"Oh Mama, I hate to see you like this. We are who we are. Would you really, I mean really and truly, want to work with Homeland Security?"
"Ugh, no thank you. The idea makes my skin crawl."
"Well there you go. And there's one other little thing."
I'll tell you this just once. When Jane fidgets, arrange to be somewhere at least 6 feet away from her. If she's huging you at the time, it's like getting a roller massage in the face.
"There's just one other thing I need to tell you Mama. Just one. Not a biggie. Just a detail I guess, but you'd probably want to know, and...."
"Come on Janie, just spit it out, I'm pretty much over being shocked now."
"Ah, my connection as an 'occasional' consultant for the FBI and Homeland Security isn't known by anyone that I know of so far, but if someone ever digs into my background, they'll find that, and only that. That's why I told you what I did a few minutes ago, to practice my cover story...sorta...maybe."
"The agency I work for 90% of the time now, when I'm not doing my private security stuff is this one."
Jane handed me another ID case. Oddly I felt a bit of a tingle in my fingers when I touched it. Probably just nerves. I opened it, and there she was looking back at me. Fairly standard ID; photo, government ID number and such. The rest said: "National Security Agency, Installation and Logistics -- Intern."
"The NSA. The freaking NSA. So you're an Intern for the NSA? And this after you'd just told me that Homeland Security was the last surprise?"
"Wheels within wheels, Mama. Wheels within wheels.
"Installation and Logistics is the most boring work at the NSA. You travel wherever they send you and set up antenna arrays and computers. Nothing requiring much of a security clearance. You only have to show that you won't tell anyone where you've been. You never handle sensitive data. It's my cover within a cover.
"You already know what I really do for them."
I don't know what I did wrong, maybe I had an inquisitive look on my face, but all of a sudden I knew I'd made a mistake. I'd turned on Jane's 'instructor' switch.
"You know Mama, the NSA gathers information, electronically, from all over the world. Part of its mission is to keep our own government's intelligence and communications secure. It's part of the Department of Defense and the director has to be at least a lieutenant general or a vice admiral."
She took a quick deep breath, so I didn't have time to interrupt her.
"It's located at Fort Meade, Maryland and uses over 90 megawatts of electricity. Did you know that that's more than the entire city of Annapolis, the capitol of Maryland uses? They used to cause brown-outs until Constellation Energy ran in new power lines. In fact the NSA is the power company's biggest customer in the entire state."
Jane gushed, just like any other hyperactive teenager who was passionate about a hobby, "I really want to get inside and look around. Their computer systems must be beyond awesome!"
Good, her face relaxed into the glazed look I'd come to associate with rapture -- usually seen when she's hooked a really big trout that has been giving her trouble by totally ignoring her offerings of various delectable looking flies for several days or when she was getting ready to install a really devious security system.
Time for me to finally say something.
"Questions:
"1) Do the CIA and NSA know anything about these?
"2) If so, if someone decides to look us up on their internal databases, will they find us?
"3) If they find us there, what will it say about us?"
"Geez Mama, you seem to think I'm stupid or something." Another of Janie's perfected pouts here.
"Of course they know (well a few of the permanent management people do), and yes, of course we're in the databases."
"It says that I'm an intern with a start date that changes every day so it's always 2 months before the date they look. Then they'll see that I'm working with a roving team out of the country. Which team will depend on which is the furthest away and hardest to contact at that moment.
"You're listed as always incognito, working in various departments under an assumed name and where and as whom is classified as 'need to know'. Perfect for Internal Affairs investigators and also a good explanation as to why nobody knows you."
"That's why the name on your ID is Glynis Rivers and not your own. By the way, why did you choose that name back when we were living in Fresno?"
"Well, I've always liked that Welsh actress, Glynis Johns. She had the most wonderful voice, and she was extremely talented. A good singer too."
"And 'Rivers', well, that was a joke since there weren't any permanent ones that near to Fresno. It's almost a desert climate after all."
"Oh I see Mama, that explains it. Anyway, that's about it.
"As you can see, Mama, my getting together with the Forsythe's wasn't entirely accidental. They'd just been waiting to make contact with us until I'd grown up a bit.
"Mr. Forsythe's interest in fly fishing, and my meeting him on the river, were pure, blissful serendipity for the FBI. If it hadn't happened there, they'd have made an effort to contact me within a couple of months anyway."
Jane spaced out again, so I got up and tiptoed down the hall to my room. Even thinking about fishing got her all dreamy-eyed. Not that I minded right now. I needed some alone time.
------------------------
Dang, my fingers were tingling again. I hoped that I hadn't bruised a nerve in my hand one of the times I tossed myself onto the couch.
I put down my ID badge to check out my hand, and the tingling stopped. I picked up the badge and the tingling started again.
Got freaked out, again -- GOD I'm tired of these things happening!
Opened the wallet up, laid it flat on my desk, (tingling stopped again) and took a really close look at the contents. The ID was perfectly normal. The badge however looked a bit odd, so I checked for images online. The starburst in the center is usually gold. Mine had a faint, bluish cast to it. I held my hand over it and felt the tingling again. Then I laid my hand flat on the badge and the world went away.
Instead of my desk, what I saw was a room shrouded in shadows that seemed to be moving. There were wisps, tendrils, skinny clouds -- I don't know how to describe it -- sort of waving in the air, like kelp fronds under water.
There was a row of pale, whitish blue cylinders with two sides solid -- like 1/4 circle arcs, and the other two sides appearing to be open but consisting of some sort of transparent material. I couldn't see the ceiling but every 20 seconds or so a massive cylindrical hammer fell at an incredible speed and landed on a die at the bottom of the cylinder then rose back up into the immensity of the building/cavern/space. Then it repeated the cycle.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
I can't say what impressed/surprised/scared me more. That the hammer didn't shatter when it hit, or that the material it was forging barely changed shape with each blow, or the fact that some of the vapors in the room seemed to be sucked into the material being forged each time the hammer struck. I just thank God that the room was in total vacuum or I'm sure that the noise would have shattered my eardrums instantly.
(Don't ask me how I knew that or why the "clouds" acted that way when they were in a vacuum. I have no idea, and absolutely no desire to go back and find out.)
I finally decided that what REALLY scared me the most was that I recognized what was being forged in the one closest to me. It was the same as the insignia in the center of my badge.
Then I was back in my room, and found that I had spots before my eyes from holding my breath. (Yes, you really can see spots that way. I don't recommend the experience though, it's extremely uncomfortable.)
I went back down the hall to Jane's room. Knocked, entered.
"Janie honey, about this badge...."
"It's OK Mama, just put it in your shirt pocket. It should fit nicely since there won't be much under it. That way, when you need to activate the shield, you can just tap it like they do to activate a communicator in Star Trek."
"LOOK JANE I'm NOT......"
"I'll have to find somewhere else to put mine, it won't fit in a shirt pocket on me."
Then she got a sort of vague expression and shook herself and said: "Oh, hi Mama. Come on in. Did you want something?"
DAMN! If I came up with some comeback about my chest, I'd have to explain to her that she'd been saying things she didn't remember...again.
Again? When had she done that before? I couldn't rightly remember myself.
Oh well, it couldn't be important. What was important was that whatever it was in the center of my badge was some sort of shield.
Suddenly I knew that I was wearing my usual (at least to hear Jane say it) devilish expression. I was certain that I could figure out some really useful things to do with a shield if I put my mind to it and experimented a bit.
I did rather carefully decide not to pursue any thoughts about how it got in my badge or about the room where it was forged that I'd seen in my...guess you could call it a vision.
Nope, definitely don't want to go there right now.
Speaking of going somewhere, it's time we started getting serious about our response to the thefts that brought us here.
"It's time for us to strategize what we're going to do about our current situation. Let's get back in the living room and brainstorm."
What I really meant is "let me tell you what to do," but I knew that that would go down like pills go down the throat of a cat when it's sick, so it was time to be at least a little diplomatic.
<
Once we got settled down with tea, and purring cats on our laps, I started talking.
"First of all, we do nothing about these problems personally. Let me explain why before you explode on me."
Jane grumbled at me, "I DON'T explode, I'm just very outspoken sometimes, that's all!"
"Yeah...right. Anyway, since this is likely a fishing expedition, we don't bite. It doesn't mean that we don't do anything about it. What we need to do is this.
"You process all your data, and by the way, explain to me how you know that there is some when we finish here, OK? Then we send all your data to the FBI. They'll be involved in this. They're into heavy duty industrial espionage cases. If you have as much as you think you do, they'll probably be able to catch the perps."
"You think there wasn't only one Mama?"
"Nope, not possible. Look at us. You specialize in data, I specialize in the physical. Do you think that any single human being can truly be an expert in both?"
"Hmmm, I see your point. So you think that there were two break-ins?"
"Yep, and probably at least a couple hours apart. In fact, it could be two different groups that coincidentally hit them on the same day -- though I find that unlikely. It's more likely that two separate branches of the same outfit were behind this and didn't coordinate -- sorta like when I was spotted by that FBI agent in the warehouse incident."
(That REALLY hurt. Not only had I not noticed the security guard, but I ALSO hadn't noticed the guy overhead. Time to review my own procedures for when I go after something in the future.)
"Of course, you'll be able to tell once you access your data. How long will it be before it gets to you?"
"Should be sometime late tonight given that the crimes happened in Boise."
"OK then, we have time to have dinner and get some rest, then we can get back to work."
"Sounds good to me Mama, let's do that. I'll just get my systems set up now so I can decrypt the data as soon as possible after it gets here. Then I guess it'll be time to unpack."
"Oh gods, I'd forgotten about that. The car probably stinks by now from all the stuff we left in it. Let me tell you again how much I appreciate your sticking with your 'catch and release' program! If there were dead fish in there too....
"Anyway, let's get it over with."
Later as I was getting ready for bed, I was playing with my new ID -- genuine this time, YAY -- just flipping it open and closed over and over, when I noticed something. There was something behind the CIA ID card.
I slid it out and saw myself on an Oregon driver's license, with the name Glynis Rivers. Pulled out my real one, OK, my 'other' real one, and did a comparison. They'd made a mistake, two of them actually.
I was NOT 4' 11" I was 5 feet damn it! And as for the other...
I stalked back down to Jane's room. Fortunately the door was open so I just continued stalking and went in. She was sitting at her dresser, combing out her hair.
"Janie, this driver's license is going to get me in a world of trouble. What were they thinking?"
"What's wrong with it Mama? Let me see."
Jane took it and looked it over then laughed, a little too long for my taste.
"Oh, my, they listed your height at 4' 11". I know that you like to pretend that you're 5 feet, but you shouldn't be that upset about it, besides, it's only one inch."
"You don't see anything else wrong about it?"
"No Mama, I don't, should I?"
"Ah, let me see your new license. I assume you have one too?"
"Of course, here you go." She dug it out and handed it over to me.
I saw the same problem as on mine, a potentially dangerous problem.
"And you don't see anything odd at all? Like maybe the wrong eye colors?"
"Huh, let me see again. Nope, brown eyes for you and blue for me. That's right. What's the problem?"
We both turned and looked at her dressing table mirror.
<
What I saw was the same thing I always saw in the mirror or when I looked at her. My eyes were a bright, grass green, and hers were equally bright but a lovely lavender color.
------------------------
. Have you ever seen an avalanche? Think about it. The snow just builds up to a certain point, then the avalanche happens. Or so it seems. The reality is that there's a lot going on down inside the snow that isn't visible. That's what causes the avalanche.
Events can be like that too. Nothing seems to be happening and suddenly the whole world is crashing down around you, and your life is changed forever in a few moments of utter chaos.
I walked back down the hall, slowly enough that I didn't even trip once. There was a lot to think about. Well, there already had been a lot, it was just a lot more than a lot now, if you follow me.
I opened the door and glanced at the tapestry of a dragon that I had hanging just inside. My favorite of all the things I'd collected. I'd had the dragon longer than anything else because, in the early years, I only kept things that were very light weight, small, and easily portable in case I had to move suddenly.
The next thing I did was turn around and go back to Jane's room.
"Quiz time honey."
"Ah geez Mama, right now?"
"Yes right now, you never know...."
"When you'll need to remember something right now and not later. I remember Mama."
And she mumbled not quite under her breath, "As if you'd ever let me forget."
I let it pass this time. I pretended that this was just another of the hundreds of pop quizzes that I'd given Jane over the years to keep her memory sharp.
"What are the colors of the dragon in the tapestry in my room?"
"White body, red for the mane and toes, indigo whiskers, blue eyes."
"Any variation in the colors at all?"
"Nope."
"Head position?"
"Full profile."
"OK. Last question, how many claws on each foot?"
"Three, and yes, all of the feet have three claws and they're all black, OK? Are we done now?"
(Jane was getting really, really good at whining.)
"Yes grumpy, we're done. See you in the morning."
Back down to my room. Closed the door. Took a deep breath.
Looked at the tapestry again. Everything was as Jane had described except one thing. The left forefoot had FOUR claws now, and the fourth was a bright, golden color. Oddest of all was that there was a sense of some sort of light hovering above it. I can't describe it any better than that, but something was there that I couldn't, quite, see.
< Nothing? Geez, what use are you if you don't give me at least a hint now and then? You quit laughing, right now! Having Jane laugh at me is almost more than I can take most of the time. Having you do it too is TOO MUCH! So SHUT UP!>> ------------------