Mike settled into the Adirondack chair thinking that it had to be the most uncomfortable chair ever invented. He had thought that his first day there at the lodge by the lake. A week of sitting in that particular chair had convinced him that his initial assessment had been perfect. He expected that at the end of his second week of sitting in that chair that his opinion wouldn't have changed.
Yawning, he tried to wake up. He looked across the calm waters of the lake and listened to the haunting calls of the loons. Various species of birds raised their voices in greeting the morning. This time of day was particularly peaceful. It was too early for the sound of cars rushing along the road to spoil the natural sounds of nature. Most of the guests at the lodge were still asleep. Even the owner did his best not to make too much noise in the morning.
Looking back at the lodge, he knew it would be a few minutes before breakfast was served. He wasn't in a rush to get to breakfast, although he was looking forward to having a bit of coffee. He wouldn't get up until he had planned his day. After all, getting breakfast would have to fit in with his plans.
Thinking it over, he decided that he would start the day with breakfast. After breakfast, he'd return to the chair and relax. At lunch time, he'd go get a bite to eat. After lunch, he'd return to the chair and relax. When it got too hot, he'd go back to his room and change into his bathing suit before taking a swim in the chilly waters of the lake. After his swim, he'd return to the chair and relax. Then he'd change clothes and have dinner before returning to the chair. Before going to bed, he'd stop in the lodge and have hot tea and some cookies. Satisfied with his plans, he said, "Sounds like a perfect day to me."
He heard the owner of the lodge open the door to the dining hall. Knowing that breakfast was being served, he saw no possible reason to delay following his plans for the day. Getting out of the chair, he made his way over rear entrance to the lodge. He would have whistled as he walked, but the quiet of the morning made that seem sacrilegious.
So far the day had been working out exactly to plan. The afternoon was beginning to heat up and it wouldn't be long before it was time to take a swim. If it hadn't been too much work, he would have stretched. He did manage to work up enough energy to yawn.
"You look comfortable."
Mike jumped and turned to look at the source of the voice. Unable to believe his eyes, he said, "Cathy! What are you doing here?"
Cathy understood the surprise in Mike's voice; she had been just as surprised to find him there. She went over to the chair next to him and took a seat. Deciding that a little explanation was appropriate, she answered, "Joe recommended that I come here for my vacation. I guess he told you the same thing. I couldn't afford a full two weeks so I thought I'd come out here for the last week of week of my vacation time."
Mike smiled at the idea of Joe sending her to exactly the same place he was going for a vacation. Rather than tell her that he had told Joe where he was going rather than vice versa, he said, "Well, I'm glad you came out here."
"Thanks," she said. She wiggled in the chair trying to get comfortable and said, "This isn't very comfortable."
"I know. I've thought that every time I've sat down, but I'm feeling too lazy to do anything about it," Mike answered. The wiggle she had given made him consider moving up his scheduled plunge in the chilly water of the lake.
"So have you seen any of the sights around here?" Cathy asked.
Gesturing to the lake and the surrounding areas, Mike answered, "I've been sitting here ever since I arrived. I've done nothing except admire the view."
"Ah, a lazy man's holiday," Cathy said with a smile. She had similar plans for her week there.
Nodding his head, Mike said, "What are your plans?"
"I plan on getting some sun and reading a book for the next six days," Cathy answered with a smile.
"You're more ambitious than me," Mike said with a smile.
"Why do you say that?"
"You're planning on reading. I haven't even worked up the energy to include that in my plans," Mike answered.
"You have plans?" Cathy asked wondering if she could get included in them.
"You bet. This morning, I sat in this very chair and laid out my plan for the entire day. It is a glorious plan that involves sitting here all day taking breaks for meals and an afternoon swim," Mike answered.
"That is a glorious plan," Cathy said with a laugh. She looked out at the grassy area in front of the lake and said, "I think it is about time that I put my plan into place."
"Be my guest," Mike said.
The best laid plans of mice and men often have unexpected consequences. Mike discovered that was true of the plans made by women as well. Fifteen minutes after Cathy had announced her plans for the afternoon, she returned wearing a bathing suit and carrying a towel, a book, and a bottle of sun block. The bathing suit didn't leave much to the imagination. Open mouthed, he sat in his chair watching her as she placed a towel on the ground to lie upon.
When she was satisfied with the placement of the towel, she settled down and reached for her bottle of sun block. To Mike, it seemed as if she moved in slow motion. His entire attention turned to the bottle and the opportunity that it represented. Cathy looked over her shoulder and asked, "Would you mind putting this on my back?"
"No," Mike answered his voice cracking on the word.
One of the most stressful things for a new couple to do is to take a vacation together. Mismatches in vacation styles can strain a developing relationship more than a morning person hooking up with a night person. More than one relationship has broken up because of a horrible weekend together out of town.
The problem is that there are all kinds of vacation styles, but there are two broad categories that differ in terms of whether the expectations are active and passive. Active vacationers are often called tourists and are easily spotted in a vacation spot. There are the ambitious tourists who go to an area and schedule things so that they can see and do everything the area has to offer. There are spontaneous tourists who go to an area with no plans and wander around as the wind blows. There are dedicated travelers who are moving continuously from one place to the next. To an active vacationer, a vacation is a chance to move, to do, and to see.
Passive vacationers are a much different breed than active vacationers. There are the gluttony vacationers who do nothing except eat, sleep, and have sex. There are the lazy vacationers who go to an area and just watch the world go by. To a passive vacationer, a vacation is a chance to rest, relax, and recover. Passive vacationers really hate to travel with active vacationers.
Mike and Cathy were both lazy vacationers. They were more than happy doing absolutely nothing. Neither saw anything odd in doing nothing together. Mike did change his daily plans a little. He started basking in the sun on a towel rather than sitting in his chair. She read and he thought about his life. At times they swapped activities, he read and she thought about her life.
That is not to say that they were entirely relaxed. The sexual tension was slowly building to an explosive level. There were quick little glances at the other. There were the long slow applications of sun block. There were quiet little conversations that drew them ever closer to each other. The frequent little trips to the lake to cool off didn't help reduce the tension as they each intended. After each trip, there was the application of sun block that only heated things up to a higher level.
It took almost four days before the explosive release of sexual tension occurred. They had finished dinner and, feeling a little tense, decided that they would go for a walk. They held hands and walked along the path by the lake. It was a little before the sun set when they reached a little bench. Sitting down, they turned to each other and looked into each other's eyes. For the space of five seconds it was as if time stopped. They kissed and all restraint was lost.
They ended up on the ground making love under the open sky. The first coupling was hard and frantic. The second was slow and languid. The fading light of twilight gave it a supernatural feel. It was very late when they finally stumbled back to the lodge. Parting at the doors of the lodge was almost impossible. The next day they moved into a single room.
Maybe the universe was conspiring to make them a couple, but just because it was a conspiracy didn't mean that it was evil. Mike and Cathy were both satisfied by the results as would be a number of conspirators.
Upon arriving at home, Mike wasn't surprised to get a call from his mother. When he answered the phone, she asked, "So how was the vacation?"
"It was okay," Mike answered.
There was a long pause before she asked, "So did you meet anyone there?"
"If you mean meet as in get introduced to someone new, then I guess not," Mike answered with a smile. He had a feeling that his mother had something to do with Cathy's arrival at the lodge. He was also pretty sure that Cathy hadn't known a thing about it.
"Did anything interesting happen there?" Louise asked after another long pause.
"Interesting? I wouldn't describe it that way," Mike answered. He'd call it spectacular, exciting, or exhilarating, but not interesting. He could hear his mother getting more frustrated by the minute.
Giving up all pretense of subtlety, Louise asked, "Did Cathy show up there?"
"Was she supposed to?" he asked back.
"Yes," Louise answered.
"Then I guess you'll be pleased to know that she did show up," Mike said.
Getting excited, Louise said, "Tell me about it."
"I'll let her tell you about it," Mike replied. He figured that his mother, Sally, or Teva would be talking to Cathy sometime in the near future.
"You'll bring her here so that I can meet her?" Louise asked.
"I thought you knew her," Mike answered.
Surprised at the suggestion that she knew Cathy, Louise said, "I don't know her. I've never met her."
"So how do you know about her? How did you know that she was going to be at the lodge?" Mike asked.
"Oh, Gunny told me about her. I suggested that he send her out to where you were vacationing," Louise answered knowing that Mike would discover everything sooner or later.
"Gunny? Master Gunnery Sergeant Joe Dinkins?" Mike asked. Dim memories from twenty five years ago of a much younger Joe started resurfacing.
"Yes. Your father and Gunny go back ages," Louise answered.
"I didn't know that," Mike said.
Upon stepping into the office that had once been an Internet Café, Mike knew that his vacation was over. The first thing that he noticed was everyone sitting stiffly at their workstations. The second thing that he noticed that the current Director of the Department of Homeland Security, James Wentworth the Third, was seated at his workstation. The man was looking over the situation board at the front of the room thoughtfully rubbing his chin.
Mike walked over to the Director. As he approached, he said, "Hello, Director."
The man swiveled in his chair to face Mike. Smiling, he said, "I see you're back from your vacation. I hope you had a good time."
"Yes, sir," Mike answered wondering what had happened while he was gone. There was nothing worse than walking into a situation completely unprepared. A glance at the situation board didn't suggest anything too spectacular was happening. At least it didn't look like anything was happening that his people couldn't handle.
"Let's go in the conference room and chat for a little while," the Director said in a friendly voice.
"Yes, sir," Mike said. He followed the Director to the conference room rather surprised that the man knew his way around the place.
The conference room had once been Joe's office when the place had still been an Internet Café. The conversion of the place of business to an intelligence office had not really changed the place all that much. It still configured like an Internet Cafe.
Inside the conference room, the Director gestured to a chair at the conference table and said, "Sit down, Mike."
Mike took a seat and asked, "What's the matter?"
"There's nothing the matter," the Director answered. He settled into a chair and then said, "I came here to talk to you about the future. Your team did a real good job in supporting the attacks on the domestic terrorist enclaves. As a result of the intelligence you helped collect and assess, the terrorist network has been effectively eliminated. We're still rounding up a few of them here and there, but the hard work has been done thanks to you."
"Thank you, sir. I have a great team of people," Mike said.
"You have one of the best teams of people in Homeland Security that is associated with counter-terrorism. I think that is rather remarkable. At one time, three quarters of your people came from rather dysfunctional teams," the Director said. He had read the reports documenting the transition of some of the teams from being totally non-functional to highly productive. He felt that Mike's leadership had played a huge role in it.
Shrugging his shoulders, Mike said, "Well, things were a little rough there for a while. I didn't think that we were going to survive the former President."
"One of the greatest mistakes of my life was supporting him when he ran for office. I didn't realize just how he would roll over like that," the Director said with a sad shake of his head. As a retired military officer he hadn't liked the half-assed support the troops were getting. It had made winning the war impossible. He felt that it was better to leave Iraq than continue on to the point where Americans turned against the military like it had during the Vietnam War.
Mike didn't know what to say. He said, "A lot of people feel that way now."
Shaking himself, the Director said, "As you know, the President has a three phase plan for eliminating terrorism. We've basically completed the first phase and we're now in the phase where we are taking the war against terrorism overseas. We want you to lead the groups that will be providing intelligence assessments to the military operating in the Asian Pacific region of the world."
"Oh," Mike said thinking about the responsibility that he would have. He looked down at his twisted left hand and thought about the young men who would be sacrificing their bodies and lives in the upcoming battles. This was a chance to help save them.
The Director smiled and said, "I'm sure that was the last thing you expected to hear coming back from your vacation."
"You can say that again," Mike said.
"You'll be overseeing nine teams of specialists," the Director said.
"Nine teams?" Mike said shaking his head. He was overseeing five teams at the present and was only spending half of his time at this particular office. He tried to spend half a day a week at each of the other offices. He said, "I'll be spending all of my time driving from one location to another."
"I don't think that will be a problem for very long."
Mike asked, "Why?"
The Director said, "About a year ago it was suggested that we move our intelligence services out of the Washington area. I fought that for a long time, but the attack on our analysts forced me to reconsider my position on the matter. We're in the process of setting up six major analysis centers. The Asian Pacific Intelligence Center will be in the northeastern part of Texas."
Mike nodded his head thinking that Washington could move slower than molasses in winter. If the enemy had tried a second round of attacks, they would all be dead before they moved to more secure locations. He asked, "When will we be moving?"
"They'll finish construction on the facilities in about nine months," the Director answered.
"Nine months," Mike said thinking about what could happen in nine months.
"Until then, you'll be working to transition your teams from domestic to international support. You'll have to train your people how to work with the military as opposed to the civilian sector, although considering that you've been working with the national guard already I don't think it will be a difficult task," the Director said.
"What will be the major change?" Mike asked.
"There won't be much of a change. You're job is to provide the military with intelligence data and assessments. You won't be planning any operations, but you will be providing real time insights as to how operations are progressing," the Director answered.
"The rules of engagement will be different," Mike said.
"Rules? We aren't playing by the old rules. When we find terrorists, we will kill them using any means possible," the Director said. The President had been quite clear on that matter.
Mike stopped at the supermarket on the way home from work. He was standing in line waiting to pay for his purchases when a woman walked into the store completely topless. Mouth open, he watched her grab a shopping cart and head into the store. More than a few people watched the woman. The strange thing was that she wasn't a particularly attractive woman. He was about to make a comment when the short dumpy woman in front of him in the line said, "I wish I was brave enough to do that."
"Huh?"
"She's showing the terrorists that they aren't going to win," the woman answered.
"Oh."
The woman said, "No one would want to see me naked."
"I don't think the point is to advertise that you're attractive. I think the point is to make a statement," Mike said shrugging his shoulders.
"You know what, you're right," the woman said.
Mike looked around at the people in the store. There were all kinds of people there. He noticed another woman walking around topless. When he turned back to see what was happening in the line, he found that the woman in front of him had removed her shirt and was in the process of taking off her bra. Surprised, he said, "I guess you decided to go for it."
"Yeah. I hope I don't make you sick to your stomach," the woman answered. Her cheeks were bright red.
"There's not chance of that happening," Mike said looking over her head wondering if he should have kept his mouth shut. He could just imagine her getting arrested and blaming him for talking her into it.
Cathy was at school so Mike was free to spend the evening doing whatever he wanted. It was only after everyone had left the office that he decided to spend the evening seeing if he could locate any terrorists. He brought up the status board that showed the distribution of Muslims around the country. Looking at the board, he was surprised at the lack of areas with significant populations of Muslims.
Selecting the six largest areas, he put the face recognition program to work on the traffic surveillance cameras in the area. Rather than tapping into the live feeds, he used the daily archive. After watching the programs execute for an hour, he decided that there wasn't anything in those areas.
Mike tapped in the commands that would stop the programs. Sitting back in his chair, he thought about where he would hide if he were in the same situation the terrorists faced. He leaned forward about to search for areas with a high density of Chinese, but stopped. He had searched just about every major and minor Chinatown in the country. He muttered, "I've caught all of the ones that fled there. Where haven't I looked?"
"The Mexicans," Mike answered tapping in the search criteria. He brought up a huge map that laid out the distribution of Hispanics across the country. Thinking about the folks they had missed in the San Diego action, he said, "I know where I would go if I was one of them."
Mike looked over the list of cameras that were available for him to download the archival tapes. Looking over the list, he noticed that they were only examined when a crime had taken place in an area covered by the camera. He thought about the list and narrowed his search by eliminating cameras that had been accessed within the last week. There were still a lot of cameras left on the list. He pushed back the time to a month and found that the list had shrunk significantly. Scanning the list of cameras, he noticed something a little odd. He said, "The last time a major crime occurred in that area was a week after the San Diego raid. I wonder why?"
He put the face recognition program to work on the crime surveillance cameras in one of the poorer Hispanic neighborhoods in San Diego. The program hadn't run ten minutes before five names on the terrorist most wanted list popped up with high levels of confidence. He went to the videos and watched the flagged portions of the recordings. It wasn't long before he had identified where they were living.
With a grin, he picked up the phone and dialed the number to the San Diego Police department. When they answered, he said, "This is Mike Bowman of Homeland Security. Put me through to the Chief of Police. There is a problem that I need to bring to his attention."
Over the phone Mike could hear the muffled voice of someone saying, "It's him. It's the Hunter and he wants the Chief."
Lazlo Zalzac