We were up by six and John was in our suite, having breakfast, at six thirty. We went over the e-mails from yesterday and anxiously waited for the call from Ken, as we were kept from calling until too late yesterday. At seven thirty, we called Ken knowing he was an early in the office guy.
"Good timing, guys," Ken said. "I've just finished checking my e-mails. The New York group has some Ruskies tailing our investigators, so we have some of New York's finest picking them up for bullshit throughout the day. Every time we pick up one that's on tail, we get another. We have found out that they are Bratva people. So far, we've connected Forest and twelve others all to the New York group, let's call it the training center. They all spent varying periods of time learning to speak with no accent. Some of the imitators are English and Irish, a couple from France, a couple from Italy, and so far, three from Russia. The school must really be good."
"Now the news, some deputies, three, and some agents, four, have quit. We've apprehended three of the six so far, trying to board international flights with fake passports. Of course, they could be their real passports. We have a sighting of one who went into the Russian embassy and hasn't been seen since. I'm thinking we've just about cleaned up the field. I have one of my investigators on sick leave, and he's not at home. The man has been in my group for right at two years. My Bureau counterpart says he has an investigator that resigned last week as he had a better job offer. That guy is missing, too."
"According to some of the offices, there are escapees that are unaccounted for, with some never even put on a detail. Ah, Chuck, your hunch to check out relocations has turned up eleven missing. Two have the wives still around, but the other nine are just gone. We are working the missing persons' reports on them right now. All of the missing relocations are witnesses to Russian mob activities. I think we need to relocate all other witnesses we have as soon as possible. We need to get them back into protective custody quickly. I think we now know how the witnesses for the slave trade trial in Chicago were found. That cost us six witnesses, an agent, and three deputies. The police department up there still thinks it was some guy going berserk, but I think we have a better idea of what was behind it now."
John said, "We're not going to tell all today. When we finish up tomorrow, we'll either give them the whole thing or promise them a top-secret file next week. I'd like to bring all our relocations back into protective custody first. I think we can place some agents and deputies to look like the relocations and possibly catch some of the assassins."
Ken said, "I'm keeping my info close to the vest. Only my most secure people know what's going on. The field is a buzz of activity with everyone investigating everyone. In some ways it's good. When this is over, the men will all trust each other."
John added, "I'll be visiting all of the offices over the next couple of months to get everyone relaxed. I'll try to get the senior agent to go with me. The Secret Service is running their own investigation, but they won't tell us whether they've found any moles. Keep up the good work, Ken, thanks."
With a final word Ken said, "Good luck schmoozing all that brass. I wouldn't want your job for anything right now."
Bobby and Jan had listened to the call. Kenisha had curled up on the couch for a nap. She had said, with a smile, that John had kept her up late last night.
We were ready for the day, so we got Kenisha up so she could begin her day of being pampered again. We dropped her off on the way to the meeting room. We were surprised that a few people actually showed up around eight thirty. There were Danish and donuts to snack on before the meeting, and we gave them the first day's handouts.
I gave Bobby and Jan one last chance to back out, but they said we had prepared so well that they knew the material backwards and forwards. They practiced with the projector and readied the first PowerPoint file and put the welcome screen up.
At nine sharp, whether seats were still empty or not, we started. Bobby clicked off the welcome, and the next screen was red with the word "Danger" in the middle of a exploding balloon. Bobbie had the intro, "All of you know that we have found infiltrators within our organizations." The picture of a person, highlighted in a large group of people shown, morphed into a photo of Forest Harding.
Jan spoke, "This man gave us a reason to investigate his background which we discovered was totally fabricated."
The presentation continued with the background until the half-hour break time arrived. Most of the people hustled to the bathroom, then came back for more snacks and coffee.
The second half-hour was more background about how we began back tracking Forest through San Diego and Chicago. There we included an FBI agent that we had discovered had a fabricated background. With his picture on the screen, the girls began telling of the investigation of the agent.
During the second break, all of the attendees were back in their seats ready for more information before the break time had ended.
The presentation showed a map of the U.S., with white stars for Marshal's offices, and green circles where FBI offices were. One screen after another appeared, with a red arrow showing where people with fake backgrounds had been discovered. Bobby and Jan described whether it was a deputy or an agent that was discovered at the location. Some had both. When D.C. got the last red arrow, there were gasps throughout the room. It was time to break again, but most just hustled to the bathroom and returned, getting a cup of coffee or Coke on the way back, and sat back down.
The last part began detailing the investigations, one office at a time. We didn't finish, of course, as this portion lasted forty-five minutes. Before breaking, we offered them the opportunity to ask questions to clear up any points that we had already covered, promising a lot more information in the afternoon.
The men were mostly too stunned to ask many questions and all were waiting to hear who we had discovered within D.C., as only a couple of people were aware of who we had under lock and key.
The girls and I quickly ate lunch and went to the conference room to lay out the variety of foreign made weapons that had been found and confiscated from the agents and deputies captured so far. We had multiple AK-47s of various models, including the sniper rifle from the original incident, plus a variety of handguns and several cardboard boxes that represented explosives that were found, but had not been transported for the meeting.
We weren't going to talk about the weapons today, but we wanted them to be in view to pique their interest.
After lunch, we continued detailing each office, with a picture of the office building superimposed on a state map for effect. It was while they were talking about Tampa that it hit me. I was out the door, calling the office instantly. I told Sarah, "Get every available person you can find and find out every last thing you can about the bellhop the sniper killed. Then when you're done, I think we need to run every worker in the hotel. We don't have to be security clearance perfect, but look for irregularities on their apps. As soon as you can't confirm their background, bring them in and take them apart. Charge them with jaywalking or being a street corner terrorist, but get them and keep them. Have the techs go over the rooms where our guests are, as we could be compromised right under our noses."
Sarah said, "Holy shit, I didn't even think about that. Why else would that guy have been targeted? It could have been meant for you though, if Forest wanted you gone."
"It could be, but let's check it out, pronto."
"I'm on it, Boss. Thanks for the confidence in me to handle this place."
"Shit, Sarah, you've been running the joint for years, you just never got the credit."
I went back to the meeting, sweating bullets, thinking how the guests in the hotel could be agents working with other agents that were hotel employees. It was enough to make even me nervous.
Bobby and John could tell I was agitated, so when the break came up, they cornered me and I confessed that I had overlooked an obvious connection and what we were doing about it. John just said, "That is an easy one to overlook. The bellhop could be an important early link before Forest got here. That could explain some of the big buck guys out looking for you when you were under siege."
Jan's eyes were about quarter sized, and Bobby was getting angry. She said, "We have to stop this, get to the bottom of it, and make a clean sweep."
The rest of the afternoon ended with the attendees worn out from the intensity of the information. We ended the day with me giving a short talk.
"Gentlemen, this investigation is still active and may only be in its beginning stages, so please do not discuss what you've learned until after everything is published. We are finding more areas to investigate by the hour, and I have to tell you, it's scary. We will clean out our mutual offices and strengthen our investigative services with better checks and balances."
We went up to my suite, while the attendees went to the bar for some tranquilizing medicine and to meet their happy wives. This should balance out the horror they were exposed to so far today.
Bobby went through e-mails while I returned a call from Sarah.
"Chuck, the bellhop was an illegal immigrant from Russia. He was arrested and escaped up in New York. Now you have to do the same research within Homeland Security as this guy apparently just walked out of the secure prisoner facility. He was charged with being a part of the slavery group that the FBI was trying to bust. Remember how Customs, or Homeland Security as it's called now, kept getting in the way of that one. That's how the marshal service got involved. They were trying to find out what agency was responsible for the screw ups. The investigation was called off before anything conclusive was ever found."
The hotel manager was run very quickly, and then I brought him over here so he would know how serious our situation is over there. He's spiriting out all the employment records for us. I'm having the Bureau and the Secret Service help quickly run all these people. We should have more information tomorrow afternoon."
She took a breath, then said, "The techs said the place was lousy with bugs. They even had transmitters on all our cameras. A couple of guys are trying to track down the receivers right now as they have to be within five to six hundred feet of the transmitter. We'll find them. We're leaving the transmitters in place so they don't know we've discovered them. If we move these guests, we'll have to make them go through the same cleaning as before. So far, our investigation of them shows they are real witnesses."
The four of us just sat speechless, listening to Sarah. I let her go and called Ken.
His first words were, "We got another one here who gave us a guy over in Homeland Security who gave us a half dozen of their field people. I've already had a heart to heart with the head of HR over there and he has requested some Bureau and marshal help, double checking everyone hired within the last two years. That's a lot of people. The New York team is starting to run into walls. There's been several gang related killings up there that appear to be the Red Mob. Those guys are the crude group while the Bratva has a better organization. All of our activity has found three groups of imported women that are really slaves, plus a cache of weapons you wouldn't believe. Apparently they are all destined for Mexico to trade for drugs. NYPD said to pass on a thanks for the tips. I'll have more in the morning as I have to go over all the reports that are being e-mailed in. There is just too much for me to get organized yet. I'll e-mail you later and talk to you in the morning."
John said, "Sounds like we're getting to the heart of the mess. We just have to clean up the agencies. We have to have clean agencies. That's how we protect the citizens."
Jan contemplated, "It's hard to believe all these people were able to be passed through because I was recruited while still in school. Then the Bureau investigated me so thoroughly they actually knew what my cycle was and questioned me why I wasn't using any form of birth control. I told them straight up that if they had checked me thoroughly enough, they would know I didn't go out with men, and that women were not prone to impregnating another woman. It didn't even bother them that I preferred women. It bothered them that I didn't use any form of birth control."
Bobby and I looked at each other with an "Oh shit" look.
Bobby had sorted all the e-mails noting some additions to the presentation to be added tomorrow. We were going to have to give the folks the bad news about Homeland Security. We discussed a solution to the investigation of new people and how we could make sure they were real. If two people did it from two different offices it could be possible to let someone sneak through, but if three people did the investigation from at least two different locations it would be almost impossible to sneak someone through. That was added to the last part of the presentation for tomorrow.
Dinner was wonderful, but tonight was a little more somber. We had some fun entertainment that we were going to escort the group to, but they all agreed they would prefer to stay in the resort lounge and just visit among themselves.
That night while we were lying in bed, again exhausted from the day, but obviously all three of us were horny. Bobby asked Jan, "You said today that you didn't use any birth control, yet you have had Chuck make two very nice deposits toward populating our home area."
Jan giggled and said, "Wouldn't that be neat. The guys in the office would be so stunned and would be kicking themselves that I might have been available, but they never tried. Don't worry, Bobby, I'm smart enough to know when my cycles are and I'm perfectly safe. As a matter of fact, if I'm going to get much more of Chuck, it's going to have to be by tomorrow, as I'm going to be plugged day after tomorrow."
Bobby kissed Jan, saying, "I think I'm happy to hear that. It would almost be neat to get a little critter from our man. I can't have kids or at least that's what I was told ten years ago. I might have myself checked out some more to find out if the problem can be corrected."
"I'll give you one, Bobby. I can do that for you. I don't think I'm ready to be a mom yet, but I'd have one for you if you wanted."
Bobby was stunned, looking at Jan. "I've never thought of letting someone have a baby for me. Both of my younger sisters said they would do it for me and only my one older sister has kids. Millie, my next older sister, can't have kids just like me."
"My turn to say something," I said, raising my hand. "I'm still pretty young and it might not be time for me to be a dad yet. Let's be real careful until we are sure we want to raise a child. I will not begin a child and abandon it. When we get a child among us, whoever is the mom will raise the baby, period. The other person in our lives, if she is there, will be a special aunt, a second mom."
Both girls gave me some kisses for that declaration. The kisses were augmented by touches that were excitedly transferred to other forms of kissing that ended up with me thumping Jan very thoroughly, depositing a gallon or so of baby juice, then enjoying all of Bobby and making an equally large deposit there. Both girls helped me with the other, making it a very sweet loving between all three of us.
We went to sleep kissing.
While we were getting ready in the morning, Jan came out of the bathroom, happily displaying the Tampax box. She said, "See, told you. I didn't get pregnant from my first adventure with a horny guy. It sure is fun to practice though." That I got a loving kiss, and a light bite on the lip, disproved that all women are bitches before and during their periods. Jan was acting absolutely horny.
Bobby thought it cute the way Jan was as carefree as she was.
John arrived and we ate breakfast, discussing the e-mails and reports we had received overnight. Other than finding another pocket of infiltrators within Homeland Security, it looked like we were cleaning up the two services. The Secret Service admitted to two arrests, but was still mum about their investigations.
Ken's call this morning was pretty much a wrap up of the reports we had been e-mailed. He said the prosecutors were having a little trouble as a lot of the subjects were declaring diplomatic immunity. Since this allowed the federal prosecutors to prosecute the people as spies, they were upping the ante on the prisoners.
Sarah said the investigation of the hotel personnel would be hot and heavy today, but kept out of sight so we wouldn't spook any potential infiltrators. She said it was almost funny, since between the Bureau and the service, everyone was investigating everyone else. Every time they would find a minor discrepancy, they would confront the agent or deputy. She said it was good training and had become fun for the men. She added, "Bobby, you were not that good of a teen were you. Seems you almost didn't graduate from high school. When you did, it was with good grades, but your conduct rated an "F."
Bobby said, "That was then, this is now. I did grow up, you know."
Sarah said, "Jan, your guys have tracked you from the hospital you were born in, through all of your schooling, and can tell you who all of your friends up through right now are. They were asking if Bobby was your friend, or were you just trying to get Chuck to shoot with you?"
The girls laughed. Jan said, "Let them think what they want. It's none of their business. Besides, I don't mix business with pleasure, or with my personal life."
Bobby rolled her eyes and John caught it, smiling. Kenisha caught it too and giggled, snuggling into John a little more.
As it became time to begin again, we went over the presentation that we had and I said I would talk to update them at the end. John said it should be his responsibility to end the meeting, so he would speak after me, which meant I needed to be brief.
We went over the people we had taken down since the Forest Harding incident and the link between the sniper, the bellhop, and the Bratva. Just telling these guys that the Russian mob was infiltrating federal law enforcement scared the shit out of them. This tied into the weapons on display.
At the end of the last session, at four in the afternoon, the two girls were talked out and it was my turn. The girls put up pictures of the Marshal's Service insignia and the FBI insignia.
"I want to tell you that we have cleaned out some slave trade in New York and Chicago. We have captured nearly fifty illegal Russian immigrants. Local police departments have been able to make literally hundreds of arrests of criminals related to these organizations that we are fighting. As far as the marshal service, we are bringing in every person related to past Russian Mafia activity since their relocation whereabouts could be compromised. We will relocate all of them again. Regrettably several relocated people have disappeared, and a few have met with accidents that are now suspicious."
"The good news is that our branches of law enforcement, which includes Homeland Security, the Secret Service, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshal's Service have all evaluated their personnel investigation procedures. Every employee, and I'm saying every employee including you and me, are being re-investigated as if we are security risks. This is a good thing. If I feel the need to brief you gentlemen again, we will have another joint seminar. It may be a little more austere, but we will hold it away from any prying eyes or ears. Thank you for coming, be alert, be closed mouthed, don't discuss this investigation with anyone. Our national security depends on it."
"I wish to recognize my two presentation personnel, Jan is from the FBI and Bobby is from the U.S. Marshal's Service. You have been briefed by a genuine agent and a genuine deputy who have just recently participated jointly and were instrumental in a capture where both of these officers were under fire. They agreed to help me on this project as it is close to them in our Tampa offices. Please join me in applauding their performance."
When the loud applause died down, I introduced John and said, "Thank you."
I received a lot of applause, but John stepped up quickly to end it.
"When my deputy, Deputy Johnson, advised me of his discoveries, he was already leading a group investigation of almost all of the service. He wasn't going behind my back and ran me thoroughly before he advised me of his actions. Each step of this investigation has actually been initiated by his Tampa office. It's pretty amazing that our swimsuit office has to be the one to advise D.C. that there are rats in our midst. He's covered his tracks well by investigating every person he involves in the investigation. He has created a core of trustworthy people that are quickly cleaning up our branch offices. He has created a harmony between services that has never been seen before. Hopefully, this new cooperation will run through our entire organizations to make our country safer."
"Please join me in applauding the U.S. Marshal's Service newest Lieutenant, with the possibility of being acting Major in the very near future."
Oh shit, guess that pretty much tells what I'll be doing for a while.
John continued, "I have two more announcements. The young lady that is one of the best marksmen within the Bureau and has won multiple competitions has been promoted to a Senior Agent for her work and activity within this investigation."
More applause, and a very pleased look on Jan's face.
"And now for our final promotion, Roberta Angel Smith, you have served the Marshal's Service with dedication that is unprecedented. You have assisted the past and present Deputies in Charge in ways that have been heroic while making sound decisions. You are now the Deputy in Charge of the Tampa Facility. Of course, this means you are now Lieutenant Roberta Angel Smith."
Everyone made a huge display of applause and hollering, while Bobby stood there stunned. Now I was apprehensive; what the fuck would I be doing now?
"As all of you know, there is always a bit of a party when any of our people get promoted," John said with a smile. "Well, we have a triple whammy to celebrate. Let's go do it."
There was more applause, followed by an instant rush for the bar. John, Jan, Bobby, and I cleaned up our displays, had everything taken up to our rooms, and headed for the party.
Bobby said, "I have to or someone has to tell Sarah. She's the assistant, she should have been promoted."
John stopped us and said, "Who do you think recommended you and told me who could handle that mess of an office? She's the one that said, "Make Bobby my boss and you'll be proud."
Bobby was shocked, "I can't believe I've been promoted again. What is going to happen to Chuck? Where is he going?"
John smiled, "Nowhere, I'll tell you later."
While we were having a drink and enjoy congratulations for the excellent presentation and the promotions, Bobby said to me, "Shoot, there goes my house and free food. But then I did get a nice promotion out of it. I can afford a house like that for myself now."
I had a single drink, and then said I needed to check in with Ken and Sarah. John, Bobby, and Jan went with me as they were interested in this operation too.
The first thing Ken said was, "Congratulations, the notice came through this morning. You'll probably be my boss so let me tell you, Boss, I'm bustin' my butt on this. We're cleaning up. I'm sure we're clean in all of the D.C. area. I've even run all the real Marshals. The Bureau and Secret Service are helping. The Secret Service has opened up and is joining us in a task force. We're taking it office by office and redoing everyone, not just those from the last two years. We have a problem with you, John, and all the other Special Forces geeks we've hired. We aren't allowed into your files."
John interjected, "It's good that you can't. You wouldn't want to know us if you really knew where we had been."
Ken came right back with, "Ah, your new Tampa hero has some open spots in his service record already. He steals a truck and you promote him. Wonder what I'd get if I stole the chief's Cadillac?"
"Jail," John laughed.
"Thought so, anyway, we're cookin' with gas and making rapid progress. We've set up a separate secure server for the investigations so they can be updated in the future. It's a great setup for management to review personnel. That's it for today, no big arrests, no new big news. Your Tampa office is doing something as they're burning up the wires checking out about four hundred people. They must be on a witch hunt."
I said, "Thanks, Ken. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning, then we're going to be in the air."
Sarah was next, and I could feel the strain, but elation in her voice. "We have three in confinement. All three are illegal. One from housekeeping, one from maintenance, and another bellhop. We're just about done with every one of them. The guys downstairs have been a big help. Your men here, or rather Bobby's men here have busted butt. Congratulations, Chuck, you too, Bobby, and Jan, I hear that you made Senior Agent. Nice."
"No other news about our guests other than the guys think they need relocating. They found the receivers, and they were connected to a PC that we've left running. The techies are tracking down where on the internet it's sending information. Pretty elaborate. They tested some of the equipment and found that most of it can transmit up to five miles. That's scary from those tiny modules. Will I see you tomorrow?"
"We'll all be home and back to work by tomorrow afternoon. There are a lot of things to do, plus the ongoing investigations, so we'll be busy." I paused then said, "Tomorrow, I'm buyin' supper out at Park Place to celebrate all of our promotions, including yours."
"Thanks, Chief, ah, I guess you're not chief anymore. Thanks anyway, whatever you are. See you tomorrow."
We sat back and John said, "Let's go downstairs and do some more celebrating while we can enjoy it. Dinner will be served soon anyway."
Downstairs, the crowd was getting loaded. The women were so happy about all their treatments that they glowed. The hotel had given each of them a fancy bag of expensive goodies to take home. All of the wives of both services kept saying, "This is the biggest, best seminar you've ever taken me to."
Several of the big guys kept asking me how the services could afford something like this. I kept telling them that I made a great deal. One of the FBI guys handed me drink and said, "Seems like there was that Simpson drug bust where the money was not accounted for. I guess it's been put to good use."
John almost spit out his drink, and I was smiling real big. The FBI guy asked, "Could I interest you in a very senior position. Anyone who can put this together and initiate the activity you're doing, I want for my own."
John said, "Can you make him better than a Major?"
The guy said, "He's only Acting Major."
John countered, "As soon as I have waivers signed by all of the Marshals, he'll be a Major. Oh, by the way, I need to speak to Jake over there, he's the last signature I need."
The guy laughed slapping me on the back, "How many years do you have with the service, Johnson?"
I was embarrassed to tell him, "Ah, right at nine months, Sir."
"Holy shit, you don't mess around do you. Are you that dude that shot up the world down in Tampa? Damn, you sure know how to cause some grief."
Bobby was hanging onto one arm and Jan was hanging onto my other. We were sipping drinks when the Senior U.S. Marshal came over to me with his wife, he asked, "Which one is your wife and which is your girlfriend?"
Bobby said, "We're competing for the position."
That made him really laugh and his wife said, "Have them both. You hot shots probably need both of them to keep up with you."
"I'm not quite ready for two yet, Ma'am."
She smiled, "If you're anything like this guy was when he was your age, you're on a vitamin regimen to choke a horse." The Senior Marshal was blushing when she added, "It took him five kids before he decided he should start shooting blanks. Then I had to take up track as he was chasing me around even more."
The two girls were being entertained by the lady so the Senior Deputy moved his head in a way that said, "I want to talk to you."
His first words out of his mouth were, "Johnson, I'm so glad to meet the first deputy I've had that's not been afraid to shoot when he needed to and make the shot count. Glad you were able to stay with the service. Now, John has something special for you that we've gone over. You're perfect for the job and it's an important one. You're smart enough to make the job work for you without having to be in the air everyday. Do a good job for John and the service, and trust me, we'll show you our appreciation. Keep being as innovative as you have been, I love it. Oh yes, thank you for giving our truck back."
John had come up and laughed loud when he heard what was said. He said quietly, "Chuck, I tell this man everything. He is a real U.S. Marshal with experience in the field, as well as a politician. Trust him. If you need something, ask. If it's the right thing to do, you'll get it."
The man smiled and said, "He's just thanking me for the Commander rank he just got."
"Wow, Commander, super, congratulations."
"Don't say that so loud, shit everyone will think I'm making a lot of money. Kenisha thinks first hire deputies make a ton, so just let me be okay?"
He looked at the Senior Marshal and asked, "Did you tell him what his job was now?"
"Nope, that's your job. I would be meddling if I did."
John happily said, "See what I mean, he lets his men do the work for him. Just like you do."
"And just like you do, John," the Senior Marshal praised.
"I'll tell you all about it at breakfast, let's go eat, I'm starved."
We did eat and again the folks wanted to stay at the resort and dance in the lounge. By eleven everyone was gone, in their rooms and possibly asleep.
My trio (including me), got ready for bed, packed up our bags, leaving out what we were going to wear to go home. We then were lying in bed, talking about what the future may have in store for us.
Bobby said, "You know, this becoming the station chief is what Danny had envisioned in his future. I've got Danny, Sarah, Howard, and you Chuck, to thank for teaching me how to get there. I'm amazed he chose me for the job. Now I've really got to work. You know, I did all those quizzes from that manual you brought home. I even took the quiz from the video. Now I know what all the stuff you set up is and know what to do with it. You actually made my job pretty easy. Howard ran the joint by the seat of his pants. Forest didn't do anything correct, because he didn't have the background. You asked Sarah for the manual and went right to town. You learned she was supposed to be doing all kinds of things so you hired a clerk and had Sarah begin being an Assistant Station Chief. That was pretty smart. I wonder if they have a manual for your new job."
"Me too," I said. "You just know John is doing something totally off the wall. I might have to go back to the employment office. Maybe I should call Metarie."
"Whatever it is, you'll be good at it, Babe."
Jan snuggled into my shoulder and said, "Maybe I need to transfer to the Marshal's Service."
Bobby said, "Nope, you stay where you are. You've proven yourself and if you keep working hard, coordinating between the services, you'll keep going right on up. You studied to be an agent and you're a good one."
I had to agree, "Continue to be the person you are, Jan. I'm proud to know an agent like you."
We all lay there thinking of what lay ahead until all three pairs of our eyes closed.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious