be right back. Stay there.”

She smiled and settled back in the bed.

I went to my room and picked up the Teddy Bear she had named Andy the last time she had been here. When I returned and gave him to her she settled down a lot. Now her hands had something to do.

During the short time she had been gone with her father, I had purchased a new robe and slippers for her which I now moved from the closet to lay out on a nearby chair.

“When you wake up, put these on before you come downstairs. Remember to hold the banister so you don’t fall but still be careful as you go down. I’m going to take the envelope your Daddy sent so I can see what he put in it. Sweet dreams, Cathy.” I kissed her forehead as she gave me a small hug then latched onto Andy again. I went out but left the door open so she could more easily hear the voices of everyone who were downstairs .

When I arrived at the living room, I found the guys talking and drinking coffee. Someone had remembered the coasters but obviously couldn’t find them so they substituted several layers of napkins for everyone. I went to the dining room hutch where I retrieved the coasters to hand to each of them.

“Any particular marching orders, Lynn?”

“Not yet. We don’t have enough information yet. We hope to remedy that quite soon. Would one of you have the guys in the command center activate the camera in Cathy’s room so they can keep an eye on her. She might not remember where she is when she wakes up and I don’t want her to panic.”

One of my people got up and left the room. Now it was time to see what the troops knew about all this, if anything.

~ ~ ~ ~

It didn’t take long to learn they didn’t have a clue and were surprised they were escorting a child to her mother. To them it didn’t make any sense so I enlightened them with what information we had managed to glean despite the Colonel’s insistence that we not be told anything. Granted, what we knew wasn’t much more than what they knew so we were all feeling like mushrooms. They suspected I knew more than I was saying and I was wishing I did as well but ‘dems de breaks’. Hopefully Lucy’s group would learn something worthwhile and pass it on to us. It was a little difficult to do our job without any background knowledge at all. Three hours later we received a call forwarded from our office.

“Is this Major Stevens?”

“Just a moment.” One of my agents replied.

“Would you please have him stand by for a conference call from Colonel Madison and Colonel Jackson?”

“Her. And yes, I will. Sixty seconds while I go tell her there’s a call on the secure line.”

“Thank you.”

As soon as the agent informed me I had a call in the command room I broke off from the ongoing conversation and rushed to the call. He pointed to the secure handset which caused me to raise my eyebrows a moment so he pointed again.

“Two Colonels calling for you.”

Two? That had me puzzled. One I could understand since Lucy would probably be calling after talking with that Colonel Madison but who could the other... Of course, Madison might still be on the line and Lucy wants me in on the call.

“Major Stevens.”

“One moment for us to connect... All right, go ahead.”

“This is Major Stevens.”

“Major, this is Colonel Jackson. Colonel Madison is also on the line. How much do you know about this situation?”

“Well Ma’am. Not a lot. We understand there have been a minimum of five, perhaps six attacks and they were well coordinated. There have been a number of casualties including the vice-presidents of James’ company and the Nanny for Cathy. Cathy has arrived here and we have a team in residence which includes the five personnel Colonel Madison sent along with Cathy. As to the reason for the attacks, well... That’s still a little hazy since all we have been able to piece together is that there is some sort of government project involved and Mr. Thompson’s company is the one responsible for development of the software the government is or will be using. I have four of my operatives at Mr. Thompson’s company and four more due to arrive at any moment; in fact they might already be in town. We also have an armored limo on its way to his location. I have called for increased awareness here across the board, but that’s the extent of what we have done since we don’t have enough information to do much of anything else.”

“That’s good so far. I’ve informed Colonel Madison of your company’s special qualifications and he will arrange to have us both updated as his investigation continues. Do you have anything to say Colonel?”

“Just a little. If you want more personnel, Major, just let me know. I can send you whatever you need up to and including four companies. Sorry if I came off a bit condescending earlier but I didn’t know your background.

Apparently the Joint Chiefs are aware of both your company’s cover and its clandestine foreign operations whenever necessary but as you said in our prior conversation, I might not have sufficient clearance to be much more than aware. I do, by the way, but didn’t need to know until today. From what I’ve learned in the last two hours you do very well with the very limited number of personnel at your disposal. We captured several weapons during the shoot-outs and if you want a report or to actually see one of them that can be arranged. They’re pretty quiet but have a limited accurate range, probably something along the order of fifty to a hundred yards. Unfortunately, within that range they are pretty deadly. If you have tactical vests then my people would recommend using them.”

“I see. What about rate of fire and munitions capacity?”

“Rate of fire seems to max out at something along the order of a hundred fifty rounds a minute and their magazines hold close to two hundred fifty rounds. On single shot they are capable of penetrating completely through the person or any light armor they hit. Their penetration ability seems to diminish with the increase in rate of fire which strangely seems to be linearly variable.”

“Excuse me Sir. Did you say two hundred fifty rounds?”

“That’s correct. These are not powder actuated weapons. The projectiles are fairly long but quite thin. Almost like thick needles and they are not lead based.”

“If you don’t mind I’d like to see any report that is generated concerning these weapons, Sir.”

“I’ll make certain you’re copied. I’ve been given your AutoDin address.”

“Thank you. Anything else or can I go ahead and issue orders for my people to start wearing their vests?”

“I think that covers it for now. Colonel Jackson?”

“Lynn, be careful out there. Call if anything strange seems to be happening. There is something more to this than I’m prepared to tell you at the moment. I’ll be getting back to you either later today or early tomorrow to fill you in a bit more but for now...”

“I understand, Ma’am. Thank you. I’ll see you receive periodic updates from our end. By the way; for the duration of this situation I have ordered our headquarters command center here to be manned twenty-four, seven. If it becomes necessary to quickly reach someone who can make command decisions, Captain Caruthers or I will be available nearly on a moment’s notice.”

“Good - Lynn, Colonel Madison.”

“Ladies. Good luck.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Thanks, Bill. I’ll call you tomorrow with anything we can find out.”

“Good. I’ll talk with you this afternoon, Lucy. Once we have more information.”

I hung up my phone and began to digest what I had been told. I didn’t really know any more than I had except for some basic intel about the type of weapons used. How could you have a machine gun that didn’t use explosive powder to propel the projectiles, or that could be relatively silent without using a silencer?

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

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

All rights reserved.

Please note: any publication or post of this story in any language in France, its possessions, or protectorates in any manner whatsoever, or any attempt to include this story, in part or in whole in any language, as or in a work published in France or its possessions or protectorates will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the copyright laws of the United States and of the World Court..

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

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

All rights reserved.

Please note: any publication or post of this story in any language in France, its possessions, or protectorates in any manner whatsoever, or any attempt to include this story, in part or in whole in any language, as or in a work published in France or its possessions or protectorates will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the copyright laws of the United States and of the World Court..

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.
Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Once we arrived at the shopping center we quickly discovered it was necessary to leave one of the guys out at the cars so he could relay our communications. The radios worked just fine portable to portable while inside the center and we could hear the repeaters, but we couldn’t reach them from inside the buildings and we could barely communicate with the agent we left out at the cars.

“Lynn, maybe next time you could purchase the high power packages and the high-capacity batteries?”

“The comms guys as well as Motorola said that would make the radios too cumbersome and it would also drop their use time to less than half even with the higher capacity batteries. They also told me we would be able to do everything we needed with the lower power. There was also this little problem of start-up capital. The initial radios were nearly a quarter of my total first year's budget and by renting repeater time and buying low power I saved enough to pay one of you for five months.” I offered in self-defense.

“Well, I suppose that was true when things were getting under way. Now though, things are getting more difficult every day. You've bought an entire set of radios since those days and stayed with low power.”

“Because it was working for us.” I added.

“Because it was working. Fine... Except now we're going for greater range and more adverse conditions of use more and more often so high power would be a godsend. We’re pushing at some hard limits now, if we could upgrade what we have it before it becomes critical, it would be a good thing. Maybe you could purchase twice as many of the high-capacity batteries so the guys could each carry a spare.”

He paused, as if in thought, before adding, “It might not hurt to have another two sets sitting on the chargers while the first two are out in use, then the guys could swap them out as they pass through the office or at their homes if they have chargers there.”

I winced at his suggestion that I purchase four high power batteries per portable. That would be somewhere around another eighty dollars per battery plus the high power module however much that cost. I was certain of one thing, it wouldn’t be cheap; maybe they would accept the low power modules as trade-ins like car dealers do with cars. Does Motorola do that? If not then I was looking at twenty-five thousand or so just for new batteries, never mind the high power modules.

I sighed as I gave in. I could see the need. It was a 'must have' concerning reliable communication.

“What the heck. It’s only money. If you guys can stomach carrying bulkier radio packages, I guess I can find the money somewhere.”

“Thanks, Lynn. It could make a big difference whenever we get into a fire-fight.”

“Do you know something I don’t?”

“No. I’m just making an observation. If push ever comes to shove, we don’t want our communication system failing on us at a critical moment. Isn't that part of the reason you bought the long-haul battery packages for the repeaters?”

“Yes, it is.”

I took a few seconds to give it a little more thought.

“You're right. Write up a memo and pass it across Nicci’s desk to my attention. That way she'll ask me about it. Better yet, mention in the memo that I want her to talk with me about it.”

“As soon as we get back.”

I sighed again. Here was yet another expense. I idly wondered if I could get Motorola to discount the upgrades a little if I had them done at the same time as the new orders went in for the European stuff?

Wait a minute... oh no! Does this mean the European stuff should also be higher power? The thought of that two hundred seventy thousand going out for new radio equipment probably jumping up to a cool half mil gave me heart palpitations — oh hell, plus there will need to be upgrades to our equipment which operats in the military channels as well. Damn. If I slit my wrists I don't bleed money so where was it going to come from? Oh my gosh... the coastal stuff I've already ordered will need the upgrades as well. I've got to contact our salesman and have that order amended in a hurry.

I need to study this and see exactly what all needs to be done, then I need to get a message to the Motorola rep to have the original orders modified to add the high power modules to every portable and to upgrade to all high capacity batteries — plus spares. What the hell, it’s only money… Profit margin? What profit margin? I hoped we would have a good second half of the year next year, I was about to spend all our surplus profit from the first half. I hoped I wouldn’t need to take out a loan against my rental properties again. I needed to have an idea of what it all this will cost. Financial needed to go over all this for me. I think I'm developing a headache. At this point to avoid any more sudden revelations that I needed to spend more money on our communications or weaponry, I took Cathy's hand and led her off to the department store at the end of the complex while the guys went their own way.

“I like that one, Mommy. I like green.”

“It does look nice doesn't it? It would be nice for next summer but I'm afraid it would be much too cold for the winter coming on. If we bought it now, you might grow too much to be able to wear it before the weather became warmer. Right now I think we should stick with Fall and Winter clothing for you. It's going to become much colder before it begins to warm again.”

“O..h,” disappointment could be heard in each syllable of the word as she said it.

Bucking right back up, “maybe this one?”

She held up a pastel blue creation that once again would have looked very nice, if it fit, but was also a little light for cold weather wear.

I gave in and let her try it on.

“It's big, Mommy.” she remarked with a slight tremble in her lower lip as she turned while looking at herself in the mirror.

I had checked the price and it was marked down as well as large on her, so if she didn't grow too very much my next spring and summer it might still fit long enough that she could get one or two uses out of it. I thought perhaps I could use it as an incentive.

“It does look nice. I suppose we could get it in the hopes it will fit later on, but if we do then you need to start trying to help me find you some nice warm clothing for the winter.”

“Oh, yes. Can I wear it while we look at other clothes?”

My eyebrow above my left eye must have raised to my hairline but I gave in and allowed her to be happy while we continued to shop. Eventually though, I had her back into winter wear as we took our selections up to the counter along with the tags for the warm coat she now had hanging open over her other clothing. I paid with the corporate card and we then went off in search of the guys.

Cathy and I had a lot of fun shopping together. I had gotten away with shopping with Cathy while on our own through the expedient of authorizing two of the guys to use their company cards to pay for everything the army people needed. Before we split up to do our shopping I confirmed to them that I would ask Nicci to have their card balances brought back up to match the others who were on this detail once we got to the office tomorrow.

By the time Cathy and I returned with our four bags of clothing, as opposed to the eight we would have had if I had given in to Cathy's every whim; the guys had been standing around with their purchases waiting for us to show up. By chance or by design they had managed to congregate near the food court which I took to be a hint. I gave a couple of them our bags to take out to the cars then told them to put all their purchases in the cars and return to meet Cathy and myself at the restaurant here at the center rather than partaking of any of the junk food. While Cathy and I were shopping we had taken the time to go in to place a reservation for the entire party. In between our fun and games at the various stores and then taking everything out to the cars, our reservations were about to come up.

“Oh. When you drop the purchases off at the vehicles I want everyone to come back in for supper so bring the mobile phone along. We’ll just have to accept being out of radio contact while we are in the restaurant.”

Once everyone arrived at the restaurant we had less than a fifteen minute wait before they were ready for us. We had beaten the supper crowd by about an hour which meant they could easily make room to seat all of us as a party. Timing is everything I suppose. Most of the reservations they had were for much later so they weren’t particularly concerned since we would likely be gone or just leaving when they began to need the space.

Of course, just to be perverse, the portable radios were able to reach the repeaters from inside the restaurant. One of the comms guys tried to explain the reason to me but it just went over my head. I mean, steel is steel isn’t it?

I guess not. I wish I could have had a couple of the radios we had back when I was on active duty but hauling a PRC around wasn't exactly simple. They were no where near as small as the radios we were using.

By the time we sat down to eat, Cathy had forgotten all about her pizza and milkshake so I managed to get some reasonably good food into her. Of course being the only princess present in a large party of adults let her show off her people skills. At least until she nearly fell asleep at the table, but by then we were ready to leave. The restaurant people rewarded her table manners and excellent behaviour with a stick of wrapped peppermint candy which was carried in the same hand as Andy’s ear. I again made a mental note to have the stitching for the ears reinforced.

Cathy hadn’t found a satisfactory replacement for Rebecca while we were shopping but she seemed just as happy with Andy so I wasn’t going to fight it for now. At some point I thought it would be necessary for one of us to give up Andy so finding a replacement, either for Rebecca or for Andy would become a priority in the not too distant future.

We made it back to my home unscathed and the five army personnel were assigned rooms. Two enlisted per room plus a room for their officer. Several of my men also stayed overnight and the rest wandered back to their homes while retaining their radios so they could be reached at a moment’s notice.

The next morning I found Cathy asleep in my bed. That told me that I was more tired than I thought since I didn’t remember her coming in during the night. That didn’t go down well with me especially since we were supposed to be on alert and no one told me she was up in addition to my not noticing she came to my room. After a few enquiries I learned she had awakened during the night, gotten up and into her slippers and robe, dragged Andy out with her and intercepted one of my agents who came to check on her. He brought her to my room and helped her into the empty side of my bed before departing. I have no idea where I was during all that.

I made two other discoveries that morning. One, I forgot to arrange for the cooks to come to prepare the meals so yours truly spent a couple of hours fixing breakfast for everyone as they showed up. The second didn’t come to haunt me until late afternoon. That was when I made the additional discovery that I had completely forgotten about my morning skating lessons. Can you say - preoccupied? Again, I didn’t think it was a total loss until I remembered that I had to pay for the instructors time for lessons that I had simply brushed off due to my mind concentrating on other things. It was about that time that I remembered my outfit needed to be cleaned and I couldn’t find it. That had me puzzled for all of two or three minutes before I remembered it was at work on the hanger which should have had a clean uniform on it. Was Cathy that unsettling an influence on me?

The remaining skating lessons were cancelled, and rescheduled to begin again next week. That was only two sets of lessons so that wasn’t too bad. I hoped nothing would happen to cause me to blow off the lessons which I had now scheduled for next week.

We reached the weekend and things had settled into a more or less smooth routine. More than half of my agents on the Cathy detail had gone on to money making projects and the Army guys had finally flown home leaving only six agents, two per shift.

Before leaving, two of the Army guys had expressed the desire to join my little company once their present periods of enlistment ended. I gave them business cards and suggested as they got to the last sixty days, then we should talk, meanwhile their information was taken and we would run them through the ringer to see what their military records look like. That would leave enough time both for us and for them to make a decision concerning the possibility. It would also allow them sufficient time to still re-up should they not fit into my little family very well. I was still waiting for Colonel Madison's promised information concerning the weapons which had been used in the attack on James people but it hadn’t yet materialized. I decided to give it one more day before I asked Lucy about it.

My skating routine began once again and quickly become just that, the start of a Monday through Friday routine. The only difference was now Cathy and two of my agents came along which puzzled the skating people a bit. I guess they expected my ‘guests’ to be skating in addition to myself. They also went through a bit of a shock when Cathy was running around calling me Mommy and here I was with no wedding band. It didn't take a lot of explanation to get them to understand but just the fact I needed to do it was a bit wearing. Cathy, meanwhile, was oblivious and began showing great interest in the skating again. She probably would have been out on the ice in her shoes if both I and the rink had allowed it. It was with great resignation that she accepted the need to be as tall as the height bar they had in the lobby.

“See, I’m tall enough.” She reached up and grasped the bar.

“That's good, honey. I'm afraid though that you need to stand under the bar and your head must touch it.”

Renee informed a very disappointed young lady. She watched as Cathy moved under the bar and stretched on her tip toes as she tried to touch the bar with her head.

“Getting close, young lady.” She winked to Cathy. “I’ll tell you what; when’s your next birthday?”

“I’ll be four.”

“No, I mean when will it occur?”

“Mommy?”

“She’ll be four in March if I remember correctly.”

“Okay. All right young lady, here’s the deal. When you are four and if a pair of skates actually fit you, we’ll see if you can stretch enough to touch the bar with your head. If you can then I’ll teach you to skate. Deal?”

Renee held out her hand to Cathy who stood there a moment digesting what she had just been told. Suddenly her face lit up and she grabbed Renee’s hand and held on. Renee gave it a little shake before saying: “Okay. It’s a deal. Remember your head still has to touch the bar.”

Cathy nodded her head, grabbed my hand and led me back to the bar where she stood under it and stretched for all she was worth.

“How much do I need to grow, Mommy?”

“It looks like you need three or four inches, sweetheart.”

She frowned and began to digest that information as she lowered down again moving out from under the bar. We went back to the changing rooms while the two agents waited for us in the lobby. Twenty minutes later we were out and the four of us made our way to my car.

I made a stop for fuel then headed on in to the office for another day of fun and games. I had another potential client to see at eleven and two details were due to show up just after lunch since we had clients flying in this afternoon for their own fun and games at the convention center the remainder of the week. Otherwise? Well, things had diminished to a dull roar and Christmas was looming ever nearer.

Two days later I met early in the day with the Motorola rep and made some serious changes to our previous orders as well as added a new one to his in-basket.

“Thank you for the order, Ms. Stevens. Delivery on everything will likely be around the middle of February, maybe even by the end of January. There will be a slight delay due to the need to clear the military portion of the order with Washington and the Pentagon but that probably won’t take long since you have gone through those clearances before.

The European portion will take a little longer since the equipment will need to be certified and equipped to operate in a multitude of countries. Most of them still have their own ideas of what frequencies can be used for what so that might complicate things a little. Worst case… the European portion won’t be delivered until Mid April. I’m certain your communications people have already warned you that not all equipment will be usable in every country.”

“Delayed delivery is okay, I think. We are still working on getting our first agents vetted there. It’s just that I need to start getting all the ducks in a row so when it all comes down we can outfit quickly.”

“You do realize that you cannot use the European equipment in the U.S. and vice versa?”

“Yes. We’ve been over all that before. That’s why my comm. people have
asked for the extra equipment. They’ll probably check it out on those funny things that look like artillery shells with antenna connections on them here in their labs though.”

“Yes, dummy loads. That’s all right.”

“That’s what they called them. Are there dummy loads for the portables as well?”

“With the proper cables the same loads could be used.”

“Good. Well, thank you Mr. Greene. I’ll have finance begin to allocate the additional funds for those extra costs beginning in January. By the time Motorola is ready to deliver we will likely be ready to pay the whole balance due.”

“That’s why I like working with you, Ms. Stevens. Your company pays the balance on delivery rather than going for payments. That helps to keep the overhead low, both for you and for me. I'm sorry that the transmitters can't just have their output changed through a swap of a module. We will have a number of high power transmitter boards shipped pretuned so the local Motorola rep can just have a tech park here and make the swaps. It might take a week or so but they will all get changed out.”

“Thank you again, Mr. Greene. If they contact us well in advance we can try having as many of the portables here as possible.”

“I'm sure as they come in they can be handled.”

“No. What I'm saying is we are a national company. Right now we have portables and repeaters in operation all over the country and some of them are not due back for a month or possibly more. We have one team, for example, who is working with Federal agencies and the military. Their return date is open and we still don't have any indication of a possible date of return.”

“Really? I wasn't aware of that. How do you handle the licenses?”

“We have been cleared for national operation and if Motorola checks the frequencies we use they will find they are special channels held clear nationwide for special security use. Since we are coupled with Civil Defense and other Federal agencies we have been granted authority of use. The parent agencies have copied the FCC and they granted us the permissions. We usually stick to one set of channels but we sometimes share equipment with whatever Federal agency is working the same region. That's the reason our repeaters are so different, or at least I've been led to believe they are. I’m afraid I've got another meeting I should be attending so I'll ask Nicci to see you out. They are probably wondering where I am even as we speak.”

“I’ll get these changes in as soon as I get to the office. The upgrades to your existing equipment will likely be able to begin in January since it’s a little difficult to do a lot over the month of December. We will try to work with you. Thank you for the order once again.”

I shook his hand and began to prepare for my two o’clock which supposedly started four minutes ago, even as Nicci opened the door inviting Mr. Greene to exit ahead of her. I scurried out the door right behind them with my arms loaded down with my notes and reference information I needed for the meeting. It would be fast since the client was due in on a four ten flight and my guys would need time to set up at the airport. At least I hadn't heard of any problems with comms or our advance man at the airport. Cathy tagged along right behind me dragging Andy by his ear. Mental note to me... again... have Andy's ear stitching reinforced.

“How are you doing, Sweetheart? I'm sorry Mommy's in so many meetings today. Tomorrow there will be a couple of other children here and you will all have a big room in which you can play while Mommy's working. How's that sound?”

“I'm tired.”

Okay, I guess that equates to being bored.

“Do you need another nap? Pretty soon we'll be back at my office and you can have another nap in that 'funny' room.”

“Can I have some more milk?”

“As soon as this meeting is over. Tell you what. After this meeting is over and we go back to my office for a few minutes, then we'll go home early so you can sleep in your own bed and I'll read you a story. Okay?”

“When will the meeting be over?”

“Soon sweetheart, soon.”

“Are you going to turn that noise thing? I don't like it. It hurts my ears.”

“No. We don't need it for this meeting.”

“Good. I'm hungry Mommy.”

“We'll go eat after I finish this meeting, Sweetheart.”

“Can I have chocolate milk again?”

“We'll see.”

“That means 'no' doesn't it?”

“Not necessarily. Sometimes it just means we'll see. Chocolate milk doesn't go with just anything.”

“I don't want a salad.”

“Oh. I think we'll find something better than that this time; after all, you are a growing girl. What do you think about having some chicken?”

The meeting lasted forty minutes and Cathy fell asleep for part of it. Once it was over, I picked her up and she half-dozed as I carried her back to my office where I put her on the cot until I could finish a few things.

It bothered me that there wasn't much for her to do here at the office but I couldn't hand her over to a day-care because of the possible threat and the need to protect her. I called Nicci in for a small conference concerning the possible future need to provide a protected day-care facility for the children of clients. This was something which I had not considered before. It was something which I thought needed to be brought up in an one of our all-staff discussions. Although I could use a solution now, the next all-staff meeting wouldn't occur until nearly Christmas since we would have people out on assignments until the twenty-second. I was beginning to wish we had the same easy-going atmosphere that we had this time last year.

Something tickled at the back of my mind and it took a few seconds for it to form into a cognisant thought. We still hadn't seen the report concerning those weapons. I picked up the handset and punched the intercom button, then dialled Nicci.

“Nicci!”

“Hi Nicci, it's Lynn. I was wondering if you had received the report concerning the weapons used in the attacks?”

There was a short pause and I hear her rustle some paper before she came back on the line.

“Not yet, Lynn.”

“Could you call Lucy's group and see if they have it? I would really like to see it.”

“I made a note, I'll be sure to do it before close of day. Maybe they just misplaced our FAX number.”

“Thanks, Nicci.”

“Not a problem, Lynn. Got anything you want passed to Lucy while I'm at it?”

“I don't think so. If I think of something I'll let you know.”

“Okay, I'll get on everything as soon as possible.”

“Thanks, Nicci. I think I'm going to take Cathy out to supper. Could you have the guys on detail meet us in a few minutes?”

“Sure. They've been bumming around looking lost so they'll be happy to have something to do besides filing my paperwork.”

“Ooh... You're mean.”

“Just taking advantage of available labor.”

“Do you need help? I can hire an assistant.”

“What? And let someone else make a mess of my random disorder? Not on your life.”

We both laughed and said our good-byes then I cleared my desk, locked my pending paperwork in my safe and went to collect my baby.

On the way out I remembered we needed a cook at my house so I made a slight detour to let Nicci know about that. She flipped through her Rolodex then asked me who I preferred out of three who weren't on assignment.

“I don't care so long as the person can cook without burning water.”

“Tomorrow morning too soon?”

“If he or she is there to cook breakfast tomorrow that would be wonderful. There are still eight in the detail so there will likely be me, Cathy, and six for breakfast plus the cook of course. Have finance budget some funds for the cook so whoever it is can do the grocery shopping. I've been feeding the horde from my own funds the past five; no, seven days. My how time flies. I like to put it on the companies ticket rather than my own.”

“You could always turn in the grocery receipts, Lynn.”

“I can't do that. The company is about to have some rather large expenses and every dollar saved is important. This meeting with the Motorola rep. will likely be another half mil. so I'm beginning to count pennies again. At least I've got my rental properties against which I can pick up a loan which will tide us over. I'm just hoping that won't be necessary.”

“I know you made me a partner, Lynn and I wish I had something I could use to help but partner or not, I'm just a working girl.”

“And a valuable one at that, Nicci. No I'm not that worried. I guess I just expected everything to do nothing but grow. I forgot that sometimes growth is painful.”

“Wait until Cathy begins her rapid growth. My niece has changed three sizes in the past year and likely will go two or three more next year. She's shooting up like a weed.”

“How old is she?”

“Not that much older than Cathy, I think.”

“Lucky me.” I looked away and seriously thought about beating my head against a wall.

“Mommy, I'm hungry.”

“Okay, sweetheart. We're on our way. Have you got Andy?”

Cathy held both her hands up discovering Andy was missing. Her face became concerned then she ran back toward my office.

“Cathy. Walk.” I called to her as she turned the corner to go down the hall. I heard her pace slow for a moment then pick up again. By the time she came back, holding Andy in a hammerlock, the two agents had arrived and were waiting with me.

We were out and driving when Cathy saw a Denny's.

“ There, Mommy! There! I want to eat there.” Cathy screamed.

I bit the bullet and we went for the Denny's. Someone remind me to have my hearing, in the ear that was closest to Cathy, checked tomorrow. For such a small girl she had a set of lungs.

We went in, securing a table almost immediately and began examining the menu. Cathy spent a lot of time carefully examining the pictures of the food before announcing her choice.

“I want that one.” She pointed at the picture.

“That's a lot of food, sweetheart. Are you sure you can each that much?”

“I want that one... and a milkshake. Chocolate.”

The waitress looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders and nodded my head so she wrote it down.

Cathy didn't have chicken... but she did have something which let her have that chocolate milkshake she wanted. I marvelled at how much she could eat, wishing I had a metabolism which could slough off the calories. I took solace in the fact that all those calories she ate would go to help her grow as well as be burned off due to her physical exertions such as running from any given point A to any other point B... repeatedly. Flashbacks of my running regimen began to haunt me, and I gave more thought to the continuation of my skating lessons which had been doing a wonderful job of helping me to maintain my figure.

After supper, we stopped at the grocery on the way home and I picked up more makings for breakfast and lunch, hoping that the cook would have time to shop for whatever might be needed for supper and the meals for the next few days.

The next morning I was up and halfway down stairs when I realized I could smell fresh coffee. I followed my nose to the dining room and discovered the twenty-cup pot just over two-thirds full of this delicious smelling brew. Seeing no one around me I held a cup under the spigot to drain off a cupful, added my preferred poisons to it, grabbed one, glanced around the took a second of the pastries plus a pair of napkins before I beat a hasty retreat back to my room hoping that no one had noticed me making off with my goodies.

Suitably fortified I first prepared myself for the day then went to check on Cathy. Once again she had Andy firmly in the crook of her arm even though she was fast asleep.

“Come on sleepyhead. Time to get up.” I kissed her forehead then leaned back to avoid her arms as she stretched a moment later.

“Hi Mommy. I had a nice dream,” she reached up to be hugged and lifted into a standing position on the bed.

“Good morning, sweetheart. What was it about?”

“I don't remember.”

“Then how do you know it was nice?”

“Because it was.”

I couldn't argue with that kind of logic, I might need it in the future.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

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

All rights reserved.

Please note: any publication or post of this story in any language in France, its possessions, or protectorates in any manner whatsoever, or any attempt to include this story, in part or in whole in any language, as or in a work published in France or its possessions or protectorates will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the copyright laws of the United States and of the World Court..

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

After breakfast we made our way to the office again. Today I didn't have ice skating as I ceased making reservations for lessons for the time being; at least until we had some resolution of this problem with James security. Just when that would come about was still the sixty-four dollar question.

The office, obviously, wasn't Cathy's favorite place to be even though she now had one of the conference rooms to play in along with a large number of toys which might appeal to children of her age; well... her age give or take maybe four years. I was still trying to decide if she was nearly four with a mind of nine or ten or if she was ten with a body of a four year old. I had the strangest feeling there was something her father hadn't been telling me, like maybe she was a visiting alien or something. Sometimes she was so perceptive it was scary. I watched her as she examined all the items of interest in the room, even though she still maintained a deathgrip on Andy's ear. I was even more beginning to think I might be the one needing a replacement stuffed toy and made yet another mental note, this one to think about finding another bear to replace Andy. That would be difficult because he had recently become my confidant.

I stifled a small chuckle as I thought about anyone who hadn't been at the offices during the past few days and who might walk into that conference room. Whoever it might be would be in for a rude surprise as it had been completely made over to provide a safe and interesting haven for up to eight or ten children. We had added a large number of toys and things for both her, and any others who might occupy it, to do.

Another change we made to the structure of our working concept was to use this opportunity to create a safe environment where children could be brought in from a few of the agent's families so they could play together. I also had Nicci hire several people to be the minders of our little people regardless of the time of day we might have them on premises. After all, we didn't want any... disagreements, to occur during play and there was always the possibility of slight, or more serious, injury; heaven forbid.

I should have done something like this some time ago. It made for a safe place for the children while the parents were working; eased the parents minds as well as saved them a little money since the company would be providing the day care for which they didn't need to pay. They also didn't need to claim the equivalent value on their taxes since it was a company decision to provide the care and medical, if needed, in an effort to ease the concerns of the parent or parents so they could better perform their jobs. Further, if someone was hung up for a while the child wouldn't be wondering where Mommy or Daddy was as they waited for their parent who couldn't be there on time. The day care person or any available agent could keep them occupied or supervised until the parent could show up.

After I took Cathy to the room, she almost immediately made a bee-line to the three story doll house which was almost taller than she was. There she plopped down to begin to play,all thoughts of Mommy obviously supplanted with those of something new to explore. I nodded to our new hire who was a licensed day-care attendent then headed off to my office where I pulled what remained of yesterday's paperwork out of my safe, hoping I could complete it before the next pile arrived on my desk. Once I had it back on my desk, it was sorted into the stacks I needed to examine. I picked up the three notes I had placed on top of it all. Ah yes, I needed to talk with Nicci again.

“Good Morning, Nicci. You're looking somewhat more well than usual. Did you have a good evening?”

“Yes, if you must know. Remember that partner I mentioned from the accounting firm upstairs?”

“Uhmmm. The guy with the short cut, blond hair, and goatee?”

“That's him.”

“What about him?”

“He asked me out.”

“Well, don't keep me in suspense; how was it?”

“Very nice. He was a gentleman and we went to Del's for supper.”

“Ohh, Del's huh?”

“Yes. Could have blown me over with a light breeze. I had a very nice evening and he asked if we might do it again next week sometime.”

“Good for you. So how was Del's? Should I put it on our entertainment list?”

“The food was good; pricey, but good. And the help were excellent. There didn't seem to be any riff-raff around either. ”

“Okay, let's tentatively mark it for one of the places we need to investigate further before possibly taking clients there. Does he know you're a partner here?”

“I don't think so. I think I'll just hold that in reserve until I see how things go for a while first. He's about the same level as I am in his business. Ten percent partner, but I don't think they do as much business as we do.”

“How did you meet him?”

“In the elevator one morning. We said 'good morning' to each other. The next day we met accidentally down at Soup and Salad, he was there eating when I came in. The place was pretty full so he invited me to share his table. We sat together and chatted during lunch. A couple of days later he cornered me in the lobby and asked me out.”

“Want me to have him checked out?”

“Not yet. If things start to percolate then maybe. How's things with you — Mommy?”

“You had to ask, didn't you?”

“That bad, Lynn?”

“No. In fact Cathy is settling in and the cook you sent out makes an excellent pot of coffee as well as breakfast...”

Oooh... I may decide to come live at your house; at least for breakfast anyway.”

“Be my guest; anyway I'm pretty happy this morning except I miss the exercise I was getting ice-skating. How did it go here after I left yesterday?”

“Not too bad, Lynn. I took care of several things. You won't need to see the Motorola Rep. again. He said he could handle the extra upgrade stuff without coming in again. The orders you discussed with him while he was here have already had the transmitter and battery upgrades added to them. Since you didn't mention the upgrades for the other orders, he'll take care of that today then get back to us next week sometime with the additional expense information. He said since it's all happening at once he'll try to get it run through as a package deal. If he succeeds that will knock ten percent off the expense. I think he wants to keep us happy so he has a long-term income from our company. He said something about appreciating our staying with Motorola instead of going over to RCA.”

“Additional expenses... I might just run away and forget about all this. Good work, Nicci. I could use the break. I might even catch up on my paperwork,as if. What's the deal with RCA? I didn't know they were into two-way radio systems.”

“Apparently they hired some of the developers away from Motorola and added them to their existing team. They came up with a modular radio concept which is just a little smaller than the HT and which has fractionally better range but they don't offer an encryption system so repeaters can't be shared in isolation the way we do it now. From what our rep was saying, RCA is using conventional techniques for repeater use.”

“Too bad. I wonder what their prices are like.”

“I'll check on that a little more, but the little I've managed to learn so far seems to indicate they're about half to two-thirds the price of the HT. They call their radio the TacTec. It's pretty, if pictures are anything to go by. I think I've learned all I can short of our actually talking with a rep. I don't know how well their radios work but apparently the Motorola rep isn't too concerned about them since he brought them up. The research I've had done seems to indicate they are moving pretty rapidly in the two-way business so maybe we should have someone check on them in the future.”

“I'm not sure. I think I'd like to keep to one supplier in this particular case. You might have someone take a look at them once in a while. If they develop an encryption system which is any good and which allows us to do the same things the Motorola system does then we could take a closer look. Are the two compatible otherwise?”

“I don't know. I guess so. Do you want me to see if RCA has a rep in the area?”

“Yes, that might be interesting especially with our ever increasing costs in the communications area... then again... I don't want another rep knocking at my door. My time has become pretty valuable lately.”

“Why don't you push him or her off on our comm guys? Get them to do something to justify their pay.”

“I like that idea. They're the ones who originally pointed me at Motorola. Let them go through the preliminaries and then I want to personally see a range demonstration... portable to portable. Using the repeaters won't tell me anything because their whole purpose is to extend range. Next topic, what have we heard from the military about that weapons report? They seem to be dragging their heels.”

“That still hasn't come in. Apparently they are waiting for some technical experts to look at the communication gear they captured.”

“Would you let Lucy's office know that we would appreciate knowing about the weapons as quickly as possible since it could be important to our welfare? Comms might be useful to know about but right now I'm more concerned about enemy firepower.”

“I'll call again later this morning. Anything else?”

“I don't think so. Those weapons have me a little concerned is all.”

“Lucy will be in meetings this morning until ten, so I'll call just after that.”

“Good. Thanks Nicci and congratulations on your catch.”

“Hardly a catch yet, but if it keeps up like last night I just might begin to work on it. OH! Finance wants to talk with you.”

“About?”

“The military comms. She wants to know if we can pass some of those costs to Lucy's group.”

I bit my lip and pondered that.

“Some of them, maybe. They didn't direct us to order the stuff even if they had to give approval before Motorola would provide it. It was more for our convenience, especially if we were deployed somewhere. Maybe you could ask Lucy about that. They might help defray the upgrade costs since we already have a lot of the equipment.”

“I'll add it to the list of things to bring up. She might want to talk with you. Will you be available?”

“I'll try to be. Warn me before you call her. I'm going to go talk with Finance then I'll be in my office... tearing my hair out again.”

I winked and headed off to find Susan so I could placate her until we had some more definitive answers.

It was two weeks later, nearing the end of November. The snow wasn't sticking yet other than making a mess of half-melted, half-frozen slosh everywhere dependent completely on the clouds, sun, shadows, and the shifting daytime / nighttime temperatures. When we arrived at work Cathy ran off to the play room leaving me in the dust, forgetting even to say, “Bye Mommy” until she was just around the corner of the hallway, then she peeked back around to look at me to say it before vanishing again. So soon we are taken for granted. The last few days it had been difficult to get her to leave her friends if I decided to go home early. She liked her new friends and they all liked the toys which were there. After a couple of days with the doll-house that fascination had departed. She became enamored with the record player just as she had at home. Frequently when I came here to check on her during the day or to take her to lunch, she would be listening to music.

“Hi Mommy. This is from ' the wind is gone', isn't it pretty?”

“'Gone with the Wind', Sweetheart; and yes it is.”

“Not 'the wind is gone'?” she scowled at me.

“No. The wind isn't gone but instead something went away without us being able to stop it much like the wind departs. We can't stop it either. What it means is that all things change with time; sometimes for the better and sometimes not.”

“What's that mean?”

I sighed, “Ask me again when you are a few years older and understand more words. I'll try to explain it then.”

I watched her digest that before she screwed up her face and closed her eyes. For some reason I had the feeling she just put what I said on a shelf to come back to after it collected a little dust and cobwebs so she could receive that explanation. Now where have I seen that expression before?

When we returned from lunch we were barely in the door of the building when she shed her coat leaving it and me in the dust once more as she rushed up the stairs headed for her precious records. Since none of the other children wanted to deal with the record player she felt it was hers to do with as she wished. I sighed, picked up her coat from the floor and followed her... slowly... feeling every year as I went. I wasn't looking forward to having her learn to skate... or ski. I had this numbing feeling that once she could ski reasonably well that she would be zooming past her father and hell-bent-for-leather down the most dangerous courses. I was beginning to feel old.

The weapons report finally arrived. Apparently the military had their “experts” examine the radios which were used by those persons who had so rudely interrupted James business and released their preliminary information; or at least released all they were prepared to say about it all. The report came in by FAX and Nicci brought it to me as soon as she was aware of it. At a guess, it had only been read by five or six agents before I saw it. It wasn't a totally crushed mess with sticky lunch fingerprints on it, just a little dog-eared at the corners.

Items below recovered following attack on the Thompson residence. All bear the mark “BFF” on them at some location.

Manufacturer’s stamp: BFF found stamped on barrels or inside cases
Company: Beatrium Fulwerk Fabrique GmbH (found on one of the magazines)
Factory Location: not listed in manufacturer’s index; location not yet determined
Production quantities: not known
Funding: not known. Presumed illicit sales to third world countries
Products noted herein: Seven, although there are possibly more.

Flechette Weapons:

Pistol: KPS- 33 (found on inside of grip)

Weight: 1.45 pounds (unloaded)

Barrel: six & one-quarter inch smoothbore

Chamber: floating, semi-sealed attached to barrel

Chamber Exhaust: side venting ports beginning at 1/3 of length

Barrel Exhaust: upward directing

Audibility (20ft): 44.4 dbA (A-weighted); 49.6 dbA (CCIR-468)
Audibility (100ft): 26.7 dbA (A-weighted); 30.2 dbA (CCIR-468)

Weapon Tracking:  ± .03 % across range at 50 feet.

Range: 20 fully-automatic releases

Magazine: top fed, spring tensioned, “jam-proof” suspension with cup lock (disengaged upon insertion in weapon).

Capacity: 65 (est)

Projectile: 7/8 inch long flechette, 1/8 inch diam with 1/4 inch stabilizing expansion fins. Wt: 0.38 oz unladen, 0.51 oz laden. Piezo-electrically ignited solid propellant.

velocity at muzzle: 1340 fps (feet per second) (Pact Chrono); mode: single shot.

velocity at 20 feet: 3150 fps

rate of fire: 1 (single rate) to 102 (repeat rate) (calculated).

Special Munitions:

Hypo - chemically induced limited nerve paralysis - fast acting (.4 second to 10 seconds - - local to full body) potentially deadly.
Disabling - explosive charge .1 gm dynacor equiv to 1/4 stick of dynamite. This was proven through test of a captured weapon and munitions.
Piercing - anti- armored carrier - 3/4 inch steel. (50 ft.)

- - - - - -

Rifle: KMR-32 (Stamped on receiver)

Weight: 8.9 pounds unloaded

Barrel: 19 & 5/8 inches, smoothbore; vertically vented at approximately four inch spacings along barrel.

Chamber: floating, semi-sealed; side venting beginning at 1/3 of length

Audibility (20ft): 41.1 dbA (A-weighted); 48.3 dbA (CCIR-468)
Audibility (100ft): 30.2 dbA (A-weighted); 29.9 dbA (CCIR-468)

weapon Tracking:  ± .03 % across range at 100 feet.

Range: 20 fully-automatic releases

Magazine: top fed, spring tensioned, “jam-proof” suspension with cup lock (disengaged upon insertion in weapon).

Capacity: 250 (est)

Projectile: 7/8 inch long flechette, 1/8 inch diam with 1/4 inch stabilizing expansion fins. Wt: 0.38 oz unladen, 0.51 oz laden. Piezo-electrically ignited solid propellant.

velocity at muzzle: 1890 fps (feet per second) (Pact Chrono); mode: single shot

velocity at 20 feet: 3420 fps

rate of fire: 1 (single rate) to 125 (repeat rate) (calculated)

Special Munitions:

Hypo - chemically induced limited nerve paralysis - fast acting (.4 second to 10 seconds - - local to full body) potentially deadly.
Disabling - explosive charge .1 gm dynacor equiv to 1/4 stick of dynamite. This was proven through test of a captured weapon and munitions.
Piercing - anti- armored carrier - 3/4 inch steel. (50 ft.)

- - - - - -

Communication Device:

Device: JRS-73q Beatrium Fulwerk Fabrique GmbH

Description: personal communication device frequency range 21.2 to 29.9 MHz; 139.4 to 147.6 MHz. Actual frequencies in use depends on mode type selected and was determined through the use of a spectrum analyzer. Transmitter output visible on spectrum analyzer but method of operation precludes decryption of data stream by most present radio systems or any which are not linked to the frequency hopping scheme in use by the device itself.

Output Power: uncertain, suspected to be approximately one to one and a half watts. Output power is difficult to measure due to constant shifting of the frequencies in use sometimes taking it outside the range of the plug in RF to DC convertors in the power meter. The nature of the method of transmission appears to be a form of frequency shift, pulse modulation.

Battery: 16 volts DC nominal (+8,0,-8). Peak voltage 17.1 (8.55, 0, -8.55).

Use: Xmt: 173 ma.; Rcv: 32 ma.; Stby: 6 ma.

Duration: 40 Hrs. approximately (20%, 20%, 60%) (measured.)

Usable Range: 4 miles. Determined by line of sight testing of two devices which maintained clear communication even during attempted pink-noise jamming.

Controls: volume, mode, VOX / Std, Sensitivity, Power (on-off), Numeric keypad (unknown purpose)

Special Note: Test devices maintained communication despite attempts to jam those communications. Increase in number of jamming transmitters (up to ten) operating in the spectrum used by the devices and with output powers of up to 20 watts per transmitter failed to interfere with clear communication between captured devices at a 4 mile range but became more invasive as range increased beyond that distance until causing loss of communication at a six mile range. The range without jamming reached up to eight miles with varying success. Jamming transmitters were each set for 1 MHz band-spread with a pink noise modulation level of 90% (Am and Fm tests were made independently as noted in complete report). No interference of the communications between the test devices was noted except as indicated above.

Once I saw that report I put another call in to Lucy but didn't make contact for nearly three hours even after leaving a summary of my thoughts concerning the communications device. Turns out they were far ahead of me and further testing showed the device was markedly similar to those modified PRC-25s we had used a few years back.

I was also brought up to speed on the weapons which had originally been researched by an Australian firm that had a break-in a year or so back where nothing was taken. Things were beginning to look just a little suspicious not only to me but to Lucy and her people. I was beginning to wonder just what James' company was doing for the government and why it would have prompted an open attack. At this point I decided it might be a good idea to bring the number of personnel on Cathy's detail back up to its former levels despite the lack of apparent interest in her whereabouts. This I did gradually as agents became available.

I also added one more who's duty it was to follow Cathy around nearly wherever she went. That including standing (or sitting) around in our new play-room whenever she was in it. A week later one of the female agents came available and I immediately added her to the mix so during the day Cathy could have someone who could go anywhere with her, even to the bathrooms if necessary. Since that agent liked children that worked out well and left me free to contemplate my navel as I tried to decide if there would be another attempt at kidnaping her or James... or both. I finally had Nicci flash a warning to my people via our recently established radio / phone line link that they were to be ever vigilant, and that I expected things to go hot in the near future now that we were supposedly lulled into complacency.

Things weren't quite adding up and I had a bad feeling about all of this deep in my guts. Even so, Christmas continued to loom ever nearer and we had, had our first sticking snow which didn't turn to slush immediately after landing. It looked like it was going to be a white Christmas.

As I gave it all more thought, I finally took Cathy aside and gave her some instruction.

“If something happens and anyone tells you to 'bolt', this is where you go. You don't come out unless I, your Daddy, Mr. Bear, or Nicci tells you it's okay. You remember Nicci?”

“No.”

“The fun lady who danced with you when you were at my office yesterday?”

“The fun lady...” At least she nodded her head.

“Now, if someone say to 'bolt' you run here in my bedroom, go into the closet over there and at the back there is a funny little door. Go through to the inside like we are now, and once you are in here you close the door then push these three slides into place. Understand?”

She nodded her head again.

“Okay. Go ahead, push them into place.”

It took her some effort but she managed to get two out of three pretty quickly and a minute later the third one was in place.

“Good. When those are in place like that, no one can get in and you will be safe. If the house catches on fire, or people shoot at the place you are in, nothing will happen. We added some stuff so the bad men can't hurt you. This is a pretty big room and over on those shelves is food and water. In the little room over there is a bathroom, remember to leave that door closed or it could get a little stinky in here. Now, see this button?”

Cathy nodded her head again.

“Push it.”

She pressed against it.

“Harder, sweetheart. It takes a lot of effort so someone doesn't press it by mistake.”

She practically leaned into it to get it to move. It finally lit up red and a few seconds later the screen began to light up. A few seconds after that there was one of my agents on the screen.

“What's up Lynn? You need a response? We didn't get any alarms.”

“No, everything's fine. This is Cathy and I'm teaching her how to use the bolt-hole.”

“Ah. Okay. I'll tell everyone that it was a training exercise.”

“Thanks. Sorry, I should have called first but this is good for her to see.”

“Yeah. Hi Cathy, nice to meet you. I hope we don't need to meet like this again but if we do then you will need to tell whoever you see on the screen about everything that's happening over there. We can send help.”

“Cathy. That's George, and the man you see behind him is Tony. Tony, is Nicci available?”

“I'll check, but I think I saw her leave for a late lunch. Just be a moment.”

I continued to show Cathy some of the features of the bolt-hole omitting, of course, the weapons cabinet. While we looked around I checked the expiration dates on some of the foodstuffs and made a mental note to rotate most of the food which would reach expiration in a few months.

“Lynn?”

I looked back at the screen, “Yes Tony?”

“Nicci left for lunch and isn't expected back for thirty to forty minutes. Do you want to leave a message?”

“No; it's all right. I was just going to let Cathy see her again so she would remember what Nicci looked and sounded like. Thanks anyway.”

“Sure thing. Got to go, bye Cathy, Lynn.”

“Bye.”

“You can shut down the link, George.”

“Okay, Lynn. Apparently you didn't tell the team that you were going in the hole, they were looking for you. We told them you were in the hole giving Cathy a training session. See you later.”

“Thanks George. Bye.”

The screen faded to black with a white dot diminishing in size and brilliance near the middle of the screen; the red button turned out and everything returned to what passed for normal.

I had Cathy unlock the bolts then we opened the door and went out to be collected by two agents who were waiting for us in the bedroom.

As Christmas approached, Cathy began to become more excited. She continually vacillated between hoping for a 'doggie' and then for a 'horsey'. I was hoping for neither at the moment because neither James nor I had horse approved properties and I wasn't ready to handle house-breaking a dog. Cathy meanwhile wasn't daunted in the least occasionally hoping to receive both, along with ice-skates, growing four more inches, more books to read, some new clothes and shoes, etc. etc. and so forth. I was considering taking out a loan on the house just to keep up with her.

The day before Christmas our rent-a-Santa showed up and per the unspoken agreement with all our agent's families, everyone was at the office along with their kids; who all went bananas when Santa's sleigh came down the street and turned into our parking lot. It caused a bit of a stir at the other businesses who were renting space in our building as well. The few kids who had come to work with parents at those businesses somehow got into the act so our Santa had a rough dozen more kids than was expected. Fortunately he had prepared for contingencies and had small gifts for them all while he spoke with all the kids. Two hours later he got back into his sleigh and he and his reindeer left the parking lot and went back down the street to wherever his staging area had been.

The kids were disappointed that he didn't fly away but one of my agents had everyone gather the kids together then he managed to get them all to swear to secrecy before he told them that Santa didn't want everyone to know he was the real Santa. “That's the reason he didn't fly away. You can't tell anyone that he's the real Santa because it's a secret. Okay?”

The kids all became quiet and agreed quickly. They had a secret they could only share with themselves. They quickly went back inside the building to get out of the cold, taking their small treasures with them. They had talked with the real Santa, not a store Santa, and they had patted his reindeer. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

I was awakened bright and early Christmas morning but not by Cathy. My detail had just gone on alert.

“You're needed, immediately, in the command center, Lynn.”

I threw my robe on over my nightgown and was out the bedroom door in moments.

When I reached the command center I asked, “Is Cathy all right?” even as I reached the monitors and could see for myself.

“We have someone getting her up and dressed. All four agents who are on watch are aware of the alert and the call for the support force has gone out and been acknowledged by all but one. He still has five minutes to respond before we check on him.”

“Who sent the alert?”

“Our team watching James. The links are still up and the remainder of the team is on their way. The military have been notified, but there hasn't been any further contact wi...”

“Condition Red. I repeat RED. Enemy activity at Thompson residence, shots fired, agent dow...” thundered in over the radio and phone line link.

We heard a burst of one of our weapons and a strange ripping sound then a thump and the signal vanished as quickly as it had come.

“Alert everyone who isn't on an assignment. Get Cathy to the bolt-hole and electronically sweep the grounds. If anything, and I mean anything, seems out of place call condition red. As soon as the female agent shows, put her in the bolt-hole with Cathy and get some of Cathy's Christmas presents in there too. That way there will be something to distract her. Don't close up the bolt-hole unless we begin taking fire within the house. I'm going to go get dressed.”

Having given my instructions, I rushed back to my room stopping for a moment to talk with Cathy before she went into the bolt-hole; telling her that Mommy might need to fight some 'bad guys' and Janet would be here soon to keep her company.

Fifteen minutes later I was on my way to the command center again and Janet had arrived and went into the bolt-hole with Cathy.

“Condition Red. Condition Red. Intruders approaching on south lawn. Visuals show five, repeat, five.”
Oh well, so much for thinking about going back to sleep.

After I reached the command center the security door was closed which essentially rendered the center impregnable. On the screens we could see the personnel deployments, both theirs and ours. My men were to remain inside if possible, I didn't want any dead heroes and if they decided to try to burn us out they would find that to be extremely difficult for a variety of reasons, in fact now that the thought passed across what I called 'my mind'...

“Activate the yard fire suppression system for ten seconds.”

“Do what?”

“The fire suppression system in the yard. Activate it for ten seconds.”

The agent got this sly smile on his face before he went to the suppression panel and selected a switch. He turned back to me with a raised eyebrow.

“Do it.”

He turned the switch and the fogging system began to spew water in the form of a thick mist all around the bottom story of the house and for twenty feet out. After ten seconds I figured they had had enough, “Shut it down.”

He turned the switch back the other way then returned to his post before the tv monitors. The intruders were shaking themselves off and one raised and shook his fist at the house before they continued on. They knew we knew they were there but they continued on anyway; obviously not happy with the soaking, especially in the cold weather. I hoped they all came down with colds.

Glancing at the screen for the bolt-hole I could see Cathy and Janet sitting on a cot with Cathy beginning to open one of her presents. If this went on for very long it was going to play merry hell with the Christmas party we were planning to hold here beginning early this afternoon. I hoped the cooks weren't being inconvenienced too badly.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

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

All rights reserved.

Please note: any publication or post of this story in any language in France, its possessions, or protectorates in any manner whatsoever, or any attempt to include this story, in part or in whole in any language, as or in a work published in France or its possessions or protectorates will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the copyright laws of the United States and of the World Court..

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

The intruders reached the house. That was when I discovered something I hadn't realised before; there were no cameras positioned so to allow us to watch what someone might be doing once they reached the house. With a shock I suddenly noticed every camera pointed out, with none of them pointing in

Cameras inside the house were few and far between. We cound not pan or tilt any of the cameras far enough to see what was happening next to the house itself. I hoped they didn't plan on blowing a hole in the wall, or the doors or windows; it had cost a lot to have the steel reinforced structuring and light-artillery glass put in place and I wasn't looking forward to possibly needing to have any of it repaired or replaced... or possibly both. I ordered my guys to pull back from the outer walls so we could more safely wait, even as I made the mental note to have more cameras installed or at least a different system which would allow them to see right up to the house walls or directly under them. That meant each camera now needed to be paired with another so they could see below each other.

I know, the enemy is trying to bleed me to death financially. With a sigh I noted the safe houses, and probably the office building, would need to have their video systems upgraded as well. I had a message sent to my guys who were watching over James although they probably had that figured out by now anyway. At least their cameras weren't permanent placements and they could move them around a bit to gain better coverage.
The problem would be they would need a larger portable system which included more cameras and IR lights. Who gave those bad-guys a copy of my recent financial condition anyway?

Damn, another expense. Running away was looking better and better. I wondered briefly how Cathy would like Jamaica? The guys were all for going outside and mixing it up. I would have happily joined them but for the small matter that I had a responsibility to both them and their families or potential families which I had never considered while in the military. Funny how gaining a few more years affects one's perspective. Getting my people killed when it wasn't absolutely necessary had me playing the part of a coward. Hell, was it ever absolutely necessary? Playing that role was difficult because if I'd still been Lyon, I would have been out there with bullets flying and whatever the hell they called those things they were using.

It was less than an hour later; okay, probably something like three minutes but it seemed like an hour when we didn't know what was going on. We caught a glimpse now and then of one or two of them just entering the monitoring area allowed by the cameras mounting systems, so as near as we could tell they were concentrating on that side of the house. At the end of that three minutes we saw movement on the cameras and again counted all five intruders. They made their way back across the lawn, slipping through the brush and trees surrounding the property until they reached the property's wall. We watched as best we could until we saw their silhouettes cross back over that stone block wall which was about eight feet high. Mental note... install cameras there, too. It's only money, Lynn. It's only money. Yeah, but why right now? This isn't a good time and I'm already spending so much.

“I wonder if I could print some money?”

“Isn't that called counterfeiting, Lynn?”

“Huh?”

“You asked something about printing money.”

“Oh. I didn't realise I said anything out loud. I was speculating about...”

“Printing money? Yeah, I'd go for it except don't they reserve that right for the Federal government?”

“Yeah. It was idle speculation due to the large amounts I'm suddenly spending.”

“Ahh. Maybe treasure hunting would be a safer approach? Well, as far as jail time goes anyway.”

At least he got me to laugh.

After the intruders had been gone for two minutes as timed by the digital clock in control, I delegated two agents to rush out and learn what those bastar... oops, uh... men did while they were out of sight up near my house. My guys spent a nerve-wracking ten minutes looking but they couldn't find anything amiss. How small can they make a nuclear bomb these days? Hell, it's nineteen seventy-three, not twenty-one twenty. Marble sized nor even golf ball sized nuclear weapons don't exist... do they? Gee, just what I need, another worry. Maybe I should start thinking about coloring my hair before it has a chance to start to show any gray.

With the report that nothing seemed out of place, I went out to take a look around myself. I also could not find anything out of place. I ordered a full scan of the perimeter of the house using infrared and ultraviolet which couldn't easily be done until tonight both because we needed to get equipment in here to do it and because the sun was rising and daylight would make it difficult. By the time we could rent some gear and get it here it would be too bright out to use it. We did get some mine detectors to the house very quickly and swept the grounds all around the base of the house but they didn't indicate anything. Our no less than seven examinations of the grounds during the next two hours showed nothing unusual. Nothing seemed to have been disturbed... but... there had to have been a reason for the intrusion. What could have been so important that they would have come all the way to the house even once they knew, we knew they were here? I had the exterior of the house examined from the ground all the way up to the roof, but again, nothing was found. None of this made any sense.

A couple of hours later I had the guys examine the lawn for ten feet out from the house to see if maybe those bast... uh, guys had peeled back the grass somewhere and planted something nasty.

As a precaution the Christmas party was moved to one of the safe-houses where it went off without a hitch. I didn't really enjoy it this year since I was still trying to decide exactly what that little raid had been all about. Obviously it was some kind of psychological ploy but for what reason? I was still in the dark as to what they thought they had accomplished save getting soaked by my fire fighting system. The mist the system created had settled on the lawn and frozen into a thin sheet of ice. I was wishing it had done the same to the intruders so I had someone to interrogate. The thought of that one who had shaken his fist at the house nearly caused me to laugh which brought me back to being aware of what was going on around me.

Cathy came running over with a treasure 'Santa' had given to her and demanded that I remove her present ear-rings and insert the new ones she had received. That diverted my attention long enough that I wondered how he kept each of the kids straight in his mind since I had provided him with a number of presents to give out to specific children — Maybe this guy really was Santa...

I reached up to remove her earrings and had visions of blood spraying everywhere once I removed them but gingerly continued with the task. After I did that for her, we put her studs into the box just before she ran off to show everyone her new ear-rings. I made a mental note to clean these ear-rings when we got home as I slipped the ear-ring box into my purse. I'm making an awful lot of mental notes lately and most of them seem to be centered around either Cathy or money.

I began to wonder if it was going to be like this for the next fifteen years. Was I going to be able to handle Cathy going to high school? I suddenly realised that she might be doing that a lot sooner than most children since she was already taking some interest in more difficult publications. She still wanted the storybooks but she was picking up and trying to digest some of the more mainstream magazines I had around the house. Just the other day she had come up to me asking about words in an article in the 'Post'. I thought most children her age were more into the pictures.

Maybe college might be the time I should be worrying about. That thought led me to another which took me down a path that eventually resulted in the strange thought of a twelve year old Cathy walking up to receive her bachelor's degree in spatial physics. I wasn't certain how I felt about that, especially since the rest of the thought was suddenly tongue-in-cheek granting her a minor in parental manipulation while I had premature gray hair and was in a strait-jacket gibbering and drooling all over myself. Nah, Cathy wouldn't do that to her Mommy. My smile began to fade. Maybe after a few years she would begin to think that way though, as she began to learn her Mommy wasn't infallible and she began to lose her trust in my demi-goddess status.

As I continued to give more thought to Cathy and her precocious abilities, the more I began to be concerned about exactly how I should handle this budding Einstein. Should I take it slowly and let her be more of a child so she had a better grounding in interpersonal relationships and thus become better able to relate to others? Or should I allow her to examine the world at her own pace which seemed to be something like three years intellectual development for every year her body claimed? The next problem was — could I handle having someone in the family who would probably be able to run rings around me intellectually within ten years? Intellectually hell, she would probably be able to do it physically as well. I had to get back into my training regimen; and we were only months away from when she hoped to begin ice skating. How do mothers keep up with their children?

Cathy seemed to be happily relating to all the other children but there was something different about her approach to the games. I noticed that while she would play with them; even though she wasn't yet four she was taking the parental or leadership role in their games of 'pretend' and a number of them were older than she was.

I was far over my depth and rapidly sinking. I needed to have a long and careful conversation with James so I could learn what support for her education was being done at home. Was she being 'force-fed' adult materials or was she simply that interested in growing up as quickly as she could? How do you measure the intelligence of someone who simply hasn't had enough schooling for them to be adequately tested?

I.Q. Tests really don't measure I.Q.; they measure the ability to take, integrate, and deduce things derived from lessons learned from information provided during training. Those who can recall material without error will do better on the tests than those who don't remember it as well. Even so, some education is needed or they won't know what it is they are storing away in that thing we call a brain. So much of it isn't just remembering stuff, there's a lot of need for understanding the nuances of the stuff you're remembering and the context within which it or the problem to which it is being applied, exists. In other words, is a person able to adapt things they have learned and apply them to other problems?

Deductive reasoning tests still rely on people having been subjected to learning material which provides examples of how to draw conclusions. In Cathy's case, she seems to be improving in that area with leaps and bounds... Maybe I'd better pack my copies of Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Rommel and von Mellenthin away in the attic- under lock and key. After all, I don't want to have a ten year old military genius on my hands six years from now. Especially not if she doesn't understand the humanity of the people she is commanding.

All right, more dolls and little girl things and fewer teenager things for a while. If she continues to seek them out on her own — fine, but I'm not going to force-feed the stuff to her. She barely knows her alphabet and is doing well with numbers but she's already trying to read Nancy Drew and adult magazines without having learned all the words she needs to support that level of reading. Oh, god. Nancy Drew at just under four years of age? I better hide all my NCO and Officer training materials too.

That cautioned me. If I continued this line of reasoning I might wind up locking my entire library away. Without a background like that of other children how could she relate to thoughts they were trying to express in their younger approach to life? Younger in this case was a mental approach to things rather than the age of her physical body.

My thoughts drifted back to the times we had gone out as a group to various eateries. She was the only child in the group and she seemed to be understanding a lot of what we the adults discussed. The more I think about this, the more I think I'm the one who is going to have difficulty coping. There must be a book somewhere that describes how other parents have handled having a prodigy in the family.

“... or your thoughts?”

“Hmm? Oh! Hi Nicci. How do you like the shindig so far?”

She looked at me with one eyebrow raised.

“Are you trying to avoid the question or were you that far out of it?”

“Question?”

“Yes. I asked how you thought Cathy was doing and then when you didn't respond I said 'a penny for your thoughts'.”

“I'm sorry, Nicci. Yes, Cathy was exactly the topic I was pondering.”

“Uh oh. This sounds like Mommy might be having second thoughts. Planning on cutting your losses and running?”

“Losses? I... No. I was just concerned that Cathy seems to be trying to be an adult before she's even had a chance to be a child.”

“You noticed that, did you?”

“I could hardly miss it.”

“You need to talk with my sister. Her child is already reading at fourth grade level.”

“I think Cathy won't be far behind. How old is your sisters child?”

“That one is six, so reading level is about three years advanced.”

“At a guess Cathy is reading at about sixth or seventh grade level although she has a problem with words since she doesn't know all that many. I have noticed though that she no longer asks what a word means more than once. Just a few weeks back when we were reading her storybooks, she would ask about a word each time we read the story to her. Now she reads the stories by herself and is trying to graduate to more complex reading material.”

“Oh? Like what for instance?”

“How about Nancy Drew, Post magazine, Look magazine and the morning paper; and I don't mean the comics. She's big on the the headlines like world events. You wouldn't believe some of the questions she comes up with.”

“All of the time or just once in a while?”

“What do you mean?”

“Does she always ask more penetrating questions or is it infrequent?”

“Scarcely an hour goes by. Sometimes it's only ten or fifteen minutes.”

“Have you thought about having her I.Q. Tested?”

“That was part of what I was just thinking about. How do you test someone's I.Q. when they haven't been taught enough to understand everything on the test? If they have tests for children, they would need to test her for several age groups as her understanding of different things seems to settle into different age groupings. That might be an idea though, because it would give me some understanding of the areas in which she needs to be given additional assistance. Right now I haven't a clue.”

“I'd say you need to get together with Mr. Thompson and have a heart-to-heart sometime soon.”

“Yeah, well that's another matter entirely.”

“I mean about Cathy.”

“Oh. Well, yeah, I agree. We both need to be on the same page so our efforts don't conflict.”

“And since you brought it up... What about you and Mr. Thompson?”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on Lynn. Don't play the 'No comprendo Ingles' game with me.”

“I'm really not, Nicci. I don't know what to think at this point. He seems to be a nice guy; a little lost when it comes to Cathy and heavily involved in whatever it is he's doing, but still... a nice guy. I think if I were a woman I could like him and probably become romantically involved with him if I didn't have so much on my plate.”

“Right. Lynn, are you or are you not going to go all the way?”

“Huh? All the way where?”

“Not where, what? Are you going to do what you told Ralph and myself not so long ago and become a woman?”

“Hush, Nicci. Geez, why not get a bull-horn?”

“That's a great idea if it will get you off the fence and force you to make a decision one way or the other. Which way are you the most comfortable? Do you want to be a mother of a four year old genius or not? You've got to remember she's part of a package deal.”

“Yes, I know. I just don't think it would be fair to either her or James and I've got so much going on in my own business that I wouldn't have the time to be a good mother to her. I can hardly take her to work with me every day. She needs someone who can be there for her all the time and I've got too much going on to be able to do that too.”

“Yeah, right. Lynn, there are a lot of working parents and some of them are business owners who spend twelve hours a day seven days a week at their jobs yet they seem to have time for their children. You know what I think?

“I'm afraid to ask.”

“I think you're a coward when it comes to children.”

“WHAT?”

“You heard me. You haven't been able to read a book or four to learn how to deal with a child and the thought of making a mistake has you scared silly. Well, I've got a news flash for you. Parents make mistakes! I don't see that stopping them from trying to do the best they can for their children, do you?”

Geez, Nicci just took one swing and pounded the nail clear through the board. Yeah, I was scared. After all, a mistake made during Cathy's childhood upbringing could have long reaching effects in her adult life. Was I trying to avoid that responsibility? Didn't I take on the responsibility for entire platoons and somehow made the right decisions? My business was growing and profiting, well, mostly. Haven't I proven I can make sound decisions? How difficult could it be to be a parent?
Uh, wrong way to go with these thoughts.

“Well. Say something.”

Nicci was sitting there still pushing at me to get off the fence post and make a decision.

“I'm not prepared to act on this yet, Nicci. I need to give the whole 'being a mommy' idea more thought.”

“Tell that to Cathy.”

“Ow, you had to hit below the belt didn't you.”

“Of course, Mommy.”

“MOMMY, look what I've got.” Cathy came running over like a run-away express train and just as controlable.

“I don't remember hearing anyone say 'cue munchkin' do you?”

“Of course not, Mommy. Children know that sort of thing instinctively.”

I turned to Cathy who had just reached us.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

She showed off her latest treasure from the round of present openings. Distribution, I noticed, was still on the smaller presents so I began to wonder how she would react when we got to the larger ones. Every child received four presents from 'Santa', two small and two large in value, although sometimes the physically small sizes were pricier than the large ones or vice-versa. The presents from their families were received at home whenever they celebrated. I had a number of presents waiting at home for Cathy when we returned. There were more there that 'Santa' had delivered with some of them actually being from me and some that her father had sent along. I had hoped he would have been here by now but I would save the presents which were from me personally so Cathy would open them at the same time as the ones which had her father's name as the originator.

It was here at the company party that I didn't want the children to feel inferior to one another so they all received the same number and relative overall value in presents at the event. That meant the company spent about two hundred dollars on each child during the party. That came to less than eight thousand dollars and was well worth it. The children would remember that they were all the same in 'Santa's' eyes even if the presents didn't repeat too often. The agents handing out the presents knew the color code for relative values and made certain that every child opened the same color present when the others did. We started at the lower values and moved up until all the children were opening a present wrapped in gold foil with holly and green ribbon on it.

The adults had presents too. There were fewer of them but they were of no less value. One was a simple envelope which contained the end of year bonus for each employee. That could total well over a hundred thousand. The other two were shared with their spouses and were usually two gift certificates each for two hundred dollars. One to a department store and one to a grocery store. Co-ordinating that took some doing and as the number of agents and family members grew, it became a larger and larger burden to keep straight. Different families shopped at different stores so Nicci had the thankless task of maintaining a list of the stores the various agents mentioned during the year. That we hoped would allow us to compile a list of stores from which to purchase certificates such that when they were distributed to the hopefully correct family they would be for some place where they actually shopped. It wasn't easy since we didn't necessarily get helpful answers if we were to ask the agents themselves.

I originally bought small gifts for each person but that became cumbersome very quickly. At the end of the year family resources are usually tapped out because of the holidays during the last couple of months so suddenly having extra food and clothing money was always welcome. That suggestion came from Nicci and I seized the concept and ran with it; ran with it? Hell, I jumped on a motorcycle and made off at top speed. I don't believe she intended the amounts to be quite so large when she suggested it but she told me she wouldn't be above accepting them and she doubted anyone else would either.

“MOMMY, look at her.” a little voice dragged me once more out of my thoughts.

Cathy had come hurrying over carrying a doll that was almost as large as she was.

“Isn't she pretty? And she has more clothes and shoes; and she has a purse, too.”

“She is pretty, isn't she?”

“Yes. I hope when I grow up I'm as pretty as you and she is.”

“Are. 'As you and she are'.”

“as pretty as you and she... are?”

“That's right.”

Cathy spun around taking her language lesson with her but leaving her doll with me as she hurried off. I guess I was assigned the duty of protecting each of her treasures as she received them.

The sounds of the children opening their presents and showing them off to their parents and friends continued even though they began to once again recede into the background as my mind continued to ponder that strange 'attack' from earlier in the day and all the event which had been so rapidly landing on me the past few weeks. I tried to think back to when things were easier and came up with some time's during or before Vietnam. What was so strange was that in my memories of those events I was female and I couldn't shake that even though I knew it wasn't true. At least I don't believe it was. Okay, which is the dream... me as Lyon, or me as Lynnette? I was beginning to have some difficulty deciding that little conundrum.

A couple of hours later I was saying good-bye to the last of the stragglers leaving the party, some of my on-duty agents were rounding up Cathy's presents so we could head for home. The caterers were cleaning up and one last sweep of the grounds was in progress prior to putting the safe-house to bed for the night. Cathy had over-expended her energy for the day and was out like a light on the couch a plate with a half eaten mix of vegetables and the remains of a small piece of meat on the table next to her. Someone had grabbed a blanket and draped it over her for which I was grateful. As I looked at her I gave serious thought to just joining her and waking up tomorrow.

By the time we reached my home it was past dark but the outside of the house was lit up with strange lights which took me a minute to place. Close to a dozen agents were sweeping the walls and grounds of the house for some five feet out looking for any possible clue as to why the intrusion had occurred this morning. Apparently no clues were forthcoming for nothing was found. Despite our visual inspections and the use of a number of devices during the day, nothing so much as a small listening device was found. I was beginning to think it was all some psychological ploy aimed at reducing our attention at some other location. The unspoken question remained — where?

 »  »  »  »  »  »

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

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

All rights reserved.

Please note: any publication or post of this story in any language in France, its possessions, or protectorates in any manner whatsoever, or any attempt to include this story, in part or in whole in any language, as or in a work published in France or its possessions or protectorates will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the copyright laws of the United States and of the World Court.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Hi Everyone...

As amazing as it might seem, I've actually had a little time to myself and have been able to put together another chapter based on Teddi's notes and a characters sentence (here and there). I hope you enjoy and even more important... can actually remember all that happened prior to this chapter. Things are definitely heating up.

Anesidora

Chapter 38

I was concerned. I had been unable to contact my team which was protecting James. The phone line link to the radio system yielded nothing despite the phone company declarations that the line was intact and terminated properly at the other end. Calls to the numbers we had were going unanswered and our calls to Lucy had yet to be returned. I wanted information and it wasn't being provided. That had to stop. I dispatched four more agents to James location on a charter jet and had Nicci calling for Lucy every half hour.

The next morning Cathy, myself, and the team were at work early. Cathy happily rushed off to listen to her records and to see who else was in early while I tracked down some coffee then made arrangements for a conference of all department heads, with the exception of the computer group.

By 0900 the meeting was under way.

What was the result of the sweeps conducted at my house yesterday and last night?”

“All negative.”

“What was done?”

“We examined the grounds for anything out of the ordinary. Mine detectors were brought in and the entire perimeter around the house was checked to a distance of twenty feet, more than half of which could be seen by the cameras. We triple swept the five feet closest to the house and swept the walls themselves. Last night ultraviolet and infrared were used to detect any potential breaches of the buildings outer walls which might have been sealed again somehow without visible detection, nothing was found.”

“What about electrical or electronic activity?”

“The outer walls and grounds were swept again to that twenty foot distance with the inner side of the outside walls also swept from the ground to the roof. Nothing was found”

“I can't help but feel we're missing something. What about communication devices?”

“No bugs, no radios, nothing we aren't using ourselves.”

I still felt uneasy. There had to be a reason for those men to come all the way to my house even after we proved to them we knew they were there.

“What kind of equipment is needed to detect their combat communications gear? Did you leave any of it behind at my command center so we could monitor for those signals in the chance that they can turn the stuff on and off from some other location?”

“The bug sweeps should have shown something. We checked all the commonly used frequencies.”

“I thought their stuff didn't act like the normal equipment? Didn't the examination teams have to use something special to find their signals?”

“Special? What's so different about their comm gear?” He asked, which made me even more uncertain that he should be the one in charge of my comms department.

That bad feeling in the pit of my stomach just dropped through the floor.

“We received a report concerning their combat communication devices. A copy of that was supposed to be given to every department head. Don’t you remember receiving it?”

I watched him think for a moment before he answered, “I don't recall seeing anything.”

“Nicci? Didn't their department receive a copy?”

“I think I have initials from every department. I'll check but I'm fairly certain someone in communications received and signed for it.”

That caused my comms officer to ask, “Do you have a copy here? I 'd like to see it.”

Nicci replied, “I can have a copy here in a moment.”

She got up and went out to her work area returning less than two minutes later with a freshly duplicated copy of the report which she handed to the officer.

“Oh, yeah. I remember seeing this. There was a lot of stuff about the weapons and some sort of bull about a radio system with invisible signals.”

“That was hardly 'bull' as you put it. Most of my old crew used a system very much like that while in Vietnam. This one is six years removed and is a little more compact with a few more bells and whistles but it's pretty much the same idea.”

“You're kidding.”

“Not in the slightest. What sort of equipment is needed to track those signals?”

“Well, I'd say we probably need a spectrum analyzer to do that. One with a broad-band RF amplifier on the front of it to bring the signal levels up enough to be easily seen. Maybe twenty db would do the job, depending on the sensitivity of the analyzer itself.”

“Do we have one?”

“No. We might be able to rent one, plus the amplifier but it would be four... maybe seven days to get it.”

“How quickly could we purchase one, no... three?”

“That would depend on a lot of things. I could see if HP has any immediately available. I probably should go for a plug-in model so we could change bands easily. There might be stuff on a band that we don't usually check with our normal equipment. You mentioned combat, all we check for are the civilian frequencies. Are we up against some military group?”

My face must have gone completely pale because he backed his chair up a good six inches before I replied.

“Everyone in my organization is a member of the Army reserves. Don't you remember signing anything along that line when you joined my company?”

“Vaguely. I didn't put much credence in it.”

“Well, you should have because we have been activated and you should be carrying not only the military ID but the set of orders which activated you.”

“So that’s what that paper was all about. Well, I'm not carrying them but they are in my desk.”

I was so stunned, I didn't even think to become angry.

“Ralph, I want to see his folder before the day is out. We can't afford to have someone in a command position who doesn't understand military discipline or our command structure.”

“Gotcha, Lynn.”

“Now just a minute.” he tried to bluff with me.

“You are temporarily relieved of command. Nicci get his second in command in here.”

“Who do you think you are? Who gave you the right to tell me how to conduct my business? I was hired by the owner of the business and no female yahoo with a God complex is going to tell me off without a fight; verbal or otherwise.”

I looked at him in total amazement, “I... happen to be the primary owner of this company and the military CO of the reserve unit of which it is comprised.”

“I thought 'he' was the owner. He said he was the owner when he hired me.” he pointed at Ralph.

“I said I was one of the owners.” Ralph corrected him.

“Captain Caruthers is one-tenth owner, just as Nicci is one-tenth owner. We have two Colonels who between them own another fifteen percent. The remaining sixty-five percent is owned by yours truly.” I pointed at myself, “As majority holder I’m telling you that you are relieved of command until I decide you are fit to again command a portion of this company either civilian or military. Ralph, I want his 'jacket' on my desk within the hour.”

“You'll have it, ma’am. You signed off on him, though.”

“I thought I might have. We were in great need for someone who knew the whole communications gambit but I can't have a prima donna who isn't a team or company player on the senior staff. If he can prove to be a company player then we can work him back into a staff position. Right now we have an emergency on our hands and I need someone who can work quickly and smoothly with the rest of the team.”

The yayhoo sat there with a stunned expression on his face.

It was a few minutes later when a knock came at the conference room door. Nicci got up to answer it then returned with the second in command from the comm's department.

I gave her five minutes to bring him up to speed before dropping him into the hot seat.

~ ~ ~ ~

“HP should have some spectrum analyzers available. It will probably still take four or five days to get one here though. The rest could come along over the next couple of weeks, we can get a lot done working with just one if it’s the right one.”

“What do they cost?”

“The frame is probably around a couple of grand. Each of the plug-ins between five and eight. There are five plug-ins but we can probably get away with just three of them since I doubt anyone is going to have small easily hidden stuff up in the highest microwave bands, at least not for a while yet. It would still be physically large until transistors become available which can operate in those frequencies. For the analyzers, let's figure twenty-five thousand a pop and be happily surprised if it's less.”

“Being happily surprised would be a change for me.” I added.

“Anything else any of you can think of? No? Okay, let's get back to work.”

I caught Ralph as we were going out, “Is our former comms officer's jacket in Nicci's secure files?”

“Should be. Let's both go take a look at it. I seem to remember the guy I hired was supposed to be former military, if I remember correctly. A lot has happened since he was hired.”

We found the jacket and read through it. Ralph was right, the guy had been in several hot-spots over a fifteen year period, including Nam as a young second lieutenant.

“Lucy's group hasn't returned our calls but I want another check run on this guy. Something doesn't add up here.”

“I'll have it faxed over after I make up our concerns cover page.”

“Thanks, Ralph.”

“I'll let you know when it has gone out.”

“Thanks. Don't forget to give the original jacket back to Nicci to lock up again.”

Ralph was still looking at the information in the jacket.

“No sweat, Ly... hey, did you notice this?”

“What?”

“This guy was in Thailand at the same base where we started up.”

“You're certain?”

“Yeah. Look.”

I leaned over his shoulder and read the jacket again on the page where his finger had stopped next to the fifth duty station on the list.

“Funny I don't remember him. He must have been part of the company that was there when we effectively took over the site. They weren’t a part of our little organization and I didn’t really track any of them.”

Ralph gave that a little thought, “Oh, yeah. I forgot about them. We sort of spread out over the base and their forty or fifty people got lost in the shuffle. Now that I think about it, I vaguely remember someone looking like him who kinda rings a bell.”

“Yes, me too. I think they had a couple of lieutenants so he could easily have been one of them. I'll wait to see what Lucy's group has to say about him again. We did have them check him out, didn't we?”

Ralph leafed through the jacket before halting to look as a couple of papers.

“Yeah. We did. They cleared him.”

“When you write the request ask that they go a bit deeper. Something just doesn't feel right here.”

“I'll go write up the request now.”

“Thanks, Ralph.”

“No sweat, Lynn.”

“OH. Include the photo we took of him when he came on board.”

“Will do.”

I went back to my office concerned about two things now. The first being the possibility that there were some kind of communications devices hidden at my house. That got me to wondering if there were more at the safe-houses and here at the office as well. I could see my new comm's chief would have his work cut out for him.

My next concern now pertained to a military man who didn't seem to be all that military. That got me to brooding over the simple fact that he had been in the middle of all my comm's purchases from Motorola. If he was a turn-coat, then my comm's could be compromised.

I prepared my own cover letter to go along with Ralph's then dialed Ralph who didn't answer so I called the comm center and caught him moments before the fax went out. Taking my cover letter down to them, it was added to the six pages and the photograph and the fax went out to Lucy's group even as I stood there dumbly wondering what to do next.

Ralph and I walked back to Nicci's area where Ralph dropped off the jacket so Nicci could file it in the secure cabinets again.

~ ~ ~ ~

It was to be yet another several days before we heard from Lucy again. In the meantime I was visited by Jeanne's attorney who, once again, was pressing for another increase in her monthly extortion; now to ten thousand a month. This time I hadn't received any photos by the time he visited, those came later; delayed by the Christmas mails no doubt. This time I was careful to save the envelope and the photos, locking them up in the secure cabinet in my office filed under my ex’s name as an “enemy-of-the-state”.

~ ~ ~ ~

The next afternoon I was at my own attorneys offices.

“Yes, their timing wasn't as good as it usually happens to be but still, her attorney arrived within two days of the photos.”

“I see. My recommendation at the moment is not to acknowledge this latest attempt until our office has the opportunity to discuss this with her attorney. If we discuss the possibility of taking her to court for extortion, both completed and attempted, then he will necessarily need to take a stand. Once he expresses his position then we can decide if he should be included in the suit although that is but a remote possibility. What of this Doctor who is living with her?”

“That second envelope holds some surveillance photos of him as well as of them together. His address of record is the same as hers but what goes on within the house is anyone's guess. We have not placed any surveillance systems into her home. A home which I bought and paid for by the way.”

My attorney looked up, “Did you actually purchase the home or are you saying that figuratively?”

“I actually bought the property, in my name prior to the marriage. The court order had me sign it over to her as part of the settlement despite the agreements she and I had made in writing prior to the wedding.”

“I remember those. The originals are in a file here if I remember correctly.”

“Yes, they should be.”

“They were unusual but we attempted to make them as bullet-proof as we could. On what grounds did the judge cast them aside?”

“I haven't the faintest. I don't remember which of you was representing me in court that day but it was all junior partners who handled my divorce in the court proceedings once she sued for things that had been denied due to that agreement.”

“I'll pull the transcript of the case and review it, along with the pre-marriage agreement. It's possible that due to the unusual nature of the agreement that the judge threw it out despite its legality. If that's true then we have grounds for appeal and cause for possible restitution of past payments.”

“Thanks. At this point anything which could help reduce my cash flow would be appreciated.”

“I'll see what we can do. Was there anything else?”

“Not just now. It just happens to be landing on top of a lot of other stuff which makes this an exceptionally bad time for me. I can’t believe how she can continue to soak me deeper and deeper despite our only being married for fifteen months.”

“Exactly when was that, again?”

“I don’t remember exactly. I could look it up. It was while I was still active duty army. Why?”

“I was under the impression it was fairly recent and for a longer duration.”

“Nope. It was while I was in Southeast Asia. She was old history by the time I returned to the States or went to Europe. She only received a small portion of my duty pay after that until I became a civilian. That was when she started going for a larger slice of the pie. When I started up my business that was when she started going for even more.”

“I’ll have the transcripts gathered and take a look at them myself. I’m not going to say anything just yet but I agree with you that things don’t quite look to be on the up and up.”

“Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

Lynn glanced around the room then looked at her watch, thinking she needed to purchase one with a larger face. Why did women’s watches always need a magnifying glass to let someone read them?

“I’m afraid I have another appointment I must prepare for Jerry. Thanks again and I’ll hope to be hearing from you soon.”

“Take care of yourself, Lynn. I’ll try to get back to you this week but, if not, then Monday.”

“Good. Take care, Jerry.”

“You too, Lynn... as a slight aside... This seems to agree with you. Congratulations.”

Lynn turned red and muttered, “Thanks. I think so too. Bye.”

Leaving my attorney's offices, I collected my driver from the waiting room and we rode the elevator down to the main floor before making our way back to the city parking structure and our car. As he dealt with the obstacles of getting out of the structure and making our way home through the growing post Christmas, pre-New Years traffic, the papers I had in my briefcase occupied my attention... or at least they should have.

My mind wouldn't let me drop the hundreds of irritating things which were vying for time in my poor overloaded brain. I had temporarily solved my immediate money problems by taking out some new loans on my rental properties. Yeah, I know; I just finished paying off the old one. What can I say? The business needed the money and this was a quick way to get it. That let me pay for all the stuff we were buying as well as stash four months worth of operating capital away. Now all I needed to do was worry about paying off the loans again.

If all went the way I hoped, the next six or seven months would put us far enough in the black that I could pay down the loan faster than the sixty months I had on it. A little extra right away could make a huge difference in the interest payments on the loan; especially if I needed to re-negotiate it down the road which for some unfathomable reason always seemed to happen. I wonder why?

~ ~ ~ ~

The next couple of weeks were both quiet and hectic, a complete set of contradictions. The ransom my ex was demanding had, temporarily at least, gone quiet. The business, now that Christmas and New Years were over was fast becoming a source of bedlam. Somehow, I had apparently booked two more jobs than I had people to cover. The bad news... I vaguely remembered every job although for some reason I had been associating those extra two with several others rather than counting them as their own tasks. This was the first time I had ever done that and I wasn’t happy about it. Ralph, Nicci and I spent some midnight oil to work out some fast shuffling which placed fewer personnel on ten of the larger January/ February jobs and had the effect of granting us the bare minimum for each of those extra two. That was only if we included myself and Ralph each as a part of those two.

The one for which I drew the short straw was a nature walk for some Pharmaceutical company’s CEO which was to occur for three days in the wilderness of the Routt National Forest in Colorado. We would base in Steamboat Springs, for which I had two of my men already there infiltrating and scoping out the area. The rest of us showed up two days later and waited for the CEO and his entourage of two to arrive at the airport some forty miles distant. We would drive in and join the first two who had a rental car and room reservations for the rest of us.

The gentleman who had attended our meetings and who had brought the company’s need for a protection detail to our attention, as well as provided a healthy deposit for our services to that end, introduced us.

“Ms. Stevens, this is Mr. Ledbetter, the CEO of WehrFahrung Pharaceuticals. Herr Ledbetter, Fraulein Stevens.”

I offered my hand which he shook gently as I gave him the once over.

“I expected someone a bit older, Herr Ledbetter.”

His accent surprised me when he answered. Obviously he had received his language training in England or from someone who was English although his idiomatic usage was other than that.

“Yes. I have CEO been only for two years. My father in charge was until then but he now is a little on so decided to retire.”

“I see. Welcome to Steamboat Springs, Herr Ledbetter. We have rooms reserved and a detail of eight here to provide security. We have made special arrangements with the Forestry Service and when we go out tomorrow there will be two of them to act as guides and to answer any questions you might have during the hike.”

“Thank you. I thought the Steamboat Springs smaller would be.”

“Steamboat is about thirty kilometers away, sir. They are much smaller. We will be in a hotel at the south end of the community. We will be hiking in an area to the south and west. It is a protected National Park.”

“National Park needs protected?”

I laughed, “Only from the people who are visiting it, sir. Too many Americans throw out their trash on the grounds rather than carrying it until there is a place to put it, or they fail to extinguish their cigarettes then fling them into the brush which sometimes causes damage to the environment.”

We got our detachment and party back to the hotel then out for supper and back again. Tomorrow would be an interesting day. Apparently there were some specific plants they wished to examine and possibly take samples back with them to be raised at their company for one purpose or another.

~ ~ ~ ~

We spent the next two days collecting nearly two dozen specimens which were carefully culled from the area under the watchful eyes of the Forestry Service. The three gentlemen spent long hours discussing the plants they had harvested along with small amounts of soil. The plants were allowed to remain in the sun during much of the day wherever possible and small amounts of our precious water were used to keep them alive.

On the third day we headed back for the vehicles.

I had two of my people on point ahead of our main party when I heard several nearly silent “phutfs” behind me. Spinning around I reached for my weapon and remembered only then that we were unarmed and only the Forestry people had weapons of any kind. As I finished my turn my mind was registering the strange fact that both of them were falling to the ground along with three of my own people. Even as I identified the threat, I realized it was one of Herr Ledbetter’s people. That was when I noticed Herr Ledbetter aiming something at me. It also went “phutt” and I felt a prick in my shoulder.

“Don't bother to fight it. All it will do is put you to sleep for a couple of hours and then you'll be good as new. Well... except for a hangover the size of Texas which will last for a couple of hours. No, don't try to talk, save your energy to listen. I have a message for you to give to your boss and I want to be certain you hear it all before you go nighty-bye.”

I tried to protest that I owned my company and I was the boss. He laughed before he replied.

“No, I mean your other boss. The one in Meade. An old flame of hers told me to tell you to let her know that he hasn't finished with her yet. He'll be back to collect on that old debt. Oh, and you might let her know that I've got a thunderbolt or two for her as well, as a thank-you for causing me to lose my cushy job in the belt. Houdini might have been a great magician but even he succumbed to his own bravado. Oh and don’t worry about Cathy. She’ll be just fine. We don’t hurt children. As soon as the leverage we will gain from holding her is no longer needed then she will be let go at a safe place and you will be able to retrieve her without incident.”

I managed to slur out; “ifff youu hrt er. I’ ki ou.”

He laughed, “Don’t be melodramatic. She will be fine. Perhaps a little frightened but just fine as will your own people. We waited until most were out on assignments leaving only a few at the office. It was necessary for us to strike there for the child since that is the only place where there is no bolt-hole, yes we are aware of the security precautions at your “safe houses”. By the way, my name isn’t Ledbetter but what it really happens to be doesn’t matter much at the moment. My thanks for looking after my two chemists so well. Oh! One more thing, tell your boss to quit getting in the way if she doesn’t want to be removed from the equation. That would be a shame since she’s so close to getting married again.

Well, we have to be going now. Two of my team will hang around until you all begin to awaken. We wouldn’t want some wild animals to take advantage of the situation until you are able to fend for yourselves again. If you quit struggling against the drug and just relax, it will go more quickly then you will all be up and at it again. The less you fight it, the less of a headache you’ll have when you wake up.”

He place a bottle on the ground next to me.

“Aspirin. For the headaches you will all have. Amazingly enough, it’s still the best remedy.
Nighty-night. Pleasant dreams.”

He started to laugh again as he walked past me gathering the two chemists and several other men whom I didn’t recognize and who had probably been waiting there to close the trap. Two of them remained nearby but by then my eyes weren’t focusing well and things were getting pretty dark. I remembered trying to curse something out at him but all I heard was some sort of soft grumble just before the lights went out.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright © 2013/ 2014 USA, Earth by D. A.Trask.

All rights reserved.

Please note: any publication or post of this story in any language in France, its possessions, or protectorates in any manner whatsoever, or any attempt to include this story, in part or in whole in any language, as or in a work published in France or its possessions or protectorates will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the copyright laws of the United States and of the World Court.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright © 2013/ 2014 USA, Earth by D. A.Trask.

All rights reserved.

Please note: any publication or post of this story in any language in France, its possessions, or protectorates in any manner whatsoever, or any attempt to include this story, in part or in whole in any language, as or in a work published in France or its possessions or protectorates will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the copyright laws of the United States and of the World Court.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author to permit this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting of this work at or upon any other location or site.

Except for small excerpts used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license obtained from the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.

Word finally arrived from my people who had been detailed to protect James. Of the six that were there at the time, two were okay and four were dead from whatever it was that was in those little darts the perps had been shooting.

It would have been a lot worse except one of the two survivors had gone out on a food run, returning during the shootout. He had sufficient presence of mind to pick up and use one of the intruders own weapons against them. Because of that we learned a valuable piece of information; the funny armor they wore that was so effective against our bullets could be cut like butter with a hot knife when hit by their own armament. Their attack group suffered four killed and the remaining two were captured as a result with only one more of my agents killed leaving two who survived the battle on my side of the ledger. I wished he had returned earlier but other than that I felt the two... no, all six were heros.

“Yes, ma’am. Their own weapons ripped through them like nobody’s business. The agent who opened fire on them from behind cut them down so fast they didn’t have time to turn around and shoot back. We were lucky... very lucky.”

“But we still lost some good men.”

“Yes, ma’am. We did. But we could have lost all of them plus our principal and that would have been worse yet. The military here has bundled him off somewhere and won’t tell us anything. The Colonel in charge has requested that we reconstitute our team and cut him in on our comms by bringing up the military repeater package we brought with us. We will need someone to come here and link our civilian and the military unit. The Colonel promises to obtain authority to use the military repeater by the time we’re ready to bring it up. He has given us a nice tall hill on which to put it. He also promises to have a short squad there to protect it for as long as it needs to be up and running.”

“Let him know we’re working toward doing just that. We’ve taken some heavy losses both here at the offices as well as there this day but we’re trying to get together some people who can supplement the two of you. We also will be sending someone out to cobble the two repeater systems together, hopefully within the next twenty-four hours. I have twenty portables for the military system that will soon be on the way via UPS overnight. I wish I could send the agent to tie the systems together the same way but he should arrive at the airport there tomorrow afternoon or at the worst tomorrow night. It all depends on how quickly I can shake someone loose. Let the colonel know he will need to send someone to pick our man up from the airport. I’ll get his name and flight information to you as soon as I know it.”

“Yes ma’am. Thank you. When will we have our reinforcements?”

“That will be a little slower. There will be two the day after tomorrow. The next four will arrive piecemeal within the two days following. They’ll bring their own radios with them and will contact your people for a ride via the comms. That might happen with the agent who is going to tie the systems together but I can’t be certain of that.”

“Thank you, ma’am. The colonel just walked in ma’am; could you hold a moment?”

“Yes, thank-you.”

The background sounds disappeared but the slight hiss indicating the encryption system was still active caused me to understand that the headset mic had been muted but the link was still up. Less than thirty seconds later the background noise commenced again and very quickly the colonel was on the line.

“Major.”

“Sir?”

“Your people acquitted themselves quite well here this morning; better than my own men. Have you been given the casualty information?”

“Not reliably, sir.” I really didn’t want to hear this.

“We lost twelve of my men before the enemy managed to breach an access into the building. There we lost five more before the enemy came up against your own people. During that part of the skirmish the enemy lost two; one killed, one wounded but your people lost four. That was the point at which one of your men returned from a fast-food run. He noted the bodies outside the building then armed himself with some of our heavy weaponry. On entering the building he found one of the enemy weapons and opted to take it up for use. He then approached the location of the ongoing battle. There he set up a cross fire which took out four of the enemy. During that time your fourth agent was killed leaving only one on each side of the cross-fire.

When your returning agent ran out of ammunition for the weapon he had commandeered, he switched to the one he picked up from one of our men. At that point only two enemy remained who were effectively boxed in. Between the agent inside with Doctor Thompson and the automatic weapon and spare ammunition the outside agent had taken from one of my downed men they held off the two remaining enemy for another two minutes until help arrived. The enemy combatants surrendered when they ran out of ammunition. We were lucky this time. How’s Doctor Thompson’s daughter? We heard you had some activity there as well.”

“She... has the ‘flu’, sir. Other than that, she’s fine. We are looking into the cause for the flu and she has been to see a doctor just this morning. He says there is nothing to do but keep her hydrated, allow her to rest, and wait it out. He wants to see her again tomorrow.”

“Flu huh? Okay, keep her safe and Doctor Thompson will be able to continue his work. He’ll be glad to hear she’s okay, flu not withstanding.”

“Yes, sir. Sir? I heard the operation of our Military repeater has been authorised. Is this correct?”

“That’s the information I was given. I should have the paperwork by tomorrow sometime.”

“Good. I’m having an additional twenty portable radios for the mil-net sent by UPS which will bring the total there up to thirty-two counting the twelve which are already there. I’ve got a man scheduled to arrive there tomorrow afternoon who can link the systems for you; probably during the following morning. He will need someone to pick him up at the airport.”

“We can do that, just let us know which flight and his name and I’ll have a driver meet him there.”

“Thank you, sir. As soon as we have the information, I’ll let my agents there know and they can pass it on to your people. Anything else, sir?”

“Not from this end. Well done, major.”

“Thank you, sir.”

I heard him remove the headset then hand it off to someone who muted the mic. A few seconds later the hiss vanished which told me the portable radio had also been switched from transceive to monitor only which caused the link to drop. The repeater self-id suddenly intruded as it sent out the rapid burst of morse-code used to automatically identifying itself. The audio level of the burst was about a fifth as loud as the Colonels voice had been. I had forgotten about those automatic id transmissions, usually they occur while I’m listening to someone and being at a much lower volume it’s easy for them to pass unnoticed.

Well, what I’d just been told wasn’t all good news. I’ve lost seven men total. Three here and four there. As far as I was concerned, no news about my fourth man here was good news as it meant he was still alive at this point. I wasn’t about to conjecture as to how well off he would be when he woke up. This whole mess was something none of us had previously encountered.

Well... maybe the military who had been protecting James had some ideas, but I and my people were relative newcomers to the scene despite any previous notions I might have to the contrary due to Nam and our Euro-African involvements.

I sat there and thought about it all. We had been lucky - damned lucky and still we lost seven good men. I needed to know who they were and if they had families. That was something to which I wasn’t looking forward. It was always difficult telling someone their family member wasn’t going to be walking in the door again. I needed to review our insurance program and to have finance - Susan see about a monthly annuity for any family surviving our agents in addition to any lump sum paid out by the insurance company. Oh, yeah, there was likely to be a premium escalation due to this little hit. For some reason that didn’t distress me as much as losing the men. As much as I had felt I had failed Cathy, I felt the same about my men.

My phone buzzed indicating the in-house intercom.

“Stevens.”

“Ma’am? We... uh... I’m sorry ma’am. The hospital called. We just lost the fourth man.”

“I see. Has Colonel Jackson’s office been appraised of our losses?”

“I think so, ma’am. I’ll check and if they haven’t, I’ll see to it that they get the list.”

“We have a list?”

“Yes, ma’am. Larry just finished putting it together. He’s adding the fourth man now. We’ve lost a total of eight.”

“How many are married?” I crossed my fingers and toes and hoped for none.

“Three ma’am. Greg was going to be married in June which would have made four.”

Damn.

“Okay. Thanks. Could you get a copy of that list to Nicci, Ralph, and myself? Oh, and a copy to Susan in Finance?”

I made a mental note that once my business reached a hundred and fifty agents then I would need a full-time HR person so I didn’t need to get involved in things like insurance and training, other than to view the reports so I had some idea of how everyone was doing. Now that I thought about it, I might already be there what with the increases we had been adding to flesh out the other two locations. I kept underestimating my company manpower levels because I was only seeing the people for this location and not for the entire company. My mind also discounted the trainees who started at this location for six months before I moved them to one of the other two. That meant we actually had around two and a half times as many agents and at somewhere around six or seven times as many involved in the business as I ever saw on a daily basis. No wonder I had such a large payroll - which probably should have clued me in if I hadn’t been so busy trying to find work for all of them.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Thanks.”

I hung up and spent a number of minutes kicking my own butt for losing the husbands and fiancees of women who still didn’t know they were widows or whatever they call a fiancee who has lost her loved one. I wanted to know more about those bozos who shot first and didn’t care if they killed anyone... then I wanted a hunting license. Maybe I could just hide my good-guy’s badge, put on a dark suit and go hunting off the reservation. I wondered vaguely if any of my original guys would want to come with me.

I got up from behind my desk to walk out to have a talk with Nicci. I could have saved my time because she wasn’t at her desk. A few seconds later she came walking back with a very subdued Cathy who looked a bit green around the gills. Nicci gave me a sympathetic look as Cathy continued over to me where she hugged me as best she could when I squatted down hold her.

“I don’t feel good, Mommy.”

“I know, sweetheart. I hope it will be over soon and you’ll begin to feel better. Do you want to go home and get some sleep in your own bed? It might help.”

“Daddy doesn’t like it when I get sick.”

“He just worries about you, just like I do.”

“Daddy is worried?”

“If you’re sick. Yes, he gets worried. When he worries, he doesn’t know what to do to help so he doesn’t like it. He isn’t mad at you or anything, he just wants the sickness to go away so you will feel better.”

“Oh. Me, too. Can I have a milkshake?” She suddenly looked stricken, “Uh, never mind.”

“I agree, sweetheart. That might not be the best thing just now.”

“Uh huh. Thinking makes me not feel good.”

“Maybe a little soup?”

“Maybe. I don’t feel good thinking about that either. When I feel better can I have a milkshake?”

I nodded to her, “When you feel better.”

“I’m hungry.”

“I know, baby. Sometimes just a little broth will help. You don’t need to eat a lot. Maybe some chicken soup?”

Cathy sighed, “Just a little? Maybe?”

“A very small amount and if you keep that down and everything goes okay then maybe another small amount.”

“Okay. If I feel better tomorrow can I have a milkshake?”

“Why don’t we wait until tomorrow to see about that? If you feel better then, maybe we can try it.”

“Okay. I don’t like to be sick. Can I be better soon?”

“Will you..? And no one likes to be sick. I hope you get better soon, baby.” I wrapped my arms around her and comforted her against me. When I began to release her she started to slump. I held onto her to prevent her from dropping, drawing back my head to look at her face. She was fast asleep.

“Nicci, would you have a couple of my agents take us home? One can drive my car and the other a company car so they have some way of leaving once Cathy and I settle in at my house.” I asked as I scooped up Cathy.

“Oh, would you get my purse from out of my desk for me?”

“On it. All of it.”

My agents waited around the house while I put Cathy to bed, then they made a quiet withdrawal to return to the offices. I decided to take a nice hot bath and get some sleep myself; it had been a long day, for all of us. Tomorrow I would begin to deal with the families of those who were lost, I just couldn’t face that today.

Even though I had been fortified by the accompaniment of several other wives, it had still been difficult to explain to people that their husband and daddy would not be coming home again. It’s never easy but this was much harder than I had experienced before. In war, I and the families could expect the possibility but... well, this wasn’t war, was it? How do police departments handle this sort of thing?

It took me twice as long to let everyone know because I needed time to come back down from my tears and self-recrimination before I was ready to do it all again with the next survivor. I also for the first time, had the opportunity to see the varied responses the wives of those lost would offer in an attempt not to break down completely. Numbed acceptance, tearful sorrow followed by attempts not to show it in front of strangers, and complete denial. I’m certain there would have been many more responses if there had been more wives for me to tell. I was thankful there were only the three. As the fiancee was in another city, I would need to have Ralph stop by- no, not a good idea; he has a tendency to be a bit... blunt. Okay, I would need to fly there with some reinforcements to find her so she could be notified.

I returned to the office to collect Cathy who was once again in the care of Nicci. I don’t know what I would do without her help.

“Nicci, could you arrange a meeting between Lucy, Randolf and myself? I will need to fly there as the meeting should be in private between the three of us.”

“Any preference as to when?”

“Soon. Very soon. Tell her that I have other information for their ears only which was not placed into the reports.”

“Oh?? All right. I’ll get right on it. If they try to put it off or say tomorrow, what then?”

“Tomorrow is okay if I have time to fly there. Don’t let them put it off more than a couple of days though. It’s very important they know this. It could be a life or death situation.”

“May I quote you on that?”

“Please do.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll put a call through right away.”

I thanked her and took Cathy out to my car. She still wasn’t up to one hundred percent but she was improving rapidly. Twenty-four hour bug I guess. Not yet ready for her milkshake but getting there.

The phone rang. I answered it quickly so it wouldn’t awaken Cathy who needed the sleep.

“Stevens.”

“Hi Lynn. I’ve got an appointment for you tomorrow at thirteen hundred at Lucy’s offices. Your flight out is at six our time which will give you about ninety minutes to get from the airport to the offices. Lucy recommends you travel in uniform and will fax me a set of travel orders for you. I’ll fax them to your house as soon as I have them in hand. When you arrive, I have a rental car reserved at the airport AVIS counter under your name. Both the flight and the car have been reserved using a company credit card. If they need to see a card then your corporate card will do. I have two agents scheduled to arrive at your house at five. One to take you to the airport and the other to bring Cathy to the offices here. Anything else you can think of?”

“No. Thank you, Nicci. You’ve pretty well covered it. I’m sorry to dump Cathy on you again.”

“Not a problem. She’s a good kid. She misses you when you’re gone, you know.”

“And that’s been happening all too frequently lately.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“Not completely. I make a lousy mother.”

“Not if you listen to Cathy. Other than missing you she thinks you’re the next best thing to sliced bread, Santa Claus, and the tooth fairy.”

I laughed.

“Her expectations aren’t all that high then?”

“Not at all. You better get some rest. I’ve got a wake up call scheduled for you at oh three-thirty. That gives you about an hour and a half to get both of you ready before the detail shows up.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you’re a slave driver, Nicci?”

“Most of the agents and most of the time. Now get off to bed.”

“Yes, mother.” I chuckled.

“You better. Bye, Lynn. Have a safe trip.”

“Thanks. Bye, Nicci.”

“... and that’s the reason why I wanted a private conversation which included the both of you.”

“At no time did this person give you a name?” Randolf asked, his face set and lips tightly closed afterward.

“No. The only clue he gave was that he had some thunderbolts to give to Lucy in thanks for losing him his ‘cushy job’ in, I think he said ‘the belt’, which I took to mean D.C..”

I again gave consideration to that which he had said. I thought I did a good job of para-phrasing since my mind was pretty much clouded for several hours after I woke up.

“I can’t remember the exact words in every case because whatever that was they used on us made it difficult for me to think for three or four hours after I woke up. It also left us all splitting headaches which were quickly treated with the aspirin he left us.”

“Are you certain it was aspirin? It might have been a counter-agent made up to look like aspirin.”

“I had that thought after a few hours. I saved a random sample of eight of the tablets for analysis. They proved to be aspirin and of the composition produced by Bayer. Unfortunately what they used at my offices and at James location wasn’t the same stuff so the aspirin would likely have been useless even if they had known about it.”

Lucy waded in again, “I think we need to stay focused here. The threats made were obviously directed at myself and Randolf, but mostly myself. I think I have an idea who these people are. The old flame is someone who escaped incarceration during transport to Texas for a capital murder trial. He had outside help and they were well armed.”

“Who was that?” Randolf looked at her with curiosity about a former flame she might have had.

“Jeremy. You remember him. The fake husband and traitor from my days working with the agency in Nam.”

“Oh yeah. Damn, not that prick again.”

I made it a point to remain silent, just sitting there listening as Randolf and Lucy talked this whole thing out. I figured I might learn something useful or at least learn more than I knew now.

“Yes, it would appear to be him again. The other was a Colonel working in the General’s offices. His code name was ‘Thor’ which would explain the thunderbolts.”

“I thought we were done with those two.”

“Apparently not and equally apparently they are involved in this group, whoever they are, who are trying to secure Doctor Thompson or at least his cooperation.”

“Didn’t a number of agency people vanish around the same period of time? As I recall, there were a few personnel for sister agencies at other countries who also went missing about that same point in time.”

“Yes. I think somewhere around a hundred all total.”

“A hundred? I didn’t think it was that many.”

Randolf had a concerned look on his face which made me more concerned. Besides, a hundred people in intelligence organizations across the planet would make a fairly respectable group of antagonists.

“I’m more concerned with how many are still working in those agencies giving this group intelligence gathered from all over the globe. If they are freely sharing information from all agencies, then this organization is formidable indeed because they have information which most of us don’t receive due to interagency or national rivalries.”

Shock suddenly was present on Randolf’s face. It was obvious that he had not considered the possibility of sleeper agents yet being in place at all those agencies. My estimates of his infallibility were dealt a great setback as a result. Heaven forbid, he was just as fallable as the rest of us.

I waded back into the fray.

“Since you both are coming up with all this information, do you have any ideas about my mole? That former communications chief is still my prime suspect. What have you learned about him?”

Lucy took up the gauntlet, “Well, he isn’t the person we thought him to be. Our Lieutenant in Thailand was involved in a fire-fight at one point in time. This resulted in a scar on his face of which there is no sign on this fellow.”

“Maybe he had plastic surgery.”

“A possibility but not the case in this instance. Our lieutenant died in a fight while he was on duty near Trung Luong a year later.”

Now that made me ever more certain this guy was my mole even as Lucy continued.

“However, that is beside the point. This person you hired and whom we vetted as being the deceased lieutenant is actually his twin brother. He is also a very capable communications expert and quite the patriot. Our present research into him shows that he has difficulty holding a job even so. Apparently he is rather outspoken or goes off and makes ‘improvements’ in electronic systems without prior authorization. Even though his ‘improvements’ actually help, his failure to explain that which he intends to do gets him fired by those who don’t understand or don’t care that he has made things better. I don’t apologize for our previous error concerning him, but we doubt very seriously that this person is your mole. His IQ is quite high, although he doesn’t make a very good person to have in charge of a division or in contact with people who matter. In the proper position he could make a very significant contribution to your organization, along the lines of secure electronic systems or communications that is. If you give him his head he just might wind up suddenly giving you a comms system which can’t be cracked.”

“Oh, great. More money to be spent.”

Lucy gave me a smile, “If you don’t have a slot for him, why don’t you send him to us? I’m certain we can tuck him away in a nice little laboratory where he can play with his electronics to his heart’s content.”

“I just might do that. I’ll talk with him later, once I get back home. If he’s interested I’ll let you know and you can decide how to take it from there. At least he isn’t married.”

“He was at one time. That was another interpersonal problem he had. As I was saying, he doesn’t relate to people very well... electronics, it’s almost like he can talk with the stuff.”

“Good Lord, no wonder he rubs me the wrong way.”

“Send him to us. I’m certain we can find him a nice quiet laboratory to play in.”

“If he wants to go, he’s all yours.”

Lucy looked at Randolf and then at me, “I think the time has come to read her into a few things; don’t you?”

Randolf frowned, paused then nodded his head.

“I’ll leave the two of you to this. I’ve got to get back to my office and do some planning.”

“After Lynn is up to speed, I’ll stop by your office. Say about four?”

“I think that should work. Goodbye, Lynn. Nice having this chat but now I”ve got to see what I can do to throw a monkey wrench into their plans.”

“I hope we can meet under somewhat better circumstances at another time, Sir.”

He smiled and gave Lucy a kiss then departed while Lucy went to her safe and pulled out three folders and a newspaper page which she brought back to her desk. She handed me the sheet of newsprint and indicated I should read the article which had a red outline around it. After only a couple of minutes I finished the article.

“All right. I’m not certain what a mass grave located in Laos should mean to me but I read it.”

“When was the grave found?”

I checked, “June of seventy-one.”

She handed me another sheet of newsprint. It was another mass grave but this one was found in Cambodia in September of seventy-one. When I finished that she handed me a third which detailed a mass grave found four months ago in South Vietnam.

“What is common to the three mass gravesites?”

I scanned the articles again quickly before answering, “They’re all mass graves?”

“Other than that.”

I carefully checked the reports.

“Actually there look to be two things. The number of people found at each site are roughly similar and all of the bodies appeared to have been dyed a faint blue color and were shriveled.”

“Does that sound familiar?”

I thought about it for a moment, “No. Should it?”

“The bodies of our people who were killed in the conflicts at your office and at Doctor Thompson’s safe house.”

“Really? I haven’t seen any reports concerning the bodies.”

“Be thankful you haven’t actually seen them. They look like they’ve been mummified, very quickly.”

I looked at her to see if she was joking. She looked deadly serious.

“So why would our adversaries be involved in killing three random groups of people?”

She handed me one of the folders, “They weren’t random.”

I accepted the folder with some curiosity then began reading. When I finished I was astounded at the audacity of the apparent plan which had been executed over a twenty month period. Preparations for that execution had to have entailed at least a couple of years.

“You’ve got to be joking. How much did they get?”

“About thirty million dollars worth out of Laos, another twenty-one and a half from Cambodia and South Vietnam won’t release any figures but our analysts figure it to be around thirty-eight million.”

“And then they executed the hired help.”

“It would look that way.”

“That means they made off with something of the order of ninety million dollars in gold, and jewels.”

“No. The ninety million is just the gold. None of the jewels have surfaced as yet and we have no hard and fast figures for them. Again our analysts place the jewels and jewelry in excess of sixty million but they could net far more from collectors.”

“Why do they need so much money?”

“It isn’t money. It’s actually bars of gold, and precious gems; mostly sapphires and rubies in elaborate settings.”

She handed me the last folder to read. When I finished I wish I hadn’t read it.

“You really think they intend to do that?”

“The indications are strong.”

“Hong Kong and Moscow both?”

“And four of our European partners as well.”

“But how... why?”

“Greed. Crack the easy eggs to get the operating capital which gives you the opportunity to separate the yolk from the white in the more difficult ones.”

“I’m surprised they aren’t targeting us as well.”

“You didn’t hear it from me, but...”

“You’re kidding?”

“Afraid not. We would appreciate it if your agency could disseminate up to date artist’s sketches of the people you encountered on that detail. Once you have given copies to all your people we would like to have some for this office. If any of your people sees anyone we would like a heads up but don’t do anything to alert them. Don’t even follow them. They have a very good counter-surveillance group.”

“Terrific.” I was stunned. All this was just prelude to robbery on a grand scale? It didn’t feel right.

“How much are they going to try for? The total, I mean.”

“We don’t know. At a guess somewhere around two billion.”

“Two billion!? Even with all the inflation we were seeing as a result of the Vietnam war, two billion is still one hell of a chunk of change.”

“Yes, it is.” Lucy agreed.

I didn’t know what to think. I mean, this possible plan was... outrageous. I sat there completely stunned at the audacity the group of former agents seemed to have and if they were really going to try to undermine the US economy could two billion actually do very much? After all, our gross national product was well in excess of that... I thought. Suddenly I had another thought.

“What time is it?” I glanced around just noticing it was beginning to get dark out.

“Six-thirty.”

That served to panic me, “You missed your meeting with Randolf and I’ve got to get to the airport. My plane leaves in an hour and a half.”

“You were engrossed in reading, I called him and we will have our discussion over a late supper. I’ve also arranged for a driver and escort vehicle so you won’t need to deal with turning in your car. The driver will do that while you’re checking in for your flight.”

“Thanks.”

I was halfway home when I suddenly realized that the candidate I had tagged as being my ‘mole’ wasn’t my mole, which meant I had the reinstatement of a problem I hadn’t wanted to deal with in the first place. Who was the real mole? Thanks to Lucy and Randolf, my headache was returning... in spades.

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.

Cover image copyright Maps.com and shown for clarification of area in which the story evolves.

DUTY CALLS, L. J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

All rights reserved.

The posting of this story chapter on the site known as BCTS (Big Closet - Top Shelf) in no way indicates this work is public domain and, in fact, this copyright contains an implicit license on the part of the author permitting this portion of the work to be maintained by BCTS for the reading enjoyment of those who frequent that site (BCTS) and such posting shall not be considered as authorization for any further posting or offering of this work at or upon any other location or site or in any other manner, print, electronic or otherwise.

Except for small excerpts of 100 words or less used in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, designed, or conceived, or in any retrieval system for any purpose, is forbidden without written and specific license of the author or his/ her heirs or Estate.