Bob picked up the file folder, opened it, and held it up close to try to read the faded printouts and all but illegible handwriting. He finally gave up and put the folder back on the table. “What are these?”
She smiled, the smile of the legendary Cheshire cat, luring by its cryptic words its prey coming in closer for the kill. “We started to monitor this person over a week ago. He was breaking standard encrypting. Our profile, a bureaucrat at Bluemont. E-mails bouncing all the way up to their satellite system and back down to an address at a place called Site R. Personal stuff; hope it is his wife rather than a girlfriend, because if it is a girlfriend and he’s married, the bastard should be hanged. Some of it the usual sticky stuff, some of it, well, all this proper Southern girl can say is, it got very randy at times between the two, though that girl Samantha who was tracking it day and night got more than a few laughs.”
Linda smiled at that, and even Ernie chuckled.
“He sure is horny.”
“Ernie!” Linda snapped.
“Well, he is. And in this starving world, you gotta be damn young or very well fed to have enough surplus energy to think the way those two are. It used to be called sexting, I think.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Linda shot back, and Ernie visibly wilted.
“Hey, let’s call that TMI,” John snapped, though he was now curious to look at the files as well, even though from Bob’s expression it was obvious Linda had hit a major nerve at the mention of Site R.
“Please continue,” Bob said softly as he picked up the file folder and began to thumb through it again.
“Site R, as I was saying. We wondered where it was. For all we knew, it could be some island in the Indian Ocean, England, Antarctica, and the e-mails just pathetic longings. But then it cracked open wider. Our horny Romeo appears to be making his plaintive cries of undying love and longing right under Juliet’s balcony.”
“How do you know that?” Bob asked.
“He said he had a seat on the weekly shuttle chopper. Once things settled down when the package was delivered, he would be able to visit her again. Something about a five-day personal leave, a quick flight, and plenty of time then with his lover. She replied that she is getting sick of being stuck in Site R and asked why can’t she just get a posting to Bluemont and then they could be together all the time. He then dodged off on his reply and, get this, said that no one is supposed to know that he, and I quote, ‘got you out to safety at Site R.’”
Bob looked at her wide-eyed, obviously taken completely off guard, and she indeed did smile openly now. Whatever her game, John realized, she had just sprung it on an obviously unsuspecting general.
He opened the file folder again, held up the pages closely, and started to scan through them one by one. Cursing softly, he reached into his breast pocket to produce a pair of reading glasses, put them on, and for long minutes scanned through the files.
All were silent. Ernie puffed on his cigar, and after draining the precious glass of Malbec, without offering to those around him, he pulled out the nearly empty bottle of brandy, poured a stiff drink, and swiftly downed it, earning a sharp glance from Linda.
Bob finally put the file back down with a sigh. “Damn all to hell,” he whispered, and he held his empty glass up for Ernie to reluctantly refill with what was left in the brandy bottle and took it all down in a couple of quick gulps. “Can I keep this file?” he asked.
Linda shook her head. “If it’s as important as I think it now is, the answer is no.”
“And if I just take it?”
“You don’t leave here if you try.”
He nodded, looking over at John. “You reason with her. I want this file. I need this file.”
There was an urgency to Bob’s appeal that spoke volumes to John, who wordlessly gave an appealing look to Linda. She was silent for a moment, considering her answer.
“I assume John is under arrest and going with you, General Scales.”
Bob, who was leaning over toward Ernie, who was relighting his cigar, looked back at Linda. “Yes, he is, but don’t tell your family and the students here that. We don’t need a scene.”
“John?” She looked at him sharply. He realized all he had to do was announce he had no intentions of going and all in this house would resist his leaving and if need be hold Scales as hostage.
“Give the file to me, Linda,” John said. “You can trust me with it. Bob, can I take responsibility for the file?”
Scales nodded in ready agreement. John reached over to pick it up without waiting for her reply and then turned his gaze back to her.
“All right, John.” Her voice was choked with emotion.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Bob said, and setting his glass down, he swiftly stood up.
Linda stood up and went up to John and hugged him. “When do I see you again, John Matherson?”
“Don’t worry; just keep everyone here safe.”
She started to stifle back tears.
Bob reached out to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Ma’am, you just might have changed the paradigm. I hope you can trust me.”
She looked back at him sharply. “I don’t.”
“I can understand that.”
“Anything you wish to smash on your way out?” she asked sarcastically.
He did not reply, leaving their office, slowly walking out into the large room dubbed the Skunk Works and then turning to look back at the three who were following him.
“Keep this up and running. Focus on this—how did you put it, Ernie? This ‘horny Romeo’? Focus in on him with everything you have.”
Linda and Ernie looked at him with obvious surprise.
“As far as your team knows, they are being shut down. Find whoever is your loudmouthed ham operator—for that matter, all your ham operators—and I want them off the air now, immediately. I want a full shutdown on any kind of uplink traffic. Silent listening only. Nothing even on the phone line. I’ll have a courier down here tomorrow to pick up anything new, but it will be made to look like he is occupying this place and shutting it down. Do you read me?” Those last four words were spoken sharply in a clear command voice that carried the type of threat a general knew how to conjure up when need be.
Ernie and Linda stood silent, just nodding in reply, until Linda broke the silence. “And John’s fate?”
“He is still under arrest and will face charges in Bluemont,” Bob said sharply, loudly enough that the eavesdroppers gathered in the living room below could obviously hear.
Shouts of protest rose up as family and former students gathered at the base of the stairwell as the four came back down.
Bob made a show of shouldering his way through, ignoring the curses and threats hurled at him, John following in his wake, shrugging off more than one plaintive attempt at a hug and appeals for him to stay.
Though the climb up to the home had been a laborious one, Bob descended the driveway at a near run, John following in his wake.